of spirituall priviledges and benefits so death takes away all distinctions in regard of civill priviledges In death there is neither small nor great neither male nor female neither bond nor free the greatest shall lie as low as the smallest and the highest as low as the meanest every one there shall be but as his neighbour and as his brother in the flesh There is but one distinction that will out-live death and death cannot take it away the distinction of holy and unholy cleane and uncleane beleever and an infidell these distinctions remaine after death and shall remaine for ever but rich and poore honourable and base high and low King and subject these distinctions shall be done away and forgotten as if they had never been no difference no distinction but that which God makes and that which grace makes can stand out against the power and stroake of death There the small and great are the same And the servant is free from his Master The servant There are two sorts of servants There are some who are voluntary servants and others who are servants by constraint There are some who might be free but they will not and there are others who would be free but they cannot Of the former sort we reade a Law Exod. 21.5 where the servant that loved his master and refused his freedome saying I will not goe out free must be brought before the Judges and have his eare bored thorow with an awle in token of his willingnesse to serve that Master for ever Others are servants by constraint as the people of Israel in Egypt who were made to serve with rigour Exod. 1.14 to serve whether they would or no which is servitude rather then service We may understand the Text of both The servant that is either he that doth voluntarily serve and willingly puts himselfe under the command of another or he which is under the command of another whether he will or no to both these death giveth freedome whether their Masters will or no The servant is free from his Master The word which we translate is free noteth that formall manumission or setting at liberty which is used in places or Corporations where freedomes are either purchased by money or deserved by appointed service And the word here translated Master is plurall Masters it is one of the Names of God Adonai which Name the Lord hath from government That very name is given to Masters of Families because they ought to governe and order the affaires and businesse of the family with wisedome and justice Every master of a family is a governour of the family he is as it were a King in his own family The servant is free from his Master Hence note first this Sinne brought in servility and the subjection of man to man I ground it thus because Iob speakes of service as of an estate of affliction as of an estate of trouble under which many groane and from which they can get no release till death breake the bands and sets them free In the state of innocency there was a dominion granted to man over the beasts but there was no dominion granted to man over man In the state of integrity relations should have continued but subjection should not have been found only that naturall subjection of children to Parents but as for civill subjection there had been no such thing in the world Before man forsooke the service of God he needed none to serve him service comes in by sinne and the increase of it by the increase of sinne As we see when Canaan was so vile as to forget the duty of a sonne he is set below or in the worst condition of a servant Gen. 9.5 Cursed be Canaan a servant of servants shall he be unto his bretheren that is the lowest and most abject servant As God of Gods is the greatest God and Lord of Lords is the Highest Lord so servant of servants is the lowest the basest servant So then as civill subjection came at first from sin so the increase of subjection which is to be a servant of servants came from the increase and progresse of sin Observe secondly A servant is not in his own dispose Though he be a voluntary servant yet he must serve the lawfull will of his master He may yea he ought in every ingenuous service to serve willingly but he is not at his own will to serve when or where or how he will Some have thought they have a freedome from service by the liberty of the Gospell or Gospel-priviledge and that is the reason why the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.1 gives that rule Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own Masters worthy of all honour c. He speakes of beleeving servants Some presumed they had such freedome by Christ that they might cast off subjection to men No saith the Apostle as many as are under the yoke that is while they continue servants they must submit to their condition yea though their Masters be unbeleevers as the next verse shewes And they that have beleeving Masters let them not despise them c. nothing takes away subjection but death for as he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free-man 1 Cor. 7.22 So he that is the Lords free-man being called to it is and ought to be mans servant The Centurion in the Gospell shewes the servants duty I say unto one goe and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant doe this and he doth it The servant is at his Masters beck not at his own dispose and nothing can free him but death so long as he continues under the yoke in that relation Hence observe thirdly That death concludes the subjection of man to man In the grave or there the servant is free from his Master there is no more service due to man when once death that king of terrours hath carried us into his dominions JOB 3. Ver. 20 21 22. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soule Which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures Which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave c. AT this 20th verse the third and last Section of the Chapter begins Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life to the bitter in soule In the former part of the Chapter Job wished that death had surprised him assoone as ever he set his foot into the world yea before he came into the world that he might have died in the very wombe Here Job begins to expostulate why he having made so long a journey and in his latter time so troublesome a journey in the world why I say he is not at his request cut off and taken away by the stroake of death Why is light given to him that is in misery and life to the
they who rejoyce in soule would even willingly be rid of their bodies they are above the body So they who are bitter in soule are desirous to be ridde of their bodies the body is a burden when the soule is bitter This bitternesse of soule caused those bitter complaints before and now this vehement expostulation Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Wherefore We are apt to thinke there is no reason for that for which we can see no reason Job was in a darke condition and could not see the reason and therefore almost concludes there was none When we are posed we thinke all the world is posed too If we cannot interpret and expound the dealings of God we thinke none can nay in such cases some are ready to thinke at least to speake as if they thought that God himselfe can scarce give a good account of them This wherefore goes through the earth and reaches Heaven Tell me O my friends shew me O my God Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Why Job there may be many reasons many answers given to this wherefore a man should be in light though he be in misery and why his life should be continued though his soule be in bitternesse What if God should appeare and tell thee It shall be thus and the reason of it is because I will have it so Is not that therefore answer enough to any mans wherefore The will of God is reason enough for man and ought to be the most satisfying reason If God say I will have life remaine in a man that is bitter in soule that man should say Lord it is reason I should because it is thy pleasure though it be to my own trouble Yet it is but seldome that God makes his will his reason and answers by his bare preâ—â—gative He hath often given weighty reasons to this quaerie First The life of nature is continued that the life of grace may be encreased Again Such live in sufferings That they may learne obedience by the things which they suffer God teaches us by his workes as well as by his word his dealings speake to us And It is as great an act of holinesse to submit our selves to the will of God in his workes as it is to the will of God in his word Another reason of this wherefore may be this God sets up some as patternes to posterity he therefore gives the light of life to some that are in misery to shew that it is no new nor strange thing for his Saints to be darkenesse And what if God doth it to magnifie the strength of his own power in supporting and the sweetnesse of his mercy when he delivers such bitter soules Further observe first That The best things in this world may come to be burthens to us See here a man weary of light and life light one of the most excellent creatures that God made the most excellent next to life yea life the best the most excellent thing in nature both these become burthensome How gladly would Job have bin rid of light how gladly rid of his life Consider then how burthensome other things which at the best are burdens may be unto you If you heare a soule complaining of light and life and why are these given me when I am in misery Then what comfort thinke you will honour give you or what comfort will riches give you or what comfort will beauty give you in such a condition as makes you weary of light and life What comfort will sin give you what ease will your lusts give you in such a condition as makes you weary of light and life I never heard of any of the Saints that were troubled at any time with their grace or weary of the favour of God I never heard any of them say why is grace given to one that is in misery or the light of Gods countenance to the bitter in soule I never heard any say wherefore is faith given to a man that is in misery or hope and patience to the bitter in soule grace was never a burden to any man under greatest burdens or unsavoury to the bitterest soule when you are weary of all other things in the world these will be your supports Therefore labour after those things which you shall never be weary of even after those things which will be more pleasant to us then ever light was when light shall be to others more troublesome then ever darknesse was to any let us labour after those things which will be more sweet to us then ever life was when life shall be to others â—ore bitter then ever death was to any Secondly observe It is a trouble to possesse good things when we cannot injoy them Would you know how Job spake here as one weary of light and life It was not under the notion of light and life as if he had been weary of these in themselves but it was because he could not enjoy these Solomon assures us Prov. 25.20 that As hee that taketh away a garment in cold weather and as vineger upon Nitre so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart Musick to one that is in sorrow doubles his sorrow why because he cannot enjoy the musick a heavy heart can worse intend musick then a heavy eare only those things which we can injoy in the use of them please in the possessing of them Of all temporalls the possession and enjoyment may be separated but for spiritualls the very possession of them is joy therefore enjoyment their presence is a pleasure and therefore their presence shall ever please We may distinguish between their use and their comfort but we can never seperate them One thing further When Job saith Wherefore is light given and life given The meaning of it is wherefore is light continued and wherefore is life continued for he speakes of himselfe and others that had light and were alive and yet he saith wherefore is light given c. From this we may learne That Every act of continuance of good things to us is a new act or deed of gift to us Mercy is given every moment it is enjoyed not only is a new mercy and a renewed mercy a new gift but continued mercy is a gift and a new gift life is a new gift every houre of time we live on the earth and glory will be a new gift every minute of eternity we shall live in Heaven Which long for death and it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures This 21. verse doth further explicate who are the bitter in soule even such as long for death when a soule from naturall principles finds a sweetnesse in death that soule is in bitternesse Our affliction and our misery is indeed worme-wood and gall as the Church complaines Lam. 2.19 when death is as honey and long'd for as the honey-combe There is bitternesse in the death of the body and yet some are so
also of Jobs triall might have born the same name As the Lord will be seen in the mount of our afflictions to provide for us so he will see us in the mount of our afflictions to please himself The Psalmist describeth God looking down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand that did seek God Psal 53.2 Surely then if any do seek God much more if they suffer from him or for him in a holy manner he will look downe from Heaven to see them Thirdly I will note that as another ground why God would have his life spared because he had much use of him when he was in that condition full of sores and scabs A godly man is never in such an estate but God hath some use of his life Therefore saith God Save his life though he be full of sores or rather from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot one continued sore though he be a most lamentable creature and cannot wag hand or foot in any service of man yet spare his life for he may thus stand me in great stead and do me more service then many thousands who as we speake are sound winde and limbe and have not one blemish upon the whole body A godly person is ever usefull to God though he cannot stirre a limbe yet his life may be usefull to God whereas a wicked man though strong and healthy though furnisht with outward comforts and accommodations is altogether unserviceable he will not doe God a stroake of worke though he have received great pay and wages afore-hand A godly man will serve God in and by his poverty in and by his sicknesse when diseased when distressed when nothing is to be seen upon him but scabs and boiles Grace will work through all the defects and decayes of nature And when the life of nature can scarce move one member of the outward man upon the earth the life of grace moves all the members of the inward man toward Heaven Though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 Lastly God saved his life as a punishment and vexation upon Satan The Talmudists are vouched to affirme that it was not so grievous to Job to be afflicted in his body as it was to Satan when God restrained him from destroying his life As if a man should be permitted to crack the glasse but he must not spill the wine That his life must be kept whole in him was Satans wound It is a torture to malice not to do the utmost mischiefe So much for the clearing of these words Behold he is in thine hand but save his life From the Lords grant observe first That God doth oftentimes give up the bodies of his faithfull servants to be abused and tormented by Satan and his instruments He is in thine hand thou maiest do with him what thou wilt on this side death Touch his flesh and his bone or touch his flesh to the bone strike as hard wound as deep as thou canst It is said Revel 2.10 that Satan should cast some of them that is of the servants of God into prison God gave up their bodies to irons and fetters to the stocks and shackles He permits those bodies which are Temples of the holy Ghost to be thrust into dungeons and the chambers of death Therefore doe not thinke it strange to see the bodies of the children of God put into cruell and bloudy hands though they are vessels of honour and Temples of the holy Ghost yet God may give up those bodies to be defiled and polluted with the outrages of the most abominable wretches consider what the Apostle speakes of the Jewish Martyrs Heb. 11. How were their bodies abused and mangled They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were slaine with the sword they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy Their bodies had not a house to dwell in nor garments to put on in whose soules God himselfe dwelt and had put upon them the garment of Salvation Who is able to expresse yea to conceive what strange inventions of crueltie have been brought into the world to vex and torment the bodies of the Saints The stories of the Primitive times are full but the fathers of the Romish inquisition have exceeded them all Satan here invents a strange disease as an engine to torture Jobs body in that he mixt the rack and the wheel the sword and the saw the fiery gridiron and the boyling oil The pain of a thousand deaths was heightn'd in that malignant distemper Secondly he is in thine hand but save his life saith God The matter wherein Satan is limited is life then note That life and death are in the hand of God It is truth that all we have is in the hand of God but God keeps our life in his hand last of all and he hath that in his hand in a speciall manner So David expresses it Thou holdest my soul in life though the soul continue life may not continue there is the soul when there is not life life is that which is the union of soul and body Thou holdest my soul in life that is thou holdest soul and body together So Daniel describes God to Belshazzar Dan. 5.23 The God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast thou not glorified The breath of Princes is in the hand of God and the same hand holds the breath of the meanest subject This may be matter of comfort to us in such times as these are times of danger and times of death when the hand of man is lifted up to take thy life remember thy life is held in the hand of God And as God said here to Satan Afflict the body of Job but save his life so God saith still to bloudy wretches who are as the limbs of Satan The bodies of such and such are in your hands the estates of such and such are in your hands but save their lives The life of a man is never at the mercy of a creature though it be a common speech of men when they have a man under them Now I have you at my mercy though some brag as Laban did to Jacob It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt yet God often checks them as he did Laban from so much as speaking hurt Gen. 31.29 but the God of your father spake unto me yester-night saying Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad Creatures though full of love cannot speak good and though full of malice they cannot speak bad if God forbid then much lesse can they do us hurt and least of all hurt our lives if God with-hold David triumphs in his interest in such a God Psal 68.20 Our God is the God of salvation that is of deliverance of outward deliverance for that is
especially there meant and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death or the goings out from death that is God hath all wayes that lead out from death in his own keeping he keepeth the key of the door that lets us out from death when a man is in the valley of the shadow of death where shall he issue out where shall he have a passage No where saith man he shall not escape but God keepeth all the passages when men think they have shut us up in the jawes of death he can open them and deliver us To him belong the issues from death It is an allusion to one that keepeth a passage or a door And God is a faithfull keeper and a friendly keeper who will open the door for the escape of his people when they cry unto him It is exprest so in Psal 141.7 Our bones are scattered at the graves mouth as when one cutteth or cleaveth wood upon the earth that is we are even ready to die to be put into the grave What then But mine eyes are upon thee O God the Lord in thee is my trust leave not my soul destitute Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me Let the wicked fall into their own nets whilest I withall escape that is make me a way to escape As if he should say Thou hast the key of the gate by which we may issue out from death Lord I look that thou shouldest now open it for me Let it comfort us that God hath our lives and the issues from death in his own hand When Satan thought he had Job fast enough lockt up in the valley of the shadow of death God kept him safe he opened a door and let him out Thirdly note that as God hath life in his hand in a speciall manner so he takes speciall care of the lives of his people Save his life saith God I will look to that Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints Precious is their death not that death it self is precious a privation hath no preciousnesse in it but their life is precious therefore he will have a great price for their death God puts off the life of a Saint at a deare rate Woe unto those who violently and unjustly take away that which is so precious in the esteeme of God at one time or other he will make them pay dear for such Jewels Fourthly observe It is mercy to have our lives though we lose all things else You see here God saith concerning Job Save his life I have given thee his estate thou hast spoiled that now I will leave his body in thine hand wound that afflict that but save his life Here was mercy Therefore it was a speciall promise and priviledge made and granted to some in times of great publike sufferings and common calamities as to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian Jer. 39.18 and to Baruch the Scribe Jer. 45.5 that their lives should be given to them for a prey as if God had said It is no ordinary favour in times of common danger to have your lives for a prey you complain for this losse and that losse and you have cause too but think withall that you have your lives And why is it said that they should have their lives for a prey A prey you know properly is that which we take out of the hand of an enemie that which was in his possession the lives of these persons were said to be given to them for a prey in those perillous times because God by his care and providence did as it were fetch back their lives from the hand of the enemie their lives in naturall reason were in their enemies hands but God undertakes to fetch them back and recover them out of their hands and so they were promised to have their lives for a prey Thus God giveth to many of his people their lives for a prey and they are to blesse God in this behalfe whatsoever afflictions and troubles are upon them that yet they have their lives Lastly we may hence raise our meditations to consider the wonderfull love of God to us in Christ when God sent Christ into the world to save sinners he put him into the hands of Satan and his instruments yet he doth not say as here to Satan Save his life Afflict him as thou wilt persecute him in his cradle despise him slander him revile him accuse him crowne his head with thornes scourge him buffet him spit in his face c. but save his life No this bound is not set to the malice of Satan or the rage of men God gives them leave to take life and all Concerning his servant Job God saith to Satan Spare his life but when he sendeth his Son he gives no order to have him spared but gives his cruell enemies full scope How wonderfull is the love of God who for our sakes was so expensive of his Sons life when as he thus spared the life of a servant If Satan had been chained up from taking the life of Christ he had been at liberty to triumph over our lives to all eternity We had all died if God had said to Satan concerning Christ Save his life Thus we see the Commission of Satan against Job and the limitation of it Satan was not tyed up so short as he was in the former Chapter and yet still he is tyed There he might meddle with Jobs estate but not with his body here he may meddle with his body but not with his life Though God lengthen Satans chain yet he never lets Satan loose though he be at more liberty then before yet he is in custody there is a But of restriction upon him still It is our comfort that though Satan as Philosophers speake of liquids water and the like cannot keep himself in his own bounds yet he is easily kept in bounds by the word and power of God Verse 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boiles from the sole of the feet unto his crowne Verse 8. And he took him a potsheard to scrape himselfe withall and he sate down among the ashes So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. He is presently upon execution as soon as he hath his commission We have explained these words in the former Chapter See then what he doth He smote Job with sore boiles from the sole of his feet unto his crown He smote Job saith the Text. In the former afflictions Satan had instruments to work by He stirred up the Caldeans and Sabeans he moved the fire and the winde into a conspiracie against Job Here he that he might be sure it should be done fully doth it himselfe He smote Job When the devil smiteth he smiteth thorowly he smiteth home When Angels strike they strike to purpose It is said Act. 12. that an Angel of the Lord smote Herod and he was eaten of wormes and
only begotten sonne that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish here is the removing of evill but have everlasting life here is the bringing in of good And this is the better part of the blessing So on the other side to have all good light and life removed is the most bitter part of the curse Let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it Darknesse and the shadow of death These words are the fourth branch of the curse upon his day he repeates the former curse but with new additions He had said before let this day be darknesse now he saith let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it The shadow of death The word considered in the composition of it may be translated image of death And because the shadow of a body gives us the image of a body as in the shadow of a man you have the image and proportion of a man in the shadow of a Tree you have the image and representation of a Tree because I say the shadow gives the image of a body therefore the Hebrewes by a Metonymie call an image a shadow So that the shadow of death is such darknesse as is like death the very image of death He was not contented in generall to say let darkenesse staine it but if any would know what kind or degree of darknesse he intends these words expound his meaning to be the worst darknesse that can be Any darknesse is evill but darknesse and the shadow of death is the utmost of evils David put the worst of his case and the best of his faith when he said Psal 23.4 Though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill that is in the greatest evill I will feare no evill The estate of those men who lived beyond the line of the Gospell and that is a very dolefull place to live in though a paradise for outward pleasure is thus described by the Prophet Isa 9.2 The people that walked in darknesse have seene a great light Jesus Christ they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined Againe The shadow of a thing in Scripture notes the power of a thing and to be under the shadow of a thing is to be under the power of a thing The bramble Judg. 9.15 said unto the trees if in truth yee anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow that is trust to that helpe which I am able to afford you So likewise to be under the shadow of the Almighty under the shadow of his wings is to be under the power of the Almighty for safety and protection Thus we may conceive it here to be under the shadow of death is to be so under the power or reach of death that death may take a man and seize upon him when it pleaseth Though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death that is though I be so neere death that it seemes to others death may catch me every moment though I be under so many apparances and probabilities of exreame danger that there appeares an impossibility in sence to escape death yet I will not feare Thirdly To be under the shadow of death is to be under the influences of death the influences of death are those feares and doubtings divisions and vexations of spirit those distractions and distempers of mind which fall upon man in times of imminent and unavoidable danger Let the shadow of death staine it that is let it be filled with those feares and cryes and confusions which usually accompany or prepare the way for death Fourthly Let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it that is such darknesse as dwells with death such darkenesse as fills the house of death the grave The grave is a darke house We use to say of that which we would have forgotten let it be buried in darknesse There is no worke in the grave and therefore