their lusts. So now their resentment burns against him, and they will be revenged on him. They will not be contented now with having the men brought out, but will go in unto them, and break the door open, to effect their purpose.

Ver. 10, 11. Such an attempt, and such a perseverance in it must have been proof sufficient to the heavenly messengers, that the cry of Sodom had not exceeded the truth. Putting forth their hands, therefore, they pulled Lot into the house to them, shut to the door, and smote the people without with blindness. The power and indignation displayed in these acts would convince him that they were no common strangers; and, one would have thought, might have struck them with awe, and caused them to desist from their horrid purpose: but they are infatuated. Though supernaturally smitten with blindness, they must still weary themselves to find the door. Such daring presumption, in the face of heaven, must have filled up the measure of their crimes, and rendered them ripe for destruction.

one.

Ver. 12, 13. Things are now hastening to their awful crisis : but mark the mercy of divine proceedings. Ten righteous men would have saved the city; but there seems to have been only Well, not only shall that one escape, but all that belong to him shall be delivered for his sake; or if otherwise it shall be their own fault. Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or whatever he had, are directed to be brought out of this place; for, said they, as it were opening their commission and reading it to Lot, We will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah hath sent us to destroy it.

Ver. 14. Giving full credit to the divine threatening, and being deeply impressed with it, Lot went forth to warn his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters. We do not read till now that Lot had a family. It looks as if he had taken his wife from Sodom, soon after he had parted from Abraham; and as he must have been there about twenty years, he had daughters, some of whom were married, and two remained with him single. No mention is made of his married daughters being alive at this time; but by the manner in which the others are spoken of, in verse 15, Thy two daughters which are HERE, it is probable they were elsewhere; viz.

along with their husbands, and perished with them in the overthrow. The warning given to his sons-in-law was abrupt and pointed; Up, get ye out of this place; for Jehovah will destroy this city! But he seemed to them as one that mocked, or who was in jest. He believed, and therefore spake: but they disbelieved, and therefore made light of it. A striking example this, of the ordinary effect of truth upon the minds of unbelievers.

Ver. 15, 16. All this had, taken place in one night. Early in the morning, Lot is hastened away from the devoted spot. And as his sons-in law, and it seems their wives with them, would not hear, he is commanded to leave them; and without further delay, to take his wife, and his two daughters who were with him, lest he should be consumed in the overthrow of the city. The threatening part of this language would probably not have been addressed to him, had he not discovered a reluctance to depart. I hope it was not his worldly substance that clave to him, much less any attachment to that wicked city; but rather that it was his daughters and their husbands who could not be persuaded to accompany him, that occasioned this strong conflict. It was on this account, I suppose, that he is said to have lingered; and his deliverers were at last obliged to lay hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, and (Jehovah being merciful unto him) by force, in a manner, to set them without the city. Such has been the struggle in many minds, when called to leave all and flee from the wrath to come; and such the mercy of God towards them.

Ver. 17. Having been so far saved, almost in spite of himself, be is now solemnly charged to escape for his life, not so much as to look behind him, nor stay in all the plain; but to escape to the mountain, lest he should be consumed. This was continuing to be mercifully severe; and such are our Lord's commands which require us to deny self, take up the cross, and follow him. It was better for Lot to be thus warned off the ground, than to be consumed upon it and we had better cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, than be cast into hell.

Ver. 18-22. Lot was certainly a righteous man; but in times of trial his graces do not appear to the best advantage. He is

directed to flee to the mountain, and he had better have been there all his days than where he was; but he pleads hard to live in a city, and hopes he may be excused in this desire, seeing it was a little one. Had he properly confided in God, he would have gone to the mountain without hesitation: but his faith is weak, and his fears prevail, that if he go thither, some evil will take him, and he shall die. This his imbecility, however, is graciously passed over; his request is granted, and the city spared for his sake. Nor was this all. The angel kindly hastens his escape to this city; formerly called Bela, but from hence Zoar, that is, little; for that he could do nothing till he should have come thither. All this was merciful, very merciful; and proves, not only that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, but also that their blood is precious in his sight.

