out of his mouth," it is that he may prepare him for the counsel and encouragement which follows : “ As many as I love I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open unto me, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me.” Rev. ii. 19, 20. When, therefore, you hear within your heart reproaches and threatenings, unaccompanied by offers of pardon, be assured that this is not the voice of God, who willeth not the death of a sinner, but the voice of him who was a murderer from the beginning.

It was at the period of Rab-shakeh's discourse, to which we are now come, that the officers of Hezekiah respectfully requested the Assyrian general to speak in the Syrian language and not in the Hebrew, that the people on the wall might not hear what was said. Doubtless they feared lest the discourse of Rab-shakeh should shake their confidence in God, and engender in their hearts the evil seeds of impiety. This prudence on the part of Hezekiah's messengers should teach us that we ought, as much as possible, to avoid all such discussions as are calculated to offend or hurt the faith of weak believers. It should teach us also that we ought, as much as lies in our power, to keep those who are committed to our care, whether they be our flock, our children, or our servants, from seeing or hearing any thing that might create in their minds doubts with regard to religion.“ Cease to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. If sinners entice thee, consent thou not; if they say, Come with us, walk not thou in the way with them : refrain thy foot from their path." Prov. xix. 27; i. 10, 11, 15. It was upon this principle that the apostle Paul, when at Ephesus, seeing that “divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, departed from them, and separated the disciples ;" Acts xix. 9; and it was on the same principle that he exhorted Timothy, “ Shun profane and vain babblings, which increase unto more ungodliness, and eat as doth a canker ;” and, finally, it was upon the same principle that he counselled him to withdraw from those that were “ doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings.” 1 Tim. vi. 4, 5.

Rab-shakeh paid no regard to the respectful request of Hezekial's officers, but, as is usual with wicked men he became the more audacious by being treated with meekness, and made the greater noise in proportion as he saw that it excited their apprehensions.

This preacher of impiety seems to have aimed drawing the people over to his party, by proclaiming to them that he was sent “ to all the men that were upon

the wall,” to forewarn them of the fearful doom which they had to expect, if they refused to surrender to the king :- “Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria; thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hands ; neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, the Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Hearken not unto Hezekiah.” Happy would it be for believers if they had always as much perseverance in the good cause as ungodly men have in the evil—if, in proportion as their enemies seek to silence them, they would lift up their voice with strength to proclaim the word of the Great King “ whose they are and whom they serve,” that Great King to whom belong the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and

ever." How much is it to be desired that we should always speak in the name of our God, with that assurance of faith, that full authority, which made Rabshakeh say as an answer to all objections and a substitute for all arguments, “ Thus saith the king ;" for, it is to be observed, that he does not undertake to prove

what his master had said ; but contents himself with merely

1 repeating his words, persuaded that what he had spoken was true, and could not fail of being accomplished. May the Lord give us a similar respect for his word when we hear it proclaimed, or proclaim it ourselves to others ! May the words “ Thus saith the Lord,” which virtually preface every declaration of holy writ, dissipate all doubts and silence all disputings, and stamp all the announcements of the Word of God with full authority, whether they be addressed to our own hearts or we address them to the hearts of others !

Let us here notice the splendid eulogium which Rabshakeh unintentionally passes on the faith of Hezekiah, when he supposes him to have said unto his people, “ The Lord will surely deliver us.” To say, It may be the Lord will deliver me, or I hope the Lord will deliver me, were to have a glimmering of confidence, but to be able to say, “ The Lord will surely deliver me,” is really to have that faith which staggers not at the promises of God. This is the language of a full assurance which inspires even the hearts of others with confidence, and which calls upon God to honor himself in keeping his promises on which we rely-it is to say, “ Remember thy word unto thy servant upon

which thou hast caused me to hope.” Ps.cxix. 49. As there is nothing which the enemy more dreads than this full confidence in God, when the Lord is pleased to grant it, so there is nothing which he attacks with greater fury and perseverance.

perseverance. But thanks be to God, he has

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no other arguments against us, as we learn from the example of Rab-shakeh, than vain declamation, in which he boldly asserts that they who have such confidence are themselves deceived, and are endeavoring to deceive those to whom they would impart it. Thanks be to the Lord, when Satan seeks to overturn our confidence, he is obliged either to say, that God hath not spoken, or that what he hath spoken is not true, or that he is not able to keep his promises : all which the Spirit of God, in the believer, testifies to be equally false and abominable.

We shall now proceed in our examination of the discourse of Rab-shakeh, and we here meet with one of his last arguments to engage the people to surrender, “ Thus saith the king, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every man of his own fig-tree, and drink ye every man the waters of his cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil-olive and of honey, that ye may live and not die."

Drawing now to the close of his discourse, he cons forms to the common rules of human eloquence, and brings forward last, the arguments on which he principally depends for success. He hopes to gain over the people by removing all their apprehensions as to the evils and inconveniences which they might anticipate from a capitulation, and by setting before them all the advantages which would certainly result from such a measure. He tells them, that instead of being exterminated, they should dwell for a time in peace

and safety in their own land, and that afterwards they should be transferred to a country which he describes as so delightful, that instead of losing by quitting the

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country which they occupied, they should in a temporal point of view be infinitely the gainers. Thus did Rabshakeh evince that he had been trained up in the school of him who seduced our first parents, by extolling the fruit of the forbidden tree, and shewing them that “it was pleasant to the eye and good for food,” and thus tempted them by the lust of the flesh and of the eyes. Thus did he also prove that he was an imitator of him who, as his last and most potent temptation, displayed to the eye of the Redeemer “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,” saying, “ All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me,” Mat. iv. 9, 10; and thus at all times the most dangerous of all seducers have been those who “ allured through the lusts of the flesh,” hearts that were unstable, “promising them liberty while they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage.” 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19.

While the carnal nature is still strong in the believer, and not yet brought into entire subjection, one of the most dangerous temptations which Satan can make use of, to induce him to relax in the difficult warfare in which he is engaged, and to turn him aside from the faith, is to present him with a brilliant picture of the world and its lusts. It was to this temptation that the people of Israel yielded in the wilderness, when they longed after the flesh-pots of Egypt, and when they wept and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes.” And, through a similar temptation, some of the most valiant of the servants of God have fallen. It