55

Jeremiah.

Scripture. JEREMIAH was called to the prophetic office in the 13th year of the reign of Jofiah the fon of Amon, A. M. 3376, A. C. 628, and continued to prophecy upwards of 40 years, during the reigns of the degenerate princes of Judah, to whom he boldly threatened those marks of the divine vengeance which their rebellious conduct drew on themselves and their country. After the destruction of Jerufalem by the Chaldeans, he was fuffered by Nebuchadnezzar to remain in the defolate land of Judea to lament the calamities of his infatuated countrymen. He was afterwards, as he himself informs us, carried with his disciple Baruch into Egypt, by Johanan the son of Kareah.

56 Chronological ar

It appears from feveral paffages that Jeremiah committed his prophecies to writing. In the 36th chapter we are informed, that the prophet was commanded to write upon a roll all the prophecies which he had uttered; and when the roll was deftroyed by Jehoiakim the king, Jeremiah dictated the fame prophecies to Baruch, who wrote them together with many additional circumftances. The works of Jeremiah extend to the last verse of the 51ft chapter; in which we have thefe words, "Thus far the words of Jeremiah." The 52d chapter was therefore added by fome other writer. It is, however, a very important fupplement, as it illustrates the accomplishment of Jeremiah's prophecies refpecting the fate of Zedekiah.

The prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the chronological order in which they were delivered. rangement What has occafioned this tranfpofition cannot now be of his wri- determined. It is generally maintained, that if we contings. fult their dates, they ought to be thus placed : In the reign of Jofiah the firft 12 chapters.

In the reign of Jehoiakim, chapters xiii. xx. xxi. v. 11, 14.; xxii. xxiii. xxv. xxvi. xxxv. xxxvi. xlv.-xlix. I-33.

In the reign of Zedekiah, chap. xxi. 1-10. xxiv. xxvii. xxxiv. xxxvii. xxxix. xlix. 34-39. 1. and li.

Under the government of Gedaliah, chapters xl. xliv. The prophecies which related to the Gentiles were conVOL. XIX. Part I.

tained in the 46th and five following chapters, being Scripture, placed at the end, as in fome measure unconnected with the reft. But in fome copies of the Septuagint these fix chapters follow immediately after the 13th verfe of the 25th chapter.

Jeremiah, though deficient neither in elegance nor fublimity, muft give place in both to Ifaiah. Jerome feems to object against him a fort of rufticity of language, no veftige of which Dr Lowth was able to difcover. His fentiments, it is true, are not always the most elevated, nor are his periods always neat and compact; but thefe are faults common to those writers whofe principal aim is to excite the gentler affections, and to call forth the tear of fympathy or forrow. This obfervation is very ftrongly exemplified in the Lamentations, where thefe are the prevailing paffions; it is, however, frequently instanced in the prophecies of this author, and most of all in the beginning of the book (L), which is chiefly poetical. The middle of it is almoft entirely hiftorical. The latter part, again, confifting of the laft fix chapters, is altogether poetical (M); it contains feveral different predictions, which are distinctly marked; and in these the prophet approaches very near the sublimity of Ifaiah. On the whole, however, not above half the book of Jeremiah is poetical.

57

rations.

The book of Lamentations, as we are informed in The book the title, was composed by Jeremiah. We fhall present of Lamento our reader an account of this elegiac poem from the elegant pen of Dr Lowth.

The Lamentations of Jeremiah (for the title is properly and fignificantly plural) confift of a number of plaintive effufions, compofed on the plan of the funeral dirges, all on the fame fubject, and uttered without connection as they rofe in the mind, in a long course of separate ftanzas. These have afterwards been put together, and formed into a collection or correspondent whole. If any reader, however, fhould expect to find in them an artificial and methodical arrangement of the general fubject, a regular difpofition of the parts, a perfect connection and orderly fucceffion in the matter, A and

exordium.