The time of the delivery of some of his prophecies is either expressly marked, or sufficiently clear from the history to which they relate; that of a few others may with some probability be deduced from internal marks; from expressions, descriptions, and circumstances interwoven. Isaiah appears to have had two sons, who were typical in their names; one Shear-jashub, a "remnant shall return;" and the other Maher-shalal-hashbaz, "haste to the spoil; quick to the prey;" and it is remarkable that his wife is called a prophetess. It has also been said that he gave his daughter in marriage to Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah; and that himself was put to death by Manasseh, being sawn asunder with a wooden saw. These traditions, however, stand on very slender authority, and are worthy of very little regard. What though Scripture and history be alike silent as to the manner of his death, it is sufficient to know God provides for his faithful ones, by bringing them to himself, and dispensing from his own hand their appropriate reward CHAPTER XIII. Jeremiah. CALL TO PROPHETIC IN EARLY YOUTH; RELUCTANCE TO ASSUME IT ON THIS ACCOUNT; PERSECUTION AND IMPRISONMEMT; CAPTIVITY AND DEATH. HE prophet Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, was of the sacerdotal race, and a native of Anathoth, a vil lage in the tribe of Benjamin, within a few miles of Jerusalem, which had been appointed for the use of the priests, the descendants of Aaron. He was called to the prophetic office when very young, probably when he was fourteen years of age, and in the thirteenth of the reign of Josiah. A. M. 3375, B. C. 629. On account of his youth and incapacity for the work, he endeavored to excuse himself; but, being overruled by the Divine authority, he undertook the task, and performed it with matchless zeal and fidelity in the midst of a most crooked and perverse people, by whom he was continually persecuted, and whom he boldly reproved, often at the hazard of his life. At one time persecuted and imprisoned, his faith wavered, and he formed a hasty resolution to renounce the prophetic office, and make no more mention of the word of the Lord; but the voice of accusing conscience speedily called him to reflection, and he was ashamed of his own weakness, that did not confide in the Divine promise. A holy determination to go on, relying upon the Lord, delivered him from all fear, and enabled him to exult in the Divine protection. Though he remained in the same circumstances, with strong confidence in a strong God, he pursued his calling, fearing not his adversaries. Subsequently his bold and fearless utterance of the Divine predictions brought him to the dungeon, but his heart remained strong, and his courage firm. He continued to prophesy till after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, which took place A. M. 3416; and it is supposed that about two years after he died in Egypt. The circumstances of his death are related as follows: After the destruction of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar having made Gedaliah governor of Judea, the fractious Jews rose up against him, and put him to death; they then escaped to Tahpanhes in Egypt, carrying Jeremiah with them; who, continuing to testify against their wickedness and idolatry, at length fell a victim to his faithfulness: they filled up the measure of their iniquity, as tradition reports, by stoning the prophet to death. God marked this murderous outrage by his peculiar displeasure; for in a few years after they were almost all miserably destroyed by the Chaldean armies which had invaded Egypt; and even this destruction had been foretold by the prophet himself. (Chap. 44th :) "They were consumed by the sword and by the famine until there was an end of them, a small remnant only escaping." It appears he discharged the duties of the prophetic office upward of forty years. As a writer, Jeremiah is by no means wanting, either in elegance or sublimity; although, generally speaking, inferior to Isaiah in both. St. Jerome has objected to him a certain rusticity in his diction; others allow not the smallest trace of it. His thoughts, indeed, are somewhat less elevated, and he is com monly more large and diffuse in his sentences; but the reason of this may be, that he is mostly taken up with the gentler passions of grief and pity, for the expression of which he has a peculiar talent. This is most evident in the Lamentations, where those passions altogether predominate; but it is often visible also in his prophesies; in the former part of his book more especially, which is principally poetical. The middle parts are for the most part historical; but the last part, consisting of six chapters, is entirely poetical, and contains several oracles distinctly marked, in which this prophet falls very little short of the loftiest style of Isaiah. "Never," it has been said, "was there a more rich and elegant variety of beautiful images and adjuncts arranged together within so small a compass, nor more happily chosen and applied, than in the inimitable poem of Lamentations. One would think that every letter was written with a tear; every word, the sound of a breaking heart: that the author was compacted of sorrows; disciplined to grief from his infancy; one who never breathed but in sighs, nor spoke but in a groan." The attachment of Jeremiah to his country was strong and fervent; he foresaw by the light of prophecy the ruin that was coming upon it. He might have made terms with the enemy, and not only saved his life, but have gained ease and plenty; but he chose rather to continue with his people, and take his part in all the disasters that befell them. We can not too much admire the full and graceful flow of that pathetic eloquence in which the author pours forth the effusions of a patriotic heart, and piously weeps over the ruins of his venerable country. But it was observed before that the prophet's peculiar talent lay in working up and expressing the passions of grief and pity, and unhappily for him as a man and a citizen, he met with a subject but too well calculated to give his genius its full display. David in several places has forcibly depicted the sorrows of a heart oppressed with penitential sorrow; but where, in a composition of such length, have bodily misery and mental agony been more successfully painted? All the expressions and images of sorrow are here exhibited in various combinations, and in various points of view. Misery has no expression that the author of the Lamentations has not employed. Patriots! you who tell us you burn for your country's welfare, look at the prophesies and history of this extraordinary man; look at his Lamentations; take him through his life to his death, and learn from him what true patriotism means! The man who watched, prayed, and lived for the welfare of his country, who chose to share her adversities, her sorrows, her wants, her afflictions and disgrace, where he might have been a companion of princes, and have sat at the table of kings; who only ceased to live for his country when he ceased to breathe;-that was a patriot, in comparison with whom almost all others are obscured, minished and brought low, or are totally annihilated! CHAPTER XIV. Ezekiel. CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING HIS PROPHETIC CALL; ARDOR IN ENTERING SACRED CANON. ONCERNING the lives and deaths of many of the prophets, sacred history gives but few if any particulars. Their writings, however, are sufficient for us. to discover their distinguishing traits of character, and leading qualities of mind. It is the mind religiously bent upon accomplishing the Divine will that God peculiarly regards, and every where honors, and this is manifest in Ezekiel. This prophet was the son of Buzi; of the sacerdotal race, as he himself tells us, and was born at a place called Saresa. He was carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon, with Jeconiah, king of Judah, and three thousand other captives of the principal inhabitants, and was sent into Mesopotamia, where he received the prophetic gift; which is supposed, from an obscure expression in his prophesies, to have taken place in the thirtieth year of his age. He had then been in captivity five years, comforting his companions in tribulation, rendering their captivity lighter, "by the most positive promises of their restoration to their own land, the re-building of the temple, and the reëstablishment of the Divine worship, all their enemies being finally destroyed. At the time he received the Divine commission to declare God's counsel to the rebellious house of Israel, he also obtained the gracious assurance that God would furnish him with all needful armor for the great work. He seems to have joyously entered upon his calling, using expressions that indicate such heavenly ardor of mind as almost constrained him to fly to the place where the Lord commanded him to go. The promptitude and impetuosity of his spirit seemed to furnish him with wings for the occasion. He continued to prophesy about twenty-two years, from A. M. 3409 to A. M. 3430, which answers to the fourteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel, as a writer, is inferior to Jeremiah in elegance, but is equal to Isaiah in sublimity, though in a different species of the sublime. He is bold, vehement, tragical, and deals very much in amplification. His sentiments are lofty, animated, poignant, and full of indignation. His images are fertile and magnificent. His diction is grand, weighty, austere, rough, and sometimes uncultivated. He abounds in repetitions, not for the sake of beauty and grace, but from vehemence and indig |