Ezekiel 39

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XXXIX.—No weapon formed against Zion can prosper. The most mighty armies are easily crushed by an angry God, and must be ruined, rather than his word should fail. They who expect wealth with the wicked must take their punishment with them; and they who invade other men’s rights justly lose their own. They who know God’s name will never dare to profane it. And his enemies must know at last what a great God and Saviour he is to his people, and what an awful destroyer to his enemies. No injuries done to us should hinder our humanity, even to the dead. And vile corpses ought to render sin, the cause of death, abominable. General mercies should animate to general reformations: and every one ought to be hearty and persevering in them. After all our conquests on earth there is always great need of purification: and to advance God’s glory is Israel’s great renown. He humbling is it to nature when the vengeance of God makes human carcass feast to ravenous beasts! But wise are all his dispensations: his judgments his enemies are a sacrifice to his justice, and an encouragement to the faiths hope of his people. True penitents are willing to bear their shame, a wonder at the mercy mingled with their sufferings. And when we return God he will return to us and lift upon us the light of his countenance. But is truly delightful when his kindness towards his people silences all the relations of their enemies against him; and when he eminently bestows upon his presence and Spirit, and assures them of their everlasting relation to enjoyment of, himself