strong-hold, which would be of no avail whatever to them when God was bent upon their destruction. (11—14.)

DISCOURSE 8. consists of two distinct prophecies. The first, probably delivered towards the close of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, announces to the Jewish monarch the capture and burning of Jerusalem, his own captivity, peaceful death, and honourable interment. (xxxiv. 1-7.) The second prophecy, which was announced some time after, severely reproves and threatens the Jews for their perfidious violation of the covenant they had newly made of obedience to God. (8-22.)

DISCOURSE 9. Jeremiah foretels the return of the Chaldæans to the siege of Jerusalem, which they had suspended to pursue the Egyptians, who retreated before them, and that the holy city should be taken by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar. (xxxvii. 1-10.) For this he was put into a dungeon (11-15.), from which he was leased, but still kept a prisoner, though the rigour of his confinement was abated. (16-21.)

re

DISCOURSE 10. confirms the promised return of the Jews from captivity, by Jeremiah being commanded to buy a field. (xxxii.) DISCOURSE 11. predicts the restoration of Israel and Judah (xxxiii. 1-9.), and their prosperity in consequence of that event. (10-13.) Thence the prophet makes a transition to the great promise of the Messiah, and the happiness and stability they should enjoy in his times. (14-26.) These predictions, so far as they respect the great body of the Jews, remain yet to be fulfilled.

DISCOURSE 12. contains the last transaction in which Jeremiah was prophetically concerned before the taking of Jerusalem. It relates the imprisonment of Jeremiah in a deep and miry dungeon, at the instance of the princes of Judah (xxxviii. 1—6.); his deliverance thence (7-13.); and the prophet's advice to Zedekiah, who had consulted him privately, to surrender to the Chaldæans. (14-27.) The capture of the city and king is then related (xxxix. 1-10.), together with the treatment of the prophet by the order of Nebuchadnezzar (11-13.); and the discourse concludes with a prediction of personal safety to Ebedmelech (who had kindly treated the prophet) amidst the ensuing public calamities. (15—18.) PART IV. contains a particular account of what passed in the land of Judah, from the taking of Jerusalem to the retreat of the Jewish people into Egypt, and the prophecies of Jeremiah concerning them while in that country.

DISCOURSE 1. Jeremiah has his choice either to go to Babylon, or to remain in Judæa (xl. 1-6.), whither the dispersed Jews repaired to Gedaliah the governor (7-12.); who being treacherously slain (13-16. xli. 1-10.), the Jews left in Judæa intend to go down to Egypt (11-18.), from which course the prophet dissuades them. (xlii.)

DISCOURSE 2. The Jews going into Egypt contrary to the divine command (xliii. 1-7.), Jeremiah foretels to them the conquest of that kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar (8-13.); he predicts destruction to all the Jews that willingly went into Egypt (liv. 1-13.) whose obstinate idolatry is related (14-19.), destruction is de

nounced against them, and the dethronement of Pharaoh Hophrah king of Egypt is foretold. (20-30.)

The CONCLUSION of Jeremiah's prophecy, containing the fiftysecond chapter, was added after his time,1 subsequently to the return from captivity, of which it gives a short account, and forms a proper argument or introduction to the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

IV. Although the greater part of Jeremiah's predictions related to his countrymen the Jews, many of whom lived to behold their literal fulfilment, and thus attested his prophetic mission, while several of his predictions concerned other nations (as will be seen from the preceding analysis); yet two or three of his prophecies so clearly announce the Messiah, that it would be a blameable omission, were we to pass them unnoticed.

In ch. xxiii. 5, 6. is foretold the mediatorial kingdom of the Messiah, who is called the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. On this passage Dr. Hales has cited the following remark from the antient rabbinical book of Ikkarim, which (he observes) well expresses the reason of the appellation:- "The Scripture calls the name of the MESSIAH JAOH, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, to intimate that he will be A MEDIATORIAL GOD, by whose hand we shall obtain justification from THE NAME: wherefore it calls him by the name of THE NAME (that is, the ineffable name JAOH, here put for GOD HIMSELF)."

Again, in Jer. xxxi. 22. we have a distinct prediction of the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ;3 and in xxxi. 31–36. and xxxiii. 8. the efficacy of Christ's atonement, the spiritual character of the new covenant, and the inward efficacy of the Gospel, are most clearly and emphatically described. Compare Saint Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. viii. 8-13. and x. 16. et seq.

