TH Job. object of their fixed averfion, when | Differtation concerning the book of he was ufing his ftrenuous endeavours to draw off the people from their old fuperftitions to a new religion, and to introduce a regular and equitable form of government. The fachems and powows both apprehended, that upon Mr. Eliot's fuccefs, there would be a great diminution of their power and wealth: accordingly Mr. Eland wealth: accordingly Mr. Eliot was frequently treated in a contemptuous and rude manner, and fometimes threatened with the lofs of life. And it is fuppofed thefe men would gladly have affaffinated him; had they not dreaded the confequence, a rupture with the English. 66 66 Sometimes, in the wilderness, without the company or affistance of any Englishman, he has been treated with very threatening language by fome of the Indian rulers; but God infpired him with fo much refolution, as to tell them, "I am about the work of "the great God, and my God is "with me; fo that I fear neither you nor all the fachems in the 66 country; I will go on; and do you touch me at your peril!" But notwithstanding the oppofition made to the gofpel by the fachems and powows; notwithftanding the bias of education, which has no fmall influence upon the minds of moft men, particularly the ignorant and fuperftitious; notwithstanding thefe and other obftructions, the force of truth, under divine influences, gradually prevailed. In a courfe of years, feveral Indian churches were gathered, many congregations of catechumens were formed, and the profpect was fo pleafing, that Mr. Eliot and other miffionaries were encouraged to purfue, with vigor, the benevolent work. (To be continued.) HE canonical authority of this book is fufficiently fupported by the honorable mention of Job in Ezekiel, xiv. 14— 20.-by the quotation in 1 Cor. iii. 19. from Job, v. 13. and the apoftolic reference to his exempalfo by this, that it has been relary patience, James, v. 11.-and ceived as a part of the infpired word of God by the Jews, in all ages, who not only have had the uine books of holy fcripture of beft means of determining the gen the old teftament, but are alfo well known to have exercifed the moft diligent caution on this important fubject. Various are the queftions which have arifen concerning this book, among which are the following; viz. When and where lived Job and his friends? Who was the author, or penman of the book? Whether it be a fimple narration of facts and events, or adorned with poetic license? What is the moral and religious inftruction which it contains, or for what end was it written? Obvious difficulties attend us in attempting an anfwer to each of the three firft of thefe queftions; as we have no contemporary or collateral writers who caft any confiderable light on this book, excepting in the references already noticed-and the author has affixed no date to the birth and death of Job, or hinted any thing by which the day in which he lived can be certainly determined; and touching his country, has only informed us that it was the land of Uz. A like obfcurity attends the other four fpeakers who are introduced, and make up an important part of the history. We fhall, however, ex, amine each of the queftions by the lights in our poffeffion. And, I. When and where lived Job and his friends? as that his children had arrived to maturity, and were settled in families before his calamity. If fo, he must have been at least fifty or fixty years old at that time, which added to the number just mentioned, is about two hundred. Now "the Lord bleffed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" and we are affured that when he died, he was an old man and full of days, we may fuppofe him to have lived fifty or fixty years, or perhaps more in the whole longer than those of his generation in common, which will place him fomewhere in the time of the fojouring of the Ifraelites in Egypt, or a little before the time of Mofes. Concerning Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu, we are in a ftill wider field of con It appears from Gen. x. 23. that Uz was the name of a grandfon of Shem. And from the 29th verse of the same chapter we learn that one of his defcendants in the fifth generation was named Jobab. From Gen. xxxvi. 28. with the 1 Chronicles i. 42. we learn that one of the pofterity of Efau, was called by this name. Gen. xxxvi. 33. we learn that Jobáb, a defcendant of Efau reigned in Edom, before any king reigned in Ifrael; from all which it appears that both Uz and Jobáb were family names in the defcendants of Shem. And it is to be prefumed that the first of note gave name to the country, ftiled the land of Uz.jecture, but from the mention of And it has been conjectured, that Jobab was the father of Job hence we may fuppofe that Job was a defcendant of Shem, and of Efau, and that his country was in fome part of the poffeffions of the Edomites, called from another of the pofterity of Shem the land of Uz; at least that he reigned there, for it seems from the accounts in Gen. xxxvi. that, at that time, the kingdom was not hereditary, in one family, but was poffeffed in rotation, by men of the best family and character. If the preceding obfervations are juft, it will follow that Job must have lived not long before the age of Mofes. And this conjecture is ftrengthened by the account of his age, in the clofe of the book. We are there informed that Job lived one hundred and forty years, after his afflictions and that when he died, he was an old man and full of days. From the reprefentation in the beginning of the book, it appears probable VOL. III. No. 12. them in this book connected with chap. xxxvi. 