there needs no light in the grave neither indeed can there be Lastly thus Darknesse and the shadow of death that is deadly darknesse thick stifling darknesse such as is in deepe pits and mines under the earth where vapours and noysome dampes doe many times strike men with death We may here take notice how Job heapes up words words very like in sound and all alike in sense or concurring to make up one sense Such amplifications in Scripture are vehement asseverations As Joh. 1.20 It is said of the Baptist He confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ And those phrases Thou shalt dye and not live I shall not dye but live Thou shalt be below and not above So Job of his day Let it be darkenesse let not the light shine upon it let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it The word which we render staine signifies properly to redeeme a thing either by price or by power to redeeme a thing by paying for it or to redeeme a thing by rescuing of it Hence among the Jewes he that was to redeeme his deceased brothers land and marry the widdow was called Goel from this word as we may reade in the fourth of Ruth So the avenger of blood was called Goel Numb 35.12 because he likewise did redeeme the blood of his brother fetch it back againe as it were by a price in the execution of justice The learned Junius with some others translates according that sense of the Originall word O that darknesse and the shadow of death had redeemed that day or fetched back that day he referres it to the day past upon which he was borne and so takes it for an allusion to the first state of things we know at the first darknesse had dominion over all over all that Chaos or rude matter which God made at first Darknesse saith Moses was upon the face of the deepe Gen. 1.2 Then God gave a command to light saying let there be light ver 3. presently light went forth and rescued the creature from under the power of darknesse Now saith Job here Oh that darknesse and the shadow of death had redeemed that day or fetched againe that day out of the hands of light Oh that darknesse had recovered that which in the beginning was under its power that so my day being wrapt up in darknesse might be without forme and voide But the word is frequently translated and well here to pollute or to staine a thing as Mal. 1.7 Yee offer polluted bread upon mine altar and ye say wherein have we polluted thee And that of lamenting Jeremie They have polluted themselves with blood so that men could not touch their garments Lam. 4.14 So darknesse is said to staine or pollute the day as filthinesse or blood staines and pollutes discoulours and defiles the beauty of a garment Darknesse obscures and blindes the beauty of the most glorious creatures naturall darknesse doth it Suppose you should come into a roome furnished with
bitter in soule We may frame his argument thus out of his words as they are here couched There is no reason or if there be shew me a reason why his life should be prolonged who liveth miserably and would die willingly But I am the man who live miserably and I would die willingly wherefore then where is the reason or shew me a reason why my life is prolonged That is the force of his argument The maine Proposition of the argument is contained in the 20 21 22 23. verses namely that there is no reason why a man that liveth miserably should be denied to die wherefore is light given to a man that is in misery He endeavours to prove the Assumption at the 24th verse where he shewes that he lived in great misery which he doth amplifie in the two last verses of the Chapter This may serve for the summe and scope or intendment of this last Section To the words themselves Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Wherefore There is a wherefore in Scripture first of doubting and secondly there is a wherefore of mourning and thirdly a wherefore of complaining In this wherefore in this question we may include all three Job doubteth and Job mourneth and Job complaineth Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Wherefore is light Light Some take light here for knowledge Wherefore hath a miserable man so much knowledge to see himselfe and to know himselfe miserable It is some abatement to the sense of misery not to know that we are miserable Wherefore is light given If I did not understand the sadnesse of my condition it would be lesse to me There is a truth in that and it is the thing that will so much torment and vex the damned to all eternity that while they are in the darknesse of hellish misery they shall have so much light in Hell I meane the light of knowledge concerning their own condition whreby they shall fully and clearely discerne their unhappinesse If they were ignorant and did not know how miserable they were their estate were farre lesse miserable On earth the light of the knowledge of Gods will encreases the sin of men in Hell the light of the knowledge of their own woe will be an encrease of their punishment As Christ saith to the Jewes Joh. 9.41 If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth So we may say of those who are seperated from Christ for ever if ye were blind ye should have no sorrow but now because in that estate of utter darknesse ye shall have both eyes and light to see your misery therefore your sorrow shall remaine When a wicked man goes to the generation of his fathers where he shall never see light sc of comfort Psal 49.19 even then he shall have light enough and more then he would have to see his sorrow And in Hell he shall be as much pained with and hate the light of his own condition as upon earth he hated and was pained with the light of divine revelation Joh. 3.20 c. So that the damned shall for ever cry out Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Yet I take not this to be the sense here Wherefore is light by light here understand naturall light and then it is no more but this Why doe mine eyes yet behold the Sunne Wherefore doth the light shine upon me whenas I am under the clouds and in the darknesse of this condition Or by light we may understand life and so the sense is Wherefore is life continued which is expressed in the next clause to him that is in misery To be in misery is more then to be miserable As to be in the flesh notes a meere carnall man and to be in the spirit notes a very spirituall man so to be in misery notes a very miserable man The Hebrew word properly signifies labour At the tenth verse it was translated sorrow And it notes any toilesome melestation which either we our selves endure Psal 25.18 or cause others by guile or mischiefe done them to endure Hence it is translated guile Psal 55.11 and mischiefe Psal 94.20 because by these one man troubles and vexes another to the making of him miserable And life to the bitter in soule Life is the union of soule and body when life departeth soule and body take leave and part the Philosopher defines life to be the bond or colligation of soule and body together Now saith Job why is this life why is this bond continued to a man whose soule is in bitternesse while my life was pleasant it was pleasant to live while my soule was sweet it was sweet to have it knit to my body but now my soule is in bitternesse or I am bitter in soule and what sweetnesse or pleasure can I find in my body To be bitter in soule notes deep intrinsicall or inward sorrow the greatest sorrow makes the soule bitter As in Scripture when we find Soule added respecting the evill of an estate or the good of an estate evill and good are meant in the highest degree As when Christ saith Mat. 26.38 My soule is exceeding heavy or exceeding sorrowfull even unto death that is I am in the lowest deepes of sorrow Sorrow unto death is sorrow within one step or degree of death My soule is sorrowfull there can be no sorrow but in the soule the body take it as a distinct from the soule is not capable of sorrow sorrow is a passion or an affection of the soule an affection of the mind and therefore all sorrow is seated in the mind yet when our Lord Christ saith My soule is exceeding sorrowfull It is farre more then to have said there is sorrow or exceeding much sorrow in my soule So here this phrase To him that is bitter in soule or whose soule is bitter Notes the most bitter and grievous sorrow When the Psalmist would set forth the great sorrow of Joseph in prison Psal 105.18 One translation saith that the iron entred into his soule and the Hebrew word for word is this his soule came into iron We know the soule is so pure and spirituall that iron cannot enter it We know that only the body can be bound with chaines The soule could quickly slip from the most watchfull keeper and breake out from the strongest irons were it not to keepe company with the body Whereas then it is said his soule came into irons it is only to shew that Joseph was under very sore affliction even the sorest affliction of the body As on the other side when Mary said My soule doth magnifie the Lord my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour We know nothing properly can magnifie the Lord or rejoyce but the spirit or the soule yet when she saith my spirit doth rejoyce this notes a deepe pure internall spirituall joy with which she was ravish'd at that time And as
it to enjoy Christ who is life then to live To both these we may referre that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. We that are in this tabernacle groane being burthened they were burthened with sorrowes and burthened with sins while they were in the tabernacle of the body yet saith he it is not that wee would be uncloathed but cloathed upon he did not groane for the grave but for glory not that he might be uncloathed but cloathed with immortality not barely that he might die but that mortality might be swallowed up of life Under these notions we may desire death yet with this caution that for the time of it we referre our selves to the good pleasure of God For what the Apostle James speakes of the inordinate desires and absolute resolves of worldly men about gaining in that or t'other City is by allusion appliable to these spirituall greedy merchants after Heavenly glory chap. 4.13 Goe to now ye that say to day or to morrow we will goe into such a City and continue there a yeere and buy and sell and get gaine c. For that ye ought to say if the Lord will So I may say Goe to now ye that say to day or to morrow we would die for to die to us is gaine Phil. 1.21 and goe to that heavenly City that City having foundations whose builder and maker is God and continue there forever taking in and enriching our selves with that glory which Christ hath bought for that ye ought to say when the Lord will or now if the Lord will On such conditions as these and with this caution we may desire death yea long for death But to long for death only to be ridde of the troubles of this life to desire to lye downe to sleepe in the bed of the grave only to ease our flesh and rest our outward man is sinfull The Apostle saith Acts 20.24 I count not my life deare so I may finish my course with joy But we shall account our lives too cheape if we feare to finish our course with sorrow If we thinke that it is not worth the while to live unlesse we live in outward comforts we exceedingly undervalue our lives when a crosse in our lives makes us weary of our lives This was Jonahs infirmity when he had taken pet about the gourd Chap. 4. he would needs die and he concludeth the matter It is better for me to die then to live and all was because he could not have his will because he was troubled This also was Elijahs infirmity when he was persecuted by and fled for his life from Jezabel 1 King 19.4 He requested for himselfe that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better then my fathers This is an infirmity at the best we ought rather to seeke to God that he would remove the evill from us then remove us from the evill for God hath a thousand doores to let us out of trouble though he doth not open the doore of the grave to let us in there and out of the world He can end our troubles and not end our lives Yet such a wish is much allayed yea in some cases lawfull if we keepe the former caution and say if the Lord will If we referre our selves to the will and good pleasure of God we may desire to be lay'd to rest by death that we may be rid of those paines and evills which we suffer in this life And yet I desire rather to raise the spirits of all above these troubles while they live then satisfie them how they may desire freedome from them by death When Solomon returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the Sunne and beheld the teares of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter Then he praised the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2. that is he pronounced the dead to be in a better condition then the living Yet know that Solomon in this place speakes the words of meere naturall reason not of divine reason For he speakes though with a divine Spirit yet in the person of a naturall man Naturall reason saith it is better to die then live under oppressions but divine reason saith there is more honour to be gained by living under oppressions then there is ease to be attained by dying from under them To beare a burden well is more desireable then to be delivered from a burden Especially if while we are bearing we can be doing doing good I meane and I meane it especially if we can doe publike good A Christian should be content yea he should rejoyce in suffering much evill upon himselfe while he can be doing any especially if he can doe much good to others A graciously publike spirit will triumph over personall troubles and labours so long as he sees himselfe a blessing or a helpe to the publike and though he longs to die for himselfe and to be with Christ which is better yet he is loath to die so long as he can say with blessed Paul Neverthelesse to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you or others Phil. 1.24 When a Heathen Emperour Caesar said he had lived long enough whether he respected Nature or Honour Tully the Orator answered him well But you have not lived long enough for the Common-wealth Much more may we say when we see able and godly men longing for death because they have lived long enough whether they respect common Nature or their own Honour But you have not yet lived long enough for the Church of God and for the common good of his people We should be willing to live so long as God or his people have a stroake of worke to be done which our abilities and opportunities fit us to doe In this sense A living Dogge is better then a dead Lion Eccles 9.4 That is it is better to live though we are the meanest working for God then die or be dead though we have bin the chiefest I inlarge this the rather because of the present troubles and the infirmity of our flesh which sometimes is ready to envy those who die because we live in sorrow and is not satisfied with this that our soules are here shelter'd from death and under the covert of Christ unlesse our bodies also may be sheltred in death and lye under the covert of the grave So much to that question Let us note something from the words themselves Which long for death and it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures Observe first That Many afflictions to our sense are worse then death They long for death because they are in misery It is said and it is a truth O death how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease in his possessions And there is a truth also in
