so rewardeth evil for good c. Ingratitude is a monster in nature and doth therefore carry so much more detestation Nihil est tam inhumanum c. quam committere ut beneficio non dicam indignus sed victus esse videare Cic. as it is more odious even to themselves that have blotted out the image of God Some vices are such as nature smiles upon though frowned at by divine Justice not so this Licurgus would make no law against it because hee thought none could bee so absurd as to fall into it Amongst the Athenians there was an action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Master against a servant ungrateful for his manumission not doing his duty to his late Master Such were again to bee made bond-slaves Val. Max. lib. 2. cap. 1. Zonaras in Annal. Turk hist 642. Who can chuse but abhor that abominable act of Michael Balbus who that night that his Prince Le◠Armenius had pardoned and released him got out and slew him And that of Mulcasses King of Tunes who cruelly tortured to death the Manifet and Mesner by whose means especially hee had aspired to the Kingdome grieving to see them live to whom hee was so much beholding And that of Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincoln in Queen Maries dayes Act. Mon. fol. 1843. who being with Bonner at the Examination of Mr. Rough Martyr a man that had been a means to save Watsons life in the dayes of King Edward the sixth to requite him that good turn detected him there to bee a pernicious heretick who did more hurt in the North parts than a hundred more of his opinion Whereunto may bee added that of William Parry who having been for Burglary condemned to dye was saved by Queen Elizabeths pardon But hee ungrateful wretch sought to requite her by vowing her death anno Dom. 1584. Speed fol. 1178. To render good for evil is divine good for good is humane evil for evil is bruitish evil for good is Devilish Evil shall not depart from his house i. e. From his Person and Posterity though haply hee may escape the lash of mans Law for such an abhorred villany See this fulfilled in Sauls family for his unworthy dealing with David in Muleasses and many others Jeremy in a spirit of Prophecie bitterly curseth such and foretelleth the utter ruine of them and theirs Chap. 18.20 21. c. shall evil be recompenced for good saith hee Therefore deliver up their children to the famine and let their wives bee widows Let a cry bee heard from their houses c. Vers 14. The beginning of strife is as when one lets out water It is easier to stir strife than stint it Lis litem generat As water it is of a spreading nature Do therefore here as the Dutch-men do by their banks they keep them with little cost and trouble because they look narrowly to them and make them up in time If there bee but the least breach they stop it presently otherwise the Sea would soon overflow them Fertur in arva furens cumulo Virgil. Aneid 2. camposque per omnes Cum stabulis armenta trahit The same may fitly bee set forth also by a similitude from fire which if quenched presently little hurt is done As if not behold how great a wood a little fire kindleth James 3.5 saith Saint James If fire break out but of a bramble it will devour the Cedars of Lebanon Judg. 9.15 Cover therefore the fire of contention as William the Conquerour commanded the Coverfeu-bell Therefore leave off contention before it bee medled with Antequam commisceatur Stop or step back before it come to further trouble Satius est recurrere quam malè currere better retire than run on in those ignoble quarrels especially ubi vincere inglorium est atteri sordidum wherein whether hee win or lose hee is sure to lose in his credit and comfort Wee read of Francis the first King of France that consulting with his Captains how to lead his Army over the Alps into Italy whether this way or that way Amaril his fool sprang out of a corner where hee sate unseen and bad them rather take care which way they should bring their Army out of Italy again It is easie for one to interest himself in quarrels but hard to bee dis-ingaged from them when hee is once in Therefore Principiis obsta withstand the beginnings of these evils and study to bee quiet 1 Thes 4.11 Milk quencheth wild-fire Oyl saith Luther quencheth lime so doth meeknesse strife Vers 15. Hee that justifieth the wicked and hee that condemneth the just c. To wrong a righteous man in word onely is a grievous sin how much more to murther him under pretence of Justice as they did innocent Naboth as the bloody Papists do Christs faithful witnesses and as the Jews did Christ himself crying out Wee have a Law and by our Law hee ought to dye c. This is to play the Theef or Man-slayer cum privilegio this is to frame mischief by a Law Psal 94.20 The like may bee said of that other branch of in justice the justifying of the wicked Bonis nocet qui malis parcit Hee wrongs the good that spares the bad better turn so many wild-Boars Bears Wolves Leopards loose among them than these monstrous men of condition that will either corrupt them or otherwise mischieve them For thou knowest this people is set upon mischief Exod. 32.22 They cannot sleep unlesse they have hurt some one Neither pertains this Proverb to Magistrates onely but to private persons too who must take heed how they precipitate a censure Herein David was to blame in pronouncing the wicked happy and condemning the Generation of Gods children Psal 73. for the which over-sight hee afterwards shames and shents himself yea be fools and be beasts himself as well hee deserved vers 22. Vers 16. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool c. Wealth without wit is ill bestowed Think the same of good natural parts either of body or mind so for authority opportunity and other advantages Whereto serve they if not rightly improved and employed Certainly they will prove no better than Uriahs letters to those that have them or as that sword which Hector gave Ajax which so long as hee used against his enemies served for help and defence but after hee began to abuse it to the hurt of hurtlesse beasts it turned into his own bowels This will bee a bodkin at thy heart one day I might have been saved but I wofully let slip those opportunities that God had thrust into my hands and wilfully cut the throat of mine own poor soul by an impenitent continuance in sinful courses against so many disswasives Oh the spirit of fornication that hath so besorted the minds of the most that they have no heart to look after Heaven while it is to bee had but trifle and fool away their own salvation
his manumission Val. Max. l. 2. c. 1. and not doing his duty to his Master for such were again to be made bond-slaves if the crime could be proved against them Ver. 15. And you were now turned Being frighted into a temporary reformation but all was in hypocrisy as now well appeareth Falling Stars were never but Meteors In proclaiming liberty every one to his neighbour Your servants were your neighbours and their flesh as your flesh Neh. 5.5 and should have been so considered In the Law the servant paid the half-shekel as well as his Master And in the Gospel Servus est domini sui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as there is neither Jew nor Greek so neither bond not free but all are one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.28 whether he be Lord or losel And ye had made a Covenant before And have not all done so in Baptism that Beersheba or well of an oath Ver. 16. But ye turned Exprobrat recidivum Judaeorum scelus qui scilicèt primam virtutem turpiter deluserint violarint He upbraideth them and deservedly with their Apostacy and perjury Peter also thundereth against such 2 Pet. 2. And polluted my name sc By the violation of your solemn vow so doth every profligate professour and ungirt Christian Whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure Liberty is a desirable and delectable commodity Those that live in Turky Persia yea or but in France c. esteem it so Ver. 17. Ye have not harkened unto me in proclaiming liberty Ye have not done it because ye have not continued to do it ye have lost the things that you had wrought Behold I proclaim a liberty for you God loves to retaliate Here he abandoneth these Apostates to the plagues instanced Let them use you at their pleasure saith God I have no mercy for such mercilesse wretches neither care I what becometh of you Ver. 18. That have transgressed my Covenant His Covenant he calleth it by a weighty Emphasis because about a businesse by him commanded and wherein he was engaged not as a bare spectatour but as a severe avenger of their perjury Hom. Il. l. 3. Tul. de Invent Liv. l. 1. Virg. Aeneid 8. Hinc foedus à foedo animali diviso When they cut the Calf in twain To shew the correspondency of wills whereunto the contracters did bind themselves and the punishment of dissection or other violent death whereunto they submitted themselves in case they brake promise The rise of this rite in covenanting See Gen. 15.9 10 17. The Heathens used the like ceremony as is to be seen in Homer Cicero Livy Virgil caesa jungebant faedera porcâ The Romans cut a sow in twain and when it was divided the Faeciales or heralds gave one half to one party and the other half to the other and said So God divide you asunder if you break this Covenant and let God do this so much the more as he is more able Ver. 19. The Princes of Judah These were most of them cut in pieces by the King of Babylon as the calf had been Ver. 20. And their dead bodies Chap. 7.33 16.4 Ver. 21. Which are gone up from you But will be upon you again ere long they are but gone back to fetch bear as it were You have deceived you servants with a vain hope of liberty and so you do now your selves See chap. 37.8 22. Ver. 22. Behold I will command i. e. By a secret instinct I will move CHAP. XXXV Ver. 1. THe Word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord The eighteenth Sermon ordine tamen arbitario non naturali delivered divers years before the former and here placed not in its proper order but as it pleased him that collected them into this Book Ver. 2. Go unto the house of the Rechabites So called of one Rechab the Father of Jonadab who was famous for his Piety in Jehu's dayes 2 Kings 10.15 three hundred years at least before this Prophecy of Jeremy They were of the posterity of Jethro Moses Father-in-Law and lived up and down in the land upon their employments weaned from the world and exercising themselves in the Law of God See 1 Chron. 