durft enter during their wife administration. And the obfervation which they and I have fo long fince made is this; that the inhuman, blood-thirsty tyrant is never free from anxiety of mind, and internal fears, lest some more favage and barbarous oppreffor than himfelf may arife, and cut him off before he has compleated the number of his years; his confcious guilt torments him to that degree, that he is always apprehenfive of imaginary dangers, and though there is peace all around him, he never thinks himfelf fecure when he repairs to his bed, he can never fleep for fear of being murdered before the morning: he has the dreadful idea of naked fwords for ever before his diftempered eyes. He wanders about from one place to another, like a vagrant, for his daily fubfiftence, and when he has found a morfel of bread, he dreads to eat it, left it should prove his bane. The horror and confufion that he is conftantly in, renders his life a perfect burden; they prefs with weight upon his foul, and overwhelm him, juft as fome potent monarch does his enemies, when he has furrounded them with his fuperior forces. And all this distress and anguish of foul are the ́just refult of his demerits; fince he audaciously bids God defiance, and refolutely fets himself in direct oppofition to his Maker, who will faften on him in an inftant, and crush him to pieces, though ever so well armed; because he indulges himself in the gratification of all his unruly appetites; is haughty and imperious, and has not the fear of God before his eyes; because he has taken poffeffion of whole cities that he had plundered and laid waste; and of fuch habitations as the lawful owners have quitted through his oppreffion. The immenfe treasures, however, that he has amaffed by fuch acts of violence fhall be but of little fervice to him; God will foon humble him, and diveft him of all his power; he may project great things, indeed, but fhall never be able to accomplish his defigns. When his troubles once come upon him, they fhall confume him like a devouring fire, and never ceafe, till he and his whole progeny fhall be totally destroyed. The Almighty's lightnings fhall blaft him, and the breath of his noftrils fhall confume him. Now let him that is tempted to purfue fuch evil courses, be forewarned, by fuch an example, not to put his confidence in uncertain wealth and grandeur; fince all their promifes are deceitful, and their end is vanity and difappointment. He fhall meet with misfortunes when he is least apprehenfive of them, and shall fee his children's ruin and deftruction, as well as his own. They fhall perish before their time, like the grape that is unripe; they shall die in their bloom, just as the olive-bloffoms are driven off by a storm of hail, or nipped by a hoary frost: if ungodly men have ever fuch numerous families, not a foul of them fhall efcape; the divine vengeance fhall overtake the fpoiler, and throw down the coftly buildings that he has erected by rapine and plunder. And this punishment of the tyrant is doubtless very juft, fince he aims at nothing but mifchief; and if one project fails, he invents new schemes to ruin and deftroy his fubjects. MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS on CHAP. XV. VERSE XXIII. HE WANDRETH ABROAD FOR BREAD. "An exile now, unfriended, hard befted, "Wandring, inquiring, crouching low for bread, "This abrupt transition to the punishment of the wicked oppreffor, admirably "expreffeth the fuddennefs of the event, and presents him to our very fight in a "most deplorable ftate of calamity. It was no uncommon thing, in ancient times, "to fee bad princes expelled their dominions, and reduced to beggary in a foreign "land. Homer alludes to fuch examples, in those beautiful lines where Achilles fays to King Priam ;" SCOTT. 66 Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, The fource of evil one, and one of good; Bleffings to thefe, to those distributes ills; To To moft he mingles both the wretch decreed POPE'S Iliad, B. XXIV. 663, &c. CHA P. XVI. JOB CHARGES HIS FRIENDS WITH BEING PERFECTLY INHUMAN AND HARD-HEARTED, IN TIRING HIM WITH THEIR REPEATED ACCUSATIONS OF THE SAME CRIME; ESPECIALLY AS THEY WERE EYE-WITNESSES OF HIS DEPLORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES, WHICH HE PROCEEDS TO DESCRIBE, IN ORDER TO CONVINCE THEM THAT HE DESERVED NOT THE ILL TREATMENT HE MET WITH, AND THAT ALL THEIR REPROACHES WERE NOT ONLY BARBAROUS, BUT UNJUST: THAT ELIPHAZ'S DESCRIPTION IN PARTICULAR OF A TYRANT WAS IMPERTINENT, AND ALTOGETHER FOREIGN TO THE POINT IN DEBATE, UNLESS HE COULD INFER FROM THENCE, THAT HE HAD BEEN GUILTY OF THE LIKE ARBITRARY PROCEEDINGS. THIS, HOWEVER, HE DEFIES HIM TO DO; AND AGAIN MAKES NEW AND WARM PROTESTATIONS OF HIS INNOCENT AND INOFFENSIVE DEPORTMENT TOWARDS