One consideration, which seems to have been overlooked in this inquiry into the authorship of Job, concerns the very point which Mr. Faber takes for granted as a kind of axiom in his argument; namely, that none but Israelites wrote the canonical books of the Old Testament. Of this we have no certain proof, at least until the author of the Book of Job shall be proved to have been an Israelite. And it is by no means evident why, if the example of Job be employed for our instruction, his pen should not have been so likewise; we mean, provided there is no internal or external evidence to the contrary, a point which we shall not on the present occasion discuss. We must, however, say, that it seems too much to suppose that, because to the Israelites was committed the guardianship of the lively oracles of God, to them also was, of necessity, left the sole and exclusive charge of their composition. "Here was a man," says St. Austin (while proving that the believing Gentiles pertain to the true Israel), "the holy and admirable Job, neither a member nor a proselyte of Israel, living and dying an Idumean, yet endued with such a Divine eloquence as in his own times had never been surpassed for the piety and virtue which it breathes; and his book, for its merit, took its place in the canon of Scripture it self." What has posterity added to this testimony of St. Austin, but only in substance, that the work, not being from Job himself, may have proceeded from one hand, or from another hand; but is, in reality, a romance, with more or less colour and pretext for its sayings: while, in point of fact, the Holy Spirit is made to assure us, that Eliphaz said what he never did really say, and that Job replied what he did not reply; that Elihu pronounced what it is probable he never did pronounce; and the Lord answered out of the

We entirely agree with Mr. Faber, that the Book of Job offers to us the noblest record in all antiquity of the true Patriarchal religion. It is invaluable as being, very probably, by far the oldest book on that or any other subject, now extant in the world. The value of this book, as a record of Patriarchal religion, had been felt very strongly by Dr. Good and other commentators; and is now made the subject of Mr. Faber's third, and most important, section. Our author's object we shall give in his own words, in which will be observed interwoven his own notion of the work as a dramatic composition in regular form, the Edipus Tyrannus, or Prometheus Vinctus of the day, from the pen, it would seem, of the Sophoclean or Eschylean Moses. After having once more, as usual, levelled to the ground the notions of his sturdy antagonist, Bishop Warburton, Mr. Faber goes on to say;

"We may now with advantage proceed to inquire into the true object of this extraordinary work: and in such an inquiry we shall be much assisted by recollecting what I hope has been established on sufficient moral evidence, that the author of it was Moses.

"The grand drift of all the three dispensations is the same, though the mystery of God may be developed in each with different degrees of clearness. Now that drift, as we have seen, is to inculcate the doctrine of reconciliation with God through the agency of a predicted Mediator: a

doctrine, which (as Bishop Warburton himself allows) involves of necessity the doctrine of a future state. The great outlines of these important doctrines were known, as we are taught by the highest authority, under the Patriarchal dispensation: and, since the knowledge of the fathers must have descended to the children, the contemporaries of Moses under the Levitical dispensation could not have been ignorant of what was confessedly familiar to their not remote ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

"Yet, though such doctrines had come down to the Israelites from their forefathers in the way of oral instruction, it was highly expedient, when a written law was delivered, that Moses should bear his testimony to them in writing. But this, except in scattered hints, he could not properly do in the Pentateuch: because the very nature of such a composition effectually prevented him. Nothing therefore remained but to produce a distinct work expressly on the subject: in which he might not only set forth the two connected doctrines in question, but might likewise state with precision the very ground on which those two doctrines eventually rest. Now the ground, on which they finally rest, is the sinfulness of man, and the impossibility of his being able to justify himself before God. For a conviction of such impossibility teaches man his need of an atoning Mediator, through whom alone he can be reconciled to an all-just Divinity: and a reconciliation to the Divinity in volves a repeal of the sentence pronounced upon Adam; or, in other words, a recovery of his lost claim to a life of eternal happiness.

