the truth. Thus, being neceffitated to speak of Enoch's Tranflation, it could not be, but that a feparate existence might be inferred, how obfcurely foever the story was delivered. But had he faid any thing, in his account of the Creation, which literally implied (as the words, of man's being made in the image of God, and the breath of life being breathed into his noftrils, are fuppofed to do) that man had an immortal foul, then muft Mofes be fuppofed, purpofely, to have inculcated that Immortality; contrary to what we hold, that he purpofely omitted the doctrine built upon it, namely a future ftate of reward and punishment. It will not be improper therefore to fhew that fuch texts have not this pretended meaning.

2. Concerning a FUTURE STATE OF REWARD AND PUNISHMENT; feveral texts are brought as teaching it in a typical fenfe, which teach it in no fenfe at all: feveral as teaching it in a direct and literal fenfe, which only teach it in a typical. Both thefe, therefore, it may be proper to fet in a true light,

3. Laftly, concerning the texts from the later Prophets, which are without the period in question; I own, and it is even incumbent on my Argument to prove, that thefe Prophets opened the firft dawning of the doctrine of a Refurrection, and confequently of a Future ftate of reward and punishment : even these therefore fhall in their proper place be carefully confidered. At prefent let me juft obferve, that the dark veil under which the first fet of Prophets delivered their typical reprefentations was gradually drawn afide by the later.

SECT,

H

AVING premised thus much to clear the way, and shorten the inquiry, I now proceed to my examination.

And firft, of the texts brought from the OLD TESTAMENT.

Now as the book of JOB is fuppofed to teach both a SEPARATE EXISTENCE and a FUTURE STATE

OF

Job's Life, by means of the Devil and his falfe Friends, was an exercise of his Patience; and his Hiftory, by means of Criticism and his Commentators, has fince been an exercise of ours. I am far from thinking myself unconcerned in this mifchief; for by a foolish attempt to fupport his Name and Character, I have been the occafion of bringing down whole bands of hoftile Critics upon him, who like the Sabeans and Chaldeans of old, foon reduced him back to his Dunghill. Some came armed in Latin, fome in English, and fome in the language of Billingfgate. Most of them were profeffedly written against me; but all, in reality, bear hardest on the good old Patriarch.

However, tho' I am, as I faid, to be reckoned, along with thefe, amongst Job's Perfecutors; yet I have this to fay for myfelf, that the vexation I gave him was foon over. If I fcribbled ten pages on his back, my Adverfaries and his, have made long furrows and fcribbled ten thousand. Now, tho' amongst all thefe, Job found no favour, yet by ill-hap my System did: But to whom I am most obliged, whether to those who attacked it, or to thofe who efpoufed it, is not easy to fay: for, by a fingular event, the Affailants have left me in poffeffion of all its fupports, and the Defenders have taken them all away * : the better, I prefume, to fit it to their own ufe. Learned Naturalifts tell us of a certain Animal in the watery wafte, which, for I know not what conceit, they call Bernard the Hermit; and which, in courtefy, they rank with the teftaceous tribe, tho' Nature (fo bountiful to the rest of its kind) hath given This no habitation of its own, but fent it naked and unhoused into

See Mr. G's. difcourfes on the book of Job.

book or

the

OF REWARD AND PUNISHMENT; and is befides thought by fome to be the first of Mofes's writings; and by others to be written even before his time, and by the Patriarch himself, I fhall give it the precedence in this inquiry: which it deferves likewife on another account, the fuperior evidence it bears to the point in question; if indeed it bear any evidence at all. For it may be faid by those who thus hold it to be the earlieft Scripture (allowing the words, of Job, I know that my Redeemer liveth, &c. to respect a future ftate) that the Jewish people muft not only have had the knowledge of a FuTURE STATE of rewards and punishments, but, what is more, of the RESURRECTION of the body, and ftill more, of the REDEMPTION of mankind by the Son of God: therefore Mofes had no need to inculcate the doctrine of a future ftate". But I much fufpect that the clear knowledge of fo fublime a mystery, which St. Paul fays, had been hid from ages, and from generations, but was now (on the preaching of the Gofpel) made manifeft to the Saints', was not at all fuited to the times of Job or Mofes. The learned and impartial Divine will perhaps be rather inclined to think, that either the book of Job was written in a much later age, or that this

the world. In recompence, the has enabled it to figure amongst the best of its tribe: for, by a noble endowment of infline, it is taught to make its way into the beft accommodated, and beft ornamented fhells of its brethren; which it either finds empty, or foon makes fo, to fit them up for its own ease and convenience.

h But if the reader would fee the abfurdity of fuppofing the book of Job to be written thus early, and at the fame time, to teach the refurrection and a future ftate, expofed at large, he may read the 3d chapter of The free and candid examination of the BISHOP of London's Principles.

+ COL, i. 26.

famous

famous paffage has a very different meaning. I fhall endeavour to fhew, that neither of these fufpicions would be entertained without reason.

I.

First then concerning the book itself.

As to the Perfon of Job, the eminence of his Character, his fortitude and patience in afflictions, and his preceding and fubfequent felicity, these are realities fo unquestionable, that a man must have fet afide facred Antiquity before he can admit a doubt concerning them. But that the book which bears Job's name was written by him, or in any age near his own, a careful and capable examiner will, I perfuade perfuade myself, be hardly brought to

believe.

In the order of this difcourfe therefore I fhall inquire.

I. What kind of Compofition the book of Job really is.

II. In what Age it was written. And,

III. Who was its Author.

I.

Even those who are inclined to fuppofe this a Work of the higheft Antiquity, and to believe it an exact hiftory of Job's fufferings and patience, and of God's extraordinary difpenfations towards him, recorded by his own hand, are yet forced to confefs that the Introduction and Conclufion are of another nature, and added, by a later hand, to

give that fulnefs and integrity to the Piece, which works of imagination, and only fuch works, require. This is a large conceffion, and plainly intimates that he who wrote the Prologue and Epilogue, either himself believed the body of the work to be a kind of dramatic Compofition; or, at leaft, intended that others fhould have that opinion of it. I fhall therefore the lefs fcruple to espouse the notion of those who conclude the WHOLE TO BE DRAMATICAL. For the transferring the Prologué and Epilogue to a late writer was only an expedient to get rid of a circumftance which fhewed it to be fuch a fort of work; and which confequently might bring it down to an age remote from that of the fubject. But those who contrived this expedient seem to have had but a flender idea of the ancient Drama, which was generally rounded with a Prologue and Epilogue of this fort; to give, by way of narrative, information of fuch facts as fell not within the compass of the one entire Action repre fented*.

I am induced to embrace this opinion from the caft of the STYLE, the SENTIMENTS, and COMPOSTTION; all perfectly fuited to fuch a kind of Work, and ill agreeing with any other.

1. As to the Style, it hath been observed by the Critics, even from the time of Jerom, that all

* Calmet makes the following obfervation, in his comment on the ift verfe of chap. xxxviii. L'Ecrivain de cet Ouvrage a obfervé de ne point employer ce nom de Jehovah dans les dif cours directs qu'il fait tenir a Job & a fes Amis: mais dans les recits qui font au commencement, et a la fin du Livre, il use de ce terme, comme font d' ordinaire les Ecrivains Hebreux. qui demontre que l' Ouvrage a été ecrit par un Juif, et depuis Moyfe; puifque ce nom incommunicable ne fut connu que de'puis l'apparition du Buiffon ardent.

Ce

but