An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

So the Church complains (Lam. 3.10.) He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. God threatened by the Prophet Hosea (Chap. 5.14.) I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah, I, even I, will tear and go away. I will afflict them fiercely and terribly. Again (Hos. 13.7.) I will be unto them as a lion, as a leopard by the way will I observe them. Hezekiah speaks the same language (Isa. 38.13.) I reckoned till morning, that as a lion, so will he break all my bones. As when man dealeth cruelly with his brother, he is a wolf to him, or a lion to him (Psal. 17.12.) (Mans acting of beastly lusts, is all the metamorphosis or change of men into beasts, which Heathen Poets have so much fancied, or the holy Scriptures so often mentioned.) Now, I say, as man acting cruelly upon man, is called a lion, so also is God. When God would show the abatements of his wrath, then he saith, I am God, and not man (Hos. 11.8, 9.) How shall I give thee up Ephraim? &c. Thus he debates, by and by he votes and resolves negatively, I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger: I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not man. But when he would show the highest workings of his wrath, then he denies to show himself so much as man: ⟨p. 556⟩Thus old Babylon and Chaldea are terrified, (Isa. 47.1.) Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, &c. Why so? Babylon had set so long upon a throne, that she knew not how to think of sitting in the dust, yet she must; for (vers. 3.) I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man: How then? I will meet thee as if I were a beast, or a lion, Thou shalt find no kind of humanity at all from me, not only not the kindnesses and mercies of a God, but not so much as the kindness and mercy of a man. Thus the Lord met with that literal Babylon, and so at last he will meet with mystical Babylon. And as he will be to all his proud enemies, a destroying and devouring lion: so he appeareth often to his own people; he saith even to Jerusalem, and to Zion, I will not meet you as a man, when you are carnal and walk as men. The usual dealings of God with his people are full of compassion, In measure (peck-peck) when it shooteth (or when thou sendest it) forth, thou wilt debate with it, He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the East-wind (