ſhew them, or to ſome place of Office they ſhould have in, or about the Temple (as ſome judge, becauſe 1 Chron. 2. 55. it ap- pears they were Scribes) is uncertain: But it is a queſtion of more| moment : How God promiſeth a Reward to theſe Sons of Jonadab for obeying the Command of their Father, and whether they had finned if they had not obeyed this Command of Jonadab ; which brings in another Queſtion : Whether Parents have a power to oblige their children in matters which God hath left at liberty. To which I anſwer, 1. Ged might reward theſe Rechabites, for their Reve- erence and Obediznce to Jonadab their Father, though they were not ſirifly by the Divine Law ; ob/iged thus fay to have obeyed him: as he rewarded David for his thoughts in his heart to build him an Houſe, though it was not God's Will that he ſhould do it, fo as God's Promiſe of the Reward doth not prove their Q- bedience in this particular to have been their Duty. Admit that it remained ti!! a matter of Liberty, yet the General Honour, and Reverence they teſtited might be rewarded from God. 2 « Unqueſtionable. Parents have not a power to determine Children in all things as to which God hath left them at liberty, for then they have a power to make their Children Slaves, and to take away all their natural Liberty, To Marry or not, and to this, Or that Perſon, is matter of Liberty, Parents cannot in this caſe determine their Children, Berhuel Gen. 24. 58. as Rebeccah if ſhe would go with Abraham's Servant before he would ſend her. 3+ In matters of civil concernment they have 4 far greater power than mn matters of Religion. All Souls are God's, and Conſcience can be under no other Dominion than that of God. 4. In civil things
FEREMIAH
but ye have tina
the Firſt Commandment with Promiſe.
CHAP. XXXVI.
[enki cauſeth Baruch to write his Prophecy ; and publickly to reed it, I, — Io. The Princes ſend to fetch the Roll and read it, 11, —— 18, They adviſe Earuch and Jeremiah to hide themſelves, 19. The King Jehoiakim teareth part of the Roll, and birned it, 20, 26. Jeremiah denounceth his Judgment, 27, —— 31, Baruch writeth a new Copy, 32.
Jehoiakim, the ſon of Joſiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, ſaying a,
a Jehoia kim was three Years a Tributary to Nebuchadneq+ ar, aSweread, 2 Kings 24.1 then he rebelled, which three Years are judged to be the 6, 7, and 8th Years of his Reign, for Pha- raoh Necho ſet him up, to whom he was firſt a Tributary as we read,2 Kings 23. 35. Phoraoh Necho having conquered him, Jehoig» kin became Servant to the Conqueror three Years,then rebelledy upon which the Armies of the Chaldeans with the Syr;zans, Cc. came up againſt him ; and carried him away. This word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the firſt Year that he was Tributary to che king of Babylon, which was the fourth Year of his Reign.
[ſrae], and againſt Judah, and againſt all the nations
* Joſiah even unto this day c.
b By a Roll of 4 Book is to be underſtood Parchments, which anciently were their Books, the Art of binding Books being not then known. 6c The Precept is for recording all the Revelations he had from God for 22 Years laſt paſt ; for he began co prophe- fie in the thirteenth Year of Jofiah, who reigned one and thirty Years, ſo as he propheſied 18 Years during Jofsah's Life, and this 'was the fourth Year of the Reign of Jehozakim, God would 'havethem recorded, that there might be a Memorlal 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 their Iniquity, and their fin e.
4 What we tranſlate it may be "?2R,#Hlaj,others tranſlate if per-
haps which better expreſſeth the ſence.God knew what would be, bur yet he would not be wanting in means by which they migtic be informed in his Will,and ſo believe the thing,for believing and reforming are here meant by hearing, as the nexe words in pare expound this term here. e Forgiveneſs of fin in Scripture fome- times fignifieth the acquitting of a finner from the obligation fin layeth the finner under to Eternal Death; ſometimes the remifſi- on ofa temporal puniſhment : It may here well be underſtood as comprehending both, though I think the latter to be whar is here principally intended.
4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the ſon Neriah,
him, upon a roll of a book f.
f We ſhall find this Baruch, being one of Feremiab's Diſciples, more than once thus 1mployed as Jeremiah's Secretary or Amanu- enfis, None ſhall need ask how Jeremizh could remember all the Prophecies he propheſied for 22 Years before paſt, that conſi- dereth who it was that commanded him to do this. God undoubt- ed]y revived the Prophet's Memory, or he could not have called all to mind. '
5 And Jeremah commanded Baruch, ſaying , [ am ſhut up, I cannot go into the houſe of the LORD.
6 Therefore go thou and read in the roll which thou haſt written from my mouth, the words of the
LORD in theears of the people in the LOR D's
Parents have agreater power, during the Nonage of Children, and after alſo, in matters which concern their Parents good ; as to commaad them to aſſiſt them ; to help to ſupply their neceſlities, Cc 5. Parents being ſet over Children, and inflead of God to them, as it is their Duty to adviſe their Children tothe beſt of theix avuity for their good: So it 3s the Duty of Children to receive their advice, and not to depart ſrom it, unleſs they ſee circumſtances ſo miſtaken by Parents, and ſo altered by the Providence of God, as they may reaſonably judge, their Parents, bad they known or ſore- ſeen it, would nt have ſo adviſed. But that Parents have an abſo- lute power to determine Children in all things as to which God hath not forbidden thema,and tharChildren by theLaw of God are obliged to an Obedience to all ſuch Commands, however, they may fee their Parents miſtaken, or God by his Providence may have alcered Circumſtances, I ſee no »reaſon to conclude. Jonedab had prudently adviſed his Sons as before mentioned ; they were things they might do, and which by experience they tound not hurttul co them, but of grear profit and advantage, ard that with reference to all the ends of iMan's Life : Herein they yielded Obedience, and pay a Reverence to ther Parent ;