EZEKIEL

EZEKIEL

I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them, in this land assuredly, with my whole heart, and with my whole soul.

THERE is not any thing more common than for persons, who treated with contempt God’s threatened judgments, to sink under them in the most abject manner, as soon as they begin to feel them. The Jews would not be persuaded for a long season that God would ever deliver them into the hand of the Chaldeans: but when they found that his word was ready to take effect, they were overwhelmed with grief and despondency. To preserve them from running to this extreme, and to shew them that the Divine judgments would be tempered with mercy, the prophet was inspired to foretel their future restoration to that very land from whence they were about to be carried captive. But it is evident that this prophecy has respect to a far greater deliverance, even to the redemption of the world from sin and Satan, and the restoration of sinners to their forfeited inheritance. A near prospect of the punishment which their sins have merited, often brings them, with a very quick transition, from presumption to despair: but, for their encouragement, God teaches them to look to him as an all-sufficient helper, and to rely on him for the carrying on of the good work wherever he has begun it. In this view of the passage we may notice,

  I.      The means of our conversion—

In our natural state we are afar off from God, going astray like sheep that are lost. In order to recover us,

God puts his fear into our hearts—

[While unconverted, we “have no fear of God before our eyes:” we all walk after the imagination of our own hearts, seeking happiness in various ways, according as we are led by our different inclinations or situations in life. But in conversion, God “gives us one heart and one way.” By these words we do not so much understand, an unity of affection and pursuit, in opposition to the multiplicity of desires with which every carnal mind is distracted (though doubtless that idea is included in them) as, that oneness of sentiment and action that pervades all who are the subjects of divine grace. As on the day of Pentecost, so, in every age and place, Christians, as far as they are taught of God, are of one heart and mind. The prejudices of education do indeed make a difference between them with respect to some matters of less importance; and an undue stress laid upon these things too often prevents that close union and communion that should subsist between all the members of Christ’s mystical body: but, with respect to the grand point of fearing God, there is no difference among them: all, without exception, have “one heart and one way,” in that they desire above all things, and earnestly endeavour, to walk in the fear of God all the day long — — —]

This is to the unspeakable benefit of ourselves, and of all connected with us—

[Too often are men dissuaded from entertaining this fear, lest it should prove injurious to them; but none ever received it into their hearts without looking back upon all their former life with shame and sorrow: yea, they have ever considered the season of their first submission to it as the most blessed era of their lives; and, instead of regretting that they ever yielded to its influence, they invariably wish to have their whole souls subjected to its dominion. And as they find it thus for their own good, inasmuch as it enlivens their hopes, and purifies their hearts, so is it for the good of their children, yea, and of all connected with them. It makes them better in every station and relation of life, whether as parents or children, masters or servants, rulers or subjects: it leads them to fill up their various duties to the honour of God; and to communicate, to the utmost of their power, the same blessed disposition to all around them.]

The same divine agency, that first converted us, proves afterwards,

  II.      The source of our perseverance—

“It is not in man to direct his own steps:” our progress in the way of duty depends on,

  1.      The engagements of God’s covenant—

[God has entered into covenant with his Church and people, and undertaken to preserve them from apostasy. Nor is this covenant liable to be broken, like that which he made with the Israelites in the wilderness: it is and will be “everlasting,” because God himself engages to do all which is requisite for our support. “He will not depart from us to do us good;” he may, like a wise parent, sometimes frown, and sometimes chastise; but, while he acts in this manner, he does it for our good, no less than when ho lifts up the light of his countenance upon us. He has said that, “if we break his statutes, and keep not his commandments, he will visit our transgression with the rod, and our iniquity with stripes; nevertheless his loving-kindness will he not utterly take from us, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail; his covenant will he not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his lips.” “He engages further that we shall not depart from him.” Here, doubtless, is the greater danger, seeing we have a heart “bent to backslide from him;” and, if left by him for one moment, we should relapse into all our former sins. But he knows how to establish the wavering, or restore the fallen; and thus to “perfect his own strength in our weakness.” He may leave us for a season, as he did Hezekiah, that we may know what is in our hearts: but he assures us, that our “steps shall be ordered by him,” and that our “light shall shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day:” he will so “draw us, that we shall run after him;” and so “keep us from falling, that an entrance may be ministered unto us abundantly into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”]

  2.      The exertions of his power—

[God speaks of himself in language accommodated to our low apprehensions of his nature, and declares that he will exert all his power, and find all his delight, in doing us good. His people, after their dismission from Babylon, laboured under many difficulties in rebuilding their city and temple; yet, through the good providence of God, they surmounted all. Thus shall we meet with many obstructions before we arrive at the Paradise above: but God will regard us as trees of righteousness, and “will plant us in that land assuredly with his whole heart and with his whole soul.” Who then shall defeat his efforts, or disappoint his aim? “If God be for us, who can be against us?” In vain shall earth and hell be confederate against us; for “hath he said, and will he not do it? hath he spoken, and will he not make it good?” He will never cease to work, till he has fulfilled in us all his good pleasure, and “perfected that which concerneth us:” “he will keep us by his own power through faith unto salvation.”]

  We may OBSERVE from hence,

  1.      How suitable is the way of salvation!

[Foolish and ignorant men would be better pleased with a gospel that left them to earn, either wholly or in part, their own salvation. But, alas! how ill adapted would such a Gospel be to us, who are “insufficient of ourselves even to think a good thought!” How much more suitable is the promise in the text, wherein God undertakes to do every thing in us, and for us! Let us then receive thankfully what God offers freely. Let us embrace “a covenant that is ordered in all things and sure;” and rejoice in serving God, who so rejoices in saving us.]

  2.      What effectual care is taken that we should not turn the grace of God into licentiousness!

[There are, it must be acknowledged, some who abuse this doctrine, (for what is there, however excellent, which men will not abuse?) and take occasion from it to rest in n state of worldliness and sloth. But the very promise gives us a sufficient antidote against the poison it is supposed to convey: it tells us indeed, that God will keep us from departing from him; but it tells us also, that he will do this by “putting his fear into our hearts.” This destroys at once all delusive hopes; inasmuch as it shews us, that, if we be not living habitually in the fear of God, we are actually departed from him, and consequently can have no ground whatever to expect salvation at his hands. Let the carnal and slothful professor of religion well consider this. His abuse of this promise cannot invalidate its truth; but it may deceive his soul to his eternal ruin. Be it ever remembered, that the very same fear which God puts into our hearts in our first conversion, must continue to operate, and that too with increasing activity, to the end of our lives and, that we have no longer any reason to think our past experience to be scriptural, than while we cultivate that fear, and endeavour to “walk in it all the day long.” We do not mean that every occasional backsliding should subvert our hopes; but, if ever the fear of God cease to be the leading principle in our hearts, or to stimulate us to further attainments in holiness, we may be sure that we have deceived our own souls, and that our religion is vain. May God keep us all from such a fatal delusion for his mercy’s sake!]

MLXXVIII

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER

             Jer. 33:3.

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

IT is curious to observe in what different estimation the same persons are held by their fellow-creatures and by God. We may certainly be allowed to say, that there was not, at the time referred to in our text, a more holy person upon earth than Jeremiah; yet by his countrymen was he held in such abhorrence, as to be deemed worthy only of imprisonment and death. God, on the contrary, honoured him with the highest tokens of his regard. As a friend (so to speak), he repeatedly visited him in prison; he encouraged him to inquire into his most secret counsels, and confided to him the most stupendous mysteries both of his providence and grace.

We need not however confine our attention to Jeremiah: for the words, though primarily addressed to him, may well be applied to all who suffer for righteousness’ sake, and to all who are truly devoted to their God. In this view, they accord with many other passages of Scripture; and contain a most important truth, namely, that prayer is the necessary and effectual moans of obtaining divine knowledge.

  I.      It is necessary—

God is always represented as the fountain of light and truth—

[He is “the Father of lights:” and whatever light there is in the whole creation, it is all derived from him. There are indeed amongst us stars of greater and smaller magnitude; but all in themselves are opaque, and destitute of any native lustre: they shine only by a borrowed light, and are glorious only in proportion as they reflect a greater or less portion of Jehovah’s beams. Even whore their knowledge is only in arts and sciences, it must be traced to God as its author; much more must it be so, when it pertains to things which the natural man is not able to receive. “In the hearts of all that are wise-hearted, I have put wisdom.”]

Those who would obtain knowledge from him must seek it by prayer—

[This is God’s command. He needs not indeed to be prevailed upon by our solicitations, as though he were of himself averse to grant us his blessings; but still it is our duty to pray unto him; and he teaches us to expect his blessings only in the discharge of this duty: “Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find:” “If any man luck wisdom, let him ask of God; and it shall be given him.” We are far from saying that prayer is the only mean of obtaining knowledge; for we must read, and meditate, and search after truth, as much as if all depended on our own unaided exertions: but we say, that our exertions without prayer will be of no avail: we must “search for knowledge, as for hid treasures;” but we must also “cry after it, and lift up our voice for understanding:” when we combine the two, “then shall we find the knowledge of God: for the Lord giveth wisdom; out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”]

Nor is this an arbitrary, but a wise and gracious appointment—

[By this means our hearts are prepared for the reception of divine knowledge. If we could obtain it purely by our own study, we should pride ourselves in it, as having made ourselves to differ from those around us: but when we have been made sensible that it is God alone who “openeth the eyes of the understanding,” we learn to acknowledge him in our gifts, and to humble ourselves in proportion to the benefits we have received at his hands. We are stirred up also to improve our knowledge as a talent committed to us, and to diffuse, for the benefit of others, the light with which God has irradiated us.]

As all are invited to ask, so every prayer shall be heard and answered.

  II.      It shall be effectual—

The things which God shewed to Jeremiah, related, not merely to the return of the Jews from Babylon, but to Christ and his spiritual kingdom: and, respecting Christ, “he will shew great and mighty things unto all that ask him.”

  1.      To the ignorant—

[Little do the world imagine what great and glorious things are known to those whom they despise; things “which prophets and kings in vain desired to see” and “which angles themselves desire to look into.” It is possible enough that the truths themselves, as a system, may be known to the ungodly: but, in their use, their excellence, their importance, they are known to those only who are taught of God. To these God has revealed the source and depth of their own depravity; the suitableness and sufficiency of Christ’s atonement; the fulness of grace that is treasured up in him; and the blessedness of all those who experience his salvation. These things, “great and mighty” as they are, are brought to their minds “with power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance:” and, by the revelation of them to their souls, they are “made wise unto salvation.”]

  2.      To the enlightened—

[It is not at first only that “God brings us into marvellous light:” there is, in the spiritual, as well as the natural world, a progress from the glimmering of the early dawn to the splendour of the noon-day sun. Job had known much of God by the hearing of the ear; but far more when he could say, “Now mine eye seeth thee.” And Moses had bright discoveries of Jehovah on various occasions; but brighter far, when God was pleased to “proclaim to him his name,” and “make all his glory pass before his eyes.” Thus, however advanced the believer may be in knowledge and in grace, there are in God, and in the wonders of his redeeming love, heights and depths and lengths and breadths, of which he has yet no adequate conception. Not that any fresh truths shall be revealed to him, much less any which are not contained in the Holy Scriptures: but the same truths shall be applied to his soul with a clearness and energy vastly surpassing any thing he has before experienced, provided he give himself unto prayer, and wait upon God for the teachings of his Spirit: “The light of the moon shall be to him as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun seven-fold, as the light of seven days.”]

  We shall CONCLUDE this subject with a word,

  1.      Of reproof—

[Scarcely any subject is so reprobated by ungodly men, as this. They consider the influences of the Holy Spirit as chimerical; and all expectation of answers to prayer, as enthusiastic and absurd. They have never experienced these things themselves; and therefore they suppose that no one else can. But they have never used the means; how then should they attain the end? Suppose a person to affirm, that, with the help of glasses, he could see things invisible to the naked eye: would not any one, refusing to make the experiment, be justly deemed unreasonable, if he denied the possibility of such a thing, and imputed the affirmations of the other to vanity and folly? Every one knows, that objects dimly seen, may be made clearly visible by the use of glasses: and why may not the acquisition of an humble contrite frame be equally useful to the eye of our minds? There is not any one so ignorant, as not to know, how passion and interest distort the objects that are seen through them; and that they who are under their influence, view things very differently from what they appear to an impartial judge. Thus then it is in spiritual things: “whilst the eye is evil, the whole mind is dark; but when it is single, the whole is full of light:” and when God, by removing our earthly and carnal dispositions, presents heavenly objects to the soul in their true character, they shine with a lustre inconceivable to the blind ungodly world. Would any then ascertain whether God will teach his people? let him pray: but let him pray with sincerity, with fervour, and with faith i these are the requisites of effectual prayer — — — and prayer thus offered, shall never go forth in vain.]

  2.      Of encouragement—

[Many are discouraged because they have not those manifestations of God to their souls, which they have heard, and read of, in the experience of others. But have they mortified their in-dwelling lusts as much as others; and been as constant and importunate in prayer? But be it so: “God gives to every one severally as he will:” yet none shall ever say, that they have sought his face in vain. Our talent may be small; our capacity narrow and contracted: yet have we no cause to despond: for God has said, that “he will reveal to babes and sucklings the things which he has hid from the wise and prudent: and if only we were more conscientious in looking to God for his blessing on the ordinances; if, before we come to them, while we are under them, and after we have returned from them, we were earnest in prayer for the influences of his Spirit; we should not so often return from them empty and unedified. God would hear us, and “would answer us, and would shew us great and mighty things, which we know not.” Our private meditations also on his blessed word would be attended with “an unction which should teach us all things.” He would “open our understandings to understand the Scriptures.” “At the very beginning of our supplication” would he send his Holy Spirit to instruct usg; yea, “before we called, God would answer: and while we were yet speaking, he would, hear.”]

MLXXIX

CONVERSION OF THE JEWS—A MATTER OF IMPORTANCE TO GOD AND MAN

  Jer. 33:6–9.

Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I wilt pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.

THE more fully the subject of the restoration and conversion of the Jews is considered, the more important it will appear. The prophetic writings are full of it; and the obscurity of those writings arises in a great measure from the gross perversion of them, of which even pious ministers have been guilty, through a long succession of ages. Those whose office has been to interpret them, have almost universally applied them spiritually to the Gentiles; overlooking the plain literal meaning of them, as addressed to the Jewish people: and by this means, not only has the attention of the Christian world been drawn from the Jews, but it has been drawn also even from the prophecies themselves, because of the impenetrable veil that has been cast over them.

That the passage before us relates to that subject, no one can entertain a doubt. And that it has never yet been fulfilled, is equally clear; not only because the ten tribes of Israel are combined with Judah, but because the effects which are here announced as to be produced by the event, were never, in any degree, produced by the return of the Jews to Babylon. The different nations of the earth were never led to fear and tremble by reason of the goodness and prosperity which were then procured unto the Jewish nation. We must therefore, of necessity, look forward to a future period for the full accomplishment of this prophecy.

In discoursing on this prophecy, I shall consider,

  I.      The event predicted—

Respecting the restoration of the Jews to their own land, I say little; because, though it seems as clearly revealed as any event in all the book of God, there are some who doubt whether the prophecies relating to it are to be understood literally; and because, in labouring for the welfare of that people, we have no respect whatever to any thing but the conversion of their souls to God.

In the passage before us God promises to them,

  1.      A discovery of his will—

[In the whole of their civil and ecclesiastical polity, they are in the state described by the Prophet Isaiah; “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint: from the sole of the foot even to the head there is so soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” But God promises here, that he will “restore health unto them, and cure them, by revealing unto them the abundance of peace and truth.”

