Jer. xxix. 11 — 13. / know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
THE calamities which God inflicts upon mankind in this world are intended to bring them to re- pentance ; and though he often removes his rod in anger, when he sees that it produces not the desired effect, yet he often continues to punish till he sees that the heart is humbled for its iniquity. Thus he dealt with the Jews whom he sent captive to Babylon. They at first despised his chastening, and promised themselves a speedy return to their native land : but he declared that their captivity should be protracted to the end of seventy years ; and that, at the ex- piration of that time, when they should have learned to acknowledge him, he would again appear for them, and bring them back in answer to their fervent petitions. His declaration respecting this suggests to us two important observations: I. God's purposes of love and peace shall all in due time be accomplished —
God has " thoughts of peace" towards many who never think of him —
[Even before the foundation of the world God determined to remedy the evils which he foresaw sin would bring upon mankind. When our first parents were ruined, and fled from his face, he sought them out and communicated to them his gracious intentions relative to the substitution of his Son, in their stead. And while the Jews were imbruing their hands in the blood of his Son, it was his fixed purpose to pour down his Spirit upon them, and to bring them into a state of reconcilia- tion with himself. And have we not also reason to confess, that whatever we either possess or hope for is the result of his purpose and grace which he purposed in Christ Jesus before