"Such then, if I mistake not, is the subject of the Book of Job. After the manner of the East, which delights in the parable or apologue, Moses takes a real character and a real history as the vehicle of his theological discussion: and, without departing from facts which truly happened, he delivers his instruction with far greater life and spirit than he could have done had he adopted a mere scholastic or didactic form of writing. Nothing could be more judiciously selected for his purpose than both the character and the history." Vol. II. pp. 279-281.

Afterwards he proceeds to a short analysis of the poem.

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The highly moral Job, who is made to personate a man fully satisfied with his own goodness, strenuously maintains that he is righteous, even in the presence of God.

:

"His friends argue, that, if this were indeed the case, he could not be in trouble because death and misery and affliction of every sort, having been brought into the world by sin, are themselves a standing proof that man is a sinner.

"Job acknowledges, that the good are afflicted as well as the bad: but still he refuses to give up his original opinion, though he is content occasionally to modify it.

"His friends continue to press their argument with much acrimonious vehemence: but, instead of taking the right mode of reclaiming Job from his erroneous sentiments, they only irritate his mind by uncharitable personalities.

"At length, weary of the contest, he professes his full hope and expectation, that the promised Redeemer would hereafter be manifested, and that through him he should attain to the resurrection of the dead but still, with an inconsistency to which human nature is but too subject, while he professes his belief in the predicted Deliverer, he refuses to give up his claim to the meritorious dignity of a strict and undeviating righteousness.

:

"After some further altercation, which produces no conviction on either side, Elihu is introduced by way of sustaining the part of a moderator. As the three friends of Job personate ill-taught and injudicious theological advisers: so, unless I am greatly mistaken, Elihu personates the Hebrew Lawgiver himself, who through him sets forth the fundamental doctrine of all the three dispensations; namely, the sinfulness of man and his consequent need of an Angel-Redeemer to reconcile him to his offended God. I am led to this opinion, not only because Elihu is evidently represented as setting forth what the inspired author determines to be the truth, as contradistinguished from the partial and erroneous views both of Job and of his friends; whence, at the close of the drama, no censure whatever is passed upon Elihu, though Job is made to confess his sinfulness, and though God severely reproves

The remarkable passage of Job, so much and vainly controverted by the Warburtonians, Mr. Faber, fully discusses, and renders it, with Parkhurst for his basis: "I know, that my Redeemer is the living one, and that hereafter he shall rise up over the dust. And hereafter my skin shall encompass this: and from my flesh I shall see God. And my eyes shall behold Him and not a stranger: my reins are consumed within me.

his three friends; but likewise because he speaks of himself in the very same remarkable language, which in the Pentateuch the Lord applies to Moses. Thou shalt be to Aaron instead of God,' and I have made thee a God to Pharoah,' says Jehovah to the legislator of the Israelites; Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead,' says Elihu to Job respecting himself. But, however this may be, Elihu, in his capacity of a moderator, certainly propounds the grand doctrine of man's sinfulness and of the Redeemer's atonement : yet Job, by his silence, shews that he still remains unconvinced. What more then could be done? According to the precise rule of the Roman poet, God himself is now introduced: and, by a lofty descant on his own perfections and man's imbecility, he at length effects what neither the three friends nor Elihu could effect, a full conviction on the part of Job that he was indeed a vile and sinful creature." Vol. II. pp. 285-287.

