In judgment God still remembers mercy. 1. He gives them hopes that a glorious day of disillusionment should come, so much greater than that of their redemption from Egypt, that in a medium it should deliberate the mention of it, v. 14, 15. And this was primarily fulfilled in the recovery of the Jews from Babylon, and the countries of the north whither they had been carried away captives, and may have reference to that more glorious expected event, when the Lord shall call them into his church from their perfect disposition. 2. Before he shewed them this favour he would severely visit their iniquities. As fallen taken in an evil out, and beads in the hunter's feare, so would God give them up to the Chaldeans to be taken and destroyed, who should purse them into all their lurking places, and drag them into captivity, v. 16. Their evil ways, however severe, were not hid from God's eye: he marked their impious rites and abominable idolatries, the carcasses of their dreadful things, offered to their idols, so many, and so universally practised through the land, that they had filled God's inheritance with their horrid professions. For this therefore he threatens to recompete their sin double; not beyond what it deserved, but double above all other visitations he had brought upon them, or much more than they feared or apprehended. Note, (1.) No darkness can hide the sinner from God's eye. (2.) Right is in vain when he parloes: no cave, no mountain, can then conceal the guilty from his judgment. 3. The prophet is comforted not only in the prospect that the punishment of his people, however severe, would have an end, but also with the forefight of the conversion of the Gentiles: O Lord, my strength and ferrety, who had hitherto supported him amidst all his infirmities, and against all his enemies; and my refuge in the day of affliction, who would perforce him amidst all the approaching evils: the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth; either when the Jews returned from Babylon, and many proskytes come up with them; or when the gospel was preached, and the Gentiles became obedient to the faith, renouncing the idols of their fathers, convinced of their vanity and unprofitableness, v. 19. and astonished at their absurdity, who ever could think those to be gods which were the workmanship of their own hands, wood or floor, v. 20. But now God will cause them to know better, making them, by his efficacious grace, acquainted with his own glorious perfections as the only living Jehovah, with the gospel of his dear Son, and the way of life and salvation attainable through the Redeemer. Some chuse rather to understand all this of the Jews, called Gentiles, because of their imitation of their sins, and now quitting with blame their idolatries, and returning to the one living and true God. Note, (1.) They who make God their refuge shall find support under the heaviest afflictions. (2.) When the sinner, convinced and ashamed of his folly, begins bitterly to reflect upon himself, then God will again relieve him to his favour, and make him know once more the wonders of his grace. 2. He must not go to the house of mourning, v. 5. With friendly sympathy he had, no desire, been wont to weep with doubt that wept, but now he must abstain, and there no usual expression of grief for his nearest friend or relation, because either the dead were removed from the evils to come, or rather as a sign to death of the greatness of the approaching calamities, when death would make such terrible devastation, that even the great should be unburied on the ground, and none be left to throw the laff kind office to the corpse, or to mourn over it. God having removed his peace from the land, a contemptuon utter and universal is decreed against it. 3. He must not go to the house of feasting, v. 8. He had been accustomed, no doubt, to join with his friends when they made an entertainment, and innocently to partake of their repals; but now death was unfeasorable; and when he forefew the terrible wrath of God impending, he wanted by his own conduct to awaken their concern. The voice of mirth and bridal kings were about to cease, and no voice to be heard but the thricks of the miserable and the groans of the dying. 10. ¶ And it shall come to pass when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall lay unto thee, "Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us?" or "what is our iniquity?" or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? 11. Then shalt thou lay unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, faith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law: 12. And "ye have done worse than your fathers, (for behold, "ye walk every one after the 1st imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken me to me) 13. Therefore will I "call you out of this land, into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers, and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not shew you favour." In this chapter, (1). God consults the Years of idolatry, and condows them to captivity for it, ver. 1-4. (2.) He shews them the folly of all their carnal confidence, and that this was one of the few upon which his controversy with them was grounded, ver. 5-11. (3.) The prophet appears to God on account of the matter of his enemies, committing himself to the divine protection, and begging of God to appear for him, ver. 12-18. (4.) God by the prophet warns the people to keep holy the Sabbath day, affaring them that, if they did, it should be the lengthening use of their tranquillity; but if not, God would, by some defelating judgment, affirms the honor of his Sabbaths, ver. 19-27. 