and when he wills he can reach the life Secondly observe If God put out his power no creature can stand before it If God doe but let loose his hand man is cut off presently It is but as a little twigge or as grasse before the sith or before a sword there is no more in it As when God openeth the hand of his mercy he satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 2. So when God looseth the hand of his judgements he takes away the life and comforts of every living thing God hath a hand full of blessings and mercies if he please but to open that hand all things are filled with comfort God hath another hand full of judgments and afflictions if he open or loosen that all creatures fall before him like a withered leafe The reason why the enemies of God live and are mighty is because God doth not fully loosen his hand against them if he would but unprison his power and let out his hand he can with ease destroy and cut them off in a moment Therefore the prophet prayes but for this one thing Psalm 74. 11. That God would pluck his hand out of his bosome why with drawest thou thy hand even thy right hand pluck it out of thy bosome Lord saith he this is the reason why enemies yet prevail thy hand is tyed up that is Thine owe act hath tyed up thy hand thy will stayes thy power or thy power is hid in thy will Gods power kept in by his will is his hand in his bosome Among men a hand in the bosome is the embleme of sloth Prov 19 24. Man hides his hand in his bosome because he will not be at the paines to worke God is said to hide his hand in his bosome when it is not his will and pleasure to work therefore he saith Lord if thou wouldest but let loose and put out thy hand all mine enemies shall be consumed And that 's the reason why there are such various dispensations of providence in these times when the enemy prevailes God with draweth his hand he keepeth his hand in his bosome And when at any time his servants have victorie it is because his hand hath liberty If God holds his hand men stretch forth theirs in vain Observe Thirdly Assurance of a better life will carry the soule with joy through the sorrows and bitterest pains of death It was not any Stoical apathy or ignorant regardlessenesse of life which raised the heart of Job to these desires He did not invite his end like a Roman or a philosopher or by the height and gallantry of naturall courage set the world at nought and bid defiance to destruction But he had laid up a good foundation against this day upon this he builds his confidence He knew as Paul that he had Christ while he lived and should have gaine when he dyed The joy which was set before him made him over-look the crosse which was before him So much of his request now he tels us the consequence or effect it would have upon him in case it were granted Vers 10. Then should I yet have comfort yet I would harden my selfe in sorrow Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy One Then should I yet have comfort If I had but this suit granted I were refreshed notwithstanding all my sorrows the very hope of death would revive me Nothing doth so much refresh the soule as the hearing of a Prayer and the grant of a desire when desire cometh it is as a tree of life saith Solomon therefore Job might well say when my longing comes I shall have comfort and lest any should think that as David would not drinke the water he so longed for when it was brought unto him So when the cup of death should be brought to Job he might put it off somewhat upon those termes which David did and say I will not drinke it for it is my bloud my death therefore he adds Yea I would harden my self in sorrow As if he had said though some call hastily for death and repent with as much haste when death comes yet not I I would harden my selfe c. The Hebrew to harden hath a three-fold signification among the Jewish writers though it be used but this once onely in all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat 1. Solidare roborare 2. Calefarere urere 3 Orare suppliciter praecari Scripture And hence there is a three-fold interpretation of these words I would harden my selfe in sorrow It signifies 1 To Pray or to beseech 2 To heat or to Warm yea to scorch and to burn 3 To harden or to strengthen strengthning is hardning in a metaphor According to the first sense the text is rendred thus Then should I yet have comfort yea I would pray in my sorrow that is I would pray yet more for an increase of my sorrow that I might be cut off If I had any hope that my request should be granted this hope would quicken my desire and I would pray yet more that I might obtain it Secondly as the word signifies to warm or to heat the sense is given thus Then should I have comfort yea I would warm my selfe in my sorrow And so it refers it to those refreshings which his languishing soul his soul chilled as it were with sicknesse and sorrows should receive upon the news of his approaching death This newes saith he would be as warm cloaths to me it Hac spe certissin â moriendi incalescerem refocillarer would fetch me again out of my fainting to heart of dying But besides a warming or a refreshing heat the word also notes scorching burning heat Mr. Broughton takes that signification of the word I shall touch that and his sence upon it by and by We translate according to the third usage of the word I would harden my self and so the construction is very fair I should yet have comfort yea I would harden my self in sorrow that is I would now set my selfe to endure the greatest sorrowes and afflictions which could come upon me for the destroying and cutting off the threed of my life And so he seems in these words to prevent an objection before hinted Why Job dost thou desire to be cut off and to be destroyed thou hast more pain upon thee already then thou art able to bear thou cryest out of what thou hast thou must think when death comes thy wound will be deeper and thy pain sharper Iob seemes to answer I have considered that before I know there will be a hard brunt at parting I prepare for it and am thus resolved I would harden my self in sorrow that is I would set my selfe to bear the pangs and agonies of death if I had but this hope that my miserie were near expiring The Apostle useth that phrase 2 Tim. 2. 3. in his advices to young Timothy Thou as a good souldier of Jesus Christ endure
tempt in the day but as he hath a power given him but permitted he causes sometimes sinfull and fifthly dreames as Augustine bewailes in the tenth book of his Confessions sometimes terrible and troublesome Aug. confess li. 10. Ca. 30. dreames sometimes treacherous and deluding dreames It is by some conceived that the dreame of Pilats wife Mat. 27. 19. was from the Devill she comes to Pilat and desires him to have nothing to doe with that Just man for saith she I have suffered many things this night in a dreame because of him The reason why some conceive that dreame was from the Devill is this because thereby Satan would have hindred the work of mans redemption if Christ had not died and so by saving him would have destroyed us all I will not assert this but it is cleare to the point in hand that there are dreames from the temptations motions and suggestions of the Devill who hath a power over us as God lengthens out his chain both day and night But when it is said Thou skarest me with dreames what dreames were these divine or Diabolicall Job speaks unto God Thou skarest me with dreames doubtlesse divine dreames had an influence upon his spirit and left terrifying impressions there But Satan having power to afflict Job which way he pleased was instrumentall here and yet Job saith to God Thou skarest me As before when Satan by his instruments took away all from him he said The Lord hath taken so here when Satan vexed him with visions representing horrid and fearfull spectacles yet he saith Thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with visions as pointing still unto the power and providence of God who hath all second causes Satan and all at his own dispose Observe here first That even our dreames are ordered by God Though Satan be the instrument yet we may say Thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with visions Job was not ignorant that second causes had a great power upon the body to produce dreames and nightly fancies he was not ignorant that the strength of a disease might doe very much in this and that Satan his former enemy was busie to improve the distempers of his body for the trouble of his mind yet he overlooks all these as he did before and saith Lord thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with visions Dreames are in the hand of God As our waking times are in the hand of God so are our sleeping times when we are sleeping we are in the armes of an ever waking Father Satan hath not power to touch us sleeping or waking without leave Secondly Ged can make our sleepe an affliction Jobs were skaring and terrifying dreames Some dreames are for warning and admonition The Lord warned Joseph in a dream Some are for counsell and instruction he revealed great things in dreames Others are for comfort and consolation Many a soul hath tasted more of heaven in a night-dreame than in many daies attendance upon holy Ordinances As the lusts of wicked men have dreames attending them so also have the graces of the Saints Jobs dreames were for terrour and afflictions Observe secondly Satans desire of troubling poore souls is restlesse It is restlesse indeed for he will not give them leave to rest they shall not sleep in quiet their very dreames shall be distractions and their nightly representations a vexation to them Note further That if God permit Satan can make dreames very terrible to us He can shew himselfe in a dreame and offer ugly sights extreamly perplexing to the Spirit He is able to cast himself into a thousand ill favour'd shapes into horrid and dreadfull shapes he can cloath himself with what habit he pleases if God give him a generall Commission And hence the devill terrifies not only by temptations to the mind but by aparitions to the eye and is seen at least conceived to be seen especially by such as labour under strong diseases like a Lion a Beare a Dogge gaping grinning staring whence we say of any terrifying sight it looks like a devill We depend upon God as for sleep so for the comfort of sleep Many lie downe to sleep and their sleep is their terrour As that evill spirit in the Gospel went about seeking rest but found none So he hinders some and would more from finding rest when they seeke it Therefore blesse God for any refreshing you have by sleepe Blesse God when your dreames are not your skares nor your beds your racke See the effect what deepe impressions dreadfull dreams made in Jobs spirit he was so affrighted with them that he professes with his next breath Verse 15. My soule chuseth strangling and death rather then life I loath it I would not live alwayes So that my soul chooseth strangling He renews his former often repeated motion but with a greater ardency He not only prefers death before his troubled condition but a violent death and in the opinion of some the worst of violent deaths strangling which though it be not the most painfull of violent deaths yet it is looked upon as the most ignominious of violent deaths Some referre these words to the terrour which Job had in his dreames and visions as if they were so violent upon him that they almost distracted him and made him mad that they even put him upon desperate thoughts of destroying himselfe My soule chooseth strangling that is I am often tempted and almost prevailed Ab hujusmodi spectris multos sejam strangulasse profiliisse in puteos asserit Hippoc. with to make my selfe away The learned Physitians tell us that their Patients have often attempted to destroy themselves thorough the terrours of dreams and visions Yet we may understand the word strangling only of naturall and ordinary Every death is a kind of strangling and some diseases stop and choke a man even as strangling doth so that My soule chooseth strangling may be taken in generall My soul chooseth death rather then life My soul chooseth He puts the soul as it is often in Scripture for the whole man and the sence of all is as if he had said If I might be my own chooser if I might have my election I would even take the worst of deaths rather than the life which now I live My soul chooseth strangling And death rather then life If we take strangling for a speciall death then here death is put in generall As thus if strangling be too easie a death let me die any kind of death Death rather then life The Hebrew in the letter is And death rather than my bones which some render thus And death rather than to be with my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Os a robore dictum nihil in ipso taem sorte firmum quod vis doloris non debilitarat confregerat Aquin. bones To be with our bones is to live Others make this choosing an act of his bones My soul chooseth strangling and my bones death that is every
