but what grows out of the allegory, or is closely connected with its progress.

It is the fact, however, that the Scripture does not contain any such things as allegories, unless we allow this Book of Job, which does afford such details, to be one; and this would be to take for granted something unknown generally to the sacred writers, and consequently would be to beg the question in this particular instance. Thus the Book of Job cannot be a parable, and we have no reason to conclude that it is an allegory. Let us now see what characters of real history it exhibits.

In the first place, then, it is particular and very full on circumstances which have nothing whatever to do with the doctrines inculcated in the discussion. We are informed, for instance, at the very outset, that Job dwelt in 'the land of Uz,' which at the same time intimates that he must have been descended from an ancestor of that name. But why, it may be asked, are we told this, if the book, with all its declarations, was merely intended to teach the doctrines we yesterday described? And again, why are we told that Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite were his friends, if nothing more than these doctrines were intended to be illustrated and enforced? Surely these designations, Temanite, Shuhite, Naamathite, might have been spared, unless they were intended to intimate that these persons really had 'a local habitation and a name.'

Again, mention is made of the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, and the Wilderness. Now, the two former surely need not have been mentioned, as the term 'robbers' would much better have suited the context, had the subject been merely parabolic; but the introduction of the latter in conjunction with the names of those people, gives the whole description not more the air of historical narration than of geographical

accuracy.

Then the feasting of the sons of Job, each in his day--that is, probably during the period of a week, these sons being .seven in number; Job's sending for and admonishing them; his offering up a sacrifice at the same time for each of them,—

all this seems over-done and unnecessary if all that was wanted was to illustrate the doctrine that patient faith in God is a virtue acceptable to Him. For here we are led into particulars, which were not only not Jewish, and which never could have been countenanced by that nation, much less have recommended any doctrine, but which had nothing whatever to do with the lesson principally taught in the book; and, what is most remarkable, which appear to have been strictly historical truths, as regards the customs of the period in which the book is supposed to have been written.

These and many other points of the like nature we expect to find in an historical narrative, but not in a parable or allegory, where they would be superfluous and obstructive.

And then, more conclusively still, we have the testimony of the sacred writers themselves to the reality of Job's person and history. We are more than once told in the fourteenth chapter of Ezekiel, that though 'Noah, Daniel, and Job' were in such a place, 'they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness.' As far as we can judge, from the manner and context in which this is introduced, all the characters here named seem to be taken as real. For first, Job is joined with Noah and Daniel, who were without doubt real characters; and then they are all spoken of as real and living men, for it is said they should deliver but their own souls by their right

eousness.

There is another direct allusion to the character of Job, found in the Epistle of James (v. 11): 'Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful.' No doubt, surely, can be entertained that Job is here cited as a real person. Had the character or Book of Job been parabolic, no such reference could reasonably have been made. It would have been contrary to all probability and scriptural usage, that the Holy Spirit should. make reference to a feigned history for an example of faith and of its ultimate reward, the person proposed as a model, his patience, and its recompense being all alike unreal. Such a procedure would be unworthy of God, and useless to man.

Our constant experience teaches, that the minds of men are but faintly impressed by examples of ideal virtue, and we should not be very cogently urged to endurance by a view of the patience of a man who never existed.

First Week-Third Day.

THE BOOK OF JOB HISTORICAL.

THE opinion that the Book of Job is altogether a fiction or a parable, is, upon the whole, less generally entertained than another which was much in vogue during the last century, and is still held by some men of high learning, though its existing advocates are found rather on the Continent than in this country, where it may be said to have originated. This idea is, that the book is founded on true history, or rather, on the traditionary experience of a patriarch named Job; and was recorded, embellished, and wrought into the shape it now bears by the invention of the author. This notion was brought out in great force early in the last century by a most erudite and ingenious, but unsafe and whimsical writer, Warburton, in his Divine Legation of Moses. He made it to be an allegory, and supposed it was founded on an old story, and was moulded into its present shape during the captivity, in order to comfort the Jews in their affliction, and to assure them of final restoration. This idea found many eager advocates, both in this country and abroad; and it must be allowed that the view was produced and supported with a degree of ability and ingenuity, not in that age often witnessed in biblical discussions. But it was met, not perhaps with equal brilliancy of talent, yet certainly with more solid reasoning, by various learned divines, whose writings on the subject would, even at this day, reward perusal. Some contested the view as to the foundation of the book; while others admitted this view, but disputed the object and purpose of the composition. With one1 it was an allegorical representation of the fall, the adversity, and the restoration 1 DR. GARNETT, in his Dissertation on the Book of Job.

