c? PT}TT>irmT;Tmsr isr .t. 'J* PRINCETON, N. J. .,v,>.„....:b.^.,).^ i 5 ^f.Lr...t ...T..(^ ^/4f//" Number «.. NEW TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION OF THE VERY ANCIENT BOOK OF JOB. NEW TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION THE VERY ANCIENT BOOK OF JOB; WITH NOTES, EXPLANATORY AND PHILOLOGICAL. BY THE REV. JOHN 1[^RY, B. A., LATE OF I'NIVERSITV COLLEGE, OXFORD; RECTOR OF DESFORD, LEICESTERSHIRE: AUTHOR OF ANEW TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION OF THE CANTICLES ; LECTIIKES ON ST. PAUI.'s EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS ; A NEW TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION OF THE psalms; THE SECOND ADVENT; A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN church; THE SICK MAN's FRIEND; AND A PRESENT FOR THE CONVALESCENT. '■ Yo have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of tlie Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."— James v. 11. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER-ROW, MDCCCXXVII. LONDON : Printed by William Clowes, Stamford-street. P K E F A C E. That the Book of Job has been properly numbered among the inspired writings has hardly ever been called in question. It is known to have formed part of that Sacred Volume which our Saviour Christ refers to as ' the Scripture\' It is cited by the apostles PauP and James % and was, accordingly, received as canonical by all the ancient fathers, councils, and churches. Some few authors have suggested that the Book of Job is not the narrative of a real event, but is to be considered as of a parabolical or allegorical character. This idea, however, has been ably refuted by a very large majority of the most learned and eminent expositors ^. The manner in which Job is mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, and by St. James, can hardly leave room for a doubt on this head ; and in most readers, I believe, a conviction of the reality of the narrative will arise from a simple perusal of the work itself. With respect to the subject and author of this book, the country and age in which he lived, much has been * The Jewish writer, Joseph us, also includes the Book of Job in the sacred list. — Co?i(. Apion, lib. i. '' 1 Cor. iii. 19. "^ James v. 2. "^ Among these may be numbered Spanheim, Sherlock, Scliultcns, Bishop Louth, Peters, Kennicolt, Hales, Magee, and Good. b "Vl PREFACE. ably and satisfactorily written, especially by Bishop Louth % Archbishop Magee ^ Dr. Hales, 'and Mr. Good. Arch- bishop Magee observes — " As to the place of Job's resi- dence, there seems to be little doubt ; commentators are mostly agreed in fixing on Idumea, a part of Arabia Petrsea. Kennicott considers Bishop Louth as having completely proved this point. Corducus had long before maintained the same opinion ; and Dathe and the German commen- tators give it their support. The position of the land of Uz, (Lara. iv. 21) the residence of Job, and the several places named as the habitations of his friends, seem to ascertain the point. • Children of the east,' also, appears to be a denomination applicable to the inhabitants of that region, and is even pronounced by Dathe to have been appropriate*^." How far the appellation of ' the land of Uz' extended, we do not know ; but farther, probably, than what was afterwards properly called Idumea. Jeremiah's expression is, " O daughter of Edom, that dwelleth in the land of Uz !" Perhaps some regions more to the east or north- east, were anciently included in the land of Uz. I am disposed to think so, because, in a remarkable passage of the Book of Job, the river Jordan seems to be referred to as a large river, perhaps the largest with which Job was familiarly acquainted ''. To ascertain the era when the Book of Job was written, great pains have been taken by many able and learned writers, and their labours have been rewarded with re- markable success. Mr. Good i^ronounces its author to have been " a ^ Pra?lectiones. ^ Appendix to his ScrqAural DocUines of Atonement, &c. <= Magee, vol. ii. 179. d liap.xl, 23. Comp. Jeremiah XXV. 20, 21. PREFACE. Vii Hebrew by birth and native language, and an Arabian by long residence and local study." He adds, "there is intrinsic evidence, that as a Hebrew he must have flou- rished and have written the work antecedently to the Egyptian exody. The annals of the world do not present to us a single nation so completely wrapped up in their own history as the Hebrews. Throughout every book, both in the Old and New Testament, in which it could possibly be adverted to, the eye of the writer turns to different parts of it, and dwells upon it with inextinguishable fondness — The call of Abi'aham, the bondage and miracles in Egypt, the journeying through the wilderness, the delivery of the Law, the passage of the Red Sea and of Jordan, &c. &c., " are perpetually brought before us, as ornaments and illustrations of the subject discussed. To none of these, however, does the Book of Job make the smallest refer- ence." He observes, moreover, that this poem " is (fcca- sionally quoted and copied by almost every Hebrew writer, who had an opportunity of referring to it, from the age of Moses to that of MalachI ; especially by the Psalmist, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel — leading us by a collateral, though not quite so direct, a train of evidence, to a similar conclusion as to Its high origin and anti- quity." These circumstances have led Mr. Good to adopt the conjecture of those who suppose the Book of Job to be a production of Moses ; that he composed it long before he wrote the Pentateuch, when, as an exile in Arabia, he served his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian ; that he there learned the particulars of Job's trial, whom Mr. Good supposes to have been a descendant of Esau. Professor Gognet, and the late Bishop Horsley, seem also to have been of this opinion. " A great difficulty," b 2 VIU PREFACE. observes Archbishop Magee, " hangs upon the hypothesis, that Moses was the author of this book, namely, that as he must have intended it for the Israelites, it is scarcely possible to conceive, although relating an Idumean his- tory, he should not have introduced something referring to the particular state and circumstances of the people for whose use it was destined ; of which no trace whatever appears in the work." And it is equally incredible, with respect to the characters introduced in the Book of Job, that, supposing them to be worshippers of Elohim, de- scended from Abraham, especially considering the theo- logical character of the work, there should be no allusion in their conversations to the call of Abraham, or to cir- cumcision, a relio-ious rite which all the tribes descended from Abraham retained. The argument which Kennicott and Mr. Good have advanced, to prove Moses to be the author of this book, 'similiarity of style,' cannot be thought clear and decisive, when so good a judge as Bishop Lowth drew an opposite conclusion from what he conceived to be the material dif- ference between the style of Job and the poetic style of Moses. And though Mr. Good thinks he perceives an ' identity of manner' where the two works treat of crea- tion, &c. ; yet Mr. Peters remarks, that " the manner in which the creation, the fall, the deluge, and other parts of ancient history, are treated in the Book of Job, is widely different from that in which they are spoken of in the books of Moses." Arguments of this class must necessa- rilv be very indecisive ; and indeed, should we assume the fact, that the Pentateuch and the Book of Job were the productions of different authors, we should still expect to find some similiarit}^ and what some might call ' identity of manner,' in works which, comparatively speaking, PREFACE. ix ascend so near each other in remote antiquity, far above all other writings, and which possess, besides, one common source of divine inspiration. " If Moses, therefore, as is probable," Archbishop Magee observes, " was the person who enrolled the Book of Job in the Jewish canon, there is sufficient ground for the conclusion, that it is not the production of Moses, but of some earlier age ; and it is the opinion of many distin- guished commentators, that the poem is as ancient as its subject % and that Job was not only the hero, but the author of the work." What Mr. Good and others remark of the language in which the Book of Job is written, designating it as Hebrew slightly tinctured with an Arabian dialect, may well be supposed to answer to the character of the language spoken in Arabia in the earliest ages. It is the opinion of some of the first scholars, sup]3orted by very satisfac- tory arguments, that the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and other kindred dialects, were originally one and the same language. The language spoken by the fathers of mankind — the language of Noah and Shem ; the language of Heber, the common stock, from whence the Hebrews, the Chaldeans, and the more ancient Ai-a- bians were descended. For Joktan, who first peopled Arabia, was the son of Heber, as was Pelegthe progenitor in a direct line of Abraham. The language, therefore, in which the Book of Job is written, was probably the lan- guage spoken by the inhabitants of Arabia in his age, and differed as yet extremely little from the dialect of their ancestors ''. a See Magee, vol. ii. 206, and Peters' Crit. /)«., p. 123—125. b Michaelis observes, "• that one principal reason for our attributing to the Book of Job, Chaldeac, Syriac, and Arabic expressions, may be the very great antiquity and uncommon sublimity of elevation which has occa- sioned a greater number of air«| Myo/^tvcc, and expressions diHicuU to be X PREFACE. lu pursuing the investigation, to determine at what period, before the age of Moses, the Book of Job was written, the same reasoning, which demonstrates its pri- ority to the Exodus of the children of Israel, deduced from the total silence which it observes respecting the wonders of that great event, occurring so near the spot where the scene of the poem is laid, equally proves, as has been already intimated, that Job could not have been posterior to the call of Abraham, and the covenant which God made with him respecting ' his seed ;' at least, that if Job was contemporary with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, or posterior to them, he must have been of a different branch of the family of Shem, uninfluenced by this new dispensation. Because, if we suppose Job to have been descended from, or connected with the Father of the faith- ful, it seems impossible to imagine that his religious pro- spects would not have been in some measure affected by the Abrahamic covenant — an event which formed a new epocha in the history of the chuixh, and, as it were, con- centrated and gave a special direction to the religious hopes of believers in all subsequent ages. In the Book of Job, however, we have no allusion to this transaction, any more than to the Exodus, or to the law of Moses ; we understood, which commentators are constantly led to explain from these several languages ; not because the words strictly belong to them, but because there are more books, and better understood, in these languages than in Hebrew." — Mich. Nut. et Epim. pp. 194, 195. See Magee, vol. ii. 194. Peters also remarks, {Crit. Dis., p. 143.) " there are expressions in this book of a stamp so ancient, that they are not to be met with in the Chal- deac, Syriac, or any other language at present known; and many which rarely occur elsewhere, and are difficult to be explained, are here to be found in their primitive and most simple forms." But of all others, as might well be supposed, the investigation of the Arabic language, though few of its ancient documents, beyond the time of Mohammed, have been preserved, has thrown great light upon many obscurities in this ancient work. — See the works of the two Schultens, Reiske, and Good. PREFACE. xi find nothing but such rites of sacrifice as Noah observed, and such a knowledge of the covenant of Elohim as he miglit have conveyed to his posterity. Nothing, but such a general knowledge of the expected Redeemer, as the primeval promise of the ' woman's seed' to ' bruise the serpent's head,' or as the prophecies of an Enoch, might have imparted to the early patriarchial church. It seems very evident too, that, in the time of Abraham, the worship of ' strange gods" was not only known, but had already contaminated his fathers. But when Job would number up every crime that could be committed against God, he can only mention one species of idolatry, the adoration of the sun and moon. This is an argument of considerable weight, for the priority of Job to Abra- ham ; and another is, the length of days to which Job attained, compared with the ages at which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died. Abraham was promised a good old age ; he died at the age of an hundi'ed and seventy-five. Isaac died at an hundred and eighty. Jacob was a hun- dred and forty-seven when he died. But by every pro- bable calculation, the age of Job must have extended considerably beyond these fathers of the Hebrew race. We are told, that Job survived his I'estoration from his calamities a hundred and forty years. But when his troubles came upon him, he must have been advanced in life. His ten children were evidently all grown up, and the sons had their separate establishments. He distin- guishes his life of pious observances from his youth. His friends who visited him are described as possessing ' days' and ' multitude of years' — the probability is, that Job was about their standing. It is remarkable, however, that there are several obser- vations made, in the discussions of Job and his friends ^ Joshua xxiv. 2. Xll PREFACE. with each other, which indicate that the period of human life was, at this time, much curtailed from what it had been in the days of their ancestors, whose memorable say- ings they record. It is from this circumstance that the era of Job may, with great probability, be fixed. In the genealogies of the patriarchs we find a gradual reduction of the standard of human life at different eras. Noah's was the life of an antediluvian — he attained to nine hundred and fifty years ; Shem only to six hundred years, and his son, Arphaxad, only to four hundred and thirt}- eight years. This was nearly the age of his son Salah, and of his grandson Heber. But Peleg, the son of Heber, only attained to two hundred and thirty-nine years, which began the third reduction of the standard of human life. It is not long after this third reduction that we must, in all probability, fix the period of Job. Dr. Hales observes — Bildad, referring Job to their forefathers for instruction in wisdom, says, " Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age ; and prepare thyself to search of their fathers." Assigning as a reason, the comparative short- ness of life, and consequent ignorance of the present gene- ration— " For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing; because our days upon earth are a shadow^." Dr. Hales, therefore, embraces the opinion of Abul- faragi, who, on the authority of Arudha, a Canaanilish historian, places the trial of Job in the year B. C. 2337, in the twenty-fifth year of the life of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg. He observes, on the passage quoted above, " The fathers of the former age, or grandfathers of the present, were the contempo- raries of Peleg and Joktan, in the fifth generation after the deluge ; and they might easily have learned wisdom from the fountain-head, by conversing with Shem, or => Chap. viii. 8,9. PREFACE. XIU perhaps with Noah himself; whereas in the seventh gene- ration, the standard of human life was reduced to about two hundred years ; which was ' a shadow' compared with the longevity of Noah and his sons". There is also another passage, not noticed by Dr. Hales, which much corroborates this statement. Eliphaz, to gain credit to one of the traditions of the ancients, which he is going to rejoeat to Job, declares it to be What wise men have delivered, And concealed not ' as coming' from their fathers : To whom alone the earth was given, And no stranger passed among them. — Chap. xv. IS, 19. The word rendered ' the earth' may indeed be rendered ' the land,' but with somewhat less probability. If we render ' the earth,' the reference will be to that generation of men who had not yet been settled in their respective portions of lands, but were holding in undivided posses- sion all the earth which they could occupy, being the only family of human beings on its surface — " no stranger passed amongst them." If the translation, ' the land,' be substituted, the reference will be then to the same gene- ration— the fathers of those sages, with whom Eliphaz had conversed as the first settlers in the country. And as we know that it was in the days of Peleg that the earth was divided, it was then that Joktan, his brother, took pos- session of Arabia, from whom, on account of his local situ- ation, we may suppose Job to have been descended. At a The only doubt respecting the accuracy of the deductions from tins passage, is that whicli is rendered ' former generation,' is ralhcr ' tlie first generation'— not tiie first generation of mankind, certainly, for their fathers are spoken of. The ' first generation' must mean ' the first settlers m Arabia— Joktan and his family.' Whether these were the fathers or the grandfathers of the present race may not be quite certain ; but the proba- bility is, not more distant than the latter, from the freshness of the tradi- tions which they quote ; not earlier, from the reflection on ' the curtaihnj of days,' which the present generation experienced. XIV PREFACE, the period, too, when each respective family had i*ecent]y taken possession of their new settlements, their occupa- tions would for some time prevent much intercourse between the nations — ' no stranger passed among them.' This state of things in the age of Job two hundred and seventy-seven years after that event was much altered, both for purposes of war and of commerce ; excursions had been made into each other's territories, and ' travellers passed by the way.' It appears also, from Sir William Jones, that it must have been very nearly at the epocha here assigned to the trial of Job, that Zabianism, or the worshipping of the luminaries of heaven, began to make progress in Arabia: " The people of Yemen," he says, " very soon fell into the common but fatal error of adoring the sun and the firmanient ; for even the third in descent from Joktan, who was consequently as old as Nahor, took the sirname of* Abdu-Shams, or servant of the sun;' and his family, we are assured, paid particular honours to that lumi- nary^" It was in these circumstances, that Job protests his innocence of ever having^ been betrayed into this rising corruj)tion of the times. If I had looked on. the light when it shone forth, Or the moon increasing in brightness, And my heart been secretly enticed, And my hand been kissed to my mouth : This too, ' had been' a crime demanding justice, For I should have denied El from above. And if it is clear, as many authors suppose, that Chimah and Chesil, in chap. ix. 9, and xxxviii. 31, 32, denote the constellations Taurus and Scorpio, and that they are men- tioned as the then cardinal constellations of Spring and Autumn, it is pointed out by Dr. Hales, and others, that * Anintic Researches. PREFACE. XV by astronomical calculation respecting the precession of the equinoxes, about the same age, must be asci'ibed to the trial of Job. Whether the interjDretation of these passages, on which this last argument rests, be quite clear or not, there seems abundant evidence to acquiesce in the date assigned by Dr. Hales : "B.C. 2337 ; or, eight hundred and eighteen years after the deluge ; one hundred and eighty-four years before the birth of Abraham ; four hundred and seventy- four years before the settlement of Jacob's family in Egypt, and six hundred and eighty-nine years before their exode, or departure from thence*." Such is the date of the trial : it will be seen, however, as we enter upon this singular piece of antiquity, that consider- able portions of the former part of the work ai'e professedly ' sayings,' or ' parables,' handed down by tradition from the times of their fathers, and their fathers' fathers, which brings us near to the times of Noah and his sons. We may therefore use the very appropriate language of Mr. Good, even with somewhat more emphasis than him- self, on his hypothesis of the date of the Book of Job, that it is " A DEPOSITORY OF PATRIARCHAL RELIGION, the best and fullest depository in the world," — " we obtain a clear and decisive answer to the questions which have so often been proposed — What is the ultimate intention of the Book of Job ? And for what purpose is it introduced into the Hebrew and Christian canons ?" — " For the pur- pose of making those canons complete, by uniting as full an account as is necessary of the dispensation of the pa- triarchs, with the two dispensations by which it was pro- gressively succeeded." " The Book of Job is that very book which gives completion to the Bible, by adding the dispensation of the earliest ages to that of the law, and of " Chron. vol. ii. p. 58. XVI PREFACE. the gospel." With those persons, therefore, who would read the books of the Sacred Scripture in chronological order, a practice attended with very great advantage, the perusal of the Book of Job should follow the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis, as belonging to the pa- triarchal times, previous to that new era in the church of God, which commenced with the call of Abraham*. Esteeming what has been mentioned as the ultimate object of the enrolling of this book in the canon of Scrip- ture, we may learn its more immediate object from the Apostle James — " Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." St. James had said, in general, that we must " take the prophets, who have spoken in the Dame of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience." He particularizes the case of Job, because his sufferings were very great : we chiefly know him from his trials ; and because in this scripture we learn, more at length than in any other, that the Lord has always an end and wise design in the trials and afflictions of his servants, however extraordinary and unaccountable they may at the time appear ; and that when this ' end of the Lord' is seen, it will be found, as we learn from the case of Job, that, however grievous for the present the affliction may be, we shall be compelled to ' count them happy that endure.' That same chastening Father, whose hand had seemed so heavy, and his eludings, perhaps, so severe and cruel, will be demonstrated, in the end, to have been " very pitiful and of tender mercy"" towards us in all his dealings with us. * According to Dr. Ilales's Chronology, Job died forty-four years before the birth of Abraham, who entered Canaan a little more tlian a hundred years after Job's death. PREFACE. XVU This is the great moral of the story of Job. In so early an age did the wisdom of God see fit to read this lesson to his church: for it seems to hold good under every dis- pensation, under the patriarchal as well as the gospel, that ' through much tribulation' we may be called to ' enter into the kingdom of God,' not, indeed, as a thing of course, or of necessity, but still as often seen to be fit and conducive to good, in the manifold wisdom of God, in making us partakers of His holiness. This lesson, so requisite to be known by the church in all ages, and some- what hard to be learned, was taught at this very early period. And though the dispensations of the covenant of grace have varied, and, in some tilings, that which was glorious once has now no glory, by reason of that which excelleth ; yet the instructions to be learned ' from the patience of Job,' and from ' the end of the Lord,' as seen in his trial, are as useful and as much needed as ever. Nothing since revealed has superseded these instructions. We live under the same Providence, it is the same chasten- In<>- Father ; there Is the same need for correction unto righteousness. The same trial of faith now worketh patience, and there Is the same blessing to " the man that endureth temptation ; for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him." Some vulgar notions, indeed, are still current about ' Job, the most patient man.' But we do not, in fact, find Job, in all respects, a model of patience, in tlie common acceptation of the term. The word, however, strictly signifies ' persevering continuance,' or ' constancy,' m pursuit of, or waiting for, an object, rather than the bearing of trouble with an ecpial, undisturbed mind. It is not what affliction finds In the mind, but what it works or produces. " Tribulation worketh patience." " Be XVIU PREFACE. patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of theLoi'd. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain." " Let us run with patience the race set before us." The fortitude and equanimity of Job's mind, we shall see, though it was not small, gave way in his severe troubles ; but, where his faith is fixed upon the coming of his Redeemer, his veiy trials seem to have given him steadfastness and constancy. Though he despaired of all besides, though his faith was tried with fire, and every other dependence of his mind was burned up ; — for it is discovered that he had some wrong depen- dencies in his mind, particularly the pride and boast of a self-righteous spirit, which it was the design of God to prove and consume by the fire of affliction, — yet, notwith- standing, his faith was found unto praise, and honour, and glory ; and ' the God of patience and of all consolation,' after he had separated his dross from the gold, restored him to prosperity, and highly exalted him. Thus is he counted happy as one that had endured chastisement, and saw " the end of the Lord, that he is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." Another great doctrine of the faith, which we shall also find in a particular manner taught and illustrated in the Book of Job, is that of Providence : not only that there is a constant and particular providence in all the affairs of men, but that that conduct of the Disposer of all things, which sometimes appears to us so strange, so mysterious, and inexplicable, and so contrary to all right and reason, in our poor estimate of things, is in every instance the dispensation of a wise, just, designing, and ever-watchful mind, whose will in all things nothing has resisted. For, though voluntary agents, men and angels are the instru- ments of his providence, they cannot go beyond the word PREFACE. XIX of the Lord to do less or more of their own accord, but can only accomplish that which his counsel and fore- knowledge determined to be done ; so that in all events we should learn to say, not only it is " the Lord," but also " the Lord is just, and wise, and good^" * The absolute dependanco of angelic beings, be they good or evil, on the will of God in all their actings towards man, which is very clearly shown in the Book of Job, is carefully to be observed. And tlie more especially as a learned author, to whose critical labours on this portion of Scripture we owe so much, has sanctioned, in his preface and notes, what the late Bishop Horsley justly denominates '• the abominable doctrine of a participation of the holy angels in God's government of the world." That is, not as simple messengers and ministers of the Almighty, which is not disputed, but as tutelar demigods, having a discretionary authority placed in their hands ; — a doctrine, as the Bishop observes, " nearly allied to ido- latry," and " much the same thing as polytheism ;" and which indeed countenances one of tlie worst parts of the Roman Catholic superstition, dividing the worship of Christians between God and his saints, so that we have " Lords many," if not " Gods many." One term, indeed, which Mr. Good uses as an epithet, for an order in his imagined celestial hierarchy, ' Melizim,' ' intercessors,' will convey to the mind of the pious believer a fearful apprehension, lest an infringement upon the office of " the one mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ," is intended ; and especially, as Mr. Good, when he states, as one of the chief doctrines of the patriarchal religion, "The propitiation of the Creator, in the case of human transgressions, by sacrifices, and the media- tion and intercession of a righteous person," is by no means explicit in stating whether he means sacrifice as to the act itself, the opus operatum, or, as a typical and sacramental rite, having reference to the shedding of the precious blood of Christ, — whether the own proper righteousness of the patriarchal priest was the prevailing mediation for the souls of men; or whether the priestly office of the patriarchal ages was merely emblema- tical of the GREAT mediator's office, of whose ' righteousness alone' we are to ' make mention,' and not, in this view, of the imitative righteousness, with which the faithful priest is clothed. With respect, however, to this doctrine of the tutelar protection of angels, and their intermediate government as a kind of mesne lords, 1 must own I had discovered nothing like it in the Book of Job; and am very far from thinking, as this author asserts,"that the plain and comnum sense of (he terms referred to, in the very ancient poem before us," afford any argument to prove that " such a doctrine was of patriarchal belief." I ant still disposed to say with Bishop Horsley, " Confidcnlly I deny that a single text is to be found in holy writ, which, rightly understood, gives the least countenance to this doctrine ;" — " the most that can be made of angels is, tliat they are servants, occasionally employed by tlie Most High God to do his errands for the elect*." * Sermons, vol. ii. p. 416, 417. XX PREFACE. A chief difference, in a general point of view, which will be found, in the present exposition of the Book of Job, Mr. Good, I apprehend, from liis representation of Bishop Ilorsley, pag'e 73, has not made himself master of his meaning: since, if the reader com- pares the tvvo authors tog-ether, lie will find Bishop Horsley's opposition to the doctrine to be not" apparent only," as Mr. Good terms it," and merely under an apprehension of its abuse," but as strong and decided as language can express. He will find a wide difference between the concessions of the Bishop respecting the ministration of angels, and the doctrine maintained by Mr. Good, which the Bishop terms " abominable, nearly allied to ido- latry, or rather much the same thing with polytheism." I think, too, Mr. Good to be particularly unfortunate in his emendation of the Bishop's translation of Dan. iv. 14, or 17. To the division of the " Ourin," watchers, " is the decree, and to the Kedosin," holy ones, " the introspection." How this is giving the words a ' more Chaldaic bearing' than that approved by the Bishop, I am at a loss to discover! I should have thought it had been moi-e usual at least, both in the Chaldee and in the Hebrew, to have understood -n as expres- sive of the instrument rather than of the object. For the meaning of the word mi3, we need not travel far. In the 21th verse, or 2 1st in the Chal- dee of the same chapter, it is used again ; and what in the verse before us is called '• the decree of the watchers," is there called the decree of the Most High, the .same word being used in each place. How the word comes to mean " a division of a host," does not appear from the Chaldee j for this Mr. Good has recourse to the Hebrew nT3 ; for which, however, there is no occasion, as the prophet's repetition of the word in a sentence where the meaning is not disputed, is quite satisfactory as to the sense in which he uses the word in the place before us. " By the decree of the ■WATCHERS is this order," or" warrant," or "judicial decision." The word l-l-y, which after the LXX. and vulgate, we translate 'watchers' being an ccra^ AiyojUivDv, must rest upon its own merits. But as derived from -ny, according to the usual etymology, it is indeed a most expressive epithet of Deity, of the ever-ivakeful, ever-tvatchful providence of Ike Omniscient — " the unsleeping eyes of God." For it is a mistake to take the secondary idea of uxiiching, keeping guard, since, in its primary notion, it expresses the active employment of tlie energies of the mind. " Primaria signi- ficalio esifervere, cBstuare. Hinc surrexit, excitavit se, evigilavit." Lastly, what can Mr. Good mean by the declaration, " the term i^ii-np is still less applicable to the Godhead ! !" We have only to translate it as it is usually translated in Scripture " holy ones," and every person will perceive that is a very common appellation of Deity among the sacred writers. In the Hebrew of Joshua xxiv. 19, and of Proverbs ix. 11, you will find it used as here in the plural number, in application to the sacred Godhead. Nor is there the least reason to suppose, that the term in the Chaldean dialect had a different acceptation, which rendered it inapplicable to the Supreme Being. Compare Dan. iv. Ifi. ' That the same term is used of the saints, or consecrated ministers of God, though liable to defilement and defectibility, unsuitable to their holy station and office,' certainly affords PREFACE. XXI from those which have of late been most approved amongst us, has arisen from a different understanding of a text, which has been hitherto considered as a key to the inter- pretation of the whole book, viz., the seventh verse of the last chapter — "The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends, for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." This has been consi- dered as applying to the different conversations between Job and his friends, which comprise the larger portion of the book ; accordingly the most favourable turn has everywhere been given to the language of Job, to the utmost, and beyond what it will bear ; and the arguments of the friends have been too unfavourably stated, and even the address of Elihu has been pronounced as " bearing too hard upon poor Job" — " His reproofs" to have been " too harsh and severe." " Wiiere he endeavours to repeat what Job had said," he is charged with giving it, " for the most part, a wrong turn, or set- ting it in some very disadvantageous light \" This hypothesis has also induced expositors much to no argument to the contrary. How, again, conies "inxo, or 1DND3, to be translated " to the charge," and xnbxii', " introspection." It is far more natural to translate," and by the command of the iiOLV ones* is' this requi- sition," or" perhaps" is this thing*. » Mr. Peter's Critical Disseiiation,p. 437. The late Rev. Thomtis Scolt, in his valuable Commentary, observes on this text, " it is not unlikely that some readers have been ready to con- clude, whilst we iiave gone through the preceding chapters, that the dis- courses of Job have been too favourably, and those of his friends, too un- favourably explained. But this chapter was all along considered as the clue of the whole narration ; without which it would have been presumptuous to have decided positively and without hesitation. It is, however, evident, that the general doctrine of Job was more honourable to God, and con- sistent with the truth, than that of his friends." Mr. Scott says, that Elihu ' bore too hard upon Job,' and *' in some instances, put also liarsh con- structions on his words." * So Schultens. XXU PREFACE. lower the meaning of the language in which the Almighty himself addresses Job, and in which he condemns his errors. And I am afraid the thus upholding the character of Job has greatly defeated, or at least has much weakened, one most important practical effect designed by the Spirit of Inspira- tion in this book of Scripture — the prostration of the pride of all human goodness before the God of grace. And this is a pride which may not only gather in the heart of a moralist, or of a pharisee, and render them hostile to the gospel, and unsubmissive to the righteousness of God by faith, as being * themselves whole, and needing not a physician ;' but, until temptation and the rod of affliction has broken its spirit, it may gather in the hearts of the real followers of Christ, amonff the most useful and eminent for Christian virtues. And this pride, though little suspected, may have hurt con- siderably the entire dependence of the heart upon gra- tuitous mercy and help — may have injured, too, the hu- mility of the man ; and, notwithstanding many splendid works, have impaired the delineation of that character upon the soul, which St. Paul describes in the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians : which he not only sets before knowledge and utterance, and every spiritual gift ; before charity to the poor, and the martyr's zeal ; but even pronounces to be greater than faith and hope. This charity, it is plain, from the apostle's description of the heavenly gift, cannot be portrayed on the heart of man, without an entire prostration of self. So long as a partial reception of the doctrine of grace, and our experimental feeling of it, leaves anything for flesh to boast in, the deceived heart will be too apt to seize the occasion. The ejSect of his trial, and the issue of the disputation and decision on his case, upon the mind of Job, even of Job, to whom there was none like, for jDractical piety, in all PREFACE. XXUl the earth, was, that he saw himself vile, and abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes. But the effect likely to be produced upon the mind of the reader, by some expositions of the Book of Job, hardly reaches to this. The learned Mr. Peters considers that the great question in debate betwixt Job and his friends was, whe- ther this miserably-afflicted man were innocent or guilty. In the conclusion God himself pronounces him innocent. " The sufferer is crowned with all the praise and the reward due to the conqueror." He almost concludes *' that God restores Job to all his temporal prosperity and happiness, and gives him a long enjoyment and increase of it, as a recompense for his having so well defended the doctrine of a future state." Mr. Scott speaks of the con- troversy as decided in favour of Job. " Though Job had irreverently and impatiently vindicated himself, yet, on the whole, his sentiments were true, and his arguments conclusive." He describes him as receiving a testimony of " his superior piety." Now, I believe it may be asserted, without hesitation, that this key for opening the meaning of the Book of Job, which is supposed to be found in the seventh verse of the last chapter, and which, in truth, has much obscured it, is entirely grounded upon an unquestionably wrong trans- lation ; that the expression rendered, " ye have not spoken of me," is never used as speaking of, or concerning^ or before, but uniformly of speaking to, or addressing a per- son, and consequently, in this passage, can only refer to Job's humble address to the Almighty after his trial, wliich Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had omitted; though, iu the eyes of the Omniscient, it behoved them to make the same confession". This verse, therefore, in the =* I was the more confirmed in this, by the manner in which the very learned Mr. Peters attempts to defend the sense of "speak of," as at- c 2 XXIV PREFACE. usual translation, cannot be a proper clue to the inter- pretation of the language of Job, nor "will afford any war- rant to determine its meaning. i^ - The true clue will be found in the addresses of Elihu, which these expositors have been bold enough to condemn. Elihu, if we are careful to mark his language, professes to speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He cor- I'ects both parties, and stands up as the moderator in the disputation ; and the Almighty, when he condescends to speak from the stormy cloud, corroborates the words of his messenger-interpreter ''. This, I have no doubt, is the true clue to guide us in our apprehension of the argument tributed to bx 131. Having observed that Maimonides and the Jewish interpreters will only allow, that what Job had spoken well, and God approved, was his last words, which contain a confession of his errors and repentance. " Let us see," he says, " what they offer in support of their assertion, &c." " They render the words nTO3 "bx Dman nb "3, which we translate * ye have not spoken of me,' ' ye have not spoken to me the thing that is right, like my servant Job.' Now though it be true, that the preposition bK most commonly signifies ' to,' yet it likewise signifies ' of,' or 'towards,' or ' concerning' any thing, or person; as might be shewn from a great number of examples." And he goes on to produce such examples of the use of the preposition bK. But certainly, the question was not what the preposition, constructed with other words, might sometimes signify, as exceptions even then to its usual meaning, but what it signifies after the verb nm. Now the construction of the phrase bK nan is, perhaps, one of the most frequently occurring in every part of the Hebrew Scriptures. And it is invarlablij to' speak ^, " Jehovah is his name." In the Samaritan it is nnnSo -ilDJ, " mighty in battle." This, I think, gives the meaning of Sabaoth as applied to Jehovah ; and it seems to be so explained Psalm xxiv,, for " Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle," of the eighth verse, we have in the tenth, " Jehovah Sabaoth." Compare also Isaiah xxxi. 4. &c. mxDV, Sabaoth, signifies, therefore, " the warrior," by Avay of eminence, ' The mightiest of all ivho engage in the array of battle ;^ perhaps, we may compare it with the modern title of " grand marshal." As the term Elohim, as we shall after- wards find, sets forth Jeliovah as the giver of grace and life, so Sabaoth sets him forth as the protector of his people, the great Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 15 struction, * my Elohim,' * thy Elohim,' ' his Elohim,' &c., are frequent. Jehovah is asserted to be the Elohim of these, but not of those. Whatever is the object of a man's rehgious trust and worship, that is • his Elohim ;' so that, besides the true Elohim, there may be false Elohim. There are also typical Elohim ; but the name Jehovah never enters into these constructions. It v^ere an absurdity to say, my Jehovah, thy Jehovah, &c., to speak of a false Jehovah, or to imagine a typical Jehovah ; which renders it very plain, that we are right when we consider * Jehovah' as denoting, or at least con- taining in it, something that does denote the Divine essence, in its incommunicable, ineffable, and un- represented properties, what the Deity is in him- self, eternally and unchangeably, however he stands related to the creature, or whether there be or be ' captain of their salvation,' leading them to victory, and exe- cuting vengeance upon their foes ; as Isaiah speaks of what he saw in the visions of futurity, " Jehovah Sabaoth mustering the hosts of the battle." We have not yet the full manifes- tation of this name of God, or rather of God in this name ; but it was early the theme of prophecy ; even Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied concerning it: "Behold the Lord Cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute vengeance, &c." And surely a type of this was shown to Joshua, when Jehovah appeared before him as " a man with a drawn sword in his hand," declaring, " nay, but as the captain of the Lord's host am I come." The prophets indeed are full of the de- scription of Jehovah's aiDpearing in the last day as a mighty warrior " in the great day of the battle of Almighty God." See especially, in Rev. xix., the vision of the " word of God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, leading the armies of lieaven," — " Who in righteousness doth judge, and make war." 16 THE ACCOUNT OP JOB. [Parti. not any creatures at all. And therefore the appli- cation of the name Jehovah to the Lord Jesus, is an irrefragable proof of his * eternal power and godhead/ in the most absolute sense. In comparing the term Elohim with Jehovah, another remarkable peculiarity also strikes us in the very onset, which it may not be inconvenient to note, before we inquire the meaning of that rela- tion which the term expresses. The peculiarity is this, that though the singular form of the word was in use— Eloah — the sacred writers most frequently, and on the most solemn occasions, use the plural form, Elohim. This cannot be without some par- ticular reason ; and we may fairly suppose the motive to be most important, when the spirit of inspiration will not relinquish the use of the term in a world so prone to polytheism, — not even when guarding most strictly the doctrine of the unity or oneness of the Divine Being \ We cannot but infer from this, that the truth is, there is a plurality of some sort in the one God. And how is this manifested in various ways in the Scriptures ? As we read through the sacred page, we discover that more than one only person is referred to as God, even as Jehovah; but still it is plain that the Elohim are one Jehovah, the same indivisible Deity. Whether the notions of the ancient believers ^ As " Hear, O Israel, Jehovah ' is' thy Gods — thy Elohim —Jehovah ' is' one." Sect.!.] THE ACCOUNT OP JOB. l7 were more or less distinct respecting this plurality in the Deity — for they could not be altogether ignorant of it — the Christian believer has a lumi- nous display of what it is in the New Testament. He has only to look to the initiatory rite of our holy religion, as commanded to be administered by our Lord himself — " Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Surely this sufficiently explains why the NAME, ' in which the fathers put their trust,' should have been 'Jehovah Elohim,' rather than 'Jeho- vah Eloah ;' though Eloah is not an improper term, because the Elohim are one object of trust and of worship, and are never separable, even in thought, from each other ; no, 'not when manifested in their distinct relations to their dependent worshipping people. What kind of relation the term ' Elohim' im- plies, has been the subject of very earnest inquiry to many pious and learned writers ; and it will not cease to be ' sought out by them that have plea- sure therein.' For what can be an object of greater interest, than to know the relation in which the Great God stands to us, who are waiting his appearing, when, whatever that relation is, — * Lord,' — or ' Father,' — ' Source of endless life and bliss,' — or ' the just Judge,' and ' the Avenger,' — all must know and feel tliat he is Jehovah. We cannot, indeed, but conclude, that the mean- ing of this relation cannot be seen or understood 18 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Part I. SO well in the Old Testament, as in its fuller manifestation under the Gospel dispensation. We can best understand the real relation by the name, as now put upon us in the blessings of the Christian Church. We can best understand it — in knowing " the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," as " a Child born to us," " a Son given," keeping in view all that pertains to the sacrifice of his death, to his glorious resurrection, and to his heavenly priesthood and kingdom, — in knowing " the love of God" the Father, the love that he has to us, as united to his Son, as " his God" and " our God," as " his Father" and " our Father,"— and in know- ing what is " the fellowship of the Holy Ghost," the Comforter, ' sent down from Heaven,' as a gift and emanation from the glorified Saviour, to dwell within us, and to raise us, by the operation of his mighty power, to the state and place where Christ our Saviour is gone before. This, it were reasonable to suppose, can best ex- plain to us what is meant by the relation of Elohim which Jehovah bears to his people, and through which relation, when fully completed, he will manifest, more than in all the exertions of his Almighty power, and in all the evident demonstration of his eternal God- head,— that he is Jehovah, the self-existing and eternal Deity unchangeably the same, but who, not- withstanding, was to assume a place in his own crea- tion in the glorified manhood of the Lord Jesus, united into his second person and taken up into God. Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OP JOB. 11^ But our object at present is to inquire into the kind of relationship which the word Elohim itself implied, as an appellation of the revealed object of the rehgious worship of Job, and of the ancient be- lievers under the Old Testament. Some of them, we find, trusted in God as the Elo- him of their fathers, having been brought up ' in the faith of him from their infancy. This appears to have been the case of Job. Others, as Abraham, were called out from the midst of idolaters, commanded to forsake their strange Elohim, and to take Jehovah for their only Elohim. Jehovah was the only Elo- him known in the family of Noah ; but when his descendants had corrupted themselves, they chose them ' new Elohim,' for the object of religious wor- ship, whatever it was, bore the title of Elohim: so that the name came to express generally the relationship between the worshipper and the God worshipped, whatever the expectations of the former were upon the latter, or with whatever attributes his imagination had invested his * strange God*.* But among all the nations of antiquity, we may safely aver, that the idolater looked to his God as the author of his being, and of his well-being, and expected at his hands, however earthly pro- sperity might occupy his chief concern, his por- tion in an after-state ; for atheism and materialism are doctrines which have been comparatively " Hence a derivation taken from the Arabic if ^ 1, to worship, " quod colitur." C 2 20 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Parti. of modern growth among the fallen children of Adam. The existence of the soul after death, in a state of separation from the body, was the unani- mous persuasion of all ancient nations. Neither among the worshippers of the true Elohim, nor among the worshippers of idols, do we ever find the notion, that death was an extinction of being alto- gether. And this is some proof that the children of men did not understand that the sentence of tem- poral death pronounced upon them in Adam after his fall, implied the annihilation of the spirit, as well as the dissolution of the body. But whatever the ido- laters meant, when they applied the term Elohim to the objects of their worship, the term itself was evidently borrowed from the faithful patriarchs. Among them we know for certain, that the term Elohim, with whatever difliculties and uncertainty the tracing of its etymology may be now attended, implied a relation of a most blessed kind. The ]ate Bishop Horsley remarks, and his ob- servations, as far as they go, will be of the greatest service in guiding our inquiries, " Our Saviour argues from the strict sense of the words, ' I am, the God of Abraham,' &c., from the force of the Hebrew Elohim that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, must rise again, because Jehovah is their Elohim, and he cannot hold the relation of Elohim to dead men : therefore, those to whom he holds that rela- tion must live. The relation, therefore, is that in which the donation of Hfe and well-being is implied. Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 21 and the perpetuity of the relation. God, in this reasoning, is set forth as the giver of life to what- ever lives, the free unchanging giver of it, that he, to whom God is Elohim, cannot but live. All this is inferred from the word ; for our Lord reasons ex vi tenninorimi : all this is therefore included in the meaning of the word." These reflections are of great importance. But we may observe, that whatever communications of good, or of well-being, the relative meaning of Elohim implied, it must of course presuppose actual exis- tence in life : whatever relation, therefore, Elohim implies, the force of our Lord's argument consists in this, that Jehovah should own that relation, as still existing between him and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when he spoke to Moses from the busli, more than three hundred years after they had been ga- thered to their people. But the Elohim is not Elohim to the dead ; therefore they ' all lived to him.' For an acknowledged relation, acknowledged as now existing, supposes the existence of the cor- relative. The relationship of Father ceases, among men, when the children are no more : the widower is no longer a husband. But the argument of our Lord with the Saducees, from the force of the term Elohim, goes certainly farther. He is not content with proving that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were then ' alive to God ;' but, admitting they were ' dead' in one sense, he argues " now that the dead are raised even Moses shewed you at the bush." 22 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Part I. The term Elohim, then, the relation being admitted, pledged a state of well-being of a particular kind, which implied a resurrection from the dead : it im- plied that the correlative, neither with respect to his spirit, nor with respect to his body, should be left where he was. The words of our Lord, in his previous answer to the Sadducees, replying to their favorite dilemma, " Whose wife shall she be ?" are full of interest and information. He draws a distinction between " the children of this world " and " they which shall be counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resur- rection from the dead.' " They neither marry, nor are given in marriage ; neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels : and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrec- tion." These last expressions are particularly to be noted. ' Are the children of God ;' this in Hebrew would be ' Beni Elohim ^,' expressing the correla- tive of Elohim : we see, therefore, ' the kind of life' and well-being, which the force of the relative term Elohim somehow or other implies, not merely that God is, as Creator, " the giver of life to whatever lives," but as He is " the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning, who of his own will begat us, by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his crea- tures ;" as he is the Author of eternal life to ' D'h'tx 'j2 or D^nbiKn "-jd. Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 23 tliem that obey him. It refers not to that state of being which we now receive from him, by descent from our first Parents, whereby we become sons of Adam ; no, nor to that ' Hfe' which sustains the se- parated spirit of every man in the mansions of the dead ; but it refers to that gift of ' new hfe,' in spiritual regeneration, whereby we become * the children of God,' and ' heirs of the world to come.' It is remarkably added, " being the children of the resurrection ;" the resurrection is the consum- mation of regeneration. " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption;" and therefore, though those who are baptized into Christ by adoption, and by the gift of life, in Christ, are now the sons of God ; yet they cannot appear as such, nor are they fully such till they become ' the children of the resurrection;' the resurrection is " the manifestation of the sons of God" of the Beni Elohim. Therefore, with regard to the 'sons of God who are in the flesh,' this 'corrupti- ble must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality ;' and, with regard to the Beni Elohim which are in the mansions of the dead, they must rise again from the state of death in which they are; and if Abraham and Isaac are sons of Elohim^ they must rise again : the adoption is not fully received but in the redemption of the body. This, and not less than this, by our Lord's argu- ment, must have been the force of the relative term Elohim. It pledges the new relation in which 24 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Parti. Jehovah stands, to regenerated, glorified men^, and as He shall be what he shall be, so it does not yet appear what they, the Beni Elohim, shall be, but " we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him : for we shall see him as he is'' ." '^ *' The true etymology of tliese words, Elohim and Eloah," Bishop Horsley observes, " has never yet been satisfactorily resolved." See ' a Disquisition on the Etymology and Import of the Divine Names.' Biblical Criticism, vol. i. p. 20. This able disquisition has illustrated, indeed, what the bishop remarks on this subject: " it is much easier to detect error than to discover truth." When this eminent critic has ably stated the objections which lay against other etymologies which have been advanced, he confessedly states his own as a ' mere conjecture :' that crhii and mSx are indeed derived from the root rhu, " and that it is no improbable conjecture, but we can call it nothing more, that the good, to a^/aOov, was the original sense of the root ; which sense is still preserved in a derivation from it in the noun ibx, in the Arabic language." But still the improbability startles us, that the original sense of so important a term should be lost in the Hebrew dialect, so that we find no traces of it whatever in the sacred writings ! I conceive our safest plan were to keep close to the allowed Hebrew meaning of the root nh'K. For, upon the whole, there seems to be less violence in the conjecture, which supposes a ^5mall anomaly, perhaps for some particular reason, in the deri- vation of D''nSx, from rha, a verb ' defective Lamed He,' than gratuitously to suppose another rT^K, of which there are no traces, where the He was radical and immoveable. In examin- ing the places where this Avord occurs either as a verb or a noun, we find very clearly the sense of " adjuring or binding by an oath," which is also the leading meaning of the term in the Arabian language. For the verb, see Judges xvii. 2, and 1 Sam, xiv. 2i. In this passage, the word is exchanged, in ver. 2S, for pDwH, the more usual term for ' swearing,' or ' causing to swear.' And thus in Gen. xx. S. where Abraham says, T^yz^UXi n^HJ, Scot. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 25 However, therefore, the labours of the etymologists may fail in producing entire conviction in the minds " thou shalt be clear," or " free from my oath," when his ser- vant repeats his words, ver. 41, he says, "•nb'NO nnjn. Perhaps, if there is any difference hetween yaiy and n'^N, the former de- notes ' swearing' generally, and the latter applies 'more fre- quently to that form of swearing, where one that has autho- rity binds another by adjuration, by tlie pronouncing ' the words of an oath' which lays all who hear under its obligation. See the several passages referred to by Mr. Parkhurst. The high priest puts our blessed Lord under the obligation of such an oath : " I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us, Avhether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." Here, accord- ing to the Levitical law, our Lord heard the words of an oath, nbx, and was bound to answer. — Comp. Lev. v, 1, &c. and Prov. xxix. 24. But I cannot think with Mr. Parkhurst, and the authors whom he follows, that nSx itself denotes, as its primary mean- ing, ' the pronouncing of a curse.' The violated oatli, it is true, hung over the perjured man as a curse, and the form of adju- ration frequently was the denunciation of a curse, " cursed be he that" — " The Lord do so to thee, and more also," &c. But the curse, as such, had another name, nix, and I conceive "i-iK and nSx, in their strict import are not synonymous. And besides, the adjuration Avas not always in this form ; espe- cially when one pronounced it upon himself, laying himself under the obligation of the nVx, it generally ran, " as Jehovah liveth, before whom 1 stand." And this, I conceive, is the par- ticular form of the nbx, that we should liave regard to, in de- riving the name of God, D'n'7X, from this root, importing tliat Hk liad been pleased to bind himself, for the greater assurance of the heirs of promise, under the sanction of an oath, as men are wont to do, when they would put an end to all strife. "God," as the apostle, observes " confirmed his promise to Abraham by an oath, and because he could swear by no greater, lie sware by himself: " By myself have I sworn saith the Lord." Here we have God a ' swearer,' or rather one sxoorn, and pledging by his oath, that Abraham, and all of Abraham's faith, should 26 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Part I. of some respecting the derivation of the term Elohim, we ascertain its force and import, in the be heirs of the world to come ; so that the very name of swearer, in taking upon himself the obligation of such an oath, showed the absolute certainty of a blessed resurrection to all to whom the oath was sworn. The very relation which our Lord himself has taught, is to be found as clearly implied in the term Elohim. It is true, the name Elohim arose not from this transaction with Abraham. It was known as a name of God in Paradise, Gen. iii. It was known before the foundations of the world were laid : Job xxxviii. 7. But we know of one that is before Abraham was, ' a father of the faithful' too, in a higher sense than Abraham ; and who, like him, could ' receive promises' for himself and for those whom he represented, even our Lord Jesus Christ, as he stood before all time began in the divine councils, not as God, but as ' with God,' the Lord Christ ELECT, standing before his Father in the assumed relations of his predestinated character, and representing all to whom he was to give jjower to become the sons of Elohim, as heirs with him of the world to come. " He verily Avas ordained before the foundation of the world." 1 Pet. i. 20. And " He" the Father, " has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and Avithout blame before him in love ; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." Compare many other parallel passages. The name Elohim took its rise, then, from this ' ante-mun- dane oath,' which is so often referred to in the sacred Scrip- tures, as the great sanction of the believer's confidence in God. The transaction with Abraham, and the children of Abraham in him, was but a type of this ; the prototype was then with God in heaven. The condescension of God to swear by him- self, in order to confirm a covenanted promise, was not first shewn to man upon earth, but was shewn in a former world. And he that received the promise and the oath, and with whom the covenant was arranged before all time began, was the ever- lasting Son of God ; not as he was in himself Elohim and Jeho- Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 27 passage just considered (our Lord's argument with the Sadducees), from an infallible teacher, in strictly vah, but in the foreknowledge and anticipation of his ordained assumptive relations, in which he was to stand to deity in the character of a commissioned agent, ' Jehovah' standing forth as the ' angel Jehovah,' as the ' First-born among many brethren,' and contemplated as one with them, stipulating with the heavenly Father as " his Father and their Father, as his Elohimand their Elohim." With the Deity in the person of the Father particularly, because the Holy Ghost also was, in virtue of the same covenant arrangement, to take upon him assumed relations, proceeding not from Deity alone, from the person of the Father and of the Son in the Eternal Godhead, as his eternal personality is described, but proceeding from the Son also, in his new assumed relations ; and through Him, to be sent down, or poured, out from heaven by the Father, as the Father and Elohim of his Christ. His Christ, whom, as was shewn in the covenant, after he should, in his assumed humanity, have died, as an expiatory and vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the people, God would raise from the dead, and his given por- tion of mankind in and with hiin, to the life immortal. So that we perceive how God was the Elohim to the predesti- nated man Christ, as Avell as to Abraham, and all the faithful. The representation of some very excellent divines, that the covenanted promise and the oath AA^as between the Three Per- sons of the Godhead, considered as such, I cannot but think to be a very incongruous position ; and to savour rather, tliougli certainly these authors meant not so, of Tritheism ; at least, the less accurate language of inferior writers of this class seems to represent three independent spirits bound together, not by the oneness of their essence, and the identity of every attribute, but by oaths and contracts ! I Nor am I sensible that we have in Scripture the least intim.ation of such a transaction between the divine persons, as such, either literally or figuratively ; the contracting parties are, the indivisible Godhead on the one part, and on the other Jesus, not as ' in the form of God,' but contemplated as ' emptying himself, and taking upon him the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men.' S8 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Part I. following whom we cannot err. Nor would it be material to ascertain, that such a wonderful relation was indicated by the very radix of the word. It is enough to know that Jehovah, when he assumed the appellation of our Elohim, pledged himself to sus- tain this relation, and explained it in the institution of his Covenant, whereby he became Elohim to his favoured people. For we must be careful to remark, that ' sons of Noi' can I discover anything in the inspired writings that countenances the notion, that the singular Eloah, when applied to deity, signifies any thing different from the plural Eloiiim, or that the former is to be applied to the second person, in a passive sense, as ' made a curse for us.' Both terms exhibit the Deity as ' engaged by an oath, to believers in Christ, their head and representative, considered as one with them, that God would raise them with him to immortality and a glorious existence.' According to what was exhibited in the everlast- ing covenant, of which covenant he was to be both the purifi- cation-sacrifice, ' the life's blood,' and the sanctifying priest, this is the record concerning Him, " who came both by water and blood :" " that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." Eloah, as well as Elohim, is used of the Tri-une God : Eloah, because the Three Persons are one in essence and being ; Elohim, however, is the Avord far more frequently used, after the time of Moses at least, for it is a peculiarity in the Book of Job, that Eloah is more frequent, though Elohim is also used ; and it is im- possible to conceive any other satisfactory reason for this preference, as has been remarked, but because there is a plurality of persons in the Deity. In the few instances, also, where the plural term is used of one of the persons, the mys- tery of ' One in Three,' and ' Three in One' is carefully to be kept in view ; and this mystery alone can give propriety to the language of Scripture in almost every page. Sect.].] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 29 the Elohim,' is not a natural relation that men bear to the Creator: Believers in Christ, we are told, must receive the gift of ' power', ' right,' or ' privilege' ' to become sons of God,' " which," it is said, " are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." It was by a posi- tive institution of God's own ordaining, we shall find, that from the first the Deity assumed or acknowledged the relation of Elohim to the children of Adam. 5 The name of this institution, we translate bv the term ' covenant,' or ' testament,' but neither of these terms exactly or fully answers to the name. It is, indeed, so far ' a covenant,' that it is a solemn engagement on the part of God, and binds sacred obligations on the part of man ; but is not of the nature of a contract between two parties, each having their respective conditions to perform: and it is only in one single point of analogy that it can be called a ' testament ;' because the benefits which it conveys do happen to come to us as the behest of a Benefactor and relative who has died, and, in consequence of his death, as necessary to our heir- ship. One could almost have wished, that, toge- ther with the names Jehovah and Elohim, the ori- ginal word, Berith, might have stood on the sacred page untranslated : for indeed no language con- tains an equivalent term: it is, in truth, but another name for ' the dispensation of Christ,' which was from the beginning shewn in types and sacra- 30 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. U'^^^ '• mental pledges ; and as nothing else is similar to this dispensation, so the name of no other transac- tion among men can be employed, to translate ex- actly and fully the appellation which it bears. The ordinance of the Berith was the appointment of the sacrificial rite, with its mystic ceremonies, and de- rived its name from the ' cutting in pieces' of the victim, or because the shedding and application of its blood was represented as being ' a purification from sin, and a preservative to immortality''.' It was an institution ordained by God, in which he designed to shew the manner in which he could take out of the sinful race of Adam, " dead in tres- passes and sins," a people for his name ; by what means he would raise them from their natural state, and assume the relation of Elohim to them. The assuming of this relation by the Berith, is plain from the ceremonial language of Moses respecting the ter- restrial Israel, — " That thou shouldest enter into co- venant, Berith, with Jehovah thy Elohim, and into his oath ;" " that he may establish thee for a people unto himself ; and that he may be unto thee for Elohim." Deut. xxix. 10. But, as we look for the fullest reve- ^ nnn is by some derived from n"^3 ' to divide' or ' sepa- rate,* because the sacrificed A'ictjm was ' severed asunder' or ' cut into pieces :' others derive it from nD, or nin, ' to purify' or ' make clean,' and make nnn to signify ' a purification sacri- fice.' The ' alkaline salt' -was called by the same name. Salt Avas used in covenants, and in all sacrifices, as a symbol pro- bably of cleansing, perhaps also of immortality as camrnvnicaicd to the body, from the known powers of this substance in pre- venting the dissolution of dead animal matter. Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB, 31 lation, now attainable, of what Elohim signifies, to THAT NAME put LipoH US in our Christian baptism, so, for the real explanation of the Beritli, and of its mystic rites, we must look to ** God" as manifested " in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not im- puting their trespasses to them, but having made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." We must contemplate " the God of peace bringing again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." The title Berith is often applied to the victim itself, in the act of being sacrificed. Jesus, making peace in the blood of his cross, and in death being life to the men of his covenant, in this sense, is the true Berith. When the name applies to the reconcili- ation, and league of amity, made over the victim slain, we must look to the peace and spiritual union which we have with our reconciled Father and Elohim, by faith in him who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification: even our "jus- tification" and vindication into the life " eternal." The ceremonial Berith, as has been observed, in these ancient times, was merely a shadow, of which the sacrifice of Christ is the body. The first time the mention of the Berith occurs in the book of Genesis, it is referred to as a thing already known ; God says to Noah, in the view of bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly, chiefly, as it should seem, 32 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Parti. because the sons of Elohim, such as were pro- fessedly such, and formed the visible church of God upon earth, had corrupted themselves, a corruption which had first begun by their making affinity with the daughters of men — on this occasion, when God announces the death of every living thing that breatheth, he says to Noah, " But with thee will I establish my covenant." And we know that in the family of Adam the sacrificial rite had been already instituted, as shewing the mode of fallen man's acceptance with God through faith — through faith of * a life to come,' unquestionably ! or Abel, paid dearly for his offering of his " better sacrifice.'* God uses a similar language, when he calls Abra- ham out of the midst of an idolatrous world. " I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an ever- lasting covenant, to be Elohim to thee and to thy seed after thee" Gen. xv. 6, &c. In God's intercourse with Abraham, we first have displayed to us the exact ceremonies of the Berith. It is celebrated that God may give to Abraham a pledge of his promise, for his assurance respecting his inheritance of the land of Canaan. Abraham seems to ask for it; and when commanded to bring the victims, he appears to know what to do with them. " He divides them in the midst, and lays each piece, one against, or over against another,'* and evidently expects, what afterwards took place, that the symbol of the Divine Presence would pass Beet, 1.] THE ACCOUNT OP JOB. S3 between them, which shows that this mode of sanctioning engagements, promises, and treaties of peace, which afterwards so remarkably prevailed in all nations of antiquity, was already a common practice among men. It was, in fact, the custom of giving a religious sanction to a temporal transaction between man and man ; the celebrating on the oc- casion the most sacred rite of their religion, was the highest proof which they could give of their being sincere and earnest in their engagements ; their hope of mercy and acceptance with God was displayed on the occasion by its wonted pledges. It seemed to say, ' God do so to me and more also, if I violate my pledge.' This religious ceremony was an additional sanction, or at least added an awful solemnity to the oaths administered on the occasion. The Berith and the oath'', are the " two immutable things," and we find a similar observance among the Christians of former ages ; they not only took the usual oath, to sanction the agreement or en- gagement, but received the sacrament of the Lord's supper as an additional voucher of their truth. There was certainly a condescending to the cus- toms of men, when as we have noted, God, to give assurance of " the immutability of his promise, confirmed it by an oath;" it was unnecessary, and he could swear by no greater, but he condescended to '* swear by himself " So in celebrating a Berith, for the same purpose, there was something of the 34 THE ACCOUNT OP JOB. [Part I. like condescension to human customs. The Berith was the exhibition of his own grace and mercy to man in Christ. As a sanction to his promise, it could not therefore mean, exactly, what it meant as a sanction to a man's engagement. As the act of man with his fellow-men, the sanction was ; " As I hope my God will help me and fulfil his pledges of redemption unto me, so will I be faithful." As an act of God, the Berith seemed to say ; " As I pledge eternal life to my people through my well-beloved son, dying and reviving, so do I pledge the fulfilment of this particular promise." " It is inviolable, and immutable, as my eternal covenant in Christ." Hence these" covenanted promises" were called by the name of Berith, whatever they pledged. As for instance, God's promise to Noah that he would never again destroy the earth with a flood, and that day and night, and the vicissitudes of the seasons, while the earth remained, should not cease. The appoint- ment, or the engagement itself, whether conditional or unconditional, was not, strictly speaking, the Berith, or covenant ; but this was the name of its sanction '\ The Berith, as we have seen, was an ex- hibition of the hope of faith, the scheme of redemp- tion in Christ, how he should become a sacrifice for '^ Thus among the ancient Greeks. Their ' 'S.Trovcai,* ' Spondge,' were properly the libations poured out to their gods, when they would sanction a treaty or agreement ; but the term applied also to the treaties or agreements thus solemnly sanctioned. eect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OP JOB. SS sins, and the fountain of new and spiritual life to his people, that he might give them power to become the sons of Elohim, and raise them up at the last day. That this was the expectation of Abraham, in virtue of this covenant, whereby Jehovah became his Elohim, is beyond all doubt, " He believed in him who raiseth the dead," he received a promise that he should be "heir of the world to come." Speaking of these patriarchs, the Apostle observes, " These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and con- fessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have re- turned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly : wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God:" that is, their Elohim: " for he hath prepared for them a city." Very similar to these, we shall find, were the hopes of Job in Jehovah, as his Elohim by divine institu- tion or covenant, though not by Abraham's covenant : it wanted the sign of circumcision. In this religi- ous faith, as received from his ancestors, he was * sound ;' and was * upright' in his conduct and con- versation ; ' he feared Elohim and departed from evil\' ■ All the names of Deity that we have attempted to illustrate are found in the Book of Job. All, except Sabaoth, are ex- D 2 j36 the account op job. [Pavti. Such a character was Job, eminently such, among the men of his generation. But as we shall be called to see hereafter, there was still something in Job, that required the chastening of the Heavenly Father, in order to make him partaker of his holi- ness, and for his future exaltation. Who would have suspected pride in Job, and the latent sparks of a self-righteous spirit ! Who would suppose that pressly and frequently mentioned, and this name is implied in the functions attributed to the Living Redeemer. El, the Om- nipresent, everywhere at hand. Shaddai, the supplier of all sufficiency. Elohim, the author of eternal life, as set forth in the Berith, or everlasting covenant. Sabaoth, the mighty champion, who, in the last day, stands up as the Redeemer of his brethren, and conqueror of all his foes ; and in all these names, he that is Jehovah is manifested — The eternal, self- existent Deity, in one of its persons, become subsisting in a created nature. So that he is, at the same time, God with God, and a creature with his creatures, seen, yet unseen, com- prehended, yet incomprehensible. Taking the manhood into God, and through that manhood, manifesting in everlasting ages, to all created beings, the glories of the Invisible Deity. Even so, Avhen " God shall be all in all." And how is every name of Deity — of manifested Deity, con- centred in the name of Jesus ! And, in the salvation that Jehovali, as Immanuel, accomplishes, how are the virtues of every name displayed ! One single reference convinced Nicodemus, that Jesus of Nazareth was El. That he is Shaddai, every believer in his name is taught to feel, not only in the supply of all his temporal need, but in the operation of that power that worketh in us mightily ; and when he, who is very weakness, finds that he can do all things through Christ that strengthens him! How he is Elohim, the author of eter- nal life, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, all the dispensation of the Gospel shews ; and Him we expect as Sa- baoth, the deliverer and avenger. Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 37 such a man would despise the chastening of the Lord, and faint when he was rebuked of him ! But of all these we shall find him convicted by the Almighty himself. Job had been a very prosperous man. Not many such are called ; and our Lord has marked in very strong language the particular interposition of Almighty power, which, in their case, is necessary to ' keep them from the evil,' that they may enter into the kingdom of heaven. His wealth is described according to the manner of these ancient times ; the detail indeed is not very unlike what would be the specification of the property of an Arab sheik, or petty prince of the country where Job lived, at this present day. Ver. 2. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters, and his substance was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household"" ; and this man was the greatest of all the men in the east. * The greatest,' perhaps, not only in respect of his wealth, but in respect of other circumstances, which procured him respect and influence among his countrymen. The following verses seem to describe the love and unanimity of his children one with another, one of the happiest sights that can gladden a parent's eyes ! and at the same time we note his ■ Or servants, perhaps of slaves. 38 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Parti. religious care over them as the patriarchal priest of his family. Vei*. 4. And his sons were wont to make a feasts each at ' his' house on his day, and to send and invite theii- three sisters to eat and to drink with them. Ver. 5. And it was so, that when the days of this feast returned, Job would send for, and sanctify them, and would make ^ ready in the morning, and offer sacrifices according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be, that my sons have sinned, and have renounced Elohim in their hearts. — Or, " when they blessed God in their hearts." Thus did Job continually. Either, at a certain season, they were accustomed to hold this feast for seven days together, meeting by turns at each other's house ; or, as it has gene- rally struck expositors, each brother on the return of his birth-day. We know that the celebration of birth-days was of high antiquity ; and the hospi- table feast given on these occasions, especially as it regarded the entertainment of the poor, or of infe- riors and dependents, might have been originally expressive of gratitude to God, the author of their wealth and preserver of their lives '. This seems to discover the reason that Job fixed on these days in particular, for celebrating the peculiar rites of his religion on the behalf of his children. = Mr. Good : " were wont to hold a banquet-house," or " open house for feasting." '' " Or make early preparations." *= Compare Gen. xl. 20, and also our Lord's idea of a rich man's feast. Sect. I.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 39 These rites of the patriarchal church are clearly marked in this passage — the ceremonial of sanc- tifying— and the offering of the propitiatory victim by the priest on behalf of the worshipper. The particular meaning of sanctifying here, as in 1 Sam. xvi. 5, and in other passages, is the preparing a person by certain appointed ceremonies, to partake of the benefit of the approaching sacrifice. We are not told expressly what these ceremonies were in the patriarchal church ; but the Jewish ritual, as appointed by him who was the author of these earlier mysteries, and which was intended to shadow forth the same great truths of his covenant with restored man in Christ, sufficiently discovers their nature. These * baptisms,' or rites of purifying, which either went before or accompanied the sacrifice, con- sisted generally in the application of water. The Jews considered it to be a maxim, in their ritual service, " no sacrifice without baptism." St. Paul refers to their " divers washings," or *' various baptisms," and explains to us what they signified in the spiritual dispensation of the gospel ; " for if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the^unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God." The apostle particularly refers, we perceive, to the water of purification, prepared, as is ordered 40 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [rait I. in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, by the mixing of the ashes of a red heifer, which had been previously bm'ned as a sacrifice, with water and scarlet dye ; this was to be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop, to cleanse and purify. This chapter, with such a comment, contains the true key to " the doctrine of baptisms," and explains many mystical allusions which we find in the New Testament, respecting " the washing of water by the word ;" why it should be called " baptism into death," why " the laver of regeneration," and why Nicodemus should be blamed by the heavenly Teacher, for not comprehending- the new birth " by water and the spirit." The washing, or purifying with water, could not itself convey the notion of a participation in the death of one that had died, or of a regeneration to a new life in him who was raised from the dead ; but in the preparation and use of *' the water of separation," the allusion is clearly seen ; it seems to say, ' the water which sanctifies, or conveys a holy character, receives its virtue from a victim slain for you, w^hich has been dissolved in it ; and, by its admixture of scarlet dye, when sprinkled upon you, the victim, which makes the expiation, is shown to live again upon you and in you, as the blood of your new life.' I do not pretend to know that just such a cere- mony accompanied the patriarchal sanctification ; but such is the institutor's explanation of the rite, on another very similar occasion. The ceremony Sect.].-] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 41 of washing or baptizing, in immediate connexion with sacrifice^, is therefore to be understood to denote the conveyance of purity and hohness with new- ness of life, from the spotless victim which is offered to make the atonement. This is the innocency in which the true and spiritual worshipper of Elohim washes his hands, when he compasses his altar. Certainly, through the operation of the Spirit, he brings a penitent heart ; but that is not innocency, it is only a spiritual conviction of the evil of his sins. He will not fail, the Lord working in him, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance : these attest his sincerity, and satisfy his observers ; but these are not his holiness — the altar must sanctifij both him and his gifts. This holiness of character was sometimes con- veyed by touching the person with oil mingled with blood from off the altar ; sometimes by contact with a holy thing, or by a fixture to the temple which had been consecrated : and every part of the cere- monial law, by which we may illustrate the rites of the patriarchal church, proclaims and shadows this great truth — that the sanctifying or consecrating of those whom the death of Christ redeems, and cleanses from all unrighteousness, is only effected by union with Christ and by spiritual communica- tion from the risen Saviour through the Holy Ghost. Christ ' sanctified himself, that we might be sancti- fied through the truth.' The earthly tabernacle in which the Lord of glory was iucarnate, was taken 42 THE ACCOUNT OP JOB. [Part I. and separated from corrupt human nature, dedicated to God, and prepared for the habitation of the Holy Godhead ; and into a holy temple with his body his redeemed are built : " to whom coming, as unto a living stone," " ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." According to another metaphor, they are branches separated from their native tree, and are grafted into this new stock, that they may receive nourishment from the living vine. His sanctified humanity, hke a grain of wheat falhng into the earth and dying, being quickened again, bringeth forth much fruit " after its kind," and the fruit is the regenerated and spiritualized souls and bodies of his saints. The commencement of this great change, in its effects or symptoms, is evi- denced by a moral and religious reformation in heart and life ; but is in itself a true and real phy- sical or supernatural operation carried on by the Almighty power of the Spirit which Christ bestows. Christ, as it were with conjugal affection, " has loved the church, and has given himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word: that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish''." Such was the mystery shown in the rites of sacrifice ^ Eph. V. 25, &c. Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 43 and sanctifying, which, from the very earliest ages, the Elohim appointed as the form of worship with which he would be approached by those with whom he was pleased to establish his covenant of eternal life and peace. This was the ordinance of Berith. Thus Job worshipped him : such was the form of worship in which he had trained his children. He could not make them spiritual worshippers ; the new birth, which is quickened from the atoning victim, is " not of blood," " nor of the will of man," but he could bring his children to the appointed ordinances, and pray and hope for an effectual blessing. This is all that the religious parent can do, under what- ever dispensation of mercy. Job was apprehensive his children had sinned : they needed, then, a fresh application of pardoning grace ; and he would bring them to the means of grace: as it is expressed in the text, " for Job said, it may be my sons have sinned and renounced Elohim in their hearts," or, as the words may be differently understood, "have sinned when they blessed Elohim in their hearts." Of the respective reasons for these different renderings, I am hardly able to decide which preponderate''. On the ■'' That the term inn, so uniformly signifying ' to bless,' can never with propriety be rendered ' to curse,' as our authorized version supposes, I think is sufficiently clear. But there are reasons which render it not improbable, tliat tliose authors are not mistaken, Avho suppose that this term had by usage ac- quired another meaning, to ' denounce' or ' renounce,* or ' bid good bye to.' Notwith- 44- THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Parti, supposition of the first being the true one, it seems to express the apprehension, that his chil- dren might have transgressed, and had not continued in their hearts steadfast to the covenant of the Elohim ; he would therefore do what he could, to make them formally renew that covenant. If the latter rendering be preferred, we may understand his apprehension to have been that, while his sons had been, with thankful hearts, acknowledging the tem- poral bounties of God on their birth-day festival, there had been also transgressions of his holy law, of which they ought to be brought to an humble acknowledgment, and be urged to sue for remission in the appointed form. It is observed that this was Job's constant prac- tice on all such occasions. Under every dispensa- tion, those sacred ordinances which betoken the fresh application of pardoning mercy to the ofiending and penitent children of God, or which are ap- pointed to convey /res/i supplies of life and of spiri- tual nourishment, while we are ' perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord,' are of perpetual obligation, and must be our frequent resources. Such are confession and absolution, and the receiving of the Lord's Supper in the Gospel Church. But in Job's Notwithstanding wliat Mr. Parkliurst has observed, 1 Kings xxi. 10, 13, can hardly be satisfactorily explained, but upon this supposition, — and some Avill think, not Judges v. 24. It may seem also to have an indefinite sense in Gen. xlix. 28. What are called ' blessings,' in Jacob's prophetic farewell, are to some of his sons annunciations of evil. Sect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 45 days, as, for the same reason, under the ceremonial law, the whole process of the covenant was gone through on every such occasion : the atoning victim bled afresh, and the baptism into its death was again renewed. Because this was not the real covenant, nor this the true victim, nor this ' the one baptism :* all was but ' a shadow of good things to come,' and not ' the very image of the things ;' all was designed to exercise the expecting faith of the people of God on their future Redeemer, and the everlasting cove- nant in his blood. They could not, the apostle observes, " with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers there- unto perfect. For then," he argues, " would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged, would have had no more conscience of sins. But how much greater is the fulness of grace, as manifested in the Gospel dispensation to us, who are sanctified by the offering of tlie body of Christ once for all!" " for by one offer- ing he has perfected for ever them thai are sanctified." The christian believer, once purged, has no more conscience of sins, that is, in view of God's holy law and eternal judgment ; the one sa- crifice, by its one baptism, has purged for ever his guilt, and brought him into a new state of existence before God ; but still he has conscience of sins in the view of the holy discipline of his chastening Father ; still he needs new applications of mercy 46 THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. [Pirt I. here ; and his sanctifying, though perfect in Christ, in its personal apphcation, still needs perfecting and replenishing. Though the character given be indelible, holy things, on account of profanations and contracted defilements, need frequent cleans- ings and " reconcilings." The religious hope of believers, under the Abra- hamic covenant, and under the covenant of the earlier patriarchal church, rested upon the same substantial grounds ; but ' life and immortality' is now ' brought to the light ;' promises then waited for have been fulfilled, or are now being fulfilled ; the ancient believers had the promise of life from their covenant Elohim ; but we have it from him " in actuality, or more abundantly." We can now read and acknowledge that the Redeemer has been, to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself We may know and feel — have ' the answer of the con- science'— that Jesus is now risen from the dead, and is made a quickening spirit. Our life which is hidden with him in God, doth already begin to flow through the veins of his mystical body, restoring the dead to life, and animating, in a degree, the inert mass, which lay spiritually dead before ; but still we wait for the glory that is to be brought to us at the reve- lation of Jesus Christ at his second coming. What has been said, from a ' comparison of spiritual things with spiritual,' will give us a suffi- cient idea of Job's religion, and of the religion which he had established in his family. What his '"^ect. 1.] THE ACCOUNT OF JOB. 47 children were, under such management, we are not informed. But with regard to the patriarch him- self, his character is unequivocally stated ; '' that he was sound and upright, and feared Elohim, and departed from evil." SECTION II. Job's Trial of Affliction. — The providential Government of God by the instrumentality of Angels. — The share of the Evil Spirit in the afflictio?is of Job. — His patient submission. It pleased God that Job, who had hitherto enjoyed very great prosperity upon earth, should fall into temptation, into the ' fiery trial' of most grievous affliction. Several motives of ' the Disposer of all things in heaven and earth' are suggested to the sufferer, in our office for the visitation of the sick, as probably moving the Lord to afflict him ; " whether it be for the trial of faith, for the example of others," " or to correct in you something that doth offend the eyes of your heavenly Father," All these motives, it will appear in the sequel, may be ascribed to God, in his causing Job to be afflicted. Job's trial did purify and raise the standard of his faith, and he has become an example to others. 