curse of God against their sinful nature, and all its polluted fruits. The debt of nature must first be paid, in the infliction of temporal death, before the gift of God, which is eternal life, can be received to its full enjoyment.' Thus Job, to avoid the conclusion that he is chastised for his offences, or for some particular defect of character, under the present dispensation of a righteous and discriminating Providence; would rather consider all the calamities of life as referrible to one source, the primeval curse of God, on account of the original sin of our nature, and its certain consequences in all mankind. Why one suffers more than another, where all in common are guilty, he would resolve into the arbitrary pleasure of God, of which no account could be given. Thus would he banish the thought of a distributive Providence in his affliction, and in the face of his chastising Parent, maintain his innocence and righteousness, as compared with other men. And it has been remarked, that the clearest acknowledgment of original sin, and of our common depravity, is sometimes found in persons very proud and vindictive of personal blame, and very hard to be convinced of particular faults and errors: too sure an indication, that the true spiritual conviction of these doctrines, which necessarily lead to meekness and humbleness of mind, is still wanting, or is as yet in a very imperfect degree. SECTION VII. The Second Address of Eliphaz. JOB having replied to each of his three friends in their turns, without convincing them that their grand position, backed by the sayings' and 'maxims' of the ancients, was wrong. They still insist upon the same point, that there is a just retribution of Providence in this present life; and, that Job, notwithstanding what he had advanced respecting the hope of the servants of Elohim in a future state, and respecting the general corruption of the human race, with regard to which all mankind may be considered as perishing under the wrath of a holy God; had by no means weakened the force of the argument, nor avoided the inference which they had drawn against him. They again maintain that these particular sufferings which he endured, were the chastisement of some particular transgressions; and, that he could not have suffered them, being innocent, or merely as being a partaker in the common corruption. They therefore begin again, in the same order, to address him. Chap. xv. Ver. 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 2. Should a wise man answer with airy knowledge, And fill his bosom with an east wind? a See Mr. Good. b A Levanter. IDEM. 3. Arguing with discourse which can be of no use", And sayings which have nothing profitable in them? By airy knowledge'-' knowledge' or opinions of wind, Eliphaz means to designate the emptiness and inutility of Job's high speculations; and when he compares his discourse to the blowing of an 'eastern storm,' he would perhaps denote its useless and mischievous violence; vehement and boisterous, it was charged with no fruitful showers. His discourse had collected nothing, it had not stored up, nor produced or collected, treasures of wisdom.' His maxims and speculations about God, and respecting the universal corruption of mankind, however true, must be utterly devoid of all practical utility, when asserted for the purpose for which Job had asserted them. 4. Ay, indeed, thou wouldst annul religion, d And withdraw prayer from the presence of El. As though he would say, your discourse is worse than unprofitable; the tendency of your arguments is to render all religion void and of no effect; the fear, or reverence, or worship of God, upon your a SIM. LEX. HEB. bto make null or void.' See Num. xxx. 13. c Literally, fear.' The fear of God,' but as often used in Scripture for the reverence and religious worship of him. dy, to diminish, take away, withdraw.' SIMON. TO still, or stop.' PARKHURST. Suppress.' GOOD. prayer • שיחה 8 and every exercise of devotion,' studium pietatis.' SIMON. Humiliation.' GOOD. principles, can be of no use, at least in this present life; and consequently you would discard all prayer and devotion before God, as altogether useless. Eliphaz understands Job as representing the Almighty to be inexorable in his justice, in the present dispensation of providence, and all flesh, by reason of its common sinfulness, to be inevitably blasted by his presence. He ascribes to Job the sentiments put into the mouth of the objector in Ezekiel; "If our iniquities be upon us, and we pine away in our iniquities, how then shall we yet live?" This impious conclusion, fairly drawn from the reasoning of Job, Eliphaz insists is in itself sufficient to confute him. 5. Since thy iniquity will be the guide of thy mouth, Eliphaz, therefore, considers it as unnecessary for him to say anything more on this subject, an indispensable consequence, drawn from his own doctrine, was a sufficient proof of its falsehood. And it must be acknowledged, however true and fundamentally important in their proper place, are the views which Job has given of the holiness of God, and of the entire sinfulness of man in his Or, thy mouth serves as a guide and leader to thine iniquity, or the wrongness, or unsoundness of your doctrine. Mr. Parkhurst, thine iniquity guideth thy mouth.' eyes, yet, when Job had drawn from these truths proofs to establish his argument, that there was no reward of religious fear, or punishment of wickedness, to be seen in the dispensations of Providence over man in this present life-that all here was confusion or inexorable wrath, and the confidence of a religious man was fixed alone on the hope of a better world to come-he clearly, as far as the present state of mankind is concerned, laid himself open to the impious and obnoxious inference which his friend draws from his doctrine. Job certainly does not mean to deny the profitableness of godliness, with respect to a future state; but, in the despondency of his afflicted mind, he maintains that it has not the promise of the life that now is,' as well as of that which is to come.' Here it was where his faith failed; and here he is found exposed to the thrusts of assailants, evidently his inferiors in religious knowledge. And it may be instructive, again to remark what was the occasion of Job's error,-his proud conceit of the eminence of his virtue as a member of the church and of society. Hence, because it had not met with a suitable reward, as he conceived, under the present dispensation of Providence, he had dared to argue that there was no discrimination of virtue and vice in the moral government of God over men in this world. We shall see hereafter the proper refutation of Job's error in this respect, though it is an error which has perplexed many, and Job has still |