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away captive." Oh that the proud would hear, and would give ear! Oh that they could be made to feel, that nothing can more make them objects of compassion than their pride; because nothing can more surely expose them to that displeasure of the Lord, which will bring them to a grievous fall!

Jeremiah is next commissioned to bear a message "unto the king and the queen," who probably were Jehoiachin, and his mother. See 2 Kings 24. 8. 12. They are charged to humble themselves even to the dust, and warned that their dominion shall come to an end, and that the cities still remaining in the southern parts of the land shall be besieged without prospect of relief, and that their inhabitants even all that were of the kingdom of Judah shall be wholly carried away captive." This was no welcome message for a prophet to bear unto a sovereign. If any thing could give grace unto the messenger in the sight of those to whom he was sent, it must have been the tender language of concern, with which he expresses his own feelings, and signifies also that compassion of the Lord, which is one of the most glorious of God's attributes. "Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee as a woman in travail ?" Thus does God lament the loss of his beloved people, and the punishments they had to undergo; the subjection to a foreign foe which they had brought upon their own heads, and the anguish to which that subjection would expose them.

At the same time they are plainly told, that the cause of all this pain and shame was their own iniquity; and that their having been so long accustomed to do evil left no room for their repentance and escape. All their sins had been seen by the Lord; though they perhaps imagined, because He had not yet punished them after their deserts, that He had taken no note of their misdeeds. All their varieties of idolatry, here figuratively described as so many kinds of uncleanness, and all their obstinate refusal to be made clean, were noted and remembered by Him, though they had been forgetful of his presence; and they would all be visited by an appropriate desolation and disgrace. Let us then be aware of the force of evil habits. They make us insensible to the sinfulness of our sins, and forgetful of their heinousness in the sight of God. They render it as hard to repent and amend, as for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or the leopard his spots. And though that which is impossible with man is possible with God, we see here, that there are cases, oh may ours never be amongst them, in which though God can turn the most hardened heart, He will not; and though He doubtless might forgive the inost flagrant sins, He does not.

A drought is described, and deprecated by the prophet.

1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.

2 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. 3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

4 Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

5 Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.

6 And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.

8 O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?

9 Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.

10 Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them;

he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

13 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.

14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.

15 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

17. Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease:

for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. 18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not. 19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time

of healing, and behold trouble! 20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.

21 Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. 22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things. LECTURE 1207.

Of praying to God under discouraging circumstances. We have here the prophetic description of a severe drought, by which the cities of Judah and Jerusalem would be reduced to great distress; even the nobles of the land being unable to obtain water, the ground so parched that it could not be ploughed, the cattle deserting their young for want of fodder for themselves, and the wild animals either furious or faint in the extremity of the dearth. Jeremiah owns, in the name of the people, that their sins had well deserved the displeasure of the Lord, but prays Him for his name's sake to spare them, and intreats Him not to be as a stranger in the land amongst a people which was called by his name. But God in reply forbids his prayers, declaring that He is fully resolved, whatsoever they might do themselves in order to turn away his wrath, He is fully resolved to "consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence." Nor could it avail to plead that false prophets had deceived them. The false prophets, and they who gave ear to their lying words, must perish together; God declares that He "will pour their wickedness upon them." He then allows his true prophet to lament in their behalf. Nay, and further the Holy Ghost, by which Jeremiah spake, suffers him to turn from words of lamentation to inquiries of earnest desire, confessions of sin, intreaties for mercy, and declarations of trust in God's power, and of a purpose to wait for God's relief. Surely prayer like this, offered under such circumstances as these, is encouragement for us to pray, as St. Paul bids us, "without ceasing;" 1 Thess. 5. 17; to hope, as he tells us that Abraham did, "against hope;" Rom. 4. 18; though ashamed by reason of our sins to ask any thing for ourselves, still to plead for God's name and glory; and however conscious of our own unfitness to kneel before the throne of the Most High, still to draw near and ask, with the confidence of sons, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

God sentenceth his people, encourageth Jeremiah.

1 Then said the LORD unto languisheth: she hath given up

me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. 3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

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4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. 5 For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? 6 Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. 7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways. 8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

9 She that hath borne seven

the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.

10 Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

11 The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. 12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

13 Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

14 And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

15 O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.

16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.

18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar,

and as waters that fail?
19 Therefore thus saith the
LORD, If thou return, then will
Ibring thee again, and thou shalt
stand before me and if thou
take forth the precious from the
vile, thou shalt be as my mouth:
let them return unto thee; but
return not thou unto them.

20 And I will make thee unto

this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.

21 And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

LECTURE 1208.

That God is at once just and merciful.

It is a fearful thing when God, as He does here, answers prayer by sentence of destruction. And foreign it would be to his attributes to give his people to the sword and famine and captivity, if it were not that they had forsaken Him, and that too, after so many threatenings, and so much longsuffering on his part, that He describes Himself as "weary of repenting." It was for this that it became the God of mercy and of love to "appoint over them four kinds, the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy." It was for this their apostasy, more particularly in the times of king Manasseh, that He would scatter them amongst all the kingdoms of the earth, and place them beyond the pale of the compassion of mankind, deprive them of their children, multiply their widows, bring against Jerusalem a midday spoiler, and strong and populous as the place had been, reduce it to desolation and shame. How natural for the prophet, in delivering this sentence, to apprehend that he shall incur the curse of his wicked countrymen! How gracious in the Lord, to assure him for his comfort, that in the time of the approaching evil the enemy should intreat him well; though he must so far suffer in the general visitation, that he would have to submit to loss of substance, and to exile from his country! And when he pleads for remembrance of his services, and for vengeance on his persecutors, when he protests his fidelity, complains of his affliction, and presumes, if our version of his words be right, to question the truth of the Most High; how kindly does God bear with his murmurings, how mercifully promise to forgive him and restore him on repentance, how clearly instruct him in his duty as a prophet to distinguish between the good and evil, the precious and the vile, and how largely undertake for his defence against the assaults of them that hated him! Thus does God Himself distinguish between the frailty to which the best of men are liable, and the wickedness of habitual transgressors. Thus is He at once just and merciful, just in his irrevocable sentence against such as forsake Him utterly, and merciful in forgiving sinners who repent, and saving them from their sins.

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