An exposition of the prophecy of Hosea begun in divers lectures upon the first…An exposition of the prophesie of Hosea begun in divers lectures vpon the first…

For a people to be saved when others near them are destroyed,¹ this is a great setting out of Gods goodness to them: as to stand upon the shore safely, & see others suffer shipwreck before us, is a great augmentation of Gods mercy towards us. When the people of Israel could stand upon the banks, and see the Egyptians tumbling in the Red-sea, and their dead bodies cast upon the shore, then, saith the Text, sang Moses and the children of Israel unto the Lord. ²And this kind of mercy the Lord hath granted to us in England, for while our neighbouring nations have been in a combustion, and many of them spoiled, we have sate under our own vines, & under our own fig-trees, and our greatest afflictions have been only the hearing of what our brethren have suffered & yet do suffer: Whereas all about us is as the fiery furnace, and we walk in the middest of it like the three children, & our garments not touched, nor the smell of the fire passed on them: when as we see all Countries as Gideons fleece, bewetted with the tempest of Gods wrath, yea with their own blood, behold we are dry, and the sun-shine of Gods mercy is upon us, the blackness of the misery of our brethren is the brightness of our mercy.

For a people to be saved when others neare them are destroyed,¹ this is a great setting out of Gods goodnes to them: as to stand upon the shore safely, & see others suffer shipwrack before us, is a great augmentation of Gods mercy towards us. When the people of Israel could stand upon the banks, and see the Egyptians tumbling in the Red-sea, and their dead bodies cast upon the shoare, then, saith the Text, sang Moses and the children of Israel unto the Lord. ²And this kinde of mercie the Lord hath granted to us in England, for while our neighbouring nations have been in a combustion, and many of them spoiled, we have sate under our own vines, & under our own fig-trees, and our greatest afflictions have been only the hearing of what our brethren have suffered & yet do suffer: Whereas all about us is as the fiery furnace, and we walk in the middest of it like the three children, & our garments not touched, nor the smell of the fire passed on them: when as we see all Countreys as Gideons fleece, bewetted with the tempest of Gods wrath, yea with their own blood, behold we are dry, aud the sun-shine of Gods mercie is upon us, the blackness of the misery of our brethren is the brightnesse of our mercie.