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worship! Zion was the city which God had chofen, wherein he put his name, and its inhabitants were a people near unto him, his redeemed ones, who were blefied above all other nations. They were honoured with the temple, the worship, and oracles of Jehovah; they had among them his prefence and his prophets; and they were dignified with the names of his glory, and his ftrength. Notwithstanding, when they rebelled against the Lord, he inflicted upon them the most defolating judgments; and all their boafted privileges could not fcreen them from deftructive calamities. The righteous God made them eat the fruit of their own ways, and filled them with their own devices, whilft fear and guilt, affliction and forrow, feized upon them.' Their fins were the caufes of those wounds and bruifes which they received, and of thofe putrifying fores wherewith they were diftreffed. Being thus inftructed what an evil and bitter thing it is to depart from the Lord our God, let us beware of following their corrupt example, left we incur fimilar judgments.

9 Except the LORD of hofts had left unto us a very small remnant, we fhould have been as Sodom, and we fhould have been like unto Gomorrah.

In thefe words the reafon is affigned, why the men of Judah were not wholly fwallowed up by divine judgments. Such was their wretched condition, that, unlefs the Lord God, merciful and gracious, had averted from them deferved calamities, and preferved among them a few upright worshippers, their nation and church had been ruined altogether. There is a beautiful propriety in fpeaking of the great God under the magnificent defcription of the Lord of hofts, when this fubject is mentioned, as it fuggefts one important reafon why the whole nation was not deftroyed. He who mercifully preferved a remnant of them is the

Lord

Lord of hofts, who is univerfal proprietor, and poffeffed of unlimited dominion, over the armies of heaven, and the inhabitants of this earth, having abfolute right to difpofe of them as feemeth good in his fight. Befides the fun, moon, and ftars, the angels are his hofts, whom he employs as the minifters of his divine providence; whofe influence over human affairs, and to whofe agency, much more is to be afcribed than many are apt to imagine, or willing to allow. They excel in ftrength; they rejoice in obeying the commands of Jehovah, and in celebrating his praises. He fends them forth to minifter to the heirs of falvation; he charges them with their fafety; he employs them to comfort them under their diftreffes, to convey their departing fouls to heaven, and at laft they fhall convene all his elect from every quarter.All the creatures on earth, all the kingdoms of this world, and particularly his peculiar people, are his hofts. Under this defcription, the pofterity of Abraham are fpoken of, Exod. xii. 41. where we are told, 'That all the hofts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt, 'that he might conduct them to a goodly heritage of the hofts of nations. He is therefore justly called, the Lord of hofts, as all thefe, indeed all the creatures, are his hofts, and he is their Lord, who muftereth and difpofeth of them according to his pleasure.—Concerning this glorious perfon, it is faid, Except he had left unto us a very small remnant. Thefe words are cited by the apostle Paul t, with fome little variation, when treating of the call of the Gentiles, to fhew, that some of the Jews, as well as they, fhould be among the faved of the Lord. Thofe whom our prophet calls a remnant, which denotes a few that remain of a large number, the apoftle fpeaks of, as feed which is reserved for being fown after the whole stock of grain is confumed or fold off. Both expreffions. are evidently of the fame import. This fmall rem

* Jer. iii. 19.

+ Rom. ix. 29.

G

nant

nant was compofed of the efcaped in Ifrael, of those that were left in Zion, and remained in Jerufalem; the little flock, which were as fheep among wolves; the few, that entered in at the ftrait gate, and walked in the narrow way that leadeth unto life.This remnant is faid to be left unto us. God was graciously pleafed to fet them apart for himfelf as his peculiar people, whom he called unto holinefs, and happily preferved from the general corruption which pervaded the whole nation, cfpecially at the time re ferred to. This refervation, brethren, was not owing to the fuperior goodness of this remnant, who were in no refpect effentially better than thofe who were not referved, but to the fovereign mercy and love of God, who, according to his good pleasure, felected them from among their brethren, to fhine as lights in the world, and to fhew forth his praises, who called them to virtue and glory. Hence it is called, a remnant according to the election of grace, which excludes boafting, ftains the pride of all human glory, and opens a door of hope to the meaneft and moft unworthy. This circumftance fets before us an illuftrious proof, that the Lord our God hath not wholly rejected his people Ifrael, and that he hath mercy and favour ftill in referve for them. This dif tinguishes them from those who were totally overthrown, as intimated in the following words:

