550 SAFETY IN THE GRAVE, [DIsc. xi. pounced by our Lord Jesus ;; " surely .I come quickly," he must immediately join the universal echo of the saints with unspeakable delight, Even so come) O Lord Jesus;" lien. xxii.20. DISCOURSE XI. SAFETY IN THEGRAVE; AND JOY ATTHE RESURRECTION. a.on kivi 13, 14, 15. O that thouwöuldst hide mé in the grave, that thoti wouldst keepme secret until thy wiràthbe past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time and re- member me ! If. a man die shall he live again? All the days of my ap- pointed time will I wait till my change corne. Thou shalt call and I will answer thee : thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands. BEFORE we attempt to make any improvement of these words of Job for our present edification, it is ne- cessary that we search out the true meaning of them. There are two general senses of these three verses which are given by some of the most considerable interpreters of scripture, and they are exceeding different from each other. The first is this, " Some suppose Job under the ex- tremity of his anguish to long after death here, as he does in some.other parts of this book, and to desire that God would cut him off from the land of the living, and hide him in the grave, or, at least, take him away from the present stage of action, and conceal hind: in some re- tired and solitary place, dark as the grave is, till all the days which might be designed for his pain and sorrow were finished : And that God would appoint him a time for his restoration to health and happiness again in this world, and raise him to the possession of it; by calling him out of that dark and solitary place of retreat; and then Job would answer him, and appear with pleasure at sucha call of providence." Others give this sense of the words, " that though the pressing and overwhelming sorrows of this .good man constrained him to long for death, _and: he entreated of God that he might be sent to the;grave as abidingplace, and thus be delivered from his present calamities, yet he had some divine glimpse of a resurrection or living again,
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