sin and provoke When God afflicts his people he hardens his heart against them and it is seldome that he hardeneth his heart against them till they harden their hearts against him And the truth is if they who are dearest to him do harden their hearts against him if they quarrell and contend with him if they rise up against his commands or neglect his will he will make their hearts submit or he will make their hearts ake and break their bones If they harden their hearts against his fear they shall feel his rod upon their backs and spirits too Which of the Saints ever hardened himself against God and hath prospered No man whether holy or prophane righteous or wicked could ever glory of a conquest over God or triumph after a war with him JOB Chap. 9. Vers 5 6 7 8 9 10. Which removeth the mountains and they know not which overturneth them in his anger Which shaketh the earth out of her place and the pillars thereof tremble Which commandeth the Sunne and it riseth not and sealeth up the starres Which alone spreadeth out the heavens and treadeth upon the waves of the Sea Which maketh Arcturus Orion and Pleiadis and the chambers of the South Which doth great things past finding out yea and wonders without number JOB having in generall asserted the power and wisdome of God he must have infinite power and wisdome against whom no man ever prospered by contending Having I say asserted this in generall he descends to make a particular proof of it as if he had said I will not only give you this argument that God is mighty in strength because no man could ever harden his heart against him and prosper he hath foyl'd all that ever medled with him but besides I will give you particular instances of it and you shall see that the Lord hath done such things as speak him mighty in strength and prove him as powerfull as I have reported him These particulars are reported in the 5 6 7 8 9. verses all closed with a triumphant Elogy in the tenth Subjicit Job confirmationem proximè praecedentis syâ—ogismi ab effectis potentiae sapientiae Dei quae amplissima oratione describit Merl. Which doth great things past finding out yea and wonders without number The Argument may be thus formed He is infinite in power and wisdome who removeth mountains and shakes the earth who commands the Sunne who spreads out the heavens and disposeth of the starres in the firmament But the Lord doth all these things he removeth mountains he shakes the earth he commandeth the Sun c. Therefore he is mighty in power and infinite in wisdome The first part of this argument is here implied The assumption or the minor is proved in the 5 6 7 8 and 9. verses by so many instances Here then is an evident demonstration of the power of God from visible things from acts apparent to the eye As if he had said If you have not faith to beleeve that God is infinite in power let your senses teach it you for he removeth mountains and they know it not He overturneth them in his anger c. He removeth mountains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 's the first instance The word which we translate to remove Senescere quia quae sic inveterascunt forticra robustiora cum tempore solent evadere ideo idem verbum significat roborari 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. signifies to wax old and strong because things as they grow in age grow in strength There is a declining age and an encreasing age Things very old impair and things growing older encrease in strength we have the word in that sense Job 21.2 Wherefore doe the wicked become old yea they are mighty in power he putteth these two together growing old and mighty in power The Septuagint render Who maketh the mountains wax old because that which waxeth old is ready to vanish away Heb. 8.13 or to be removed and taken away as the Ceremoniall Law was of which the Apostle speaks in that place And because growing old implies a kinde of motion therefore the word also signifies motion even locall motion a moving from or out of a place Gen. 12.4 Abraham departed he removed from the place where he was This locall motion is either naturall or violent of this later understand the Text Which removeth the mountains The mountains There are naturall mountains and metaphoricall or figurative mountains it is an act of the mighty power of God to remove either Some understand this of metaphoricall or figurative mountains and so mountains are great men men of eminency or of preeminency the Kings and Princes of the world Chaldeus per montes intelligit reges qui loco movet reges fortes ut montâ—s Targ. The Chaldee is expresse for this sense He removeth Kings who are as strong and high as mountains For as God hath ordered the superficies of the earth and made some parts of it plain others mountainous some valleys and some hils So he hath disposed of men some men stand as upon levell ground men of an ordinary condition others are as the low vallies men of a poor condition others are as the high mountains over-topping and over-looking the rest The word is used in this metaphoricall sense Isa 41.15 I will make thee saith the Lord to the Prophet a new threshing instrument having teeth And what shall this new threshing