Jer. xxxii. 39 — 41. I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them : and I will make an everlast- ing covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good ; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly, with my whole heart, and with my whole soula.
THERE is not any thing more common than for persons, who treated with contempt God's threatened judgments, to sink under them in the most abject manner, as soon as they begin to feel them. The Jews would not be persuaded for a long season that God would ever deliver them into the hand of the Chaldeans : but when they found that his word was ready to take effect, they were overwhelmed with grief and despondency. To preserve them from run- ning to this extreme, and to shew them that the Divine judgments would be tempered with mercy, the prophet was inspired to foretel their future restoration to that very land from whence they were about to be carried captive. But it is evident that this prophecy has respect to a far greater deliverance, even to the redemption of the world from sin and Satan, and the restoration of sinners to their forfeited inheritance. A near prospect of the punishment which their sins have merited, often brings them, with a very quick transition, from presumption to despair : but, for their encouragement, God teaches them to look to him as an all-sufficient helper, and to rely on him for the carrying on of the good work wherever he has begun it. In this view of the passage we may notice,
I. The means of our conversion —
In our natural state we are afar off from God, going astray like sheep that are lost. In order to recover us,
a The preceding Discourse on this text shews its bearing upon the Conversion of the Jews : this its reference to the Christian Church.