2.55 Where they are called the families of the Scribes that dwelt at Jabez as being men learned in the Laws of God Of them came the Essenes a studious and abstemious Sect among the Jews and they might better then those Donatists have taken to themselves the title of Apotactici so called from their renouncing the world And give them wine to drink Heb. make them drink wine i. e. set it before them and then leave them to their own liberty Ver. 3. Then I took Jaazaniah Whether actually or in vision only it skilleth not but the former way probably Ver. 4. And I brought them into the house of the Lord That it might be made a publike businesse and so the better work upon all that should hear of it The son of Igdaliah a man of God A Priest and Prophet or Teacher of the people So in the new Testament others are called Gods children his servants and his people but Ministers only are called Gods men 1 Tim. 6.11 2 Tim. 3.17 Which was by the chamber of the Princes Or of the Prefects of the Temple that were next under the High-Priests Ver. 5. Drink ye wine T was a double temptation unto them 1. To have pots and cups of wine set befor them 2. To be bid drinke it by a Prophet and at Prophets chamber But they were resolved in obedience to their Father Jonadab to forbear Yet if Jeremy had said Thus saith the Lord Drink wine they ought to have done it but this he did not Ver. 6. We will not drink wine This they were resolved on not because they were perswaded as Mahomets followers are that in every grape there dwelt a devil but because Jonadab the son of Rechab their Progenitour 2 Kings 10.15 had two or three hundred years before charged them to forbear not thereby to establish any new arbitrary service or any rule of greater perfection of life as the Papists misalledge it in favour of Monkery and other will-worships and superstitious observances but only as a civil ordinance Hae leges vita potius erant honestatis quam salutis animae about things external the foundation whereof is laid in the word which commendeth modesty humility sobriety heavenly-mindednesse c. Ver. 7. Neither shall ye build house But be content and dwell in tents as the ancient Patriarches were and as your Ancestours in Midian removing from place to place after the manner of the old Nomades so shall ye be the better prepared for a change in the state which this good old man might foresee and foresignify to his Nephews enjoyning them therefore to follow their shipeherdy only as men lesse addicted to the world and bent for heaven That ye may live many dayes in the land Whilest ye obey my charge Long life is promised
inexorable Though Moses That Chancellour of Heaven as One calleth him who not only ruled with God but over-ruled Exod. 32.11 â—14 Numb 14.19 20. And Samuel A mighty man likewise in prayer See 1 Sam. 7.9 called therefore Pethuel as some think Joel 1.1 that is a God-perswader These two were famous in their generations for hearty love to and prayers for that rebellious people and did much for them But so the case now stood if these favourites were alive and should intercede their utmost for them it should avail nothing See Ezek. 14.14 Yet my mind could not be to this people This is spoken after the manner of men q. d. I am implacably inraged I am unchangably resolved against them Cast them out of my sight Tell them that I have utterly rejected them and I will ratify and realize thy speeches See on chap. 1.10 And let them go forth Or let them be gone q. d. I am the worse to look upon them Ver. 2. If they say unto thee As they will be apt enough to do in a jeare Such as are for death i. e. For the pestilence commonly called mortality because it is so deadly a disease Those at Genoa have lately found it so And yet it is here reckoned first as the least and lightest of all the four threatened Judgements which must needs be had enough when the Pest is the best of them all The Turks shun not the company of those that have the Plague but pointing upon their foreheads say it was written there at their birth when they should dye and of what disease These in the text could as little avoid the deaths they were assigned to as Aeschylus the Tragedian could his being knockt on the head For when as he was foretold that he should dye with a stroke coming from above Alian Val. Max. he shunned houses and was wont to remain in the open air but he was killed by a Torroise falling from the mouth of an Eagle upon his bald head mistaken for a stone Ver. 3. And I will appoint over them four kinds Heb. families or kindreds i. e. quatuor cognata carnivera dogs birds and beasts being added to the former four evils ver 2. quasi per Auxesin Ver. 4. Because of Manasseh Because of his sins Idolatry and bloodshed especially wherein the people partaked and persisted and were therefore justly punished The son of Hezekiah but altogether degenerate He was therefore the worse because he should have been better and yet the worse again because he was author publicae corruptelae a ringleader of rebellion to others as was Jeroboam Ver. 5. Who shall be moan