X. phet's confolatory addrefs to her, DISC. upon Second place, To take a view of those The mournful fcene is laid by Jeremiah in Ramah, a city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, of which tribe, it may be obferved, the prophet himself was a member, as we learn from the firft verfe in his book; "The words of Jeremiah the fon of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in "Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin." The perfon introduced by him, as making lamentation, is Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, and the mother of that tribe. She had before borne Jofeph, at which VOL. I. Τ time DISC. time by divine instinct, with allufion to X. the name juft impofed, fhe faid-" The "LORD fhall add to me another fon." In childbirth, however, through the prevalence of her pains, fhe was induced to give up her former hopes of a fecond fon, for loft. Her attendant endeavoured to comfort her with her own prediction ; "Fear 66 not, for thou shalt have this fon alfo.” Yet, when her foul was in departing 66 66 (for fhe died!)"-never furely was there a more affecting parenthefis-" when her "foul was in departing (for fhe died!) fhe "called his name Benoni," that is, the fon of my forrow. "His father," feeking to avert the omen with speed, " called him Benjamin," or, the fon of the right hand, that is, of power and glory. Heu nunquam vana parentum auguriathe obfervation of an heathen poet, is found more particularly verified in the history of the patriarchs, because among them there was often a forefight more than human, and the profpect into futurity was opened X. opened to them by a light from above. DISC. The different fates of the tribe of Benjamin feem to have answered the different names imposed at the birth of it's founder, by father and mother. No tribe more valorous than that; none more afflicted with difafters and calamities. At one time flaughtered by it's fellow tribes, almost to excifion, a true Benoni to Rachel, who, had fhe been alive, muft have " wept for her "children, with an exceeding bitter weep 66 ing;" at another, reftored to populoufnefs and prosperity, placed, as it were, at the head of the reft, furnishing the first king, who ruled God's people Ifrael, and realizing the name and character of Benjamin, the son of the right hand. Upon the revolt of the ten tribes, Benjamin adhered to Judah, then the royal tribe, the tribe that gave birth to David, the tribe from which, in the fulness of time, a greater than David was to defcend. When Jeremiah uttered the words now under our confideration, Judah was clofely befieged T 2 DISC. befieged in Jerufalem by the Chaldean X. army, in whose way thither the land of Benjamin lay. It experienced, therefore, of course, all the horrors of invafion. It was miferably wasted, and it's inhabitants were carried away into captivity. This is the reason why old Rachel still renews her former complaint, and will not be perfuaded, but that Benjamin must ftill be Benoni. She and her daughters (for under the name of Rachel we must comprehend all the `woful mothers of that tribe) fill the heavens with their outcries, whilft their children are forced from their embraces into mife rable bondage in Babylon. And though mention be only made of Ramah, a city of Benjamin, yet muft we imagine the wailings to have been as loud and bitter about Bethlehem, which, though in the tribe of Judah, was upon the borders of Benjamin, and near unto the place where Rachel died; as we read in Genefis; "Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which "is Bethlehem, and Jacob fet a pillar upon "her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel's 66 X. grave unto this day "." Such was "the DISC. "voice heard" in the days of Jeremiah, the lamentation, and the bitter weeping;" when " Rachel," as the general mother, and reprefentative of all the mo 66 thers in the tribe, dren, refused to "they were not." 66 weeping for her chil be comforted, because As a people, they had no civil existence. They were, in that fense, loft; they were dead; they were gone into captivity. It was under these circumftances, that the prophet addreffed the difconfolate mother confidering him as a Benjamite, we may fay, his difconfolate mother-" Thus "faith the LORD, Refrain thy voice from "weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work fhall be rewarded, faith the "LORD, and they fhall come again from "the land of the enemy; and there is 66 hope in thine end, faith the LORD, that thy children fhall come again to their "own border." As if he had faid in other words a Gen. xxxv. 20. T 3 -Remem |