The plain mans path-way to heaven

Theol. In the fourth of Hosea, ¹the Lord telleth his people, that he hath a controversy with the Inhabitants of the Land: (and the reason is added) because there was no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the Land. By swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and whoring, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the Land mourn: and every one that dwelleth therein shall be cut off. Here then we see what it is that will incense God against us, and cause us all to mourn. So likewise the Lord threateneth by his Prophet Amos, that for the cruelty and oppression ⟨p. 224⟩of the poor, he would plague the whole Land.² Shall not the Land tremble for this (saith the Lord) and every one mourn that dwells therein? Again, the Lord saith by the Prophet Jeremiah, ³Do they provoke me to anger, and not themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, mine an••r and my wrath shall be poured upon this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground: and it shall burn, and not be quenched. ⁴Again, the Lord saith; If ye will not hear these words, I swear by my self (saith the Lord) that this house shall be waste, and I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons, and they shall cut down thy chief Cedar-trees, and cast them into the fire. Likewise the Lord threateneth by his Prophet Ezekiel, ⁵saying: Because you have not walked in my Statutes, nor kept my Judgements: therefore behold, I, even I, come against thee, and will execute judgement in the midst of thee, even in the sight of the Nations: and I will do in thee that I never did before, neither will I do any more the like, because of all thine abominations. For in the midst of thee, the fathers shall eat their sons, ⟨p. 225⟩