with the precise sameness of the number and proportions of Job's children, the seven sons and the three daughters: and to this it has been added, that all are, at the same time, in round numbers. To this objection, taking the last part of it first, it is answered, on the general principle already stated, that it would be very unsuitable to the freedom and elegance of poetic narrative to descend to the minutiæ of tens and units of numeration; and that, with regard to the precise duplication, it is no more than a periphrasis, growing out of the previous statement of numbers, that the Lord restored the full amount of Job's domestic felicity, and, as to property, gave him "twice as much as he had before;" an expression, of which the subsequent details are the mere amplification.*

2. Another indication of fictitious character has been found in the rapidity of the patriarch's disasters, the destruction of seven thousand sheep at once by lightning, the escape of one servant on each occasion as the messenger of evil tidings, with other particulars, which are regarded as out of all probability in the ordinary administration of providence. In reply to this it is only necessary to say, that it is not essential to its reality that it should be a likely case in the ordinary administration of providence; that the admission of its having been an extraordinary case-a case produced by the special interposition of Jehovah, does not at all involve an admission of its being a fiction. That it was something quite out of the usual course of events, the whole tenour of the narrative explicitly shows. Nay, even if it were admitted (which it is not) that it is only a strong poetical representation of a sudden, unexpected, and total overthrow, this would not prove that the work was not founded on fact, referring to a real person, of the name, residence, character, and course of life described in it.

3. Another objection to the reality of the narrative, has been founded on the interviews and conversations of Satan with God, in the first and second chapters. We may, perhaps, have occasion hereafter (should such a series of papers prove at all acceptable) to notice this point more particularly. Meantime, we deem it sufficient to observe, that, even on the supposition that this part of the narrative was not to be understood literally, but rather as a poetical mode of representing what takes place, under the divine administration, by the permitted agency of evil spirits, and the commissioned service of good ones, it would not, by any means, or in any degree, warrant the inference of the entire narrative being a fiction. It might be placed on a footing (though not introduced exactly in the same way) with the vision of Micaiah the son of Imlah, recorded in the narrative of Ahab's expedition against Ramoth Gilead, (1 Kings xxii. 19-23) a vision, of which the representations are very similar to those we now speak of; but which, though appearing in the statement of Micaiah as connected with, and accounting for, the facts of the narrative, does not, of course, in any degree whatever, bring discredit or dubiety upon the reality of those facts.

4. The highly poetical, figurative, and occasionally sublime * Magee's Dissert. on Job, in his Work on Atonement and Sacrifice. Fourth Ed. Vol. ii. part i. page 50.

diction of the dialogue, has been adduced in evidence of the fictitious character of the book. We are far from being disposed to acquiesce in the opinion sported by one or more eminent critics, in replying to this objection, that we have, in the record, the actual words of the parties engaged in the controversy; an opinion founded on the amazing facility with which, as they allege, the Arabians were accustomed to compose extemporaneous verses. Whatever amount of truth may be in the alleged fact, this is surely too much to find credit with any reasonable mind. Nor is the supposition at all necessary, for repelling the objection. In order to the establishment of the facts of the narrative as realities, there is no need for supposing more than that a controversy actually took place, of which the substance is worked up into a poetical form, and adorned with the elegance of poetical diction. This is enough; and all for which an assertor of the reality of the narration should think of contending. For, besides the incredibility of the thing itself, that poetry confessedly superior, in the judgment of the best critics, to all that unassisted human genius has ever produced, is nothing more than an extemporaneous effusion, what can be more ridiculous than to imagine men, in circumstances of distress so overwhelming, either suffered or witnessed, amusing themselves, or maintaining a competition of their powers, in the composition of extempore verses. 5. Certain internal inconsistencies have been adduced against the reality of the facts. It has been said, for example, that in chap. xv. 10, and xxxii. 6, 7, Job's friends appear as his seniors; while in chap. xxx. 1, the patriarch himself speaks of them as his juniors. But this, we reply, is entirely a misapprehension. In chap. xxx. 1, Job does not speak of his friends at all. "But now they that are younger than I hold me in derision," stands in evident contrast with the particular in his former condition, described by him, with so much pathos and conscious elation, in the chapter preceding: "The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose, and stood up." And in chap. xv. 10, the expression "with us are both the grey-headed, and very aged men, much older than thy father," evidently refers, not to the three friends themselves merely, but to those who were on their side, amongst their kindred and the people from whom they came, whose maxims of moral wisdom they professed to deliver. They frequently speak of their sentiments as being not their own merely, but the traditionary doctrines of the sages of ancient times.*

