Lamentations

3. Sin produces all temporal evil. Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she is removed (Lamentations 1:8). It is the Trojan horse, it has sword, and famine, and pestilence in the belly of it.

And if any one poor soul has had his estate revealed, all the rest are to be thankful. See some reason why some in distress of mind complain that none were ever in the like condition — they are apt to do so, as the church in Lamentations 1:12. The reason is that few are so troub…

3. When we grow proud, self confident: if you were never so high, God will bring you low enough; 'tis a great skill to know how to abound. She remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully (Lamentations 1:4); when we forget the changes and mutations to which a…

Yes, that he has dealt more severely with us than with any other. Lamentations 1:12: See and behold if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been done to me, with which the Lord has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And sometimes murmuring and resentful though…

And then further, According to greatness of sins so is the greatness of wrath; great wickedness and great wrath they go together, and therefore according to the greatness of sins should the greatness of our humiliation be. For so it is said of Manasseh, that he humbled himself g…

The word that is translated pleasant places for Silver, it is, the desire of their silver. First, it may have reference to this, to their furniture of silver, that nettles shall grow where they wear their fine silver things, their fine cupboards of plate, and household stuff tha…

And thus he applies himself to their capacity. If they had been better purged from their earthliness, he would rather have awakened them with the fear of that judgment which Jeremiah bewails (Lamentations 1:7), to wit, that the sacrifices and feast days should cease, and that th…

First in respect that he had justly inflicted this punishment upon his people for their offenses: secondly, being redeemed out of this captivity, they might especially take knowledge of his mercy and goodness. Behold.] We have to consider of mount Zion here, as of a place not in…

For the same Divine Operations, the same Supplies of Grace which are necessary to the positive Acts and Duties of Holiness, are necessary also to this End, that sin in the Actual Motions, and Lustings of it may be Mortified; So the Apostle issues his long Account of the Conflict…

He encreaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he enlarges the nations, and straitneth them again, Job 12:23 The same it does with persons, Psalm 102:10 Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. See what a sad Alteration Providence made upon the Church, Lam. 1. 1, 12. How does…

(9) Names of a Sacred Day of Rest. [in non-Latin alphabet]. (Genesis 2:3. Hebrews 4:4.) (10) [in non-Latin alphabet]. (Genesis 2:3. Exodus 16:23. Chap. 35. 2. Lamentations 1:7.) Saturn called [in non-Latin alphabet]; and [in non-Latin alphabet] by the Jews, and why. The word dou…

Husband and Father slain by the sword, while they went out to help the Lord against the mighty. It is time for us to sit solitary and alone, to mourn every family apart, and our wives apart (Zechariah 12:12), to lift up our voice in prayer night and day, lest the joyful voice be…

By bowels, are understood either sorrow, and that in an intense degree, as (Job 30:27), my bowels boiled. Lamentations 1:20, My bowels are troubled. And Jeremiah 4:19, My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at the very heart: Or, bowels are taken for affection and tender love in the…

To which I might add, that the famine of the word does usually bring with it many temporal judgments; the burning of the temple at Jerusalem, and the failing of vision was accompanied with slaughter by the sword, and captivity of the land. 7. And lastly, God speaks most terribly…

When the Prophet had directed the people to search and try their ways after the execution of such judgments upon them (Lamentations 3:40), see the following direction (verses 41-42): "Let us lift our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens: we have transgressed, and have reb…

One cries, bread, bread, for Christ's sake, one bit of bread; another faints and falls down at your door. All the people sigh (Lamentations 1:11). Indeed, the poor little ones are brought in (verse 12), crying to their mothers, where is the corn and wine? and then pouring out th…

It is with spiritual as with temporal food, slighted when plenteous, but if a famine once come, then every bit of bread is precious. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction, and of her misery, all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old (Lamentations 1:7).…

2. Nor should Christians be unwilling to know the spiritual condition one of another; you may fall upon some, in your very course and kind. It is like David (Psalm 71:7), Heman (Psalm 88:15), the suffering Church (Lamentations 1:12; Psalm 102:6, 7), Elias (1 Kings 19:10), Isaiah…

1 John 3:3. He that has this hope in him, purifies himself, as he also is pure. 2. Yield not to indispositions, complain of them to God, and pray them away, as Psalm 61:2; Psalm 31:22; Psalm 102:3, 4, 5; Lamentations 1:2, 3, 4, 5, &c. 22, 23. Obj. But it is easy so to say, Be st…

