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…

And however any may flatter and deceive themselves, it is the present condition of all who have not an interest in Christ by faith. They are far off from God, as he is the fountain of all goodness and blessedness; inhabiting, as the Prophet speaks, the parched places of the wild…

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…

Therefore it should be our care to be able to read that our names are written in the Book of Life, than which there cannot be a greater privilege (Luke 10:20). And it presses caution; all that we do stands upon record; our speeches (Malachi 3:16, 17), our thoughts (1 Corinthians…

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…

When the Angel had made an end of measuring the inner house, then hee brought forth Ezekiel by the east-gate (which was the chiefe gate by which the people commonly entred) and measured the utter wall in the last place. Gods method is, first to try the heart and reines, then to…

And this is that, that will be the support of your life here. When the world withers about you, yet if you have faith, you have roots that reach to the well of life (Jeremiah 17:7-8). Faith brings in all: faith goes to the market where all is to be had, and furnishes itself to t…

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.

(Psalm 76:1) In Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel, in Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion. It is in his Church he does manifest his power: It is called therefore a glorious high throne (Jeremiah 17:12): a glorious high throne from the begin…

The beauty of his ornament he set in majesty, (and hereby God aggravates their sin of idolatry, Oh my worship and service I made it as beautiful and glorious as could be) but they worshiped their images, their detestable things. So in Jeremiah 17:12, a glorious high throne from…

From hence cometh it, that we fear not in greatest dangers (2 Kings 6:16; Psalm 3:7; Psalm 27:3); that in the time of affliction, we are patient (Proverbs 20:22; Hebrews 10:33); without all murmuring to hold our peace (Psalm 39:10); receiving them as from a father (Job 1:21; Psa…

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…

Where there is a burden upon the People, there must be Prayer for the people. Wo to them who have denounced desolations, and not powred out supplications: such men delight in the evill, which the Prophet puts far from him (Jeremiah 17:16): I have not desired the wofull day, (O L…

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…

Now this, Lord, I would be without sin original, but I cannot, you have so ordained my nature to be; but it is against my will and my heart, for my heart hates it, its double dealing, and an untruth; for then the will must be clean, then the objector must be cleaner and holier,…

1. Because the places which speak of our natural inability prove the contrary. Now if the natural man cannot know nor discern the things of God, but judges them foolishness (1 Corinthians 2:13, 14), if his wisdom be enmity against God, and is neither subject to the Law of God, n…

Whether is it a Covenant of works (do this and live) or a Covenant of grace (believe this, and you have the reward of the Gospel preached, to wit, the restored image of God) and where is this in Scripture? 4. A remedying Law must bring a remedy to men: the remedy is either real;…

4. The heart may be ingaged (Jeremiah 30:21), glued and made to stick to such an object (Psalm 119:31), given up and delivered (Ecclesiastes 2:1, 2, 3; Ecclesiastes 1:13; 2 Chronicles 20:3), set and fixed to such a way (Judges 13:3; Judges 5:9), touched and moved (1 Samuel 10:26…

The fourth particular is the subject or seat of burning, and it's the heart; did not our hearts burn within us? The heart is the only seat of heavenly burnings; not simply, as the heart of man, which is evil, and only evil by nature in all its out-goings (Genesis 6:6; Genesis 8:…

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.