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Jon_2:8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Ver. 8. They that observe lying vanities] That listen to sense and reason in matters of God, and make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, as Jonah had done to his cost, till, having paid for his learning, he descried them all to be but "lying vanities," or most vain vanities, empty nothings.
Forsake their own mercy] Are miserable by their own election, because sinners, in a special manner, "against their own souls," as were Korah and his accomplices, Num_15:38; as was Pope Silvester, who gave his soul to the devil for seven years’ enjoyment of the popedom; and as are all those wilful wicked persons, that refusing to be reformed, and hating to be healed, choose to spend the span of this life after the ways of their own hearts, though they thereby perish for ever. These are those fools of the people, that prefer an apple before paradise, a mess of pottage before the inheritance of heaven, their swine before their Saviour, turning their backs upon those blessed and bleeding embracements of his, and cruelly cutting the throats of their own poor souls by an impenitent continuance in sin; so losing, for a few bitter sweet pleasures, or paltry profits in this vale of tears, for an inch of time, that fulness of felicity at God’s right hand, through all eternity. It is written of them who tame the tiger, that when they have taken away the young one, knowing that presently they shall be pursued by the old tigress, they set lookingglasses in the way by which they flee; whereunto when she cometh and seeth some representation of herself, she lingereth about them a good space, deceived by the shadow, and detained in a vain hope to recover the young again; meanwhile the hunter most speedily posteth away with his prey. Likewise deals Satan with the men of this world (saith mine author); he casts before them the deceitful lusts of profit, pleasure, and preferment, the worldling’s trinity, those "lying vanities," being none other than shadows and semblances of good; yet are men so delighted with these that they dote about them, having no care to pursue the enemy for recovery of that image of God, the Divine nature, that Satan hath beguiled them from. He setteth them to the tree of knowledge, that they may not taste of the tree of life. He putteth out their eyes with the dust of covetousness, and shutteth their ears against the instructions of life, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and God should heal them, Mat_13:15. In all which there is not anything more to be lamented than this, that people should "love to have it so," Jer_5:31; be active in their own utter undoing, Hos_13:9; wittingly and willingly forsake God, the fountain of living waters, their own mercies, as he is here called, and elsewhere, Psa_144:2, and hew themselves out "cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water," Jer_2:13.