fancy. As to the structure of the
poem, we are of opinion that it is, for
the most part, fabulous. The intro-
duction, the concluding chapters, the
preciseness and the care with which
the leading speakers are brought be-
fore us, three several times, in rota-
tion, have a very artificial appearance.
Surely, Mr. Good contends for too
much when he attempts to evince that
in these circumstances there is nothing
inconsistent with a narrative of facts.
Will not sound criticism be satisfied
with the admission that facts are the
Rosen-
ground-work of the book?
müller's arguments to this effect,*
are at once concise and forcible.

Mr. Good assumes a doctrine to
which we cannot accede respecting the
Satan of the book of Job; and, for the
better support of his theory, offers a
construction of Chap. i. 8. ii. 3. upon
which we shall animadvert in the pro-
per place. He considers this poem as
a regular Hebrew Epic," and adds,
"were it necessary to enter so mi-
nutely into the question, it might easily
be proved to possess all the more pro-
minent features of an epic, as collected
and laid down by Aristotle himself."
This criticism, formerly maintained
by a foreign author, has found an
opponent in Eichhorn, and is in-
capable of being supported. The
book consists almost entirely of dia-
logue. There is so
little action
throughout that we cannot with rea-
son style the poetry either epic or
dramatic. And, though the compo-
sition is eminently sublime, beautiful
and pathetic, yet, as Rosenmüller just-
ly remarks, its merits are vindicated,
and not lessened, by our forbearing
to give it a technical classification:
"Quod autem huic poemati et le-
gitimi dramatis et epici carminis ti-
tulum abjudicamus, nihil de ejus
pretio derogatum imus, quod ii potius
facere censendi sunt, qui ad alienam
normam id inique exigere volunt,
unde necesse est vitiosum et mancum
videri, quod sane in suo genere est
pulcherrimum et perfectissimum."‡

The present translator offers a valuable analysis of this composition, which he divides into six parts, in

* Prolegom. 3---8.

cluding the opening or exordium.
These are as follow: 1.) Ch. i.---iii,
2.) iii.---xv. 3.) xv.---xxii. 4.) xxii.
5.) xxxii.---xxxviii. 6.)
---xxxii.
Hereafter, we shall point
xxxviii.
out a few mistakes (such we conceive
them to be), both of sentiment and
language, in this part of the Disser-
tation.

III. We have the pleasure of agree-
ing with Mr. Good in his general
statement of the difficulties attending
a translation of the book of Job, and
of the necessity of a knowledge of
Arabic to the translator. If in modern
times the sense of the poem has been
more fully developed than heretofore,
we owe the benefit chiefly to the
nicer care with which the study of
the Oriental tongues and dialects has
been pursued. Sacred criticism has
received great assistance from the cul-
tivation of this branch of learning;
though, in the volumes of a few and
even celebrated authors, it has often
degenerated into puerile refinements.

Even the mere English reader of
the poem before us, must be aware of
the arduousness of making a vernacu-
lar translation of it; as he cannot fail
to perceive that our public version of
Job, though executed by men of
ability and erudition, is frequently
obscure.

Perhaps no book in the Old Testament has so much engaged the attention of critics and theologians widely varying from each other in their degrees of knowledge, taste and judgment. Yet most of them have thrown light upon this fine vestige of ancient genius; while room is still left for the efforts of future commentators aud translators.

IV. It is no easy task to ascertain the author and the æra of the book of Job. That is was composed before the delivery of the Jewish law, cannot, we imagine, be reasonably questioned. We are unable to discover in this poem any traces of persons and transactions subsequent to the period we have just mentioned: and, indeed, it remains to be seen whether allusious are here made even to much earlier incidents recorded in the sacred history? By whom the book was written, can be a matter only of conjecture. They who assign it to Moses, advauce an opinion far more

Einleitung in das A. T. B. iii. 555, &c. plausible than any other which has

(Ed. 3.)

Proleg. 22.

been hazarded on the subject: yet
the examples adduced by Mr. G. as

27

exhibiting a very singular proof of parallelism," seem insufficient for his purpose. Had we in this case independent evidence of what our translator denominates, somewhat quaintly, "an unity of authorship," these specimens of a likeness between parts of the acknowledged writings of the Hebrew Lawgiver and detached portions of the Poem under our consideration, would not be devoid of weight. In the absence of external testimony, Mr. G. must excuse us if we say that he decides rather more peremptorily than the state of the argument will justify. Rosenmüller ascribes the work to some writer who flourished long afterwards.---" Vel ipsâ Salomonis ætate, vel proximis, quæ illam insecuta sint, temporibus;"* but he does not venture even to guess who the author was. The hypothesis of Warburton, we presume, is almost exploded; though we learn from the Leipziger Literatur---Zeitung, of August 16th. 1818, that Professor Bernstein, of Berlin, honours it with his countenance. It is a memorable instance of one theory being formed to prop, if possible, another. Thus a ✦ weak and ill-planned structure requires to be sustained by buttresses, which frequently add little to the strength of the building, while they are sure to heighten its deformity.