(1 Peter 2:23) Who when he was reviled, reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. And Jeremiah who mourned so, for sin as he desired his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might both be…

The ordinances of it despised as mean, and having no form nor comeliness. Sabbaths mocked at, as of old (Lamentations 1:7), and the sanctification of them represented as only a cloak for idleness. Sacraments reproached, and the sacred memorial of Christ's death and sufferings, b…

When you are vexed with such temptations as pierce and prick you in your veins; (as David speaks) when the Devil bears in blasphemous thoughts upon the heart, they are his sins, but your corrections, justly ordered by God; it may be it is for the correction of your sin, that you…

Sorrow does so invade their spirits, that they are by no means able to ease themselves: expectations of this side, and that side, are cut off; they long look for help and relief, but none appears. So (Lamentations 1:22), My sighs are many, and my heart is faint. They are overwhe…

And have not many young persons gone into captivity. We may say with the lamenting church, My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity (Lamentations 1:18). Now then the Lord calls from heaven to young ones that yet remain, saying, Oh! do not you continue to walk in the w…

He is desolate and bereaved, and because all his hope for eternity is bound up in God, if he is brought into fear whether ever he will return again, he is at a loss about his interest in him, and suspects whether he has not cast him off for ever; the very thoughts of losing thes…

We as ambassadors in Christ's stead, beseech you that you would be reconciled to God: that is, that you would prepare to meet God willing to be reconciled to you in Christ, and that you would come to his terms. Consider our Savior Christ has taken a great journey from heaven to…

He besought the Lord three times, that is, many a time. A true child of God may also be under divine desertion: hence the Church said, The Comforter which should relieve my soul is far from me (Lamentations 1:16). God may hide his face from his dearest servants sometimes, and th…

Sin drowned the old World, burnt Sodom, Sin made Zion sit in Babylon. Lamentations 1:8. Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she is removed.

2. That the Lord has kept you (it may be a long time too) from sight and sense of his peculiar love; one would wonder why the Lord should hide his love so much, so long, from those to whom he does intend it; the great reason is, because there is in many a one, a heart desirous o…

But I am no body. But I am a worm and no man (Lamentations 1:12). O passers by, hear behold, and see if there be any sorrow, like to my sorrow! etc. (1 Corinthians 4:9).

6. She puts Christ in his chair of state, and adores him: the deserted soul says, be what I will, he is Jehovah the Lord; confession is good in saddest desertion (Job 7:20): I have sinned, what shall I do to you, O preserver of man? (Lamentations 1:17) The seed of Jacob is in a…

(Jeremiah 14:7): Our iniquities testify against us — our backslidings are many. It is a vain shift to say, the Church prays and confesses in name of the wicked party, not in name of the justified ones; for as many as were afflicted, confess their sins, for which the hand of God…

4. (Ezekiel 9:6) Slay old and young — begin at my sanctuary, (Luke 1:20) And behold you shall be dumb — because you believe not my word. The Church of God in so many words says as much (Lamentations 1:18): The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment: (Lame…

Such burdens the conscience lays upon the soul of such a one; All the complaint of conscience will never look farther than the wrath of God, present anguish, and fear of future wrath in another world. Did you ever know any sorrow like my sorrow (Lamentations 1:12)? This is the c…

He compares the loss to the breach of the bank of the great sea, that breaks out and swallows up all before it; and so accordingly was their mourning exceeding great and bitter, an unmatchable mourning. Come here and see if ever any sorrow was like to my sorrow (Lamentations 1:1…

Oh how laborious Christians should we be, how sedulous in the work of God, if we did but carry along with us in our minds the thoughts of the evil day, did we but with a cautious expectation every day look for a change! Use. 1. See here how grievously they provoke God, who in th…

They pour out their souls like water before the face of the Lord. Lamentations 2:1[illegible]. The fifth question is, in whose name prayer must be made.

Isaiah 58:1. Cry aloud and spare not, says the Lord, but lift up your voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. It was Jerusalem's calamity and ruin, that her prophets did see vain and foolish things for her, and did not discov…

When men are violent in wickedness, they must expect that God will be as violent with them in the ways of his judgments. And for that we have a notable scripture in Lamentations 2:6. He has violently taken away his tabernacle.

