Ezekiel 5

Ver. I—4. This imports that Jerusalem, which had been the head of the nation, full of inhabitants, and numerous, but now weak, as hairs, should undergo the foulest disgrace and bitterest grief; and, being weighed in the balances of God’s justice, should have punishment answerable to their guilt; the city should be taken and burnt; one third of the inhabitants consumed in the flames, or by the pestilence and famine; another slain during the siege, or in attempting to escape; the other be led captive to Chaldea, or flee for refuge to Egypt, Moab, and Ammon, whither the sword of the Chaldeans would pursue them. A few of them seemed reserved for mercy; but the slaughter of Gedaliah their governor, and others, and their flight into Egypt, not only issued in their own ruin, but provoked the Chaldeans to further cruelties against the remains of their nation

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. V.—If men will not be reformed, they must certainly be ruined: And with great ease, and by a vast variety of judgments, God can accomplish the destruction of obstinate sinners. It is very awful when those, who appeared as marked for monuments of mercy, are destroyed in wrath; and highly criminal when such as had been singularly privileged with God’s favours, oracles, and ordinances, for promoting the welfare of all around them, become a plague, and the vilest monsters in wickedness: and yet often apostate professors become more abandoned than heathens! How awful it is when idols, and their services, are admitted into God’s land, his temple, his church, and the heart formed for himself! The immediate agents in the ruin of sinners are all the instruments of an angry God: and, when his wrath is kindled, who can abide it! It is dreadful to have him glorified by, or rejoicing in, our everlasting destruction. And, alas, in what unpitied condition must the impenitent perish for ever! If public reproofs cannot restrain public wickedness, public judgments must follow at last. Some must be destroyed for the instruction and warning of others. And, if God bear long with us in our sins, his judgments must be the severer when they are inflicted. And the most incredulous will at length be forced to believe his word, though it should be by their own everlasting destruction. REFLECTIONS FROM CH. P. VI.—Terrible are the desolations which guilt and war make in nations. And no place, no idol, no station, can protect from God’s wrath. If men will not destroy idols, he will find a way, even by idolaters, to destroy both together. His persevering patience, as well as both mercies and judgments, encourage and excite to a cordial and thorough repentance. And loathsome and abominable is the most beloved sin to a person truly penitent. Yes, hopeful is the case when sinners begin to remember God, and the base affronts which they have given him. And nothing more deeply wounds awakened consciences than a sense of their base ingratitude, and of grieving the holy Spirit of God. God will make all men, either by their ruin, or especially by their hearty repentance, effectually to acknowledge his perfections, to feel the equity and veracity of his word, and justify him in the accomplishment of it. The sins and judgments of others should affect us as well as our own. And ministers must often weep over them who never shed a tear for themselves