a vineyard to hirelings who wrought for a penny a day and at night they had every one their pay It is so in reference to the whole course of this life we are hirelings in the evening we shall have our penny verily There is a reward for the righteous their labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. And as the righteous have a reward so the wicked shall have wages Satans hirelings shall have full pay though no content for all their works The wages of sin is death there 's pay such as it is woefull pay a black penny The daies of man are as the daies of an hireling there is an issue a reward for every work Fourthly note from the Metaphor while an hireling is doing his masters work he doth his owne too that is his owne profit comes in by those acts in which he labours for another It is thus also in the generall state of man above all Christs servants and hirelings gaine by the duties of obedience they performe to Christ their own profit comes in with his honour A godly man cannot doe a stroake of worke for God but he works for himself too the servants of God must not be self-seekers and self-workers they may not make themselves their end but as it is with an hireling let him be never so upright hearted toward the master he serves let him lay self by in all he doth yet he hath a share of profit in all his labors God hath so espoused and married his owne glory and the good of man together that whosoever really promotes the one promotes both It is so likewise with those who work the works of darknesse and doe the lusts of the devill While his slaves are doing his worke they are gaining towards destruction and their owne wages encreases daily they are treasuring up wrath and judgement against the day of wrath As the measure of their sinne fils so doth the measure of their punishment Thus also the daies of man are as the daies of an hireling There are two generall observations which I shall but name because they will occurre again 1. The life of man it is short As the daies of an hireling The servant doth not abide in the hous for ever a hireling is but for a time And it is good for a man that it is so some complaine exceeding much because their lives are so exceeding little But let them weigh it well and they shall see cause to rejoyce much because they live so little In some respect it is good for wicked men that their lives are so short if their lives were longer they would be wickeder and so heaping up more sin they would heap up more wrath against themselves And it is very well for the Saints that their lives are so short Their corruptions temptations their weaknesses and infirmities their troubles and afflictions are so many that it is well their dayes are so few If they should have length of life added to heaps of sorrows and perpetuity with outward misery how miserable were they Christ promises it as a point of favour to his that the days of trouble should be shortned Except those dayes should be shortned no flesh should be saved that is kept or preserved alive in those tribulations but for the Elects sakes those dayes shall be shortned Mat. 24. 22. It is a favour also to the Saints that their particular dayes are shortned that their's are but as the dayes of an hireling for as much as their present dayes are dayes of trouble and travel The dayes of the best are so full of evil that it is good they are no fuller of dayes And further it is good they are so evil or full of trouble It is well for wicked men that their dayes are full of trouble the sweeter their lives are to them the sinfuller they are against God Their outward comforts are but fewel and incouragement to their lusts and while their lives are calm and quiet they do but saile more quietly down into that dead sea of everlasting misery And the Saints have this advantage by the troublesomenesse of their lives to be kept in continual exercise and more dependance upon God they would love the world too well and delight in the creature too much if God did not put bitternesse into their cup. Job having thus shadowed the state of man seems to make out his intendment or scope thus There is no reason why I should be charged so deeply for desiring death For what is the life of man Is it not a life full of travel and of trouble full of dangers and temptations is not the time of his life short and set Is it not a speedy passing time and yet a firmly appointed time Why then should not I think the period of my life to be at hand Why should not I think my appointed time is come Forasmuch as I have so many evidences and symptoms of death before me and have heard so many messages and summons to the grave Death sits upon Plurima mortis imago my lips ready to come in while I am speaking Death hath taken possession of me already and seiz'd my port death is in my face I am the very picture of death and images of death stand round about me Therefore Eliphaz why should I not call to have my daies summed up that I may see the end and summe of these troubles Or wherefore wouldest thou stay my complaint against my life or stop my desire of death by giving me hopes of many daies and of a flourishing estate in this world That 's his first argument from the general condition of mankind Now he proceeds to consider somewhat more special in that condition Verse 2. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work Verse 3. So am I made to possesse months of vanity and wearisom nights are appointed to me As a servant earnestly desireth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Traxit aerem ad os per Metaphoram inbiavit ardentur cupiit qui enim vehementer aeliquid cupiunt prae desiderii expectationis magnitudine ad os rem trabunt seu frequentiùs respirant To desire earnestly is but one word in the original it is so full of sence that we cannot empty it into any one word in our language The letter is As a servant breaths after the shadow And because a man that hath an earnest longing desire for a thing pants breaths and gasps after it therefore that word which signifies to gape and draw in the air pantingly signifies also to desire or to desire earnestly As a servant earnstly desireth The shadow Some understand it of the night when the servant comes to rest himself after his labour all the day Night is but a great shadow Secondly We may take it for the shadow of the day A servant that is heated in labour abroad in the open field earnestly desires a
Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him saith the Church Micah 7. 9. As if she had said the remembrance of my sinne takes away all pleading much more all quarrelling in how angry a posture soever the Lord sets himselfe to afflict me And therefore my spirit is resolved that because my flesh hath sinned my flesh shall beare the indignation of the Lord. He that knowes what it is to sinne knowes that all sufferings lâ—sse then hell are lâ—sse then sinne If a man were convinced of this that what he beares is lesse then his sinne deserves he would beare it with thanks not with complaints Irascitur quia omnia sibi ceberi puâ—at Yea he would say that as he hath deserved all these and more then all these stroakes so he hath need of them The bundle of folly in his heart cals for a bundle of rods upon his backe and he sees want of correction might have been his undoing Therefore to be angry with affliction argues a man ignorant of himselfe as a creature much more as a sinfull creature Once more the foolishnesse of such wrath appeares to the eye of nature and common reason because this wrath brings no ease or remedy at all to those wounds but rather makes them more painfull if not remedilesse It is an argument of folly to doe a thing whereby we cannot helpe our selves but it is folly and madnesse to doe that which hurts which makes our wound fester and our disease grow desperate Did any man ever ease himselfe by fretting or raging under the crosse How many have made their crosse more heavie upon them by raging at it A mans owne wrath is heavier to him then his crosse A stone is heavie and sand weightie but a fooles wrath is heavier then them both Prov. 27. 3. A fooles wrath is very heavie to others but it is heaviest to himselfe The text is expresse for it which may be a third observation To be angry and discontent at Gods judgements is more destructive to us then the judgements themselves The wrath and judgements of God afflict onely but your owne wrath destroyes wrath slayes the foolish Probably God came onely to correct you but wrath kils you The wrath of man is a passion but it is very active upon man and eats up the spirit which nurses and brings it forth Frowardnesse and anger are at once our sinne and our torment He that is angry when God strikes strikes himselfe whereas humble submission to the blow turnes it into a kisse or an embrace and they that sit downe quietly and believingly under any evill beare it at present with more ease and in the end find it in the inventory of their goods So David It is good for me that I have been afflicted Fourthly note That to envie another mans good or prosperity is an argument of the worst simplicitie Envy slayeth the silly one Envie is a common theame I will not stay upon it but shall onely give you two reasons to demonstrate the silly simplicity of an envious person 1. The good of another is not thy hurt thou hast not the lesse because another hath more Leah's fruitfulnesse was no cause of Rachels barrennesse Thy portion is not impaired by thy brothers increase thou hast thy share and he hath but his how silly a thing then is it to envie him that hath much vvhen as his having much is not the cause why thou hast little Againe this troubling thy selfe that others have more will not get thee any more envie never brought in earnings or encrease 2. A man of wisedome will make all the good of another his good Take away envie and that vvhich is mine is thine and if I take away envie that vvhich is thine is mine To have a heart to blesse God for his blessings upon another is it selfe a great blessing and gives thee likewise a part in those blessings Thus we may enjoy all the joyes and comforts the favours and deliverances the Tolle invidiam quod meum est tuum est si ego tollam itvidiaÌ„ quod tuuÌ„ est meum est health and peace the riches and plenty the gifts yea and the very graces of all those in vvhose graces and gifts plenty and riches peace and health c. We can really and cordially rejoyce Whereas an envious man ever stands in his own light and cannot rejoyce in his own mercies for grieving at his Brothers So farre of the second part of the argument whereby Eliphaz would convince Job of wickednesse his likenesse to the wicked in bearing of or rather fretting against his troubles JOB Chap. 5. Vers 3 4 5. