Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Ver. 17. Not come down to take any thing] See here the miseries of war, which now, alas, we feel, and can seal to: being glad to flee for our lives with the loss of all, lest with Shimei, seeking to save our goods we lose life and all; glad if we may escape with the skin of our teeth. And how like are our present convulsions to end in a deadly consumption? War is called evil by a specialty,Isaiah 45:7. Sin, Satan, and war have all one name: evil is the best of them. The best of sin is deformity, of Satan enmity, of war misery. God yet offereth us mercy, as Alexander did those he warred against, while the lamp burned. Oh, let us break off our sins by repentance, and be abrupt in it, lest we should seem to come short, Hebrews 4:1 .