A Series of Discourses on the Leading Doctrines and Duties of Christianity Volume 4 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE II, HOSEA XIV, 4, 5, 6. I will heal their backsliding, I will lave th'env freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. 1 will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon- His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.. THIS prophecy was delivered in the " reigns of Uzziali, Jotham, Ahaz and He- zekiah," a period truly alarming to the nation of Israel.?The cup of their iniquity- was nearly filled up, and that cloud which had long been collecting and blackening o- Ter their heads was ready to burst forth in their destruction. The prophet therefore addresses them in the following melancholy, heart-melting strains, " rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people, for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God: The days of visitation are come; the days of recompence are come: My God shall cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations." But thft.Lorcl God is long suffering and plenteous in rnercy; hisjuctgments move slowly along that this infatuated people may enjoy another opportunity for repenting and escaping. Amidst the general gloom, therefore, a ray of hope beams forth in the chapter which we have read to cheer and encourage them. " O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." Jehovah, in the riches of his condescension, still acknowledges himself to be ' their God." To each believing Israelite he stood in a covenant relation which could never be broken; which no change of time or circumstances could possibly dissolve; and to the Jews in general he stood in an external, covenant relation: He had not altogether rejected them as a people, but was yet known as " the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. O Israe...