"doing" of that they make God spoken by the prophet. ver. 31 the expression T: out of the words of or more exactly defined, the statement: "and Ver. 32. According to Hitzig, must signify fulfilled; this must signify, Jerusalem is fallen, and the truth of the predictions perfectly established.") The experience is, however, a painful them from the future salvation. What far-reachone, because the people's impenitence will exclude ing and, at the same time, true prospective vision, even to the days of the Son of man! It had already been declared to them through the prophets in the midst of them; so much the more, when He Himself actually came and spoke to them, did every pretext for their sin fall away, John xv. 22. DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS. Compare the Reflections at pp. 72, 73, and on ch. xviii. 1. "Woe is me," exclaimed the apostle, "if I preach not the gospel!" (1 Cor. ix. 16.) This is a lesson which belongs to all those who have had the care or oversight of others committed to them. With that is not to be confounded the circumstance, that each individual has his particular gift from God, by means of which he can be profitable to his neighbour. The general love demands that we should seek the salvation of each other, Jude 21-23 (COCCEIUS). 2. In the office, calling, service which belongs to preachers, two things unite,-namely, the apcase, through the Church, as is implied in the pointment through men, that is, in the present does not similitude ver. 2 sq.; and that the Lord gives preachers to Jerusalem, as is said at ver. 7. necessitate that, for it may be referred to the fine Where this latter is not regarded, there the other tones of the song. But if it applies to the fine also cannot be considered. If the civil magisvoice of the prophet, then it is to be understood trate, hence the State, or private individuals to that, after he has in been coupled with his whom the patronage belongs, will assert for themselves the vocatio ministrorum, they thereby prophecy (to which, however, the reference accord- ignore the Christian rights of the Church, just ing to the connection must chiefly be made), he is because they do not acknowledge the supreme thought of apart, and continues the right of God over His people. For it belongs to the Church to choose and ordain her servants, reference to the prophet, without therefore constraining us by this personal reference to under- according to the order of Christ and His apostles; stand also directly and simply of him. locally formed, does not at all stand related to and a particular community, although it may be 2'' (Hiph. of 2), with 1, signifies either the whole Church after the manner that a single commune, as a section of the civic commonto play well, beautifully, or to do so vigorously, wealth, stands related to the State; but it is in bravely. Junius refers what is said to the pro- respect to constitution the Church itself, which phecies of doom upon those who are without (ch. has its representation in the community as regards XXV.-xxxii.). Hengst., in a manifestly modern its full possession of life. Not otherwise appear fashion: "they rejoice amid the national im- to us the communities of the Acts of the Apostles poverishment at the admirable rhetorical gifts of and of the apostolic epistles. Hereditary relathe new classic" (!).-Ver. 33. This verse joins to tions might well enough beget a temporary legal the repetition of their not doing the prediction of right of a historical kind, but really destitute of their unfailing and so different knowledge of the foundation, in so far as it is at variance with the prophet. And when it comes, in a general sense, fundamental rights of the Church, and can be what he speaks; not the more special utterance in proved to be the remnant of an antagonistic claim vers. 27-29, which at least does not sound like a of rights, an unjust usurpation. We are not to song of loves, rather the prophecies which were speak with the Remonstrants of rights conferred now going to follow. Thus the tone with which upon the Church by the State in the matter of this second main division of the book commences the vocatio ministrorum, since the State has no is different; not: they shall know that I am right to confer, because possessing none. And so Jehovah, but as at ch. ii. 5, where the language the Reformation, if it found itself very much in employed was still of a general kind. (See there.) the position, could not have the right, to erect a -The behold it comes, points back to the cir- throne for the Cæsareo-papal government of the cumstance that the judgment on the people has Church, since the Church, having the right to actually come; and as such a thing has come, so govern itself, renounces itself when it gives up to certain also shall the following discourses be seen the State, or to the persons in whom the civil to be as to their fulfilment. (HITZ.: the matter power concentrates itself, rights which are absoshall certainly come to pass which is the object | Îutely the Church's own, which therefore the civi of thine address. Häv.: "And lo! it is already power cannot possess, unless these rights are to be turned to foolishness. In every tyranny exercised on the conscience, foolishness plays its part. But the claim of