Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding. Jeremiah 8:4-7 A great evil and an urgent question Homilist. I. A GREAT EVIL. "Backsliding." 1. It is an evil in its nature; it is a great sin against God, involving the basest ingratitude, the abuse of the greatest mercies, and the violation of the most solemn vows. 2. It is an evil in its influence.(1) Upon self. It arrests the progress of the soul, darkens its prospects, curtails its liberty, and destroys its usefulness.(2) Upon others. It encourages the religious sceptic, it staggers the anxious inquirer, it embarrasses the friends of truth. II. AN URGENT QUESTION. "Why?" 1. Not by the force of circumstances over which they have no control. No power in the universe drives them back against their will. 2. Not by the withdrawal of heaven's helping agency. 3. The causes are in themselves. Neglect of the means of spiritual improvement, the study of the Scriptures, and the ministry of the Word; the cherishing of some secret sin; engrossment in worldly pursuits; fellowship with sceptical and ungodly men. ( Homilist. ) Backsliding tendencies A. Maclaren. The tendency to the lukewarmness of spiritual life is in us all. Take a bar of iron out of the furnace on a winter day, and lay it down in the air, and there is nothing more wanted. Leave it there, and very soon the white heat will change into livid dulness, and then there will come a scale over it, and in a short time it will be as cold as the frosty atmosphere around it. And so there is always a refrigerating process acting upon us which needs to be counteracted by continual contact with the fiery furnace of spiritual warmth, or else we are cooled down to the degree of cold around us. ( A. Maclaren. ) To the backslider G. Brooks. I. THE CAUSES OF BACKSLIDING. 1. The fear of man. 2. Inter course with worldly society. 3. Presumption. 4. Secret sin. 5. Neglect of prayer. II. THE SYMPTOMS OF BACKSLIDING. 1. The absence of pleasure in attending to the secret exercises of religion. 2. Irregular and unprofitable attendance on public ordinances. 3. Unwillingness to act or suffer for the honour of Christ. 4. Uncharitable feelings toward fellow Christians. 5. Indulgence in sins once abandoned. III. THE FORMS OF BACKSLIDING. 1. Declension into error. 2. Declension into unbelief. 3. Declension into lukewarmness, or want of love. 4. Declension into prayerlessness. 5. Declension into immorality. 6. Declension into open rejection of a Christian profession. IV. THE EVILS OF BACKSLIDING. V. THE CURE OF BACKSLIDING. 1. Let the backslider remember from whence he has fallen. 2. Let the backslider reflect on his guilt and danger. 3. Let the backslider return to God, from whom he has wandered. 4. Let the backslider live near to Christ. 5. Let the backslider forsake the sin into which he has fallen. 6. Let the back. slider learn to depend on the promised aid of the Holy Spirit. ( G. Brooks. ) National degeneracy N. Emmons, D. D. I. WHAT DENOMINATES A RELIGIOUS PEOPLE. The Jews were a religious people in distinction from all other nations who were given to superstition and idolatry. They professed to believe the existence of the only living and true God. All the nations at this day, who profess to believe the truth of Christianity, and who observe the public worship of God and the ordinances of the Gospel, are called religious nations, though the great majority may be totally destitute of vital piety. It is the explicit profession and external conduct of a people that give them their religious character. II. WHEN A RELIGIOUS PEOPLE MAY BE SAID TO BE A BACKSLIDING CLUE. Grace, in the present state, does not entirely destroy nature. Large measures of moral corruption remain in the hearts of the best of men in the most religious nations. So, every people, who profess to believe the Gospel and live under its influence, have something in them that dislikes the character, the laws, and the government of God. On this account they are bent to backsliding from Him. Among every religious people there is a great, if not the greatest part of them, who are under only the restraining, and not the sanctifying, influence of the Gospel. It is when they break over such restraints as ought to keep them from backsliding from Him; and they are perpetually backsliding, while they are constantly breaking over one restraint after another. 1. They break over the restraints of His goodness. He promised to make them the most numerous, the most wealthy, and the most respectable nation on earth. 2. A religious people who are perpetually back. sliding grow worse and worse under the restraint of Divine authority. He gave His peculiar people His judgments, His statutes, and His laws, which were far superior to those of any other nation. There was another way by which God often laid a restraint upon His backsliding people, and that was by His rod of correction; but they often broke over this restraint, and persisted in their wicked ways. 3. A perpetually backsliding people will hold fast deceit, and refuse to return to God from whom they have revolted, even under the severest tokens of His wrath. III. WHY A BACKSLIDING PEOPLE WILL PERSIST IN BACKSLIDING. This is owing to some great delusion. 1. They delude themselves by backsliding very gradually. They first forget the goodness of God in one smaller favour, and then in another; and this leads them to forget God in greater and greater favours, until Divine goodness loses all its restraining influence over them. In the same imperceptible manner they break over all the restraints of Divine authority and of Divine corrections. Such a gradual backsliding becomes more and more habitual, and, of course, more and more insensible. Every backslider always feels self-condemned for the first instances of his deviation from the path of duty. But one deviation naturally leads to another, and serves to palliate it, till self-regret and self-reproach cease to operate, and men feel as easy and innocent in their gradual declensions as they did before they began to backslide; and, like Ephraim, while they have grey hairs here and there upon them, they know it not. 2. All backsliding consists in men's walking in the ways of their hearts, instead of walking in the ways of God's commandments. They backslide because they love to backslide; and what they love, they endeavour to persuade themselves is right. If they are reproved, they will justify rather than condemn their backsliding. 3. Backsliders are more or less under the blinding and deluding influence of the great adversary of souls. He is now deluding all the heathen world, and insensibly involving them in fatal darkness, and leading them blindly to destruction. And he is more or less concerned in spreading errors and delusions in all the Christian world, who love and hold fast deceit.Improvement — 1. It appears from the description of a religious people which has been given in this discourse, that we in this country deserve that character. 2. If we have given a just description of a perpetually backsliding people, that character justly belongs to us. 3. It appears from what has been said, that our national sins are very great and aggravated. They are of the nature of backsliding, which greatly enhances their criminality. Backsliding is not a sin of ignorance, but a sin of knowledge. Our national vices, immoralities, and errors, have been commited against greater light and stronger restraints than those of any other nation. 4. It appears from what has been said, that no external means nor motives will reform a backsliding people. They backslide so gradually and insensibly, and are so fond of their backslidings, and are under such a powerful influence of the great deceiver, that they will hold fast deceit, and refuse to repent, return, and reform. Their perpetual backsliding is perpetually stupefying their hearts and consciences; for they feel no guilt and fear no danger. They are certainly out of the reach of men and means to save them from ruin. Hence, 5. This people have abundant occasion for fasting, humiliation, and prayer. Their situation is extremely critical and dangerous, and every way adapted to affect every benevolent heart. It is the imperious duty of all the Noahs, Jobs, and Daniels to arise and plead with God to take His own work into His own hands, and bow the hearts of this people to Himself. ( N. Emmons, D. D. ) They refused to return. Man's backwardness to repent E. Blencowe, M. A. 1. God reasons with us from what we do in other cases. "Shall they fall," etc. (ver. 4). He makes us judges in our own cause. If a man slips and gets a fall, does he lie where he fell, without making any attempt to get up again? "Why, then," God saith, doth this people what no others do? Why do they fall, and rise not? stray, and return not? "Despair of pardon leads many to continue in sin. But is there cause for this despair? Is it God that is unwilling? No; "they refused to return." The Lord, as it were, saith, How often would I have gathered them together, and they would not! My outward calling you by the Word, My inward moving by me Spirit, My many benefits, My gentle chastisements, My long. suffering — all show, that I was willing for your return. 2. God reasons with us from His own anxious desire. He represents Himself to us as hearkening with patient, attentive ear, if He may catch from us the words of repentance. And what does God expect to hear from us? "What have I done?" These words, said not with the lips only, but from the deep feelings of the heart, may lead to better things. How vile was the act of sin in itself! how full is it of shame and remorse! What have I done, as in the sight of God, so fearful in power, so glorious in majesty? What have I done as for any profit derived, any passing, empty pleasure? How have I injured my body and my soul! 3. God sends us to the birds of the sky; to creatures without reason, that we, reasonable beings, may learn our duty from them. "Yea, the stork," etc. These birds have an appointed time for coming back; they know and observe it. There is an "accepted time," if we would know it; if, like the birds, we would observe, and take it; and the Scripture tells us, that that time is "now." ( E. Blencowe, M. A. ) They hold fast deceit. Jeremiah 8:5 On the deceitfulness of the heart in stifling convictions J. J. Jameson, M. A. These words, as immediately referring to the people of Judah, might denote their preposterous confidence in the assistance of neighbouring nations, or in the testimony of their false prophets, who assured them of peace and prosperity, notwithstanding all God's declarations to the contrary; and their refusal to return to Him in that way which He had enjoined, by faith in His pardoning mercy through the blood of the covenant, and genuine repentance. In general, they express the conduct of sinners under the power of deceit, who reject all the calls, invitations, and expostulations of God, turn a deaf ear to all the warnings of conscience, and resist all the common operations of the Spirit. I. SOME OF THE PROOFS THAT THE HEART AFFORDS OF ITS DECEITFULNESS, IN THE METHODS WHICH IT TAKES FOR STIFLING CONVICTIONS OF SIN. 1. Many drown their convictions in the mire of their lusts. When conscience is, in some measure, awakened because of former sins, they endeavour to overpower it, by making its load the heavier, that, if possible, it may sink under it altogether, and trouble them no more. 2. Many extinguish convictions by flying to the world, multitudes are in this manner ruined for eternity. Even the innocent enioyments of life prove the destruction of myriads. 