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BIBLICAL CRITICISM.
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On the 38 tA Chapter of the Book of Job . June % 2 nd 9 1815 * fTIHERE is , perhaps , no Book ex-JL tant which combines so many attractions , or recommends itself by such peculiar excellencies as the Book of Job . " Amidst all the records of
the Sacred Volume it stands alone , " possessing a distinct character , as well in respect of style and imagery , as of thought and sentiment . Though treating of a subject , which leads to a diligent and wide survey of whatever ndight explain the divine counsels , and remove the difficulties which
hang over the dispensations of God , no reference or allusion is made to that revelation of his will which he gave to the children of Israel , nor is any indication given of a mind formed
under the civil or religious institutions of Moses . It bears the stamp not of institution but of nature ; it owns no distinction except that inspiration of the Almighty by which man is wiser than : the fowls of
heaven ; it breathes the air of patriarchal freedom and simplicity ; thus its very antiquity must render it highly interesting . The man of cultivated taste will see with surprise in so early a composition the measured verse and the dramatic regularity of plan , which were the boast of much later times .
He will observe with what success the poet studies to raise and to adorn his subject , fry figures drawn not from the inventions of a wild and ungoverned imagination , nor from an absurd and base mythology , but from that store of great and noble
conceptions which is presented in the wtioders of 4 ; he animated globe , in the grandeur of nature ' s operations , in the majestic attributes of God . The theologian will be interested in observing the effects of these original principles of religion , in the decision of a question , which may be regarded as the
most certain test of the comparative strength , and perhaps of the actual ^ eakness and imperfection of every different system of belief , —the question of the intention and ultimate « ffect of the prev alence of evil . With o many circumstances recommending it to our attention , it i » much to be
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regretted that the English reader ^ possesses a very imperfect representation of this book in the common translation . Difficult in the original , in this translation it is frequently most
obscure , and even unintelligible . N © passage occurs to me capable of so easy and beneficial a restoration , and when restored , containing so just and beautiful a statement of the doctrine ,
which it is the object of the book to establish , as the t ^ wenty eighth chapter , which as it is . a short and wellconnected passage , may perhaps be satisfactorily explained and illustrated in the compass of a few pages . The subject of the whole poem is the
extraordinary combination of afflictions which befel Job , a man perfect and upright , that feared God , and turned away from evil . His friends , whom his sufferings have brought to his side * reply to bis complaints , by insinuating that such heavy calamities must be
the punishment of some secret and enormous guilt . These injurious suspicions rouse him to an animated defence of his innocency , to a sharp rebuke of the injustice of his friends , whilst he one while expresses hi * firm hope of a return to health and
prosperity , at another his anxious wish that God would hear him plead his cause , and give ear to his supplication . His false friends make repl y * but they are unable to fix the imputation of guilt upon him , and leave him at liberty to pursue that noble
strain of eloquent speculation of which our chapter is a part . The general argument of this passage is the utter incompetency of man to comprehend the wisdom of God , or to discern the whole purpose of the divine counsels , and that disposition and behaviour which , under these
circumstances , constitutes his truest wisdom . This is expressed with the greatest force , and breaks forth with that abruptness , which gives life and vigour to the whole . ( 1 ) " Surely there is a vein for silver and a bed for gold which they refine . " ( 2 ) " Iron is taken out of the earth and the stone
poureth forth copper . ( 3 ) " Man , setteth an end to darkness and searrfieth out to every extremity the rocks of darkness , and of the shadow of
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( 643 )
Biblical Criticism.
BIBLICAL CRITICISM .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1815, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1765/page/43/
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