HJ. 1-r IS OF MOMENT TO ASSIGN SOME REASONS WHY Goo WITHDRAWS HIMSELF'. ThiR froquontly takes place, we doubt not, in consequence of men silencina conscience and stilling convictions. Conscience may become callous or seared, aud ';:onvictions may wear gradually :weak, nay! at length cease altogether. T_he same result may be brou!;ht about by allowmg any sm to have the mastery, and m consequence of not seekina- grace to resist it, or not summoning up resolution to break its yoke. 1. The peoplo par~ ticularly referred to by the prophet ha.cl not sought the Lord in time. It was only when ruin stared them in the face that they bethought thr,mselves of scekin" God• it was fear drove them to his service, 2. They were only half-hearted in his s,'.;vice, ;n<l it was El divided allegiance they rendered; but God claims the whole heart of bis worshippers, otherwise he will not be found of them. 3. Their repentance was not genuine; H appears to have been outward sacrifice, not inward service. They brought their herds, not their hearts; their flocks, not the feelings of their souls. 4. Their faith- lessness had a prospective as well as present evil influence. Their children, instead of being trained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, inured to idolatry and irre- ligion both by the precept and example of their parents, would, as a matter of course, prove as faithless and godless, or more so than they, 5. No wonder God set a time to ease him of his adversaries and avenge him of his enemies. That time, a month, was certain, short, and sudden. IV. Goo SPEAKS BEFORE HE STRIKES. God suffereth long with the provocations of sinners. He warns them of the evil of their ways; he apprises them of the ruinous consequences of their sinful courses. 1. He threatens before be inflicts the blow; he gives notice of his judgments before they arrive. Dark clouds precede the corning storm. Milder judgments are sent as precursors of more severe visitations. It is of God's mercy that men are not only informed of their duty, but apprised of their danger. Ministers of the gospel are to sound the alarm, that men may flee from the wrath to come. 2. When God's judgments are near at hand, their approach has a startling effect. Those who made light of them, or thought them far off, are confounded and amazed ; while this confusion may be reflected in the very abruptness of the expression, " After thee, 0 Benjamin ; " at thy back comes the enemy-disaster, destruction, desola- tion. 3. The judgments of God, thus announced as near, at the very door, are represented as sure. They are no mere menaces or make-believes; they are not meant :merely to alarm; they are dread realities, which impenitent sinners can by no means escape or evade. "Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be." To all notice had been given, so that no one could urge the plea of ignorance on his own pa.rt. nor charge preciJ>itancy on the part of God. In his mercy he had made it known to all without exception, in his truth he will make it sure. They had been warned, called to repentance, chastened paternally; but they had despised all this. And the day of mercy is now past; the time of judgment is come; the final doom, fixed and irreversible, is denounced. When princes, making their will law, trample on the privileges of their people, or infringe the Law of God, or in any way set aside sacred and solemu obliga- tions, they incur a fearful responsibility. When, not only by their edicts but by their example, they set aside the enactments of Heaven, and encourage their subjects to do likewise, they open upon themselves the flood-gates of Divine wrath which God pours out upon them, like the waters of the deluge on the guilty antediluvians. Pusey sup- poses that the reference to the princes of Judah being "like them that remo,e the bound," contains some such allusion as the following: "Since the prophet had just pronounced the desolation of Israel, perhaps that sin was that, instead of taking warning from the threatened destruction and turning to God, they thought only how the removal of Ephraim would benefit them by the enlargement of their borders. They might hope also to increase their private estates out of the desolate lands of Ephraim their brother." Vera. 11-15.-God:sjudgmentsdiffer both in degree and kind. '.Ephraim had obeyed man rather than God, and God gives them over to man for punishment. The men who oppressed Ephraim acted unjustly, but God, in permitting that unjust oppression, was exercising his prerogative of justice. Neither could Ephraim palliate their sin by alleging compulsion on the part of their rulers, nor throw the blame entirely on the ungodly commandment of an ungodly king, or those who might enforce it by pains anrl HOSEA, L 146 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [ou, v. 1-16.
penalties. They obeyed it, not by constraint, but willingly i not throu11h 0 compull!lon but of a ready mind. '