Jeremiah 2

It is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life. Our memory should be like the chest in the ark where the law was kept: God's oracles are ornaments, and shall we forget them (Jeremiah 2:32)? Can a maid forget her ornaments?

2. There is but one omnipotent power. If there be two omnipotents, then we must always suppose a contest between these two; that which one would do, the other power being equal would oppose, and so all things would be brought into a confusion. If a ship should have two pilots of…

Will a bride forget her jewels? (Jeremiah 2:32): Can a maid forget her ornaments? Did we prize the Word more, we should not so soon forget it.

Some make no more of killing men than sheep. (Jeremiah 2:34) In your skirts is found the blood of the poor innocents. Junius reads it in Alis; and so in Hebrew, 'In your wings is found the blood of innocents.'

What vows and solemn protestations do some make in their sickness, if God recover them they will be new men, but afterwards are as bad as ever! Jeremiah 2:20: You said, I will not transgress. Here was a resolution, but for all this she ran after her idols.

This may make us patiently submit to God in affliction, and say, your will be done. We have no cause to complain of God, it is nothing but what our sins have merited (Jeremiah 2:17). Have you not procured this to yourself?

When they were in a low condition, how humble, spiritual, and heavenly were they; but when advanced, what an apparent alteration has been upon their spirits. It was so with Israel when they were in a low condition in the wilderness; then Israel was 'holiness to the Lord' (Jeremi…

And yet do you cast yourselves down because the broken cistern is removed? The best creatures are no better than this — Jeremiah 2:13: Cisterns have nothing but what they receive, and broken ones cannot hold what is put into them. Why then do you mourn as if your life were bound…

Third, consider how often you do willingly choose some other thing than Christ, to spend your time and set your affections upon, laying obstructions and bars in the way of God's grace, setting up idols in the heart, and filling Christ's room beforehand with such things as are in…

Who call him a Deceiver: and if we come nearer, even to the Christian church, and to such as profess their faith of his being the Eternal Son of God, equal with the Father, that he is Judge of quick and dead, and that they look for salvation through him, yet if it be put to a tr…

(3.) The natural understanding is the most whorish thing in the world: there is a variety of fancied gods there. According to the number of your cities, were your gods, O Judah (Jeremiah 2:29). They have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own u…

Verse 27: "But these my enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring here and slay them before me" [illegible]. These to me seem to be allusions to Israel's wearying of the Lord of old (Isaiah 43:23): "I have not wearied you with incense" (Jeremiah 2:5); "What ini…

1. In means. God appears to Moses, acquainted with mountains and woods, in a bush which burned with fire; to the Wisemen, skilled in the motions of the heaven, in a new star; to Peter a fisher, in a draught of fishes. 2. He sets a time, and takes the sinner in his month (Jeremia…

Why do they drink rotten waters, and cisterns of hell? Oh, here is the cause (Jeremiah 2:13): Be astonished, O heavens, why? For my people have committed two evils: (Ah, these two are hundreds, and millions) they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters.

God would not send his Church among them for nothing, but he looks for some fruits among them, but since either none were gathered, or so few, as that they were not a considerable number, therefore God will send his people home again, when they say, Let us break their bonds asun…

And the residue thereof he makes a god, even his graven image, and he falls down to it, and worships it, and prays to it, and says, deliver me, for you are my God. This is one of the external acts, whereby the idolater shows the esteem of his heart, so (Jeremiah 2:27), saying to…

Custom, vain glory, and carnal interest may put them on joining in public prayer, or family-duty; but they are strangers to this spiritual self-denying duty of Closet-Prayer: The carnal hypocrite exposes all to open view; he is like a house with a beautiful frontispiece, but eve…

Thirdly, that when we see the gifts or graces of God in ourselves or others, we return all the praise and glory to God, from where they proceed, ascribing nothing to ourselves. Fourthly, this shows to whom we must have recourse in our need, namely, not to the virgin Mary, nor an…

Hearken what Jeremiah says; Has any nation changed their gods? But my people has forsaken me the fountain of living waters, to dig to themselves broken pits that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:11). This comparison therefore ought to be well observed, lest we be found less constan…

This stops your breath; so that even all strugglings for life, and the very gaspings of your fainting heart must immediately cease, and end in perfect death. The danger of your case, as bad as it is, calls not for this; nor will the exigency of it comport with it, when once the…

Second, be directed to forget the things that are behind; that is, not to keep thinking and making much of what you have done, but let your mind be wholly intent on what you have to do. In some sense you ought to look back; you should look back on your sins (Jeremiah 2:23: 'See…

(2.) By these rebukes of sin, the evil of sin is discovered more sensibly to us, and we are made to see more clearly the evil of it in these glasses of affliction which Providence at such times sets before us, than formerly we ever saw. Jeremiah 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall c…

Psalm 130:3 But this I say, that it's Gods usual way, to visit the sins of his people with rods of affliction, and this in mercy to their souls. Upon this account it was, that the rod of God was upon David in a long succession of troubles upon his kingdom and family, after that…

The King spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my Majesty? That success is not sanctified to men, which takes them off from their duty, and makes them wholly negligent, or very muc…

3. Because he knows the world is most bewitching, and the affections of his bride are not soon weaned from it (though this be most necessary) therefore three ways he presses her to deny herself in these, and follow him (which is the sum of the call.) 1. Says he, you are my spous…

It is a Meiosis, and we are to understand, that the Lord is highly displeased with such persons. See how God pleads with apostatizing Israel (Jeremiah 2:9-10, etc.). Therefore I will yet plead with you, says the Lord.

