and disposing the affliction of Job 2. The subordinate efficient cause and that was Satan he was an efficient but under God Satan found out other instruments and tooles to doe it by but he was an efficient subordinate unto God And the Text discovers him three wayes 1. By his diligence in tempting ver 7. 2. By his malice in slandering ver 9 10 11. 3. By his cruelty in solliciting the overthrow and affliction of Job ver 11. Secondly We have the materiall cause of Jobs affliction or in what matter he was afflicted and that is laid downe first positively in those words All that he hath is in thy power that is his outward estate that was the matter wherein he was afflicted Then it is laid downe negatively in those words Only upon himselfe put not forth thy hand God doth set him out how farre the affliction shall go in the things that he hath thou shalt afflict him but thou shalt not meddle with his person with his body or with his soule Thirdly The finall cause of Jobs affliction and that is the practicall and experimentall determination decision or stating of a great question that was betweene God and Satan concerning Jobs sincerity God tells Satan that Job was a good and a just man Satan he denies it and saith that Job was an hypocrite Now the determination of this question was the generall finall cause of Jobs affliction When on the one side God affirmes it and on the other side Satan denies how shall it be tryed Who shall be the Moderatour and Vmpire between them Satan will not believe God and God had no reason to believe Satan How then should this be made out It is as if Satan had said Here is your yea and my nay this question will never be ended or decided betweene us unlesse you will admit some course to have Job soundly afflicted This will quickly discover what metall the man is made of therefore let him come to the tryall saith Satan Let him saith God behold all that he hath is in thy power doe thy worst to him onely upon his person put not forth thy hand So that I say the generall finall cause of Jobs affliction is the determination of the question the decision of the dispute betweene God and Satan whether Job was a sincere and holy man or no. And all this to give you the summe of those 6. verses a little further is here set forth and described unto us after the manner of men by an Anthropopathie which is when God expresses himselfe in his actions and dispensations with and toward the world as if he were a man So God doth here he presents himselfe in this businesse after the manner of some great King sitting upon his Throne having his servants attending him and taking an account of them what they had done or giving Instructions and Commissions to them what they shall doe This I say God doth here after the manner of men for otherwise we are not to conceive that God doth make certaine dayes of Session with his creatures wherin he doth call the good and bad Angels together about the affaires of the world we must not have such grosse conceits of God for he needs receive no information from them neither doth he give them or Satan any formall Commission neither is Satan admitted into the presence of God to come so neare God at any time neither is God moved at all by the slanders of Satan or by his accusations to deliver up his servants and children into his hands for a moment But onely the Scripture speakes thus to teach us how God carries himselfe in the affaires of the world even as if he sate upon his throne and call'd every creature before him and gave each a direction what and when and where to worke how farre and which way to move in every action So that these 6. verses following which containe the causes of Jobs affliction are as we may so speake the Scheme or draught of providence that may be the title of them If a man would delineat providence he might doe it thus suppose God upon his throne with Angels good and bad yea all creatures about him and he directing sending ordering every one as a Prince doth his Subjects or as a Master his servants doe you this and doe you that c. so all is ordered according to his Dictate Thus all things in Heaven and Earth are disposed of by the unerring wisdome and limited by the Almighty power of God Such a representation as this we reade in 1 King 22.19 Where Micaiah said to Ahab Heare thou the word of the Lord I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne and all the Hoast of Heaven standing by him And so he goeth on to shew how a spirit came and offered himselfe to be a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets This is only a shadow of providence there was no such thing really acted God did not conveene or call together a Synod of spirits to advise with de Arduis Regni about hard or doubtfull cases nor are wicked spirits admitted into his presence onely by this we are instructed and assured that God doth as exactly order all things in Heaven and earth as if he stood questioning or interrogating good Angels men and devills concerning those matters Having thus given some light about these six verses in generall I shall open the particulars Now there was a day The Jewish Rabbins trouble themselves much to find out what day this was They say it was the first day of the yeare Others that it was the Sabbath day But I account it a disadvantage to a cleare truth when it is proved by an obscure text The Sabbath hath proofe enough before the law though this be spared The holy Ghost hath told us only that there was a day or certain time When the sonnes of God In Gen. 6.2 The posterity of Seth who were the visible Church at that time are called the sons of God The unanimous consent of all Expositors I have met with is that here the sonnes of God are the good Angels so also they are called Cap. 38.7 of this booke Some it may be will object against this Exposition that of the Apostle in Heb. 1.5 To which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my sonne How then doe you interpret here that the sons of God are the Angels when as the Apostle hath exprest to which of the Angels c. I answer that the Angells are not the sonnes of God as the Apostle there expresseth they are not the sonnes of God by eternall Generation but they are the sonnes of God by temporall Creation for so he speakes there To which of the Angels said he thou art my sonne this day have I begotten thee They are not the begotten sonnes of God but they are the created sonnes of God And the Angels are called the sons of God in 3 respects First Because of their
