himselfe What the day of darknesse is learne upon the former Verse He beleeveth not that he shall returne out of darknesse there I shewed a fivefold darknesse here I shall reduce it to one of these two The day of darknesse is either the day of death or the day of affliction so 't is taken Eccles 5.17 All his dayes hee eateth in darknesse that is hee is in sorrow all his dayes Though he hath Sun light or Candle light enough at his Table yet he hath no light in his heart So the Prophet Amos 5.20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darknesse and not light Even very darke and no brightnesse in it There is a day of the Lord which is nothing but light and there is a day of the Lord which is nothing but darknesse that is of tribulation and anguish upon the soule that sins The Prophet Joel calls it A day of darknesse and of gloominesse a day of clouds and of thick darknesse He knowes that the day of darknesse is Ready at hand The word which we translate ready signifies two things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paratum firmum stabilem certum esse denotat Drus First that which is prepared Secondly that which is established or confirmed We translate to the former the day is ready or prepared others render to the latter sense the day is established and setled his day of darknesse shall certainely come upon him And whereas wee translate Ready at hand noting the neernesse of the danger Others Tygurina per manum intelligere videtur ipsa impiorunt scelera per paraphrasim sic sententiam elucidat Scit quod suis factis periculosa tempora accersierit to note the cause of the danger render He knowes that his owne hand hath made a day of darknesse that is The villanies and wickednesses which he hath committed cause the clouds of judgement to gather and look black upon him his unrighteousnesse hath hastned on his ruine and wrapt him up in darknesse He hath brought an evill day upon himselfe by his evill deeds or as the Prophet speaks His destruction is from himselfe He hath pulled downe his House with his owne hands and is the sole author or contriver of his owne sorrows This is an experienced truth but I rather take the words as we render The day of darknesse is ready at hand that is it is neer and will shortly seize upon him Hence Observe First Many a wicked man growes into an assurance of his approaching misery It is as hard to perswade some wicked men that their state is naught as it is to perswade some good men that their state is good yet as many of the Saints conquer unbeleife and come not onely to have some hopes but high assurances that there is a day of mercy at hand for them that they are in a present happy state and eternall happinesse waite for them so a wicked man after long debate may have his unbeleife conquered and though he hath been sowing pillowes under his owne elboes though he hath slighted all the Counsells Admonitions and threatnings of faithfull Freinds though notwithstanding all this he continue long speaking peace to his owne soule and saying all is well yet I say this man may have his unbeleife conquered and know at last that there is a day of darknesse ready at hand when his eyes are opened to see what he hath done and what he hath been he sees that God hath rejected all his confidences and that he shall never prosper in them Secondly Observe That for a man to be assured of his owne misery is the height of misery Eliphaz puts it here among the punishments of wicked men This assurance makes his heart shake this knowledge is full of feare and therefore full of torment As to know that a day of light and deliverance is ready at hand is light while we are in darknesse and deliverance while we are in trouble So to know that a day of darknesse and misery is ready at hand is darknesse to wicked men while they are in externall light and misery in the midst of all their mirth And as it is the highest comfort of the Saints to know that they have eternall life to know that they are in the favour and live in the love of God a man may be in it and not know it and then though he shall doe well at last yet his state is but uncomfortable and he that is an heyre of Heaven may walke as an heyre of Hell with a troubled spirit but to know that it is so this is Heaven before we come at Heaven so it is the deepest sorrow of any man in this life to know that he hath eternall death an assurance of this setled upon the spirit though I conceive a man cannot have an absolute assurance of it yet to have strong impressions upon the spirit that he shall never be saved or that Hell is prepared for him this is Hell before he is cast into Hell A soule that doubts of mercy and of the favour of God is in a very sad condition but the condition of that soule is unexpressibly sad which is assured of judgement and of the wrath of God Thirdly Observe That as a wicked man may know that he shall be miserable in the end so hee may know that his misery is neere at hand An evill conscience awakened is the worst Prophet it is full of sad presages like Micah to Ahab Haec est paenae impii pars nou modica quod cogatur ipse sibi ominari malum Pined it never Prophesied good but evill and it doth not onely Prophesie of evill afarr off but neer or ready at hand 'T is true an evill conscience usually puts the evill day farr off 2 Pet. 3.4 There shall be scoffers saying Where is the day of his comming c. The day of darknesse is farr enough off it hath been long talked of but we doe not see it say these despisers But when an evill conscience is awakened then he sees evill neer and himselfe dogg'd at the heeles or as the former Verse speakes Waited for of the Sword As a Beleever when the eye of faith is cleare sees mercy neer at hand Faith makes God neer and then all good is neer So an Unbeleever when the eye of his conscience is cleared sees misery neer Observe Fourthly The misery of a wicked man is unmoveable His day of darknesse is established by an irrevocable decree there is no getting it off he is under a Divine Fate A day of darknesse may come over the Saints but that day blows over David sayd once of his day of light It shall never be dark and of his Mountaine it shall never be removed yet he was deceived But a wicked mans day of darknesse shall never be light nor can he use any proper meanes to turne his day of darknesse into light He cannot pray and it is pâ—â—â—er that turnes darknesse into light he cannot
metaphor taken from fire from a Torch or Candle which is the sense of the Tygurine translation My dayes faile as a Candle or as a Lamp which when the oyle is consumed goes out Mr. Broughton keeps to the metaphor of fire Deus mei ritu lucernae deficiunt Tygur My dayes are quenched There is a flame of life in the body the naturall heat is preserved by the naturall moysture these two Radicall heat and Radicall moysture worke upon each other and as long as Radicall moysture holds out to feed the Radicall heat life holds out but when the heat hath once sucked and drunk up all the moysture in some acute diseases it drinks all at a draught as the flame drinkes up the Oyle of the Lampe Vita extinguitur quando humor nativus in quo vita consistit extinguitur then wee goe out or as Job speakes here Our dayes are extinct Excessive moysture puts out the fire and for want of moysture it goeth out Hence Note First Mans life as a Fire or Lampe consumes it self continually There is a speciall disease called a Consumption of which many dye but the truth is every man who dyes dyes of a Consumption he that dyes of a Surfet may be sayd in this sense to dye of a Consumption The fewell and food of mans life is wasted sometimes more sparingly and gradually but 't is alwayes consumed except in those deaths which are meerely occasionall or violent before man dyes Againe Job speaks peremptorily My dayes are extinct He was not then dead but because hee saw all things in a tendency to death and was himselfe in a dying posture therefore he concludes My dayes are extinct Hence note Secondly What we see in regard of all preparatorie meanes and wayes ready to be done we may speake of as already done The Scripture speakes often of those things which are shortly and certainly to come to passe as come to passe and as the Apostle argues in spirituals We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the Brethren and he that believeth hath eternall lif So we may argue about naturals he that is sick beyond the help of meanes and the skill of the Phisitian is translated from life to death and we may conclude of a man in this case he hath tempoall death or he may say of himselfe as Job doth in the next words The graves are ready for me The Originall is very concise it is only there The graves for me we supplie those words Are ready And because of that shortnes of the Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sepulchra mâ—hi Cum mutila sit oratio indifferens est ut variis modis porfici possit there have been many conjectures for the supplie or filling up of the sence Some thus The graves for me that is there is nothing for me to thnke of now but only a grave I may lay aside all other businesse and attend that alone how I may lye downe in the dust with peace I am not a man for this world it is best for me to retire or withdraw my soule quite from the earth seeing I have no hope to keepe my body long out of it or if I doe let out my soule to the earth it shall be only to so much of it as will hold my body or serve to make me a grave The graves for me Secondly The graves for me that is I desire or wish for nothing but a grave A grave for my money as wee say of a thing that we greatly desire so saith Job A grave for me As if he had more largely spoken thus As I perceive I am going to the grave so I desire to goe thither I have as to this sence made a covenant with death Sepulchra mihi supple opto quaero cogito aut quid simile Sepulchra mihi inhiant ego sepulchris q. d. Aliis omnibus rebus valedico atque renuncio Jun. and an agreement with the grave The grave and I shall not fall out now that I am ready to fall into it For if I had my vote or might put downe in writing what I would have I would write A Grave A Grave for me as I am declining and decaying in my body so my spirit and my minde are as willing that my body should decay I am as ready for the grave as that is for me A grave for me So the words carry a reciprocation of readinesse betweene Job and the Grave The grave gapes for me and I gape for the grave Wee may parallell this kinde of speaking with that in the Booke of Canticles Chap. 2.16 where the Spouse saith My beloved is mine and I am his The Originall is My beloved to me and I to him There are no more words then needs must be The largenesse of their affection bred this concisenesse in language My beloved to me and I to him We are to one another as if we were but one The expression notes two things First Propriety My beloved to me or my beloved is mine that is I have a propriety in him Secondly It notes possession I have him I have not onely a right to him but I enjoy him I have not onely a title but a tenure God hath given me Liverie and Seisin as our Law speakes he hath put me into possession of Jesus Christ and I have given Jesus Christ full possession of me I am no longer my owne but his and at his dispose So here The grave for me and I for the grave The grave is my right yea the grave is my possession The grave is a house that every one hath right to and some are so neere it that they seeme possessed of it The grave is mine saith Job or I am as a dead man ready to be carryed to my grave The grave is not made ready till man is undressed by death and so made ready for the grave We say of very old men though in health and we may say of very sick men though young They have one foot in the grave Job speakes as having both his feet in the grave Yea wee may say that Job speakes as if he had not onely his feet in the grave but which is farr more his heart in the grave There are many who have their feet in the grave whose hearts are at furthest distance from it Job had both Heman Psal 88.4 5. describes his condition in such a language My soule is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh to the grave I am accounted with them that goe down into the pit I am as a man of no strength free among the dead like the slaine that lye in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and that are cut off from thy sight That Scripture may be a Comment on this My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Further Job speakes in the Plurall number he saith not the grave is ready for me but The graves
