and Judah, he would one day gather them together, and that then they should serve him faithfully. Reflections. pure wor I. THE Comparison that Jeremiah makes of the idolatrous Jews with an idolatrous woman, represents the sin and perfidiousness of Christians, who do not observe towards God the fidelity they owe him, who break the covenant they have made with him, and return his loving-kindness with nothing but ingratitude and rebellion. We here see that the Jews of Jerusalem, and of the kingdom of Judah, who ought to have been more firmly attached to the ship of God, since they had his service settled among them, and had likewise before their eyes the example of their brethren of the ten tribes, who had lately been destroyed, did notwithstanding imitate and even exceed them in their idolatry. It sometimes happens, that they who have received the greatest favours from God abuse them, and thereby render themselves more guilty than those who have not enjoyed the same privileges. III. God declares, that he was still willing to pardon the Jews, notwithstanding their infidelity: Return, says he, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. God does not cast off those who have most offended him: he still preserves a favourable inclination towards them; he makes them proffers of mercy, and exhorts them to turn again to him. Lastly, It is to be observed, that the promise which God made to gather together the people of Israel and Judah, was in some sort accomplished, when the Jews returned from the captivity of Babylon; but since that deliverance concerned properly only those of Judah, and that the greatest part of Israel remained still dispersed; these promises extend to the times of the Gospel, when these two people were to be united again in the Christian church; and they will be fully accomplished, when the Jewish nation shall be converted. CHAPTER IV. I. GOD assures the Jews, that if they would be converted, he would have compassion on them. II. He threatens them, that if they continued in their rebellions, they should be subdued by the Chaldeans; and the prophet, by the comparison of a lion seeking his prey, of a strong wind which breaks and roots up all before it, and of a woman in travail, represents how terrible the coming of the Chaldeans would be, and the miserable condition to which Jerusalem, and all Judea would be reduced. Reflections. THE promises of pardon which God made to the Jews, if they would turn to him, teach us how good and gracious the Lord is, and that the door of his mercy is open, even to those who have most offended him, provided they truly turn to him, and repent of their sins. But the severe threatenings that God joins to his promises, show us, that he is righteous as well as merciful, and that they who obstinately persist in their sins, have nothing to hope from him. This we may learn by what befell the Jews. The prophet's description in this chapter, of the miseries which were shortly to fall upon Judea, and of the desolation that would be occasioned by the Chaldeans in that country, is a picture of what happened to that people some years after, and may serve as an instance to convince us of the certainty of the divine threatenings, and the severity of God's judgments. CHAPTER V. I. Jeremiah complains, that the wickedness of Jerusalem was so general, that there could hardly be found one good man in the city; he says, that the Jews were insensible under the divine corrections; that the mean and great were equally hardened; and that all had abandoned themselves to idolatry, to adultery, and all sorts of sins. II. He denounces the divine vengeance against the Jews for these sins; and though that people, seduced by false prophets, flattered themselves with peace, he declares that the Chaldeans would quickly come against Jerusalem, but that nevertheless God would not utterly destroy his people. Lastly, The prophet exhorts the Jews to fear Almighty God, and to repent; he reproaches them with their blindness, their injustice, and other crimes; and complains especially, that the priests and the prophets were as corrupt as the people. Reflections. THIS chapter contains very important instructions. We see here, I. How we may discover when a nation is extremely corrupt; which is certainly the case when the number of good men in it is very small; when the great men, and the rulers of the people, have forsaken the Lord, as well as the meanest; when impurity and injustice reign without opposition: when men have neither a grateful sense of the kindnesses of the Lord, nor dread his threatenings; and lastly, when the ministers whom God has appointed, instead of opposing the evil, follow the general corruption, countenance and encourage it, which the prophet calls an amazing and horrible thing. II. It is to be observed, that when the Jews were thus sunk in wickedness, they did not believe the words, nor dread the threatenings of the prophet, but flattered themselves in their wickedness, being persuaded that no harm would happen to them. Such is the blindness of men; they live in security, and dread not the judgments of God, even when they are most threatened. However, God at last executes his threatenings, as these words express, which are more than once repeated by Jeremiah: Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Lastly, the reasons which the Jews had to dread the Almighty, so strongly represented in this chapter, and the blindness of that people, ought to be well considered. This teaches us that it is strange stupidity in men not to fear that great God : whose power is unbounded, who is Lord of the universe, and poureth his benefits upon them, sending rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons. By this means they expose themselves to his wrath, and deprive themselves of the effects of his mercy, since, as God says, The iniquities of men turn away his favours, and withhold good things from them. CHAPTER VI. Jeremiah declares, that God would shortly bring a nation from the north against Jerusalem, meaning the Chaldeans, who were in a few years to besiege and take that city, and to carry the Jews into captivity. God exhorts the Jews to repentance, assuring them that he still loved them, but that the true cause of their destruction would be their impenitence, their incurable obstinacy, and the general corruption that reigned among them; their abandoning themselves to sins of every kind: and, above all, the sins of the priests and the prophets, and their contempt of the divine threatenings and remonstrances. III.The Lord declares that the offerings, sacrifices, and all the external worship of the Jews, should not screen them from their ruin, and even that those things should rather hasten it, and make it more dreadful. Reflections. WE must here observe, I. God's goodness and extreme tenderness, in warning men of the miseries that threaten them, and exhorting them to prevent their destruction by repentance. This goodness of the Lord appears in these remarkable words: Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee. II. The severe threatenings added to these exhortations, teach us, that how great soever God's patience and loving-kindness is, when it has been long despised it gives place to his wrath. This the Jews experienced a short time after these threatenings were denounced against them by Jeremiah. III. From this chapter we may collect, that men most provoke God's wrath, when they give up themselves in such a manner to evil, that they sin without shame or restraint; when they know not how to blush; when they disregard the exhortation of the ministers of the Lord; when God's ministers themselves live loose and disorderly lives, and when the rich and poor are alike corrupt. Lastly, It appears from this chapter, that while the Jews were filling up the measure of their iniquities, they still continued to offer to God incense and sacrifice; but that God rejected all the worship they pretended to pay him, and prepared a severe scourge for them. The wicked and ungodly sometimes perform the external duties of religion; but all the worship of men who fear not God, far from procuring his favour, only tends to provoke his wrath the more. CHAPTER VII. I. THIS chapter contains a grave and solemn reproof of the Jews for their sins, and especially for their hypocrisy and vain confidence, and for profaning the temple and the service of God. Jeremiah threatens them, that God would treat Jerusalem and the temple as he had treated Shiloh, where the tabernacle formerly was, and as he had treated their brethren of Ephraim, that is, the Israelites of the ten tribes, who had been destroyed by the Assyrians. II. God forbids Jeremiah to intercede for the Jews; he says, it is in vain for them to offer sacrifices, whilst they gave themselves up to all kinds of sins, and worshipped idols, particularly Moloch and the queen of heaven, that is to say, the Moon. God declares, that for these sins the carcases of the Jews should be without burial, cast into the valley of Tophet, which was a place near Jerusalem where the idolatrous Jews had offered their children to idols, making them pass through the fire. This chapter demands great attention. Reflections. THE grave remonstrances which Jeremiah addressed to the Jews, engage us to make the following reflections: I. That it is in vain for the wicked to glory 6 |