10, 12, 15. chap. xxv. II. We now proceed to enquire who was the author, or penman of this book? On this, the opinions of the learned are various, fuch are the following 1. That it was written by Job's three friends, as fome compenfation for their injurious treatment of him-Sanctius, and Quidam in Sanctium. 2. Solomon-fee Nazianzen, Nicetus, Olympiodorus, Polychron. &c. 3. Job himself-so Pineda, Gregory, Scultetus. 4. Ifaiah, from likeness in the compofition. 5. Ezra, after the Babylonish captivity-Prideaux Con. 6. Mofes-fo Origen and R. David Kimhi, and Tirinus, and Pineda. 7. Elihu-Johannes Palmer, minifter Northamptonienfis, from chap. xxxii. 15, 16. where Elihu feems to addrefs the reader in thefe words," they were amazed, they answered no more, they left off fpeaking-when I had waited, (for they spoke not but ftood ftill, and anfwered no more.) It is argued in favor of Isaiah or fome other late compofer, that that the book abounds with Syriac and Arabic words to this it may be replied, that Mofes either by his Egyptian learning, or his fixty years living among the Medianites, or by both, was undoubtedly well acquainted with the Arabic, which was only another dialect from the Syriac, and probably, in that early period, very little different from it. The hiftory of Job must have been known among the Jews before the days of Ezekiel, as appears from the paffages in that prophet referred to above; chap. xiv. 14. and no period till after that time will fo well account for the mixture of Arabic and Syriac, as the days of Mofes, or the fuppofition that he was the penman, or at least, that he reduced it to its prefent form. It is reasonable to fuppofe that fome account was preferved by Job, or his three friends, or by Elihu, as both he and they were probably at the head of their refpective tribes, as princes, kings or dukes, in the language of thofe times-fee Gen. xxxvi. 29, 43 ; a courfe of events fo remarkable, would be preserved in the Chronicles of each of them, and efpecially of Job, and perhaps the paffages referred to in chap. xxxii. 15, 16, may be an argument of the fame with refpect to Elihu. This will ftill more cafily account for the Arabic and Syriac words found in this book, as on the fuppofition that the hiftory was en larged and embellifhed by fome other hand, many of the words and phrafes in the original accounts would, no doubt, be preferved, efpecially if the writer was acquainted with the language, and converfant in the cuftoms of the country. This leads us to obferve that, balancing the arguments in favor of the various hypothefes which have been named, touching the author of this book, probability determines it in favor of Mofes, for the following reasons : 1. He lived very near the age and country of Job, (fee article 1. p. 4.) the Midianites, among whom he dwelt for forty years, were defcended from Abram, by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 2. these were connected with the Ishmalites in trade and business in the time of Jofeph, Gen. xxxvii. 25, 27, 28. and Mofes was allied to the priest, or prince, the chief of Midian, by the marriage of his daughter; therefore must be fuppofed not only to be acquainted with the common reports respecting events fo remarkable in a neighboring prince, as thofe related of Job, but also to have the most authentic information, and to be acquainted with the written accounts if any fuch there were ; and we have no room to doubt that the knowledge of events was preferved at that time, by hieroglyphic writing, if not by the characters afterwards employed. But from the expreffions of Job, chap. xix. 23, 24. it may be prefumed that characteristic or alphabetical writing was even then known in Arabia; but by whatever means the knowledge of these things was ble to believe that events fo uncommon in a character fo diftinguifhed as that of Job, would deeply engage his attention, as a man of learning and piety; and his contiguity of time and place with Job, furnished him with the beft advantage to be poffeffed of the facts; especially if we add to these his extenfive learning, and his princely alliance in the family of Jethro. conveyed to Mofes, it is reafona- | the 40 years which he spent in Midian, was peculiarly adapted to fuch a work, not only as pastoral and epic poetry, in which this book is principally written, is fuited to the life of a fhepherd, and the learning of Mofes was adapted to fuch a fublime compofition as this book affuredly is, but efpecially as Mofes was a prophet of God, and, in many refpects, the greatest of all the prophets and infpired writers of the old teftament; and it is admitted that the author of this book must have been divinely inspired. 2. It has been obferved by learned men, that most of the animals mentioned in the fpeech of the Almighty to Job, chap. xxviii. and onward, are Egyptian; and that the description is so just as to imply the author to be well acquainted with the animals he defcribes. This in particular is obferved of Behemoth and Leviathan, chap. xl. and xli. fuppofed to be the crocodile and the hippopatamos, or fea horse-if this be confidered as poetical description, it implies a ftrong argument that the author had lived in Egypt, and therefore, probably, muft be Mofes. 