To enter fully into the meaning of these words, we must bear in mind, that, in the writings of Moses, the way of salvation is revealed only under types and shadows; and that, even by the strictest observance of them, “the Jews could not be made perfect as pertaining to the conscience:” consequently, under existing circumstances, when they are precluded from a possibility of observing the law, they cannot by any means obtain rest unto their souls. They cannot by repentance; because rivers of tears could never wash away one sin. They cannot by good works; for their best works are imperfect, and can never atone for sin, and purchase an eternity of bliss. And, as for any rites prescribed by their Rabbins, in addition to the Mosaic Ritual, they are held, as the superstitious ordinances of the Pharisees were, in utter abhorrence by Almighty God. All the Rabbins in the universe, therefore, cannot tell an afflicted and tempest-tossed Jew how he may obtain peace with God and in his own conscience. But when God shall take away the veil that is on the hearts of that people, “he will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.” He will shew them, that every shadow in their law is derived from Christ, who is the substance. Had they a temple, an altar, a high-priest, a sacrifice, a sanctuary? These are all contained in Christ, who is the one great sacrifice for sin, the priest that offers it, the altar on which it is presented, the sanctuary “in which dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” and in which it comes up with acceptance before God. There is not any single ordinance, or even a vessel in the sanctuary, which was not intended to shadow him forth, and with which he does not, in some respect or other, correspond: so perfectly did Moses execute the divine command, “in making every thing according to the pattern shewn to him in the mount.” This being discovered to the Jews by the clear light of the Gospel, they will see “an abundance of truth;” such as we, who are little conversant with the law, have scarcely any conception of. And from the fulness of Christ, so richly displayed before them, they will have “a peace which passeth all understanding,” yea, such “an abundance of peace,” that it will “flow down like a river.” All that can disturb their minds shall be put far from them by the discovery of Christ. Are they oppressed with guilt, and apprehensive of punishment? They shall see that he has by the one offering of himself upon the cross, made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for sin, and completely reconciled them to their offended God. Do they feel their need, of a perfect righteousness wherein to stand before God? They shall see that he has wrought out a righteousness for them by his own obedience unto death; and that “that righteousness shall be unto all, and upon all, who believe in him.” In a word, they shall see in him an accomplishment of what the prophet Daniel has foretold:“He shall finish transgression, and make an end of sin, and make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in for his believing people everlasting righteousness.” And, in the view of these things, they shall “rejoice in him with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”]

  2.      A manifestation of his favour—

[God promises in my text, and again in ver. 11, “to build them as at the first.” This necessarily carries us back to the time when he redeemed them out of Egypt, and “brought them forth with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm.” Let us call to mind all the wonders that were then wrought in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the Wilderness; let us remember how God went before them in the pillar and the cloud; how ho fed them with manna from heaven, and with water from the flinty rock; how he appeared to them on Mount Sinai, and gave to them his law; how he protected them from every enemy, and brought them in safety to the promised land; how he subdued before them seven nations, greater and mightier than they; and, above all, how he dwelt in his sanctuary, and manifested to them his favour, so as he never had done to any people upon earth: let us call all this to mind, and then we snail have some faint conception of the blessings which he has in reserve for his outcast people. I doubt not, but that, in a temporal view, as far as similar interpositions shall be found necessary for them, they shall experience them at the hands of God: but in a spiritual view, I am perfectly sure that none of these things shall be wanting unto them: they shall be delivered from their spiritual bondage; they shall “eat of Christ, who is the spiritual meat, and drink of that spiritual drink, even of that rock which will follow them, which is Christ Jesus;” and at last have an abundant entrance ministered unto them into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christf.” We may stretch out our imaginations to the uttermost, and grasp all that was ever done for that people in the days of old; and we may be sure that it shall all be renewed to them in the latter clay with ten-fold advantage: “that nation shall then sing as in the days of her youth, when she came up out of the land of Egypth.”]

  3.      A communication of his grace—

[What is there that any sinner in the universe can need? That shall, in the richest abundance, be imparted unto them. Do they need “the pardon of their iniquities?” So fully shall it be vouchsafed, that “all their sins shall be cast into the depths of the sea;” not into the shallows, from whence they might be brought again; but into the depths, where they shall never again be found. Do they need the renovation of their natures after the Divine image? This also shall be vouchsafed unto them; for, not in my text only, but in numberless passages of the prophetic writings, does God promise to them tins inestimable blessingk. Thus fully to this purpose speaks the Prophet Ezekiel: “I will take you from among the Heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. THEN (N. B. THEN) will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh; and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. In a word, nothing shall be wanting to the completion of their happiness; “their cup shall be full, and overflow” with joy.]

From the event itself, let us proceed to consider,

  II.      The vast importance of It—

If we were to contemplate only the happiness of that people, the temporal, spiritual, eternal happiness of millions living, and of millions arising in every successive age, methinks we should need no more to mark the importance of the event that is here predicted. But we are content to wave the contemplation of this part of our subject altogether, and to limit our views to the points more especially referred to in our text. Mark,

  1.      The interest which God himself has in it—

[God says of it, “It shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them.” Of course, when we speak of God rejoicing in it, we merely accommodate ourselves to the language of Scripture, in which God condescends to speak after the manner of men; in order that by conveying to our minds such ideas as we are able to comprehend, he may produce on us such impressions as the subject calls for. Behold, then, to God it will be a source of joy; and in him will be realized the description of the Father in the Parable, receiving, and rejoicing over, his repentant son. Hear how the prophet represents this matter: “Be ye glad, and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy, And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. So also, in another place, in yet stronger terms: “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For, as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons (thy restorers) marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” Moreover, this event will greatly tend to the honour of God. His power and goodness are seen by all people, in the works of creation: but in the restoration of his outcast people, his glory will shine forth as in its meridian splendour, before all the nations of the earth. It will be seen of all; because, the Jews being dispersed over all the world, and the motion amongst them being simultaneous throughout the earth, the attention of all will be fixed upon them, and the glory of God appear upon them. In that event shall all his perfections shine forth; and especially his mercy and love, his truth and faithfulness. Greatly as he was magnified in their deliverance from Egypt, he will be far more exalted in that day; because the work will be infinitely more extensive, and the effects produced upon them be incomparably more glorious. For in that day, “the people shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever; the branch of his planting, the work of his hands, that he may be glorified.” In a fore-cited chapter, this is very strongly and beautifully marked. Of all that a king possesses, there is nothing so dear to him, nothing with which his honour is so intimately connected, as his crown; yet such shall the Jewish people be, in the estimation of their God: “Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” Yes, he will hold them forth before the whole world, as the dearest objects of his love, and the brightest monuments of his glory.]

  2.      The interest of the whole world involved in it—

[At this wonderful sight will all the nations of the earth “fear and tremble.” At their coming out of Egypt, was somewhat of this effect produced on the surrounding nations: and amongst those who shall desire to retain them in bondage, will the same terror prevail, at the period that we are now contemplating. “According to the clays of thy coming out of the land of Egypt,” says God, “will I shew unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf: they shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.” But on immense multitudes will a far different effect be produced: they, indeed, shall “fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that God hath procured unto his people;” but it will be with a holy, reverential fear, such as that which is invariably signified by those words in the epistles of the New Testament, even such as is imported in that injunction, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Yes, in every place will this effect be produced. It will not merely attract the attention of the whole world, but will create within them a desire to know and serve that God who has done such things for them. In every place will the beholders be filled with wonder; and with the deepest conviction will cry out, as the worshippers of Baal did before them, “The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God!” Then will be fulfilled what the Prophet Zechariah has spoken: “Ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.” To this event St. Paul evidently refers, when he says, “If the fall of the Jews be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”

Now, let the restoration of the Jews be considered in this light; and what shall we think of it, or what terms shall we ever find whereby to express its inconceivable importance? Surely we are highly culpable in this matter, we do not study the Holy Scriptures in reference to this event; and, when we meet with it, we pass it over without any serious reflection, or accommodate it to ourselves as the only persons interested in it. But is this right? Should we be so indifferent to the welfare of God’s ancient people? or, if we account that of so little consequence, should we be regardless of the honour, and, if I may so express myself, the very happiness of God? And should the conversion and salvation of the whole world be of so little value in our eyes? I call you, Brethren, to blush and be confounded, because of your past insensibility; and now to rise, as fellow-workers with God, to the performance of your duty,]

  But, that I may IMPROVE the subject for the good of all, I would entreat you to take occasion from it to consider—

  1.      What blessings you yourselves enjoy—

[It is said, “The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Hence it appears, that if you are believers in Christ, these blessings are already yours: you are “brought nigh to God,” having been rescued from the sorest bondage: and through a discovery of Christ, as revealed in the Gospel, you enjoy in your souls “an abundance of peace,” and joy, and holiness, and, by anticipation at least, of glory also. You are shining as lights in a dark world; and are a source both of joy and honour to your God, and of conviction and consolation to those around you. In you, the millennial period is, as it were, begun. O, rejoice ye, and shout for joy; and endeavour, in every possible way, to glorify the God of your salvation — — —]

  2.      What reason you have to seek the welfare of your Jewish brethren—

[Behold with what glorious consequences it will be followed! Though, for argument sake, I have waved all consideration of the Jews themselves, methinks you will not agree to dismiss them from your minds. The recollection of what their ancestors, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself, have done for you, will never suffer you to be indifferent about the salvation of their souls. But, if we could suppose such a malignant disposition in you towards that unhappy people, shall the glory of God and the salvation of the whole world have no effect upon you? I call you then, every one of you, to exert yourselves, in whatever way the Lord may enable you, for the restoration of his outcast people. Make known to them the Gospel, whereby all other blessings shall How down into their souls; and, as they are the appointed reapers of the Gentile world, go forth to hire them for the work; that, as their ancestors reaped the first-fruits, these may be the happy means of gathering in the whole harvest.]

MLXXX

DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD CONDEMNED

  Jer. 35:13, 14.

Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the Lord. The word of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment; notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me.

THE service of God is called, by St. Paul, “a reasonable service:” and that it is most reasonable, appears, as from numberless other arguments, so especially from this, that we ourselves exact of our fellow-creatures that very kind of service which God requires from us. A father expects to be honoured by his children; and a master to be feared and obeyed by his servants: and God, acknowledging the equity of those expectations, says, “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if I then be a father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?” It is true, that, in respect of the degree in which these dispositions are required, there must be an infinite distance between what is due to God and to man: but if the smallest measure is due to man, much more is the greatest measure due to God: and if we are to obey man in any thing, much more ought we to obey God in every thing.

This is put in a very striking point of view in the chapter before us, where God brings forth the Rechabites, and their obedience to the commands of Jonadab their progenitor, to shame the Jews who were disobedient to his commands.

The Rechabites were originally Kenites, descended from Hobab the father-in-law of Moses: and, because they had no inheritance in Israel, it is generally thought that they still continued aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. But we apprehend, that, at some period subsequent to the division of Canaan, they had embraced the Jewish faith; because Jehonadab, the very person spoken of in our text, was the person whom Jehu took up into his carriage, saying, “Come, see my zeal for the Lord:” and, had he not been reckoned amongst the true Israelites at that time, we conceive that Jehu, at the very moment that he was usurping the throne of Israel, would not have courted so publicly his alliance and support: nor do we think that Jeremiah would have taken the Rechabites “into the house of the Lord,” and “into the chamber of a man of God,” if they had not been possessed of the full privileges of Israelites. The circumstance of their having no inheritance in Israel will sufficiently account for their being called “strangers” there, and for their wishing to avoid the jealousies and contentions which the acquisition of wealth might occasion. But however this might be, the complaint which was founded on their obedience, is the same, and is deserving of very peculiar attention.

Let us consider this complaint,

  I.      Simply—

Jonadab had enjoined on his posterity not to build, or plant, or sow, or even to possess houses or vineyards; but to dwell in tents, and to drink no wine: and they had been observant of his injunctions now for the space of three hundred years. But on occasion of the Chaldean invasion, they had fled to Jerusalem for safety: and the Prophet Jeremiah set wine before them, and invited them to refresh themselves with it. This was done by God’s command, not with a view to tempt and ensnare them, but for the purpose of displaying their adherence to the commands of their father, and of putting to shame the whole Jewish nation for their disobedience to the commands of God. At first sight, this appears to be an insulated fact, in which we have little concern; but there is in reality, at this day,

  1.      The same regard for the commands of men—

[It should seem as if a reverence for tradition were inherent, as it were, in our very nature; since we find it equally prevailing in every quarter of the world.

It is universally found in relation to civil and political institutions. However different the forms of government may be which obtain amongst the various nations of the world, there exists amongst the natives a partiality in favour of it, insomuch that they are ready to fight, and even to die, in its defence. Republics, and monarchies, whether limited or absolute, are on a par in this respect: whichever has been established, has on that account a great pre-eminence in the estimation of the people.

This zeal for what has been handed down from our forefathers obtains, if possible, yet more strongly in reference to religious ordinances. There are many of the same traditions, and the same fixed adherence to them too, amongst the different religious orders of the Papists at this day, as obtained formerly amongst the Rechabites. Rites, which God never enjoined, are venerated even beyond the plainest commandments of our God. In like manner, amongst us Protestants, every sect has its peculiar dogmas, which are adhered to from generation to generation, with a scrupulous and superstitious exactness. Notwithstanding it is manifest that there are pious men of every denomination, and that God may be served and honoured by one as well as by another, yet all are disposed to look with pity or contempt on each other, and to claim to themselves an exclusive conformity to the Divine will. Some, even in their dress and in their language, affect a singularity which they transmit to succeeding generations, and impose as distinctive badges of their community. And all these points of difference form, in the minds of each community, as great a barrier between them and others, as the self-denying habits of the Rechabites did between them and the house of Israel.]

  2.      The same disregard for the commands of God—

[To all of every denomination God says, as to his people of old, “Return ye now every man from his evil way.” But who regards him? Do drunkards, whoremongers, adulterers, and profane swearers, attend to his voice, or set themselves in earnest to amend their ways? Do the votaries of pleasure, or the people who are absorbed in the cares of this world, relax their pursuit of earthly things, and begin to set their affections on things above? Do those who rest in a mere formal round of duties without feeling any of the power of godliness, renounce their proud self-righteous conceits, and humble themselves before God as guilty and undone sinners? Do they receive with gratitude the glad tidings of salvation, and flee with becoming earnestness to the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope? Do not sinners of every class retain their habits as much as if they had never been called upon to renounce them? We ask of every individual, Have you turned from that particular way, in which, from inclination or habit, you have formerly been led; and have you truly, and penitently, and unreservedly, given up yourselves to God? We put this question to the decent and the moral, as well as to those who have given a freer scope to their corrupt appetites; ‘Have the commands of God had any considerable influence on your minds?’ ‘Have you truly studied them, with a view to find out your departures from them, and with a determination of mind to conform yourselves to them to the very utmost of your power?’ As for any partial change adopted with a view to advance your character or interest in the world, we inquire not about it: your change must be founded on the authority of God, and be commensurate with his commands, or it is of no value in his sight: the conversion must be from sin to holiness, from the world to God: nothing less than that is required by God: and in this view of our duty, we ask again, ‘Has not God the same ground of complaint against us, as he had against his people of old, that however observant we may have been of the commands of men, we have not hearkened unto him?’]

But let us consider the complaint more minutely,

  II.      With its attendant aggravations—

In our text, there is an evident contrast formed between the obedience of the Rechabites and the disobedience of the Jews. We notice more particularly,

  1.      The authority from which the different commands proceeded—

[That which the Rechabites obeyed was human; that which the Jews disobeyed was divine. Yes: it is the God of heaven and earth, whom we also have set at nought. He created us for himself; yet have we considered ourselves as independent of him. He has preserved us every moment, yet have we lived in continued rebellion against him. He has redeemed us with the blood of his only dear Son; yet have we poured contempt on all the wonders of his love, as well as on the terrors of his offended Majesty. Let us only reflect on what we must all have observed, times without number: We tell a person, that such or such a line of conduct is contrary to God’s revealed will; and we produce little, if any effect upon him: but if we tell him that such a conduct will destroy his prospects in the world, or expose him to shame and contempt among his fellow-creatures, we at least excite very strong emotions in his mind, even if we do not prevail to change his deportment. The truth is, we are all very sensibly alive to the displeasure of men, but lamentably indifferent to the displeasure of God; and man’s authority weighs abundantly more with us than the authority of the Most High.]

  2.      The commands themselves—

[Whatever propriety there might be in the commands of Jonadab, they were certainly not necessary for the salvation of his descendants. But the commands of God are absolutely necessary, both to our present and eternal welfare. Which of them is there that can be dispensed with? Which of them is there that can be lowered or relaxed, without dishonour to God, and injury to man? Consider more particularly the commands relating to the Gospel: they are like commands to the blind, to see; to the deaf, to hear; to the lame, to walk; to the leprous, to be clean; to the dead, to arise and live for ever. Which of these commands would the person afflicted desire to dispense with? O! the horrible ingratitude of despising the Gospel of Christ! See, Brethren, what sad reason there is for God’s complaint against us!]

  3.      The manner in which they were enforced—

[The one injunction of Jonadab, that had been given three hundred years before, was all that had operated on the minds of his descendants; even though it had been merely suggested as a matter of expediency, without being enforced by any sanctions whatever. But God’s commands nave been, and still are, renewed from day to day, by ambassadors sent for that express purpose, and authorized to assure us, that eternal happiness and eternal misery depend on the regard which we pay to them. What an amazing aggravation of our guilt is this! Verily, whatever excuses we may make for our conduct now, our mouths will be shut in the day of judgments yea, and the whole house of the Rechabites will rise up in judgment against us and condemn us.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      To those who regard man, and not God—

[God himself rewarded the Rechabites for their adherence to the customs of their forefathers; and thereby expressed his approbation of an attention to rules, which have been derived from authority, and established by time. Whether the rules pertain to civil or religious duties, provided they do not militate against the law of God, or prove burthensome to the conscience, we conceive it is right to conform to them. But no punctuality in the observance of them can stand in the place of obedience to God. We may be zealous patriots, active partisans, strict religionists, and yet never render unto God any spiritual service, or take one step in our way to heaven. God must have the heart; Christ must be the one ground of our hope and confidence; the Holy Spirit must guide and sanctify our souls; or else we shall remain in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity. Let those, then, who are disposed to value themselves on their regularity and zeal in the observance of human ordinances, remember, that they are building on a foundation of sand; and that they only build upon a rock, who hear and do the commandments of their God.]

