Now admitting the truth of the observation, it would be so far from supporting, that it would overturn his conclusion. Mr. Le Clerc seems to have been misled into this criticism by what he had observed of writers of less polished ages borrowing from those of more. In this case, the copy will be always much inferior to the original. But the effect would have been just the contrary in a writer of the time of David borrowing from one of the time of Moses. And as the common opinion places the two books in those two different periods, they are to be supposed rightly placed, till the contrary be shewn. This observation we see verified in the Greek authors of the Socratic age, and in the Roman authors of the Augustan, when they borrowed from their very early country writers. But the matter of fact is, I think, just otherwise. The advantage of the sublime in the parallel passages seems to lie on the side of Job. And from hence we may draw Mr. Le Clerc's conclusion with much greater force. But indeed, take it either way, the argument, as I said, is of little weight. But it is pleasant to hear Schultens, and his epitomiser Dr. Grey, speak of the grandeur, the purity, and sublimity of the language spoken in the time of Job, as if the Hebrew had partaken of the nature and fortunes of the two languages made perfect by a long study of eloquence, in the Socratic and Augustan ages; and as if it was equally impossible for a Hebrew after the captivity (though inspired into the bargain) to imitate these excellencies of style, as for a writer of the iron age of Latin to have expressed the beauty qui ont imité le livre de Jób? Il est aisé de vous satisfaire. On connoit, qu'un auteur en imite un autre, à ceci, c'est que l'imitation n'est pas si belle que l'original, qui exprime ordinairement les choses d'une maniere plus nette & plus naturelle que la copie. Sentimens de quelques Theol. de Hol, p. 183. Y VOL. V. beauty and weight of Ennius's elegance. We know what Enthusiasm can do on every object to which it turns itself. There have been Critics of this sort, who have found, even in the Hebrew of the Rabbins, graces and sublimities of style to match those in the best Greek and Roman historians; though, in reality, the graces it boasts partake much of those we see in the Law-French of our English-Reporters. The truth is, the language of the times of Job had its grandeur, its purity, and sublinities: but they were of that kind which the learned Missionarics have observed in the languages of certain Warrior-tribes in North America. And this language of the time of Job preserved its genius to late ages, by the assistance of that uniformity of Character which makes the more sequestered inha bitants of the East so tenacious of all their ancient modes and customs. 2. We now come closer to the question; and having proved the book of Job to be written under the Mosaic Economy, we say further, that it must be somewhere between the time of their approaching captivity, and their thorough re-establishment in Judea. This is the widest interval we can afford it. The reason seems to be decisive. It is this, That no other possible period can be assigned, in which the GRAND QUESTION, debated in this book, could ever come into dispute. This deserves to be considered. The question, a very foreign one to us, and therefore no wonder it should have been so little attended to, is, Whether God administers his government over men here with an equal providence, so as that the good are always prosperous, and the bad unhappy; or whether, on the contrary, there be not such apparent qualities, as that prosperity and adversity often * See note [P] at the end of this volume. happen happen indifferently to good and bad. Job maintains the latter part*, and his three friends the former. They argue these points throughout the whole book; and each party sticks firm to his first opinion. Now this could never have been made matter of dispute, from the most early supposed time of Job's existence †, even to ours, in any place out of the land of Judea; the administration of Providence, which, throughout that large period, all People and Nations have experienced, being visibly and confessedly uneequal. Men, indeed, at all times, have been indiscreetly prone to enquire how this inequality could be made consistent with God's justice or goodness: But, amidst the great variety of human opinions, as extravagant as many of those are which philosophic men have some time or other maintained, we do not find any of them ever held or conceived that God's providence was equally administered. This therefore, as we say, could be no question any where out of the land of Judea. But we say farther, Nor in that land neither, in any period of the Jewish nation either before or after the time wherein we place it. Not before, because the dispensation of Providence to that people was seen and owned by all, to be equal: Not after, because by the total ceasing of God's extraordinary administration, the contrary was as evident. Of this period, then, there are three portions; 1. The time immediately preceding the Captivity; 2. The duration of it; and 3. The return from it. To the opinions which place it in either of the two first portions, as supposing it to be written for the consolation of the people going into or remaining in *See note [Q] at the end of this volume. captivity, a celehrated Writer has opposed an unanswerable objection: "The Jews (says he) undoubtedly "suffered for their iniquity; and the example of Job "is the example of an innocent man suffering for no "demerit of his own: Apply this to the Jews in "their captivity, and the book contradicts all the Prophets before, and at the time of, their captivity, and is calculated to harden the Jews in their sufferings, and to reproach the Providence of God." There remains only the third portion; that is to say, the time of their return, and settlement in their own land. And this stands clear of the above objec tion. For the Jews came from the Captivity with hearts full of zeal for the Law, and abhorrence of their former idolatries. This is the account Ezra and Nehemiah give of them: And with these dispositions, Jeremiah foretold, their restoration should be attended. I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead. In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found‡. 3. We say then (to come home to the question) that the BOOK OF JOB was written some time between the return, and the thorough settlement of the Jews in their own country. Having suited the Time to the People, let us try if' we can suit the People to the Subject; and see whe ther this, which was foreign and unnatural to every other period, was proper and seasonable to this here assigned. * See note [S] at the end of this volume. + Ezra, chapters iii. & vi. Nehemiah, chapters iii. viii, & ix. Chap. I. ver. 19, 20. The The Jews had hitherto, from their entrance into the land of Canaan to their last race of kings, lived under an extraordinary, and, for the most part, equal Providence. For these two states must be distinguished, and indeed are distinguished not only throughout this discourse, but throughout the whole Scripture history, although the terms, in both, be sometimes used indifferently to signify either one state or the other, where the nature of the subject leads directly to the sense in which they are employed. As their sins grew ripe, and the time of their Captivity approached, God so tempered justice with his mercy, as to mix, with the prophetic denunciations of their impending punishment, the repeated promises of a speedy Return; to be attended with more illustrious advantages for the Jewish Republic than it had ever before enjoyed. The appointed time was now come. And their Return (predicted in so plain and public a manner) was brought about with as uncommon circumstances. Those most zealous for the Law, and most confiding in the promises of God, as instructed by their parents in all his extraordinary Dispensatious, embraced this opportunity of returning to their own country, to promote the restoration of their Law and Religion. And who can doubt but that they expected the same manifestations of GoD's Providence in their Re-establishment, that their Forefathers had experienced in their first Settlement? That they were indeed full of these expectations, appears from the remarkable account Ezra gives us of his distress, when about to return with Artaxerxes's commission, to regulate the affairs of Judea and Jerusalem. The way was long and dangerous; yet the Jews had told the king so much of their being under the peculiar protection of their God, that he was ashamed to ask a Guard for himself and Y 3 |