mh_parser/vol_split/24 - Jeremiah/Chapter 2.xml

<div2 id="Jer.iii" n="iii" next="Jer.iv" prev="Jer.ii" progress="27.33%" title="Chapter II">
<h2 id="Jer.iii-p0.1">J E R E M I A H.</h2>
<h3 id="Jer.iii-p0.2">CHAP. II.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Jer.iii-p1" shownumber="no">It is probable that this chapter was Jeremiah's
first sermon after his ordination; and a most lively pathetic
sermon it is as any we have is all the books of the prophets. Let
him not say, "I cannot speak, for I am a child;" for, God having
touched his mouth and put his words into it, none can speak better.
The scope of the chapter is to show God's people their
transgressions, even the house of Jacob their sins; it is all by
way of reproof and conviction, that they might be brought to repent
of their sins and so prevent the ruin that was coming upon them.
The charge drawn up against them is very high, the aggravations are
black, the arguments used for their conviction very close and
pressing, and the expostulations very pungent and affecting. The
sin which they are most particularly charged with here is idolatry,
forsaking the true God, their own God, for other false gods. Now
they are told, I. That this was ungrateful to God, who had been so
kind to them, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.1-Jer.2.8" parsed="|Jer|2|1|2|8" passage="Jer 2:1-8">ver. 1-8</scripRef>.
II. That it was without precedent, that a nation should change
their god, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.9-Jer.2.13" parsed="|Jer|2|9|2|13" passage="Jer 2:9-13">ver. 9-13</scripRef>.
III. That hereby they had disparaged and ruined themselves,
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.14-Jer.2.19" parsed="|Jer|2|14|2|19" passage="Jer 2:14-19">ver. 14-19</scripRef>. IV. That
they had broken their covenants and degenerated from their good
beginnings, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.20-Jer.2.21" parsed="|Jer|2|20|2|21" passage="Jer 2:20,21">ver. 20, 21</scripRef>.
V. That their wickedness was too plain to be concealed and too bad
to be excused, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.22-Jer.2.23 Bible:Jer.2.35" parsed="|Jer|2|22|2|23;|Jer|2|35|0|0" passage="Jer 2:22,23,35">ver. 22, 23,
35</scripRef>. VI. That they persisted witfully and obstinately in
it, and were irreclaimable and indefatigable in their idolatries,
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.24-Jer.2.25 Bible:Jer.2.33 Bible:Jer.2.36" parsed="|Jer|2|24|2|25;|Jer|2|33|0|0;|Jer|2|36|0|0" passage="Jer 2:24,25,33,36">ver. 24, 25, 33,
36</scripRef>. VII. That they shamed themselves by their idolatry
and should shortly be made ashamed of it when they should find
their idols unable to help them, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.26-Jer.2.29 Bible:Jer.2.37" parsed="|Jer|2|26|2|29;|Jer|2|37|0|0" passage="Jer 2:26-29,37">ver. 26-29, 37</scripRef>. VIII. That they had not
been convinced and reformed by the rebukes of Providence that had
been under, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.30" parsed="|Jer|2|30|0|0" passage="Jer 2:30">ver. 30</scripRef>. IX.
That they had put a great contempt upon God, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.30-Jer.2.31" parsed="|Jer|2|30|2|31" passage="Jer 2:30,31">ver. 31, 32</scripRef>. X. That with their idolatries
they had mixed the most unnatural murders, shedding the blood of
the poor innocents, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.34" parsed="|Jer|2|34|0|0" passage="Jer 2:34">ver.
34</scripRef>. Those hearts were hard indeed that were untouched
and unhumbled when their sins were thus set in order before them. O
that by meditating on this chapter we might be brought to repent of
our spiritual idolatries, giving that place in our souls to the
world and the flesh which should have been reserved for God
only!</p>
<scripCom id="Jer.iii-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2" parsed="|Jer|2|0|0|0" passage="Jer 2" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Jer.iii-p1.12" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.1-Jer.2.8" parsed="|Jer|2|1|2|8" passage="Jer 2:1-8" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Jer.iii-p1.13">
<h4 id="Jer.iii-p1.14">Jeremiah's First Message; The Divine
Goodness to Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p1.15">b. c.</span> 629.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Jer.iii-p2" shownumber="no">1 Moreover the word of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.1">Lord</span> came to me, saying,   2 Go and cry in
the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.2">Lord</span>; I remember thee, the kindness of thy
youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in
the wilderness, in a land <i>that was</i> not sown.   3 Israel
<i>was</i> holiness unto the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.3">Lord</span>,
<i>and</i> the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him
shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.4">Lord</span>.   4 Hear ye the word of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.5">Lord</span>, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel:   5 Thus saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.6">Lord</span>, What iniquity have your fathers
found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after
vanity, and are become vain?   6 Neither said they, Where
<i>is</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.7">Lord</span> that brought us
up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness,
through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought,
and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed
through, and where no man dwelt?   7 And I brought you into a
plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness
thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine
heritage an abomination.   8 The priests said not, Where
<i>is</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p2.8">Lord</span>? and they that
handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against
me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after <i>things
that</i> do not profit.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p3" shownumber="no">Here is, I. A command given to Jeremiah to
go and carry a message from God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He
was charged in general (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.1.17" parsed="|Jer|1|17|0|0" passage="Jer 1:17"><i>ch.</i> i.
17</scripRef>) to go and <i>speak to them;</i> here he is
particularly charged to go and speak <i>this</i> to them. Note, It
is good for ministers by faith and prayer to take out a fresh
commission when they address themselves solemnly to any part of
their work. Let a minister carefully compare what he has to deliver
with the word of God, and see that it agrees with it, that he may
be able to say, not only, <i>The Lord sent me,</i> but, He sent me
to <i>speak this.</i> He must go from Anathoth, where he lived in a
pleasant retirement, spending his time (it is likely) among a few
friends and in the study of the law, and must make his appearance
at Jerusalem, that noisy tumultuous city, and <i>cry in their
ears,</i> as a man in earnest and that would be heard: "Cry aloud,
that all may hear, and none may plead ignorance. Go close to them,
and <i>cry in the ears</i> of those that have stopped their
ears."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p4" shownumber="no">II. The message he was commanded to
deliver. He must upbraid them with their horrid ingratitude in
forsaking a God who had been of old so kind to them, that this
might either make them ashamed and bring them to repentance, or
might justify God in turning his hand against them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p5" shownumber="no">1. God here puts them in mind of the
favours he had of old bestowed upon them, when they were first
formed into a people (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.2" parsed="|Jer|2|2|0|0" passage="Jer 2:2"><i>v.</i>
2</scripRef>): "<i>I remember for thy sake,</i> and I would have
thee to remember it, and improve the remembrance of it for thy
good; I cannot forget <i>the kindness of thy youth and the love of
thy espousals.</i>"</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p6" shownumber="no">(1.) This may be understood of the kindness
they had for God; it was not such indeed as they had any reason to
boast of, or to plead with God for favour to be shown them (for
many of them were very unkind and provoking, and, when they did
return and enquire early after God, they did but flatter him), yet
God is pleased to mention it, and plead it with them; for, though
it was but little love that they showed him, he took it kindly.
When <i>they believed the Lord and his servant Moses,</i> when they
<i>sang God's praise at the Red Sea,</i> when at the foot of Mount
Sinai they promised, <i>All that the Lord shall say unto us we will
do and will be obedient,</i> then was the <i>kindness of their
youth and the love of their espousals.</i> When they seemed so
forward for God he said, <i>Surely they are my people,</i> and will
be faithful to me, <i>children that will not lie.</i> Note, Those
that begin well and promise fair, but do not perform and persevere,
will justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising
beginnings. God remembers the <i>kindness of our youth and the love
of our espousals,</i> the zeal we then seemed to have for him and
the affection wherewith we made our covenants with him, the buds
and blossoms that never came to perfection; and it is good for us
to remember them, that we may remember whence we have fallen, and
return to our first love, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Rev.2.4-Rev.2.5 Bible:Gal.4.15" parsed="|Rev|2|4|2|5;|Gal|4|15|0|0" passage="Re 2:4,5,Ga 4:15">Rev.
ii. 4, 5; Gal. iv. 15</scripRef>. In two things appeared the
<i>kindness of their youth:</i>—[1.] That they followed the
direction of the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness; and
though sometimes they spoke of returning into Egypt, or pushing
forward into Canaan, yet they did neither, but for forty years
together <i>went after God in the wilderness,</i> and trusted him
to provide for them, though it was <i>a land that was not sown.</i>
This God took kindly, and took notice of it to their praise long
after, that, though much was amiss among them, yet they never
forsook the guidance they were under. Thus, though Christ often
chid his disciples, yet he commended them, at parting, for
continuing with him, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Luke.22.28" parsed="|Luke|22|28|0|0" passage="Lu 22:28">Luke xxii.
28</scripRef>. It must be the strong affection of the youth, and
the espousals, that will carry us on to follow God in a wilderness,
with an implicit faith and an entire resignation; and it is a pity
that those who have so followed him should ever leave him. [2.]