1. THE sin of Judah is written with "a pen of iron, and with the 1st point of a diamond; it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars: 2. Whilst "their children remember their altars and "their groves by the green trees upon the high hills. 3. O my mountain in the field, "I will give thy substance, and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders. 4. And thou, even 1st thyself shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee, and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knoweth not: for ye have kindled "a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever. They seemed to wonder, chap. xvi. 10. what they had done to deserve such heavy judgments. But surely there was cause abundant given. 1. The 14. xi. x 3 Chapter XVIII. John-Cheff dear. 2. The far of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond; deep, legible, and tafting are the characters; the form of their iniquities is grown upon their hearts; the form of the abars of their idols, furnished with the blood of their licences, proclaimed their guilt; and their very children, trained up in their idolatrous rites, were evidences against them; or, as they remember their children, so do they their abars, with the same fondness, and so strongly attached to their abomination. Now, The iniquity of sinners is written before God. If the blood of Jesus blot not out the deadly charge, wee unto them in the day when the judgment shall fit, and the books be opened. 3. The charge being proved, judgment is passed on them. The city and temple, called the mountain of the Lord's house, Aft. iv. 1. are devoted to the spoil, with all their treasures, for the far of the people throughout the land. The far was universal, and so would be the defoliation. And then, even thyself, or in this, those who dwell in the land, or through thyself, the ruin is of thy own looking, shall discontinue from the heritage that I gave thee, led captive into a strange land, and doomed to hard servitude under their tyrannical conquerors, and this through the fierce anger of the Lord kindled against them, and which would burn against the impenitent among them, not only all their days, but in memory. Now, if sinners continue hardened under God's present judgment, they will find thee but the beginning of sorrows, and the sparks of those everlasting burnings which are kindling for them. 5. ¶ Thus faith the LORD, Curled be the man that trutheth in man, and 6 makes flesh his arm, and whofe heart departeth from the LORD. 6. For he shall be 7 like the heath in the defart, and shall not fee when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in 8 a fall land, and not inhabited. 7. 9 Bleifed at the man that trutheth in the LORD, and whofe hope the LORD is. 8. For he shall be 9 as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the rivers, and shall not fee when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, 10 neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 9. ¶ The heart is deceitful above all things, and 11 desperately wicked, who can know it? 10. 12 I the LORD feareth the heart, 13 try the reins, 14 even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 11. As the partridge firteth at eggs, and hatcheth them not: 15 he that getteth riches, and not by right, 16 shall leave them in the midst of his days, and 17 at his end shall be a fool. 9. 1. 1. The Jews often thought by their alliances with the neighbouring nations to gain protection against their invading enemies. This was both their sin, and a chief cause of their ruin. 1. The prophet denounces the curse of God against such a fruitful in man, and made flesh their arm, and whofe heart departed from the Lord, withdrawing their confidence from him, to place it on worms, which was to change a rock for a reed. Thus they trailed alternately on the Egyptians and Afghians, for desp. xi. 26, 37. to their sad disappointment; or they placed such confidence in their relation after the flesh to Abraham, that they promised themselves security, notwithstanding their faithless departures from Abraham's God. But the consequences would be ruinous: for the heath in the wilderness, so defoliate should they be made, and leave as fast to the flames of God's wrath, and for no good days, or behold and pine away at the mortars others should receive, from which they would be excluded, and become as a land parched and uninhabited; their country's defart, themselves desirous of every comfort. Now, (1.) God is the only worthy object of our faith and hope: human confidences may fail us, he never will. (2.) When we depend on our own doings and duties to recommend us to God's favour, instead of trusting on the divine righteousness and grace of Jesus, we shall by the little be convinced of the vanity of our dependence. 2. As miserable as they are who depart from God, so bleifed and happy are they, who, renouncing all other grounds of hope, rest their souls on God in Christ alone, 9. 7. They shall be like the men planted by the rivers, always flourishing and fruitful, free-pound, and in the most scorching season watered abundantly. Their profession shall be ornamental, their stability, focused; in time of greatest temptation they shall be kept from withering, and their fruits of holiness shall abound and abide, till grace ripens into glory. 