V. "The chief doctrines of the patriarchal religion, as collected from different parts of the poem," Mr. Good thus enumerates:

"1. The creation of the world by one supreme and eternal Intelligence. "2. Its regulation, by his perpetual and superintending providence.

"3. The intentions of his providence carried into effect by the ministration of a heavenly hierarchy.

"4. The heavenly hierarchy, composed of various ranks and orders, possessing different names, dignities and offices.

"5. An apostacy, or defection, in some rank or order of these powers; of which Satan seems to have been one, and perhaps chief.

6. The good and evil powers or principles, equally formed by the Creator, and hence equally denominated Sons of God;' both of them employed by hnn in the administra

* Proleg. 35, 36.

tion of his providence; and both amenable to him at stated courts, held for the purpose of receiving an account of their respective missions.

"7. A day of future resurrection, judgment, and retribution, to all mankind.

"8. The propitiation of the Creator, in the case of human transgressions, by sacrifices, and the mediation and intercession of a righteous person."

Having finished this enumeration, the translator says, "Several of these doctrines are more clearly developed than others: yet I think there are sufficient grounds for deducing the whole of them." The practice of deduction, alas! is much too frequent among reputed theologians, and has mainly contributed to the support of unscriptural and antichristian tenets.

As to "the creation of the world by one supreme and eternal Intelligence, and its regulation by his perpetual and superintending providence," these truths are more than developed in the book of Job---more than deducible from this ancient Poem: for it teaches them in plain and unambiguous language. We will advert, at the foot of the page, to some passages which are the vouchers of our assertion.* Can as much be maintained concerning the remainder of the opinions stated by Mr. Good? Are not his Dissertation and his notes a proof that these have long been controverted, so far as regards the poem before us?

For the deduction that the designs of divine providence are" carried into effect by the ministration of a heavenly hierarchy," he refers to Ch. i. 6, 7. iv. 18, 19. v. 1. xxxiii. 22, 23. Now in the first of these texts mention is made indeed of the sons of God: yet respecting their nature and abode the writer has been profoundly silent; and from his silence, it were, surely, unbecoming to deduce a proposition so comprehensive and important. The title sons of God is bestowed, in the New Testament, upon Christians; † so that it does not necessarily designate beings superior to the human race. In the 18th verse of Chap. iv.

* Ch. xxxviii.---xlii. Ch. i. 9, 21. ii. 10. v. 8---27. ix. 4---13.

+ 1 John iii. 1.

52

Review.---Good's Translation of the Book of Job.

the word angels is equivalent with
messengers. It receives illustration
from the term servants in the preced-
ing clause; and, though these are, in
the 19th verse, contrasted with man-
kind, the poet, however, does not de-
clare that all or most of the intentions
of Providence are executed" by the
ministration of a heavenly hierarchy."
A hierarchy implies a gradation of
rank, of which (whether it exist or
not) we read nothing in these verses.
The propriety of the appeal to ch.
v. 1, must be determined by a few
observations, to be made hereafter
on the rendering of it. Our public
translation has saints, for which Mr.
G. substitutes heavenly hosts. The
case of ch. xxxiii. 22, 23, is the same.
Thus it appears that of this gentle-
man's four references the two first
do not reach the extent of his deduc-
tion; while the others admit, and may
even be found to require, a transla-
tion differing from his own.

It is not from Arabian writers, from
"the Mahommedans in general,"
from Christian and still less from
Pagan poets, that such tenets should
be taken by believers in revelation,
We confine ourselves to the question,
whether the existence of a heavenly
hierarchy be taught by Moses and the
prophets, by Jesus and the apostles?
It is the province of scriptural criti-
cism to ascertain the ordinary import
of a word at the time of its being em-
ployed by the sacred writers; instead
of giving it a sense derived from com-
paratively modern hypotheses, and,
as the effect of a false association of
ideas, imagined to be ancient. As-
suming the truth of some popular
speculations in theology, it will uot
be difficult for us to conceive of a
process of the mind by means of which
traces of them shall seem to occur in
scripture. But the inquiry still re-
mains, whether they are so propound-
ed there that "he who runs may
read" them? What believer in the
authority of the New Testament ever
spoke of the doctrines of the pardon
of sin upon repentance, the resurrec-
tion of the dead, and the future judg-
ment of the world by Jesus Christ as
being simply developed in its books,
being deducible, truly! from its cou-
tents?