That they entertained divine institutions, set up the tabernacle
among them, and attended the service of it. Israel <i>was then
holiness to the Lord;</i> they joined themselves to him in covenant
as a peculiar people. Thus they began in the spirit, and God puts
them in mind of it, that they might be ashamed of ending <i>in the
flesh.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p7" shownumber="no">(2.) Or it may be understood of God's
kindness to them; of that he afterwards speaks largely. <i>When
Israel was a child, then I loved him,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.1" parsed="|Hos|11|1|0|0" passage="Ho 11:1">Hos. xi. 1</scripRef>. He then espoused that people to
himself with all the affection with which a <i>young man marries a
virgin</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.62.5" parsed="|Isa|62|5|0|0" passage="Isa 62:5">Isaiah lxii.
5</scripRef>), for the time was <i>a time of love,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.8" parsed="|Ezek|16|8|0|0" passage="Eze 16:8">Ezek. xvi. 8</scripRef>. [1.] God appropriated
them to himself. Though they were a sinful people, yet, by virtue
of the covenant made with them and the church set up among them,
they were <i>holiness to the Lord,</i> dedicated to his honour and
taken under his special tuition; they were the <i>first fruits of
his increase,</i> the first constituted church he had in the world;
they were the first-fruits, but the full harvest was to be gathered
from among the Gentiles. The <i>first-fruits of the increase</i>
were God's part of it, were offered to him, and he was honoured
with them; so were the people of the Jews; what little tribute,
rent, and homage, God had from the world, he had it chiefly from
them; and it was their honour to be thus set apart for God. This
honour have all the saints; they are the <i>first-fruits of his
creatures,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Jas.1.18" parsed="|Jas|1|18|0|0" passage="Jam 1:18">Jam. i. 18</scripRef>.
[2.] Having espoused them, he espoused their cause, and became an
<i>enemy to their enemies,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Exod.23.22" parsed="|Exod|23|22|0|0" passage="Ex 23:22">Exod.
xxiii. 22</scripRef>. Being the <i>first-fruits of his increase,
all that devoured him</i> (so it should be read) <i>did offend;</i>
they <i>trespassed,</i> they contracted guilt, and evil befel them,
as those were reckoned <i>offenders</i> that <i>devoured the
first-fruits,</i> or any thing else that was <i>holy to the
Lord,</i> that embezzled them, or converted them to their own use,
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.6" osisRef="Bible:Lev.5.15" parsed="|Lev|5|15|0|0" passage="Le 5:15">Lev. v. 15</scripRef>. Whoever offered
any injury to the people of God did so at their peril; their God
was ready to avenge their quarrel, and said to the proudest of
kings, <i>Touch not my anointed,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.105.14-Ps.105.15 Bible:Exod.17.14" parsed="|Ps|105|14|105|15;|Exod|17|14|0|0" passage="Ps 105:14,15,Ex 17:14">Ps. cv. 14, 15; Exod. xvii. 14</scripRef>.
He had in a special manner a controversy with those that attempted
to debauch them and draw them off from being <i>holiness to the
Lord;</i> witness his <i>quarrel with the Midianites about the
matter of Peor,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.8" osisRef="Bible:Num.25.17-Num.25.18" parsed="|Num|25|17|25|18" passage="Nu 25:17,18">Num. xxv. 17,
18</scripRef>. [3.] He <i>brought them out of Egypt</i> with a high
hand and great terror (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.9" osisRef="Bible:Deut.4.34" parsed="|Deut|4|34|0|0" passage="De 4:34">Deut. iv.
34</scripRef>), and yet with a kind hand and great tenderness led
them through a vast howling wilderness (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.10" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.6" parsed="|Jer|2|6|0|0" passage="Jer 2:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>), <i>a land of deserts and
pits,</i> or of <i>graves, terram sepulchralem—a sepulchral
land,</i> where there was ground, not to feed them, but to bury
them, where there was no good to be expected, for it was a <i>land
of drought,</i> but all manner of evil to be feared, for it was
<i>the shadow of death.</i> In that darksome valley they walked
forty years; but <i>God was with them; his rod,</i> in Moses's
hand, <i>and his staff, comforted them,</i> and even there God
<i>prepared a table for them</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.23.4-Ps.23.5" parsed="|Ps|23|4|23|5" passage="Ps 23:4,5">Ps.
xxiii. 4, 5</scripRef>), gave them bread out of the clouds and
drink out of the rocks. It was a land abandoned by all mankind, as
yielding neither road nor rest. It was no thoroughfare, for <i>no
man passed through it</i>—no settlement, for <i>no man dwelt
there.</i> For God will teach his people to tread untrodden paths,
to dwell alone, and to be singular. The difficulties of the journey
are thus insisted on, to magnify the power and goodness of God in
bringing them, through all, safely to their journey's end at last.
All God's spiritual Israel must own their obligations to him for a
safe conduct through the wilderness of this world, no less
dangerous to the soul than that was to the body. [4.] At length he
settled them in Canaan (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.12" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.7" parsed="|Jer|2|7|0|0" passage="Jer 2:7"><i>v.</i>
7</scripRef>): <i>I brought you into a plentiful country,</i> which
would be the more acceptable after they had been for so many years
in <i>a land of drought.</i> They did <i>eat the fruit thereof</i>
and the <i>goodness thereof,</i> and were allowed so to do. I
brought you <i>into a land of Carmel</i> (so the word is); Carmel
was a place of extraordinary fruitfulness, and Canaan was as one
great fruitful field, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.13" osisRef="Bible:Deut.8.7" parsed="|Deut|8|7|0|0" passage="De 8:7">Deut. viii.
7</scripRef>. [5.] God gave them the means of knowledge and grace,
and communion with him; this is implied, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.14" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.8" parsed="|Jer|2|8|0|0" passage="Jer 2:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>. They had priests that <i>handled
the law,</i> read it, and expounded it to them; that was part of
their business, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p7.15" osisRef="Bible:Deut.33.8" parsed="|Deut|33|8|0|0" passage="De 33:8">Deut. xxxiii.
8</scripRef>. They had pastors, to guide them and take care of
their affairs, magistrates and judges; they had prophets to consult
God for them and to make known his mind to them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p8" shownumber="no">2. He upbraids them with their horrid
ingratitude, and the ill returns they had made him for these
favours; let them all come and answer to this charge (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.4" parsed="|Jer|2|4|0|0" passage="Jer 2:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>); it is exhibited in the
name of God against <i>all the families of the house of</i> Israel,
for they can none of them plead, <i>Not guilty.</i> (1.) He
challenges them to produce any instance of his being unjust and
unkind to them. Though he had conferred favours upon them in some
things, yet, if in other things he had dealt hardly with them, they
would not have been altogether without excuse. He therefore puts it
fairly to them to show cause for their deserting him (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.5" parsed="|Jer|2|5|0|0" passage="Jer 2:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): "<i>What iniquity have
your fathers found in me,</i> or you either? Have you, upon trial,
found God a hard master? Have his commands put any hardship upon
you or obliged you to any thing unfit, unfair, or unbecoming you?
Have his promises put any cheats upon you, or raised your
expectations of things which you were afterwards disappointed of?
You that have renounced your covenant with God, can you say that it
was a hard bargain and that which you could not live upon? You that
have forsaken the ordinances of God, can you say that it was
because they were a wearisome service, or work that there was
nothing to be got by? No; the disappointments you have met with
were owing to yourselves, not to God. The yoke of his commandments
is easy, and in the <i>keeping of them there is great reward.</i>"
Note, Those that forsake God cannot say that he has ever given them
any provocation to do so: for this we may safely appeal to the
consciences of sinners; the slothful servant that offered such a
plea as this had it overruled <i>out of his own mouth,</i>
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Luke.19.22" parsed="|Luke|19|22|0|0" passage="Lu 19:22">Luke xix. 22</scripRef>. Though he
afflicts us, we cannot say that there is iniquity in him; he does
us no wrong. The ways of the Lord are undoubtedly equal; all the
iniquity is in our ways. (2.) He charges them with being very
unjust and unkind to him notwithstanding. [1.] They had quitted his
service: "<i>They have gone from me,</i> nay, they have gone <i>far
from me.</i>" They studied how to estrange themselves from God and
their duty, and got as far as they could out of the reach of his
commandments and their own convictions. Those that have deserted
religion commonly set themselves at a greater distance from it, and
in a greater opposition to it, than those that never knew it. [2.]