either of these even with the gripes and gnawings of his owne evill conscience for the evill he hath done This paine followes some wicked men all the dayes of this life and it shall be the portion of all wicked men after death Eliphaz aymes at this in the next Verse while he saith A dreadfull sound is in his eares there I shall further insist upon it We have yet another very considerable part of the wicked mans misery held forth in the close of this Verse And the number of yeares is hidden to the oppressour The word which we render Oppressor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Violentus crudelis robustus tyrannus qui suis nititur opibus aliis terribilis est signifies a man exceeding powerfull and terrible or by his power terrifying others He that oppresseth must have power and some desire power for no other end but to enable them to oppresse Solomon speaks of a poore man that oppresseth Prov. 28.3 but he oppresseth onely those who are lesse powerfull then himselfe A poore man that oppresseth the poore is c. One poore man may be as much above another poore man in power as some rich men are above the poore Equalls in power cannot oppresse But who is this Oppressor to whom the number of yeares are hid The Oppressor in this part of the Verse is the wicked man in the former part Eliphaz speakes still of the same person though under another name whom he there called wicked he calls here an Oppressor Hence Note That to oppresse is a very great wickednesse For an oppressor and a wicked man are the same man Againe in that the word which signifies an oppressor signifies also a mighty man or a man of great strength we may further Note That men who have much power are apt to abuse it for the oppression of others it is in the power of my hand sayd Laban to Jacob to doe thee hurt And Laban had hurt Jacob if God had not stopt him They that have much power in their hands need much holinesse in their hearts Pauci anni reconditi sunt violento Jun. that they may use it well much power is a temptation to doe much hurt Numeâ—us annorum i. e. facile numerabiâ—es The number of yeares is hidden to the Oppressors The number of yeares say some is an Hebraisme for few yeares or yeares that are easily numberable a Childe may tell the yeares of an Oppressor they are so few Hence the words are also rendered thus Few yeares are layd up for the Oppressor Master Broughton translates plainely to the sense Soone numbred yeares are stored to the Tyrant Hence Observe First That wicked Oppressors are often speedily cut off by the hand of God Psal 55.23 Blood-thirsty and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their dayes If God should lengthen out the lives of men set upon mischiefe who could live 'T is a comfort for us as well as a curse on them that Soone numbred yeares are stored to the Tyrant his treasure is not great in dayes who dayly treasures up wrath against himselfe Another resuming these words Hee travelleth with paine out of the former part of the Verse reads it thus And in the whole number of yeares which are layd up for him he travelleth in paine That is his whole life is miserable As if that which is a truth of all wicked men were more specially applicable to oppressors That they travell in paine Hence we may note Qui vult a multis metui multos tirre a oportet They who love to trouble others shall be sure to meet with trouble themselves He that desires to be feared shall be often affrayd Oppressors and Tyrants in all ages have experimented this truth which flowes both from the nature of their unjust actions towards men as also from the just retaliation of God Our reading leads us to a further consideration The number of yeares is bidden to the Oppressor That is as some expound they are determined or defined in the secret counsell of God It is under a hidden decree how long his oppressing power shall continue and when he shall receive the reward of his oppressions Or rather thus The number of yeares of his owne life is hidden to the oppressor that is he knows not how long he shall liue But is that any speciall judgement upon the Oppressour that the number of his yeares or how long he shall live is hidden to him Is not the number of a good mans yeares hidden to him Are not the number of every mans yeares hidden to him Doth any man know how long he shall live David indeed prayes Teach me to number my dayes Psal 90. and Make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is Psal 39.4 Yet he doth not desire to know precisely the number of his dayes or time of his end he onely desires to know their generall number or utmost extent spiritually namely that at the most they were not many that so he might make a wise improvement of his life and a holy preparation for his death Seeing then the number of every mans yeares is hidden to him how is this reckoned as the peculiar punishment of a wicked man that the number of his yeares are hidden to him I answer It is true the number of yeares is hidden from all men both from good and bad the Lord hath made that a secret Two numbers are secret First The number of the yeares of the World when that shall end Of that day and houre knowes no man no not the Sonne of man but the Father onely Secondly The number of the yeares of a mans owne life or the day of his death is a secret which no man knowes though many have been busie to pry and inquire into it But though godly men know not the number of the yeares of their owne lives yet this is no affliction to them under which notion it is here sayd of the Oppressor The number of yeares is hidden to him A wicked man is thoughtfull about this how he may live long not how he may live or doe well he would fulfill many dayes and yeares in the World that so he might have his fill of worldly profits and pleasures He is therefore troubled to thinke his life hangs upon uncertaine tearmes because he is uncertaine of any good beyond this life A godly man knowes not the number of his yeares but he knowes by whom they are numbred that satisfies him be they longer or shorter more or lesse But a wicked man would have the account in his owne hand he would be Lord of all even of time too but he cannot The number of yeares are hidden to the Oppressor Observe hence That the number of the yeares of mans life is a secret which none knowes but God himselfe And as it is so so it is best for man that it should be so The certaine knowledge when our lives should end would hinder
vve have used them both for our owne good and the good of others I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe thus saith the Lord Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised Jer. 31.18 Ephraims outward moanes were as musick in the eares of God Ephraim did not murmure against God but he bemoaned himselfe Ephraim was not angry at his chastisement but Ephraim mourned being chastised God heard this fully in hearing hee heard it or it pleased him to heare it It is our duty to testifie our sorrow by the saddest notes of a troubled spirit and it is a delight to God when vve doe so not that hee delights in our sorrows but he delights in the witnesse vvhich vve beare to his wisedome righteousnesse and faithfulnesse in sending those sorrowes I heard Ephraim bemoane himselfe Will an offendor that lookes for mercy come before the Judge in rich apparrell or in some affected dresse Comes he not rather in his Prison clothes puts he not on the garments of heavinesse The Messengers of Benhadad put dust on their heads and ropes about their necks and sack-cloth on their loynes when they came to mediate for the life of their Master And thus the Lord speakes to the Israelites Exod. 33.5 when they had sinned and he was wroth Put off your Ornaments that I may know what to doe with you Ornaments are uncomly when God is threatning judgements It is time for us to lay by our bravery when God is about to make us naked Sack-cloth sowed upon the skin and our horne in the dust are the best ensignes of an afflicted state The Prophets counsell indeed is Joel 2.13 Rend your hearts and not your garments Rending the garments may be taken not onely strictly for that act but largely for all outward actings of sorrow Yet when he saith Rent not this is not a prohibition of but a caution about the outward acting of their sorrow Not in Scripture is not alwayes totally negative it is often directive and comparative So in this place Rend your hearts and not your garments is your hearts rather then your garments or be sure to rend your hearts as well as your garments The one must be done the other ought not to be left undone See more of this Chap. 1. Vers 20. upon those word Then Job rent his Mantle Thirdly Observe Great sorrow produceth great effects and leaveth such impressions as testifie where it is The Apostle saith of the sorrow of the World That it worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 The sorrow of the World may be taken two wayes First For the sorrow of carnall worldly men whose sorrow for sin is only a vexing of their hearts not a breaking or humbling of their hearts which being separate both from true faith for the pardon of sin and from any reall purpose of leaving their sin worketh death both temporall death often wearing out their naturall life lingringly and sometime destroying their naturall life violently as in Judas as also hastning them on to eternall death of which it selfe is a foretast or beginning Secondly This sorrow of the World is a sorrow for the losse of or disappoyntments about worldly things This also worketh both those deaths in meere worldly men and when it is excessive as under a temptation it may be in a godly man it may be sayd to worke the death of the body in him yea great and continued sorrow though it be not excessive worketh towards this death in a godly man drying his bones and drawing out his spirits as is cleare in Job on whose eye-lids the very shadow of death sate while hee wept and sorrowed 'T is hard to dissemble a little griefe but a great deale cannot be hid As godly sorrow manifests it selfe in excellent effects upon the soule of which the Apostle numbers up seven at the eleventh Verse of that Chapter For this selfe same thing that yee sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulnesse it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves c. Now I say as godly sorrow manifests it selfe in manifold effects upon the soule so doth the sorrow of the World set its marks upon the body As a good mans heart is made cleane by weeping the teares of godly sorrow so every mans face is made foule by weeping the teares of worldly sorrow and as godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation and life eternall so the sorrow of the World vvorketh an entrance to temporall death yea we may say that godly sorrow doth sometimes worke temporall death Paul was afrayd lest the incestuous person while he was repenting might be Swallowed up with over much sorrow 2 Cor. 2.7 vvhich as vvee are to understand cheifely of a swallowing up in the gulfe of despaire so we may take in that also as a consequent of the other a swallowing of him up in the Grave of death as if hee had sayd The poore man may both despayre and dye under this burden if you let it lye too long upon him As soone as Heman had sayd in his desertion My soule is full of troubles he presently adds And my life draweth nigh unto the Grave I am counted with them that goe downe to the pit free among the dead Psal 88.3 4 5. To which he subjoyns Ver. 9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction and then expostulates Vers 10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead Shall the dead arise and praise thee As if he had sayd These sorrows will bring me to my grave or in the language of Job On my eye-lids is the shadow of death Till wee enjoy a life beyond the reach of all sorrows wee shall not be beyond the reach of death Hence that promise Revel 21.4 God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neyther sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine And as that life which hath no death in it shall have no sorrow in it so that life which is a continuall death the life of the damned is nothing else but sorrow There shall be weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth for evermore Mat. 13.42 Their eyes shall ever weep their faces shall ever be foule with weeping and on their eye-lids the shadow of death shall dwell for ever Fourthly The hand of God being heavy upon Job he defiled his horne in the dust and fouled his face with weeping he regarded neyther the beauty of his face nor the dignity of his condition all was nothing to him Learne from it Great afflictions take off our respect to the World and all worldly things What is honour What is Gold or Silver What is a goodly House What is a beautifull Wife and pleasant Children What are fine cloathes or a faire face in a day of sorrow or in the approaches of death Spirituals are highest prized when we are lowest Grace shines clearest in worldly darknesse but the light of worldly enjoyments is darknesse to us and that vvhich some esteeme as a Sun is but a
