Jews, that fob was born at the Time when the Ifraelites went into Egypt; and that he died about the Time that they departed out of Egypt.

*

Origen fays, that Job was older than Mofes. And Eufebius writes, that Job lived two Generations before Mofes, as being the fifth from Abraham; whereas Mofes he fays was the feventh. But Eufebius did not consider that in reckoning Job the fifth from Abraham, Abraham himself is not reckoned; but in reckoning Mofes the feventh from Abraham, he is reckon'd. So that by the Account of Eufebius, taken from the Greek Addition at the End of Job, Mofes is but one Generation after Job.

An ancient || Anonymous Commentator on the Book of Job fays, that the History of Job was wrote originally either by Job or one of his Friends in the Syriac (or Arabic) Language; and was tranflated into Hebrew by Mofes And this Author adds, that he found it “related by "the Ancients, that when the great Mofes was "fent by God into Egypt, and faw the grie

vous Afflictions of the Children of Ifrael, and <c was not able to comfort them under the la❝mentable Hardships inflicted on them by the Egyptians; he declared to them for their

"Con

* Ἐν τῷ ἀρχαιοτέρῳ καὶ Μωϋσεως αὐτῷ Ιὼβ ὁ διάβολο ἀναγέγραπται παρίσαθαι τῷ θεῷ, &c. Cont. Celf. p.

305.

+ Demonft. Evang. lib. 1. c. 6. p. 14.

At the End of the fecond Volume of Origen's Works, Edit. Bened. p. 851.

"Confolation the grievous and terrible Miseries " which fob had fuffered: and as they had lately happened, he put them in writing, and "deliver'd them to that People."

*

Methodius thought, that the Book of Job was wrote by Mofes,

Chryfoftom, in the Catena on Job, p. 613. fays, fob was in his Profperity when the Jews fojourn'd in Egypt: and that they were ftir'd up to Piety by his Example, all that had befallen him being then new and fresh in Memory all over Arabia.

Polychronius, in the Preface to the fame Catena (p. 4.) agrees with Chryfoftom, that Job lived before the Time of Mofes; and also thinks that his History was wrote by Mofes, to encourage the Ifraelites to bear Afflictions in the Wilderness. Julian Halicarnaffenfis is of the fame Opinion. [Ibid. p. 6.]

It is therefore probable, that Job was born about the Time of the Birth of Joseph, and died a few Years before the Ifraelites went out of Egypt, and whilft Mofes was in the Land of Midian, where the Hiftory of what happened to fob was well known. And Job dying whilft Mofes lived there, Mofes either tranfcrib'd the Hiftory out of Arabic into Hebrew, or compofed it originally from the Accounts he receiv'd

of it.

That which makes it highly probable, that

H 3

the

* Τὸ Ιωβ βιβλίου. Μωσέως εἶναι ὁ ἅγιος φησί.

i, e. Methodius. Apud Phot. Biblioth p. 938.

the Hiftory of Job was wrote before the If raelites went out of Egypt, is, that there is not in it any Mention of the miraculous Deliverance of that People; of any of the Plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, or of the Miracles wrought by Mofes in Egypt. And as the Miracles wrought by Mofes, and the miraculous Deftruction of the great Army of Pharaoh with Pharaoh himself in the Red-Sea, and the no lefs miraculous Paffage of the Ifraelites through that Sea on Foot, must have been known in Arabia, where Job and his Friends lived; it cannot be fuppofed but that those wonderful Works of Divine Providence would have been spoken of in that Part of the Hiftory, which fets forth the Almighty Power of God, and the great and marvellous Works of his Providence, if the Hiftory had been wrote after the Paffage of the Ifraelites out of Egypt.

Therefore we may reasonably infer, that it was wrote before the Jews came out of Egypt; and as the Jews received it originally in the Hebrew Language, and always accounted it a Part of their Canonical Scriptures, we may, with probability, conclude, that they received the Book of Job from Mofes himfelf: nor is there room to imagine any other to be the Author of it. The Hiftory was very proper to comfort the afflicted Ifraelites under the Miferies they endur'd, both in Egypt and in the Wilderness; and to build an Affurance upon of a Deliverance from all their Afflictions, and

of

of poffeffing the Bleffings of the Promis'd Land of Canaan, if they rely'd on the Divine Pro vidence, and worship'd the God of Ifrael alone, and obey'd his Laws.

Roffington, Aug. 11,

1744.

J. J.

REMARKS

H 4

REMARKS

UPON THE

FIFTH VOLUME

Of the SECOND PART of

Mr. LARDNER's Credibility of the Gospel-Hiftory.

IN

N this Hiftory, Mr. Lardner has made Objection to fome Parts of my Preface to the Edition of Novatian, [whom he erroneously, as I fhall prove, calls Novatus] wherein I fix the Date of that Author's famous Book concerning the received primitive Doctrine of the Trinity, to the Year of our Lord 250; or fome Time before he fell into his Schifm, which was A. D. 251.

Mr. Lardner fays, (p. 74, 75. "It is eafily " proved that Sabellianifm [mentioned by Novatian] was not known long before the Year 257. For in that Year Dionyfius of Alex"andria fent Pope Xyftus the Second an Ac"count of what he had faid and writ in that "Controverfy, which had its Rife in Ptolemais "in Egypt; and therefore probably had not been

1

“on