short on a sudden, and refuse to give a public sanction to the application of them? Why are we to suppose it? Upon the piety and goodness of our gracious sovereign we may ever rely, with the firmest assurance, for his hearty concurrence in any measure, which may tend to advance the interests of religion, and the welfare of his subjects. And from what other quarter, and upon what grounds, is an opposition to be expected? It may be said, perhaps, that the minds of men ought not to be unsettled in religious matters; and that no one can tell what popular clamours and discontents the proposed step may occasion. To this it may be replied, that as no innovation in religion is intended, not any the least alteration in the grounds of our faith or practice, no one's rights of any kind invaded, nor any encroachment made on the spiritual liberty of a single member of the community; what pretence can there be for uneasiness or discontent ? The clergy, it may be presumed, from a conviction of its rectitude, are already sufficiently disposed to approve and favour the undertaking. Nor will the more enlightened part of the laity be less ready to discern its propriety and salutary tendency. And even the lowest of the people, the most apt to startle at a departure from long-established usages, will, if the change be not greater than what is necessary, either scarcely perceive it at all, or, so far as they do, will perceive it is made for the better; that by the alteration of a few words they are enabled to see clearly what they could not before understand, and are relieved from some difficulties, which could not fail to perplex and confound the weakness of their understandings. They will naturally, I mean the conscientious and considerate part of them, inquire of their spiritual guides, or of those upon whose judgment they are used to depend, and will by them be informed, that nothing has been done but upon the most just and reasonable grounds; they will therefore not only be quiet and satisfied, but thankful to their superiors for having shown so laudable a concern for their better edification. As for the thoughtless and inconsiderate, they will probably give themselves no further trouble about the matter, than, as the manner of such men is, to applaud or condemn, without knowledge, and without significance. Such we may reasonably presume will be the disposition of men's minds in the general upon the conclusion of this weighty affair. Nor can it be said that this is arguing upon speculation only. The experiment has been already repeatedly made; new versions

have been successively introduced, with the sanction of royal authority, many times since the era of the Reformation; and the event has been known to have turned out exactly such as has been described. Why then should the present generation be supposed to be more superstitious and bigoted than those that have gone before them, or more likely to break out into disturbances and ferments, upon the offer of what is so apparently for their good? Since then we have advantages which our forefathers were not possessed of, nay, of which it does not appear they had any conception; why should we not do for ourselves and our posterity what they would undoubtedly have done for us, had they been found in like circumstances as we are? Let the work of purifying and reforming what is amiss in the present edition of our Bible be fairly and honestly set about, and with that moderation and soberness of mind which the gravity of the subject requires; and I doubt not but we may safely disregard the suggestions of a narrow and timid policy; such as, if attended to, would equally, on all occasions, by raising imaginary fears and unreasonable alarms, discountenance and obstruct the wisest and most salutary improvements that can possibly be devised. But here let me stop; lest the impetuosity of a warm zeal may gradually carry me farther than discretion will warrant. Though I would fain persuade, I would not be thought to dictate; and least of all would I wish to appear in the light of an impertinent and unmannerly intruder into the province of those whose wisdom and whose station entitle them, in matters of public concern, to decide what is proper to be done, together with the most convenient season and mode of doing it. May the God of all wisdom influence and direct their councils in such a manner as will best promote his glory and the public happiness; and may it be the care of every one of us, in the mean while, so to make use of the light already afforded us, as to accelerate the time of its increase and enlargement: For it is the voice of truth itself, which, speaking of religious advantages and their improvement, has declared, that "unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.";

Matthew xxv. 29.

HISTORICAL SKETCH.*

THE prophet Jeremiah was of the sacerdotal race, being, as he records himself, one of the priests that dwelt at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, a city appropriated out of that tribe to the use of the priests the sons of Aaron, (Joshua xxi. 18,) and situate, as we learn from Jerome, about three miles north of Jerusalem. Some have supposed his father to have been that Hilkiah the high priest, by whom the book of the law was found in the temple in the reign of Josiah ; but for this there is no better ground than his having borne the same name, which was no uncommon one among the Jews; whereas, had he been in reality the high priest, he would, doubtless, have been mentioned by that distinguishing title, and not put upon a level with priests of an ordinary and inferior class. Jeremiah appears to have been very young, when he was called to the exercise of the prophetical office; from which he modestly endeavoured to excuse himself by pleading his youth and incapacity; but being overruled by the divine authority, he set himself to discharge the duties of his function with unremitted diligence and fidelity during a period of at least forty-two years, reckoned from the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign. In the course of his ministry he met with great difficulties and opposition from his countrymen of all degrees; whose persecution and ill usage sometimes wrought so far upon his mind, as to draw from him expressions, in the bitterness of his soul, which many have thought hard to reconcile with his religious principles; but which, when duly weighed, may be found to demand our pity rather than censure. He was, in truth, a man of unblemished piety and conscientious integrity; a warm lover of his country, whose miseries he pathetically deplores; and so affectionately attached to his countrymen, notwithstanding their injurious treatment of him, that he chose rather to abide with them, and undergo all hardships in their company, than separately to enjoy a state of ease and plenty, which the favour of the king of Babylon would have secured to him. At length, after the destruction of Jerusalem, having followed the remnant of the Jews into Egypt, whither they had resolved to retire, though contrary to his advice, upon the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Chaldeans had left governor in Judea, he there continued warmly to remonstrate against their idolatrous practices, foretelling the consequences that would inevitably follow. But his freedom and zeal are said to have cost him his life; for the Jews at Tahpanhes, as tradition goes, took such