3. The curse of all departures from God is here laid open. The heart is deceitful above all things, and differently wicked, who can know it? Man's nature is fallen; his heart is radically corrupt, all its faculties perverted, and his whole mind and confidence defiled: deceitful above all things; puts false glories upon sin, that hide its malignity and danger; fences deughes in the ways of indulgence, that are never found; buoys up the vain confidence of the sinner with hopes of impunity and peace; when God hath said, There is no peace: and differently wicked; not only evil, but evil continually and lucratively, deliberately set upon it, without power to seldom from it, or ability to get rid of the bondage of corruption; nay, rather hugging the chains: who can know it? The more we know of ourselves, far from having fathomed the abyss of evil, we discover but the more clearly, that the depths of corruption are unfathomable; we can neither understand the number of our errors; not promote ourselves for a moment security from the deepest and foulest falls. There is a mystery of iniquity within us, that none can know but God alone, and nothing can cure but his almighty grace; and therefore it were fully to depend on ourselves or others, in whofe hearts such deceit and deference wickedness are so deeply rooted. But if the Lord fawls the heart; its most secret purposes are known to him: I try the reins, and see the rising thought afar off: from him nothing is lost, nothing is secret; and thus all-feeling ought he to be, who is the final judge of all, and by whofe decisions our eternal state must be determined, and every man receive judgment according to truth. Now, (1.) Nothing affords so humbling a consideration to us, as this drinking view of our fallen nature; the pride of man must here for ever stand aghast and confounded. (2.) They who place confidence in their own hearts, in their resolutions and purposes, prove how ignorant they are of themselves, and predict only their own falls. (3.) Since at God's awful judgment we must shortly stand to receive our dooms, it becomes us daily to be proving ourselves, and begging of God to discover to us our own hearts, that we may now to judge ourselves, as not then to be condemned of the Lord. 4. A heavy charge is laid against them for their covetousness and injustice. They would be rich, and flack at no methods to succeed, right or wrong; but God will not suffer them to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. Though brooding over them, as a partridge on her neft, their riches, like her eggs added or broken, should afford them no solid fatuation; and in the midst of their days, when they thought their rolls were over, and began to talk of enjoying themselves, they shall be cut off, and leave their wealth all behind, made monuments of the folly of trusting on uncertain riches more than in the living God; and these things are written for our admonition: may we hear and be wise. 12. ¶ A glorious high throne from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. 13. O LORD, the hope of Israel, 14 all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. 14. Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved: for 15 thou art my praise. 15. ¶ Behold, they say unto me, 16 Where is the word of the LORD? In it come now. 16. As for me, 17 I have not hastened from long a pallor to follow thee, neither have I defired the world day, thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee. 17. Be not a terror unto me, 18 thou art my hope in the day of evil. 18. Let them be confounded that pernicate me, but let not me be confounded; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and 19 destroy them with double destruction. 9. 12—18. We have the prophet here, 1. Acknowledging how well they deferred to be rejected, who were ungrateful to a God so great and gracious. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary; in the temple at Jerusalem God had erected his throne, there he manifested his presence, and thither, as to a sanctuary, the guilty might flee, and find an hiding-place, even to the mercy-fear. O God, the hope of Israel, the never-failing refuge of the faithful, in whom none ever trusted and were confounded; but all that forbids thee, safely withdraw their allegiance, turn aside unto idols, or place their dependence on an arm of flesh, they shall be ashamed; their confidences shall fall them, and their iniquities issue in their confusion. They that depart from me, and will not hear the warnings of God in the mouth of his prophets, shall be written in the earth, numbered with transgressors, and transpired upon with contempt; or rather consigned to the grave, cut off in their iniquities, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters, the source of all infligedness; and they who depart from him court their own misery. 2. He prays for himself. Heal me, O Lord; for though a prophet, he found, much infirmity cleaving to him, and the inveterate disease of sin still caused in his heart, the effects of which would prove mortal, without the powerful efficacy of divine grace: or he was broken-hearted for the first of the people, and in the view of the evils coming upon them, Heal me, and I shall be healed: fear me, and I shall be saved. God's power was all-sufficient; on this he placed his dependence, and with humble humble prayer, in God's appraised way, fought the blessing he wanted; for thou art my pride, this object of it continually, who hitherto had given him abundance matter for his praise, and he trailed would contrition to do so. Note, (1.) Every blessing we need must be fought by the prayer of faith. (2.) But is the God's disease, and will be fatal unless healed by grace. The salvation of eternity must be begun on earth: they who would be saved in heaven, must now be saved from the power of evil. 3. He complains of their hardened infidelity. He faithfully delivered the message he received from God, and they treated it with contempt. Where is the word of the Lord? where are the threatened judgments? they law no symptoms of their approach, and utterly disbelieved them; and therefore in defiance bid them come. Let it come now, as if they were above all fear, and dared the arm of omnipotence. Note, When sinners are thus incorrigible, their damnation flunkharsh not. 4. Their ill usage and