But now shall they be among the Gentils, as a vessel wherein is no pleasure

But now shall they be among the Gentils, as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

By these words, Vessel of no pleasure, is meant, a vessel that is for the carrying up and down of excrements; only the Scripture when it mentions such vile things, speaks in a modest way; but that's the meaning of the word: as if he should say, Even my people shall be in a vile contemptible condition among the Gentiles, as a vessel that is fit for nothing but excrements. Jehoiakim is threatened in (Jeremiah 22:18), though a great man, yet he is threatened to be as a vessel wherein is no pleasure, they had wasted their substance in seeking help from the Egyptians and Assyrians, and these made a prey of them; so long as they had any thing of value continued, then they made much of them, but their estates being once wasted, and they swallowed up in their very estates, they look now upon them as vile and contemptible in their eyes. And this is the way of wicked men, while wicked men are serving their own turns upon any, they will hug them and make much of them, but if that be done, then they scorn them and contemn them; none are more scorned and contemned than professors of religion who have basely crouched to wicked men, and sought to shelter themselves under them, when their estates are once consumed and gone, they are more scorned by those that served themselves of them than any; and therefore let us learn wisdom, and how far we venture to make use of men, and do not please ourselves in this, that they hug and commend us, if it be but to serve their own turns, when they have gotten what they would have, they will then scorn you, and look upon you as base people, and kick you out.

Again, a vessel wherein is no pleasure. The Seventy translate it, an unprofitable vessel. But there is more intended certainly in this expression; a vessel employed in base and contemptible uses; Israel shall be so employed; and thereby he shall know a difference between my service, and the service of their enemies. Oh it is a sad expression, what Israel! a vessel employed and received to empty out excrements! [1. Israel were a people precious and honorable in the eyes of God (Isaiah 43:4). [2. An holy people to the Lord (Deuteronomy 14:2). [3. They were God's peculiar people above all nations in the world in the same place. [4. God's portion (Deuteronomy 32:9). [5. God's inheritance (Isaiah 19:25). [6. God's peculiar treasure (Exodus 19:5). [7. God's glory (Isaiah 46:13). [8. God's delight (Isaiah 62:4). [9. Israel were the dearly beloved of God's soul (Jeremiah 12:7). And yet now Israel is become a vessel only to take in and empty out excrements. Oh what a change does sin make! They were holy vessels, employed in holy services, in attending upon God and his worship, so as no people were; but now, oh! what a change has sin made in them? How does sin vilify men, to be employed in base services, it is the most against an ingenuous spirit that any thing can be. I remember I have read of a young man of Sparta that being taken by Antigonus and sold for a slave, all the while that he that brought him did employ him in any thing that did stand with ingenuity he did it, but when he bid him go and empty a vessel wherein is no pleasure, no says he, I will not serve you now in such a thing, and his master being angry with him he gets up to the top of the house and falls down and breaks his neck rather than he would empty such a vessel. And certainly there is nothing that is so beneath the excellency of an immortal soul as sin is, for hereby though you be high in your own thoughts you come to be a vessel for the very Devil to empty his excrements into: and that's lower than to be a scavenger to go up and down to take the filth of the street: in being employed in the service of the Devil you do more debase yourself than if you were a scavenger to carry dung and filth in a dung-cart; but as if you were judged to such a kind of life and employment, that you should go from morning to night to carry away the filth in your very hands and mouth. Some men are vessels of mercy, they are chosen vessels, vessels of honor fitted for the master's use: and it is an infinite mercy of God to us when as we have deserved to be cast out as vessels wherein there is no pleasure, that God should employ any of us to be vessels of his sanctuary, that God should take us out of the common lump, such vessels; whereas others are vessels of wrath employed only in base services that are beneath the excellency of an immortal soul.

Yes, some there are who have been eminent in the Church heretofore, who have been vessels filled with the gifts of the Holy Ghost (I do not say graces) now they are vessels in which there is no pleasure; many of the saints heretofore have been refreshed by them, from those gifts of the Holy Ghost that have been in them, but now their gifts are gone, they are fit for no pleasure, but for pot or pipe: now idle drones that are fit for nothing but to sit in the [illegible], and (it may be) to scum the pot, yes some of them filled with poison, vessels wherein neither God nor man can take pleasure, yes and some very forward professors of religion that once were as the polished sapphires and are now become more black than the coal, turned apostates; they were as golden vessels in the house of God, and now are become vessels wherein is no pleasure. It was a speech that once Demosthenes had to the Athenians, he desired them that they would not make a urinal of a wine pot; for to employ those men in base services that had been eminent, even those men that God himself has heretofore made use of for great services in Church and commonwealth, the Lord has left them to be vessels of no pleasure. Oh! remember all you from where you are fallen, your heart is now exercised upon such low things, your work (it may be) now is only to further the wicked designs and desperate malice of other men; and do you think to be a vessel of glory, to stand before the presence of the holy God, and join with saints and angels in the eternal praises of his name? Oh! remember from where you are fallen, and be not at quiet till the Lord has been pleased to purge you and make you fit for your master's use, and to become a vessel of honor in your master's house.