And that this was a greater affliction then any of or then all the former is so cleare that I shall not need to stay long in the confirming of it only to quicken the point a little take notice of the greatnesse of it in 5 respects First It appeareth without controversie to be the greatest of all because it was upon his children a mans children are more then all that he hath in the world a mans children are himselfe every child is the father multiplyed A sonne is the fathers bowells and therefore when Paul wrote to Philemon concerning Onesimus whom saith he I have begotten in my bonds sc to the faith of Christ Receive him who is mine owne bowels A spirituall sonne is the very bowells of a Minister he doth but allude to a naturall sonne a sonne is the very bowels of the father this affliction reached unto the very bowels of Job himselfe Satan had no leave to afflict the body of Job and yet you see he afflicts him in his very bowels Secondly The greatnesse of it is seene in this his children were all taken away To loose all our children is a grievous as to loose an only child Now that is made a cause of the highest sorrows Zach. 12.10 They shall mourne for him as one that mourneth for an only sonne that is they shall mourne most bitterly Now as the measure of mercies may be taken by the comforts which they produce so we may take the measure of an affliction by the sorrow which it produceth And that is the greatest affliction which causeth the greatest sorrow Thirdly It was a further greatning of the affliction that they were all taken away suddenly Had death sent them summons by its usuall messenger sicknesse but a day before to prepare themselves it had much sweetned the bitternesse of this cup but to heare they were dead before he knew they were sick yea when he thought they were merry and rejoycing how sad was this Fourthly That they died a violent death by a mighty wind casting the house downe upon them Had they dyed in their beds though suddenly it had bin some ease to the Fathers heart violent death hath an impression of wrath upon it And men can hardly judge well of those who fall by such judgements Suspition will arise if censure passe not from better men then Barbarians if they see a viper on the hand of a Paul Act. 28. It is more then probable from our Saviours question that those eighteene upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell and slew them were commonly supposed greater sinners or sinners above all men that dwelt in Hierusalem Luk. 18.4 Fifthly They were all taken away when they were feasting and this did exceedingly aggravate the affliction upon Job that his children were all destroied feasting for you know what the thoughts of Job were concerning his children at their feasting after they had done he offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all for he said it may be my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Now at this time when Satan knew that Job was most solicitous lest his children should sinne at that time doth he destroy them that so their father might be afflicted with the thought that his children died unreconciled to God that they died with sinne upon them unrepented of That they died a double death death at once seasing upon both soule and body This then was a further degree of Satans malice to wound vexe and grieve the spirit of Job unto the utmost How sadly and pissionatly did David lament Absoloms death Some conceive this was the head of the Arrow that pierced him because he feared his sonne died in a sinfull condition he was suddenly taken away in his rebellion unreconciled either to God or man Such a thought might fall upon Jobs heart my children are suddenly dead and dead feasting it may be they forgot God it is possible they sinned in feasting and cursed God in their hearts Alas my children died before they could so much as thinke of death I feare they are gone rejoycing to Hell where they shall weepe for evermore Doubtlesse Satan did or might fasten such a temptation upon his heart who was so tender of his childrens soules and so fearfull of their sinning in feasting So then it is cleare from all these particular considerations that this was the greatest affliction Be prepared then not onely to receive another affliction but to receive a greater affliction and have thoughts of receiving the greatest affliction at the last Satan will come with his strongest assaults when thou art weakest At the time of death when he seeth he can doe no more but that he must then doe it or never doe it then thou shalt be sure to have the strongest temptations It should therefore stirre up the people of God still to looke for more and more strength to beare afflictions and tentations and to beg from Christ the greatest strength at last because they may justly feare the greatest temptations at last If as Satan doth greaten his temptations Christ doth greaten his assistance we shall be able to beare them and be more then conquerours over them So much of this fourth charge in the generall I shall now open the words more particularly for those in the 18th verse I shall not need to say any thing of them they have been handled before at the 13th verse which runnes thus And there was a day when his sonnes and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their Eldest brothers house The 19th verse describes the manner of this tryall And behold there came a great wind from the wildernesse c. And behold Ecce or behold in Scripture ever notes more then ordinary matter following 1. Great things call for attention 2. That which is sudden and unexpected calls us to behold it 3. Rare things things seldome seen invite all to see and wonder at them Here is matter of admiration What God threatens in the Law he seemes to fulfill upon Job I will make their plagues wonderfull There is no Ecce prefixed to any of the former three affiictions but this as being the most strange and terrible comes in with an Ecce And behold There came a great wind It was a wind and a great wind that came The wind is elegantly said to come as the Sunne out of his chamber and rejoycing as a strong man to runne a race Psal 19.5 Hence the word which the Latines use for the wind is derived from a word that signifies to come Because the wind comes with force and violence The wind in the nature of it is an exhalation arising from the earth drawne upwards by the power of the Sunne and other Heavenly bodies but meeting and conflicting a while with the cold of the middle region of the ayre is beaten backe againe And being so light that naturally it cannot descend and so resisted that it cannot peaceably ascend it takes a