superesse non solum excessum quantitatis significat sed etiam qualitatis dignitatis ficut verbum latinuÌ„ supero non solum superesse sed etiam vinceâ—e excellere Pined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word signifies a quantitive remainder or overplus both of persons and things so also a qualitative excesse or remainder or that which exceeds in quality any excesse in the goodnesse of a quality is called excellency Thus Jacob cals Reuben in regard of his primogeniture the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power yet blots him in the next Verse because of his sinne thou shalt not excell Gen. 49. 3 4. This sense of the word suits well with the scope of the text in hand His excellency that is whatsoever doth excell or is best in him But what is that Some by his Excellency understand the soule as if he had said that best part of man the soule which may be opposed to clay and dust before spoken of that noble guest that royall inhabitant of this house of clay goeth out when death enters Death dissolves the union between soule and body Or rather we may take excellency for any speciall endowment first of the body as beauty or strength Secondly of the minde as wit and knowledge learning or skill Thirdly we may take it for those worldly excellencies of riches honour or authority when a man goeth out all these excellencies which are in him or which are about him go out too This excellency is the same which is called the goodlinesse of man by the Prophet Esay 40. 6. The voice said cry what shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field Not only is the flesh but the goodliness thereof fading also So here not only the house of clay and the foundation of dust but the excellency of it all the adorning and polishing the guilding and painting the rich hanging and precious furniture of this house go away Taking excellency here for the soule then we see wherein our excellency consists As man was the principall part of the creation so the soule is the principall part of man The constitution of the soule is mans naturall excellency and the conversion of the soule is mans spirituall excellency Secondly observe Death is the going away or the departure of the soule from the body Death is called sometime a departure of body and soule out of the world Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace saith old Simeon Luke 2. Man goes to his long home Eccles 12. 5. I go the way of all flesh saith Moses and I goe away saith our Lord Christ of his death Death is also called a departure of the soule from the body The death of Rachel is thus described Genesis 35. 18. And it came to passe that as her soule was in departing for she dyed From the other interpretation which I rather insists upon Observe that in death all a mans naturall and outward excellency whatsoever leaves him and departs from him Psal 49. 16. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the glory of his house is increased why for when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away with him his glory shall not descend after him though a man have an excellent out-side a great stock of riches beauty and honour though he have excellent linings of wisdome and knowledge yet all ends as to him when he ends and therefore David concludes Psal 39. Man at his best state or in his best estate is altogether vanity The excellencies that are in him goe away in that day all his thoughts perish his counsels and his projects perish with him One of the ancients standing by Caesars Tomb who was one of the most accomplisht men in the world for naturall civill and morall excellencies learned valiant noble rich and powerfull he I say standing by Caesars Tomb wept and cried out where is now the flourishing beauty of Caesar what 's Vbi nunc pulchâ—itudo Caesaris quo abiit magnificentia tua become of his magnificence where are the armies now where the honours of Caesar where are now the victories the triumphs and trophies of Caesar All 's gone all 's departed the goodlinesse of them is as the flower of the field his excellency which was in him is gone away And thus it will be said of all those who without grace are most excellent in any thing below Though your clay be curiously wrought and stampt with such beauty as renders you almost Angelicall to the eye of others Though your bodies are strongly joynted and blessed with such health as renders your lives most active and comfortable to your selves though your mindes are stored with variety of learning and you know as much as is knowable in the whole circle of Nature or of times yet when Death comes all these excellencies go away Nothing will stay by us then and go not from us but with us but the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord for whom Paul did and we ought to suffer the losse of all things and count them but dung that we may winne Christ Phil. 3. 8. For notwithstanding all other knowledge and wisdome we shall dye and conclude as this Chapter concludes of man without wisdome They dye even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without wisdome or word for word They dye not and in wisdome We may understand it two wayes First as if he had said though men are excellent in wisdom yet they dye their wisdom is to them in death as if they had no wisdome they have no more priviledge or defence against the stroak of death by all their wisdome learning Nalla est sapi entia qua mortem effugiant Merc. and knowledge then fooles or bruit beasts who have no knowledge no wisdome at all they dye even without wisdome or even as if they had no wisdome Died Abner as a foole dyeth said mourning David 1 Sam. 3. 33. yes Abner dyed as a foole dyeth And so in one sense doe the wisest of men He was the wisest of all the children of men and he spake it by the wisdome of God who asking this question How dyeth the wise man answers as the foole Eccles 2. 16. Let not any man pride himself in the excellency of his wisdome for that dwels in a house of clay whose foundation is in the dust his frailty is not curable by his excellency nor his mortality conquerable by his wisdome he shall dye as if he had no wisdome And some who have most worldly wisdome dye Non in sapientâ—a extenuatio est i. e. in magna stultitia Pined with least yea they with the greatest folly Not in wisdome may be an extenuation or a more gentle easie expression for in abundance of folly I remember it is observed concerning Paracelsus a great Physitian a man exceedingly verst in Chymicall experiments that he brag'd and boasted he had attained to such wisdom in
be ashamed in the evill time and in the dayes of famine they shall be satisfied The soule of a believer sees salvation in destruction food in famine he hath wine well refined to drinke marrow and fatnesse to feed upon when the world knowes not how to give him or will not give him a dry crust or a cup of cold water He sees a hiding place when all others lye open to the danger he sees a place of refuge a covert from the raine and from the storme when others stand naked under them The summe of all is A godly man sees himselfe so protected in dangers so provided for against all wants he sees in the promises such a Magazin of armes such stores of bread that he feares no weapon form'd against him and feeds when no table is spread for him Danger secures destruction saves and famine fattens him that is in danger destruction and famine he knowes whither to goe for food salvation and safety even unto God who is all this to him and will be more if he need it Upon these grounds it is that the text saith At famine and destruction he shall laugh Observe hence A godly man a true believer is not onely not afraid of outward evills when they come but through faith he is above and triumphs over them Not to be afraid of faime and destruction when they come is too low for his spirit He shall laugh when they come Hence the Apostles exulting language We glory in tribulation we are exceeding joyous in all our tribulations And to this sence we may interpret that of Peter speaking of the sufferings of the Saints 1 Epi. 4. 14. The Spirit of glory resteth upon them that is a spirit of glorying and holy rejoycing whereby the soul is carried up as it were upon Eagles-wings above and beyond reproaches All evills lie below a believer when he is lifted up with this spirit of glory This spirit of glory resting upon us through him that loved us makes us more then conquerours over tribulation distresse persecution famine nakednesse perill or sword Rom. 8. 35. More than conquerours Who can expresse how much that is No tongue can tell what it is to be more then a conquerour when Christ would advance the exceeding greatnesse of that reward which Givers shall receive Luke 6. 38. He saith not barely Give and it shall be given you good measure but you shall have it pressed down and yet more shaken together that is not all neither but you shall have it running over Now a measure will runne over as long as you will poure there is no stint no bounds to that gift which shall be given running over A vessell will run over continually poure as long as you will So here you shall not onely have a conquest but more then a conquest and what that is is as much and more than all our thoughts are able to comprehend Hence also the Apostle speaking of that great enemy the last enemy Death 1 Corinth 15. 55. brings in the believing soule in a kinde of holy triumph laughing at and even jearing death in the sence of the Text O death where is thy sting As if a man having disarmed his enemy should say now Sir where 's your sword where 's your pistoll Christ hath disarmed death taken away its sting now the believer may laugh in the face of death Oh death thou thoughtest to make us all smart where is thy sting thou thoughtest thy selfe a conquerour able to devoure and subdue us all but where is thy victory Such is the laughter here meant And in the same sense Leviathan the mightiest of living creatures that sea monster to whom upon the earth there is not the like he is made without fear Chap. 41. 33. is said to laugh at the shaking of the speare Job 41. 29. He is so armed with impenitrable scales that shake a speare at him he laughs at you it is an allusion to those that are armed with proofe they feare neither sword nor shot The truth is a beleever is shot-free shake the speare at him shake famine shake destruction at him threaten him with this or with that he laughs at all because he hath armour of proofe wherein he may safely trust He hath a shield a shield of faith which will quench even the fiery darts of Satan much more then the fiery dangers of the world The Histories of the Primitive Church are full of this holy laughter and heroicall magnanimity of the Saints grapling with the greatest evils How did those renowned Martyrs even baffle death and deride their torments from this principle of faith in Christ conquering them not slighting them from a principle of selfe-neglect When Polycarpe was threatned to be torne in peeces with the teeth of wild beasts let them come saith he and grind me I shall make very good bread so that the very tormentors were more tormented with the holy scorne and laughter of suffering Christians than the Christians were with the torments which they suffered In 2 Sam. 2. 14. When Abner and Joab the two great Generals met Abner saith unto Joab Let the young men arise and play before us the sport was to fight and fighting unto death and yet these stout Souldiers being above feare call it playing one with another It is the word here in the text let them come and laugh together before us As if these young men were of such courage that they could laugh at death and goe to killing one another as if they were to goe to play with one another Surely there is little reason for such courage killing of men is no laughing matter no matter of sport for as Abner said unto Joab not long after vers 26. shall the sword devoure for ever knowest thou not that it will be bitternsse in the end There is little cause to account the beginning of that a sport which will be bitternesse in the end But when the Saints are to joyne in the deadliest battell or to meet with the deadliest death for Christ or from the chastning hand of Christ they have reason enough to account it a sport and to laugh at destruction in this sense cleared because they know it will be sweetnesse and comfort in the end Valour sometimes laughs at danger much more may faith Psal 68. 12 13. Though ye have lyen among the pots yet shall we be as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold This is the confidence of the Saints when they lye among the pots or among the pot-ranges as some interpret it where the scullions lye and are besooted and black'd over at the fire of afflictions till they looke like very scullions that yet they shall be gilded over soone after Or it may be understood of the bounds and limits of the enemies Country and so it is a description of great danger for they who lye upon the borders of an enemies Country are in continuall feare of an
