Jeremiah 3:25

REFLECTIONS

BLESSED Lord Jesus! how can I read in this Chapter the unfaithfulness of Israel, in departing from thee, who hast been the kind and loving husband of thy Church forever; without calling to my recollection my baseness and unfaithfulness also. Surely thou art, as, thou hast said in this Chapter, married to us, not only in the assumption of our nature, but in the particular and personal union with every individual soul of thine, whom by thy Spirit thou hast made willing in the day of thy power. And notwithstanding the lowness of our birth, our loathsomeness by nature, and unworthiness by sin! still hath the Lord of life and glory made us one with himself, that we might be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. And is it possible for me to call to mind, that after such unheard of condescension on the part of the Son of God, as to marry our nature, and to unite every individual person of his people to himself, that, I like a treacherous wife, departing from her husband, should depart from thee? Oh! Lord! what an awful state must our nature be reduced to by the fall! And doth my God and Saviour, notwithstanding these horrible provocations, doth he really say: though thou host played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again unto me, saith the Lord Oh! for grace, to feel the full influence of such constraining love, and to cry out with an earnestness suited to the affection: behold we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God!

And do thou Lord! fulfil all those sweet and gracious promises, Do thou heal all our backslidings: do thou do, as thou hast said, take us one of a city, and two of a family, and bring us to Zion. Put a spirit of adoption into our hearts, O Lord; and both provide the means for our recovery by grace, and give us strength to make use of them, that we may henceforth call thee Father, and thou mayest put us among the Children. And Lord! let that gracious word of thine be accomplished; let our Pastors be of thine own giving, and men after thine own heart; that we may be indeed fed with knowledge and understanding. Precious Lord Jesus! send to us the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, to teach us, and guide us, and to lead us, into all truth. Then shall we indeed know, under his divine teaching, that thou alone art the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof Amen.