Such is the title which Dr. Blayney himself gives, in a subsequent page, (14,) to this short biographical and historical introduction to his notes on Jeremiah. It could not with propriety, as in the quarto copy, be embodied with the critical notes, which were insulated from the text; but which, for the sake of easy and prompt reference, are in this edition placed under those portions of the new translation to which they severally relate. It is, therefore, printed in this separate form for the greater convenience of the reader. J. N.

offence thereat, that they stoned him to death; which account of the manner of his exit, though not absolutely certain, is at least very likely to be true, considering the temper and disposition of the parties concerned. Their wickedness, however, did not long pass without its reward; for, in a few years after, they were miserably destroyed by the Babylonian armies, which invaded Egypt, according to the prophet's prediction. (Chapter xliv. 27, 28.)

The idolatrous apostasy and other criminal enormities of the people of Judah, and the severe judgments which God was prepared to inflict upon them, but not without a distant prospect of future restoration and deliverance, are the principal subject-matters of the following prophecies; excepting only chapter xlv., which relates personally to Baruch; and the six succeeding chapters, which respect the fortunes of some particular heathen nations. It is observable, however, that, though many of these prophecies have their particular dates annexed to them, and others may be tolerably well guessed at from certain internal marks and circumstances, there appears a strange disorder in the arrangement, not easy to be accounted for on any principle of regular design. There is, indeed, a variation between the Hebrew copies and those of the LXX. version, in the arrangement of those particular prophecies concerning the heathen nations; which in the Hebrew are disposed all together, and, as I conceive, in their proper order of time with respect to each other, at the end of the book; intentionally, as it should seem, not to interrupt the course of Jewish history; whilst the authors of the LXX. have inserted them, with some difference of order among themselves, though, perhaps, no very material one, after verse 13 of chapter xxv. But the disorder complained of lies not here; it is common to both the Hebrew and Greek arrangements; and consists in the preposterous jumbling together of the prophecies of the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, in the seventeen chapters which follow the twentieth according to the Hebrew copies; so that without any apparent reason many of the latter reign precede those of the former; and in the same reign the last delivered are put first, and the first last. As such an unnatural disposition could not have been the result of judgment, nor scarcely of inattention, in the compiler of these prophecies; it follows that the original order has most probably, by some accident or other, been disturbed. To restore which, as it may be of some use to the reader, I shall venture to transpose the chapters, where it appears needful, without altering the numerals, and shall assign the motives of every such transposition in the particular place where it is made.

The following historical sketch of the times in which Jeremiah lived is given with a view to throw light upon his prophecies in general, and may help to explain sundry circumstances and allusions that are found therein.

In the reign of Manasseh every species of impiety and moral corruption had been carried to the highest pitch under the encouragement of royal example. And so thoroughly tainted were the minds of men by this cor

rupt influence, as to baffle all the endeavours of the good Josiah to bring about a reformation. This well-disposed prince, having, in the eighteenth year of his reign, accidentally met with the book of the law, was stricken with horror at the danger to which he found himself and his kingdom exposed by the violations of it. He therefore immediately set about removing all the abominations that were in the land, and engaged his subjects to join with him in a solemn covenant to be more dutifully observant of the Divine commands for the time to come. But though the king's heart was right, and his zeal fervent and sincere, it was all hypocrisy and dissimulation on the part of the people; their hearts were incorrigibly turned the wrong way; and God, who saw clearly the real bent of their dispositions, was not to be diverted from his designs of vengeance. He began with depriving them by a sudden stroke of their excellent prince, under whose government they had enjoyed much happiness and tranquillity, of which they were altogether unworthy. He was slain in a battle with Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, whom Josiah had gone out to oppose on his march against the Babylonian dominions, being himself in alliance with the king of Babylon; and his death, however fatal to his kingdom, was, as to his own particular, a merciful disposition of providence, that his eyes might not see all the evil that was coming upon his land. The twelve first chapters of this book seem to contain all the prophecies delivered in this reign.

Josiah being dead, his sons who succeeded him were not of a character to impede or delay the execution of God's judgments. It is said in general of them all, that they did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. The first that mounted the throne was Shallum, or Jehoahaz, the second son, by designation of the people. But his elevation was not of a long continuance. Pharaoh Necho, having defeated the Babylonian forces, and taken Carchemish, on his return deposed Jehoahaz, after a reign of three months, and, putting him in chains, carried him to Egypt, from whence he never returned. In this short reign Jeremiah does not appear to have had any revelation.

Pharaoh Necho made use of his victory to reduce all Syria under his subjection; and having imposed a fine upon the kingdom of Judah of one bundred talents of silver and one talent of gold, he received the money from Jehoiakim, the eldest son of Josiah, whom he appointed king in his bro ther's stead. Jehoiakim was one of the worst and wickedest of all the kings of Judah; a man totally destitute of all regard for religion, and unjust, rapacious, cruel, and tyrannical in his government. In the beginning of his reign he put Urijah, a prophet of God, to death, for having prophesied, as was his duty to do, of the impending calamities of Judah and Jerusalem. And having either built for himself a new palace, or enlarged the old one that belonged to the kings of Judah, by a strain of authority not less mean than wicked he withheld from the workmen the wages they had earned in building it. In short, he set no bounds to his evil inclinations and passions; and his people, freed from the wholesome disci