Ver. 23-25. By the time that Lot entered into Zoar, the sun had risen upon the earth. It promised perhaps to be a fine day; and the inhabitants of Sodom, after their night's revel, would be going forth to do as at other times. But lo, on a sudden, floods of fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven descend upon this and the neighbouring city of Gomorrah, utterly consuming them, and all their inhabitants! Some have supposed this tremendous judgment to have been effected by a volcanic eruption in the neighbourhood, the lava of which, first ascending high into the atmosphere, and then descending upon the devoted cities, destroyed them. If so it were, God's hand was in it, directing and timing its operations, no less than if it were accomplished without the interference of any second cause.

Ver. 26. The Lord delivered just Lot; and his whole family, as we have seen, had much mercy shown them for his sake. But favour may be shown to the wicked, yet will they not learn righteousness. Some refused to go with him, and those that did go, proved to him a grief and a snare. His wife is said to have looked back from behind him, during their journey, and was instantly struck dead, and remained upon the spot a petrified monument of divine vengeance. It may be thought a hard fate for a mere glance of the eye: but that glance, no doubt, was expressive of unbelief, and a lingering desire to return. Probably she was of

much of the same mind as her sons-in-law, and attributed the whole to the resentment of the strangers, whom her husband was weak enough to believe. It is certain that her example is held up by our Lord as a warning against turning back, which intimates that such was the meaning of her look.

Ver. 27-29. Abraham having made intercession, though the issue of it gave him but little hope of success, yet is anxious to see what will be the end of these things. Unable, it seems, to rest in his bed, he arose early the next morning, and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. From having a view of the plain, he beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. He had not mentioned Lot by name, in his intercession, though doubtless it had respect to him; and the Lord so far hearkened to his prayer as to deliver that good man in answer to it. Lot could not pray for himself, for he was not aware of his danger till it in a manner came upon him. What a mercy it is to have an Intercessor, who knows all the evils which are coming upon us, and prays for us that our strength fail not! But to return to Lot

Ver. 30. On leaving Sodom, he was very earnest to have Zoar granted him for a refuge, and to be excused from going to dwell in the mountain: yet now, all on a sudden, he went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain; and that for the very reason which he had given for a contrary choice. Then he feared some evil

would take him, if he went to the mountain now he fears to dwell in Zoar. It is well to know that the way of man is not in himself, and that it is not in man to direct his steps. Our wisdom is to refer all to God, and to follow wherever his word and providence lead the way. But why did not Lot return to Abraham ? There was no occasion now for strife about their herds; for he had lost all, and but just escaped with his life. Whatever was the reason, he does not appear to have made a good choice. Had he gone to the mountain when directed, he might have hoped for preserving mercy but going of his own accord, and from a motive of sinful distrust, evil in reality overtakes him. His daughters, who seem to have contracted such habits in Sodom as would prepare them for any thing, however unnatural, draw him into

intemperance and incest, and thus cover his old age with infamy. The offspring of this illicit intercourse were the fathers of two great but heathen nations; viz. the Moabites, and the children of Ammon.

The dishonourable end of this good man shows that we are never out of danger while we are upon earth. He whose righteous soul was grieved with the filthy conversation of the wicked while in a city, is drawn into the same kind of evils himself when dwelling in a cave! His whole history also, from the time of his leaving Abraham, furnishes an affecting lesson to the heads of families in the choice of habitations for themselves or their children. If worldly accommodations be preferred to religious advantages, we have nothing good to expect, but every thing evil. We may or we may not lose our substance, as he did; but what is of far greater consequence, our families may be expected to become mere heathens, and our own minds be contaminated with the examples which are continually before our eyes. Such was the harvest which Lot reaped from his well-watered plain; and such are the fruits very commonly seen in those that follow his example!