" to be found in him :" and know for your comfort, " if your life be hid with Christ in God," it will be out of the reach of God's avenging sword; and " when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory."]
Jer. 1. 4, 5. In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping : they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
THESE words refer to the Jewish people, and to a period yet future. The junction of Israel with Judah took not place in any great degree at the re- turn of the Jews from Babylon ; nor was their return signalized by any such piety as is here described. But, at the time ordained of God for their restoration from their present dispersion, the whole Scriptures attest, that a very extraordinary spirit of piety shall be poured out upon them ; and that, in the remem- brance of all their past sins, they will be filled with the deepest contrition before Goda. But among the Gentiles, also, will the same holy ardour be expressed in returning to the Lordb: and therefore we will not confine our attention either to the one or to the other ; but rather regard the words before us as ex- pressive of genuine repentance wheresoever it exists; and as consequently declaring,
I. Our duty —
Of the Jews, it is said, " They shall go and seek the Lord their God."
Now this is a duty,
1 . Of universal obligation — [There is not a man in the universe to whom it does not appertain. There is no man who has not sinned, " in depart- ing from the living God ;" and consequently, there is no man
a Jer. xxxi. 9. b Isai. ii. 3.