potion and mistooke his case his was good searching physick for the foul stomach and grosse spirit of a hypocrite but it is enough to kill the heart of an upright-heart when God seemes angry with him and appeares against him when he is smitten without and smitten within by sore afflictions of mind and body then for his comforters to smite him with their tongues to lay at him with hard words and wound him with their unreasonable jealousies then for his counsellers and helpers to be angry with and opposite against him too Observe hence That not only words untrue but words misapplied are unsavoury and may be dangerous They are no food and they may be poison Prudence in applying is the salt and seasoning of what is spoken As a word spoken in the right season is precious and upon the wheele so is a word right placed When that faith full Prophet Ezek. 13. reproves the false prophets he saith They dawbed with untempered morter ver 10. it is the word of the text and why was theirs untempered morter even because they applied the word of God wrong They made sad the hearts of those whom God would have refreshed and they cheared the spirits of those whom God would have sadned they slay the souls that should not dye and save the souls alive that should not live This was untempered morter The Apostle advises all Col. 4 6. Let your speech be alwayes with grace seasoned with salt And speech must be seasoned not only with the falt of truth but with the salt of wisdome and discretion and therefore the Apostle adds that ye may know how to answer every one that is that you may give every man an answer fitting his case and the present constitution of his spirit Of some have compassion saith the Apostle Jude ver 22. making a difference and others save with feare This shewes the holy skill of managing the word of God when we make a difference of our patients by our different medicines and not serve all out of the same boxe Hence our Lord calleth those great Teachers of the Gospel and dispensers of his Oracles Light and Salt You are the Light of the world and you are the salt of the earth because they were to speake savoury things to every person to every pallate as well as to enlighten them with knowledge and prevent or cure the corruption of their manners and keep their lives sweet As there is an unsavourinesse in persons when they are mis-employed so there is an unsavourinesse in speeches when they are mis-applied The history of the Church speaks of one Eccebolius who changed religion so often and was so unsetled that at last Conculcate me salem insipidum Niceph. he cast himselfe down at the congregation doore and said Trample upon me for I am unsavoury salt And that word though in it self a truth which is unseasonably delivered or unduly placed may be cast at the doores of the Congregation to be trampled on for in this sence it is unsavoury salt Such corrupt the word and their's is but corrupt communication such as cannot minister grace unto the hearers and often grieves the holy Spirit of God These work-men for their ill division of the word of God have reason enough to be ashamed and the Lord may justly reprove them as he did Jobs friends Chap. 42. 7. Ye have not spoken of me nor of my wayes the thing that is right JOB Chap. 6. Vers 8 9 10 c. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for Even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off Then should I yet have comfort yea I would harden my selfe in sorrow Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy One c. IN the former part of this Chapter we have had Job defending his former complaint of life and his desire of death In this context from the 8th verse unto the end of the 12th he reneweth and reinforceth that desire He not only maintaines and justifies what he had done but doth it again begging for death as heartily and importunately as he did in the third Chapter O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for The request it selfe is laid downe in the 8 â—h and 9 â—h verses and the reasons strengthning it in the 10 11 and 12 verses So these 5 verses are reduceable to these two heads 1. The renewing of his desire to dye 2. An enlargement of reasons confirming that desire O that I might have my request It is such a vehement desire and so exprest as Davids was 2 Sam. 23. 15. And David longed and said Oh that one would give me drinke of the water of the well of Bethlem which is by the gate David did not long more to tast a cup of that water then Job did to tast the cup of death The summe and scope of Jobs thoughts in this passage may be conceived thus He would assure his friends that his faith was firme and his comforts flowing from it very sweet That it was not impatience under the troubles of this life but assurance of the comforts of the next which caused him so often to call for death That these comforts caused his heart to triumph and glory in the very approaches of the most painfull death and made him despise and lightly to esteeme all the hopes of life That he was gone further then the motives which Eliphaz used from the hopes of a restitution to temporall happinesse he now was pitcht upon and lodg'd in the thoughts of eternall happinesse That he call'd for death not as that with which he had made any Covenant or was come to any agreement with but only as that which would bring him to his desired home The one Thing he desired That his comforts had not a foundation in a grave where all things are forgotten but in the Covenant of God who remembers mercy for ever and therefore it should not trouble him to die before he was restored to health riches and honour which his friends proposed to him as a great argument of comfort and of patience For in death he should have riches and glory and hence it was that he had rather endure the extreamest paines of death then stay to receive any outward comforts in this life His desires to be dissolved were not so much from the sence of his present paine for he would harden himselfe to endure yet more as from the apprehension of future joy This was not a fancie or a dreame but he had good proof and reall evidence of it in the whole course of his life which had been as a continued acting of the word of God and to a fitting him for nearest communion with God This in general The letter of the Hebrew runneth thus Who would give me that my request or that
plant while it is rooted by the springs of heavenly promises And what is mine end that I should prolong my life The letter of the Hebrew is That I should prolong or lengthen out my soul that my soul should inhabit longer in the tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my body The word prolong is differently joyned to life or dayes Deut. 5. 16. Honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee that thy dayes may be prolonged c Ezek. 12 22. Son of man what is that proverbe that you have in the land of Israel saying The dayes are prolonged and every vision faileth To prolong dayes and prolong life are the same Yet hear the word Nephesh soul which we translate life may be taken for desire which is a vehement act of the soul The soul expresses it self so much in desires that the same word may expresse both And so we may render Jobs sence thus What is my end that I should lengthen out or extend my desires any further after the things of this world or that I should defer and put off my desires after the things of the world to come Is there any thing in this life worth my staying for it or any thing so worthless in the next that I should not wish presently to enjoy it In this sence the word Nephesh is often used as Gen. 23. 8. Abraham speaks to the children of Heth If it be your soul or your desire we translate if it be your mind that I should bury my dead So Prev 23 2. If thou be a man given to thy appetite or whose desires are thy Lord and master as the elegancy of that place beares And again Psal 27. 12. Psal 41. 2. Eccl 6. 9. The word is applied to signifie the will or desire So here What is mine end that I should prolong my life or my desire of life His End may be considered two wayes First His end may be taken for the latter part of his life which Eliphaz promised would be very comfortable Thou shalt come to thy grave in a good old age as a shock of corn commeth into the flore As if Job should say you are promising me good dayes and a happy old age but what is mine end what 's the latter part of a mans life that he should desire to prolong his dayes to take it out why should I desire to prolong my life I am now well stricken in years and as for the end the latter part of a mans life it is nothing for the most part but trouble and sorrow As old Barzillai 2 Sam. 19. 35. when David offered him the pleasures of the Court answers I am thus old and can I taste my meat and taste my drink or hear musique What is the Fagge-end of mans life that one should hunger after it The sweetest comforts of this life are in the fore-part of life in the spring of youth in the strength and flower of age As for the winter of life what is that but wet and cold but clouds and darkness What is my end of old age that I should desire my life to be prolonged or eeked out to that But rather we may take this End First For the end of his troubles As if he had said What end so gainfull or comfortable can I have of these evils that should recompence my pains in bearing them till I receive it No worldly comforts can answer my sorrows and therefore why should I desire to prolong my life for them Secondly Take End for the very last term of life not that latter part or condition of a mans life troublesome old age as before or a renewed estate as here But take End for the ending the termination the period of life What is my end that I should prolong my life and so End is as much as death what is my death that I should desire to live I know no evil in death that should make me afraid of the end of my life I know no such trouble in dying that I should be desirous to spinne out this troublesome life longer surely the trouble and pain of death is not so much as the present trouble and pain of my life and as for any other trouble I fear none then What is my end that I should prolong my life that I should not desire death or that you should be so angry with me for desiring it Hence observe first There is no strength in man that may give him assured hope of long life What is my strength that I should hope No though man be in the flourish of his age the greenesse of his years yet what is youth or strength or beauty what all those fair leaves and fruits which hang upon and adorn this goodly tree that he should hope to hand long Man in his best estate is altogether vanity Psal 39. 5. He that hopes to live upon any of these things hopes in a vain thing trusts but in a shadow Our hopes to live this natural life as well as the spiritual and eternal must be in the living God The Image of death sits upon the best of our strength and beauty while we grow we decline and while we flourish we wither The lengthening of our dayes is the shortning of them and all the time we live is but a passage unto and should be but a preparation for death We are most miserable if in this life only we have hope and we are most foolish if our hopes of this life be in our own strength And because there is no strength in nature which may give us hope to live long It is our greatest wisdome to consider what provision we have in grace to maintain our hopes that we shall live for ever They are in an ill case who when they cannot hope to live long care not to settle their hopes of living eternally It is a most sad spectacle to see a languishing body and a languishing hope meet in one man Some have a Kalender in their bones shewing them they have but few dayes here and many distempers upon the whole body crying in their ears with a loud voice what is your strength that you should hope to live who yet prepare not at all to die They are both unready and unwilling to be dissolved when they see no hope to keep up their tabernacle from desolution Secondly taking the word in the last sense which I conceive rather to be the mind of the holy Ghost in this place observe That there is no evil in the death of a godly man which should make him unwilling to die or which should make him linger after this life What is the end of a godly man that he should prolong his life All the bitterness of death is removed or sweetned by Christ Death the King of terrours is made a servant to let us in to our comforts by the power of Christ that prince of life who hath abolished death and brought life