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation His children are far from safety and they are crushed in the gate neither is there any to deliver them Whose harvest the hungry eateth up and taketh it even out of the thorns and the robber swalloweth up their substance TWo parts of the fourth argument were cleared in the two former verses In these three Eliphaz argues further to the same effect His argument is grounded upon his own experience which had shewed many examples of foolish men like Job as he supposed both in his rising and in his falling in his good days and in his evill I have seen the foolish taking root and suddenly I cursed his habitation c. The argument may be thus framed Foolish men flourish a while and then come to certaine and sudden destruction they and their children and their estates are all crushed and swallowed up But thou didst flourish a while and grow up like some goodly tree yet sudden destruction came upon thy children and upon thy estate the robbers have consumed and swallowed all up Therefore thou art foolish c. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation I have seen thee taking root and I observe thy habitation cursed Thy outward condition is so paralell with theirs that I know not how to distinguish thee from them in thy inward and spirituall condition I have seen the foolish taking root Eliphaz urgeth experience He urged experience in the fourth Chapter v. 8. Even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reap the same c. He urgeth experience here againe and this superadded experience seemes to answer an objection which might be made against that former experience For some might say many wicked men plow iniquity enough and sow wickednesse abundantly yet they reap comforts and the contentments of this world they have what their hearts desire a full harvest of riches pleasures and honours It is true saith Eliphaz I grant it I have observed the like also I have seen the foolish taking root yea but I can answer quickly and remove this objection it doth not at all weaken my former assertion grounded upon that experience for as I have seen him take root so suddenly I cursed his habitation his children are far
griefe either through want of power or through the restraint of power both wayes griefe increases Some who have been dying Apud SophocleÌ„ electra faelicem vocat Niobem cui lugere filiorum interâ—tum permissum est cum id sibi matris crudelitas negaverita upon cruell rackes or under bloudie tortures have yet esteemed this beyond all their tortures that they might not freely speak out their minds and sorrows to have their mouthes stopt was worse to them then to have their breath stopt It is a pain to be kept from speaking To command a man to swallow or eat downe his words is next to the command of eating and swallowing downe his own flesh The cruelty of a disease may gagge a man as well as the cruelty of a Tyrant Such is my griefe that my words are swallowed up JOB Chap. 6. Vers 4 5 6 7. For the arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God doe set themselves in aray against me Doth the wilde Asse bray when he hath grasse Or loweth the Ox over his fodder Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt Or is there any taste in the white of an Egge The things that my soule refused to touch are as my sorrowfull meate JOB continueth his reply and his complaint He had exprest the greatnesse of his calamity by comparing it with the sand of the sea for weightinesse now he proceeds in the same sad aggravation by comparing it to an arrow for sharpenesse and to an army for terriblenesse For the arrows of the Almighty are within me The terrours of the Lord set themselves in array against me We are in this verse to open a quiver full of poysoned arrowes and to marshall an army full of divine terrours The arrows of the Almighty c. An Arrow is a deadly engine so called in the Hebrew from its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagitta à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dimidiavit discidit qaod scindit rem percussaâ— effect cutting or wounding Being taken properly it is an instrument shot out of a Bow of wood or iron either for sport or fight But here figuratively And arrows in Scripture are taken in a figure divers wayes First For the word of God Psal 4. 5. Thine arrowes are sharpe in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people fall under thee That is thy words are sharpe and peircing whereby thou convincest and beatest downe sin and sinners either converting or destroying them The Rider on the white Horse going out conquering and to conquer who is conceived to be Truth or the word of God triumphing is described with a Bowe in his hand Rev. 6. 