Jeremiah 20:18

REFLECTIONS

OH! Pashur! what a vast difference was there even in the moment of thy seeming triumphs, between the suffering Prophet, and the insulting Governor? And what an everlasting and eternal difference was there when his predictions were fulfilled, and thou wert a terror, a magor-missabib to thyself and all around thee! And what is it now? Reader think of that striking passage of the Prophet, and learn from it all that it contains; Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him! Woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him!

Precious Lord Jesus! how can I hear or read of the reproaches thrown upon thy faithful servants in every age of thy Church, without having my mind insensibly directed to thee, to behold all the lesser exercises of thy prophets, swallowed up in the floods (as the streams of the earth in the vast ocean) of these unequalled sorrows. Was ever sorrow like unto thy sorrow, in the day of the Lord's fierce anger? Here in thee may my soul always find sweet consolation, and under the taunts and reproaches of the world, recollect, that if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they those of his household. Grant Lord! that I may never murmur at any of thy dispensations, nor lament the day of my birth, or wish it to have been covered in darkness: but rather desire to be conformed to thy blessed image in all things, that being made partaker of the sufferings of Christ, I may be also of the glory that shall follow.