for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. The persons here spoken of were intimate acquaintances of the prophet, for he calls them his familiars; and from this circumstance there is reason to believe, that they pretended esteem, and affection for him. They watched for his halting, and they had the best opportunity by being so much with him. They said to others, or probably among themselves, report; tell something, true or false, against Jeremiah; and we will go with it to the king; or spread it around, that it may work for his damage. To be altogether free from perils arising from false brethren, is no common thing. Who is there, in such a place as ours, whose sentiments have not been misrepresented, as they have been advanced from the desk; or brought forward in a more private way? St. Paul was divinely inspired, and of course, his doctrine was free from all error. Yet he was impeached like those who are liable to mistake; and it was said of him, that he exhorted to the practice of evil, whose condemnation he allowed to be just, in order, that good might result from it. Sometimes political views, and endeavors incompatible with the general weal, are without any foundation, attributed to ministers, by those whose hearts are filled with enmity against them, and the cry is, These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also. If they favor those civil rulers who favor the cause of religion, they are spoken of as basely endeavoring to link the church with the state; and represented as the worshippers of mammon, and not the servants of God.

If any one in the ministry, either from a patrimony, or in consequence of his own prudent management of his stipulated support, however scanty in itself, have acquired somewhat more than falls to the common lot, perhaps, it is said, with the eye of envy glancing at the roof which shelters him, Where is the house of the prince; and where are the dwelling places of the wicked! Those who cramped in their circumstances, pay some share of attention to the concerns of the present life, are charged with being actuated by motives merely selfish; and those who give up their mortal interest altogether, and devote themselves more im

mediately to the service of God, are denominated drones, who live on the honey of the hive, and who deserve to be expelled by the industrious bees and put to death for their indolence.

Thus we may pipe unto them and they will not dance; we may mourn unto them and they will not lament. The many slanders which are heaped upon persons of our profession, and often from those too, from whom we have reason to expect better treatment, cannot all be numbered and named at present. We can all adopt the language of David, in the fifty fifth psalm, if placed in a similar situation, For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it, neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal; my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

A third discouragement is the avowed determination of sinners to oppose all endeavors which are made for their benefit. When Jeremiah remonstrated with the Jews, who dwelt in Egypt, on account of their idolatrous practices, and set before them the judgments of God which they must expect, if they did not repent, and reform, they entered into no consideration of the subject; but replied in language most provoking to God, and disheartening to his prophet, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. They acknowledged, because they could not deny it, that he spoke to them in the name of the Lord; and yet, so resolved were they to pursue their own course, that they would not so much as hearken to what he communicated from such high, and irresistible, authority. The same is the disposition of human nature every where, and at all times, and in vain do we look for reasonableness of conduct, among the effects of unbelief. Our people will live a prayerless life; parents will neglect the religious education of their children; young persons will collect in giddy, and vain, circles; ideal sources of profit, and pleasure, will be resorted to generally; and those things, in some instances, will be persisted in, professedly, to oppose counsels from the desk.

These are among the things which operate to discourage the ministers of the gospel. A longer recital might easily be made, which would include many outrages upon God's public servants. Our imagination brings into view the dungeon, where the prophet, whose words we are considering, sunk into the mire, and where he would have perished had it not been for the kind interference of Ebed-melech, who having obtained permission of the king, assisted in drawing him up with cords from that horrible place. Whether dungeons will be prepared for us, is known only to him to whom all things are known. Certain it is however, that in our enlightened times, and within the bounds of the Commonwealth in which we live, the doors of the sanctuary have been closed, and the avenue to the desk guarded against one of our brethren, whose official duty it was to perform the part of a public teacher of religion in that place. Whether it is expedient to tell this in Gath, and to publish it in the streets of Askelon, you are to be the judges.

Second. Though Jeremiah, under his heavy burdens, determined to be silent, he found it impossible. Hard it was to speak, but still harder was it to forbear. May those reasons which he could not withstand, ever be powerful, and influential, with us. Let us review them at this time.

The appointment of God comes first in order. See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. This appointment Jeremiah was to fulfil, not by doing the things himself, but by declaring, that they would be done. If the command of a parent, or of a master, or of a ruler, among men, must be obeyed, how much stronger obligation is he under to obedience, who has received a command directly from the mouth of God! There may be much apparent difficulty in the performance of our work; but to neglect it is impossible, when God has said, it shall be done; and we shall do it. When the Israelites were escaping from Egypt, the Red sea met them as they advanced, the Egyptian hosts pressed on their rear; and mountains walled them in on the right hand and on the left. There was much to produce despondency; but they had set out for the land of Canaan, and

they were under necessity to proceed. The Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. Whatever inducements the people had to stop, this order presented stronger inducements to them to continue their march. St. Paul has informed us how he felt himself bound by his commission. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me; yea woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel! For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. A person may relinquish husbandry for merchandize; or both for the practice of the law, and have no scruples of conscience respecting a change of his condition; but he who has been called into the ministry; who has consented to an induction to his office, by the solemn imposition of hands; and who has been made by the Holy Ghost, an overseer to the flock, though he may be tempted to desist, will be powerfully urged to pursue his work, from the persuasion, that it is the work which God has given him to do; neither will he give it up, unless convinced, that he has a discharge from the same authority which at first marked out his employment.

To this consideration may be added the promise which God has made to be present with those who are engaged to speak in his name. Jeremiah had this promise and, undoubtedly, felt the force of it. In this language it was communicated to him. Be not afraid of their faces; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Here is omnipotence pledged for his protection. When Moses excused himself from undertaking to deliver Israel, the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth; or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing or the blind; have not I the Lord? Now therefore go; and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. When our Savior was about to leave the world, and ascend to the heavens from which he had come down, he thus addressed himself to the eleven disciples, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father; and of the Son; and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you

always, even unto the end of the world: The promise which forms the conclusion here, is so worded, that we must consider it as made to the ministry, in all ages, and not confined to those individuals to whom it was first communicated, and who could not be expected to live to the end of the world.

If amidst the many perplexities which attend our arduous undertaking, we are sensible, that we stand in need of counsel, he whose name is the Counsellor, is so near to us, if we are really engaged in his service, that we need not move from our place in order to be informed in the best possible manner, what measures will be most conducive to the accomplishment of our purpose. Should others, from wrong motives, give us a wrong direction, we can baffle all their designs, and find out the way of our duty, as Nehemiah did by keeping up an intercourse with God.

Where there is sin there is confusion. Hence as we are sinners, our minds may be in so confused a state, that we ourselves shall be sensible of our own unfitness to perform the duties of our office, and on this account be disposed to omit them, and let the office pass to others. But in such a condition of trouble, how reviving is the recollection, that when the earth was without form, and void and when darkness was upon the face of the deep, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters! That Spirit of God who will be with us, if we are the children of God, can easily reduce all things to order in his own temple; and however thick the darkness, we may confidently expect him to say, Let there be light.

The people of God, and especially God's ministers, form but a little, and feeble flock; and destitute of all means of defence but their own, terrible to them would be the prowling wolves of the wilderness of this world! But if their Shepherd is with them, his banner is over them; and they are as in a fold into which no beast of the forest will ever be able to find a passage. What soldier of Jesus Christ will be afraid to go where his all-conquering Captain leads the way, and insures the victory?

The first preachers of the gospel, notwithstanding all their personal disadvantages; and notwithstanding the vio