A69234:1031
Lectures upon the four first chapters of the prophecy of Hosea Wherein the text…Lectures vpon the foure first chapters of the prophecie of Hosea Wherein the text…
Lectures upon the four first chapters of the prophecy of Hosea Wherein the text is expounded and cleared, and such profitable instructions observed, and applied, as naturally arise out of this holy Scripture, and are fit for these times. By John Downame Bachelor in Divinity, and preacher of Gods word.Lectures vpon the foure first chapters of the prophecie of Hosea Wherein the text is exponded and cleered, and such profitable instructions obserued, and applied, as naturally arise out of this holie Scripture, and are fit for these times. By Iohn Dovvname Bacheler in Diuinitie, and preacher of Gods word.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston and T. East for William Welby, 1608
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.
The punishment it self is first expressed, and then amplified, it is expressed in two borrowed speeches; the first in these words, the land shall mourn: As though he should say, because the people will not mourn for their sins, even the land it self shall mourn, and as it were sigh & groan under the heavy burden of my punishments. So that hereby he implieth their stubborn rebellion, impenitency, and hardness of hart, in that the brute and senseless earth would be sooner affected and touched with the feeling of Gods judgements, then the more senseless inhabitants; and also the greatness of the punishment, which should be so sharp that it would give sense to the senseless creatures.
The punishment it selfe is first expressed, and then amplified, it is expressed in two borrowed speaches; the first in these words, the land shall mourne: As though he should say, because the people will not mourne for their sinnes, euen the land it selfe shall mourne, and as it were sigh & groane vnder the heauy burthen of my punishments. So that hereby hee implyeth their stubberne rebellion, impenitencie, and hardnesse of hart, in that the brute and senseles earth would bee sooner affected and touched with the feeling of Gods judgements, then the more senselesse inhabitants; and also the greatnesse of the punishment, which should be so sharpe that it would giue sense to the senseles creatures.
The judgement it self is destruction and desolation, by war & famine, whereby the inhabitants of the land should be destroyed and swept away, and all the goodly ornaments of the earth, as the pleasant Orchards & gardens, the fruitful ⟨p. 109⟩fields and vineyards, should be utterly wasted and spoiled: so that now the good mother earth should like Rachel spend her time in mourning for her children, because they were not, and like a desolate captive spoiled of all her riches and precious ornaments lament her passed loss and present misery. The meaning therefore of these words is this, that the earth shall become barren and fruitless, and and shall be stripped and spoiled of all her inhabitants, and so become a vast and desolate wilderness, neither inhabited by men, nor adorned with her beautiful fruits, as it were with her princely coat of diverse colours: for as the earth which is inhabited by a flourishing people, and decked and adorned with her plenteous fruits, is said to rejoice laugh and sing,