(1.) In itself: " Every one (saith he) of this people doth curse me."
(2.) In reference to his deportment : " I have neither borrowed nor lent on usury, yet they curse me."
(1.) From the first, observe: —
Obsei-vation. Instruments of God's greatest works and glory are oftentimes the chiefest objects of a professing people's cursings and revenges.
The return which God's labourers meet withal in this generation is in the number of those things whereof there is none new under the sun. Men that, under God, deliver a kingdom, may have the king- dom's curses for their pains.
When Moses had brought the people of Israel out of bondage, by that wonderful and unparalleled deliverance, being forced to appear with the Lord for the destruction of Korah and his associates, who would have seduced the congregation to its utter ruin, he receives at length this reward of all his travail, labour, and pains, — all the con- gregation gathered themselves against him and Aaron, laying mur- der and sedition to their charge ; telling them they had " killed the
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people of the Lord," Numb. xvi. 41, 42; — a goodly reward for all their travails. If God's works do not suit with the lusts, prejudices, and interests of men, they will labour to give his instruments the devil's wages. Let not upright hearts sink because they meet with thankless men. " Bona agere, et mala pati, Christianorum est." A man may have the blessing of God and the curse of a professing people at the same time. " Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel," Isa. viii. 18. " Cum ab hominibus damnamur, a Deo absolvimur."^ Man's con- demnation and God's absolution do not seldom meet upon the same persons, for the same things. If you labour to do the work of the Lord, pray think it not strange if among men curses be your reward, and detestation your wages.
(2.) In reference to the prophet's dep)ortment : " He had neither lent, nor had any lent to him, upon usury." He was free from blame among them, — had no dealings with them in those things which are usually attended with reproaches ; as he shows by an instance in usury, a thing that a long time hath heard very ill.
Observation. Men every xvay blameless, and to he embraced in their own ways, are oftentimes abhorred and laden with curses for folloiu- ing the Lord in his ways.
" Bonus vir Gains Sejus, sed mains quia Cliristianus." What pre- cious men should many be, would they let go the work of God in this generation ! No advantage against them but in the matter of their God ; — and that is enough to have them to the lions, Dan. vi. 5. He that might be honoured for compassing the ends suiting his own worldly interest, and will cheerfully undergo dishonour for going be- yond, to suit the design of God, hath surely some impression upon his spirii: that is from above.
2. You have the prophet's deportment, and the frame of his spirit during those transactions between the Lord and that sinful people; and this he holds out, in many pathetical complaints, to be fainting, decaying, pei^plexed, weary of his burden, not knowing how to ease himself, as you may see at large, verses 15-18.
Observation. In dark and difficidt dispensations of providence, God's choicest servants are oftentimes ready to faint under the bur- den of them.
How weary was David when he cried out in such a condition, " Oh that I had wings like a dove ! for then would I fly away, and be at rest," Ps. Iv. 6. Long had he waited for a desired issue of his per- plexed state, and had perhaps oftentimes been fnistrated of his hope of drawing to a period of his miseries; and now, finding one disap- pointment to follow on the neck of another, he is weary, and cries,
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What! nothing but this trouble and confusion still? "Oh that I had wings like a dove I" — a ship to sail to a foreign nation (or the like), there to be at peace. In the like strait another time, see what a miserable conclusion he draws of all his being exercised under the hand of God; Ps. Ixxiii. 13, " Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency." And again, Ps. cx-\d. 11, he saith, in the perturbation of his mind, " All men are liars;" — that all the promises, all the encouragements, which in his way he had received from God, should fail of their accomplishment.
It is not with them as it was with that wicked king of Israel, who, being disappointed of peace and deliverance in his own time, cries out, " This evil is of the LoRD; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?" 2 Kings vi. 33. The season of deliverance suited not his expectation ; therefore he quite throweth off the Lord and his pro- tection:— not unlike many among ourselves, whose desires and ex- pectations being not satisfied in the closing of our distractions, accord- ing to the way which themselves had framed for the Lord to walk in, are ready to cast off his cause, his protection, to comply with the enemies of his name, " Si Deus homini non placuerit, Deus non erit." But it may be observed, that deliverance came not to that people until Jehoram was weary of waiting, and then instantly God gives it in. When God hath tired the patience of conaipted men, he will speak peace to them that wait for him. Thus it is not with the saints of God; only, being perplexed in their spirits, dark in their appre- hensions, and fainting in their strength, they break out ofttimes into passionate complaints (as Jeremiah for a cottage in the wilderness), but yet for the main holding firm to the Lord.