inflictent treatment had not discouraged him from the faithful and diligent discharge of his office. I have not bathed from being a putter after thee; following God's directions, notwithstanding every opposition: neither have I desired the world day, or wished to fix the milderies he intended; but prayed and preached with all his might, that by a timely repudiance they might prevent the threatened judgments. And for this he could appeal to the heart-searching God; Thus harmless it: that which came out of my lips was right before thee; he broke cruelty according to God's word, with uprightness and limplicity, and was conscious of God's approbation of his conduct. Note, (1.) Whatever treatment we meet with, we must patiently and boldly persist in the work of our ministry. (2.) Many think the preachers of God's word delight in declaring the terrors of the Lord, but it is the most painful part of their office. (3.) They who have the heart-searching God to appeal to, need not regard the reviling of men. 5. He begs God's protection and support, and that his enemies might be put to confusion. Be not a terror to me; not only do not confound me before them, but comfort me under their opposition; for more germs to be implied than is expressed. Thus are my hope in the day of evil, I disclaim all other dependance. Let them be confounded; convinced and penitent, or silenced by the infliction of the threatened vengeance; but let not me be confounded by their wickedness, or in the event proved to have spoken falsely. Let them be dismayed, with the sense of their danger; but let not me be dismayed by their reviling or persecutions. Bring upon them the day of evil, at which they scoff; since they will not be reformed, it is but just they should suffer for their impunity; and destroy them with a double de-Brullion; utterly, or beyond all their apprehensions; or by the Chaldeans first, and finally by the Romans: and this he prays, not out of revenge for a private injury done to him, but in real for God's glory dishonoured by them. Note, (1.) There is enough in the best to terrify them, if God were first to mark what is amiss. (2.) When he is our hope, we need fear no evil. (3.) If we are faithful, God will never suffer us to be confounded. Prop. vii. 19. Thus said the LORD unto me, Go and Stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem. 20. And lay unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates. 21. That hath the LORD, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22. Neither carry forth a burden out of your hostels on the Sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers. 23. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. 24. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, so bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day, to do no work therein: 25. Then shall there enter into the gates of this city, kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in charters, and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall remain for ever. 26. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and incense, and I bringing sacrifices of praise unto the house of the LORD. 27. But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sab- bath-day, and not to bear a burden, even cutting in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day: then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. 9. 19—27. This is a new discourse; the subject relates to the fortification of the Sabbath-day. We have, 1. The places where he must deliver it. In the gate of the king, that all the great men at the court might bear it, whose good example would be very influential, or their bad conduct productive of peculiar evil: and then in all the gates of Jerusalem, that all might bear, and none plowed ignorance, from the least to the greatest, where the matter was of such universal concern. 2. The manner is prescribed in which the Sabbath-day should be observed. Thus saith the Lord, whom all are bound to obey, and whose word whoever is not yet, doth it at his peril; Take heed to yourselves; where so much depended upon it, they had need be careful: or, take heed to your flesh; for nothing is well done in God's fight, but what comes from the heart. They must bear no burden, be employed in no fertile work of their ordinary calling, in husbandry, traffic, or merchandize; but hallow the Sabbath-day, in the diligent and conscientious improvement of those sacred hours in every public and private means of grace, as I commanded your fathers. It was no new commandment, but enjoined from the day they were taken into covenant with God, on their deliverance from Egypt, though their fathers had rebelled and smarted for it, whose ill examples they must have, and be admonished by their suffering, and not be, like them, unreachable and disobedient. 3. The bleshedness and benefit of observing the divine command would be very great to the nation, and to all who belonged thereunto. Their kings of the royal race of David should continue to reign in splendor, and they be happy under their mild government, v. 85. Their city and country should prosper exceedingly, religion flourish through the land, God's altar never want sacrifices, nor they the liberal offerings to bring, out of the abundance which God would believe on them. Note, (1.) True religion is the greatest friend to national happiness. (2.) Nothing hath to immediate a tendency to promote godliness, as the conscientious observation of the Sabbath-day. 4. Disobedience to this injunction would certainly be attended with the most fatal consequences. In just indignation for his slightest Sabbath, the fire of God's wrath would be kindled, nor ever be quenched, till the gates of Jerusalem are in flames by invading foes, the executioners of his vengeance, her palaces laid in smoky ruins, and utter desolations poured out upon all the cities of Judah. Let tabbed-breakers remember, and tremble at the fire of divine vengeance which they provoke. In this chapter we have, 1. God's ways of dealing with nations and kingdoms pointed out; that he can at eighty do what he will wish them, as the potter can wash the clay, ver. 1—6. But that he certainly will do what is just; nothing but impunity will be a nation's ruin, ver. 7—10. 