Thus I think some carry it, they make those feasts to be the feasts that they should have gone up to Jerusalem in; but I take not this to be the scope of the Holy Ghost here, but rather thus; by the solemn days and feasts of the Lord is here meant, the solemn day of God's wrath…

The people of Israel being in grievous affliction — how do they pray? They pour out their souls like water before the face of the Lord (Lamentations 2:19). The fifth question is, in whose name prayer must be made.

3. In the Lord's crying to sinners (Proverbs 1:20): Wisdom cries, she utters her voice in the streets. The word is to cry with strong shouting, either for joy (Psalm 81:2), or sorrow (Lamentations 2:19), which expresses Christ's desire to save sinners. 6. For the ground and warr…

Lord, all my desire is before you: and my groaning is not hid from you. As if David should say, Lord, I many times withdraw myself into a closet or retired place, and there I open before the Lord the sorrows of my soul, I pour out my heart like water before the face of the Lord…

The truth is, secret sins may undo a nation, except the cry of the saints' secret prayers be louder than the cry of wicked men's secret sins: Oh fall to it. Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord —…

It was the manner of Paul to abase himself, and to mourn for the sins of others (2 Corinthians 12:24), and he reproves the Corinthians that they were puffed up, and did not mourn for the incestuous person. Like was the practice of David (Psalm 119:136), of Lot (2 Peter 2:7), of…

In the next place he threatens them with sorrow and lamentation, in stead of their festival days. Some think the word sorrow to be an adjective: but I am not of their mind; for it is taken in the same sense in the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lamentations 2:5). The Prophet shows th…

This discovery of Gods anger kindly melts and thaws a gracious soul, and produces a double sweet effect upon it, namely, repentance for sins past, and due caution against future sins. (1.) It thaws and melts the heart for sins committed. Thus David's heart was melted for his sin…

Secondly, it is used for mortar that has not a due temper or mixture in it, as (Ezekiel 13:14): I will break down the wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar; mortar that is not well tempered is unfit for use. Thirdly, it is put for any rude, undigested, or indiscreet s…

When the terrible voice of God's judgements has been heard in London, God does hearken for the voice of weeping and supplications; this God's voice does call for; when breaches were made in the city of David (Isaiah 22:9), then did the Lord of hosts call to weeping, and to mourn…

2. When a soul can live contentedly and joyfully and wants God, and lives fat and rejoicingly 60 or 70 years without Christ, and never missed Christ; how few know this sickness? Especially 1. The pain of hunger and thirst which is destructive to life; the fruitful earth's diseas…

1. For praying (Psalm 28:2): Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands towards your holy oracle. (Lamentations 2:19) Lift up your hands towards him, for the life of your young children, etc. (Habakkuk 3:10) The deep uttered his voice, and lift…

Our Houses are starving, while our God is not serving in them. The Prophet said in Lamentations 2:11: Mine eyes do fail with tears, because the children swoon in the streets of the city; they say to their mothers, where is the corn? O doleful spectacle!

No, it must be quotidianus planctus — a daily weeping; as Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:31): I die daily; so should a Christian say: I mourn daily. Therefore keep open an issue of godly sorrow, and be sure it be not stopped till death (Lamentations 2:18): let not the apple of your…

Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she is removed. Sin did shut up God's bowels, Lamentations 2:21. Thou hast killed, and not pitied.

Or else they say commonly, you have sinned, but comfort yourself, despair not, Christ has suffered, and thus skin over the wound, and let it fester within for want of cutting it deeper. I say therefore, because they want a faithful watchman to cry fire, fire, in that sleepy esta…

Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary (verse 19). We are yours, you never bore rule over them, they were not called by your name (Lamentations 2:20). Behold, O Lord, and consider, to whom you have done this (Isaiah 63:17).

