tore the hair off his venerable head, and at laft fell proftrate on the ground. In all this, however, he did not anfwer Satan's expectation; for, notwithstanding this complication of calamities, thefe successive scenes of forrow, he moft devoutly paid his tribute of adoration to his God, and fhewed a perfect refignation to all these fevere marks of the Divine difpleasure. "I am now, faid he, but in the fame ftate and condition I was when first I came "into the world, and have loft no more than what I must have parted with, whenever it should please the Almighty to call me "out of it. The Lord, though he has bereaved me at present of "all I have, yet he has taken from me nothing more than what, in his infinite goodness, he first beftowed upon me. Let him "therefore be praised whose unerring justice is not to be disputed!" Thus, notwithstanding holy Job was oppreffed with such a load of miferies as no one but himself could with any degree of patience have ever borne, yet he permitted not one indecent word to proceed from his mouth, that tended in the leaft either to accufe the Almighty, or call his over-ruling Providence into question. MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS on CHAP. I. THERE WAS A MAN, IN THE LAND OF UZ, WHOSE NAME WAS H' ISTORIANS and poets, in the introductions to their works, give their readers for the generality a description of the perfon and abilities of their hero, whether real or fabulous, in order to prepossess them, as it were, in his favour, and as an earnest of what they are to expect from his future atchievements.-The inspired penman of the book of JOB, does not, as fome lefs judicious authors are too apt to do, expatiate upon trivial incidents, fuch as the air and shape of the man, or the particular lineaments of his face, and other external beauties, but enters at once into the more valuable part of his character, by a very fhort, but comprehenfive description of his moral and religious virtues.-This man, fays he, was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and efchewed evil.-Now a more amiable portrait of a good prince prince could never have been delineated in fewer or fofter ftrokes. And this noble brevity is by the best judges ever acknowledged as one of the moft evident characteristicks of an accurate and correct writer: for he leaves room for the imagination to form, a greater variety of ideas of the perfon he would recommend, than he poffibly could do by the most prolix and extenfive panegyrick.-Though feveral very remarkable, as well as beautiful inftances of this kind might be collected from history both facred and profane, yet we shall content ourselves with producing only one from each. Thus, when my Lord CLARENDON was at a lofs to do justice to the merits, and defirous at the fame time to leave a brand of infamy on the character of that grand ufurper OLIVER CROMWEL, he very happily expreffed it in the following laconic affertion; THAT HE WAS A GREAT, WICKED MAN. But the most extraordinary inftance of this nature I can at prefent recollect, is that, where our BLESSED SAVIOUR gives a full commendation of NATHANIEL, in these words, BEHOLD AN ISRAELITE INDEED, IN WHOM IS NO GUILE! Which encomium is so very expreffive, fo full and perfect, that whoever fhould attempt to fay more, would only throw a veil over its character, and leffen its intrinfick value.. VERSE V. AND IT WAS SO WHEN THE DAYS OF THEIR FEASTING WERE GONE ABOUT, THAT JOB SENT AND SANCTIFIED THEM, AND ROSE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING, AND OFFERED BURNT OFFERINGS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THEM ALL: FOR JOB SAID, IT MAY BE THAT MY SONS HAVE SINNED, AND CURSED GOD IN THEIR HEARTS. "IT fhocks credibility, that this excellent father fhould conceive fo grofs a fenti"ment of his amiable children. He was only apprehensive, least, in the gaiety of "a festival, they had let loose their minds from the restraints of religion;, Forgive my childrens fin, all gracious pow'r, "If ought difpleas'd thee in their mirthful hour: "E'er faid to piety and God, depart." SCOTT. VERSE VI. NOW THERE WAS A DAY WHEN THE SONS OF GOD CAME TO PRESENT THEMSELVES BEFORE THE LORD, AND SATAN CAME ALSO AMONG THEM, &c. "THIS is not hiftory; but a piece of allegorical scenery, fomewhat refembling the councils of the gods in Homer. The noble inftruction that it veileth is,. " that . that God governs the world by the inftrumentality of second causes; that the evils ❝ of human life are under his direction, and that the afflictions of good men are appointed by him for the illustration of their virtue, and advancing by that means, "the honour of religion.