[There is nothing that shews a more rooted aversion to the word of God than this. The next step to the destroying of Jeremiah's roll was, to send for Jeremiah who dictated, and Baruch who wrote it, to destroy them also : for we cannot doubt but that if the Lord had not hidden them, the enraged monarch would have put them to death. And are not multitudes at this day of the very same spirit? Are there not many who hate the faithful ministers of God's word, and account them " the troublers of Israel," and the greatest pests of society? Yes ; at this day, as much as in the apostolic age, would Paul and his colleagues be regarded as " the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things'1."
Nor are ministers alone thus treated : the same hatred ex- tends to all who embrace the Gospel in sincerity, and walk according to its holy precepts : they, no less than their teachers, are called by all manner of opprobrious names, and that too solely on account of their fidelity to Christ. Precisely as Abel was hated by Cain for his piety, and Isaac was derided by Ishmael for his faith in God, " so now all who are born after the Spirit are persecuted by those who are born after the flesh e." And what does this prove, but that faith itself, and piety too, yea and God himself also, are objects of hatred to the ungodly world ; and that the language of their hearts is, " Prophesy not unto us right things ; prophesy unto us smooth things ; prophesy deceits : and make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before usf."]
That the same enmity which raged in the king of Judah against the word of God, exists in us, appears most clearly in the foregoing particulars. We now proceed to point out, II. The folly of indulging it —
Justly is the indulgence of this spirit compared to the setting of thorns and briers in battle array against the devouring element of fireg. For,
1. We cannot change one declaration in all the Scriptures —
[We may dispute against every truth in the Bible ; but we cannot alter one. We may deny all the scriptural representa- tions of our guilt and helplessness, and of the necessity of being washed in the Redeemer's blood, and renewed by his Spirit ; and we may designate them by what terms we will ; but they will still continue true : our sophistry may deceive
d 1 Cor. iv. 13. e Gal. iv. 29.
f Isai. xxx. 9 — 11. g Isai. xxvii. 4.