the house of the Lord the people shewing their willingnesse and readinesse exprest it thus Let us rise up and build that is let us build as we say out of hand speedily Secondly To arise implyes the courage constancy and strength of those who undertake or goe about a businesse they arise and doe it that is they doe it with spirit So here it may import as much concerning Job in his sufferings He arose and rent his mantle that is though he heard all these sad relations yet his spirit was not overwhelmed he was not drowned in those sorrowes he did not sinke downe under them but he arose and rent his mantle c. as if he had raised himselfe up to wrestle with the temptation and the tempter to wrestle with Satan himselfe In this sense the Lord is said to arise Isa 33.8 9. where there is that sad description of the Land The Earth mourneth and languisheth Lebanon is ashamed c. Now will I rise saith the Lord now will I be exalted that is now will I come and shew my selfe with a mighty power for the deliverance of my people I will be exalted and they shall rejoyce That prayer of the old Church Arise O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered hath the same intendment desiring the Lord to goe forth armed with strength for the helpe of his people and the subduing of their enemies Thus Job arose bound with a four-fold cord of affliction he raised himselfe up like Sampson though in humility yet with strength and courage And so it is opposed to the sinking of the spirit under troubles as you know the spirit of Eli did 1 Sam. 4.18 There was sad tydings brought to Eli concerning the death of his sonnes and the taking of the Arke the Text saith As soone as he heard these things he fell downe backward he had no spirit no strength left in him he did not arise and rend his garment but he sunke downe and brake his necke When Nabal heard of the danger that his churlish and inhospitable answer had almost drawne upon him 1 Sam. 25.37 His heart dyed within him and he became as a stone When all that Job had was dead and gone his heart lived yea he was erecto animo of a raised spirit not only when he arose but when he fell upon the ground for then he worshipped and worship is the lifting up of the soule to God In the worship of God while the body is upon the knee the mind is or ought to be upon the wing And rent his mantle That is the second act Renting or garments is very often spoken of in Scripture and wee finde it especially in these two cases In case of extreame sorrow and in case of extreame indignation In case of extreame sorrow and that of two kinds either in the sorrows of afflictions or in the sorrowes repentance in both these we find renting of the garments For the sorrowes of outward affliction so we reade frequently of renting garments When Jacob heard of the death of Joseph when his sonnes brought him home the bloudy Coat saying but falsely that surely their brother was torne with wilde beasts he presently rent his garment And when the relation of the death of Saul was brought to Davids eare to expresse his sorrow He tooke hold on his cloathes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him and so againe afterward at the funerall of Abner David rent his cloathes and gave order to all the people that were with him to do the like In great funeral or fatall mournings it was usuall among the Hebrews to rent their garments This also was a frequent custome among the Heathen as the Poet describes a mourner in his mixt lamentations for private and publike losses he went with his garments torne being astonished at the death of his wife and the ruine of the City Many such instances there are amongst their ancient Historians Secondly It was used in token of Repentance when sorrowes for sinne brake forth and multiplied Josh 7.6 When Joshua humbled himselfe upon the defeat flight and slaughter of the Israelites before Ai it is said he rent his cloathes and fell to the Earth This renting was of their garments in respect of the outward affliction but withall in token of repentance for Joshua and the people humbled themselves with fasting So when the booke of the Law was read to Josiah and he saw how farre they had departed from the rule and word of God it is said He rent his clothes and he was afraid he humbled himself and his heart was tender before God But it may be objected that in the 2. Joel 13. when we are exhorted to rent the heart we are stop'd from renting the garment Rent your hearts and not your garments in the case of Repentance For answer to that I say the Not there is not an absolute prohibition of renting the garment it is not so much a negation as a direction Rent your hearts and not your garments that is Rent your hearts rather then your garments or Rent your hearts more then your garments or be sure that you rent your hearts whatsoever ver you doe with your garments Negations doe not alwayes quite deny a thing in the 2 Cor. 3.6 take an instance for it where the Apostle treating of the preheminence of the Gospell in the new dispensation saith Who hath made us able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit Not there doth not deny as if the Ministers of Christ did not speake and publish the letter of the word for the letter of the word is the vessell wherin the Spirit is contained and unlesse we speake the letter to the eare the Spirit cannot in an ordinary way come into the heart therefore understand the Apostles meaning thus he hath made us able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit that is he hath made us Ministers rather of the spirit then of the letter or more of the spirit then of the letter because of the promise of the plentifull effusion of the Spirit after the ascension of Christ A further instance we have in that speech of God I will have mercy and not sacrifice That is rather mercy then sacrifice Sacrifice is not rejected but mercy is preferr'd So Rent your hearts and not your garments that is rather rent your hearts then your garments For otherwise you find that not only it was lawfull as in the former places in times of repentance and sorrow to rend the garments but they are taxed because they did not repent and rend their garments The not renting the garment is charged as a conviction of an un-rent heart When the roull of curses that Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah was read before Jehojakim and his Courtiers the King cut the roll with a pen-knife and cast it into the fire their impenitence is thus described yet they were not afraid nor rent