3. The knowledge of Mofes in the Arabic and Syriac dialects, as a man of letters, and from his long acquaintance, firft in the court of the prince of Egypt and then in that of Jethro-will eafily account for the mixture of thofe dialects in the various parts of the book, especially if we admit, what is highly probable, that he was acquainted with fome accounts of thofe events written by Job or his friends: add to this, that the principal part of the book confifts in a repetition of the words of the several speeches, whofe meaning would be much better preserved in their own dialect than in any tranflation. 4. The life of Mofes during 5. The fubject matter of this book is particularly fitted to the condition of Mofes, as a man of piety, in a state of exile from his country and people, whom he had left in a state of cruel and intolerable bondage, after having in vain attempted their deliverance; compare Exod. ii. 11-15. with Acts, vii. 20-29.-Mofes must be fuppofed to have been acquainted with the divine predictions to Abraham, refpecting the bondage of his feed in Egypt, and their wonderful redemption, and rightly judged himself to be the perfon defigned by God and raised up for their deliverance. His unfuc cefsful efforts, present exile, and the miserable state of his people, must have plunged him in the deepeft diftrefs, and have rendered the hiftory of divine providence towards Job, in his great afflictions and marvellous deliverance, (in many refpects fimilar to the cafe of himself and his nation) peculiarly fuitable to fupport his heart, and to ftrengthen his faith in the gracious promises of God; and thus not only comfort him in his painful exile, but also prepare him for the important part for which he was defigned by God, in the redemption of his people. From fuch topics we are led to the conclufion that it is highly probable the book of Job was compofed from authentic memoirs, and reduced to its present form and perfection, by Mofes, during his abode in Midian, under the fuperintending influence of the Holy Spirit. III. We proceed now to the enquiry, whether the book of Job be a fimple narration of facts and events, or narration adorned with poetic license. The concluding fentence in the laft head by no means precludes this enquiry.Such compofition is suited to many important purposes, and is far from implying any reflection on the fpirit of truth, or its authorBefides, many other paffages in the facred writings are of this kind; fuch is the whole book of Canticles, and the parables of our bleffed Saviour. The learned are divided on this head as well as the laft, but the decifion is not of the greateft importance—the inftruction and improvement are the fame, on either fuppofition. The compofition and arrangement of the parts will agree to the latter hypothefis not only as it is compofed in poetic measure, but is an epic poem, completely perfect in its kind this will appear if we confider the place, circumftances and time or duration of the action, which need not be fuppofed to be more than thirty or forty days-the refpective parts, the manner in which they are sustained by each of the actors the exceedingly interefting and important nature of the fubject-the hero of the poem its folemn climax-till the Almighty fpeaks from the impending ftorm, and brings on the grand catastrophe of the poem.-How uninterefting and infipid are the poems of Homer and Virgil, and the most admired compositions of uninfpired men, when compared with the book of Job!-Other circumstances might be named in favor of the latter hypothefis, but having obferved that, on either fuppofition the inftruction and moral are the fame IV. We fhall briefly confider the laft enquiry-What is the moral and religious inftruction which this book contains, or for what end was it written? In all divine operations, we are fure that the work is well adapted to the end for which it was defigned.-That this book was defigned for fome important end will not be doubted. We may learn the end for which it was defigned by the objects actually obtained, or to which it is evidently adapted. The apoftle James, in a paffage alluded to in the beginning of this differtation, chap. v. 11. addresses the fuffering Chriftians in the following words, "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have feen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." From this we are led to the following conclufions, viz. that this book gives an eminent display of patience, in the character of Job, and manifests the tender mercy of God to his people, even in their deepest afflictions, and that these were, at leaft, fome of the divine defigns in the forrows of Job. In other words, the forrows of Job were appointed by God with a view to difplay the amiable perfection of his own character, in those respects and events where men are most inclined to repine, and charge God foolishly, and alfo to exhibit the diftinguishing nature of true religion in an example of fuffering piety under the fharpeft trials. That thefe ends are accom |