of Episcopal authority to the entire congeries of precipitancies, mistakes, and mutilations-a due regard to my own credit, but infinitely more a due

here we have a large portion of the original at one stroke scored off, and rejected as a "superfetation," (so his Lordship is pleased to call it,) exactly in the same manner as we find the history of the birth of Christ, in the beginning of Matthew and Luke scored of, as a superfetation, by the Editors of the Unitarian New Testament.-Heath had indeed transposed the first 14 verses of the xlth chapter, and inserted them between the 6th, and 7th, verses of the xliid. For this too he had assigned a reason not deficient in plausibility. But to reject altogether an entire portion of the book, and this upon the merely fanciful and figurative ground of a "thread too visible" and a "purple patch," has been reserved for a Bishop of the Established Church.

Having adverted to the subject of conjectural emendation of the sacred text, I cannot but enter my protest most decidedly against the spirit, which has, of late years, so mischievously infected the translators of the books of Scripture in that particular respect. The Bishop of Killalla unfortunately has had no small degree of countenance in such practices. By others, and those too critics of no small repute, this spirit has been too much indulged. The late Bishop of St. Asaph has well observed, that considering the matter only as a problem in the doctrine of chances, the odds are always infinitely against conjecture. (Horsley's Hosea, pref. p. xxxiv.)-The consequences growing out of the habit of altering the original Hebrew according to conjecture, must be, that we shall cease altogether to possess a standard text, and that for the word of God, we shall ultimately have only the word of man. Bishop Pocock justly observes upon this practice, that, "every one, for introducing any where such a meaning as pleased him best, might alter the words as he pleased, of which there would be no end; and it would be a matter of very ill consequence indeed. We must (he adds) fit our meaning to the words, and not the words to our meaning." (Pocock's Works, vol. ii. p. 493.)-That the MSS. and ancient versions are not to be called in, to assist in rectifying the Hebrew text, where confusion has manifestly arisen, I am very far indeed from contending: but that, what is properly called conjecture should be permitted to interfere, and now especially after the immense labours of Kennicot and De Rossi in their collation of the various copies of the Hebrew, is I think wholly inadmissible. This is not the place to enlarge upon such a subject. I would strongly recommend to the perusal of the reader, the ju

regard to the cause of truth, demanded, that such a work should not be allowed to pass upon the world, as a faithful exposition of a part of sacred writ. In my observations upon the individual defects of this work, I have not thought it necessary to travel beyond the course, which the Bishop's remarks upon the date of Job unavoidably prescribed. But I cannot dismiss the subject finally without saying, that in my opinion, the necessity for a new English version of the Book of Job, (if any be supposed previously to have existed) has in no particular been diminished by that which has been given to the world by the Bishop of Killalla.*

As a matter of curiosity, and as supplying some relief from the tædium controversiæ, I annex a short account of the history of Job, as it has been handed down amongst the Arabians.

JOB, or AIUB, (as he is called in Arabic, agreeably to the Hebrew name ',) is reported, by some of their historians, to have been descended from Ishmael; it being held, that from Isaac, through Jacob, all the Prophets had sprung, excepting three, Job, Jethro, (the father-in-law of Moses, called by the Arabians Schoaib,) and Mahomet; which three had come of the line of Ishmael, and were Arabians. By others, his descent is traced from Isaac, through Esau, from whom he was the third, or at most the fourth, in succession. And in the history given by Khendemir, who distinguishes him by the title of

dicious observations of Bishop Horsley, in his preface, as before referred to, and at p. xxxix. See also Dathii Opuscula, p. 135

-137.

* His Lordship had subsequently to the publication of the second edition of this work, been advanced to the See of Waterford. To avoid confusion, however, I have continued to designate him by the title, under which he is known to the public as the translator of Job.

:

the Patient, it is stated that by his mother's side he was descended from Lot:-that he had been commissioned by God to preach the faith to a people of Syria:-that although no more than three had been converted by his preaching, he was notwithstanding rewarded for his zeal by immense possessions: that his wealth and prosperity excited the envy of the Devil; who, presenting himself before God, charged Job with motives of self-interest in his religious obedience, and asserted that if the Almighty would deprive him of his substance, his boasted allegiance would not hold out for a single day that the Devil obtained permission to strip him of his wealth, but that Job's fidelity remained unshaken :-that having received still further permission to afflict him in his person, the Devil infused by a pestilential breath such infection, as to render Job's entire body one putrid ulcer, and of a nature so offensive, as to repel from him every attendant, and to force the inhabitants to drive him out of the city into a remote and solitary place, whither his wife carried every day what was necessary for his subsistence that the Devil constantly stole from her, whatever she had provided for this purpose; and that having reduced her to such a condition, that she had nothing remaining for her husband's relief, he appeared to her in the form of a bald old woman, and offered, upon condition of her giving two tresses of hair that hung upon her neck, to furnish her every day with what she might require for her husband's subsistence :-that Job's wife having agreed to the proposal, and parted with the tresses, the devil produced the hair to Job, affirming that it had been cut from his wife's head, when caught in the act of matrimonial unfaithfulness:-that Job, enraged against his wife, was led to swear, that if he recovered his health he would most severely punish

her for her offence :-that the devil having thus got the better of Job's patience, transformed himself to an angel of light, and published to the people of the surrounding country, that Job had forfeited the favour of God, and that they should no longer permit him to abide among them :-that Job, being informed of what had passed, had recourse to God by prayer, who in a moment put an end to all his suf ferings; for that the Angel Gabriel descended to the place where he was, and striking the earth with his foot, caused a fountain of the purest water to spring up, wherein Job having washed his body and drank of it, was suddenly and perfectly restored to health : -and that after this, God multiplied his riches in such a manner, that, to express the abundance of it, the Arabian authors say that a shower of Gold fell upon him. See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. tom. i. pp. 75, 76. 432. 458. also Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 162. in which latter place the story is given with some minute variations.

The reader will of course consider these fables as introduced here principally for his amusement. One fact, however, they unequivocally speak; the belief of the Arabians, 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 in truth, from the earliest times, and to this day continues to be, 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 dy nasty of the great Saladin have been known by the name of Aioubites or Jobites; their illustrious founder being called by the name of Job.-D'Herb. Bib. Orient. tom i. p. 76.-The reverence for this name has, I am sorry to say, been carried still farther

amongst Christians: the worship of Job being (as Broughton tells us) of great antiquity, both amongst the Greek and Latin Churches; the Greeks having chosen the 6th of May for celebrating the festival of SAINT JOB, and the Latins keeping it on the 10th. -Diction. of all Relig. vol. i. p. 538.

END OF VOLUME I.