They had quitted it for the service of idols, which was so much the
greater reproach to God and his service; they went from him, not to
better themselves, but to cheat themselves: <i>They have walked
after vanity,</i> that is, idolatry; for an idol is a vain thing;
it is <i>nothing in the world,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.8.4 Bible:Deut.32.21 Bible:Jer.14.22" parsed="|1Cor|8|4|0|0;|Deut|32|21|0|0;|Jer|14|22|0|0" passage="1Co 8:4,De 32:21,Jer 14:22">1 Cor. viii. 4; Deut. xxxii. 21; Jer.
xiv. 22</scripRef>. Idolatrous worships are vanities, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Acts.14.15" parsed="|Acts|14|15|0|0" passage="Ac 14:15">Acts xiv. 15</scripRef>. Idolaters are vain, for
those that make idols <i>are like unto them</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.115.8" parsed="|Ps|115|8|0|0" passage="Ps 115:8">Ps. cxv. 8</scripRef>), as much stocks and stones as the
images they worship, and good for as little. [3.] They had with
idolatry introduced all manner of wickedness. When they entered
into the good land which God gave them they defiled it (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.7" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.7" parsed="|Jer|2|7|0|0" passage="Jer 2:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>), by defiling themselves
and disfitting themselves for the service of God. It was God's
land; they were but tenants to him, sojourners in it, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.8" osisRef="Bible:Lev.25.23" parsed="|Lev|25|23|0|0" passage="Le 25:23">Lev. xxv. 23</scripRef>. It was his heritage,
for it was a holy land, Immanuel's land; but they <i>made it an
abomination,</i> even to God himself, who was wroth, and greatly
abhorred Israel. [4.] Having forsaken God, though they soon found
that they had changed for the worse, yet they had no thoughts of
returning to him again, nor took any steps towards it. Neither the
people nor the priests made any enquiry after him, took any thought
about their duty to him, nor expressed any desire to recover his
favour. <i>First,</i> The <i>people</i> said not, <i>Where is the
Lord?</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.9" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.6" parsed="|Jer|2|6|0|0" passage="Jer 2:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>.
Though they were trained up in an observance of him as their God,
and had been often told that he <i>brought them out of the land of
Egypt,</i> to be a people peculiar to himself, yet they never asked
after him nor desired the <i>knowledge of his ways. Secondly,</i>
The <i>priests</i> said not, <i>Where is the Lord?</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p8.10" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.8" parsed="|Jer|2|8|0|0" passage="Jer 2:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>. Those whose office it was
to attend immediately upon him were in no concern to acquaint
themselves with him, or approve themselves to him. Those who should
have instructed the people in the knowledge of God took no care to
get the knowledge of him themselves. The scribes, who <i>handled
the law,</i> did not know God nor his will, could not expound the
scriptures at all, or not aright. The pastors, who should have kept
the flock from transgressing, were themselves ringleaders in
transgression: <i>They have transgressed against me.</i> The
pretenders to prophecy prophesied by Baal, in his name, to his
honour, being backed and supported by the wicked kings to confront
the Lord's prophets. Baal's prophets joined with Baal's priests,
and walked after the <i>things which do not profit,</i> that is,
after the idols which can be no way helpful to their worshippers.
See how the best characters are usurped, and the best offices
liable to corruption; and wonder not at the sin and ruin of a
people when the <i>blind</i> are <i>leaders of the blind.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Jer.iii-p8.11" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.9-Jer.2.13" parsed="|Jer|2|9|2|13" passage="Jer 2:9-13" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Jer.iii-p8.12">
<h4 id="Jer.iii-p8.13">Expostulations with Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p8.14">b. c.</span> 629.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Jer.iii-p9" shownumber="no">9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p9.1">Lord</span>, and with your children's
children will I plead.   10 For pass over the isles of
Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and
see if there be such a thing.   11 Hath a nation changed
<i>their</i> gods, which <i>are</i> yet no gods? but my people have
changed their glory for <i>that which</i> doth not profit.  
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be
ye very desolate, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p9.2">Lord</span>.
  13 For my people have committed two evils; they have
forsaken me the fountain of living waters, <i>and</i> hewed them
out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p10" shownumber="no">The prophet, having shown their base
ingratitude in forsaking God, here shows their unparalleled
fickleness and folly (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.9" parsed="|Jer|2|9|0|0" passage="Jer 2:9"><i>v.</i>
9</scripRef>): <i>I will yet plead with you.</i> Note, Before God
punishes sinners he pleads with them, to bring them to repentance.
Note, further, When much has been said of the evil of sin, still
there is more to be said; when one article of the charge is made
good, there is another to be urged; when we have said a great deal,
still <i>we have yet to speak on God's behalf,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.36.2" parsed="|Job|36|2|0|0" passage="Job 36:2">Job xxxvi. 2</scripRef>. Those that deal with
sinners, for their conviction, must urge a variety of arguments and
follow their blow. God had before pleaded with their fathers, and
asked why they <i>walked after vanity</i> and became vain,
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p10.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.5" parsed="|Jer|2|5|0|0" passage="Jer 2:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. Now he pleads
with those who persisted in that <i>vain conversation received by
tradition from their fathers,</i> and <i>with their children's
children,</i> that is, with all that in every age tread in their
steps. Let those that forsake God know that he is willing to argue
the case fairly with them, that he may be <i>justified when he
speaks.</i> He pleads that with us which we should plead with
ourselves.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p11" shownumber="no">I. He shows that they acted contrary to the
usage of all nations. Their neighbours were more firm and faithful
to their false gods than they were to the true God. They were
ambitious of being <i>like the nations,</i> and yet in this they
were unlike them. He challenges them to produce an instance of any
nation that had <i>changed their gods</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.10-Jer.2.11" parsed="|Jer|2|10|2|11" passage="Jer 2:10,11"><i>v.</i> 10, 11</scripRef>) or were apt to change
them. Let them survey either the old records or the present state
of the isles of Chittim, Greece, and the European islands, the
countries that were more polite and learned, and of Kedar, that lay
south-east (as the other north-west from them), which were more
rude and barbarous; and they should not find an instance of a
nation that had <i>changed their gods,</i> though they had never
done them any kindness, nor could do, for <i>they were no gods.</i>
Such a veneration had they for their gods, so good an opinion of
them, and such a respect for the choice their fathers had made,
that though they were gods of wood and stone they would not change
them for gods of silver and gold, no, not for the living and true
God. <i>Shall we praise them for this? We praise them not.</i> But
it may well be urged, to the reproach of Israel, that they, who
were the only people that had no cause to change their God, were
yet the only people that had changed him. Note, Men are with
difficulty brought off from that religion which they have been
brought up in, though ever so absurd and grossly false. The zeal
and constancy of idolaters should shame Christians out of their
coldness and inconstancy.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p12" shownumber="no">II. He shows that they acted contrary to
the dictates of common sense, in that they not only changed (it may
sometimes be our duty and wisdom to do so), but that they changed
for the worse, and made a bad bargain for themselves. 1. They
parted from a God who was their glory, who made them truly glorious
and every way put honour upon them, one whom they might with a
humble confidence glory in as theirs, who is himself a glorious God
and the glory of those whose God he is; he was particularly the
glory of his people Israel, for his glory had often appeared on
their tabernacle. 2. They closed with gods that could do them no
good, gods that <i>do not profit</i> their worshippers. Idolaters
change God's glory into shame (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Rom.1.23" parsed="|Rom|1|23|0|0" passage="Ro 1:23">Rom. i.
23</scripRef>) and so they do their own; in dishonouring him, they
disgrace and disparage themselves, and are enemies to their own
interest. Note, Whatever those turn to who forsake God, it will
never do them any good; it will flatter them and please them, but
it <i>cannot profit them.</i> Heaven itself is here called upon to
stand amazed at the sin and folly of these apostates from God
(<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.12-Jer.2.13" parsed="|Jer|2|12|2|13" passage="Jer 2:12,13"><i>v.</i> 12, 13</scripRef>):
<i>Be astonished, O you heavens! at this.</i> The earth is so
universally corrupt that it will take no notice of it; but let the
heavens and heavenly bodies be astonished at it. Let the sun blush
to see such ingratitude and be afraid to shine upon such ungrateful
wretches. Those that forsook God worshipped <i>the host of
heaven,</i> the sun, moon, and stars; but these, instead of being
pleased with the adorations that were paid to them, <i>were
astonished and horribly afraid;</i> and would rather have been
<i>very desolate, utterly exhausted</i> (as the word is) and
deprived of their light, than that it should have given occasion to
any to worship them. Some refer it to the <i>angels of heaven;</i>
if they rejoice at the return of souls to God, we may suppose that
they are astonished and horribly afraid at the revolt of souls from
him. The meaning is that the conduct of this people towards God
was, (1.) Such as we may well be astonished and wonder at, that
ever men, who pretend to reason, should do a thing so very absurd.
(2.) Such as we ought to have a holy indignation at as impious, and
a high affront to our Maker, whose honour every good man is jealous
for. (3.) Such as we may tremble to think of the consequences of.