for his Sonnes and Daughters but now we see Jobs piety extended further than his own children Yea the word may well be carried out beyond his own family He prayed for his children and not only did he pray for them but also teach and instruct them and not only them but others he inlarges his Schoole he instructs many it is an indefinite word a word of number without a number Jobs Schoole of holy discipline was a large one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debilis laxus hinc Rephaim significat mertuos ex eo quod in illis omne robur vires naturales elanguerunt he set up his Schoole where ever he came he was an universall Teacher an Apostle of the old World thou hast instructed many And thou hast strengthned the weak hands The word signifies Remisse hands or the hands that hang down loose and lax Hence by a Metaphor it notes one that is negligent or idle a man with his hands hanging down and his armes loose is the embleme of idlenesse or of sadnesse Thou hast strengthned the Manus lâ—ssae dejecta bâ—achâ—a pertinent ad habâ—â—um aut molliter aut segniâ—er ambulantis aut curâ—ere non valentiâ— E contra vero adducere brachia manus comprimere fortiter jâ—ctare cubiâ—os strenue currentis est weak hands that is those that were idle or grieved negligent or dejected Hence the word Rephaim is used to signifie those that are dead and the reâ—son is because all strength naturall vigour and activity depart when life departeth Giants also are expressed in the Hebrew by this word because they are such dreadfull persons that their very aspect or sight terrifies the spirit makes the hands hang down and the knees of beholders feeble they called those mighty men weake from that effect wrought upon others because they made others weak and tremble at their approaches Hence when Goliah the Giant challenged and defied the Hoast of Israel it is said that all the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him or fled from his face he overcame them with his looks and were fore afraid 1 Sam. 17. 24. This weaknesse of hands as we finde instanc'd in Scripture arises four wayes First from sloth and idlenesse as we noted before some have strong heads but they have weak hands they are sufficiently instructed but they cannot act or they are unactive and an unactive man is a weak-handed man Secondly weaknesse of the hands cometh from fear and so that phrase to strengthen the hands notes incouraging of a person as Zech. 8. 9 13. Fear not let thy hands be strong that is let not fear weaken thy hands and Jer. 38. 4. the Princes came to the King and begg'd of him that Jeremiah might be put to death and they give the reason from this For say they he weakneth the hands of the men of war that remaine in the City and the hands of all the people that is he discourages them makes them believe they shall never be able to stand out against the King of Babylon but that he shall certainly take the City this is called weakning of their hands So Isa 35. 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirme the feeble knees say to them that are of a fearfull heart be strong fear not So yee see weaknes of the hands is caused by fear when the bands of the heart are dissolved as it were and loosned by fear the hand must needs be dissolved and loosned from labour the hand is not able to work at all when fear works much upon the heart Thirdly weaknesse of the hands ariseth from irresolution when a man is not resolved what to do not setled upon a busines then his hands are weak Hence it was the counsell of Achitophel to Absalom that he should go up upon the house top in the sight of all Israel and abuse his fathers Concubines and he giveth the reason of it then saith he shall the hands of all that are with thee be 2 Sam. 16. 21. strong his meaning is then they will be so resolved to stick to thee that they will doe their utmost he grounds his counsell upon the present irresolution of the people he doubted whether Absaloms party would adhere cordially to him or no therefore saith he doe an act which may render thy selfe and all that are with thee irreconcileable to the King this will unite them to thee and their hands will be strong If once they be out of hope to be receiv'd into the Kings favour thou maist be out of feare that they will returne to the Kings obedience In any lawfull and good designe it is best to raise up resolution and ingage it to the highest Where the heart is strongly resolved the hands will act strongly The reason why men are slow and dull in great undertakings is because they are off and on full of neutrality and indifferency in what they undertake Unsetled spirits can never settle actions A double minded man is James 1. 8. unstable and weak-handed in all his wayes Lastly there is a weaknesse of the hands which is I conceive most proper to this place arising from sorrow and griefe from the weight and burthen of affliction or from a sudden surprise of trouble As it is said of Balteshazar Dan. 5. 6. who seeing the hand-writing upon the plaister of the wall presently changed countenance and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loynes were loosed and his knees smote one against another Thou hast strengthned the weake hands that is those whose hands are weak by reason of manifold trialls and tribulations thou hast spoken words to them which have been as sinewes to their hands annd strength unto their joynts In this sence the Apostle uses both the expressions of the Text Heb. 12. 6. where having treated about the nature of afflictions together with the fruit and benefit of them he concludes thus wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees as if he should say it is probable that affliction hath made your hands hang downe that sorrow and grief have loosned your spirits and your loynes too therefore now be of good cheer lift up your hands that hang down and the feeble knees Thie Symptome or effect of sorrow is elegantly Columbis prâ— cantu gemitus est inamoenuÌ„ murmur Sanct. in Ezek. cap 7. described Ezek. 7. 17. where the Prophet having shewed that many should mourne as Doves of the Valleys adds all hands shall be feeble and all knees shall be weak as water Thy words have upheld him that was falling Some afflictions lie so hard and heavie upon us that they doe not only weaken but cast downe Job stood ready to uphold such as were ready to fall timely advice may catch a man before he is quite down and prevent his fall The word which we translate falling signifies in its first sense to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
but a day long Jonahs Gourd came up in a night and perished in a night and man commeth up in the morning and perisheth in the evening The Naturalists speake of a Fly they call Ephemeron a creature of one day which comes forth in the morning is very active about noone but when the Sunne declineth it declines too and sets with the setting of the Sunne Man is an Ephemeron a creature of one day for howsoever his life consisteth of many dayes is often lengthened out to many yeares yet betweene morning and evening or from morning to evening he is destroyed The first step he sets upon the stage of the world is a going out of the world his ascending to the height of his natural perfection hath in it a decent One part of his life compared with another is an increase but the whole in reference to his end is a decrease his life is but a breathing death life shortning as fast as it lengthns his life is death hastning upon him continually A hand breadth is quickly measured Behold saith David Psal 29. 5. thou hast made my dayes an hand breadth nothing needs no time to passe it in mans age in it self is but little and comparatively it is nothing it fals under no calculation before the face of Eternity Mine age is nothing before thee But though the life of man be thus short and himself be destroyed between a morning and an evening yet death lasts long they perish for ever without any regarding They perish for ever Death it seemes is everlasting They perish the word is often used in this book for the dissolution of soule and body not for the annihilation of either as perishing properly imports to perish is here but to dye for thus even the righteous perish and no man layes it to heart Isay 57. 1. But doth man perish thus dyes he for ever shall there not be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 returne a resurrection shall not soule and body be reunited how is it said then they perish or dye for ever For ever is some time put for an infinite time and some time for an indefinite time 1 Chron. 23. 25 The Lord God of Israel hath given rest unto his people that they may dwell in Jerusalem for ever And yet the Jewes are now so farre from dwelling in Jerusalem that they have scarce rest or dwelling among any people The like sense of for ever reade 1 Kings 2. 33. Psal 132. 12 14. Yet further for ever is put for the finite time of one mans life 1 Sam. 27. 12. He shall be my servant for ever that is as long as he lives Psal 23. 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever that is as long as I live In the text before us for ever is as long as this world lasts it notes the utmost terme of time not which is without terme eternity They perish for ever that is they shall not live in this world any more as Job 14. 14. If a man dye shall he live again As if he had said man can dye but once he cannot live againe that is in this world shall he any more return to his house to his wife and children to his riches or honours and shall he here againe enjoy such an estate as he had before That Psal 103. 16. explains it so As for man his days are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourisheth for the winde passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more that is he shall never returne to that locall place or civill place in which he lived he shall not return to that place of magistracy or ministrey to that place of merchandizing or trading of husbandry or handicraft where he convers'd before Thus his place will know him no more Man dyes but once and therefore when he dies he is said to dye for ever There is a second death but it is only a second condition of life Some shall so live for ever that they shall be dying for ever The misery of all men here is that they are dying while they live the misery of the damned hereafter will be that they are living while they dye We see then that as life is a continuall going out of the world so from death there is no returning to the world they perish for ever when once you die you are dead for good and all as we say there 's an end in respect of any work proper to this world whether naturall civill or spirituall A dying man perishes for ever from eating and drinking from any outward content or pleasure When Barzillai was as it were but upon the borders of death and confines of the grave 2 Sam. 19. 25. he bespeaks David thus who had invited him to Court Can I taste what I eat and what I drink and it followes Can I any more heare the voice of singing-men and singing-women Can I any more as if he had said I am now nigh unto death these delights are gone they are perished for ever I can hardly taste any thing I eat or drink the pleasant Voice or musicall Instrument can I any more hear much more then in death it self are all these outward comforts perished and will perish for ever Againe in respect of civill works he that dyes perishes for ever no more buying or selling or trading or de aling all these things are past and past for ever Yea death puts an end to all spirituall workes such as were the Saints exercise and duty upon the earth at the grave there 's an end of them also a dying man perishes for ever in respect of repenting or believing in respect of praying or hearing the word These are heavenly works but the time for these is while you are upon the earth none of these labours are in Heaven or Hell no nor in the grave whether thou goest as the Preacher concludes Ecclesiastes 9. 10. Therefore Isay 38. 18. Hezekiah in his sickness makes it one part of his suit to God that he might be spared for saith he the grave cannot praise thee they that go downe into the pit cannot hope for thy truth the living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day To praise God shall be the work of Saints for ever and yet the Saints dying are truly said perish for ever from praising God All that praise shall cease in death which belong to the wayes of grace and then such praise begins as suits with glory which is our end That Hezekiah means it of such praise and not of all praise is cleare from his own words Verse 20. We will sing my song to the stringed instruments all the dayes of my life in the house of the Lord that is in the ordinances of thy publick worship They that are in the house of the grave cannot praise the Lord in his house And though the praises of the Lord in Heaven are transcendent