While these grounds do not appear in themselves at all sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the book is a fiction, there are positive arguments by which the opposite conclusion is further established :1. There is the evidence of the real existence and actual history of Job afforded by the distinct mention of him, both by Ezekiel, chap. xiv. 14, 20, where he is classed with Noah and Daniel, in a way clearly implying that he was regarded, equally with them, as a character of real history-" these three men, Noah, Daniel, and

*See Lowth on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, Vol. ii. page 369. Note by the Translator: and Magee, Vol. ii. part i. pages 52, 53.

Job;" and also by James, chap. v. 11, where it is to be observed, in the first place, that he is associated with "the prophets," as an example of the spirit in which affliction should be endured; secondly, that although the excellence of the example is the same on either supposition, of reality or of fiction, yet in the latter case, there is a material deduction from its force and persuasiveness; and thirdly, that it is not the mere example of patience that is exhibited by the Apostle, but the encouragement to the imitation of it afforded by the facts of the case; "Ye have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy;" an encouragement which could have no influence whatever, on any other hypothesis than that of the facts having actually occurred, as an instance, or exemplification, of these features of the divine character. There appears to me to be no reasonable withstanding of the plain testimony of these passages.

2. Although it may be thought preposterous to confirm the testimony of Scripture by any collateral proofs, yet there can be no harm in mentioning the traditions of the history of Job which are said actually to exist amongst the Arabians. Like all traditions of a similar kind, they are of course mixed up with much that is foolish and fabulous. But, in the language of an eminent writer already referred to, they are such as clearly to indicate "the belief of that people, that there was in reality such a person as Job, who lived in the patriarchal age, and was distinguished above all men by his sufferings and his patience. The reverence for the name of Job has been from the earliest times, and continues to this day, through all Arabia, extremely great; so that many of the noblest families among the Arabians have gloried in being descended from that Patriarch. The famous dynasty of the great Saladin have been known by the name of Aioubites or Jobites; their illustrious founder being called by the name of Job."

There is a scheme of interpretation, by which the facts are admitted, but which converts the whole into an allegory, and supposes the poem an allegorical drama, founded upon the facts. In this allegory, Job is conceived to represent the Jewish people, on their return from the Babylonian captivity; Job's wife, the strange wives whom at that time, in violation of the divine law, they took in marriage; and Job's three friends, the three great enemies of the Jews at that period, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem; the sufferings of the patriarch symbolizing the afflictions of Judah in their bondage. To dwell on a conceit so strange and so baseless, eminent as is the name of its inventor,+ would be no better, in my apprehension, than a waste of time. Cicero alleged of the sages of his time, (I quote from memory)" Nil tam absurdum, ut non dici possit ab aliquo philosophorum" "-" there is nothing so absurd as that some one of the philosophers may not have said it." The scheme of interpretation I have alluded to may be regarded as a proof (and it does not stand alone) that the affirmation might, without doing them much injustice, be extended to theologians as well as philosophers.

* Magee. Vol. ii. part i. p. 157.

+ Warburton. His scheme is refuted at length by Peters, and is denominated by Magee "a wild and arbitrary fancy."

REMARKS ON "A MANUAL OF CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES."

(To the Editor.)

DEAR SIR,-In these days of ecclesiastical contention, when the obsolete pretensions of aspiring and tyrannical priests are attempting to regain their ancient ascendancy, and to involve the christian world in the darkness, superstition, and fanaticism of the middle ages, it is soothing and refreshing to our vexed and wearied feelings to meet, as an oasis in the desert, with a calm and candid disavowal of high church assumptions, proceeding from the pen of a University clergyman. Such a refreshment I have lately enjoyed in the perusal of a plea for episcopacy, charity, and peace," contained in the preface to "A Manual of Christian Antiquities," published a short time since, by the Rev. J. E. Riddle, M. A., of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. Some of your readers will, I hope, be affected as I was, by reading a few extracts from this publication, which breathes the fragrant odour of a delightful, and truly fraternal charity.