So great and bitter was this lamentation, that it was written in a book of lamentations, and all the singing men and women had turned all their songs into mourning; the breath of their nostrils was now stopped (Lamentations 4:20). Every man now saw himself undone, family, church…

2. The second season is, when affliction has done its work upon them: when it has effected that God has sent it for. As first, when it has humbled them (Lamentations 3:19): Remembering my affliction, the wormwood and gall, my soul is humbled in me. When God's corrosive has eaten…

God has mercy, first, of all dimensions; he has depth of mercy, it reaches as low as sinners; and height of mercy, it reaches above the clouds. Secondly, God has mercies of all seasons; mercies for the night, he gives sleep, indeed sometimes he gives a song in the night (Psalm 4…

(Isaiah 59:15) Truth fails; truth on earth does, but not truth in heaven: God can as well cease to be God, as cease to be true. Has God said he will be good to the soul that seeks him (Lamentations 3:25), he will give rest to the weary (Matthew 11:28)? Here is a safe anchor hold…

Isaiah 27:4: "Fury is not in me" — that is, I do not delight in it. Acts of severity are rather forced from God; he does not afflict willingly (Lamentations 3:33). The bee naturally gives honey; it stings only when it is provoked.

Unbelief raises jealous thoughts of God, it represents him as a severe judge, this discourages many a soul and takes it off from duty. Beware of unbelief, believe the promises; (Lamentations 3:25) God is good to the soul that seeks him; seek him earnestly and he will open both h…

Ea lege nati sumus. The world is a place where much wormwood grows (Lamentations 3:15): He has filled me with bitterness, Hebr. Bammerorim, with bitternesses, he has made me drunk with wormwood. Troubles arise like sparks out of a furnace.

Jeremiah 34:22: I will command and call back the Assyrians against this city. Lamentations 3:37: Who is he then that says, and it comes to pass, and the Lord commands it not? Job 37:6: He says to the snow, be you upon the earth: likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain…

A. What scriptures do show that there is such a providence of God? Q. Many, and namely these (John 5:17; Ephesians 1:11; Acts 17:25, 28; Lamentations 3:37; Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2, &c.). Q. How else may the same be proved?

He can turn down that column in the leaves of our hearts where grace or anything comforting is written, and turn over and hold our eyes fixed to read nothing but where our errors and sins are written. So he causes a man's soul to forget all good — as in Lamentations 3:17 the chu…

Heman was almost distracted and out of his wits with terrors (Psalm 88:15). So the church thought (Lamentations 3), yes, and concluded it for certain that God was her enemy: 'Surely he is turned against me' (verse 3).

But he acknowledges his error: 'It was my infirmity' (verse 10) thus to speak. So the church in Lamentations 3:17-18: 'I said, my hope is perished from the Lord' — what a desperate speech. But she eats her words again with grief, in verse 21: 'This I recall to mind, therefore I…

First, examine what might be the true cause that provokes God thus to leave you. So in Lamentations 3:40: 'Let us search and try our ways,' spoken by the church in desertion as appears from the former part of the chapter. To help yourself in this, go over all the cases that have…

And so he will take down nothing that is given him. So also the church in Lamentations 3:17-18 — her heart was deeply possessed with a desperate apprehension: 'My hope,' says she, 'is perished from the Lord.' And what was it that shot her soul into so fixed a despair?

I set a 'proven remedy' stamp on it — take it, practice it; it is a tried one. It is that which in the end the church in desertion comes to in Lamentations 3:40: 'Come, let us try our ways and turn to the Lord' — that is the last way and course she takes. Now when the water is a…

Waiting is an act of faith resting on God; an act of hope expecting help from him; an act of patience, the mind quietly contenting itself until God does come; and of submission if he should not come. Therefore the church being in this very case says: 'It is good to hope and quie…

Go and strip yourself, and with all submission present a naked back to him, and though every stroke draws not only blood but well-nigh your soul away, yet complain not at all of him. Put your mouth in the dust (Lamentations 3:29-30) — be still, not a word — but only such words a…

Now lesser afflictions work with most of his, through his blessing — mercies work, disgrace works, poverty works. And he does not willingly afflict (Lamentations 3:33), and therefore not unnecessarily. He does not put men into the dungeon for every fault.

You who have been free from those terrors of conscience which are beyond all the miseries the world has — for as the joy of the Holy Spirit is unspeakable and glorious, so these terrors are unutterable and insupportably grievous — which yet souls that fear God and have obeyed hi…

And the proper action of Hope, is to wait, and expect for a blessing to come: so, hope waits for salvation, but properly apprehends it not. For, salvation must first be believed, and then hoped or expected: so says Jeremiah, Lamentations 3:26, It is good both to trust and to wai…

He is the propitiation: as many as received him (John 1:12). He is the portion of the soul, and in Him it hopes (Lamentations 3:24). In Him the soul does acquiesce and rest (Psalm 73:25).