speakes of it in the most comfortable expressions Death it selfe is so embalmed yea and cloathed in the holy language that there is even a sweetnes and a beauty in it When a man hath worne a suit of Apparrell a great while and hath even worne it out or it becomes foule and nasty would he not be glad to put that off and get a new one upon his back therefore death is called an uncloathing a putting off the flesh there is no hurt in that when a man hath tyred himself all the day at his work would he not gladly go to bed therfore death is called rest or sleep Under these or the like considerations held forth in Scripture we may as it were burie al hard thoughts of death as was further shewed Chap. 14.12 especally while we remember that as now life is by many degrees bits or morsels swallowed up of mortality so then death shall at one bit or morsell be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 For Christ hath not onely conquered but abolished death and hath brought not onely life but immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. 1.10 Life is good yet when it may be sayd of a life it shall dye that puts an evill into life But if life be good how good is immortality which is a life that cannot dye Sixthly Note Job is very importunate to have a blot upon his good name wiped out his conscience was cleere his soule was well he could say Chap. 13. Hee is my Saviour and I know that I shall be justified yet because he was under aspersions and harsh censures he hastens to have these taken off because he was to dye shortly If we should on this ground be carefull to settle our outward estates and credits how much more should we be carefull upon this ground to see that our soules be well settled How should each one say I will hasten to get my sins pardoned my person justified I will hasten to have all cleer between God and my soule For when a few yeares are come I shall goe the way whence I shall not returne And if I doe not see these things done while I am here I shall never come back to see them done nor can they be done at all in the place whither I am going There is no repenting no reforming no beleeving in the grave if our spirituall change be not before our naturall change it will never be This â—rgument should provoke us to settle the affaires of our soules speedily It is not unlawfull nay it is a duty to vindicate our credit and to order the affaires that concerne this life because we have not long to live The hast of death should make us hast our worke even the worke of this life much more upon this ground should we see that our hearts be setled that our eternall peace be setled how should the haste of death make us haste the worke of the life which is to come But as it should make us hasten that worke so it must not make us huddle that worke or slubber it over or doe it to halves Such haste is waste indeed For if we leave our soules halfe setled and our peace halfe made and our repentance and turning to God in the midd way we shall never come againe to finish and perfect them no more then we shall to begin them Therefore set speedily about the worke and give your selves no rest till the worke be perfected for when a few dayes are come you shall goe the way where yee shall not returne Lastly Which was Jobs speciall case It is an affliction for any man to dye under a blott of disgrace Our credit and good name should be precious to us while we live especially wee should be carefull to dye with good credit and not to let a blott lye on us when wee are going out of the World Job would not dye under the name of an Hypocrite or an Oppressour with which black titles he had been charged by his Freinds It is a mercy to goe to the Grave with honour among men and to dye desired though it be enough that we goe to our Grave having honour with God and being desired of him A good name is a Box of oyntment powred forth and a good report especially among those that are good is as the embalming of our memories to posterity And yet the Saints are not so sollicitous for repaires in honour because of that esteeme which they have of their owne esteeme that 's the straine of ambition and they have learned to goe through good report and evill report through honour and dishonour they know how to goe forth without the Campe bearing the reproach of Christ But they are unwilling that Christ should beare their reproach or that his name should be dishonoured through them And therefore seeing they desire while they live to adorne the Doctrine of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in all things they cannot but be carefull before they dye to remove from their owne names whatsoever might reflect dishonour upon his How neer Job was in his owne opinion to the valley of the shadow of death is yet more evident in the first words of the next Chapter Here he onely tells us he must dye shortly there he tells us upon the matter that he was dead already here he saith When a few yeares are come I shall goe there he saith not onely that he had no more yeares to come but no more dayes My dayes are extinct c. JOB CHAP. 17. Vers 1 2 3 4 5. My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the Graves are ready for me Are there not mockers with me And doth not mine eyes continue in their provocation Lay downe now put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me For thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them He that speaketh flattery to his freinds even the eyes of his Children shall faile THE beginning of this Chapter pursues the Argument layd downe in the close of the former Or as a learned Expositor speaks Job in this doth enliven the premises Hoc capite intendit inanimare praemissa Aquin. and as it were put fresh spirits into what he had spoken before For whereas he had before desired the Lord to hasten his cause to a day of hearing because his day of death hastened Cha. 16. Vers 22. When a few yeares are come I shall goe the way whence I shall not returne Here to shew that hee was a dying man he describes himselfe as a dead man My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Secondly There Job made an appeale to God O that a man might plead with God as a man pleads with his Neighboâ—r Vers 21. And hee gives the reason why My Freinds scorne mee Vers 20. He doth the same here in other language Vers 2. Are there not mockers with me And doth
are ready for me Why how many graves must Job have Would not one grave hold him Or was Job covetous to have many graves Many houses will not serve some men when they live but one house will serve any man when he dyeth A little roome will hold those dead for whose covetous and ambitious minds the whole World was not room thy enough while they lived Ordinary men will have here their Winter-houses and their Summer houses their Citty houses and their Country house their houses on the Plaine and their houses on the Hill men have variety of houses while they live but one is all when dead Why then doth Job say The graves are ready for me He saith it to shew that death abounded to his apprehension or that he could not escape death As if he had sayd Wheresoever I set my foot I step upon a grave Plurima mortis imago The Poet describing a tragicall state saith There was much of death to be seene or many appearances of death Job saw deaths and bâ—held graves every where gaping for him Paul was in deaths often and Job was in many deaths at once The graves are ready there are many Pits making I am sure to fall into one there 's no avoyding it Learne from it First That In times of sicknesse and affliction discourses of the grave are the most seasonable discourses Death should be much in our thoughts and much in our speech at all times but most of all in times of sicknesse or of danger Some when they are sick cannot abide to heare a word spoken of the grave others will forbid such as come to visite the sick to speak a word of death Comâ—naeus lib. 10. Lewis the eleventh King of France was so excessively afrayd of death that hee had given command to his Attendants not to give him any warning of the approach of this his last Enemy by Name It was worse then death to him to heare of death and yet before he dyed he was told of it not onely plainely but rudely The French Historian reports that his very Barber with some other inferiour Servants as if they had rather come as Judges to pronounce the sentence of death upon him then as freinds to be his remembrancers of death told him bluntly and abruptly without preface or preamble or the least word of comfort to sweeten such a bitter potion That his fatall houre was come that neither his Hermit nor his Physitian could keep him alive a day longer They who are unwilling to heare or speake of death shall heare it spoken of whether they will or no. Death should be much upon the tongue and more in the thoughts of good men when they are in health but when they are in their naturall preparation for death sicknesse is a naturall preparative for death they should be very often in their spirituall preparations by thinking and discoursing of it Secondly From this manner of speaking The grave for mee Observe That A godly man is sometimes as ready for the grave as the grave can be for him Let it come as soone as it will it cannot come too soone as the grave gapes for him so doth he for the grave as the grave hungers for him so doth he for it and nothing can satisfie him but a grave I desire saith Paul to be dissolved He was ready for the grave And ready he was not in a vaine wish O I would dye and I desire to dye but from a grounded hope that he should be well in death Saul 2 Sam. 1.9 was sorely wounded the graves were ready for him and he was ready for the grave too But whence was it It was not from his preparednesse to dye but from his impatience to live as appeares both by the true History of his death and by the false report of it made by the Amalekite The former saith 1 Sam. 31.4 Then sayd Saul unto his Armour-bearer Draw thy sword and thrust me through therwith lest these uncircumcised come thrust me through abuse me Saul upon this account was so ready for the grave that he begg'd to be thrust into it and when he could not obtaine that miserable favour he thrust himselfe into it so the latter part of the Verse informs us But his Armour-bearer would not for he was sore afrayd therefore Saul took a Sword and fell upon it The Amalekite reports Saul thus bespeaking him 2 Sam. 1.9 Stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish is