BY THE REV. JAMES SPENCER KNOX, Vicar-General of Derry; Chaplain to his Excellency Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. JEREMIAH xxxii. 15. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, PRICE 1d. affirm that, when at length the bolts of terror fell, their victims had been unadmonished of the impending stroke. In development of this view, we shall do well to recapitulate briefly the occurrences which had befallen Judea during a hundred years immediately preceding the epoch to which our present subject belongs. Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed" again in this land." THE hour of her captivity drew near, and darkly and heavily, over the devoted city of Jerusalem, lowered the vengeance of Israel's offended God. Sion had sinned beyond forgiveness-sinned against all warning, and against all mercy-sinned until, in desperate abandonment of hope, her impatient sons snatched the cup of fury from the averted hand of Jehovah, and drank in frantic rage its last thick lingering dregs. Who, hearing, will believe, or who, believing, will refuse to wonder that, even at the very period to which our text makes allusion, even then, on level roof, and lofty tower, incense was offered to false deities? It seemed, so near were the hanging clouds, as though the sparks, as they flew upwards from the idol altars, would awake their dormant fires, and bring down, over Judah's funeral-pile, one vast winding-sheet of flame. It was in the tenth year of the reign of the hapless king Zedekiah, that these events occurred, to the consideration of which our attention will shortly be directed. No candid person, versed in the history of God's dealings with his chosen people, will deny that patience and long-suffering kindness were the qualities which governed all his actions. None will VOL. XIL-NO, CCCXLI. Manasseh, son of the pious Hezekiah, built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them" (2 Chron. xxxiii. 3). For these incorrigible offences-"for the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not hearken"-he was carried away captive by the king of Assyria to Babylon. To the captive monarch a marvellous display of the divine mercy was vouchsafed: "When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him; and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom: then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God" (2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13). After him came his wicked son Amon, who " did evil in the sight of the Lord, and sacrificed to all the carved images which his father had made, and served them; and humbled himself not before the Lord as his father Manasseh had humbled himself, but trespassed more and more: and his servants conspired in his own house, and slew him." That latter event indeed concerns us at present no further than that it might have been supposed to have operated as a warning [London: Joseph Rogerson, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand.] X upon his successors; but, as recounting external affairs, we may observe that his good son Josiah, at the close of an excellent reign, formed an unauthorized alliance with the king of Babylon, and was slain in battle. him of the evil which he had pronounced against them." Zedekiah set his face as a flint, resolved neither to hearken nor improve history and experience were disregarded as unworthy of his notice, and the friendly counsel of the prophet found a recompence in scorn, in insult, and, though perhaps actuated by other motives (Jer. xxxvii. 13), in a dungeon. It was then, as already observed, the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign. The wrath of Jehovah drew near with awful portentousness. Gathered in angry haste, the armies of the indignant Nebuchadnezzar had already for many months besieged the capital. Judah's soldiery, no longer brave, driven before their impetuous foes as before a whirlwind, sought refuge behind the battle After that occurrence, Nebuchadnezzar, | the conqueror of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, assumed the supreme authority over Jerusalem, deposing her kings, despoiling her temple, and carrying away her population into slavery. He had however left the shadow of sovereign rule in the person of Zedekiah, who, by prudence and pious trust in God, might, as far as human inferences warrant our pronouncing, have restored the fallen fortunes of his people: but these were qualities which constituted no portion of that ill-fated monarch's character. The retrospect of the past furnished no profit-ments they had not courage to defend; the able admonition; nor does it appear to have suggested even the inferior virtue of caution, under circumstances in the last degree delicate and embarrassing. Young as he was when he ascended the throne, his early experience might have supplied him with abundant testimony that God was now engaged in proving his people for the last time. He had seen the idolatry of Jehoiakim his brother, "and also the innocent blood which he shedfor he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon"-(2 Kings xxiv. 4) punished by the irruption of bands of Chaldees, Syrians, and Moabites, who came up to destroy Jerusalem, "surely (as the same sacred word informs us) at the command of the Lord." He had seen moreover his guilty nephew Jehoiachin taken prisoner by the besieging army of Nebuchadnezzar, and dispossessed of his kingdom. Finally, he knew that he himself wore but a permissive crown, at the will of the conqueror, whose disposition appears to have been by no means sanguinary or oppressive. If we examine, upon principles of worldly policy, what ought to have been the conduct of Zedekiah at this critical period, the conclusion forces itself upon us, that no choice remained other than that of unqualified