II. The pride of man. We are expressly told that they were " proud men " who rejected the prophet's message. The rest of the people seem to have been willing to acquiesce in it. There is nothing so blinding as pride. Your proud man is an inevit- able bigot. By undue assurance of knowledge he closes the avenues of fresh knowledge and limits his own possession of it Thus pride cuts away the ground beneath its own feet
Yer. 8. The credulity of unhdief. I. Unbelief ikvoltes obedulitt. Johanan
and his companions here bring before us a striking instance of the credulity of tmbelief. Refusing to admit that Jeremiah was divinely inspired, they asserted that he was insti- gated by Baruch the scribe. Now, we have seen Baruch acting solely as the amannenna and spokesman of the prophet — indeed, effacing himself with genuine humility and wisdom to serve the prophet the more faithfully ; could this man be the inspirer oi his ■laater'smoit decided utterances? The idea is preposterous. It is an evidence of gro.'i<
182 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEBEMIAH. [oh. xun. 1—14
credulity — the credulity that believes in one's own inventions, though they are infinitely less reasonable than the opposite ideas they are set up to oppose. All unbelief is belief — it is belief in the negation of a propnsition, and it requires as much evidence as the proposition it denies. It also has its consequences in reason which should be followed lut remorselessly. Defemlers of the faith have been too apologetic. They would often liiive been wiser if they had turned the flank of opponents and exposed the weakness of their position. It miuht often be shown that, in accepting this position, the opponents were standing on less firm ground than that which they dispute. For something must be true. If we came down to absolute nihilism, and discovered that nothing existed, even that discovery would be a truth. The absolute rejection of one proposition involves the acceptance of its opposite. But this opposite may be beset with heavier difficulties or favoured with weaker evidences than those which accompany the rejected proposition. If so, to accept the opposite proposition is really a mark of greater cre- dulity than to admit that which presented the first claims.
II. The OREDULITT of unbelief may be ILLnSTBATBD IN THE C0NTB0VBR8IE9 OF
THE AOB. Consider it in relation to the main topics of these controversies, viz. : 1. The being of Ood. If there be no God, then the world must be eternal or self-created — conclusions which may be shown to leave more difficulties than the hypothesis of a Creator — and all the best thoughts of the highest orders of minds must \m misconcep- tions — a strange result for those who would regard the mind of man as the highest existence in the universe. 2. The immortality ^ the soul. Difficulties beset the theory of immortality. But what greater difficulties they have to face who, first believing in God (and we now have a right to start from that position), hold that the deepest appe- tite of man is destined never to be satisfied, that his highest aspirations are directed to an impossibility, and that his greatest powers are doomed to be blighted before they have grown to their full development ? What credulity is required to make us believe that a good God could create a Tantalus I 3. The itispiration of tJie Bible. If the Bible be not inspired of God, the first literature of the world, containing by far its deepest, wisest, purest thou-ihts, and exercisinij; unbounded influence for good, is founded on a delusion or a lie ; for the writers of the Bible plainly claim to be inspired. 4. The Divine origin of Christianity. Christianity is the greatest fact in history ; it revolu- tionized the decaying life of the old world, and gave a fresh upward movement to humanity ; it is now the leading factor in the highest life of the foremost races of man- kind ; and it claims to be Divine. It seems to some of us that to say this claim is false, and thus to force upon us the inevitable alternative that its founders were deluded, and that it is a mere growth of human thought and effort, requires a faith which is so irrational as to be justly characterized as credulity.
Vers. 8 — 13. — Prophetie stones. Jeremiah planting stones at the entrance of
Pharaoh's palace was prophesying by act. The stones were mute pro|ihecies inter- preted by the verbal prophecies which in turn they were to confirm in the future. These prophetic stones have their lessons for us.
L Divine purposes are firm and permanent. They are like the great stones. Words are but air-waves ; to the incredulous the strongest words may be mere sound and fury, signifying nothing ; they melt as they fall. But in the stone we have weight, massiveness, persistence, something that cannot be blown aside with a breath, which will not fade with time, which may be handled, and which remains after it is forgotten, and can be exhumed after being buried. Such is a Divine purpose — thus solid and thus enduring.
II. DiVMIE PURPOSES MAT BE HIDDEN UNTII, THE TIME FOB THE EXECUTION OF
THEM. Jeremiah hides the stones. Tliere are prophecies which have been uttered once, and the method of executing them kept secret from us until they are fulfilled. But many Divine purposes are never known till they are accumplished.
III. Earthly thrones abb set up on foundatioks op Divdib appointment. Jeremiah lays the foundation of a throne (ver. 10), and he does this as a servant of Ood executing his will. All earthly power rests ultimately upon a Divine sanction. Yet this fact does not diminish the hunian responsibility of those who exercise it. The prophet planted the stones ; he did not erect the throne. Nebuchadnezzar would be responsible for the throne he set up, the way he es'ahlished it, and the use he made of it.
CH. XLiu. 1— 13.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 18a
IV. God employs human instruments in the execution of his judgments. Nebuchadnezzar is Qjd's servant. There is a Divine economy in this. If evil cannot be stayed vfithout the withdravfal of those liberties tliat God sees it to be right to leave intact, the harm of it may bo mitigated by making it se-lf-counteractive, the wickedness of one hindering or punishing that of another.
V. Plight trom the judgment op God is impossible. The Babylonian yoke was a Divine chastisement upon the Jews. They were urged by inspired prophets to submit to it as appointed by God. Some refused and fled to Egypt. But in Egypt they were neiiher out of the reach of God nor beyond the power of his instrument Nebuchadnezzar. There is no escape from God but by fleeing to God, no deliverance from the doom of sin but in submission to him ag;ainst whom we have sinned,