Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 23:17

17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace ; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart , No evil shall come upon you.

Leud and corrupt Ministers, are an hatred and abomination in the house of the Lord, to all serious good People, and are therefore obliged to make themselves a Party of those that are like themselves, whose favour they cannot have without indulging them in their Lusts. Hence they prophesie Peace to the vilest and worst of Men, who have no Patience of being daily alarum'd with hearing of the wrath of God due, and like to come upon them for their sins.

Hence they promise evil to those that walk according to the Counsels of their own heart, that is sinfully, for Gen. 6.5. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart, is onely evil, and that continually: Hence a sinful course is very often expressed in Scripture, under this Notion of walking after the Imaginations of our own heart; as Deut. 29.19. but it is most in prophesie; Vid. chap. 3.17. & 7.24. & 9.14. & 13.10. & 16.12. & 18.12. Hence a Religious walking is called a Self-denying. None have a worse guide of their actions in their lapsed state, before Regeneration, than their own hearts.

Marginal references: chap. 6.14. & 8.11. Ezek. 13.10. Zech. 10.2.; Or, stubborness.