carnal heart; which is unfruitful, overrun with thorns, where no feeds of goodnefs will grow; and it must be broken up by repentance. This is a difficult work. It is hard to correct vicious habits; it is like ploughing ground that has long been fallow; yet it is a neceffary work, if we defire to reap in mercy. Circumcife your hearts, fubdue your corrupt affections, or, as it is expreffed v. 14, more agreeably to chriftian language, and the ordinance of baptifm, Wafh thy heart, and be not content with external wafhing. It is not fufficient to regulate the life, and appear outwardly good; but we must fee that the heart be cleanfed by repentance and faith, and that finful defires be fuppreffed for the future; because God fearcheth the heart, and the wickedness that lodgeth there is an abomination to him Let us therefore pray that God would create in us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us.

2. Whoever are the inftruments of our troubles, we fhould view them as coming from the hand of God, and that fin is the cause of them. The fierce anger of the Lord brought the Chaldeans upon Judah. They came round about her, because she had been rebellious against the Lord. Thus when enemies, perfecutors, and flanderers befet us, however unjust they may be, we ought to acknowledge that the Lord is righteous. We have done enough to justify him in any evils that he may bring upon us; and it becomes us to humble ourselves under his mighty hand.

3. The calamities of war fhould be deeply lamented, and we fhould tenderly pity those who are fuffering by them. The prophet Jeremiah, tho' he saw the defolation of Judah only by a fpirit of prophecy, and did not know whether he fhould actually live to behold it, yet bitterly bewails it, but more especially the fins which occafioned it. Let us bewail the defolations of war, and the long continuance of them; and earnestly pray that God would give peace in our time. We may also learn, from the agony which the prophet felt on this occafion, how much more deeply we ought to be affected by the profpect of that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, which shall come upon the ungodly and, knowing the terrors of the Lord, let us perfuade men to be reconciled to him.

CHAP.

The prophet here goes on to reprefent the degeneracy of the people, and the calamities which were coming upon them.

I

R

UN ye to and fro through the streets of Jerufa

lem, and fee now, and know, and feek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be [any] that executeth judgment, that feeketh the truth; 2 and I will pardon it. And though they fay, The LORD liveth; furely they swear falfely; tho' they fwear by the true God, and not by idols, yet they appeal to him as a 3 witness of falsehood. O LORD, [are] not thine eyes upon the truth? thou haft ftricken them, but they have not grieved, thou haft confumed them, [but] they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return; thou knowest their true character; notwithstanding thy judgments, they were stubborn and rebellious, and would not be 4 reformed. Therefore I faid, Surely thefe [are] poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, [nor] the judgment of their God; their igno5 rance is the cause of their disobedience. I will get me unto the great men, and will fpeak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, [and] the judgment of their God; I may expect better things from them, as they have enjoyed a better education and fuperior advantages: but these have altogether broken the yoke, [and] 6 burst the bonds, like headstrong oxen. Wherefore a lion out of the foreft fhall flay them, [and] a wolf of the evenings fhall spoil them, a leopard fhall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence fhall be torn in pieces by a powerful, greedy, cunning enemy: because their tranfgreffions are many, [and] their back7 flidings are increased. How fhall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forfaken me, and fworn by [them that are] no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and affembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houfes; and is it 8 confiftent with justice to pardon fuch offenders? They were Dd 3

[as]

[as] fed horfes in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife; they abufed their plenty, and grati9 fied their lufts in a most abandoned manner. Shall I not vifit for thefe [things?] faith the LORD and fhall not my foul be avenged on fuch a nation as this? do they 10 not deferve fome remarkable punishment? Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they [are] not the LORD'S. II For the houfe of Ifrael, and the houfe of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, faith the LORD. 12 They have belied the LORD, and faid, [It is] not he; neither fhall evil come upon us; neither fhall we fee fword nor famine; he is not fuch a being as his prophets 13 fay he is, he will not do as they threaten: And the