this O death how sweet art thou to a man that is bitter in his soule It often falls out that to die is but a short affliction but affliction many times is a long and a continued death a frequent death as the Apostle speakes of his afflictions in deaths often 2 Cor. 11.23 That there is a bitternesse in death the speech of Agag implies 1 Sam. 15. Surely the bitternesse of death is past Yet while a man as lamenting Jeremie complaines Lam. 3.19 Remembers his afflictions and his misery the wormewood and the gall that is his afflictions and misery more bitter then gall and wormewood his sense overcomes his judgement to conclude that there is a pleasantnesse in that bitter thing which wee call death Secondly observe That As death finds many before they looke for it so some looke for death and cannot find it How many are there whom death surprizes before they are aware and seizeth upon them when they thinke not of it when-as others are expecting and longing and gaping and gasping after death and they cannot meete with it it cometh not Indeed it is a great deale better for a man to expect death when it cometh not then to have death come upon him when he expects it not Some are calling for death crying out for death before they know how to die before they know how to live yea before they know why they lived It were well for such if they might loose their longing and long for death long enough before it cometh for upon the matter poore soules they long for Hell while they long for death and while they are hastning from that life and misery which will quickly have an end they are plunging into that death and misery which will never end Thirdly observe As death is a punishment to most so not to die is a punishment to some Job speakes of it as of an affliction upon such they long for death and it cometh not Death is an affliction to all it is a punishment to all unbeleevers a punishment with a sting And as all wicked men are punished with death so some of them are punished with this that they for the present cannot die Rev. 9.6 In those dayes men shall seeke death and shall not finde it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them It is laid as their punishment that they should live and as an affliction beyond all their afflictions that then they could not die They are in a sad condition who can have no remedy or cure of their troubles but death but how sad is their condition who cannot obtaine that remedy It is like the punishment of the damned in Hell they shall long for death but it will not come and they shall ever seeke for death but shall never find it No wicked man did ever part so unwillingly with his soule when he died as he will unwillingly meet with it when he riseth againe And as the first death doth part soule and body unwillingly so the second death keepeth soule and body together unwillingly They have a tast of this misery in this life whose soules are truly said to be imprisoned in their bodies And O how desirous are they to dig down these mud-walls and make an escape but cannot Fourthly observe It is an affliction to nature to be debarred of any thing it desireth how destructive soever it be unto it It is in one sense a naturall desire to long for death and yet death is the destruction of nature A man under distempers of body in a disease a Fever c. is often troubled and grieved because he cannot have those things which will hurt him He longs for such meates and drinkes as given him would kill him and yet a deniall angers him The hope of death deferred will make the heart sick and when the desire death desired comes it is as a tree of life Griefe ariseth from the unsatisfaction of our desires and therefore though the thing had which we desire will undoe us yet the not having it doth afflict us Which long for death and it cometh not and they dig for it more then for hid treasures Take somewhat from this latter branch and they dig for it more then for hid treasure Assoone as ever Job had exprest their longing desire after death you see presently he tells us that they dig for death From this observe That where desires are true they presently produce endeavours He that longs for a thing will labour for it they are digging presently Prov. 18.1 Through desire a man having separated himselfe intermedleth with all wisedome If it be death a man desireth he will be endeavouring after it There are some velleities listlesse wishings and wouldings which produce no endeavours but true desires are ever active naturall desires are seconded with naturall endeavours and so spirituall desires with spirituall endeavours If a man desire death he will dig for it surely then he that desires Christ and longs for eternall life will be digging for the enjoyment of them Observe further That proportionably to the strength of our desires is the strength and earnestnesse of our endeavours As reall desire causeth reall indeavour so strong desires cause strong endeavours It was not a bare desire but an earnest longing as was cleared in opening the words And it is not a bare labour but hard labour digging is strong labour A meere naturall man whose desires after sin are strong and vehement acts sin with equall vehemency The holy Ghost saith he doth evill as he can that is to utmost his canning or ability He drawes iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart-ropes He doth evill saith another Scripture Mich. 7.3 with both hands greedily To doe a thing with both hands notes the greatest endeavour As when the Pharisees are said not to touch the burdens which they laid on others with their little finger it notes their refusall of the least endeavour Math. 23.4 So a spirituall heart having his desires turned heaven-ward he diggs for heavenly treasure every day and gives diligence to make his calling and election sure They who have strong desires after Christ labour strongly after Christ So they are exprest Pro. 2.4 where Solomon speakes of wisedome which is Christ and all that is Christs If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Such is the search and endeavour that ought to be after Christ and such it will be if there be true and great desires after Christ Thirdly In that he saith they dig for it as for hid treasure We may observe That the best things are hardest to come by If you will have treasures you must digge for them you may have pibble stones flints above ground but treasures lie deepe And in proportion the better every thing is the more digging it requireth And the best things ought to be most digg'd for They that will have the great blessing must
wrestle for it or the Crowne they must strive for it We must dig for heavenly hidden treasure before we have it And yet both the treasure and the strength to dig for it are freely given Fourthly observe That Those things which we esteeme most we labour to secure most It is said that they digg'd for treasures and that the treasures were hid I told you in opening the words there is a naturall hiding of treasure and an industrious hiding Take it in the last sense men that have treasures will labour to preserve them why because treasures are much esteemed and the things we esteeme most we preserve most In the Hebrew the word that signifies treasure signifies the hiding of treasure or hidden treasure Among all treasures spirituall treasures are most hidden they are so hidden that they are called mysteries or secrets The knowledge of Christ was a hidden treasure for some thousands of yeares the Apostle in his time calls it the mysterie which was kept secret since the world began Rom. 16.25 Againe he calls it the wisedome of God in a mystery even the hidden wisedome which God ordained before the world unto our glory which none of the Princes of this world knew 1 Cor. 2.8 9. And as spirituall knowledge so our spirituall life is called a hidden life your life is hidden with God in Christ Col. 3.3 And as our life so our spirituall comforts are hidden therefore called Hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 All our spirituall estate is treasure and it is all hidden treasure so hidden that the Saints dig deepe to find it and when they have found it they hide it as Christ shewes us Mat. 13.44 speaking of the Kingdome of God which he compares to a treasure hid in the field the which when a man hath found he hideth He hideth it not to obscure it from the light but to secure it from danger Mary hid those pretious sayings of Christ her Son and her Saviour in her heart Luk. 2.51 And David having found the Commandements of God which he prized above any treasure above thousands of gold and silver he hid them in his heart Thy word saith he have I hid in my heart that I might not sinne against thee Psalm 119.11 Verse 22. Which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Having said that they long for death and dig for it as for hidden treasure Now supposing that they find death he shewes how it affects them they rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave There is little or no obscurity in these words only consider the emphasis of this expression the word which we translate rejoyce or rejoyce exceedingly noteth such a rejoycing as breakes forth in some outward gesture as when a man doth leape for joy And Mr. Broughton translates it thus which joy till they skip againe noting an extraordinary joy and gladnesse when they can find the grave that is when they die Yet some joyne the sense of this verse with the former to carry on or lengthen out the similitude thus Which long for death and digge for it as for hid treasures And finding death they are affected as they who seeking for treasures find a grave For if in digging they did but hit upon a grave then they thought themselves sure of treasure and great riches because treasure and riches was used to be put into graves as was shewed in opening the fifteenth verse of this Chapter The sense is faire and comes up to the same point from either of these expositions Observe hence first That What at one time we feare most in that at another time we may exceedingly rejoyce Death is dreadfull and the grave is a place of darkenesse yet here is joy and rejoycing yea exceeding joy and rejoycing when they find the grave Secondly They rejoyce in it but why It was that which they had longed for that which they had long sought for if at another time they had bin shewed the grave or commanded into the grave they would have taken little pleasure in it The same thing inflicted or threatned by another is dreadfull to us which desired by our selves is pleasant and delightfull It pleaseth us to have our desire satisfied though the thing desired be never so unpleasant And to be eased of present evill makes a future evill appeare in the likenesse of a persent good For Joy is an affection of the mind arising from the apprehension of some present good even as hope springs from the apprehension of some good that is to come Further We may consider the issue of all these acts after they had longed for death and digged for death and found death presently upon the finding of it they rejoyce and rejoyce exceedingly Hence observe That which any one truely desireth and endeavoureth to find causeth him to rejoyce when he hath found it If you desire death and seek for the grave the finding of these will be to you as life and as a house of mirth How much more then shall we rejoyce having found good things the best things after earnest longing and digging for them When the wise Merchant had found the treasure hid in the field the next words enforme us of his joy Matth. 13.44 When the man after long seeking on the mountaines had found his lost Sheepe and the woman after lighting her candle and sweeping her house and diligent search had found the lost groat they both rejoyced and called in their neighbours and friends to rejoyce with them Luk. 15. It troubles a man to be found of that or him whom he hates or feares Hast thou found me O mine enemy saith Ahab to Eliah 1 King 21.20 And it cannot but delight us to find that or him whom we love and long for Have I found thee O my friend will such an one say And if a miserable man rejoyces exceedingly when desiring he finds death and a grave how will the soule leape for joy when we shall find him who is the longing and desire of all Nations Jesus Christ. How exceeding exceedingly will the soule rejoyce when we shall find what we have so much longed for not death but life and life not only in Christ but with Christ when we shall find not the house of the grave but a house of glory and glory in the height an exceeding excelling superexcellent weight of glory And by this effect we may make proofe of grace here If thou hast found Christ in ordinances in duties in meditation in prayer in the promises for here in these things the longing soule diggs after Christ joy will at one time or other fill thy heart yea thy heart will leape for joy thou wilt rejoyce in Spirit as Christ did in his Father Luk. 10.21 For this joy is a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 and one of the first fruits And God seldome misses to give the soule a tast of this joy at the first or presently after conversion though afterwards clouds may