right, which, since the Reformation, has crept in for the conferring of rights which are against right, is of a piece with that of summus episcopus-whence the Papistical leaven of this title clearly appears. For it is Papistical doctrine in the general to ascribe the right of vocation to the bishops, if the Roman chair should not have granted special exceptions in regard to the election of pastors. When the limits of State-power have been formulated in this way, that it has to do with things circa sacra, but not in sacris, it certainly does look odd enough that "a supreme bishop" should indeed inspect the walls of the sanctuary, but must not tread upon them. The experience of upwards of 300 years, however, has shown much else than the absurdity of the formula in question -has proved the neglected, though oft-repeated and powerfully expressed, warnings of Luther and of the symbolical books, against the intermingling of the spiritual and civil jurisdictions, to have been only too well grounded. And when the Reformed theologian Heidegger, in his Medulla Theologia, with the view of smoothing over the folly of that formula, would not have the oversight and power of the State limited to the circa religionem et ecclesiam, but apostrophises the magistrate as TITTOS et ecclesiæ membrum excellens, thereby giving him to participate in the power which belongs to the Church, and then ascribing to him the obligation of serving Christ and His kingdom, and of advancing this kingdom with the authority lent him by God;-or when Burmann, also a Řeformed theologian, enumerates the offices of the magistrate circa sacra, and among these reckons not merely the appointment and ordering of the acts of public worship, so as to secure that all be done according to the word of God, and the providing a safeguard against ecclesiastical arbitrariness, and the interposition on behalf of oppressed fellow-believers, and so forth, but also the suppression of errors, of heretics and heterodox, the reformation of the Church when it has become corrupt, etc.;-in all this we have a glance afforded us into a state of things which has actually existed, but which, and along therewith the alleged ground for such civil interferences, in spite of the so-called "Christian State," has long since passed away. But what is to be matter of controversy with the State will, above all, have reference to the so-called church patrons, for patronage is really of Romishheathenish origin, and has never at all, in conformity with its proper sense, been Christianized as a juridical advocateship; at least a good part of the Germanic feudal lordship has infused itself into this assumption of a right of private domination. Now if, in opposition to all of this nature that is at variance with the self-government of the Church by means of the organization peculiar to her, a stand is to be made, and, in particular, the choice and calling of pastors are effected in this way through men, there still is, as the other factor, the Lord, whose body the Church of God is, and the right of the Church in its last source is the constitution granted by her sole Head, Christ. In consequence of this regimen principale, all are brethren who serve one another, the Lord alone has the supreme authority (theocracy or Christocracy); so that the Church, in respect to its inner spiritual form, is no democracy, neither is it an aristocracy any more than a hierarchy, but a monarchy in the highest sense of the word. Through the Holy Spirit, and by dint of such supreme invisible sovereignty, was Ezekiel sent to Israel, just as in ordinary circumstances the humblest village pastor is sent from the same quarter, whether it may be for grace or for judg. ment. For it is God's good pleasure that through such service on the part of men the divine will in respect to men should be accomplished (Eph. iv. 11 sq.); and the calling of a minister in any particular case will be perfect, where the internal through the Spirit corresponds with the external through the Church or its organs. 3. Ewald maintains that "the ultimate ground of all possibility of a true conversion stands in this, that in connection with the divine grace, which is ever working for good, a genuine prophet never fails, who, in perilous times announc ing the pure truth, informs and warns all with dauntless, clear words." Against enthusiasts and Schwenkfeldians it has not, indeed, been denied by the teachers of the Church, that God, if such had been His will, could also immediately as from Himself have converted and saved men; yet still the Church has always held fast the conviction, that the public ministry and vocation to it in the Church is requisite by a hypothetical necessity, namely, with reference to the good pleasure and purpose of God. 4. The prophets are to be reckoned among the "extraordinary ministers." In the old Reformed theology, the extraordinary vocation was represented as threefold:-(1) When God effects it directly through His voice, as in the case of Abraham, Moses, the prophets under the Law, John the Baptist, and the apostles; (2) when it takes place by announcement through a human instrumentality, as in the case of Aaron and the tribe of Levi, by means of Moses as the mediating agency; (3) when the internal impulse of the Spirit drives in one direction or another, as was the case, for example, with the deacon Philip. 