upon me because my life is yet whole in me Man dyes not by peece-meale now a little and then a little nor is life divisible when it departs it departs together but when Saul had no minde to live it troubled him that he was no neerer death A dishonour was fallen upon him the day was lost and he was wounded Saul could easier dye then out live this disgrace Such a readinesse to dye many have had it vexeth them to live dye they will because they cannot live as they would this is a readinesse of desperation not of preparation Job was much troubled paine and smart afflicted him and they had some influence upon his desire of death but his chiefe motive was above what old Simeon desired to depart in peace because his eyes had seen his salvation Job desired because he knew by Faith that God was his salvation Thirdly Job speakes chearefully of the grave Hence learne A Beleever in the greatest afflictions of this life sees ease and refreshing in death He knowes that he shall bury all his sorrows when himselfe goes to the grave yea that then his sins as well as his afflictions goe to their grave too and shall never rise againe Fourthly Job speakes confidently he shall dye presently the grave was ready for him But it was not so Jobs grave was nor ready and he outlived this black day many a fayre yeare Hence Observe A good man may mistake the times and seasons of Gods dispensations to him He thinks yea concludes he shall dye when he shall not dye Wicked worldly men doe not beleeve they shall dye when they must they cannot be perswaded that they shall dye when they are ready to dropp into their graves Job seemed to have an assurance that he should dye yet he did not God reprived him from death and restored him from trouble We are never the neerer the grave because we prepare for it speak and meditate on it or resolve to goe into it It is not our holding back from the grave that wil keep us out of it nor our willingnesse to goe to the grave that will put us into it It is good to mistake upon the best side God usually recalls those from death who are most ready at his call to dye Fifthly In that he speaks of Graves in the Plurall number Learne this There are many wayes of going out of the World though there be bilt one way of comming in Whither soever we are going wee are
going to the grave and when we have stept over or scrambled out of one grave wee may quickly slip into another and be locked in fast enough Lastly Take this from the whole by way of Correllary It is our wisedome to stand alwayes ready for death and the grave for they stand ready for us Ours is a dying life a decaying strength ours are consuming dayes our dayes cannot be many possibly they will be but very few for ought wee know the grave is now ready for us and wee are sure it is a digging and preparing for us Therefore let us be digging in the Word of life that we may be ready to meet and welcome death and the grave which are so ready for us The graves are ready for me Job proceeds to re-inforce the cause of his appeale Vers 2. Are there not mockers with me And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a illusit derisit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Formula jurisjurandi huic linguae familiaris Merc. Dispeream nisi amici mei studeant mihi imponere Vatabl. Master Broughton translates by way of affirmation Surely mockers are bestowed on me We by way of Question Are there not mockers with me Yes there are mockers with me Some read it as the forme of an Oath It is familiar in the Hebrew to use such formes of swearing and imprecating so the words are rendred by a learned Interpreter Let me perish if my freinds are not mockers if they goe not about to delude me Job spake this a little before My freinds scorne me Chap. 16.20 Here he is at it againe Are there not mockers with me I finde three words applyed by Job to his Freinds while he reproves this their unfreindly usage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Chap. 12.4 there he useth a word which signifieth to mock with derision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word Chap. 16.19 notes them such as mocked with wit and jesting The word here used signifies to mock by deceiving or deluding as if his Freinds had carryed matters with him more like Sophisters then Comforters So the word is applyed Gen. 31.7 Jacob tels Leah and Rachell You know that with all my power I have served your Father Laban and your Father hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times that is He thought by changing my wages to deceive me and get all the stronger Cattell to himselfe When Moses went out upon the request of Pharaoh to sue unto the Lord for the removing of a present plague Moses sayd Behold I goe out from thee and I will intreat the Lord that the swarmes of flies may depart from Pharaoh from his Servants and from his people to morrow but let not Pharaoh deale deceitfully any more Exod. 8.29 as if he had sayd You have mocked me two or three times and said you would let the people goe doe not so any more lest your deceiving of my expectation prove the greatest deceit of your owne The deluding Doctors which some delighted in are exprest by this word Isa 30.9 This is a rebellious people lying children children that will not heare the Law of the Lord They did not love the Law of the Lord What then which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things speake unto us smooth things prophesie deceits The wickednesse of that people lay in two things eyther they would have the Prophets silent and not speak at all or if they did speak they must Prophesie deceits They loved to be cozoned truth made them smart and they could not abide it A guilty conscience cannot endure plaine words but it loves smooth words as many as you will of these words say they or else not a word eyther prophesie deceit or cease prophecying Here Job complaines Are there not deceivers with me As if he had sayd You tell me you bring the minde of God but you bring false Doctrine you preach deceit Though we cannot say they preached smooth things to Job they spake hardly enough of him and harshly enough to him yet we may say they preached deceitfull things to him for though they did not speake with an intention to deceive him yet they were deceived in speaking and he had been deceived if he had yeelded to what they spake In which sense Job cals them which one would think he had little reason to doe considering how roughly they dealt with him he I say cals them Flatterers at the sixth Verse of this Chapter And what 's the businesse or chiefe designe of Flatterers but to catch others with words or to deceive them into a complyance with their owne ends And this is often and was in this case the end Finis operis finis operantis distinguuntur or tendency of the action when it is not the end or intention of the Agent From this notion of the word Observe First To be among Deceivers is a great misery Secondly To be a Deceiver is a great sin Thirdly To publish that which is false though there be no intendment to deceive is to be a Deceiver As most are ignorantly deceived so there are some ignorant Deceivers and as some thinke what they doe to be very just and that it is their duty to doe it when indeed it is very sinfull so there are some who thinke what they teach to be very true and that it is their duty to teach it when indeed it is very erroneous There are but few who know they are Deceivers when they are now as that Servant which knew his Lords will but did not according to his will shall be beaten with may stripes and yet he who knew it not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall not escape a beating he shall be beaten with few stripes Luke 12.47 48. So he that knowes the truth of God and yet deceives others with false Doctrine shall be beaten with many stripes and he who not knowing the truth deceives others shall not escape unbeaten or unblamed as Jobs Freinds did not Non peccavi Vulg. q. d. innocens heu morior Quandoquidem non sunt ludificationes apud me Jun. There is another reading of this first clause differing from ours Are there not mockers with me The Vulgar thus I have not sinned A second to the same sense thus For as much as there are no mockings or deceivings with me I am a man who deals plainely and simply The word which we translate Mockers as noting a Person is rendered by the act and that negatively There are no mockings with me that is I use no mockings or no false play as I am accused I have spoken my heart nakedly and clearly And yet mine eye continueth in their provocation therefore lay downe now put mee in a surety with thee c. Vers 3. This is a good reading but I will not stay upon it onely take two briefe Notes from it A good man is upright hearted
our hearts and our thoughts are the writings of our hearts when our purposes and thoughts are broken the Tables of our hearts are broken Hence Observe First Right purposes are good but it is not good to live upon purposes Action must presently follow resolution and performance must be speeded after purposes else they are to little purpose When David had sayd I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord Psal 32.5 he instantly confessed them And when he sayd I will take heed to my wayes Psal 39.1 he instantly tooke heed to them His purpose was in nature before his practice but in time they went together There is a double danger in delaying purposes First That the minde of the purposer may change and his spirit grow flat towards them Secondly that the seasons may change and though hee have a mind yet he may want means and opportunity to performe them There is danger in both wayes and much sin in the former way of breaking purposes The danger of both will be more discovered in the second Observation Secondly Observe When great afflictions come especially when death comes all our purposes are broken off As man is apt to busie himselfe about many things which he cannot know so about many things which though they are possible to be done yet he shall never doe It is in man to purpose but wee must aske leave of God before we can performe Crosse providences breake many purposes but death breakes all All our purposes concerning the World and the things of the World dye with us When the breath of great Princes goeth forth Psal 146.4 In that very day all their thoughts perish Great Princes are full of great thoughts but they who cannot keep themselves from perishing shall never keepe their thoughts from perishing The imaginary frames which they set up the contrivances plots and projects of their hearts are all swept away like the Spiders webb or broken like the Cockatrices Egge when themselves are swept away from the face of the Earth and broken by the power of death The thoughts of many Princes and Politicians dye while themselves live Achitophels purposes were broken and disappointed while himselfe looked on and he was so vexed to see it that hee executed himselfe because his purposes were not executed In these times of publick shaking how many purposes have we seen goe to wrack They who have been long laying their designes and brooding upon their counsels have had their egs broken in a moment their thoughts blown away like Chaffe before the wind or the lightest dust before the whirlwind Now as the purposes of many about gathering riches about taking their pleasure about advancing themselves to or establishing themselves in honor and high places have perished before they dyed so when such dye all their purposes shall certainly perish And as the purposes of all about worldly things perish in the approaches of death so doe the purposes of some about spirituall and heavenly things How many have had purposes to repent to amend their lives and turne to God which have been prevented and totally broken off by the extremity of paine and sicknesse but chiefly by the stroake of death when they have as they thought been about to repent and as we say turne over a new leafe in their lives they have been turned into the Grave by death and into Hell by the just wrath of God Some