was the absence of cloathing or a not using of cloathes it was not the want of cloathing But the nakednesse Job speaks of is the nakednes after the fall properly where nakednesse importeth not only a not having of cloaths but want of cloathing and so nakednesse is a part of that curse and punishment which followed sin Naked came I out of my mothers wombe that is I came into the world in a sad and miserable condition weake and poore And so nakednesse is put not strictly as opposed onely to cloathing but we may take it more largely for the want of all outward comforts whatsoever I came a poore destitute creature into the world I had not onely no cloathing upon my backe but I had no comfort for my body I brought neither Sheepe nor Oxen nor children nor servants into the world with me I had none of these things nothing to helpe me of my owne when I first set footing into the world Some Naturalists considering this kind of nakednesse have fallen out into great complaints against nature or indeed rather against the God of nature as Pliny in the Preface to his 7th booke of his naturall History doth as it were chide with nature for turning man into the world in such a helpelesse forlorne condition as if man were dealt with more hardly then any other creature then any beasts of the field or foules of the aire Other creatures saith he come into the world with haire or fleeces or bristles or scales or feathers or wings or shels c. to defend and cover them but nature casts man naked upon the naked ground This he spake not considering that nakednesse was once no trouble but rather an honour and an ornament and this he spake not knowing whence or how that kind of troublesome nakâ—â—nesse came into the world And this he spake not observing as he might how many wayes God hath provided for the helpe and supply of that nakednesse giving man understanding and reason in stead of weapons and cloathes which also are a meanes for the procuring of all things necessary for the supporting of that naked and weake perishing condition Naked shall I returne thither The difficulty that is in this lyeth onely in that word Thither the doubt is what place he meanes or whither What into my mothers wombe There is no such returne as Nicodemus said Shall a man that is old goe into his mothers wombe and be borne againe Some answer it thus The Adverbe thither doth not necessarily referre to the literall antecedent but in Scripture sometimes Relatives referre to somewhat in the mind or in the thought of the speaker and not to that which was before spoken by him as that of Mary sheweth Joh. 20.15 when she commeth into the garden and findes that Christ was risen she meeteth Christ and supposing him to be the Gardiner saith unto him Sir if you have borne him hence Him what him There was no antecedent mentioned to which Him should relate only Maries mind was so full of Christ that she thought every one would understand what him or whom she spake of as if none could speake of or thinke any thing but of Christ only Therefore she made the relation to that which was in her owne spirit and not to what was formerly exprest So some Interpreters make the thither to be God or the grave I shall returne unto God or I shall return to the grave to the house of the grave as the Chaldee paraphrase hath it For they suppose Job had his mind full of those thoughts therfore he may make a relation to that Another consideration for the clearing of it is this that such Adverbes of place as this is doe not only signifie place but a state or a condition wherein any one is or to which any thing or person is brought as it is ordinary in our speech to say hitherto I have brought the matter that is to this state or to this condition So when Job saith Naked shall I returne thither that is I shall returne to such a condition or to such an estate as I was naked before so I shall returne to a state of nakednes againe But thirdly that which may more clearely carry it the thither which Job here speakes of may be understood of the earth or the grave Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither to the wombe of the earth which is the grave and so there may be in the latter a reference unto the former taking the one properly the other improperly taking the earth for his mothers wombe in an improper sense sc the earth which is the common parent from whence we all came and to which we all returne the earth shall receive and take in all mankind again when man dyes the earth opens her bowels and receiveth him in and which makes her once more a mother the earth at last being as it were with-child or rather bigg with children shall travell in paine and groaning to be delivered shall by the mighty power of God bring forth man-kind againe There shall be a mighty birth from the wombe of the earth at the last day In Scripture the resurrection is called a birth in the day of the resurrection man-kind is a new begotten by God and man-kind is a new-borne that cleares it Psal 2.7 Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee which words are applyed by Paul Act. 13.33 to the resurrection of Christ God hath fulfilled the promise made unto the Fathers unto us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus againe as it is also written in the second Psalme Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee And as Christ so all men but especially all Christians shall be againe begotten by the power of God and borne from the wombe of the earth in the day of their resurrection So much for the understanding of these words Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither I shall collect some Observations from them two wayes First as they containe a generall truth 2. As they are an argument or a reason for the support of a man in such a sad condition as Job was then reduced unto In the former way observe First That every man is borne a poore helpelesse naked creature The soule is naked of all that is good there is not a rag of grace upon it when we come into the world Our bodies are naked too so that we are borne with nothing upon us but only an ugly dresse of sinne such as may justly make God loath us and us a terrour to our selves Naked came I into the world this one thought well taken in and fully digested will lay pride in the dust this thought that we were borne thus naked will strip us of all high and proud thoughts of our selves Secondly Naked shall I returne Note When death commeth it shakes us out of all our