5. Death is the wages of sin, and sin is the destruction of people; and so, by reason of the universal sinfulness, quite apart from particular charges of guilt, an absolutely sinless extinction of life is not to be thought of; only relatively heavier or lighter will the guilt weigh in particular cases. But beside one's own guilt, that of each individual man, there stands upon the tablet of the Judge, as fellow-partakers thereof, human society in the general (through education, instruction, customs, etc.), and in particular its chiefs, as governors, princes, lords, teachers, etc., who should serve not merely as possessors of the dignity and of office, but also as examples to be looked up to in whatever place they may be. 6. "This is, however, the brightest and most glorious distinction of the prophetic calling, to proclaim the joy of the Creator in connection with the life of the converted sinner" (UMBREIT). 7. We have not on this account to despair of life, because knowing that we are in the midst of death. For this knowledge of death excludes only the thought of life, as that which might still be in ourselves, and could proceed out of us; but such knowledge by no means takes from us, it rather brings nearer, the prospect of life out of ourselves, namely, in the living God. The con version from sin to God, as also from all dead life in hope, and should not feel the want of works of a simply legal nature, or of self-right-state-support or temple or priesthood, and carnal eousness, is herce a burying in regard to the life things of that sort, but should find all laid up which is merely man's, while in reality it is the for them in God, who would be mindful of His way of that life which God gives, and which He covenant with Abraham, and provide the Seed in Himself is. which the Gentiles were to be blessed" (Cocc.). 12. "The greatest danger that can arise out of suffering is that a man should misunderstand his Maker; one of the hardest problems for the servants of God is to bring reason into the suffering" (HENGST.). 8. "Conversion, internally considered, is the change of a man's state of mind into conformity with the will of God-a change, therefore, in which his internal feeling cannot be alone operative, but in which that effects his transformation in the power of God, which is the moving impulse from a higher power in respect to what he is going to be. But outwardly it appears as the complete reformation of his behaviour, since he turns from a direction toward the world into a direction toward God. The change which takes place in his state of mind in all the elements conditioning it becomes manifest in the transformation of his life. This change of mind is as to its nature a single decisive and deeply conscious act-the act of the whole inner life; but precisely on this account not the isolated occurrence of a single hour, of a particular frame or deed, though it frequently also comes to its highest manifestation in a particular hour, frame, or deed. It is not an abstract single change, but a revolution resting on a concrete single change, on a definite turning-point, an always renewed and always more deeply penetrating and pervading revolution, which is quite fitly designated by the term conversion. It is the everlasting deed of the man in the power of his God with reference to the old life" (LANGE, Pos. Dogmatik). 9.Evil ways are not only the bad ways of wicked works, but also the false ways of righteousness. Nay, it is above all important, that whoever will live should turn from his own wisdom and fancied power, as if he could sanctify himself to God, and give Him the glory, and receive from Him justification by grace" (Cocc.). 10. Because conversion of heart, sincere conversion, can at any moment savingly interrupt the course of development of sin, which would otherwise run on to its consummation in the judgment of death, so the disobedience of unbelief toward the alluring word of grace must be regarded as the sin unto death. 13. The law in the Old Covenant directed its chief attention upon sin. The knowledge of sin must be for men the result that came out of all those imperatives, "Thou shalt not," and "Thou shalt." Hence the prophets in their relation to the law could, in the first instance, pursue no other aim than to set forth men as sinners. Sin remains as the mark of interrogation behind the righteousness of the righteous. As the conflict between the law and the carnality of man is not closed by the law, the doing of what is right according to the law may acquire for any one the predicate of a righteous person, but it will always only in particular cases be done aright according to the law; the righteousness. out of the law must be "righteousnesses," specific pya viμousuch as, for example, are mentioned in ver. 14 sq. (and in contrast therewith ver. 25 sq.). So that there is a righteousness of the righteous, vers. 12, 13, 18, while still man does not see himself placed through the law in the position of a perfectly happy relation to God, freed from guilt and the curse of the law. It is not, however, knowledge alone of his sins and knowledge of himself as a sinner which the law gives to man, but along therewith the knowledge that the righteousness, the reality of which corresponds to God, which is the righteousness of God, must come as a revelation outside the law from God Himself through grace. 