iestrument do Thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hils as chaff Here is a Prophet sent with a flail or a threshing instrument and his businesse is to thresh the mountains and to beat the hils the meaning is thou shalt destroy the great ones of the world the hils the mountains those that thinke themselves impregnable or inaccessible But how could the Prophet thresh these mountains and what was his flail Gideon Judg. 8.7 threatens the men of Succoth that he will tear or thresh their flesh with the thorns of the wildernesse and with briars And Damascus is threatned because they threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron Am. 1.3 That is they put them to extreamest tortures Our Prophet could not thus torture men His threshing instrument having iron teeth was only his tongue the instrument of speech With this he beat those proud mountains to dust that is he declared they should be beaten and destroied Of such a mountain the Lord by his Prophet speaks Jer. 51.25 Behold I am against thee O destroying mountain saith the Lord which destroiest all the earth Behold I will stretch out mine hand upon thee and will roll thâ—e down from the rocks and make thee a burnt mountain This mountain was the proud State of Babylon which was opposite to the Church of God this devouring mountain shall at last be a devoured mountain devoured by fire therefore he cals it a burnt mountain Thus Zech. 4.7 Who art thou O great mountain before Zerubbabel thou
saith he men are not my Judges God is my Judge It is a comfort to the Saints to remember that God is their Judge Job vvas not afraid of God in that relation no it was a rich consolation to think that God vvas his Judge He is a righteous Judge a mercifull Judge a pitifull Judge we need not be afraid to speak to him under that notion Iob saith not I vvill make supplications to my father vvhich is a sweet relation but vvhich is most dreadfull to vvicked men he considers God as a Judge The Saints are enabled by faith to look upon God as a Judge vvith assurances of mercy Lastly Observe The whole world stands guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Every mouth must be stopped Iob vvill only make supplication he had nothing else to doe or say We doe not present our supplications unto thee for our righteousnesse but for thy great mercy Dan. 9.8 We can get nothing from God by opening our mouths in any other stile or upon any other title then this of an humble acknowledgement of our unworthinesse the lower we goe in our own thoughts the higher we are in the thoughts of God and we finde the more acceptance with him by how much the lesse acceptance vve think vve deserve Nothing is gained from God either by disputing or by boasting All our victory is humility JOB Chap. 9. Vers 16 17 18. If I had called and he had answered me yet would I not believe that he had hearkned unto my voice For he breaketh me with a tempest and multiplieth my wounds without cause He will not suffer me to take my breath but filleth me with bitternesse THis holy man having abased himself in the sense of his own inability and unrighteousnesse before the Lord and disclaimed the least intendment of contending or disputing with him as vvas seen in the former context now confirms it by a further supposition in the 16 17 18. verses and so forward As if he had said Ye shall finde I am so farre from vvording it with God or standing upon mine own justification vvith him though I have pleaded mine integrity before you my friends that I here make this hypothesis or supposition If I had called and he had answered yet would I not believe that he had hearkned unto my voice There is much variety in making out the sense of these vvords 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. The Septuagint read it negatively If I had called and he had not answered me I would not believe c. Most of the Hebrew vvriters fall very foul upon Job and tax him harshly for this speech What Would he not believe that God hearkned unto him when he had answered him Is not this unbelief a plain deniall of providence Atrae loliginis succum hic aspergit Rab. Levi. Asserons JobuÌ„ nâ—gare provident tam sivecuram particularium Coc. Verba diffiâ—entis desperantis de divina misericordia Opinio Rab. Moyses R. Levi. apudi Merc. or at least of speciall providence I would not believe that he had hearkned unto my voice is in their sense as if he had said I thinke God takes no care or makes no account of particulars he looks not after this or that man what he speaks or for what he praies I can scarce believe that my condition is under the care of God or that he will take notice of me if I should call upon him or if I plead before him what shall I get by it Doe ye thinke he will descend to the relief of such a one as I am Why then doe ye move me to call upon him c. If I should pray and if he should answer me I can hardly be perswaded that he will pity me and do me good A second opinion casts him into the deeps of despair as if Job had altogether laid aside hope of receiving any favour by calling upon God or of comfort by putting his case to him Iudaicum commentum atque Jobi sanctitate indignissimum Pined But