7. See here that Scripture fulfilled, Psalm 73.1. God is good to Israel. When one looks upon cross Providences, and sees the Lord covering his people with ashes, and making them drunk with Wormwood, Lamentations 3.15. he would be ready to call in question the Love of God, and to…

William Perkins. Lamentations 3. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Trin-vni Deo gloria.

And therefore all mankind sinning in him, was likewise deprived of heaven. The people of Israel being in woe and misery, cried out that they had sinned, and therefore the Lord had covered himself with a cloud, that their prayers could not pass through (Lamentations 3:44). And Is…

2. It is comfort when the righteous are humbled by affliction (Lamentations 3:16). He has covered me with ashes.

The Scripture, after the manner of men, does often represent a conflict in the attributes about sinners; and if mercy get the upper-hand, 'tis always with joy and triumph (James 2:13): mercy rejoiceth over judgment. But if he be compelled to strike, and justice must be exercised…

This also was what quieted Job: he does not rail and vow revenge upon the Chaldeans and Sabeans, but eyes God as the orderer of those troubles and is quiet — 'The Lord has taken away; blessed be his name' — Job 1:21. Objection. But you will say: 'To turn aside the right of a man…

Or if you did not foresee it, it is now your duty to search and examine yourselves. So the Church in their afflictions resolved (Lamentations 3:40), Let us search and try our ways. When God is smiting we should be searching.

O, it is a mercy to the afflicted to have a Barnabas with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand; and it will be the great sin, and folly of the afflicted to spill those excellent cordials prepared and offered to them, like water upon the ground, out of a perverse, or dead sp…

Carnal sorrow is not to be commended, but sober sadness, or a grave and composed frame of spirit, is better than a light and unsettled frame, it being very hard, if not impossible to keep the heart right even where there is grace, but where there is some counterpoise or wither-w…

But Christ's Cross did not smile on him, his Cross was a cross, and his ship sailed in blood, and his blessed soul was sea-sick, and heavy even to death. Thirdly, we love to sail in fresh waters, within a step to the shore, we consider not that our Lord, though he afflicts not,…

First, the blowing of the soft and pleasant breathings of the south wind of free grace, lying under the only work of sovereignty when and where and in the measure the Lord pleases, is a high and deep expression of the freedom of grace. For in one and the same prayer (the like by…

But I held my peace and said nothing, for you Lord have done it (Psalm 39:19). A sign we have him for our Lord when in all his providences, we acknowledge his good hand in it, and he is our Lord if we can so sit down and not murmur nor grudge against him, according to that you r…

Man receives an imperceptible taint from his company; he that lives in a shop of perfumes, often handles them, is conversant among them, carries away somewhat of the fragrance of these good ointments, so by conversing with God we are made like him. (2.) Nearer we cannot come to…

Oh my Dove that is in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the stairs, that is, in an afflicted persecuted and desolate condition, Let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice, that is, in the duties of prayer, praise, and Gospel ordinances: For then was her voi…

First, we are to be spies, in respect of our own sinnes, and corruptions, to spie them out. Lam 3:40. Let ussearch our waies, and inquire, and turne againe to the Lord.

Fanne you, O nation, not worthie to be loued. Lam 3:40. Let vs search our hearts, and turne againe to the Lord.

Indeede their punishment was occasioned by his sinne: but caused by their own: for no man, though neuer so holy, is without sinne, and therefore none but deserue punishment: in fact, it is Gods mercie, that we are not consumed. Lam 3:22. And albeit all the infants perished in th…

This verse therefore confirms that which I said earlier: where the Prophet having spoken of the calamities which were already happened, did in brief manner conjoin with it the event which should shortly ensue: as if he should have said, Suffer not yourselves to be beguiled with…

Let us not doubt then but that the Lord will in his due time manifest his power both in avenging himself upon the enemies of his Church which oppress it, and in restoring of her to her first beauty. When he says, Jacob shall not be confounded; we often see that the faithful are…

And this is often met withal in the Scriptures: as in Amos 3:6. Is there evil in the city, and the Lord has not done it? Jeremiah also accuses the people, in that they knew not that God was the author both of evil and good (Lamentations 3:38). The Lord then punishes the sins of…

