Wesley Corpus

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew : Your gardens and your vineyards, the palmer worm devoured. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet have ye not re .turned unto me, saith the Lord.” (Amos iv. 6-11.) 16. In consequence of their resolution not to return, they would not endure sound doctrine, or those that spake it: They “ said to the Seers, See not; and to the Prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” (Isaiah xxx. 10, 11.) “But they hated him that rebuked in the gate, and they abhorred him that spake uprightly.” (Amos v. 10.) Accordingly, “Thy people,” saith God to Ezekiel, “still are talking against thee by the walls, and in the doors of the houses.” (xxxiii. 30.) “And Amaziah the Priest sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thce in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, Go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's chapel,and it is the king's court.” (Amos vii. 10, 12, 13.) From the same spirit it was that they said of Jeremiah, “Come, and let us devise devices against him.--Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” (Jer. xviii. 18.) Hence it was that he was constrained to cry out, “O Lord, I am in derision daily; every one mocketh me. Since I spake, the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily: For I heard the defaming of many: Fear on every side: Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting; saying, Perad venture he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.” (xx.