of the Jewish nation; according to which its date would have been even later than the captivity. This idea of the book being an allegory, we alluded to yesterday, and stated considerations which bore against it. The notion was hinted at by Chrysostom, in one of his Homilies; and it has lately been enforced by Dr. Washington, in his Dissertation on the Book of Job, who regards it as shadowing forth the fall and restoration. of man. But the circumstances of the narrative require to be greatly tortured, to make them at all applicable to the history they are thus supposed to illustrate, and some very essential particulars are quite opposed to its details. It may be enough to point out, that although both Adam and Job were indeed tempted by their wives to sin against God, there is this essential difference, that Job repelled the temptation which his wife presented, while Adam yielded to the solicitations of Eve. Again, Adam's calamities came upon him as a punishment after he had fallen, whereas Job's afflictions constituted in themselves the temptation and trial to which he was subjected. It is curious, and yet melancholy, to witness the gifts and labour of the human understanding wasted on such abortive speculations as these.

The idea of the allegorical signification of the Book of Job is now generally abandoned; but not so the Warburtonian notion as to the partially fictitious character of the book; or, in other words, that it is a narrative founded on facts,' but moulded so as to fit it to become the vehicle of the argument. This seems, indeed, to be the general opinion among the scholars of Protestant Germany; but we are not aware that any arguments have lately been advanced in favour of this idea, or any objections to the historical character of the work, which were not adduced in this country at the period we have referred to, and which were not then and since, as it seems to us, satisfactorily answered.

Some of the principal of these objections, and the answers to them, may be here stated.

Perhaps the strongest of these objections, is that founded on the introduction of Satan, and his interview with the Lord, in

the first chapter. But this is a point of so much importance® that we must reserve it for separate consideration, and pass on to the others.

Much stress has been laid upon the artificial character of the statements about the possessions of Job, both before and after his trials. Such artificiality, it is urged, is not likely to occur in a simple narrative of facts, and seems as if intended to show that a case is supposed that would not be likely to occur in reality. Thus, we have only round numbers in the enumeration of Job's possessions: as 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 1000 oxen, 500 she-asses-just half of the oxen. So, also, there is something artificial in the manner in which the assumed sacred numbers three and seven are used. Job had 7000 sheep; he had seven sons both before and after his trials; his three friends came and sat down with him seven days and seven nights, without saying a word to condole with him; and both before and after his trials he had three daughters. The same artificial and non-historical appearance is said to be traced in the fact, that after his recovery, Job's possessions are said to have been doubled; and he had again, in his old age, exactly the same number of sons and daughters that he had before his affliction.

In answer to this, it may be observed that statements in round numbers constantly occur in historical accounts. Nothing is more common in the enumerations of armies, of tribes, of local populations, and of herds and flocks. And with regard to Job's possessions being doubled after his recovery from his calamities, it is not necessary to suppose that this was exactly true to the letter. The statement is justified, if by the recapture of some of his possessions from the robbers, by the gifts of friends, and by remarkable prosperity in all his doings, his possessions were eventually brought to something nearly double what they were before his trials commenced. In the statement itself there is nothing improbable. Job lived one hundred and forty years after his trials. If he then had only the same measure of prosperity as before, with such assistances as we have indicated, to enable him to begin life again, what is there incredible in the idea of his possessions being doubled?