A VINDICATION OF P. III. 406 and frivolous. Moreover the language is far more pure in it than in Onkelos's Targum, as this again is more correct than that of fome later Targums, which is an evidence of the much greater antiquity of Daniel's book than of that compofition, though it be looked upon as written about Chrift's time.The characters of the princes mentioned in this book, agree very well with the accounts of them in other hiftorians about the fame era.-The fymbolical representations given therein of kingdoms and states, are fuch as are to be met with in the other prophets, and particularly in those who lived about the Babylonish captivity, as may be seen by comparing Ezek. i. 15. xxiv. 3. Jerem. xviii. 4. Zechariah, chap. iv. v. vi. &c.—There does not, in fine, appear any intention in the writer, as might have been expected in a cheat and deceiver, either to raise his own glory, or that of his nation: for he afcribes his extraordinary knowledge to God, who is the revealer of fecrets, and represents his own and his people's fins as the caufes of the hardships they had fuffered, Dan. ii, 18, 23, 28, 29, 30. and ix. 4-14. We may therefore upon the whole be fure, that the book of Daniel is genuine, and with confidence look upon it as another of Mr. Voltaire's false affertions, that the book was forged after the events which it pretended to foretell;' but how important is it that this should be made manifeft! The authenticity of

+ Whoever would examine the matter more fully, may confult Huetii Demonftr. Evangelica, Prop. 4. De Danielis prophetia, fect. I I. &c. and the writings of the two learned Chandlers upon this fubject against Collins, the one the bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, and the other the famous diffenting minifter lately deceafed.

the book being ascertained, the prophecies which it contains afford most astonishing proofs of God's exact foreknowledge of the changes and revolutions which arrive in the political and moral world, and conftitute a very striking and convictive part of the evidence for God's having made fupernatural and extraordinary discoveries of his schemes unto the Jewish people. Upon it, accordingly, the attacks of the enemies of religion, both in antient and modern times, have been more virulent.

SECTION III.

Of his calling in the fame work our book of Job an Hebrew tranflation of an Arabic original, and denying it to be a Jewish book,

IN the forty-eighth chapter of the fame Philofophy of History he writes thus, Job is represented * as an • Arabian paftor, living upon the confines of Perfia. "We have already obferved, that the Arabian words

retained in the Hebrew tranflation of this antient 'allegory, evince that the book was first written by 'the Arabians.' He refers no doubt to chapter feventh of that treatise, where he affirms without any hesitation, 'The allegory of Job + was certainly wrote ' in Arabic; as the Hebrew and Greek verfions have ' retained feveral Arabic terms.' And he alludes, I suppose, to both paffages a little downwards, when he fays, 'The allegory of Job, which we have spoken of, is not a Jewish book.' But is all this right? I apprehend, not.

* Page 231.

That Job was not a fictitious, but a real Perfon.

MR. Voltaire seems to think Job a fictitious, instead of a real perfon; by confequence, his affluence, his integrity, his loffes, his disease, his fubmiffion, the restoration of his health, the recovery of his fortune with improvement, the renewal of the fame number of fons and daughters to him with that which had been taken away in the beginning of his calamities, as well as the dialogues between him and his friends, and other incidents, wholly invented for conveying fome moral inftructions. Nor is he fingular in this opinion; for fome learned men, both * Jews and Chriftians, † have entertained it. Neverthet less it appears most probable, if I can judge, that he was not an imaginary, but a real perfon, who poffeffed fuch eminent virtue and fuperior riches, who was visited with such signal death of children, and ruin of fubftance, and grievous malady, who fhew

Even Maimonides feems to have embraced this notion, at least to have had a propensity and biass toward it; for he fays, Moreh Nebochim, part 3. cap. 22. 'Nofti quofdem effe qui dicunt, Jobum

nunquam fuiffe neque creatum effe; fed historiam illius nihil aliud effe quam Parabolam.' And he afterwards obferves, that their inability, who contend his book is a true hiftory, to fix the time in which he lived, fome making him contemporary with the Patriarchs, fome with Mofes, fome with David, and fome with the wife men of Babylon, confirms this opinion, that he never really existed.—' Quae incertitu ⚫ do fententiam illorum confirmet, qui dicunt illum nec fuiffe nec creatum effe.' Then he goes on. Sive autem revera fuerit, five non fuerit, &c.'

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It was a prevailing notion among the Anabaptifts in last age, and hath been adopted by Salmafius and Le Clerc.

ed fuch uncommon patience and resignation amidst unparallel'd calamities, till he was hurried into fome indecent complaints by the length of their continuance, and the reproaches of his friends, from whom he expected the most tender sympathy and condolence, and who enjoyed fuch extraordinary profperity in his latter end, as we read of in the book which takes its appellation from him.

This fuppofition is favoured by the more particular and diftinct account of his name, country, character and circumftances, than is to be found of a perfon in parabolical relations or apologues for practical purposes, as every one will be fenfible by comparing fuch both in the Old and New Teftament. 2 Sam. xii. 1. and xiv. 5. Luke x. 30. xii. 16, &c. For how great an air hath the book hereby of relating not feigned, but actual events and transactions? whatever neceffity there may be to admit decoration and polishing in the discourses of the interlocutors: fince it cannot be thought that any perfons would fpeak in a manner fo elaborate and harmonic extemporaneously, and without premeditation; far less that Job would talk in fuch fublime and measured ftile fo long when he had made no preparation for it, and, far from being at ease, was burdened with heavy and fharp affliction.-Yet the fame opinion which naturally arises in the mind from a survey of the piece itself, is exceedingly ftrengthened by the references that are made to him as a real perfon in fcripture. For God himself, in the prophecies of Ezekiel, mentions him in conjunction with Noah and Daniel, as a man of fo diftinguished righteousness, that it might be thought he would fave the land from fa

mine, fword, noisome beast and peftilence, out of regard to him and to them, notwithstanding its general wickedness and prevailing corruption; and declares that hopes built on fuch a foundation fhould be disappointed, Ezek. xiv. 1 3.-21. "Though these 'three men, Noah, Daniel, Job were in it, they 'fhould deliver but their own fouls by their righte'oufnefs.' Now, why fhould Job's existence be queftioned more than that of Noah and Daniel, to whom he here fucceeds? Again, the apoftle James proposes him to Christians in a state of suffering, as a pattern of patience, whom they should imitate, and of a happy escape and deliverance from troubles, with the hope of which they fhould folace themfelves, after he hath fet before them the prophets in general; v. 10, 11. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, ' for an example of fuffering affliction, and of pa'tience. Behold, we count them happy who en'dure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.' But how would the force and energy of the admonition be destroyed if Job was a fictitious perfon, and his calmness under distress, and prosperity after it, wholly ideal? Yea, what writer of any abilities, would have introduced him as a model of patience, if it was merely imaginary, after calling their attention to the messengers of God in former ages, by whom it had been really exhibited? It appears as abfurd indeed as would be a father's recommending the chastity of a Pamela, or other fictitious female, to his daughter's regard, after reciting that of Lucretia, or any other, who