interpret this Text as Jobs complaint of the unsettlement of his thoughts about heavenly things and the breaking of his purposes in the pursuit of eternity He could not make his thoughts about Heaven hold or hange together even those thoughts were full of gaps and empty spaces or rather like Ropes of Sand. Many honest and gracious soules have found worke enough upon a death-bed or a sick-bed to attend the paine and infirmity of their bodyes When they have purposely set themselves the habituall bent of their hearts being alwayes set that way actually to seek God Non poterat jugi contemplatio in rerum divinarum ut quondam solebat intendere propter vim doloris Phil. to meditate upon the precious promises to put forth fresh lively workings of Faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ they have been suddenly recalled yea even forcibly fetcht back by some violent assault of paine or a previous charge of death So that those thoughts which should be and they desired that they might be like their objects most durable and steady were yet more like some odd ends or broken pot-sheards more like vanishing flashes or wandring fansies then that beautifull frame of heart or those well combined and fastned meditations which they intended For though all the troubles of this life and the approaches of death it selfe cannot breake disappoint or scatter those fixed purposes and thoughts which a Beleever hath had Propter multiplices animi motus perturbationes jam dolebat jam timebat nunc se erigebatin spem meliorem nunc iterum concidebat or those results and resolves which he hath often made in his own soule about the hopes and concernments of eternall life yet he may be pitifully puzzled amuzed and interrupted in his present motions and meditations about them Hence take this Caution Seeing not onely our worldly thoughts perish but our spirituall thoughts may be much broken by strong temptations and variety of bodily distempers in times of trouble and sicknesse let us hasten to settle our purposes and thoughts about eternall life yea to see our soules passed from death to life before we see sicknesse and sorrow much more before we see our selves ready to passe from life to death Purposes to repent or to minde heavenly things not onely may but for the most part are broken off and lost when sicknesse and sorrow finde us Beware of this deceit of the Devill who tells us we shall have leasure to seek God when wee are sick and that we shall have a faire opportunity to settle all the affaires of our souls when we are going out of the body then he tels us we shall have nothing else to doe and therefore we shall surely do it then Let not Satan deceive us with these vaine words for then he intends us most blowes then is his season to breake our thoughts into a thousand peices and to vex us with the splinters even when we lye upon our sicke beds or are bewildred with affliction There is scarse one of twenty but findes breakings and convulsions upon his thoughts at the same time when he feeles them upon his body How often have sick men been heard to say We cannot set our selves to think seriously of Heaven or to act Faith c. To suffer and be sicke is worke enough for any man at one time He had not need to have his greatest worke to doe when he hath such worke to doe They who have had brave spirits and fixed holy purposes upon their death-beds were such as had been long excercised in them before
beleive and it is Faith that turnes a day of darknesse into light he hath not a Christ to goe unto and it is Christ onely who can turne darknesse into light death to life and the Waters of sorrow into the Wine of joy his darknesse shall never be removed who hath not Christ who is light to remove it Verse 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid they shall prevaile upon him as a King ready to Battell In this Verse we have a double effect of those troubles which are the portion of a wicked man the first effect is They shall make him afraid the second effect is They shall prevaile upon him both which are illustrated by an elegant similitude they shall make him afraid and they shall prevaile upon him as a King ready to Battell Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid Trouble without and anguish within so some expound He shall have straits in his state and a strait upon his spirit both meeting shall not onely afflict him but make him afraid The word may be translated to fright rather then to make afraid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 angustia They shall scare him not onely out of his comforts but out of his wits and senses There is a threefold feare First Naturall Secondly Spirituall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perterâ—uit pertuibavit To be spiritually afrayd is good and to be naturally afrayd is not evill So Christ was not onely afrayd but amazed Mark 14.33 Thirdly There is a distracting vexing feare which is both a passion and a perturbation This is at once the sin and punishment of wicked men Consider with what weapons and instruments God fights against a wicked man he doth not say Sword and fire shall make him afraid Armies of enemies shall make him afraid but trouble and anguish shall doe it God can create and forme weapons in our owne hearts to fight against us Inward anguish is farr more greivous then any outward stroak Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soule that sins whether of Jew or Gentile Anguish is the edge of tribulatioâ— both joyned wound soule and body yea strike thorougâ— both at every blow Hence Note It is worse to be afraid of evill then to feele it Every thing is to us as we apprehend it good is not pleasing to us nor evill afflictive to us unlesse we think it so They who are not afraid of death welcome it when it comes others through feare of death are held in bondage all the dayes of their life Secondly Observe Distracting feare is the portion of a wicked man The troubles of the righteous are many but their feares are few Psal 112. His heart is fixed he shall not be afraid 'T is not sayd he shall not heare evill tydings I know no man whose eares are priviledg'd from such reports but he shall not be afraid I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about Psal 3.6 Though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill Ps 23.4 are the resolves of faith Whosoever hath much feare hath but little Faith Wherefore are ye afraid O ye of little Faith Mat. 8.26 and how can they but be afraid when stormes arise who are of no faith when Faith increaseth feare decreaseth and when Faith is come to the height feare is gone where there is no Faith there can be nothing but feare trouble and anguish shall make him afraid that 's the first effect But that 's not all anguish doth not onely feare the wicked man but prevailes against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumivit Angustia vallabit Vulg. Some render Trouble and anguish intrench about him The sense is the same it is such an intrenchment as concludes in a conqeust the beseiger prevailes A second reads it thus Trouble shall make him afrayd and anguish shall intrench about him The Originall joynes the two Substantives together and the Verbe is plurall Terrebit eum tribulatio angustia vallabit eum Trouble and anguish shall make him afrayd they shall prevaile against him From this second effect Observe Evill shall get the upper hand of evill men A good man possibly may be afraid and afraid sinfully excesse of feare may take hold of him but he shall not be prevailed against Pro. 24.16 The just man falls seven times a day into affliction and trouble and riseth up againe trouble may throw him down but it cannot keep him downe Mic. 7.8 Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall rise the Church rises in her falls and shee sometimes foresees her rising when shee is fallen The wicked fall and rise no more And whereas the Saints are more then conquerours through him that loveth them wicked men are more then conquered they are utterly ruined lost and vanquished because not beloved There are two battells wherein we cannot stand without the strength of Christ First The battell of inward temptation Secondly The battell of outward affliction We are no match for either unlesse Christ be our Second Satan hath desired thee saith Christ to Pâ—ter to winnow thee as Wheate hoping to finde or make thee Chaffe But I have prayed that thy Faith faile not Peter fell into temptation yea he fell in the temptation yet because Christ undertook for him the temptation could not prevaile against him And as there is no conquest over Satans temptation but by the strength of Christ so none over affliction which is Gods temptation but by the strength of Christ 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation that is no affliction taken you but what is common to man yet no man can stand under that alone which may befall any man therefore it followes But God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able c. Man alone is not sufficient so much as to thinke one good thought how then shall he thinke good thoughts enow alone either to scatter a temptation or to beare an affliction To carry the soule out in such a conflict requires more then one good thought yea more then many good thoughts it requires good actings yea and sufferings too how shall he doe this without the strength of Christ No wonder then if the lesser of these yea the least of the lesser the least affliction prevaile against a wicked man and if while he runs with Foot-men they weary him how shall he contend with Horses with trouble and anguish shall not these prevaile against him as a King ready to battell Which is the illustration of the wicked mans downefall Trouble and anguish prevaile against him But how Not a little not with strength onely enough to turne the scale of the conflict but mightily even with much strength to spare As a King ready to battell There are foure interpretations for the making out of
Elumbem reddere which is as some thinke the Elephant Job 40.16 And a man of no loynes is a man of no strength in common language Thirdly To cleave the reynes is to give a mortall wound Chyrurgions and Physitians observe That if the reynes be struck through Mala immedicabilia indicat there is no helpe for it cleaving the reynes is much like peircing the heart this is present death and that leaves no hope of life the wound of it is incurable There is a fourth interpretation He cleaveth my reynes may note the torture of any acute disease especially that of the Stone in the reynes or kidneys which is as it were the cutting of the back asunder poore Patients under it are often heard so complaining O 't is like a sharpe Knife the Stone is not onely a grinding but a cutting paine I shall onely lay in the consideration of these foure glosses from the literall sense of the word to a further making out of the first generall Observation That God often deales very severely in outward or present dispensations with many of his dearest Servants He doth that which they may call cleaving of the reines and that in the easiest of the foure senses is a very severe dispensation much more which wee may suppose when the paine of all foure meets in one man as doubtlesse they did in Job He cleaveth my reines asunder And doth not spare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pepercit ignonovit propitius fuit Nullam Domini in me miserecordiam sed omnigenam saevitiam experiâ—r Merc. He that doth not spare useth the utmost extreamity and shewes no pitty or Indulgence to spare is both an act and one of the kinds of mercy Sparing is opposed to severity it is a doing lesse against another then we may and that two wayes First When wee doe lesse then wee can Wee having power though no right to doe more then we doe no nor to doe so much as we doe Thus a Theefe may be sayd to spare a man when he doth not take all from him life and all Secondly When vve doe lesse against another then we may both according to the right of our cause and the power in our hands Thus a Magistrate spares