3. The hearers of the Gospel often quench their convictions by doubting the truth of the doctrine. In this way did sin make its entrance into the world; and all along, it has proved a great support of it. The unbelief of the heart comes in to the assistance of the love of sin. 4. Many stifle their convictions by turning them into ridicule. They try to laugh themselves out of convictions just as a coward endeavours to get rid of his fear, by inward ridicule: not that they really disbelieve the things that give them trouble, but they wish to do so. And by habituating themselves to laugh at the shaking of the spear, like the coward at heart, they may acquire a fictitious courage, and really get the mastery over them. 5. Men overpower their convictions by extenuating sin, or apprehending that they are not guilty in the eye of the law, because free of grosser immoralities. But this is as great folly, in a spiritual sense, as it would be for a thief or robber to imagine that he was in no danger of the sentence of the law of his country, because he had not yet committed murder; or, for a man indulging himself in strong drink, to apprehend that he run no risk of intoxication, because he could still hold the cup to his head. 6. The heart often stifles convictions by representing eternal concerns as of little importance. By far the greatest part of men, although they see a dying world around them, live as if themselves alone were to be immortal. Or, one might be apt to imagine from their conduct, that they altogether denied the immortality of their souls, and believed that they would perish with their bodies. 7. Many endeavour to fly from a wounded conscience, and so hold fast deceit by flying from the means of grace. The only condition on which such persons will submit to the sound of the Gospel, is that they have nothing but smooth things prophesied to them. 8. Others extinguish convictions by magnifying the difficulties of religion. It seems to them a great hardship to perform so many duties, to be instant in season and out of season. They reckon God's commandments grievous, and the reward scarcely an equivalent for the labour. 9. Convictions are often stifled by the hope of abundance of time, and the promise of a future consideration. Thousands and ten thousands fall the miserable victims of a false hope. When the concerns of their precious souls intrude themselves on their thoughts, they endeavour to banish them, from the expectation of length of days, and of a continued enjoyment of a merciful dispensation. II. THE GREAT DANGER OF STIFLING CONVICTIONS. 1. This conduct is of the most hardening nature. All sin is so. He who sins today makes the commission of sin easier to conscience tomorrow. There is a progress in sin as well as in holiness. And there is no sin of a more heart-hardening nature than this of quenching convictions. When men make their neck an iron sinew, the brow becomes brass. Obduracy in resisting God is always succeeded by effrontery in sin. 2. He who stifles convictions willingly continues under the sentence of condemnation, consents to it, and seals himself up under it. Convictions are the messengers of incensed justice, sent forth against the transgressor, warning him of the necessity of fleeing into the city or refuge. He who refuses to listen, scorns the refuge provided, and runs his risk of meeting with the avenger. 3. The expected time of consideration may never arrive. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and we have not the least reason to think that he ever returned. 4. God may justly deny heartmollifying grace. They rebelled and vexed His holy Spirit, and He was turned to be their enemy. 5. He may cease to be a reprover. This is often the case. When the sinner continues to stifle convictions, God takes away His messengers. Or, the means may be continued, and yet be altogether blasted to them. The Bible becomes a book that is sealed. The Word is a dead letter. The most awakening sermons leave them as fast asleep in sin as they found them. For the Lord hath said, My Spirit will not always strive with man. 6. He may contend with them in the course of His providence. He hath long fought against them, as He threatens the Church of Sardis, with the sword of His mouth. Now He will fight against them with the sword of His hand. 7. God gives them up to their own lusts. A man needs no other devil to possess him than these. The name of such a possession is legion. Thus he becomes exceeding fierce in sin, and hurries on headlong to destruction, as if it advanced of itself, with too slow a pace. 8. In judgment He may lay occasions of sin in their way. God can tempt no man. He forces no man to sin, because He infinitely hates it. But when He sees sinners determined on iniquity, He sometimes chooses their delusions, as He threatens in His Word: I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them. 9. God may judicially harden their hearts. It is one of the inconceivable mysteries of Divine operation, that God should in righteous judgment give up a sinner to obduracy, and yet be at an infinite distance from the sin. But so it is. 10. God may refuse to hear, although they should call. He laughs at the sinner when trying to break His bands. But His holy scorn will be far more awful in the end. ( J. J. Jameson, M. A. ) I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Jeremiah 8:6, 7 God's inquisition 1. That God hath an ear and an eye to our carriage and dispositions, to our speeches and courses. If we had one always at our backs that would inform such a man what we say, one that should book our words, and after lay them to our charge, it would make us careful of our words. Now, though we be never so much alone, there are two always that hear us. God hears, and God's deputy in us, conscience, "hearkens and hears." God books it, and conscience books it. This doth impose upon us the duty of careful and reverent walking with God. Would we speak carelessly or ill of any man if He heard us? When we slight a man, we say we care not if he heard us himself. But shall we slight God so? Shall we swear, and lie, and blaspheme, and say we care not though God hear us, that will lay everything to our charge, not only words but thoughts? "No man spake aright." But what evidence doth He give upon this inquisition? "They spake not aright," which is amplified from the generality of this sin When God had threatened judgments, He hearkened and heard what use they made of them, but "they spake not aright." In how many respects do we not speak aright in regard of the judgments of God? 1. In regard of God, men speak not aright when they do not see Him in the judgment, but look to the creature, to the second causes. 2. We talk amiss in regard of others, when we begin to slight them in our thoughts and speeches. Oh, they were careless people; they adventured into company, and it was the carelessness of the magistrates; they were not well looked to; they were unmerciful persons, etc. Is it not God's hand? 3. We talk amiss of God's judgments in regard of ourselves.(1) When we murmur and fret any way against God, and do not submit ourselves under His mighty hand as we should.(2) When we take liberty to inquire of the judgments of God abroad, and never make use of them. So much for the evidence. Come we now to God's complaint upon this evidence. "No man repented him of his wickedness." They did not repent of their wickedness, and the fault was general: "No man repented." The first yields this instruction. That it is a state much offending God, not to repent when His judgments are threatened. The longer we live in any sin unrepented of, the more our hearts will be hardened; the more Satan takes advantage against us, the more hardly he is driven out of his old possession, the more just it may be with God to give us up from one sin to another. The understanding will be more dark upon every repetition of sin, and conscience will be more dulled. Those that are young, therefore, let them take the advantage of the youth, and strength, and freshness of their years to serve God. That which is blasted in the bud, what fruit may we look for from it afterwards? Again, what welcome shall we expect, when we have sacrificed the marrow of our years to our lusts, to bring our old age to God? Can this be any other than self-love? Such late repentance is seldom sound. Our hearts are so false and so dull, we have need to take all advantages of withdrawing ourselves from our sinful courses.And to encourage us to do it, let us consider, if we do this, and do it in time, we shall have the sweetness of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. You will say, We shall lose the sweetness of sin; ay, but — 1. You shall have a most sweet communion with God. 2. It is the way to prevent God's judgments, as we see in Nineveh and others. 3. Should we be stricken, if we have made our peace with God, if we have repented, all shall be welcome, all shall be turned to our good. We know the sting is pulled out. "No man repented of his evil ways." We see, then, that generality is no plea. "We must not follow a multitude to do evil" ( Exodus 23:2 ). We must not follow the stream, to do as the world doth. It hath been the commendation of God's children, that they have striven against the stream and been good in evil times. If there be but one Lot in Sodom, one Noah and his family in the old world, he shall be looked to as a jewel among much dross. God will single him out as a man doth his jewels, when the rubbish is burnt. God will have a special care to gather His jewels. It shows sincerity and strength of grace, when a man is not tainted with the common corruptions. "No man repented." They did not say in their hearts and tongues, "What have I done?"They were inconsiderate, they did not examine their ways. 1. A man can return upon himself; he can try his own ways, and arrest, and arraign himself. "What have I done?" This shows the dignity of man; and considering that God hath set up a throne and seat of judgment in the heart, we should labour to exercise this judgment. 