Let us then proceed to notice, II. The warning here given them —
Their labour is, alas ! and must ever be, in vain : it will end,
1. In certain and bitter disappointment —
[Their wall will surely fall : and shall it not then be said to them, " Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it ? " Sad indeed will be the reproaches which both the de- ceivers and the deceived will cast on each other : the one will say, Why did ye mislead me ? the others will say, Why did ye believe me in preference to the word of God ? Sad reflections too will all cast upon themselves : Why did I set up my own opinion against the most express declarations of my God? The very disappointment which the Jews expe- rienced, when Ezekiel's prophecies were verified in the de- struction of their city, and in their own captivity, will ere long be realized by all who now buoy themselves up with their own delusions. If they should entreat their God to give them an opportunity of undeceiving their surviving relatives, the answer will be, No : they have Moses and the Prophets ; and if they will not attend to their voice, they must receive their deserved recompence.]
2. In irremediable and endless ruin —
[No further means of salvation will be afforded them. Their day of grace is irrecoverably gone : their state is fixed for ever. O to what anguish of heart are they now a prey ! What weeping, what wailing, what gnashing of teeth do they now experience, under a sense of God's wrath, and in the prospect of its everlasting duration ! This must assuredly be the end of all our self-deception. As " Ezekiel was a sign to the Jewse," so have we signs in plenty, that the threatened vengeance shall come1, and that they who will not believe God's word shall find it true at the lastg ]
Address —
1. To careless sinners —
[You will persuade yourselves that no evil consequence shall arise to you from your neglect of God and of your own souls. But will God falsify his word to save you ? Do not entertain so vain, so impious, a thought. He will not, he cannot, deny himself: nor shalL one jot or tittle of his word ever fail ]
e Ezek. xii. 11.
f 1 Cor. x. 5—11. 2 Pet. ii. 4—9. Jude, ver. 6, 7.' " Set forth for an example." s Jer. *xliv. 28.