We should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah were cities. built in that rich plain, which, in fcripture, is compared to the garden of the Lord for beauty and fertility. The men of Sodom, however, were extremely wicked, and finners before the Lord exceedingly, as doubtlefs were alfo the inhabitants of Gomorrah. They moft ungratefully forfook the fervice of the true God, their Creator, Lawgiver, and Benefactor; they renounced his facred worship; they burst asunder the bonds of humanity; and, regardless even of natural laws, they abandoned themfelves to the most abomi

nable

nable practices. On account of their atrocious wickednefs, the Lord deftroyed them, and overthrew their cities, by raining fire and brimstone upon them from heaven, making them an example of his righteous displeasure against fin, unto thofe who fhould afterward live ungodly. Now, had it not been for the holy remnant whom God left among the Jews, they would have been as eminent in tranfgreffion, and advanced to no lefs dreadful heights of impiety than the inhabitants of thefe cities. Had it not been on account of this refidue of men who fought after the Lord, the judgments inflicted on the Jews might have equalled thofe which were fent on the cities of the plain, and have proved as deftructive, fo that none could have efcaped: but, for the elect's fake, calamities are mitigated, fhortened, and averted, as our Lord himself hath instructed us *. Accordingly, this remnant proved the happy means of flopping the current of wickednefs, which threatened to have overfpread the whole land with defolating judgments, whilst they fowed the feeds of that goodnefs and righteoufnefs which is the itability of a nation; and, by their fervent prayers, mercies were intermixed with punishments.This places them in a very important point of view, which merits our particular attention. They may be accounted, as hath often happened in a time of deep corruption and abounding iniquity, the enemies and troublers of a nation; whereas, in fact, they are the falt of the earth, the light of the world, the ftrength and fupport of a people, and therefore they deferve to be highly esteemed, and kindly entertained. Whilft we are thankful to the Lord of hofts, that fuch a remnant is ftill found among us, let us affiduoufly endeavour to teftify our cordial refpect for them by every becoming expreffion, deeply concerned that they may be hap pily increased and preferved.

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10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

The prophet folemnly demands the attention of thofe whom he addreffed, to what he was about to deliver in the following veries.The rulers of the Jews he calls, the rulers of Sodom; intimating, that they refembled the governors of that wicked city in luxury and impurity, in pride, oppreffion, and the other abominations that they committed, of which the prophet Ezekiel fpeaks in his prophecy *. They not only

walked after their ways, and did after their abominations, but, as if that had been a very little thing, they were corrupted more than the men of So'dom in all their ways,' as that prophet remarks, at the 47th verfe of the chapter above cited. On account of this striking fimilarity of manners between the governors of Sedom and the rulers of the Jews, the latter have the defignation of the former here given them with much juftice and propriety. By this humiliating appellation, thofe who prefided over the Jewish people are reminded of their deep corruption, and lamentable progrefs in every fpecies of iniquity, whereby they provoked the Almighty, and ruined themfelves.As for the bulk of the nation, the prophet addreffes them as the people of Gomorrah, on account of their ftriking refemblance, in wickednefs, to the wretched inhabitants of that city. According to a figure in fpeech, frequently ufed in fcripture, we find perfons and bodies of men defigned by the names of thofe to whom they bear a remarkable likenefs. An inftance of this fort occurs in the book of Revelation, where we read, That the dead bodies of our Lord's two witnesses fhall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where alfo our Lord was crucified f.' The

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Ezek, xvi. 50.

+ Rev. xi. 8.

apoftacy

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