14. That with the completed fact of the overthrow of Jerusalem the silence of Ezekiel should be brought to an end, and he should be no more dumb-this circumstance lent to the fact in question a special character, caused it to appear so much the more in a peculiar light, as a parallel must be provided for it. Accordingly, it not merely seems as if Jerusalem must have fallen, so that salvation might with open mouth be prophesied, as the starry orbs of night disappear before the rising sun, but it was in reality so; and parallel with this first destruction, the last destruction of the Holy City, and the total dispersion of the people throughout the Roman world, on the one hand, made room for the ful 11. "When it is said that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, it must be understood after this manner, as if He were not inclined to give pardon to the penitent. God does not delight in judgment in such a way as not to delight in the justification of him who repents; as if repentance in faith on the word which promises grace to the sinner were of no account with God, or as if there were no right-ness of the Gentiles at the table of Abraham, eousness of God available through which the penitent might obtain salvation. This word very clearly shows that there was no necessity for Israel pining away in their own sins, or in those of others, if they were but themselves in the right way. For whenever they turned from their evil way, life was thenceforth prepared for them. Whence it follows, that for that life neither a temple nor a state was requisite, so that those only should pine away of worldly sorrow who have their glory in these carnal and earthly things; whereas for such as would bend their hearts to believe in God, there should be no wasting away in their own or their fathers' sins, or in those of the people, but they should have Isaac, and Jacob, and on the other, caused the gospel salvation to be preached to every creature. Jerusalem became then thoroughly desolate; but John saw a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. The Jews have been scattered abroad everywhere, but the Israel of God are being gathered meanwhile from all the ends of the earth, on the ground of the prophetic word, rendered more certain through the fulfilment certified by the apostles. 15. "Neither danger, or, more correctly, the anxious concern and dread about danger, such as we can well imagine to ourselves, nor any other hindrance, must be permitted to throw itself like an insuperable wall in the way of a servant of Cod. This is no apology worthy of a prophet, 'I labour in vain; I preach to deaf ears; but in season and out of season is the work to be carried on, and sinners to be admonished. No one must bury his talent (Matt. xxv.). And this holds equally with respect to magistrates and heads of families" (LAVATER). HOMILETIC HINTS. warned still does not fall guiltless, for his security, carelessness, etc., were the occasion of his fall.-Contempt of danger is therefore no true courage.-Every one must carry his soul as in his hand.- "What a mournful condition is it, when the Church does not watch, the State does not protect, the house does not admonish!" (STCK.) Vers. 7-9. "Natural life and soundness of health are indispensably necessary to an ordinary watchman, and not less necessary are life and Ver. 1. "We men are daily and always anew strength in the inner man to a spiritual watchto be reminded of our obligations, for individu- man, Lam. ii. 14" (LANGE). "With a spiritual ally and collectively we are slothful and negligent watchman there must be found a spiritual life, a men (STCK.). Vers. 2, 3. "How profitable in spiritual light, a spiritual wakefulness, and dutidangerous times is the guardian care of watch-ful fidelity in all parts of his office" (ST.).—As men! They must not, however, betray the con- the prophet on the mouth of God, so the preacher fidence of the community, and must have open is dependent on the word of God. He has by eyes, in order that the people of the Lord may this to prove every word of man; on this last not be taken by surprise. But when the Lord his office has no dependence. The apostle does not keep the city, the watchman waketh in pleads in the stead of Christ, 2 Cor. v. 20.vain, even though he does not fall into sleep' "Mark, Christian hearer! For God's sake, and (LUTHER). The sword is the judgment, but the because God wishes it, thy teacher must warn trumpet the holy gospel; the man who spies and thee. Therefore be not wroth with him; if thou watches is the bishop, whose part it is to preach shouldst be so, then be assured that it is not with and testify of the future judgment" (CLEMENT). him, but with God, that thou art enraged, Gal. i. --Sollicitudo officium prælati est, non celsitudo 6, 10; Deut. xviii. 19" (ST.).—Sympathy may (BERNARD). "The calling to the office of be cruelty; everything at the right place and at preacher is twofold-one immediate, the other the right time.-Love can cover the sins which mediate; the former is from God, the latter from are committed against us, but never can call evil man, Acts xxvi. 15, 16, vi. 5" (CR.). -"Who good.