And that this was a greater affliction then any of or then all the former is so cleare that I shall not need to stay long in the confirming of it only to quicken the point a little take notice of the greatnesse of it in 5 respects First It appeareth without controversie to be the greatest of all because it was upon his children a mans children are more then all that he hath in the world a mans children are himselfe every child is the father multiplyed A sonne is the fathers bowells and therefore when Paul wrote to Philemon concerning Onesimus whom saith he I have begotten in my bonds sc to the faith of Christ Receive him who is mine owne bowels A spirituall sonne is the very bowells of a Minister he doth but allude to a naturall sonne a sonne is the very bowels of the father this affliction reached unto the very bowels of Job himselfe Satan had no leave to afflict the body of Job and yet you see he afflicts him in his very bowels Secondly The greatnesse of it is seene in this his children were all taken away To loose all our children is a grievous as to loose an only child Now that is made a cause of the highest sorrows Zach. 12.10 They shall mourne for him as one that mourneth for an only sonne that is they shall mourne most bitterly Now as the measure of mercies may be taken by the comforts which they produce so we may take the measure of an affliction by the sorrow which it produceth And that is the greatest affliction which causeth the greatest sorrow Thirdly It was a further greatning of the affliction that they were all taken away suddenly Had death sent them summons by its usuall messenger sicknesse but a day before to prepare themselves it had much sweetned the bitternesse of this cup but to heare they were dead before he knew they were sick yea when he thought they were merry and rejoycing how sad was this Fourthly That they died a violent death by a mighty wind casting the house downe upon them Had they dyed in their beds though suddenly it had bin some ease to the Fathers heart violent death hath an impression of wrath upon it And men can hardly judge well of those who fall by such judgements Suspition will arise if censure passe not from better men then Barbarians if they see a viper on the hand of a Paul Act. 28. It is more then probable from our Saviours question that those eighteene upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell and slew them were commonly supposed greater sinners or sinners above all men that dwelt in Hierusalem Luk. 18.4 Fifthly They were all taken away when they were feasting and this did exceedingly aggravate the affliction upon Job that his children were all destroied feasting for you know what the thoughts of Job were concerning his children at their feasting after they had done he offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all for he said it may be my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Now at this time when Satan knew that Job was most solicitous lest his children should sinne at that time doth he destroy them that so their father might be afflicted with the thought that his children died unreconciled to God that they died with sinne upon them unrepented of That they died a double death death at once seasing upon both soule and body This then was a further degree of Satans malice to wound vexe and grieve the spirit of Job unto the utmost How sadly and pissionatly did David lament Absoloms death Some conceive this was the head of the Arrow that pierced him because he feared his sonne died in a sinfull condition he was suddenly taken away in his rebellion unreconciled either to God or man Such a thought might fall upon Jobs heart my children are suddenly dead and dead feasting it may be they forgot God it is possible they sinned in feasting and cursed God in their hearts Alas my children died before they could so much as thinke of death I feare they are gone rejoycing to Hell where they shall weepe for evermore Doubtlesse Satan did or might fasten such a temptation upon his heart who was so tender of his childrens soules and so fearfull of their sinning in feasting So then it is cleare from all these particular considerations that this was the greatest affliction Be prepared then not onely to receive another affliction but to receive a greater affliction and have thoughts of receiving the greatest affliction at the last Satan will come with his strongest assaults when thou art weakest At the time of death when he seeth he can doe no more but that he must then doe it or never doe it then thou shalt be sure to have the strongest temptations It should therefore stirre up the people of God still to looke for more and more strength to beare afflictions and tentations and to beg from Christ the greatest strength at last because they may justly feare the greatest temptations at last If as Satan doth greaten his temptations Christ doth greaten his assistance we shall be able to beare them and be more then conquerours over them So much of this fourth charge in the generall I shall now open the words more particularly for those in the 18th verse I shall not need to say any thing of them they have been handled before at the 13th verse which runnes thus And there was a day when his sonnes and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their Eldest brothers house The 19th verse describes the manner of this tryall And behold there came a great wind from the wildernesse c. And behold Ecce or behold in Scripture ever notes more then ordinary matter following 1. Great things call for attention 2. That which is sudden and unexpected calls us to behold it 3. Rare things things seldome seen invite all to see and wonder at them Here is matter of admiration What God threatens in the Law he seemes to fulfill upon Job I will make their plagues wonderfull There is no Ecce prefixed to any of the former three affiictions but this as being the most strange and terrible comes in with an Ecce And behold There came a great wind It was a wind and a great wind that came The wind is elegantly said to come as the Sunne out of his chamber and rejoycing as a strong man to runne a race Psal 19.5 Hence the word which the Latines use for the wind is derived from a word that signifies to come Because the wind comes with force and violence The wind in the nature of it is an exhalation arising from the earth drawne upwards by the power of the Sunne and other Heavenly bodies but meeting and conflicting a while with the cold of the middle region of the ayre is beaten backe againe And being so light that naturally it cannot descend and so resisted that it cannot peaceably ascend it takes a
this life is called the blood because 〈◊〉 contained or carried in the blood Gen. 9.4 Further it is 〈◊〉 observable that the Hebrewes call the Body seperated from 〈◊〉 soule or a dead corps Nephesh Numb 5.2 c. 9.10 c. 19.11 Hag. 2.14 Though the life be quite gone out departed from the carkasse or body of a dead man yet that dead body is called life or soule to note that it shall live againe and that the soule shall returne unto it The mistery of the Resurrection from death was implied in the name of the dead Wee find also that the Heathens called a dead body a soule possibly from some glimpse of the resurection We lay up a soule in the grave saith the Poet. Animamque sepulchro condimus But how is this worke put into Satans hand The saving of his life What is Satan become a saviour what salvation can we expect from him whose name is Apollyon and Abaddon Rev. 9.11 both which signifie a destroyer Shall we send to the Wolfe to save the Sheepe or to the Vulture to save the Dove Destruction is the delight of Satan and it is his way as he hath no hope to be saved himselfe eternally so no will to save others temporally Observe then That here to save life notes only a sparing from death not a delivering from destruction but a forbearing to destroy Satan saved his life negatively that is he did not take it away he can not save positively or restore that which was ready to perish he doth not save as a deliverer but as a murtherer who would kill his brother but cannot He saves not for want of will but for want of power when he is forced to spare his nature is to devoure This devouring Lyon hunts for the pretious life even when God saith Save his life It may be questioned here Why Satan for that is implyed desired so to destroy the life of Job God would never have limited and chained him up but that Satan had a mind to suck his blood or afflict him unto death These two reasons may be given why Satan would have his life The one might be this Because it was a thing doubtfull with him though he bragged much of it whether he should attaine his end or no to make Job curse God when therefore he saw he could not overcome his spirituall life it would have bin some revenge to him to destroy his naturall life As some wicked ones his agents when by all their threats or flatteries they cannot make a 〈◊〉 sin which is to destroy his spirituall life their revenge breakes 〈◊〉 against his naturall life to destroy that This is the method of persecution first to attempt the death of the soule by drawing or terrifying unto sin and if they faile of that then death is inflicted on the body Or againe in the second place he being doubtfull in himselfe though he made no doubt in words whether his plot would be successefull to make Job curse God he I say doubting this designe might not draw him to sin resolved to take away his life that so Job might never have told tales of his victory or have reported his conquest to the world At least by his death he might obscure the businesse and bury it with some slander saying that Job died with discontent and griefe that he blasphemed God when he died that he wished for death and could not hold out any longer Much like that device of some Jesuits who have blowne it abroad that our most zealous opposers of Romish errours whom they could never move either by writing or disputing while they lived have yet recanted all when they dyed Wherefore least Satan should have drawen a curtain over the glory of Jobs victory by aspersing him after his death the Lord saith Save his life Job shall survive his troubles that matters may come to light and a true report be made and left upon record both of thy implacable malice and enmity and of his invincible patience and sincerity And this may lead us yet further to consider why God was so carefull of that precious part his life For some may say Had it not been glory to God and honour to Job like that of Martyrdome if he had died under the hand of Satan holding fast his own integrity blessing God even unto death I grant this but yet God knew that the saving of his life would be more advantagious both to himselfe and his Job for those ends wherefore he saith Save his life destroy him not First thus God intended to make Job a Monument of mercy as well as a Monument of suffering he intended to set him up to all the world as one in whom they might behold the goodnesse of God in raising up mixt with his wisdome in casting down that men might learn hope from Job as well as patience from Job Therefore saith God Save his life I have somewhat else to do with him I will raise him up again and in him an everlasting Monument both of his patience in suffering and of my own power in restoring Indeed if he had died in the conflict and left his bones in the field he had been a wonderfull example of constancy but he had not been such an example of mercy if his life had not been saved There may be this in it too Save his life saith God I will have him preserved in this combate his courage and carriage in it is my delight God loveth to see his people holding out tugging and continuing in such assaults and temptations If any thing in the world gives delight to God this is the thing that delighteth him The Heathen thought this the sport of their gods Seneca in his Book of Providence speaking of Cato and other gallant Romane spirits saith the gods delighted to look upon them in their conflicts with fortune To see them wrastle with some great calamity with some great danger was such a spectacle as would draw off Jupiter from his greatest businesse It is a most certain truth that the most true God doth love and delight to see his children wrastling with some great calamitie to see a poor man man who is but flesh and bloud wrastling with principalities and powers with the devill and powers of darknesse this is a sight that God himself as we may so speak rejoyceth in When Abraham had finished that great combate about sacrificing his sonne he calleth the place Jehovah-jireh the Lord will see or the Lord doth see the Lord doth behold as if that had been a sight which God himselfe came down to look upon As when some great man or strange shew passeth by we goe out to see it so God cometh down upon mount Moriah to see a sight And what was it To see Abraham in that great temptation assaulted and overcomming Here was a spectacle for the great Jehovah and therefore he cals the place Jehovah-jireh the Lord hath seen I doubt not but this place