notes a man hasty bold inconsiderate rushing on hand over head without feare or wit A man who either is master but of little knowledge or that which he hath be it little or much masters him It agrees fully in sense and is the same to a letter in found with our English word Evill Such the Prophet Zech. 11. 15. describes Take saith he the instruments of a foolish sheapheard he doth not meane the instruments of a rude and meerely ignorant sheapheard a man that hath no knowledge or learning but of a rash and imprudent shepheard or of a lazie and idle shepheard who though hath knowledge yet knowes not how or hath no heart to improve his knowledge for the good of his flock The Prophet Ezekiel gives us the character of such Chap. 34. 4. The diseased have ye not strengthened nor have ye healed that which was sicke nor bound up that which was broken c. but will ye know what work they made with furie and with crueltie have ye ruled them ye have been moved with fury not with pity and acted by passion not by reason much lesse by grace So in this place the foolish man whom envy slayes is not a meere ignorant one that hath no brains but one hare-brayn'd and uncompos'd Eliphaz hints at Job secretly in this word whom he knew reported for a man of great knowledge and learning according to the learning of those times yet he numbers him with Nâ—n his solum sed calamo iâ—os â—imur in scribendo eumque 〈◊〉 fraâ—gâ—mus pectoâ—â—s penecallo alcato res tesseris cuicunque instrumento quilâ—bet ex quo dâ—fficultatem se paâ—â— arbitratur August â—ra stultitiae comeâ— sooles because he conceived him wrathfull rash intemperate not having any true government of himselfe Anger resteth in the bosome of fooles Eccles 7. 9. A foole is not able to judge of the nature of things or times or occasions and therefore he is angry with every thing that hits not his nature or his humour He will be angry with the Sunne if it shine hotter then he would have it and with the winds if they blow harder then he would have them and with the clouds if they raine longer then serves his turne They that are emptiest of understanding are fullest of will and usually so full of will that we call them will-full Hence unlesse every thing be ready to serve their wills they are ready to dye by the hand or judgement of their passions Wrath kills this foolish man Wrath may be taken here two woyes either for the wrath of God or for the wrath of man In the former sense the meaning is That the wrath of God kills foolish men Which is an undoubted truth but I rather adhere to the latter which gives the meaning thus That the wrath of a foolish man kills himselfe his own wrath is as a knife at his throate and as a sword in his own bowels The word which we translate wrath signifies indignation anger teastinesse or touchinesse Properly wrath is anger inveterate anger is a short fury and wrath is a long anger when a man is set upon 't when his spirit is steeped and soak't in anger then 't is wrath Esau raked up the burning coales of his anger in the ashes till his Fathers Funerall The time of mourning for my father will shortly come then will I slay my brother But our word rather notes a servent heate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distemper of spirit presently breaking forth or an extreame vexation fretting and disquieting us within As Psal 112. 10. The wicked shall see it and be grieved that is he shall have secret indignation in himselfe to see matters goe so He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away Gnashing of the teeth is caused by vexing of the heart And therefore it followes he melts away which notes melting is from heate an extreame heate within The sense is very suitable to this of Eliphaz wrath slayeth the foolish or wrath makes him melt away it melts his grease with chafing as we say of a man furiously vext Hence that deplorable condition of the damned who are cast out of the presence of God for ever is described by weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth which imports not onely paine but extreame vexing at or in themselves Those fooles shall be slaine for ever with their own wrath as well as with the wrath of God Wrath killeth c. But how doth wrath kill a foolish man his wrath sometimes drawes his sword and kils others but is his wrath as a sword to kill himselfe Many like Simeon and Levi in their anger have slaine a man but that the anger of a man should slay himselfe may seeme strange The passion of vvrath is such an engine as recoyles upon him that uses or discharges it As the desire of the slothfull killeth him Prov. 21. 25. so the wrath of a foolish man kils him that place enlightens this how comes desire to stay the slothfull thus A man slothfull in action is full of desires and quick in his affections after many good things he would faine have them he longs for them but the man is so extreame lazie that he will not stirre hand or foot to get the things which he desires and so he pines away with wishing and woulding and dies with griefe because desire is not satisfied So in like manner wrath is said to slay a man first because it thrusts him headlong upon such things as are his death he runnes wilfully upon his own death sometimes by the dangerousnesse of the action whence casuall suddaine death surprises him sometime by the unlawfulnesse of the action which brings him to a legall or judiciary death Secondly his wrath is said to kill him because his wrath is so vexations to him that it makes his life a continuall death to him and at last so wearieth him out and wasts his spirits that he dyes for very griefe and so at once commits a three-fold murder First he murders him intentionally against whom he is wroth Secondly he really murders his own body and thirdly he meritoriously murders his soule for ever except the Lord be more mercifull then he hath been wrathfull and the death of Christ heal those wounds by which he would have procured the death of others and hath as much as in him lies procured his own And envie slayeth the silly one These two expressions meet neere upon a sense Envy is the trouble which a man conceives in himselfe at the good which another receives This disease gets in at the eyes and eares or is occasioned by seeing or hearing of our neighbours blessings In the 1 Joh. 2. All the lusts in the world are reduced to three heads The lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life Envy is the chiefest lust of the eyes and it is properly called the lust of the eye because a man seldom envieth another untill
aliquo dicitur in Scriptura quod faciendum denunciatur be or fore-tell that it shall be As to give an instance or two Levit. 13. in the case of the Leper the text saith that when the Priest makes up his judgement concerning the Leper having found the tokens of Leprosie upon him he shall defile him ver 3. and ver 8. or make him uncleane so the Originall gives it which we translate The Priest shall pronounce him uncleane In that sence the Ministers of the Gospell whose businesse is to cleanse defile many yea one way to cleanse men is thus to defile and pronounce them Lepers So Isa 6. 8. the Lord sends the Prophet against that people and saith to him Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes Praedic excaeeanaos oâ—ulos aures aggravandas Now the Prophet did not act this himselfe he did not deafen their eares or blind their eyes but onely fore-told or denounced that this judgement should fall upon them because they had so long stopped their eares at last their eares should be stopt and made heavy enough and because they had so long winked and shut their eyes at last they should be blind and their eyes shut fast enough How fast are those eyes and eares lockt up which are thus double lockt Once more Jer. 1. 10. The Lord gives the Prophet a strange commission See saith he I have this day set thee over the Nations and over Kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe and to build and to plant One would think this commission more fitting for a Caesar or an Alexander for great Commanders attended with numerous Armies than for an unarmed Prophet what could he doe could he roote out Kingdomes and destroy Nations Yes by denouncing the destroying judgements and consuming wrath of God due unto them for their rebellions and provocations Thus a poor weak Prophet can overturne a whole Kingdome and roote up the strongest Nations And the truth is that never was any Nation or Kingdome rooted up by the sword but it was first rooted up by the word first God hewed them to pieces and slew them by his Prophets and then let in Armies of cruell enemies to doe it So here in the text I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation The clear meaning is I foretold a curse I knew what would shortly become of his habitation It Non per invidiam iram dira imprecacarer sed animus pâ—aesagiret male ipsi fore Coc. was not anger against his person or envy at his estate that moved me to curse him but it was an eye of faith which shewed me him markt with a curse in the just threatnings of God I saw a curse hanging over his family and dwelling over his riches and honours And though he then flourished that yet he should quickly wither and be destroyed root and branch The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked Prov. 3. 33. Man doth but see it there the Lord sent it there The word is considerable which we traslate Habitation It signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet a setled a peaceable a beautifull habitation And so carries an aggravation of the judgement upon this foolish man his judgement is the worse upon him because he thought himselfe so well so well seated so well setled so secured and accommodated that he should never be removed They are most troubled with removings who thought themselves setled troubles afflict them deepest who supposed themselves beyond trouble When David thought God had made his mountaine so strong that it could not be moved how was he troubled as soon as God hid his face Ps 30. 6 7. And if they are so troubled with shakings who look upon their estates as setled by the favour of God how will they be troubled to meet with totterings and shakings much more with ruinings and destructions whose estates at best are bottom'd onely upon their policies often upon their sins We may observe from hence First The estate of some wicked men is out of the prayers of Gods people When they goe by their dwellings they cannot say The blessing of the Lord be upon you we blesse you in the name of the Lord Psal 129. 8. It is a great mercy to stand under the influences of prayer and for a man to have his estate land dwellings watered with showers of blessings and hearty good wishes from the mouths of Saints Their blessings or their cursings are next to the blessings and cursings of Christ nay they are his It is an argument that Christ hath blessed or cursed a man when the spirits of his people generally are carried to either It is one of the saddest presages in the world for a man to be cast out of the prayers of the Saints or to be cast by their prayers that is when their prayers are against him and he presented naked to the displeasure of Christ It shewes that the sin of a man is a sin unto death when the faithfull cease praying for him 1 Joh. 5. 16. What can it prognosticate then but approaching ruine and destruction when they bend the strength of prayer against him There was never any habitation of wickednes so firmly founded or strongly fortified but that Great and Holy Ordinance hath or may shake and batter it to the dust The fair Towers and walls of Babylon the seate and state of Antichrist have long been under this curse All the Saints whose eyes God hath unscaled and brought out from Egyptian darkness have seene That foolish man taking roote and have cursed his habitation Secondly observe A wicked man in prosperity is under the curse of God He is often under the curse of man but ever under the curse of God Esau have I hated saith God Rom. 9. 13. yet even at that time the fatnesse of the earth was his dwelling and of the dew of Heaven from above Gen. 27. 39. While the meate was in the mouthes of the murmuring Israelites the wrath of God was upon them They did at once eate their lust and their death wrath was mingled with their meate and while he gave them their request he sent leanenesse into their soules Psal 106. 15. This is the most dreadfull curse of all To have a fate estate a well fed body with a leane starven soule Thirdly Observe a vast difference between godly and wicked men between the foolish and the wise When a godly man withers in his outward estate and is pluckt up by the rootes yet God loves him when a godly man is poore God loves him when he is sick God loves him when he is in prison God loves him when he is in disgrace God loves him and when the world hates him most then God usually shewes that he loves him most The world cannot cast a godly man into any condition but he meets with the love
