Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.
Ezek. 22:17-22 Israel, compared with other nations, had been as the gold and silver compared with baser metals. But they were now as the refuse that is consumed in the furnace, or thrown away when the silve is refined. Sinners, especially backsliding professors, are, in God' account, useless and fit for nothing. When God brings his own people into the furnace, he sits by them as the refiner by his gold, to se that they are not continued there any longer than is fitting an needful. The dross shall be wholly separated, and the good meta purified. Let those who suffer pains, or lingering sickness, and fin that their hearts can scarcely bear these light and momentar afflictions, take warning to flee from the wrath to come; for if thes trials are not sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the cleansing their hearts and hands from sin, far worse things will com upon them.
Ezek. 22:23-31 All orders and degrees of men had helped to fill the measure of the nation's guilt. The people that had any powerabused it and even the buyers and sellers find some way to oppress one another It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, an the spirit of prayer is restrained. Let all who fearGod, unite to promote his truth and righteousness; as wicked men of every rank an profession plot together to run them down __________________________________________________________________