-Whosoever despises him that is sent, fails would choose a blind man to be the watchman of in respect also to Him that sent him.-But they a city? How could he see the danger and give are no servants of God who flatter the ungo ily. warning of it? How unreasonable is it, there--(Comp. Homiletic Hints on ch. iii. 17 sq.) fore, to appoint a spiritually blind or unconverted man to be a teacher! He does not at all see the danger, and how can he give warning? Isa. lvi. 10, 11; Matt. xv. 14" (STARKE).-The office and work, the service and fidelity of a right bishop or overseer of the community.-The profitableness and blessing of fidelity; on the other hand, the injury and curse of unfaithfulness.-"The importance and responsibility of the prophetic calling” (UMBR.).—“Although in the present day ministers are chosen and ordained to church employment by men, yet may such human choice, when it is rightly gone about, be also termed divine. But since it is God who assigns ministers their place, He ought to be entreated to send true and good ministers to His people" (LUTHER). -"What sort of a watchman would he be who should keep silence about the breaking out of a fire, because he would not rouse people out of their sleep? And so, what sort of teacher would he be who should remain silent at the sins of the ungodly, that they might not be disturbed in their sleep of security?" (ST.)-"No blind man, nor dreamer, nor drowsy sleeper, is fit for an office which takes its name from wakefulness" (BERL. BIB.). Vers. 4-6. To let one's self be warned, what a profitable, serious, and yet very much neglected prescription!"Ask those who have gone to hell; they will in a body give thee for answer, We would not take warning" (STCK.).-The disregarded or despised warnings from youth up.Men can but warn, they cannot deliver.-The power and the weakness of our love."I hear the message well enough, but I want faith.". Ver. 6. Of the watching which is enjoined upon ourselves: "Watch, for ye know not," etc., we are not relieved by the obligation which lies upon the watchman. Hence he who is overtaken un "The warnings which teachers have failed to give afford no justification to the wicked before God, for God warns them Himself in His word, Luke xii. 48" (ST.).—"A more intolerable judgment comes upon Chorazin and Bethsaida than upon Tyre and Sidon (HEIM-HOFF.)." The position of the servants of God is certainly not a comfortable one, since they have to dwell among those who are called briers and scorpions, and are likened even to lions; whence they do not get off without pricks and wounds" (STCK.).—"But the preaching is not enough which consists simply in the word. An evangelical watchman must teach conscientiously and live holily" (H. H.).—Even when the preacher's conscience is free from guilt in regard to the ungodly who perish in their sins, what a sorrow does it occasion in the life of the preacher when he has to see the impenitent die in their sins!-The pain connected with the preacher's office, which the world understands not.-"I would not willingly be saved without you" (AUGUSTINE). Ver. 10. All in the end feel sin, but they hate it not."The way of the unconverted in this respect is to look rather to the temporal than to the eternal life" (ST.).-To despair, instead of turning to God, is but another form of the pride that is in the human heart.-Despair is another kind of impenitence. -How contrasts touch one another! The godly also are sometimes on the brink of despair-David, Ps. xxxviii., and Cain, Gen. iv.-"That punishment should always be heavier to us than sin!" (STCK.)-He who would justify himself would perhaps throw the blame even upon God. God always deals unfairly with the wicked, as they think.-"When God's judgments break forth, then men readily remem ber their sins" (STCK.).-"One must hate sir before one can live" (B. B.).—He whose si keeps him away from God, loves his sin more than his life. Why will ye die? God, therefore, always asks again.-"We must not despair of God's compassion, but turn ourselves toward it" (STCK.). When the Holy One swears, He lets Himself down to the lies, the faithlessness, and fickleness which prevail on the earth. He comes before the judgment-seat of men, and bears His testimony against sinners who would die. Unbelief must be ashamed and dumb, or be compelled to pass sentence on itself."He does not swear by His love, of which the smaller number only have some feeling; but that He lives all know" (B. B.).—Indubitable as the love of God is, yet not the less necessary is conversion for men.-Seek no back-doors, no bribery of the saints, no hushing up of the conscience with pious forms of speech; but go straight into the heavenly kingdom, as the prodigal son made for his father."We can think nothing good of ourselves; our whole salvation is hence a divine work" (H. H.).—The living God wills life, and also gives it to those who will; but unless men also wish it, He certainly does not give. Το work this will, to lay the will of the flesh to sleep under God's word-this is the aim of the universal grace, i.e. the grace which God offers to all men through His word. But where the will has been wrought, there will also the performance be made good, according to the good pleasure of God; so that our conversion is not only His requirement, but also His working, although the deed is man's. Vers. 12, 13. (See Homiletic Hints on ch. xviii. 