  2.      To those who regard God, and not man—

[Though none would go so far as to say that religion supersedes all human obligations, and justifies a contempt of all established usages, there are many who act as if this were the real sentiment of their hearts. At the commencement of the French Revolution, this observation was verified to no small extent in our own land: many who should have been “the quiet in the land” were as eager as any to subvert that constitution, which has since approved itself the admiration and envy of the world. And it is still too often found, that persons professing a love for religion, neglect the duties of their place and station, and violate the most established usages of the society to which they belong. But such persons little think what spirit they are of, or what injury they do to the souls of men. The people who know not God will of course lay the greatest stress upon the observance of their own peculiar laws and maxims; and will blame, not the conduct only that violates them, but religion itself, as countenancing that conduct. On this account, St. Paid was careful to “give no offence in any thing.” He consulted the prejudices of men, and conformed to their views and habits as far as he conscientiously could, “becoming all things to all men, that he might by all means save some.” This is the conduct which we all should imitate; this is the life by which we should adorn our holy profession: this is the way to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, and to “win by our conversation” those who would never have been won by the written or preached word. Let the Apostle’s exhortation then be the rule of our conduct; “Whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.”]

  3.      To those who feel an united regard for both—

[It is well indeed if you have learned to “render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” And we would wish every religious person to attain such a measure of consistency, as to be able to say both to the godly and ungodly, What have ye, which I have not? and, What do ye, which I do not? “Are ye Hebrews? so am I: are ye Israelites? so am I.” This kind of consistency will in due time create an influence over the minds of many; and may recommend religion to generations yet unborn. We would not indeed wish any one to be burthening himself or others with superstitious observances: but to adopt the spirit of Jonadab’s injunctions will be of incalculable advantage to us all. Self-denial and deadness to the world are amongst the most important duties of Christianity; and to live in the habitual exercise of these will be an effectual preservative from temptation. That we shall be tempted to violate our principles and our engagements, must be expected: both the world and the flesh will, as it were, “set pots of wine before us, and say, Drink ye wine.” But, if we have learned to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, we shall have our answer ready at hand, ‘My Father, and my God, has forbidden it: and I will do only the things that please him.’ Thus bear in mind your vows and obligations to your God, and you shall “never be led away by the error of the wicked, nor full from your own steadfastness.”]

MLXXXI

JEHOIAKIM BURNS THE SACKED ROLL

  Jer. 36:27, 28.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, (after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah,) saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.

TRUTH has peculiar force, when it is embodied, and exhibited in action. A speculative view of it may perhaps be derived as well from abstract statements; but its practical efficacy is exceedingly enhanced by a sight of it in actual operation. For instance: the enmity of the carnal mind against God is acknowledged by us in general terms; but we are more forcibly impressed with a conviction of it, when we behold such a display of it as is contained in the chapter before us. We should scarcely conceive that any man could deliberately commit such flagrant impiety, as that of which king Jehoiakim was guilty, in destroying those prophecies which he believed to have proceeded from Almighty God. It does not appear that Jehoiakim doubted of the inspiration of Jeremiah: yet, because he did not like the subject of his prophecies, he cut them in pieces, and burned them in the fire. His folly in this act was as great as his impiety: and we shall find it by no means an uninstructive event, whilst we take occasion from it to notice,

  I.      The enmity of man’s heart against the word of God—

It is not the act which we propose to dwell upon, but the disposition: the act was insulated, and peculiar to this wicked king; but the disposition is common to all mankind. The very same disposition may be, and frequently is, evinced in a variety of ways:

  1.      By denying the Divine authority of the Scriptures—

[Infidels pretend a want of evidence, as the ground of their rejecting the Holy Scriptures: but they wish the Scriptures not to be true, because they wish to hold fast those opinions and practices which the Scriptures condemn. Their own pride and conceit are gratified in finding objections to the Divine authority of the Bible: and they require such demonstrations of it as the subject itself does not admit of. They lay a very undue stress upon some difficulties which they cannot explain; and reject evidences, which would satisfy them on every other subject under heaven. The true ground therefore of their unbelief is, not that there is not evidence enough to satisfy a candid inquirer, but that “they love darkness rather than light; yea, they hate the light, and will not come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved.”]

  2.      By explaining away all its fundamental truths—

[To reject the Bible altogether would, in the eyes of some, be a shocking impiety; but they will without hesitation discard every mystery contained in it. The doctrine of original sin, and of the total corruption of human nature, they will not admit; but will assert, that man is neither so depraved nor so weak as the Scripture represents him. They are equally adverse to the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith: they will have it, that, in bestowing salvation, God has respect to some goodness, either seen or foreseen, in the children of men; and that, in some degree at least, our good works must form the meritorious ground of our salvation. The influences of the Holy Spirit also are derided by them, as visionary and enthusiastic; and instead of looking to the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth, and to sanctify them throughout, they persist in placing some confidence in their own wisdom and their own strength to accomplish the good work in their souls. And their whole study of the Holy Scriptures is directed to this end, to explain away what God has asserted, and to maintain their own errors in opposition to him. But in all this, there is the same disposition exercised as in the avowed infidel: and he must be ignorant indeed, who does not know, that in these pretended believers of the Scriptures there is generally found the most acrimonious hostility against the truth itself, and against all who maintain it.]

  3.      By entertaining doubts of its utility to the poor—

[Would to God that Papists alone had broached this impious sentiment! But, alas! it is found amongst Protestants also: nor are there wanting those who have given it as their decided opinion, that it would have been better for the world if St. Paul had never written one of his Epistles. To put the Scriptures into the hands of the poor, they think highly inexpedient; because they apprehend that the poor are more likely to be led into error by them, than into truth. But what a reflection is this upon God himself, who gave them by inspiration, and declared them to be “profitable for men’s instruction in righteousness” and commanded every man to “search” them, in order to the finding of eternal life! To soften down this impious notion, some would select a few parts to circulate among the poor, and would keep back the rest: in other words, they would do exactly what Jehoiakim did; they would cut out page after page, and suffer none to be read which was distasteful to their minds. Jehoiukim was afraid that his people would make a bud use of Jeremiah’s roll, and therefore he burned it: and these have the same fears about the greater part of the sacred volume; and therefore they would keep it out of the hands of the poor. The acts of the two are different; but their dispositions are the same.]

  4.      By setting its precepts at defiance—

[Strange as it may appear, there are many, who, whilst they believe the Scriptures to be from God, and assent to the doctrines contained in them, are yet determined to go on in sin: they know they are wrong, and perhaps intend at some future period to amend their doings; but proceed they will in their own ways, whatever may be the consequence. The world, the flesh, and the devil have such a hold upon them, that nothing can prevail upon them to seek after God. They despise alike the mercies and the judgments of their God; and say in their hearts, “As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not regard it.” In short, they live in the very spirit of Jehoiakim; believing the word to be inspired, and yet “casting it behind them,” with a determination to fulfil their own desires in opposition to it.]

  5.      By reviling and persecuting those who embrace it—

[There is nothing that shews a more rooted aversion to the word of God than this. The next step to the destroying of Jeremiah’s roll was, to send for Jeremiah who dictated, and Baruch who wrote it, to destroy them also: for we cannot doubt but that if the Lord had not hidden thorn, the enraged monarch would have put them to death. And are not multitudes at this clay of the very same spirit? Are there not many who hate the faithful ministers of God’s word, and account them “the troublers of Israel,” and the greatest pests of society? Yes; at this day, as much as in the apostolic age, would Paul and his colleagues be regarded as “the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things.”

Nor are ministers alone thus treated: the same hatred extends to all who embrace the Gospel in sincerity, and walk according to its holy precepts: they, no less than their teachers, are called by all manner of opprobrious names, and that too solely on account of their fidelity to Christ. Precisely as Abel was hated by Cain for his piety, and Isaac was derided by Ishmael for his faith in God, “so now all who are born after the Spirit are persecuted by those who are born after the flesh.” And what does this prove, but that faith itself, and piety too, yea and God himself also, are objects of hatred to the ungodly world; and that the language of their hearts is, “Prophesy not unto us right things; prophesy unto us smooth things; prophesy deceits: and make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”]

That the same enmity which raged in the king of Judah against the word of God, exists in us, appears most clearly m the foregoing particulars. We now proceed to point out,

  II.      The folly of indulging it—

Justly is the indulgence of this spirit compared to the setting of thorns and briers in battle array against the devouring element of fire. For,

  1.      We cannot change one declaration in all the Scriptures—

[We may dispute against every truth in the Bible; but we cannot alter one. We may deny all the scriptural representations of our guilt and helplessness, and of the necessity of being washed in the Redeemer’s blood, and renewed by his Spirit; and we may designate them by what terms we will; but they will still continue true: our sophistry may deceive both ourselves and others; but it cannot invalidate the truth of God, or induce him to deviate from one word that he has spoken. He will say to us, “What I have written, I have written;” and “sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, than one jot or tittle of my word shall fail.” If by disputing against the word of God, or even by casting it into the fire, we could put ourselves into a better situation with respect to it, there would be some excuse for us: but we may as well immure ourselves in a dungeon, and deny the existence of the sun: the sun would still shine, though we should not choose to see it; and would still cheer the hearts of those who felt its refreshing beams, though we excluded ourselves from any participation of its genial influence. So will all the great doctrines of the Gospel continue, though we should shut our eyes against them: “the Scripture cannot be broken;” nor “can our unbelief make the faith of God of no effect.” Every thing else is “as grass, which withereth and falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever: and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto youi.”]

  2.      We cannot prevent the execution of one threatening—

[We are very apt to deceive ourselves in relation to this; and to think, that our unbelief will be an excuse for our disobedience. But error is not innocent, especially when it is wilful: much less can it induce God to reverse all the judgments which he has denounced against sin and sinners. Let us look to fact. The antediluvians scoffed at Noah, and at all his warnings respecting the approaching deluge: but did the deluge not come? or did they escape when the time for executing the threatened judgment was arrived? “Ahab hated and imprisoned Micaiah for not speaking good concerning him, but evil;” and ordered him to be fed “with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction, till he should return from the war in peace.” But did he return in peace? Did he survive the battle, in which Micaiah had told him he should die? Did his determined opposition to the word of God screen him from the predicted vengeance? Thus will it be with all who disbelieve the sacred records; they will learn too late by their own experience, what they would not believe upon the testimony of God: dying in unregeneracy and unbelief, they will be excluded from the kingdom of heaven, and “the wrath of God will abide upon them.” O the folly and madness of plunging ourselves into everlasting misery, when, if we would but turn unto the Lord, we might secure the everlasting enjoyment of his kingdom and glory!]

  3.      We accumulate on our own heads the judgments which we despise—

[The contempt with which men treat the word of God is itself a great and grievous sin, and adds exceedingly to that load of guilt which we have contracted by all our other offences. How indignant was God with Saul on this account! “Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath rejected thee from being king.” In like manner, it was no slight expression of his displeasure which he used towards those who, in opposition to his commands, went down into Egypt; “They shall know,” says he, “whose word shall stand, mine or theirsm.” But more particularly mark God’s message to king Jehoiakim: to what an ignominious death he was doomed for his impiety; besides that, on the contents of this roll being again written, “there were added unto them many like words.” Let it be considered, that, whilst we are setting at nought the word of God, we are not only insuring, but increasing those very “judgments which we puff at,” and actually “treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.” Well does God say of all such persons, “Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?” Let these words then sink down into the ears of all that hear them: if ye persist in saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk after the imagination of my heart; the Lord’s anger will smoke against you, and he will blot out your name from under heaven.”]

  If now we would know how to conduct ourselves in reference to the word of God, let us LEARN,

  1.      To tremble at the word ourselves—

[This is the disposition which God approves. He approved of it in king Josiah, under circumstances similar to those m the history before us; and he will look with complacency and delight on all who manifest it in their conductq. O that there might be in all of us such a heart! for if we “receive the word with meekness, we shall find it able and effectual to save our souls,”]

  2.      To use all diligence in making it known to others—

[When Baruch had written the words from Jeremiah’s mouth, he went and read them in the ears of all the people. Then he read them also in the presence of the princes: and the princes went and read them to the king. All this was right: and we should do well to imitate this conduct. To those who possess not the word of God, we should carry it: and as now there are plans for diffusing that word throughout all the world, we should labour, each according to his ability, to advance that blessed work. Moreover we should read it to those who are not able to read; or, at least, should procure them instruction, that they may rend it for themselves. Nor should we be afraid to shew our veneration for it in the presence of kings and princes, or to suggest to them the necessity of attending to it themselves.]

  3.      To deal faithfully with those who pour contempt upon it—

[It is spoken to the reproach of these princes, that though they made intercession to the king not to burn the roll, they did not rend their clothes, either through a fear of God’s judgments, or through an abhorrence of his impiety. And truly, when we can see the contempt with which the Holy Scriptures are treated by all around us, and not weep for the dishonour done to God, or for the injury which men do to their own souls, we shew that we ourselves are far from valuing the Scriptures as we ought. “Rivers of tears ran down David’s cheeks,” when he observed how men transgressed the laws of God: and is there not the same occasion for us to weep? Do we believe indeed that every word of God is true, and feel no pity for those who are exposed to all the curses that are contained therein? O seek a compassionate regard for man, and a holy zeal for God! and let none ever be ashamed to attest this truth, that “the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, is understanding.”]

MLXXXII

DISSIMULATION REPROVED

  Jer. 42:20, 21.

Ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. And now I hare this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.

THE office of a minister, if it abound with consolations, abounds with trials and afflictions also. When he is instrumental to the turning of men to righteousness, and “sees his children walk in truth, he has the sublimest joy” of which, in his present state of existence, he is capable: but to find that he only “labours in vain,” and to behold those of whom he had begun to entertain some pleasing hopes, making shipwreck of their faith and of a good conscience, is inexpressibly painful: such scenes as these renewed, as it were, in the Apostle’s mind, all the pangs of childbirth, so that “he travailed in birth again with his converts, till Christ should be completely formed in them.” The Prophet Jeremiah was very unfortunate in this respect: he had at all times to deal with an untoward people; and actually experienced more kindness from the enemies of his nation, than he did from the people unto whom he ministered.

The particular circumstances under which he was at the time referred to in our text, deserve to be considered. Johanan and the captains of the Jewish forces having rescued their countrymen from Ishmael, who was carrying them captive into the land of the Ammonites, were doubting whether to continue in Canaan, where they feared the vengeance of the Chaldeans, or to go into the land of Egpyt, where they hoped to find both safety and abundance. In this strait they applied for instruction to Jeremiah, with apparent sincerity, but (as our text informs us, and the event proved,) with real dissimulation. We propose to consider their conduct,

  I.      As exemplified in them—

Their dissimulation was indeed most vile and flagrant—

[In their application to the prophet, there was the greatest expression of piety: they entreated his prayers to God for them, and promised to follow implicitly whatever direction he should give them from the Lord. They declared most solemnly, that no consideration of ease or interest should induce them to deviate from his injunctions; and they even called God himself to be a witness between the prophet and them, and to visit upon them their iniquity, if they should neglect to perform their promise — — —

By the prophet, God returned to them a most gracious answer. He directed them what to do; and encouraged them by the strongest assurances of his own protection; promising to return in mercy to them himself, as well as to dispose the heart of the king of Babylon to shew mercy to them: at the same time he warned them plainly, that if they would follow their own ways in opposition to his counsel, he would bring upon them all the calamities which they were so anxious to escape — — —

They however, by their determined rejection of God’s counsel, betrayed in the most open manner their own hypocrisy. Instead of hearkening to God’s voice, they, “the proud among them” especially, denied that the message which was delivered to them proceeded from God: they imputed it to the ill-will of Baruch towards them; and told the prophet plainly, that they would not follow his injunctionsd. Accordingly they, in express violation of their own engagements, went down into Egypt, and there found, as God had declared unto them, “whose word should stand, his or theirs.”]

From this view of the history, we are led to make the following remarks:

First, How little do men know of their own hearts!

[In all the professions which they made of their readiness and determination to obey their God, they thought themselves sincere; and doubtless would have been exceedingly indignant, if the prophet had in the first instance charged them with hypocrisy. Thus Peter, when he so vehemently declared, that, though all others should forsake their Lord, he never would, conceived that nothing could ever induce him to recede from his purpose: and thus we also persuade ourselves that we shall prove superior to all temptations, till the time of trial comes, and we shew by our unfaithfulness, how little we knew of our own hearts.]

Next, What an enemy to man’s happiness is pride!

[It was “the proud men” in particular who denied the inspiration of the prophet, and who ascribed his message to a conspiracy which ho and Baruch had entered into to deceive them. To the same malignant principle of pride does the holy Psalmist ascribe the contempt with which ungodly men treat every thing that relates to God: “The wicked through the pride of his countenance! will not seek after God.” Yes, this is at the root of infidelity: men pretend that there is a want of evidence of the Divine authority of the Scriptures, and exclaim against the Gospel as the invention of priestcraft or enthusiasm: but the truth is, they are too proud to submit to the yoke of Christ, and to receive salvation as the unmerited gift of God.]

Once more;—How awful is the issue of unbelief!

[Plain were the warnings which they received; and bitter was the experience which the unbelieving Jews had of God’s fidelity to his threatenings. Thus also it was with the Jews who came out of Egypt, all of whom perished in the wilderness, with the exception of two only. And thus it shall be with unbelievers, whoever they may be: they shall find to their cost, “whose word shall stand, whether God’s or theirs.” “Their unbelief shall never make the word of God of none effect:” of his word, not one jot or tittle shall ever fall to the ground.]

