is contradicted by the Lord's testimony to him, before quoted, at that date. But that at the commencement of the history he stood in need of much instruction-which in the school of adversity he obtained in the knowledge both of himself and of God: requiring (as is very possible for the most sincere believer) to have a deeper sense of his own nothingness and vileness; and, in contrast, of the greatness and power, the holiness and justice, and withal, of the mercy and grace, of the Almighty.

But still the aspect in which Job is most prominently brought before us from the beginning of his history is that of a sufferer for righteousness' sake; and this not alone as regards the calamities more immediately inflicted by Satan, but also the more exquisite and protracted trial of his patience which afterwards awaited him, and which he scarcely appears to have sustained with equal firmness,-in the unjust suspicions and even bitter reproaches of his professed friends who visited him on the pretence of affording him consolation, but in reality helped forward his affliction: who not only charge him with impatience, but call in question his integrity, and discourse at length of his afflictions as the judgments of God upon the wicked and hypocrites, notwithstanding his repeated protestation of his innocence, which he calls God and man to witness. As also, it is worthy of remark, his name imports,—in an age when names were significant and often prophetical, which being interpreted is, "THE PERSECUTED ONE" (derived, according to the best lexico

graphers, from a root "to be an adversary, to persecute as an enemy;" and on which is also formed the usual term to denote the enemies and persecutors of God's people*). A point most necessary to the present inquiry to premise; not only to show, as first proposed, the further development in this later age, and in this first written book of Scripture, of "the enmity" which was the subject of the first prophecy, but moreover, as we are now to see,

II. In the next place,―The identity of the "Redeemer" of Job's expectation with the Redeemer there promised, as also with Him whose coming had been subsequently foretold by that of Enoch, in the nature and objects of his manifestation; which, apart from this, the distinctive character of his trial, is likely to be overlooked.

That is to say,Their theme, we saw, (the theme of the two preceding prophecies), was the victory and final triumph of the Saviour: not only His coming, but His "power and coming." They are distinct revelations, as regards its objects, of that which is now looked for as His SECOND ADVENT. While here-though the mention of "the latter day" as the time when He should "stand upon the earth;" and, more definite still, the connexion of the Resurrection with His coming, undoubtedly establishes the

"The name (i) properly signifies a man persecuted; (from the root -as Tib one born, from 7), and it appears to refer to the calamities which he endured."-GESENIUS.

reference of the prophecy to His second coming rather than His first-we do not, considering the passage in itself and apart from its context, perceive the same marked definition of the objects of that coming as in "the bruising of the serpent's head," or "the Lord's coming with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment"-to convict the Antichristian of their "ungodly deeds and hard speeches against Him," and to avenge his people of their persecutors: and it may seem to be only such a confession of faith in the Redeemer, and of hope in a resurrection, as might be made by any believer in the near prospect of death. But restored to its place, and read in its context as well as in the light of the circumstances under which it was uttered, its import is very different. The identity between it and those former predictions is at once evident; and we see in it a third and no less striking proof of the position which it is designed in these Discourses to illustrate, that the second coming and glorious appearing of the Saviour has been from the beginning the great object of the Church's hope.

1. The passage occurs in the answer of Job to the address of one of his friends (which occupies the preceding chapter, xviii.), who, indignant at his disregard of their misdirected arguments, not content with ascribing his present infliction to the justly deserved judgment of God, had proceeded to forebode for him the death and hopeless end of the wicked. For example, verses 5, 6:

"Yea the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the spark of his fire shall not shine:
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle,
And his candle shall be put out with him."

And again, ver. 11:

"Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
And shall drive him to his feet:
His strength shall be hunger-bitten,
And destruction shall be ready at his side,
It shall devour the strength of his skin:

Even the first-born of death shall devour his strength.
His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle;
And it shall bring him to the king of terrors," &c.

Ending, ver. 21:

"Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,

And this is the place of him that knoweth not God."

To which Job replies that if God has thought fit to afflict him (not seeing who was indeed his afflicter), this does not justify their vexatious taunts and reproaches,-ch. xix. 1:

"Then Job answered and said— How long will ye vex my soul,

And break me in pieces with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me;

Ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
And be it indeed that I have erred,

Mine error remaineth with myself,

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,

And plead against me my reproach,

Know that God hath overthrown me,

And hath compassed me with His net."

And then, after an affecting detail of his afflic tions, he thus again appeals to them (21, 22):

-

"Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends: For the hand of God hath touched me.

Why do ye persecute me, as God,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?"

Where we observe the striking confirmation of the character of his trial before noticed, and the import of his name, "the Persecuted One:" in the words, "Why do ye PERSECUTE me?" the more remarkable here as prefacing the memorable declaration of his hope, which immediately follows (23-27):

"Oh that my words were now written!

Oh that they were printed in a book! (or tablet!)
That they were graven with an iron pen

And lead in the rock for ever!

For I know that my REDEEMER liveth,

And that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,

Yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not another.

That is to say, in answer to his persecutors, and in confutation of their assertion that he was forsaken by God, he declares his confidence, notwithstanding, in a "Redeemer" who should deliver him out of all his troubles, and raise him even from the death which then threatened him; through whom, moreover, he believes that he shall see God as his God, and "not as a stranger" to Him. (Marg.) But he does not stop here with this vindication of himself. He