against them; I am like a perfon struck with lightning, which has broken my bones and pierced my vitals: he hath fpread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he 14 hath made me defolate [and] faint all the day, The yoke of my tranfgreffions, the burden of my iniquities, is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, [and] come up upon my neck: he hath made my ftrength to fall, the LORD hath delivered me into [their] hands, [from 15 whom] I am not able to rife am not able to rife up. The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty [men] in the midst of me: he hath called an affembly against me to crush my young men: the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, fair and delicate as fhe was, [as] in a wineprefs; he was crushed to pieces by the Chaldeans 16 as grapes in a prefs. For thefe [things] I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my foul, is far from me : my children are defolate, because the enemy prevailed. 17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands in fupplication, [and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, [that] his adverfaries [fhould be] round about him: Jerufalem is as a menftrous woman among them, one fet apart as unclean.

18

The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my forrow; my virgins and my young men 19 are gone into captivity. I called for my lovers, [but]

they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they fought their meat to 20 relieve their fouls. Behold, O LORD; for I [am] in distress my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the fword bereaveth, at home [there is] as death, or certain 21 death by famine. They have heard that I figh: [there is] none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou haft done [it:] thou wilt bring the day [that] thou haft called, and they fhall be like unto me; thou wilt execute like judg22 ments upon them, as thou haft foretold. Let all their wickednefs come before thee, that is, it shall come; and

do

1.

do unto them, or, thou wilt do unto them, as thou haft done unto me for all my tranfgreffions for my fighs [are] many, and my heart [is] faint.

REFLECTION S.

HE diftrefs of nations ought to afflict every human heart. See what calamities war makes; and what great reason we have to be thankful that we have not been witneffes of, or fharers in, fuch terrible defolations. We have reafon to pity and pray for those who have; and to blefs God for peace and plenty. But O, think of those who are now returning to their houses and poffeffions, and find them all waste and defolate; and offer up earnest prayers that God would fupport and provide

for them.

2. The diftreffes of the church will particularly affect every pious heart. These the prophet tenderly laments. It is great joy to good men to fee the church profperous, and the ways to Zion crouded; and grievous to fee her affemblies broken up by perfecution; or her ways neglected by those who have no good reafon for fuch neglect; to fee their places empty, tho' they can pursue their business or pleasure; and thus throw contempt upon facred things. It is grievous to hear the wicked mocking at their fabbaths. But pious men will not look upon them as lefs honourable, delightful, and advantageous on that account.

3. Let us acknowledge the hand and righteousness of God in all our afflictions. This is often mentioned, righteous art thou, O Lord. It becomes us to acknowledge this before him, and before men. It is a great comfort that we can apply to him, and expect relief from him. Too many when afflicted are apt to adopt the paffionate complaints of the prophet; but it would be better for them to obferve and adopt his expreffions of humiliation, and his prayers for fupport.

CHA P. II.

Feremiah laments Jerufalem's mifery, and she is directed to fue

I

H°

earnestly for mercy and pardon.

OW hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, [and] caft down from heaven unto the earth the temple, the beauty of Ifrael, and, remembered not the ark his footstool in 2 the day of his anger! The LORD hath fwallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the ftrong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought [them] down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof, even the royal family which he had chofen 3 himself. He hath cut off in [his] fierce anger all the horn of Ifrael: he hath drawn back his right hand, his wanted affiftance, from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, [which] devoureth 4 round about. He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adverfary, and flew all [that were] pleafant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion, the honourable, the reverend, and 5 the young: he poured out his fury like fire. The LORD was as an enemy, like a lion: he hath fwallowed up Ifrael, he hath fwallowed up all her palaces: he hath deftroyed his ftrong holds, and hath increased in the 6 daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were of] a garden, as if it was a hovel or fbed in a gar den, contemptible, and eafily removed: he hath destroyed his places of the affembly: the LORD hath caufed the folemn feats and fabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath defpifed in the indignation of his anger the king 7 and the prieft. The LORD hath caft off his altar, he hath abhorred his fanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noife in the houfe of the LORD, as in the day of a folemn feaft; but a very different noife, not the fhout of worshippers, but of enemies; not the dying groans of

victims,

8 victims, but of the worshippers themselves. The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion he hath ftretched out a line in righteousness, he hath not withdrawn his hand from deftroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament: 9 they languished together. Her gates are funk into the ground; he hath deftroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes [are] among the Gentiles: the law [is] no [more;] her prophets alfo find no vifion from the LORD; her priests and nobles are gone, the book of the law is deftroyed, her worship is impracticable, Some of her prophets are captives, others have no vision, or 10 none that is comfortable. The elders of the daughter of Zion fit upon the ground, [and] keep filence: they have caft up duft upon their heads; they have girded themfelves with fackcloth; the virgins of Jerufalem 11 hang down their heads to the ground. Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, or, I am wounded to the liver, and my gall is poured out, for the deftruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the 12 fucklings fwoon in the streets of the city. They fay to their mothers, who once lived in affluence, Where [is] corn and wine? when they fwooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their foul was poured 13 out into their mother's bofom. What thing fhall I take to witness for thee? what thing fhall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerufalem? what fhall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? as if he had faid, I am quite at a loss to find any fimile ftrong enough; where can we find fuch an inftance of diftrefs? for thy breach [is] great like the fea; there can be no means found to stop the inundation: who can heal 14 thee? Thy prophets have feen vain and foolish things for thee and they have not difcovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have feen for thee falfe burdens and caufes of banifhment; they have not dealt plainly, but have deceived thee with falfe hopes and flatter15 ing prophecies, which have haftened thy ruin. All that pafs by clap [their] hands at thee; they hifs and wag

.

their head at the daughter of Jerufalem, [faying, Is] this the city that [men] call The perfection of beauty, 16 The joy of the whole earth? All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hifs and gnash the teeth they fay, We have swallowed [her] up: certainly this [is] the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen [it,] we expected it would come to 17 this, and we could wish for nothing more. The LORD

hath done [that] which he had devised; he hath fulfill. ed his word, that he hath commanded in the days of old; that is, the threatenings of his law, (Lev. xxvi. 16.) he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caufed [thine] enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath 18 fet up the horn of thine adverfaries. Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thy felf 19 no reft: let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arife, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the LORD: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

20

Behold, O LORD, and confider to whom thou haft done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, [and] children of a span long? fhall the priest and the prophet 21 be flain in the fanctuary of the LORD? The young and the old lie on the ground in the ftreets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the fword; thou hast flain [them] in the day of thine anger; thou haft killed, 22 [and] not pitied. Thou haft called as in a folemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained: thofe that I have fwaddled and brought up hath mine enemy confumed; wherever I turn, I fee terrors coming as thick as I have feen worshippers coming from all parts, in the days of our feafts.

REFLECT