In those days of roughness, when war knew not the foftenings of later times, men were wont to bury in the earth every part of their property that could be concealed after that manner, not only filver and gold, but wheat, barley, oil, and honey '; vestments and writings too3.

For that, I apprehend, was the occafion of Jeremiah's ordering, that the writings he delivered to Baruch, mentioned in his thirtyfecond chapter, fhould be put into an earthen veffel.

The experience of preceding ages must have informed him, that lying in the earth, naked and uninclofed, would foon bring on decay; if not, he had had himself a proof of it. "Take "the girdle that thou haft got," faid the Lord to him, "which is upon thy loins, and arife, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the Lord commanded And it came to påfs after many days, pass "that the Lord faid unto me, Arife, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, "which I commanded thee to hide there. "Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, "and took the girdle from the place where "I had hid it: and behold, the girdle was "marred; it was profitable for nothing*." To obviate this, and preferve what was bu

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1

me.

• Jer. 41. 8.

Jer. 13.4-7.

ried more effectually, the ancient Egyptians made ufe of earthen urns, or pots of a proper fhape for receiving what they wanted to inter in the earth, and which without fuch care would have foon been deftroyed. Maillet, defcribing the place in which thofe people used to bury their embalmed birds, reprefents it as a fubterraneous labyrinth, from which perfons could not difengage themfelves, were it not for the help of a line of packthread. It's feveral alleys are adorned, on each fide, with many small niches, in which are found ftone-veffels and pots of earth, in which are inclofed embalmed birds, which turn to duft as foon as touched. What is admirable in this affair is, that all the variety and liveliness of the colouring of their plumage is preferved.

If they buried in earthen pots the things they wanted to preserve in Ægypt, whose fubterraneous caverns are fo dry, and covered with several feet of burning fand; the prophet Jeremiah might well fuppofe it proper to inclose those writings in an earthen pot, which were to be buried in Judæa, in fome place where they might be found without much difficulty on their return from captivity.

Two different writings, or small rolls of writing, called books, in the original Hebrew, (their books being only each of them a roll of writing, and these confequently being properly little books, according to their notions of

things,) were evidently to be inclofed in this earthen veffel, and commentators have been terribly embarraffed to give any probable account why there were two writings: one fealed; the other open-according as it is commonly understood, the one fealed up; the other left open for any one to read. One cannot imagine any caufe why there fhould be this diftinction made between them, when both were presently to be hid from every eye, by being buried in fome fecret place; and both were to be examined at the return from the captivity. No account indeed that is tolerably probable has been given, that I know of, why there fhould be two diftinct writings for this fale of land; but still lefs, why one should be fealed up, and the other left open.

I would then remark, that though one of them is said to be fealed, it doth not follow that it was fealed in fuch a manner as not to be opened. Many a conveyance of land has been fealed among us, and rendered valid to all intents and purposes, without ever being fecured fo as not to be read. The diftinction of one from the other by the circumstance of it's being fealed, while the fecond was open, feems to have been the caufe of it's being understood to have been fealed up fo as not to be opened; to which probably may be added, their recollecting the circumftance of a book being fealed, which on that account could not be read, mentioned by the prophet Ifaiah, chap. xxix. 11. But though a letter,

which in their style might be called a book, might often be fo fealed, it doth not at all follow, nor, I fhould think, is it at all probable, that the book of the purchase of an eftate, upon it's being fealed fo as to become valid, was fealed fo as to be shut up that none could read it. Let us drop then the idea of it's being hidden from the eye, and only fealed fo as to be valid: probably not with wax; but, according to the prefent Eastern manner, with ink.

Next it is to be observed, that the word - tranflated open (the evidence or book which was open) is not that which is twice made ufe of Nehemiah viii. 5. "And Ezra open"ed the book in the fight of all the peo

ple, (for he was above all the people,) "and when he opened it, all the people stood "up';" but is a word which fignifies the revealing future events unto the minds of men, by a divine agency, and it is, in particular, made use of in the book of Efther, to exprefs a book's making known the decree of an earthly king, chap, viii. 13. "The copy "of the writing, for a commandment to be given in every province, was published unto "all people," or revealed, as it is tranflated in the margin. They that look on the original, will find it is the fame Hebrew verb

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Nor that ufed Neh. 6. 5, where mention is made of an open letter; nor that in Dan. 7. 10, which speaks of fitting in judgment, and opening books.

1 Sam. 3. 7, 21, Dan. 2. 19, 30, ch. 10. 1.

with that used in this 32d of Jeremiah, and the very fame participle of that verb. The open book then of Jeremiah feems to fignify, not it's being then lying open or unrolled before them, while the other was fealed up; but the book that had revealed the will of God, to bring back Ifrael into their own country, and to caufe buying and felling of houfes and lands again to take place among

them.

It appears, from the beginning of the 30th chapter, that Jeremiah had been commanded to write down the declaration God had made to him by the Prophetic Spirit, concerning the bringing back the captivity of Ifrael and Judah, and their repoflefling the land given to their fathers'; now that writing, or the copy of fome other fimilar prophecy, he produced upon this tranfaction, and commanded Baruch to inclose them both in the fame earthen veffel, which might be exhibited afterwards as a proof of the veracity of their prophets. I apprehend then the open book means a book of prophecy, opening and revealing the future return of Ifrael, and should fomehow have been fo expreffed as to convey that thought to the reader's mind, not as a little volume not fealed up, in contradiftinction from the state of the other little book ordered to be buried along with it, which was the purchase-deed.

• See ver. 3.

The