pro

phets fhall become wind, and the word [is] not in them; they are nothing but noife and vanity, a parcel of filly enthufiafts: thus fhall it be done unto them; the evils they threaten us with fhall come upon themselves. 14 Wherefore thus faith the LORD God of hofts, Because ye fpeak this word, Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them as certainly and speedily as the fire confumes 15 wood. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O houfe of Ifrael, faith the LORD: it [is] a mighty nation, it [is] an antient nation, a nation whofe language thou knoweft not, neither understandest what they fay, therefore you can neither parley with nor afk com16 paffion from them. Their quiver [is] as an open fepulchre, they [are] all mighty men; they fhall do vaft exe17 cution and shall deftroy multitudes. And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, [which] thy fons and thy daughters fhould eat: they fhall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they fhall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees they fhall impoverish thy fenced cities, 18 wherein thou trustedst, with the fword. Nevertheless in

those days, faith the LORD, I will not make a full end 19 with you. And it fhall come to pass, when ye fhall

fay,

This is a remarkable prophecy, for Jeremiah could not forefee that the jews would not be fwallowed up by their conquerors, as other nations were.

fay, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these [things] unto us? why fhould we be fingled out for fuch calamities? is it confiftent with God's promifes? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forfaken me, and ferved ftrange gods in your land, fo fhall ye ferve ftrangers in a land [that is] not your's.

20 Declare this in the houfe of Jacob, and publifh it in 21 Judah, faying, Hear now this, O foolish people, and

without understanding: which have eyes, and fee not; which have ears, and hear not; who make no use of your 22 understanding, but are as ftupid as your idols: Fear ye not me? faith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my prefence, which have placed the fand [for] the bound of the fea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pafs it: and though the waves thereof tofs themselves, yet can they not prevail, though they roar, yet can they not pafs over it? a circumftance often mentioned, as a proof of 23 God's power and dominion. But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and 24 gone. Neither fay they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season; they are not affected by his goodness: he referveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest; a proof of his providence which is obvious 25 to the meanest capacity. Your iniquities have turned away thefe [things,] thefe harvest bleffings, and your fins 26 have withholden good [things] from you. For among my people are found wicked [men:] they lay wait, as he that fetteth fnares; they fet a trap, they catch men ; they betray, overreach, and make a prey of one another. 27 As a cage is full of birds, fo [are] their houses full of

goods gotten by deceit: therefore they are become great, 28 and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they fhine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked, the common inftances of injuftice and oppreffion: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they profper; and 29 the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not

vifit for these [things?] faith the LORD: fhall not my 30 foul be avenged on fuch a nation as this? A wonderful 31 and horrible thing is committed in the land; The proDd 4

phets

I.

phets prophefy falfely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love [to have it] fo; and what will ye do in the end thereof? what can theje things come to but the ruin of you all?

WE

REFLECTION S..

E here fee the defign of God in afflictions. He ftrikes men that they may fee their fin, be humble, and grieved for it. He confumes their substance or health, that they may receive correction with the temper of children; accommodate themselves to it and be better for it; he defigns to bring them back to himself. This fhows his juftice, wisdom, and goodness in afflictions, that they are to answer fo important an end; and how dif pleafing to him impatience, pride, and obftinacy must be.

2. We fee the advantages of being placed in the middle circumstances of life. Jeremiah in his day, and we in our's, find the poor ignorant and brutish; many of them deftitute of the means of inftruction; others of them, for want of education, know not how to use and improve them. The rich, tho' they have enjoyed fuperior advantages, are generally haughty, infolent, and obftinate; will walk in the way of their hearts and after the fashions of the world, be they right or wrong. It is a happiness to be free from the temp tations of poverty and riches, and to be placed in that middle ftate of life, which is beft both for this world and another.

3. We here fee the cause why many perfift in their iniquities, notwithstanding the warnings of God's word. It is because they do not believe them; they belie the Lord; think he is not fo holy and juft a Being, nor will be fo ftrict in his judgments, as his word declares. They defpife the warnings of minifters; thinking them to be words of course; and that they talk fo, because it is their trade: they will not own any thing to be the word of God, but what they like: but all his words will prove true, and be too hard for them; and the judgments they defpise or difbelieve will devour them.

4. The power and goodness of God in the courfe of his providence,