Lamentations - The Sermon Depository

y Jeremiah: his object was to shew that though nothing in the land
appeared but desolation, and the Temple being destroyed, the Covenant of
God appeared as made void, and thus all hope of salvation had been cut
off, yet hope still remained, provided the people sought God in true
repentance and faith; and he thus proceeded in the course of his calling, and
made it evident that his doctrine would not be without benefit.
He indeed bewails, as I have said, the extreme calamity of his people; but
he mingles with his lamentations the doctrine of repentance and faith’ For,
on the one hand, he shews that the people suffered a just punishment for
the many iniquities, of which they could not have been healed; and then,
on the other hand, he gives them some intimations of God’s mercy, that in
death itself the Jews might seek life, nay, that in the lowest depths they
might know that God would be propitious to them. He at length by his
own example stimulates them to pray; but prayer is founded on faith. It
then follows, that Jeremiah, when the people had become wholly alienated
from the worship of God, yet spent his labor in collecting together the
remnant. Though, then, the whole Church was not only in the greatest
disorder, but also reduced as it were almost to nothing, yet Jeremiah
constructed some sort of building out of the ruins. This is the substance of
this Book.
The Greek Translators call this Book Qrh>nouv, Lamentations, and very
properly, as also the Hebrews call it hwnyq, kinut; though the common
name or title is hka, aike, from the first word in it. But when they wish
to express what the Book contains, they call it twnyq, kinut,
Lamentations.
Let us now proceed to the words; for what I have now briefly touched
upon, can be more fully explained as we go on.
CHAPTER 1
LECTURE FIRST.
Lamentations 1:1
1. How doth the city sit solitary
that was full of people! How is
she become as a widow! She that
was great among the nations, and
princess among the provinces,
how is she become tributary!
1. Quomodo sedet solitaria
civitas, quae abundavit populo!
facta est tanquam vidua, quae
magna fuit in gentibus! Quae
dominataest in provinciis,
redacta est ad tributum!
The Prophet could not sufficiently express the greatness of the calamity,
except by expressing his astonishment. He then assumes the person of one
who on seeing something new and unexpected is filled with amazement. It
was indeed a thing incredible; for as it was a place chosen for God to dwell
in, and as the city Jerusalem was not only the royal throne of God, but
also as it were his earthly sanctuary, the city might have been thought
exempted from all danger. Since it had been said,
“Here is my rest for ever, here will I dwell,”
(Psalm 132:14,)
God seemed to have raised that city above the clouds, and to have rendered
it free from all earthly changes. We indeed know that there is nothing fixed
and certain in the world, and that the greatest empires have been reduced to
nothing; but, the state of Jerusalem did not depend on human protection,
nor on the extent of its dominion, nor on the abundance of men, nor on any
other defenses whatever, but it was founded by a celestial decree, by the
promise of God, which is not subject to any mutations. When, therefore,
the city fell, uprooted from its foundations, so that nothing remained,
when the Temple was disgracefully plundered and then burnt by enemies,
and further, when the king was driven into exile, his children slain in his
presence, and also the princes, and when the people were scattered here