400 · TotheREADER• . . depart($re pf the people out ,o{.£gypt ; 1950 year.t, ft:r: months ,ten days, after the DeltJge ;,and 35 I 3 years,jix mvneths, ten dtt)'cs.J Ptfter; the Creation of Adam. Thus, and then was the City ofJerufaJem tak.._en, nnd for feventy yeares ·rem.4ined the Jews in · this Captivity: And this, in brief, is the (Jeneral occafionwhy,' and the time when thefe La,;;~ntations 1 were compofed. Reader, I tender 'to thy conft- . deratirm ·two things : Firft, the Pen-man : Se- · cond!y, the Art and Methodof this Threnodia.As for the firft~it was penned by Jeremy the Prop~et1 the [on of Hilkiab, a Priefl; tltJd nndoubted!y endited by the Spirit of God : Some think_. it wat writteft when the Prophet wtu in Prifon : others, when he was with Godoliah at Mafpah: but whe– ther at the one place, or the other, it is not much material to difcour[e. / . , Secondly, as touching the Art and Method, it .isjhurt and ctmcife , IU being moft natura[ to r~ lamentable afubjeEt. Cicerofays,Lamentationes debent effe concif<r &breves,quia cito lachryma ~xarefcit, & difficile eft auditores, aur Ietlores in ilio effeCl:u fu'mmz commiferationis , diu ~ . tenere. The method is truly elegious , not bound · to .-an ordinary {et form, but wildLy depending uprm the fuddeu fubjefl, .that new griefs pre~nt, and indeed thedeepefi forrow.r c~tnnot be but diftr_aEted from ttll rl$les of method; the negleEl ~;f n·hich, is venial in fuch ejaculations & thtp, M -ahi~h tn
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=