A brief exposition on the XII. smal prophets: the first volume containing an exposition on the prophecies of Hosea, Joel, & Amos. By George Hutcheson, minister at Edenburgh.

Vers. 9. O Israel, thou hast sinned from the dayes of Gibeah: there they stood: the battel in Gibeah against the children of iniquity, did not o∣vertake them.

The third accusation is, for their constancy and excesse in sins That they were guilty of the sins of their wicked fathers since the dayes of Gibeah, (of which, Judg. 19.) whose manners they imitate; or, (as the Original also will bear,) they are guiltier than in the dayes of Gibeah. This challenge is amplified, that albeit God made their fathers, (at least the body of Israel,) to stand, and spared them, when yet they were guilty of as grosse abominations as these for which they did pursue Benjamin: (wit∣nesse their Idolatry in Laish and elsewhere, Judg. 17. 4, 5, and 18.30, 31.) yet they repented not, nor keeped the impression of that battel, and of Benjamins lot in memory for that end: And so was it now with them; they went on in their fathers wayes, and would not be reclaimed by the punishment of others. Whence learn, 1. Continuance in sin through many generations, is a sad aggravation thereof, and matter of a sad challenge; And the sins of a present generation, will bring the former sins of a Na∣tion to remembrance, to be put on their account; For, O Israel, (saith he by way of expostulation and challenge,) thou hast sinned from the dayes of Gibeah. See Ezr. 9.7. 2. The longer sin be continued in, it groweth still the greater and worse; as being the more hainous, when it is against so many frequent admonitions and experiences; and sinners growing still the more impu∣dent the more they sin; In these respects the other reading holds true, thou hast sinned more then in the dayes of Gibeah. 3. The carrying of a people through trouble, and their successe and preservation in a good cause, is no mark of divine approba∣tion of their persons, being guilty of grosse sins; For, there they (that is, their fathers) stood: or fought against wickedness, and were preserved, and the battell in Gibeah against the children of

iniquity, (the Benjamines) did not over-take them, that is, they escaped the danger, and were victorious, though many of them fell; And yet they sinned then, wherein their posterity did imi∣tate them. God may make men scourges of sin in others, who yet are but vile themselves; may carry through a good cause in a peoples hand, with whom he is not pleased; and may spare a people, not because they are holy, but because he will not destroy the face of a Church, which would be, if he proceeded according to their deservings. 4. It is a very great aggravation of sin, when people persist in it, without being bettered either by the punish∣ment of others, or by their own sparing; For, so is imported in this challenge, that though Israel escaped, when Benjamin fell, yet neither the one nor the other prevailed with their fathers; and they, their children, were as incorrigible as they. See Zeph. 3.6, 7.