From this general view of their conduct, let us turn to the consideration of it,

  II.      As imitated by us—

It may properly be said of all who attend upon the preaching of the Gospel, that they virtually acknowledge the relation that subsists between them and their minister: they look to him as God’s ambassador, to declare to them the Divine will respecting them; and they profess their readiness to obey the Divine mandates, whatsoever they may be; and in every instance wherein they are wilfully disobedient, they are, in truth, like the Jews in our text, dissemblers with God. But there are some particular occasions on which our hearers place themselves precisely, as it were, in the same situation with them whose conduct we are considering:

  1.      Under conviction of sin—

[Those who hear the Gospel faithfully administered, rarely escape without having the word at one time or other brought home to their conscience, and being constrained to make some resolutions of amendment. When such emotions are excited, the heart, which was before stout, is softened; and the ear, which was deaf to all the precepts of the Gospel, becomes opened to receive instruction. On such occasions men will even condescend to request a remembrance in the prayers of their ministers, and to desire instruction relative to the commands of God. Like those on the day of Pentecost, they will cry, “Sir, what must I do to be saved?”

For persons in such a state the faithful minister feels deeply interested: and, whilst he implores the blessing of God upon them, he points out to them the only way of life and salvation. He shews them, that, “if they will be Christ’s disciples, they must deny themselves” in reference to all their former lusts and evil habits; that they must “take up their cross daily,” and not only bear with patience the contempt and hatred of an ungodly world, but rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer for their Redeemer’s sake; and that they must “follow Christ” in the whole of his spirit and conduct, “walking in all things as he walked.”

But this, to the generality, appears too strait a path: they reply, as our Saviour’e hearers did, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” and like them also, “they go back, and walk no more with us:” thus proving, by their inconstancy, that all their former professions were no better than dissimulation before God. O let those who have “tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,” examine their own hearts, and see in what light they are viewed by God, if they have not followed up their convictions, and devoted themselves truly to their Lord and Saviour!]

  2.      Under some heavy trial or affliction—

[Affliction has a tendency to plough up, as it were, the fallow-ground of man’s heart, and to prepare it for the reception of the good seed. The loss of a wife, or husband, or child, or of some friend that was as one’s own soul, is often the means of embittering to us all that this world can afford, and of directing our attention to a better world, where alone true happiness can be found. A succession of any other painful events will also produce a similar effect.

Religious company and conversation will, under such circumstances, be not only tolerated, but often desired and delighted in; and the most hopeful appearances of sound conversion will ensue. “They will pour out a prayer, when God’s chastening is upon them;” yea, says God, “in their affliction they will seek me early.”

But in most cases the impression is but of short duration; and the vows which they made in trouble are soon forgotten. They are like metal taken out of the furnace, which soon returns to its former hardness. Thus it was with the Jews: “When God slew them, then they sought him, and returned and inquired early after God, &c.; nevertheless they did but flatter him with their mouth, &c.; for their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.” And thus it is with too many also amongst ourselves; “their goodness is only as the morning dew, and as the early cloud that passeth away.”]

  3.      At the approach of death—

[The most hardened of men are, for the most part, softened at the prospect of death; so that even the most abandoned criminals, under a sentence of condemnation, are thankful for the services of a pious minister, listening eagerly to his instructions, and uniting fervently with him in his prayers. Indeed the common practice of mankind has sanctioned the idea of sending for a minister, to counsel and to pray for the sick and dying.

On those occasions we hear much regret expressed by the generality, on account of the sad neglect of which they have been guilty; and many purposes formed of turning unto the Lord, in case their lives should be prolonged.

But, when such persons are unexpectedly restored to health, how rarely do we find that they fulfil their promises, and devote themselves to God according to their vows! Truly, we need not look to the Jews for examples of dissimulation; for there is not a family, or scarcely an individual, that does not furnish an instance of it amongst ourselves. Human nature is the same in all ages: and wherever pride and unbelief reign, there will be disobedience, obduracy, and ruin.]

  Let me now ADDRESS,

  1.      The disobedient amongst you—

[Consider the relation that subsists between us, As your minister, it is my duty to pray for you, and to declare to you with fidelity the whole counsel of God. Suffer me to ask, how you have improved the opportunities you have enjoyed? If some few have answered the gracious designs of God respecting them, have not the great mass continued in their sinful habits even to this hour, instead of turning truly and unreservedly to the Lord their God? What then have their whole lives been, but one continued course of dissimulation with God? And what must the issue be of such conduct? O, before it is too late, remember how often you have been admonished “not to lean to your own understandings,” nor to “trust in an arm of flesh;” but to obey implicitly God’s revealed will, and to cleave unto the Saviour with full purpose of heart! The Lord grant that now at last you may become obedient to the faith; and that, instead of being a swift witness against you, I may have you as my joy and crown of rejoicing in the day of judgment!]

  2.      Those who are hesitating what course to pursue—

[Do not “consult with flesh and blood,” but go to the Lord your God, who, if you are upright in your requests, will surely make known his will unto you. The counsel of God’s ministers may indeed be asked; but they must no further be followed than they speak agreeably to the written word. That word you are to consult, every one of you for himself; and, if you pray unto God for his Spirit, “he will guide you into all truth.” But beware of dissimulation: beware also of delay. Defer not unto the morrow what God requires to be done to-day: but “to-day, while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” If you listen to pride and unbelief, you see in the history before us, whither they will lead you. The ungodly world may promise you safety in following their ways; but safety is to be found only in an unreserved obedience to the commands of God, and especially that command of living by faith in his dear Son, and devoting yourselves to him as his redeemed people. “Believe then in the Lord, so shall ye prosper; believe his prophets, so shall ye be established.”]

MLXXXIII

THE IMPIETY OF UNGODLY MEN

  Jer. 44:16, 17.

As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee: but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth.

ONE would scarcely conceive it possible that human beings should be so depraved as to utter the words which we have just read. Yet, if this be not the language of men’s lips at this day, it is, to a very great extent, the language both of their hearts and lives: and one advantage which we derive from the history before us is, that, whilst we see how far the impiety of men will carry them, we learn to form a correct estimate of their conduct. Perhaps in the whole world we should not find one who would justify them; though thousands will justify themselves in following their example. Permit me, then, to hold up this picture before your eyes, in hopes that, as in a glass you may recognise your own countenances, and fall under the conviction which your judgment calls for at the hands of others. With this view, I will endeavour to set before you,

  I.      The impiety of that people—

To behold this in its just light, we must look back to the preceding chapters, and mark distinctly,

  1.      Their voluntary engagements—

[After the King of Babylon had carried the Jews into captivity, he permitted a small remnant to return; and placed over them a governor of their own nation, Gedaliah by name; and to him flocked a considerable number, who had fled to Moab, and Ammon, and Edam, for refuge from the Chaldeans, that they might once more enjoy peace in their own land, under his protection. But Ishmael, who was of the seed royal, envying Gedaliah this honour, conspired against him, and slew him; and then forced the people to follow him, with an intention to deliver them into the hands of the Ammonites. Johanan, a friend of Gedaliah, had suspected Ishmael’s intentions; and had offered to defeat them, by secret assassination. And as soon as Ishmael had accomplished his murderous designs, Johanan followed him, and prevailed on the people to return with him. But when he had brought them back as far as Bethlehem, he was afraid of setthng there, lest the Babylonish monarch, whose viceroy had been destroyed, should come and wreak his vengeance on him and the people, who had been altogether innocent in the matter: he contemplated, therefore, the seeking a refuge in Egypt, where he thought ho should be altogether out of the reach of the King of Babylon. But, being doubtful what the Lord’s will respecting it might be (for God had forbidden them ever to return to Egyptd), he, at the head of all the people, from the least to the greatest, came to Jeremiah, and intreated him to seek direction from the Lord; and pledged themselves, in the most solemn manner, to obey his voice, whatever it might be, or whatever might be its aspect on their present comfort.

Now, in all this, especially I mean in referring the matter to God, Johanan acted in a manner that was truly becoming; for his fears were certainly well grounded; and, in a matter of such difficulty, it became him to request the intercession of God’s highly-favoured servant, the Prophet Jeremiah, and to seek, by all possible means, direction from God. But, behold, what a sudden change took place in all the people! Instead of fulfilling their engagements, they manifested,]

  2.      Their deliberate violation of them—

[After ten days, God was pleased to declare, by the prophet, that Johanan and the people must remain in their own land: at the same time assuring them, that he would overrule the heart of the king of Babylon to favour them but that, if they would go into Egypt, the very evils which they apprehended, should follow them thither, to their utter destructionsg.

Now, viewing their previous and solemn engagements, one would naturally suppose that they would instantly comply with the direction given them. But, instead of that, they deny that God had given any such direction to Jeremiah; and assert, that Baruch had stirred him up to feign this message from the Lord, on purpose to deliver him and all the people into the hands of the Chaldeans; and therefore they would proceed to Egypt, at all events, This purpose they immediately carried into execution; and not only took all the people with them, but forced Jeremiah also, and Baruch, to accompany them thitheri.

A more flagrant act of rebellion than this can scarcely be conceived. Yet behold,]

  3.      Their self-vindicating effrontery—

[The people, both men and women, but the women more especially, betook themselves to idolatry, and offered incense to the Queen of heaven. Being reproved for this by the prophet, they boldly asserted, that the service of Jehovah had been altogether unprofitable to them; that their former prosperity had arisen from their worship of the Queen of heaven; and their later adversity had resulted from their neglect of her. The truth was, as the prophet told them, the very reverse of this: whilst they had served the Lord, he had prospered them; but when they departed from him to their idols, they had constrained him to follow them with his judgments, even to that very hour. But they were bent upon vindicating themselves and their own ways; and plainly declared to the prophet, that “as for the word which he had spoken to them in the name of the Lord, they would not do it; but would certainly do whatever they themselves chose,” however offensive it might be to God, or however injurious to their own interests. They had engaged to worship the Queen of heaven; and her they would worship, whatever God or his prophet might say in opposition to it: for they had found it their interest to serve her; and serve her they would.]

Not doubting what your judgment must be respecting them, I now proceed to point out,

  II.      The resemblance that exists between them and us—

Is it asked, Where shall we find any amongst us like them? I answer, Look at,

  1.      The profane sinner—

[See his engagements at the baptismal font: see them voluntarily renewed at the time of his confirmation: all here is well: and if these engagements are adhered to, all will be well, both in time and eternity. But behold, when we call upon them to fulfil their duties, our word, though spoken in the name of the Most High God, has no effect: the generality, if they listen to it for a moment, “take no earnest heed to it:” they hear it “as the word of man only, and not as the word of God,” Some will speak out plainly in the very language of our text: and though all arrive not at such a height of impiety as to utter this with their lips, millions all around us declare it by their lives. We call upon them to “renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil;” to “believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith;” and to “keep God’s holy will and commandments, and to walk in the same all the days of their life.” But who will regard us? Who will carry into effect any one of their own promises? Who, when called upon to act up to his engagements, does not deny that God has required it at his hands? And who does not even vindicate his own ways, us necessary to his welfare in the world, and as alone conducive to his present happiness? Verily, we may behold in the Jews a just picture of the Christian world; professing all that is good, and determinately following their own evil ways.]

  2.      The self-righteous formalist—

[Hear him joining in our Liturgy, and you will say, There is a repentant sinner, clearing to the Lord with full purpose of heart. But tell him in private what a sinner he is; tell him what contrition becomes him; tell him how entirely he must renounce all self-confidence, and rely solely on the Lord Jesus Christ; and you quite offend him—‘He deserves not such heavy judgments: he needs not seek for mercy in this humiliating way. It may be well enough for publicans and harlots to abase themselves in this manner; but he needs it not; nor will he consent to accept of mercy on such terms as these.’ In vindication of themselves, persons of this description will cast reflections on religion, as depriving men of all happiness, and as a source of all the sorrow and melancholy that are found in the religious world. In vain we tell them, that it is sin alone which is the cause of sorrow, and ignorance alone that is the source of melancholy to persons seeking after God. In vain we tell them, that religion, properly understood and practised, is a spring of the purest and most lasting joy. The very comparison which the Jews made between Jehovah and the Queen of heaven, these persons will make between true piety and their own formal services: God’s ways being condemned as productive only of evil; and their own commended, as replete with good.]

  3.      The hypocritical professor—

[He, if you will believe his words, is all that you could wish: but if you examine his actions, he is like fruit, fair to look upon, but rotten at the core. Press him on the side of his besetting sins, and you shall find him, in deeds, if not in words, as determined a transgressor as either of the foregoing characters. I know not whether he be not the least hopeful of them all. His very “conscience is seared;” and “even the light that is in him is darkness.” Whether his sin be pride, or worldliness, or intemperance, or impurity, he finds excuses for all; or, if self-condemned, “turns the grace of God into licentiousness.” Ah! what shall I say to such persons? These, above all, resemble Johanan and the Jews. They make the greatest professions of piety, and sin against the greatest light and knowledge; and cast most dishonour upon God whilst vindicating themselves. Verily, such persons, above all, have need to go along with me in my last consideration; namely,]

  III.      The certain issue of such conduct—

The Jews would venture upon the line prohibited, and prosecute their own ways, in defiance of the judgments with which they were threatened. But God told them that “they should see whose word should stand, his or theirs.”

I ask then, How did it fare with them?

[Did not Divine vengeance follow them? Could Pharaoh afford them the protection which they sought? yea, did not both he and they fall under the Chaldean yoke, and speedily experience all the calamities that had been predicted?]

And how shall it fare with you?

[Is not the time coming when the Lord will say, “Bring hither those that were mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me?” Yes; you may vindicate yourselves as you will, and be as confident as you please; but “God’s word shall stand, and not yours;” and the day shall surely come, when your pride, and unbelief, and rebellion, shall meet with their deserved recompence at the hands of God — — — It was the boast of the Jews that they had antiquity and authority on their side. But what did it avail them that “they had kings and princes on their side,” and that they did nothing but what was done daily “in the streets of Jerusalem?” Did this lessen their guilt, or screen them from punishment? So, then, know ye also, that however broad the way be wherein ye walk, it will lead you to destruction; and that “though hand join in hand, the wicked, how great or numerous soever they be, shall not go unpunished.”]

  Let me now ADDRESS,

  1.      Those who disregard our testimony—

[Whether it be in deeds only, or in words also, that ye reject our word, know ye of a truth, that it shall come to pass, and “a difference shall be put between him who serveth God, and him who serveth him not.” What this prophet said to those who “refused to be ashamed of their abominations,” and to every one of his instructions replied, “We will not hearken,” that I say to you: “In the day that God shall visit for sin, ye shall be cast down, and perish” You may say, as boldly as you will, “Let us break his bands asunder, and cast away his cords from us:” but God laughs at your pride; for “he sees that your day is coming.” May God Almighty awaken you from your security, ere it be too late!]

  2.      Those who tremble at the word of God—

[This is a state of mind which becomes every sinner in the universe. Cultivate it, I pray you, more and more: and, in any engagements which you may enter into with God, undertake nothing in your own strength. Be assured, that of yourselves you can do nothing; and that all your ability, even for the most acknowledged duties, must be from the Lord alone. Yet, whatsoever ye have vowed unto the Lord, remember to pay it: “It were better never to vow, than to vow and not pay.” At the same time, take the word of God as your guide: whatsoever He commands you, do it, without considering what its effect may be on your present interests. In an obedient attention to God’s will you need fear no evil: for “who is he that shall really harm you, if ye be followers f that which is good?” But, if you will dissemble with God, “be sure that your sin will find you out.” “Fear not man, therefore, who can only kill the body; but fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear Him.”

MLXXXIV

WE MUST NOT SEEK GREAT THINGS

             Jer. 45:5.

Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.

WORLDLINESS is a great and common evil: and it is often manifested in those from whom we should least expect it. The sons of Zebedee solicited the highest posts of honour in their Master’s kingdom, immediately after he had been foretelling his crucifixion: and all the disciples disputed about preeminence even at the last supper, just after they had been warned, that one of them would betray his Lord. Thus Baruch, when he had been writing in a book all the prophecies of Jeremiah, wherein God’s determination to destroy the Jewish nation had been repeatedly declared, was promising himself years of case and affluence; and was afraid to write another copy of the prophecies, lest the king, who had destroyed the former copy, should put him to death. Jeremiah therefore was ordered by God to reprove him; to tell him what had been the secret thoughts of his heart, and to warn him against indulging such an unbecoming spiritb.

The prohibition in the text being applicable to all in every age, we shall shew,

  I.      When we may be said to seek great things for ourselves—

In direct reference to the text itself we observe, that this may be said of us,

  1.      When the objects of our pursuit are great—

[Things are great or small by comparison only; since that which would be great for a peasant, would be altogether worthless in the eyes of a king. But they may universally be called “great,” when they far exceed our present condition: and, in that case, an aspiring after them subjects us to the censure in the text. The world indeed universally commend ambition: but worldly ambition is very opposite to the self-denying doctrines of Christianity. It was always discountenanced by our Lord; and is universally reprobated by his Apostlesd: and, wherever it rules in the heart, it indicates a carnal and worldly mind.]