submission. If we measure it by the higher standard of God's recent manifestations, it is equally evident that repentance, reform, and ardent devotion ought to have constituted the prominent characteristics of his government. Yet this was the moment he selected for a more than ordinarily conspicuous display of rebellion and idolatry; revolting against the potentate from whom he derived his delegated dignity, and falling away from the God of his fathers into the grossest practices of heathen idolatry. In vain the prophet Jeremiah (xxvi. 13) with uplifted hands besought his guilty fellow-citizens" to amend their lives, and that the Lord would repent people were disaffected and distrustful of each other; the nobles had prepared for flight; and famine, and her sister death, stalked, pale and ominously, through the mournful streets. One blast from the hostile trumpet had proclaimed her final agonies, and sounded the death-note of her passing-bell. So stood, at that melancholy hour-so still, for a moment, stood-Jerusalem-Jerusalem, which had once been Sion," the city of the great King," the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not: behold, your house is left unto you desolate!" Yet, ere the last warning tone was hushed, one more opportunity, availing himself of which much calamity might have been averted, was vouchsafed to the unfortunate monarch. Like a sea-bird tarrying on some lonely ocean rock, till the rising tide overflow its resting place, and bid it wing flight away, so lingering waited, in the fatal day of Jerusalem, the messenger dove of Jehovah's tenderest mercy. Thus was it exerted: God put it into the heart of Zedekiah to seek an interview with the imprisoned prophet (Jer. xxxviii. 14) in this, the crisis of his own and of his people's doom. The conference between the man of this world and the man of God, even though the circumstances under which it took place had been less remarkable, would still have proved deeply affecting (Jer. xxxviii. 27). Watched and suspected in his palace, the king dared not disclose his intention of consulting his captive. Anxious to learn, yet irresolute in performing, the only measures for safety still at his command, the royal waverer listened to, but disregarded the advice he sought for. Nor were the consequences of this fatal neglect slow in developing themselves. He was its city razed to the ground, and his subjects carried away into slavery. taken prisoner, and deprived of his eyes; his | the promised return to the land of their fathers, the event shows that it related to the termination of the captivity in Babylon, and not to a yet unaccomplished restoration, or a millennial period. While these sad events were transacting, and shortly before the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, a voice reached the dungeon where the prophet Jeremiah lay, and pronounced the words of our text, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." Now what could possibly seem less likely of fulfilment than such a hope? All human calculation would have forbidden the indulgence of it. A prince despising his admonition, to the ruin of himself and of his people treacherous nobles and dastard troops; and, without, a powerful potentate sworn to destroy the name and country and nation of the Jews. : But the confidence which influenced Jeremiah's decision rested on a foundation far more solid than erring man could lay-more solid, alas, than the majority of mankind are competent to form even a conception of, as having a real existence, or if existing, as qualified to govern the mind and conduct. Examining Jeremiah's conduct, we are by an easy transition led to investigate our own; and it were equally unprofitable and extraordinary to dismiss this portion of the subject we treat of, without such an exercise. It is not heedlessly spoken by the apostle, that, unless we give diligence to acquire, in addition to our faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, we are blind, and have forgotten that we are purged from our sins. So too, or rather in commentary upon his words, the application of scripture history and instruction to our own character is that which constitutes all its usefulness. Thus, in the example before us, the reflecting mind will find the groundwork of deep self-sifting, and the conscience, awed into silence, will turn its anxious scrutiny upon its own secret m tives and designs. We are nowhere taught that the way, whereby the holy men of old travelled towards the regions of eternal blessedness, has either been changed in its direction or obliterated by the efflux of ages; but, on the contrary, we know that where they walked we must walk, and that their paths must be our paths, if, like them, we would seek the city whose builder and maker is God. It was otherwise with the prophet: he heard and believed the promise, and evinced the sincerity of his faith by the adoption of an immediate course of action, corresponding with the full assurance which he felt. The history is as follows:-The city, as already described, was in a state of siege, and on the point of being captured by an enemy pledged to obliterate it from the face of the earth. Hence Jeremiah's conduct may be received Jeremiah himself was in prison: while there, as a rule for ours, and the excellence of his the word of the Lord came to him, saying, faith taken as the standard to which we should "Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine aspire. But not alone with the obedience of uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee faith manifested by Jeremiah have we here to my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of do; the voice of God arrests our attention redemption is thine to buy it......And I bought as firmly as it rivetted his. To us, as to the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that