What will be in the end hereof? Be horribly afraid to think of the
wrath and curse which will be the portion of those who thus throw
themselves out of God's grace and favour. Now what is it that is to
be thought of with all this horror? It is this: "<i>My people,</i>
whom I have taught and should have ruled, <i>have committed two</i>
great evils, ingratitude and folly; they have acted contrary both
to their duty and to their interest." [1.] They have <i>affronted
their God,</i> by turning their back upon him, as if he were not
worthy their notice: "<i>They have forsaken me, the fountain of
living waters,</i> in whom they have an abundant and constant
supply of all the comfort and relief they stand in need of, and
have it freely." God is their <i>fountain of life,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.9" parsed="|Ps|36|9|0|0" passage="Ps 36:9">Ps. xxxvi. 9</scripRef>. There is in him an
all-sufficiency of grace and strength; all our springs are in him
and our streams from him; to forsake him is, in effect, to deny
this. He has been to us a bountiful benefactor, a <i>fountain of
living waters,</i> over-flowing, ever-flowing, in the gifts of his
favour; to forsake him is to refuse to acknowledge his kindness and
to withhold that tribute of love and praise which his kindness
calls for. [2.] They have cheated themselves, they forsook <i>their
own mercies,</i> but it was for lying vanities. They took a great
deal of pains to <i>hew themselves out cisterns,</i> to dig pits or
pools in the earth or rock which they would carry water to, or
which should receive the rain; but they proved <i>broken
cisterns,</i> false at the bottom, so that they could <i>hold no
water.</i> When they came to quench their thirst there they found
nothing but mud and mire, and the filthy sediments of a standing
lake. Such idols were to their worshippers, and such a change did
those experience who turned from God to them. If we make an idol of
any creature-wealth, or pleasure, or honour,—if we place our
happiness in it, and promise ourselves the comfort and satisfaction
in it which are to be had in God only,—if we make it our joy and
love, our hope and confidence, we shall find it a cistern, which we
take a great deal of pains to hew out and fill, and at the best it
will hold but a little water, and that dead and flat, and soon
corrupting and becoming nauseous. Nay, it is a broken cistern, that
cracks and cleaves in hot weather, so that the water is lost when
we have most need of it, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.6.15" parsed="|Job|6|15|0|0" passage="Job 6:15">Job vi.
15</scripRef>. Let us therefore with purpose of heart cleave to the
Lord only, for whither else <i>shall we go?</i> He has <i>the words
of eternal life.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Jer.iii-p12.5" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.14-Jer.2.19" parsed="|Jer|2|14|2|19" passage="Jer 2:14-19" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Jer.iii-p12.6">
<h4 id="Jer.iii-p12.7">Expostulations with Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p12.8">b. c.</span> 629.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Jer.iii-p13" shownumber="no">14 <i>Is</i> Israel a servant? <i>is</i> he a
home-born <i>slave?</i> why is he spoiled?   15 The young
lions roared upon him, <i>and</i> yelled, and they made his land
waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.   16 Also the
children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head.
  17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou
hast forsaken the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p13.1">Lord</span> thy God, when
he led thee by the way?   18 And now what hast thou to do in
the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou
to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?
  19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy
backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that <i>it
is</i> an evil <i>thing</i> and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p13.2">Lord</span> thy God, and that my fear
<i>is</i> not in thee, saith the Lord <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p13.3">God</span> of hosts.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p14" shownumber="no">The prophet, further to evince the folly of
their forsaking God, shows them what mischiefs they had already
brought upon themselves by so doing; it had already cost them dear,
for to this were owing all the calamities their country was now
groaning under, which were but an earnest of more and greater if
they repented not. See how they smarted for their folly.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p15" shownumber="no">I. Their neighbours, who were their
professed enemies, prevailed against them, and this was owing to
their sin. 1. They were enslaved and lost their liberty (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.14" parsed="|Jer|2|14|0|0" passage="Jer 2:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>): <i>Is Israel a
servant?</i> No; <i>Israel is my son, my first-born,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.4.22" parsed="|Exod|4|22|0|0" passage="Ex 4:22">Exod. iv. 22</scripRef>. They are children; they
are heirs. Nay, their extraction is noble; they are the seed of
Abraham, God's friend, and of Jacob his chosen. <i>Is he a
home-born slave?</i> No; he is not the <i>son of the
bond-woman,</i> but of the free. They were designed for dominion,
not for servitude. Every thing in their constitution carried about
it the marks of freedom and honour. <i>Why then is he spoiled</i>
of his liberty? Why is he used as a servant, as a <i>home-born
slave?</i> Why does he <i>make himself a slave</i> to his lusts, to
his idols, to that which does not profit? <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.11" parsed="|Jer|2|11|0|0" passage="Jer 2:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>. What a thing is this, that such
a birthright should be sold for a mess of pottage, such a crown
profaned and laid in the dust! Why is he made a slave to the
oppressor? God provided that a Hebrew servant should be free the
seventh year, and that their slaves should be <i>of the
heathen,</i> not <i>of their brethren,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Lev.25.44 Bible:Lev.25.46" parsed="|Lev|25|44|0|0;|Lev|25|46|0|0" passage="Le 25:44,46">Lev. xxv. 44, 46</scripRef>. But, notwithstanding
this, the princes made slaves of their subjects, and masters made
slaves of their servants (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.5" osisRef="Bible:Jer.34.11" parsed="|Jer|34|11|0|0" passage="Jer 34:11"><i>ch.</i>
xxxiv. 11</scripRef>), and so made their country mean and
miserable, which God had made happy and honourable. The
neighbouring princes and powers broke in upon them, and made some
of them slaves even in their own country, and perhaps sold others
for slaves into foreign countries. And how came they thus to lose
their liberties? For <i>their iniquities they sold themselves,</i>
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.50.1" parsed="|Isa|50|1|0|0" passage="Isa 50:1">Isa. l. 1</scripRef>. We may apply
this spiritually. Is the soul of man a <i>servant? Is it a
home-born slave?</i> No, it is not. Why then is it spoiled? It is
because it has sold its own liberty and enslaved itself to divers
lusts and passions, which is a lamentation, and should be for a
lamentation. 2. They were impoverished and had lost their wealth.
God brought them into a plentiful country (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.7" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.7" parsed="|Jer|2|7|0|0" passage="Jer 2:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>), but all their neighbours made a
prey of it (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.8" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.15" parsed="|Jer|2|15|0|0" passage="Jer 2:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>):
<i>Young lions roar aloud over him and yell;</i> they are a
continual terror to him. Sometimes one potent enemy, and sometimes
another, and sometimes many in confederacy, fall upon him, and
triumph over him. They carry off the fruits of his land, and make
that <i>waste,</i> and <i>burn his cities,</i> when first they have
plundered them, so that they remain <i>without inhabitant,</i>
either because there are no houses to dwell in or because those
that should dwell in them are carried into captivity. 3. They were
abused, and insulted over, and beaten by every body (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.9" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.16" parsed="|Jer|2|16|0|0" passage="Jer 2:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>): "Even <i>the children
of Noph and Tahapanes,</i> despicable people, not famed for
military courage nor strength, <i>have broken the crown of thy
head,</i> or fed upon it. In all their struggles with thee they
have been too hard for thee, and thou hast always come off with a
broken head. The principal part of thy country, that which lay next
Jerusalem, has been and is a prey to them." How calamitous the
condition of Judah had been of late in the reign of Manasseh we
find, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.10" osisRef="Bible:2Chr.33.11" parsed="|2Chr|33|11|0|0" passage="2Ch 33:11">2 Chron. xxxiii. 11</scripRef>,
and perhaps it had not now much recovered itself. 4. All this was
owing to their sin (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p15.11" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.17" parsed="|Jer|2|17|0|0" passage="Jer 2:17"><i>v.</i>
17</scripRef>): <i>Hast thou not procured this unto thyself?</i> By
their sinful confederacies with the nations, and especially their
conformity to them in their idolatrous customs and usages, they had
made themselves very mean and contemptible, as all those do that
have made a profession of religion and afterwards throw it off.
Nothing now appeared of that which, by their constitution, made
them both honourable and formidable, and therefore nobody either
respected them or feared them. But this was not all; they had
provoked God to give them up into the hands of their enemies, and
to make them a scourge to them and give them success against them;
and "thus thou hast <i>procured it to thyself, in that thou hast
forsaken the Lord thy God,</i> revolted from thy allegiance to him
and so thrown thyself out of his protection; for protection and
allegiance go together." Whatever trouble we are in at any time we
may thank ourselves for it; for we bring it upon our own head by
our forsaking God: "<i>Thou hast forsaken thy God at the time that
he was leading thee by the way</i>" (so it should be read); "Then
when he was leading thee on to a happy peace and settlement, and
thou wast within a step of it, then thou forsookest him, and so
didst put a bar in thy own door."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p16" shownumber="no">II. Their neighbours, that were their
pretended friends, deceived them, distressed them, and helped them
not, and this also was owing to their sin. 1. They did in vain seek
to Egypt and Assyria for help (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.18" parsed="|Jer|2|18|0|0" passage="Jer 2:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>): "<i>What hast thou to do in
the way of Egypt?</i> When thou art under apprehensions of danger
thou art running to Egypt for help, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.30.1-Isa.30.2 Bible:Isa.31.1" parsed="|Isa|30|1|30|2;|Isa|31|1|0|0" passage="Isa 30:1,2,31:1">Isa. xxx. 1, 2; xxxi. 1</scripRef>. Thou art for
<i>drinking the waters of Sihor,</i>" that is, <i>Nilus.</i> "Thou
reliest upon their multitude, and refreshest thy self with the fair
promises they make thee. At other times thou art <i>in the way of
Assyria,</i> sending or going with all speed to fetch recruits
thence, and thinkest to satisfy thyself with the <i>waters of the
river Euphrates;</i> what <i>hast thou to do</i> there? What wilt
thou get by applying to them? They shall <i>help in vain,</i> shall
be broken reeds to thee, and what thou thoughtest would be to thee
as a river will be but a broken cistern." 2. This also was because
of their sin. The judgment shall unavoidably come upon them which
their sin has deserved; and then to what purpose is it to call in
help against it? <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.19" parsed="|Jer|2|19|0|0" passage="Jer 2:19"><i>v.</i>
19</scripRef>. "<i>Thy own wickedness shall correct thee,</i> and
then it is impossible for them to save thee; <i>know and see</i>
therefore, upon the whole matter, <i>that it is an evil thing that
thou hast forsaken God,</i> for it is that which makes thy enemies
enemies indeed, and thy friends friends in vain." Observe here,
(1.) The nature of sin; it is <i>forsaking the Lord</i> as our God;
it is the soul's alienation from him and aversion to him. Cleaving
to sin is leaving God. (2.) The cause of sin; it is because <i>his
fear is not in us.</i> It is for want of a good principle in us,
particularly for want of the fear of God; this is at the bottom of
our apostasy from him; men forsake their duty to God because they
stand in no awe of him nor have any dread of his displeasure. (3.)
