The general ruin of the Jews is foreshewn.

1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,

2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.

6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

9 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth,

and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? 11 Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour. 14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.

the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? 21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD. LECTURE 1209.

19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in

The good effects of a serious deportment.

The conduct here prescribed to the prophet was well suited to impress the people with an apprehension of the calamity about to overtake them. If we would impress our fellow Christians with a sense of the certainty of those things which we believe, let us act as if we really were believing them. We need not like Jeremiah abstain from the connexions of domestic and social life. But let us enter into them in a self denying spirit, and behave ourselves as they whose home, whose treasure, and whole heart, are elsewhere, even in heaven. A seriousness amounting oftentimes to sadness cannot but become us whilst living in the midst of many, who are in the eyes of God no better than idolaters; who have forsaken Him, and are devoting all the ardour of their souls to their own pleasure, gain, or glory. Let us shew that we deeply feel for the perils to which such as these expose themselves. Let us speak and act as living in the sight of God most high, as sensible of his presence, and as persuaded that He is privy to the actions, words, and thoughts of those, who least think of his beholding them. Let the judgments which He brought upon his people of old be often present to our minds; and the words also of his prophets in which He foreshewed them, and the refusal of the people to believe them. And remembering that our own present actual position is a proof of the fulfilment of these threats, finding ourselves Gentiles reclaimed from idolatry, and occupying that place which the Jews have lost in the covenanted favour of the Lord, let us tremble to think, that we too are liable to fall as they, and sure, if like them we fall, to be like them cast out. God be praised that in the midst of the sentence of their exile there is a promise of their restoration! God grant that as that promise once has been fulfilled, so it may again have a glorious fulfilment! God help us both to watch with faith, and to wait with patience, for the fulfilment of all his promises! God give us grace to forward their fulfilment, by both living, and influencing others to live, as they that walk by faith, above the world of sense, to the glory of Christ Jesus!

Trust in man and trust in God are contrasted.

1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; 2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

3 O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.

4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.

5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

LECTURE 1210.

The humility and glory of those whose trust is in God. See how indelibly those sins are written, in the sight of God, which are committed wilfully and obstinately, in defiance of light and knowledge. "A pen of iron," and "the point of a diamond," are figures not too strong to express the dreadful certainty, that such sins are noted by the Lord." And that sinners who thus sin will not be spared by Him, on the plea of their privileges as Christians, is clear from the judgments here denounced against

those who thus offended being Jews. Under both dispensations, privileges abused aggravate sin, and increase condemnation. Alike under the Law, and under the Gospel, a curse awaits those who trust in man, and who in their hearts forsake the Lord. Under both there is a blessing for "the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." And whilst a stunted plant in a parched wilderness is an apt figure of the case of such as make flesh their arm, instead of depending upon God, the devout believer, whether Jew or Christian, is "as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”

The striking contrast here drawn may suggest to every one the solemn inquiry, to which of these two classes do I belong? Am I trusting in God, or in man? Do I seek for succour and look for happiness, from my Maker, or from my fellow creatures? Do I rely for the justifying of my soul, on my Saviour, or on myself? In such an inquiry, how seasonable is the statement here set down, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked!" No reason this against the practice of self examination. Only a very strong reason for being watchfully on our guard against self deceit. For there is One whom the heart cannot deceive. The question, "Who can know it?" is thus answered: "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Away then with all trust in riches whether gained by right or not; away with all false hope of pleasing God whilst wealth unjustly got is harboured! Away with confidence in the sanctuary of God, "a glorious high throne" though indeed it be "from the beginning," and great as is the privilege of being members of his Church; away with all confidence herein, on the part of those who forsake Him in their hearts! Shame, and not glory, is their portion. Glory is for those who trust only in Himself; who enjoy his gifts, and use his ordinances, as precious for his sake. Deceitful as are their hearts by nature, God gives them grace to know the heart's deceitfulness, to own its desperate wickedness. And far from boasting, or praising themselves, they are thankful to be allowed to take into their mouths such words as these of the prophet, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise."

The prophet's persecutors. The hallowing of the Sabbath. 15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.

16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.

17 Be not a terror unto me thou art my hope in the day of

LECTURE 1211.

The close connexion of all duties with one another.

When the unbelieving Jews made light of Jeremiah's prophecies, he called God to witness, that he had not desired the coming