HIS FELLOW-CREATURES, AND HIS SINCERE AFFECTION, AS WELL AS REVERENTIAL REGARD FOR HIS MAKER: AND AS GOD WELL KNEW THE TRUTH OF WHAT HE ASSERTED, HE APPEALS FROM THEIR PARTIAL SENTENCE TO HIS AWFUL TRIBUNAL FOR ACQUITTANCE. ERE JOB with fome warmth and refentment replied: All this long harangue of yours is nothing more than a needlefs repetition of what I have heard too often already. Cruel comforters are you all! fince you fhew no manner of compaffion, but rather chufe to aggravate my forrows, than try to relieve them. Will your empty speeches, for I think I may with juftice call them fuch, come never to an end? I cannot but be furprized at your confidence, fince you have fo little to offer on the topick in debate. Were With Were afflictions my I could infult yours, you in my turn. how much ease could I retort your language! vent my uncharitable invectives, and mock at your calamities! However, I deteft the thought of fuch an unkind deportment. Were you in my unhappy cafe, I would not utter a word that should prove an addition to your pain; on the other hand, I would affectionately condole with you, and by my balmy expreffions endeavour to eate you of your torture. Why should not you therefore, with equal zeal, attempt to mitigate the anguish of my foul? Hard, alas, is my unhappy lot! If I addrefs myfelf to God or inan, my complaints are vain and fruitless: my cafe admits of no confolation; for whether I urge arguments in my own defence, or fit in filence, and fuffer my ears to be wounded by your reproaches, ftill I find no fuccour or relief. My forrows, like a torrent, overwhelm me; and one rough wave, as it were, rolls upon another. I am now perfectly difheartned; for thou, O God, haft laid thine afflicting hand upon me fo long, that I have neither fubftance, child, or friend, to aid or aflift me. However, though you produce my fores, and the furrows in my face as fo many witneffes to prove me guilty of fome enormous crime, yet they can only teftify the weight of those woes which have compelled me to utter my complaints. Lord! thou appearest, like a relentless foe, against me, and tearcft me in pieces. Fierce lightning flashes in thy angry eyes, and thou abhorreft me. My friends too, with fupercilious looks, stand gazing at me, and deride my forrows; from diftant parts, numbers flock about me, and, like beasts of prey, devour me. The Almighty has thought fit to forfake me, and deliver me into the impious hands of fierce invaders. How happy once I was, but now how miferable! How did I flourish once, and live in affluence and ease! But now how despicable, how forlorn is my condition! How has God fet me up as a mark! and how have his fierce archers compaffed me about! Their arrows fly in fhowers around my head, and and lie buried within my tortured bofom. My wounds are fo mortal, that my gall, in short, is poured upon the ground. The Almighty bears with fuch violence upon me, that he gives me a fecond stroke before the anguish of the first is allayed; and I am as incapable of standing before him in my own defence, as is a dwarf of engaging with a giant. The fackcloth, with which I cloathed my flesh, when first my afflictions came upon me, now cleaves as faft to my skin, as if they were fewed together, and all the respect that formerly was paid me is now converted into contempt and ridicule. My cheeks are furrowed with inceffant weeping; and through my tears, a kind of shadow, like the face of death, hangs on my eye-lids. However, notwithstanding all my misfortunes, I will ftill with boldness aver, that I never was guilty of wilful injuftice to any one whomfoever; neither did I ever play the part of a hypocrite with my God, though infincerity is a crime that has been more than once too cruelly laid to my charge. If I have taken away the life of any one, through tyranny and oppreffion, let not, O earth, thy bowels conceal his blood, but bring thou to light fuch a deed of darkness, that I may meet with that publick fhame and difgrace which with justice attends the moft heinous malefactor! Let not God or man, when I call aloud for pity and compaffion, in the midst of my tortures, have the leaft regard to my complaints! But what occafion have I to multiply thefe heavy imprecations? The Almighty, from whom no fecrets are hid, knows that I am fincere; and fure I am, that he will teftify with how much justice I have acted towards my neighbour, and with what awful reverence I have behaved towards himself. From your partial fentence therefore, who, instead of adminiftring any comfort or confolation to me, make a mock of my diftrefs, I appeal to his awful bar, and implore him with inceffant tears to vindicate my conduct; and as I am fully convinced of the juftice and goodness of my own caufe, there is nothing I defire |