  2.      When we seek even moderate things with eagerness—

[There is an important distinction to be made between industry, and eagerness: the one relates to the activity of the body; the other to an excessive desire of the mind: the one is not only proper, but necessary, in our respective spheres; the other is universally sinful, when it relates to earthly things. What can our Lord mean by repeating, no less than four times, that solemn injunction, “Take no thoughtg?” Doubtless it is not to be taken literally in the strictest sense: but, allowing for the utmost latitude of interpretation, he must mean, that we should take no anxious thought even for the most moderate, or most necessary, comforts. In perfect agreement with this are the directions of his Apostles:—consequently, the indulging of an eager desire after any thing pertaining to this life, exposes us to the reproof contained in the text.]

  3.      When we seek any thing merely for ourselves—

[We are not at liberty to make self in any instance the chief end of our actions. There is One above us, even God, whose honour we should seek, even in the most common offices of life. To be lovers of our own selves is a mark of a reprobate mindk and whatever we do under the influence of such a spirit, whether the action be of a civil or religiousm nature, it is not acceptable to God. Though therefore we do not aspire after great things, yet, if we seek any tiling merely for ourselves, and without any higher end than our own ease, interest, or honour, we are altogether wrong, and deserving of the severest censure.]

To vindicate the reasonableness of this prohibition, we shall proceed to shew,

  II.      Why we should not seek them—

That the reasons may more distinctly appear, we shall shew,

  1.      Why we should not make great things the objects of our pursuit—

[An aspiring after riches or honours necessarily supposes that we expect to find happiness in the enjoyment of them. But it is certain that even the whole world (supposing we could possess it) could never make us happy. What folly then is it to be seeking to “fill our belly with the east windo!” Besides, the more we possess of this world, the more we are exposed to temptations. Who does not see that the having the means of gratifying our evil inclinations operates as an inducement to indulge them? and that an elevation of rank or character has a tendency to strengthen the pride of our hearts? Are there not then temptations enough in our way without our seeking to increase them? Shall we “load ourselves with thick clay” when we are about to run a race; or make the way to heaven tenfold more difficult than it is already? They to whom God has given great things, may doubtless enjoy them: but the man who seeks them, labours for that which will ultimately involve him in utter ruin.]

  2.      Why we should not seek even moderate things with eagerness—

[No man is eager after any thing but in consequence of the love he feels towards it: his eagerness therefore to it must imply a love of it. Now an attachment to any of the things of time and sense, especially such an attachment as stimulates us earnestly to pursue them, argues a want of true love to God: for to love both God and mammon is impossiblet. Moreover, such an eagerness shews, that we have no just value for our souls: for if we had once learned to appreciate the soul aright, the whole world would appear as nothing in comparison of it. Will any one then justify a conduct that involves in it such consequences? As long as the love of God, and a care for our own souls, be our bounden duty, so long must the eager pursuit of any earthly vanity be incompatible with the Christian character.]

  3.      Why we should not seek any thing merely for ourselves—

[We are not our own, but God’s. He both formed and redeemedy us, that we might glorify his name: and he represents his faithful servants as seeking, not their own things, out the things of Jesus Christ. Are we then at liberty to rob God of his glory? and to defeat the great end both of our creation and redemption? Besides, our fellow-creatures also have a claim upon us. We are commanded not to “seek every man his own, but every man another’s wealtha. Ought we then to deprive them of their right? Doubtless we may without impropriety labour in our respective callings to provide for ourselves and families; but we must take care that, in doing this, we have a view to God’s honour, and the general welfare of mankind. Else our labour is mere selfishness, that contracts and hardens our hearts, while it violates every obligation to God and man.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who are seeking only the things of this world—

[What have you gained by all your past exertions? You are pleased, perhaps, with your success, and have your pride gratified: but are you really happier than you were before you possessed your present honours and emoluments? Perhaps we may rather ask, Have you not, together with your means of self-indulgence, multiplied also your vexations and disappointments? But supposing you to be unusually favoured in these respects, we still ask, What comfort will these things afford you in the hour of death, and the day of judgment? Will they not then at least, whatever they may now do, appear to be lighter than vanity itself? Then in the name of God, “Seek them not.”

If however you be determined to seek great things, we will change our voice, and say, “Seek them:” yes, seek them: only take care that they be truly great. Be not contented with the poor pitiful things of time and sense: let your ambition rise to the very throne of God, and all the glory of heaven. Seek the favour of God: seek an union with Christ: seek an abiding fellowship with him: seek such discoveries of his love as produce in you a perfect conformity to his image. In pursuit of such things, you cannot aim too high; your eagerness cannot be excessive; your very selfishness becomes a virtue. Other things that you acquire, are for yourselves and heirs; these shall be for yourselves alone, and that, for ever and ever.]

  2.      Those who profess to seek higher and better things—

[Many a Baruch is to be found in the house of God: even the people who are truly beloved of the Lord, may need reproof for being too much cumbered about earthly things. If then such a character be present, let him consider the text as applied to himself in particular; Seekest thou great things unto thyself? thou, who professest to be dead to the world? thou, who pretendest to walk in the steps of Christ? thou, who boastest that thou hast God for thy portion? How dishonourable is such conduct! O “remember whence thou art fallen; and repent.” Remember what was the root of Demas’ apostasy; and know that the same root of bitterness, if nourished in your hearts, will bring forth the same malignant and destructive fruit. The best, the only antidote to this poison is, “the love of Christ shed abroad in your hearts.” As a sight of the meridian sun unfits our organs of vision for beholding for a time, any inferior objects, so will a sight of Christ efface the beauty of all sublunary things; or, to use the language of inspiration, “by the cross of Christ, the world will soon be crucified unto us, and we unto the world,”]

MLXXXV

THE MEANS OF TERMINATING WAR

  Jer. 47:6, 7.

O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore? there hath he appointed it.

THOUGH the two nations of Judah and Israel were the primary objects of attention to the prophets, yet many other nations were referred to in their prophecies; and the most important events respecting them were circumstantially foretold. The chapter before us relates to the Philistines: and it was written at a time when they had recovered the power, of which David had deprived them. It foretells the invasion of their land by the Chaldeans, together with the long continuance of the conflict, which should end in the subjugation of them and their allies.

We shall not confine our attention to them, but take the text as expressing generally,

  I.      The evils of protracted war—

War is a tremendous evil—

[It is so even in its commencement: the distress of the Philistines at the approach of the invading army is very strongly depicted: and doubtless the representation is suited to any other country that is similarly circumstanced — — — What then must be the miseries attendant on a protracted warfare! the desolations must spread far and wide; the slaughters be multiplied; famines be produced; perhaps pestilence also be generated. But who can enumerate the miseries which war brings in its train? — — —]

Well might the prophet desire its speedy termination—

[Humanity alone, independent of patriotic feelings or private interests, would make one desire to see the sword restored to its scabbard. Some who fatten on the spoils of war, or whose ambition is insatiable, may wish to have these fatal contests protracted; but every one who regards either the temporal or spiritual welfare of mankind, will ardently wish for the termination of them. The days described by the prophet will be desired, infinitely beyond any national aggrandizement, or personal advancement.]

Whilst all acknowledge the evils of war, few seem to be aware of,

  II.      The reason of its continuance—

War is one of those judgments with which God punishes the sins of men—

[We are apt to look only to second causes, instead of acknowledging, as we ought, the First Great Cause. Doubtless the passions of men are the immediate sources from whence the calamities of war arise: and men are strictly amenable, both to God and their fellow-creatures, for the evils, which, by their undue exercise of those passions, they inflict upon the world, But God, who accomplishes his own purposes without at all infringing on the liberty of the human will, renders those passions subservient to his own designs; and employs men as his agents, as a man employs an axe in the execution of any work which he chooses to effect. Man is the instrument; but God is the real author of the work that is doned.]

Till he has effected his own purposes by it, no human efforts can bring it to a close—

[What are his ultimate designs, is known to himself alone: but whatever “his counsel be, it shall stand; and he will do all his will.” He had “given the sword a charge against Ashkelon and the sea-shore; and therefore it could not be quiet,” till it had executed its commission. He puts a cup into the hand of different nations; and it must go round, till they have all drunk of it. In vain will any refuse it: taste they must, yea and drink too, even to the dregs, if God has so decreed. And, as we ourselves have been his instruments, to carry war to coasts which were, according to human appearances, most secure; so may we have it brought to our own shores, not with standing the security we appear to enjoy; and, if “God has so appointed,” no power or policy of men will be able to avert the storm: we have partaken largely of the sins of other nations; and we must expect to partake also of their punishments.]

But what is impossible with man, is possible with God; who has mercifully declared to us,

  III.      The means of its termination—

The intention of God’s chastisements is to bring us to repentance—

[God has no pleasure in correcting the children of men: on the contrary, “judgment is his strange act,” to which with reluctance and difficulty he proceeds. But he tells us plainly, that he will proceed, till he has accomplished his gracious ends; yea that, if we hold fast our iniquities, he will increase his chastisements seven-fold. On the contrary, he promises, that if we humble ourselves before him, he will remove themh. When his rod does not produce the desired effect, he complains of us, and expresses the deepest regret that we have not suffered him to exercise the mercy which was in his heart towards usk. In a word, his message to the whole world is this, “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.”]

On the attainment of his end, he will instantly remove his judgments from us—

[What an example is given us, in his mercy towards the inhabitants of Nineveh! How did he regard even the humiliation of Ahab, though he knew it to be only external, selfish, and partial! This then is the way to terminate the calamities of war. Sin is, as it were, the target, at which God shoots his arrows. The sword is drawn, “to avenge the quarrel of his covenant:” let that quarrel be composed, and “the sword will be returned to its scabbard; it will rest, and be still.”]

Having considered the means of terminating the calamities of war, and of averting the judgments of God from our land, we would, in

  CONCLUSION—

Suggest some hints respecting those heavy judgments, which God has denounced against sinners in another world, and respecting the best means of averting them from our souls—

[That the sword has a charge against impenitent sinners, is certain — — — nor, however secure they may think themselves, shall they be able to escape ito — — — “Except they repent, they must all inevitably perish.” Moreover, if it be once drawn out against a person in the eternal world, it shall never be returned to its scabbard. Think then whether it have not received a charge against you. It is true, you are not mentioned by name; but you may be as clearly marked by character, as if your very name were specified. Possibly enough your works are such as to determine your state, beyond any possibility of doubt: or, if not, your want of regeneration and conversion may no less clearly mark you as monuments of God’s displeasure — — — Know then, that in Christ only can you obtain pardon and peace: “There is no other name given, whereby you can be saved.” Seek then “to be found in him:” and know for your comfort, “if your life be hid with Christ in God,” it will be out of the reach of God’s avenging sword; and “when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.”]

MLXXXVI

REPENTANCE DESCRIBED

  Jer. 50:4, 5.

In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

THESE words refer to the Jewish people, and to a period yet future. The junction of Israel with Judah took not place in any great degree at the return of the Jews from Babylon; nor was their return signalized by any such piety as is here described. But, at the time ordained of God for their restoration from their present dispersion, the whole Scriptures attest, that a very extraordinary spirit of piety shall be poured out upon them; and that, in the remembrance of all their past sins, they will be filled with the deepest contrition before God. But among the Gentiles, also, will the same holy ardour be expressed in returning to the Lordb: and therefore we will not confine our attention either to the one or to the other; but rather regard the words before us as expressive of genuine repentance wheresoever it exists; and as consequently declaring,

  I.      Our duty—

Of the Jews, it is said, “They shall go and seek the Lord their God.”

Now this is a duty,

  1.      Of universal obligation—

[There is not a man in the universe to whom it does not appertain. There is no man who has not sinned, “in departing from the living God;” and consequently, there is no man who does not need to seek his favour, and to implore mercy at his hands. The king upon the throne is not so elevated, but that he needs to turn to God in this way: nor is the meanest subject in his realm so insignificant, as that this can be dispensed with at his hands.]

  2.      Of prime and indispensable importance—

[There are many duties binding upon all, and all important in their place: but this is “the one thing needful;” the one thing, without which no man can have peace with God, or peace in his own conscience, or any hope of happiness in the eternal world.]

But in this passage we see also,

  II.      The manner in which it should be performed—

We must all seek the Lord,

  1.      With deep humiliation of soul—

[The Jews will look on Him whom they have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. But if they were the agents in the crucifixion of our Lord, our sins were the procuring cause; yea, and we have even “crucified the Son of God afresh,” by continuing in our sins. And who amongst us has not also “done despite unto the Spirit of grace,” “resisting” his sacred motions, till we have even “quenched” them in our souls? It is not, surely, necessary that we should have committed flagrant acts of immorality, in order to call for humiliation before God: the whole state of our souls, from the first moment of our existence to the present hour, shews how totally we have fallen from God, and what contrition becomes us in our return to him. The man that thinks a less measure of shame and sorrow becomes him, because he has not been guilty of any atrocious crime, has yet to learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the desert of every child of man before God. Methinks it is scarcely necessary to remind you, that you must “sow in tears, if you would reap in joy; and that they only who go on their way weeping, bearing precious seed, can ever hope to come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.”]

  2.      With diligent inquiries after the way of life—

[The Jews, dispersed throughout the world, will have to make many inquiries, when once they have set out towards the promised land. And we also, at this time, need to “ask the way towards Zion,” even after “our faces are directed thitherward,” There is but one way, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ; who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” But we do not readily find that way: we have many paths which nature points out, and which we greatly prefer: we would come to God in a way of self-righteousness and self-dependence, instead of relying solely and exclusively on the Lord Jesus Christ. Besides, at our first seeking after God, there will arise many doubts respecting the precise path in which it is our duty to proceed, and in relation to which the more experienced Christian may be well qualified to instruct us. To avail ourselves of all possible information, is our wisdom; and especially to seek direction from God in prayer: and it is in answer to such inquiries only that we can hope to “hear a voice behind us, saying, “This is the way; walk ye in it.”]

  3.      With a fixed determination of heart to give ourselves unreservedly unto God—

[This is implied in entering into covenant with God. A man may make a promise, which yet he has no deliberate determination to keep: but if he enter into a solemn covenant with God, as Josiah did, he shews that he is altogether in earnest, and that he is engaged in a transaction which it is his solemn purpose “never to forget.” In this way should every Penitent approach his God; solemnly giving up himself to him in his secret chamber; and openly also, at the table of the Lord; from henceforth renouncing all other lords, and cleaving only to his God and Saviour, in newness of heart and life. In truth, the real penitent will not be content to go to heaven alone. He will propose to those around him to unite in the blessed work in which he has engaged. In perfect accordance with the Church of old, he says, “Draw me; and we will run after thee:” that is, ‘Draw me, O God; and I will never willingly come to thee alone.’]

  And now let me ASK,

  1.      Who amongst you are inclined to make this proposal?

[Verily, there is a sad want of zeal, even in multitudes of whom, in the judgment of charity, we should say, They are in the way to heaven, We do not find that holy boldness for the Lord, which every penitent should feel; nor that compassion for man, which a just sense of our own danger would naturally inspire. We affect prudence; or, in other words, we shun the cross which a more decided conduct would bring upon us. But so did not St. Paul, or any of the saints of old. They imparted to others the light they had received; and sought to introduce others to the Saviour whom they had found. Let us go and do likewise: and if this zeal will characterize the piety of the latter day, let it not be found wanting in the religion which we profess.]

  2.      Who amongst you would accede to it, if made?

[We wish to lower the standard of true repentance. ‘Surely, a less measure of humiliation will suffice for me; nor can such diligence and self-devotion be required of me.’ But that which will be the duty of men in the latter day, must be our duty now: and therefore settle it in your minds, that we must be wholly for God, if we would obtain favour at his hands; and that, “whatsoever our hand findeth to do, we must,” if we would succeed, “engage in it with all our might.”]

MLXXXVII

GOD’S MERCY TO HIS PEOPLE

  Jer. 50:20.

In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

THE promises of God in his word are said to be “exceeding great and precious:” and, in truth, they are so great, that we are apt to feel a jealousy respecting them, as though they were not sufficiently guarded: they are apt to appear to us too free, too full, too unqualified, too fixed. Hence we would clog them with limitations and conditions: we would confine them to objects in whom should be found some antecedent worthiness, and suspend the performance of them upon the faithfulness of man. I mean not, by this observation, to say, that great caution is not to be used in the application of them to individual persons; for I well know, that men may easily deceive themselves respecting their own personal interest in them: but I mean to say, that God’s blessings are his own; that he has a right to confer them on whomsoever he will; and that he both does, and will, bestow them according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, without respect to any previous goodness in man, or any dependence on man’s strength for the performance of conditions previously imposed upon him. See to whom the promise in my text is made. It is made to the Jewish people, in their present dispersion. For, if we suppose it to have been in part accomplished by the two tribes renouncing idolatry upon their return from Babylon, yet it can be only in part that it can have been fulfilled at that time; because it is evident that, since the return of the Jews from Babylon, “their sins have been found,” and visited too, in wrathful indignation, for many hundreds of years. At a period, however, that is fast approaching, God’s elect among them shall be restored to his favour, and be made partakers of everlasting felicity in his immediate presence.

In considering these words, I shall notice,

  I.      The extent of God’s mercy to his chosen people—

God’s people are constantly represented as a remnant—

[Such they have been in all ages of the world; and at different periods they have been “a very small remnant:” but, whether more or less numerous, they are, as the Apostle calls them, “a remnant according to the election of grace.” It is, in fact, for the sake of God’s elect that are yet unborn, that the wickedness of many who are now living is endured. God says, respecting many a corrupt and worthless plant, “Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it.”]

