Jeremiah 9

7. Sin is a painful thing; it costs men much labor in pursuing their sins. How do men tire themselves in doing the Devil's drudgery (Jeremiah 9:5). They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Branch 2. See the sad condition of such as live and die in unbelief, they are not the sons of God: To as many as received him, he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name. No faith, no sonship; unbelievers have no sign of sonship, they know not…

What hazards does he run, even to the endangering his health and soul, that he may satisfy his lust? What tedious journeys did Antiochus Epiphanes take in persecuting the Jews (Jeremiah 9:5)? They weary themselves to commit iniquity; and are not God's commands more easy to obey?

What we make our trust, God makes our shame: the sheep run to the hedges for shelter, and they lose their wool: we have run to second causes to help us, and we have lost much of our golden fleece: they have not only been reeds to fail us, but thorns to prick us: we have broken o…

Let a man be under the command of any lust, how does he tire himself! What hazards does he run to the endangering his health and soul that he may satisfy his lust (Jeremiah 9:5). They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Such as are enveloped with ignorance, cannot give God a reasonable service (Romans 12:1). Ignorance is the nurse of impiety: the Schoolmen say, Omne peccatum fundatur in ignorantia; (Jeremiah 9:3). They proceed from evil to evil, and know not me, says the Lord. Where ignorance r…

They sin 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Ephesians 4:19). Though they are tired out in committing sin, yet they sin; (Jeremiah 9:5). They weary themselves to commit iniquity; as a man that follows his game while he is weary, yet he delights in it, and cannot leave off. Though God has…

2. Other tyrants have some pity on their slaves; though they make them work in the galleys, yet they give them meat and let them have their hours for rest; but Satan is a merciless tyrant — he gives his slaves poison instead of meat, he gives them hurtful lusts to feed on (1 Tim…

6. It will be an aggravation of the loss of heaven for sinners to think how active they were in doing that which lost them the kingdom; they were felo de se. What pains did they take to resist the Spirit, to stifle conscience, they sinned while they were out of breath; (Jeremiah…

8. Sin is a painful thing; it costs men much labor and pains to accomplish their wicked designs. Jeremiah 9:5: They weary themselves to commit iniquity. Peccatum est sui ipsius paena.

Thirdly, the knowledge of God is one of the most special points in Christian religion: and therefore the Lord says, Let him that rejoices, rejoice in this, that he understands and knows me. For I am the Lord which shows mercy and judgment in the earth (Jeremiah 9:24). And our Sa…

Is it not from the earthliness and vanity of their hearts? My brethren, these are the things that have spoiled Christian fellowship and made it become a dry and sapless thing — so that many Christians are even weary of it and are ready to say with the prophet — Jeremiah 9:2: 'O…

Will, as well as the mind, can frame syllogisms; every unrenewed man has a faith of his own in the bottom of his will. Some are willingly ignorant (2 Peter 3); some, through deceit, refuse to know the Lord (Jeremiah 9); whereas lust puts out reason, and takes the chair. Lust has…

For "all" is put in Scripture ordinarily for many; as (Deuteronomy 1:21; Psalm 71:18; Jeremiah 15:10; Jeremiah 19:9; Jeremiah 20:7; Jeremiah 23:30; Jeremiah 49:17; Ezekiel 16:27; Exodus 33:10; Colossians 1:28; Isaiah 61:9; Genesis 41:57; Mark 14:4; John 3:26; Acts 17:31; Acts 10…

Take you any natural man, and he is ever growing worse and worse, ever growing of the worse hand; he grows more and more unprofitable, and more loose from God, and estranged from the ways of his grace, and settled in the ways of sin. And this is that which the prophet Jeremiah c…

Out of himself, in God alone, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches. But let him that glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows me (Jeremiah 9:23-24; 1 Corinthians 1:31). In himself, in the comfor…

When the Prophets perceived they labored in vain to break the hard hearts of this people, surely they could not but be overwhelmed with grief and sorrow, and therefore they endeavored by all means to mollify the hearts of the obstinate, that if it were possible they might be bow…

He can make a servant, a child, a wife instrumental for our ruin. In this sense, we may apply that caveat of the prophet (Jeremiah 9:4): Take you heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother. That also of Micah, Trust you not in a friend, put you not confiden…

And that we might mark it the better, she rehearses orderly in these four verses six godly works in six kinds of men, and parts the world in two, setting on each side three manner of works, and three kinds of men so, that a continual debate does remain among the parties, by reas…

Mischievous lies, which some tell to do another an injury. We read of some, that bend their tongue like their bow for lies, that will not speak the truth, but teach their tongue to speak lies (Jeremiah 9:3, 5). How many liars have there been in London?

