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HOSE A.

THIS Prophet was the Son of Beeri, and the most ancient of them all except the Prophet Jonah.

Hofea prophefied in the reign of Jeroboam the fecond, and under the reigns of five fucceeding Monarchs, and he lived in Samaria.

By reading the Prophefies, you will readily distinguish them to have been wrote under very different reigns; the three firft Chapters, during the reign of Jeroboam the fecond; the fourth in the inter-regnum which fucceeded it; a part of the fifth Chapter was wrote in the reign of Menahem, and all the remainder in the reigns of Pekah and Hofhea.

In one continued ftrain of invective, the Prophet declaims against the idolatry and fins of Ifrael; He expofes with a zealous warmth the impiety of Idol worship, the Gods erected at Bethel B b b 2

and

and Bethhaven; calling loudly alfo on Judah to fhun Offences fo obnoxious, Pollutions fo infamous and abominable. The Prophet Hofea, in poetic fiction, eloquently tells them, "They were "fowing to the wind, and they fhould reap the "whirlwind." Many of his Predictions are very awful warnings and fevere threats; but Hofea, in others, highly confoles them, by foretelling the Reftoration of his countrymen here, and a final Happiness hereafter. He prophefies of the calling of our Saviour out of Egypt; his Refurrection on the third Day; the amazing terror and confternation of a Judgment-day. Thus, amidst the denunciations of wrath, the Prophet revives them, by the dawn and expectation of Bleffings yet in ftore; animates them by the glorious profpect and full affurance of a Ranfom from the grave; a Redemption from death, in order to encourage them in the purfuit of righteousnefs, and engage them the worship of Jehovah.

The Prophet Hofea was a cotemporary with Amos and Joel, he maintained his dignity and high prophetic office almoft ninety years; and there are many paffages in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which feem to have been borrowed from the Prophet Hofea. During the your under the reign of the S people were very corr

rt of his life, boam the

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fuafively the Prophet reasons, reproves, and even threatens them; and as his life and usefulness were fo long lengthened out, the Punishments he had foretold and threatened them with, and fo very earnestly warned them againft, were moft of them inflicted; events, this pious and good man feelingly and very pathetically laments. Hofea had prophefied the Deftruction of the ten Tribes. of Ifrael; the city of Samaria, its capital, was befieged and taken in the days of the Prophet; Hofea was himself an eye-witness to it; the inhabitants were made captive, and the Prophet confined in a prifon. These Prophefies were collected together, without Date or Divifions, they are Writings of very great Antiquity, and necesfarily fome of them obfcure.

The ftyle of Hofea is poetic, concise, and sententious, peculiar to himself, and to the age he lived in.

THE

THE SECOND OF THE LESSER PROPHETS WAS,

Jo

O

E

E L.

TH

HIS Prophet was the Son of Pethuel, and of the Tribe of Reuben; cotemporary with the Prophet Hofea, and a native of Bethhoron.

Joel zealously warm calls paffionately on all his Countrymen to repent, but he intermixes with his threats most encouraging promifes both of temporal bleffings and celeftial rewards, among the former he foretells the restoration of Ifrael, and he describes minutely the punishments which would hereafter be inflicted on its adverfaries.

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The Prophet earnestly preffes upon them the ufe of proper means. Sanctify a faft, call ye "a folemn affembly, gather together the Elders, all the Inhabitants of the land, to the house of

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your God, and cry unto the Lord;" again, and again in the fecond Chapter. "Blow up

"the trumpet in Zion-Call an affembly-pro"claim a folemn Faft-let the Minifters and "Priests weep before the Altar, cry aloud to "God, fpare thy People, O God!" and Joel encourages them by the kindeft promises, that the Lord will answer them, will fave them, He will be jealous for his land, the Lord will pity his People.

Elegant and animated is the Style of the Prophet Joel, his two firft Chapters perfpicuous, fublime, highly defcriptive and poetic, abounding with metaphors and beautiful allufions; the third which is the laft Chapter foretells the judgments God was about to inflict upon the enemies of his People, and future bleffings on the Church under the pleafing and poetic emblems of a Golden Age.

AMOS

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