The reproof is doubtless severe, but we shall find hereafter that Job is rebuked in a higher quarter, for a multitude of words without knowledge.'

4. And wilt thou say, "Pure is my doctrine", "And clean have I been in THINE eyes."

Pure is my doctrine,' or 'my principles,'' what I have received to hold:' although chastised as an offender, in your estimation, I have been guilty of nothing in the sight of God, to bring down these judgments upon me, as a punishment for my sins: this is clearly what Job thought, and had expressed, and so his friends understand him. Such language, from one visibly chastised of God, Zophar rebukes as the language of a scorner. And it is afterwards demanded, by God himself, "Hath the chastised contended with Shaddai?" &c. In vain it appears to Zophar, had Job attempted to avert the plain inference of his being chastised for his offences, by his high speculations concerning the mysterious greatness of the Divine Being, and the incomprehensible nature of his present dealings with mankind.

5. But O that Eloah would speak!

a

And that he would converse with thee";

Or, "my speech;" properly," what I have received to hold." Mr. Good renders, "My conduct."

"Open his lips with thee."

6. That he would unfold the secrets of wisdom,

For assuredly they are corresponding to sound reason! And know, that Eloah has made thee debtor for thy iniquity ".

The meaning of these difficult lines I conceive to be, You, Job, have reasoned most abstractedly concerning the Deity, of secret things' in his wisdom, which are unrevealed, but, O that God would condescend to explain them to you; for I have no doubt, that these secrets of wisdom would be found duplicates to those things which exist, and are the proper grounds of our reasoning, and of the deduction of our knowledge,-I am persuaded you would find nothing in that unknown wisdom, or in the unrevealed counsels of the most High, to overturn this position, that when you or any other man suffers the judgment of God, it is the just debt contracted by your sins, which you are called upon to discharge: or, with the authorized translation, " it is less than your iniquity deserves." Perhaps a modern reasoner would express the same sentiment. True, God is not a man as we are, nor are the relations which subsist among us creatures altogether applicable to him; but these relations afford us analogies, and are not destitute of all resemblance; and by their use, we can form some right conceptions of the moral government of the Deity. Right and wrong, and justice and oppression, virtue and re

wards, crime and punishment, have a definite meaning in the concerns of men one with another, and they alter not their significations when applied to the proceedings of Divine Providence. These things would not be found altogether to have altered their nature by reason of the immensity of the Divine wisdom and justice, and of all the attributes of God.

And when we call to mind the important truth of revelation, that all things are created by Jesus Christ, and are upheld by him,-that is to say, that creation and providence are the work and the operation of the Son of God, already circumscribed in his plan of proceeding, within the limits suitable to a created nature,-a created nature, however, great and glorious! And when we remember that man was made in his image and likeness-in the likeness of this image of the invisible Deity,there is great force in this reasoning. God in Christ, as the moral governor of the universe, is not altogether that incomprehensible Infinite, as is the philosopher's God, concerning whom he can know nothing-and find, in no analogies, the manifestation of any relations on which we can depend, or venture to reason. The scriptures are full of allusions to the operations of the human intellect, and to the moral feelings of mankind, in order to illustrate what God is. Not, indeed, in his own infinite essence, but as revealed in Christ-' both God and man.' And great as is the distance between

a mere creature, and much more fallen man, and 'the Lord of glory,' yet the resemblance is not altogether lost, when we ascribe love or hatred, or justice or mercy, to him; or, from our own endowments, raise our thoughts to some distant conception of his attributes.

I conceive this to be Zophar's meaning, in this certainly obscure passage. Job had attempted to obviate the inferences, drawn from 'the aphorisms,' and sayings' of the ancients, respecting the equity of the divine government under which he was suf fering, by abstracted notions of the Deity; arguing, from the greatness of his power and wisdom to the immensity of his justice, to shew how inapplicable all these adages and maxims were to explain the rules of the moral government of God; and all, we shall remember, with a view to avoid this inference, that he was justly suffering for his sins. But Zophar insists, that there is no occasion to depart from these maxims of traditionary revelation, and to indulge in such speculations respecting the Divine Being. This were, indeed, to plunge ourselves into an unfathomable abyss, and, like the ancient mariner, to lose ourselves in a devious ocean without a landmark, where all our knowledge and experience would avail nothing.

7. "Canst thou in searching discover Eloah?

"What, even the perfections of Shaddai, canst thou "discover?

8. "Lo!' the heights of the heavens, what canst thou "achieve?

9.

"It is' deeper than hell! what canst thou discern^?

Longer than the earth is its measure, "And wider than the sea!

10. If he changeth, or shutteth up,

"Or convoketh together, then who shall turn him

back"?"

I think Zophar repeats, in this passage, the substance of the opening of Job's last speech.-Chap. ix. 1-13. Where, when desired, if, as he asserted, he suffered innocently, to appeal to the equity of God, Job had urged, in reply, the impossibility of a mortal's contending in judgment with the Almighty, even if, by the rules of human equity, he were righteous: and where, having spread before him the greatness of the Deity, as seen in his works of creation and providence, he reflects upon his proceeding, as mysterious and irresistible,-whatever be the opinion of his creatures, God will give no

The construction of these lines is obscure, but the general meaning is sufficiently plain.

Perhaps the terms in these two lines describe the acts of the uncontrollable government of a sovereign, who gives no account to his subjects of his proceedings. "If he introduce changes in persons or things, or if he cause to be shut up or put under restraint, or if he convoke an assembly for passing judgment, or for executing his orders,-who can cause him to reverse his acts ?" "If he reverse things-and straiten, or multiply, who can change him ?" Mr. Good.