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MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS on CHAP. VI.

VERSE XV.

MY BRETHREN HAVE DEALT DECEITFULLY AS A BROOK, AND AS THE STREAM OF BROOKS THEY PASS AWAY, &c. TO VERSE XXI.

THESE verfes are a very beautiful fimilitude, or reprefentation of his friends treacherous and deceitful deportment towards him.-Man, says Mr. Addison, is subject to innumerable pains, and forrows, by the very condition of humanity; and yet, as if nature had not fown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief, and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.. Every man's natural weight of affliction is ftill made more heavy by the envy, malice, treachery or injuftice of his neighbour. At the fame time that the form beats upon the whole fpecies, we are falling foul upon one another.-In the little apocryphal treatise, entitled, The Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, we find the behaviour of a "If thou wouldst treacherous and self-interested friend very beautifully defcribed. "get, says he, a friend, prove him first, and be not hafty to credit him. For fome “man is a friend for his own occafion, and will not abide in the day of trouble. And "there is a friend, who being turned to enmity and ftrife will discover thy re"proach." In another place, he fays, "fome friend is a companion at the table, "and will not continue in the day of affliction. But in thy profperity he will be as "thyself, and will be bold over thy fervants. If thou be brought low, he will be "against thee, and hide himself from thy face." One would almost think that Ovid had feen this paffage, and had borrowed the thought, though it falls vaftly short of it in point of diction.

Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos;
Nullus ad amiffas ibit amicus opes.

Thofe, who the various gifts of fortune gain,

A thousand fawning, flattering friends obtain :
But if the goddess frown; thofe friends no more
Regard the idol they ador'd before.

VERSE XIX.

OVID.

THE TROOPS OF TEMA LOOKED; THE COMPANIES OF SHEBA WAITED FOR THEM.

THE fenfe of which text is this: thofe travellers, who came in great companies from Tema and Sheba, which were defart countries, where they had obferved, in the winter, ftreams and floods of water frozen, and full of fnow; but in their fummertravels,

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travels, being diftreffed for want of water, and almoft parched up with heat, they expected relief from those brooks of which they had before made their obfervation, but found themselves to their fhame and confufion disappointed; thofe brooks being land-floods only, occafioned by violent rains, which had no natural spring to supply them with water.

VERSE XX.

THEY WERE CONFOUNDED BECAUSE THEY HAD HOPED; THEY CAME THITHER AND WERE ASHAMED.

HOPES that are only delayed create abundance of uneafinefs; but when a man's expectations are entirely fruftrated, he is apt to reflect on them with shame and confufion. Shame and confufion, in the language of the facred fcriptures, is the natural refult of difappointment. The prophet Jeremiah has a paffage that bears a very near affinity to this. "Their nobles, fays he, have fent their little ones to the "waters; they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vef"fels empty." And what was the consequence of this their disappointment?" Why they were afhamed and confounded, fays he, and covered their heads. And again,

"because the ground is chapt; for there was no rain in the earth the plowmen

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were ashamed; they covered their heads."-I fhall add but once inftance more.. The prophet Joel expreffes himself in the very fame terms. "The field is wafted, "fays he, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up; the "oil languifheth; be ye afhamed, O ye hufbandmen! howl, O ye vine-dreffers! for "the wheat and for the barley; because the harveft of the field is perifhed."

CHAP. VII.

JOB HERE RESUMES THE SUBJECT OF HIS COMPLAINTS, AND DESCRIBES, IN THE FIRST PLACE, THE VARIOUS CALAMITIES, THAT ATTEND MANKIND IN GENERAL DURING THEIR RESIDENCE HERE ON EARTH; AND THEN EXPATIATES ON THE PARTICULAR SUFFERINGS HE HIMSELF LABOURS UNDER, AND ON THE VIOLENCE AND COMPLICATION OF THEM. IN THE CONCLUSION, HE HUMBLY IMPLORES THE DIVINE GOODNESS TO TAKE PITY AND COMPASSION ON HIS DEPLORABLE STATE, AND GRANT HIM A FREE PARDON AND REMISSION OF HIS SINS.

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AN's life, continues Job, has a determined period by the irrevocable and fixed decree of the Almighty; days will expire at their appointed time, like those of an

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"hireling. Does not the weary peasant pray for the approach of evening, at which time he knows that his toil and fatigue "will be over, and that at laft he fhall receive the fruits of "his labour? Why then fhall I be debarred from praying for "rest and death, fince life to me is a perfect burden?. I pass each " tedious day in lingring woes; and when night comes, that prompts "all nature to repose, I find no mitigation of my forrows. Even "then, whilft others fleep, dark gloomy thoughts perplex my "mind, and roll in never-ending agitations: my griefs, even then, "are more outrageous than by day. A thousand times I turn from "fide to fide, but all in vain; the tortures I endure are still un"utterable. With longing eyes I look for break of day, but when "it comes, it is joylefs all to me. My flesh is cloathed with loath"some worms, and every limb I have is crufted over with putre"faction. Hopeless my days in quick fucceffion move, just as the fhuttle traverses the loom in tender compaffion then, O Lord, "to my inceffant griefs, remember that life out-flies the wind, "which when it is past can never be recalled: when I have once parted with my friends, I am gone from them for ever. One "frown of thine at once will crush me into atoms. I die at once, "as one that is ftruck with lightning. As clouds, when once

