by my out-stretched arm, and I have given it to whom it seemed meet unto me. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beast of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come; and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom that will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand," Jer. xxvii. 2—8.

This is the command of God by his servant Jeremiah, whom he had ordained a prophet to the nations: and such times of trouble are God's temptations, trials, and touchstones, by which he puts men to the test; and that which makes it so is, the devil stirring up rebellious sinners to counteract and to try to resist the will of God, and lead men to rebel against it. This was the case in Egypt; Moses and Aaron are sent to declare the will of God, and Satan sent Jannes and Jambres to oppose them: and though the magicians and their folly were manifested, and they were obliged to acknowledge the finger of God; and although they could not stand before Moses, for the plague of the boil was upon the magicians, yet they

pushed Pharaoh on, till "I [saith God] made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell," Ezek. xxxi. 16.

In Jerusalem's trial the devil acted the same part. Jeremiah declares the will of God to the children of Judah, that they should serve the king of Babylon seventy years; many false prophets rise up against him, and Hananiah at the head of them; "And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without inhabitants? And all the people were gathered together against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord," Jer. xxvi. 9. Whatever God said by his prophet, these false prophets contradicted. Jeremiah prophesied that the sword of the king of Babylon and the famine shall come; the false prophets declared, "Ye shall not see sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place:" but, says God, "By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed." Jeremiah assures them of a seventy years captivity; Hananiah, after some of them went forth, promises their safe return within two years; and these prophets led the people to trust in a lie; and by such false prophets they were encouraged to endure the terrible siege, and to defend themselves to the last extremity: and though they had seen the threatened destruction of Hananiah, yet they went on; and all this time

they fought against God himself, till by sword, famine, and pestilence, they and their false prophets all perished together.

Those who at first obeyed the voice of the Lord and fell away to the Chaldeans, and were gone to Babylon, met with the promised blessing of God's being with them there; and found that Ezekiel was raised up of God to teach and instruct them in Babylon: yet the devil had not done with them, for he raised up some of his own tools to withstand that prophet, and these had seduced not a few. "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name; I have not sent them, saith the Lord. For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished in Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place. For my thoughts toward you are thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon," Jer. xxix. 8-11.

The work of these wicked men in Babylon was, to blame those who had fell away to the Chaldeans, and who had submitted themselves to the yoke of this captivity; and they likewise wrote

into Jewry, to encourage them who maintained the siege in Jerusalem; to whom God by his prophet replies, "Know, that thus saith the Lord of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwell in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. And I will persecute them with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach among all the nations whither I have driven them: because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets."

Of these desperate rebellious wretches there were three raised up by the devil in Babylon, who appeared at the head of all the rest, namely, Shemaiah, Zedekiah, and Ahab. The first of these writes a letter to all that dwelt in Jerusalem, and to the priest, against Jeremiah the prophet, in the following manner: "To Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the Lord, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks. Now there.

fore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you? for therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long, build ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them," &c. &c. Jer. xxix.

To these three men God orders his prophet to send the following message: "Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the Lord, because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord." And to the other two false prophets God sent the following awful sentence: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; behold I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes. And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah, which are in Babylon, saying, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; because they have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded, even I know, and am a witness saith the Lord." These were false prophets among God's own professing people, whose whole