capacity of happiness with God. On the contrary, the resist ing, grieving, quenching, and driving away the Spirit, of which we read in the Bible, mean the resisting, quenching, and driving away the holy desires, virtuous purposes, and holy wishes, which rise and form themselves in us. If we do so, we renounce and preclude ourselves from all capacity of heavenly happiness. Judge now for yourselves what your state is, and what is proper for you to do. to do. If we will abide the decision of holy Scripture, this life is the time in which our capacity for the happiness of heaven must be obtained. At death, the soul is to go to the place prepared for it; either of peace and refreshment with holy spirits, or of anxious foreboding of what is to follow when the dreadful judgment of the last day shall take place, which shall award every one according to the deeds done in the body. At which time that we find a happy acquittal, and hear that joyful voice, Come, &c., God, &c. FAITHFUL COUNSELLORS HATED. A Sermon, BY THE REV. PALMER DYER, MISSIONARY AT SYRACUSE, ONONDAGA CO., N. Y. 1 Kings xxii. 8.-" There is yet one man, by whom we may inquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." AHAB, the wicked king of Israel, was surrounded by false prophets, whom he honored and trusted, because they flattered him in his evil doings, encouraged him in fulfilling the desires of his heart, and were careful to make all their answers to his inquiries, and all their predictions, such as would gratify his inclinations, and imbolden him to accomplish his own will. At the time the words of the text were spoken, Ahab had just consulted with four hundred of these false prophets, on the question, whether he should go up to war against Ramoth-Gilead: and they had bidden him go, and the LORD should deliver it into his hands; for they perceived that his heart was bent upon the undertaking, and they would VOL. IV.-11 not thwart his wishes. But Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who was with him at the time, was not satisfied with the responses of these prophets, and inquired, "Whether there was not there a prophet of the LORD beside, that they might consult him?" The reply of Ahab was in the words of the text,-“There is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." We know nothing more of Micaiah than what is recorded of him on this occasion. Though hated by Ahab, he was, at the request of Jehoshaphat, summoned to the royal presence, to give his advice in relation to the contemplated battle against Ramoth-Gilead. He spake boldly against the measure,-predicted that it would result in the death of Ahab, and represented the four hundred prophets as animated by a lying spirit. For his fidelity in speaking agreeably to the Divine will, and daring to give such unpalatable counsel, he was ordered to be thrown into prison. His further history is unknown; as his name is mentioned no where but in this chapter, and in the parallel chapter of Chronicles. He appears to have been a true prophet of GoD, standing nearly alone in Israel, amid the hundreds of pretenders to inspiration,a judicious, faithful, and fearless counsellor, and on that very account most unwelcome to a wicked prince and his corrupt court. He had probably often been sent to Ahab with the message of GOD, and had often denounced against him the displeasure and the judgments of heaven for his ambitious and impious schemes. While the false prophets and courtiers flattered the king with brilliant anticipations, and urged him onward in his career of folly and madness, Micaiah probably often opposed his projects, and endeavored to restrain him in his headlong course, by serious expostulations, warnings, and threatenings. That he had frequently done so, may be inferred from the phraseology of the text, and more especially from the corresponding passage in 2 Chronicles, where Ahab says, "He never prophesieth good unto me, but always evil." The remonstrances of this man of GOD were, in the present case, as formerly, disregarded, and his prediction was accomplished; for the kings went forth to the battle, and Ahab was slain. This little fragment of the sacred history strongly reminds us of a number of facts, which are attested by the history of all ages; and suggests a train of reflections which it may not be unprofitable occasionally to indulge. I. Faithful counsellors, of stern integrity and inflexible virtue, who are resolutely determined at all times to be guided by the strict principles of truth, justice, and honor,-who steadily seek to promote the welfare of the government and the happiness of the nation,-who will never consent that these paramount objects be sacrificed to the pleasure, the ambition, or the caprice of the reigning powers, seldom enjoy much favor at court. If they be brought near to the throne, and allowed for a time to sit in high places, where they can speak in the ear of sovereignty, not long is their station retained,—not long does their influence last. Their counsel is rejected, their voice unlistened to, and themselves become the objects of hatred and persecution. And why? because they are too honest and unbending to give their voice for gratifying the whims of a ruler, at the expense of justice, honor, and the public good. They will not sear and stifle their consciences, and assent to the doing of that which they know to be wrong in itself, or ruinous in its tendency. They will not cast behind them the rules of equity and common sense; nor violate the most sacred