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they are diffolved, can never more repair their loft connexion; "fo he that once defcends into the grave, will never more refume "his form and vigour : he fhall never more enjoy his former "habitation: or vifit his neighbours from the filent grave. Since "life muft one time or another ceafe, fince death muft come at. laft, I will not refrain from praying for compaffion, for fome repofe and ease, or a release from life. As grief is bold, my "cries fhall give my forrows vent: expoftulations and complaints "fhail give fome eafe to my afflicted foul. Am I, O Lord, a "wild impetuous flood, that thou art forced to watch me, and keep me thus in bounds? Can I ever pass my banks, or over

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"flow

"flow my country? Am I a whale, a monfter of the fea, that thou "shouldst bind me thus in fetters? If wifhed-for death may not " at once relieve me, yet I might hope, at least, from fleep to find fome intermiffion: but if my eyes be ever closed in slumbers, " even then fuch horrid vifions ftand before me, that I had rather "die than bear the fhock. As life therefore is an unfufferable “load; is loathfome, and the object of my detestation; let mẹ "alone to die. Why should I live thus long in lingring torments? "O! what is man, that God fhould condefcend to try his ftrength? "Is he worthy of thy notice or thy blow, that thou shouldft set

thyself against him? Wilt thou engage thy power against a "worn? Is poor, weak man a proper object of thy anger? Give "me fome little refpite; give me, O Lord, fome eafy moments. "O, fpare a wretch that has not long to live! I acknowledge

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my guilt; I am overwhelmed with fhame, and am conscious, "O thou obferver of men, that I can make thee no manner of "compenfation. Can I implore thy aid in vain? I know that all thy chastisements are forced; that mercy is thy darling attribute. "Why hast thou fet me as a mark against thee? If I am the object of thy displeasure, why doft thou not remove me out of thy fight? Fain would I lay my burden down and die. O Lord, forgive the mighty debt of all my guilt, and, though my fins "are great, remember mercy."

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MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS on CHAP. VII.

VERSE VII.

O REMEMBER THAT MY LIFE IS WIND: MINE EYE SHALL NO MORE SEE GOOD.

"DESPAIRING to make impreffion on the hard hearts of his three friends, he "turneth to God; with whom he pleadeth for a mitigation of his fufferings. His "first plea is the exceeding fhortnefs of life: which he exprefleth in a very strong ❝and beautiful manner, in this and the following verse.

"O think

"O think, my life is but a breath. its good

"A flitting vifion not to be review'd :

"Shewn to the world; ere men can look me round,

"Thy glance but ftrikes me and I am not found.

"The thought is fomewhat fimilar to that of our own great poet, in his Effay on "man."

SINCE LIFE CAN LITTLE MORE SUPPLY,
THAN JUST TO LOOK ABOUT US AND TO die.

POPE.

VERSE XIII. XIV.

WHEN I SAY, MY BED SHALL COMFORT ME; MY COUCH SHALL EASE MY COMPLAINT: THEN THOU SCAREST ME WITH DREAMS AND TERRIFIEST ME THROUGH VISIONS.

IF Job had any fleep at any time, it was, it seems, terrifying, and not refreshing fleep. Such fleep is occafioned by thick vapours, or grofs fumes, afcending from the ftomach to the brain, which clofe or lock up the fenfes ; now a perfon is for the generality apt to dream in that fleep; and the ftronger and thicker fuch fumes or vapours are, the more liable he is to be terrified, and difturbed.-As to dreams in general, there are several caufes of them. First, the natural difpofition of the body and fo from the variety of conftitutions a variety of dreams are formed.-Secondly, dreams are fometimes caufed either by intemperate eating, or drinking; or by the indifpofition of the body, through fickness or agonizing pains; and from hence more particularly did Job's fhocking dreams arife.-Thirdly, there is a moral caufe of dreams. The cares and disquietudes which a man meets with in the day frequently affect his imagination in the night. Fourthly, there are diabolical dreams, and of fuch Job here pathetically complains.

And lastly, there are divine dreams, which proceed immediately from God. And notwithstanding Job fays here to God, "Thou fcareft me with dreams, and terrifiest "me through vifions;" yet it was Satan that took the advantage, by permiffion, of his deplorable ftate and condition, to fling the grofs humours of his body up into his brain, out of which his fancy formed fuch hideous apparitions.-What Mr. Dryden. has faid in regard to dreams will, we imagine, be applicable to our present purpose; and at the fame time, we hope, no difagreeable amufement to our readers.

All dreams, as in old Galen I have read,
Are from repletion and complexion bred :
From rifing fumes of indigefted food,
And noxious humours that infect the blood.
The yellow gall, that in the ftomach floats,.
Ingenders various vifionary thoughts.

When'

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