Jeremiah 17

Resp. To trust in any thing more than God, is to make it a God. 1. If we trust in our riches, then we make riches our God: we may take comfort, not put confidence in them: it is a foolish thing to trust in them. 1. They are deceitful riches (Matthew 13:22). and it is foolish to…

'Tis a deceitful creature: we should not in this sense be like the serpent, for deceitfulness. Naturally we too much resemble the serpent for fraud and collusion (Jeremiah 17:9). The heart is deceitful above all things.

Besides this, there is much pride, superciliousness, and prejudice, many fleshly reasonings against the truth, and swarms of vain thoughts (Jeremiah 4:14). How long shall vain thoughts lodge in you. 2. Original sin has defiled the heart: the heart is mortiferum junius, deadly wi…

Then we hallow God's name, and sanctify him in an ordinance, when we give him the vitals of religion, a heart flaming with zeal. 7. We hallow and sanctify God's name when we hallow his day (Jeremiah 17:22): Hallow you the Sabbath day. Our Christian Sabbath which comes in the roo…

This is a great argument for keeping the Sabbath day holy: God is not benefited by it, we cannot add one cubit to his essential glory; but we ourselves are advantaged: the Sabbath day religiously observed entails a blessing upon our souls, our estate, our posterity. As the not k…

His sin was monstrous, and it was punished with a monstrous birth. The Lord threatened the Jews, that if they would not hallow the Sabbath-day, he would kindle a fire in their gates (Jeremiah 17:27). The dreadful fire which broke out in London began on the Sabbath-day; as if God…

(5.) Self-examining is needful, because without it we may easily have a cheat put upon us. (Jeremiah 17:9) The heart is deceitful above all things. Many a man's heart will tell him, he is fit for the Lord's Table.

Let your ear be open to God, and shut to sin. (3.) Watch your hearts: we watch suspicious persons; the heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). Watch your heart; 1. When you are about holy things; it will be stealing out to vanity.

How righteous therefore is God in punishing of us? We sow the seed, and God only makes us reap what we sow (Jeremiah 17:10): I give every man the fruit of his own doings. When we are punished, we do but taste the fruit of our own grafting.

Considering withal that our hearts are a great deep also — so deep in darkness and deceitfulness as no plummet can fathom them. 'Deceitful above all things, who can know it?' (Jeremiah 17:9). Darkness covers not the face of this deep only, but it is darkness to the bottom, throu…

In a word, let men conceive in mind the most notorious trespass that can be, though they do it not, nor intend to do it, and never do it: yet the matter, beginning, and seed thereof is in themselves. This made Jeremiah say, "The heart of man is deceitful and wicked above all thi…

When sufferings for religion grow hot, then blessed is he that is not offended in Christ. Troubles are then at a height: first, when a man's nearest friends and relations forsake and leave him — Micah 7:5-6; 2 Timothy 4:16; second, when it comes to resisting unto blood — Hebrews…

Entreat one smile, one gracious look to lighten your darkness and cheer your drooping spirit. Say with the prophet in Jeremiah 17:17: Be not a terror to me; you are my hope in the day of evil. And try what relief such a course will afford you.

But it follows not therefore, the fallen angels never saw the face of Christ's Father; it follows only, they saw it not immutably, and in a confirmed way of grace, and [in non-Latin alphabet], always, as now the elect angels do. It is no dominion in Satan to know the thoughts of…

And what ensued (Psalm 49:12): man that is in honor and understands not is like the beasts that perish, degraded to the beasts, as the brutish and bestial nature prevailed in him when he fell from God. Or else, if we have them, we were better be without them; we have them with a…

In the second place, let us depend neither upon the help of men, nor upon any creature else: but let us place our whole trust in the Lord. Cursed is he, says Jeremiah, which trusts in man, and puts his strength in the arm of flesh, that is to say, in outward means and helps (Jer…

For this cause we are often admonished in the holy Scriptures, not to trust in man, because nothing is more vain than he (Psalm 146:3). Cursed be he (says Jeremiah) that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5). Yet we see that all, none excepted, determine and con…

That all the world being brought to nothing, we might content ourselves with him alone. But to encourage those whom before he had cast down, he sets this remedy before them; Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is, etc. (Jeremiah 17:5, 7). Contrari…

For being settled upon leagues and succors of their confederates, they thought themselves in such safety, as if before they had never been annoyed by such associates. But he protests, that all the aid which they have gathered together, shall serve them to no use: for the hopes w…

I grant the Lord has no need to write for his memory's sake: but it pleases him to use this phrase of speech, that we should not imagine him to be forgetful of anything, when he defers the execution of his judgments. Indeed, in Jeremiah 17:1 he says yet more expressly, that the…

But here we may perceive it is a proper name, because Isaiah contents not himself therewith, but has added the epithet Gibbor, which signifies strong. And truly if Christ were not God, it were ill done to rejoice in him; for it is written, Cursed is he that trusts in man (Jeremi…

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his Help, whose Hope is in the Lord his God. Jeremiah 17. 7. Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord, whose Hope the Lord is.