my people and thy people That is those Armies of flies which invade thy people shall not meddle with my people To see one perish with and our selves saved from the sword is redemption in war To see others hunger-starved and our selves still fed is redemption from famine though our selves were never in the hands or between the teeth of famine A people devided from the troubles of others are redeemed from those troubles Such redemption our Saviour speaks of Mat. 24. 40 41. Two shall be in the field the one shall be taken the other left two women shall be grinding in the Mill the one taken the other left In Famine Famine is the want of bread and bread is the stay and staffe of life Lev. 26. 26. Isa 3. 1. Psal 105. 16. when this stay is gone our lives fall quickly or slip away When this staffe is broken the thread of life breaks too Man goes by the bread in his belly more than by the staffe in his hand Except bread hold us by the arme and stay us up down we fall Famine is so like or so near or so certaine a harbinger of death that the text puts them together In famine he shall redeem thee from death Famine is numbred among the sore judgements of God if it be not the sorest judgement Ezek. 6. 11. Jer. 24. 10. And therefore redemption from it is one of his choicest outward mercies We may collect how sore a judgement famine is by the effects of it First It causeth faintnesse and madnesse Gen. 47. 13. Secondly Hunger burneth Deut. 32. 24. That word is not used in the Hebrew except here Famine kindles a fire in the bowels When the naturall heat hath no fewell put to it to feed upon it feeds upon nature Sutable to this is the description of lamenting Jeremiah in the famine of Jerusalem Their faces are blacker then a cole Lam. 4. 8. and Chap. 5. 10. Our skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible famine Both the coal and the oven contract their blacknesse from burning heat Thirdly It causeth pining and languishment Lam. 4. 9. Fourthly Shame and howling Joel 1. 11. Fifthly Rage and cursing Isa 8. 21. Lastly It breaks all the bonds of nature and eats up all relations Read that dreâ—dfull threatning Deut. 25. 53 54. and that dreadfull example Lam. 4. 10. Tender mothers eating their children Famine eats up our bowells of compassion and then it eats our bowells by relation And which comes yet nearer Famine is such a devourer that it causeth man to devoure himself The Prophet describes a man in a fit of Famine snatching on the right hand and yet hungry eating on the left and yet unsatisfied when he cannot fill his belly abroad he comes home to himself and makes bold with his own flesh for food Every man eating the flesh of his own arme Isa 9. 20. We read of many great Famines in Scripture and withall of Gods care to redeem his people from them Abraham Gen. 12. who at the call of God denied himself and came out of his own into a strange Land was presently entertained with Famine One would have thought God should have made him good chear and have spread a plentifull table for him causing his cup to over-flow while he was in a strange Land and a meer stranger there yet he met with a famine but the Lord redeemed him from that famine by directing him to Aegypt that famous store house for his people Jacob and his sons were redeemed from famine in the same Egypt afterward their house of Bondage It is a precious comfort to have bread in such a promise as this when there is none upon the Board God takes care for the bodies of his people as well as for their souls he is the father of both and the provider for both And while we remember what sore afflictions have bin upon many Nations and people by famine While we remember Samaria's Famin 2 Kings 6. Jerusalems Famin Lam. 4. and that storied by Josephus in the Roman siege of that City While we remember the late famins in Germany and the present one in many parts of Ireland While we consider that the Sword threatens this Nation with famine Surely we should labour to get under such a promise as this is that we may plead with God in the midst of all scarcity and wants Lord thou hast promised to redeem Thine in famin from death There is no dearth in Heaven And whatsoever dearth is on Earth the plenty that is in Heaven can supply it How sad would it be if your poor children should come about you crying for bread and you have none to give them How much sadder would it be if your poor children should be made your bread and ground to pieces between your teeth as in the famin of Jerusalem In such a time to look up to God in the strength of this promise will be a feast to us though we should perish in the famin But how doth God redeem from famin First The Lord can make the barrell of meal and the oyle that is in the cruze though but little yet to hold out and last while the time of famine lasts Such a miracle redeemed the poor widdow from death in that great famin 1 Kings 17. Secondly He can redeem by lengthning one meal to many days Elijah went forty dayes in the strength of one dinner Man liveth not by bread without God but man may live by God without bread Thirdly Not onely are the stores of the creatures his and the fruitfulnesse of the earth at his command but if he please he can open the windows of Heaven he can bring bread out of the clouds he can make the winds his Caterers to bring in Quails and abundance of provision for his people Thus also he can redeem his from death in the time of famine Or fourthly He can doe it in a way of ordinary providence by making the land yeeld it's naturall increase and by giving strength to the Earth to bring forth plentifully for the use of man Fifthly While the common judgement lasts he can make some speciall provision for his And make a redemption of division as he did in another case for his people Exod. 8. 22. And lastly We may improve this promise not only for redemption from death in famine but for plenty of consolation though we should die in famine When the bread is quite taken away from your Table your hearts may feed upon such a word as this as upon marrow and fatnesse Christ can feast your soules when your bodies are ready to starve he can fill your spirits with joy and sweetnesse when there is nothing but leannesse in your cheeks Thus the Prophet Habakkuk triumphs in God Habak 3. 17. Though the Fig-tree shall not blessom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat The flock shall be cut off from the fold
thy selfe or friends thou shalt die as some translate in a good old-age or as Mr. Broughton thou shalt die in lusty old-age Time shall not wither thee nor drinke up thy blood and spirits Thou shalt have a spring in the Autumne and a Summer in the winter of thy life As it was with Moses Deut. 34. 7. who died when he was an hundred and twenty yeares old yet saith the text His eye was not dimme nor his naturall force abated This is to die in a full old-age full of daies yet full of strength and health It is a great blessing when a man is in this sense youthfull in old-age when others see with foure eyes and goe with three leggs he uses neither staff nor spectacles but renews his strength like the Eagle Or we may take the sense more generally for any one that liveth long and liveth comfortably as it was said of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. That he died in a good old-age an old man and full of yeares He died in a good old-age The young-man is counsel'd To remember his Creator in the dayes of his youth before the evill daies come Eccles 12. 1. What are those Those evill daies are the daies of old-age The words following being an Allegoricall elegant description of old age Old-age in it selfe is the evill day The lives of many old-men are a continuall death They live as it were upon the racke of extreame paines or strong infirmities therefore it is a speciall blessing for man to be old and yet to have a good old-age that is a florid comfortable old-age To have many yeares and few infirmities is a rare thing In some old-age flourishes and in others old-age perishes Job gives us this difference in the use of this word Chap. 30. 2. Yea whereto might the strength of their hands profit me in whom Chelad old-age was perished As if he had said some old-men are active and strong but these who were faded and flatted in all their abilities in what stead could they stand me They were a trouble to themselves and therefore could be no comfort unto others This full old-age is explained further by way of similitude He shall die in a full age lie as a shock of corne commeth in in his season When a young man dye he is as greene corne The Psalmist imprecates that some may be like the grasse or corne on the house-top that withereth before it is cut downe whereof the mower Psal 129. 6 7. filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosome The life of a man sometimes is like corn growing upon the house top that withereth Or as it is in the parable of the sower Mat. 13. like the corne that fell on the high-way side or among stones and thornes which came not in in it's season it never staid the ripening or reaping but was eaten up or dried or choaked before the harvest Now here man is compared unto corne sowed in good ground well rooted and continuing out it's season and is brought in ripe at harvest Old-age is the harvest of nature Some divide mans life into seven parts comparing it to the seven planets Some into five comparing it to the five acts of an interlude but commonly the life of man is divided into foure parts and so it is compared to the foure seasons of the yeare And in that division old-age is the winter-quarter cold and cloudy full of rheumes and catarrhs of diseases and distellations But here old-age is the harvest though thou art a very old-man thou shalt not die as in winter but thou shalt die as it were in harvest when thou art full ripe and readie as a shock of corne that is laid up in the barne The generall judgement of the world is compared to a harvest and death which is a particular day of judgement is a harvest too Those words He shall come to his grave as a shock of corne are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ascendere significat â—vanescere velut in auras tolli velè medio tolli further considerable the Hebrew is He shall ascend as a shock of corre and that referring to death is sometimes translated by cutting off or taking away Psal 102. 25. Cut me not off in the midst of my daies The letter is Let me not ascend in the midst of my daies Whether it have any allusion to that hope or faith of the Saints in their death that they doe but ascend when they die or to their disappearing to the eye of sence when they die because things which ascend vanish out of sight and are not seene In either sence when the Saints are cut downe by death they ascend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè significat acervum frugum qui in And they are elegantly said To ascend as a shock of corne because that is taken from the earth and reored or stackt up and so by a Metaphor it signisies a Tombe or a monument errected or high-built over a dead corpse much after the manner of a shock of corn area erigitur Metaphoricè tumultum ceu currulum teâ—rae vel monumentuÌ„ sepulcro imposiâ—um So the word is used He shall remaine in the tombe or Heape Job 22. 32. So then the sum of this verse is a promise of comfort and honour in death He shall die in a full age when he is readie and ripe for death Yet this is not to be taken strictly that every godly man dies in such a full old age in an age full of daies or full of comforts Many of Gods best servants have had evill daies in their old age their old age hath had many daies of trouble and sickness of paine and perplexity But thus it is with many in old age and this is especially to be look't upon as an Old Testament promise when the Lord dealt more with his people invisible externall mercies Yet in one sense it is an universall truth and ever fulfilled to his people for whensoever they die they die in a good age yea though they die in the spring and flower of youth they die in a good old age that is they are ripe for death when ever they die when ever a godly man dies it is harvest time with him though in a naturall capacity he be cut down while he is green and cropt in the bud or blossome yet in his spirituall capacity he never dies before he is ripe God ripens his speedily when he intends to take them out of the world speedily He can let out such warme rayes and beams of his Spirit upon them as shall soone maturate the seeds of grace into a preparednesse for glory whereas a wicked man living an hundred yeaers hath no full old-age much lesse a good old-age he is ripe indeed for destruction but he is never ripe for death he is as unreadie and unripe for death when he is an hundred years old as when he was but a day old He hath not begun
