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Untitled Article
to clear the sense , we are willing to do , though without placing much reliance upon it , ) still the words are naturally explained of God ' s display of his power and glory in the gospel ; and the construction which makes •* the just one" identical with Jehovah , is both needless and harsh—it is , indeed , absolutely inconsistent with the preceding and following clauses : " He ruleth by the fear of God "— Thus is my house with God ?' Sect . ix . Job xix . 23—27 .
Dr . S . ' s translation of this passage is very peculiar : Ver . 25 . " I surely do know my Redeemer , the living one : And he the jlast , will arise over the dust . Ver . 26 . And after the disease has cut down my skin , Even from my flesh I shall see Goi > . " It is represented as " a prophecy of the second coming of the only Redeemer and Judge of mankind , " and as " unequivocally designating Him
by the highest titles and attributes of Deity . " It may be sufficient for us to remark , that this passage is one of the most difficult in the Bible ; that of the immense number of critics who have applied themselves particularly to the book of Job , scarcely any two agree respecting its sense , or at least respecting the mode of deriving the . sense from the words ; and that a large proportion , equal to any in learning and judgment , and many of them even in what is called orthodoxy of sentiment , have denied all reference of the words to a future state of existence : whilst
amongst those who have contended for their application to this subject , our author stands almost alone in maintaining their direct application to the Messiah , interpreted so as to apply to him the titles and attributes of Deity . Unless , then , his version be so peculiarly clear and satisfactory , and established by such irresistible force of evidence , as to justify its decided
preference to those of all his predecessors , no person of common sense will give the passage much weight in a controversy respecting the personal nature of one who appeared in the world so many ages after it was written . Now , Dr . S . himself will hardly venture to deny that the words of the original may , with strict propriety , be rendered ,
" For I know that my deliverer ( or avenger ) Hveth , And that hereafter he will rise up over the dust , " &c .: where the epithets to which he attaches so much importance entirely disappear , and even if his version were admitted , the application to the Messiah would not , considering the connexion , be even probable . We should still agree with nearly all translators and commentators in supposing God
himself to be referred to . We ourselves embrace with great confidence the opinion of those who maintain that Job here speaks only of a temporal deliverance , and that both the general object of the book and several remarkable passages in it , prove the author to have been ignorant of the doctrine of a future state : but whatever the reader may think on this point , we have made it evident that the application Dr . S . has made of the passage is utterly unfounded and indefensible .
Sect . x . Psalm ii . " The last clause of the Psalm" ( says Dr . Smith ) " merits particular attention as demanding that trust and confidence in the Messiah , which the general tenor of Scripture and many particular passages direct to be reposed only in the Almighty and Everlasting God . It is religious reliance that ia required . If this powerful and victorious King were but a creature , such
Untitled Article
110 Dr . •/ . P . Smiths ' Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1831, page 110, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2594/page/38/
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