They love cursing they cloath themselves with cursing as with a garment Psal 109.17 18. Cursing as one of the Ancients complained in his time is now made the common weapon of anger and wrath wishes that evill which because of weaknesse it cannot worke If cursing could have done it we had not been a people at this day How often hath Balack out of feare or envy at our prosperity sent to Balaam I meane the false prophet that dwels on the seven hils come curse Israel come defie England how often hath that Balaam curs'd our Israel We have heard of his Anniversary Anathemaes wherein this Church and state have been struck with the thunder and lightning of his Papal curse But the curse causelesse saith Solomon shall not come And we may say to England as Moses did to Israel concerning Balaams curse Deut. 23.5 Neverthelesse the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam But the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the Lord thy God loved thee And what David prai'd about Shimei's curse we have seene come to passe The Lord hath requited us good for his cursing 2 Sam. 16.12 We have far greater cause to feare the blessing of Rome then the curse of Rome But to returne The result of all is this When God pronounceth a curse he makes it to be a curse man at the worst can but wish a curse and pronounce it Man is but the minister God is the Master of the curse God can inflict it man can but think or wish it Another thing here questionable is Whether it be lawfull to curse the creature Job curseth his day The rule of the Apostle is Rom. 12.4 Blesse and curse not In some cases to curse is Gods command and our duty and then we are Gods ministers for wrath against the wicked Many times man though forbidden curses then it is his sin and he is Satans minister for evill against his brother There are some cases wherein we may curse When the Patriark Jacob was upon his death bed and bed of blessing he yet pronounced a curse upon the rage and anger of his two sonnes Simeon and Levi Gen. 49.7 Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel We may curse the plots and counsels of wicked men enemies of Christ and of his people we may curse the persons of wicked men as implacable enemies of Christ and of his people So David more then once in the Booke of Psalmes yet it is to be considered that some of those Psalmes are Prophecies of a curse not pronunciations of a curse And in all lawfull cursings we must observe these two rules First To aime the curse at the destruction of the sin not of the sinner Secondly Where the sinner appeares incorrigible yet to desire the clearing up of Gods Justice in punishing not the punishment it selfe To curse any thing or person passionately is infirmity To curse any thing or person maliciously is grosse impiety There is a third doubt the resolving of which will further cleare the Scripture to us that is Whether a day be an object capable of a curse or no It is a question moved by the Schoole-men whether a blessing and a curse doe belong to any but a reasonable creature or whether any thing else be a subject capable of a blessing or a curse And they resolve it that nothing is properly the subject of blessing and cursing but a reasonable creature Therefore a day which is a part of time is in it selfe incapable of a curse Those things only are capable of penall evils which are capable of morall evils A day is not cannot be morally evill though there be many morall evils acted in the day The Apostle adviseth us to redeeme the time because the dayes are evill Ephes 5.15 Times are called evill in regard both of troublesome evils and sinfull evils From evill men and evill manners dayes are denominated evill yet dayes in themselves are not evill morally and so not lyable to a curse which is a penall evill Further Those creatures which have life in them and have no reason in them are on the same ground incapable of a curse whereas it is said that God cursed the ground and cursed the serpent Gen. 3.14 17. neither the ground nor the serpent were cursed in themselves or for their own sakes The serpent an unreasonable creature had not the knowledge of God and the earth a senslesse creature could not feele the power of God therefore the curse upon those creatures was only in order to and as a punishment of the sin of man The Text is expresse Gen. 3.17 Cursed be the earth for thy sake The earth there comprehends all the creatures living on the face of the earth besides man These are cursed for mans sake As those creatures at the first received not a being or a blessing for themselves but for mans good so they receive not any evill or curse but for mans punishment So we are to understand those places in Deut. 28. Cursed be thy basket and thy store c. God threatens a curse on these creatures the fruits of the earth c. in order to mans disobedience But it shall come to passe if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to doe all his Commandements c. that all these curses shall came upon thee and overtake thee ver 15. Observe That the curse is threatned to come on them to overtake them When the basket was curs'd when the increase of the kine and the flocks of the sheepe were cursed man was cursed For we may say in the letter as David did in a figure when the Angell of the Lord smote his people with the pestilence 2 Sam. 24. Alas what have these sheepe done that they should be smitten with a curse As in pulling downe the house of a Traitor the revenge is not taken against the materials of the house but against the Master of the house So then for the resolution of this point take it thus No creature below man is or can be accursed by God or man properly terminately or ultimately That is in it selfe or for it selfe or from it selfe but only improperly and relatively namely with respect to what man should doe hath done or suffered First in reference to what man should doe so Christ cursed the fig-tree to teach man either the duty of fruitfulnesse to the glory of God or of faith in the power of God Secondly in reference to what man hath done the sin of man thus God cursed the serpent and the ground The serpent was cursed both for admonition to man and for a punishment on man God to admonish man how much he hated sin punishes an irrationall instrument of sin and by that enmity planted in the serpent as a curse punishes mans too much familiarity with the serpent
