Burroughs on Hosea

March 20, 2008 at 10:49 am (Books (reviews and recommendations))

Finally, this commentary has been reprinted! It has been likened by some to Owen on Hebrews, or Caryl on Job. Here is what Spurgeon said about it:

Masterly. A vast treasure-house of experimental exposition. With the exception of Adams, we prefer it to any other of the expositions reprinted under the editorship of Mr. Sherman.

Spurgeon is referring to Thomas Adams’s commentary on 2 Peter. Therefore, Burroughs on Hosea was one of Spurgeon’s very favorite commentaries of all time. In glancing through the other commentaries on Hosea upon which Spurgeon commented, it is evident that Burroughs is the standard. The only one who comes close, in Spurgeon’s estimation, is Edward Reynolds. And, as a matter of fact, you get Reynolds in this printing as well! Reynolds only commented on the 14th chapter, a chapter that Burroughs did not complete before his death.

The book is massive. It runs to 700 pages of the largest imaginable size. It was originally a four volume work. And it is all exceptionally fine Puritan exposition. Some examples:

Commenting on Hosea 1:2: It is an ordinary thing for ministers in reprehending sin, and denouncing threatenings, to mingle much of their own spirit and wrath. But if at any time ministers should take heed of mixing their own wrath, then especially when they denounce God’s wrath, then they should bring nothing but the word of the Lord; for it being a hard message, the spirits of men will rise up against it. If they once see the spirit of the minister in it, they will be ready to say as the devil in the possessed man, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?”…When you are called to reveal God’s wrath, conceal your own.

On the much vexed question in Puritan times of whether Hosea actually married a prostitute, Burroughs eventually comes down on the side of those who argue that it is a vision (pp. 7-9). However, he does not completely reject the view that Hosea actually married such a woman (which is surely the majority view today). He notes that Augustine, Theodoret, Piscator and Pareus held to this view, which indicates the breadth of Burrough’s scholarship. All in all, a long-overdue reprint, and essential reading for any preaching on Hosea. Well does it earn Derek Thomas’s encomium “No student of Hosea can claim to have mastered the prophet without consulting Burroughs. An essential commentary.”

4 Comments

  1. Jeremiah Burroughs on Hosea - The PuritanBoard said,

    March 20, 2008 at 10:55 am

    [...] on Hosea Burroughs on Hosea has finally been reprinted. It is available here. I have reviewed it here. __________________ Rev. Lane Keister Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in [...]

  2. chaos said,

    March 20, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    Wow. Thanks for the hot tip Lane! Yet another book to purchase after (if) I graduate.

    My friend Rev. Zach Keele of Escondido OPC preached through Hosea just recently. Very edifying. You can probably find those sermons on-line.

    Here’s a link that you might enjoy. It’s G. Vos’s sermon on Hosea 14 from ‘Grace and Glory.’

    http://www.kerux.com/documents/KeruxV6N2A1.asp

    Grace and Glory was recently out of print but I believe it’s available at WSC’s bookstore.

    When I was just becoming Reformed a few years back this was one of the sermons that hooked my friends and I back at the Reformed Baptist church in the Santa Cruz mountanis. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I had a very hard time giving it back to my friend Mitch Mott.

  3. greenbaggins said,

    March 20, 2008 at 3:50 pm

    Yes, I have Grace and Glory, a magnificent collection of sermons.

  4. E.C.Hock said,

    March 20, 2008 at 4:19 pm

    Great book release! Thanks! I love that one line (as well as what immediately preceded it): “When you are called to reveal God’s wrath, conceal your own.” This quote serves to modify the theatrical picture of a stormy Puritan preacher scolding his congregation as if with a verbal hickory stick. It reminds us to place our trust in the Spirit’s work through the word, not in our own, and understand how the severe words of God can be received, not as a punishment, but as a discipline and means of grace.

Post a Comment