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chapters relate chiefly to the affairs of Babylon, and it is probable that some passages were taken from the public registers. This book abounds. with the most exalted sentiments of piety and devout gratitude; its style is clear, simple, and concise; and many of its prophecies are delivered in terms so plain and circumstantial, that some unbelievers (p) have asserted, in opposition to the strongest testimony, that they were written after the events, which they describe, had taken place.

Hosea is generally considered as a native and inhabitant of the kingdom of Israel, and is supposed to have begun to prophesy about 800 years before Christ. He exercised his office sixty years, but it is not known at what periods his different prophecies, now remaining, were delivered. Most of them are directed against the people of Israel, whom he reproves and threatens for their idolatry and wickedness, and exhorts to repentance with the greatest earnestness, as the only means of averting the evils impending over their country. The principal predictions contained in this book are the captivity and dispersion of the kingdom of Israel; the deliverance of Judah from Sennacherib; the pre

sent

(p) Porphyry, in particular, asserted this with respect to the prophecies which relate to the Grecian, Syrian, and Egyptian history.

sent state of the Jews; their future restoration, and union with the Gentiles in the kingdom of the Messiah; the call of our Saviour out of Egypt, and his resurrection on the third day. The style of Hosea is peculiarly obscure; it is sententious, concise, and abrupt; the transitions of person are sudden; and the connexive and adversative particles are frequently omitted. The prophecies are in one continued series, without any distinction as to the times when they were delivered, or the different subjects to which they relate; nor are they so clear and detailed, as the predictions of those prophets who lived in succeeding ages; but when we have surmounted these difficulties, we shall see abundant reason to admire the force and energy with which this prophet writes, and the boldness of the figures and similitudes which he uses.

It is impossible to ascertain the age in which Joel lived, but it seems most probable that he was contemporary with Hosea. No particulars of his life or death are certainly known. His prophecies are confined to the kingdom of Judah. He inveighs against the sins and im pieties of the people, and threatens them with divine vengeance; he exhorts to repentance, fasting, and prayer, and promises the favour of God to those who should be obedient. The

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principal predictions contained in this book are the Chaldæan invasion, under the figurative representation of locusts; the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; the blessings of the Gospel dispensation; the conversion and restoration of the Jews to their own land; the overthrow of the enemies of God; and the glorious state of the Christian church in the end of the world. The style of Joel is perspicuous and elegant, and his descriptions are remarkably animated and poetical.

Amos was contemporary with Hosea, and was by profession a herdsman. Tradition reports, that he was put to death by Uzziah, son of Amaziah, whose displeasure he incurred by the freedom with which he censured his vices. His prophecies relate chiefly to the kingdom of Israel; but he sometimes denounces judgment against the kingdom of Judah, and also against the people who bordered upon Palestine, the Syrians, Philistines, Tyrians, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites. He foretels in clear terms the calamities and captivity of the ten tribes, and at the same time declares that God will not utterly destroy his chosen people, but that he will, at some future period, restore them to more than their antient splendour and happiness in the kingdom of the Messiah. "Some writers, who

have adverted to the condition of Amos, have, with a minute affectation of criticism, pretended to discover a certain rudeness and vulgarity in his style; and even Jerome is of opinion that he is deficient in magnificence and sublimity, applying to him the words which St. Paul speaks of himself, that he was rude in speech, though not in knowledge (q); and his authority, says Bishop Lowth, has influenced many commentators to represent him as entirely rude, and void of elegance; whereas it requires but little attention to be convinced that he is not a whit behind the very chiefest of the prophets;' equal to the greatest in loftiness of sentiment, and scarcely inferior to any in the splendour of his diction, and in the elegance of his composition, Mr. Locke has observed, that his comparisons are chiefly drawn from lions and other animals, because he lived among and was conversant with such objects. But, indeed, the finest images and allusions, which adorn the poetical parts of Scripture, in general are drawn from scenes of nature, and from the grand objects that range in her walks; and true genius ever delights in considering these as the real sources of beauty and magnificence. Amos had the opportunities, and a mind inclined to contem

(q) 2 Cor. c. II. v. 6.

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plate the works of the Deity, and his descriptions of the Almighty are particularly sublime; indeed his whole work is animated with a very fine masculine eloquence (r)."

Many have been the conjectures concerning the age in which Obadiah lived. The most probable opinion seems to be, that he was contemporary with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and that he delivered his prophecy about the year 585 before Christ, soon after the destruction of Jerusalem hy Nebuchadnezzar. This book, which consists of a single chapter, is written with great beauty and elegance, and contains predictions. of the utter destruction of the Edomites, and of the future restoration and prosperity of the Jews.

Jonah was the son of Amittai, of the tribe of Zabulon, and was born at Gath-hepher in Galilee. He is generally considered as the most antient of the prophets, and is supposed to have lived about 840 years before Christ. The book of Jonah is chiefly narrative; he relates that he was commanded by God to go to Nineveh, and preach against the inhabitants of that capital of the Assyrian empire; that through fear of executing this commission he set sail for Tarshish, and that in his voyage thither, a tempest arising, he was (r) Gray.

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