For them, however, God designs the richest mercy—

[When he returns unto them in mercy, which, at his appointed period, he will do, he will vouchsafe to them blessings far beyond any that he conferred upon his people of old. To those who approached him with their sacrifices, he dispensed a pardon for some sins only, and that only till the time should come for a renewal of the same sacrifices: but to his remnant who believe in Christ, and seek acceptance through his all-atoning sacrifice, he imparts a full and perfect remission of all sin; so that, whatever iniquity they may have committed in their unconverted state, it shall be altogether and for ever cancelled: “it shall be blotted out, even as a morning cloud,” which passes over the earth, and is seen no more; and it shall be “cast behind God’s back,” never to be seen again; and “into the very depths of the seae,” from whence it shall never be recovered. In a word, he covenants with them to “remember their sins no more;” so that, whoever may “search for them, they shall be found no more” for ever. God will henceforth view them, not as they are in themselves, but as they are in Christ, “without spot or blemishg.” Clothed in his perfect righteousness, they are presented faultless before God, and they are so regarded by God himself to their exceeding joy.”]

In further noticing this glorious promise, I must proceed to mark,

  II.      The interest which the Jews have in it—

We ought not to overlook this; which is, in fact, the direct object which God himself has in his view—

[It is evidently spoken respecting the Jews: and though we do right in applying it to God’s elect people generally, we do exceeding wrong in overlooking those to whom it primarily belongs. We are ready to think that the conversion and salvation of the Jews is a subject in which we have no interest: and on this account, we almost grudge the mention of it in a Christian assembly. On the conversion of the Gentiles we are at liberty to expatiate: but a few words on the restoration of God’s ancient people will be deemed more than sufficient, unless the particular occasion demand for it a distinct and formal consideration. But we err exceedingly in this, and cast a veil over numberless prophecies, which, if duly explained, would open to us all the mysteries of God’s love, to the very end of time.]

As applied to the Jews, the promise should fill us with unutterable joy—

[It is plain that it primarily belongs to them. And should it not be an occasion of joy to us to reflect, that amongst them God has a remnant, “whom he has reserved for himself,” and to whom the promise in my text will be fulfilled in its utmost extent? I call upon you, then, to contemplate this blessed event; and to hasten forward, by all possible means, the destined period. Even supposing that their national conversion were not near at hand, I should say, it is nearer than it was in the Apostle’s days; and that if he, at that distant period, laboured to the utmost to turn to the faith of Christ the remnant of God’s hidden ones among them, much more should we do it now: and therefore I commend to you this part of my subject, as deserving at all times the deepest attention — — —]

But that we may bring home the promise to ourselves, let us consider,

  III.      The effect which the contemplation of it should produce on us—

Have we any hope that we are of the number of God’s elect? Let the thought of his promised mercy fill us with,

  1.      Humiliation—

[Can we reflect a moment on the thought that our sins are thus blotted out, and not stand amazed at the riches of God’s sovereign grace? Truly, we should be altogether lost in wonder, love, and praise: and the more assured our hope is, that God has forgiven us, the more determined we should be never to forgive ourselves. We should go softly all our days, in the remembrance of our sins; and should “lothe ourselves for our abominations,” in proportion as we hope that “God is pacified towards us.”]

  2.      Gratitude—

[What bounds should there be to our thankfulness before God? Methinks our language day and night should be, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?” This, at all events, we should do: we should shew our indignation against sin, which is so hateful in his eyes; and take occasion from his mercies to devote ourselves to him in a way of holy and unreserved obedience.]

  3.      Affiance—

[St. Paul well says, “If God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” The same conclusion would I draw from that perfect forgiveness which God vouchsafes to his believing people: Has he so blotted out our iniquities, and will he refuse us strength to resist and mortify sin in future? Has he rescued us thus from all the powers of darkness, and will he again suffer them to pluck us out of his hands? No: we may ask with confidence, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect,” or condemn so much as one of his believing people? In all that lie has done, in redeeming us from death, he has given us a pledge of what he will hereafter do; and never will he suffer any one to “separate us from his love in Christ Jesus our Lord.”]

MLXXXVIII

GOD’S MERCY CONTRASTED WITH OUR SINFULNESS

  Jer. 51:5.

Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of Ms God, of the Lord of Hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

THE peculiar people of God in their most afflictive circumstances have a sure prospect of a happy deliverance. But his enemies in their most prosperous state are only like beasts fattening for the slaughter. The Jews were reduced to the lowest ebb of misery in Babylon, on account of their multiplied iniquities: yet did God promise to restore them to their native land. On the contrary, the Babylonians, who were exalted to the highest pitch of grandeur, were in due time to be altogether extirpated. Both these events were foretold by the prophet in this and the preceding chapters: and, in the text, he appeals to the Jews that they had not been forsaken, notwithstanding the abundant cause they had afforded for an utter dereliction—

From these words we shall take occasion to consider,

  I.      The provocations we have given to God,

  1.      In our national capacity—

[All “sin,” of whatever kind, is properly and primarily “against the Holy One of Israel.” Now there is no sin, whether against the first or second table of the law, which has not abounded in this land — — — Nor is there any rank or order of men, from the highest to the lowest, that have not yielded up themselves as willing servants to sin and Satan — — — Even the flock of Christ itself, both the pastors who watch over it, and the people who compose it, have contributed in no small degree to the tremendous mass of iniquity, that has incensed our God against us — — —]

  2.      In our individual capacity—

[Since a sight of others’ sins rarely begets any true humiliation in us, let each of us in particular search out his own. Let our thoughts, words, and actions be strictly scrutinized. Let those sins which are more immediately against God, be inquired into; our pride, our impenitence, our unbelief, our ingratitude for temporal blessings, and especially for the unspeakable gift of God’s dear Son; our obstinate resistance of God’s Holy Spirit, together with all our neglect of duties, or our coldness in the performance of them; let these be counted up, and be set in order before us; and the very best of men will see cause for the deepest humiliation; yea, we shall wonder that we have not long since been made like to Sodom and Gomorrha.]

Having taken a view of our sins, let us contrast with them,

  II.      The mercies God has vouchsafed to us—

Justly have we deserved to be entirely abandoned by our God—

[The history of the Jews shews us what we ourselves deserve. He himself bids us go to Shiloh, and see what he did to it for the wickedness of his people. Indeed the whole of his dealings with them in their Assyrian and Babylonish captivity, and in their present dispersion, may teach us what we might well expect at his hands — — —]

But he has not dealt with us according to our desert—

[He has “not forsaken us” as a nation. In proof of this, we appeal to the comparative lightness of our troubles—the signal interpositions with which we have been favoured in the midst of our troubles—and lastly, the happy termination of them, by a seasonable restoration both of peace and plenty.

Nor has he forsaken us as individuals. He is yet calling us by his word, and striving with us by his Spirit. And we behold amongst us the evident tokens of his presence, in that sinners are yet awakened to repentance, and saints are edified in faith and love.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Let the long-suffering of God be gratefully acknowledged—

[We should “account the long-suffering of God to be salvation.” Let us not, however, rest in carnal mirth; but let his temporal mercies to our land, and his spiritual mercies to our souls, call forth our liveliest gratitude and our devoutest praise.]

  2.      Let it also be practically improved—

[In the words immediately following our text, the prophet says, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his own soul.” It was the duty of the Jews to cast on their bondage as soon as God should open a way for their escape. Thus must we also cast off the servitude in which we have been detained, and go forth from amongst all the enemies of God. If we continue in sin, we must take our portion with the ungodly. But if we give up ourselves unreservedly to God, he will blot out our past iniquities in the blood of his Son, and make us partakers of an everlasting salvation.

MLXXXIX

DUTY OF ACKNOWLEDGING GOD’S MERCIES

             Jer. 51:10.

Come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God!

THE prophets, whilst foretelling future events, are often transported in spirit to the period of which they speak; and are enabled to see, as it were, the events themselves actually passing before their eyes. Hence, if they speak of the rise or fall of kingdoms, they behold the armies marching to their destination, engaging in the conflict, and either conquering or conquered, according as the Governor of the universe has fore-ordained. This is peculiarly manifest in relation to the destruction of Babylon; which is more frequently and more fully predicted than any other event, except those which immediately relate to God’s chosen people. It is of that event that the prophet speaks in the chapter before us, as he has also done in the preceding chapter. Having said in the foregoing verses that God would “send fanners to Babylon, to fan,” to destroy her, though the event was not to take place for sixty years, yet he says, “This is the time of the Lord’s recompence;” and then exclaims, “Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed! howl ye for her!” He then speaks of the deliverance of the Jews from their captivity as already effected, and calls on them to declare in Zion the wonders which God had wrought for them: “The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness (that is, our deliverance): come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.”

It is not of future events that we are now called to speak, but of things accomplished, as it were, before our eyes, and of things that demand our most grateful acknowledgment.

Let us consider,

  I.      What is that work which we are now called to declare—

At no period of our history had we ever more reason to bless and adore our God than at this day. The mercies vouchsafed to us have been exceeding great and numerous. We cannot enter into them indeed very fully; but we will suggest some distinct heads, under which they may be arranged for your own more easy and profitable contemplation of them. Consider them then as agricultural and commercial, political and religious. Consider,

  1.      The agricultural—

[Heavy was the pressure on all the lower orders of society, by reason of the dearness of provisions, throughout the last year: and, if the late harvest had been as unproductive as that which preceded it, their distress would have been at this hour exceeding great. But God in his mercy vouchsafed to us a very abundant harvest, so that now all may “eat and be satisfied, and bless the name of their God.” True it is, that other things still continue at a high price: but that very circumstance only shews us the more forcibly, how rich a mercy it is to have plenty of that which is “the staff of life.” In enumerating then the mercies for which we have now peculiar reason to be thankful, let us not be unmindful of that in which the great mass of the community are so deeply interested, and which is perhaps the first of all national blessings.]

  2.      Commercial—

[To abridge and to destroy our commerce has been the incessant labour of our enemies: and to such a state was it reduced, that it could scarcely be carried on to any extent, without involving; all the persons engaged in it in the guilt of perjury. The whole continent almost was closed against us: and whatever was surreptitiously introduced there, was subjected to such peril, as to prove a most serious discouragement to all commercial enterprise. But now, within these few weeks only, the whole continent is anxious to receive our goods: our manufactures are revived; our people, who during the last year were almost in a state of insurrection on account of the want of work, are employed; and a good prospect is opened to us of increased and permanent prosperity. This, whether viewed in its aspect on individuals or the nation at large, is another blessing, which ought on no account to be overlooked.]

  3.      Political—

[Who that looks back to the earlier period of the French Revolution, and recollects what sentiments of insubordination and sedition pervaded the land, must not be surprised at the change that has taken place in relation to those things? Formerly the cry of liberty and equality was raised in almost every place, to instigate the people to throw off all submission to the Government: and such was the delusion by which the minds of many were blinded, that thousands were panting to destroy the constitution, and to establish a democracy in its place. The same bloody scenes as took place in France were preparing for this land also; and so great and general was the infatuation, that many, even of religious characters, were ready to help forward the designs and efforts of those who sought our ruin. But now the excellence of our constitution is duly appreciated; the persons who were once ready to subvert it have now seen their error; and perhaps there is scarcely a man in the land who would not willingly die in its defence. Nor is this change peculiar to us: it is now seen in every part of Europe; and those very people who banished their former Rulers, and overturned fill their former establishments, are now desirous of returning to the state they have forsaken, and are actually fighting for the restoration of their former Governments. Thus has order taken the place of anarchy, and respect for constituted authorities banished from amongst us the demon of discontent.]

  4.      Religious—

[With a contempt for all ancient institutions, there went forth an utter disregard of Revealed Religion. Infidelity stalked abroad, as it were, at noon-day. It no longer blushed to shew its face, but obtruded itself upon the attention of all; and reviled, as enemies to sense and reason, all who dared to maintain the cause of God in the world. Philosophy forsooth was deemed a safer guide than the voice of inspiration; and the word of God itself was held up to ridicule, as a composition of falsehood and absurdity. How different is the state of things amongst us at this time! The Holy Scriptures are revered and honoured to a degree altogether unprecedented and unknown in this country. All ranks and orders of men amongst us not only receive the sacred volume as true, but stand forth to advocate its cause, and to extend the knowledge of it to every quarter of the globe. If we judged from the zeal exerted for the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, we should be ready to think that the Millennial period were already come. But, though we cannot yet congratulate ourselves on such an extensive change as this, we nevertheless behold a most astonishing increase of true religion in the land. We are happy too to declare, that a similar spirit is rising in other lands; and that, “whilst God’s judgments have been poured out so awfully and so extensively upon the earth, the inhabitants thereof have been learning righteousness.”

These then are mercies which may well “be declared in Zion,” and which we are now called in a more especial manner to commemorate.]

Having drawn your attention to some of those mercies which deserve especial notice at this time, I proceed to shew,

  II.      In what manner we should declare them—

  Since these mercies are so great and numerous, let us all unite in IMPROVING them as we ought to do:

  1.      Let us acknowledge God in them—

[Who is it that “hath wrought all these deliverances for us?” Is it our own hand, our own arm, that hath effected them? Who is it that gave us such a rich abundant harvest? We must be blind indeed, if we see not the hand of God in it — — — Who is it that hath opened all the ports of the continent to our manufactures? Backward as men are to trace the operation of God in such things, there is scarcely a person in the land that does not say, “This is thine hand; and thou, Lord, hast done it!” And must we not trace the revolution of sentiment to the same source? Who but God can “still the madness of the people?” It is he, and he alone, that “turneth the heart, whether of princes or of people, whithersoever he willf.” Above all, to whose agency must we refer that great work of dispelling the clouds of infidelity, and of making his light to shine into the hearts of men? Truly, none but He “who commanded the light to shine out of darkness” at the first creation of the world, is sufficient for these things. In reference then to every thing that has been done for us, we must say, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name be the praise!”]

  2.      We must adore him for them—

[It is not a cold and speculative acknowledgment only that we are called to make: our hearts should be warmed with a sense of God’s mercies: and our lips be devoutly occupied in his praise. The first effect indeed which they should have upon our minds is, to fill us with wonder and admiration of the Divine goodness: but when we have, as it were, recovered from the overwhelming sense of his goodness, then should we declare it, and publish it with all the powers of our souls. Look at David, when recounting the mercies God had vouchsafed to Israeli: such is the language which well befits us on the present occasion; yea, we should “make our boast in God all the day long, and praise his name for ever and ever.” In this way “we must declare his work, if we would wisely consider of his doingl.”]

  3.      Let us, by anticipation, bless God for the yet richer mercies which he has in reserve for us—

[We began with observing, that “the deliverance” from Babylon was yet distant, at least sixty years, though the prophet spoke of it as already accomplished. So may we look forward to the blessings which are made over to us by the sure word of promise, and may even now bless God for them as though they were already possessed. As Abraham rejoiced at the prospect of the day of Christ, just as if he had actually seen it with his eyes, so may we do, and so we ought to do, in reference to his future advent to reign on earth. Then will peace and plenty, and truth and righteousness, prevail throughout the world. Then shall men “beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and they will learn war no more.” Then “Judah will no more vex Ephraim, nor Ephraim envy Judah,” but all will “sit harmonious and contented under their own vine and fig-tree.” “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid:” nor shall any hurt or destroy in God’s holy mountain. Then, whilst plenty abounds in every place, “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.” O what a day of wonders will that be! It is our privilege to look forward to it, and even to see it now, as it were, before our eyes. See how the prophet, who lived almost three thousand years ago, beheld it, and gloried in the sight! and shall not we, who are almost on the very eve of that day? We have no doubt but that all these events, which have been taking place in the world these twenty years, are preparing the way for the promised advent of our Lord. Let us then anticipate it with joy and gratitude: let us adore our God for giving such prospects to sinful man: and let us endeavour to hasten it forward by every possible exertion in the cause of Christ.]

LAMENTATIONS

Lam. 1:9.

Lam. 3:22, 23.

Lam. 3:25.

Lam. 3:27–29.

Lam. 3:31–33.

Lam. 3:54–57.

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THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT REMEMBERING OUR LATTER END

             Lam. 1:9.

She remembereth not her lost end; therefore she came down wonderfully.

TO men in general nothing appears sinful but that which violates in the grossest manner some positive command, and interrupts in a very high degree the welfare of society. But God considers an unprofitable servant as meriting the same doom as the dishonest; and informs us, that an unmindfulness of our latter end will bring his judgments upon us, no less than a determined commission of every thing that is evil.

The Prophet Jeremiah is lamenting the sore bondage under which his country groaned in Babylon, and is assigning the reasons for which God had thus rejected her. But in doing this, he does not fix on any one particular sin, however great; but on that which had pervaded all ranks of people, their unmindfulness of their latter end.

In his words we read,

  I.      Their sin—

This is the common sin of all mankind—

[Moses had forewarned the Jews of the things that should come upon them in the latter days: but they had never duly considered his predictions, nor laboured to avert the threatened calamities. Thus has God warned us also of the miseries which the wicked shall endure in another world: but we will not regard his admonitions. The gay, the worldly, the ambitious, are intent on their several pursuits; but none says “Where is God my Maker?” Even those who profess some regard for religion, are yet, for the most part, very little engaged in a preparation for eternity: their zeal, in the pursuit of heavenly things, bears no proportion to the importance of their object, or even to the labours which others use for the attainment of worldly vanities.]