2. God having given man this excellent prerogative to cite himself and to judge his own courses, when man doth not this, it is the cause of all mischief, of all sin and misery. 3. The exercising of this judgment, it makes a man's life lightsome. He knows who he is and whither he goes. 4. Whatsoever we do without this consideration, it is not put upon our account for comfort. When we do things upon judgment, it is with examination whether it be according to the rule or no. Our service of God is especially in our affections, when we joy, and fear, and delight aright. Now how can a man do this without consideration? For the affections, wheresoever they are ordinate and good, they are raised up by judgment. Now if we would practise this duty, we must labour to avoid the hindrances. The main hindrances of this consideration are —(1) The rage of lusts, that will not give the judgment leave to consider of a man's ways; but they are impetuous and tyrannous, carrying men, as we shall see in the next clause, "as the horse rusheth into the battle."(2) Too much business, when men are distracted with the things of this life.(3) It is a secret and hard action; because it is to work upon a man's self. The world doth not applaud a man for speaking of his own faults. Men are not given to retired actions. They care not for them, unless they have sound hearts.(4) This returning upon a man's self, presents to a man a spectacle that is unwelcome. If a man consider his own ways, it will present to him a terrible object. Therefore as the elephant troubles the waters, that he may not see his own visage, so men trouble their souls, that they may not see what they are. "Every one turns to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle." Every one hath his course, his way, whether good or evil. The course of a wicked man is a smooth way perhaps, but it is a going from God; it leads from Him. And where doth it end? for every way hath its end. It is a going from God to hell. There all the courses of wicked men end. "As the horse rusheth into the battle." Here it is comparatively set down. If you would see how the "horse rusheth into the battle," it is lively and Divinely expressed ( Job 39:19 ).The horse rusheth into the battle —(1) Eagerly, as in the place of Job.(2) Desperately, he will not be pulled away by any means.(3) Dangerously, for he rusheth upon the pikes, and ofttimes falls down suddenly dead.Herein wicked men are like unto the horse, going on in their course eagerly, desperately, dangerously. 1. They go on eagerly. It is meat and drink unto them. "They cannot sleep until they have done wickedness." 2. As they go eagerly, so desperately and irreclaimably too; nothing will restrain them. Though God hedge in their ways with thorns, they break through all ( Hosea 2:6 ). 3. As they go eagerly and desperately, so dangerously too; for is it not dangerous to provoke God? to rush upon the pikes? to run against thorns? "Do you provoke Me to jealousy," saith God, "and not yourselves to destruction?" ( 1 Corinthians 10:22 .) No. They go both together. "Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times," etc. God confounds the proud dispositions of wicked men by poor, silly creatures — the crane, the turtle, the swallow, and the like. What their wisdom is we see by experience. They have an instinct put in them by God to preserve their being by removing from place to place, and to use that which may keep life. Now, man is made for a better life; and there be dangers concerning the soul in another world, yet he is not so wise for his soul and his best being as the poor creatures are to preserve their being by the instinct of nature. When sharp weather comes they avoid it, and go where a better season is, and a better temper of the air; but man, when God's judgments are threatened and sent on him, and God would have him part with his sinful courses, and is ready to fire him, and to force him out of them, yet he is not so careful as the creatures. He will rather perish and die, and rot in his sins, and settle upon his dregs, than alter his course. So he is more sottish than the silly creatures. He will not go into a better estate, to the heat, to the sunbeams to warm him. He will not seek for the favour of God, to be cherished with the assurance of His love, as the poor creature goeth to the sun to warm it till it be over hot for it. The thing most material, is this: That God, after long patience, hath judgments to come on people; and it should be the part of people to know when the judgment is coming.But how shall we know when a judgment is near hand? 1. By comparing the sins with the judgments. If there be such sins that such judgments are threatened for, then as the thread followeth the needle, and the shadow the body, so those judgments follow such and such courses. For God hath knit and linked these together. 2. There is a nearer way to know a judgment, when it hath seized on us in part already. He that is not brutish and sottish, and drunk with cares and sensuality, must needs know a judgment when it is already inflicted, when part of the house is on fire. 3. We may know it by the example of others. God keeps His old walks. What ground have we to hope for immunity more than others? We may rather expect it less, because we have their examples; and so they wanted those examples to teach them which we have. 4. General security is a great sign of some judgment coming. There is never more cause of fear, than when there is least fear. The reason is, want of fear springs from infidelity, for faith stirs up fearfulness and care to please God. 5. We may know that some judgment is coming, by the universality and generality of sin, when it spreads over all. As the deluge of sin made way for the deluge of water, so the overflow of sin will make way for a flood of fire. God will one day purge the world with fire. But now for particular sins, whereby we may know when judgment is coming.(1) Injustice. Is not innocency trodden down ofttimes?(2) And so for religion. It is generally neglected. Indifferency and formality.(3) Persecution of religion and religious men.(4) When men will go on incorrigibly in sin, as these here, "they rush as the horse rote the battle"; when they will not be reclaimed, it is a forerunner of destruction.(5) Another particular sin whereby we may discern a judgment coming is, unfruitfulness under the means; as the fig tree, when it was digged and dunged, and yet was unfruitful, then it was near a curse.(6) Nay more, decay in our first love is a forerunner of judgment, when we love not God as we were wont ( Revelation 2:5 ).Well, but what shall we do when judgments are coming? 1. First, In the interim between the threatening and the execution. Oh improve it, make use of this little time; get into covenant with God; hide yourselves in the providence and promises of God; make your peace, defer it no longer. 2. Mourn for the sins of the time, that when any judgment shall come, you may be marked with those that mourn. 3. Be watchful. Let us shake off security, and do everything we do sincerely to God. We may come to God to make our account, we know not how soon. Let us do everything as in His presence, and to Him. In our particular callings, let us be conscionable, and careful, and fruitful. ( Sibbes, Richard . ) Man on earth Homilist. I. AS THY. SPECIAL OBJECT OF DIVINE ATTENTION. Why? We may imagine that — 1. Man's spiritual infirmities on earth would draw towards him the special notice of his Maker. 2. Man's critical position. 3. Man's social influence. II. AS THE PROBATIONARY SUBJECT OF REDEMPTIVE DISCIPLINE. Under this system three things are required of him — 1. Rectitude of language. In conformity with moral truth. 2. Contrition of heart. 3. Self. searching thought. III. AS THE WICKED ABUSER OF THE SYSTEM UNDER WHICH HE LIVES. 1. Reckless obstinacy. 2. Unnatural ignorance. Yea, the stork, etc.(1) These creatures have remarkable instincts, suitable to the external circumstances of their nature. So have you. They have the instinct of perceiving coming changes, and the instinct of adjusting themselves to those changes.(2) These creatures invariably render obedience to their instincts. You do not. How unnatural! ( Homilist. ) Interrogating our conduct How attentive God is to us and our actions! He sees His prodigals when yet a great way off; to Him there is music in our sigh, and beauty in a tear. Never do we have a desire towards God, or breathe a prayer to heaven, but God has been watching and hearkening for it: it was but one tear on the cheek, yet the Father noticed it as a hopeful sign; but one throb went through the heart, yet He heeded it as an omen that not quite hardened by sin. I. Words of EARNEST PERSUASION, urging all, and especially the unconverted, to ask this question, each for himself, and solemnly answer it. 1. Searching yourself can do you no hurt. Little can be lost by taking stock. 2. You may be a great deal better for the process: for, if your affairs are all right with God, you may cheer and comfort yourself; but there are many probabilities that they are wrong; so many are deceived and anything rather than self-delusion. 3. The time for self-examination is short: soon you will know the secret, death will rend off the mask. 4. Though you may deceive yourself, you cannot God. II. Words of ASSISTANCE in trying to answer the question. 1. To Christians: "What hast thou done?" You reply, "Nothing to save myself; that was done for me. Nothing to make a righteousness for myself; Christ said, It is finished! Nothing to merit heaven; Jesus did that for me before I was born!" Yes; but say, What hast thou done for Him? for His Church? for the salvation of the world? to promote thine own spiritual growth in grace? 2. To moralists: "What hast thou done?" You answer, "All I ought to have done! You may tell me of sins, but I have done my duty: observed Sabbath, said prayers, given to poor, etc.; and if good works have any merit, I have done a great deal!" True, if any merit; but very unfortunate that they have not, for our good works, if we do them to save ourselves by them, are no better than our sins. 3. To the worldly. "What done? It is very little I do amiss; now and then just a little mirth." Stop; let us have the right name for that mirth. What do you call it in anyone else? "Drunkenness." "I have been a little loose in talk sometimes!" Write it down, "Lascivious conversation." Sometimes you have been out on the Sabbath? "Sabbath breaking." You may have quoted texts of Scripture to make jokes of them, and used God's name in foolish talk? "Swearing." Did you ever adulterate in your trade? "Stealing." Wished you could get your neighbour's prosperity?" Covetousness, which is idolatry. Ever really prayed? Prayerlessness. Neglected God and Bible? "Despising Him." May the Spir