48 job's trial of affliction. [PartL We learn much from the circumstance, that Job's faith in Him that was to come, notwithstanding his weakness, and infirmities in other respects, shines forth in such strength and splendour, when he despairs of all besides ; " ye have heard," says St. James, *' of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.'' But there was also ' something' in Job that did * offend the eyes of his Heavenly Father,' notwith- standing his real and exemplary piety ; and this is plainly opened to us, in what follows, to have been a leaning in Job's heart to pride and self-righteous- ness ; and we see that it was corrected by this severe, yet fatherly chastisement ; for Job is brought to ' abhor himself, and repent in dust and ashes.' And how particularly striking is the admo- nition contained in the story of Job to " the brother of high degree," to those children of God, who have been indulged with long and uninterrupted pro- sperity, and, what is more, who have been main- tained, in a long course of great usefulness, and of splendid virtues, whereby they have adorned their christian profession, lest they should harbour pride, and think too much of their works and attainments; lest they should forget what they are, and withdraw something from the praise of the glory of that grace by which alone they are saved. And besides this trying of faith, for its purifying, *.as gold is tried,' and for the example of others. Sect. 2.] job's trial OP AFFLICTION. 49 and besides this correction unto righteousness that Job needed, we shall discover, I thinlc, in the sequel, that the Almighty had a design to fit and prepare Job for an important station in his visible church on earth, and for scenes of future usefulness as his servant and minister. And one great moral to be learned from the story of Job, is, that the Lord is full of design and of wise purpose, in all his dealings in providence, — that nothing is by chance, nothing is done in vain, nothing without a definite object. A scene is now opened to us in heaven: the secrets of the unseen world are disclosed for our in- struction. When Paul was caught up into the third heavens, he could give no account of what he saw: the reahties of heavenly things were undescribable by human ideas, or by human words. And perhaps it will be thought that, in some respects, in the scene before us, earthly things are made to stand as the types of heavenly, and allusions taken from the usual proceedings of human potentates are em- ployed merely to convey some imperfect notions of the operations of the divine government. Ver. G. And it was the clay when the Sons of the Elohim came to present themselves before Jehovali ; and the adversary came also among them. Conceive of the All- Glorious, the Eternal and Incomprehensible Deity as a human monarch. Then there was a day, when ' the king would take 50 job's trial of AFFICTION. [Part I. account of his servants,' of those ' ministers of His that do his pleasure,' and by whom he executes the decrees of his foreknowledge and providence in heaven and earth. But when we take into consideration another mystery revealed in scripture, this humanizing of the Deity, and of the governing providence of creation, will not appear altogether figurative, or merely alle- gorical. For we learn, that the Divine Person, who created and who ' sustaineth all things by the word of his power,' was the future Redeemer of men ; and that although the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, and the majesty co-eternal, yet that, in his work of creation, and in the formation of intelligent creatures, the Son wrought not in the manifestation of the full splendour of the Divine Majesty. Finite could not receive the impress of infinite, nor could the highest of created intelligences comprehend the Almighty to perfection. But we gather from reve- lation, that all creation, in its formation, and in its destination, has a special reference to the manifesta- tion of the Godhead in personal union with a created nature. Very glorious indeed must be that created nature, which can be made to embody the fulness of the Godhead, and hold, in oneness of person, the Infinite, yet that created nature must still be finite, because it is a creature. The infinite, in this mys- terious person, must shine through the finite. As the created light was made to tabernacle in the sun. Sect. 2.] job's trial op AFFLICTION. 51 and from his orb to radiate through all the solar system, which had been formed in proportion to his bulk and according to the measures of his extending influence ; so the uncreated light, thus to speak- of the essence of the living God, or rather of what may be known of God, and which was to be mani- fested to created nature, was to be placed in one vast receptacle, in relation to which, in their re- spective proportions, and at their measured dis- tances, all things were created, formed, and fashioned, and made to move in their spheres. Much of the creation of this lower world, we may further observe, was finished, and the light, which had been separated from darkness, had for several periods gone through its evolutions, before the orb of the sun was formed to receive it. And yet it is manifest, that the whole planetary system was formed in relation and in due proportions to the solar orb afterwards to be brought in, and which was to minister to them the light, and rule all their motions ; and there is no doubt but the material light, and every other agency in nature anterior to the forma- tion of the solar orb, were made to obey a law sub- servient to what was to be their fixed rule of action, when ' the great ruler of the day' should be fixed in the centre of his system. Thus the humanity to which God, in his second person, was to be united, was not, we know, formed and fashioned till late in time : nor till after he had in it, in obscurity and in a state of humiliation, accomplished the work of his people's E 2 521 ^ JO^'^ TRIAL OF AFFLICTION. [Part I. redemption, did he shine forth from it in the splen- dour of * the glory of the Only Begotten Son of God.' We gather, however, from scripture, that all things in creation were formed and ordered in relation to Him, in this, the fixed created orb of his glory ; in which, to all eternity will be seen ' the image of the invisible God,' whence is to beam the * shine of that, light' which ' cannot be approached' unto, and ' the effulgence of that glory' which is itself thick darkness to the created intelligence ; for it cannot comprehend it. But the eye that contem- plates the ' King of Glory,' though nothing meets the sense, or the discerning faculty, but what has been created, yet it has seen God ; has beheld tlie * face of Jehovah :' because it has seen what belongs to the person of Him who is Jehovah. We learn that it was for the manifestation of this glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ, that all things are, and were created ; and that Jesus himself, as ' constituted Lord,' and anointed king, created all things, and governed all things, before he had actually taken upon him his created nature. That, for this purpose, he came forth from God ; came forth in his divine nature, for as yet he had no other ; came forth to act in his predestinated character, according to the decrees of the Divine will — to execute, as a minisUr, what had been before transcribed and appointed in the counsels of the Eternal Trinity. In creation we behold the Son of God working in this capacity ; He that everlast- Sect. 2.] job's trial op affliction. 53 ingly was in God, personally distinguished as a son to a father, (for so only can human words express relation incomprehensible to all finite understand- ings) of the same essence, power, and majesty, begins to sustain a new relation to absolute Deity, has already begun to sustain an external genera- tion, of which his taking upon him our flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, his rising from the dead, and his ascending into glory, were but the finishing acts. He was " begotten of his Father before all worlds ;" not only with respect to the eternal gene- ration of his person within the incomprehensible Godhead, but also with respect to external mani- festation : and, in the beginning of all creation and time, " was" not only " God," but *' with God," in another capacity, as ' the word of God,' and as *' the first-born of every creature." He that built all things is God. But he did not build the frame of universal nature for absolute tzodhead to dwell in ; but in his new capacity, within the des- tined limits of which he was confining all his infinite power and glory. It was the Son erecting his own house, preparing both his household and their habi- tation, among whom he was, in his created nature, to receive the highest honours of the house, as the visible representative of his Eternal Father. And this appertains not to this visible world alone, but to whatever has been created : "for by him were all things created which are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 54 job's trial op affliction. [Parti. thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created hy him, and /or him: and He is before all things, and by him all things con- sist ^" This consideration, which ought always to be before us, if we would understand the Scriptures, will readily account for the circumstance, that in the most sublime descriptions of Deity, and of his works, both in creation and in providence, there is often so much mingled which seems to designate the person and operation of a creature. And we observe that where there is minutely recorded the visible appearance of * Jehovah,' the * Elohim of Israel,' however magnificent be the display of the Divine Majesty, the resemblance presented to the view was that of a * form like the sons of men,* ' a glorified man.' These visions are to be considered as prophetic representations of" the Only Begotten," not yet " brought into the world," but a reality in the Divine mind, and in the arrangement of pre- destination, and foreshown by the Son of God, on these occasions, to his favoured creatures ; and this we must remember, when we come to that part of the work before us, when Job can say concerning the Great God, " now mine eye hath seen thee." " No man hath seen God at any time ; the Only Begotten Son, that is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared him ''." " Col. i. 16. *■ John i. 18. Sect. 2.] job's trial op affliction. 55 In the passage we are now considering, Jehovah is represented as administering his providential kingdom ; the ministers of his power are described as taking their wonted stations before his throne ; they are called " sons of the Elohim." That, as to their nature, these heavenly beings are angels, few seem to doubt ; angel is indeed a term whereby we have learned to distinguish all the various orders of beings, whatever they are, or may have been, which are now subsisting between man in his pre- sent state, at the head of the visible creation, and the throne of the Creator of all things. Angels are among the invisible things which were created hy and for the Son of God, to serve him in his capacity of ' the first-born of every creature,' and *' Lord of all." He is the ' Lord of Angels,* as well as of men : and this his title, * the archangel,' which in scrip- ture is exclusively given to him, denotes. Angels are, by creation, it is evident from scripture, supe- rior to man, who is formed of the dust of the earth: "they excel in strength," and are employed as ministers of God's providence, to do his pleasure in the concerns of this lower world. They, and the heaven which is their abode, at least with regard to some of them, were also plainly created before the Heavens and the earth, which were framed for the habitation of men, how long before we know not ; but God speaks of these * sons of the Elohim,' as shouting for joy when he laid the first foundations 56 job's trial of affliction. , [I'ai-t I. of the earth: and as they were ' sons of the Elohim' then, we may fairly infer, that the distinc- tion between " the elect angels," and the fallen angels, had been already begun to be manifested, and that the period of the probationary state of angels, of some of them at least, had already expired, before the seven days' work of this lower creation was begun. The term " Sons of the Elohim," in the passage before us, and in the one just referred to, is very particularly to be remarked. This name of God, as we have before shown, does not designate God in his natural relation to his creatures, but in his covenant-relation ; which covenant is but another name for ' the dispensation of Christ.' These angels were, therefore, not merely ' sons,' as being, by creation, the offspring of God, but they were sons of ' the God of peace,' by adoption and grace. Our notion of these heavenly beings is, that they never fell from the perfection in Avhich they were created, and therefore could not need an expiation and remission of sins, as we do, from the atoning blood of the Testator in God's covenant. But still, the fall, or known apostacy, of some of these angels that excel in strength, might have been sufficient to shew, that a mere creature, endowed with intelli- gence and will, and permitted to appreciate good and evil for himself, could not but prove fallible, and would have so much o^ self about him, that, in seeking his own, he would fall short of the glory Sect. 2.] JOBS TRIAL OP AFFLICTION. 57 of God. It would, therefore, be a manifestation of the grace or favour of God, that when some of the angels fell, ' being lifted up with pride,' he should be pleased to stay the probation of the rest, and to give them a stability in their happy state, through a union with, or a dependence upon, " that first-born of every creature," whom they were created to serve ; so that they should know themselves to stand by his strength, and by his virtue alone. In this way only, perhaps, could the pride of the intel- lectual creature be abashed for ever, and all its glorying, except in the Lord, be silenced. So only, or in this way best, would all things tend to the glory of Christ, and of God by him, in the angelic world. These elect angels, therefore, being * the sons of the Elohim,' are part of that family of which the apostle speaks " of whom," — "of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," the " whole family in heaven and earth is named''." Shall we call them * the elder brethren' of that family? such they were, certainly, as to the period of their creation, — ay, before " the First Born" himself, as to his being brought into full manifes- tation ; but, as he, * coming after them, was pre- ferred before them,' so also, in and with him, were to be set in heavenly places some nearer and dearer relatives, of his own flesh and blood, fetched, » Eph. iii. 15. 58 job's trial of affliction. [Panl. indeed, from a lower state than, that, from which divine grace had exalted the angels ; bought with a greater expenditure of its riches ; and also pre- destinated to be conformed to the image of God's only begotten Son, in a manner peculiar to them- selves : so that they, in their unity with Christ, obtain a more excellent name than angels. In those prophetical visions of the glory of Christ, which are revealed in scripture, we remark, that within the circle of holy angels which surrounds the throne of the King of glory, there are other emblematical beings represented; 'cherubim,' or * seraphim,* living creatures, and crowned elders ; and we are warranted in deciphering these emblems concerning the redeemed from among men, who sit down with the First Born on his throne *. To these, with Christ, we are told, is to be put in sub- jection, " the world to come," in distinction from angels, to whom it is not put in subjection. But the world, under its present dispensation, is, it should seem, subjected to angels ; that is to say, their ministry and instrumentality is much em- ployed in the execution of God's providence : they seem to appear before Jehovah in the capacity of its agents, in the verse we are considering. That angels waited on some manifestations of the divine presence, and * hearkened unto the voice of words,' seems clear ; and it is declared that it was * the SON, who is in the bosom of the Father,' that mani- " Rev. V. 8, 9. Sect. 2.] job's trial OP AFFLICTION. 59 fested him. But how extensive might have been the knowledge of angels respecting the " mystery of God, and of the Father, and of the Son," we know not. How deep was their penetration into the scheme of grace and providence to be developed in this world, in which he, that was the head of angels and Lord of all, was to become the son of man, we have no means of knowing ; — or with what thoughts, at a subsequent period, angels waited at the cradle of Jesus, saw his temptations during all his abode in the ' body of his humiUa- tion,' or, afar off, beheld his death, and the hour of the triumph of the powers of darkness — what former hopes and expectations v/ere realized or surpassed, when he ' was seen of angels,' and ' re- ceived up into glory,' all this we know not. But we are told by St. Peter "^ , that there are still *' things" being carried on in this world, under the dispensation of ' the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,' that the angels desire to look into. So St. Paul speaks of the present dispensation of the spirit : •' to the intent that now, unto the princi- palities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the angels the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose, which he pur- posed in Christ Jesus our Lord \" This manifold wisdom, perhaps, is not yet fully known to angels ; perhaps we may include angels MPet.i. 12. "Eph. iii. 10, 11. 60 job's trial of affliction. [Part I, in that " whole creation" which is looking and longing for "the manifestations of the Son of God," the finishing of this great redemption out of mankind. These ' Sons of Elohim,' Sons of God in the covenant of his grace, came to present themselves before Jehovah, or, as the phrase properly signi- fies, came to take their stations as servants ready to attend the orders of their master. But the affair which now occupies the divine counsels is not a purpose of grace, except through the interposition of evil, and, therefore, not an affair to be committed for execution to good angels. Thcij are sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation, but, perhaps, agreeably to their nature, always on those works of immediate mercy and grace which they love ; but now, for wise purposes, a child of God is to be chastened and afflicted with evil : and we discover that there are, in the angelic world, other instruments of God's wonderful providence, more fit to be employed on such an occasion. So earthly potentates are sometimes wont to select different persons to bear their messages of grace, and to execute the severity of their justice. So, among their fellow-men, how different the charac- ters of those who are raised up to be the * scourges of God' in their generation, and of those who are sent on errands of mercy, or are employed as bene- factors to mankind ! Yet all is Providence, all is alike, as to the effect produced, the hand of Sect. 2.] job's trial OP AFPLICTIOX. 61 God ! every portion is from the cup of the Lord's right hand, and he poureth out of tiie same. This prerogative of Almighty sovereignty, the Great God always challenges to himself in holy scripture; and that not only when natural evil is consecrated as the sword of justice, but also when the wicked wrath of malevolent creatures is called forth and let out, or when the ' strong delusion prevails,' that those * who love not the truth may believe the lie' that will seal the perdition of their souls. This is, indeed, matter of very solemn considera- tion, and must be contemplated with awful reve- rence. It may well cause the hearts of mortals to feel a shuddering ; the great Redeemer wept from his human eyes when he beheld the fruits of sin in the infliction of evil. But without ascribing this entire sovereignty tc his Maker, man cannot honour him as he ought ; nor, according to what he has revealed of himself, ' sanctify the Lord God to him- self, to be his fear and his dread.' We are sometimes indeed permitted, in the scriptural representations of God, to leave out of sight infallible wisdom and Almighty power, in order that, where moral evil exists, and triumphs in defiance of God's holy law and threatened judgment, we may not, at any rate, fail to discern the complete responsibility of all its voluntary agents and instruments, and the justice of that punishment which they are bringing upon them- selves, as the perpetrators of that which God 62 job's trial op affliction. [Partr. hateth. We are permitted, in this view, when shown the ' wickedness' of the human heart, and the * violence' with which the earth is filled, to con- ceive of Jehovah, that " it repenteth him that he hath made man upon the earth," that " it grieveth to his heart." Thus we hear him complain of an apostate church : *' What could have been done more for my vineyard, that I have not done to it : where- fore then, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" So God would feel, and such would be his disappointment, at the prevalence of evil and at the frustration of good, if he were a creature. And thoughts and "passions" somewhat of this kind, may be as- cribed to the Son of God where he sets himself forth as acting within the limits of his assumed humanity ; and it is in this capacity, we know, he dispenses providence, and will judge wicked men and angels, at the day of their final doom. But when the greatness of his eternal Godhead, which is all one with that of the Invisible Father and of the Holy Ghost, is contemplated as being in the ascendant, evil has then a different aspect, both as to its existence and employment in God's creation. Contrary to the calculation of his infinite wisdom, or beyond the control of his almighty power, we are sure, it could not have been, and could not have moved; or, if we consider evil as a mere defect and defalcation in the creature, could not have had a place, or a room to fall out, or to range in the crea- Sect. 2] job's trial op affliction. 