other thing for him how hard soever He knew he could never be in such straights but the power of God could deliver him when he once remembred that it was God who tooke him out of his mothers womb For in the words immediately fore-going he bringeth in his enemies laughing at yea reproaching him and saying He trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him They jeere him with his God let him deliver him David answers What doe ye think God cannot deliver me Lord saith he thou art he that tookest me out of my mothers wombe Can I ever be in such straights as I was then can I ever be in a more helplesse condition Can I ever be in more need of an Almighty helpe then when I was strugling to get into the world There is more of the power of God put forth in bringing a poore infant into the world then in bringing him out of any trouble or straight he can fall into in his travels through the world And hence the great deliverances of a people from danger and their reformations from errour are called a birth as King Hezekiah speakes in his message to Isaiah 2 King 19.4 The children are come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth As if he had said great things are now attempted but nothing can be perfected great troubles are discovered but we cannot be delivered by any humane power or policy Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left Every new deliverance and reformation of a Church is a new-birth of that Church Who hath heard such a thing who hath seene such things shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day or shall a Nation be borne at once for assoone as Zion travailed shee brought forth her children That is Sions mercies were speedily and suddainely obtained She uses to have long travaile and many throes but now the mighty power of God opened the doore of the wombe a doore of hope and Sion was easily delivered of a man-child A glorious mercy Isai 66.8 You see how the holy Ghost paralels the working of great things for the Church to the travaile of a woman whose infant sticks in the birth if God suspend his helpe but if he open the doore by a hand of gracious providence she brings forth Even before she travailes as the same Prophet speakes and before she is in paine she is delivered I have adventured to lengthen out this notion somewhat further then that hint in the Text doth well beare only because we being a people now in strong travaile and wanting strength to bring forth may be directed to consider whose hand holds the key which opens the wombe of Nations as well as persons and at the turning of whose hand we shall quickly be delivered and being delivered we shall quickly forget all our paines and pangs for joy that a man-child such a masculine blessing is borne into the world But the Text goes on still in teares As followes Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes The word which we translate sorrow signifies more properly labour and wearinesse or the wearinesse that doth arise from labour and so from thence it is translated to signifie any kind of sorrow or trouble Because it hid not sorrow from mine eyes By the hiding of sorrow from his eyes he noteth only thus much that he should have been delivered from the sense and experience of sorrow He had mist those evills which he met with since his coming into the world if those doores being shut had shut him out of the world When sorrow is hid from our eyes then all evill is removed as in that speech Isai 65.16 Because the former troubles are forgotten because they are hidden from mine eyes that is as if he had said we feare no trouble no danger no evill hangs over out heads now the former evills are forgotten they are hidden from mine eyes As we use to say of great dangers that they are imminent dangers they hang over our heads or hang before our eyes because they lye so neere and are in such a readinesse to oppresse and fall upon us Now when Job subjoyneth sorrow to his birth as if assoone as ever the doores were open for him to step into the world the first object he met with was trouble and he was saluted by sorrow as soone as ever he saw the light Observe That man is borne to sorrow He sees sorrow the first thing he sees Sorrow is his first acquaintance The connection is very close Because it shut not up the doores of the wombe nor hid sorrow from mine eyes Eliphaz tells us chap. 5.7 That man is borne unto trouble as the sparkes flie upward He is born to it the expression implies that trouble sorrow take hold of us or we enter upon and take hold of trouble assoone as ever we enter upon the world we are borne to them trouble and sorrow are a mans inheritance as an heyre is borne to his land or estate Man hath a right to those troubles they are his birth-right and all his birth-right by nature and assoone as ever he is borne he takes possession of sorrow or sorrow possesses him Many a man is borne to riches and a great estate but he stayeth a great while for the possession of them man is borne to trouble and he enters upon that assoone as ever he enters the world sorrow is not his inheritance in reversion but in possession Even as the sparkes flie upward that explaines it to be so as the sonnes of the Coale so the Hebrew that is sparkes assoone as ever they are borne out of the coale flie upward and are presently ascending so is man tending unto trouble Few and evill have the dayes of the yeeres of my life beene saith Jacob Gen. 47.9 How few soever they have been they have been evill if his life had been but one day that had been an evill day If his life had not been lengthened to the least number of days yet his evills had multiplied to a number in few houres we have many sorrowes Some make the infants teares a presage of these sorrowes as if he wept to thinke upon what a shore of trouble he is landed Or rather into what a Sea of stormes he is lanching when he comes into the world such stormes as he shall never be fully quit of till he is harboured in his grave Wherefore as the Angell said unto the woman Luk. 24.5 Why seeke yee the living among the dead So I may say to you why seeke ye peace in a land of trouble and joy in a land of sorrow These are reserved for us in our countrey which is above expect them not here for this is not your rest Secondly We may note from this expression Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes That the sight of the eye wounds the heart He doth not say and hid trouble from my soule or trouble