2. The folly of the Jews demonstrated in departing from their God to idols, and in bringing ruin upon themselves, notwithstanding the fair wavering green them, and God's kind asceticism twinkled them, ver. 1—17. 3. The prophet's complaint to God of the ingratitude and justice of his enemies, and his prayers against them, ver. 18—23. 1. THE word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2. Anfe, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cycle thee to hear my words. 3. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. 7. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: 8. If that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it: 10. If it do evil in my fight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good where I said I would benefit them. God often teaches by similitude to make the deeper imperilies, and that the truths may be the better remembered. We have, 1. The prophet sent to the patter's house, and informed, that God would there instruct him. Instantly obedient, he goes down, observes the workman turning the wheel, fashioning the vessels, marring and making them according to his plankton. 2. God's application of the subject. Such absolute power as the patter hath over the clay, hath God over the sons of men. He hath the most unconscionable right over us: it were arrogance in us to find fault with his procedure, and folly to oppose what we cannot prevent. According to the counsels of his own will he may dispose of nations and individuals, and none can say unto him, What doft thou? Submission absolute and entur to his will is our bounden duty: not that he exercises his power in any manner to the impeachment of his justice or mercy. He will be found righteous in all his ways; not only sovereignly great, but infinitely gracious. Even when his threatening have gone forth against a nation, and their defraudous approaches, if they repeat and return, he will change the method of his dispositions towards them, remove their fears, and return to them in mercy. On the other hand, if he have spoken by way of promise, to crown a people with every national blessing, to enrich them with good, and prosper all their enterprises; if they prove ungrateful for his favours, desert his service, and dislobe his word, then he will turn the current of his bearded from them, and pour on them the wrath they have provided. Note, (1.) All our miseries may be traced from our son, whether private or public. (2.) God will make his glory to appear; and though as absolutely sovereign none have a right to question him, he will vindicate his ways to man, and appear; all when he judges. 11. Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus faith the LORD, Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a devise against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. 12. And they said, 'There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. 13. Therefore thus faith the LORD, 'Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. 14. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place, be forsaken? 15. Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity, and they have caused them to thumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 16. To make their land deddite, and a perpetual hissing: every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 17. I will scatter them as with an east-wind before the enemy: I will shew them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity. The foregoing truths are here particularly applied to the Jewish nation. Here is, 1. The warning and admonition given to the Jewish people. Evil was on the wheel for them, though the execution was for a while suspended; and one more invitation given them, by their speedy and penitent return to prevent the impending ruin, v. 11. Note, God never strikes without warning: they who continue impatient are inexcusable. 2. Their hardened rejection of the warning. They said, There is no hope; if nothing but parting from their sins would do, they resolved to abide the consequences. Let God do his worth, our will would after our own devices, and our will do every one the imagination of his evil heart. Note, Sinners often dare not express themselves with such effrontery in words, yet practically every sinner doth it in works, and these speak most strongly. 3. Their monstrous folly and wickedness upbraided. Among the vilest heathen nations were no abominations or insolence bound equal to theirs; even the people of Nineveh repeated at the preaching of Jonah; but, horrible to tell Israel, that virgin daughter, that by her relation to God should have kept herself wholly for him, pure in his ways and worship, hath apolitanized from him, hath forsaken the living God for dumb idols. Will a man, parched with thrift, leave the same water of Lebanon, which cometh down melted in summer from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken by the thrifty traveller? This would be fully unheard-of; yet more egregiously foolish were they; because my people hath forgotten me, the fountain of living waters, to drink at the broken cisterns of idol altars. They have burnt incense to vanity, to wretched deities, who could not profit them: or, in twine they burn incense; their services were an abomination which their sins