Jeremiah 23

1. It is the great end of the word preached, to bring us to a settlement in religion: (Ephesians 4:11, 13). And he gave some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the edifying of the body of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children. The word is called a hammer (J…

2. There is but one infinite being, therefore there is but one God. There cannot be two infinites (Jeremiah 23:24). Do not I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?

Response 1. Justification. In justification there are two things: 1. guilt is remitted, 2. righteousness is imputed (Jeremiah 23:6): The Lord our righteousness. We are reputed not only righteous, as the angels, but as Christ, having his robes put upon us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Cherubims were made with wings, to show the swiftness of the angels in discharge of their office: and if we cannot picture the soul, nor the persons of the angels, because they are spirits, much less can we make an image or picture of God, who is infinite, and the Father of…

Resp. But to answer, God who is infinite is in all places at once, not only by his influence, but his essence; for if his essence fills all places, then he must needs be there in person. But, Ergo, Minor in (Jeremiah 23:24). Do not I fill heaven and earth?

Quest. Wherein lies the formality or essence of our Justification? Resp. In the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us (Jeremiah 23:6). This is the name whereby you shall be called, Jehovah Tzidkennu, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Swearing may be called the unfruitful work of darkness; there is neither pleasure nor profit in it; it is like a hook the fish comes to without a bait. (Jeremiah 23:10). Because of swearing the land mourns. Some think it the grace of their speech; but will God reckon with men fo…

To whom then will you liken God? The Papists say, they worship God by the image; which has a great absurdity in it; for if it be absurd to bow down to the picture of the King, when the King himself is present, then much more to bow down to the image of God, when God himself is p…

Those therefore who usurp the work of the ministry without being solemnly set apart for it, discover more pride than zeal; and they can expect no blessing. Jeremiah 23:32: I sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this people, says the Lord. So much fo…

The promise of healing is for them; (Isaiah 57:18). The promise of salvation, (Jeremiah 23:6). The promises are supports of faith, they are God's sealed deed, they are a Christian's cordial.

To do any treasonable action in the king's presence, is high impudence. Jeremiah 23:11. Indeed, in my house have I found their wickedness.

2. Contrition; as when ice is melted into water. This is done by the Gospel, which is as a fire to melt the heart (Jeremiah 23:9). It is the sense of abused kindness that causes contrition.

1. God's Providence reaches to all places, persons, and occurrences. 1. To all places (Jeremiah 23): Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? The diocese where Providence visits is very large, it reaches to heaven, to earth and sea (Psalm 107:23-24): They that go down to sea…

This second person in the Trinity, who is Jehovah, is become our Jesus. The Scripture calls him the Branch of David (Jeremiah 23:5), and I may call him the Flower of the Virgin, having assumed our nature. By him all that believe are justified (Acts 13:39).

1. Branch. It reproves such as do not God's Will; they have the knowledge of God's will, (knowledge they count an ornament) but though they know God's Will, yet they do it not. (1.) They know what God would have them avoid; they know they should not swear (Matthew 5:34), Swear n…

Isa. 9:6. For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace; of the increase of his government and peace there shall be…

Justification is one piece of communion with Christ in his benefits; now our union to him. Christ himself must be ours, if ever his righteousness come to be ours; he is therefore called the Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6), and is said to be made righteousness itself to us…

What righteousness is it then? That perfect righteousness whereby we are justified is that righteousness which was wrought by Christ, and inherent in his person (Isaiah 45:24, 25; Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:18, 19). How comes the righteousnes…

For the first, in Exodus 34:4-7 the Lord proclaimed his name: 'The Lord God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and will by no means clear the impenitent.' For the second, I…

In which forlorn condition, what is there to be found to relieve and support this man? But only one thing, which is here held forth to him: the name of the Lord, for him to trust and stay himself upon — both that name of God (Exodus 34:6), 'The Lord God, gracious and merciful,'…

First, that God himself — who is the God of comfort — will be an abundant reward (Genesis 17:1-2). By faith we take him to be so and are divorced from all other comforts in comparison with him. Second, that Jesus Christ his Son is made the Lord our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6).…

He is not only a righteous and peaceable king as were his types Melchisedec and Solomon, but he is the author, cause, procurer and dispenser of righteousness and peace to the Church. So is it declared (Jeremiah 23:5, 6): Behold the days come says the Lord that I will raise to Da…

And this was to be brought in by Christ alone. Therefore one name whereby he was promised to the Church, was, The Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6). Righteousness of our own we had none, nor could any thing in the whole creation supply us with the least of its concerns, wit…

A rod out of the stem, and a branch out of the roots of Jesse (chapter 11:1). Hence he is frequently called the Branch, and the Branch of the Lord (Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5; chapter 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; chapter 6:12). But the first, which is the most proper sense of the words,…

And this kind of asseveration is common in the Hebrew (Genesis 2:17): [in non-Latin alphabet] In the day you eat thereof dying you shall die; you shall assuredly die; be certainly obnoxious to Death; it may be also that the double Death temporal and eternal is included therein.…

If the head plot treason, all the body is guilty; but Christ is made to us righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). Indeed it is this righteousness only, in which we can stand before the justice of God (Jeremiah 23:6). This is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteo…

2. That it is a spiritual disease, a surfeit of Manna, when men must still be fed with new things; no truths are too plain for our mouths, or too stale for your ears; the itch of novelty puts men upon ungrounded subtleties, and that makes way for error, or hardness of heart, tho…

1. Sin, error, and scandal begins at them (Jeremiah 50:6): Their Shepherds have caused them to go astray. And (Jeremiah 23:15): From the Prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone out into all the Land. 2. Judgement begins at them (Ezekiel 9:6): Slay utterly old and young, and be…

1. There is his universal presence, whereby he is in all places. Jer. 23. 23. Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? This is no priviledge at all; for this universal presence is with the damned, they have the presence of his power and justice.