When he says, they should lift up their voice, it is to show, that during the captivity, there should be silence; because the tongues of the Prophets should then cleave to the roof of their mouths: for although they admonished every one privately, yet they should not have libert…

We are also to note this particle therefore, for from there it follows, that they were not to murmur against God, as if he kept no measure in his corrections, seeing they had so often abused his Majesty. Why is the living man sorrowful? Man suffers for his sin. (Lamentations 3:3…

It is written, that our prayers are as it were a wall which hinders our approach to God, (Isaiah 59:2,) or a cloud which prevents him from beholding us, (Isaiah 44:22,) and that "he has covered himself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through," (Lamentations 3:44.)…

Ahab, when he had a visible Humility, a Resemblance of true Humility, went softly, 1 Kings 21:27. A Penitent, in the Exercise of true Humiliation, is represented as still and silent, Lamentations 3:28. He sitteth alone, and keepeth Silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

Why, this you may often see, if you will duly observe the works of Providence towards you. We hope and pray for such and such mercies to the Church, or to our selves; but God delayes the accomplishment of our hopes, suspends the answer of our prayers, and seems to speak to us, a…

It is not so bad now as it might, and we deserved it should be, and it will be better hereatr. This the Church observed, and reasoned her self quiet from it, Lam. 3:22 Hath he taken some? he might have taken all. Are we afflicted? it's mercy we are not destroyed.

To display this Providence, we will consider it in the following particulars. (1.) The assiduity and constancy of the care of Providence for the saints, Lam. 3:23 His mercies are new every morning. It is not the supply of one or two pressing needs, but all your wants, as they gr…

The like expression of prayer you have, Psalm 25:1: "Lord" (says David) "I lift up my soul to you." Hence prayers not answered, not accepted, are said to be stopped from ascending (Lamentations 3:44): "You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass throu…

The soul is enabled thereby to resign it self unto the disposal of Soveraign grace, in self-abhorrency, and a Renunciation of all other wayes of Relief. Lamentations 3:29. He putts his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.

Hence this waiting it self is sometimes expressed by silence. To wait, is to be silent, Lamentations 3:6. It is good both to hope, and to be silent for the salvation of the Lord; that is, to wait quietly, as we have rendred the word.

But when they came to consider which child it should be, their hearts so relented and yearned over each one that they resolved rather to all die together. Yes, we read in Lamentations 4:10: The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. But why speak of these ext…

Nor can it be doubted, that this divine intimation, which he received in his individual and private capacity, was intended generally for the confirmation of all the godly. Jesus is called the Lord's Christ, because he was anointed It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader, t…

So long as any splendor of royalty continued in the family of David, the kings were wont to be called χριστοί, anointed. Every reader of the Bible is familiar with the phrase, the Lord's anointed, as applied to David and his successors, (2 Samuel 19:21; Lamentations 4:20.) — Ed.…

Nor do they endeavour to shew that any thing here mentioned to fall out with the cutting off the Messiah, has the least relation to Cyrus or his death. And if because Cyrus is once called the Anointed of the Lord, he must be supposed to be intended in that place, where no one wo…

It's clear that it was near those parts above mentioned. First, from Lamentations 4:2[reconstructed: 1], where the Prophet Jeremiah speaking of Uz, says, Rejoice and be glad O daughter of Edom, that dwells in the land of Uz. And Jeremiah 25:20, he speaks again of the land of Uz,…

When God shoots into a land the evil arrows of famine, and it becomes exceeding sore, this is one of the most dreadful judgments of all judgments in this world, far beyond plague, or fire, or sword. See how pathetically the famine among the Jews is described by Jeremiah in his L…

That night most of the Londoners had taken their last sleep in their houses; they little thought it would be so when they went into their beds; they did not in the least suspect, when the doors of their ears were unlocked, and the casement of their eyes were opened in the mornin…

(1 Peter 2:23) Who when he was reviled, reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. And Jeremiah who mourned so, for sin as he desired his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might both be…

Again, there is no church so safe, (as we do think ourselves now, and as the Palatinate did think themselves) but that yet the Lord can make a sudden change, and bring them down, as well as he could raise these dry bones; and as he has done to others already. This you shall see…

They were trampled upon as the filth of the world; and whereas the offscouring of anything is bad enough, they were looked upon as the offscouring of all things; even to this day; after they had in so many instances approved themselves well, and could not but be made manifest in…

So is this great and wide Sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great Beasts, Psalm 104. 24, 25. And we read, Lamentations 4:3. of Sea-Monsters, which draw out their Breasts to their young. Pliny and Purchas tell incredible stories about them.

