24 LORD our God, [is] the falvation of Ifrael. For fhame, that is, fin and idolatry, hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their fons and their daughters; thefe have wafted our fub25 stance, and brought our enemies upon us. We lie down in our fhame, and our confufion covereth us; we are not able to bear up under it: for we have finned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.-In anfwer to thefe expreffions of forrow and repentance, God affures Ifrael,

I.

I

CHAP. IV. If thou wilt return, O Ifrael, faith the LORD, return unto me heartily, not by outward profeffion only and if thou wilt put away thine abominations, thine idols and thy fins, out of my fight, then shalt thou 2 not remove, but be established in the land.

And thou fhalt fwear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteoufnefs; thou shalt no more fwear by idols, but in important cafes make thine appeal to God for the maintenance of truth and justice; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him fhall they glory; many heathens fhall became profelytes, shall efteem themselves happy in being the people of God, and shall triumph in their relation to him and intereft in him.

TH

REFLECTIONS.

HE judgments of God upon others are defigned as warnings to us, and he is difpleafed if they are not attended to. He expected that Judah fhould be alarmed by the captivity of Ifrael, and it was an aggravation of their guilt that they were not. God gives us many awful warnings by his word and providences; even the calamities of Ifrael and Judah, are ftanding warnings to us, and are fo defcribed in the New Teftament. God knows what admonitions he hath given us, and what effect they have had; and if we overlook them and prove treacherous to our religious profeffions and engagements, we shall fall under his difpleasure, for his power and wrath are against all them that forfake him.

2. The abundant mercy and reconcileablenefs of God, are motives to finners to return to him. He commands his minifters and prophets to proclaim this; to affure finners of his readiness to forgive; and invites them to return. May we hear the proclamation with gratitude and pleasure; and let our answer be, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God.

3. It is happy for a people to have paftors after God's own heart; fuch as he approves on account of their character and fidelity in their office. They are good pastors in God's fight, who take care of the flock, endeavour to improve their understandings, mend their fpirits, and make them wife to falvation. The people who have fuch pastors, (who are, alas! too few) ought to be very thankful to God, and esteem them highly in love for their work's fake.

4. Let us diligently attend to the terms of forgiveness and acceptance with God. Sinners are to acknowledge their iniquities with fhame and forrow; to put away all their abominations, to return to him as their father, to cherish filial difpofitions, to give themselves to prayer, to reverence the majefty and omniscience of God, to place all their happiness in his favour, to be faithful in all their declarations and promises, and never to turn away from the Lord. May this be our character. Then will he heal our backflidings, put us among his children, and give us a goodly heritage, even an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for us.

CHA P. IV. 3, to the end.

This prophecy is addreffed to Judah and Jerufalem; it is a call to repentance, and foretels their destruction by the Chaldeans.

3

OR thus faith the LORD to the men of Judah and

F Jerufalem, Break up your fallow ground, and fow

not among thorns; be humble and penitent, otherwise you are like an hufbandman who fows among thorns without 4 ploughing, and the produce is good for nothing. Circumcife yourselves to the LORD, and take away the forefkins of

your

your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerufalem; mortify your corrupt affections, and do not content yourselves with external rites: left my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench [it,] because 5 of the evil of your doings. Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerufalem; and fay, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and fay, Affemble. yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities for 6 fecurity against the Chaldeans. Set up the ftandard toward Zion: retire, ftay not: for I will bring evil 7 from the north, and a great deftruction. The lion is come up from his thicket, Nebuchadnezzar is coming from Babylon, and the deftroyer of the gentiles is on his way, or, the Scourge of nations, that hath made defolate the neighbouring countries, is on his march against you; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land defolate; [and] 8 thy cities fhall be laid waste without an inhabitant. For this gird you with fackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us. 9. And it fhall come to pass at that day, faith the LORD, [that] the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes, they shall be quite stupid and confounded; and the priests, that should blow the trumpet and encourage the people to war, fhall be aftonished, and the prophets fhall wonder, that is, the false prophets, that faid the 10 calamity fhould not come. Then faid I, Ah, Lord GOD! furely thou haft greatly deceived this people and Jerufalem, that is, thou haft permitted it to be done, haft suffered the false prophets to deceive them by strong delufions, faying, Ye fhall have peace; whereas the fword reachII eth unto the foul. At that time fhal it be faid to this people and to Jerufalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanfe, but to deftroy the fruits of the earth, 12 to Scatter and carry them away; [Even] a full wind from thofe [places] fhall come unto me; or, as it is better rendered, a full wind for a curfe fhall come at my bidding, too strong for them to withstand: now alfo will I give fen13 tence against them. Behold, he shall come up as clouds that cover the fky, and his chariots [fhall be] as a whirlVOL. V. wind:

D d

2

wind his horfes are fwifter than eagles. Woe unto 14 us! for we are spoiled. O Jerufalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayeft be faved. How long fhall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? thy foolish devices, expectations, and dependences, to which you 15 have fo long trufted? For a voice declareth from Dan, and publifheth affliction from mount Ephraim; which lay north, nearest to Babylon, from whence the tidings came. 16 Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerufalem, [that] watchers come from a far country, soldiers that watch over them to do them mischief, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah, who en17 courage one another to fall on and fubdue them. As keepers of a field, are they against her round about, furrounding her cities, because the hath been rebellious against me, 18 faith the LORD. Thy way and thy doings have procured thefe [things] unto thee; this [is] thy wickednefs, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart like a deadly wound.

19

My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou haft heard, O my foul, the found of the trumpet, the alarm of war; I tenderly fympathize with my country in the prospect of thefe miferies. 20. Deftruction upon deftruction is cried, for the whole land is fpoiled: fuddenly are my tents spoiled, [and] my curtains in a moment, as easily as tents are removed. 21 How long fhall I fee the standard, [and] hear the found 22 of the trumpet? For my people [is] foolish, they have not known me; they [are] fottifh children, and they have none understanding: they [are] wife to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge; they are skilful in the arts of fin, but are ftrangers to religion; they fhow no con23 trivance or quickness but when it is to do evil. I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without form and void; and 24 the heavens, and they [had] no light. I beheld the

mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills 25 moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, [there was] no man, and

s Five of their kings in fucceffion were flain or depofed, in a few years.

26 and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place [was] a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, [and] by his fierce anger; a figurative defcription of the confusion and calamities of the nation, as if the frame of nature was deftroyed, and the earth reduced to its 27 original chaos. For thus hath the LORD faid, The whole

land fhall be defolate; yet will I not make a full end, a 28 remnant shall remain. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have fpoken [it,] I have purpofed [it,] and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it; foreseeing that they will not repent as a nation, I determine that the remnant only 29 fhall be faved. The whole city fhall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks to fave their lives: every city [fhall be] forfaken, and not a man dwell therein. 30 And [when] thou [art] fpoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clotheft thyfelf with crimson, though thou deckeft thee with ornaments of gold, though thou renteft thy face with painting, or, diftendeft thine eyes with paint, (fome preparation used to contract the eyelids to make the eyes look larger, as the eastern nations reckon large eyes to be the most beautiful,) in vain shalt thou make thyfelf fair, like a ftrumpet courting her old lovers; [thy] lovers will defpife thee, they will feek thy life; thou shalt feek help from thy idols and allies in 31 vain. For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, [and] the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her firft child, when her pains as well as her fears are greatest, the voice of the daughter of Zion, [that] bewaileth herfelf, [that] fpreadeth her hands, [faying,] Woe [is] me now! for my foul is wearied because of murderers; because of the enemy, that makes fuch dreadful Jaughter.

I.

LE

REFLECTION S.

ET us attend to the inftructive views here given us of repentance and returning to God; it is breaking up the fallow ground. A beautiful description of a Dd 2

carnal