V. The STYLE of Jeremiah, though not deficient in elegance or sublimity, is considered by Bishop Lowth as being inferior in both respects to Isaiah. Jerome, after some Jewish writers, has objected to the prophet a certain rusticity of expression, which however it is very difficult to trace. Though the sentiments of Jeremiah are not always the most elevated, nor his periods uniformly neat and compact; yet his style is in a high degree beautiful and tender, espe

1 See p. 176. supra of this volume.

2 Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. book i. p. 481. who cites Buxtorf's Lexicon, voce mm. Dr. H. thinks that Paul derived the declarations he has made concerning Jesus Christ, in 1 Cor. i. 30. and Phil. ii. 9-11. from the above-cited passage of Jeremiah.

3 The modern Jews, and a few Christian interpreters, particularly the late Dr. Blayney in his translation of Jeremiah, have denied the application of this prophecy to the Messiah; but the following remarks will show that this denial is not authorised. According to the first evangelical promise concerning the seed of the woman, followed this prediction of the prophet. The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man. That new creation of a man is therefore new, and therefore a creation, because wrought in a woman only, without a man, compassing a man. This interpretation is antient, literal, and clear. The words import a miraculous conception: the antient Jews acknowledged this sense, and applied it determinately to the Messiah. This prophecy is illustrated by that of Isaiah, vii. 14.- Bp. Pearson on the Creed, art. iii. p. 171. edit. 1715. folio. 4 Pref. ad Com. in Jerem.

cially when he has occasion to excite the softer passions of grief and pity, which is frequently the case in the earlier parts of his prophecies. These are chiefly poetical. The middle of his book is almost entirely historical, and is written in a plain prosaic style, suitable to historical narrative. On many occasions he is very elegant and sublime, especially in xlvi.-li. 1-59. which are wholly poetical, and in which the prophet approaches very near the sublimity of Isaiah.

SECTION II.

ON THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.

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I. Author, date, and argument of the book. II. Synopsis of its contents. III. Observations on its style and structure.

I. THAT Jeremiah was the author of the Elegies or Lamentations which bear his name, is evident, not only from a very antient and almost uninterrupted tradition, but also from the argument and style of the book, which correspond exactly with those of his prophecies.

Josephus, Jerome, Junius, Archbishop Usher, and other eminent writers, are of opinion that the Lamentations of Jeremiah were the same which are mentioned in 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. as being composed by the prophet on the death of the pious king Josiah, and which are there said to have been perpetuated by "an ordinance in Israel." But, whatever may have become of those Lamentations, it is evident that these cannot possibly be the same for their whole tenor plainly shows, that they were not composed till after the subversion of the kingdom of Judah. The calamities which Jeremiah had foretold in his prophecies are here deplored as having actually taken place, viz. the impositions of the false prophets who had seduced the people by their lying declarations, the destruction of the holy city and temple, the overthrow of the state, and the extermination of the people. But though it be allowed that the Lamentations were primarily intended as a pathetic description of present calamities, yet it has with great probability been conjectured that, while Jeremiah mourns the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem, he may be considered as prophetically painting the still greater miseries they were to suffer at some future time; and this seems plainly indicated by his referring to the time when the punishment of their iniquity shall be accomplished, and they shall no more be carried into captivity. (iv. 22.)2

II. This book, which in our Bible is divided into five chapters, consists of five distinct elegies; viz.

ELEGY 1. The prophet begins with lamenting the sad reverse of

1 See the whole of ch. ix. ch. xiv. 17, &c. and xx. 14-18.

2 Bishop Tomline's Elements of Christian Theology, vol. i. pp. 112, 113.

fortune which his country had experienced, confessing at the same time that all her miseries were the just consequences of the national wickedness and rebellion against God. In the midst of his discourse, Jerusalem herself is personified, and introduced to continue the complaint, and humbly to solicit the divine compassion. Jahn is of opinion, that, in this elegy, Jeremiah deplores the deportation of king Jehoiachin, and ten thousand of the principal Jews, to Babylon. Compare 2 Kings xxiv. 8-17. and 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9,

10.

