1 Cor. xv. 9. I am not worthy-because I persecuted.
Ezek. xx. 43, 44. When pardoned, Jerusalem will still remember her sin.
Let us confess with shame that these are the utterances of men who have already won their reward; sinners upon earth, and still in our frail and mortal bodies let us adopt the language of the saints in heaven who have even been endowed with incorruption and immortality. "And ye say the way of the Lord is not equal, when your ways are not equal." It is Pharisaic pride to attribute to the injustice of the Creator sins which are due to our own will, and to slander His righteousness. The sons of Zadok, the priests of the spiritual temple, that is the Church, go not out to the people in their ministerial robes, lest by human intercourse they may lose their holiness and be defiled. And do you suppose that you, in the thick of the throng, and an ordinary individual, are pure?
26. Let us hastily run through the prophet Jeremiah:
Jerem. v. 1, 2. Is there any that doeth justly, etc.
vii. 21, 22. God rejects the sacrifices, because of the worshippers' evil lives.
xiii. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin?
27.
Jerem. xvii. 14. "Heal me, O Lord," Otherwise Jeremiah could only say, as in the text next quoted,
xx. 14, 17, 18. Cursed be the day wherein I was born, etc.
xxiii. 23. Am I a God at hand, etc. So conscious is he of God's power.
xxiv. 6, 7. God, not they themselves, will plant them, etc.
xxvi. 21-24. Jeremiah needed the help of Ahikam. How much more do we need that of God.
28.
Jerem. xxxi. 34. The promise of the new covenant.
xxxii. 30. The children of Israel have perpetually done evil.
xxxvii. 18, 19. Yet Jeremiah himself trembled before Zedekiah.
Jerem. xxx. 10, 11. Fear not, O Jacob, for I am with thee.
29.
Amos vi. 14. "We have taken us horns by our own strength." Theseare the boasts of heretics. But
Is. xvi. 6. His strength (Moab's) is by no means according to his arrogance.
Jerem. i. 7, 20. Men's sin will only be abolished because God is gracious to them. If you will abandon your assertions ofnatural ability, I will concede that your whole contention stands good, but only by the gift of God.
Lam. iii. 26-42. It is good that a man should quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
30.
Dan. iv. 17. The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men.