Ezekiel 22:31

REFLECTIONS

WHAT a sad catalogue of sins and transgressions hath the Prophet here charged Jerusalem with. Surely to read it, is like the roll of Ezekiel written with Lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Reader! What an awful state of degeneracy is the heart of men capable of falling into! What a still more awful consideration is it, that this is Israel of whom these things are written!

Precious, precious Lord Jesus! what a relief is it to the souls of thy people, the consideration of thy holiness and thy finished salvation! Didst thou not know, dearest Jesus! when thou didst undertake the redemption of our nature, what polluted, sinful nature it was, and would be? And was not thy love chilled in beholding such vileness? Oh no! I knew (thou saidst) that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb. And is it so that all this and worse, did not check the workings of thy compassion; but rather made thee, long for the fulness of time, when thou shouldest enter upon thy great work, to seek and save that which was lost. Surely then, blessed Lord, thou wilt still have compassion on the poor, wretched, lost, and undone creatures of thy grace and mercy; and wilt save thy Jerusalem sinners from all their filthiness, and from all their idols! Yea, Lord, thou wilt give them a new heart, and a right spirit wilt thou put within them. Thou wilt be their God and they shall be thy people. Even so, Amen.