lastly, his final glory, and the establishment, increase, and perfection of his kingdom, each specifically pointed out and pourtrayed with the most striking and discriminating characters (1).” With these predictions are mixed earnest exhortations to faith and obedience, and positive denunciations of God's wrath against the impenitently wicked; the most comfortable assurances of the constant providence of God, and the fulfilment of all his gracious promises, and descriptions of the glorious state of the Church, when it shall be enlarged by the conversion of the Jews, and the fulness of the Gentiles, in terms inimitably suited to the variety and loftiness of the subjects. Jeremiah was of the sacerdotal family, and a native of Anathoth, a village about three miles distant from Jerusalem. He was called to the prophetic office in the 13th year of Josiah's reign, B. C. 628, and continued to exercise it above 41 years. He was suffered to remain in Judæa, when his countrymen were carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and he afterwards retired into Egypt with Johanan the son of Kareah. Some accounts state that he returned into his own country, and died there; but Jerome says, which seems more probable, that he was stoned (1) Gray. stoned to death at Talpesha, a royal city of Egypt, about 586 years before Christ. Though his prophecies are not supposed to be in all cases arranged according to the order in which they were delivered, we find him not unfrequently, in the latter part of the book, appealing to prophecies contained in the former chapters, which had been since fulfilled. The most remarkable predictions are, the Babylonian captivity, with the precise time of its duration, and the return of the Jews; the fate of Zedekiah; the destruction of Babylon most accurately described, in terms which are usually considered as applicable likewise to the mystical Babylon or Antichrist; the downfal of many other nations; the miraculous conception of Christ; the efficacy of his atonement; the spiritual nature of his religion, and the general conversion and restoration of God's antient people. Jeremiah also bewails in most pathetic terms the obstinate wickedness of the Jews, and describes, in plain and impressive language, the calamities which impended over them. He sometimes breaks out into the most feeling and bitter complaints of the treatment which he received from his countrymen, whose resentment he provoked by the severity of his reproofs. The style of Jeremiah, though deficient neither in sublimity nor elegance, is con sidered sidered as inferior in both respects to that of Isaiah. Jeroine objects to him a certain rusticity of language, "cujus equidem," says Bishop Lowth, "fateor nulla me deprehendisse vestigia (m)." The writings of Jeremiah are principally characterized by precision in his descriptions, and by a pathos calculated to awaken and interest the milder affections, but not admitting of that loftiness of sentiment and dignity of expression, which we meet with in several of the prophets. At the same time, many of his invectives against the ingratitude and wickedness of his countrymen are delivered in an energetic strain of eloquence, and in his predictions he frequently rises to a very high degree of sublimity. His historical relations are written with great simplicity, and the events, of which he was himself witness, are described with animation and force. About one half of the book, chiefly in the beginning and at the end, is written in metre. The 51st chapter concludes in this man "Thus far are the words of Jeremiah;' and thence it appears that the 52d, being the last chapter, was not written by that prophet. It is supposed to have been compiled by Ezra, principally from the latter part of the second book of Kings, and from the 39th and 40th chapters (m) Prælect. 21. chapters of this book, as a proper introduction to the Lamentations. - The Lamentations of Jeremiah were for merly annexed to his prophecies, though they now form a separate book. Josephus, and several other learned men, have referred them to the death of Josiah; but the more common opinion is, that they are applicable only to some period, subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. But though it be allowed, that the Lamentations were primarily intended as a pathetic description of present calamities, yet, while Jeremiah mourns the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity, he may be considered as prophetically painting the still greater miseries they were to suffer at some future time; 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 (n). The Lamentations are written in metre, and consist of a number of plaintive effusions, composed after the manner of funeral dirges. They seem to have been originally written by their author as they arose in his mind, and to have been afterwards joined together as as one poem. There is no regular (n) Ch. 4. v. 22. arrangement arrangement of the subject, or disposition of the parts; the same thought is frequently repeated with different imagery, or expressed in different words. There is, however, no wild incoherency, or abrupt transition; the whole appears to have been dictated by the feelings of real grief. Tenderness and sorrow form the general character of these elegies; and an attentive reader will find great beauty in many of the images, and considerable energy in some of the expressions. This book of Lamentations is divided into five chapters; in the first, second, and fourth, the prophet speaks in his own person, or by an elegant and interesting personification introduces the city of Jerusalem as lamenting her calamities, and confessing her sins; in the third chapter a single Jew, speaking in the name of a chorus of his countrymen, like the Coryphæus of the Greeks, describes the punishment inflicted upon him by God, but still acknowledges his mercy, and expresses some hope of deliverance; and in the fifth chapter, the whole nation of the Jews pour forth their united complaints and supplications to Almighty God. Ezekiel, like his contemporary Jeremiah, was of the sacerdotal race. He was carried away captive to Babylon with Jehoiachim king of Judah, 598 years before Christ, and was placed with VOL. I. I many |