Amos 2

Amos 2:6-8

The most insignificant bribes can carry a cause against the most righteous of the poor. They greedily pant after the small substance which the poor or the meek possess, and insolently trample upon and plunder them. Fathers and sons incestuously commit whoredom with the same woman, to the great dishonour of my name, which they profess. Contrary to law, they detain the pledges of the poor, and use them as carpets, whereon to prostrate themselves, or to feast or sleep in, before their idolatrous altars; and their drink-offerings are purchased by the fines of those whom they had unjustly condemned. 2

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. II.—Alas, how horrid are the barbarities of war! But, if sinners perish who sinned without law, apostates from God, and rebels against his revealed laws, may expect double vengeance! Nothing is too horrid for hardened professors. If once men violate their consciences for any advantage, they will soon do it for a very trifling one. And no injury in God’s reckoning is more abominable than what is done to the meek, who will not, or to the poor, who cannot, resent it. Great is the kindness of God in what he has done for us, and in raising up ministers and patterns of holiness in our families. But, alas, how apt are men to forget mercies received, and to seduce ministers and saints into scandal! The consciences of sinners testify that it is not for want, but through the abuse of the means of grace they are so wicked! And the obstinacy of professors in many and highly aggravated crimes is infinitely provoking to God, and infallibly ruinous to themselves