ion of God to the temporal
and spiritual welfare of the people of the New Covenant? This is a
thought which is further expanded in Heb. xii. 17 ff., and it forms the
essential feature of [Pg 361] the description of the judgment of the
world in the New Testament. This judgment has been but too often
thus misunderstood, as if it concerned the world as the world,--a
misunderstanding similar to that of the section before us. The Gospel
shall first be preached to every creature, and according as every
one has conducted himself towards the _living_ God, so he shall be
judged.--But it is not to the heathen nations only, but to Judah
also that, by way of introduction, destruction is announced. The
circumstance that not even the possession of so many precious
privileges, as the temple and the Davidic throne, could ward off the
well-merited punishment of sin, could not but powerfully affect the
hearts of the ten tribes. If God's justice be so energetic, what have
_they_ to expect?

If we continue the examination of _Rueckert's_ view, it will soon
appear that the phrase, "Hear this word," in iii. 1, iv. 1, and v.
1, can alone be considered as the foundation on which it rests. But
these words do not at all prove a new commencement, but only a new
starting-point. This appears sufficiently from the absence of these
words at the alleged fourth threatening discourse in chap. vi.; and
likewise from a comparison of Hosea iv. 1 and v. 1: "Hear the word of
the Lord, ye children of Israel," and "Hear this, ye priests, and
hearken, ye house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king;" while
nothing similar occurs in the following chapters. That such an
exhortation was appropriate, even in the middle, is clearly seen from
Amos iii. 13. It cannot then, _per se_, prove anything in favour of a
new beginning. If it is to be regarded as such, the discourse must be
proved, by other reasons, to have been completed. But no such reasons
here exist. We might as reasonably assume the existence of ten
threatening discourses, as of four. The circumstance that we can
nowhere discover a sure commencement and a clearly defined termination,
shows that we are fully justified in considering the whole first part,
chap. i. to vi., as a connected discourse.

The second part, which contains the visions of the destruction, is
composed, indeed, of various portions,--as might have been expected
from the nature of the subject. Each new vision, with the discourse
con