all these aspersions are unworthily cast upon Job a man full of humility and submission to the will of God his frequent praiers and applications of himselfe to God doe abundantly confute all such unsavoury conjectures But the Jewish Commentatours carry on their former strain being all along very rigid towards this holy man very apt to put the vvorst constructions upon doubtfull passages and sometimes ill ones upon those vvhich are plainly good More distinctly There is a difficulty about the Grammaticall meaning of one word in the text vvhich carries the sense two vvaies If I had called and he had answered me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alij invocare alij provocare vertunt The Hebrew vvord vvhich vve translate call signifies sometimes to pray and sometimes to plead or challenge An act of invocation or an act of provocation it is rendered both waies here By most as we If I had called upon him that is if I had praied or made my sute unto him By some If I had sent in my plea as to begin a sute of law with him or my challenge as to enter the combate with him c. As it is taken for a challenge so the sense lies thus If I should stand upon terms with God and call him to an account to make good what he hath done And he had answered me that is if he had condescended to give me an account of his vvaies yet I would not believe that he had hearkned unto my voice that is that he had yeelded to me or acknowledged that he had done me wrong Shall I who am but dust and ashes prevail in my sute and get the day by pleading and contending vvith the great God of heaven and earth Take the word as it signifies invocation or calling by vvay of petition Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee And so two or three interpretations are offered Tam infirma est caro ut etiaÌ„ propositis divinis promissionibus nolit credere Isidor Clar. First Some in favour of Job conceive that he speaks this only through the infirmity of his flesh that it was sin within him that spake and not Job according to that of the Apostle Rom. 7. Not I but sinne that dwelleth in me So Job speaks as if he did not believe that God would hear him when he praid but whose voice was this Not Jobs but his sinnes the corruption the infirmitie of Job gave out such language not he As we may say in reference to an action I did it not but sinne that dwelleth in me so to a word I spake it not but sinne and corruption that dwelleth in me gave out such language Secondly I would not believe that God had hearkned to me Plerique Latini ad eas conditiones referunt quas oratio efficax requirit quarum defectus non exaudimur atque ea ratione sibi timere Jobum though he had answered me may referre
to the manner of his praier or invocation as not comming up to the height and measure of the duty as not fulfilling that Law of praier which the Lord requireth and so because his praiers were imperfect and weak therefore he would not believe that ever God had taken notice of him or hearkned to his voice As if he had said You bid me make my supplication if I doe yet I will not believe that God takes notice of my praiers Why because mine are but cold and unbelieving praiers weak and distracted praiers the praiers of a distemper'd heart the praiers of a confused spirit such I confesse mine are therefore I cannot believe God will hearken to my voice But rather in the last place take the sense thus Videtur hoc esse animi mirabiliter demissâ— atque sibi suâ—eq orationi diffidentis fidentis vero de sola divina bonitate Pined that Job in these words breaths out the humility of his spirit as if he had said I am so far from standing upon my terms with God as was shewed before as if I had hopes to carry it with him by contending that though I come in the humblest manner to invocate and call upon his Name and I finde him so gracious and mercifull to me as that he doth answer me in my requests and grant the thing I desire yet I will not believe that he hath hearkned to My voice that is that he hath done this for any worthinesse in me in my services or praiers I will not believe that the answer I receive from heaven is obtained by any value which my person hath with God Such is the coldnes and deadnes the languishment and unbelief of my heart in praier such are my praiers that the truth is Non ex diffidentia hoc dicit sed ex timore Dei reveritus judicium Drus I cannot believe I am heard when I am heard I cannot think my petition granted when I see it is granted Thus it sets forth the exceeding humility and lowlinesse of his spirit he would give all the glory unto God in granting his petitions and take nothing at all to himself in making those petitions I would not believe that he hath hearkned to my voice What voice was it then that he believ'd God hearken'd unto He hearken'd to the voice of the Mediatour to the voice of Christ He hearken'd to the voice of his own free grace He hearken'd to the sounding of his own bowels He hearken'd to the motions and intercessions of his Spirit in me to the motions and intercessions of his Sonne for me It is not my voice that hath got the answer he alone that hath granted it of his good pleasure in Christ I would not believe