lowest idea of victory, and fignifies little more than not being routed. And was this a fit image to represent the all-victorious power of the Almighty? Does it not convey to the mind the notion of a great ftruggle for victory, of great difficulties in obtaining the conqueft? And is fuch a notion agreeable to the book of Job, which seems to be written on purpose to shew that God has no rival in power?

But let us see what light may be had by confidering the paffage itself, and the fentiments upon which

it is formed.

It is apparent that Job founds his hopes, whatever they were, on the power of his Redeemer; and therefore we may expect to find, in what is faid of him, plain marks and characters of power: I know that my Redeemer liveth. This is a juft reflection, and proper to the cafe. And if you confider these words as spoken by a man, in his own opinion ready to expire under grief of mind and pain of body, they neceffarily imply an hope extending itself beyond the grave. His thought is this: I am dying, but I know my Redeemer fhall never die; and therefore I will ftill truft in him for deliverance. But where is the sense or comfort of this, upon the fuppofition that nothing can be done to help us after death?

And that he fhall ftand at the latter day upon the earth. (Veahharon hal haphar jakoum.) This circumstance furely is not infignificant; and yet what does barely standing on the earth import? Is it any mark of power or dignity to ftand on the earth, on which so many thousand weak and miferable things ftand every day? The original words therefore (supposing haphar to mean the earth) fhould, I conceive, be ren

dered to this sense; and that he shall at the latter day arife with power over the earth. The fame expreffion, and in the fame fenfe, is ufed 2 Chron. xxi. 4. When Jehoram was rifen (va-jakom hal) up to the kingdom, i. e. to rule and govern it as a king. Many other inftances might be given of this manner of fpeaking, which will eafily occur to those who inquire after them. See Noldius in voce (hal) pag. 688. In this fenfe Job affirms that his Redeemer should stand on the earth, as a king stands over his kingdom, to govern it, and to do justice and judgment. This confideration, to an innocent man, fuffering undefervedly, was a great comfort; and a proper character it is of the Redeemer, on whofe power Job's hope entirely depended.

But commodious as this fenfe is, there is this objection to it; that haphar rarely, if ever, fignifies the earth in that fenfe in which it must be here taken: haphar may be, and is tranflated earth, when earth is equivalent to duft. For inftance, it is indifferent whether we fay, Man fhall return to the earth again, or man fhall return to the duft again, from whence he was taken. In this therefore, and in like cafes, you will find haphar rendered by yn, terra, earth, by Greek, Latin, and English tranflators. But when the earth is spoken of as the habitable world, as the place which God made for man, or as the place fubject to God's power and dominion, it is not styled haphar. And yet if you take haphar in the proper sense, as it fignifies duft, the image that arises is quite improper to the turn of thought in this place. To ftand on the duft, to be founded on the duft, are expreffions fignifying a weak and tottering condition.

To fit on the duft, and lie in the duft, are phrases descriptive of a state of mifery and diftrefs. Job therefore, who is contemplating the power and might of his Redeemer, could not fay, that at the latter day he fhould ftand on the duft; which would, according to the idiom of his country, be saying, he should be weak, and like an house built on the fand, ready to fall. But,

There is another ufe of the word haphar frequently to be met with, and which will fuit all the circumstances of this place. We read in Genefis, that man was formed of the dust (haphar) of the ground. And in the book of Job we read, xxxiv. 15. All flesh shall perish together, and man fhall turn again unto (HAPHAR) duft. From thefe, and many other paffages, it appears, that haphar is the proper word to fignify the duft, out of which man was made, and into which all dead bodies are ultimately refolved. Confider now what Job's hope is, Though after my skin worms deftroy this body, yet in my flesh fhall I fee God: he puts the case of his being utterly destroyed, and his body reduced to duft and afhes, and yet his confidence is, that he should in his flesh see God: and if you take the reafon he gives for his hope, as it will come out upon this fenfe of the word, you will find a propriety and juftness in the whole paffage. As for myself, fays he, I am wafting away, and this body shall foon return to duft again; but my Redeemer will abide for ever, and I know that he will at the latter day arise with power over (this) duft, and in my flesh I fhall fee God. You see how the parts agree. Job, though fenfible that he fhould foon return to duft, yet trufted in God, knowing that

he could as easily restore him from duft, as he at firft made him and all men out of the duft of the ground.

There is a circumftance belonging to this paffage, and which ought to be confidered with it, to which Grotius has faid nothing, and which can hardly be reconciled with the opinion, that Job expected no more than a temporal deliverance. The cafe is this: Job, being tired with the oppofition of his friends, and the perverse conftruction they made of his miffortunes, as if he muft needs be as wicked as he was miferable, appeals from them to another judgment. Oh, fays he, that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead, in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he fhall fland at the latter day upon the earth. You fee how ftrongly Job infifts upon his plea; though men would not receive it, yet he wishes it were graven in the rock for ever; that it might remain till the time in which God would come to judge his cause; for I know, fays he, that my Redeemer liveth. Suppose Job to expect a future time of judgment, the whole paffage is exceeding beautiful and proper. "I find," fays he, " that my complaint is dif "regarded here; that man has no compaffion for 66 me; and that God in his unfearchable wisdom "fuffers the innocent, as well as the guilty, to be "unfortunate in this life: but the time will come "when my plea fhall be heard; and so satisfied am "I in the righteousness of it, that I would have it "remain as my monument for ever, graven in the "rock; for though I myself shall foon be gone, yet

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my Redeemer lives, and will at the last day call "me from the grave, and with my own eyes fhall I "fee God my Saviour." But if you fuppofe Job to expect only a temporal reftitution, within the compafs of his own life, to what end or purpose does he fo paffionately wish to have his complaints rendered immortal? What fenfe is there in saying, "Oh "that my complaint, which you despise, may never "be forgotten; for I know that within a little time I "fhall be restored by God to all my glory and for"mer felicity, and shall have no cause to complain

any more." In one view, the images are lively and paffionate, and the fentiments juft and proper: in the other there is neither force, nor vigour, nor propriety; nor, indeed, hardly any sense.

As to the degree of light and knowledge contained in this paffage, and which seems disproportionate to the age of Job, there is this to be faid: there might poffibly be among the few faithful in the world a traditionary expofition of the promifes of God, grounded upon more express revelations, made either before or soon after the flood, than have come down to our times; or, as Job was tried in a very extraordinary manner, he might have as extraordinary a degree of light to fupport and maintain him in the conflict. There is nothing in either of these suppofitions but what is conformable to the methods of divine Providence; nothing that intrenches upon our bleffed Lord's office, who was appointed to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel. It is by Christ, and by him alone, that we have God's covenant of immortality conveyed to us; but yet the ancient prophets had a fight of the bleffing at a dif