The thrice reiterated position of Eliphaz and Bildad is duly introduced by Mr. Faber. "How can man be justified with God?" &c.: though not so the beautiful confessions made by Job in the early part of the debate, in chapters vii. and ix. "I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, thou Preserver of men?" &c. And, after a due use of the final charge against Job, "because he was righteous in his own eyes," with the final answer offered by the now convinced and humbled Patriarch to the appeal of the Almighty himself, Mr. Faber concludes—

"Here this argumentative poem ends: and, as it exhibits throughout the strictest unity of design, so it may well be pronounced the noblest monument of Patriarchal and Levitical theology which occurs in the whole volume of the Hebrew Scriptures. To fallen man the subject is the most important of all other subjects: for, it is nothing less than a full discussion of the vital doctrine of justification and reconciliation to God through the merits of the Angel-Redeemer; a discussion, raised upon the basis of human vileness and corruption, but carried up even to immortal life in the heaven of heavens itself. The subject, in short, is the very same as that of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: and the Book of Job, in its closely argumentative form, may be said to bear the same relation to the Old Testament as that cele

brated Epistle does to the New Testament. Chapter by chapter, the work has been strictly analyzed; and the general result of the whole is this: Sinful man, even when most attentive to the duties of morality, cannot justify himself in the presence of God. To deliver him from wrath and to give him a right to a joyful resurrection from the dead, he has need of that atonement, which can only be effected by the Angel-Mediator." Vol. II. pp.308, 309.

That such is, more or less, the true object of the Book of Job, has been the firm opinion, after careful investigation, of the most judicious divines. True, Job was also a memorable example of patience, as the eulogy of St. James alone would prove; nor would even the most patient of all men be exempt from mental conflicts similar to those of Job, under similar trials. And, as David, in his sufferings, has ever been viewed by the church as a type of Christ; so Job may, in his, be offered as an example, to shew how far the most excellent of mere human beings must fall short of HIM who was alone "the Lamb without blemish and spot." But certainly patience is not the only lesson taught in the history of Job; his subsequent penitence and renovated faith are even perhaps more illustrious than his patience under suffering; and these graces arising from a close and experimental view of the character of God, and of the relation in which our fallen race stands to Him, are strikingly illustrated in this book; in which also we convincingly learn that a state of affliction is that in which a person becomes best known to himself, and to the world; and this state was expressly appointed for the development of the Divine graces implanted in the heart of that eminent man. Penitence, however, must have its proper ground, and faith its proper object; and unless these be strongly pourtrayed, those graces themselves will not be fully exhibited. Hence, in this book are displayed the most affecting views of human weakness and corruption, as well as the clearest conceptions of

the true method of justification before God. Job, the most excellent of men, is taught by a slow process to feel the extent of his own unworthiness. His friends, like an importunate conscience, reiterate the humbling doctrine in an offensive manner, till the latent spark of human corruption is elicited; and he who had at first begun by owning himself a sinner, whilst he held fast his integrity, afterwards appears in the lofty mien and aspect of an impatient self-justiciary. Elihu, the mild and persuasive Evangelist, now fails in the desired effect of recovering him "whose steps had well nigh slipped." And God himself, by his word and his own grace, interposes at length, to call forth the fruits of true repentance, and promote the increase of his faith.

In this development of the character of Job, and the object of the book which bears his name, we do not see the necessity, indeed, for supposing him to have been beforehand an irreligious man; or, with Mr. Faber, like Saul, the bigoted son of a Pharisee. We think that the character given of him by the Omniscient, in the opening of the book, entirely precludes such a supposition; unless we take away all meaning from words. "Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth; a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without

cause."

But this good man fell under temptation. He was tried more than any man he was traduced and vilified by friends, who undertook the kind office of telling him all his real faults, and accusing him, at a venture, of many others: he was driven to hold fast his integrity; and what wonder if in such circumstances he was betrayed into a spirit of indignation, and proud self-confidence. But surely here "the wrath of man" was made to "praise God,

and the remainder of it He restrained." Job was not left without those salutary impressions from on high, which brought him truly to himself. When he "saw God," he "abhorred himself;" and in such a state we must believe that not a word would escape his lips in self-justification; not a word that could by possibility have been construed into self-commendation. He became truly "that man to whom God will look," even "him that is humble, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at his word." And Satan beheld, as the final issue of the conflict, that Job was better able to sustain his assaults, when prostrate beneath the thunder and the whirlwind of Divine chastisements, than even when basking in the visible rays of the Divine favour.