husband Curse God and die But could Job die when he listed that she biddeth him curse God and die What meanes this language Some interpret her meaning to be this die by thy owne hand destroy thy selfe as sons of Belial use to say goe hang thy selfe murther thy selfe make an end of thy selfe As God by these plagues is thy Judge so be thou to end the matter thy owne executioner Or as others Curse God that so he may be provoked to take thee out of the world quickly Or curse God and die ease thy heart somewhat and give it vent by breaking out against God in blasphemies take this revenge upon him and then let him doe his worst curse God though thou die for it Lastly curse God That so the Magistrate taking notice of it thou mayest be cut off by the Sword of Justice We know blasphemers were sentenc'd to death without mercy by the Law of Moses and it is not improbable that the light of nature might carry those Nations to as high and severe a revenge against that highest sin We know Socrates was adjudged to death by the Athenians as their naturall divinity taught them for an injurious or dishonourable speech concerning their gods I conceive her counsell curse God and dye had some of these intendements in it The best of them is bad enough and so bad that it renders this Objection against them all It is objected That surely any of these carry too high a straine of wickednesse for Jobs wife surely she could not imagine much lesse have the boldnesse to offer such advice to her husband I answer first in generall A good man may have a very bad wife A husband cannot infuse holinesse or make his wife good Marriage doth not change the heart Marriage with Christ doth but not marriage with a Christian or the holiest man that ever lived Therefore that reason is not cogent Secondly this speech and a holy person are not altogether inconsistent possibly Jobs wife was a good woman though actually she spake thus wickedly Divers of the Jewish doctours have an opinion that it was not Jobs wife that spake but the devill in her likenesse I shall leave that among their other dreames It is conjectured by others though it were not the devil that spake personating his wife yet that it was the devill speaking in or by the person of his wife as he spake in or by the serpent Gen. 3. Or as persons really possest of the devill who speake Satans words and do Satans works not their own Some I say carry it thus that she was for that time not only acted but actually possest by the devill and so spake the devils language One of the Ancients is expresse to this purpose These are the devils words not the womans words which another illustrates by that in the third of Genesis where it is said The serpent said unto the woman but it was the devill that spake unto the woman by the serpent so here it is said His wife spake unto him but the truth is it was the devill spake unto him in and by his wife And if so put the language into the worst exposition given or give a worse if truth will beare it and it will be no wrong to such an Orator I beleeve we cannot expound the words to a higher sense or straine of wickednesse then Satan could speake But we need not make Satan himselfe the speaker and yet cleare the matter too though we neither say as the Jewish doctours that it was the devill personally taking the shape of Jobs wife or as those Christian Fathers that the devill did actually possesse her yet we may say and so salve the difficulty that she was mightily over-powred and acted by the temptation of Satan to be an instrument of temptation in this grosse manner against her husband Though she were not acted as the Serpent was in whom Satan spake to Eve yet we may well say she was acted as Eve by whom Satan spake to Adam Eve spake the devils minde being prevailed upon by his temptation to perswade her husband to eat against the command of God and Jobs wife overcome by a like temptation attempts the perswasion of her husband to curse God For as it is possible for one that is good to fall into the grossest and most blasphemous temptation himself so it is possible for one that is good to be made an instrument of such temptations unto others We may see an instance neere if not fully reaching this assertion in the Apostle Peter who hearing Christ fore-telling his sufferings takes him aside and began to rebuke him saying Be it farre from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Mat. 16.22 23. Peter acted Satans part in this against his Master though unwittingly yet so wittily so to the life that he got his name by it Christ said to Peter get thee behind me Satan It was Peters tongue but Satan tun'd it Isaac said of his sonne Jacob in Esaus dresse The hands are the hands of Esau but the voice is the voice of Jacob Christ perceived here Satans counsell in Peters words he saw the wicked spirit through the cloathing of Peters flesh and therefore rebukes the Organ under the title of the chiefe agent Get thee behind me Satan Now as Peter though a holy man and full of good intentions to his Master yet spake the Devils mind and language so fully that the Devill himselfe as to that purpose could scarce have mended it So likewise Jobs wife might be a godly woman in the maine though abused and misled by Satan she thus excited her husband in the grossest construction those words can beare to curse God and die There is somewhat in the Text which may give us a hint of this that though she spake this yet Job esteemed her a good woman For observe Jobs answer to this advice What doth he say He doth not say Thou wicked woman thou abhominable wretch why doest thou give me such counsell All that he saith is this Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh Observe it he doth not call her foolish or wicked woman but thou speakest as one of the foolish women As if he should say How now wife what words are these that I heare from thee thou dost not speake now like thy selfe I use to heare other language from thee thou and I have had other kind of conference and I have received other kind of counsell from thee then this Whence is it that thou art so unlike thy selfe where are thy words season'd with salt which have so often ministred grace unto the hearers thou art degenerated in manners and corrupted in thy speech thou speakest now as one of the foolish women Intimating that she used to speake wisely and discreetely or as Solomon describes the vertuous woman Pro. 31·26 that heretofore she opened her mouth with wisedome and now she spake only as a foolish or wicked woman He doth not
say she was one one act is enough to assimilate but it is not enough to denominate Thus much may serve to evince that though we take the words in that worst sense yet it doth not necessarily inferre that Jobs wife was a wicked an ungodly woman which is the objection against that Exposition From the words translated Curse God and die and thus expounded we may observe First That Satan is restlesse and unwearied in this designe to bring the people of God to thinke ill and speake ill of God It is that he laboured for in the carrying on of this whole businesse concerning Job and every stone is turned every way tryed to accomplish this proposed end Secondly In that he perswadeth Job by his wife when he was in this wofull condition to curse God and die Observe That Satan would perswade us to ease our selves of troublesome evills by falling into sinfull evils Job was grievously diseased you see the medicine and the cure that Satan prescribeth Goe sinne saith he curse God and die whereas one of the least evills of sin is worse then all the evills of suffering that can befall us All sorrowes are more elegible then one sin It hath been rightly taught us from Antiquitie that the lowest degree of a lye because sin is not to be made or admitted if that medium could be assured so noble an end for the saving of a world What a father and teacher of lyes then is Satan who directs many a poore soule to save it selfe from or helpe it selfe out of a small affliction by adventuring upon some great transgression Thirdly Curse God and die It is sinfull to wish our own deaths though we are under paines more painefull then death It is sinfull to desire death absolutely we may desire it with submission to the will of God To live is an act of nature but to be willing to live because God wills it is an act of grace And as it is our holinesse to doe the will of God while we live so it is our holinesse to be content to live while we suffer according to his will On the other hand to die is an act of nature but to die because God wills it is an act of grace Christ is said to be obedient unto death because he died in contemplation of Gods decree and in conformity to his good pleasure To die thus is the duty of a Christian and the crowne of all his obedience Satan would have us live as we will and die when we will he tempts us as much to die when we list as to live how we list Satan puts Job upon it peremptorily curse God and die desire or procure thy own death To wish dâ—â—th that we may enjoy Christ it is a holy wish but yet we must not wish that neither absolutely The Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ yet you see how he qualifies and debates it To wish for death that we may be freed from sinne is a holy wish but yet wee must not wish that absolutely neither we must referre our selves to the pleasure of God how long he will let us conflict with our corruptions and with our lusts with this body of death and sin which we beare about us But to wish for death because our lives are full of trouble is an unholy wish God may yea and hath as much use of our lives in our troubles as in our comforts We may doe much businesse for God in a sick-bed We may doe God as much worke when we are bound hand and foote in a prison as when we are at liberty passive obedience brings as much glory to God as active doth therefore we must not wish for death especially not with an absolute wish because we are under troublesome evils And if it be sinfull to wish for death how wicked is it to procure or hasten death to pull down our house of clay with our own hands because we are under troublesome evills Fourthly Observe further Satan would perswade that death is an end at least an ease of outward troubles Wouldest thou have an end of thy troubles and of thy sorrowes Curse God and die here is the remedy We say indeed of some remedies that they are worse then the disease but I am sure this is Death to ungodly ones it is so farre from being an end or an ease of their troubles that it is to them as Christ speakes in another case the beginning of sorrowes the entrance to eternall death and the very suburbs of Hell Yet how many doth Satan perswade when they are in Jobs case in great extremities that death will be the cure of all their troubles Fifthly Observe That Satan would make men willing to die when they are most unfit to die You see what preparation Satan directs Job unto he biddeth him curse God and die Would not Job thinke you have bin in a fit posture in a fit frame for death when he had bin cursing God Repent and die pray and die humble thy selfe and die beleeve and die take fast hold of Christ who is our life our way to life and die are the counsels and voice of the holy Ghost but Satans language is curse God and die sin and die be impenitent and die blaspheme and die And it is an experienced truth that oftentimes they seeme most willing to die who are most unfit most unready for death you shall see some men venturing yea casting away their lives without feare or wit the whole visible businesse of whose lives hath been nothing else but a working out of their own damnation without feare or trembling They as it were give diligence all their dayes to make Hell and reprobation sure and yet goe out of the world as if they were sure of Heaven This is Satans preparation curse God and dye Lastly Note this That the holiest person is lyable to the most blasphemous temptation One would have wondred that Satan should ever have ventured to suggest such a grosse thing as this to so holy a man as Job But Satan where he hath been often foyled growes impudent and will then suggest such things not because he hopes to prevaile but because he resolves to vex such as he cannot overcome He troubles as much and as many as he can So much of the counsell which Jobs wife gave him reproving him as foolish and over-credulous in holding fast that unprofitable thing his integrity and advising him to be worse then mad or out-ragious in cursing God and dying Let us now consider Jobs holy and wise reply in the tenth Verse But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh what shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill These words containe Jobs reply wherein two things are considerable First A reproofe Secondly A refutation First He rejects her counsell with a sharpe and wholesome reprehension and then he refuteth her counsell by strong
was borne let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed Cursed be the man who brought tydings to my father saying a man-child is borne unto thee He doth not only curse his birth-day but the messenger of his birth And he curses both with a word of deeper detestation then Job imployed to ease or empty his troubled spirit by Jobs word signified but his disesteeme and himselfe regardlesse of his day but Jeremie imployes that very word through which God powred out his wrath and everlasting displeasure upon the serpent and the Devill Gen. 3.14 in each of these Jeremie went a straine of impatience beyond Job and yet holy Jeremie still The Lord saith the same Prophet Chap 8.14 hath put us to silence and given us waters of gall to drinke because we have sinned against the Lord. When we remember our own sinnes we have reason to be silent though the Lord feed us with waters of gall bitter waters And if we be silent and open not our mouthes because we have sinned he beares with our cry as we are pained He knowes whereof we are made and remembers that we are but dust A little thing troubles our flesh therefore it is no wonder if flesh and blood cry out in great troubles though they be subdued by grace unto the spirit And if God in this case beare with us we ought also to beare with one another and not be scandaliz'd or take offence when we see good men mourning and lamenting under the evills which they endure He that understands man will compassionate the sorrowes not question the sincerity of a complaining groaning brother Thirdly Job complaineth bitterly and he curseth but what doth he curse He curseth his day Observe from thence That Satan with his utmost power and policie with his strongest temptations and assaults can never fully attaine his ends upon the children of God What was it that the Devill undertooke for was it not to make Job curse his God and yet when he had done his worst and spent his malice upon him he could but make Job curse his day This was farre short of what Satan hoped Doubtlesse when the Devell heard the word cursed come out of Jobs mouth he then began to prick up his eares and triumph surely now the day is mine now he will curse his God but at the fall of that word cursed be the day Satans hope falls and downe goes he That word day was darkenesse to the Devill and as the shadow of death he failes of his end and is confounded he goes away ashamed and hath not a word more to say but leaves his friends to say the rest The gates of Hell shall never prevaile against those who are founded on free grace and the rock Jesus Christ Fourthly observe That God doth graciously forget and passe by the distempered speeches and bitter complainings of his servants under great afflictions Job spake this curse but when God comes to question with Job we doe not heare a word or title of this curse charg'd upon him God takes notice that hee had spoken of him the thing that is right Chap. 42.7 God commends him for what he had spoken well but Job doth not heare a word of what he had spoken ill When the iniquity of his speeches was sought for there was none and his failings they could not be found for God had pardoned them as the