Benson Commentary Jeremiah 8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: Jeremiah 8:1-2 . At that time, &c. — The first three verses of this chapter properly belong to the preceding, and ought not to have been separated from it. They shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah — “The Chaldeans shall regard neither the living nor the dead. They shall put the living to death without remorse; and shall break open and defile the tombs of the dead, in hopes of finding riches deposited there. They shall cast them out of their sepulchres, and leave them upon the ground, without staying to collect them together, and replace them.” We learn from Josephus ( Antiq, lib. 7, cap. ult.) that King Solomon laid up vast treasures in his father’s sepulchre, which remained untouched till the pontificate of Hyrcanus, who, on a public emergency, opened one of the cells, and took out at once three thousand talents of silver. And afterward Herod the Great opened another cell, out of which he also took considerable wealth. That it was no uncommon practice at the sacking of cities to open the monuments of the great, and scatter their bones abroad without concerning themselves to cover them again, the learned reader may see in Horace’s 16th Epod. Jeremiah 50:13 . And they shall spread, or expose, them before the sun and the moon, &c. — The idols which they have worshipped, but which shall not be able to help them in their misery. Whom they have loved, served, walked after, sought, worshipped — The prophet multiplies words to express their extraordinary zeal in the service of their idols, and to ridicule the folly and madness of their idolatry. And they shall not be gathered, &c. — The bones which shall be thus scattered about shall not be gathered again, or laid up in their sepulchres. Jeremiah 8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. Jeremiah 8:3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts. Jeremiah 8:3 . And death shall be chosen rather than life — Not through a lively and well-grounded hope of happiness in another life, but through an utter despair of any ease in this life. It denotes the extremity of misery, when men have no comfort left wherewith to alleviate their calamities, or render their lives tolerable. This appears by the next words to be spoken chiefly of the miseries which those should suffer who should survive the siege, and either flee or be carried captive into divers countries. Jeremiah 8:4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? Jeremiah 8:4-6 . Moreover, thou shalt say, &c. — The prophet is here directed to set before the Jews the unreasonableness and folly of their impenitence, which was the thing that brought this ruin upon them. And he represents them as the most stupid and senseless people in the world, that would not be made wise by any of the methods which infinite wisdom took to bring them to a right mind. Thus saith the Lord, Shall they fall and not arise? — If men happen to make a false step and fall to the ground, do they not endeavour immediately to rise again? Shall he — Shall any traveller; turn away — Namely, out of his right road, and not return into it when he is informed of his error? Why then is this people slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? — Having fallen into sin, why do they not endeavour to rise again by repentance? Having missed their way, and being clearly shown that they have, why to they not correct their error and return into it? It is “an expostulation,” says Lowth, “implying that men are seldom so far gone in wickedness as not to be touched with some remorse for their evil doings, and make some general resolutions of amendment:” but the Jews were “guilty of one perpetual apostacy, as if they could deceive God by their hypocritical pretences, without taking any steps toward a reformation.” They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return — They have turned aside into a false way, a way in which they promise themselves prosperity, but which will bring them to ruin; their error is demonstrated to them, and yet they refuse to relinquish it: they hold it fast, and proceed forward to destruction. I hearkened and heard, &c. — These also are the words of God, expressing himself after the manner of men, who are wont to look and listen diligently after the things they are very desirous of. Thus God represents himself as waiting and looking continually to see marks of the people’s repentance, that he might show them mercy, and avert his threatened judgments. But they spake not aright — I neither heard a word nor saw an action which manifested any sorrow for their apostacy, or any inclination to return to their duty and allegiance. No man repented him, saying, What have I done? — None of them did so much as take the first step toward repentance; they did not even examine into their conduct, and call themselves to an account for their actions. Every one turned to his course, &c. — Proceeded on in his accustomed way, committing all wickedness without restraint. Jeremiah 8:5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. Jeremiah 8:6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. Jeremiah 8:7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD. Jeremiah 8:7 . Yea, the stork knoweth her appointed times — Of going and returning; the turtle and the crane, &c., the time of their coming — The proper season for changing their climate. Taught by natural instinct, they change their quarters as the temper of the air alters, removing to a warmer climate when the winter approaches, and returning when the spring comes on; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord — Understand neither their duty nor their happiness; they apprehend not the meaning either of God’s mercies or judgments, nor how to accommodate themselves to either so as to answer God’s intention therein. They know not how to improve the seasons of grace which God affords them when he sends them his prophets; nor how to make use of the rebukes they are under when his voice cries in the city. They discern not the signs of the times, ( Matthew 16:3 ,) nor are aware how God is dealing with them. They know not the law which God has prescribed them, though it be written both in their hearts and in their books. Jeremiah 8:8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it ; the pen of the scribes is in vain. Jeremiah 8:8 . How do ye say, We are wise? — As if he had said, These things considered, where is your wisdom? you see the very fowls of the air are not so stupid as you are. He speaks not merely to the princes and priests, but to the whole body of the people. And the law of the Lord is with us — They were wont to boast much of the law, as well as of the temple, Jeremiah 18:18 ; Romans 2:17-23 . Lo, certainly in vain made he it — For any use you make of it, you might as well have been without it. As if he had said, It is to no purpose for you to boast of your wisdom and skill in the knowledge of God’s law, if you do not govern your lives by its directions; otherwise it was written and delivered to you in vain. The pen of the scribes is vain — Neither need it ever have been copied out by the scribes. “The title of scribe, as applied to the skill of transcribing or interpreting the law, is first given,” in the Scriptures, “to Ezra, ( Ezra 7:6 ,) who was not merely a copier of the law, but likewise an explainer of the difficulties of it, Nehemiah 8:1-13 ; and it is likely none made it their business to write copies of the law but those who were well versed in the study of it, which would best secure them from committing mistakes in their copies; hence the word, in the New Testament, signifies those who were learned in explaining the law, and answering the difficulties arising concerning the sense of it.” — Lowth. Jeremiah 8:9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? Jeremiah 8:9 . The wise men are ashamed — That is, they have reason to be so, who have not made a better use of their wisdom, and reduced their knowledge to practice. They are confounded and taken — All their wisdom has not served to keep them from those courses that will issue in their ruin. They shall be taken in the same snares that others of their neighbours, who have not pretended to so much wisdom, are taken in, and filled with the same confusion. Those that have more knowledge than others, and yet provide no better than others for their own souls, have reason to be ashamed. They have rejected the word of the Lord — They would not be governed or guided in their conduct by it, would not act as it directed them, nor comply with their duty as there set forth; and what wisdom is in them? — None to any purpose: none that will yield them comfort in life, support in death, or boldness at the day of final accounts: none that will be found to their praise when God shall bring every work into judgment, how much soever it may exalt them in their own opinion in the present world. Jeremiah 8:10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them : for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. Jeremiah 8:10-12 . Therefore will I give their wives unto others — See on Jeremiah 6:12 ; and their fields to them, that shall inherit, or possess, them — For the word inherit is sometimes taken for any sort of possession. See Psalm 32:8 . So Israel is called the Lord’s inheritance, chap. Jeremiah 10:16 , and elsewhere. The expression, however, implies that their fields should not only be taken possession of by the victorious Chaldeans, should be ravaged and stripped of their crops and cattle, but that these their enemies should possess their fields as their own, and acquire a property in them which they should transmit to their posterity. For every one is given to covetousness, &c. — For the elucidation of this and the two following verses, see notes on Jeremiah 6:13-15 . Jeremiah 8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Jeremiah 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 8:13 I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Jeremiah 8:13 . There shall be no grapes on the vine — A figurative expression, to signify that there should be none of them left. And the leaf shall fade, &c. — As both leaves and fruit wither and fade when a tree is blasted or killed, so will I utterly deprive this people of all the blessings I had given them, of those which are for use, as well as those which are