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. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no Priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

The third Article of this accusation, is against the corrupt Priests and teachers, and is intended not so much against these Priests of Aarons family, and other Levites, who after the rent and defection of the ten Tribes, staid still in Israel because of their inheritance; as against Jeroboams Priests, who whatever they were before God, yet since they took the name and office on them, the Lord threatens them for not walking answerably. This Article hath several branches, in the first whereof, he reprehends them for the ignorance of the people, occasioned through their negligence, and their rejecting and sleighting of the means of knowledge which might enable them to teach others For which he threatens to cast them out of the office they seemed to have, and to reject their posterity that they should not exceed them. Whence learn, 1. As ignorance is a very rise and destroying sin in the visible Church; so the guilt thereof doth oft-times lie in great part at Preachers doors, with whom God will reckon ac∣cording

to the priviledges of his people, whatever they be in them∣selves; For, saith he, My people perish for lack of knowledge, and this the Lord challengeth the Priests for, and as being the occa∣sion of it in those who were his people, though they deserved not the name, as, v. 4. 2. Such as would be able to teach others, ought to take much pains that they may be instructed themselves from God in his Word: Ignorant Ministers are great plagues, their private idlenesse is the cause why they do not edifie in pub∣lick; and when the Lord doth not teach them, they will not reach others to purpose; Therefore it is a challenge against them, and a cause of the former ill, thou hast rejected knowledge, to wit, of the Law, as is after cleared. 3. The more familiar occasion of converse men have with holy things, wanting holinesse, their contempt and dislike of them will be the greater, and their oppo∣sition to light have the more of perversity, and lesse of infirmity in it; For, these Priests do reject knowledge, or wickedly, and with contempt, despise it. 4. Such as do for a time reject and resist means of knowledge, when it bears it self upon them, may at last come to forget it without a challenge, to lose the light they had, and to be nothing moved with any stamp of authority that is in what God saith; Therefore it is added to the former, thou hast forgotten the Law, that is, not only lost any small knowledge of it they had, but they had as little minde of it, and it as lit••le authority in their hearts, or bred them as little disquiet, when they neglected it, or went otherwise wrong, as if they had never heard of it. See Psal. 50 17. 5. The more re∣lation any pretend to God, by vertue of their general or particu∣lar calling, the Lord will make use thereof to aggreage their sin and unanswerable walking; Therefore doth the Lord name him∣self thy God, because they pretended so, and to shew that if they got not benefit by such a relation, it should adde to their wo. And so the blinde presumption of many will but make their ditty the greater, while they pretend to much interest in God, and yet their way looks nothing like such a pretence. 6. Unfaithfulnesse in offices, (especially in the Church) will cast men out of it as unsavoury salt, with much guilt; which is a sad judgement, ser∣vice to such a Master being honourable, and especially to mi∣nister to him in holy things; For, it is his sentence, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no Priest to me, to wit, as they pre∣tended they were. However men may spare such who by neglect∣ing duty, prove that they keep the office injustly, yet God will not. 7. However the posterity of godly Ministers may oft-times

meet with hard measure from an ingrate world, as well as Mini∣sters themselves; yet it is the righteous judgement of God on un∣faithful Ministers, that as they neglect and forget Gods children committed to their charge, so God suffers their posterity to be neglected; For, I will also forget thy children, who it seemeth succeeded to them, in imitation of the order established by God in Aarons Family.