98 lines
6.1 KiB
XML
98 lines
6.1 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Lam.i" n="i" next="Lam.ii" prev="Lam" progress="47.39%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Lam.i-p0.1">Lamentations</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Lam.i-Page_711" n="711"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Lam.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Lam.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Lam.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Lam.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Lam.i-p1.3">OF THE</h5>
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<h3 id="Lam.i-p1.4">L A M E N T A T I O N S O F J E
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R E M I A H.</h3>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Lam.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Lam.i-p2.1">Since</span> what
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Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the world,
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is certainly true, that <i>sorrow is better than laughter,</i> and
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<i>it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of
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feasting,</i> we should come to the reading and consideration of
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the melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with
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an expectation to edify ourselves by them; and, that we may do
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this, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness and resolve to
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weep with the weeping prophet. Let us consider, I. The title of
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this book; in the Hebrew it has one, but is called (as the books of
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Moses are) from the first word <i>Ecah</i>—<i>How;</i> but the
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Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we from them,
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<i>Kinoth</i>—<i>Lamentations.</i> As we have sacred odes or songs
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of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation; such
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variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and
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move our affections, and so soften our hearts and make them
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susceptible of the impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the
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seal. We have not only <i>piped unto you,</i> but have
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<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.
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17</scripRef>. II. The penman of this book; it was Jeremiah the
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prophet, who is here Jeremiah the poet, and <i>vates</i> signifies
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both; therefore this book is fitly adjoined to the book of his
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prophecy, and is as an appendix to it. We had there at large the
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predictions of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, and then the
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history of them, to show how punctually the predictions were
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accomplished, for the confirming of our faith: now here we have the
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expressions of his sorrow upon occasion of them, to show that he
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was very sincere in the protestations he had often made that he did
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not desire the woeful day, but that, on the contrary, the prospect
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of it filled him with bitterness. When he saw these calamities at a
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distance, he wished that his <i>head were waters and his eyes
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fountains of tears;</i> and, when they came, he made it to appear
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that he did not dissemble in that wish, and that he was far from
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being disaffected to his country, which was the crime his enemies
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charged him with. Though his country had been very unkind to him,
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and though the ruin of it was both a proof that he was a true
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prophet and a punishment of them for prosecuting him as a false
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prophet, which might have tempted him to rejoice in it, yet he
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sadly lamented it, and herein showed a better temper than that
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which Jonah was of with respect to Nineveh. III. The occasion of
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these Lamentations was the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by
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the Chaldean army and the dissolution of the Jewish state both
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civil and ecclesiastical thereby. Some of the rabbies will have
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these to be the Lamentations which Jeremiah penned upon occasion of
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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
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that that opened the door to all the following calamities, yet
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these Lamentations seem to be penned in the sight, not in the
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foresight, of those calamities—when they had already come, not
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when they were at a distance; and there is nothing of Josiah in
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them, and his praise, as was no question, in the lamentations for
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him. No, it is Jerusalem's funeral that this is an elegy upon.
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Others of them will have these Lamentations to be contained in the
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roll which Baruch wrote from Jeremiah's mouth, and which Jehoiakim
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burnt, and they suggest that at first there were in it only the
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1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters, but that the 3rd and 5th were the
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<i>many like words</i> that were afterwards added; but this is a
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groundless fancy; that roll is expressly said to be a repetition
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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
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is not only poetical, but alphabetical, all except the 5th chapter,
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as some of David's psalms are; each verse begins with a several
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letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, the first <i>aleph,</i>
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the second <i>beth,</i> &c., but the 3rd chapter is a triple
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alphabet, the first three beginning with <i>aleph,</i> the next
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three with <i>beth,</i> &c., which was a help to memory (it
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being designed that these mournful ditties should be got by heart)
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and was an elegance in writing then valued and therefore not now to
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be despised. They observe that in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters,
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the letter <i>pe</i> is put before <i>ain,</i> which in all the
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Hebrew alphabets follows it, for a reason of which Dr. Lightfoot
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offers this conjecture, That the letter <i>ajin,</i> which is the
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numeral letter for LXX., was thus, by being displaced, made
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remarkable, to put them in mind of the seventy years at the end of
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which God would turn again their captivity. V. The use of it: of
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great use, no doubt, it was to the pious Jews in their sufferings,
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furnishing them with spiritual language to express their natural
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grief by, helping to preserve the lively remembrance of Zion among
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them, and their children that never saw it, when they were in
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Babylon, directing their tears into the right channel (for they are
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here taught to mourn for sin and mourn to God), and withal
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encouraging their hopes that God would yet return and have mercy
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upon them; and it is of use to us, to affect us with godly sorrow
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for the calamities of the church of God, as becomes those that are
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living members of it and are resolved to take our lot with it.</p>
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</div2> |