63 tion of God, without his will and pleasure. But in the world which the Son of God has created for his own glory, and the glory of God in him, evil had a place assigned, and a limited range appointed. He saw it to be best, upon the whole, and most for the glory of God, though he hateth sin, considered in itself, with perfect hatred ; and, in his created nature, when he speaks from that, describes it as causing him ' grief of heart.' But in all, his glory will be seen, he will " shew his wrath," and ' make his power known,' where he endureth with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruc- tion; and especially will he make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had " afore prepared unto glory." Our wisdom may not be sufficient to describe evil in its remotest spring and origin, — where it burst forth in the will and understanding of a mighty angel: for the Scripture does plainly trace it all to one father and one author, who stood forth as the adversary of his Creator, the head of the angelic hosts ; and did prevail, we know, to withdraw angels and principalities and powers from the truth of their allegiance, and to corrupt mankind in their first parents as soon as created. Such, indeed, is the deceitfulness of sin among us, that because sentence against an evil deed is not speedily executed, our hearts may be fully set in us to do evil. And without an absolute denial in our thoughts of all vindictive justice in the Omni- 64 job's trial op affliction. [Parti. potent, we can take pleasure in evil, and can esteem success in many ungodly pursuits to be prosperity ; and, notwithstanding the misery they produce to our fellow-creatures, can see, in these pursuits, objects for our pride, glory, and ambi- tion,— sometimes even in defiance of God, or of his messengers, — sometimes with the hypocritical pretext of the blessing and assistance of Divine Providence ! By this analogy we may perhaps form some conception of the condition of fallen angels. Whatever alteration has taken place in their condition of being, their sentence is not yet executed ; they are not yet divested of all their natural liberty and power, nor have yet filled up the measure of their iniquity ; but are still ranging at large under the control of Providence — sometimes compelled to feel and acknowledge it — sometimes, perhaps, in the ignorance of their pride, thinking they escape its glance, and are causing craft to prosper in their hands, to their own aggrandize- ment, and to the gratifying of their own malevolent dispositions. The supposition is not improbable, that the great object of their dislike and animosity is the erection of the throne of " the First Born." Perhaps, like some of his adversaries upon earth, they will not or cannot understand the mystery of his Divine Person, and mocking at the commencement of the operation of that mighty power, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself, the cry of their Sect. 20 job's trial OP AFFLICTION. Q5 rebellion has been, " We will not have this man to reign over us ;" but " He that sitteth on high laugheth them to scorn, for he hath seen that their day is coming." In the meanwhile His wisdom controls and directs their evil : they are but the instruments of his sovereign will, " though they think not so, but it is in their hearts to destroy !" In all that their counsels achieve, either by their own personal prowess over the powers of inanimate nature, or through the suggestions with which they fill the hearts of wicked men, they do but accom- plish what God's counsel and foreknowledge before determined to be done. So that in the distribution of good and evil which we behold or experience, though we perceive the ' malice of the devil or man,' we are to regard nothing but the hand of God, accomplishing, by whatever instrument, all the good pleasure of his will. The ways of his providence may be intricate and mysterious, but '* though clouds and darkness are round about his throne, righteousness and peace are the habitation of his seat ;" and we know his promise, that *' all things shall work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to his purpose." *' Divine revelation is everywhere careful to in- struct us that there is no such thing as chance, or contingency, or blind fate, in any event that occurs. In cases where it has most such an appearance to us, the hand of God is particularly acknowledged in 66 job's trial op affliction. [Parti. revelation. When one strikes the fatal blow, which he aimed not at his neighbour, it is ' the Lord that delivers him into his hands.' The accident is *the visitation of God.' Nor are those acts of his providence less purely his own, as to all their effi- cacy and efficiency, which are accomplished by voluntary agents, be they in their own nature good or evil. The wrath of man serves him, and the remainder he restrains. The malice of evil demons obeys the same law: they are the messengers of his providence, as well as his good angels. Where they do their own sin, and receive the just recom- pense of reward, that which is their sin is an event designed and ordered in the counsels of God. We are carefully forbidden in Scripture to ima- gine that there are two independent causes of good and of evil. That notion we know very early arose in the eastern world, and from this philosophy were derived the gnostic heresies which disturbed the Christian church in its earliest days, and, at a later period, the Manichsean sects. They saw not, in their wisdom, how the good God could take the agency of evil into his own hands, and work it out by its voluntary agents, without being himself evil ; and therefore they invented another evil god — and in fact deified the devil, ascribing to his sovereignty many things which the great God has announced in his word to be his own acts and deeds. But how clear and full is the declaration of God, by his Sect. 2] job's trial OP AFFLICTION. 67 prophet, to the ancient Persian, educated in this * science, falsely so called:' " I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me" — " I form the light, and create darkness : I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things'"." There is but one perfect intelligence, but one sovereign v^ill, which is being accomplished in hea- ven and in earth. Moral evil is but a certain affec- tion of God's creatures ; he knows it, and determines its operations : like some great agent in nature which the mechanic employs to accomplish his work, its rush and the force which it puts forth is all its own, and moves in everything by its own laws ; but he lets and hinders it as he pleases, and so combines, controls, and regulates it powers, that it produces the jfinished workmanship to his hand which he designed and intended. The mystery is, that God is so wise, that he can, in like manner with the mechanic at his machine, make voluntary agents, even malevolent spirits, putting forth their own choice, to accomplish some parts of his vast design, and do the very thing which he intends, and neither more nor less. The passage before us shews us something of the working of the machine of Providence, in as far as the created powers of angelic beings are employed : and the Scriptures, in many places, impress us with " Isaiah xlv. 7, &c. F 2 68 job's trial of affliction. [Part I. the notion that a very great portion of the present dispensation of Providence is carried on by their instrumentaUty. Here is something, in the high decree of the Almighty, that the maUciousness of an evil spirit had best accomplish, and by him it is to be done ^. Accordingly, v^hen ' the sons of Elohim' come to present themselves before Jehovah, whe- ther called, or led by his unknown destiny, or, as yet, by external profession, one of them, the ' adver- sary^,' comes also among them. He who is an enemy to the chosen people of God, and the opposer of his plans of grace towards them, is the enemy of their God, and this will be manifested one day to his cost. But as the adversary of Job, Satan appears on this occasion ; and the Scripture represents him as equally the adversary of all the redeemed from among men — as that * accuser of the brethren,' " who accuses them day and night before God." A voice from the Divine Presence addresses *' the adversary" — Ver. 7. And Jehovah said unto the adversary, whence comest thou? and the adversary answered Jehovah, ^ Corap. 1 Kings xxii. '' pii^n. The adversary, or ' a certain' well kno\vn particu- lar adversary. Satan is not found as a proper name in the Hebrew Scriptures, but signifies any opposer or enenfiy, whe- ther in arms, Num. xxii. 22, 1 Sam. xxix. 4. ; or in a judicial process, Ps. cix. 6, Zech. iii. 1, 2. Hence properly ' an accuser,' or ' plaintiff,' which seems the peculiar meaning of the word in this place, and the Septuagint accordingly trans- late ' 0 At'(/3o\os,' the accuser. Sect. 2.] job's trial of affliction, 69 and said, from going round the earth, and journeying thereon ^ On the part of Satan there is no disguise as to what Qiad been chiefly engaging his attention. He does not mention the scene of his wicked seduc- tions as a detected culprit. Nor is it impossible, that the appointed station and charge of Satan and his angels might have been in the new heavens of that earth which were created for the sake of man ; and though his unfaithfulness was known to Him who knoweth all things, yet, perhaps, he was not as yet judged and dislodged from his post. This will account for his reply to Jehovah; for he seems to answer without any fear or confusion, " from going round the earth and journeying thereon" — " from going my " rounds in the earth, and walking about in it." One cannot but conclude, therefore, that the conviction of his crime was not yet brought home to him ; under the mysterious providence of God, he is still suffered to ' sport himself in his deceivings!' We know how a deluded heart can cause a sinner of mankind to feel to himself, until his iniquity be found out to be hateful, even though he cannot be insensible altogether that God know- eth the secrets of his heart ! We must ascribe some- " Mr. Good has « roaming round;' the exact application of the word ]:!W will be perceived by a comparison of 2 Sam. xiv. 2, 8, where it is applied to the officers of government going their circuit through the land to number the people. Perhaps, " from going ' my' rounds on the earth, and walking about on it." TO job's trial of affliction. Parti. what of this effect of the deceitfulness of sin to evil angels. It will suggest itself to us, that Satan must cer- tainly have heard his sentence pronounced in Eden, when ' a certain serpent' had shewed himself " more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." However this may be, it plainly appears to have had no more effect upon him, than the revelation of the day ' of wrath and of the righ- teous judgment of God,' has upon the prosperous sinners upon earth. That " a child of man" was to execute his sentence, if he was indeed known to have been that serpent, might have mitigated his trembling ; or perhaps, that manifestation of the earth's Creator in Eden was so different in its appearances, that Satan would not believe it to be the same presence before which angels took their stations in the world above. We have, however, only to remember the case of Pharaoh, to under- stand how a hardened sinner can remain undaunted amidst the displays of divine power and greatness, which in ordinary circumstances would seem impos- sible. But how awful is this disclosure, that there is such a malevolent being at large, who has, for whatever cause, singled out mankind as the parti- cular object of his murderous hatred and never-ceas- ing malice. He loves not the victims of his seduc- tion ; that were unnatural in a seducer — and is glad to be the minister of their misery and destruction ; Sect. 2.] job's trial of AFFLICTION". ^1 and these are, generally, all mankind : so that he is admitted, in a certain sense, to be " the God of this world," that Prince of the power of the air, whose ' course' is the ' course' of this world, and * who worketh in the children of disobedience :' we are told " the whole world lieth in the wicked one." This is the kingdom of Satan ; and, in a variety of instances, we discover from scrip- ture, that, in the mysterious providence of God, he is employed as the minister of God's vindictive justice on the very apostates whom he has seduced, and on the very transgressors whom he has tempted to sin. And how extraordinary is it, to find in scrip- ture so many of the ills which men endure, and which are immediately the effects of natural causes, ascribed to evil spirits; but, above all, that our Saviour should designate the Devil, as " him that hath the power of death !" And if the evil spirit is such a father to them that do his works, and in some sort worship him, with what envious eyes must he behold any fruits of converting grace in his dominions — when God is pleased to give to some of those, ' who are led captive by him at his will,' * repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth, that they may recover from his snare,' and 'renounce the Devil and all his works/ That this should be felt as hostility, and should be resented by the powers of darkness as hostility, v/e need not be surprised ; or that it should call forth, on the part 73 job's trial of affliction. [Partl. of Satan, every device of subtilty, or every act of violence, which a higher hand would suffer. Accord- ingly, the Scripture frequently throws light upon his machinations, as being always actively engaged to hinder the progress of that truth, the acknow- ledgement of which is, to the penitent sinner, a release from his thraldom ; and as being always ready to persecute, or harass, or * beguile' the children of God when in possession of this life- giving truth. How does the parable of the sower show him employed in catching up the word which was sown in the heart ! What does the temptation of Christ in the wilderness discover ? How were the fears of the apostle exercised for the purity of the faith among the Corinthians : " lest by any means, as the ser- pent beguiled Eve, through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simphcity that is in Christ*." How does he hasten the work of forgiveness towards an offender in the same church, declaring his apprehension " lest Satan should get an advantage of us : for we are not igno- rant of his devices^ !" And particularly should it excite attention, to discover that this malevolent adversary is sometimes permitted to inflict the chastisement of the heavenly Father upon his chil- dren. Why went a daughter of Abraham, for eighteen years, " bowed together, and could in ^ 2 Cor. xi. 3. " ii. 11. Sect. 2.] job's trial of AFFLICTION. 73 nowise lift up herself?" Satan had bound her*. What was the instrument used for abashing the risings of pride in Paul's heart? " a minister of Satan to buffet him!" So, we see Job's was not a singular case ; and surely there is something worse indicated than Job's trial, in that awful sentence : " deliver such an one to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord!" How does all this, in connexion with the passage before us, enforce the admonition of St. Peter : "be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist, steadfast in the faith\" We shall " overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testi- mony*";" but it becomes us to recollect, that "the God of peace" has not yet " bruised Satan under our feet." We still have to wrestle, not against " flesh and blood" only, " but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places^" " Greater," however, " is He that is in us, than he that is in the world." And we see, in the case before us, that Satan can have no power over us, unless it be given him from above ; and therefore, though there be the malice of Satan in our ■ Luke xiii. 16. '' 1 Tet. v. 8. ' Rev. xii. II. •^ Eph. vi. 12. 7'4' job's trial of affliction. [Part I. afflictions, there is the mercy of our God also, and that will rule paramount and throughout, and mercy will triumph against justice. Ver. 8. And Jehovah said unto the adversary, Hast thou observed my servant Job ? that there is none like hina on the earth, a man sound and upright, fearing Elo- hlm, and departing from evil ? Yes, the adversary had observed him ; nor does he question his pre-eminence in piety above all that were on the earth, but he ventures to ascribe it to the prosperity which had attended his rehgious profession, and to the special protection which had been afforded him, against the more trying calami- ties and troubles of human life. Ver. 9. And the adversary answered Jehovah, and said, Doth Job serve Elohim for nought ? Hast thou not made a fence about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side ? the M^orks of his hands hast thou blessed, and his possessions burst forth on the land ! But put forth thy hand and touch all that he hath. And, if he will not before thy presence renounce thee ! — or (accord- ing to another rendering), if not in thy presence he will bless thee. These are the suggestions of an enemy ; but of an enemy who had been a careful observer of Job, and was well acquainted with mankind. There was a ^reat deal of truth in this estimate of the principles of Job, or the adversary, however mali- Sect. 2.] job's trial OF AFFLICTION. 75 cious, would have had too much sagacity to have thus stated it before the Omniscient. We may- well conceive that an evil spirit understands not all the mystery of godliness ; he perceives not that tie which holds the believer from apostacy, in the time of his trial, and therefore, if the last words in the speech above imply that Job would absolutely renounce Elohim, Satan was mistaken. But this hold in all the saints of God is a super- natural gift and endowment, and is derived from an union with the ' Holy' One. This is a principle of life and vitality hid with Christ in God : this ' that wicked one toucheth not.' He perceived, from what he knew of Peter, however honest and bold, that he could bring him to deny his master, in the first panic on the occasion of his apprehension. That, however, in virtue of his great Advocate's prayer, Peter's faith notwithstanding, would not fail, but he arise from his fall, ' a strengthener of his brethren,' this, perhaps, was more than he could comprehend. Thus, in the case of Job, he per- ceived how much his exemplary piety and good- ness depended upon circumstances, and upon the absence of some things which try the hearts of the children of men. He could discern that the heart of Job, so soothed by prosperity, and encouraged by the visible blessings of his God, would faint in the day of adversity. Nor was he mistaken ; for, though the 'early dew' of Job's righteousness dis- persed not quite so soon as he imagined ; yet, when 76 job's trial of affliction. [Parti. the " evil day" was made hotter at his request, his * goodness did pass away as a morning cloud/ It had been well for Job, though the best of men, as manifested, in his generation, had he thought as meanly of his own righteousness and goodness, as his sagacious adversary did. But here was Job's error ; here lay that ' something in him that did offend the eyes of his heavenly Father.' To remove this, not to gratify Satan's malice, he saw it good to deliver Job to be tried. Satan, indeed, at length makes good his charge, in a general point of view, and as to all that on which the unholy confidence of Job had rested, and which had fostered within him thoughts of pride and self-righteousness. But there was in Job this vital principle of faith, which was of the operation of God, and which Satan could not reach to destroy. This lived in him and flourished again, though all his boasted virtues and attainments were shaken as blighted fruit from his boughs. Satan meant not, in thus stripping Job of his righteousness and reli- gious boast, to purify his faith, and to lay in him the foundations of a better character ; but this was God's intention. Ver. 12. And Jehovah said to the adversary, Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. And the adversary went out from the presence of Jehovah. We now behold Satan in the character of ' an Sect. 2] job's trial OP AFFLICTION. 77 angel of Jehovah ;' his commission, as far as it extends, makes him such; and all the powers of nature obey him. And we have an illustration of that fact which so often meets us in scripture, that, in the present dispensation of his providence, God employs evil angels, as well as the good angels ; in like manner as the counsels of the same providence are visibly carried on upon earth by evil men as well as by good men. This discovers the propriety of those expressions of scripture where ' evil angels' and ' lying spirits' are called * angels of the Lord,' and ' spirits of God,' or where what is in one place ascribed to God, is in another place ascribed to Satan. The great God, as we should be careful to keep in view, though in a different manner, acts as much by his evil angels as by his good angels. It is his hand still, and his will is the only will that can effect ought : but in the instrument itself, wick- edness proceeds from the wicked, and on the wicked it turns back. He that uses them as his instruments is holy in all his thoughts, and just in all his ways. The quality of the act, which is the sin, touches only themselves ; the effect produced, God means for good : and we may regard, in this point of view, the act as coming simply and purely from the hand of God. The time will come— but it is not yet— when the wicked will be cast out of the earth ; so with respect to the sphere or abode which angels occupy, the entire separation of the evil and the good is not fully manifested. But our 78 job's trial of affliction. [Parti. Lord saw their day was coming, when he ex- claimed, on marking the progress of the word of his truth, " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." We observe, when intrusted with such a com- mission, both natural and moral agents obey ' the angel of destruction ;' not only is the wind of the storm and the lightning of heaven at his command, but the Saboeans and Chaldeans wait his instiga- tion to rob and to murder : yet the hand of God, as has been said, is upon all this. '* In him the crea- tures all live and move and have their being," and evil as well as good exactly fulfils the decree of his providence. The winds and the lightning burst not forth by chance : he claims it as belonging to him to ' call forth the lightnings,' and ' to put dis- cernment into the meteors of heaven ;' he tells us that * he hath created the waster to destroy.' The evil spirit, as has been observed, gratifies his own maliciousness, but he is only accomplishing the v/ill of the Almighty. There is a mystery, perhaps, in conceiving how this angel can communicate to other voluntary agents the impulse Vv'hich he has received, so that both he and they do their own wickedness in those very acts whereby God accomplishes his good. We perceive that the evil spirit can move the will of man to do evil. What are the laws of this mo- tion, perhaps, we cannot discern ; but we have rea- son to think they bear a strict analogy to what takes Sect. 2.] ^ob's trial op affliction. 