fesses the folly and presumption of his past reasoning; and his mouth is shut in self-defence. The Almighty resumes his revelation of his own power and glory, and Job is further abased before him. He acknowledges, chapter xlii. 1. the power and sovereignty of God, confesses his own ignorance, and implores Divine instruction."His complete submission at verse 5, may not improperly be called the catastrophe of the poem. It is not indeed a change of Job's outward condition. It is an alteration infinitely more important and beneficial; an alteration in the temper and state of his mind. He is brought back to his duty, and his soul returns to its rest."* "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." The restoration of his health and prosperity quickly followed, and is the subject of the ensuing narrative."

In that narrative it is twice asserted by the voice of the Lord that his servant Job, (so called three times) had, in the main, spoken of Him the thing that was right, in opposition to the erroneous maxims of his opponents. While therefore Job himself had maintained principles inconsistent with his own state and character as a sinful creature, there must have been something more

* Scott.

offensive to God in the opinions of the other disputants. They had maintained that severe affliction is evidential of Divine displeasure, and that, consequently, Job was an apostate and a reprobate; while Job, in his own defence, denied their inference, and maintained that his conduct had not been such as to support their allegations against him. And, though he said many unbecoming things of himself, it cannot be admitted, consistently with the Divine testimonies which are borne to his character, and his own professions of faith, that he was under the influence of a dominant spirit of self righteousness, either before, or during, the continuance of his most severe trials.

The book of Job, contemplated as being, perhaps, the first in point of time, and certainly a very important part of that Scripture which is "given by inspiration of God, and which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works"-demands more attention than is usually paid to it. It corresponds in its scope and aim with the above account of the Scripture in general after a very remarkable manner. reproves and corrects the self-righteous notions, which, more or less, are striving for the mastery in those, who have been awakened to a conviction of their need of a Divine Redeemer from sin

It

and death. It affords instruction in righteousness, even that righteousness which is the ground of acceptance for prayer, of Divine favour here, and of the vision of God hereafter.* It corresponds in its scope and design, as Mr. Faber has remarked, with the scope and design of St. Paul's epistles to the Romans and Galatians, which, as being addressed to believers, must have been intended not merely for the conviction and conversion of sinners at large to the faith of Christ, but for the further instruction of persons who were already fundamentally acquainted with the doctrines of man's fallen, guilty and helpless state by nature, and of justification through faith in the name and righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord. The theme of both is, "that God can be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."† The book of Job begins and ends with a performance of those rites of sacrificature, by which "the offering of the body of Christ, once for all," was prefigured from the beginning.

If, my friend, the bias of the human heart to self-confidence be so great, that it discovered itself even in the converts to Christianity under all the advantages which they enjoyed from the dispensation of the Gospel ;-If St. Paul's epistles to the Romans and Galatians were necessary for the correction of this evil, favoured as they had

been with Apostolic instruction and the meridian light of the sun of righteousness;-If the Great Shepherd and Bishop of souls saw it needful to send an Epistle by St. John, full of sharp reproof, to the Angel of the church of Laodicea, to be by him communicated to his flock, charging them with the folly of esteeming themselves spiritually "rich and increased in goods, and in need of nothing;" while in fact they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;"—Is it any wonder that Job, under his comparative disadvantages, betrayed the same spirit, and that corrective visitations, and Divine instruction were necessary to reduce his mind to that frame and temper, on which alone God can look with approbation, and in which alone His peace and consolations can be enjoyed? The declaration of Jehovah by his Prophet,* a declaration virtually addressed to every age and to every professor of Godliness, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word,"—this annunciation of that which is essential to Divine favour, is remarkably illustrated by the book of Job. "Blessed" were "the poor in spirit," and such only, under the patriarchal dispensation. It is the determination of Jehovah, that no flesh shall glory in his presence. The salvation of a sinner

* Isa. lxvi. 2.

is the result of grace through faith in the Divine Atoner, and must be received as such, or it cannot be received at all.

The history of Job sheds light on God's method of procedure, in regard to his people in all ages. The heart of fallen man has always been the same, reluctant to the admission of the gracious plan of salvation laid in the counsels of eternal mercy. But that plan is unalterable, not only because God has declared it to be so, but also because man, sinful and guilty, cannot, by any personal righteousness, obliterate the guilt he has contracted and reconcile himself to God. "The wages of sin is death." Conviction of sin is therefore the first act in the process of conversion to God. But this conversion is a gradual work of the Holy Spirit on the heart. And in carrying it on, affliction is employed: but affliction of itself, would avail nothing in humbling the proud heart of man, without a revelation of Jesus Christ. This progressively undermines and destroys the fortress of pride and self-sufficiency, and produces the conclusion to which the convert is at length brought, "Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee?" It was thus that Job was brought to submit to the righteousness of God. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Tradition received from his fathers had, under the influence