for ornament. Jeremiah 8:14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. Jeremiah 8:14-15 . Let us enter into the defenced cities — In these verses the prophet seems to turn to and address his countrymen by way of apostrophe; and, as one of the people that dwelt in the open towns, advises those that were in the like situation to retire with him into some of the fortified cities, and there wait the event with patience; since there was nothing but terror abroad, and the noise of the enemy who had already begun to ravage the country. By this the prophet signifies, that when the Chaldeans should come, there would be no hope of safety left but in fleeing to fortified places, and that none would dare to stay in the open country. He speaks of the thing as already present, because it was soon to happen, and it was represented to him, in his vision, as already present. Let us be silent there, for the Lord hath put us to silence — This may mean, that God had suffered the forces of the king of Judah to be so diminished that they were not able to defend the country and open towns, but must of necessity keep themselves cooped up in their fortified cities, and leave the country to be ravaged everywhere by the Chaldeans. And given us water of gall to drink — Hath brought us into grievous calamities for the punishment of our sins. We looked for peace — We were willing to believe the false prophets, who foretold prosperous times. For a time of health — Or, for a time in which we should be cured; that is, for a time of peace, in which we might recover our strength. Jeremiah 8:15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! Jeremiah 8:16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. Jeremiah 8:16 . The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan — Dan was situated in the northern extremity of Palestine, on the side whence the Chaldeans were to come against Jerusalem. Accordingly, Grotius observes, after Jerome, that Nebuchadnezzar, having subdued Phenicia, passed through the tribe of Dan in his way to Judea. When the enemy therefore was advanced so near, it was time for the people of Judah to take the alarm, and to provide for their own safety. The whole land trembled at the neighing of his strong ones — The word ?????? , here rendered strong ones, signifies horses in several places, and is so rendered here by Dr. Waterland, (see Jdg 5:22 ; Jeremiah 47:3 ,) and is so understood by the LXX. By the whole land trembling is meant the inhabitants being terrified at the vast number of horses that were in the Chaldean army, the neighing of which they heard; which struck them with great dread, as they had few or no horses in Judea to oppose to them. For they have devoured the land, and all that is in it — All the fruits, and all the forage, they have devoured or taken away. It is to be observed, that the prophet speaks of it as already done, because it was so represented to him in his vision. The city, and those that dwell therein — Both town and country are laid waste before them, and not only the wealth, but the inhabitants of both are taken or destroyed. Jerusalem is here chiefly meant by the city, for, though the taking of other cities was attended with a slaughter of the inhabitants, the sacking of Jerusalem was the greatest of all their calamities, as being the metropolis, and the richest and most populous of all their cities. Jeremiah 8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 8:17 . For behold, I send serpents, &c., which shall not be charmed — Such enemies as you shall not be able to soften by any entreaties you can use. That some persons possessed the faculty of rendering serpents harmless, is a fact too well attested by historians and travellers to admit of contradiction: but by what means this effect was produced is not quite so clear. Pliny speaks of certain herbs which, being carried about, prevented the bite of serpents, Nat. Hist., lib. 20. sec. 16, lib. 22. sec. 25. Others tell surprising, but not altogether incredible stories, of the influence of musical sounds. See Shaw’s Travels, p. 429; and Sir John Chardin’s MS., cited by Harmer, chap. Jeremiah 8:14 . In this same MS. the author remarks, that “those who know how to tame serpents by their charms are wont commonly to break out their teeth; and supposes this to be alluded to, Psalm 58:6 , Break their teeth, O God, in their mouths.” But whatever were the methods commonly practised to charm serpents, the enemies of the Jews are here compared to such serpents as were not to be mollified nor disarmed by any of those means. They shall bite you, saith the Lord — See Blaney, and note on Psalm 58:5 . Jeremiah 8:18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. Jeremiah 8:18-19 . When I would comfort myself, &c. — “When I would apply comfort to myself, my heart misgives me: I find great reason for my fears, and none for my hopes.” Blaney translates the verse, sorrow is upon me past my remedying; my heart within me is faint. They seem to be the words of the prophet, who had endeavoured to comfort himself in his trouble by acquiescing in the will of God; but the miseries coming on his countrymen continually occurring to his mind in all their horrors and aggravations, deprived him of all comfort, and rendered him inconsolable. Behold the voice of the cry — The bitter cries and lamentations, which methinks I hear; of the daughter of my people — To whose welfare I cannot be indifferent; because of them that dwell in a far country — Namely, their enemies the Chaldeans, who were coming against them. But the words may be rendered more agreeably to the Hebrew thus, The voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off. Compare Isaiah 33:17 , where the phrase in the original, ??? ?????? , is the same. Thus interpreted, the words express the doleful complaints of the Jews in their state of captivity, as if God had quite forsaken and disowned them. In this light many commentators understand the prophet. He “anticipates,” says Blaney, “in his imagination, the captivity of his countrymen in Babylon, a far country; and represents them there as asking, with a mixture of grief and astonishment, if there was no such being as JEHOVAH, who presided in Zion, that he so neglected his people, and suffered them to continue in such a wretched plight. Upon this complaint of theirs, God justly breaks in with a question on his part, and demands why, if they acknowledged such a protector as himself, they had deserted his service, and by going over to idols, with which they had no natural connection, had forfeited all title to his favour.” Why have they provoked me to anger? — Some translators, to render the sense more evident, supply here the words, saith God; for it is evident that it is God, and not the prophet, who speaks here, telling them that their sins were the cause of his forsaking them; and that as they provoked him to anger by their idolatries, so he would no longer defend them. Jeremiah 8:19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? Jeremiah 8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Jeremiah 8:20 . The harvest is past, &c. — Here the prophet speaks again in the name of the people, or, rather, represents the people besieged in Jerusalem complaining on account of the length of the siege. Their false prophets had amused them with vain hopes of deliverance, and they had expected the Egyptians to come to their relief; but now the harvest and the summer were past, and yet there was no appearance of succour or deliverance coming to them. Jerusalem began to be besieged in the winter of the year, but was not taken till the end of the summer of the following year. Jeremiah 8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Jeremiah 8:21-22 . For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt, &c. — These are the words of the prophet, lamenting the miserable condition of his country. The Hebrew is more literally rendered, For the breach of the daughter of my people am I broken, that is, heart-broken: or, as Houbigant renders it, I am wounded with the wound of my people. I am black — I look ghastly, as those who are dying. Astonishment hath taken hold on me — I am so stupified that I know not what to do, or which way to turn. Is there no balm in Gilead — Balm, or balsam, is used with us as a common name for many of those oily, resinous substances, which flow spontaneously, or by incision, from certain trees or plants, and are of considerable use in medicine and surgery, being good, as physicians inform us, to soften, assuage, warm, dissolve, cleanse, dry up, and purge. The Hebrew word here used, ??? , is rendered by the LXX., ?????? , and interpreted resin by the ancients in general. For this balm, resin, or turpentine, as the word might be rendered, Gilead was famous from very ancient times. See Genesis 37:25 , where we find Joseph was sold to Ishmaelite merchants, who came from Gilead, and carried it, with sweet spices, into Egypt. This made many physicians and surgeons to resort to Gilead. The prophet applies this metaphorically to the state of the Jews, which was all over corrupted, (compare Isaiah 1:6 ,) and represents God as asking whether there have been no methods used to heal these mortal wounds and distempers? or, if there have, how it comes to pass they should have so little success? As if he had said, Whence comes it that the wounds of my people have not been healed and closed? Have means of healing been wanting? Spiritual medicines or physicians? Have I not sent you prophets, who have admonished, warned, and instructed you? Have I not given you time, and furnished you with helps sufficient to enable you to return to your duty? Why then are not your spiritual disorders cured? Doubtless it is your own fault: it is because you would not make use of the remedies provided, nor follow the prescriptions of the physicians. Thus we may apply the words spoken concerning Babylon, Jeremiah 51:9 , to the present case: we would have healed Babylon, but she is not, or rather, she would not, be healed. The words may likewise be understood of a temporal deliverance. As if he had said, Is this people so forsaken both of God and men, that there is no remedy left to effect their deliverance? Are there no salutary means within reach, or no persons that know how to apply them, for the relief of my country from those miseries with which it is afflicted? Observe, reader, if sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the physician there: both are sufficient, all-sufficient, to effect a perfect cure; so that they might have been healed, but would not. Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: ; Jeremiah 8:1-22 ; Jeremiah 9:1-26 ; Jeremiah 10:1-25 ; Jeremiah 26:1-24 In the four chapters which we are now to consider we have what is plainly a finished whole. The only possible exception { Jeremiah 10:1-16 } shall be considered in its place. The historical occasion of the introductory prophecy, { Jeremiah 7:1-15 } and the immediate effect of its delivery, are recorded at length in the twenty-sixth chapter of the book, so that in this instance we are happily not left to the uncertainties of conjecture. We are there told that it was in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah," that Jeremiah received the command to stand in the forecourt of Iahvah’s house, and to declare "to all the cities of Judah that were come to worship" there, that unless they repented and gave ear to Iahvah’s servants the prophets, He would make the temple like Shiloh, and Jerusalem itself a curse to all the nations of the earth. The substance of the oracle is there given in briefer form than here, as was natural, where the writer’s object was principally to relate the issue of it as it affected himself. In neither case is it probable that we have a verbatim report of what was actually said, though the leading thoughts of his address are, no doubt, faithfully recorded by the prophet in the more elaborate composition. { Jeremiah 7:1-34 } Trifling variations between the two accounts must not, therefore, be pressed. Internal evidence suggests that this oracle was delivered at a time of grave public anxiety, such as marked the troubled period after the death of Josiah, and the early years of Jehoiakim. "All Judah," or "all the cities of Judah," { Jeremiah 26:2 } that is to say, the people of the country towns as well as the citizens of Jerusalem, were crowding into the temple to supplicate their God. { Jeremiah 7:2 } This indicates an extraordinary occasion, a national emergency affecting all alike. Probably a public fast and humiliation had been ordered by the authorities, on the reception of some threatening news of invasion. "The opening paragraphs of the address are marked by a tone of controlled earnestness, by an unadorned plainness of statement, without passion, without exclamation, apostrophe, or rhetorical device of any kind; which betokens the presence of a danger which spoke too audibly to the general ear to require artificial heightening in the statement of it. The position of affairs spoke for itself" (Hitzig). The very words with which the prophet opens his message, "Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, Make good your ways and your doings, that I may cause you to dwell (permanently) in this place!" ( Jeremiah 7:3 , cf. Jeremiah 7:7 ) prove that the anxiety which agitated the popular heart and drove it to seek consolation in religious observances, was an anxiety about their political stability, about the permanence of their possession of the fair land of promise. The use of the expression " Iahvah Sabaoth " Iahvah (the God) of Hosts is also significant, as indicating that war was what the nation feared; while the prophet reminds them thus that all earthly powers, even the armies of heathen invaders, are controlled and directed by the God of Israel for His own sovereign purposes. A particular crisis is further suggested by the warning: "Trust ye not to the lying words, ‘The Temple of Iahvah, the Temple of Iahvah, the Temple of Iahvah, is this!"’ The fanatical confidence in the inviolability of the temple, which Jeremiah thus deprecates, implies a time of public danger. A hundred years before this time the temple and the city had really come through a period of the gravest peril, justifying in the most palpable and unexpected manner the assurances of the prophet Isaiah. This was remembered now, when another crisis seemed imminent, another trial of strength between the God of Israel and the gods of the heathen. Only part of the prophetic teachings of Isaiah had rooted itself in the popular mind-the part most agreeable to it. The sacrosanct inviolability of the temple, and of Jerusalem for its sake, was an idea readily appropriated and eagerly cherished. It was forgotten that all depended on the will and purposes of Iahvah himself; that the heathen might be the instruments with which He executed His designs, and that an invasion of Judah might mean, not an approaching trial of strength between His omnipotence and the impotency of the false gods, but the judicial outpouring of His righteous wrath upon His own rebellious people. Jeremiah, therefore, affirms that the popular confidence is ill-founded; that his countrymen are lulled in a false security; and he enforces his point, by a plain exposure of the flagrant offences which render their worship a mockery of God. Again, it may be supposed that the startling word, "Add your burnt offerings to your" (ordinary) "offerings, and eat the flesh (of them,)"{ Jeremiah 7:21 } implies a time of unusual activity in the matter of honouring the God of Israel with the more costly offerings of which the worshippers did not partake, but which were wholly consumed on the altar; which fact also might point to a season of special danger. And, lastly, the references to taking refuge behind the walls of "defenced cities," { Jeremiah 8:14 ; Jeremiah 10:17 } as we know that the Rechabites and doubtless most of the rural populace took refuge in Jerusalem on the approach of the third and last Chaldean expedition, seem to prove that the occasion of the prophecy was the first Chaldean invasion, which ended in the submission of Jehoiakim to the yoke of Babylon. { 2 Kings 24:1 } Already the northern frontier had experienced the destructive onslaught of the invaders, and rumour announced that they might soon be expected to arrive before the walls of Jerusalem. { Jeremiah 8:16-17 } The only other historical occasion which can be suggested with any plausibility is the Scythian invasion of Syria-Palestine, to which the previous discourse was assigned. This would fix the date of the prophecy at some point between the thirteenth and the eighteenth years of Josiah (B.C. 629-624). But the arguments for this view do not seem to be very strong in themselves, and they certainly do not explain the essential identity of the oracle summarised in Jeremiah 26:1-6 , with that of Jeremiah 7:1-15 . The "undisguised references to the prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem itself ( Jeremiah 7:17 ; Jeremiah 7:30-31 ), and the unwillingness of the people to listen to the prophet’s teaching," { Jeremiah 7:27 } are quite as well accounted for by supposing a religious or rather an irreligious reaction under Jehoiakim-which is every way probable considering the bad character of that king, { 2 Kings 23:37 ; Jeremiah 22:13 sqq.} and the serious blow inflicted upon the reforming party by the death of Josiah; as by assuming that the prophecy belongs to the years before the extirpation of idolatry in the eighteenth year of the latter sovereign. And now let us take a rapid glance at the salient points of this remarkable utterance. The people are standing in the outer court, with their faces turned toward the court of the priests, in which stood the holy house itself. { Psalm 5:7 } The prophetic speaker stands facing them, "in the gate of the Lord’s house," the entry of the upper or inner court, the place whence Baruch was afterwards to read another of his oracles to the people. { Jeremiah 36:10 } Standing here, as it were between his audience and the throne of Iahvah, Jeremiah acts as visible mediator between them and their God. His message to the worshippers who throng the courts of Iahvah’s sanctuary is not one of approval. He does not congratulate them upon their manifest devotion, upon the munificence of their offerings, upon their ungrudging and unstinted readiness to meet an unceasing drain upon their means. His message is a surprise, a shock to their self-satisfaction, an alarm to their slumbering consciences, a menace of wrath and destruction upon them and their holy place. His very first word is calculated to startle their self-righteousness, their misplaced faith in the merit of their worship and service. "Amend your ways and your doings!" Where was the need of amendment? they might ask. Were they not at that moment engaged in a function most grateful to Iahvah? Were they not keeping the law of the sacrifices, and were not the Levitical priesthood ministering in their order, and receiving their due share of the offerings which poured into the temple day by day? Was not all this honour enough to satisfy the most exacting of deities? Perhaps it was, had the deity in question been merely as one of the gods of Canaan. So much lip service, so many sacrifices and festivals, so much joyous revelling in the sanctuary, might be supposed to have sufficiently appeased one of the common Baals, those half-womanish phantoms of deity whose delight was imagined to be in feasting and debauchery. Nay, so much zeal might have propitiated the savage heart of a Molech. But the God of Israel was not as these, nor one of these; though His ancient people were too apt to conceive thus of Him, and certain modern critics have unconsciously followed in their wake. Let us see what it was that called so loudly for amendment, and then we may become more fully aware of the gulf that divided the God of Israel from the idols of Canaan, and His service from all other service. It is important to keep this radical difference steadily before our minds, and to deepen the impression of it, in days when the effort is made by every means to confuse Iahvah with the gods of heathendom, and to rank the religion of Israel with the lower surrounding systems. Jeremiah accuses his countrymen of flagrant transgression of the universal laws of morality. Theft, murder, adultery, perjury, fraud, and covetousness, slander and lying and treachery, { Jeremiah 7:9 ; Jeremiah 9:3-8 } are charged upon these zealous worshippers by a man who lived amongst them, and knew them well, and could be contradicted at once if his charges were false. He tells them plainly that, in virtue of their frequenting it, the temple is become a den of robbers. And this trampling upon the common rights of man has its counterpart and its climax in treason against God, in "burning incense to the Baal, and walking after other gods whom they know not"; { Jeremiah 7:9 } in an open and shameless attempt to combine the worship of the God who had from the outset revealed Himself to their prophets as a "jealous," i.e., an exclusive God, with the worship of shadows who had not revealed themselves at all, and could not be "known," because devoid of all character and real existence. They thus ignored the ancient covenant which had constituted them a nation. { Jeremiah 7:23 } In the cities of Judah, in the streets of the very