The malignity of sin; it is <i>an evil thing and a bitter.</i> Sin
is an evil thing, only evil, an evil that has no good in it, an
evil that is the root and cause of all other evil; it is evil
indeed, for it is not only the greatest contrariety to the divine
nature, but the greatest corruption of the human nature. It is
<i>bitter;</i> a state of sin is the <i>gall of bitterness,</i> and
every sinful way will be <i>bitterness in the latter end;</i> the
wages of it is death, and death is bitter. (4.) The fatal
consequences of sin; as it is in itself evil and bitter, so it has
a direct tendency to make us miserable: "<i>Thy own wickedness
shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee,</i>
not only destroy and ruin thee hereafter, but correct and reprove
thee now; they will certainly bring trouble upon thee; and
punishment will so inevitably follow the sin that the sin shall
itself be said to punish thee. Nay, the punishment, in its kind and
circumstances, shall so directly answer to the sin, that thou
mayest read the sin in the punishment; and the justice of the
punishment shall be so plain that thou shalt not have a word to say
for thyself; thy own wickedness shall convince thee and stop thy
mouth for ever and thou shalt be forced to own that <i>the Lord is
righteous.</i>" (5.) The use and application of all this: "<i>Know
therefore,</i> and see it, and repent of thy sin, that so the
iniquity which is thy correction <i>may not be thy ruin.</i>"</p>
</div><scripCom id="Jer.iii-p16.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.20-Jer.2.28" parsed="|Jer|2|20|2|28" passage="Jer 2:20-28" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Jer.iii-p16.5">
<h4 id="Jer.iii-p16.6">Expostulations with Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p16.7">b. c.</span> 629.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Jer.iii-p17" shownumber="no">20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke,
<i>and</i> burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress;
when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou
wanderest, playing the harlot.   21 Yet I had planted thee a
noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the
degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?   22 For though
thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, <i>yet</i>
thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p17.1">God</span>.   23 How canst thou say, I am not
polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley,
know what thou hast done: <i>thou art</i> a swift dromedary
traversing her ways;   24 A wild ass used to the wilderness,
<i>that</i> snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion
who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary
themselves; in her month they shall find her.   25 Withhold
thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou
saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after
them will I go.   26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found,
so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their
princes, and their priests, and their prophets,   27 Saying to
a stock, Thou <i>art</i> my father; and to a stone, Thou hast
brought me forth: for they have turned <i>their</i> back unto me,
and not <i>their</i> face: but in the time of their trouble they
will say, Arise, and save us.   28 But where <i>are</i> thy
gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save
thee in the time of thy trouble: for <i>according to</i> the number
of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p18" shownumber="no">In these verses the prophet goes on with
his charge against this backsliding people. Observe here,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p19" shownumber="no">I. The sin itself that he charges them
with—idolatry, that great provocation which they were so
notoriously guilty of. 1. They frequented the places of
idol-worship (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.20" parsed="|Jer|2|20|0|0" passage="Jer 2:20"><i>v.</i>
20</scripRef>): "<i>Upon every high hill and under every green
tree,</i> in the high places and the groves, such as the heathen
had a foolish fondness and veneration for, <i>thou wanderest,</i>
first to one and then to another, like one unsettled, and still
uneasy and unsatisfied; but in all <i>playing the harlot,</i>"
worshipping false gods, which is spiritual whoredom, and was
commonly accompanied with corporal whoredom too. Note, Those that
leave God wander endlessly, and a vagrant lust is insatiable. 2.
They made images for themselves, and gave divine honour to them
(<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p19.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.26-Jer.2.27" parsed="|Jer|2|26|2|27" passage="Jer 2:26,27"><i>v.</i> 26, 27</scripRef>); not
only the common people, but even the kings and princes, who should
have restrained the people from doing ill, and the priests and
prophets, who should have taught them to do well, were themselves
so wretchedly sottish and stupid, and under the power of such a
strong delusion, as to <i>say to a stock, "Thou art my father</i>
(that is, Thou art my god, the author of my being, to whom I owe
duty and on whom I have a dependence)," and <i>to a stone,</i> to
an idol made of stone, "<i>Thou hast</i> begotten me, or <i>brought
me forth;</i> therefore protect me, provide for me, and bring me
up." What greater affront could men put upon God, who is our Father
that has made us? It was a downright disowning of their obligations
to him. What greater affront could men put upon themselves and
their own reason than to acknowledge that which is in itself absurd
and impossible, and, by making stocks and stones their parents, to
make themselves no better than stocks and stones? When these were
first made the objects of worship they were supposed to be animated
by some celestial power or spirit; but by degrees the thought of
this was lost, and so vain did idolaters become <i>in their
imagination,</i> even the princes and priests themselves, that the
very idol, though made of wood and stone, was supposed to be their
father, and adored accordingly. 3. They multiplied these dunghill
deities endlessly (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p19.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.28" parsed="|Jer|2|28|0|0" passage="Jer 2:28"><i>v.</i>
28</scripRef>): <i>According to the number of thy cities are thy
gods, O Judah!</i> When they had forsaken that God who is one, and
all-sufficient for all, (1.) They were not satisfied with any gods
they had, but still desired more, that idolatry being in this
respect of the same nature with covetousness, which is spiritual
idolatry (for the more men have the more they would have), which is
a plain evidence that what men make an idol of they find to be
insufficient and unsatisfying, and that it cannot <i>make the
comers thereunto perfect.</i> (2.) They could not agree in the same
god. Having left the centre of unity, they fell into endless
discord; one city fancied one deity and another another, and each
was anxious to have one of its own to be near them and to take
special care of them. Thus did they in vain seek that in many gods
which is to be found in one God only.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p20" shownumber="no">II. The proof of this. No witnesses need be
called; it is proved by the notorious evidence of the facts. 1.
They went about to deny it, and were ready to plead, <i>Not
guilty.</i> They pretended that they would acquit themselves from
this guilt, they <i>washed themselves with nitre,</i> and <i>took
much soap,</i> offered many things in excuse and extenuation of it,
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.22" parsed="|Jer|2|22|0|0" passage="Jer 2:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>. They
pretended that they did not worship these as gods, but as demons,
and mediators between the immortal God and mortal men, or that it
was not divine honour that they gave them, but civil respect; thus
they sought to evade the convictions of God's word and to screen
themselves from the dread of his wrath. Nay, some of them had the
impudence to deny the thing itself; they said, <i>I am not
polluted, I have not gone after Baalim,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.23" parsed="|Jer|2|23|0|0" passage="Jer 2:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>. Because it was done secretly,
and industriously concealed (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.8.12" parsed="|Ezek|8|12|0|0" passage="Eze 8:12">Ezek.
viii. 12</scripRef>), they thought it could never be proved upon
them, and they had impudence enough to deny it. In this, as in
other things, their way was like that of <i>the adulterous woman,
that says, I have done no wickedness,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:Prov.30.20" parsed="|Prov|30|20|0|0" passage="Pr 30:20">Prov. xxx. 20</scripRef>. 2. Notwithstanding all their
evasions, they are convicted of it and found guilty: "<i>How canst
thou</i> deny the fact, and <i>say, I have not gone after
Baalim?</i> How canst thou deny the fault, and say, <i>I am not
polluted?</i>" The prophet speaks with wonder at their impudence:
"How canst thou put on a face to say so, when it is certain?" (1.)
"God's omniscience is a witness against thee: <i>Thy iniquity is
marked before me, saith the Lord God;</i> it is laid up and hidden,
to be produced against thee in the day of judgment, <i>sealed up
among his treasures,</i>" <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p20.5" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.34 Bible:Job.21.19 Bible:Hos.13.12" parsed="|Deut|32|34|0|0;|Job|21|19|0|0;|Hos|13|12|0|0" passage="De 32:34,Job 21:19,Ho 13:12">Deut. xxxii. 34; Job xxi. 19; Hos.
xiii. 12</scripRef>. "It is <i>imprinted deeply</i> and
<i>stained</i> before me;" so some read it. "Though thou endeavour
to wash it out, as murderers to get the stain of the blood of the
person slain out of their clothes, yet it will never be got out."
