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self and of Christ. I was (he says) like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living.'1 This was said by the prophet of the men of Anathoth, his own native place, who were seeking his life; and so it was the men of Nazareth, His own city, who first attempted the life of our Lord. 'Jeremiah, it has been remarked, is the Christian's study, as therein he studies his Master's own life and the mind which was in Christ. To look on the prophets only as foretelling things to come, is but a partial and limited mode of taking them; nor are they only as preachers of righteousness, but likewise real living characters in which Christ Himself is speaking by His Spirit. Where Christ is, there must His servants behold Him.' 2

With regard to the style of Jeremiah, Horne remarks, 'Though the sentiments of this prophet are not always the most elevated, nor his periods uniformly neat and compact, yet his style is in a high degree beautiful and tender, especially 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 occa

And out of them shall go forth thanksgiving,

And the voice of them that are joyous;

And I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished,

And I will raise them to honour, and they shall not be brought low.

And his children shall be as aforetime,

And his congregation shall be established before Me;
And I will call to account those that oppress him,
And his prince shall be of his own race,

And his governor shall go forth out of the midst of him ;
And I will draw him, that he may come near unto Me;
For who is he that hath set his heart

To draw near unto Me? saith Jehovah.
And ye shall be unto Me a people,
And I will be unto you a God.''

Beyond the return of the captive Hebrews and their establishment in their own land, the vision of the future was extended, and Jeremiah foretold the miraculous birth and divinity of Christ with such clearness that he is regarded almost as fully as Isaiah as a prophet of the Gospel. His life was a type of that of the Saviour. He was ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,' 2 in consequence of the sins of his brethren and their coming punishment. 'In all their afflictions he was afflicted,'3 and of him his countrymen might truly have said, 'He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' 4 'I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath,' 5 says the prophet of him

1 Jer. xxx. 18-22. Blayney's translation.

2 Isa. liii. 3.

self and of Christ. 'I was (he says) like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living.' 1 This was said by the prophet of the men of Anathoth, his own native place, who were seeking his life; and so it was the men of Nazareth, His own city, who first attempted the life of our Lord. 'Jeremiah, it has been remarked, is the Christian's study, as therein he studies his Master's own life and the mind which was in Christ. To look on the prophets only as foretelling things to come, is but a partial and limited mode of taking them; nor are they only as preachers of righteousness, but likewise real living characters in which Christ Himself is speaking by His Spirit. Where Christ is, there must His servants behold Him.'?

With regard to the style of Jeremiah, Horne remarks, 'Though the sentiments of this prophet are not always the most elevated, nor his periods uniformly neat and compact, yet his style is in a high degree beautiful and tender, especially 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 occa

sions he is very elegant and sublime, especially from the forty-sixth chapter to the fifty-ninth verse of the fifty-first chapter. These prophecies are wholly poetical, and in them Jeremiah approaches very near the sublimity of Isaiah.' His Lamentations, as we have already remarked, are unrivalled for touching pathos and beauty. That the subject of these elegies is the destruction of the holy city and Temple, the overthrow of the State, the extermination of the people—and that these events are described as actually accomplished, and not in the style of prediction merely-must be evident to every reader, though some authors of considerable reputation have imagined this poem to have been composed on the death of king Josiah. The prophet, indeed, has so copiously, so tenderly, and poetically, bewailed the misfortune of his country, that he seems completely to have fulfilled the office and duty of a mourner. In my opinion there is not extant any poem which displays such a happy and splendid selection of imagery in so concentrated a state. What can be more elegant and poetical than the description of that once flourishing city, lately chief among the nations, sitting in the character of a female, solitary, afflicted, in a state of widowhood, deserted by her friends, betrayed by her dearest connexions, imploring relief, and seeking consolation in vain? What a beautiful personification is that of "the ways of Zion,

feast!"

How tender and pathetic are the follow

ing complaints:

"Is this nothing to all you who pass along this way? Behold and see,

If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is inflicted on me;

Which Jehovah inflicted on me in the day of the violence of His wrath.

For these things I weep, my eyes stream with water; Because the comforter is far away, that should tranquillise

my soul;

My children are desolate, because the enemy was strong."

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But to detail its beauties would be to transcribe the entire poem.'3

1 Lam. i. 4.

2 Ibid. 12-16.

3 Lowth.

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