is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. 44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD. LECTURE 1236. The greatness of God's mercy makes it hard to believe. Very gracious is God in satisfying the doubts, and removing the occasions of misgiving, which beset the path of his faithful servants. "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh is there any thing too hard for me?" This is a sufficient answer to every suggestion of faithlessness, to every objection on the score of difficulty in receiving the word of the Lord. This is the position here first plainly laid down, as adequate to account for all that might seem hard to receive, in the declarations which are straightway afterwards made, to the effect, that God would certainly replace his people, after their captivity, in the possession of their city and their land. However improbable such a restoration might appear, it certainly should take place. However inconsistent it might seem with the unchangeable purposes of God, first to scatter, and then to gather, first to root the people out, and then to plant them in, He certainly would do this thing; and his doing it would prove, that it must be altogether consistent with the utmost perfection of wisdom and of truth, with knowing every thing entirely, and doing all things right. We may observe that in the case before us it was the merciful part of God's dealings that presented the chief difficulty to the faith both of the prophet and of the people. That wrath should overtake the guilty, this may easily be believed. It is no more than our own conscience prompts us to expect. That in the midst of judgment God should remember mercy, and that for no merit of their own He should send redemption to his alienated people, and fetch them back again to be his for ever, this is what no sense of ours would ever have suggested, this is what we find most hard to receive with the fulness of implicit confidence, after all the pains which God has taken in his word, and all the instances occurring in his dealings, to prepare our minds to receive it. It is no such easy matter then as some think, to have a lively faith, a justifying saving faith, in the redemption which has been wrought for sinful man by the death of Jesus Christ. It is no slight effort of faith, to reckon of ourselves that through Him we are indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God and unto godliness. Lord, we believe, help Thou our unbelief! Lord increase our faith! Strengthen our reliance on thy promises! Enlarge, quicken, and confirm our persuasion of thine unfathomable love, and our own affection of love toward Thee! The Lord promiseth to his people pardon, peace, and joy. 1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, 2 Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name; 3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. 4 For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;" 5 They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. 6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. 7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. 10 Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast, 11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD. 12 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the LORD. 14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. LECTURE 1237. 9 And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that It is not enough to be justified without being also sanctified. The prophet had expressed something like misgiving, in reference to the restoration of Judah and of Israel to their own land in peace. See ch. 32. 25. But being imprisoned for the truth's sake, he was very graciously dealt with by the Lord; and he enjoyed this repeated assurance of the certainty of these good things to come. "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Thus did the most high God vouchsafe to address his prophet when in prison. Thus does God instruct us, that no persecution of man can prevent us from enjoying access unto Him in prayer, and receiving from Him blessings infinitely better than any that man has to bestow. Happy they, who whatsoever affliction befals them, are able to make known their requests with joy unto the ever present God! Happy they, to whom He vouchsafes to impart both the knowledge of the truth, and the love of it, acquaintance with the glad tidings of the Gospel, and grace to hear the word with gladness! And surely whatever other redemption may be here foreshewn, that which constitutes the Gospel cannot but be one chief thing intended. For what can be more according to the gracious tidings preached by Christ and his apostles than these promises of God to his people and their city, "Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth ?" And again, I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me." Are not these the very blessings, which it is our privilege as Christians to be now actually enjoying? Have not we access to the blood of Christ, as to a fountain that can cleanse us from all sin? And does not our heavenly Father encourage us to look upon ourselves as already actually forgiven, and upon Him as now reconciled unto us, as counting us for righteous in his sight? Yes, and not only does the Gospel amply fulfil that which is here written of God's justifying grace, but moreover also the sanctified state of Christians as described in the Gospel, their employments, their feelings, their lives, their hearts, as there set forth, answer closely to the account here given of the New Jerusalem and of its happy inhabitants. To be forgiven is not the whole of Christianity. We are to be unto God" a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth." We are to live to the glory of Him who redeemed us; so to live as to make those who behold our conversation stand in awe of God, that God, the power of whose grace is manifested in us. We are to rejoice evermore, in every thing to give thanks. See 1 Thess. 5. 16, 18. We are to thrive under the care of the good Shepherd of our souls. Oh that we could truly say, not only that thus we ought to be, according to the description given of us in the word of God, but also that thus we are! Oh that He, who has so solemnly declared, that He will perform that good thing which He has promised, may enlarge the number of those, who are in point of holiness and happiness all that He would have them to be! The stability of God's covenant with his servant. 15 In those days, and at that and with the Levites the priests, time, will I cause the Branch my ministers. of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness. 17 For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; 18 Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. 19 And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, 20 Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; 21 Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; 22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. 23 Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. 25 Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them. LECTURE 1238. The universe a figure of the truth of God's word. All written revelation of things unseen must necessarily be made by means of figures taken from the things that appear. And the more the thing to be revealed is remote from such matters as form the objects of our senses, the more thoroughly it is heavenly and not earthly, spiritual and not carnal, so much the greater is the difficulty of shadowing it forth by a language like that of man, framed to fit the world with which he is surrounded. But it would seem as if the world had itself been framed with a view to furnish apt figures of those things which God was purposing to reveal unto mankind; for there is scarcely any object in nature which does not seem to suit the service of the Scriptures, and give its ready help in illustrating divine truth. And by means of figures thus derived from objects of sense, the Scrip tures do actually raise in our minds very distinct and adequate notions of those things unseen, which our Maker has thought it good that we should understand. This figurative method of instruction was applied to a great extent in preparing the minds of men aforetime for the manifestation of the Saviour of the world. The first prophecy of Christ on record was highly figurative, namely this, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. See Gen. 3. 15. But those who were familiar with this method of teaching would hence very readily infer, that some One of woman born would inflict a deadly blow on that being, who had beguiled into sin both the woman and the man. So also "the Branch of righteousness" here spoken of, as about to "grow up unto David," might be easily understood by the Jews of the same Saviour, and of his being a lineal descendant of David, growing from his family as a branch from a tree, but distinguishable from all the rest of David's offspring, in being "the Branch of righteousness," the One who should fulfil the prophetic character of a righteous Ruler and Judge. And if the name here given to the Messiah is thus easy to be understood as expressive of his office, the prophecy that Jerusalem should be called by this name, "The Lord our righteousness," will mean, in like manner, that his church should glory in admitting that it is righteous through Him alone. And the everlasting reign, and everlasting priesthood of Christ, must be considered as the things meant when it is said, that "David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually." But all these figures were not of equally obvious application. The Jews had fondly reckoned on the perpetuity of the temporal kingdom and temporal priesthood. And when this was about to be abolished for a time, then there was danger of their making shipwreck of their faith, by considering God's promises as of none effect. And therefore at this juncture these promises of things spiritual are repeated in the most solemn manner, and are declared to be no less sure than the laws which God had given to the great objects of the world of sense. That the sun will rise to morrow as it rose to day, that day and night will follow in succession, these things are God's ordinances in the natural world; they are figures of the certainty of his purposes as set forth in his written word. Let then the philosophy of nature be surveyed; and if the deeper we search into its secrets, we become the more deeply convinced of the immutability of its laws, let the universe be regarded as a figure of God's truth, and let every science, from the least to the greatest, unite to testify in behalf of revelation, that God's word can never fail. |