a Theefe or a Creditor his Debtor when the one exacts not the vvhole punishment nor the other the whole Summ due And in this sense God spareth the Sons of men he hath both power and right to punish sinfull man to the utmost but he spares him To hold the hand though but a little is sparing merccy but Job found not this mercy He doth not spare as if he had sayd The Lord layes on layes on and doth not forbeare Hence Observe There is mercy in sparing There is a fivefold mercy of God First Rewarding mercy towards those who have done well Secondly Pardoning mercy which is exercised towards those who have done ill or towards past sin Thirdly Preventing mercy when hee keeps us from evill whether it be the evill of sin or of punishment Fourthly Delivering mercy when though he let us fall into the evill of sin or punishment yet he is pleased to help us up and takes us out againe Fifthly There is Sparing mercy if while we are in affliction God deales gently with us this is sparing mercy As God was not pleased to prevent Jobs sorrows nor to deliver him from them so he did not spare him in them his hand continued heavy upon him he had no ease There is a fourefould degree of this sparing mercy of God First Not to punish at all thus God sometimes spares his owne people as a Father spares his Son that serveth him Mal. 3.17 Though they faile yet he passeth it by and doth not reckon with them for it The Lord represented himselfe to Amos forming Grasse-hoppers which eyther in kinde or in a figure shaddowing the Assyrians threatned to devoure the Land this Vision put the Prophet upon that earnest prayer O Lord God forgive by whom shall Jacob arise for he is small The Lord repented for this it shall not be saith the Lord Amos 7.1 2 3. Here was sparing mercy and this is repeated a second time Vers 6. yet in the third Vision of a Plumbe line by which God was noted taking exact notice of all the unevennesse and crookednesse of that people in that Vision I say as the Prophet suspended prayer so the Lord being resolved no longer to suspend their punishment saith I will not passe by them againe any more that is I will spare them no more which is againe repeated Chap. 8.2 where by a Basket of Summer fruit the Lord shewed their ripenesse in sin and his readinesse to punish and not to spare Secondly It is sparing mercy when punishment is deferred or adjourned to a further day thus the Lord spared the old World a hundred and twenty yeares My spirit shall not alway strive It did a long time he spared them many yeares to draw them to repentance and to leave them inexcusable because they repented not Thirdly It is sparing mercy when judgement is moderated When though God punish yet he doth not punish to the full when though the cloud break yet he lets but a few drops fall on us and doth not powre out showres or make an inundation to overwhelme us when though he strike yet he gives but few strokes yea if he abate but one stroke it is sparing mercy The Jewes 2 Cor. 11.24 gave Paul forty stripes save one and in this they would be thought to be mercifull because they might have given him forty by the Law Deut. 25.3 therefore to abate one was sparing mercy As to punish beyond the Law though it be but a little beyond is cruelty so to punish lesse though it be but a little lesse is mercy And this is brought in as an argument of great mercy Psal 78.38 But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stirr up all his wrath They felt his wrath but God did not stirr up all his wrath they were smitten but not destroyed Justice did not make an utter end of them there was mercy in that The like read Jer. 30.11 Jer. 46.28 I will not let thee goe altogether unpunished yet I will spare thee though I punish thee I will correct thee in measure I will not make a full end of thee But are not all the corrections of God yea and his judgements too done in measure All the judgements of God are done in measure as measure notes a rule of equity but not as measure notes a rule of equality Againe to doe a thing by measure doth not alwayes note the rule by which it is done but the degree in which it is done And so to doe a thing in measure is to doe it moderately as when it is sayd John 3.24 That God gives not the spirit by measure to Christ the meaning is
will plead for a man with God and the Son of man for his Freind As if Job had sayd I know I have a Freind of Christ and Christ lookes on me as his freind and therefore I have highest confidence that he will plead my cause and take off this scandall So much for Jobs earnest desire upon his appeale that his cause might come to a hearing and that Christ would undertake the pleading of it before his Father He gives a reason in the last verse why he was thus pressing to have the businesse brought to an issue why he did thus appeale to God as his witnesse why he did powre out teares to Christ that he would plead for him Why all this Vers 22. When a few yeares are come then shall I goe the way whence I shall not returne Deum vellem jamjam in presentia disceptationem in se recipere quia ad mortem propero Jun. As if He had said For as much as I must dye shortly I desire to have this difference taken up before I dye I cannot live long in this world and I would not goe out of the world under such a cloud as is now upon me Is it not time for me to hasten my cause to an end when mine end hastens and to get my busines determined before my yeares are Anni numeri Heb. i. e. qui numerati sunt adeo et brevissima periodo circumscripti When a few yeares are come The Hebrew is yeares of number that is Yeares which may easily be numbred Isai 10.19 The trees that remaine shall be few that a Child may write them they shall be trees of number that is a small number and Gen. 34.29 Jacob saith We are but few the Hebrew is We are men of number we may soone be told a Child may tell us and yet you provoke Citie and Countrie against us We very well translate according to the Hebraisme yeares of number a few yeares When a few yeares are come I shall goe the way whence I shall not returne What way is that which hath Vestigiv nulla retrorsum where all steps are forwards and none backward this is such a way as wee meet not with in all our earthly travels yet every man on earth is travelling towards such a way travell which way you will you have as many steps backwards as forwards men comming and going but saith Job I shall goe the way I shall not returne What way is this This is the way of all flesh Joshua 23.15 1 King 2.2 This is the way to the grave that way hath no steps backwards But are there no returne from the grave It is true some have risen there have been some first fruits of a resurrection but they who have come from the grave are so few that their foot-steps are worn out by those many many thousands of thousands who have gone to the grave What multitudes have gone the way to the grave and are not returned some few have returned but these so few that we may still affirme the way to the grave knowes no returning That which is very rarely done the contrary being very frequently done is said not to be done at all or never to be done But Job seemes to deny his owne returne he speakes as if he should not be only lodged for a while but lost for ever in the grave I shall goe the way whence I shall not returne I answer That Jobs faith was clear in the point of the resurrection of the body appeares by the confession which he makes Chap. 19.25 26. and therefore when he saith I shall not returne his meaning is as was shewed upon a like passage Chap. 10.21 First That he should not returne by any power of nature Secondly That he should not returne to a State of nature he believed fully that he should returne by the power of God to an estate of glory Our bodies which are sowen naturall bodies shall be raised spirituall bodies Though that which was sowed shall returne yet vvhen it returnes it shall not be as it was sowed Lastly whereas Job saith I shall not returne his meaning is vvhen I dye or if I dye I shall no more returne to my house and dwelling in the vvorld I must take my leave of all these things for ever My place shall know me no more as he speakes to the same subject Chap. 7.10 From the first branch of the verse note The yeares of mans life are few You may quickly number them Secondly As the yeares of mans life come about quickly so when they are come vve must goe certainely vvee must goe with death I shall goe saith Job there is no hindring no stopping of that journey it will not serve any mans turne to say He hath no mind to goe he must goe it will not serve any mans turne to say He is not at leisure to goe he must go it will not serve any mans turne to say he is not fit to goe He is not prepared to goe he must goe as he is fit or unfit prepared or unprepared he must goe It will not serve any mans turne to say he will give all the treasure in his house all the money in his purse to be spared this journey he must goe It will not serve any mans turne to say he will get another to goe for him or he will send one in his rooome There is no dying by proxie every man when his few yeares are come must goe in person Thirdly Observe A Believer can speake of death familiarly It is a comfort to him in his sorrowes to thinke that he shall dye shortly When a few yares are come I shall goe the way c. he speakes pleasantly the mention of death was a life to him Jobs life was a kinde of death and therefore to him especially death would be a kind of life were our hearts rightly affected they that have the most lively life would thinke death better thâ—n this life I desire saith Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Death was better to him then life and lest any should say no marvaile if Paul desired to dye who could scarse tell where to live and no marvaile if he would dye once for all who was in deaths often to prevent this cavil he adds Which is best of all Barely to dye is better to some then a troublesome life but to dye and be with Christ is better then the best life much more is it better then that life in this world which is a continuall death as Jobes was how shoul such a man sing out Job's verse When a few dayes are come I shall goe the way whence I shall not returne Fourthly Observe It is good to put death before us under the easiest notions Here Job cals it only a going a going out of the world that is all he elsewhere cals it a sleepe and the Spirit of God every where in reference to Saints
