Jer. xx. 9. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones ; and I was weary with forbearing , and I could not stay.
IF we would see the corruption of human nature in its true light, we should look at it, not merely as existing in the worst of men, but as breaking forth even in the best. A more tender-hearted and pious man than Jeremiah did not perhaps exist on earth at his day : yet, under great provocation, he breaks forth into language most unseemly, both against God and man. As to the reproachful name by which he
designated his persecuting enemy, we may well sup- pose, that, as it was justly merited on the part of Pashur, so it was denounced only in compliance with a divine impulse : " The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib ; " which imported, that " he should be a terror to himself, and to all his friends*." But we cannot offer any such apology for the language which he afterwards uttered, in re- proaching God himself, and execrating even the day of his birth \ We behold here the struggle between grace and corruption, or, as St. Paul expresses it, " the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh :" and when we see how awfully an unhal- lowed temper prevailed over this good man, we cannot but exclaim, " Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him ; and the son of man, that thou so regardest him?"
In the conflict that is here expressed, we behold, I. The effects of discouragement on a pious soul —
Doubtless there was abundant occasion for the prophet to complain. Pashur, the chief governor in the house of the Lord during the course allotted to him in the temple, had certainly treated him with great cruelty and great indignity, " putting him into the stocks," as a public spectacle to all. Upon this, the spirit of the prophet was roused ; and he com- plained even against God himself, in whose service he had been subjected to this heavy trial. " O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived ;" or, as it is translated in the margin, " Thou hast enticed me, and I was enticed." God had not deceived him : for he had told the prophet, in the first instance, " that all the princes, and priests, and people of the land, should fight against him." But it is probable that the prophet had interpreted too strictly the promise with which God had encouraged him to undertake the prophetic office ; namely, " They shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, to deliver theec." It seems that he had expected an exemption from
a ver. 3, 4. b ver. 7, 14—17. c Jer. i. 18, 19.