six years of whose government were contemporary with the greater part of the reign of Hoshea, the last king of Israel. (iv. 9-13. v-vii.)

Chap. v. contains an eminent prediction of the place of the Messiah's Nativity, as well as of his kingdom and conquests.

SECTION VII.

On the Book of the Prophet Nahum.

BEFORE CHRIST, 720-698.

Nahum, a native of Elkosh or Elkosha, a village in Galilee, is generally supposed to have lived between the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, about 715 years before the Christian era. The repentance of the Ninevites in consequence of Jonah's preaching being of short duration, Nahum was commissioned to denounce the final and inevitable ruin of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire by the Chaldæans, and to comfort his countrymen in the certainty of their destruction. His prophecy is one entire poem, which, opening with a sublime description of the justice and power of God tempered with long-suffering (ch. i. 1-8.) foretels the destruction of Sennacherib's forces, and the subversion of the Assyrian empire (9-12), together with the deliverance of Hezekiah and the death of Sennacherib. (13-15.) The destruction of Nineveh is then predicted, and described with singular minuteness. (ii, iii.)

SECTION VIII..

On the Book of the Prophet Zephaniah.

BEFORE CHRIST, 640-609.

This prophet, who was "the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah,” (i. 1.) is supposed to have discharged the prophetic office before the eighteenth year of Josiah; that is, before this prince

had reformed the abuses and corruptions of his dominions. His prophecy, which consists of three chapters, may be divided into four sections; viz.

SECT. I. A denunciation against Judah for their idolatry. (ch. i.)

SECT. II. Repentance the only means to avert the divine vengeance. (ch. ii. 1-3.)

SECT. III. Prophecies against the Philistines (ch. ii. 4-7.), Moabites and Ammonites (8-11.), Ethiopia (12.), and Nineveh. (13-15.) In

SECT. IV. The captivity of the Jews by the Babylonians is foretold (ch. iii. 1-7.), together with their future restoration and the ultimate prosperous state of the church. (8-20.)

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE PROPHETS WHO FLOURISHED NEAR TO AND DURING THE

SECTION I.

BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.

On the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.

BEFORE CHRIST, 628-586.

THE prophet Jeremiah was of the sacerdotal race, being (as he himself records) one of the priests that dwelt at Anathoth (i. 1.) in the land of Benjamin, a city appropriated out of that tribe to the use of the priests, the sons of Aaron (Josh. xxi. 18.), and situate, as we learn from Jerome, about three Roman miles north of Jerusalem. He appears to have been very young when called to the prophetic office, in the discharge of which he received much ill treatment from the Jews: he prophesied about forty-two years, and followed the remnant of the Jews on their retiring into Egypt, where he is said to have been put to death by his profligate countrymen. His predictions, which are levelled against the

crimes of the Jews, who were immersed in idolatry and vice, are not arranged in the chronological order in which they were originally delivered. The cause of their transposition it is now impossible to ascertain. The late Rev. Dr. Blayney, to whom we are indebted for a learned version of, and commentary on, the writings of this prophet, has endeavoured, with great judgment, to restore their proper order by transposing the chapters, wherever it appeared to be necessary. According to his arrangement, the predictions of Jeremiah are to be placed in the following order; viz.

SECTION I. The prophecies delivered in the reign of Josiah, containing chapters i-xii. inclusive.

SECTION II. The prophecies delivered in the reign of Jehoiakim, comprising chapters xiii-xx. xxii, xxiii. xxxv, xxxvi. xlv-xlviii. and xlix. 1-33.

SECTION III. The prophecies delivered in the reign of Zedekiah, including chapters xxi. xxiv. xxvii—xxxiv. xxxvii-xxxix. xlix. 34-39. and 1, li.

SECTION IV. The prophecies delivered under the government of Gedaliah, from the taking of Jerusalem to the retreat of the people into Egypt, and the prophecies of Jeremiah delivered to the Jews in that country; comprehending chapters xl-xliv. inclusive.

In ch. xxiii. 5, 6. is foretold the mediatorial kingdom of the Messiah, who is called the LORD OUR RightEOUSNESS. Again, in Jer. xxxi. 31-36. and xxxiii. 8. the efficacy of Christ's atonement, the spiritual character of the new covenant, and the inward efficacy of the Gospel, are most clearly and emphatically described. Compare Saint Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. viii. 8-13. and x. 16. et seq.

SECTION II.-On the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

That Jeremiah was the author of the Elegies or Lamentations which bear his name is evident, not only from

a very antient and almost uninterrupted tradition, but also from the argument and style of the book, which corresponds exactly with those of his prophecies. This book consists of five chapters, forming as many pathetic elegies, in the four first of which the prophet bewails the various calamities of his country: the fifth elegy is an epilogue to the four preceding. Dr. Blayney considers it as a memorial representing, in the name of the whole body of Jewish exiles, the numerous calamities under which they groaned; and humbly supplicating God to commiserate their wretchedness, and to restore them to his favour, and to their antient prosperity.

SECTION III. On the Book of the Prophet Habakkuk.
BEFORE CHRIST, 612-598.

Concerning this prophet we have no certain information: he exercised the prophetic office most probably in the reign of Jehoiakim, and consequently was contemporary with Jeremiah. His book consists of two parts. In

PART I., which is in the form of a dialogue between God and the prophet, the Babylonish captivity is announced; with a promise, however, of deliverance, and of the ultimate destruction of the Babylonian empire.

PART II. contains the prayer or psalm of Habakkuk, in which he implores God to hasten the deliverance of his people. (iii.)

SECTION IV. On the Book of the Prophet Daniel.

BEFORE CHRIST, 606-534.

Daniel, the fourth of the greater prophets was carried captive to Babylon at an early age, in the fourth year of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year 606 before the Christian era, and seven years before the deportation of

of Ezekiel. On comparing Dan. i. 3-6 with 2 Kings xx. 17, 18, and Isa. xxix. 6, 7. some have imagined that he was descended from King Hezekiah. Having been instructed in the language and literature of the Chaldæans, Daniel afterwards held a very distinguished office in the Babylonian empire. (Dan. i, 1-4.) He was contemporary with Ezekiel, who mentions his extraordinary piety and wisdom (Ezek. xiv. 14. 20.), and the latter even at that time seems to have become proverbial. (Ezek. xxviii. 3.) Daniel lived in great credit with the Babylonian monarchs; and his uncommon merit procured him the same regard from Darius and Cyrus, the two first sovereigns of Persia. He lived throughout the captivity, but it does not appear that he returned to his own country when Cyrus permitted the Jews to revisit their native land. The time of his death is not certainly known. Although the name of Daniel is not prefixed to his book, the many passages in which he speaks in the first person sufficiently prove that he was the author. His writings may be divided into two parts; viz.

PART I. comprises the historical portion of this book : it contains a narrative of the circumstances that led to Daniel's elevation. (ch.i—vi.)

PART II. comprises various prophecies and visions of things future, until the advent and death of the Messiah, and the ultimate conversion of the Jews and Gentiles to the faith of the Gospel. (ch. vii-xii.)

This is an amazing series of prophecy, extending through many successive ages from the first establishment of the Persian empire, upwards of 530 years before Christ, to the general resurrection! "What a proof does it afford of a Divine Providence, and of a Divine Revelation! for who could thus declare the things that shall be, with their times and seasons, but He only who hath them in his power: whose dominion is over all, and whose kingdom endureth from generation to generation!”