Prophet speakes of Israel and Judah Chap. 42.20 Our Lord Christ saith that of every idle word you shall give an account at the day of judgement and by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned Math. 12.36 37. We had neede looke to our words God writeth what we speake and keepeth a booke of all we say You will say How then were Jobs distempered complainings forgotten and all taken for well spoken that he had spoken I answer First None of Jobs were idle words though there was errour in his words Secondly His right words were more then his erring words Thirdly His heart was upright when his tongue slipt Fourthly He repented of those slips and errours And lastly God forgiving blotted them out of his booke for ever Further in a sense we may say that God makes allowance to his people for such failings not an allowance of connivence and dispensation God doth not dispense with any to doe the least evill or expresse the least impatience in their speeches but he makes an allowance of favour and compassion considering their weakenesse and the strength of temptation he abates proportionably when in such a condition they speake impatiently though their actions and speeches want some graines of that weight which they ought to have yet weighing them in the scale of favour with his gracious allowance they go for currant and passe in account with God as good and full pay of that duty he expects from us and we owe unto his Majesty JOB 3.4 5 6 7 c. Let that day be darkenesse let not God regard it from above neither let the light shine upon it Let darkenesse and the shadow of death staine it let a cloud dwell upon it let the blacknesse of the day terrifie it As for that night let darkenesse seize upon it let it not be joyned unto the dayes of the yeere let it not come into the number of the moneths Loe let that night be solitary let no joyfull voice come therein WE have already given the Analysis and parts of this Chapter The subject of it is Jobs curse upon his day The first section of it in the nine first verses containes the matter and the method of that curse And he curseth his day First In generall ver 1. After this Job opened his mouth and curseth his day Secondly He curseth it in both the parts of it ver 3. Let the day perish in which I was borne and the night in which it was said there is a man-child conceived In these six verses which remaine appertaining to the first Section he affixes a particular curse to each part of his day taking a day for a naturall day and then dividing it into day and night he gives a speciall curse to each of these parts A curse upon the day and a curse upon the night The curse powred out upon the day lies in the fourth and fift verses of this Chapter Let that day be darknesse let not God regard it from above neither let the light shine upon it let darkenesse and the shadow of death staine it let a cloud dwell upon it let the blacknesse of the day terrifie it Here are six distinct branches of shis curse First Let the day be darkenesse Let the day Here we are to take day not for a naturall day but for the day as it is the continent of light the whole space of time from the rising to the setting of the Sun Now saith he Let the day be darkenesse Be darkenesse There is a great aggravation of misery in that as
the ghost The Hebrew is but one word which costs us five in English I give up the ghost the word signifieth that last act of those who are in the agonie of death In the Greeke and Latine that act is exprest by one word Luk. 23.46 Where it is said that Christ gave up the ghost The word is conceived to note a willing cheerefull resignation of our selves in death a dying without much reluctance or resistance a being active in death rather then passive we call it well a giving up the ghost Some apply it only to the death of the godly as Gen. 25.8 of Abraham c. whose lives are not violently snatcht from them but willingly surrendred When a godly man dyes a violent death he doth not dye violently Whereas a wicked man dies violently when he dies naturally and though sometimes being weary of his life or despairing of reliefe he drives out his ghost yet in a strict sense he never gives up the ghost It is said to the wicked rich man in the Gospell Luk. 12.20 Thou foole this night shall thy soule be required of thee demanded indeed but O how unwillingly doth the rich man pay this naturall debt who is so able to pay all civill debts Yet it must be confest that we find the word often used promiscuously applied as well to the death of the wicked as of the godly To Ismael Gen. 25.8 as well as Abraham to Annanias and Saphira Acts 5.10 Yea it is applied to the death of any or all living things Gen. 7.21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowle and of cattell and of beasts and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man Then againe If I had not so much favour to die assoone as ever I came from the wombe or to die in the very birth yet Why did the knees prevent me or the breasts that I should sucke Here are two steps aggravating the cause of his curse against his day If I had not been borne dead saith Job or died naturally assoone as I was borne yet why was I not left to perish I should have died quickly if they had let me alone though I were born alive into the world that is the meaning of those words Why did the knees prevent me why was there any care taken of me why did the Midwife and the Assistant women take me upon their knees why did they wash me swathe me and bind me up If they had not been so kind it had been a kindnesse unto me if they had spared their labour they had done me a favour If they had omitted their care how many cares had I escaped Why did the knees prevent me or which is a further step and the fift step by which this speech ascends why the brests that I should suck As if he had said If they would needs be so favourable as to take me up upon the knee to wash me to binde me up and cloath me yet why was the brest presented to me why was I layed to the brest If they had kept me from sucking the brest I should have suckt but little breath I had died quickly So that in these words there are five gradations by which Job aggravateth the cause of this curse against his day First Because he was conceived Secondly Because the doore was opened for him to be borne Thirdly Because being borne he did not presently give up the ghost or die assoone as he came into the world Fourthly Because there was so much care taken for him as to take him upon the knee and bind him up Fifthly Because there was a brest provided and papps for him to sucke If any of these latter acts had been neglected Job had died and so escaped all these ensuing troubles of his life sorrow had been hidden from his eyes And it is observed especially in these latter acts of this gradation that Job alludes to the custome of those times wherein unnaturall women left their children upon the cold earth naked and helplesse assoone as they were borne or casting them out expose them to misery or the casuall nursery of nature lent them by beasts more mercifull then those beastly mothers who would not afford them knees to prevent nor brests to give them suck As in that place Ezek. 16.4 5. the wofull condition of such an infant is exprest to shadow out the sinfully polluted and woefuly helplesse estate of that people and of all people by nature till the Lord prevents them by the knees of free grace and suckles them with the brests of his consolation Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite of a barbarous people and what then In the day thou wast borne thy navell was not cut neither wast thou washed in water thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all none eye pittied thee to doe any of these unto thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast borne Now this is a certaine rule that such parabolicall and allegoricall Scriptures are grounded upon known customes and things in use It is certaine there were some so unnaturall to their infants that they would bestow no care upon them when they were borne neither wash nor cleanse nor binde them up but cast them out as the Prophet speakes to the loathing of their persons The Heathen Romanes had a speciall goddesse or deity whose name imported her care and office that children when they were borne should be taken up from the earth and set upon the knee And for the preventing of this unnaturall cruelty very frequent as it seemes amongst them the Thebanes made an expresse law that infants should not be neglected or cast out when they were borne though the parents thought they would be a burden to them by reason of the charge or no delight to them by reason of their deformity Now saith Job I could wish I had had such a father or such a mother or such friends who forgetting naturall affection would have cast me out when I came first into the world Why did the knees prevent me From hence also we may observe first That an infant assoone as he liveth hath in him the seeds of death So Job speakes of himselfe Why died I not from the wombe why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of my mothers belly Or why was I not stifled in the wombe why was ever that doore opened to let me into the world I could have died as soone as I lived Not only is man acting sin but nature infected with sin the subject of and subjected to the power of death So the Apostle teacheth us Rom. 5.14 Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression And who were those Even little infants they had life yet death reigned over them they were under the
twelve bretheren and behold the youngest is this day with his father and one is not Gen. 42.13 that is one is dead So Jacob speakes at the 30th verse of the same chapter Joseph is not c. Hence that answer of the Wise-man to Alexander who demanding of him whether the living or the dead were more in number said The living for the dead are not As infants that never saw the light This clause may be an exposition of the former clause shewing what Job meanes by an untimely birth even an infant that never saw the light Yet all infants that never see the light are not untimely births Infants are often still-borne when their mothers have gone out their time to the last houre before the paines of travaile come upon them And therefore I rather understand this as distinct from the former In the one Job intending such as are borne before time which births are commonly called abortions or miscarriages And in the other those who die in the birth who are commonly called still-borne The word which is here used for an infant signifies properly a weaned infant but it is likewise transferred to signifie an infant dying in the birth which is therefore said never to see the light So Salomon expresseth it too in that place Eccles 6.5 Moreover he hath not seene the Sunne And in allusion to this David when he curseth the plots of wicked men that though they have conceived mischiefe and though they have gone with it a long time and are ready to bring it forth yet in Psal 58.8 saith he let them be that is let their counsels and designes be like the untimely birth of a woman that they may not see the Sunne that is let them be dashed and blasted let them never bring forth their poisonous brood to the hurt and trouble of the world To these saith Job I am sure I should have bin like if not to Kings and Counsellours and had beene as well and all one to me In death untimely births and those that goe downe to the grave as a sheafe of corne that cometh in ripe are all one there is no difference in the grave betweene the infant that never saw the Sunne and him that hath lived to see an hundred recourses of the Sun The speech of Job proceedes to a third sort he strengthens his argument of rest in death I should certainely have had rest in death for in death even they who have been most vexed who have had least rest who have been even restlesse in the world they have found rest in death this he cleares by a further induction in the 17 18 19 verses There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest There the prisoners rest together they heare not the voice of the oppressour The small and great are there and the servant is free from his master When he had spoken of the rest of death concerning those great and mighty ones and the rest of death concerning untimely births and infants then he speakes of the rest which poore oppressed ones or which wicked oppressours have in death all these have a rest in regard of outward bodily troubles agitations and labours in the grave therefore certainely there I should have been at rest There that is in the grave the wicked cease from troubling True rest and wickednesse never meete rest and the wicked meete but seldome And it is but halfe a rest and it is rest but to halfe a wicked man to his bones in the grave and it is rest to that halfe but for a little time only till the resurrection The word which is here used for wicked is considerable Though every wicked man be a sinner yet every sinner is not a wicked man It is one thing to sin and another thing to be wicked there are divers words in the Hebrew tongue which signifie as it were the divers statures of sinners and the degrees of sinne And the Hebrew which usually expresseth many things by one word doeth here use many words to signifie one thing only differing in degree First A sinner is called sometime Cata that 's the lowest expression noting one that doth misse a marke or his way he aimes at the marke yet misses it he would goe in the right way yet mistakes it or is misled So every man the holiest men are sinners they often misse the marke the white which God sets up though they take their aime and level carefully at it Secondly A sinner is called Peshang which signifieth a willingnesse to sin and an unwillingnesse to obey it signifieth pride in sinning or a sinning from pride which is plaine rebellion Thirdly The word here used and in divers other places signifieth wickednesse in the height and men most active in wickednesse So that when Job saith There the wicked are at rest he meanes those who had beene restlesse in sin who could not sleepe till they had done mischiefe nor scarce sleepe for doing mischiefe He meanes those who had out-run others in the sinfull activity or rather turbulency and unquietnesse of their spirits such as are without peace themselves and seeke to molest and disturbe the peace of others The Prophet describes them to be like the troubled sea which cannot rest Isa 57.20 The proper signification of the word wicked in the Hebrew is the word unquiet vexatious or without rest 1 Sam. 14.47 Wheresoever Saul turned himselfe he vexed the enemy So Job 34.29 And the reason of it is given because men of this height and stature in sin are men of troubled unquiet and restlesse spirits As it notes a height in holinesse and grace to have a kind of unquietnesse upon the spirit till we can doe good and compasse holy designes and purposes when we are not only pious but zealous As David resolves Psal 132.3 4. Surely I will not come into the Tabernacle of my house nor goe up into my bed I will not give sleepe to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye-lids untill I find out a place for the Lord c. So unquietnesse upon the spirit till it can put sin into act and compasse an evill project notes a compleatenesse in the sinner Sin wakes and workes in them to purpose who cannot sleepe till they have wrought out their sin of these it is properly that Job speakes here these troublers of themselves and troublers of Israel these whom the Lord shall trouble this day or one day There sc in the grave these wicked ones cease from troubling there they have a kind of rest being dead who could not rest while they lived there at least they cease from raging This word Ragaz notes any vehement motion either of mind or body arising from feare or grief or anger or the concurrence of them all As when David heard of the death of Absolom the Text saith 2 Sam. 18.33 The King was much moved c. He was as it were for a time enraged or distracted much troubled