thee Heb. who shall come out of his place to comfort thee or who shall shake his head in commiseration to thee Ver. 6. I am weary with repenting Patiendo ac parcendo I have so oft revoked my threats that unlesse I should wrong my justice I can do so no more Deo gratias quod lingua Petiliani non sit ventibabrum Christ Hieron Ver. 7. And I will fan them with a fan Not of Purgation as chap. 6.29 30. but of Perdition Such as that chap. 51.2 In the gates of the land As men use to winnow corn at a windy door where the chaff is blown quite away Ver. 8. The widdows are increased to me Or before me or in my sight Above the sands of the seas Hyperbole A spoiler aâ— noon-day Nebuchadnezzar that choice young man for so some render the text and so he was when he came against Jerusalem and burnt it viz. in the eighteenth year of his raign And terrours upon the City Or terrours even the City that is say the Sept. and Chaldee the Army of the Chaldees which for their numbers and order of pitching their Tents seemed to be a City Ver. 9. She that hath born seven languisheth Jerusalem that maâ—r multipara a fruitful mother She hath given up the ghost Heb. she putteth out her soul as Job 11.20 We read of some mothers who hearing of their sons to be slain in battle have fain down dead in the place Her Sun is gone down See on Amos 8.9 A Christian when at worst can sing Non omnium dierum Sol occidit I look for better daies yet Ver. 10. Wo is me my mother that thou hast born me sc In such an age wherein I may not pray for my people not can preach unto them to any good purpose Buchanan bewailed it that he was born nec coelo nec solo nec saeculo erudito Camd. Elis Jeremy lamenteth here for a worse matter Surely be might well say for his manifold sufferings Littora quot conchas quot amaena rosaria flores Ovid. Trist Quotque soporiferum grana papaver habet Tot premor adversis c. A man of strife and a man of contention Generally opposed and quarrelled for my free and faithful discharge of my duty Virum arguentem Arab. This is the worlds wages to godly Ministers whom they usually make their but-mark But God be thanked saith he with Hierom quod dignus sim quem mundus oderit That I am worthy whom the world should hate Lutherus pascitur convitiis saith he of himself Luther is fed with reproaches I have neither lent on usury i. e. I have neither bought nor sold as we say medled nor made with them I have had as little to do with them any way as was possible Vsura praecipuum fomentum litium I have kept my self close to my calling and yet I cannot avoid their variance and virulencies To preach is to derive upon a mans self the hatred of the world saith Luther Ver. 11. Verily it shall be well with thy remnant Heb. if it be not well q. d. then trust me no more thy latter end shall be comfortable Psal 37.37 the end of that man is peace be his beginning and middle never so troublesom Verily I will cause the enemy to intreat thee well Or I will intercede for thee with the enemy See this fulfilled chap. 40.4 God can speak for his in the hearts of their enemies and make their foes to favour them as many of the Papists here did Wickliffe and after him Bradford Ver. 12. Shall iron break the Northern iron and the steel That is say some shall these hard-hearted Jews be to hard for me or for thee Jeremy whom I have made an iron-pillar and brazen walls against the whole land chap. 1.18 Never think it Brighten thee they may but not break thee The Northern iron is noted for the best and toughest Ver. 13. Thy substance and thy treasure This is spoken by an Apostrophe to the people who are here told again what to trust to for their national sins Ver. 14. And I will make thee to passe with thine enemies Or to serve thine enemies for there is a double reading of the text Ver. 15. O Lord thou knowest Jeremy had begun a complaint ver 10. not without some tang and tincture of humane infirmity
be not with day and night See on ver 20. If there be not a constant intercourse of either Ver. 26. Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob The body of the faithful whom he ruleth by his Word and Spirit Psal 105.1 6. Rom. 9.6 Gal. 3.16 17. 6.16 And will have mercy on them This is a complexive promise and better then mony answereth all things CHAP. XXXIV Ver. 1. THe Word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord Still he voucheth his Author for more authority sake And this is held to be his sixteenth Sermon And all the Kingdoms of the earth of his dominion For never any Monarch was master of the whole earth Ver. 2. Go and speak unto Zedekiah Tell him plainly what shall become of him and his though thou be sent to prison for thy plain-dealing Ver. 3. And thou shalt not escape Whatever vain hopes thou maist nourish and although thou thinkest thou hast a stake in store howsoever the world goes with the rest See chap. 32.4 5. Ver. 4. Yet hear the Word of the Lord A word of comfort The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 Out of his philanthropy he giveth this wicked Prince a mitigation of his just punishment and a further time to repent as Rev. 2.21 And possibly this goodnesse of God might in time lead him to repentance as Rom. 2.4 Thou shalt not dye by the sword And yet Josiah his Father a far better man did so unsearchable are Gods Judgements and his wayes past finding out Ver. 5. But thou shalt dye in peace Yet not as his Father Josiah did in that peace of God unlesse he amended his manners for he was reckoned among the naughty figs. And with the burnings of thy fathers the former Kings With the usual solemnities at the exequies of the better sort of Kings Nec una fuit veteribus sepeliendi ratio See 2 Chron. 