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572 Old Price's Remains. that, after a certain time (chap. iii. i), becomes quite as prominent and remarkable as the opposite virtue had pre¬ viously been. Seeing, again, that the Lord himself pro¬ nounced him " a perfect and upright man," (see Phil. iii. 12 and 15, for " perfect,") I was blinded to the evil of that same man being " righteous in his own eyes, and, there¬ fore, blind to the necessity of abhorring himself for his sin and folly. Lastly, seeing his three friends found fault with, not only by Job himself, but by Elihu, and also at last by the Almighty, I was so disabled from appreciating the excellence and justice of many of these sayings, as to believe they did nothing but suspect and calumniate a righteous man under the " hidings of God's face." On the contrary, an impartial view of the case by the light of other scriptures, (and in some points, even of common sense,) compels us to admit that this best of men was filled with such self-righteousness, as might well call for heavy affliction to subjugate so desperate a foe to the "righteousness of God"—that his repining spirit and language, after once giving way, became shockingly im¬ pious as well as foolish: and that, though his friends "found no answer," (i.e., no answer of peace to a wounded spirit,) and at times judged him uncharitably, yet many of their reproofs and precepts were so well merited and judicious, that to this day, though evidently the words of fallible and erring men, they, nevertheless, with the Lord's blessing and the aid of the Holy Spirit, appear to serve some of the blessed purposes of his own sword, the word of God ; just as the preaching and writings of holy men of our own day, though mixed with fleshly error and infirmity, are endued with power beyond their own, and are graciously honoured and " owned" of God as a mat¬ ter of ordinary experience, if any one chooses to attend