[3] Take heed of abusing this mercy of God. Suck not poison out of the sweet flower of God's mercy: do not think that because God is merciful you may go on in sin; this is to make mercy your enemy. None might touch the Ark but the priests, who by their office were more holy: none may touch the ark of God's mercy but such as are received to be holy. He that sins because of mercy shall have judgment without mercy. Mercy abused turns to fury (Deut. xxix. 19, 20). "The mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear Him." Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not. God's mercy is a holy mercy; where it pardons, it heals.--_Watson,_ 1696. THE SUMMONS TO JERUSALEM. i.10. _Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah._ The prophet being about to make a still more terrible announcement, puts forth a renewed call for attention. It is well worthy of our study. We find in it-- I. A STARTLING DESCRIPTION. "Rulers of Sodom, . . . people of Gomorrah." What an astonishing declaration is this, that Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jerusalem are synonymous terms! It reminds us--+1. That man may be morally alike to those from whom they think themselves the furthest removed.+ Many a Protestant who hates the very name of Rome is himself a little Pope: he never doubts his own infallibility, and is ready to anathematise all who dare to dissent from him. Many a man who has never stood in the felon's dock is a thief at heart.[1] The people of Jerusalem were ready to thank God that they were not as Sodom and Gomorrah, whereas they really resembled the people they despised. For, like the inhabitants of those guilty cities, they had been living--(1) _In habitual self-indulgence._ Self-indulgence may vary in its forms, but in its essential nature it is ever the same. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah had pandered to the lusts of the body, the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the lusts of the mind (see vers. 17, 23; iii. 16, &c.) (2) _In habitual defiance of God._ The sins of which they were guilty were as plainly condemned in God's Word as were those by which the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah polluted themselves. All sin is rebellion against God,[2] and the manner in which we sin is comparatively unimportant (James ii. 10). If we rebel against God, it does not matter much with what weapons we fight against Him. +2. That men may be utterly unconscious of their own real character.+ Self-delusion as to character is almost universal. Man can live in the practice of gross sin without any compunction of conscience. Laodicea and the foul criminal David are at peace until the rebukes of God begin to crash like thunders over their heads (Rev. iii. 17; 2 Sam. xii. 7). As such delusion is most common, so also it is most disastrous. It renders reform impossible. It sends men blindfolded into eternity to the most appalling