Nor let this be thought a venial matter—

[This it was, which brought down Jerusalem: and it will involve us also in the heaviest calamities. And well it may: for it is a contempt of God our Maker. In this view he himself complains of it; and he represents all his attributes and perfections as dishonoured by itd. It is also a contempt of Christ our Saviour. He had even “died, to purify us unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works:” but, by our indifference, we make light of his mercies, and trample on his bloodf. Finally, it is a contempt of our own souls. The most avowed enemies of God and his Christ profess to have some regard for their immortal souls: but God, who will not put a wrong construction upon our actions, tells us, that “he who refuseth instruction, despiseth his own soul.” Indeed this is but too manifest; since the man who remembers not his latter end, practically says, ‘Give me the things which my body most affects; and, as for my soul, I care not for it: if my soul can be saved, notwithstanding my indulgence of the body, it is well: but if their interests clash, I will gratify my body, though at the peril, yea, to the certain destruction, of my soul.’

Can that then be light and venial, which involves in it such awful consequences? Surely, though no flagrant crime were ever committed, this alone would be sufficient to bring upon us God’s eternal wrath and indignation.]

The evil of such conduct will abundantly appear, if we notice,

  II.      Their punishment—

The downfall of Jerusalem was a fit emblem of that which awaits impenitent transgressors—

[Let us only compare the departure of Israel out of Egypt, guided, protected, and supported by God himself, and their establishment and increase in the land of Canaan, with, their miserable condition when they were carried captive to Babylon: “How was the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!” Thus wonderful will be our destruction also, if we continue to forget our latter end.]

God himself warns us that our destruction will be great if we neglect our souls—

[It will be sudden — — — tremendousi — — — irremediable — — — and eternall — — —

Let us reflect on the change experienced by the Rich Man in the parable; and we may conceive a little of that surprise and horror that will seize on us in the instant of our departure from the body.

Let us also, if we would escape this doom, regard the solemn warning, and the compassionate advice, which God himself has recorded for our instruction.]

  We may IMPROVE this subject yet further,

  1.      For the warning even of real Christians—

[We will suppose that your concern for your souls is such as to secure eternal happiness: yet a declension in holy zeal will produce a proportionable declension both in your graces and your comforts. Let those who have ever experienced the blessedness of living nigh to God, and of being on the wing for heaven, compare it with the darkness and misery of a drooping and deserted state; and they will see enough to make them watchful against spiritual decays, and increasingly mindful of their eternal interests.]

  2.      For their comfort and encouragement—

[There is a truth, not expressed indeed, but evidently implied in the text, namely, That all who remember their latter end, shall be wonderfully exalted. And what an encouraging truth is this. Let any one view Lazarus at the Rich Man’s gate, and in Abraham’s bosom, and he will see what a wonderful exaltation awaits the righteous at their departure hence. Even here the children of the devil, as soon as ever they believe in Christ, become “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty:” but hereafter they shall reign with him as partners of his glory. Let this hope then animate the Christian in his difficulties, and stimulate us all to more abundant diligence in our heavenly callings.]

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THE VIEWS OF A SAINT IN HIS AFFLICTIONS

  Lam. 3:22, 23.

It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

IT is in affliction chiefly that the children of God attain to any considerable eminence in religion. By trouble, they are led to realize their principles; and to seek at the fountain-head those consolations which the broken cisterns of this world are no longer able to supply. If David had never been an object of persecution to his enemies, we may well doubt whether he would ever have soared as he did in heavenly contemplations, or evinced such transcendent piety as glows throughout his Psalms. Jeremiah was a man deeply conversant with trouble; as he says: “I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.” But what sublime lessons does he teach us in the words which we have just read! Truly we may see in these words,

  I.      The views of a saint under affliction—

A man undisciplined in the school of affliction pores over his troubles, and thereby greatly disquiets his own soul. But a man who is taught of God will have his mind very differently occupied. He will delight rather in contemplating,

  1.      The lightness of his affliction, in comparison of his deserts—

[Who, that calls to mind the multitude of his past transgressions, must not justify God in all his dispensations, however painful they may be to flesh and blood? “Shall a living man complain, (he will say,) a man for the punishment of his sins?” No: he will acknowledge that hell itself is his proper portion; and that any thing short of that is far “less than his iniquities have deserved.” Instead, therefore, of complaining, like Cain, that “his punishment is greater than he can beard,” he will say, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that I am not utterly consumed, even because his compassions fail not.”]

  2.      The multitude of the mercies yet continued to him—

[An ungodly man, because lie is bereaved of some comforts, will overlook all the others which he is still privileged to possess. But a real saint will think how much worse his state might have been, and how man y blessings are still continued to him. He will say, My troubles are few; but my mercies are greatly multiplied: “they are new every morning.” His rest by night, his comforts by day, and, above all, his constant access to God in prayer, and the rich Communications of grace and peace received from him, these things, I say, will fill him with holy gratitude, and turn all his sorrows into joy.]

  3.      The unchangeableness of God under all his dispensations—

[The saint will not regard God as an arbitrary Governor, that orders every thing from caprice; but as a covenant God, who has engaged to provide for his people whatever may conduce to their best interests. Hence, under the pressure of his troubles, he will call to mind that God has said, He would “correct his people in measure, and not leave them altogether unpunished.” In this view, lie acknowledges that “God in very faithfulness has afflicted himf.” Indeed, the faithfulness of God is that which, in such seasons, he contemplates with peculiar delight: “Why art thou cast clown, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”]

In opening to you these views, I wish particularly to mark,

  II.      The beauty of religion as displayed in them—

Philosophy will do much to produce a resignation to the will of God. Indeed, common sense teaches us that it is in vain to murmur and repine at our troubles, and that the more patiently we bear our trials, the more we diminish their force. But the views which we have been considering, produce far more exalted effects. Behold,

  1.      How they compose the mind—

[You see in this afflicted saint a meek submission, far different from any that philosophy can produce. Behold how he kisses the rod, and blesses the hand that smites him; and sees nothing but mercy, where an ungodly man would have noticed nothing but severity and wrath. Thus “he enjoys a light in the midst of darkness;” and realizes the parable of Samson; “Out of the eater he brings forth meat, and out of the strong he brings forth sweet.”]

  2.      How they elevate the soul—

[Behold the prophet, how he soars above self, and rises superior to all the dictates of sense! He forgets, as it were, his trials, in the contemplation of his mercies; and overlooks the chastisement, by reason of the love from whence it proceeds. This is a nobility of mind to which no philosopher ever could attain, and an elevation of sentiment which nothing but divine grace could ever inspire.]

  3.      How they honour God—

[Here the darkest dispensations are acknowledged, as the fruits of a wisdom that cannot err, of a love that knows no bounds, of a fidelity that can never change. Methinks, if there were no other end for which afflictions were sent, this were sufficient to reconcile us unto all; for if they lead to such discoveries of God, and such an ascription of praise to him, they more than compensate for all the pain that they occasion during the pressure of them on our minds.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      To those who know but little of affliction—

[A slight and superficial religion may satisfy you at present; but you will find it of little service when you come into trouble: nothing but deep piety will support you then. If you would be prepared for trials, you must get a sense of your own exceeding sinfulness, and of the wonderful mercies vouchsafed to you through the sufferings of the Son of God. Then the heaviest trials will appear light, yea, as nothing in comparison of your deserts, and nothing in comparison of the obligations conferred upon you.]

  2.      To those who have been brought into deep waters—

[Look not on your afflictions as tokens of God’s wrath, but rather as expressions of his love. There is a need for them, else they never would have been sent; and if they operate to purify your souls from dross, you will have reason to be thankful for them to all eternity. Be not, then, so anxious for the removal of your trials, as for the sanctification of them to your souls. Make but the improvement of them which is suggested in my text, and you will have reason to adore God for them as the richest blessings that could be conferred upon you.]

MXCII

THE GOODNESS OF GOD TO SUPPLIANTS

             Lam. 3:25.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

“THE earth,” we are told, “is full of the goodness of the Lord:” and indeed it is not possible to behold the universe at large, or to inspect with accuracy any thing that is contained in it, without being convinced that God is good to all, and that his tender mercy is over all his works” But to the humble suppliant he manifests his goodness in a more especial manner, as we are informed in the words before us: from which we shall take occasion to notice,

  I.      The character here given of the Deity—

The humble suppliant is an object of his peculiar regard. To him he will pay attention,

  1.      In a way of merciful acceptance—

[He may have sinned grievously, and for a long season; yea, he may have equalled even Manasseh himself in his iniquities, and yet find mercy with the Lord, provided he seek for it in humble, earnest, and believing prayer — — — He may have even backslidden from God, and fallen grievously, after having long professed himself a servant of God; and yet, on his repentance, God will heal his backslidings, and love him freelyd — — — There are no bounds to the mercy of God towards returning penitents — — —]

  2.      In a way of friendly communication—

[Let any soul “draw nigh to God, and God will draw nigh unto him:” and let him “open his mouth ever so wide, God will fill it.” Does he need direction in difficulties? God will cause him to “hear a voice behind him, saying, This is the way; walk thou in ith.” Is he in deep affliction? God will afford him such a measure of support and consolation as his necessities shall require. Does he need peculiar supplies of grace and strength? God will give him “grace sufficient for himk,” and “strength according to his day.”]

  3.      In a way of gracious recompence—

[Not a sigh or groan shall pass unheeded by Almighty God, nor a tear fall without being treasured up in his vialsn. And at the last day he will bear testimony to all the efforts which the contrite soul has made, and will compensate it with an eternal weight of glory; not indeed as a reward of debt, but as a reward of grace, which he has promised to all who seek him in his Son’s namep.]

And now what language will be sufficient to express,

  II.      The encouragement afforded by it—

To enter fully into this would occupy us too long. I will confine myself therefore to the hints suggested in my text. Surely this view of the Deity may encourage all of us,

  1.      To seek him with earnestness—

[Were God regardless of the prayers of the poor destitute, we night well sit down in despair. But “he invites to him the weary and heavy-laden;” and says, “Call upon me in the time of trouble, and I will bear thee, and thou shalt glorify me” We may well therefore go to him, and “pour out our hearts before him,” and plead with him, yea, and “wrestle with him,” as Jacob did, determining “not to let him go until he bless us.” This, so far from offending him, will rather be most acceptable to his Divine Majesty; because he bids us “seek him with our whole hearts” and with our whole souls — — —]

  2.      To wait for him with patience—

[God may have many wise and gracious reasons for deferring his answers to our prayers: he may wish to embitter sin to us; to humble our souls move deeply; to make us more sensible of our need of mercy, and of our entire dependence on his grace. He may choose this way of weaning us from the world, of quickening us in all our duties, of advancing our attainments in the divine life, and of fitting us for greater usefulness to our fellow-sinners. He may delay his answers, so long as to make us doubt whether he has not “forgotten to be gracious unto us, and shut up his loving-kindness from us in displeasure.” But, knowing his character, we should never abandon ourselves to despair, but “tarry his leisure;” and determine, if we perish, to perish at the foot of the cross, crying for mercy in Jesu’s name. However long “the vision may tarry, we should wait for it,” in a full and perfect confidence that “it shall not tarry” one single moment beyond what God in his wisdom sees to be the fittest time. Of this we may assure ourselves, that “none shall ever seek his face in vain.”]

  APPLICATION—

  1.      Let none of us, then, neglect the duty of prayer—

[Prayer is indispensably required, in order to our obtaining of the Divine favour — — — And “if we have not, it is either because we ask not, or because we ask amissu. Brethren, remember, I pray you, what you have at stake; and trifle not in your approaches to the Most High God, as if he could be deceived by formal and heartless petitions. Could it once be said of you, “Behold, he prayeth!” we should have a good hope respecting you: but if you live not nigh to God, in the exercise of fervent prayer, we must declare to you, that God’s goodness, so far as it respects you, will speedily come to an end, and be turned into wrathful indignation: for he has said, that “he will pour out his fury upon all who restrain prayer before him, and call not on his name.”]

  2.      Let us, in particular, exercise faith in prayer—

[A man “who asks with a wavering mind, can receive nothing of the Lord.” Believe that “he is good,” according as he has said, to all who “call upon him in spirit and in truth.” You are authorized to expect at his hands whatever you ask, provided the conferring of it will tend to your welfare, and to the honour of his name. His promise to you is, “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask, believing, ye shall receivea.” “Be strong, then, in faith, giving glory to him;” and “never be straitened in yourselves, since you need never fear that ye shall be straitened in him:” for, as he is able, so is he also willing, to give you exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or even think.”]

MXCIII

THE BENEFIT OF EARLY AFFLICTIONS

  Lam. 3:27–29.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

THERE are in the Holy Scriptures many passages which appear strange and paradoxical, but which do indeed contain the most important truths. “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting,” says Solomon: and again, “Sorrow is better than laughter.” These, taken in conjunction with our text, “It is good for a man that be bear the yoke in his youth,” are as much opposed to the general sense of mankind, as any assertions can be: yet, the more they are considered, the more just and important will they be found. The truth is, that men judge of things only by their reference to time; but God’s estimate is formed with a more; immediate reference to eternity. If we consider only the operation of natural causes, we may see that the declaration in our text is just: for it is a common proverb, that ‘practice makes easy;’ and the earlier we are initiated into any art or science, the greater progress in it may be expected: but trials are indispensably necessary for the exercise of many of the Christian virtues: faith is called forth by difficulties; meekness and patience by provocations; forgiveness by injuries: so that a growth in these graces may be considered as materially advanced by early and long-continued occasions for their exercise. But, such is the corruption of our nature, that we need trials to purge it away: it is by fire that even good men must be refined from their dross: and, if we are called to experience afflictions in early life, we may hope our improvement will be proportionably great. In confirmation of this sentiment, we propose to shew the benefit of early afflictions.

  I.      In a general point of view—

David, who had had a long and early experience of troubles, confessed “it was good for him that he had been afflicted.” And beyond a doubt, much benefit may be reaped,

  1.      From temporal afflictions—

[The loss of health, of friends, of property, are heavy afflictions — — — yet, if duly improved, they may become real blessings to the soul. Illness in early life, though in many respects to be lamented and deprecated, tends exceedingly to counteract the vanity of the youthful mind, and the ardour of youthful passions. It renders a person sober, thoughtful, temperate, and willing to listen to subjects of a more serious cast; and keeps him from innumerable snares and difficulties, to which a buoyant spirit and a vigorous constitution would have exposed him.

Bereavements also (whether of friends or property), and disappointments in life, give us an early taste of the emptiness of the world, and the vanity of all created enjoyments. They have a tendency to direct the mind to higher pursuits, and to make us seek satisfaction, where alone it can be found, in the knowledge, the service, and the enjoyment, of God. The more we are made to feel that the creature is only a broken cistern, the more shall we be disposed to seek our consolation in the fountain of living waters.]

  2.      From spiritual afflictions—

[These are far heavier than any which mere temporal things can ever produce. “A man may sustain any trial respecting earthly things; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Yet are the groans and mournings of a deserted soul far preferable to the mirth and gaiety of a thoughtless sinner. A fear of God’s wrath, though so distressing to the soul, has indeed a kindly influence upon us. How does it embitter to us the remembrance of former sins! How does it dispose us to desire true repentance, and to long for an interest in the Saviour! What a different aspect does the sacred volume bear under such a state of mind! and how tremendous its threatenings; how glorious its promises! how happy they to whom those promises are made! In a word, an apprehension of God’s wrath assimilates the mind thus far to the mind of God himself; since it invariably inspires this thought, “Happy art thou, O Israel, O people saved by the Lord!”]

  3.      From afflictions for righteousness’ sake—

[These are often very deeply felt. A person who has embraced the Gospel feels in himself a change that should rather recommend him to the favour of the world: his tempera, his dispositions, his habits, his conduct, are all greatly improved; and yet he finds, that he is become an object of dislike, perhaps too of indignation and abhorrence. This is painful to the young disciple: when he begins to love his fellow-creatures, then he himself begins to be hated by then. His former habits, if ever so licentious, exposed him to a little blame perhaps, but not to hatred: but his love to the Gospel exposes him to all manner of hatred and contempt. This, I say, is painful; but yet it is very beneficial to his soul. He would be ready, like Lot, to linger in Sodom; but these persecutions tend to drive him out. They serve in a very peculiar manner to confirm in his mind the principles of the Gospel; because he is taught in that very Gospel to expect the treatment which he has received, and to bear his cross after Christ. He find too in the Gospel, that to suffer for righteousness’ sake is a matter for self-congratulation; that he is to “rejoice in it, and leap for joy;” to account it the highest honour; and to expect from it the richest reward. Thus a new set of feelings are brought into his soul; a set of feelings as far superior to any that he ever before experienced, as the most reined sensations of the soul are above the lowest appetites of a beast.]

