This is the shortest of all the books of the Old Testament, the least of those tribes, and yet is not to be passed by, or thought meanly of, for this penny has Cæsar’s image and superscription upon it; it is stamped with a divine authority.

Edom is the nation against which this prophecy is levelled, and which, some think, is put for all the enemies of Israel, that shall be brought down first or last. The rabbin by Edom understand Rome.

When we have read Edom’s doom, no less than utter ruin, it is natural to ask, Why, what evil has he done? What is the ground of God’s controversy with him? Many things, no doubt, were amiss in Edom; they were a sinful people, and a people laden with iniquity.

After the destruction of the church’s enemies is threatened, which will be completely accomplished in the great day of recompence, and that judgment for which Christ came once, and will come again, into this world, here follow precious promises of the salvation of the church, with which this…