not mine eye continue in their provocation And therefore he renews his appeale to God and beggs to be heard before indifferent Judges or Umpires Lay downe now put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me In the fourth and fifth Verses he further urgeth the reasons of his appeale or he backs his motion that God would doe him right from the insufficiency of his Freinds to doe him right Thou hast hid their heart from understanding As if he should say Who would stand to the judgement of those who want understanding Thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them so To this honour of judging my cause and deciding this controversie yea I finde them so unfit to be eyther my Judges or my Arbitrators that they are indeed but Flatterers and therefore they may rather expect some sudden judgement upon themselves or their Children then that God should doe them this honour to judge for me He that speakes flattery to his Freinds even the eyes of his Children shall faile Vers 5. Thus I have opened Jobs scope in the context of these five Verses which I have put together because the matter runs in a continued dependence And though for the maine it be the same with which he concluded in the sixteenth Chapter yet the variety of reading and expression will yeeld us variety of meditation I descend to particulars Vers 1. My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Here are three things every of which speakes a dying man First Corrupt breath Secondly Extinguished dayes Thirdly A grave made ready Pereo spiritu agitatus Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ligavit constrinxit per antiphrasin significat solutus ruptus corruptus accommodatur etiam ad dolores intensissimos quales sunt parturientium quia cor valde constringunt First My breath is corrupt Ruach There are three interpretations given of that word My breath some understand it of his minde or whole inward man As if he had sayd My thoughts are or my minde is exceedingly troubled and so most of the Greek Interpreters read it and then the word which we translate Corrupt may signifie greived pained or afflicted and it is often applyed to those paines which are most painefull even the paine of a Woman in travell And so the sense is made out thus as if Job had sayd I am extreamely troubled ' or I am pained like a Woman in the houre of travell as shee is in bodily paine so I am pained in minde I hvve felt many inward pangs and throwes and yet I am not delivered But I conceive this exposition unsuitable to the scope of the place Job being about to describe the state of his body or of his outward man and not the affliction and trouble of his minde Secondly The word Ruach signifieth the vitall powers or spirits which support man Spiritus vitales qui animae instrumentum sunt ad vitae functiones Aquin. and serve him in all the functions of life spirits are the promoters of action and when the vitall spirits are corrupted man is unable not onely to act but to live The expence of spirits is the most chargeable expence to the life of man and when a mans spirits are much spent he is like a dead man though he be alive Wee say ordinarily when we are weary Our spirits are spent that is Our vitall spirits which give activity and strength to the whole body Thirdly Rather understand it literally and strictly for the breath which comes forth by respiration My breath is corrupt and then the corrupting here spoken of is not to be taken for any ill savour in his breath they who have corrupt breath are offensive to others in breathing Corruptio non hic denotat spiritum graveolentum sed spiritum qui cum ingenti nisu dolore emittitur Pined Medici Asthma vocant quia Asthmaticus suffocari videtur ideo legitur hic jam quidem Ago animam Tygur The breath is said to be corrupt because it smels of the corruption of those parts from whence it is drawne we must not understand Job so But when he saith My breath is corrupt his meaning is that eyther hee had obstructions and stoppings of breath which distemper Physitians call the Tissicke a man under that infirmity may be sayd to have his breath corrupted because he breathes difficultly And as it is so in some diseases so it is alway so in the approaches of death a little before a man dyes his breath shortens he breathes hardly or he hardly breathes he lyes gasping for life and catching for breath Such a state Job here intends The Tygurine translation takes that sense My life is departing or I am giving up the ghost Hence Note The breath of man is corruptible though his soule be not These two are very distinct Some make the soule and breaâ—h one thing and argue the corruptibility of the soule from such Texts as this But the breath differs not onely from the soule but from the life The soule hath a life of its owne and the life of the body is its union with the soule breathing is the acting of life proceeding from that union and ending when that union is dissolved Breath may be corrupt and life may banish but the soule continues the breath is so vanishing that the Prophet gives caution Isa 2.22 Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills The breath of man is so ready to cease that it is our wisedome to cease from man for when breath goes man is gone and all goes with him in that day his thoughts perish and therefore Job had no sooner sayd My breath is corrupt but he adds My dayes are extinct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox tantum hoc loco reperta significat excidere amputare extinguere My dayes that is The time appointed for my life which is measured by dayes by naturall dayes or by artificial dayes Our dayes come and goe continually and when our tale of dayes is come and gone our dayes are extinct The word which here we translate extinct is found no where else in the Hebrew of the Old Testament It is rendered three wayes First Thus my dayes are cutt off which metaphor is often used in reference to life our dayes are as it were so many threads Excissi sunt Pagn and our life is like a peece of clooth woven together by many dayes when the Webb be it more or lesse longer or shorter is finished the thred is cut My dayes are cut off Secondly The Vulgar reads it my dayes will be shortned they shall be put in a narrow roome into a little compendium I shall soone be able to read over the volume of my dayes Breviabuntur dies mei Vulg they are but short a meer Epitome Thirdly We read my dayes are extinct or put out Which is a
verbis multum pollicetur re nihil praestat Bez. Blandiebantudum externa bona illi pollicebantur Merc. they made him large promises of a restauration that his estate should be like the morning that he should outshine the very Sun and be a great man againe Thus they spake Chap. 5.19 20. Chap. 8.5 Chap. 11.15 16 c. hee looked on all these fayre promises as flatteries because in his owne thoughts he was a dead man and his calamities past all hope of recovery in this World As if hee had sayd Why doe you feed me with such vaine hopes and prophesie to me of Wine and of strong drinke of earthly honour and riches of length of dayes and of a multitude of yeares yet behinde in the race of this present life I cannot but call this flattery and a departure from the laws of freindship For alas My dayes are extinct my breath is corrupt and yet you are telling me of long life and good dayes in this World And indeed this is at once the custome and the fault of many who visit their Freinds upon the borders of death they thinke they are not freindly unlesse they labour to give them hopes of life and deliver their opinion peremptorily We doubt not but you will doe well enough you will recover from this sicknesse and getting over this brunt and see many dayes This is flattery it is our duty to speake comfortably to our dying Freinds to set forth the love of God and his readinesse to pardon to prepare them for a better life and to make their passage out of this more easie But when wee see them at the Graves mouth when death is ready to seize on them then to tell them of long life is rather the office of a Flatterer then of a Freind We shew more love to our dying Freinds by offering our counsels and tendering up our prayers for their fitnesse to depart out of this life then by shewing our desire that they should live and our loathnesse to part with them Secondly Jobs Freinds may be sayd to speake flattery to God and then the words are an Argument from the greater to the lesse as if he had sayd If he who speakes flattery to his freind a man like himselfe shall be punished then much more shall he who speakes flattery to God But you will say How can God be flattered There are two wayes of flattering men First By promising them more then we intend Secondly By applauding them more then they deserve When we cry up those for wise men who are little guilty of wisedome or commend those as good who are very guilty of evill both these are straines of flattery It is impossible to flatter God in this latter sense for we cannot speake of God higher then he is his glory wisedome and goodnesse are above not onely our words but our thoughts But we may flatter God in the first sense by promising him more then we intend they on their sick beds doe but flatter God who tell him how good and holy they will be when their hearts are not right with him Yet neyther is this the flattery of God which Job may be supposed to suggest against his freinds The flattery here suggested is their justifying the proceedings of God in afflicting Job by condemning Job as if there had been no way left to cleare up the righteousnesse of God but by concluding that Job was unrighteous This manner of arguing Job calls Speaking wickedly for God and talking deceitfully for him This he also calls The accepting of his person Ch. 13.7 8. As if they had been the Patrons and Promoters of Gods cause and honour while they thus pleaded against Job and layd his honour and innocency in the dust That there is a sinfull flattery of God in such a procedure against man was shewed more largely in the place last mentioned to which I referr the Reader for his further satisfaction He that speakes flattery to his freind What of him The next words tell us what The eyes of his Children shall faile But shall he himselfe escape Shall not hee smart for it Saith not the Scripture Whatsoever a man sowes that shall hee reap the sower shall be the reaper This is not spoken to free the Flatterer from punishment but to shew that more then he shall be punished for his flattery as he himselfe shall not escape so he may bring others also into danger with him As sin spreads it selfe in the pollution of it so in the punishments of it When but one sins many may be defiled and when but one acts a sin many may be endangered a man knowes not upon how many he may bring evill when he doth ill himselfe The eyes of his Children shall faile What is meant by the failing of the eyes was shewed Ch. 11.20 where Zophar saith The eyes of the wicked shall faile and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost In generall 't is this They shall be disappointed of their hopes or they shall expect so long and nothing come that their eyes shall faile with expectation The eyes of his Children shall faile Some by Children understand not his naturall Children or the Children of his body but his Children in a figure Morum atque vitae imitatores Aquin. such as imitate and follow him who take his course and tread in his pathes for as they are called the Children of the Devill who are like him and doe his workes and as we are called the Children of God not onely in reference to our new birth and spirituall generation but also in reference to our new obedience and holy actions Mat. 5.44 45. So they may be called a mans Children who resemble him in his manners as well as they who issued from his loynes Hence Note First The punishment of sin doth not alway rest or determine in him that committed the sin The bitter fruits of sin are often transmitted and handed over to those who had no present hand in them when they were committed The whole Familie and Posterity of sinners may smart many a day after and inherit the sins of their Progenitors as well as their Lands when the Father purchaseth or provides an Inheritance for his Childe by flattery or any other indirect way the eyes of his children may faile for it I have met with this point before Cha. 15.33 34. and elsewhere therefore I onely touch and passe from it Secondly Consider the particular sin against which this judgement is pronounced It is the speaking of flattery Hence Observe The sin of flattery is a very provoking sin That sin which shall be punished in posterity is no ordinary sin Those good actions which the Lord promiseth to reward in posterity or in after times have a speciall excellency in them It shewed that the deed of Jehu in destroying Ahabs House and rooting out his Idolatry though Jehu himselfe was a very bad man and did it with a bad heart yet I
