others, but not praying for themselves; and making religion merely a sort of superstitious charm to preserve them from danger, without its having any effect upon their hearts or actions. Such was the conduct of the persons mentioned in the text; and would that there were no similar inconsistencies in the practice of too many professed Christians in the present day! Would that our lives never contradicted our petitions! Would that we were always as attentive to use the means, as anxious to secure the end! Would that outward ceremonies were never substituted for true piety and obedience of heart! "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

In reference to the conduct of the persons spoken of in the text, there are several points which deserve to be particularly noticed.

I. And, first, we may remark the forced acknowledgment which, in their affliction, they paid to religion, though in their time of supposed security they had despised it.-Jeremiah had been bitterly persecuted for his faithful admonitions. Instead of penitently listening to him when he uttered "God's judgments against them touching their wickedness," they denounced him as an enemy

to his country, and afterwards threw him into a dungeon. How affectionately did he plead with them, by their past knowledge of the mercies of Jehovah! How faithfully did he display to them the terrors of his denunciations! How affectionately did he remonstrate with them for having "forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed out to themselves broken cisterns that could hold no water!" How earnestly did he entreat them "to amend their ways and their doings;" "to put away their abominations ;" and to return to the Lord their God! How pathetically did he exhibit to them the long-suffering of their offended Creator; his gracious promises to returning penitents; his willingness to receive them, notwithstanding their past transgressions; and his pledge to put his fear into their hearts, that they should not depart from him again. "Is Ephraim a dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." "They shall be my people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them to do them good."

But what effect had these remonstrances ? Alas! instead of repenting, the king, the courtiers, and the people were deeply offended: they even resolved upon revenge; and they conspired to take away the life of the prophet. In the mean time, in order to heal the wound which his faithful admonitions had caused in their consciences, they had recourse to false prophets, who flattered them in their sins, and urged them on to their destruction. But now that the predicted vengeance against their iniquities was approaching; now that their city was besieged by the king of Babylon, and was about to be captured according to the word of the Lord by Jeremiah, whither do these hardened despisers of God's warnings and judg ments betake themselves? To their false prophets? No: these could no longer afford them any consolation. The flattering words, the

untempered mortar" which had held together the proud edifice of their hopes for a time, while the day was fair and no storm appeared nigh, could be of no service to them now that the blast was fierce, and the tempest overwhelming. In their trouble, they applied to the despised and persecuted servant of God; thus tacitly acknowledging that, however the heart may be hardened, or the conscience lulled to repose, for a time, there is usually a secret misgiving in the breast of every sinner. He

feels that he is in a dangerous course: he is convinced that death and eternity, and heaven and hell, deserve that serious thought which he is not disposed to give to them: he desires to die the death of the righteous, and that his last end may be like his, though he prefers the pleasures of sin for the short season of this fleeting life. He may for a time despise religion himself, or ridicule it in others: he may wish to think that it is only a specious delusion, and that its faithful followers are enthusiasts or hypocrites; but in the hour of trouble, on the bed of sickness, and in the terrors of death, he would gladly flee to it for consolation. Were worlds his, eagerly would he exchange them for one gleam of hope beyond the grave. While mercy was freely offered, he despised it now he earnestly desires to obtain it, but dares not hope that it will be afforded. Ofttimes "Wisdom called, and he refused; she stretched forth her hand, and he disregarded;" now "she laughs at his calamity, and mocks when his fear cometh." 66 They shall call upon me," says the Almighty," and I will not answer: they shall seek me, and shall not find me; because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord." We cannot indeed say of any particular individual, that he is thus given. over; on the contrary, there is ample encouragement to the sinner who never turned to God

before, to turn to him in the hour of his affliction, when every other resource fails him, and when he begins at length to feel his need of that friend who is a very present help in time of trouble. But still God is not to be despised with impunity each new sin adds to that fearful summing up of Divine displeasure, "Let him alone;" "I swear in my wrath he shall never enter into my rest."

II. A second observable point. in the conduct of the persons mentioned in the text is their superstitious dependence upon the intercessions of another, while they prayed not for themselves.— There is much that resembles this in every age. The people of Israel were perpetually asking for the prayers of their prophets in their calamities, without any reflection upon the real nature or intention of prayer. So in the Church of Rome religion is often viewed as consisting in the transaction of certain ceremonies with Heaven, on the part of the priest, in which the people have little or no share. A similar spirit is too frequently displayed by professed Protestants. Many trust vaguely to the benefits of their baptism: in which prayers were offered for them, accompanied by charitable pledges on their behalf, neither of which have they ever seriously ratified in their own persons since they came to years of discretion. Again: they