The general conclusion which we may justly draw from deciphering this one character, as to the uniform nature of the word of God, and the identical quality of true religion in all ages, is of the most impressive and salutary nature. If we compare this ancient book-very probably the oldest book now extant in the world-with the Pentateuch; with the Psalms; with the Prophets; with the New Testament; with the ancient,or the more modern, fathers; with any faithful commentary on holy Scripture; do we not find the same spirit, the same temper, the same standard of humility, faith, and holiness; above all, the same Object of faith and hope set forth in substance, and often in the very form, from the first to the last period of true religion? Whence this agreement, this identity, in the record, but because," although the work of many hands, the Divine writings were yet all the work of one Mind;" because, although the characters of men are as various as their very faces, yet that Spirit is one, who gave to Job his humility and his faith, and who shall infuse into the breast of the latest saint that shall live upon the earth the same congenial and celestial elements.

In his remarks on the third, or Christian, dispensation, which Mr. Faber has drawn into very narrow limits, and which we must draw into still narrower, we are by no means to look in these volumes for all the splendour, or "the full height of that great argument " which we may justly conceive to be embraced in the richness of THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION. It must be sufficient for us that the much-respected writer has here drawn to a point, and placed in distinct view, the varying lights and shadows of former dispensations: that he has further exhibited "life and immortality, as BROUGHT TO LIGHT (to full and open vision) by the GOSPEL;" and made the whole to center in, and to issue from, the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross, for the sins of men.

In the pursuit of this third and last object of his inquiry, Mr. Faber has, within about the same space as he had devoted previously to the Book of Job, considered, in chap. i., the especial object of the Christian Revelation, as a clear and retrospective view of the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, which had been hitherto hid in clouds and twilight, through the Prophetic periods. In chap. ii. he considers the more particular view of the Christian system as a covenant, Diatheke, typified by the Sinaitic Covenant, and ratified fully by the great Ratifier, Diathemenos, Jesus Christ. In chap. iii. he discusses the true and proper sense of our Lord's Divinity: in chap. iv. the mode in which the love of God may be considered as having operated in producing the accomplishment of the great mystery of Redemption; and in chap. v. and last, the great end or consummation of the Christian Revelation, as being the happiness of the blessed in heaven.

Of these, we deem the second chapter the most important, as shewing the nature of the covenant between God and man, displayed, through Divine condescension, in

the Gospel of Christ. It is clearly a covenant between two persons. "A mediator is not a mediator of one." This Mediator spoken of in Gal. iii. 20., Mr. Faber makes identical with the Mediator or Testator spoken of in Heb. ix. 16. His general view of the whole of that difficult passage, our readers are already apprised of, by means of two papers bearing his signature, which appeared in our volumes for 1820, p. 651, and 1821, p. 76. We shall not at present renew the controversy so ably conducted on that occasion by our several correspondents, and to which our readers may refer at their leisure. Our own leaning is certainly to that construction which renders dialŋŋ throughout this passage a covenant; though we fully acknowledge the weight due to the decided opinion of our venerable translators, who must have seen very strong reasons for changing the sense of that word from that which it always bears in Scripture, a covenant, to that which it never otherwise bears, a last will or testament. And, after all, it must be acknowledged, that on the ground of any interpretation, except theirs, a considerable degree of harshness remains in the rendering of the 17th verse......" otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth." The use of the word diaSuevos for the ratifier of the covenant, and then making that ratifier, the victim, is difficult. Our readers will find the chief solutions which have been offered by different writers, and the comparative authority of learned names, pro et contra, in the several papers of the controversy before alluded to.

We must not proceed further in our lengthened notice of these volumes. If we rise from them with any predominant feeling, we must acknowledge it to be that of having had our minds enlarged by the consideration of them, and a vein of reflection opened before us which we cannot but pursue with advan