mh_parser/vol_split/25 - Lamentations/0 - Introduction.xml

<div2 id="Lam.i" n="i" next="Lam.ii" prev="Lam" progress="47.39%" title="Introduction">
<h2 id="Lam.i-p0.1">Lamentations</h2>
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<p id="Lam.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
<h3 id="Lam.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
<h4 id="Lam.i-p1.2">W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E
R V A T I O N S,</h4>
<h5 id="Lam.i-p1.3">OF THE</h5>
<h3 id="Lam.i-p1.4">L A M E N T A T I O N S   O F   J E
R E M I A H.</h3>
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<p class="indent" id="Lam.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Lam.i-p2.1">Since</span> what
Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the world,
is certainly true, that <i>sorrow is better than laughter,</i> and
<i>it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of
feasting,</i> we should come to the reading and consideration of
the melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with
an expectation to edify ourselves by them; and, that we may do
this, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness and resolve to
weep with the weeping prophet. Let us consider, I. The title of
this book; in the Hebrew it has one, but is called (as the books of
Moses are) from the first word <i>Ecah</i>—<i>How;</i> but the
Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we from them,
<i>Kinoth</i>—<i>Lamentations.</i> As we have sacred odes or songs
of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation; such
variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and
move our affections, and so soften our hearts and make them
susceptible of the impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the
seal. We have not only <i>piped unto you,</i> but have
<i>mourned</i> likewise, <scripRef id="Lam.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:Matt.11.17" parsed="|Matt|11|17|0|0" passage="Mt 11:17">Matt. xi.
17</scripRef>. II. The penman of this book; it was Jeremiah the
prophet, who is here Jeremiah the poet, and <i>vates</i> signifies
both; therefore this book is fitly adjoined to the book of his
prophecy, and is as an appendix to it. We had there at large the
predictions of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, and then the
history of them, to show how punctually the predictions were
accomplished, for the confirming of our faith: now here we have the
expressions of his sorrow upon occasion of them, to show that he
was very sincere in the protestations he had often made that he did
not desire the woeful day, but that, on the contrary, the prospect
of it filled him with bitterness. When he saw these calamities at a
distance, he wished that his <i>head were waters and his eyes
fountains of tears;</i> and, when they came, he made it to appear
that he did not dissemble in that wish, and that he was far from
being disaffected to his country, which was the crime his enemies
charged him with. Though his country had been very unkind to him,
and though the ruin of it was both a proof that he was a true
prophet and a punishment of them for prosecuting him as a false
prophet, which might have tempted him to rejoice in it, yet he
sadly lamented it, and herein showed a better temper than that
which Jonah was of with respect to Nineveh. III. The occasion of
these Lamentations was the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by
the Chaldean army and the dissolution of the Jewish state both
civil and ecclesiastical thereby. Some of the rabbies will have
these to be the Lamentations which Jeremiah penned upon occasion of
the death of Josiah, which are mentioned <scripRef id="Lam.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:2Chr.35.25" parsed="|2Chr|35|25|0|0" passage="2Ch 35:25">2 Chron. xxxv. 25</scripRef>. But, though it is true
that that opened the door to all the following calamities, yet
these Lamentations seem to be penned in the sight, not in the
foresight, of those calamities—when they had already come, not
when they were at a distance; and there is nothing of Josiah in
them, and his praise, as was no question, in the lamentations for
him. No, it is Jerusalem's funeral that this is an elegy upon.
Others of them will have these Lamentations to be contained in the
roll which Baruch wrote from Jeremiah's mouth, and which Jehoiakim
burnt, and they suggest that at first there were in it only the
1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters, but that the 3rd and 5th were the
<i>many like words</i> that were afterwards added; but this is a
groundless fancy; that roll is expressly said to be a repetition
and summary of the prophet's sermons, <scripRef id="Lam.i-p2.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.36.2" parsed="|Jer|36|2|0|0" passage="Jer 36:2">Jer. xxxvi. 2</scripRef>. IV. The composition of it; it
is not only poetical, but alphabetical, all except the 5th chapter,
as some of David's psalms are; each verse begins with a several
letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, the first <i>aleph,</i>
the second <i>beth,</i> &amp;c., but the 3rd chapter is a triple
alphabet, the first three beginning with <i>aleph,</i> the next
three with <i>beth,</i> &amp;c., which was a help to memory (it
being designed that these mournful ditties should be got by heart)
and was an elegance in writing then valued and therefore not now to
be despised. They observe that in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters,
the letter <i>pe</i> is put before <i>ain,</i> which in all the
Hebrew alphabets follows it, for a reason of which Dr. Lightfoot
offers this conjecture, That the letter <i>ajin,</i> which is the
numeral letter for LXX., was thus, by being displaced, made
remarkable, to put them in mind of the seventy years at the end of
which God would turn again their captivity. V. The use of it: of
great use, no doubt, it was to the pious Jews in their sufferings,
furnishing them with spiritual language to express their natural
grief by, helping to preserve the lively remembrance of Zion among
them, and their children that never saw it, when they were in
Babylon, directing their tears into the right channel (for they are
here taught to mourn for sin and mourn to God), and withal
encouraging their hopes that God would yet return and have mercy
upon them; and it is of use to us, to affect us with godly sorrow
for the calamities of the church of God, as becomes those that are
living members of it and are resolved to take our lot with it.</p>
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