in the midst of trial to any of us, to God be all the thanksgiving! None of us but may be more happy in them than we have yet been, none of us that will not be more faithful in them if we obtain grace to see and to love more truly "the things that belong to our eternal peace," none of us, however by mercy advanced in divine affections, that will not in the hour of searching self-examination mourn over past unsteadiness and numerous failures, and none of us, in short, that when more spiritually comprehending and more entirely giving ourselves up to the gospel principles, will not from the heart exclaim, and from the heart too draw more delight and peace than ever, while exclaiming with the Psalmist, "My trust is in thy mercy and my heart is joyful in thy salvation."

17

SERMON II.

THE CURSE OF TRUST IN MAN, THE BLESSING OF TRUST IN GOD.

JER. xvii. 5-8.

Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man, that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in they ear of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

THE prophecy from which these memorable words are taken is on many accounts invaluable to us; and though when reading it we cannot but lament the fact, that it was regarded by so few of the

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age in which it was written-yet if we bear in mind, that, like all other parts of Scripture, this also was written for our instruction and learning, we shall be warned against similar neglect and inattention. The inspired author, Jeremiah, a priest of the tribe of Benjamin, was called to the prophetic office when very young, and was one of the three (Habakkuk and Zephaniah being the others) who were sent by the Lord after the Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of Israel, but about twenty-three years before the captivity of the kingdom of Judah. His commission was to persuade and urge his countrymen to speedy repentance, lest they should suffer the punishment long due to their continued sins, and idolatry. But not prevailing with them, he openly denounced God's wrath, and foretold the Babylonish captivity of seventy years. Though he has many passages full of comfort for those who feared God, assuring them of their return after the expiration of that time, yet such was his faithfulness and zeal (during the space of forty years) in declaring to them the evil things they were drawing on themselves, until at last their very destruction would come, that he suffered much at their hands, and was twice imprisoned by them. After that destruction had taken place, during the common ruin of which he had been by God's providence mercifully preserved, he was carried down into Egypt, where he continued

prophesying some time longer, both against the Jews who had fled thither and against the Egyptians themselves, with some others, but more especially the Babylonians. At length, according to the assertion of Jerome, this holy boldness was rewarded with the same kind of martyrdom as that of St. Stephen in an after age. In reading many sublime passages of a general as well as of a prophetic character with which he abounds, we shall be materially assisted in comprehending them clearly, if we bear in memory that he warns them expressly against some lying prophets among themselves, who deceived them with the hopes of deliverance before the end of the allotted captivity, and that he solemnly condemns their expectations of that help from the Egyptians especially, on which, in contempt of God and his prophets, they so sinfully relied. The terrible threat of our text has, in the first instance, probably an express allusion to this latter point.

But the view in which, with the divine blessing, it may be profitable for us to contemplate this whole passage is the twofold one, that in the title at the head of the chapter, the Bible thus briefly unfolds,-trust in man is cursed, trust in God is blessed. Now with reference to the

former clause, we may bring this fearful malediction on our own heads, either

I. By trusting in our fellow sinners instead of God, or

II. By trusting in ourselves instead of God.

So full are the words of our text of alarming, as well as poetic sublimity on the one hand, and of rich and precious comfort on the other, that it may be useful, before we proceed, to offer an explanation of them. It is said that he is cursed who maketh flesh his arm. Often is this term used in the Bible, and though not in all places exactly in the same sense, yet always in such a way, as to leave no doubt, that in pronouncing a curse upon him who puts any confidence in it, man is taught that neither in himself, nor his sinful will, nor his polluted faculties, nor his outward resources in wealth, or rank, or power, (all of which are included under the general term of the flesh,) can he place dependence or trust, without direct and positive guilt. Thus, when it is stated all flesh is grass, we have a metaphorical but intelligible proposition which affirms the short-lived duration of every human being. Again, when it is said, "He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption," we are instructed in the duty of bridling our own wills, and of fearing those sinful results which the following our own wills will infallibly bring on us. So too, when it is further asserted, that "if ye live after the flesh ye shall die," we have in a