79 place when one man, by the suggestion of motives, instigates another to will and to do. On these oc- casions we are not at a loss to distinguish how the liberty of a responsible moral agent is not violated. When one, according to the gospel precept, provokes a christian brother to love and to good works, all the virtue is not in him who excites, and his brother a mere passive machine: his affections and deeds, so called forth, are also virtuous and praise- worthy. So when one sinner suggests evil motives to another, which are efficient, and bring forth * out of the evil treasure of his heart' ' evil things,' both have their separate guilt, both are obnoxious to a righteous judgment. If ' offences must come,' * woe to him by whom the offence cometh ! ' ' and woe to him that findeth the stumbling-block of his iniquity,' which is to manifest his wickedness ! Nor is the responsibihty at all altered, though ' the truth of God abounds by his lie,* and ' he does evil that good may come.' But we cannot but ob- serve, when such an angel is commissioned by the power of God to destroy, how frail a thing is human prosperity and human happiness, before the rod of God that is in his hand ! Ver. 13. And it was the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking in the house of their elder brother. 14. And a messenger came unto Job, and said. The oxen were plowing, and the she asses feeding beside them : and 80 job's trial of affliction* [Parti. the Sabseans^ fell upon them and took them, and the young men they have slain with the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 16. While this was speaking, another also came and said. The fire of Elohim hath fallen from heaven, and burnt the sheep and the young men, and hath consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 17. While this was speaking, another also came and said, The Chaldeans "^ placed three bands, and have seized upon the camels, and taken them off, and the young men have they slain with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 18. While this was speaking, another also came and said. Thy sons and thy daughters were eating, and drink- Inof wine in the house of their elder brother. 19. And lo ! a great wind came from across the desert, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. With what simplicity and beautiful brevity is this sad story told ! But let us still consider the hand of the afflicter in the subjects of these evil tidings, which all at once assail the ears of the too happy Job. The freebooters of the desert, indeed, ' Saba, X21::, is mentioned as a son of Joktan, Gen. x. 28. The Saba3ans were either descendants of this Saba, or of the more ancient Saba, a son of Cush, ver. 7. *• The Chaldeans, Dn!:'^, the nation which in very remote ages occupied Babylon, seem here to be presented before us, as one of the nomade tribes of Arabia, or its neighbour- hood, or at least as still employing their troops on predatory excursions in the desert. Sect. 2.] job's trial OP AFFLICTION. 81 on this occasion, shared the guilt with the evil spirit, who filled their hearts to rob and murder. But we are to remember they were only instru- ments. The justice or mercy of God, to which all their actions were subservient, was none of theirs ; they intended it not, though they wrought it. It may, perhaps, strike the reflecting mind, in this visitation of God, which is all on account of one man. Job, how many human lives are lost I His ten children, and his more numerous household of servants, are cut off prematurely, as we speak, for that in which, as far as appears, they have no concern ! But while the objector acknowledges a Providence, he cannot pretend that this piece of sacred history records an event, in all its leading circumstances, unlike what very frequently takes place, and has been doing so from the beginning, among mankind. How often in the consequences of one man's ac- tions or character are multitudes involved — as if they were placed around him as the centre of their sys- tem, in the present life at least, to receive their weal or woe through him ! It cannot but strike the careful reader of Scripture, how very like are some of the actions of God, acknowledged and recorded in sacred history, to those which human wisdom deems the most mysterious parts of that universal Providence which is seen and felt by all. The thinking mind cannot but recognise the hand of the same God, in revelation and in providence, working G 82 job's trial of affliction, [Parti. all things after the counsel of his own will. And shall any of us doubt that ' the only wise God/ who has thus been pleased to link together the destinies of his creatures in their earthly course, can, through these systems, whether of a domestic, or of a na- tional, or of any other character, direct his judg- ment and his mercy aright in their personal bear- ings upon each individual? However it may appear to human eyes, there is nothing between us and God. Take the obscurest individual in some large society, where he seems of no account, the mere unit of a multitude, in whose great wave he is tossed ; there is nothing between his spirit and the living God, from whose hands he either receives according to that which he hath done, or is made partaker of the benefit of his eternal grace. No child or servant of Job, who met his fate in the destruction of his household on his account, as it appears to us, but received at the hand of God his own just or gracious portion in the circumstances, and at the time which God had foreordained, and had arranged in Ids infinite wisdom, and had thus accomplished. To Job himself, this visitation was a dispensation of mercy, but not unmixed with judgment. To some humble slave in Job's family it might have been nothing but mercy and grace — and to some of its members unmixed judgment. The Scriptures of God, also, afford us another estimate of the comparative value of souls, dif- ferent from that which human philanthropy would Sect.2.] job's trial OP AFFLICTION. 83 suggest. ' All things,' we are taught, * are for the glory of God ; and to that end all things are for the glory of that wonderful first born among his many brethren,' by whom and for whom all things are and were created : and in the next step, all things are for them who are joint heirs with Christ, — " All things are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's"— of which blessed number was Job. That so much, therefore, should be displaced for the sake of Job, measured on this scale, appears not so very extraordinary. But then we must remember, that those systems of human society, of which we have spoken above, which seem to wait perhaps on the destinies of one particular man, are not always constructed and arranged by divine Providence for the sake of him who appears as the centre, or as the commanding genius. But it may be for some lowly brethren of Christ, whom the world knows not, and who move very obscurely around him in their earthly career ; and it is little suspected often, for whose sakes families, and kingdoms, and visible churches, are raised up or overthrown ! The sun, though in bulk and influential power the greatest, and the centre round which all move, is but the minister in his system ; and this earth, where the wonders of redemption are displayed, and where the Lord of all became incarnate, in comparison with other planets, has no great apparent glory in her orbit. Yet, in the six days' creation, how pre-emi- G 2 84 job's trial op affliction. [Parti. nent— and like to what has been done on the earth is there nothing in all the wide range of the crea- tion of God ! God has not a second son becoming incar- nate, or taking a created nature upon him ; nor is there another world, where the church of the First Born, which are written in heaven, are raised up in their place ! Whatever bounties are dispensed in other orbs, there is no second ' spouse of the Lamb ;' the holy angels, in all their thrones and principalities, are subordinate to this dispensation, and are sent to minister for them who, born on this earth, shall be heirs of salvation, and who, when they have overcome, are to sit down with the Son of God upon his throne, as he hath overcome, and is set down with the Father upon his throne ! Well, in regard of this, may we exclaim with the Psalmist, •' When I consider the heavens the work of thine hands, the moon and the stars which thou hast or- dained. Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou so regardest him ?" But to return to the sufferer upon earth. What must have been the feelings of Job, when one messenger after another arrives to tell him of the loss of all his property, and of the murder of his servants ; and, to crown the whole, when the last messenger of woe acquaints him with the death of all his chil- dren ? The report of one messenger had tried his faith and patience; but how severe the smart of these repeated strokes — the * sorrow upon sorrow' Sect. 2.] job's trial of affliction. 85 of these accumulated griefs ! Their extraordinary coincidence, however, serves to strengthen one im- pression, most salutary to the mind of the afflicted ; that all this must be from the hand of God. Job thinks not of the instruments of his sorrows ; nor did he probably then know that the evil spirit was in- flicting the chastisement ; nor did it concern him to know. For, in our submitting to affliction, we ought not to regard the means and instruments, but Him alone whom all things serve and obey, and without whom no creature could have any power over us at all to hurt us. Sometimes, indeed, when the consciousness of God is not sufficiently impressed upon the mind, we are apt to quarrel with, and feel resentment against, the immediate authors of our griefs, and discover feelings like those we have noticed in some brute beasts that have no under- standing, who angrily bite the stick or the stone with which they are hurt. But nothing of this sort appears in the afflicted Job ; all his conduct and behaviour acknowledges " It is the Lord !" Ver. 20. And Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshipped. Ver. 21. And said. Naked came T out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away ; blessed be the name of Jehovah. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. The believing patriarch receives not his affliction 86 job's trial op AFPLICtiON. P'a'-tl- with the apathy and affected magnanimity of a stoic philosopher. It is a very different thing to act under the impression of a supreme mind disposing all events after the counsel of his eternal will, from what it would be to conceive of our destinies as the decrees of a blind-fate, or as the caprices of those imaginary beings with which the darkened heart of man has peopled the heavens ; or even as being the counsel and will of a God unrevealed and un- known. In the world that knew not God, the con- ceptions of the stoical philosophers respecting the Great Unknown, might be less unworthy than those of their Epicurean rivals ; but the thoughts of one taught by the word of God, and by the Spirit of grace, respecting the " determined counsel and foreknov^rledge," the " predestination and special providence" of Jehovah, are extremely different ; though the opponents of these revealed truths seem so desirous to confound them together, and to cover them with the same ignominy. Job, with the customary expressions of great grief and mourning, prostrates himself before the great Disposer of all things, — for who can tell that he will not see his tears or hear his moans ? He knew him too as his Elohim, pledged by his covenant to be- stow on him eternal life and glory. His confidence is not overthrown ; though he has suffered the loss of all that made up his earthly happiness, he is not altogether destitute of that " joyfulness" with which, in a subsequent age, believers in Christ are de- -Sect. 2.] job's trial OP AFFLICTION. 87 scribed as taking the " spoiling of their goods, know- ing in themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." Even the deeply- affecting sorrow which a parent feels for the loss of children, may be soothed by this knowledge of God ; and the mind brought to yield to, and acquiesce in, his sovereign will, from a sense of his great goodness and distinguishing grace! They are returned to him as his gifts lent for an appointed time ; as his creatures, who is to be beloved, not only more than houses or lands, but more than father or mother, or brothers or sisters, or wife or children. So Job regards it all, and seems to meditate upon it, as the well-known cir- cumstance of mortal life, which every man must sooner or later experience, and ought always to have before his eyes : that as he had nothing when he entered into this world, so can he take nothing with him when he dies ; and therefore must at last be stripped of all he now possesses. A learned critic'' has beautifully illustrated the language of Job in this passage: " As the just, previously to their birth, were enclosed in the womb, so when they die, they do not perish, but return, as it were, into the womb of their mother, in order that they may be born again to a more happy life, at the resur- rection of the last day." It is his faith in his Elohim, as the bestower of ' Schmidius. 88 job's trial op affliction, [Parti. the grace of eternal life through the covenant of his peace, that sustains the mind of Job on this occa- sion ; and which breaks forth in his subsequent deeper griefs ; and, when he can recover his thoughts a little, never entirely forsakes him, in his lowest season of mental depression. In the part of the trial of his faith now before us. Job is an example for all the afflicted children of God ; so should they regard their being deprived of every earthly good, and of every earthly object of their affection, saying *' it is the Lord ! let him do what seemeth him good ;" remembering that it is the same Lord, who of his great love, wherewith he hath loved them, and of his sovereign grace, has bestowed upon them his Only Begotten Son, and in him regeneration to the life eternal, and hath laid up in heaven for them " an inheritance incorrup- tible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away" — " a NAME, better than of sons and daughters ;" so that when seen in this connexion, by the eye of faith, *' these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." But it must be acknow- ledged, that some christian believers, who have seen or heard things that might well make their consolation fuller than that of Job, have not seemed, immediately, in their lesser sorrows, to stand so firm as Job. The closing observation, however, in the text before us, is remarkable. " In all this Job sinned Sect. 2.1 job's trial op affliction. 89 not, nor charged Elohim foolishly," or " imputed blame to him." In all this he bore his troubles as a religious man should do, for the glory of his heavenly Father. But it is implied, and the sequel will disclose, that we shall come to a stage of the trial, when the now exemplary Job will ' sin and charge Elohim foolishly,' or ' impute blame to him.' And loudly does this admonish, that we trust not in man, or in any thing that we do, no, not in those fruits of faith which we have borne. How many have mourned for the subsequent failures of some, who seemed to have stood, in very arduous trials, as the great pillars of their religious profes- sion ! And perhaps there may be some of us, who have boldly kept the faith in former trials, where our conduct and our conversation has been honoura- ble to God and to his holy cause, who have to abide a ' sifting* of Satan, that will show us faulty, and weak and foolish ! How necessary the caution, ' be not high-minded, but fear :' ' let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.' How should the prayer taught by our Divine Master still conti- nually breathe in our hearts ! *' Lead us not into temptation, but deliver from the evil" one ! and O ! how should it suppress all glorying, but one, which alone is safe and sure — ' In Christ' as * made to us of God, wisdom and righteousness, and sanctifica- tion and redemption ! ' 90 job's trial increased, • [Parti. SECTION THIRD. The Seventy of Job's Trial increased. We are again presented with a similar scene to that described in the former chapter. Chap. ii. ver. 1. And it was the day when the sons of the Elohim came to present themselves before Jehovah : and the adversary came also among them, to present him- self before Jehovah. It is now said of the * adversary,' not only that he came in the midst of the sons of the Elohim, but that he came ' to present himself before Jeho- vah.' Perhaps we are to imply, that he too had now had a particular charge committed to him, of which he must give an account to the Lord of Pro- vidence as one of his ministering angels. Ver. 2. And Jehovah said unto the adversary, Whence comest thou? and the adversary answered Jehovah, and said, From going round the earth, and journeying therein. Ver. 3. And Jehovah said unto the adversary, Hast thou observed my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man sound and upright, fearing Elohim, and departing from evil ? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although without a cause thou hast moved me to pierce him. It had pleased Jehovah, in executing his purpose with respect to Job, so to proceed that Sect. 3.] job's trial INCREASED. Oj the counsels of * the adversary's' heart might be disclosed, and that his maliciousness should be drawn forth in the trial of Job. It was enough, it seems, to present Job to his view as an object worthy of approbation, and to challenge his assent. The adversary had suggested his suspicion of the purity of Job's motives, and had urged, in the Di- vine presence, his thorough persuasion, that his sus- picions would prove correct, if this servant of Elo- him were tried with adversity. The great Jehovah, acting as a creature with his creatures, had seemed to suffer himself to be moved by this suggestion and advice, and Satan had accordingly been com- missioned, with one limitation, to overwhelm Job in the severest distress. The conduct of this servant of Elohim, however, in his new situation, had been unimpeachable ; he was still a faithful worshipper of his covenanted God. Had not ' the adversary's' suggestion, therefore, been gratuitous, without a just or adequate cause, on his part, with relation to Job ? ' The adversary' ventures to say, not : but insists, that the object of his suspicions has not yet been tried to the point required, in order to mani- fest the truth of his accusation. Ver. 4. And the rdv^ersary answered Jehovah and said, A skin for a skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for himself ! Ver. 5. But put forth now thine hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, and, if he does not in thy presence re- nounce thee ! or '' if not, in thy presence he will bless." 92 job's trial increased. [Pam. This malicious answer is evidently introduced by a proverbial form of speech, which perhaps denoted the interested selfishness of mankind in their inter- course with one another, — He will barter one skin for another, though they may seem to be only of an equal value. In this visitation of providence, in which Job has lost his all indeed, but finds that he himself is spared, he may still think himself fa- voured. Or the suggestion may be, there is nothing like the skin — that is, the skin as being the chief seat of the organs of touch, nothing can be so trying as disease and bodily pains ; but these I have been prohibited from making use of — let these be tried, and the effect which I anticipate will be seen. There is certainly much of the wisdom of the ser- pent in this insidious proposal. Nothing is so trying as very strong and acute pain, and those effects of a diseased body upon the mind, which, without disordering its faculties, exhaust its ener- gies, and press hard to sink it into despondency. On this rack would the wily adversary try the in- tegrity of the suffering Job. Ver. 6. And Jehovali said unto the adversary, Behold him in thy power, only save his life. Does this appear a cruel commission? Of this character, let us remember, to the judgment of sense, appear many of the visitations of providence, with which the children of the heavenly Father are scourged ; no affliction but is for the present grie- Sect. 3.] job's trial increased. 93 vous! But we are admonished, and should ever bear it in mind, that we may see in Job's case *' the end of the Lord, and that the Lord is," in reality, when all is understood, " very pitiful and of tender mercy." The design of Jehovah towards Job we shall find to be full of mercy ; this grievous afflic- tion is ' afterwards to yield him peaceable fruits of righteousness.' Nor can any human wisdom pro- nounce, that the furnace of his fiery trial was heated any hotter than was sufficient to consume his dross, and to purify and refine that ' precious faith' which God had given him, and which was to be * found to praise and glory and honour in the day of the Lord.' Far be it from us to suppose, that a false accusation, or ungrounded suspicion of ' the adversary,' could move Jehovah to afflict Job — * without a cause' in that sense. No, there was a cause, or the malice of the Devil had ^not been drawn forth and gratified on this occasion. His accusation was not altogether false. Satan is not omniscient; and there was more in Job's heart than he understood. But he had fixed his attention upon the prosperous Job, and had observed many things, which, from his knowledge and experience of mankind, led him to conclusions which he ven- tured to state as true, even in the presence of the Omniscient ; and though the first trial had failed immediately, yet he is still confident that he has not been mistaken in Job's character. 94 job's trial increased. [Parti. Never was there, indeed, but one found of hu- man kind, in which the prince of darkness, in his permitted hour, could find nothing. And it is only in the righteousness, and in the strength of this * holy One,' that we can stand before ' the adver- sary' demanding justice against us — according to the same measure of justice with which he and his seed are to be judged. ' The accuser of the bre- thren, which accuses them day and night before God,' is only ' to be overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, who confess his glorious name, and make their boast in his righteousness." The brethren of Christ stand in his integrity and in his perfection, and not in. their own ; they stand, because, by spiritual union, they ' dwell in Christ, and Christ in them ;' because they ' are one with Christ, and Christ with them.' And this must be ' the word of their testimony' — that ' sword of the spirit' with which they are to encounter the prince of darkness. The appointed champion, God's only begotten Son, incarnate in human nature, has defeated him, and not we. Both in the contest of right, and in the contest of strength, it is the righteousness, and it is the power of ' the Lord's Christ.' And if for their pride, or self- glo- rying, or for any other cause, Satan may be per- mitted ' to tempt' the heirs of promise, ' faith in the righteousness of God their Saviour' will be the only steadfast hold to which they can cling. Their own Sect. 3.3 job's trial increased. 