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I purchased this 12-volume set on Job a few months ago from the distributor Reformation Heritage Books. It is the good fortune for anyone wanting to read such a thorough study of the topics contained within Job's life if they have wanted to do so SINCE 2001, the year of this edition. I am on but page 135 of the first volume--I admit to leaping ahead at the beginning to the volume where God answers Job--but now I am quite content to plod my way through page after page to see these well thought out comments unfold in Joseph Caryl's originality of thought so cogent and practical, that I now consider this to be for me--as it was for him, in its writing--a lifetime labor. It has the added delight--to me, it's no distraction--if having "f"s where we expect to be reading "s"s, and spellings here and there (booke, spirituall, cleare, birth-day, drinke) that rather than being tedious or a nuisance, they, in fact, slow down the reading rate so all sinks in, and on occasion muster a reader's smile. I am so glad I bought this set of books, and I think there are not more than 300 or so of them, of late, printed. I asked the publisher if an original book might be bought and he said of his, that the $4,000 set he had to take apart to make excellent copies for us were destroyed in the process. From time to time, though, a volume may appear and can sell for the cost of this new set just by itself. Anyone with a natural interest in Job, or with Life's similarities of our own, can be WELL ASSURED that that particular topic will be effectively discussed in a fine and thorough way by Dr. Caryl. I tip my hat to him. He is a better man than I.

I have spent a significant amount of time in Caryl's work over the last 15 years of my life. Before I began using this 12-volume set, I read extensively from an actual folio version of his work, which is one of the originals from the mid-1600s. The binding had to be strengthened to keep it from falling apart, and we maintain it in specially-designed leather carrying cases. I have returned to this work to study it in much more detail, finding his style very comforting to read, and am currently gearing up to convert this book into an electronic format for others to read and search from. With modern technology, it is simply unacceptable that we cannot make more extensive use of this work in detailed study of the mysteries of God revealed in that 42-chapter book. If you happen to know of another who has taken this step of making this an electronic study tool, I would be content to purchase and use it, rather than creating one myself. Timothy B. Phelps Westboro Baptist Church Topeka, Kansas

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