But we will proceed to notice this subject,

  II.      In that particular view which is specified in the text—

There are two things in particular to which our attention is called, and which are of the greatest possible advantage to the soul;

  1.      Seclusion from the world—

[When there is nothing to oppress the mind, we are apt to be off our guard, and to degenerate into a dead and worldly name. We too easily mix with worldly company, and are thereby led to adopt their sentiments, and to drink into their spirit. But when trouble comes upon us, we lose our relish for society: we affect retirement rather, that we may muse over the subjects of our grief; or, as our text expresses it, “We sit alone, and keep silence.” O, who can estimate the benefits arising from this source? By communing with our own hearts in their secret chamber, we attain a knowledge, which is not to be gained either from men or books,—the knowledge of our own hearts. In these seasons too we gain such views of God, of his goodness, his mercy, his power, his grace, as are acquired only in the school of affliction. It is on these occasions also that the Lord Jesus Christ particularly endears himself to our souls, and communicates to us the abundance of his grace. In persons thus instructed there is for the most part a maturity of wisdom and of spiritual understanding that is rarely found amongst those who have never experienced the discipline of adversity. In comparison of others, they manifest the beauty and sweetness of religion in a high degree; excelling others as much as the experienced mariner does the man who has never combated a storm.]

  2.      Submission to God—

[“Tribulation worketh patience, experience, and hope.” By directing the thoughts inwards, it leads us to see, what abundant occasion there is within us for Divine chastisements, and how much more lenient they are than we deserve; and they dispose us to say, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.” At first, perhaps, nature revolts, and is impatient; but after a season, when we have “listened to the rod, and to Him that has appointed it,” we become desirous only that it may drive out the folly that is hound up in our hearts. Then “we put our mouths in the dust,” as penitents that are “dumb before God;” and we wait God’s time, “if so be there may be hope,” and his purpose may be ultimately accomplished, and the trials be sanctified to our eternal good. What a blessed state is this! like Aaron,“ to hold our peace;” like Eli, to say, “Let him do what seemeth him good;” like Job, to bless the Lord; and, like David, to say, “Thou in very faithfulness hast afflicted me!” Surely to learn such lessons as these in early life is most desirable: and, if they cannot be learned without affliction, there is no affliction so severe, but that it will be richly recompensed by such an attainment.]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who have experienced no particular affliction—

[Whilst, on account of God’s forbearance towards you, you have reason to be thankful, you have great reason also to fear: for, “if we are without chastisement, we are bastards, and not sons.” At all events, there is much danger lest you become sad witnesses of that truth, “The prosperity of fools destroys them.” Be watchful against the vanity of your deceitful hearts, and beg of God to augment towards you the Communications of his grace in proportion to your peculiar necessities.]

  2.      Those who are called to bear the yoke—

[Remember that your trials are the fruit of God’s love to your souls: for “whom he loveth, he chasteneth:” and, instead of thinking your lot hard, learn to “glory in your tribulations.” and to “take pleasure in your distresses”. It was not an ignorant or enthusiastic man that said, “We count them happy that endure;” and who from that conviction exhorts us, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” Only take eternity into the account, and all your trials will appear light and momentary in the view of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which they are working out for youg.]

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COMFORT FOR THE AFFLICTED

  Lam. 3:31–33.

The Lord will not cast off for ever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.

THE Prophet Jeremiah was, perhaps, above all other prophets, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. It is possible, indeed, that in this chapter he may speak in part as a representative of the Hebrew nation; but still there is so much which has an immediate reference to himself, that we cannot but consider it as a record of his own experience. At all events, the consolations which he administers, whether they refer to himself in his individual capacity, or to the people collectively, are suited to every person under heaven, whilst under the pressure of any trouble. To enlarge upon all the various topics which he adduces, would lead me too far, and would be the work of a large volume rather than of a single discourse. I shall content myself with noticing the subject so far only as it presents itself to us in the words which I have read: wherein you see,

Beyond a doubt, it is “God who causes grief”—

[It is remarkable that the prophet does not merely affirm this (though that would be an ample security for the truth of the position); but he takes it for granted; “Though he cause grief (which it must be acknowledged he does), yet will he have compassion.” To this truth the whole Scripture bears record. God expressly asserts it: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” Yea, so plain and undeniable is this truth, that the Prophet Amos appeals to us respecting it: “Is there evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?” Whatever we may imagine, “affliction comes not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring from the groundd:” but, whoever be the instrument that brings it upon us, God is in reality the Author of it; all creatures being only “as the axe or saw in the hands of Him that uses it,” for the effecting of his own purposes.]

It is no less our duty than our privilege to acknowledge this—

[It is our duty: for we are not to conceive of any thing as left to chance. This would be no better than Atheism. In fact, no man can for a moment indulge such a conceit, but through a total ignorance of God; leading him to imagine, that to attend to such numerous and minute concerns would be a trouble to God: whereas, He is as able to order every thing in heaven and earth, as he was to create the universe at first. And surely to have such a view of him, is an inestimable privilege; because, if nothing be done but by a God of infinite wisdom and goodness, nothing can be done which shall not issue in his glory and his people’s good. Whoever, then, be the immediate agent, it is our wisdom to trace every thing to the first great Cause of all; even as Job did, when, under all his complicated afflictions, he said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord”!]

On this truth depends,

  II.      The consolation that is provided for us under it—

This is stated, as it were,

  1.      In answer to our fears—

[When our trials are heavy and accumulated, we are ready to fear that they are sent in anger and will issue in our destruction. But God assures us, that “he does not afflict willingly, or grieve the children of men” without necessity. There is, if I may so speak, a “needs be” for them; some evil to be corrected, or some good to be administered. Earthly parents are sometimes led by caprice, and “correct their children for their pleasure:” but God never does it but “for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.”

As for our trials issuing in our destruction, the very reverse is God’s intent in sending them: he sends them “to humble us, and to prove us, and to do us good at our latter end.” Did he intend “to cast us off for ever,” he would rather say, “They are joined to idols: let them alonek.” But it is not so that God deals with his people. “He will not cast off his people, because it hath pleased him to make them his people.”. “He will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: but his loving-kindness will he not utterly take from them, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail: for once has he sworn, by his holiness, that he will not lie unto David,” the great Head and Representative of all his people.]

  2.      In accordance with our hopes—

[What does the afflicted soul desire but this, that “though God cause grief, yet will he have compassion?” This is what God does in the midst of the very chastisements he inflicts. “His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel,” even when for their iniquities he had delivered them into the hand of their enemies. Nor will he measure out his compassion according to our merits, but “according to the multitude of his own mercies.” Nothing less than this, indeed, will satisfy the afflicted soul: nor, indeed, will any thing less satisfy our compassionate God, who “in all our afflictions is himself afflicted; and who, in his love and in his pity, will effect our complete redemption.” The entire view of his dealings with us may be seen in his conduct towards his people of old: “Many times did he deliver them: but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless, he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry: and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.” “In a little wrath, he may hide his face from us for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will he have mercy upon usq.”]

  APPLICATION—

Let us endeavour,

  1.      To get just views of the Divine character—

[There can be no comfort to the soul whilst we new God as a vindictive Judge. As long as a we are really desiring his favour, we are authorized to regard him as a loving Father, who seeks only the welfare of our souls. If we see a husbandman prune his vine, or a workman chisel his stone, or a goldsmith put his gold into the fire, we are at no loss to account for their conduct, even though, to the eye of sense, it may appear severe: to improve the vine, to beautify the stone, to purify the gold, to bring forth from the furnace a vessel meet for the Master’s use, are, in our minds, an ample vindication of the apparent severity. Let us, then, conceive of God as wise, and good, and gracious, and as personally interested in our welfare; and then we shall never murmur at any of his dispensations; but shall say, under the most painful trials, “It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good.”]

  2.      To make a suitable improvement of afflictive dispensations—

[Every “rod has a voice, which we ought to hear, as well as Him also that has appointed it.” Would we but listen attentively to God speaking to us in the night-season of afflictions, verily, we should learn many invaluable lessons. We often acquire a more just and comprehensive and endearing knowledge of God in one hour of adversity, than we had previously gained in whole years of prosperity. Those who are accustomed to behold fine paintings, know that there is a point of view, in which if we are placed, we shall see every figure, as it were, standing out of the canvass. Now God is sometimes pleased to call us to this point, that we may have richer views of his Divine character. The ascent to the place may be difficult, and attended with pain; but the subsequent views will richly repay all our labour. Let us then especially seek to improve in our knowledge of God, and in an admiration of his adorable perfections. And if there be in us any evil, which God has discovered to our view, let us put it away, though it be dear to us as a right eye, or apparently necessary to us as a right hand. If our afflictions do but “yield us the peaceable fruits of righteousness, we shall never have reason to complain, however much we may have been exercised by them.” Only let them “purge away our dross and our tinx,” and we shall bless God for the furnace by which this blessed change has been effected. “The trials that have been productive of so great a blessing will issue in praise and honour and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ,” and through the countless ages of eternityz.]

MXCV

THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER

  Lam. 3:54–57.

Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

THE Prophet Jeremiah was inferior to none in a compassionate regard for his country, whose calamities he bitterly deplored: yet was there no one more injuriously treated than he. He might well say of himself, “I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.” Of his grief, on account of his country’s sufferings, and of the sad returns which his enemies made to him, he speaks in the preceding context, and in terms peculiarly tender and pathetic: “Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, till the Lord look down from heaven. Mine eye afflicted mine heart, because of all the daughters of my city. [Yet] mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.” The working of his mind, in this afflictive situation, he delineates in the words of our text: from which we may notice,

  I.      To what a state God’s most favoured servants may be reduced—

[Jeremiah, for his fidelity in declaring God’s purposes respecting that rebellious people, was cast into a dungeon, where he sunk in the mire, and was left to perish. And in this situation he altogether despaired of life, and said, “I am cut off,” “I am cut off out of the land of the living!” Distressing as this situation was, it may yet be expected to be endured by the faithful ministers of God in every age. Peter, in his day, was laden with chains in an inner prison, without the slightest hope of surviving the day appointed for his execution. Paul and Silas also, with their backs lacerated with scourges, and their feet made fast in the stocks, “had the sentence of death in themselves,” and expected nothing but a speedy and a cruel death. And we, too, are warned by our blessed Lord, that we must be ready to lay down our lives for him; and that on no other condition can we hope for a favourable acceptance with him in the last day.

But there are other troubles yet more afflictive than these, to which every child of God is exposed, and under which he may be brought into the depths of despondency. There are seasons of temptation and spiritual desertion, in which the soul is led to say, with Heman, “My soul is full of troubles; my life draweth nigh unto the grave. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me; thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Lord, Why castes thou off my soul? why hides thou thy face from me? I am afflicted, and ready to die. While I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off” Here was a man of consummate piety, and yet thus bereft of consolation, and almost of hope. And such afflictive visitations are experienced by many at the present day. When the spirits have been broken by a long train of misfortunes, and disease of body has still further enfeebled the mind, it is not uncommon for Satan to make a fierce assault upon the soul, and, by his fiery darts, to inflict on it a deadly wound, such as causes it to despair even of life. The Saviour himself, in the depths of dereliction, cried, “My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if his followers also be called to taste of that cup which he drank even to the dregs.]

In the Prophet’s experience, however, we see,

  II.      What remedy is open to them—

[“I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon: hide not thine ear at my breathing and my cry.” Affliction drove him not from God, but to him: and though his overwhelming calamities disqualified him for that kind of orderly address which, in a season of calm reflection, he might have presented at the throne of grace, yet, by sighs and cries, he made known his desires to the Lord, who understands the language of the heart, though not expressed in clear and appropriate terms by the lips. To the same effect David says, “I opened my mouth and panted; for I longed for thy commandments:” by which I understand, that his desire to fulfil the commands of God was too great for utterance; so that he was constrained to express it only by deep sighs and ardent aspirations. Thus it was with the prophet at this time, when looking to his God with humble breathings and with fervent cries. Like Jonah at the bottom of the sea, he cried, “I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.”

Now, this is our proper remedy at all seasons: “Call upon me in the time of trouble, saith the Lord; and I will hear thee; and thou shalt glorify me.” Nor need we be discouraged because we are not able so to compose our minds as to pour out our hearts in fluent and connected petitions. Abrupt cries are fitly suited to occasions of great extremity. Our blessed Lord himself, when in an agony in the garden of Gethsemane, cried thrice to his heavenly Father, repeating the same words. It is not the fluency of our expressions that God regards, but the sincerity of our hearts: and, for the most part, when “his blessed Spirit makes intercession in us” with more than ordinary power, it is not by diversified and rhetorical language, but “by groans which cannot be utteredi.” Whatever therefore our trouble be, and however desperate our condition, let us “give ourselves unto prayer;” and not doubt but that God, who “heareth the ravens,” will “hear the voice of our weepingl,” and “fulfil the desire of our hearts.” If we do but “look unto him, we shall be lightenedn.”]

The answer he received will lead us to contemplate,

  III.      The efficacy of that remedy, whensoever applied—

[In his despondency, the prophet had said, “Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.” But he found to his joy, that nothing could intercept either his communion with God, or his communications from God: for “God drew nigh to him, and said, Fear not.” What marvellous condescension was here! Whilst man was treating him as “the offscouring and refuse of the people,” God regarded him with all the tenderness of a Father, and bade him to fear nothing that man could do against him. And will God be less gracious to us, in our extremities? No: “he will surely hear the cry of the poor destitute, and will not despise their prayer.” Hear the experience of David, and in him of the Messiah also: “Save me, O God! for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dry: mine eves fail while I wait for my God. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.” Having thus pleaded with God, and obtained an answer of peace, he adds, for the encouragement of all future suppliants, “The humble shall see this, and be glad; and your heart shall live that seek God: for the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.” “Hear ye this,” then, all ye who, from whatever circumstances, are brought into deep waters! “Call upon the Lord out of the depthss;” and you shall soon he able to adopt the grateful recollections of David, and say, “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.”

But let me more particularly call your attention to the consolatory voice of God in my text: “Fear not.” Were you really in the hands of your enemies, you might well fear: but they, as well as you, are in the hands of God, who can “make even the wrath of man to praise him.” Here is “a weapon formed against you,” and “a waster” ready to wield it for your destruction: but they can effect nothing without God; since the very smith who formed the weapon, and the waster that threatens your destruction, are the work of his hands, and owe to him all the skill and power of which they are possessed. What then can they do against Him; or against those who are under his protection? Know, that to every soul that trusteth in him is this word addressed; “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”]

EZEKIEL

Ezek. 2:4.

Ezek. 7:5–9.

Ezek. 8:15.

Ezek. 9:4.

Ezek. 11:5.

Ezek. 11:23.

Ezek. 12:23.

Ezek. 13:10–12.

Ezek. 14:4.

Ezek. 16:62, 63.

Ezek. 17:22–24.

Ezek. 18:25–30.

Ezek. 20:37.

Ezek. 20:40–44.

Ezek. 20:49.

Ezek. 33:8.

Ezek. 33:11.

Ezek. 33:31, 32.

Ezek. 34:16.

Ezek. 34:23, 24.

Ezek. 34:29.

Ezek. 36:24–28.

Ezek. 36:31.

Ezek. 36:32.

Ezek. 37:1–6.

Ezek. 37:11–13.

Ezek. 37:15–22.

MXCVI

COMMISSION GIVEN TO MINISTERS

             Ezek. 2:4.

Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God.

ASTONISHING is the patience which God has exercised in all ages towards his rebellious creatures. After their wickedness had attained such an height that he was constrained to pour out his indignation upon them at the Deluge, he still deferred his judgments an hundred and twenty years, that, if possible, he might reclaim the world by the ministrations of Noah. At a later period, when he had chosen to himself a peculiar people, and with mighty signs and wonders had brought them forth out of Egypt, and they requited all his kindness with nothing but murmurings and disobedience; though their provocations were beyond all conception great, he bore with them for the space of forty years, and would not utterly take away his loving-kindness from them. Again, when he had sent his people into captivity for the multitude of their iniquities, and especially for despising all his reproofs, and persecuting all his prophets, he still would not altogether abandon them, but sent his servant Ezekiel to preach to them in the land whither they were carried captive. In the words of our text we are informed what Ezekiel was commissioned to say unto them: it was emphatically this; “THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD.” We do not suppose that this was the whole of Ezekiel’s message; but it was a peculiarly important and emphatical part of it: it was that which above all other things characterized the end and object of his mission. It is particularly to be noticed, that no specific message is annexed to these words; and that they occur twice also in the following chapter precisely in the same way. Can we suppose that so peculiar a commission should contain in it no more than what appears upon the surface? Surely it must be acknowledged to be either very defective, or very comprehensive. To say that it was defective, would be to arraign the wisdom of God himself: we shall do well therefore to search into its real and extensive import. Three things then were evidently implied in it (which indeed are implied also in the commission given to ministers at this day); namely,

  I.      To declare God’s will—

[God has declared it unto us — — — And we are to declare it unto others with fidelity and affection — — — When objections are made to the word delivered, we must produce our warrant from the Holy Scriptures, and remind them whose word it is; “Thus saith THE LORD GOD.” With this we ourselves are to be satisfied; and we must require others to regulate their views by the infallible dictates of inspiration — — —]

  II.      To assert His authority—

[We find men in a state of rebellion against God — — — We, as his ambassadors, are to offer them terms of reconciliation — — — If our terms be thought too humiliating, we must declare that God will never offer them any other; and that unless they accept these, they must inevitably perish — — — While we encourage them by representations of God’s mercy and love, we must also intimidate them with exhibitions of his justice, his power, and his truth — — —]

  III.      To seek, notwithstanding all our discouragements, the salvation of their souls—

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