ON HOSEA XIV.-VERSES 3, 4. 135 prophet would not have in that case God's people to be dismayed, or to say, A confederacy, a confederacy, but to sanctify the Lord himself, and make him their fear and their dread, who will certainly be a sanctuary unto them, and will bind up his testimony, and seal the law amongst his disciples, when others shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. If we preserve Immanuel's right in us, and ours in him, all confederacies against us shall be broken, all counsels shall come to nought. (2.) Not in horses, or in any other human pre- parations and provisions of our own. " Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we," saith David, " will remember the name of the Lord our God," Psa. xx. 7. That name can do more with a sling and a stone, than Goliath with all his armour, 1 Sam. xvii. 45. it is a strong tower for protection and safety to all that fly unto it, Prov. xviii. 10. Whereas horses, though they be prepared against the day of battle, yet safety cometh only from the Lord, Prov. xxi. 31. " Horses are flesh and not spirit, and their riders are men and not God, and cursed are they that make flesh their arm, and depart from the Lord," Isa. xxxi. 1--3. Jer. xvii. 5. No, not in variety of means and ways of help, which seemeth to be intimated in the word riding, from one confederate unto another : if Asshur fail, I will post to Egypt; if one friend or counsel fail, I will make haste to another, a sin very frequently charged upon Israel, Hos. vii. 11. Isa. xx. 5. lvii. 10. Jer. ii. 36, 37. These are not to be trusted in. 1. Be- cause of the intrinsical weakness and defect of ability in the creature to help ; every man is a liar, either by imposture, and so in purpose, or by impotency, and so in the event, deceiving those who rely upon him, Psa. Lxii. 9. 2. Because of ignorance and defect of M2
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