Zechariah 7

Ver. 5, 6. In the fast of the fifth month they lamented the burning of the city and temple by the Chaldeans. In the fast of the seventh they bewailed the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Chaldeans made governor over their poor brethren which were left in Judea. But in neither did they fast in a right manner, or with a view to God’s glory; and so their fasts were no more acceptable to God than their common eating and drinking to gratify their own sensual appetites. 11, 12. Like unruly bullocks, they refused to be under the yoke of God’s laws, and obstinately rebelled against all his warnings, and would not even patiently hear his messages; yea, by a course of presumptuous sinning, they rendered their hearts quite obdurate and impenetrable to conviction, neither regarding the law of Moses, nor the instructions of the prophets which succeeded him in Israel

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. VII.—It is an honour for great as well as small to reverence the messengers and ordinances of God, to supplicate his favours, and to ask his directions. Every man ought to be employed answerably to his station and gifts; and, in cases of conscience, none ought to be more able and ready than God’s ministers, whose daily business it is to search his word. And, if God afflict, it is time for us to humble ourselves under his mighty hand. Religious customs should neither be introduced nor altered, without serious and mature deliberation: and never ought we to inquire into our duty, without being willing to hear our faults charged home on our consciences. But, alas, it is too common to make our own inclination, and not God’s law, our rule; our pleasure, profit, or honour, not his glory, our end in our actions, whether natural, civil, or religious. All the faithful messengers of God, in every age, remarkably harmonize in the leading truths and duties of religion. And, in practical religion, strict equity, tender compassion, and brotherly kindness, are ingredients of the highest importance. Yet, alas! how obstinately many professors neglect them, and practise the opposite vices! And fatal and answerable are the punishments which they incur thereby