ELEGY 2. Jeremiah portrays the dire effects of the divine anger in the subversion of the civil and religious constitution of the Jews, and in that extreme misery in which every class of individuals was involved. He represents the wretchedness of his country as unparalleled; and charges the false prophets with having betrayed her into ruin by their false and flattering suggestions. In this forlorn and desolate condition, the astonishment and by-word of all who see her, Jerusalem is directed earnestly to implore the removal of those heavy judgments, which God, in the height of his displeasure, had inflicted upon her. Jahn thinks that this elegy was composed on the storming of Jerusalem by the Babylonian

army.

ELEGY 3. The prophet, by describing his own severe afflictions, and showing his trust in the inexhaustible mercies of God, encourages his people to be patient and resigned under the divine chastisements, and to trust in the never-failing mercy of Jehovah. He asserts the divine supremacy in the dispensations of good and evil, and shows the unreasonableness of murmuring under them. He recommends self-examination and repentance; and, from their past experience of former deliverances from God, he encourages them to look for pardon of their sins, and retribution to their enemies.

ELEGY 4. exhibits a striking contrast, in various affecting instances, between the present deplorable and wretched condition of his country and her former state of prosperity; and ascribes the unhappy change chiefly to the profligacy of its priests and prophets. The national calamities are deeply and tenderly lamented, especially the captivity of their sovereign Zedekiah. This elegy concludes with predicting the judgments that were impending over the Edomites, who had insulted the Jews in their distress. ELEGY 5. is an epilogue or conclusion to the preceding chapters or elegies. In the Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate versions, this chapter is entitled THE Prayer of JereMIAH; but no such title appears in the Hebrew copies, or in the Septuagint version. It is rather, as Dr. Blayney has remarked, a memorial representing, in the name of the whole body of Jewish exiles, the numerous calamities under which they groaned; and humbly supplicating God to commiserate their wretchedness, and to restore them to his favour, and their antient prosperity.

III. The Lamentations are evidently written in metre, and contain a number of plaintive effusions composed after the manner of funeral dirges. Bishop Lowth is of opinion that they were originally written by the prophet, as they arose in his mind, in a long course

VOL. IV.

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of separate stanzas, and that they were subsequently collected into one poem. Each elegy consists of twenty-two periods, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; although it is in the first four chapters only that the several periods begin (after the manner of an acrostic) with the different letters following each other in alphabetical order. By this contrivance, the metre is more precisely marked and ascertained, particularly in the third chapter, where each period contains three verses, all having the same initial letter. The two first chapters, in like manner, consist of triplets, excepting only the seventh period of the first and the nineteenth of the second, each of which has a supernumerary line. The fourth chapter resembles the three former in metre, but the periods are only couplets; and in the fifth chapter the periods are couplets, though of a considerably shorter measure.

Although there is no artificial or methodical arrangement of the subject in these incomparable elegies, yet they are totally free from wild incoherency or abrupt transition. Never, perhaps, was there a greater variety of beautiful, tender, and pathetic images, all expressive of the deepest distress and sorrow, more happily chosen and applied than in the lamentations of this prophet; nor can we too much admire the full and graceful flow of that pathetic eloquence, in which the author pours forth the effusions of a patriot heart, and piously weeps over the ruin of his venerable country.1

SECTION III.

ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HABAKKUK.

I. Author and date. — II. Analysis of his prophecy. III. Observations on his style.

BEFORE CHRIST, 612-598.

I. WE have no certain information concerning the tribe or birthplace of Habakkuk. The Pseudo-Epiphanius affirms that he was of the tribe of Simeon, and was born at Bethcazar. Some commentators have supposed that he prophesied in Judæa in the reign of Manasseh, but Archbishop Usher places him, with greater probability, in the reign of Jehoiakim. Compare Hab. i. 5, 6. Consequently this prophet was contemporary with Jeremiah. Several apocryphal predictions and other writings are ascribed to Habakkuk, but without any foundation. His genuine writings are comprised in the three chapters which have been transmitted to us; and the subject of them is the same with that of Jeremiah, viz. the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldæans, for the heinous sins of the

1 Dr. Blayney's Jeremiah, p. 455. et seq. Bishop Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry, lect. xxii. in fine. Jahn, Introd. at Vet. Fœd. pp. 415-417. Carpzov Introd. ad Libros Biblicos, pars iii. cap. iv. pp. 177–197.