LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced -evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Ifrael and of the houfe of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incenfe unto Baal.-The two following verfes contain an account of 18 the prophet's own cafe. And the LORD hath given me knowledge [of it,] and I know [it:] then thou showedft me their doings; the men of Anathoth (a priest's city) had carried on a defign against my life, fo fecretly, that I knew nothing of it till God was pleafed to discover it to me by re19 velation. But I [was] like a lamb [or] an ox [that] is brought to the flaughter, infenfible of my danger; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, [faying,] Let us deftroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered; let us ut20 terly deftroy the prophet and his prophecy together. But O LORD of hofts, that judgeft righteously, that trieft the reins and the heart, let me fee thy vengeance on them : for unto thee have I revealed my caufe; I appeal to the righteous God, who will punish them as the king of Ifrael. 21 Therefore thus faith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that feek thy life, faying, Prophefy not in the name of 22 the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:" Therefore thus faith the LORD of hofts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men fhall die by the fword; their 23 fons and their daughters fhall die by famine: And there fhall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, [even] the year of their vifitation. REFLECT. This the jews had a right to do by their conftitution, if fubordinate governors did not protect them. They first threatened the prophet, if he continued to prophefy; but perceiving that he was not terrified by that, they formed a fecret confpiracy of which they gave him no warning; but God revealed it to him. F REFLECTION S. ROM hence obferve the neceffity there is of a due attention to the words of God's covenant. In order to correct the errors and irregularities of the jews, the prophet attempts to bring them back to the original conftitution of their church and government. The great command of the covenant with them was, to obey God's voice, and the promise, that he would be their God. The fame is required of us under the covenant of grace, with which God hath favoured us, It is the bufinefs of minif ters often to remind their hearers of this, and to be examples of obedience; and those especially who have folemnly engaged themselves to God in covenant, and have been often warned and encouraged to continue obedient, will be notoriously guilty and ungrateful if they break it. Let us then be ever mindful of our covenant tranfactions; otherwife all the threatenings of the covenant will be executed upon us. 2. See the vanity of external privileges, while obedience is wanting. How juft is that expoftulation of God with the jews, v. 15. What hath my beloved to do in mine house, Seeing fhe hath wrought lewdness with many? and fo he may addrefs us; what have you to do to call Chrift your faviour, or to boast of your relation to God and his church? What will your prayers and facraments avail, while you defile yourselves and difhonour religion? Such facrifices will be unacceptable; your relation to God will stand you in no ftead. May we be convinced of the neceffity of real purity of heart, and of obedience as its fruit, in order to render our religious fervices and our common actions pleafing in his fight. 3. Obferve how eafily God can disappoint the defigns which are formed against his people. Jeremiah had been threatened by the men of Anathoth; but when that had no effect to filence him, they confederated against his life. Of this God informed him, and fo the mischief was prevented. Had they fucceeded, they would have triumphed over him as a false prophet; becaufe, while he foretold the ruin of his country, he could not foresee his own dan F f 2 ger. ger. God knows every defign the wicked have to deftroy or injure his people; and he can reveal it to them, that they may guard against it, or by his providence he can difappoint them. Let us therefore be bold and refolute in the way of our duty; leaving our lives and comforts in his hands. The way of duty is the way of fafety; and none that trust in the Lord fhall be defolate. The fix first verfes of this chapter refer to the clofe of the foregoing, concerning Jeremiah's danger from the men of Anathoth; the remainder relates to God's intentions of mercy toward his people, notwithstanding their defolations. TH HE delay of the judgments God had threatened against his perfecutors led Jeremiah to fay, Righteous [art] thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of [thy] judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked profper? [wherefore] are all they happy that deal very treacherously? that is, Seemingly happy, as happy as earthly things can make them: 2 Thou haft planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit; they make some profefion of religion: thou [art] near in their mouth, that is, of the priests, and far from their reins; they are 3 hypocrites. But thou, O LORD, knoweft me: thou haft feen me, feen that I am fincere, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like fheep for the flaughter, as victims of divine justice, and prepare them, fet 4 them apart, for the day of flaughter, or execution. How long fhall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickednefs of them that dwell therein? the beafts are confumed, and the birds; because they faid, He fhall not fee our laft end; referring to the famine. in the latter end of Jofiah's time, when they derided God's threatening, and faid that Jeremiah fhould never live to fee his prophecies fulfilled.-The prophet is then reproved, for being difcouraged and unwilling to prophefy, on account of what he had already fuffered. + 5 If thou haft run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horfes? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou truftedst, [they wearied thee,] then how wilt thou do in the fwelling of Jordan, when it overflows its banks fuddenly, overtakes thee unawares, driving out lions and wild beafts from its banks or thickets? If thou canst not bear the appofition of thy townfmen and neighbours, how wilt thou bear to ftand before the king and the great men at Jerufalem, to be 6 put into the dungeon, and otherwife ill treated? For even thy brethren, and the houfe of thy father, even they have dealt treacheroufly with thee; yea, they have called a multitude, that is, the mob, after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee. 7 I have forfaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my foul into the 8 hands of her enemies. Mine heritage is unto me as a lion. in the foreft; it crieth out against me; it is very fierce in oppofing me, and treating my prophets with cruelty and rage, 9 therefore have I hated it. Mine heritage [is] unto me [as] a fpeckled bird, I have given it to be fallen upon as a prey, the birds round about [are] against her; come ye, affemble all the beafts of the field, come to devour; because they have been full of cruelty I will bring rapacious enemies against them, that shall tear them in pieces as they have torn the fervants and worshippers of God; their cafe fhall be like that of a ravenous bird, which when wounded and difabled by fighting in the air with other birds, falls to the ground, 10 and is devoured by wild beasts. Many paftors, the princes and governors of the Chaldeans, have deftroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have 11 made my pleasant portion a defolate wilderness. They have made it defolate, [and being] defolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made defolate, because no man layeth [it] to heart; it feems to complain of its ruined condition, because its inhabitants were not humbled under 12 God's hand. The fpoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the fword of the LORD shall devour from the [one] end of the land even to the [other] end of the land: no flesh shall have peace. Ff3 13 They 13 They have fown wheat, but fhall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, [but] fhall not profit; and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD; they have laboured in vain, their foreign alliances and idolatrous confidences fhall difap14 point them. Thus faith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Ifrael to inherit, against the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, that took poffeffion of the land; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them, that is, the jews who were carried captive, or fled into these 15 countries, before the general captivity. And it fhall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compaffion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land; their captivity fhall be terminated by Cyrus after feventy years, as the jewish captivity was. 16 And it shall come to pafs, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to fwear my people, to fwear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to fwear by Baal, if they will become profelytes to the jewish religion, then fhall they be built in the midst of my people; tho' they have defiled and corrupted them, yet they shall partake 17. of their privileges. But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up, and destroy that nation, faith the LORD, tho' they return, they shall foon be destroyed. Some understand it of the converfion of the heathen enemies of the jews to chriftianity in the latter day. 'I. T REFLECTIONS. HE profperity of the wicked has been a ftumbling block to good men in former ages; to David and Afaph; and particularly to Jeremiah. He reafons the cafe with God: but very juftly and pioufly lays it down as a firft principle, that God is righteous. It is no uncom'mon thing to fee the wicked profperous, eafy, and happy ; even those who, with the appearance of piety, are guilty of injuftice and cruelty. When we obferve this, let it not |