95 integrity will give way, and their fortitude and strength will fail, if Satan be permitted to try them sufficiently. So we shall find it was with Job, though ' there was none like him on the earth ;' and we see not how it was that Job could have recovered and escaped, but that he who knoweth how to succour them that are tempted, came to his relief The strength of Christ rested upon him in his infirmity, and he was kept by the jmwer of God through faith. Ver. 7. And the adversary went out from the presence of Jehovah, and smote Job with a sore ulcer from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Ver. 8. And he took a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat down among the ashes. It is probably a vain inquiry with what disease Job was afflicted on this occasion. Satan was per- mitted to do his utmost, short of the destruction of any vital part ; and we are sure that the malice of this powerful spirit would leave nothing untried to shake the constancy of Job. We may imagine, therefore, any disease, or complication of diseases the most painful, disgusting, and alarming ! And his deplorable situation, in his subsequent lamen- tation, is very strikingly set forth. His " self- abasement," in seating himself among the ashes, " was probably common among the oriental nations of high antiquity ;" as, in subsequent ages, "the coarsest dress, as of hair or sack-cloth, was worn 96 job's TRIAI/ increased. [Pani. on such occasions, and the vilest and most humi- liating situations, as a dust or cinder-heap, sur- rounded by potsherds, and other household refuse, was made choice of to sit in''." We have frequent allusions in Scripture to * the mourner's ashes/ the dust or dunghill of the suppliant, * the spread- ing of sackcloth and ashes under him.' It was doubtless an expression of the sufferer's sense of his vileness before God, that he knew himself to be but dust and ashes when he took upon himself to supplicate before the almighty God. The cere- mony was significant, but it is but too obvious that high thoughts may be entertained by the beggar on his dunghill ; and, in the eyes of a heart-search- ing God, the furniture of the mind may not always correspond with the tokens of humiliation and self- abasement which are spread around him. This will discover itself to have been the case with the unhappy sufferer before us. But it does not imme- diately appear. The piety and fortitude of Job were of no common order, nor were they soon over- thrown, to the discovery of what was really in his heart. His behaviour and confession, even under the pressure of this second more severe calamity, is at first most exemplary, and consistent with his former character. Ver. 9. And his wife said unto hinij dost thou still hold • Mr. Good. Sect. 3.] job's trial INCREASED. 97 fast thine integrity? Renounce Elohim, and die, (or *' blessing Elohim, and dying"!") Ver. 10. And he said unto her, as the talk of the foolish women thou talkest. What ! shall we accept the good from ;he Elohim, and sliall we not accept the evil ? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. It is somewhat difficult to determine how we are to understand the sense of the words addressed to Job by his wife. According to the latter rendering given above, she seems to express her astonishment dt be- holding the firmness of Job to his religion, that even when dying he could still be blessing his Elohim; and he reproves her for uttering a speech which had been only befitting the mouth of a trifling irreligious woman, and not of one who should have been bet- ter able to appreciate the conduct of a child of God in adversity. However, from the other rendering of the words of the text, greater wickedness may be imputed to the wife of Job. She who could forsake or neglect her husband in his adversity, as it is plain she did, might have entertained the most unworthy and most ignorant views of his religion. Its spiritual hopes, perhaps, she neither felt nor understood ; and though placed in a religious fa- mily, like profane Esau in a subsequent age, de- spised that ' birthright' which had respect to what was to be after death. Perhaps she thought that all the profit in worshipping the Elohim was the » Parkhurst. 11 98 job's trial increased. [Part I. visible blessings which he bestowed upon his ap- proved worshippers. But as all these were now taken from her husband, and his longer life de- spaired of from the nature of his disease, she thought it preposterous and vain that he should still be as sincere as ever in his religion. He might as well ' take leave' of his boasted Elohim, — the giver of Hfe and happiness, for it was plain nothing was to be expected from him — die he must ! Job's answer is full of pious resignation : ' Shall we accept the good from the Elohim, and shall we not accept the evil V Shall we wait upon our God only for the temporal good that he bestows, and when he is pleased to afflict us, shall we quarrel with him and forsake him ? No doubt this replies to the sentiment which his wife's address had ex- pressed ; and it is a sentiment expressed or felt by too many who profess to worship the God of the christian covenant. It designates, in our Lord's parable of the sower, a whole class of religious professors, that " by and by they are offended." But Job's reply expresses the sentiment of the apostle : " We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence : shall we not rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live* !" So far all was right ; and Job, in adversity, stands as eminent as he had stood in his prospe- " Heb. xii. 9. Sect. 3.] job's trial increased. 99 rity;. Might the trial of his affliction have ended here, how should we have extolled the character of Job ! and how might Job have extolled him- self, and been exalted above measure ! But the design of the Divine mercy in his chastisement was to correct a disposition to self- glorying; therefore his trial must continue till the secrets of his heart are made known. A man may find occasions for self-congratula- tion in his resignation to affliction ; and of pride, even in the thought of his humility. And certainly, in a subordinate sense, we may reflect upon these things with pleasure ; with very different sensations, at least, from those with which we remember our perverseness and our sins. But the danger is, lest this glorying should intrude into the highest place, and become incongruous with what ought to be the thoughts of a sinner saved and upheld by grace alone. The danger is, that it should come to dimi- nish, in his view, the glory of his Redeemer's righteousness and holiness, and should somewhat weaken in his mind the thought of his entire depend- ance, as a weak and helpless creature, upon his power and continual aid. The heart-breaking thought of the restored penitent, though not so blessed in itself, is far less dangerous, than in some minds the exultation of one, who, consistently with truth, can ' thank God that he is not as other men are.' " In all this," we are again told, '* Job sinned II 2 100 THE VISIT OP Ills FRIENDS, [Part I. not with his lips," admonishing us, that a different scene will be opened in the subsequent pages. And those who have stood their ground in severe trials, and have exhibited a faithful and consistent testimony, should reflect how much it may have depended on the ordering of the circumstances of their distress — that the trouble ended where it did end, or that the enemy was not suffered to do his worst. It is a proud thing to think I should have stood, where we see a brother fall ! Therefore it is, that the apostle calls upon " them that are spiritual," w^hen they would restore by their admonitions or reproof a brother who is overtaken with a fault, to do it in the spirit of meekness, '* considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." SECTION FOURTH. The Visit of his Friends, and JoFs Despondency. We gather from the subsequent complaints of Job, that the generality of his kindred and friends deserted him in his distress, and avoided him as ' the stricken deer in the herd ;' even those whom * his former bounty fed.' Bat there are some ex- ceptions ; though even these do not visit him to his immediate comfort. Vei'. 11. And three friends of Job heard of all this affliction which had befallen him, and they came each from Sect. 4.] AND job's despondency. 101 his place, Eliphaz' the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhlte, and Zophar the Naamathite. And they concerted to- gether to go and condole with him, and comfort him. Ver. 12. And they lifted up their eyes at a distance, and they did not know him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they rent each his mantle, and cast dust upon their heads towards heaven. Ver. 13. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and neither of them spake a word to him, for they saw that his sufFering*" was exceeding great. Job had probably been for some time a sufferer before the report reached his friends, or before they could make an appointment together to go and condole with him. We cannot doubt but that the intention of these friends of Job was good, however they fail in the character of comforters : they had heard of his afflictions ; but they arrive to behold a spectacle which seems to astonish them. Job appears too much afflicted to permit them to speak to him ; they can only mourn with him ; and for seven days and nights they sit by him in silent grief. At length we hear the afflicted break the long silence. But, alas ! how different are the feelings to which Job now gives vent, to what w^e had expected from his former declarations ; both * Eliphaz was of Teman, a city of Edom, Jer. lxix.7 — 20. Ezek. XXV. 13. Amos 1, 12. Bildad was of Shua, a district in the east country of Arabia Petraea, Gen. xxv. 2 — 6. Zophar of Naamah, a city of Edom, Josh. xv. 21 — 41. ** 3N3, soreness, exulceration of mind or body. 102 THF, VISIT OF HIS FRIENDS, [Part I. when the first afflictions came upon him, and when in his deeper distress, he had reproved the irrehgi- ous speech of his wife! All then was right; meekly- had he submitted to the heavenly Father's chas- tisement,— *' naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. Jehovah gave and Jehovah hath taken away, blessed be the name of Jehovah" — " What! shall we receive good from the Elohim, and shall we not receive evil?" But, how altered now ! where is all his resig- nation and patience fled? We are almost ready to say with his friends, ' we do not know him :' so altered is his moral feeling ! and we have a sad instance of what temptation can effect in the best of men : it illustrates, too, the superiority of Him "who was tempted in all things, like as we are, but with- out sin." Chap. iii. ver. 1,2. Afterwards'' Job opened his mouth and cursed his day : and Job exclaimed and said : 3. Mi^ht'' the day have perished Avhen I should be born, And the night that was to tell a male was conceived ! 4. Might that day have been withdrawn, Eloah not have required it from above % * " At length," Mr. Good. '' Or " would the day had perished, &c." ' Let the day perish' cannot be the force of the verb used in this passage. He wishes such a day had never been, that he had never been born. To refer it to the celebration of his birth-day appears to be a very cold exposition. ' Might it have been stopped,' or ' kept back,' and God not have inquired for, or looked after it. The word also signifies, Sect. 4.] AND JOB's DESPONDENCY. 103 And the light not have shined upon it ! 5. Might darkness and the shade of death' have in- volved it** ; A cloudy mist have settled upon it M 6. Might the black blasts of the day have surprised it^. And total darkness have seized that night ! Might it never have been united to the days of the year, Nor have been entered in the register of the moons ! both in Hebrew and Arabic, ' to look attentively at,' or ' peruse with care:' as a person does a volume unfolded before him. Mr. Good has " unclose it from on high." ' moSi^ — tlie shade of death : that extreme darkness which was imagined in the abode of the dead. Or perhaps the allusion was to that darkness with which the eyes are closed in death, like Homer's Qavmoio fieXav j/60o?, " the black cloud of death:" but compare Chap. xvi. 16. ^ Or " take possession of it, and vindicate it as belonging to them by right of kindred." But Simon deduces the mean- ing from S'JJ ' to cover,' ' involve.' " Let clouds rest or settle upon it, or fall upon, and hang over it. Mr. Good elegantly renders *' let the gathered tem- pest pavilion over it." But the original is more simple in its style. ^ From nOD, ferbuit. Mr. Good has no doubt pointed out the true meaning. He interprets it, of the hot wind of the desert ; the Simoom, or Kamsin. And the description of this phenomenon, with which Job must have been well acquainted, as given by M. Volney, well illustrates the passage : compar- ing these winds to the heat of a large oven, at the moment of the drawing out of the bread, he observes, " when the winds begin to blow, the atmosphere assumes an alarming aspect; the sky, at other times so clear in this climate, becomes dark and heavy ; the sun loses liis splendour, and appears of a violet colour, the streets are deserted, and the dead silence of the night reigns everywhere :" vol. i. 5G. See further extract in illustration of Chap, xxxvii. 104 THE VISIT OF HIS FRIENDS, [Part I. 7. Lo ! might that night have been a barren rocks No ' lively' sound have approached it*" ! 8. Might those who execrate the day have marked it % Who are ready ** at raising their lamentation^ ! ^ '* Hard and steril as a rock." "trabj, the meaning of Avhich is traced in the Arabic where it signifies a hard and barren rock, and is used as an emblem of sterility. — See Simon. Probably the figure is taken from some very desolate scenes of the desert, where the barren rocks, yielding no vegetation, and not inviting any living creature to break by its stir, or call, the still silence which prevails ; the si:)ot might seem as ' a blank in nature.' Oh had the stillness of that unhappy day been as unbroken ! *' Silice vastior." Schultens. ^ " Let no vibration of sound, or of sight come into it." *= Might those who point out inauspicious seasons and times, have fixed their mark upon it, from 3p:. Or rather, by ' the cursers of the day,' we should understand those hired or public mourners, who were wont to be employed, with music and lamentations, to celebrate the memorial of some great calamity. Comp, Ezek. xxx. 2. " howl ye, woe worth the day." ^ ' Who are ready' and ' well skilled.' From the turn which Mr. Good and some othei's have given to the line I must altogether dissent: "Let the sorcerers of the day curse it: the expertest of them Avho can conjure up Leviathan." This strange interpretation is, in Mr. Good, accompanied in the note by a still stranger assertion, that Melchizedec was a sorcerer ! ' " Or who are prepared to keep their vigils of grief." Comp. mx? evigllavit. |n"'lV is understood in the sense of grief or mourning, by several expositors, as well as by our public translators, and has the authority of the Chaldee. See Pool's Synopsis. I would derive the Avord from lb, would to God ! O that ! [Lat. O si, Graec. ei ei^e.] from mS, or from the Arabic ''l'?, multum optavit. The solemn dirges of these skilful mourners were Avont perliaps to begin Avith such like excla- inations, and hence the term : jn frequently occurs in the Book of Job as a pronoun suffix for on. Dr. Clarke describes " a very curious relic of the ululatlon of the ancients," page 72 of the third A'olume of his Travels, It Avas at a funeral in Grand Sect. 4.] AND job's despondency. 105 9. Might the stars of its morning * have been darkened ! Might it have expected light, and there have been none, And it have seen not the eye-lids of the dawn *" ! 10. Because it shut not up the doors of the womb, And concealed not sorrow from mine eyes. We find expressions of grief and despair similar to these of Job, in the prophecy of Jeremiah. What Mr. Lowth says, in his commentary on that passage^ may be applied to what, in the one before us, has appeared to some so extraordinary — to ' Job's cursing his day.' ** It is a lamentation written in a poetical strain, like the Lessus or Neenise, which the ' prseficse,' or mourning women, used to sing, where- in strong poetical figures are used, and all the cir- cumstances brought in that are proper to raise the Cairo : " the singers were women hired to sing and lament — a principal part of their art consists in mingling with their ulu- lation, plaintive expressions of praise or pity, affecting narra- tives of the employment, profession, and character of the de- ceased, &c." Also, page 122, speaking of tlie singing prac- tised by the Almehs at funerals, he describes it as consisting in a repetition of the syllable ul, or el, constituting the long pro- tracted elelelelelu, or ululation" — " the same note descending in the continual cadence." He compares the EXe\e\e\eXev of lo, in the Prometheus Vinctus of ^Eschylus ; the ullaloo ! ullaloo ! of the Irish mourners ; and also the rh^h^ of the Arabians. * That this is the meaning of t^j;:, see 1 Sam. xxx. 17. Miglit its morning star, the harbinger of day, have been extinguished, that it might have abode in perpetual darkness ; have waited earnestly for the light, but to no purpose ; never have seen the opening eye of the dawn. '' " Let it not see the glancings of the dawn." Mr. Good. '' Chap. XX. 106 THE VISIT OF HIS FRIENDS, [Parti. passions, but which it would be extremely wrong to interpret in a strict and literal sense." Bishop Lowth also cites similar instances of grief discharg- ing itself in invectives and bitter wishes against objects, in themselves altogether blameless and undeserving. Particularly David's lamentation over Saul and Jonathan : " Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither rain upon you, &c." " All which," he observes, " if you were to bring it to the standard of cool and dispassionate reason, what would appear more absurd ? But if you have an eye to nature, and to the ordinary flow of the passions, what more genuine, more exact, more beautiful l^ These observations will assist us to form a just idea of the nature of this poetical composition, wherein Job curses his day. Job, Ave may con- ceive, after his afflictions were ended, composed in poetry an account of his trial, and of all that passed on the occasion, that it might be long remembered by posterity. He could not better express his own feeling of wretchedness and despair, and give the substance of what he had expressed to his friends, than by one of these lamentations, embracing every accustomed figure of bitter grief and despair : they truly expressed his gloomy thoughts, and the moans of his distracted heart. He rued the day of his birth, and could not but express his mind to ' De Sac. Poes. Heb, Praelect. xxiii. See also Dr. Blaney on Jeremiah. Sect. 4.] AND job's DESPONDENCY. 107 his friends, that it had been better for him that he had never been born. He represents himself as continuing in the same strain : 11. Why might I not have died at the birth ? Have come forth from the womb and expired ? 12. Why did the knees prevent me. And why the breasts, that I should suck ? Why were the knees of a tender mother provi- ded to support and nurse me, and her breasts to nourish me in my miserable existence. 13. For now had I been lying down and been at ease, I had been asleep; rest had long since been mine*. Evidently expressing his disgust at life, in which the days of his prosperity had been so short, and in which the griefs which he now endured were so bitter and hopeless. And he seems to say, in the following lines, that those who had succeeded best could do no better in life than to prepare for this long sleep : he hardly knows, whether the rest of the still-born babe — altogether ignorant of this vain and troublesome world — were not preferable even to their prosperity ! 14. Among kings and leaders'' of the earth, Who had erected for them sepulchres " ! ' Rest had been mine forthwith. Comp. Sam. ii. 27. ^ Q'<)£)£'<, is generally rendered counsellors : it denotes properly those who govern mankind, as the leaders and advisers in pub- lic councils, the ' /3ovXrj(popo9 avrjp' of Homer. " nain, mausoleum. Lex. Heb. Simonis. This is the inter- 108 THE VISIT OF HIS FRIENDS, [?"' ^• 15. Or among chiefs, who had had possessions of gold. Who had filled their houses with silver ! 16. Or as an abortion I should not have lived, As the infants who never saw light. I should have rested as well, nor would my loss have been great, whether I had been as a prince who had accumulated riches — Or who had erected him a magnificent tomb,— all the distinction in death which wealth could have purchased ! Or whe- ther— as would have been my case — I had perished an untimely fruit of the womb. But if, to the gloomy comprehension of the afflicted, life at its best estate is altogether vanity, not worthy to have disturbed th'e rest of the still- born babe in his grave, what must that rest be, to those who are depressed by poverty, or harassed with toil and labour, or whose peace is broken by the troubles and injuries of this present life ! How sweet would the rest of the grave be to them ! 17. There the disturbers' have ceased from troubling. And there the wearied may rest*" ; pretation of Schultens, and it is much illustrated by consi- dering the immense pains bestowed by the great of very ancient times upon their sepulchres. As Goguet observes from Hero- dotus " they regarded their palaces and houses as inns ; but for a transient abode, giving, by way of distinction, the name of eternal habitations to their tombs." ^ Mr. Good acquiesces in the public translation ; but by taking the primitive meaning of i^-^^l, we seem to arrive at a stronger sense, and the same indeed in which the verb is used. Job xxxiv. 29. The two lines depicture, on the one hand, the rest- Sect. 4.] AND job's despondency. 109 18. The captives repose fearlessly '^ together: They hear not the voice of the driver*^ ; 19. The mean and the great are there ' the same''% And the servant is free from his master. The desponding mind of Job calls into view the saddest circumstances of human life and society. Of these, indeed, the prosperous, and those who love this present world too well, often lose sight in their estimate of human happiness ; while, on the other hand, the melancholy thoughts of the despair- ing mind are too apt to distort and exaggerate them : casting as it were their own gloomy hue on every circumstance of life which they contemplate. Job demands, Who of all these sufferers had not better be in their graves ? less disturbers of the peace of society, who keep the world in continual commotion ; and on the other liand, the poor victims of their ambition or turbulence, whose strength is worn out by their exactions and injuries. •• Perhaps more literally, " there the gasping may surcease ' their' strength," rest it, or cease to exert it. c " Summe securi, et ex securitate fastuosi et insolentes." Sim. Lex. Heb.