so long a time; it requires something more than Mr. P.'s assertion to convince an impartial person, that he became a traitor at last; especially as he refused the favours offered him by Nebuchadnezzar, after the city was desolated according to his predictions. The Lord declares by the prophet, that his promises and threatenings to nations contain an implied condition; so that national repentance would avert threatened judgments, and national wickedness forfeit promised mercies. This Mr. P. calls an absurd subterfuge ' of the prophet.' But surely it was a salutary warning and an encouraging instruction, both to Israel and to other nations. Had the people repented, and yet judg ments had come on them; or had they escaped judg ments without repentance; the prophet would have had no subterfuge: and if he had denounced vengeance without any intimation of mercy; the unrelenting spirit of prophets would have furnished a subject for decla mation. The disorder, charged on this book, might arise from the conduct of those, who after Jeremiah's death put his detached messages together, without much. regard to the order in which they were delivered. His predictions however are generally dated, though his sermons are not. Mr. P. accuses Jeremiah of contradicting himself, because two different accounts are given of his imprisonment by Zedekiah: but nothing can be more evident than that he was twice imprisoned; once in the Jer. xviii. 7, 8, house of Jonathan the scribe, whence he was liberated to the court of the prison by Zedekiah; the second time in the dungeon of Malchijah the son of Hammeleck, whence he was freed by Ebed-meleck.* Mr. P. undertakes to prove, by the example of Jeremiah, that a man of God could tell a lie;' and if he had succeeded, it would not much have served his cause, unless he could also have proved that he vindicated it: for believers do not consider the sacred writers as impeccable, though they wrote under an infallible guidance. His attempt however, is completely unsuccessful. Zedekiah directed the prophet to say to the princes, "I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jo"nathan's house to die there;" and "he told them ac"cording to all the words the king commanded." 'Now' says Mr. P. Jeremiah did not go to Zedeki'ah to make his supplication:' true; neither did he say that he went for that purpose: but he adds, 'nei6 ther did he make it.' Here some will believe Jeremiah, who said "he did make his supplication to the "king:" and some will credit Mr. P. when he says, 'he did not make it.' For my part I believe the prophet, considering him as the best informed of the two, and perceiving no reason to suspect his veracity. And even a man of God is not bound to tell an impertinent inquirer all he knows. Mr. P. next accuses Jeremiah of delivering false predictions. The prophet had told Zedekiah, that 1 Jer. xxxvii. xxxviii. "his eyes should behold the eyes of the king of Ba"bylon, and that he should speak to him mouth to "mouth; that he should go to Baby lon: that he should "not die by the sword but in peace, and that they "should burn odours for him and lament him."* Mr. P. contrasts this prophecy with the history of the event, and adds, 'what can we say of these prophets, but that they are impostors and liars?' Yet the prediction was fulfilled most exactly; for Zedekiah must have seen the eyes of the king of Babylon, when the latter slew his sons before his eyes: he was carried to Babylon where he died, not by the sword, but in peace; and there can be no reasonable doubt, but he received funeral honours from the captive Jews, by the permission of the king of Babylon. Ezekiel also foretold, that "Zedekiah should not "see Babylon, though he should die there." And some years ago I wrote thus, ' Perhaps Zedekiah fan'cied the two prophets contradicted each other, and 'so disregarded both; but both were exactly accomplished, when he was brought to Nebuchadnezzar ་ at Riblah, had his eyes put out, and was carried to Babylon.' I have since that time entertained some doubts, whether I had not ascribed to Zedekiah a degree of inattention, beyond all probability. Mr. P. however, has actually far exceeded it. He next asserts, that 'Jeremiah joined himself to ‹ Nebuchadnezzar, and went about prophesying for * Jer. xxxiv. Jer. lii. 10, 11. P. ii. p. 53. him among the Egyptians.' This representation of Jeremiah's conduct contradicts in express terms the only narrative we have of those events. He refused the friendly offer of Nebuzaraddan; and with a patriotism which would have been admired in any man, except a prophet or a priest, he chose to cast his lot among the remnant of his distressed countrymen. He did all in his power to prevent their migration into Egypt, and was at length carried along with them by force. There indeed he prophesied against the Egyptians and other nations, and especially against the Babylonians, without the least advantage or attention from Nebuchadnezzar: and these prophecies, with their remote but exact accomplishment, will stand to the end of time as demonstrations that Jeremiah spake by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Mr. P. represents the prophets as party men in politicks, and he produces as an instance the prophet from Judah, who went to Jeroboam.* No doubt he took part with the worshippers of JEHOVAH against the devotees of the golden calves: but the old prophet at Bethel does not seem to have sided with Jeroboam, though he had not courage to protest against his idolatry. His assertion that the prophet of Judah was 'found dead by the contrivance of the prophet of Is'rael, who no doubt called him a lying prophet,' is absurd in the extreme, and directly contradicts the whole narrative. Mr. P. next attacks Elisha as a Judahmite prophet, * 1 Kings xiii. pro though he spent his life in Israel, and never at all phesied in Judah!-Joram the son of Ahab was a very wicked man and a most incorrigible idolater: Jehoshaphat, though faulty in forming connexions with him and his family, was a most pious and equitable prince. When therefore these two kings, with the king of Edom, applied to Elisha in extreme distress,* he shewed respect to Jehoshaphat, but would shew none to Joram. In any other man Mr. P. would have admired the noble spirit evinced by this conduct: but in this case he calls it the venom and vulgarity of a party-prophet!' The prophet, probably finding himself discomposed by recollecting the idolatries and persecutions of Ahab's family, called for a minstrel, that his serenity might be restored, and his mind prepared for the prophetick impulse. Mr. P. strangely mistakes the minstrel, or player on an instrument, for the instrument itself: and adds, 'Elisha said, (singing most probably to the tune he was playing) Thus saith the Lord, make the valley full of ditches-without either farce or fiddle, the way to get water was to dig for it.'-Does this jumble of mistake and raillery rcquire any answer? Neither the kings nor their officers expected to find water by digging there, and how came Elisha by his superior discernment? The Moabites deceived by this singular appearance of the water, rushed upon their destruction; which would not have been the case, had water been generally ob |