God's eye is upon it, and we are sure that his judgment is
according to truth. (2.) "Thy own conscience is a witness against
thee. <i>See thy way in the valley</i>" (they had worshipped idols,
not only on the high hills, but in the valleys, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p20.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.57.5-Isa.57.6" parsed="|Isa|57|5|57|6" passage="Isa 57:5,6">Isa. lvii. 5, 6</scripRef>), in the <i>valley
over-against Beth-peor</i> (so some), where they worshipped
Baal-peor (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p20.7" osisRef="Bible:Deut.34.6 Bible:Num.25.3" parsed="|Deut|34|6|0|0;|Num|25|3|0|0" passage="De 34:6,Nu 25:3">Deut. xxxiv. 6, Num.
xxv. 3</scripRef>), as if the prophet looked as far back as the
<i>iniquity of Peor;</i> but, if it mean any particular valley,
surely it is the <i>valley of the son of Hinnom,</i> for that was
the place where they sacrificed their children to Moloch and which
therefore witnessed against them more than any other: "look into
that valley, and thou canst not but <i>know what thou hast
done.</i>"</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p21" shownumber="no">III. The aggravations of this sin with
which they are charged, which made it exceedingly sinful.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p22" shownumber="no">1. God had done great things for them, and
yet they revolted from him and rebelled against him (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p22.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.20" parsed="|Jer|2|20|0|0" passage="Jer 2:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>): <i>Of old time I have
broken thy yoke and burst thy bonds;</i> this refers to the
bringing of them out of the <i>land of Egypt</i> and the <i>house
of bondage,</i> which they would not remember (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p22.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.6" parsed="|Jer|2|6|0|0" passage="Jer 2:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>), but God did; for, when he told
them that they should have no other gods before him, he prefixed
this as a reason: <i>I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of
the land of Egypt!</i> These bonds of theirs which God had loosed
should have bound them for ever to him; but they had ungratefully
broken the bonds of duty to that God who had broken the bonds of
their slavery.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p23" shownumber="no">2. They had promised fair, but had not made
good their promise: "<i>Thou saidst, I will not transgress;</i>
then, when the mercy of thy deliverance was fresh, thou wast so
sensible of it that thou wast willing to lay thyself under the most
sacred ties to continue faithful to thy God and never to forsake
him." Then they said, <i>Nay, but we will serve the Lord,</i>
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p23.1" osisRef="Bible:Josh.24.21" parsed="|Josh|24|21|0|0" passage="Jos 24:21">Josh. xxiv. 21</scripRef>. How often
have we said that we <i>would not transgress,</i> we would not
offend any more, and yet we have <i>started aside, like a deceitful
bow,</i> and repeated and multiplied our transgressions!</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p24" shownumber="no">3. They had wretchedly degenerated from
what they were when God first formed them into a people (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p24.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.21" parsed="|Jer|2|21|0|0" passage="Jer 2:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>). <i>I had planted thee
a noble vine.</i> The constitution of their government both in
church and state was excellent, their laws were righteous, and all
the ordinances instructive and very significant; and a generation
of good men there was among them when they first settled in Canaan.
<i>Israel served the Lord,</i> and kept close to him <i>all the
days of Joshua, and the elders that out-lived Joshua,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p24.2" osisRef="Bible:Josh.24.31" parsed="|Josh|24|31|0|0" passage="Jos 24:31">Josh. xxiv. 31</scripRef>. They were then
<i>wholly a right seed,</i> likely to replenish the vineyard they
were planted in with choice vines. But it proved otherwise; they
very next generation <i>knew not the Lord, nor the works which he
had done</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p24.3" osisRef="Bible:Judg.2.10" parsed="|Judg|2|10|0|0" passage="Jdg 2:10">Judg. ii.
10</scripRef>), and so they were worse and worse till they became
<i>the degenerate plants of a strange vine.</i> They were now the
reverse of what they were at first. Their constitution was quite
broken, and there was nothing in them of that good which one might
have expected from a people so happily formed, nothing of the
purity and piety of their ancestors. <i>Their vine is as the vine
of Sodom,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p24.4" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.32" parsed="|Deut|32|32|0|0" passage="De 32:32">Deut. xxxii.
32</scripRef>. This may fitly be applied to the nature of man; it
was planted by its great author <i>a noble vine,</i> a <i>right
seed</i> (God made man upright); but it is so universally corrupt
that it has become the <i>degenerate plant of a strange vine,</i>
that <i>bears gall and wormwood,</i> and it is so to God, it is
highly distasteful and offensive to him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p25" shownumber="no">4. They were violent and eager in the
pursuit of their idolatries, doted on their idols, and were fond of
new ones, and they would not be restrained from them either by the
word of God or by his providence, so strong was the <i>impetus</i>
with which they were carried out after this sin. They are here
compared to a <i>swift dromedary traversing her ways,</i> a female
of that species of creatures hunting about for a male (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p25.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.23" parsed="|Jer|2|23|0|0" passage="Jer 2:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>), and, to the same
purport, <i>a wild ass used to the wilderness</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p25.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.24" parsed="|Jer|2|24|0|0" passage="Jer 2:24"><i>v.</i> 24</scripRef>), not tamed by labour,
and therefore very wanton, <i>snuffing up the wind at her
pleasure</i> when she comes near the he-ass, and on such an
<i>occasion who can turn her away?</i> Who can hinder her from that
which she lusts after? <i>Those that seek her</i> then <i>will not
weary themselves for her,</i> for they know it is to no purpose;
but will have a little patience till she is big with young, till
that month comes which is the last of <i>the months that she
fulfils</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p25.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.39.2" parsed="|Job|39|2|0|0" passage="Job 39:2">Job xxxix. 2</scripRef>),
when she is heavy and unwieldy, and then <i>they shall find
her,</i> and she cannot out-run them. Note, (1.) Eager lust is a
brutish thing, and those that will not be turned away from the
gratifying and indulging of it by reason, and conscience, and
honour, are to be reckoned as brute-beasts and no better, such as
were born, and still are, <i>like the wild ass's colt;</i> let them
not be looked upon as rational creatures. (2.) Idolatry is
strangely intoxicating, and those that are addicted to it will with
great difficulty be cured of it. That lust is as headstrong as any.
(3.) There are some so violently set upon the prosecution of their
lusts that it is to no purpose to attempt to give check to them:
those that do so weary themselves in vain. <i>Ephraim is joined to
idols; let him alone.</i> (4.) The time will come when the most
fierce will be tamed and the most wanton will be manageable; when
distress and anguish come upon them, then their ears will be open
to discipline, that is the month in which you may find them,
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p25.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.5-Ps.141.6" parsed="|Ps|141|5|141|6" passage="Ps 141:5,6">Ps. cxli. 5, 6</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p26" shownumber="no">5. They were obstinate in their sin, and,
as they could not be restrained, so they would not be reformed,
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p26.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.25" parsed="|Jer|2|25|0|0" passage="Jer 2:25"><i>v.</i> 25</scripRef>. Here is, (1.)
Fair warning given them of the ruin that this wicked course of life
would certainly bring them to at last, with a caution therefore not
to persist in it, but to break off from it. He would certainly
bring them into a miserable captivity, when their feet should be
unshod, and they should be forced to travel barefoot, and when they
would be denied fair water by their oppressors, so that their
throat should be dried with thirst; this will be in the end hereof.
Those that affect strange gods, and strange ways of worship, will
justly be made prisoners to a strange king in a strange land. "Take
up in time therefore; thy running after thy idols will run the
<i>shoes off thy feet,</i> and thy panting after them will bring
thy throat to thirst; withhold therefore thy foot from these
violent pursuits, and thy throat from these violent desires." One
would think that it should effectually check us in the career of
sin to consider what it will bring us to at last. (2.) Their
rejecting this fair warning. They said to those that would have
persuaded them to repent and reform, "<i>There is no hope; no,</i>
never expect to work upon us, or prevail with us to cast away our
idols, for <i>we have loved strangers, and after them we will
go;</i> we are resolved we will, and therefore trouble not
yourselves nor us any more with your admonitions; it is to no
purpose. There is no hope that we should ever break the corrupt
habit and disposition we have got, and therefore we may as well
yield to it as go about to get the mastery of it." Note, Their case
is very miserable who have brought themselves to such a pass that
their corruptions triumph over their convictions; they know they
should reform, but own they cannot, and therefore resolve they will
not. But, as we must not despair of the mercy of God, but believe
that sufficient for the pardon of our sins, though ever so heinous,
if we repent and sue for that mercy, so neither must we despair of
the grace of God, but believe that able to subdue our corruptions,
though ever so strong, if we pray for and improve that grace. A man
must never say <i>There is no hope,</i> as long as he is on this
side hell.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p27" shownumber="no">6. They had shamed themselves by their sin,
in putting confidence in that which would certainly deceive them in
the day of their distress, and putting him away that would have
helped them, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p27.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.26-Jer.2.28" parsed="|Jer|2|26|2|28" passage="Jer 2:26-28"><i>v.</i>
26-28</scripRef>. <i>As the thief is ashamed</i> when,
notwithstanding all his arts and tricks to conceal his theft, he is
found, and brought to punishment, <i>so are the house of Israel
ashamed,</i> not with a penitent shame for the sin they had been
guilty of, but with a penal shame for the disappointment they met
with in that sin. They will be ashamed when they find, (1.) That
they are forced to cry to the God whom they had put contempt upon.
