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…

Gracious hearts are comforted with the promises of God made to the Church,¹ though not to be fulfilled in their days. If the Church may prosper and receive mercies from God, though I be dead and gone, and rotten in the grave, yet blessed be God. When Jacob was to die, saith he unto Joseph. Behold I dye, ²but God shall be with you and bring you again unto the land of your fathers; he will fulfil his promises to you though I am dead. Our fore-fathers, that generation of the Saints that lived a while since, how comfortably would they have dyed if God before their death had revealed to them, that within 3. or 4. or 7. years so much mercy should come to England as we now have seen in these days! Yea how comfortably should any of us have died (I appeal to any gracious heart here) suppose God should have taken thee away but this time two years, and he should have said thus to thee, Go and be gathered to thy fathers in peace, within these two years such and such things shall be done for England, as we now live to see; would not we willingly have dyed? would it not have been comfort enough against the fear of death but to have had revealed to us what should have been done in after time to our posterity? what mercy then is it now, that it is not only revealed to us but enjoyed by us? That is the second Note.

Gracious hearts are comforted with the promises of God made to the Church,¹ though not to be fulfilled in their dayes. If the Church may prosper and receive mercies from God, though I be dead and gone, and rotten in the grave, yet blessed be God. When Jacob was to die, saith he unto Joseph. Behold I dye, ²but God shall be with you and bring you again unto the land of your fathers; he will fulfill his promises to you though I am dead. Our fore-fathers, that generation of the Saints that lived a while since, how comfortably would they have dyed if God before their death had revealed to them, that within 3. or 4. or 7. yeares so much mercy should come to England as we now have seen in these dayes! Yea how comfortably should any of us have died (I appeal to any gracious heart here) suppose God should have taken thee away but this time two yeares, and he should have said thus to thee, Go and be gathered to thy fathers in peace, within these two years such and such things shall be done for England, as we now live to see; would not we willingly have dyed? would it not have been comfort enough against the fear of death but to have had revealed to us what should have been done in after time to our posterity? what mercy then is it now, that it is not onely revealed to us but enjoyed by us? That is the second Note.