Hosea 3

How long will you love vanity? Who look to other gods, and love flagons and wine (Hosea 3:1). Sin is a dish men cannot forbear, though it make them sick; who would pour rose water into a kennel?

I am jealous lest you should go after false gods, or worship the true God in a false manner; lest you defile your virgin profession by images. God will have his spouse keep close to him, and not go after other lovers (Hosea 3:3). You shall not be for another man. God cannot bear…

And the promises (Psalm 89, from verse 20, and forward): "With him my hand shall be established, and my arm shall strengthen him, the enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him; I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him,…

(3.) To be troubled for sin, as offensive to our heavenly Father, and against the sweetness of free grace and tender love, includes no act of unbelief, nor that the justified and pardoned sinner thus troubled is not pardoned, or that he fears eternal wrath, (as Antinomians imagi…

2. Drawing by free and strong love is an easy work, and so is it easy to be drawn; because all works of love are easy, as the act of marrying is no great pain, the solemnities and ceremonies of marriage are more toilsome than marriage itself. All the right marriages in the world…

7. What greater honor can be than such alliance? Than that Christ speak so to his bride (Hosea 3:3): And I said to her, you shall abide for me many days, you shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man, so will I be for you. And (Hosea 2:19): And I will betro…

Now there is a certain covenant between God and his people in all these; that look what a king requires of his people, or the people of a king, the very same does God require of his people, and the people of God, that offers himself to be a God to his people; that is, a governor…

If you shall therefore refuse Christ, because you think he is but a melancholy person, you will never have him, if you stand upon such terms, if you will not have him unless he be thus and thus qualified; then let him alone, never talk of him, rest not in looking after any of hi…

Now although soon after his throne was thrown down, and the diadem torn in pieces, yet was not this confirmation vain, that God would still for a time keep the city, because he would in no sort break his promise made to David in his truth, touching the perpetuity of his kingdom.…

For to speak properly there is but one anointed of the Lord: according to which Habakkuk says; You went forth with your anointed, for the salvation of your people (Habakkuk 3:13). For the kingdom was set up in the person of David, which was the image of Christ; who for this caus…

Again, "my servant David shall be a prince among them," (Ezekiel 34:24; 37:24.) "They shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king," (Hosea 3:5.) The passages in which he is called "the son of David" are sufficiently well known.

And this new Spirit, this Fear of God, is still expressed as the inseparable Consequent of the new Heart, or the writing of the Law of God in our Hearts, which are the same. So it is called, Fearing the Lord and his goodness, Hos. 3. 5. In like manner it is expressed by Love, wh…

No unbeliever, does truly and experimentally know the truth of this inference. But so it is when men fear the Lord, and his goodness, Hosea 3:5. 1 say then, where pardoning mercy is truly apprehended, where faith makes a discovery of it to the soul, it is endeared unto God, and…

The assertion holds out a union between him and her, I am his, &c. Or, as it is in the original, I am to him, and he is to me — such as is the union between married persons (Hosea 3:3), which the tie of marriage brings on. Even such is this which follows covenanting with God; fo…

So for desolation (2 Timothy 3:1): in the latter times there shall come hard or perilous times [illegible], times of great difficulty and distress. 2. In its evening or latter part, which is bright and glorious, and therefore do we so much hear of the goodness of the latter days…

Of the way and manner whereby the saints hold communion with the Lord Christ, as to personal grace: the conjugal relation between Christ and the saints (Song of Solomon 2:16; Isaiah 54:5, etc.; Song of Solomon 3:11) opened. The way of communion in conjugal relation (Hosea 3:3; S…

But indeed together with this, indeed more than with these, they are persuaded to fear the Lord by the sense of his great love to them, and the power of that love that works in them towards him, and is wrought in them by his. They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latt…

2. When we set apart ourselves to his use, to live and act for his glory; this is also entering into covenant with God. As in that formal matrimonial covenant, that was used between the prophet and his wife (Hosea 3:3), "You shall not be for another man, so will I also be for yo…

That your way may be known among the heathen, and your saving health among all nations (Psalm 67:2). Especially when the fullness of the Gentiles is brought in (Psalm 54:2), and when the Jews are brought in (Hosea 3:5). To be instrumental to enlarge Christ's kingdom is an honor…

They seek such things as their hearts lust after, but it is not their desire or care to enjoy God. But when the conversion of the Jews is spoken of, Hosea 3:5, it is said, They shall return and seek the Lord their God. At first conversion men are sensible of their great distance…

Guilty creatures cannot enjoy God immediately. And in Christ God is more familiar with us (Hosea 3:5). They shall seek the Lord their God, and David their King.

And it is observable, that the respects of the creature that are peculiarly due to one of these attributes, are sometimes in Scripture directed to another. It is said (Hosea 3:5), They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days: and love him for his power and greatn…

Do you not fear me, says the Lord, will you not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? (Jeremiah 5:22). His goodness and mercy (Hosea 3:5): They shall fear the Lord, and his goodness. (Jeremiah 10:…

The answer is easy, and at hand: These saving preparations are no acts of mine, therefore not my fruit, nor can I be said to do anything to please God by them, because they are [illegible] in me, not by me, and the soul may have a good work wrought upon it, and be the receiver o…

You will say, the Lord does not bestowe himself wholly on me, he bestowes himself on many others, on many thousands besides me, and why should not I bestow my selfe on an other? I answer, it is not so, the Lord bestowes himself wholly on you.Hos. 3, 3. it is a borrowed speech, I…

Answ. Not at all: For a principle of godly fear is fixed in the heart, and so in free will, never to depart from God (Jeremiah 32:39-40). And where this godly awe is, the heart is in a godly trembling and fear, and dare not be loose, wanton, and secure to fear nothing, but fears…

And he would have the godly dead to king and priest and law (2 Chronicles 15:3): Now for a long season Israel had been without the true GOD, and without a teaching priest, and without law. Hosea 3:4; Hosea 10:3: And now shall they say, We have no king, because we feared not the…

But it cannot be fixed on any Object, without an Apprehension true or false, of an Amiableness and Desirableness in it from a suitable Goodness to all its Desires. And our Fear so far as it is Spiritual, has divine Goodness for its Object, Hos. 3:5. Unless this be that which dra…

And by the process of the text it appears, that this was the intent of the Apostle, where he assigns the cause of fear and trembling to be the good pleasure of God, whereby he gives to them that are his both to will well, and valiantly to go through with it. According to this me…

Now it was necessary that Christ the Messiah should lineally descend of a king: Abraham was not a king, Adam was not formally a king by covenant as David was. 2. Christ changes names with David, as he never did with any man: Christ is never called Abraham, but (Ezekiel 34:23, 24…