This chapter and the three following contain but one vision, of which I judge it necessary, with Calmet, to give a general idea, that the attention of the reader may not be too much divided.

The prophet, in the visions of God, is carried to Jerusalem, to the northern gate of the temple, which leads by the north side to the court of the priests. There he sees the glory of the Lord in the same manner as he did by the river Chebar. At one side he sees the image of jealousy. Going thence to the court of the people, he sees through an opening in the wall seventy elders of the people, who were worshipping all sorts of beasts and reptiles, which were painted on the wall. Being brought thence to the gate of the door of the house, he saw women weeping for Tammuz or Adonis. As he returned to the court of the priests, between the porch and the altar, he saw twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary and their faces towards the east, worshipping the rising sun. This is the substance of the vision contained in the eighth chapter.

About the same time he saw six men come from the higher gate with swords in their hands; and among them, one with an ink- horn. Then the Divine Presence left the cherubim, and took post at the entrance of the temple, and gave orders to the man with the ink-horn to put a mark on the foreheads of those who sighed and prayed because of the abominations of the land; and then commanded the men with the swords to go forward, and slay every person who had not this mark. The prophet, being left alone among the dead, fell on his face, and made intercession for the people. The Lord gives him the reason of his conduct; and the man with the ink-horn returns, and reports to the Lord what was done. These are the general contents of the ninth chapter.

The Lord commands the same person to go in between the wheels of the cherubim, and take his hand full of live coals, and scatter them over the city. He went as commanded, and one of the cherubim gave him the coals; at the same time the glory of the Lord, that had removed to the threshold of the house, now returned, and stood over the cherubim. The cherubim, wheels, wings, &c., are here described as in the first chapter. This is the substance of the tenth chapter.

The prophet then finds himself transported to the east gate of the temple, where he saw twenty-five men, and among them Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people, against whom the Lord commands him to prophesy, and to threaten them with the utmost calamities, because of their crimes. Afterwards God himself speaks, and shows that the Jews who should be left in the land should be driven out because of their iniquities, and that those who had been led captive, and who acknowledged their sins and repented of them, should be restored to their own land. Then the glory of the Lord arose out of the city, and rested for a time on one of the mountains on the east of Jerusalem, and the prophet being carried in vision by the Spirit to Chaldea, lost sight of the chariot of the Divine glory, and began to show to the captivity what the Lord had shown to him. This is the substance of the eleventh chapter.

We may see from all this what induced the Lord to abandon his people, his city, and his temple; the abominations of the people in public and in private. But because those carried away captives with Jeconiah acknowledged their sins, and their hearts turned to the Lord, God informs them that they shall be brought back and restored to a happy state both in temporal and spiritual matters, while the others, who had filled up the measure of their iniquities, should be speedily brought into a state of desolation and ruin. This is the sum and intent of the vision in these four chapters.

Ezek. 8:1-6 The glorious personage Ezekiel beheld in vision, seemed to take hold upon him, and he was conveyed in spirit to Jerusalem. There in the inner court of the temple, was prepared a place for some bas idol. The whole was presented in vision to the prophet. If it shoul please God to give any man a clear view of his glory and majesty, an of all the abominations committing in any one city, he would then admi the justice of the severest punishments God should inflict thereon.

Ezek. 8:7-12 A secret place was, as it were, opened, where the prophe saw creatures painted on the walls, and a number of the elders of Israel worshipped before them. No superiority in worldly matters wil preserve men from lust, or idolatries, when they are left to their ow deceitful hearts; and those who are soon wearied in the service of God often grudge no toil nor expense when following their superstitions When hypocrites screen themselves behind the wall of an outwar profession, there is some hole or other left in the wall, somethin that betrays them to those who look diligently. There is a great dea of secret wickedness in the world. They think themselves out of God' sight. But those are ripe indeed for ruin, who lay the blame of their sins upon the Lord.

Ezek. 8:13-18 The yearly lamenting for Tammuz was attended with infamous practices; and the worshippers of the sun here described, ar supposed to have been priests. The Lord appeals to the prophe concerning the heinousness of the crime; "and lo, they put the branc to their nose," denoting some custom used by idolaters in honour of the idols they served. The more we examine human nature and our own hearts the more abominations we shall discover; and the longer the believe searches himself, the more he will humble himself before God, and the more will he value the fountain open for sin, and seek to wash therein __________________________________________________________________

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