laws, and cringe, and fawn, and flatter, and lie, like the false prophets of Ahab, for the sake of pleasing their superior and retaining his smiles. When they see their sovereign adopting impolitic and injurious measures, or prosecuting schemes of a wild, disgraceful, ruinous character, they do not, courtier-like, cheer him on and promise him success and glory. They dare to approach him as honest men, and as true friends, and to warn him of the consequences of his unwise conduct. They dare to address him in the plain, earnest language of undissembled truth, to expostulate with him,-to paint before him the defeat, the disasters, the shame, that must result. This is their crime. A tyrant cannot make them subservient to the lawless gratification of his will. He cannot compel them to be complaisant enough to advise him to go wherever he has determined to go, to bid him God-speed in all that he chooses to under - 66 take, and to sanction and applaud his follies and crimes. They stand too much in his way, and too frequently trouble him by interposing the claims of law and equity, and reminding him of his conscience and of his GoD. Although, therefore, he is assured of their integrity, yet he cannot tolerate them. He drives them from his presence, and heaps upon them his displeasure, because they will not blindly indorse his unrighteous decisions, and obsequiously minister to the gratification of his unholy and unreasonable wishes. The language of his heart toward them is, "I hate them; for they do not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." It was for such strict adherence to sound principles, such faithful discharge of duty, without fear of consequences, that Jeremiah was cast into a dungeon, Elijah hunted like a wild beast, John the Baptist beheaded, and others of the ancient teachers of divine truth and rebukers of princes, were persecuted, imprisoned, and put to death. The history of nations, from the earliest period to the present, abounds in similar examples of ministers of state, able and good men, incurring the royal displeasure, being hurled from their eminence, spending their life in disgrace and wretchedness, or terminating it upon a scaffold. And for what? Their sole crime was their unyielding virtue and patriotism. They refused to sacrifice every thing to the passions of a tyrannical master. They presumed to doubt the infallibility of his dicta, and to stand up manfully, for God and their country, in opposition to his arbitrary will. A man who will not always consider the inclinations of those in power as law, and readily veer with every change in their humor, and study to conform his words and actions to the dictates of their pleasure, whether right or wrong, has ordinarily but a slight chance of long retaining political elevation or influence. II. The most acceptable courtiers, and the most successful aspirants to offices and honors in the gift of a prince, it may be concluded from what has been said, are too frequently not the most meritorious, not the most capable, not those who would steadily aim to promote the best interests of the country; but those who are most crafty to insinuate themselves into his good graces, most skilful to flatter his vanity,--most prompt to coincide with him upon all occasions,-most zealous in advocating his views and forwarding his schemes,-in brief, those who are the most selfish, intriguing, regardless of truth, destitute of fixed and sound principles of conduct, animated by the single motive of their own advancement, and ready to sacrifice conscience and honor for the attainment of that one grand object. Such were Ahab's prophets for in those days, it should be remembered, the concerns of religion, whether true or false, were in every nation so intimately allied to those of the civil government, that the chief ministers of religion were, almost as a matter of course, ministers or counsellors of state. What was the character of those four hundred, as it appears upon the page of inspiration? A lying spirit was in them. They were hypocrites and dissemblers, seeking to please the king, and to maintain their own importance by the utterance of falsehoods which they knew would be grateful to his ears, and by misrepresenting the Divine will, in order to encourage him in his wickedness. Their only aim was to ascertain his wish, and then unconscionably to make every thing in earth and heaven minister to its gratification. By such unprincipled men is every prince surrounded; and wo to his country, wo to himself, when folly, passion, or caprice leads him to take them into favor, and to listen to them as his guides and counsellors! They will, for their own present advantage, not shrink from involving the country in disasters, and encouraging him to rush upon the ruin, from which honest men would, at the risk of his displeasure, have restrained him. Hence the proverbial insincerity of courtiers, by whom our great men are thronged, and the general distrust with which they are viewed. The precincts of a palace or a court are often justly regarded as unfriendly to the growth of virtue, if not fatal to its existence. Hence high-minded and honorable men, who were too manly to cringe, too upright and conscientious to attempt to sustain themselves in political power by arts of falsehood, bribery, and corruption, have often refused places of distinction under government, or retired from them with disgust. At an unprincipled court they choose, like Micaiah, to be classed with those who are hated for their |