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. 12. My people aske counsel at their stocks, and their staffe declareth unto them: for the spirit of whordomes hath caused them to erre, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

13. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burne incense upon the hils under oakes, and poplers, and elmes, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredome, and your spou∣ses shall commit adultery.

The fourth article of this accusation is general against the whole people for their grosse and heathenish idolatry (which is as adultery, a forsaking of God, and their duty of subjection to which they stand bound by the marriage-Covenant;) This is in∣stanced in their consulting with their stocks of Images, and their staves, or arrowes, (which flowed from their strong inclinations to Idolatry, cherished by Satan) and in their sacrificing openly to Idols on mountains, under the shade of groves, esteeming that heathenish way best: for this the Lord threatens to give up their daughters, and daughters in law, (and others, whom they would have chaste) to bodily filthinesse. Whence learn, 1. When ever the visible Church forsakes God, he will not forget his kindness to her, to aggreage her sinne, and to prove that she hath done it without provocation; Therefore againe the title is my people, to shew that he had intreated them as such; and that he having cho∣sen them from among all people for himself, and as his portion, Deut. 32.8, 9. Isa. 43.21. it was a greater sinne in them then in any, so to behave themselves. 2. Albeit Idolaters will not take with it that they worship stocks and sticks, yet in reality they do so; and hereby they prove their own madnesse in subject∣ing

themselves to these creatures that are inferior to them; and the basenesse of their Religion, in that they have so poore wayes to know the mindes of their Idols; for, they aske counsell at their stocks, (and so consult with them as their gods, and performe religious worship to them; that they may know their minde) and their staffe declareth unto them, that is, any illusion they get, they take it for a divine response. For the way of divinati∣on by a staffe, or arrowes, See, Ezek. 21.21, 22. It seemes, that when he doubted which City to assault first, severall staves or ar∣towes having the names of the severall places on them, being sha∣ken together in a quiver that which was first drawn out deter∣mined the question. And so Idolaters resolved other cases. 3. The backsliding and Idolatry of the visible Church is not to be looked on lightly, or as an infirmity, but as flowing from the power of Satan, working upon that strong inclination that is naturally in all men (and specially in these who have not recei∣ved the love of the truth) to follow error; Therefore is it given as a reason, For the spirit of whoredomes hath caused them to erre, which is to be understood both of their own inclinations, and of the working of the evill spirit, 2 Thes. 2.9. which makes them so bent and zealous in it, and warnes us not to be taken up with every zeale, nor with every religion wherein men seeme to be zealous. 4. They who commit Idolatry, and follow false Religions, and so do renounce subjection to God, and put them∣selves from under his directions, they do also put themselves from under his protection; for, in both these respects it is true, they have gone a whoring from under their God, renouncing that subjection due to him, by violating the Marriage-Covenant, and so depriving themselves of that protection which was ensured to them by the Covenant. 5. Sin is then come to a great height and very ripe for judgement, when men cast off all veiles of pre∣tences or shame, and do openly and avowedly commit it; for, he challengeth when they sacrifice upon the tops of the mountaines, &c. avowedly, without shame, and not in corners onely. 6. It is high presumption in fraile men to think to invent finer or∣dinances of worship by their wit, then what God hath appointed, or that they can put holinesse on things or places; for, it was their sin to choose mountaines and hils and shadowes of trees and groves, in imitation of he Patriarchs (whom the heathen did also imitate) as if these places were more sacred; and to do this as good, and better and more apt to strike men with reverence then what God had appointed, 7. It is no strange thing, that

men in choosing their Religion, be led by their own fleshly lusts, and that they account that best, which pleaseth these most; for, in this respect also they accounted the shadow good, that is, more delectable to their flesh. 8. Sin may be very sadly punished when no stroakes are inflicted, but the sinner given up to more sin, and particularly, spirituall adultery may be punished with bodily filthinesse; for, Therefore your daughters shall com∣mit whoredome, and your spouses shall commit adultery, to which they were tempted by wandering from their families into these solitary and retired places. And this should warne all pro∣fessors to beware of straining the true Religion by such blemishes as are a plague upon Idolaters. See, Rom 1.21, 25, 26, 27. 9. God may justly punish the sins of parents in their children, and may make us sensible of our unfaithfulnesse to God, in the ill carriage of others who are bound to us; for, he punisheth their sin in their daughters, and lets them see their whoredome against God, in the lewdnesse of their daughters and spouses, injuring and bringing reproach on them and their family.