My word was to you not in word but in power, because it did work in you joy in the Holy Ghost (1 Thessalonians 1:6). Comparing the word of true and false Prophets together; my word is as fire, says God, and as the hammer that breaks the stone: it is the powerful word of it stirs…

Secondly, because it is the greatest blessing to have it, and the greatest plague to want it. Jeremiah 23, having threatened them that they feed not the people, he says after, [I will gather the rest of my sheep out of all the land whither I had driven them, and I will bring the…

I grant it was not that righteousness of God through faith (Philippians 3); yet it was a fruit and infallible sign of that righteousness, and such as did prove them to be in Christ. And 2. all our acts of sanctification are no acts, no infallible marks of justification to my sou…

Now he was made King, not on such terms, as he might destroy all his subjects, (for all mankind are his subjects to Arminians.) But he is made King (Psalm 72:11) that all nations may serve him; that he should deliver the poor, needy, and helpless; and redeem their souls from vio…

It is God's prerogative to know the inward motions and thoughts of the heart, whether they be sincere or no in their professions of dependence and subjection. So omnipresent, that he may be ready at hand to help us and relieve us (Jeremiah 23:23-24). Am I a God at hand, and not…

4. God sees in secret, therefore closet-prayer is a solemn acknowledgment of God's omniscience and omnipresence: When you pray in a corner you testify your faith in God's ubiquity, and look upon him as filling Heaven and Earth; and this God commands us to believe, indeed would h…

Sixthly, whereas Paul says, Every man must bear his own burden, he meets with the profaneness and Atheism of our time, when men make a mock at the day of judgment, and the strict account that every man is to give for himself. The Jews were used to feast at the threatenings of Go…

He also commanded the fathers to be often recording of it to their children, and to continue the remembrance of it to their successors. This therefore must be taken by way of comparison: as in Jeremiah; Behold the days come, says the Lord, that they shall say no more, The Lord w…

When a wise Man speaks in the Exercise of his Wisdom, there is something in every thing he says, that is very distinguishable from the Talk of a little Child. So, without doubt, and much more, is the Speech of GOD, (if there be any such Thing as the Speech of GOD,) to be disting…

Shall wicked men put forth both hands to sin, and will you not put a finger to holiness, put a hand to the ways of God? There is a phrase (Jeremiah 23:10): their whole course is evil, and therefore it is not right. A strange expression!

This Kingdom was fully revealed to David, and is expressed by him, Psalm 2 throughout; Psalm 45:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Psalm 89:19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, &c.; Psalm 72:6, 7, 8, 9, &c.; Psalm 110:1, 2, 3. As also in all the following Prophets; see Isaiah 11:1, 2; chapter 9:6, 7; chapter…

And how groundless this imputation would be, our following discourses will manifest. And I doubt not but this whole consideration will be, and is of weight and moment with them who have their senses exercised in the Scriptures, and are enabled by the Spirit breathing in them, to…

Hence the things spoken of him in the Old Testament, are to carnal reason full of seeming inconsistencies. As for instance, it is promised of him that he should be the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), of the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:18), and of the posterity of David; and ye…

And this kind of expression in the Scripture, when a thing is said to be called that which it is; the name denoting the being, nature, and quality of it, is so frequent, that there is nothing peculiar in it as here used. See (Isaiah 1:26; Isaiah 8:3; Isaiah 9:6; Jeremiah 23:6; Z…

§ 10 When Abraham was ninety and nine years old, that is also he had been twenty four years in the Land of Canaan. The Lord confirms his Covenant with him and his seed, by the sign and token of Circumcision (Genesis 17:8, 9, 10, 11, 12), which Paul calls the seal of the righteou…

The only way therefore whereby they were proved to be prophets was by the Word itself which they delivered and wrote; and thereon depended the evidence and certainty of their being divinely inspired. See (Amos 7:14, 15, 16; Jeremiah 23:25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31). And setting as…

First, by preferring the promised relief and remedy above all the present glory and worship of the Church; directing it to look above all its enjoyments to that which in all things was to have the pre-eminence. See Isaiah 2:2; chapter 4:2-5; chapter 7:13-15; chapter 9:6-7; chapt…

Chap. 42. v. 1. Jeremiah 23. v. 5. Corruption of Old Translations.

Hence the word is used to express madness, because madness is the height of folly, being without any seasoning, without any temper, a thing that has no taste of wisdom or goodness in it. (Jeremiah 23:13): I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria — that is, they are unsavory,…

The Immensity of his essence, and his Omnipresence is of the same consideration. Do not I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord, Jeremiah 23:24. The heavens, even the heavens of heavens, the supreme and most comprehensive created being cannot contain him, says Solomon.

2. From whom it comes, it's from him, her being his love, makes her like the lily. 3. The nearness of the mystical union, that is between Christ and his Bride; it is such, that thereby they some way share names (Jeremiah 23:6 and Jeremiah 33:16). 3. He intermixes her beauty and…