A17728:419
Two and twenty lectures upon the five first chapters of Jeremiah With prayers annexed,…Tvvo and tvventie lectures vpon the fiue first chapters of Ieremiah With prayers annexed,…
Two and twenty lectures upon the five first chapters of Jeremiah With prayers annexed, at the end of every lecture: by Master John Calvin. Which being faithfully collected form him as he uttered them in Latin, in the schools of Geneva, were afterwards translated into French: and now newly turned out of French, into English, with a table at the end, containing the sum and scope of every lecture.Tvvo and tvventie lectures vpon the fiue first chapters of Ieremiah With prayers annexed, at the end of euery lecture: by Master Iohn Caluin. Which being faithfully collected form him as hee vttered them in Latine, in the schooles of Geneua, were afterwards translated into French: and now newly turned out of French, into English, with a table at the end, containing the summe and scope of euery lecture.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Nathanael Newbery, 1620
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Vers. 4. Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskin of your hearts, ye men of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath come forth like fire, and it burn and none be able to quench it, because of the wickedness of your works.
Vers. 4. Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskin of your hearts, ye men of Iudah, and ye inhabitants of Ierusalem, lest my wrath come forth like fier, and it burne and none be able to quench it, because of the wickednesse of your workes.
The Prophet here more plainly expresseth that which before he delivered under a metaphor or borrowed speech. For he willed them to pluck up those vices which had taken deep rooting: as men are wont to purge fields that have long lien fallow, of thorns & brambles. But now without any figure, he tells them plainly what they ought to do: though yet in this latter part of the sentence, there wants not a figurative manner of speech also. He calls them back then to circumcision, 1which was unto them as a sign of their renovation: as if he should say, you know well enough what you ought to do, were it not you are grown so unteachable, that it is unpossible to make you understand any thing. For (saith he) why was circumcision ordained? meant not God by this sign ⟨p. 198⟩to teach you, that if a man bend himself to be truly religious, he must begin at the meditation hereof; namely, that he abstain from all the sinful affections of the flesh: 2that he renounce himself, and be dead (as it were) both to himself and to the world: for thus much circumcision imports. The Prophet therefore shows, that the Israelites were altogether inexcusable, in regard they failed neither through error, nor ignorance; but carried themselves wickedly and fraudulently towards God; because circumcision which was (as it were) their entrance into Gods service, gave sufficient notice, that they yielded to God neither his due, nor true service, unless they renounced themselves. We see now what the Prophet meant to say, when he wills them to be circumcised to the Lord, &c. Be circumcised (saith he) to the Lord. Why so? Because circumcision was the thing they then most gloried in; to wit, only before men. For albeit with full mouth they bragged, and prided themselves much in this, that they were Gods peculiar people, yet was this nothing else but mere vanity and ambition in them. The Prophet therefore wills them to dispatch out of their hearts all these triflings, and to be circumcised to the Lord; that is, not to stand musing how to obtain the favour and praise of men; but rather wisely to consider how they had to do with God.