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mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, faying, We will furely perform our vows that we have vowed to burn incenfe to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will furely accomplish your 26 vows, and furely perform your vows. Therefore hear

ye the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have fworn by my great name, faith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, faying, The Lord God liveth; you say you will perform your vows, and think they are, tho' unlawful in themfelves, an obligation upon you to do fo; therefore I will fulfil mine; as I have vowed your utter deftruction, fo it fball come to pass; ye shall lose all your religion, and be 27 given up to utter apoftacy and ruin. Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that [are] in the land of Egypt fhall be confumed by the fword and by the famine, until there be 28 an end of them. Yet a small number that escape the fword fhall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to fojourn there, shall know whose words fhall ftand, mine, or their's.

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And this [fhall be] a fign unto you, faith the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words fhall furely ftand against you for evil: 30 Thus faith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaohhophra king of Egypt, or, Apries, from whom they hoped for protection, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that feek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon his enemy, and that fought his life.*

REFLECT

Accordingly foen after this he was conquered and flain in his own palace by Amafis his rival, HERODOTUs, b. ii, ch. 169.

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REFLECTION S.

ET us seriously confider and reflect upon the view here given us of fin, v. 4. Every tranfgreffion of the law of God is odious and abominable in its own nature, and highly difpleafing to God; he hates it, and will punish it. From a tender concern for the happiness of men he diffuades them from it; faying, Oh, do it not. We fhould learn from hence how we ought to think and fpeak of fin; what fools they are, and how unlike God, who make a jeft of it. This fhould be a motive to us to hate it with a perfect hatred; and alfo with great seriousness and earnestness to warn others against it.

2. God's judgments upon others are intended for our warning, 2-6. He expoftulates with this rebellious people; Have you not feen what your brethren and country have fuffered? It was an aggravation of their guilt that they were not impreffed and reformed thereby. The judgments of God upon other nations and perfons, are intended to awaken us; to engage us to a holy fear and caution; left, partaking of their fins, we should alfo partake of their plagues.

3. See what a falfe judgment men often make of their profperity. These people argued, that because all was well with them while they practifed idolatry, therefore their idolatry was the caufe of their profperity. Thus finners argue; because they enjoy health, eafe, and plenty, God is not displeased with their fins. This fhows great ignorance of God, of his word, and of a future ftate; and is a great abuse of his goodness; which was defigned to lead them to repentance. But their arguings are falfe in fact, as well as thofe of the jews: for the uneafinefs of their fpirits, which they cannot always prevent, and the forebodings of future wrath, which they cannot always ftifle, show that fin is not the way to happinefs, and that God is angry

with them.

4. See the fad progrefs and dreadful confequences of difobedience. These impudent finners before they left Judea fhowed fome refpect to the prophet and to God's word, and promised to hearken to it; but they grew worse and

worse,

worse, and now tell the prophet, plainly and flatly, that they would not hear: God might fay what he would, and they would do what they would. This is the language of every wilful finner; the genuine language of a carnal rebellious heart. But God has fworn by his great name that he will deftroy fuch rebels. They say they fhall have peace, and escape damnation; God fays they fhall not; and a little time will fhow whose word fhall ftand, God's, or their's. May God deliver us all from hardness of heart, and a contempt of his word and commandments.

CHA P. XLV, XLVI. 1—13.

This chapter refers to the thirty fixth, and fhould have been placed after it. Baruch having written and read Jeremiah's prophecy, the king, being difpleafed, fent a warrant to apprehend both of them.

TH

THE word that Jeremiah the prophet fpake unto Baruch the fon of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the fon of Jofiah king of 2 Judah, faying, Thus faith the LORD, the God of If3 rael, unto thee, O Baruch; Thou didst fay, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added grief to my forrow; perfonal troubles to the forrows I endure an account of the publick; I fainted in my fighing, and I find no reft, 4 Thus fhalt thou fay unto him, The LORD faith thus; Behold, [that] which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land; I will ruin this whole country, which hath 5 formerly been fo beautiful and fruitful. And feekest thou great things for thyfelf? feek [them] not; do not indulge the fecret ambition of thy heart: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, faith the LORD, upon all ranks and ages: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goeft; thou shalt escape with thy life, and let that content thee; thou haft reafon to rejoice in that, as a conqueror when he divideth the spoil.

I CHAP.

I

CHAP. XLVI. The word of the LORD which came 2 to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles; Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Jofiah king of 3 Judah. Order ye the buckler and fhield, and draw near to battle; go, take up your arms, and march against 4 the Chaldeans; Speaking ironically. Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and ftand forth with [your] helmets; furbish the fpears, [and] put on the brigan5 dines, or, coats of mail. Wherefore have I feen them difmayed [and] turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: [for] fear [was] round about, faith the Lord. 6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; or, the fwift fhall not fly away, but be taken; they fhall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.-Then, in order to raise an expectation of fome 7 mighty enterprise, the prophet afks, Who [is] this [that] cometh up as a flood, whofe waters are moved as the 8 rivers? Egypt riseth up like a flood, and [his] waters are moved like the rivers; a beautiful allufion to the overflowing of the Nile, which made Egypt fruitful; and he faith, I will go up, [and] will cover the earth; I will deftroy the city and the inhabitants thereof; he threatens to bear down all before him, and to deftroy every oppof9 ing city. Come up, ye horfes; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the fhield; and the Lydians, that handle [and] bend the bow; the inhabitants of Africa, the neighbours and allies of the Egyptians. 10 For this [is] the day of the Lord God of hofts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adverfaries and the sword shall devour, and it fhall be fatiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord VOL. V.

PP

GOD

The first verfe of this chapter is an introduction to the prophecies in it and the following ones. In the beginning of this Jeremiah foretells the overthrow of Pharaoh's army at Euphrates, when he went against Nebuchadnezzar, in the first year of his reign.

GoD of hosts hath a facrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates; reprefenting their deftruction as a faI crifice of justice to the Lord. Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain fhalt. thou ufe many medicines; [for] thou shalt not be cured; the Egyptians shall never recover themselves after 12 this defeat. The nations have heard of thy fhame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath ftumbled against the mighty, [and] they are fallen both together; they are destroyed by one another in the haste of their flight. Accordingly we read in 2 Kings xxiv. 7. the king of Egypt came no more out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

T. phecy

REFLECTION.

HE practical instructions to be drawn from this prophecy against Egypt, will be more properly introduced under the latter part of the chapter. We fhall therefore at present obferve what may be learned from chapter xlv. namely, that we fhould reftrain a spirit of ambition at all times, efpecially in times of publick trouble.' Baruch was afraid he fhould lofe his favour at court; he thought himself in the way of preferment, by being introduced to the king with Jeremiah's prophecies; but when he found that he was fought for to be punished, he began to grow fretful and uneafy. This God took notice of, and ordered Jeremiah to admonish him for it. God is witness to the secret thoughts of vanity that are in our hearts, and all the discontent and fretfulness which we exprefs or feel when our schemes are difappointed, or likely to be fo. God commanded Baruch, and he commands us, not to feek great things for ourselves; to be humble and content in our ftations; and to maintain a temper fuited to the difpenfations of providence. It is our unreasonable fondnefs for great things that makes us impatient under evil things, and lefs folicitous about good ones. Baruch's conduct is reproved from this confideration, that the nation would foon be ruined, and that therefore it was ridiculous to

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