In their prosperity they had turned the back to God and not the
face; they had slighted him, acted as if they had forgotten him, or
did what they could to forget him, would not look towards him, but
looked another way; they went from him as fast and as far as they
could; but in the time of their trouble they will find no
satisfaction but in applying to him; then <i>they will say, Arise,
and save us.</i> Their fathers had many a time taken this shame to
themselves (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p27.2" osisRef="Bible:Judg.3.9 Bible:Judg.4.3 Bible:Judg.10.10" parsed="|Judg|3|9|0|0;|Judg|4|3|0|0;|Judg|10|10|0|0" passage="Jdg 3:9,4:3,10:10">Judg. iii. 9, iv.
3, x. 10</scripRef>), yet they would not be persuaded to cleave to
God, that they might come to him in their trouble with the more
confidence. (2.) That they have no relief from the gods they have
made their court to. They will be ashamed when they perceive that
the gods they have made cannot serve them, and that the God who
made them will not serve them. To bring them to this shame, if so
be they might hereby be brought to repentance, they are here sent
<i>to the gods whom they served,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p27.3" osisRef="Bible:Judg.10.14" parsed="|Judg|10|14|0|0" passage="Jdg 10:14">Judg. x. 14</scripRef>. They cried to God, <i>Arise,
and save us.</i> God says of the idols, "<i>Let them arise, and
save thee,</i> for thou hast no reason to expect that I should Let
them arise, if they can, from the places where they are fixed; let
them try whether they can save thee: but thou wilt be ashamed when
thou findest that they can do thee no good, for, though thou hadst
a god for every city, yet <i>thy cities are burnt without
inhabitant,</i>" <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p27.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.15" parsed="|Jer|2|15|0|0" passage="Jer 2:15"><i>v.</i>
15</scripRef>. Thus it is the folly of sinners to please themselves
with that which will certainly be their grief, and pride themselves
in that which will certainly be their shame.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Jer.iii-p27.5" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.29-Jer.2.37" parsed="|Jer|2|29|2|37" passage="Jer 2:29-37" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Jer.iii-p27.6">
<h4 id="Jer.iii-p27.7">Expostulations with Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p27.8">b. c.</span> 629.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Jer.iii-p28" shownumber="no">29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have
transgressed against me, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p28.1">Lord</span>.   30 In vain have I smitten your
children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured
your prophets, like a destroying lion.   31 O generation, see
ye the word of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p28.2">Lord</span>. Have I been
a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my
people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?   32 Can
a maid forget her ornaments, <i>or</i> a bride her attire? yet my
people have forgotten me days without number.   33 Why
trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught
the wicked ones thy ways.   34 Also in thy skirts is found the
blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by
secret search, but upon all these.   35 Yet thou sayest,
Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold,
I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.
  36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou
also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
  37 Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon
thine head: for the <span class="smallcaps" id="Jer.iii-p28.3">Lord</span> hath
rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p29" shownumber="no">The prophet here goes on in the same
strain, aiming to bring a sinful people to repentance, that their
destruction might be prevented.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p30" shownumber="no">I. He avers the truth of the charge. It was
evident beyond contradiction; it was the greatest absurdity
imaginable in them to think of denying it (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p30.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.29" parsed="|Jer|2|29|0|0" passage="Jer 2:29"><i>v.</i> 29</scripRef>): "<i>Wherefore will you plead
with me,</i> and put me upon the proof of it, or wherefore will you
go about to plead any thing in excuse of the crime or to obtain a
mitigation of the sentence? Your plea will certainly be overruled,
and judgment given against you: you know <i>you have all
transgressed,</i> one as well as another; why then to you
<i>quarrel with me</i> for contending with you?"</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p31" shownumber="no">II. He heightens it from the consideration
both of their incorrigibleness and of their ingratitude. 1. They
had not been wrought upon by the judgments of God which they had
been under (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p31.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.30" parsed="|Jer|2|30|0|0" passage="Jer 2:30"><i>v.</i> 30</scripRef>):
<i>In vain have I smitten your children,</i> that is, the children
or people of Judah. They had been under divine rebukes of many
kinds. God therein designed to bring them to repentance; but it was
<i>in vain.</i> They did not answer God's end in afflicting them;
their consciences were not awakened, nor their hearts softened and
humbled, nor were they driven to seek unto God; <i>they received no
instruction</i> by the <i>correction,</i> were not made the better
by it; and it is a great loss thus to lose an affliction. They
<i>did not receive,</i> they did not submit to, or comply with, the
correction, but their hearts fretted against the Lord, and so they
were <i>smitten in vain.</i> Even <i>the children,</i> the <i>young
people,</i> among them (so it may be taken), were <i>smitten in
vain;</i> they were so soon prejudiced against repentance that they
were as untractable as the old ones that had been long
<i>accustomed to do evil.</i> 2. They had not been wrought upon by
the word of God which he had sent them in the mouth of his servants
the prophets; nay, they had killed the messengers for the sake of
the message: "<i>Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a
destroying lion;</i> you have put them to death for their
faithfulness with as much rage and fury, and with as much
greediness and pleasure, as a lion devours his prey." Their
prophets, who were their greatest blessings, were treated by them
as if they had been the plagues of their generation, and this was
their measure-filling sin, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p31.2" osisRef="Bible:2Chr.36.16" parsed="|2Chr|36|16|0|0" passage="2Ch 36:16">2 Chron.
xxxvi. 16</scripRef>. They <i>killed their own prophets,</i>
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p31.3" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.2.15" parsed="|1Thess|2|15|0|0" passage="1Th 2:15">1 Thess. ii. 15</scripRef>. 3. They
had not been wrought upon by the favours God had bestowed upon them
(<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p31.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.31" parsed="|Jer|2|31|0|0" passage="Jer 2:31"><i>v.</i> 31</scripRef>): "<i>O
generation!</i>" (he does not call them, as he might, <i>O
faithless</i> and <i>perverse</i> generation! <i>O generation of
vipers!</i> but speaks gently, O you men of this generation!)
"<i>see the word of the Lord,</i> do not only hear it, but consider
it diligently, apply your minds closely to it." As we are bidden to
<i>hear the rod</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p31.5" osisRef="Bible:Mic.6.9" parsed="|Mic|6|9|0|0" passage="Mic 6:9">Micah vi.
9</scripRef>), for that has its voice, so we are bidden to <i>see
the word,</i> for that has its visions, its views. It intimates
that what is here said is plain and undeniable; you may see it to
be very evident; it is written as with a sun-beam, so that he that
runs may read it: <i>Have I been a wilderness to Israel, a land of
darkness.</i> Note, None of those who have had any dealings with
God ever had reason to complain of him as <i>a wilderness</i> or a
<i>land of darkness.</i> He has blessed us with the fruits of the
earth, and therefore we cannot say that he has been a wilderness to
us, a dry and barren land, that (as Mr. Gataker expresses it) he
has held us to <i>hard meat,</i> as cattle fed upon the common. No;
his sheep have been led into green pastures. He has also blessed us
with the lights of heaven, and has not withheld them, so that we
cannot say, He has been to us a land of darkness. He has caused his
sun to shine, as well as his rain to fall, upon the evil and
unthankful. Or the meaning is, in general, that the service of God
has not been to any either an unpleasant or an unprofitable
service. God sometimes has led his people <i>through a
wilderness</i> and a <i>land of darkness,</i> but he himself was
then to them all that which they needed; he so fed them with manna,
and led them by a pillar of fire, that it was to them a fruitful
field and a land of light. The world is, to those who make it their
home and their portion, a wilderness and a land of darkness, vanity
and vexation of spirit; but those that dwell in God have the
<i>lines fallen to them in pleasant places.</i> 4. Instead of being
wrought upon by these, they had grown intolerably insolent and
imperious. They say, <i>We are lords; we will come no more unto
thee.</i> Now that they had become a potent kingdom, or thought
themselves such, they set up for themselves, and shook off their
dependence upon God. This is the language of presumptuous sinners,
and it is not only very impious and profane, but very unreasonable
and foolish. (1.) It is absurd for us who are subjects to say,
<i>We are lords</i> (that is, <i>rulers</i>) and we will come no
more to <i>God</i> to receive commands form him; for, as he is King
of old, so he is King for ever, and we can never pretend to be from
under his authority. (2.) It is absurd for us who are beggars to
say, <i>We are lords,</i> that is, We are rich, and we will come no
more to God, to receive favours from him, as if we could live
without him and need not be beholden to him. God justly takes it
ill when those to whom he has been a bountiful benefactor care not
either for hearing from him or speaking to him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p32" shownumber="no">III. He lays the blame of all their
wickedness upon their forgetting God (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p32.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.32" parsed="|Jer|2|32|0|0" passage="Jer 2:32"><i>v.</i> 32</scripRef>): <i>They have forgotten me;</i>
they have industriously banished the thoughts of God out of their
minds, jostled those thoughts out with thoughts of their idols, and
avoided all those things that would put them in mind of God. 1.