2. Secondly Arrows are put for the bitter and reproachfull words of men Ps 64. 3. 4. Ps 120. 4. They bend their bowes to shoot their arrows even bitter words Thirdly For any evill or mischievous purpose which a man intends or aimes to the hurt of his brother Psal 58. 7. When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrowes let them be as cut in peeces Bending of the bow notes the preparing and setting of mischiefe The arrow shot out of this bent bowe is the mischiefe acted and finished Psal 2. The wicked bend their bowe they make ready their arrow upon the string they prepare mischiefs against their neighbour Fourthly For any kind of affliction judgement or punishment Zech. 9. 14. And the Lord shall be seene over them and his arrow shall goe forth as the lightning Particularly 1. For Famine Ezek. 5. 16. When I shall send upon them the evill arrowes of famine 2 For Pestilence Psal 91. 5. Thou shalt not be affraid for the terrour by nigbt nor for the arrow that fleeth by day What the terrour and the arrow are is explained in the next verse which is not an addition of other evils from which safety is promised but an explication of the same The pestilence that walks in darknesse and the destruction being the same pestilence wasting at noone-day The meaning of all is Thou shalt be kept or antidoted against the plague both night and day 3. Those thunder-bolts and haile-stones which God sends out of the Magazine of heaven and discharges in his wrath against wicked men are called the arrows of his indignation 2 Sam. 22. 15. Psal 144. 6. Hab. 3. 11. compared with Josh 10. 11. Further the arrows of God signifie inward afflictions troubles of the mind and spirit God often shoots an arrow which pierces into the very soule It was said of Joseph The iron entred into his soule And it is in this sense very usuall for the arrowes of God to enter into the soules of his people Psal 38. 1 2. O Lord rebuke me not in Thy wrath c. For Thine arrows sticke fast in me Where stuck they He meanes it not of his body haply the skin of that was not razed There is an arrow which touches not the sides but stickes fast in the soule of a childe of God Understand it here of the arrowes of affliction and those either externall outward calamities fastning in the flesh of Job or internall galling him to the soule and spirit Therefore he saith The Haret lateri Leâ—halis aruÌ„do arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit These arrowes are described in the text two waies 1. From the Efficient cause The arrowes of the Almighty They drink up my spirit Effect 2 They are the arrowes of the Almighty Shaddai Of which word we have spoken in the former Chapter verse 17th at large it being one of the names of God noting out his power and omnipotence There he cals them the chastnings of Shaddai the Almighty And here The Arrowes of Shaddai the Almighty 1. Because they are sent out from him His arme bends and draws the bow And 2. Because of the mighty force and strength in which they are sent home to the marke The strength in which those arrowes come and the depth of the wound which they make speak an Almighty arme drawing the bow None but an Almighty arme can shoot an arrow thus deep up to the feathers in the soul and spirit It is not in the power of all the tyrants in the world to strik or shoot thus deep The soule of a Saint hath such armour upon it as no bodily weapon can enter And therefore the Martyrs when all was wound in their flesh spoke and triumph'd because their spirits were whole and untoucht Onely a spirit can shoot arrowes into our spirits We finde it frequent among heathen Poets and others to describe Poetae deos arcu jaâ—ulis sagittisque armant intelligentes quas inserunt mortalibus clades quae feriunt eminus quod propriâ—m Dei videtur Bold their gods arm'd with bowes and arrowes And in that they shadowed their power to wound the minds of men and to wound them suddenly and secretly The Scripture describes the true God
to businesse while he is unfit for any businesse A sicke man is full of inward tossings of wandring thoughts his thoughts run fastest when himself is bed-rid or confin'd to his bed all the night is spent in the travell of his mind while his body cannot stirre But rather undestand it of corporall tossings A sick man full of Aegrotantes mutationibus ut remedijs utuntur Sen. paine removes from one side of his bed to another from one corner to another sometimes from the head of the bed to the foot The Moralist expresses it excellently Sick men use changes as if they were medicines they hope by changing their place to loose their pain by the way I am full of tossings to and fro Till the dawning of the day Till the day breake that is the whole night though Some understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crepusculum vespertinuÌ„ vel matutinum this for the evening the word signifies both the evening and the morning And these interpret this latter part of the verse for his troubles in the day having complained before that wearisome nights were appointed to him When I lie downe I say when will the night be gone There is an end of the night but when the night is gone have I any