These observations are applicable not only to the notion of a heavenly hierarchy, but to that of "au apostacy"

among the celestial orders; which tenet, according to Mr. G., "is derived from two or three passages that may, perhaps, admit of a different expladuced, in Ch. i. and ii. as an evil and nation." apostate spirit, is at least questionable. Upon this subject the translator communicates to us than the author of the poem. The Satan of the book of Job, is not the more information Satan of the Chaldees, but is represented as a judicial officer in the court of God.

Whether Satan be intro

the second chapter this being entirely
disappears, Mr. Good indeed says,
After the seventh verse of
that the opponents of the patriarch
were excited" by "the archdæmon:"
tion, we have yet to learn. If the
on what evidence he builds his asser-
writer's silence is to be thus supplied
by "the coinage" of our Dissertator's
deduced from scripture. Had the
"brain," any fancy whatever may be
does, he would have employed lan-
poet conceived of Satan as Mr. G.
guage more nearly resembling Mr.
G's.

our review, we proceed to the re-
mainder of this gentleman's volume,
When, in the natural order of
we shall with strict impartiality in-
quire, whether his version of ch. iv.
18. xv. 15, betray or not any fond-
ness for "systematizing?" The truth
or the falsehood of this doctrine of a
defection among the celestial orders,
is not now the matter of our investi-
gation. Our sole purpose is to warn
is clearly developed in this poem.
our readers against imagining that it

universal resurrection and retribution”
In favour of "the doctrine of an
Mr. Good adduces ch. xiv. 10–15.
xix. 23-29. xxi. 28, 30. xxxi. 13,
eyes, declaratory of the contrary te-
14. Of these texts the first is, in our
net:
it into his service without previously
nor can the Dissertator enlist
employing the word renovation in-
stead of change. This passage and.
the rest of the supposed authorities
his version and his notes. For the.
we will discuss when we advance to
present, we only ask, whether the
hypothesis of a future life's being
not at variance with the scope of the
even developed in the book of Job, be
poem, and with its interesting moral ?
It is curious to notice the mixture of

Eichhorn, 3rd Bd. (3. Ac.) 592, 595.
* Einleitung in das A. T. von J. G.

decision and of doubt with which
Mr. Good expresses himself in this
part of his Dissertation--- v. g "it
seems clear--it seems evident--- it proves
obviously"!

66

He quotes ch. xv. 18---22. xvi. 22. xvii. 1. xvii. 11. xxx. 24, 25, as the principal passages “ against the existence of a future life." But then he adds, immediately, "all these passages rather refer to an insensibility or dissipation of the soul upon death, than to the question of a re-existence at some future period: and hence they cannot strictly be said to annihilate this latter doctrine." Now, after reading again and again the abovementioned texts, we can discern in them no traces whatever of the distinction which Mr. G. finds it so convenient to suggest. The holy sufferer speaks of the hope of man as destroyed: and though he wishes to retain it, yet he knows that thus much is beyond his power,

"Yea, my hopes!--who shall point them

out?

To the grasp of the grave must they fall a
prey.'

We are next referred to ch. i. 5. xlii. 8, 9, as texts in which are developed "the propitiation of the Crea tor, in the case of human transgressions, by sacrifices, and the mediation and intercession of a righteous person." These passages we have, accordingly, examined with great attention: and in the former we meet with a record of the fact that Job's parental affection and habitual piety induced him to offer sacrifices every day for his children; while from the other we learn that, at God's command, he presented intercessory prayers for his three friends, who, however, were specially directed to bring with their own hands a prescribed sacrifice. In these instances there was nothing of propitiation and mediation, in the sense in which the words are commonly understood. We may as well conjecture that sacrifices were symbolical of Divine mercy as that they were either propitiatory or vicarious.

writings being unavoidably affected in some degree by the preconceived idea of their containing passages from which certain doctrines may be learned in the way of inference and deduction.

We shall weigh the intrinsic merits of the translation before us with its pretensions. Mr. Good assures

his readers that he has not been " a niggard in labour;" and we believe him. We admire his industry and ardour, his attachment to scriptural criticism and oriental learning. His views of the manner in which the book of Job should be rendered from the original, are enlightened and correct; and, if he has not uniformly succeeded in exemplifying them, it must be remembered that he could command only a few hours in every week (actively engaged as he is in the duties of his profession) for the execution of his task. Upon our candour and forbearance he possesses a yet stronger claim; inasmuch as he never treats preceding or his contemporary labourers in the field of sacred literature with arrogance and illiberality. If we think him sometimes unduly confident in his positions, and sometimes inaccurate in his reasonings, we have, nevertheless, the pleasure of observing that he uniformly avoids offensive and personal strictures upon

those who dissent from his conclusions.