Though they were his own people, in covenant with him and
professing relation to him, and had the tokens of his presence in
the midst of them and of his favour to them, yet they forgot him.
2. They had long neglected him, <i>days without number,</i> time
out of mind, as we say. They had not for a great while entertained
any serious thoughts of him; so that they seem quite to have
forgotten him, and resolved never to remember him again. How many
days of our lives have passed without suitable remembrance of God!
Who can number those empty days? 3. They had not had such a regard
and affection to him as young ladies generally have to their fine
clothes: <i>Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her
attire?</i> No; their hearts are upon them; they value them so
much, and themselves upon them, that they are ever and anon
thinking and speaking of them. When they are to appear in public
they do not forget any of <i>their ornaments,</i> but put every one
in its place, as they are described, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p32.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.3.18" parsed="|Isa|3|18|0|0" passage="Isa 3:18">Isa. iii. 18</scripRef>, &amp;c. And <i>yet my people
have forgotten me.</i> It is sad that any should be more in love
with their fine clothes than with their God, and should rather
leave their religion behind them, or part with that, than leave any
of their ornaments behind them, or part with them. Is not God our
ornament? Is he not <i>a crown of glory</i> and a <i>diadem of
beauty</i> to his people? Did we look upon him to be so, and upon
our religion as an <i>ornament of grace to our head</i> and
<i>chains about our neck</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p32.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.1.9" parsed="|Prov|1|9|0|0" passage="Pr 1:9">Prov. i.
9</scripRef>), we should be as mindful of them as ever any maid was
of her ornaments, or a bride of her attire, we should be as careful
to preserve them and as fond to appear in them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p33" shownumber="no">IV. He shows them what a bad influence
their sins had had upon others. The sins of God's professing people
harden and encourage those about them in their evil ways,
especially when they appear forward and ringleaders in sin
(<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p33.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.33" parsed="|Jer|2|33|0|0" passage="Jer 2:33"><i>v.</i> 33</scripRef>): <i>Why
trimmest thou thy way to seek love?</i> There is an allusion here
to the practice of lewd women who strive to recommend themselves by
their ogling looks and gay dress, as Jezebel, who <i>painted her
face and tired her head.</i> Thus had they courted their neighbours
into sinful confederacies with them and communion in their
idolatries, and had <i>taught the wicked ones their ways,</i> their
ways of mixing God's institutions with their idolatrous customs and
usages, which was a great profanation of that which was sacred and
made the ways of their idolatry worse than that of others. Those
have a great deal to answer for who, by their fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, make wicked ones more wicked than
otherwise they would be.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p34" shownumber="no">V. He charges them with the guilt of murder
added to the guilt of their idolatry (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p34.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.34" parsed="|Jer|2|34|0|0" passage="Jer 2:34"><i>v.</i> 34</scripRef>): <i>Also in thy skirts is found
the blood of the souls,</i> the life-blood <i>of the poor
innocents,</i> which cried to heaven, and for which God was now
<i>making inquisition.</i> The reference is to the children that
were offered in sacrifice to Moloch; or it may be taken more
generally for all the <i>innocent blood</i> which Manasseh shed,
and with which he had <i>filled Jerusalem</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p34.2" osisRef="Bible:2Kgs.21.16" parsed="|2Kgs|21|16|0|0" passage="2Ki 21:16">2 Kings xxi. 16</scripRef>), the <i>righteous
blood,</i> especially the blood of the prophets and others that
witnessed against their impieties. This blood was found <i>not by
secret search,</i> not <i>by diggings</i> (so the word is), but
<i>upon all these;</i> it was above ground. This intimates that the
guilt of this kind which they had contracted was certain and
evident, not doubtful or which would bear a dispute; and that it
was avowed and barefaced, and which they had not so much sense
either of shame or fear as to endeavour to conceal, which was a
great aggravation of it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p35" shownumber="no">VI. He overrules their plea of, <i>Not
guilty.</i> Though this matter be so plain, yet thou sayest,
<i>Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me;</i>
and again, <i>Thou sayest, I have not sinned</i> (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p35.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.35" parsed="|Jer|2|35|0|0" passage="Jer 2:35"><i>v.</i> 35</scripRef>); therefore <i>I will
plead with thee,</i> and will convince thee of thy mistake. Because
they deny the charge, and stand upon their own justification,
therefore God will join issue with them and plead with them, both
by his word and by his rod. Those shall be made to know how much
they deceive themselves, 1. Who say that they have not offended
God, that they are innocent, though they have been guilty of the
grossest enormities. 2. Who expect that God will be reconciled to
them though they do not repent and reform. They own that they had
been under the tokens of God's anger, but they think that it was
causeless, and that they by pleading innocency had proved it to be
so, and therefore they conclude that God will immediately let fall
his action and <i>his anger shall be turned from them.</i> This is
very provoking, and God will plead with them, and convince them
that his anger is just, for they have sinned, and he will never
cease his controversy till they, instead of justifying themselves
thus, humble, and judge, and condemn themselves.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Jer.iii-p36" shownumber="no">VII. He upbraids them with the shameful
disappointments they met with, in making creatures their
confidence, while they made God their enemy, <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p36.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.36-Jer.2.37" parsed="|Jer|2|36|2|37" passage="Jer 2:36,37"><i>v.</i> 36, 37</scripRef>. It was a piece of
spiritual idolatry they were often guilty of that they trusted in
<i>an arm of flesh</i> and their hearts therein <i>departed from
the Lord.</i> Now here he shows them the folly of it. 1. They were
restless, and unsatisfied in the choice of their confidences:
"<i>Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?</i> Doubtless
it is because thou meetest not with that in those thou didst
confide in which thou promisedst thyself." Those that make God
their hope, and walk in a continual dependence upon him, need not
<i>gad about to change their way;</i> for their souls may return to
him, and repose in him, as their rest: but those that trust in
creatures will be perpetually uneasy, like Noah's dove, that found
no rest for the sole of her foot. Every thing they trust to fails
them, and then they think to change for the better, but they will
be still disappointed. They first trusted to Assyria, and, when
that proved a broken reed, they depended upon Egypt, and that
proved no better. Creatures being vanity, they will be vexation of
spirit to all those that put their confidence in them; they <i>gad
about, seeking rest</i> and finding none. 2. They were quite
disappointed in the confidences they made choice of; so the prophet
tells them they should be: <i>Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt,</i>
which thou now trustest in, as formerly <i>thou wast of Assyria,
who distressed them and helped them not,</i> <scripRef id="Jer.iii-p36.2" osisRef="Bible:2Chr.28.20" parsed="|2Chr|28|20|0|0" passage="2Ch 28:20">2 Chron. xxviii. 20</scripRef>. The Jews were a
peculiar people in their profession of religion, and for that
reason none of the neighbouring nations cared for them, nor could
heartily love them; and yet the Jews were still courting them, and
confiding in them, and were well enough served when deceived by
them. See what will come of it (<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p36.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.37" parsed="|Jer|2|37|0|0" passage="Jer 2:37"><i>v.</i> 37</scripRef>): <i>Thou shalt go forth from
him,</i> thy ambassadors or envoys shall return from Egypt <i>re
infectâ—disappointed,</i> and therefore <i>with their hands upon
their heads,</i> lamenting the desperate condition of their people.
Or, <i>Thou shalt go forth hence,</i> that is, into captivity in a
strange land, <i>with thy hands upon thy head,</i> holding it
because it aches (<i>ubi dolor ibi digitus—where the pain is the
finger will be applied</i>), or as people ashamed, for Tamar, in
the height of her confusion, <i>laid her hand on her head,</i>
<scripRef id="Jer.iii-p36.4" osisRef="Bible:2Sam.13.19" parsed="|2Sam|13|19|0|0" passage="2Sa 13:19">2 Sam. xiii. 19</scripRef>. "And
Egypt, that thou reliest on, shall not be able to prevent it nor to
rescue thee out of captivity." Those that will not lay their hand
on their heart in godly sorrow, which works life, shall be made to
lay their hand on their head in the sorrow of the world, which
works death. And no wonder that Egypt cannot help them, when God
will not, If the Lord do not help thee, whence should I? The
Egyptians are broken reeds, for <i>the Lord has rejected thy
confidences;</i> he will not make use of them for thy relief, will
neither so far honour them, nor so far give countenance to thy
confidence in them, as to appoint them to be the instruments of any
good to thee, and therefore <i>thou shalt not prosper in them;</i>
they shall not stand thee in any stead nor give thee any
satisfaction. As <i>there is no counsel or wisdom</i> that can
prevail against the Lord, so there is none that can prevail without
him. Some read it, <i>The Lord has rejected thee for thy
confidences;</i> because thou hast dealt so unfaithfully with him
as to trust in his creatures, nay, in his enemies when thou
shouldst have trusted in him only, he has abandoned thee to that
destruction from which thou thoughtest thus to shelter thyself; and
then thou <i>canst not prosper,</i> for none ever either hardened
himself against God or estranged himself from God and
prospered.</p>
</div></div2>