The saints anchor-hold, in all storms and tempests preached in sundry sermons, and published…

The Saints ANCHOR-HOLD.

Lam. 3. 24. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him.

This Book is, according to the judgment of a godly learned^* Writer, an Abridgement of all Jeremies Sermons, from the 13th. year of Josiah, unto the 4th. of Joakim; and that Book which God commanded Jeremiah to write, and to cause Baruch to read it publicly, upon the day of a Fast, kept in the ninth ⟨p. 2⟩month of the fifth year of Jehojakim, ²which afterward Jehudi read unto the King, sitting by a fire, in his winter house, who was so far from repenting, that, when he had read three or four leaves of it, he cut it with a penknife, and cast it into the fire, till all was consumed, and rejected the intercession of some of his Princes, that he would not burn it, and he commanded to lay hold upon Jeremiah and Baruch: But God hid them. Whereupon the Lord commanded Jeremiah to write the Book again, with Additions, which the same Writer thinks, was this Chapter, which consisteth of a threefold Alphabet, in the Hebrew. The Prophet, having discharged his offices, in labouring to convince the Jews of their sins, and to bring them to repentance, when he found not the success he desired, he falls to lamenting and weeping, for their pride and obstinacy in sin, and teacheth them also how to lament their own misery in Captivity; and, because there was ⟨p. 3⟩among them a basket of good figs, he teacheth them how to exercise faith and hope in the middest of their sorrows. Among other passages, my Text hath a tendency thereunto, which admits a double consideration: 1. As a part of a Lamentation. 2. As an expression of a free spirit. Accordingly I shall handle it, first, as a part of a Lamentation. In verse 17, 18. you may see their deep dejection and despondency; I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. In vers. 19, 20, 21. you may see how, from the good fruit of their affliction, in humbling them, they gather hope. In vers. 22, 23. they can see mercy in God towards them in their Affliction. In my Text, they are as men that find rest, after their dangers and tossings at Sea, by casting Anchor upon firm ground, in a safe Harbour. The Doctrinal note I collect from the words so considered, is this: