many, alas, wholly fixed there, and zealous for the propagation of it! They make the people to err concerning the greatest points of truth-as, the love of God, the flesh of Christ, the work of the Spirit, the condition of the church, and the coming of the Lord-and those who teach the truth they are seeking with open mouth to devour, and to cast them out from the office of teaching the people, that they may have leave to sink and ruin all. Let them learn from this burden what they are bringing upon themselves and their flocks.

The second characteristic of these prophets is, that "they bite with their teeth, and cry Peace." Some interpret this of covetousness and carnal comfort, to which the false prophets were too much addicted; but the language " biting with their teeth" conveys more to my ear than eating and drinking, which, besides, are specified in the characteristic that follows, "He that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him." "To bite with their teeth, and cry Peace," hath respect, I think, to the cruelty of their nature, which instigated them to prey upon the reputation of good people, and to follow other malicious practices, while at the same time with their lips they spake of peace. It characterises their hypocrisy and guile, for the end of serving their injustice, violence, and destructiveness: "Their words were smoother than butter; yet they were as drawn swords." This murderous disposition always proceeds along with the spirit of falsehood; being together the twin offspring of Satan, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning: for what is a lie but the rejection of the God whose name is Truth? and having rejected God from our love, how shall we not reject his creatures also, and that just in proportion as they are lovely and Godlike? He who practiseth to preach a lie unto the people, shall practise both cruelty and treachery to his friend. This also hath become a characteristic of the prophets, or ministers of the word, in these our days; whose betrayal of trusts, whose neglect of things generous and violation of things honourable, whose doublehandedness, one before and one behind the curtain, I have experienced too much and lamented over in silence too long. But because it is never too late to do well, I now admonish those ministers of the word who are in the habit of taking up an evil report against their brethren, and under fair colours of serving God do delight to mar and mangle his goodly creature, that they abstain from such evil courses, and at the least deal honestly, and by the grace of God deal charitably, by all men. I do especially tender this admonition to the ministers of my own church, tempted with the miserable and defamatory writings given forth as religious and for religious instruction, which yet contain neither sound doctrine, nor Christian feeling,

nor liberal knowledge, nor learning, nor any thing, but biting with the teeth under the pretence of promoting the Gospel of peace; otherwise the name of Scotland, and of the Church of Scotland, will stink in the nostrils of men.

The third characteristic of these prophets, who brought Jerusalem to the dust, is expressed in these words: "And he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him." This bespeaks their sensuality, and their covetousness. Their gift, which they had received from the Lord for the common salvation of men, and the influence which it gave them among the princes and the people, they basely bartered for their own bodily indulgence and worldly reputation; they used it to lay men under contributions of feasts and favours: and those who grieved to see the holy office so profaned, and would not break bread with such parasites and evil-doers, they forthwith set themselves to defame and denounce and destroy. This is prophesying for a piece of bread; this is selling the gift of God for a morsel of meat. What though in our times these trencherprophets be not so frequent-yet, alas! how frequent are they !still, what better is it, to degrade the honour and dignity of a preacher of the word to the silent or flattering indulgence of a great man's sin, in order to secure a great man's patronage, to obtain livings, to get presentations, to attain preferment, to become the minister in a city congregation? What else is all this, but to fill our mouth with bread, or to serve some equally selfish or ignoble end? And so far from finding the Pharisees of this day I mean the people calling themselves Evangelical -less given to adulation of the great, and self-seeking, I think that amongst them there is added, to the ordinary motives of self-seeking, the continual habit of losing sight of the means for the sake of the end. I speak sober conviction and solemn truth and sad experiences, when I say that their confidence in their sect is such that they compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and seem to regard all means as allowable so that they advance the promoters of their cause. The honour of my office is gone like the fading flower: its glory is darkened like the night, its purity is all tarnished, its brotherhood is departed. One speaketh, and another scorneth; one asserteth, and another contradicteth. Our ranks are broken; our trumpets give an uncertain sound; and how should the people gird themselves for the battle, or rally themselves again and retrieve the battle almost lost? There is nothing for it now, but, like Micaiah, and like Elijah, and like Jeremiah, and like in this passage Micah, to denounce those prophets who make the people to err. Such are the three characteristics of a corrupt ministry of the word,-falsehood, cruelty, and covetousness.

Let us

see what their judgment is: it is recorded in the verses following.

