An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Oppression is a common sin.

Not only was Babylon stained with it, but Jerusalem. That's an amazing passage (Jer. 6.6.) Thus hath the Lord of hosts said; hew ye down trees, and cast a Mount against Jerusalem. This is the City to be visited, she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. Not only was Jerusalem a City, but, The City, a City above all Cities, to be visited by an oppressing enemy; and wh•? even because she not only had oppressors in her, but was oppression, O how oppressive was that City, which was oppression, and that not only in some parts of her, but wholly, and that not in her skirts and suburbs, but in the midst of her! The Lord, to show that the Jews were superlatively rebellious, or most rebellious against him, calleth them (in the abstract) rebellion, as the Margin hath it, (Ezek. 2.7.) and to show how superlatively oppressive they were one against another, He calls Jerusalem oppression. Here in the Text we have a multitude of oppressions, surely then, there were a multitude of oppressors. To hear of a multitude of sins of all sorts, is very sad, but when there is multitude of one sort, and that one of the worst sort, and such a sin as cannot go alone, but draws after it a heap of almost all sorts of sin: what a multitude of sins are there! It cannot be denied, but that oppression is a very common epidemical sin, if we take and consider it in the full latitude of it. For there is a two-fold oppression. First, there is a secret oppression. To deceive, defraud, or go beyond another, in the Apostles sense, is to oppress him. And thus 'tis said, (Hos. 12.7.) He is a Merchant, ⟨p. 59⟩the balances of deceit are in his hand, he loveth to oppress. He doth not oppress by violence, with a sword in his hand, but by craft with balances in his hand; he oppresseth while he over-reacheth in dealing and trading. This sort of oppression runs up and down every where; and though this kind of oppression make not a great cry, yet it is a great sin, a crying sin. There is also a secret oppression under colour of Law; many turn the very Rules of Justice into rods of oppression: And this is by so much the worse, by how much it hath the better cover. Secondly, there is an open oppression, the Nimrods of the world, the mighty Hunters tae and vex and trouble all they can, and would make all tremble before them, or run from them, as the Hare and Hart from their merry, but merciless pursuers.