ease in the day No I am full of tossings to and fro untill the evening And so it is an amplification of his troubles in regard of both parts of the naturall day light and darknesse But we may more properly keep it to the description of a wearisome night and that word which may note the evening is here to be appropriated to the dawning of the day when darknes begins to depart and give way to the prevailing light This was a great aggravation of the afflictions of this holy man he had no rest no ease in any part of the night he could not so much as get a nap towards morning The night is the time of our truce with troubles through a man be in conflicts with businesse all day long yet there is a cessation at night all is laid by till morning Hence the night and sleepe are well called The Conquerours of evill and Victors over sorrow Malurum Domiâ—ices because in the night a man gets rid of them Christ saith Mat. 6. ult Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof if there be evil enough in the day who is able to stand before the evils of day and night too When our very sleepe becomes our fight what can flesh and blood doe any more Sleepe is a medicine for all diseases and Physitians often give a sleepie potion for a medicine that the body may have a little refreshing after it hath been worne and tired out with a wakefull sicknesse Observe from the text as it is the description of a sick man That a man in pain loâ—ks upon every time as better to him than the present time When I lie down I say when shall I arise I hope it will be better with me anon I hope the day will be better to me than the night and when the day comes then he wisheth for night hoping the night will be better than the day An afflicted troublesome time is so described Deut. 28. 67. In the Morning thou shalt say would God it were Even and at Even thou shalt say would God it were Morning They shall think any thing or time to come better to them then the present therefore when they had night they call'd for day and when they had day they sent a messenger for the night ever thinking the next change of time would be-friend them with a change in their condition Observe Secondly Change of place giveth no ease of pain I am full of tossings to and fro to the dawning of the day he had changed and changed and changed but could not change his paine for ease that continued still Some travell to other Countries to mend their Estates Some goe from kingdom to kingdome to ease their minds and some to better their manners but as he that runs to another country caelum non animam mutat qui trans mare currit changes his aire but not his heart alters place but not his manners the same is the same still So it brings no health to the sick no ease to the pained to change place As a man sin-sick before he comes to rest and healing in Christ tosses from place to place from this duty to that duty from this meanes to that meanes to get a little ease for his wounded spirit and aking conscience he hopeth this will do him good and that will doe him good but all in vaine And as worldly men hope their pleasures and their riches will do them good and so they tosse from one pleasure to another from creture to creature but al fails there is no settlement no composednesse no peace no redresse till the soul fixes upon Christ So in bodily paines there is no ease no refreshing but in God it is not this or that place of the bed it is not the bed or the couch it is not the Country or the City a sharp or a temperate aire can do it God can alone and he can command any creature to do it You that have moneths of comfort and to whome refreshing nights are appointed blesse God it is not your bed that gives you rest but his blessing Remember this description of a sicke man present the condition of a sick man to your thoughts thinke what a wearisome thing it is to lie all night telling the clock calling for day and tossing to and fro praise God for quiet nights and pity those to whom wearisome nights are appointed JOB Chap. 7. vers 5 6 7 8. My flesh is cloathed with wormes and clods of dust my skin is broken and become loathsome My daies are swifter than a Weavers shuttle and are spent without hope O remember that my life is wind mine eye shall no more see good The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more thine eyes are upon me and I am not VVE have seen Job in this Chapter confirming his former desires of death 1. From the generall condition of man-kind v. 1. 2. From the condition of some parlicular man v. 2. And 3. From his own present condition which he draws forth in the 3 4 5 and 6 verses The third and the fourth verses have been already opened In this fifth he gives us a further description of himself and such a one as might well assure us that his restlesse nights were not without reason My flesh is cloathed c. As if he had said if you think I am thus unquiet without cause then behold my body look upon me and see what a pitifull spectacle I am My flesh is cloathed with worms my skin is broken and hecome loathsome These words give us Jobs picture here is his delineation and pourtracture as he was under the hand of God They who would