1. The express words of the text are, "O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave!" Not in a darksome place like the grave; and where the literal sense of the words is plain and agreeable to the context, there is no need of making metaphors to explain them. There is nothing that can encourage us to suppose that Job had any hope of happiness in this world again, after he was gone down to the grave, and therefore he would not make so unreasonable a petition to the great God. This seems to be too foolish and too hopeless a request for us to put into the mouth of so wise and good a man.

2. He seems to limit the continuance of man in the state of death to the duration of the heavens, ver. 12th, "man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more:" Not absolutely for ever does Job desire to be hidden in the grave, but till the dissolution of all these visible things, these heavens and this earth, and the great rising-day for the sons of men. These words seem to have a plain aspect towards the resurrection.

And especially when he adds, "they shall not be wakened nor raised out of their sleep." The brutes when dying are never said to sleep in Scripture, because they shall never rise again; but this is a frequent word used to signify the death of man both in the Old Testament and in the New, because he only lies down in the grave for a season, as in a bed of sleep, in order to awake and arise hereafter.

3. In other places of this book, Job gives us some evident hints of his hope of a resurrection, especially

that divine passage and prophecy, when he spake as one surrounded with a vision of glory, and filled with the light and joy of faith. Job xix. 25. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me." But in many parts of this book the good man lets us know, that he had no manner of hope of any restoration to health and peace in this life. Job vii. 6, 7, 8. "My days are spent without hope: Mine eye shall no more see good: The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: Thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.” Ver. 21. Now shall I sleep in the dust, thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be." Job xvii. 15. "Where is now my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?" He and his hope seemed "to go down to the bars of the pit together, and to rest in the dust." And if Job had no hope of a restoration in this world, then his hopes must point to the resurrection of the dead.

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4. If we turn these verses here, as well as that noble passage in Job xix. to the more evangelical sense of a resurrection, the truths which are contained in the one and the other, are all supported by the language of the New Testament: And the express words of both these texts are much more naturally and easily applied to the evangelical sense, without any strain and difficulty.

The expressions in the xixth of Job, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," &c. have been rescued by many wise interpreters from that poor and low sense which has been forced upon them, by those who will not allow Job to have any prospect beyond this life: And it has been made to appear to be a bright glimpse of divine light and joy, a ray or vision of the sun of righteousness breaking in between the dark clouds of his pressing sorrow: And that the words of my text demand the same sort of interpretation, will appear further by these short remarks, and this paraphrase upon them.

Job had been speaking, ver. 7. &c. that "there is hope of a tree when it is cut down that it will sprout again" visibly, and bring forth boughs; but when "man gives up the ghost" he is no more visible upon earth: "Where is he?" Job does not deny his future existence, but only intimates that he does not appear in the place where he was; and in the following verses he does not say, a dying man shall never rise, or shall never be awakened out of his sleep,' but asserts that "he rises not till" the dissolution of "these heavens" and these visible things: And by calling death a sleep, he supposes an awaking time, though it may be distant and far off.

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Then he proceeds to long for death, "O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave! That thou wouldst keep me secret till thy wrath be past!" Till these times and seasons of sorrow be ended, which seem to be the effect of divine wrath or anger: But then I entreat "thou wouldst appoint me a set time" for

my tarrying in the grave, "and remember me” in order to raise me again. Then with a sort of surprise of faith and pleasure he adds, "if a man die shall he live again? Shall these dry bones live?" And he answers in the language of hope: "All the days of that appointed time" of thine "I will wait till that glorious change shall come. Thou shalt call" from

heaven, "and I will answer thee" from the dust of death. I will appear at thy call and say, “Here am I: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands,” to raise me again from the dead, whom thou hast made of clay, and fashioned me into life.

From the words thus expounded, we may draw these several observations, and make a short reflection upon each of them, as we pass along.

Obs. I. This world is a place wherein good men are exposed to great calamities, and they are ready to think the anger or wrath of God appears in them.

Obs. II. The grave is God's known hiding place for his people.

Obs. III. God has appointed a set time in his own counsels for all his children to continue in death.

Obs. IV. The lively view of a happy resurrection, and a well-grounded hope of this blessed change, is a solid and divine comfort to the saints of God, under all trials of every kind both in life and death. '

Obs. V. The saints of God who are resting in their beds of dust, will arise joyfully at the call of their heavenly Father.

Obs. VI. God takes delight in his works of nature, but much more when they are dignified and adorned by the operations of divine grace.

. Obs. VII. How much are we indebted to God for the revelation of the New Testament, which teaches us to find out the blessings which are contained in the Old, and to fetch out the glories and treasures which are concealed there?

Let us dwell awhile upon each of these, and endeavour to improve them by a particular application. Obs. I. This world is a place wherein good men are exposed to great calamities, and they are ready to think the anger or wrath of God appears in them.' This mortal life and this present state of things, are surrounded with crosses and disappointments; the loss of our dearest friends, as well as our own pains and sicknesses, have so much anguish and misery attending them, that they seem to be the seasons of divine wrath, and they grieve and pain the spirit of many a pious man, under a sense of the anger of his God. It must be confessed in general that misery is the effect of sin, for sin and sorrow came into the world together. It is granted also, that God sometimes afflicts his people "in anger, and corrects them in his hot displeasure," when they have sinned against him in a remarkable manner: But this is not. always the case.

The great God was not really angry with Job when he suffered him to fall into such complicated distresses; for it is plain, that while he delivered him up into the hands of Satan to be afflicted, he vindicates