the spheare of nature can see no misery so miserable or evill so bad as not to be But a Divine can he sees two things worse First An everlasting staine and guilt of sin lying upon the soule Secondly The everlasting wrath and displeasure of God powred out upon the whole man Hence Christ saith of Judas who betrayed him Mat. 26.24 It had beene good for that man if he had not been borne because that accursed act joyned with his impenitence and unbeleefe subjected him to everlasting misery to wrath for evermore It had been good he had never been borne rather then to fall into such a sin and from that to fall into Hell Not to be borne is in this place as much as not to be And it had been good for him not to have beene borne is as much as to say it had been better for him not to have beene borne It had been better for him not to have been then to have committed such a sin to lie under such wrath and to loose such happinesse for ever Though a state of damnation considered abstractedly be better then no state at all that is then a not being yet in the concrete it is not better to be damned then not to be In it selfe eternall misery is better then a non-entity but a man eternally miserable is worse then a non-ens And without doubt it will be the eternall desire of the damned and that desire is both a part and an encrease of their misery that they never had been or now might cease to be rather then continue to be miserable Now to shut up and resolve the question as to the ground of it Jobs complaint in this Text I say Job was only in the present feeling of temporall troubles and he was beyond the feare of eternall Therefore number this among his failings that he wisht he had never been conceived because he was thus afflicted JOB 3. Ver. 14 15 16 17 18. Verse 14. With Kings and Counsellours of the earth which build desolate places for themselves Or with Princes that had gold who filled their houses with silver Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been as infants which never saw light There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest There the prisoners rest together they heare not the voice of the oppressour c. FRom the 10th verse of this Chapter to the end of the 19th we have shewed you that Job layeth downe the cause of his former bitternesse and complainings against his day At the 10th verse he is angry because it hindred not his conception and his birth And at the 13th he giveth a further cause of that cause For then saith he I should have been at rest Now being about to prove that in death he should have found rest he doth it by an induction of particulars As if he had thus said Where all sorts of persons even they who have been hardest wrought and most troubled in the world find rest there surely I should have found rest also But in death persons that have been hardest wrought and most troubled in the world find rest therefore there I should have found rest too Now for the proving of this assumption that in death all sorts of persons find rest even those who have been most travail'd tired and worne out in the world To prove this I say he gives instance in divers almost all rankes degrees and conditions of men First In those who are great rich and wise in Kings and Counsellours of the earth which build desolate places for themselves And in Princes who had gold who filled their houses with treasure c. With Kings and Counsellors of the earth With Kings The word here used properly noteth such as rule by Law such as are opposed to Tyrants who rule according to the dictates of their own will With such Kings Counsellours are usually joyned With Kings and Counsellours of the earth Great Princes have their Councells and it is a happy conjunction when good Kings and good Counsellours meet together Yea many times bad men are good Kings when they are attended with good Counsellours Whereas evill Counsellours often make a good man a bad King and by their poisonous whispers and instillations at the eare corrupt the hearts and taint the spirits of the best Princes In the multitude of Counsellours saith Solomon Prov 15.21 there is safety The safety of Kings and the safety of Kingdomes doth consist in following this multitude Where there are good Counsellours and a multitude of them we may expect good and much good a multitude of blessings upon a Nation Now when Job had named these eminent persons Kings and Counsellours he addeth somewhat further by way of their description he giveth as it were a character of them from their studies and imployments With Kings and Counsellours of the earth which build desolate places for themselves It may seeme very doubtfull what is here meant by these desolate places and the building of them The word in the Hebrew is desolations or destructions It comes from Charab which signifies to dry up because dry places are desolate places as a desolate wildernesse for the drinesse of it being unfit to sustaine man or beast Hence the name of the Mount Horeb Exod. 3.1 called so from drinesse because there was no water Deut. 8.15 The same word also signifies a sword because the sword as we see by woefull experience makes places desolate But what Job should meane by this That Kings and Counsellours of the earth build solitary places for themselves is questionable First Some take it for an expression of vast and mighty buildings Pallaces and houses of such largenesse and content that when great Princes and Kings have their full retinue and families in them they can scarce be seen But I see no reason at all for that sense and therefore I passe it a little touch will make that opinion desolate Others by these desolate places conceive that Job meaneth Forrests and Parkes places of pleasure which Kings and great men use to build and make up for delight and recreation Or thirdly That by desolate places are meant houses built in desolate or solitary places in Woods and Forrests Princes and great men wil have their houses farre remote from Townes and places of resort that they may be free from suitors and retire when they please from the throng of the multitude It is said concerning Solomon 1 King 7.2 that after he had built the Temple and his own house for his Kingly residence he built a house in the Forrest of Lebanon But this may be called a building in rather then a building of desolate places Fourthly Rather I conceive that Kings and Counsellours of the earth may be said to build desolate places when finding places desolate and ruined they with vast expences raise up and build stately Fabriques upon them to get themselves a name As want and poverty warre and