Whiteness is the badge of innocency and holiness. It is said of the Nazarites for their typical holiness, they were purer than snow, and whiter than milk (Lamentations 4:7). And the Prophet shows us, that scarlet, red, and crimson, are the colors of sin and guilt, whiteness of i…

2. Their obedience to his precepts: and so whoever will be true to his religion, and live according to his baptismal vow, is set up for a sign of contradiction to be spoken against. It is supposed the mocking by the heathen of the Jews is intended in these words (Lamentations 4:…

When a man is disappointed of the things he looks for, then his eyes are said to fail. So the captive Jews complained (Lamentations 4:17): "As for us, our eyes have yet failed for our vain help: in our watching, we have waited for a nation that could not save us." 1. God may del…

Every true believer is a rich lump of gold before the Lord. Of such persons it is said in Lamentations 4:2, they are the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold. There are diverse properties in gold, which a good man will have a blessed resemblance of.

He has not his felicity, nor his security in himself, but must have it from abroad; and if he have it, he must have an object that is able to derive it to him, on whom he may rely; else his trust will be vain, and his expectation frustrate. Hence their complaint on this account…

Our sufferings may be lasting, but not everlasting. Affliction is compared to a cup (Lamentations 4:21); the wicked drink of a sea of wrath which has no bottom and will never be emptied, but it is only a cup of martyrdom, and God will say: Let this cup pass away. The rod of the…

In his death, husbands saw the death of their wives, and wives the loss of their husbands, and both the loss of their children. So great and bitter was this lamentation, that it was written in a book of lamentations, and all the singing men and women had turned all their songs i…

Use 1. This is matter of humiliation for our fall in Adam. In the state of innocency we were perfectly holy; our minds were crowned with knowledge, and our wills as a queen did sway the scepter of liberty: but now we may say as Lamentations 5:16, The crown is fallen from our hea…

The word signifies, properly to bear a weight or a burden, as a man bears it on his shoulders; bajulo, porto. And it is never used with respect to sin, but openly and plainly it signifies the undergoing of the punishment due to it; so it occurrs directly to our purpose (Lamentat…

We have fallen, thousands of persons into the grave by the plague, thousands of houses, as a great monument upon them, by the fire; and from where is it? we are fallen by our iniquities (Hosea 14:1). The crown is fallen from our heads; and what is the reason? because we have sin…

(1 Peter 2:23) Who when he was reviled, reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. And Jeremiah who mourned so, for sin as he desired his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might both be…

It is no exception of weight, that they also are sinners, continuing in their fathers' sins: for the worst of sinners must not be dealt unjustly withal; but they must be so if they are punished for their fathers' sins, and it be absolutely unlawful that any one should be punishe…

Many times [illegible] this life, sin is made to appear a hateful thing by bitter plagues and punishments which are the natural and woeful fruit of it. Lamentations 5:16: Woe to us that we have sinned. When Jerusalem fell into the merciless hands of bitter enemies, the [illegibl…

The Apostle Paul has his sin ever in his eye, he keeps it in fresh remembrance and consideration, never has occasion to mention anything of himself but still he strikes upon that string, to me the least of all saints and then the chief of all sinners, I was a persecutor and blas…

Who brings on faintness and terror upon the spirit, when the sound of a shaking leaf shall chase men (Leviticus 26:36), and when the Lord sends a trembling of heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind (Deuteronomy 28:65)? 16. We are called to be dead to honorable birth, blo…

It is no weighty objection that they also are sinners, continuing in their fathers' sins — for the worst of sinners must not be dealt with unjustly, but they must be if they are punished for their fathers' sins, and it be absolutely unlawful that anyone should be punished for th…

Where shall I go? Sometimes dares not, sometimes cannot, it has no heart to stir or come; it therefore looks up, and longs, and goes to the Lord to draw it, like poor Ephraim (Jeremiah 31:18), Oh turn me Lord, and then I shall be turned (Lamentations 5:21), and this is the lowes…