16.14 21.19 The Jews have a tradition that Nebuchadnezzar upon a festival day caused him to be brought out of prison and so abused him before his Princes to make them sport that for shame and grief thereof he dyed soon after Joseph Antiq. lib. 10. c. 11. and then Nebuchadnezzar to make him some recompence caused him to be honourably buried suffering his quondam-subjects to burn sweet odours and to bewail his death Flanctús haec fuit â—ormula juxta Seder-Olam Heâ— quia mortuus est Rex Zedeâ— â—as bâ—bens faeces omnium aetatum i. e. Luens peccata priorum saeculorum interprete Genebrardo And they will lament thee The dues of the dead are honorifice lugeri honeste sepeliri to be honourably lamented and laid up which yet is not granted to all good men but heaven makes amends For I have pronounced the word Both the comminatory part of this message and the consolatory But Zedekiah was so moved at the former that he regarded not the latter Ver. 6. Then Jeremiah spake all these words Never fearing what might follow And he had no soner done but he was clapt up See chap. 32.3 Ver. 7. And against all the Cities of Judah which were left These were not many for the Chaldaean conquerour as an overflowing scourge had passed through Judah and gone over all reaching even to the neck as Isa 8.8 Ver. 8. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord Here beginneth a new Sermon reckoned the seventeenth And here ought to begin a new Chapter saith Piscator After that the King Zedekiah had made a Covenant In their distresse they made some shews of remorse and some overtures of reformation So did Pharaoh Exod. 8.8 15 28 32. 9.28 34. 10.17 20. And the Israelites of old Judg. 10.15 16. Psal 78.34 35 36. See the Notes there Daemon languebat c. Pliny in one of his Epistles to one that desired rules from him how to order his life aright I will said he give you one rule that shall be instead of a thousand Vt tales esse perseveremus sani quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi i. e. That we continue to be as good in health as we promise and begin to be when sick Hic septimus annus fuit typus aeternae liberationis post curriculum sex dierum mundi sex mille annorum Ver. 9. That every man should let his man servant Should manumit and dismisse him at six years end according to the Law Exod. 21.1 2. The seventh year was called the year of liberty and then they were to let go their brethren that served them and this in a thankful remembrance of their deliverance from the Egyptian servitude But this they had neglected to doe and now to pacify Gods wrath and to prevent if it might be the Chaldaeans cruelty this course they took and not altogether without successe For the seige was thereupon raised for a season and had they returned to God with all their heart and with all their soul who knows what might have been further done for them But they did nothing lesse therefore came wrath upon them to the utmost Ver. 10. Then they obeyed and let them go They seemed to be very good as long as it lasted See on ver 8. So when God layes seige to men by sicknesse or otherwise then Covenants are made and kept for a while concerning the putting away of their sins but no sooner doth God slack his wrath but they retract their vows and return to their wonted wickednesse Aegrotus surgit sed pia vota jacent Ver. 11. But afterwards they turned and caused their servants Coveteousness prompting and pricking them on thereunto for that is the root of all evil Stimulante avaritia 1 Tim. 6.10 The Chaldaeans had drawn off to go belike to fight with the relief that was comeing out of Egypt chap. 37.7 11. and now these silly Jews thought themselves out of the reach of Gods rod perfidiously repealed their vows reimbondaged their servants and are therefore worthily threatened with a more cruel servitude to the Chaldaeans for this their relapse and breach of Covenant with God Jun. Ver. 12. Therefore the Word of the Lord Of God the Son Came to Jeremiah from the Lord From God the Father Ver. 13. I made a Covenant with your Fathers Heb. I cut a Covenant See v. 18. Out of the house of bondmen Such were you when there why then should you pull up the bridge before others which your selves have gone over make slaves of those whom God had made free Levit. 25.39 42. Ver. 14. At the end of seven years let ye go He layeth before them Gods Law which they had transgressed out of Exod. 21.2 Deut. 15.12 A Law so full of equity humanity and benignity that the honester Heathens approved and observed it as the Romans and Athenians Only these latter had an action at Law which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a Master against his servant ungrateful for