indeed, and let the word of the Lord be truly with yo?i." Let " the glorious Gospel of the blessed God " be indeed the one ground of your hope, and the one rule of your conduct. Let the light which it exhibits be desired by you ; and let all " your deeds be brought to it, that it may be manifest that they are wrought in God."]
Jer. viii. 11. They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace ; when there is no peace.
THERE were, amongst the Jews, false prophets, who accommodated themselves to the corrupt taste of their hearers, who said to them, " Prophesy unto us smooth things ; prophesy deceits." In particular, they assured the people that the judgments de- nounced against them by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others, should never come upon them ; that the king of Babylon should never succeed in his efforts against Jerusalem ; and that, though they should still con- tinue to walk after the imagination of their own evil hearts they had nothing to feara. Thus they lulled the people asleep in their sins, " promising them peace, when in reality there was no peace ; " but the heaviest judgments of Almighty God were impending over themb.
Such prophets have existed at all periods of the Church, " with lies making the heart of the righteous sad, whom God has not made sad ; and strengthening the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life0."
But whilst we lament the effect of such delusive ministrations, and refer all persons to the written word, as the only true standard of sound doctrine ; we would not forget, that men love to deceive them- selves, and, by indulging vain conceits of their own, in opposition to the written word, to silence the
a Jer. xxiii. 17. b Ezek. xiii. 10 — 16.
c Ezek. xiii. 22. with Deut. xxix. 19, 20.