Vers. 6, 7: "Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God." It is an eternal ordinance of God's wisdom and justice, that in what kind a man offendeth, in that kind he shall be punished; yea, that the offence itself shall breed the punishment in its core. Of the princes and the rulers who flayed off the skin, ate the flesh, and brake the bones of God's people, it was the judgment that they should find a master more masterful than themselves, who should be to them a lord of the like cruelty: "Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains to carry him to Babylon" (Jer. xxxix. 6, 7). Because they had turned their power into oppression, they reaped the oppression which they had sown; because they turned the reward of holiness into persecution, they reaped the persecution and death which they had sown. "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that slayeth with the sword shall be slain with the sword." With like retribution descendeth judgment upon the prophets also, whose glorious office it is to turn men from darkness to light, and to shine like the stars in the firmament for ever and ever. Which high dignity, of being the lights of the world, having forgotten and despised, the light that is in them becometh darkness: and how great is that darkness! Their most useful and most merciful vocation, of being "the salt of the earth," having betrayed, the salt loseth its savour, and is straightway good for nothing, neither for the field nor the dunghill: "it is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men.' "Therefore," saith our abrupt prophet, "night unto you from a vision, and darkness to you from divining;" or, as it is in the prophet Isaiah more fully expressed, with all the minuteness of prophetic truth, with all the glory of prophetic imagery, "Stay yourselves and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers, hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I

cannot, for it is sealed: and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord saith, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the-understanding of their prudent men shall be hid" (Isai. xxix. 9-14);-a passage which our Lord ever kept his eye upon with reverence, and more than once quoted, as also did his Apostles, to point out its accomplishment in their days; when the wrath, which began in our prophet's time, came upon Jerusalem to the uttermost. Ignorance of those things which men by force of natural sagacity can discern; blindness to those things about to happen, which ordinary foresight can anticipate; contradiction of that proverbial wisdom which the common people never think of violating; in one word, that headlong pursuit of their own ruin, which is called infatuation-this is the judgment which God threatens upon those prophets, or ministers of his word, who have abused the gift of the prophetic Spirit, and the word of prophetic truth, committed to them. What is clear as daylight to others, shall become dark as midnight to them: The sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them: they shall stumble, and reel, and fall, in broad daylight; not through drunkenness, but through judicial blindness. To take an example from recent events: perhaps the only persons in Europe, certainly the only persons in France, who could not have foreseen the downfall of the king as sure to proceed from those measures of his, were the priests and counsellors who advised them. The power of common sense and ordinary forecast was taken from them. Soin regard to all prophets whom God hath appointed to be the counsellors of the earth, and to give men continual admonition of those things which will secure to them the favour of the overruling God: if they will pervert truth, and be unfaithful to their trust, it shall come to pass that they shall become the most blind and stupid of the people. I have been told by men of observation, that upon the continent this is visible to the eye, in the countenances of the Catholic priesthood, which are remarkable for dulness, sensuality, and the want of intelligence. If this is not a general character of the ministry among us, certainly we look in vain now to find that firm and collected wisdom, that countenance and gait and manner, which betoken a clear view of the road one is travelling; still less that look rapt into future times, that eye full of vision, that word full of conviction,

which betoken a man guided by the Spirit of God, and able to guide others also. For the truth's sake I must say, that the most striking instances of shuffling, indecision, and inconstancy, of changeableness and irresoluteness, I have found amongst those ministers of the word who court the people, and have the greatest popularity; for this very reason, as I believe, that, being sent to guide the people into the ways of truth, they have yielded to the stream, given up their own mind, and spoken what pleased, until they have forgotten, not only to speak, but even to know, what is true. I believe the force of conscience to be at a lower ebb among popular preachers, and fawning, courtier preachers, than among any other class of the people and because conscience is the eye of the spirit, these have the most dim and erroneous insight into future things of all men in this kingdom, and speak and preach and write more wide of the mark than any class of the community, not excepting those whose pitiful calling it is to live by serving up their wits for the gratification of the mob. That is to say, the religious magazines of all sorts, but especially those called Evangelical, give a far more erroneous view of the future, than the daily, or even the Sunday, newspapers: and, if you would hear the very contrary of the truth, in respect of things to come, set forth, attend the annual meetings of our religious societies, and listen to their most popular advocates, whose smooth and silken strain would make you suppose that the Saturnian age was come back again, now when the iron reign of Christ is in its progress. I say the Saturnian age, for to suppose that the thing which they feign hath aught in common with the Millennium of the Holy Scriptures, is only possible with those who are, like them, ignorant of prophecy, and, like most of them, glorying to be ignorant, yea, counting it most perilous to seek to understand the prophetic word of God. Why this extraordinary blindness of the self-named Evangelical ministry to the things which are about to come? Why saw they in that law legalizing and honouring the Papacy, the reformation of Ireland? Why see they in their Missionary and Bible Societies the conversion of a world, which is ripe for and on the eve of perdition? Why sing they sweet strains of peace and prosperity, when Europe, and all the world, is rocking to and fro with the convulsions of an earthquake? Why are they of all men the only class unsuspecting, untroubled, unalarmed? The answer is in the words before us, as the fact is the best illustration of these words: "Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him: Therefore night shall be unto