The fire of God's wrath which shall devour the wicked and burn them everlastingly, will be so furious and dreadful that the hearts of the damned will sink under it without the least hopes of ever extinguishing this flame, or flying from it when it has once got hold of them: And…

When the pulse can scarce be felt, it beats so low; men are near dying: so when those who were once violent for heaven, but now we can scarce perceive any good in them, the pulse beats low, grace is ready to die (Revelation 3:2). To you who have abated in your holy violence, and…

The prodigal never drew near to his father, till he began to be in want (Luke 15). A proud sinner who was never convinced of his want, minds not to come near God; he has a stock of his own to live upon (Jeremiah 2:31): We are lords, we will come no more to you. A full stomach de…

This was the generation with whom the covenant was renewed, as we have an account in Deuteronomy, and that entered into the land of Canaan. This generation God was pleased to make a generation to his praise, and they were eminent for piety; as appears by many things said in scri…

They had been accustomed to worship the gods so long, that they knew not any beginning of it. It was formerly spoken of as a thing unknown for a nation to change their gods, Jeremiah 2:10-11; but now the greater part of the nations of the known world were brought to cast off the…

They who indeed trust in the all-sufficiency of God, he will surely be their all-sufficient portion; and they who trust in God's immutability and faithfulness, he surely will never leave nor forsake them. There were two ways of swearing, Jehovah liveth, that we read of in Script…

Those of that sex are commonly observed to be very solicitous about their ornaments. When the question is asked, Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? no such possibility is supposed (Jeremiah 2:32). This prevailing inclination the Apostle here takes hold of, f…

The Latins call a meek man mansuetus: qu. manu assuetus; used to the hand, which alludes to the taming and reclaiming of creatures wild by nature, and bringing them to be tractable and familiar. Man's corrupt nature has made him like the wild ass used to the wilderness, or the s…

Certainly, God takes it well at your hands now. Jer. 2:2 I remember the kindeness of your youth, and the love of your espousals, when you wentest after me in the wilderness. God takes it kindely, that men will choose him and his ways in affliction: if there were always prosperit…

They cannot endure to look at themselves — and how shall they dare to appear in his presence? Though they wash themselves with lye and use much soap, yet their iniquity will continue marked, Jeremiah 2:22. For the removal of this they look in the first place to the purifying vir…

Some that have moral resolutions of amendment, dislike at least gross sins, and purpose to avoid them, and it is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things; but they consider not, what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already, and how that shall be purged,…

But are now returned, etc.] Whatever are the several ways of our straying, all our wandering is the aversion of the heart from God, from where of necessity follows a continual unsettledness and disquiet, the mind as a wave of the sea tossed to and fro with the wind, it tumbles f…

And yet truly, it is a disease that few escape, it is strange upon how poor things men and women will be vain, and think themselves somebody; not only upon some comeliness in their face or feature, which though poor, yet is a part of themselves, but of things merely without them…

2. There are some which perform it seldom; O how many days and weeks pass over their heads, and God never hears from them! The Lord complains of it (Jeremiah 2:32): "They have forgotten me days without number." It was time out of mind since they were last with God.

If we only knew the sweetness of it, and not the bitterness, we would not be so shy of it. Now the bitterness of it is seen by the effects (Jeremiah 2:19): "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you; know therefore, and see, that it is an evi…

3. Get a love to God and his ways. One cannot but think of that which he loves, Jeremiah 2:32. Can a Maid forget her Ornaments? when she has not her Jewel on her Ear, she will have it in her Thoughts.

Other men make no reckoning of it at all. And so for sin, common spirits value it only by the damage that it does to their worldly interests; when it costs them dear, they may hang the head (Jeremiah 2:9): Now know what an evil and bitter thing it is to forsake the Lord. A world…

Tertullian in his book on Penitence has this saying: After you have tried God, you do as it were deliberately judge Satan's service to be better; or at least you do not find in God what you did expect. Therefore the honor of God is mightily concerned and lies at stake, when you…

In his pang, in his distress, when his conscience pinches him sore, he will be calling upon God: yes, but has he any delight in God? he wants sincere grace. Some time he may come with his flocks and herds to seek the Lord (Hosea 5:6). And cry, arise, Lord save us (Jeremiah 2:27)…

I say they fell from God as envious, false, and wishing ill to them; and by the devil's instigation turned to the creature to find happiness in them, against the express will and command of God. As the first man was infected, so are all men wholly perverted, for sin still consis…

Take mercy according to the Word, according to the analogy of faith, and there is not a more powerful incentive of duty (Psalms 130:5): There is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. (Jeremiah 2:11-12) The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teach…

When you have tried both, you do as it were deliberately judge that Satan's service is best, or that you do not find in God that which he promised, and you expected from him. And that's the reason why God stands upon his credit, and pleads with apostates (Jeremiah 2:5): What ini…

And this bondage is more sensible in them that have some kind of remorse and trouble with their convictions, either from temporal inconvenience, shame, or loss; and yet cannot leave their lusts, and so in despair resolve to go on, and make the best of it (Jeremiah 18:12): And th…

Our faith, our love, our desires, our delight, they are all acted and exercised by our thoughts; so that the spiritual life is but an imagination, unless we do frequently and often take time for serious meditation of him. It is not consistent with any of the three vital graces,…