John Trapp on Jeremiah 7:17-18

Ver. 17. Seeſt thou not what they do] And haſt thou yet an heart to pray for them? and ſhould I yet have an heart to pitty them? there is only this hope left ſometimes, that ſomething God will yeild to the prayers of his people,Ratio additur quaſi digito ad Jeremiam extenſo. even when he is moſt bitterly bent againſt them.

Flectitur iratus, voce rogante Deus.

Diſtribuunt inter ſe munera.Ver. 18. The children gather wood] All ſorts, ſizes, and ſexes, are as buſie as bees: Sed turpis labor eſt ineptiarum. Oh that we were ſo intent, with united forces, to the worſhip of the true God of heaven! Vae torpori noſtro. Oh take heed of induſtrious folly, diſpir[illegible: 1 letter]t not your ſelves in the purſuit of trifles, &c.

Scilicet & tenui popano corruptus Oſiris. Juven. Sal. 6. To make cakes] Popana, cakes ſtampt with ſtars.

To the Queen of heaven] i. e. To the heavenly bodies, and (as ſome will have it) to the Moon in ſpecial. The Hebrews have a ſaying, that, God is to be praiſed in the leaſt gnat, to be magnified in the Elephant, but to be admired in the Sun, Moon and Stars. And if the Jews in the text had ſtayed here, who could have blamed them? but to deifie theſe creatures, was groſs Idolatry, and an inexpiable ſin. Epiphanius telleth us of certain heretikes called Collyridians, that they baked cakes and offered them to the Virgin Mary whom they called the Queen of heaven: and do not the Papiſts at this day the very ſame, Haereſ. 79. ſaying that hyperdulia is due unto her; not to ſpeak of Bonaventure his blaſphemous Lady-Pſalter, Bernard Bauhuſius the Jeſuite hath ſet forth a book in praiſe of the Virgin Mary, by changing this one verſe, Tot tibi ſunt dotes, Virgo, quot ſidera caelo. A thouſand twenty and two wayes, according to the number of the known ſtars: The Jeſuites commonly write at the end of their books, Laus Deo & beatae Virgini; Praiſe be given to God, and to the bleſſed Virgin: but this is the badge of the beaſt. Let us ſay Soli Deo Gloria: and yet not in the ſenſe of that Perſian Embaſſadour, who, whenſoever his buſineſs lay with Chriſtians, was wont to have Soli Deo gloria very much in his mouth: but by Soli he meant the Sun, whom he honoured for his God. Why the women here, and chap. 44. ſhould be ſo buſie in kneading cakes to the Moon, theſe reaſons are given: 1. Becauſe the Moon was a Queen. 2. Becauſe the women at their labour were moſt beholden to the Moon, who by her great moiſture mollifies the ſecundines, and makes the paſſage eaſie for their delivery. This cuſtom of offering cakes to the Moon (ſaith one) our Anceſtors may ſeem not to have been ignorant of:Greg. Poſth. 202. to this day our women make cakes at ſuch times; yea the child is no ſooner born, but called cake-bread. Add, that the Saxons did adore the Moon, Ibid. 132. to whom they ſet a day apart, which to this day we call Moonday. The ſame Author telleth us, that he who not long ſince conquered the Indies, perſwaded the Natives that he had complained of them to their Moon, and that ſuch a day the goddeſs ſhould frown upon them; which was nothing elſe but an Eclipſe which he had found out in the Almanack.