troubles turne a Pallace into a desolate place so riches and plenty power and peace meeting together in Kings and great men turne desolate places into Pallaces Kings and Counsellours are of such wealth and power that they can alter the most desolate and ruinous places into delicate edifices and stately dwellings Or lastly Which doth best suite with the subject of Jobs discourse or curse in this Chapter He speaking so much of death by the desolate places we may understand Tombes and Sepulchers places of buriall which Kings and Counsellours build to or for themselves And so taken the sence may be given thus as if Job had said if I had died I should have lien in the grave with as much ease and quiet as those great Princes and Kings of the earth who build themselves stately monuments to lie in It would have been as well with me as with any of them though interr'd under stately tombes We know it was an ordinary thing for Kings and great men especially in ancient times to prepare for themselves costly monuments while they lived as houses for their bodies being dead Which grew to such excessive charge among the Romanes that they were forced to make a Law to restraine it The Egyptians bestowed more care and cost in building their tombes then their houses Even Abraham Gen. 23.16 bought him a burying place before he built himselfe a house though while he lived he dwelt in a moveable tent yet he would be as sure as he could of a certaine grave And good Joseph of Arimathea had made himselfe a sepulcher in a rock Math. 27.60 And it is said of Absolom 2 Sam. 18.18 That in his life time he had taken and reared up a pillar that is he had artificially raised a great pile of goodly stones in the Kings dale For he said I have no sonne to keepe my name in remembrance And he called the pillar after his own name Now as this pillar was to keepe his name so he intended it likewise to keepe his body when he should die For it being related in the verse before how as soone as he was slaine they made no more adoe with him but cast him into a great pit in the wood and layed a very great heape of stones upon him The holy Ghost to shew us the vanity of man in preparing for a dead body while he neglects an immortall soule and how God disappoints the vaine conceits of men in supposing to perpetuate their own name and greatnesse The holy Ghost I say to shew this presently subjoynes in the sacred story Now Absolom in his life time c. As if he had said Doe ye observe how this ambitious Prince was buried even tumbled into a pit with a rude heape of stones cast upon him This man had prepared himselfe another kind of monument even a sumptuous pillar c. So that under or by that pillar he had archt a curious vault for himselfe to be buried in called Absaloms place namely his burying place And the word which we have here for desolate places is in Scripture clearely applied to the grave or a place of buriall We have it in Ezek. 26.20 where the Prophet foreshewing the destruction of Tyre speakes from the Lord thus When I shall bring thee downe with them that descend into the pit and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth in places desolate of old There are three words in that verse and they are all Synonima's words of the same signification First The pit Secondly The low parts of the earth Thirdly The desolate places and all these are but severall expressions for the grave or for a place to bury in It is no more but this When I shall bring thee downe even with those that lie buried in the grave So that the word which we translate desolate places being also in other places used for the grave or a place of buriall we may very well expound it so here that desolate places are the graves or sepulchers of Kings and Princes and Counsellours of the earth which we may doe especially because Job treats in this place about death and the state of the dead Now Tombes and Monuments may be called desolate places in two respects First Because when the body is layed in there all company and all friends leave it you shall have a mighty traine following their friend to the grave but there they leave him Kings and Counsellours have stately Funerals but when their subjects or friends favourites or flatterers have brought them to the tombe and opened the doore of the grave they goe no further they will not goe in with them and dwell with their bodies in the dust of death as much as they honour'd or ador'd them when they lived so that they are in desolate places Secondly Graves may be called desolate places because Tombes and Sepulchres were in desolate places they were made in some high Mountaine or caved Valley in some place remote from the company and habitations of the living for in former times they did not bury in Cities or in Townes but in places where few came till they were carried and therefore properly called desolate places It is observed that among the Romans the first Emperour that was buried in Rome was Traian And the law of the twelve Tables did prohibit both the buriall and the burning of the dead within the City So then it is cleare that anciently Tombes and Monuments were erected in desolate places and that great cost was bestowed in building and beautifying of them both which favour and illustrate the exposition given It followes in the Text Or with Princes that had gold who fill their houses with treasure The word Sar a Prince in the Hebrew as in most other languages signifies the chiefe the head the first Some Criticks conceive that our English word Sir comes from it it is very neere in sound and so is the French word Mounsier to this Originall for a Prince or Chiefe Job describeth Princes thus they are such as had gold noting both what the study and indeavours of Princes are namely to lay up gold and likewise what is requisite for them Gold is of great use in a high estate Treasures are necessary for Princes Princes that had gold Therefore Solomon that wise Prince saith of himselfe Eccles 2.8 And he putteth it among his Princely workes I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of Kings When the Wise-men came to Christ the first thing they offered him was gold and they did wisely for he was a Prince gold being the chiefe and as it were the prince of Mettals is a very proper offering for Princes And howsoever wisedome and goodnesse justice and clemency are farre more necessary requisites in Princes then gold yet there is such a necessary conjunction of these two that we find him in the Prophet Isa 3.7 refusing the governement because he was poore Be thou our Ruler say