him, it declares the necessity of reliance on was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, the heavenly promises, and a conformity o. even seventeen shekels of silver.... And I conduct to the confidence we profess to entercharged Baruch before them, saying, Thus tain. God knoweth the secrets of the heart; saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; but with man, practice is a more conclusive Take these evidences, this evidence of the test than profession, though yet profession purchase, both which is sealed, and this evi- possesses this advantage, that, unless through dence which is open; and put them in an earth- practice, it is unsusceptible of negative demonen vessel, that they may continue many days.stration; that is, the profession of an indiviFor thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land" (Jer. xxxii. 6-15). Such, brethren, is the brief and instructively interesting account which the sacred records contain of the trials, the faith, and the practice of the prophet. It is surely needless to revert any more to the surpassing difficulties of his position, or to do more than to point attention to the promptitude which he displayed in obeying the divine injunction. Respecting dual on any subject may be indeed denied, but it cannot be demonstrated that it does not exist in his breast. We may conjecture, with a probable approach to certainty, somewhat of the amount of faith in the heart of another, by the comparison of his actions with the fruits of the Spirit as revealed in scriptureknowing men by their fruits; but beyond that point we cannot go. Respecting ourselves the way is clearer, conscience being our helper; for to believe, and not to do-to feel a full persuasion that the endeavour to walk in God's ways which | lamentations which have consecrated to perhe set before us is indispensable to salvation, petual memory the bitterness of the national and yet to abide the while in a wavering or anguish. "How doth the city sit solitary, motionless position-argues at best a suspicious and tears are on her cheeks. How hath the inconsistency, little in unison with the charac- Lord covered the daughter of Sion with a ter of Christ's disciples. cloud, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel. The Lord hath cast off his altar, and abhorred his sanctuary." And saith not the same sweet writer, "The Lord is my portion, therefore will I hope in him?" "The Lord is good unto them that wait for him." Thus a knowledge of the attributes of God dictated the conduct of the prophet, as the same high attainment would in like manner govern ours. It is however into that error that the great majority of mankind fall through infirmity of purpose; of which infirmity the principal originating cause is the want of sufficiently contemplating God in his attributes, as they are revealed to us. "Through faith we understar that the worlds were framed by the word of God: so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb. xi. 3). Now faith extends itself into a consideration of the essential revealed attributes of God; which, if we neglect to do, we put in jeopardy our assurance of the justice of his dealings with mankind, his abhorrence of sin, his truth, and his stedfastness. In human affairs, we reason with greater certainty from the actions of an individual with whose character we are fully acquainted, than we can determine the character from an isolated action; though it is not denied that conduct and character mutually and reciprocally display the whole man. It may also be observed, that by meditation upon the divine attributes is intended not a mere mystic, abstract, philosophic musing, but a constant, earnest, and diligent study and prayerful examination of whatsoever scripture reveals. Zedekiah's error arose from a failure in these duties. The character of God was comparatively unknown to him ; and, as before remarked, he benefitted neither by his own personal experience, nor by the history of the nation to which he belonged. How strikingly an opposite line of conduct, pursued by Jeremiah, produced an opposite result! See how God fixed his convictions under disheartenings which might have led him to deem the fulfilment of the promise problematical, even after he had himself complied with the concomitant injunction. God extinguished all doubt, or we had better said all faltering, by the simple but comprehensive phrase, "Behold, I am the Lord of all flesh is anything too hard for me?" No doubt, that faithful man recognized as well the goodness as the power of God in that gracious declaration. In that tranquillizing appeal lay the confidence which ministered to him strength of mind, to behold with serenity the withered glories of his beloved country; sure that they would again bud and blossom as the rose. This it was which enabled him to discover in the wintry blasts of the divine wrath a wholesome prelude to a renovating spring. This sentiment of unhesitating trust breathes through every line of those tender And here let us further consider, that the dependence, which Jeremiah, placed upon the providential mercy of Jehovah towards his country, was totally uninfluenced by any motive of personal interest. The houses and fields and vineyards might once more deck the re-peopled hills of Judah, or cheer her wasted valleys with abundance; yet life's contracted span, full well he knew, would not be extended sufficiently to bestow on him so precious a blessing: but that conviction interposed no obstacle to the working of his faith. If not with bodily organs, yet with a better vision he beheld the restoration of Israel: like Abraham he purchased an inheritance in a country he could only hope to revisit as a lifeless citizen of the grave: like Abraham he staggered not at a promise he could not