capital, the cultus of Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven, the voluptuous Canaanite goddess of love and dalliance, was busily practised by whole families together, in deadly provocation of the God of Israel. The first and great commandment said, Thou shalt love Iahvah thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And they loved and served and followed and sought after and worshipped the sun and the moon and the host of heaven, the objects adored by the nation that was so soon to enslave them. { Jeremiah 8:2 } Not only did a worldly, covetous, and sensual priesthood connive in the restoration of the old superstitions which associated other gods with Iahvah, and set up idol symbols and altars within the precincts of His temple, as Manasseh had 2 Kings 21:4-5 ; they went further than this in their "syncretism," or rather in their perversity, their spiritual blindness, their wilful misconception of the God revealed to their fathers. They actually confounded Him-the Lord "who exercised lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, and delighted in" the exhibition of these qualities by His worshippers { Jeremiah 9:24 } -with the dark and cruel sun god of the Ammonites. They "rebuilt the high places of the Tophet, in the valley of ben Hinnom," on the north side of Jerusalem, "to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire"; if by means so revolting to natural affection they might win back the favour of heaven-means which Iahvah "commanded not, neither came they into His mind." { Jeremiah 7:31 } Such fearful and desperate expedients were doubtless first suggested by the false prophets and priests in the times of national adversity under king Manasseh. They harmonised only too well with the despair of a people who saw in a long succession of political disasters the token of Iahvah’s unforgiving wrath. That these dreadful rites were not a "survival" in Israel, seems to follow from the horror which they excited in the allied armies of the two kingdoms, when the king of Moab, in the extremity of the siege, offered his eldest son as a burnt offering on the wall of his capital before the eyes of the besiegers. So appalled were the Israelite forces by this spectacle of a father’s despair, that they at once raised the blockade, and retreated homeward. { 2 Kings 3:27 } It is probable, then, that the darker and bloodier aspects of heathen worship were of only recent appearance among the Hebrews, and that the rites of Molech had not been at all frequent or familiar, until the long and harassing conflict with Assyria broke the national spirit and inclined the people, in their trouble, to welcome the suggestion that costlier sacrifices were demanded, if Iahvah was to be propitiated and His wrath appeased. Such things were not done, apparently, in Jeremiah’s time; he mentions them as the crown of the nation’s past offences; as sins that still cried to heaven for vengeance, and would surely entail it, because the same spirit of idolatry which had culminated in these excesses, still lived and was active in the popular heart. It is the persistence in sins of the same character which involves our drinking to the dregs the cup of punishment for the guilty past. The dark catalogue of forgotten offences witnesses against us before the Unseen Judge, and is only obliterated by the tears of a true repentance, and by the new evidence of a change of heart and life. Then, as in some palimpsest, the new record covers and conceals the old; and it is only if we fatally relapse, that the erased writing of our misdeeds becomes visible again before the eye of Heaven. Perhaps also the prophet mentions these abominations because at the time he saw around him unequivocal tendencies to the renewal of them. Under the patronage or with the connivance of the wicked king Jehoiakim, the reactionary party may have begun to set up again the altars thrown down by Josiah, while their religious leaders advocated both by speech and writing a return to the abolished cultus. At all events, this supposition gives special point to the emphatic assertion of Jeremiah, that Iahvah had not commanded nor even thought of such hideous rites. The reference to the false labours of the scribes { Jeremiah 8:8 } lends colour to this view. It may be that some of the interpreters of the sacred law actually anticipated certain writers of our own day, in putting this terrible gloss upon the precept, "The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto Me." { Exodus 22:29 } The people of Judah were misled, but they were willingly misled. When Jeremiah declares to them, "Lo, ye are trusting, for your part, upon the words of delusion, so that ye gain no good!" { Jeremiah 7:8 } it is perhaps not so much the smooth prophecies of the false prophets as the fatal attitude of the popular mind, out of which those misleading oracles grew, and which in turn they aggravated, that the speaker deprecates. He warns them that an absolute trust in the " praesentia Numinis " is delusive; a trust, cherished like theirs independently of the condition of its justification, viz., a walk pleasing to God. "What! will ye break all My laws, and then come and stand with polluted hands before Me in this house, { Isaiah 1:15 } which is named after Me ‘Iahvah’s House’, { Isaiah 4:1 } and reassure yourselves with the thought, We are absolved from the consequences of all these abominations?" ( Jeremiah 7:9-10 ). Lit. "We are saved, rescued, secured, with regard to having done all these abominations": cf. Jeremiah 2:35 . But perhaps, with Ewald, we should point the Hebrew term differently, and read, "Save us!" "to do all these abominations," as if that were the express object of their petition, which would really ensue, if their prayer were granted: a fine irony. For the form of the verb. {cf. Ezekiel 14:14 } They thought their formal devotions were more than enough to counterbalance any breaches of the decalogue; they laid that flattering unction to their souls. They could make it up with God for setting His moral law at naught. It was merely a question of compensation. They did not see that the moral law is as immutable as laws physical; and that the consequences of violating or keeping it are as inseparable from it as pain from a blow, or death from poison. They did not see that the moral law is simply the law of man’s health and wealth, and that the transgression of it is sorrow and suffering and death. "If men like you," argues the prophet, "dare to tread these courts, it must be because you believe it a proper thing to do. But that belief implies that you hold the temple to be something other than what it really is; that you see no incongruity in making the House of Iahvah a meeting place of murderers. {" spelunca latronum " Matthew 21:13 } That you have yourselves made it, in the full view of Iahvah, whose seeing does not rest there, but involves results such as the present crisis of public affairs; the national danger is proof that He has seen your heinous misdoings." For Iahvah’s seeing brings a vindication of right, and vengeance upon evil. { 2 Chronicles 24:22 ; Exodus 3:7 } He is the watchman that never slumbers nor sleeps; the eternal Judge, Who ever upholds the law of righteousness in the affairs of man, nor suffers the slightest infringement of that law to go unpunished. And this unceasing watchfulness, this perpetual dispensation of justice, is really a manifestation of Divine mercy; for the purpose of it is to save the human race from self-destruction, and to raise it ever higher in the scale of true well-being, which essentially consists in the knowledge of God and obedience to His laws. Jeremiah gives his audience further ground for conviction. He points to a striking instance in which conduct like theirs had involved results such as his warning holds before them. He establishes the probability of chastisement by a historical parallel. He offers them, so to speak, ocular demonstration of his doctrine. "I also, lo, I have seen, saith Iahvah!" Your eyes are fixed on the temple; so are Mine, but in a different way. You see a national palladium; I see a desecrated sanctuary, a shrine polluted and profaned. This distinction between God’s view and yours is certain: "for, go ye now to My place which was at Shiloh, where I caused My Name to abide at the outset" (of your settlement in Canaan); "and see the thing that I have done to it, because of the wickedness of My people Israel" (the northern kingdom). There is the proof that Iahvah seeth not as man seeth; there, in that dismantled ruin, in that historic sanctuary of the more powerful kingdom of Ephraim, once visited by thousands of worshippers like Jerusalem today, now deserted and desolate, a monument of Divine wrath. The reference is not to the tabernacle, the sacred Tent of the Wanderings, which was first set up at Nob { 1 Samuel 22:11 } and then removed to Gibeon, { 2 Chronicles 1:3 } but obviously to a building more or less like the temple, though less magnificent. The place and its sanctuary had doubtless been ruined in the great catastrophe, when the kingdom of Samaria fell before the power of Assyria (721 B.C.). In the following words ( Jeremiah 7:13-15 ) the example is applied. "And now"-stating the conclusion-"because of your having done all these deeds" ("saith Iahvah," LXX omits), "and because I spoke unto you" ("early and late," LXX omits), "and ye hearkened not, and I called you and ye answered not": { Proverbs 1:24 } "I will do unto the house upon which My Name is called, wherein ye are trusting, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers-as I did unto Shiloh." Some might think that if the city fell, the holy house would escape, as was thought by many like-minded fanatics when Jerusalem was beleaguered by the Roman armies seven centuries later: but Jeremiah declares that the blow will fall upon both alike; and to give greater force to his words, he makes the judgment begin at the house of God. (The Hebrew reader will note the dramatic effect of the disposition of the accents. The principal pause is placed upon the word "fathers," and the reader is to halt in momentary suspense upon that word, before he utters the awful three which close the verse: "as I-did to-Shiloh." The Massorets were masters of this kind of emphasis.) "And I will cast you away from My Presence, as I cast" ("all": LXX omits) "your kinsfolk, all the posterity of Ephraim." { 2 Kings 17:20 } Away from My Presence: far beyond the bounds of that holy land where I have revealed Myself to priests and prophets, and where My sanctuary stands; into a land where heathenism reigns, and the knowledge of God is not; into the dark places of the earth, that lie under the blighting shadow of superstition, and are enveloped in the moral midnight of idolatry. " Projiciam vos a facie mea ." The knowledge and love of God-heart and mind ruled by the sense of purity and tenderness and truth and right united in an Ineffable Person, and enthroned upon the summit of the universe-these are light and life for man; where these are, there is His Presence. They who are so endowed behold the face of God, in Whom is no darkness at all. Where these spiritual endowments are nonexistent; where mere power, or superhuman force, is the highest thought of God to which man has attained; where there is no clear sense of the essential holiness and love of the Divine Nature; there the world of man lies in darkness that may be felt; there bloody rites prevail; there harsh oppression and shameless vices reign: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. "And thou, pray thou not for this people," { Jeremiah 18:20 } "and lift not up for them outcry nor prayer, and urge not Me, for I hear thee not. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather sticks, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough, to make sacred buns" { Jeremiah 44:19 } "for the Queen of Heaven, and to pour libations to other gods, in order to grieve." { Deuteronomy 32:16 ; Deuteronomy 32:21 } "Is it Me that they grieve? saith Iahvah; is it not themselves" (rather), "in regard to the shame of their own faces" ( Jeremiah 7:16-19 ). From one point of view, all human conduct may be said to be "indifferent" to God; He is self-sufficing, and needs not our praises, our love, our obedience, any more than He needed the temple ritual and the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Man can neither benefit nor injure God; he can only affect his own fortunes in this world and the next, by rebellion against the laws upon which his welfare depends, or by a careful observance of them. In this sense, it is true that wilful idolatry, that treason against God, does not "provoke" or "grieve" the Immutable One. Men do such things to their own sole hurt, to the shame of their own faces: that is, the punishment will be the painful realisation of the utter groundlessness of their confidence, of the folly of their false trust; the mortification of disillusion, when it is too late. That Jeremiah should have expressed himself thus is sufficient answer to those who pretend that the habitual anthropomorphism of the prophetic discourses is anything more than a mere accident of language and an accommodation to ordinary style. In another sense, of course, it is profoundly true to say that human sin provokes and grieves the Lord. God is Love; and love may be pained to its depths by the fault of the beloved, and stirred to holy indignation at the disclosure of utter unworthiness and ingratitude. Something corresponding to these emotions of man may be ascribed, with all reverence, to the Inscrutable Being who creates man "in His own image," that is, endowed with faculties capable of aspiring towards Him, and receiving the knowledge of His being and character. "Pray not thou for this people for I hear thee not!" Jeremiah was wont to intercede for his people. { Jeremiah 11:14 ; Jeremiah 18:20 ; Jeremiah 15:1 ; cf. 1 Samuel 12:23 } The deep pathos which marks his style, the minor key in which almost all his public utterances are pitched, proves that the fate which he saw impending over his country grieved him to the heart. "Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought"; and this is eminently true of Jeremiah. A profound melancholy had fallen like a cloud upon his soul; he had seen the future, fraught as it was with suffering and sorrow, despair and overthrow, slaughter and bitter servitude; a picture in which images of terror crowded one upon another, under a darkened sky, from which no ray of blessed hope shot forth, but only the lightnings of wrath and extermination. Doubtless his prayers were frequent, alive with feeling, urgent, imploring, full of the convulsive energy of expiring hope. But in the midst of his strong crying and tears, there arose from the depths of his consciousness the conviction that all was in vain. "Pray not thou for this people, for I will not hear thee." The thought stood before him, sharp and clear as a command; the unuttered sound of it rang in his ears, like the voice of a destroying angel, a messenger of doom, calm as despair, sure as fate. He knew it was the voice of God. In the history of nations as in the lives of individuals there are times when repentance, even if possible, would be too late to avert the evils which long periods of misdoing have called from the abyss to do their penal and retributive work. Once the dike is undermined, no power on earth can hold back the flood of waters from the defenceless lands beneath. And when a nation’s sins have penetrated and poisoned all social and political relations, and corrupted the very fountains of life, you cannot avert the flood of ruin that must come, to sweep away the tainted mass of spoiled humanity; you cannot avert the storm that must break to purify the air, and make it fit for men to breathe again. "Therefore"-because of the national unfaithfulness-"thus said the Lord Iahvah, Lo, Mine anger and My fury are being poured out toward this place-upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it will burn, and not be quenched!" { Jeremiah 7:20 } The havoc wrought by war, the harrying and slaying of man and beast, the felling of fruit trees and firing of the vineyards, are intended; but not so as to exclude the ravages of pestilence and droughts { Jeremiah 14:1-22 } and famine. All these evils are manifestations of the wrath of Iahvah., cattle and trees and "the fruit of the ground," i.e., of the cornlands and vineyards, are to share in the general destruction, {cf. Hosea 4:3 } not, of course, as partakers of man’s guilt, but only by way of aggravating his punishment. The final phrase is worthy of consideration, because of its bearing upon other passages. "It will burn and not be quenched," or "it will burn unquenchably." The meaning is not that the Divine wrath once kindled will go on burning forever; but that once kindled, no human or other power will be able to extinguish it, until it has accomplished its appointed work of destruction. "Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Your holocausts add ye to your common sacrifices, and eat ye flesh!" that is, Eat flesh in abundance, eat your fill of it! Stint not yourselves by devoting any portion of your offerings wholly to Me. I am as indifferent to your "burnt offerings," your more costly and splendid gifts, as to the ordinary sacrifices, over which you feast and make merry with your friends. { 1 Samuel 1:4 ; 1 Samuel 1:13 } The holocausts which you are now burning on the altar before Me will not avail to alter My settled purpose. "For I spake not with your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, concerning matters of holocaust and sacrifice, but this matter commanded I them, ‘Hearken ye unto My voice, so become I God to you, and you-ye shall become to Me a people; and walk ye in all the way that I shall command you, that it may go well with you!"’ ( Jeremiah 7:22-23 ) cf. Deuteronomy 6:3 . Those who believe that the entire priestly legislation as we now have it in the Pentateuch is the work of Moses, may be content to find in this passage of Jeremiah no more than an extreme antithetical expression of the truth that to obey is better than sacrifice. There can be no question that from the outset of its history. Israel, in common with all the Semitic nations, gave outward expression to its religious ideas in the form of animal sacrifice. Moses cannot have originated the institution, he found it already in vogue, though he may have regulated the details of it. Even in the Pentateuch, the term "sacrifice" is nowhere explained; the general understanding of the meaning of it is taken for granted. {see Exodus 12:27 ; Exodus 23:18 } Religious customs are of immemorial use, and it is impossible in most cases to specify the period of their origin. But while it is certain that the institution of sacrifice was of extreme antiquity in Israel as in other ancient peoples, it is equally certain, from the plain evidence of their extant writings, that the prophets before the Exile attached no independent value either to it or to any other part of the ritual of the temple. We have already seen how Jeremiah could speak of the most venerable of all the symbols of the popular faith. { Jeremiah 3:16 } Now he affirms that the traditional rules for the burnt offerings and other sacrifices were not matters of special Divine institution, as was popularly supposed at the time. The reference to the Exodus may imply that already in his day there were written narratives which asserted the contrary; that the first care of the Divine Saviour after He had led His people through the sea was to provide them with an elaborate system of ritual and sacrifice, identical with that which prevailed in Jeremiah’s day. The important verse already quoted { Jeremiah 8:8 } seems to glance at such pious fictions of the popular religious teachers: "How say ye, We are wise, and the instruction" (A.V. "law") "of Iahvah is with us? But behold for lies hath it wrought-the lying pen of the scribes!" It is, indeed, difficult to see how Jeremiah or any of his predecessors could have done otherwise than take for granted the established modes of public worship, and the traditional holy places. The prophets do not seek to alter or abolish the externals of religion as such; they are not so unreasonable as to demand that stated rites and traditional sanctuaries should be disregarded, and that men should worship in the spirit only, without the aid of outward symbolism of any sort, however innocent and appropriate to its object it might seem. They knew very well that rites and ceremonies were necessary to public worship; what they protested against was the fatal tendency of their time to make these the whole of religion, to suppose that Iahvah’s claims could be satisfied by a due performance of these, without regard to those higher moral requirements of His law which the ritual worship might fitly have symbolised but could not rightly supersede. It was not a question with Hosea, Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, whether or not Iahvah could be better honoured with or without temples and priests and sacrifices. The question was whether these traditional institutions actually served as an outward expression of that devotion to Him and His holy law, of that righteousness and holiness of life, which is the only true worship, or whether they were looked upon as in themselves comprising the whole of necessa