A69234:706
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.
And so much for the contract it self. The adjuncts hereof are, first the perpetual continuance of this marriage: and secondly the conditions thereof, which are as it were the marriage bands, wherewith it is held inviolable. The perpetual continuance is noted in these words, for ever: where the Lord maketh a secret opposition between the covenant of works, made between him and the Israelites, and the covenant of grace, made between him and all the faithful; for that former marriage was not perpetual, but temporary, and of short continuance, because the Church of Israel perfidiously violated ⟨p. 295⟩her marriage faith, and persisted not in her love and obedience towards the Lord her husband, but forsaking him prostituted her self to commit spiritual whoredom with false gods, and therefore was justly divorced from him, as before we have showed; but the new covenant of this spiritual marriage between Christ and the faithful, shall be perpetual and inviolable, because he will write the laws and conditions thereof, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of their hearts, and will so rule and overrule them by his gracious Spirit dwelling in them, that they shall never break their covenant, nor depart from the Lord their husband. The like places of Scripture, which may serve for an exposition of this, we have Esa. 54. 8. With everlasting mercy have I had 1compassion on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer. vers. 9. For this is unto me as the waters of Noah, for as I have sworn, &c. vers. 10. For the mountains shall remove, and the hills shall fall down, but my mercy shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace fall away, saith the Lord that hath compassion on thee. Jerem. 31. 31. Behold, the days come, saith the 2Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Jacob. 32. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, when I took them hand, by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, the which covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. 33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, &c. So chap. 33. 20. 21. 22. 25. 26.