governe himselfe by presidents no man can tell certainely which way he vvill goe by looking into the way vvhich he hath gone for though he useth no liberty in the issue of his dealings but rewardeth every man according to his works yet hee useth much liberty in the meanes which lead unto it Secondly This ariseth from the narrownesse of mans heart who measuring God by his owne line and comparing what God hath done by what he would do cannot as the Apostle speakes in another case attaine unto the righteousnesse of God in vvhat he doth 'T is excellent wisedome to know how to interpret and improve the dealings of God vvith our selves or others The grossest mis-interpretation of his dealings is to conclude the guilt or innocency of man the love or hatred of God from them Jobs Freinds upon such mistakes incurred this censure I have not found one wise man among you Job having by way of introduction spoken to the men or to the persons of his Freinds proceeds to speake his owne case Vers 11. My dayes are past my purposes are broken off even the thoughts of my heart What doe you tell me of comfortable dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transierum My dayes are past they are gone by as wee say The Shew is gone by or the Company is gone by so saith Job My dayes are gone by There 's no looking after them any more they are out of sight why would you bring them into my minde againe Dayes may be taken here in a twofold sense First For the terme of his life Secondly For the state of his life As taken for the terme of his life My dayes are past is Morti vicinus sum I am a neere neighbour to death death and I am ready to meet and imbrace the life of man is measured by daye◠when our dayes are past there 's nothing left to measure nothing to measure by My dayes are past But how could Job affirme The terme or dayes of my life are past when as he was alive that day to say this so he lived many a faire day after he had sayd it Can we call that past which is still present with us or which is yet to come He affirmes this First because he conceived that the greatest part of his dayes were actually past and that it was not worth while to reckon upon the few dayes behinde he did not thinke that remnant so considerable as to measure it but threw it by as a peice of uselesse nothing Our dayes are so passing that with a little Rhetorick we may say they are past as soone as they begin how much more may wee say so when we are sure they must shortly end and are really almost yea onely not past Secondly Job might say My dayes are past because doubtlesse it had seized on his spirit that his Glasse was run that hee should dye presently hee never looked to outlive that storme So that his dayes were past in his account though not in Gods account Job could say of himselfe as we use to say of those Women who have gone out their full time of Child-bearing that He had not a day more to reckon As Job had a full assurance that he should live eternally so he had a kinde of assurance that hee should dye very shortly And therefore as to his owne apprehensions and the calculation which he had made of his dayes their date was out and hee might say My dayes are past Againe As taken for the state of his life so My dayes are past is My good dayes my prosperous dayes are past you tell me of a day of deliverance what a morning I shall have but I looke on all my dayes here as dayes of darknesse wee say of a man who is not only in an evill but in a desperate or irrecoverably evill condition He hath seene all his best dayes or all his good dayes are gone Job was full of trust for a good eternity but he had no hope of good days The terme of a mans dayes may continue long when the comfort of his dayes is or when his comfortable dayes are quite past Though Jobs dayes continued as to the terme of his life yet his dayes as hee judged were past as to any comfortable state of life in which sense he might also say My dayes are past Nor did Job speake this complainingly or with a low spirit My dayes are past he did not whine it out as they doe who are loath to dye and would faine live still in the delights of life but he spake boldly and cheerfully he spake of his Dying day as of his Marriage day My dayes are past As a young man saith My marriage day is at hand I shall be marryed shortly with such a holy allacrity Job spake I shall dye shortly my dayes are past He looked upon his comfortable dayes in the World as past and yet he was comforted Job was full of paine yet usually in the close of his speeches he gathered up himselfe and spake in a height and heat of spirit As the Cock towards morning flutters his Wings before he Crowes and gives warning of the approaching day or as the Lyon strikes his sides with his Tayle to rouze up his spirits before he attempts his prey so Job stirr'd up himselfe towards the close of his answers and resumed new spirits acting That dying man to the life who having nothing in this World eyther to feare or hope dyes without feare yet with abundance yea in assurance of hope My dayes are past Hence Observe First As the words are taken in the former sense A gracious heart hath peace in the approaches of death His contentments are not done when the terme of his life is done He can say My dayes are past as cheerfully as Agag sayd Surely the bitternesse of death is past Some godly men have dyed farr more pleasantly then ever any wicked man lived Secondly From the latter sense Observe A gracious heart can take present comfort and rejoyce in this World while he knowes that all his worldly comforts and joyes are past Faith overlookes or lookes thorow and beyond all the evills of this life to a good which shall never dye yea Faith sees and enjoyes a present good while sense sees nothing and indeed hath nothing else to see but evill A carnall man parts with his good dayes or with the good of his dayes as Phaltiel went to deliver up Michal Sauls Daughter and Davids Wife by right weeping all along as he went 2 Sam. 3.16 There 's a sad parting betweene a worldly heart and worldly things but he that is spiritually minded though he doth not despise the meanest of worldly good things as made by God for the use and comfort of man so when God cals him from them or them from him he can part with he use of them and yet not be dispossessed of comfort he knowes that hee hath a present good and that he hath greater good
our rest together is in the dust They shall goe downe Spes meae omnia mea recte in plurali dicit significans non spem tantum sibi ab illis propositam sed omnes alias spes hujus vitae Merc. Who or vvhat shall goe downe There is no expresse Relative in the Hebrew They that is say some these hopes he speakes in the plurall Number as if hee had sayd All my hopes about this life are going downe to the pit The best of worldly hopes and worldly things are dying and perishing mine are to me as dead and perished Secondly Others understand it of Job himselfe for the word vvhich wee translate Barrs signifies also the members of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vectes significat ea omnia quae velut vectes aliquid sustentant Aliqui Rabbini ad ipsum Jobum referant quod ipsius fulchra i. e. membra brachia vires robur descendent Vectibus sepulchralibus descendent Jun. Mâ—ae videbitis istas expectationes quas praedicatis una cum corpore ferretro efferri in sepulchrum Jun. As if he had sayd I my selfe shall goe downe to the Pit or Grave A third thus They shall descend upon the barrs of the Grave The meaning is Yee shall quickly see mee and all my worldly hopes which yee so much speake of put together in a Coffin and carryed out upon a Beire to the Grave for buriall This going downe to the barrs of the Pit according to our reading imports that he and his hopes should descend to the lower parts of the earth the Grave and be buryed there the pit would shut him in and make him fast enough The Grave is a Prison and there are Barrs or bolts belonging to that Prison vvhich shut the Prisoners in there 's no breaking of that Prison The Decree of God is the Barre of the Grave and his purpose locks it up till the day which himselfe hath appointed for the resurrection from the dead and the judgement vvhich is to follow As the evill Angels are reserved in chaines of darknesse to the Judgement of the great day so are the bodies of men chained and barred downe in the darknesse of the Grave till God sends out the Arch-angel with the sound of a Trumpet to summon them to his Barr. Yet further these words are interpreted as spoken in derision of those overtures which his Freinds made to him about worldly happinesse Per irrisiâ—nem haec dicta sunt Cajet As if he had sayd You perswade me that I shall have much good in the World very well let it be so but doe you thinke that I can carry my Goods my Houses and Lands my Silver and Gold my Corne and my Wine to make merry with in the Grave Shall I and the greatnesse you promise me live together in the Grave and make our abode in darknesse The Septuagint seeme to favour that sense rendering it An bona mea mecum ad infernos descendent aut pariter super pulverem descendemus Shall my Goods goe with me to the Grave or shall wee descend into the dust hand in hand vvhen I surrender this battered Fort into the hands of death shall I march out with Bagg and Baggage to these Subterranean dwellings The Apostle affirmes That we brought nothing with us into this World and he doth more then affirme It is certaine saith he we can carry nothing out 1 Tim. 6.7 And therefore vvhat doth it availe a dying man to tell him of riches seeing vvhen he dyes he must leave all his riches Master Broughton translates plainely thus To the midst of the Grave all shall descend when wee shall goe downe together in the dust From which our reading of the latter clause varies but a little When we shall rest together in the dust The vvord vvhich we expresse by rest is derived by some from a root signifying to descend or goe downe hence the difference of translation The Hebrew particle im which we render When signifies also For or Forasmuch Further it is sometimes taken conditionally for If as also interrogatively for utrum whether according to all which acceptions this clause hath undergone a variety of reading But I passe them by and keep to our owne When our rest together is in the dust or for as much as we shall rest together in the dust Of this rest I have spoken before Chap. 3.17 There the weary be at rest thither I referr the Reader Wee may also take Jobs sense in this place by that which hee speakes so cleerely out to this point Chap. 30. Vers 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living I shall not stay here to draw out Observations matter of this purport about the certainty of and about our rest in death having occurred heretofore All that I shall add for the close of this Verse and Chapter shall onely be an offer towards the resolution of a doubt vvhich may arise upon the vvhole matter of Jobs continued resolves for death and his refusals of any entertainment of the hopes of life Hence it may be questioned Did not Job sin in giving up his hope and in refu ing to be comforted when his Freinds wise and godly men laboured to assure him of deliverance I answer First Job was vvilling to be comforted but hee did not like their way of comforting which vvas indeed a wounding for the promises vvhich they made him did all along carry an implication of his guilt they never promising him any deliverance but upon the supposition of his repentance from those wickednesses vvith vvhich they charged him vvhereas hee utterly denyed their charge in the sense which they layd against him Secondly I answer Wee cannot altogether acquit Job from blame in judging his state so deplorable and remedilesse For though with an eye to the creature and all second causes there was no probability or possibility for his recovery yet Job should have raised his hopes upon the power and Al-sufficiency of God he might have remembred that as his affliction was extraordinary and the hand of God very visible in it So his deliverance also might have been as extraordinary and that God could have put forth as strong and as visible a hand to restore him as he did to cast him downe 'T is sayd of Abraham Rom. 4.18 19. that he against hope beleeved in hope nothing appeared for the support of his hopes yet Abraham did not say Where is my hope or why should I waite for Children He considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred yeares old neyther yet the deadnesse of Sarah's wombe These naturall impediments came not to his minde while he had a word from the Lord of nature Hee staggered not at the promise of God through unbeleife but was strong in Faith giving glory to God But we may say of Job from the continuall tenour of his owne answers that he