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…

But such was the birth and bringing up of these children, for their mother the Church of Israel, under the reign of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, committed spiritual whoredom, when as forsaking the Lord, she worshipped the golden calves in Dan and Bethel; & whilst she played the harlot, the posterity which came of her were borne unto the idols, when as being brought up in ignorance destitute of the knowledge of God and his religion, they were instructed in false doctrine and idolatry, and so became as gross idolaters as their predecessors. And therefore being in adulterous issue of an adulterous mother, both she and they were justly rejected.

But such was the birth and bringing vp of these children, for their mother the Church of Israel, vnder the reigne of Ieroboam, the sonne of Nebat, committed spiritual whoredom, when as forsaking the Lord, shee worshipped the golden calues in Dan and Bethel; & whilest she plaied the harlot, the posteritie which came of her were borne vnto the idols, when as being brought vp in ignorance destitute of ye knowledge of God and his religion, they were instructed in false doctrine and idolatrie, and so became as grosse idolaters as their predecessors. And therefore being in adulterous issue of an adulterous mother, both she and they were iustly reiected.

And this was the first and chief sin for which the mother was divorced, and the children disinherited; namely, because she played the harlot, and the children were begotten in her adultery. Now this their sin is aggravated; first by her shameless filthiness therein showed: and secondly, by her impudent and obstinate resolution to commit it. The first is expressed in these words; she that conceived them hath done shamefully. The Hebrew text hath it; She that conceived them is affected or confounded with shame: whereby is not meant, that she was shamefast or ashamed of her sins; for this agreeth not to the disposition of an harlot, especially to such a shameless harlot as this, whose fornications were in her face, and her adulteries between her breasts, and who impudently professed that she would go after her lovers, but that she had committed such shameful actions, and had lived so filthily and infamously, that she had exposed her self to all shame and reproach. The meaning therefore of these words is this, that she had not fallen into her sins of infirmity, or after she was fallen, carried her self after any moderate manner, but that she often committed these sins, and defiled her self with so many kinds of idolatry and superstition, that she was grown infamous, and justly reproached of all who heard of or saw her abominable filthiness.