From page xxviii. of the preface, to which attention has been directed, I set down, without comment, the following passage. Speaking of the discipline which was in use about the fourth and fifth centuries, Mr. Riddle says, "the servile and almost impious reverence paid to the clergy must have been highly demoralizing. It must have wrought injurious effects upon the minds of both ministers and people. We may hope, indeed, that, in many cases, the distinction which was made between clergy and laity, and the deference paid by the latter to their spiritual pastors, may have been attended with no more than becoming humility, modesty, and submission on the part of the people, and may have been received by the ministers of religion as a salutary admonition concerning the nature of their duties, and their own deep responsibility to the great Head of the Church, who alone is worthy to receive honour and adoration. But, at the same time, it is difficult to consider the extravagant titles and marks of respect which were bestowed upon the clergy during the fourth and fifth centuries, without feeling convinced that the less enlightened members of the christian community must have been affected with a mean and pitiful spirit, a want of generons self-respect, and of holy christian emulation, and a debasing forgetfulness of the animating assurance that all who truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have been made by him kings and priests unto God and his Father. It is true, indeed, that a faithful, industrious, and affectionate minister readily acquires the esteem and good-will of the people among whom he labours; and that this feeling of attachment, under certain restrictions, is at once due to the pastor, and salutary to the people. More than this, respect to the whole order of christian ministers, apart from personal connection with them, and solely on account of their office, is a sentiment which necessarily pervades every well-disposed christian community; and this, also, if maintained on right principles, is at once an element and a promoter of true religion. But the excesses, and especially

the counterfeits of these things, are at once wrong in principle, and mischievous in their result. It is a hurtful prejudice in the minds of Christians when they suppose that any order of men, as such, possesses a greater degree of inherent sanctity than other men can possess or can attain, or that such an order comprises within itself the peculiar favourites of heaven. The existence of such arrogant pretensions tends not so much to produce genuine humility in the minds of those men who are hopelessly excluded from the privileged class, as to discourage them, and to act as a check upon their pursuit of excellence. Wise men have thought that one way to make men better is to make the best of them;' and on the same principle, one way to lower the general standard of piety and virtue is to cherish a belief in the minds of some members of the church, that they are necessarily and unalterably inferior to others in point of christian excellence, and lower in the divine favour. Much spiritual and moral mischief must have been thus produced, during the fourth and fifth centuries, by means of the extravagant honours bestowed upon certain classes of believers, and especially upon the clergy and ascetics of the day."

In page lxxii, speaking of apostolical succession, we have the following statement. "Whatever may become of apostolic succes sion as a theory or institute, it is impossible, at all events, to prove the fact of such succession, or to trace it down the stream of time. In this case, the fact seems to involve the doctrine; and if the fact be hopelessly obscure, the doctrine is irrecoverably lost. But can we suppose that the divine Author of our religion has suffered any part of his gospel to perish? It is, of course, possible that a truly apostolic succession may have existed, although the traces of it have entirely disappeared; but must we not allow men to regard such a loss as contributing to render the whole doctrine and institute extremely doubtful? Should we not weaken the good cause of episcopacy by insisting upon pretensions which cannot be established, and which may really be fictitious? It is impossible to prove the personal succession of modern bishops, in an unbroken episcopal line, from the apostles, or men of the apostolic age. As a matter of history and fact, apostolic succession, in this acceptation of the term, is an absolute nonentity. Call it a theory, a fiction, a vision, or whatever you choose, you cannot give it a name too shadowy and unsubstantial. It exists, indeed, as an honest prejudice in the minds of many sincere Christians, and so far it is entitled to consideration and respect. But in itself it is an empty sound."

In pages lxxiv. and lxxv. we have the following singularly candid observations respecting the ministers of the church. These observations are rendered more worthy of notice by the arrogant claims which are set up, and strenuously supported by high churchmen, to the exclusive right of ministering in the church; and which by necessary consequence, invalidate all other ministrations." Some persons may be disposed to maintain that, because theory is one thing and fact another, and because the functions of the minister now called a bishop are not identical with the functions of either the apostles or the bishops of the primitive church, we have therefore