24, 21 sq., 26, 27 sq.)-Righteousness from works Joes not preserve and save men.-It is not the Lighteousness of the righteous that is the question, but the righteousness of God, which is manifested indeed in the law, but does not come out of the law. The righteous who are such by faith will live, and will live in their faith.-One must begin, but one must also continue to the end.Unfaithfulness smites its own Lord.-The truly righteous also know of failings, but not of falling away.-Not that we are evil by nature is what finally condemns us, but that we remain evil in spite of the goodness of God, which seeks our conversion. No true penitent needs despair on account of his old sins, nor faint because of them, Ps. xxv. 3; Matt. ix. 2" (CR.).-"In true conversion it is not enough that there be a breaking off of some sins, but of all, Isa. i. 16; Jas. ii. 10" (STARKE). "But this is the true life, if one can say with Paul: I live not, but Christ liveth in me, Gal. ii. 20" (STCK.). Trust upon one's own righteousness is not faith, but trust upon the righteousness of God in Christ. Not assuredly the letter of our righteousness, but the spirit of that imputed to us, brings the assurance that we are children of God, and shall also remain such.Ver. 14 sq. The voucher for the reckoning here furnished by means of the thief on the cross.— Conversion of heart, of conduct, of life.-The separation from sin is effected not only by the forgiveness of all our sins and of our sinful state, but also by a walk in all goodness after the Spirit, who now begins His ascendency." Man becomes free when in his conscious want of freedom he gives himself up to the free-making God (LANGE). The improvement of the life shows that things have become better with a man, that God has taken an interest in his soul, in order that it might not perish.-Ver. 17 sq. (Homiletic Hints on ch. xviii. 25-29.) "More than five years intervened [viz. between this and the similar utterance in ch. xviii.], and the people had still not got a step farther. Thus God Himself, by His example, teaches all parents, guardians, etc., patience. And we should much more exercise patience when we think of our own sins and of God's patience with us, but should also not be weary of watching and warning" (SCHMIEDER). "An honest man has still much more faith in the world than God Himself, Gen. xix. 14" (ST.).-God's way is right even when He, nay, just because He does not allow the righteous to be righteous, and does not leave the sinner to perish.-Let him who thinks that he stands take heed that he do not fall!-Do this, it is ever again said, and thou shalt live.-Good works are productions of God, in consequence of the will having been set free by Him from the doing of evil to the doing of good.-The last day will make it clear that God's way has been right. Vers. 21, 22. "The opened mouth of a servant of God is his frankness, the contrary is trimming and flattering; and it is also distinguished from sarcastic witticisms, evil speaking, and insult. The servants of God should be frank in speech; yet not like insolent fellows, who believe they may say everything because no one can contradict them, at least when in the pulpit " (LUTHER).— God's word will take effect at last; woe to him who then finds that he is a stricken man, who should have long ago recognised himself to be in that case "At last it comes, what men would not believe" (BERL. BIB.).-Our silence and our speaking are both of God." In the time of God's long-suffering, which sinners abuse, the righteous must often be silent till the judgments actually take place" (B. B.).-Ver. 24 sq. The deceitful conclusions of self-love.-The hereditary nobility in its foolish pretensions. "Of" Abraham matters nothing, but to be like Abraham is what is needed.-Noblesse oblige.-Walls, cities, go to ruin, but a fool will still plant himself on the ruins, Prov. xxvii. 22.- What is promised to faith, unbelievers will often be found appropriating to themselves " (STCK.). The hope of the ungodly must come to shame.-When the mask falls from the hypocrites, then will the beast of prey which lay behind become manifest; and we shall all be made manifest before the judgmentseat of Christ; then the masquerade will be out. There have not only been persons bearing merely the name of Jew, but there still are, and always have been, plenty of nominal Christians. -Our life must not belie our profession, else in our claim to the inheritance of the saints we shall reckon without our host.-Holy ruins are relics on which there is no inheritance. -Ver. 26. The natural man stands upon nothing else than his sword.— "In relation to sin men ought not to be womanish, but women to be manly (HENGST.). Ver. 27. The divine vengeance does not need to rush upon its victim from behind in order to lay hold of him, nor does it require to make a long and laborious search after him; but where he has fled to and fancies himself hidden, whether it be in the heights or in the depths, there the vengeance of God lies in readiness, and has been expecting him to come to it.-In the end we all come to Godalas! that so few should fall into His arms, while |