m For ever here ſignifies the ever of the Jewiſh State, or Church; whether the Promiſe relates to the abiding of Jonadab's Family, when many Families of the Jews were quite rooted out, cut off, and ex- tinQ, , or to ſome ſpecial favour that God would ſhew them, or to fome place of Office, they ſtould have in, or about the Temple (as ſome judge becauſe, 1 Chron; 2: 55. it appears they were Scriber ) is Uncertain : But it is a queſtion of more Moment. How God pro- miſerh'a Reward to thete Sons of Jonadab for obeying the come mand of their Father, and whether they had ſinned if they bad nor obeyed this Command of Jonadab, which brings in anorher Queſti- on : Waether Parents have a power to oblige their children in matters which God hath left at liberty. ' To which, I anſwer. 1. Goa mght reward theſe Reehabites, for their reverence and obedience to Jonadab their Fa- ther, though they were not ftriily by the Divine Law, obliged thus far to have obeyed him: as he rewarded David for his thoughts in his hearr ro build him an Houlſe,thongh'ir was not Gods W1llthar he ſhould do it, ſo as God's promile of the Reward doth not prove their O« bedience in this Particular to have been their Duty, Admit that ic remained ſtill a matter of Liberty, yet the Genera] Honour,and Re- verencethey teſtified might be rewarded by God. 2, Unqueſtion- ably Parents have nit a Power to - determine Chilaren in all things as to
which God hathl:ft them & liberty,for then they have a'-power to make their Children Slaves, and to take away all their natural Liberty. To Marry ornor, and to this, or that Perſon, is matter of Liberty. Parents cannot in this caſe determine their Children, Bethuel Gen: 24. 58. axketh Rebeccah rf ſhi -would go with Abrahams Servants before he would ſend her: 3. In mattersof- civil conernment they have a far greater power than in matters of Religzon: All Souls are Gods, and con- {ſcience can be under no other Dominion than that of God. 4. In civil things Parents have a great pawer, during the Nonage of children, and after alſo m matters which concern their Parents good,as co command them to afiſt them, to help to ſupply their Neceſſities, &c. 5. Pa- rents being ſet over Children, and infiead of God to them, as it is their Du- ty te-adviſetheir Childrento the beſt of their ability for their good : So it is the duty of Childrmn to receive their advice, and not to depars from it, unleſs they ſee circumfances ſo miſtaken by, Parents, or ſo alter:d by the Pro» widetce of God, 'as they may' reaſonably judge; their Parents, had they known or foreſeen it, would not have ſo adviſed, But that Parents have an abſolute power to determine Childrenin all things as to which God hath not forbidden them, and that Children by the Law of God areobliged-to an Obedience to all ſuch Commands however, they may ſee their Patents miſtaken, or God by his Providence may have altered Circumſtances, I ſee no reaſon to conclude Joxa- deb had prudently adviſed. his Sons as before mentioned ; they were things they might do,and which by experience they foundnot hurt- ful ro-them, buc vi gruraeoſs and advantage, and that with refe- rence to all the ends of Man's Life ; Herein they, yield Obedience, and pay a reverence to their Parent; this pleaſeth God, he promi- ſeth ro reward them with the continuance of their Family, accor-
\
M 1 4 H.
ding to what he had ſaid, Exod: 20: 22. in the fifth Command- _—_ which the Apoſtle calleth the firſt Commandment with p10 ml ©,
CH A-P, NNE Jeremiah cauſerh Baruch ts write his Prophecy; and publickly to read 86, 0 ro. the Princes ſend to fetch the Roll and read it, 11-18. They adviſe Baruch and Jeremiah to hide themſelves, 1g. The King Jehoiakim zearerh part of che Roll, and burneth it, 20 26. - |Jere= miah denounceth his Judgment, 27- 31. Baruch writeth @ new Co
PY, 32- A ND it came to paſs in the fourth year of Jchoia-
kim, the ſon of Joſiah king of Judah, zhar this
word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD ſaying «, a Jehoiakim was three Years a Tributary to Nebuchadnezzar, as we
read, 2 Kings 24: 1. then he rebelled, which three years are judged
to be the 6, 7, and 8th Years of his Reign, for Phara0h Necho ſet him up, to whom he was firſt a Tributary as we read, 2 Kings 23. 35. Pharaoh Necho having conquered him, Jehoiakim became S:rvant to the conquerour three years, then rebelled ; upon which the Are mies of the Chaldeans with the Syrians, @«c. came up againſt him 3 and carried him away. This word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the firſt year that he was Tributary to the King of Baby/ou, which was the fourth year of his Reign,
2 Take thee a * roll of a book b and * write there-
in all the words that have ſpoken untotbee, againſt *If.s. ;, "Chap.3o. from the day I ſpake unto thee, from the days of *Joſi- 7
Iſrael and againſt Judah, and againſt all the nations
ah even unto this day c.
bBy a Roll of a boook 1s to be underſtood Parchments, which anci< ently were their Books, the art of binding Books being not then known. c The Precepr is for recording all the Revelations he had from God for 22 Years Jaſt paſt ; for he began to propheſic in the thirteenth Year of Joſisb, who reigned one and thirty years, ſo as he propheſied 18 Years, during Jefiah's Life,and this was the fourth year of the Reign of Feho:akim. God would have them recorded, that there might be a Memorial of them, that ſo the truth of them might appear, when God ſhould bring them to paſs the time of which now drew very near.
3 It may be that the houſe of Judah will hear all the
evil 4 which I purpoſe to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive cheir iniquity, and their fin e.
d What we tranſlate ir may be 1918 others tranſlate if perhaps, which better expreſſeth the ſenſe. God knew whar would be, bur yet he would not be wanting io means by which they might be in+ formed in his will, and ſo believe the thing, for believing and re- forming are here meant by hearing, as the next words in part ex- pound this term here. e Forgiveneſs of ſin in Scripture ſometimes ſignifieth theaccquirring of a ſinner from the obligation fin laycth the ſinner under to Eternal Death, ſometimes the remiſſion of a temporal puniſhment ; it may here well be underſtood as compre. hending toth, rhough I think the latter ro be what is here princi« pally intended.
4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the ſon of Neriah,