Amnon offered violence to his sister, he would have his lust, though it cost him his life. Sinners tire out themselves in the Devil's drudgery (Jeremiah 9:5): They [reconstructed: weary] themselves to commit iniquity. They are out of breath with sin, yet not out of love with sin…

Oh! that you would be warned; there are still multitudes running headlong that same course tending to destruction through the midst of all the means of salvation; the saddest way of all to it, through word and sacraments, and all heavenly ordinances to be walking hellwards. Chri…

It is said that we ought to glory in our knowing of the only one God (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6): but yet that is accomplished in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, because that when men go about to seek God, they enter into a terrible maze, unless Jesus Chris…

If there are many doubts about the true Religion, why they are occasioned by the scandalous lives of professors; we reason from the artist to the art itself. Look as there is a correspondence between the stamp and the impression, the seal and the thing sealed; so should there be…

If we refuse God speaking to us in infinite wisdom, as he does in the word, no wonder if God refuse us stammering foolishly in Prayer. (Jeremiah 9:21) Men that purpose to continue in their sins shall not be heard in other things, otherwise the grossest sinners may come to God to…

The commands of sin are burdensome; let a man be under the power and rage of any lust — whether covetousness or ambition — how he tires and tortures himself! They weary themselves to commit iniquity (Jeremiah 9:5). Are not Christ's precepts easy and sweet in comparison of sin's…

Ezekiel 37:12: O my people, I will open your graves, as many as Saul and David did feed, whether they have a new heart or not, the Lord calls them his people (1 Samuel 9:16; 2 Samuel 7:8). See Psalm 50:7: Hear O my people (Psalm 81:13; Jeremiah 9:26), and so the church of Corint…

For, 1. Circumcision of the flesh was a seal of the Circumcision of the heart promised in the Covenant of Grace (Deuteronomy 30:6), and of the cutting of the foreskin thereof (Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 9:26; Ezekiel 36:26-27), and baptism is the same (Colossians 2:11-12; Titus 3:5)…

5. So must there be a deadening of the husband to the wife (Job 19:17), to servants (Job 15:16), to sons (2 Samuel 16:11), of the mother to the daughter, of the daughter-in-law to the mother-in-law (Micah 7:6), to blood-friends. 12. All the godly and zealous Prophets said Amen t…

4. Sin is profound ignorance. The School-men say, All sin is founded in ignorance; did men know God in his purity and justice, they durst not go on in a course of sinning, (Jeremiah 9:3). They proceed from evil to evil, and know not me, says the Lord.

2. When our hearts are softened. Affliction is God's furnace where he melts his gold, Jeremiah 9:7. I will melt them and try them.

That adversity is a furnace to try of what metal our hearts are, none can doubt, that has either studied the Scriptures, or observed his own heart under afflictions. When the dross and rust of hypocrisy and corruption had almost eaten out the heart of religion among the Jews; th…

Fall into sin, indeed the same sin, he may, and that often; but then it is not without reluctance, repentance, and a protest entered by the soul in heaven against it: so that sin has not a quiet possession of his soul; he is not the servant of sin, nor does he willingly walk aft…

Why, says the Lord, they must go into the furnace again. 'I will melt them and try them, for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?' (Jeremiah 9:7). 'I love them too well to lose them for want of a rod.'

1. His love consists [reconstructed: not] in a taking his Church into his bosom, and [illegible] continual, and never interrupted laying of her [reconstructed: between] his breasts; indeed, tempting flows from the love of God, nor is it any act of Justice; indeed, to take vengea…

And that of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 4:19): "My bowels! my bowels! I am pained at my very heart! My heart makes a noise in me! I cannot hold my peace! Because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war!" And so (Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17; 14:17; Isaiah…