shock of corne that is brought in in his season Even pale death hath beauty in it when it comes in season Eccles 7. 17. Be not wicked over much why shouldst thou dye before thy time No man can dye before Gods time but a man may dye before his time that is before he is prepared by grace and before he is ripened in the course of nature Those two wayes a man dyes before his time First when he dyes without any strength of grace Secondly when he dyes in the strength of nature In this sense the Prophet describes the hand of God upon him Psal 102. 23. He weakned my strength in the way â—â— shortned my dayes and therefore prayes in the 24th verse I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes That is in the strength or best of my times according to the line and measure of nature A godly man prayes that he may not dye out of season but a wicked man never dies in season That threatning is ever fulfilled upon him in one sense if not in both Psal 55. 23 The blood-thirsty and deceitfull man shall not live out halfe his dayes A wicked man never lives out halfe his daies for either he is cut off before he hath lived halfe the course of nature or he is cut off before he hath lived a quarter of the course of his desires either he lives not halfe so long as he might or not a tenth not a hundreth part so long as he would and therefore let him dye when he will his death is full of terror trouble and confusion because he dies out of season He never kept time or season with God and surely God will not keep or regard his time or season Vers 27. Loe this we have searched it so it is heare it and know thou it for thy good As Eliphaz began his dispute with an elegant preface so he ends it with a rhetoricall conclusion as if he had said Job I have spoken many things unto thee heare now the summe and upshot of all Loe this we have searched it so it is heare it and know it for thy good Two things he concludes with First with an assertion of the truth of what he had spoken So it is Secondly with a motion for his assent to what was spoken Heare it Or the words may fall under a three-fold consideration As the 1. Conclusion of his speech 2. Confirmation 3. Application And this application is strengthned by a three-fold Motive By a motive first from experience Loe this we have searched it we have found the thing to be true Secondly By a motive from the truth of the thing in it selfe so it is we have searched it we have experience of it so it is the thing is certaine And then Thirdly From the fruit and benefit of it if he submit unto and obey the truth delivered know it for thy good thou shalt reap the profit of it These are three motives by which he strengthens his exhortation in applying the truth he had beaten out in his former discourse We have searched it As if Eliphaz had said we have not taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scrutatus perscrutatus est remota aut abstrusa these things upon trust or by an implicite faith we have not received them by tradition from our fathers but we have searched and tryed and found out that thus the matter stands in Gods dispensations both to a wicked man and to a godly man in all the particulars run thorough in this Chapter Or we have searched that is we have learned these truths by experience That God punisheth not the innocent that man cannot compare in justice with God that hypocrites shall not prosper long and that mans afflictions are the fruit of his transgressions The word signifies a very diligent and exact scrutiny Deut. 13. 14. Thou shalt enquire and make search and aske diligently it is to search as Judges Diligenti inquisitione verita is scrutatiene nec non reconditorum divinae providentiae judiciorum consideratione rem ita se habere compeâ—imâ—â— search and enquire about any crime or question in Law determinable by their sentence and as we search to find the meaning of a riddle Judg. 14. 14. The word is also applied to the searchings and enquiries of a Spie Judg. 18. 2. sent to bring intelligence A spie is an exact inquisitor into all affaires given him in charge for discovery So here we have searched out we have spied out and tryed this thing to the utmost we have as it were read over all the records of divine Truths we have examined all experiences and examples and this is the result the summe of all Loe thus it is A question arises here how Eliphaz can say we have searcht it when as Chap. 4. he saith A thing was secretly brought to me It seemes these were matters attained and beaten out by study not sent in by divine revelation and so are rather the opinions of men then the oracles of God Men inspired by the Holy Ghost speak another language As Thus saith the Lord or this we have received not this we have searched Scripture is given by inspiration from God not by the disquisitions of men Some have hence concluded this speech of Eliphaz Apocryphal Ex quo intelligimus hanc Eliphae dissertionem non or aculi fuisse sed studij nec ad Dei revelantis responsa sed ad humani ingenij inventa pertinere Janson in loc as being rather matter of humane invention then divine inspiration Or the work of mans wit rather then of Gods Spirit But I answer First The Apostle Paul hath sufficiently attested the Divine Authority of this discoruse by alledging a proof out of it 1 Cor. 3. 19. Secondly That which was secretly brought to Eliphaz was that one speciall Oracle Chap. 4. 17. Shall mortall man be more just then God shall a man be more pure then his maker The other part of his discourse to which these words Loe this we have searched refer were grounded upon the experiences which himselfe and his friends had observed in and about the providence of God in all his dealings both with the godly and the wicked all agreeable to that grand principle received by immediate revelation And therefore as he told Job before that the generall position was brought him in a vision so all ages and the records kept of them in all which he had made a diligent enquirie came up fully to the proofe of it As if he had said The Lord told me so and all he hath done in the word proclaimes that it is so His word is enough to assert his own justice but his works witnesse with it Loe this we have searched so it is We have searched He speaks in the plurall number he begun his speech in the fourth Chapter and he concluds it here in the plurall number Yet we are not to think that this was a discourse penn'd
my petition might come He had sent up a request a prayer a prayer for death and he thought his prayer too long gone upon that message Prayer was not quick enough in its returne from Heaven every houre was a yeare till he heard of it therefore saith he O that some body would give me that my request might come back againe unto me The word whereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he expresses his request notes a very strong desire a strong cry a strong prayer implying that Job had sent up mighty requests or strong cries about it As it is said of our Lord Christ Heb. 5. That in the dayes of his flesh he sent up strong cryes unto God who was able to deliver him Christ sent up strong cryes to be delivered from death and Job sent up strong cryes for death A word of the same root signifies the grave the grave is a craving a begging thing the grave is never satisfied as it is in the Proverbs The grave saith not it is enough And the grave is therefore exprest by a word that signifies to desire or request or to ask a thing importunately because the grave hath a mouth as it were continually open to ask and beg and cry out for more morsells it consumeth all and is never full such a desire Job put forth for death And that God would grant me the thing that I long for It is a repetition of the same desire in other words What it is to long hath been opened in the third Chapter ver 21. Who long for death Here Job reneweth the same suit againe O that I might have the thing that I long for or the thing which I expect with great expectation and vehemency of affection I shall not stay upon it But only give you the generall sence a little varied In this passage Job shewes himselfe assured that his comforts should not end though his life ended before he was restored to earthly comforts And he thus seemes to answer Eliphaz who had made large promises of outward felicity I am not stayed at all in Job expectaâ—ionem proximam facit mortem tanquam eam quae patiendi ultimam quietis ac faeli â—itatis primam representet liâ—â—â—â— my desires to die because I may possibly live in greater worldly honour and fullnesse then ever I enjoyed All that is in the creature is below wy longing I have not a sweet tooth after worldly dainties I shall not envy any who cut-live me to enjoy them let them divide my portion whatsoever it may be among them also The thing which I long for is death not for it selfe but as that which will bring me to the last of my ill dayes and the first of my best Jobs thoughts were in a higher forme then his friends They thought a golden offer of riches would have made him a gogge to live But Jobs heart lived above these even upon the riches of eternall life To enjoy which he even longs for temporall destruction and cutting off I have spoken at large in the third Chapter concerning the lawfulnesse of such a request and how farre Job might be approved in it therefore I need not discusse it here Only observe in generall That A praying soule is an expecting soule Job had prayed and prayed earnestly and though it was but a prayer to die yet he lived in the expectation of an answer When prayer is sent up unto God then the soul looks for it's return Prayer is as seed sowne After this spirituall husbandry the soul waits for the precious fruits of Heaven Psal 62. 1. My soule waiteth upon God and Psal 85. 8. I will hearken what the Lord God will say Job had sent up his request and now he was hearkening for an answer O that I might have the thing that I looke for Habbakkuk in the second of that prophecie verse 1. having prayed about the great concernments of those times resolves I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the Tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me They who send Embassadours to forreigne Princes waite for a returne Thus it is with the soul having put up it's request and sent an Embassie to God Observe Secondly Answer of our prayer is the grant of God Nothing stands between us and our desires but his will If he signe our petition no creature can hinder us of our expectation Observe Thirdly God often keepes the petitions of his servants by him unanswered Observe Fourthly The returne of prayer is the souls solace and satisfaction As cold water to a thirsty soule so is good news from that farre Country Prov. 25. 25. O that my request might come and O that I might have the thing that I long for Would you know what his request was He explains that in the 9 â—h verse and a man would wonder that one should be so very earnest to have such a request Many have prayed to God to save and deliver them but how unnaturall doth this prayer seeme to be cut off and destroyed Yet the thing which Job doth more then pray for long for is this That it would please God to destroy him and that he would let loose his hand and cut him off That it would please God to destroy me Some reade That he who hath begun would make an end in destroying of me For the word signifies both to be willing to doe a thing and likewise to begin to doe a thing therefore they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat liâ—ere velle inchoare acquiescere in re quapiam eamque tota voluntate amplecti make out the sense thus That he who hath begun thus to destroy me to teare and consume me would finish his worke and make an end of me As if Job had said I am already neare unto destruction a borderer upon the grave God hath begun to destroy me I would have him to goe on and perfect that worke As in workes of mercy Deut. 32. 4. He is the Rocke and his worke is perfect When he beginnes to deliver he will make an end So likewise when he beginnes to destroy he can make an end too Job desires that his afflictions might be perfected to the destruction of his dying body and that mercy might begin in the triumphs of his soule But rather take it in the other sense as we render it To be willing to doe a thing Even that it would please God or even that God would be willing to destroy me As if he had said I find as it were a kind of unwillingnesse in God to make an end of me his bowels seeme to yerne over me he seemes yet to be upon the dispute whether to cut me quite off or no now I even desire that God would lay aside that his tendernesse and compassion that he would determine and resolve to destroy me that he would acquiesce and fully rest satisfied in that resolution The word here used to destroy notes to
