ON HOSEA XIV. VERSES 5 -7. 217 And as he promiseth such a condition, so should we in all our troubles not trust in an arm of flesh, or betake ourselves to mere human wisdom, and carnal counsels, which are too thin shelters against God's displeasure, or the enemies of the church : but we must fly unto him to hide us, we must find spiritual refresh- ment in his ordinances, promises, and providence, get his wing to cover us, and his presence to be a little sanctuary unto us, and the joy of the Lord to be our strength, Psa. lvii. 2. xci. 1. Isa. xxvi. 20. Neh. viii. 10. When the Lord cometh otxt of his place to punish the inhabitants of the land for their iniquity; when flood and fire, storm and tempest, the fury of anger, the strength of battle, are poured out upon a people ; when a destroying angel is sent abroad with a com- mission to kill and slay, Ezek. ix. 5, 6. when death, the king of terrors, rideth up and down in triumph, stripping men of treasures, lands, friends, honours, pleasures, making them a house in darkness, where master and servant, princes and prisoners are all alike ; to have then an ark with Noah, a Zoar with Lot, a Goshen in Egypt : to have one arm of this olive -tree spread over us, to have one promise out of God's word, one sentence from the mouth of Christ promising paradise unto us, is infinitely of more value to a lan- guishing spirit, than all the diadems of the earth, or the peculiar treasure of princes. If we take the words in order as they lie, then the Mercy here promised is, that when God shall restore and repair his church, they who dwell under the com- forts of it, should return and be converted to the know- ledge and obedience which should be there taught them : when the branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely, then he that rem aineth in Jerusalem shall be T
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