11 the throne of Jehovah's glory" ( eh. xvi i. 12). But, as our own Milton says, "when God commands to take the trumpet and blow a dolorous or fl. j:nring blast, it lies not in man's will what he shall say." 1 There are several passages which show bow nearly intolerable Jeremiah's position became to him, and how terribly bitter his feelings (sometimes at least) towards his own enemies and those of his country. 'fake, for instance, that thrilling passage in eh. xx. 7-13, beginning (if one may correct the version)- ,. Thou didst entice me, 0 Jehovah! and I let myself be enticed; Thou didst take hold on me, and didst prevail ; I have become a derision all the day long, They all mock me." The contrast between what he hoped for as a prophet of Jehovah, and what he actually experienced, takes form in his mind as the result of an enticement on the part of Jehovah. The passage draws to its end with the solemnly jubilant words- " But Jehovah is with me as a fierce warrior ; Therefore shall mine enemies stumble and not prevail, They shall be greatly ashamed, because they have not prospered, With an everlasting reproach that shall never be forgotten. And thou, 0 Jehovah of hosts, that triest the righteous, That seest the reins and the heart, Let me see thy revenge upon them, For unto thee have I committed my cause, Sing ye unto Jehovah; praise ye Jehovah: For he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doer,." But immediately after this chant of faith, the prophet relapses into melan- choly with those terrible words, which recur almost word for word in the first discourse of the afflicted Job- " Cursed be the day wherein I was born: Let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed," etc.a And even this is not the roost bitter thing which Jeremiah has saiLl. On one occasion, when his enemies had plotted against him, he utters the following solemn imprecation:-" Give heed to me, 0 Jehovah, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Should evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for roy soul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them-to turn away thy wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and spill them into the hands of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain by the plague, their young men smitten of the swonl in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou bringest Slll1- denly troops upon them: for they have diggcd a pit to take me, aml hid • 'Ronson of Church Government,' bk. ii. 1 Cow,Pnre similar passages in eh. xiv., xv., xvii. 15-18. l"iii INTRODUCTION TO
snares for my feet. But thon, 0 Jehovah, knowcst all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be ( counted as) fallen ones before thee; deal with them (accordingly) in the time of thine anger" (eh. xviii. 19-23). And now. how arc we to account for this? Shall we ascribe it to a sudden ebullition of natural anger? Some will reply that this is inconceivable in one consecrated from his youth to the service of God. Let us remember, however, that even the perfect Exemplar of consecrated manhood gave utterance to feelings somewhat akin to those of Jeremiah.1 When our Lord fo11nd (from the point of view of his humiliation, we may say "found ") that all his preaching and all his wonderful works were thrown away on the scribes and Pharisees, he did not hesitate to pour out the full vials of his wrath on those "hypocrites." Doubtless "be felt pity as well as anger, but he thought the anger had a better right to be expressed. The impostors must be first unmasked ; they might be forgiven after- wards, if they should abandon their conventionalties. The lover of men is angry to see harm done to men."i Jeremiah, too, like our Lord, felt pity as well as anger--pity for the nation misguided by its natural" shepherds," and was willing to extend forgivene8s, in the name of his Lord, to those who were willing to return; the addresses in eh. vii., xxii. 2-9 are manifestly intended for those very "shepherds of the people" whom he afterwards so solemnly curses. Natural feeling, no doubt, there was in his communications, but a natural feeling purified and exalted by the inspiring Spirit. He feels himself charged with the thunders of an angry God; he is conscious that he is the representative of that Messiah-people of whom a still greater prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah- " Thou art my servant, 0 Israel, in whom I will get myself glory." ( Isa. xlix. 3.)
This latter point is well worthy of consideration, as it suggests the most probable explanation of the imprecatory passages in the Psalms as well as in the Book of Jeremiah. Both psalmists ancl prophet felt themselves repre- sentatives of that "Son of God" (Hos. xi. 1), that Messiah-people, which existed to some slight extent in reality, but in its full dimensions in the Divine counsels. Jeremiah, in particular, was a type of the true Israelite, an Abdiel (a "servant of God") among the faithless, an adumbration of the perfect Israel and the perfect Israelite reserved by God for future ages. Feeling himself, however indistinctly, to be such a type and such a repre- sentative, and being at the same time " one of like affections ( oµ.oio1ra0~c;) with ourselves," he could not but use language which, however justified, bears a superficial resemblance to vindictive enmity. 1 It is best to speak guardedly. There was, doubtless, some bumnn dross left in Jere- minh ; nnd only the perfect " Servant of Jehovah " could appropriate the description in Isa. xiii. 2, 3. 2 'Ecce Homo,' p. 270 (eh. x:xi). THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JERE:MIAH. ix