are vanity all goe to one place all are of the dust and all turn to the dust again And whereas the Atheist heard some speake of the ascent of mans spirit after this life he puts it off as but talke and guessing ver 21. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth That is who can tell that there is such a difference between the spirit of a man and of a beast who ever saw the one ascending or the other descending or from what Anatomie was this learned Thus the Atheist derides the doctrine of the soul and will therefore laugh and be merry with his body while it lasts that 's his portion For who shall bring him to sâ—e what shall be after him ver 22. Is it not strange that any who are called sober Christians should plant their opinions in this soyle of Atheisme and make that a proofe of their faith which Solomon brings only as a proofe of some mens infidelity The Preacher in this Book personated those whom he abhor'd and sometimes speakes the practises of other men not his own opinion There is no more reason to ground this Tenet of the Soules Mortality upon those texts then there is of encouragement to intemperancie in that chap. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine own heart Or in that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 32. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die If any would learne Solomons own sence about this point let him reade it as plaine as words can make it Eccl. 12. 7. Then namely when man dies shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it So then to the next before us the soule is not a wind but the Hujusmodi sententiâ— regressum animarum in corpora minin è negant sed necessitatem moriendi confirmant celeri atem life And all those Scriptures where life is compared to wind and dying to the passing of it without returning deny the regresse or returning of the soule to a naturall not to an eternall life and imply the short stay of the soule in the body and certaine departure from it not a not being when it parts These two must part and so part as never to returne to that estate againe Thus Iob expounds himselfe in the words following Mine eye shall no more see good Or as the Hebrew I shall not return to see good answerable to the metaphor of a wind it passeth away and returnes no more To see In this place as often elsewhere is to enjoy I shall not Videre bonum pro frui nota locutio est enjoy good Psal 4. 6. Who will shew or who will cause us to see any good It was not the bare sight of good which they desired but the enjoyment of it So Ier. 17. 6. The man whose heart departeth from God is threatned that he shall not see when good cometh that is he shall not enjoy good when it comes For though to see good be a mercy yet to see it and not to tast it is a curse Therefore at the last day they who thought themselves high in Gods favour but were indeed under his wrath are told that they shall Lam. 13. 26. see Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdome of God and themselves shut out they shall see what they cannot enjoy and that sight shall adde to their sorrow The Prophet cries out Lament 3. 1. I am the man that hath seen affliction that is I am the man that hath felt and had experience of afflictions And Psalm 16. 10. the great promise to Christ is that though he took a corruptible body upon him yet he should not see corruption that is partake of corruption corruption should have no communion with much lesse power over him And we have the same use of the word in this book chap. 20. ver 17. where Zophar tells the hypocrite that God will deprive and strip him of every good thing He shall not see the rivers the floods the brookes of honey and butter It is a rhetoricall expresson comparing the affluence of outward things to floods and rivers and brooks which send forth their streames plentifully as if he had said though there be great store of honey and butter those two are specified for the rest though there be rivers brooks and streames of these commodities yet he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall see none of them that is he shall not enjoy or tast a drop of Sicut Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latini bonum aliquando pro pulchro commodo utili usurpant Isa subinde Hebraei vocabudum Tob Fagius in Gen. 2. 18 them That unbeleeving Lord is told by Elisha that he should see plenty in Samaria the next day but should not eate thereof 2 King 7. 2. Not to see is not to eat and he that sees but eates not is not releeved but troubled at the sight Mine eye shall not see good What good when a man dies shall he see no more good we see but little good while we live and the greatest good is to be seen when we die or rather while we live what doe we see but evill and when the Saints die what have they to see but good how is it then that Iob saith when I die mine eye shall not see good what miserable creatures were we if there were no good to be seen beyond the line of this life our richest stock of comfort lyes in the good we shall see hereafter which is therefore called the blessed-making vision And Iob knew well enough that his eyes should see good after death for he saith chap. 19. 27. with these eyes shall I see God he knew also his soule had an eye to see good and a better good then ever he saw in the world while his body lay in the grave Then his meaning of Mine eye shall no more see good is no more worldly good none of †these good things which I have seen I shall be above the smart of earthly sorrows and above the sence of earthly joyes Good is either natural or civill or spirituall When God created the world he looked upon all that he bad made and he saw that all was very good Civill good is the order peace and prosperity of the world death stops the sight of all this good As for eternall or spirituall good death cannot close or dimme the eye against those objects Then here is no plea for Atheists against the resurrection nor any against the soules Being or being awake till the resurrection Iob speakes only about the speare and course of nature when man dies naturally and is in the state of the dead he enjoyes nothing he acts nothing according to the estate of the living * In his
should see none of it when he died so because when he died others should see him no more all his beauty riches and good things must be buried with him There is an elegancy in putting these two together to see and be seen Death stops both it takes us from seeing and it takes us from being seen As all the good we have will be hid from our eyes so all our glory and excellency will be obscured from the eyes of others in the dark chambers of the grave Thine eyes are upon me and I am not Job speaks of a three-fold eye 1. Of his own eye Mine eye shall see no more good Verse 7. 2. Of the eye of men The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more 3. Of the eye of God Thine eyes are upon me and I am not He doth not say Thine eyes are upon me and thou shalt not see me Gods eye looks into the grave and can see there when we are out of the eyes of men we are in the eye of God therefore he saith Thine eyes are upon me and I am not as if he had said Lord if thou shalt defer a little to help me and then shouldest come to look for thy Job I shall be dead I shall be laid in the grave I shall not be capable of remedy if my remedy be deferr'd it is too late to give a man a cordial when he is dead Thou shalt Tuornm beneficiorum si forte cupias humanitus loquitur cum occulto questu neglectus sui uon ero capax Cocc not have a Job to helpe if thou dost not help him quickly Some understand it in a spiritual sence Thine eyes are upon me as if he should say Lord thine eyes are upon me to search me and try out my wayes and alas I am not I am not able to stand before thy justice before thy pure eyes which can behold none iniquity But rather take it as an appeal to God whether or no he were not near death Thou Lord seest I am as a dead man as a man not to be numbred among the living Therefore if thou wilt deliver me let thy loving-kindnesse speedily prevent me for I am brought very low As a sick man in some acute disease hastens his Physitian Sir give me somewhat presently or I am gone you cannot but see I am a borderer upon death Thine eyes are upon me and I am not That is I am not alive I am not among the children of men Not to be doth not import a not-being but a not appearing I am not as I was nor can I long be at all Rachel wept for her children because they were not Josephs brethren said to their Father Joseph is not and Job himself in the 21. of this Chapter explains this to be his sence Thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be Death is a great devourer it sweeps all that appears of man into the grave The world shall no more enjoy him nor he the world this is mans not being when he dies as the two following verses further explain by an elegant similitude Verse 9. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth downe to the grave shall come up no more 10. He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job having moved the Lord to take notice of and compassionate his transitory condition his life being but like the hastening wind He gives us another comparison to the same sence and purpose There his life was but a wind and here it is but a cloud As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more c. The cloud in a naturall notion is a thick and moist vapour drawn up from the earth by the heat of the Sunne to the middle region of the aire and by the coldnesse of that heavenly country where snow and haile c. are made and stor'd up is further condens'd congeal'd and thickn'd and so hangs or moves partly from natural causes the Sunne and wind but especially by supernatural the mighty power and appointment of God like an huge mountain in the aire To this cloud Job compares the vanishing estate of this life As the cloud such a cloud as you see hanging in the aire is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consumed or spent The same word is used at the 6. Verse My life is spent without hope A cloud comes to it's height and then 't is quickly disperst and vanisheth away The letter of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambulavit ivit per metalepsin de rebus evanescentibus intereunti bus c. is It goeth or walketh away The walke of the clouds is according to the walk of the winds we cal it the Rack of the clouds When the Heavens are as it were all masked with clouds and a black vail or curtain drawn between us and the Sun the winds in a little time dissipate and scatter them It is usual in Scripture to compare those things which are vanishing suddenly consumed to clouds In which sence Isai 44. 22. the sins of the Saints are compared to a cloud and the pardoning of their sins to this consuming and scattering of the cloud I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins A cloud is but a kind of a blot in the pure parchment-roll of the skies I am sure a cloud of sinne is a foule blot in the roll of our lives Blot a fair writing and you cannot read it but blot out the blots and then 't is legible again yet the blotting out of sinne intimates it fair written as an evidence or a record against us till a pardon blots it out In which sence Christ is said to have blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us Col. 2. 14. Thy sins O Israel so the Lord seems to speak in the Prophet are as a cloud to hinder the shining of the light of my countenance upon thee like blots they hinder thee from reading the evidences of my favour or they stand like evidences of guilt against thee But I have blotted out this cloud that is I have pardon'd thy sins and by the breath of my favour and free grace scatter'd thy transgressions with all the evils and sequels which they naturally bring forth So that now the light shines fair and warm upon thee the evidences which were against thee cannot be read and thou mayest read the evidences of my love and mercy towards thee The sins of the Saints are but vanishing clouds whereas sin in it selfe and the sins of all those who are out of Christ are an abiding cloud they are a cloud firme and immoveable like a mountain of brass or a rock of stone Sins make such a cloud as no power in Heaven or earth is able to consume but the power of mercy and a