bitter in soule that they account the very bitternesse of death sweetnesse They say not as Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 Surely the bitternesse of death is past but O that the sweetnesse of death would come To be rid of sin makes us long for death spiritually to be rid of paine makes us desire death naturally therefore he saith the bitter in soule long for death The word which we translate by longing signifieth a very vehement desire as you know in our tongue to long for a thing is the highest and hottest acting of desire after a thing It signifieth properly to gape or to breathe Hence by a Trope it signifieth strong desire because they who desire a thing much are said to gape or breath after it just as an hungry man gapes after meate wheresoever he sees it and his mind runnes upon it when he cannot see it that is the force of the word Hence also the word is used in Scripture to note the strong actings of faith and vehement expectations of hope in God when the soule is raised up mightily to beleeve the word of promise then it longs after and opens its mouth wide as it were to receive the thing promised As in Isa 8.17 I will waite upon the Lord who hides his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him The Prophet Hosea applies the word to robbers and theeves who stand watching and longing for the traveller and looking at every turning chap. 6.9 As troopes of robbers waite for a man Yet further to cleare this we may take notice that in the Hebrew there are two words which come from this roote whereof the one signifieth the Palate of the mouth because the palate is the part affected with the tast of such meates as we long for Hence we say the mouth waters after such or such a pleasing dish The other word signifies a Fish-hooke and the reason is double either because those hookes are pleasantly baited which when the fish sees he longeth after it and greedily swallowes it downe Or because when the angler hath cast in the hooke he is in great expectation waiting and looking earnestly when the fish will be enticed and bite By all these uses of the Originall word we may collect the exceeding intensivenes of that desire which is here exprest by longing for death They long for death even as a hungry man longeth for any meate or as a woman with child longeth for some speciall meate as a fish longs for the baite or as an angler longeth till the fish bites or as a beleever which as it is the most spirituall so the most ardent desire of all desires to have any promise fulfilled upon which he hath pitch'd his faith and anchors at by hope Which long for death and it cometh not that is it cometh not so soon as they would have it for death will come at one time or other but death doth not come at their time or their pace It cometh not in the Hebrew it is only thus which long for death and it is not we supply it cometh not And dig for it more then for hid treasures To illustrate the greatnesse of this desire after death he adds a similitude of those who seeke for treasures if there be any naturall desire more strong then that of a woman with-child or a longing woman it is the desire of a covetous man the desire of gaine or treasure covetousnesse is the strongest appetite Observe but what a gradation there is in this expression to set forth the greatnesse of their desire after death they doe not only long for it but they dig for it digging you know is no ordinary labour it is an extraordinary worke a hard labour As longing is a strong desire so digging is strong labour hard labour And then it is no ordinary digging neither but digging for a treasure men will dig hard for treasure you see men will dig hard for a stone for iron for coales how then will they dig for a mine of gold or silver A man will dig the earth for a little money but when a man diggeth hoping to find money in the earth that will make him worke indeed now they dig after such a manner And beyond that he saith they dig for it as for hidden treasure that 's a further degree of their endeavour after it That which we translate hidden treasure is but one word in the Hebrew It signifies any hidden thing especially treasures because treasures use to be hid or close layed up And there is a two-fold hiding of treasures There is a naturall hiding and there is an industrious and artificiall hiding There is a naturall hiding so treasures are hid that lie in the bowels of the earth they are naturally hid Then treasures are hid by industry and by art when we are afraid we shall be spoiled of our treasures or that they shall be taken away then there is a hiding them and often a digging to hide them in the earth As now in these times of spoile and violence if a rich man heare that those spoilers are nigh he presently hides his treasure Now either as robbers digge and search for treasures industriously hid or as miners dig and search for treasures naturally hid so saith Job with such earnestnes doe these dig for death There is one thing here to be resolved by way of question before we come to the Observations Namely whether it be lawfull to wish for or to desire death Job here proposeth such as long for death Is it lawfull to desire death doth he speake here only de facto of a thing which some doe or of that which may be done I answer first That death in it selfe is no way desireable and it is not an object of desire We cannot desire that for it selfe which is an enemy or destructive unto us If any should desire death as death or under the notion of death they should desire that which is destructive that which is their enemy so the Apostle calls death 1 Cor. 15. The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death Death is an enemy therefore as death no man can desire it Indeed many have desired death but still we find somewhat else at the bottome of that desire But what bottome or ground makes the desire of death lawfull I answer First It is a holy desire of death if we desire death to be free from sin when the soule saith thus because I see only the end of living will be the end of sinning therefore I long for death that I may sin no longer Secondly It is lawfull to desire death that we may have more full communion with Christ the Lord of life I desire to be dissolved saith Paul but why not that he desired dissolution but that he might be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Christ is life and Christ is our life It is better to enjoy life then to live How much better then is
that God takes us out of the wombe a great support to faith in greatest troubles p. 391. Vntimely birth what and why so called p. 423. Bitter day is a day of trouble p. 360. Bitternesse of soule notes the deepest sorrow p. 442. Blasphemy what pa. 218. The Holiest persons subject to the most blasphemous temptations p. 286. Blessing three wayes 1. Man blesses man 2. Man blesseth God 3. God blesses man what p. 117. All successe from the blessing of God p. 119 120. God delights to blesse those who are laborious ib. The blessing of God is effectuall p. 121. To blesse God what 213. The best outward blessing may be turned into a crosse p. 273. Bodies of the Saints abused and tortured here on earth p. 255. Booke of Job who supposed the pen-man p. 5. The subject principall p. 6. Collaterall p. 7.8 The parts and divisions of it p. 8 9 c. The scope and uses of it p. 10 11 c. C CAlling Every man ought to have a calling p. 120. Cattell the riches of the Patriarchs and why p. 38 c. Chemarims Idolatrous Priests why so called p. 360. Chrildren are blessings p. 34. A greater blessing then riches ib. The more children the more blessing ib. 35. Best to have most sons ib. To have daughters and sons the compleate blessing ib. Many Children no hindrance either of piety or equity p. 36. Love and concord among children is the fathers speciall blessing p. 48. Lawfull delight is to be permitted our children p. 54. Children at full age not out of their parents care p. 55. Childrens soules chiefely to be cared for ib. Parents ought to pray in speciall for every child p. 65. Jobs losse of his children his greatest losse shewed in 5. considerations p. 167 168. Christ His presence makes any place or condition comfortable p 431. That the heart of a beleever is never at rest but in Christ p. 475 476. Cloud what it is and what it signifies in Scripture p· 358. Conception of children the worke and blessing of God p. 389. Counsellours Their power to hurt or doe good among Kings and Princes p. 411. Creatures the best creatures left to themselves will undoe themselves p. 83. Cursing What is meant by cursing God in the heart p. 70 71 c. Cursing hath three things in it p. 131. What to curse God to his face p. 133 218. What it is to curse a thing or person p. 327. A curse containes all evill as blessing all good p. 328. Man is but the minister of any curse p. 330. In what sense the irrationall creatures are capeable of a curse p. 331. D DArkenesse Divers sorts p. 347. A darke day is a sad day p. 348. It staines the beauty of the creature p. 357. Day What it is to regard a day p. 350. Death Suddaine death no argument of Gods disfavour p. 173. Death may surprize us eating therefore be holy in eating p. 173 174. Death shakes us out of all our worldly cloathing p. 200. Death It is sinfull absolutely to wish our own death though we are in paines more painefull then death p. 284. Satan perswades that death is an end of all troubles p. 285. He would make men willing to die when they are most unfit to die p. 285. Death is the totall rest of the godly only p. 400. The outward rest of all p. 403 Death In death we have a 4. fold rest p. 403. Death is the sleepe of the body p. 404. Why so called p. 405. Their opinion refuted who say the soule sleepes when the body dies p. 404 405. No power or policy can prevent death p. 417 436. In death all are equall ib. In what sense we may desire death p. 447. Many afflictions to our feeling are worse then death p. 450. Death finds some before they looke for it others looke for death and cannot find it p. 451. Not to die is a punishment to some in this life and it will be an everlasting punishment to all the damned p. 451. Degrees in grace God hath servants of al sizes p. 103. We ought not to set up our rest in a low or lower degree of grace p. 118. Desire It is not alwayes a mercy to have our desires granted p. 137 138. It is an affliction to nature to be debar'd of what it desires though the thing desired be destructive to nature p. 452. True desires produce endeavours ib. Proportionable to the strength of desire is the strength of endeavour ib. Desires obtained fill with joy p. 455. And with joy proportionable to those desires p. 456. Devills not in fullnesse of torment yet p. 89 90. Diseases Satan can smite the body with diseases if God permit him p. 266. No disease can weare out the markes by which Christ knowes us p. 314. Division and disunion a great curse p. 362. E ENd We should resolve upon our end before we undertake any action p. 310. A wise man proposes sutable ends i. e. Man may propose his end but he cannot reach it p. 307. Eschewing evill more then the not committing of evill p. 28 29. A godly man doth not only forbeare but eschew sin all sin and all the occasions of sin p. 33. Evill of sinne Why sin called evill p. 28. Satan would perswade us to ease our selves of troublesome evills by committing sinfull evills p. 284. Affliction in what sense called evill p. 291. Evill of punishment or affliction considered as coming from God may be borne with more quietnesse p. 292. Because we receive all good from God it is equall that we should patiently beare evill p. 294. Exposition of Scripture very usefull p. 1 2. Exposition of Scripture to the heart the sole priviledge of Christ p. 2. Exposition of Scripture by our lives most excellent p. 2 3. Eye How the sight of the eye wounds the heart either with sin or sorrow p. 393. Also that the sight of the eye affects the heart with joy p. 394. F FAce of God what p. 142. Favour of God makes our worst outward troubles comfortable p. 350. The blessing of the creature depends wholy on the favour and respect which God shewes it p. 351. Feare of God taken two wayes both described p. 27. Moral honesty without the feare of God commends us not to God p. 31. Feare containes every grace p. 32. Feare keepes the life cleane p. 32. What it is to feare God for nought p. 105 c. Whether it be lawfull in times of comfore to feare troubles p. 466. Divers sorts of feare p. 467 c. To feare a feare what it imports p. 466. Holy wisedome bids us feare so as to prepare for evill in our best dayes p. 469. The more we thus feare the lesse we shall feele troubles p. 471. Feasting is lawfull p. 49. Seven rules given about feasting p. 50 c. Feastings anciently in the night p. 364 Fire of God why so called p. 160. Foole and wicked the same p. 287. Low thoughts of God and