The style of his Dissertation might be improved. But we content ourselves with pointing out one mark of haste. In page xxiii, Mr. G. speaks of the goad as passing into the soul of Job, yet not poisoning it. The metaphor is incongruous. We would attempt to give it consistency, were not our translator an enemy to the conjectural PERHAPS in matters of verbal criticism!

Some of the Hebrew words which he takes occasion to cite in his introductory Discourse, are wrongly printed. Are these errors attributable to the distance of Broxbourn* from the metropolis? Reviewers and their readers will be somewhat deficient in experience and in charity, if they cannot allow for typographical mistakes flowing from this source.

On reading Mr. Good's introduc-
tory Dissertation, we have frequently
wished that the provinces of the trans-
lator of the scriptures and of the doc-
trinal expositor of them, were con-
sidered as distinct; the correctness
and fidelity of a version of these press, in Hertfordshire.

*This work issues from the Broxbour

ART. II. Discourses an UniversalRestitution, delivered to the Society of Protestant Dissenters in Lewin's Mead, Bristol. By John Prior Est Jin, LL. D. 8vo. pp. 211. Longman and Co. 1813.

Whilst the subject and the arguments of this work were under discussion in our last volume, we thought it scarcely decorous to bring the Discourses under our own review: they are too important however to be passed over, though after the investigation which they have undergone, we may content ourselves with a cursory notice.

The Discourses are the familiar addresses of an aged pastor to his flock, on a topic of supreme importance, to which his attention and zeal have been lately directed; hence they discover a confidence and urgency of manner which viewed in any other light would be scarcely pleasing, but to the same circumstance must be attributed the simplicity, pathos and eloquence with which so many passages in them abound. Dr. Estlin was brought over to the doctrine of Universal Restitution by his friend the late much-lamented and reverend Rochemont Barbauld, whose almost unceasing remonstrances forced him to re-consider the subject and to contemplate it in all its bearings and connexions. (p. 71.) His zeal, indeed, points him out as a new convert: but, at the same time, the hypothesis which he asserts is so beautiful and cheering, reflects so much glory on the universal Father and sheds such beams of comfort and joy upon the condition of the children of men, that it seems impossible that any one should hold it with indifference.

'Passion is reason, transport temper here.' There may be enthusiasm, but it is surely an amiable, nay more, a noble enthusiasm in the preacher's estimate of his favourite doctrine (p. 203).

"It appears to me be a part of the plan of divine providence, the whole of which is founded in infinite wisdom, that the doctrine of final salvation should at this period of the Christian Church be revived, as particularly adapted to the cure of those moral disorders which prevail in the world."

* For an account of Mr. Barbauld from a pen capable of doing justice to the sub ject, see M. Repos, Vol. iii. pp, 706-709.

Universal happiness must be allowed to be the best proof of infinite love, and what sentiment is so powerful in the excitement of practical benevolence as the persuasion that the author of all things is the Father and the Friend of his reasonable creatures? Were this conviction generally and deeply felt, there would be little bigotry, persecution or war.

It is a consolatory fact that the doctrine at least of eternal torments has been losing ground since the Reformation. The Reformers inherited it from the Church of Rome, and might assert it with the more vehemence and apply it the more largely in order to shew their opposition to purgatory, a state of remedial pain: but Dr. Estlin suggests (p. 50. note) that the most convincing evidence we have of even Calvin's habitual belief of it is his burning Servetus! The tremendous doctrine is certainly not contained in the Articles of the Church of England: it was asserted in the Forty-two Articles, settled in the reign of Edward the Sixth, but was happily rejected when the number of Articles was reduced to Thirty-nine (p. 16, 17). In the Athanasian Creed it may indeed be implied, but it would be unjust to determine the faith of the National Church from a formulary, of which all its enlightened and liberal members have long been ashamed. The most zealous advocates of the doctrine are to be found amongst the Methodists; but the zeal of most of them has of late cooled upon this point, and not a few of them embrace the opinion of final happiness to all. On what other supposition, can they maintain the ultimate triumphs of divine grace, the efficacy of the cross of Christ, and the fulfilment of the prophecy, that in the Messiah shallall the families of the earth be blessed' !

Dr. Estlin wonders and grieves that the advocates of destruction or annihilation (the words differ, but the thing is the same,) should have been chiefly Unitarians: but surely this doctrine is infinitely preferable to that of eternal pains and penalties. We remember the time when our escape from the scheme of the Assembly's Catechism to this moderate system, filled us with inexpressible` joy: we had landed upon solid ground, after being long vexed upon a sea