Jeremiah, tried for his life, answereth courageously.

1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying,

2 Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD's house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

3 If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.

4 And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

5 To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;

6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

7 So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.

9 Why hast thou_prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD's house.

11 Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.

12 Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.

13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

14 As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you.

15 But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears. LECTURE 1223.

The courage which God's grace is able to inspire. We have seen in the prophet Jeremiah a spirit of tender compassion for his countrymen, which might lead us to expect to find

in him a lively apprehension of any danger threatening himself. And indeed there is evidence at the beginning of the book that such was his natural disposition. But there is a promise in the same passage on the part of God to make him bold as a defenced city, and firm as an iron pillar and brazen walls, against all the princes and priests and people of the land. See Ch. 1. 6-8, 18. And here we see this promise very signally fulfilled, Jeremiah has courage given him, when tried for his life, courage to avow and justify those words of prophetic warning, for which he was put upon his trial. Those words were spoken now not for the first time. See Ch. 7. 13. They were not only words of warning, but tidings of forgiveness on condition of repentance. But the priests and the prophets and the people shewed how little they thought of repenting, by taking to themselves only the words of warning, and by charging Jeremiah with having positively said that the temple and Jerusalem should fare like the tabernacle and Shiloh, and by threatening his life for the offence, saying, "Thou shalt surely die."

The princes are in the seat of judgment. The people too who were one while the accusers, are now joined with the princes in the office of the judge; whilst the priests and the prophets bring forward their charge: "This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears." The accused answers fearlessly but yet respectfully, as not wanting in that which was due to his judges, and yet feeling that he had to answer to One mightier than they, more able to save or to destroy. He first pleads that he had the Lord's commission for his words. He next repeats the exhortation to amendment, and the assurance that God was even yet willing to forgive. As for himself, being in their power, he leaves it to them to do with him as they should judge best. But he bids them know for certain, that if they should put him to death, they would bring on themselves innocent blood; "for of a truth," he says, "the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears." Such is the courage with which God's grace can inspire the most tenderhearted of his servants. Such is the greatness of mind, and nobleness of conduct, and firmness of speech, which come of our having faith in God's promises, and a conviction that we are doing his holy will. Princes or people threaten, but in vain. They can but kill the body at the worst. Our fears as well as hopes are all reserved for Him, who can destroy, and who can also save, both body and soul for ever.

Lord, let us fear Thee, almighty as Thou art, let us stand in awe of thy ever present majesty. And supported by the sense of thy presence, and by the hope of thy protection, let us not fear what man can do unto us, as long as we do that which is according to thy will; through Christ Jesus.

Jeremiah is acquitted; and other like cases are stated.

16 Then said the princes and that prophesied in the name of all the people unto the priests the LORD, Urijah the son of and to the prophets; This man Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim, who is not worthy to die for he prophesied against this city and hath spoken to us in the name against this land according to of the LORD our God. all the words of Jeremiah : 21 And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;

17 Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying,

18 Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. 19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. 20 And there was also a man

22 And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt. 23 And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

24 Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

LECTURE 1224.

The safety of acting with faith and courage.

There is some doubt as to the order of the proceedings here detailed. First we have the verdict of the princes and people, acquitting Jeremiah. Next follows the case of the prophet Micah, which we should rather have expected his friends to bring forward before the sentence was pronounced. But it was evidently not mentioned until afterwards; when it occurred to "certain of the elders of the land," as a precedent to shew the wisdom of Jeremiah's acquittal. And that it occurred to them no sooner might very probably be ordered by Him, who rules the very thoughts of our hearts, on purpose to make it manifest for ever, that it was not the argument of the elders that saved the prophet's life, but his own stedfastness of faith, not the wisdom or the work of man, but the grace and the power of God.

The case of Urijah follows next; and it is not easy to determine, whether it was brought forward by the same parties on

Jeremiah's side, or by his adversaries as an argument for putting him to death, or whether it is merely mentioned by Jeremiah himself, as a fact bearing on the history of his own case, that we may for our greater profit compare the two cases with each other. The supposition first mentioned best agrees with the order of the words; and on due attention will perhaps be found to be not inconsistent with their tenour. For after the acquittal of Jeremiah, we are not to look in what follows for any set speech on the part of the elders, either with a view to his defence or to his accusation. We may rather regard them as making appropriate reflexions, connected with the sentence so lately past. When they mention the respect paid by Hezekiah to the words of the prophet Micah, and the happy deliverance which ensued, they draw for their hearers the conclusion, that if they on the contrary had put Jeremiah to death, they would have procured great evil against their souls. But when they advert to the very different treatment which Urijah met with at the hands of Jehoiakim, they leave it for the assembly to draw their own conclusions, from the very different situation in which Jehoiakim then stood, indebted to the king of Egypt for the throne on which he sat, and in imminent danger from the invading armies of the victorious king of Babylon. See 2 Kings 23. 34, 24. 1.

But whichsoever be the right view of the order of proceedings here recorded, we may in any case do well to compare the safety of the two prophets, who did their duty faithfully, and stood their ground manfully, with the hapless end of the one, who "was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt." There are no doubt some occasions when to fly from danger is our duty; but there are others when we are bound to abide the worst that man can do to us. And we may well think, that God would here suggest, for our encouragement in a course so hard to flesh and blood, that may often prove the course of safety for the present, as well as of everlasting gain. And this is true not only of bearing death for duty's sake, but also of encountering obloquy, or poverty, unkindness, or neglect. They who out of an unworthy fear fly fastest from evils such as these, are often the first to be overtaken. Whilst they who persist in the path of duty, at all risk of man's persecution, often find friends and favour where they least expect it upon earth, besides enjoying the better satisfaction of pleasing their Lord in heaven.

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PART VII. O. T.

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Several kings are enjoined to submit to Nebuchadnezzar.

1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

2 Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, 3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;

4 And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.

him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babyion, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

9 Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon :

10 For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7 And all nations shall serve and dwell therein.

11 But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it,

LECTURE 1225.

How that which God enjoins becomes easy to bear.

This prophecy bears date "In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah." But it refers to matters which took place in the subsequent reign of his brother Zedekiah. And in the chapter following, "the same year" is called "the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah." Ch. 28. 1. Whence it appears highly probable, that in the first verse of the chapter before us Jehoiakim has been written by mistake for Zedekiah. That there should not have been many more mistakes than probably there are, in copying so many books,