Jer. xlii. 20, 21. Ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God ; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. And now I have this day declared it to you ; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
THE office of a minister, if it abound with conso- lations, abounds with trials and afflictions also. When
he is instrumental to the turning of men to right- eousness, and " sees his children walk in truth, he has the sublimest joy " of which, in his present state of existence, he is capable : but to find that he only " labours in vain," and to behold those of whom he had begun to entertain some pleasing hopes, making shipwreck of their faith and of a good conscience, is inexpressibly painful : such scenes as these renewed, as it were, in the Apostle's mind, all the pangs of childbirth, so that " he travailed in birth again with his converts, till Christ should be completely formed in them." The Prophet Jeremiah was very unfortu- nate in this respect : he had at all times to deal with an untoward people ; and actually experienced more kindness from the enemies of his nation, than he did from the people unto whom he ministered.
The particular circumstances under which he was at the time referred to in our text, deserve to be con- sidered. Johanan and the captains of the Jewish forces having rescued their countrymen from Ishmael, who was carrying them captive into the land of the Ammonites, were doubting whether to continue in Canaan, where they feared the vengeance of the Chaldeans, or to go into the land of Egpyt, where they hoped to find both safety and abundance. In this strait they applied for instruction to Jeremiah, with apparent sincerity, but (as our text informs us, and the event proved,) with real dissimulation. We propose to consider their conduct,
I. As exemplified in them —
Their dissimulation was indeed most vile and flagrant —
[In their application to the prophet, there was the greatest expression of piety : they entreated his prayers to God for them, and promised to follow implicitly whatever direction he should give them from the Lord. They declared most solemnly, that no consideration of ease or interest should induce them to deviate from his injunctions ; and they even called God himself to be a witness between the prophet and them, and to visit upon them their iniquity, if they should neglect to perform their promise a
a Read ver. 1 — 6.