A30574:1306
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of the prophesy of Hosea being first delivered in several lectures at Michaels Cornhill, London / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being the seventh book published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of the prophesy of Hosea being first delivered in several lectures at Michaels Cornhil, London / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being the seventh book published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]
London: printed by Peter Cole, 1650
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
I suppose all of you do understand clearly that it is meant an expression of great anguish and desperation; but yet that we may see why the holy Ghost makes use of this expression rather than others, and to find out the reason of it, you must know that the expression doth arise from hence;1 the Land of Canaan (where the Prophet here Prophesies) it was a Land full of Mountains and Hills, and these Mountains were stony and rocky (many of them) and they were wont therefore to dig places in the mountains that were stony and rocky for safety in case they should be in any great danger,2 to dig such holes that they may run into, and that by their narrow passage they might be able to keep out an enemy from them; and therefore I remember I find in Josephus 14. 3Book of Antiquities, 27. Chap. and so his Book of the Jewish Wars, the 1. Book, and 12. Chap. he saith, That those that were Thieves and Robbers they would make use of such Caves and Dens in the Mountains and Hills; and now to these the Scripture doth allude, and by this you may be helped to understand divers places of Scripture,4 in Isa. 2. 19. And they shall go into the holes of the Rocks, and into the caves of the Earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his Majesty, when he arises to shake terribly the Earth. They should go then into the holes of the Rocks and caves of the Earth, for they were wont to use such things there much.5 And so that Scripture in Psal. 11. 1. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your Mountain? In times of danger they were wont to flee to those Mountains.6 And so in Psal. 121. 1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the Hills from whence cometh my help: not only to the Temple, but to the Hills, because in time of danger they were wont to think of the Hills: But (saith David) I lift up my heart to God, and that shall be to me instead of an hundred holes in Hills.