Whereas a true Saint is like a Stream from a living Spring; which though it may be greatly increased by a Shower of Rain, and diminished in Time of Drought; yet constantly runs: (John 4. 14. The Water that I shall give him, shall be in him, a Well of Water springing up, and so f…

It's true, if God have a purpose to destroy a man, he may for a time suffer him to succeed and prosper in his sin, for his greater hardening, Job 12:6 But it is not so with those whom the Lord loves; their sinful shits shall never thrive with them. The world prohibits your trust…

By bed, is understood the special means of nearest fellowship with, and enjoying of Christ; the bed being the place of rest, and of the nearest fellowship between the Bridegroom and the Bride. Its commendation is, that it is green: that is, 1. Refreshing, like the spring. 2. Fru…

But however, some secret withering curse seizes upon it; and what is thus wickedly added to our former possessions, will rub its rust and canker upon them all; and if restitution be not duly made, will insensibly prey upon them and consume them. And therefore, says the wise man…

But now, although this six days' labor was not so strictly required, as not sometimes to admit the intervention of a holy rest; yet the seventh day's rest was so exactly to be observed, as not to admit any bodily labor, or secular employment. God would not have this holy rest di…

The citizens carrying forth their goods, and lying in the fields, with grief and fear, might put them in mind how often they had walked out into those fields on the Lord's day for their recreation; when they should rather have been hearing the word preached, or if that were over…

It will be some cost and toil to hang every room of the heart with lively pictures of the divine image: for it is altogether empty of that which is truly and spiritually good, or may be called a treasure: but that's not all; for 5. The soul is by nature filled with an evil treas…

4. Men are hardly brought to examine themselves, because they do not believe Scripture. The Scripture says, The heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). Solomon said, there were four things too wonderful for him that he could not know (Proverbs 30:19).

Woe is me! I have revolted from God, and now that dreadful word (Jeremiah 17:5-6) is evidently fulfilled upon me; For I am like the heath in the desert, that sees not when good comes; my soul inhabits the parched places of the wilderness. Alas! all my formal and heartless duties…

This is their way, this their communion with Christ; this is the life of faith as to grace and holiness. Blessed is the soul that is exercised therein: he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads forth her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but…

So then its never well with the soul, but when it is near to God, indeed, in its union with him, married to him, and mismatching itself elsewhere, it has never any thing but shame and sorrow. All that forsake you shall be ashamed, says the Prophet (Jeremiah 17): and the Psalmist…

David, it was a trial to him; while he was wandering in the wilderness, he had such tenderness, that his heart smote him, when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment; while he was chased like a partridge upon the mountains, wandering up and down, from forest to forest: but when he…

Insensible, inflexible: Insensible, he has no feeling of his condition: Inflexible, he will not be moved and worked upon by the Word, and the Spirit, and Providence: How many means are wasted upon him, and to no purpose? And (Jeremiah 17:9) The heart is deceitful above all thing…

Mens sins are written in the book of Conscience, and the Book of Gods Omnisciency. They think because God does not speak to them by his loud Judgements, therefore God does not know their sins; but though God does not speak, he writes, Jeremiah 17:1. The sin of Iudah is written w…

A Judge can judge of the fact, but God judgeth of the Heart. Jeremiah 17:10. He is like Ezekiels wheels, full of eyes, Ezekiel 10:12. and as Cyril says,, all Eye.

2. The Fear of God will make a man afraid of his own Heart. Luther used to say, he feared his Heart more than the Pope or Cardinals, Jeremiah 17:9. The Heart is deceitful above all things.

His enterprises or devices (2 Corinthians 2:11): Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices: He is ready to entrap us and ensnare us by plausible temptations, he suits the bait to every appetite. Then our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9): The hear…

To convince these men of the baseness of their choice, and make them bethink themselves, their choice is part of their punishment. There cannot be a greater punishment than that they should have what they choose, that they should be written in the earth (Jeremiah 17), they shall…

His soul is lost not in a natural sense, but in a legal sense, forfeited to God's justice. We may please ourselves in our carnal choice for a while, but death blows away all our vain conceits (Jeremiah 17:11). At his latter end he shall be a fool.

All the world understands the worth and value of God's love when death comes, then a child of God feels it, Oh says he, I would not for all the world but that I had made sure of the love of God, before this hour, how terrible else would it have been to leave all, and leap out in…

Whatever praise we have with men, we must see that our hearts be right with God, who is witness, approver, and judge, and searches the heart, and tries the reins, and will not be put off with shadows; God's all-seeing eye is a special means to make a man upright. 4. Observe how…

And from this unclean fountain issues forth all that defiles the man. Sin has made the heart of man deceitful, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and it is hardened in impenitency through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12-13). Indeed, though thereby man does nothing bu…

But 1 We may not do evil; that good may come is to ourselves: God allows man to love himself, and has made self-love the rule and measure of our love to others; you shall love your neighbor as yourself: God is not against man's being rich, only God will not that men grow rich by…

God knows our thoughts afar off (Psalm 139:2), long before they came out into words or actions (Deuteronomy 31:21). So the father saw the prodigal, while yet afar off, while but thinking to return: indeed, he does search and try the heart to this very end, that he may give to ev…

As none but infinite power can pardon it, so none but infinite power can punish it sufficiently: as its aim is infinite, so is its desert, and therefore though its punishment be so, it is but just. Seeing sin contains all evil, it is not strange that its punishment should be ans…

Moreover this leprosy has spread itself not only on whole mankind, but on the whole of man; every whit of every man is infected, it has made flesh and spirit filthy (2 Corinthians 7:1), from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is no sound part in him — all (as I…

I'll name five to you. First, the desperate deceitfulness of the heart of every natural man (Jeremiah 17:9): the heart is deceitful above all things. The Hebrew is 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉; the word 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉 is the same with Jacob's name.

This is the crown of all our graces, and the commendation of all our duties, thousands perish and go to hell in the midst of all their performances and duties, merely for want of a little sincerity of heart to God. Now where there is not a change of state, a work of grace in the…