remained: and they have caused them to thumble in their ways, their idols, or their false prophets, from the ancient paths, the way revealed of old in God's word; or the paths of eternity, which led to glory everlasting, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; a road unknown to the saints of God; a way of wickedness and idolatry, in which they stumbled and fell into the pit of eternal misery; this being the certain and fatal consequence of their ways, to make their head defiance, ravaged by the enemy, and depopulated by famine and the sword; a perpetual hissing, every one who passed by expressing their abhorrence of such guilty conduct; afterglowed at the devastations they beheld, and wagging their head, deriding or upbraiding them. With blasts of displeasure, furious as the only wreck, God will gather them before their enemies, weak as stubble to resist their attacks, and in the day of their calamity turn a dead ear to their cries, nor cast a look of compaction on their miseries. Note, (1.) Apolitanes deserve to be upbraided, and they will shortly awake to everlasting shame and contempt. (2.) They who persevere in the ways of sin, must expect no mercy in the day of judgment. God will then mock at their calamities, Prov. i. 26—28. 18. Then said they, 'Come,' and let us devise devices against Jeremiah: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wife, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. 19. Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. 20. Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul: remember that I found before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. 21. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword, and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows, and let their men be put to death, let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. 22. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them, for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid shares for my feet. 23. Yet, LORD, thou knoweth all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thou with them in the time of thine anger. Behold the treatment the faithful ministers may expect from a disobedient and gainsaying people. 1. Enraged by his rebukes, they consult how to destroy him. To cover their malice, they pretend zeal for religion, and would brand him as a false prophet. Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah, to get rid of him and his prophecies; for the law shall not perish from the priest, &c. Notwithstanding his predictions of the inflation of the temple service; of the infatuation of their counsels; and his warnings of the fasthood of their prophets; they flattered themselves their priesthood should continue, their rulers in church and state consult and secure their safety; and that they should see the fulfilment of the visions of peace with which their own prophets flattered them: therefore, said they, Come, let us smite him with the tongue; either accuse him as a lying prophet before the nighttimes, to put him to death, v. 23, or load him with reproaches, and make him contemptible in the eyes of the people: and let us not give heed to any of his words, but treat him as a deceiver, who speaks not from the Lord, but out of his own heart. Note, (1.) The wicked would in in a confederacy against the true prophets, and none forwarder to shew their malice, than the false and faithful ministers who cannot bear their just rebukes. (2.) To cloak the malice of persecutors this was the old pretence, to represent the faithful and zealous ministers as men dangerous to the state, and not to be tolerated; or as deluders and enthusiasts, and to be trampled on. (3.) They who dare not encounter the lails of men's tongues, must never think of standing up for God. (4.) Rejection of the servant is an insult on the master. Little do the revilers of Christ's ministers think, that their reproaches light not so much on them as him. 2. He lodges his appeal with God, and begs his interposition on his behalf. He prayed God to take notice of their blasphemies and reproaches, v. 19. their ingratitude and cruelty, in returning him evil for good, and thinking for his blood, when God, the searcher of hearts, knew how earnestly he had laboured, how fervently he had prayed, to avert the impending judgments from them, v. 20. Therefore in just indignation he unpreceates upon them the vengeance they had provoked; that death in every remembrance they might slide both young and old, and their widows, bereaved of husbands and children together, lament the fearful ravages they beheld; that shrieks and cries Babam Chaff etc. might fill the houths, when the enemy suddenly entering at the breach, massacred and plundered without pity or remorse: for this would be but the just retaliation for the soares they laid to murder him, which, however secret, God knew and would avenge. Their sin was now unpardonable; he that had often prayed for them, now abandons them to their ruin; not in a spirit of revenge defining their misery, but in zeal for God's glory, to see that vindicated, waiting their final overthrow, and expecting and defining God would deal with them in the time of his anger according to the denunciations which, as his prophet, he had delivered. Note, (1.) Jeremiah was a type of Jesus, thus lately reviled, ungratefully persecuted, and all his prayers returned with blasphemies. (2.) What Jeremiah spoke in the spirit of prophecy must not be pleaded as an example for our imitation. We must pray for those that persecute us, if per-adventure God may yet give them repentance. (3.) The persecutions of his prophets will find at last an avenging God, and we to them against whom those abused ministers of grace stand up to bear witness in a judgment day.