see fulfilled, but committed himself unto him that judgeth righteously. Nor was his confidence in the heavenly intimation misplaced. In the catalogue furnished by Nehemiah in his seventh chapter, of those persons and families who returned from the captivity, we find the "men of Anathoth" and the "children of Shallum" expressly enumerated. It is therefore established as a truth, that the promise on which Jeremiah placed his trust was fulfilled in all its assurances; and thus the words of the text are vindicated in their two-fold application, as denoting a national and an individual accomplishment; that is, the nation repossessed its "houses, fields, and vineyards," and the family of Jeremiah returned to the property which he had redeemed. And now, my dear christian friends, it depends upon yourselves as much as it devolves on the preacher, to turn to profitable effect the portion of the holy word which on the present occasion it has been our common employment to examine. Two characters have been submitted to your consideration— the one a despiser, the other a believer; differing as widely in the motives which governed their respective conduct, as the results themselves were diverse. Little oc casion can there be to implore your preference | in virtue, whose was the interference when in behalf of that of the believer, who gave sin had laid waste God's heritage? Who evidence of his belief through the means of exercised the right of redemption, and perfect obedience. The difficulty before us is "bought with a price" the invaded possession not to laud, but to follow a good example. It -a price, not of silver and gold, but of a is easier to admire than to imitate. Between Lamb without blemish and without spot, and the saying "Never man spake as this man," left the inheritance to be ours? and the taking up your cross and following him, a distinction exists, great as is the distance between the heavens and the earth. Grace, and grace only, sanctifies the heart to do the will which the tongue may pronounce good, and causes the quickened spirit to triumph over the weak flesh. Of this important truth we have all a daily and painful experience; painful when we look in upon ourselves, but precious and consolatory when the eye of faith bends its outward observation to "comprehend with all saints" the lovingkindness of God. It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, or fleshly wisdom profiteth nothing. In vain the" disputer of this world" would seek to draw water from the well-spring of our subject, as though the mere carnal draught were in itself salvation. What were its value if looked on only by the eye of the flesh, or of the unregenerate mind? Such an investigation would display, and no further, a captive prophet desirous of retaining for his posterity an insignificant field; and a feeble state and king become the prey of a stronger-a very ordinary occurrence in the history of man. But the eye of faith has another ken, and can look even beyond the constancy of the prophet, and survey the merited calamities which befel his people, as a demonstration of the righteous judgment of Jehovah. Even Jerusalem herself, which is in bondage with her children, serves to reveal typically the slavery of man, a sinner; and her return from the first captivity, albeit her freedom was but of brief duration, reveals to persuaded piety the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And glorious truly it is; for we owe it to no mean compromise between truth and error-no Happily, no less than expressively, does the prophet denote our treasure laid up "in earthen vessels" to endure many days, while yet we tabernacle in this nether world. And O, will not the time arrive when all who are in the grave shall hear his voice who, once a sojourner in this vale of tears, but now exalted far above all heavens, offers to our hearts, our treasure, and our life, a sacred and a saf asylum? And now, my dear fellow-guests in this holy house, a few moments and we separate till, I trust, ere the endless sabbath shall begin in heaven, another-perhaps many moremay reunite us here on earth. Some of you, no doubt, are the captives of sin, and exiles from your native soil: I pray you to remember that "One who is mighty to save" has paid your ransom, and even now calls you forth; and will you not come? The world is his field, for he has bought it: believers, the branches of himself, the vine, and he supplies their wants: heaven his home, wherein are many mansions, prepared for the assembly of his saints. Come forth! O leave the haunts of sin, and break asunder the bonds of corruption; and be, as God designed you should be, a chosen people, elected to receive your inheritance: for "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." Amen. SCRIPTURAL DISQUISITIONS. No. V. BY THE REV. W. BLACKLEY, B.A. what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you compact, basely bartering principle for free-"JUDGE not, that ye be not judged. For with what dom; nor yet do the marks of slavery's gall-judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with ing fetters tell to enquiring glances of past imprisonment. No, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, if any marks be on us who believe, they are the marks of the cross-marks, my dear friends, which he who bears, while he may exclaim, "Henceforth let no man trouble me," can yet be desirous that men should glorify the Father which is in heaven, and bid the incredulous see his good works, and reach forth the hand, and put the finger into the prints of the nails, and be not faithless, but believing. Say you, whose delight is in such as excel again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and behold, & beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or, if he ask a fish, will he give him a ser |