-Job himself, and the other human speakers in the poem, conftantly represent his calamities as the immediate act of God. They, therefore, "had no idea of this evil being SATAN, nor of his agency in human affairs: he is "never once mentioned throughout the poem. SCOTT. Though the grand accufer of mankind, as here represented, appeared in the prefence of God the Father, in order to calumniate his most faithful fervant, and one of the most righteous men upon earth; yet his infolence cannot be faid to be greater than it was afterwards, when he prefented himself before God the Son in the wilderness, and assaulted him with a train of the most audacious temptations he ever practifed. Both attempts, however, ended in his own confufion; and God's infinite goodness was illuftrated in the most confpicuous manner, by the envy and malice of fo implacable a spirit. VERSE XIX AND BEHOLD, THERE CAME A GREAT WIND FROM THE WILDERNESS, 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. THIS paffage has given several atheistical criticks room to triumph, and with a air of contempt and ridicule to afk, how inconfiftent is it with the course of nature, for the wind to fmite the four corners of Job's houfe at once? And from this mode of expreffion, and fome other difficulties and feeming contradictions, that are here and there interfperfed amongst the writings of the inspired penmen ; thefe advocates for infidelity would fain perfuade their adherents, that the fcriptures in general carry no manner of weight or authority along with them, and are no more the revealed will of God than any other fyftem of divinity whatsoever.-In answer to these fcoffers at all religion, we shall not infift, that this was a fupernatural wind, an event of an extraordinary nature, and that their patron, the prince of the air, had, at this time, an unlimited power over the elements, by a fpecial commiffion from the Almighty, to attack his fervant Job in what manner he thought proper. For this, in their opinion, would be as grofs an abfurdity as the former: but, on the contrary, we shall fhew, that it was a natural event, and that hurricanes of the like nature, were frequent in the country where Job refided. This tempeft, or ftorm, here spoken of then, was one of thofe terrible whirlwinds, which came from the wildernefs, that is to fay, from that part of it, called, by way of eminence, Arabia Deferta, and which naturalifts have diftinguished by the name of Tryphon,-Now this particular wind, they tell us, whirls about in a circular form, like eddies in the the fea, and fo by confequence, without any miraculous operation, might have a ftrong influence over every part of Job's house at one fingle blast. Befides, in an impetuous tempeft, fuch as this doubtlefs was, and fuch as mariners too frequently meet with in fome particular paffages, they are perfectly at a loss to know from what part of the compafs the wind blows; fince by its violence it proceeds, to all outWe ward appearance, from every quarter of the heavens at one and the fame time. fhall refer therefore thefe unbelievers to a celebrated pagan writer, who, we are fenfible, has ten times more authority with them than Mofes; and if we can produce the teftimony of so great an author as Virgil to confirm the poffibility of what we have afferted, we doubt not but they will be fo complaifant, as to acquiefce in a point, which they imagined fo ridiculous and abfurd. And for this purpose, we beg of them to turn to the 89th verfe of the first Æneid, where they will find a like extraordinary event very boldly afferted. And notwithstanding there are but two lines in particular, that exactly hit the mark we are aiming at, namely, Incubuere mari, totumque à fedibus imis Una Eurufque Notufque ruunt, creberque procellis Africus: Yet, as the description of the ftorm, there raised by Æolus, the God of the winds, is very beautiful, and not very prolix, we shall quote the whole from Mr. Dryden's tranflation of it. ÆOLUS, after he has paid his compliments to the Goddess to whom his fpeech is directed, proceeds to execute her commands in the following manner. VOL. III. He faid:-And hurl'd against the mountain fide, Gg } Though Though we imagine this evidence alone a fufficient juftification of this paffage, yet we fhall beg leave to introduce here from Mr. Addifon, not only a beautiful defcription of a tempeft, but of one of those whirl-winds, or hurricanes, that are peculiar to the deferts. That great author, endeavouring to illuflrate the diftrefs of CATO, in his univerfally admired Drama under that title, makes ufe of the following fimile; I laugh to think how your unfhaken Cato Sees the dry defert all around him rife, And fmother'd in the dufty whirlwind dies. VERSE XX. XXI. } THEN JOB AROSE, AND RENT HIS MANTLE, AND SHAVED HIS HEAD, AND FELL DOWN UPON THE GROUND AND WORSHIPPED, AND SAID, NAKED CAME I OUT OF MY MOTHER'S WOMB, AND NAKED SHALL I RETURN THITHER: THE LORD GAVE, AND THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY; BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD. "THIS was behaviour truly fublime, the nobleft homage that could be paid by "a reasonable Being to his great Creator. ་་ "Then Job arofe; and, father now no more, "The Lord in bounty gave, but gave in trust, SCOTT. Rending |