that he had hearkned to my voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere stabile esse The word signifies both believing and establishing or to believe and establish and the reason of it is because faith settles the heart Faith is the establishment of the soul An unbeliever hath no bottom he is built without a foundation his spirit is unfixed And that act of believing I would not believe is the generall act of faith namely a firm assent to the truth of what another speaketh An assent to the truth of it two waies To the truth of it First Historically that such a thing was spoken or done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then Logically that the thing is true which is spoken When he saith I would not believe that God hath done this his meaning is I would not assent to it as done for my sake or for my voice not that he would not believe the thing was done at all He assented to the word and answer of God when he did receive it but in that restriction he would not believe it namely in reference to himself that he hath hearkned to his voice To hearken is more then to hear * Auscultare inclinationem animi denot at ad alterius dicta Cujus oppositum est auret claudere obturare ad alicujâ—s sermonem Hinc proverbâ—um Surdo natras fabulam Haec verba exactam demissi animi significationem contineÌ„t Tunc cum arriserit gratia time cum abierit time Bernard Providentia Deisaepe nobis beâ—evoâ—a est cum nulla benevolentiae externa praebet argumenta imo aliquardo quem exaudit turbine conterit malorum it notes the inclination of the minde rather then the attention of the ear As to stop the ear notes the shutting of the heart against obedience rather than of the ear against audience To tell a tale to a deaf man is to speak to one that hears but will not grant From all it appears First That Job speaks very highly of the goodnesse of God namely that God answers praier though he hath not respect to the voice of him that praieth Though he had answered me yet would I not believe that he had hearkned to my voice Secondly That he speaks exceeding humbly and submissively of himself my voice what am I a poor creature that I should think I had carried the matter with God Thirdly That he speaks very wisely and understandingly concerning the nature and efficacy of praier and the means procuring answers of praier When man praies God answers but he doth not answer because man praies Fourthly That he speaks very highly and gloriously of the providence of God though providence act darkly towards man We pray God answers and doth us good yet things may goe quite contrary in appearance If I had called and he had answered me yet would I not believe that he had hearkned unto my voice why He breaketh me with a tempest God was breaking him and hearing him at the same time God may be doing us good when the signs he gives speak evil he hears and answers us praying to him when we think we hear him thundering terribly against us Hence First We learn That Praier is calling upon God Then the heart should be very attentive upon God in praier How can we expect God should hear us when we doe not hear our selves In praier we call upon God therefore we should call upon our selves to consider how and what we pray Secondly Note Praier granted is praier answered If I had called and he had answâ—red me The Lord from heaven speaks to us in every act of his providence his speaking to us is in doing for us The works of God are answers to man God doth not answer audibly or sensibly there is a voice in his dispensations As men Prov. 6.13 So the Lord speaks to us with his feet and answers our praiers with his fingers that is his works and waies are demonstrations of his will in answer to our praiers Thirdly In that Job tels us He would not believe c. we are taught That faith is a necessary ingredient in praier This negation of his faith in praier implies the need of faith in praier
right only in the free grace of God and in the righteousnes of my redeemer According to this exposition he returneth to his first proposition laid down in the second verse of this Chapter How should man be just or righteous with God I am not right in my self as I said in the beginning of my answer Man is not righteous so I now conclude in my own particular case I am not righteous in my self and being righteous in another if God would but give me a little respit from these sorrows I would speak and not be afraid This teaches us First That the confidence and holy boldnesse which the Saints have in comming unto God is grounded upon the righteousnesse of Christ not upon any worthinesse in themselves Secondly Observe He that is most upright in heart is most forward to acknowledge and most constant in acknowledging his own unrighteousnesse They who are most proud are most empty And they who have least usually speak with the most Sincerity rates it self low I am not right that is righteous saith upright Iob. Thirdly Say others I am not right in my self that is I am at present uncomposed and unsetled in my own spirit As if Iob had said I desire that the Lord would remove his fear and mitigate my afflictions that I might speak with him and not fear for as yet I am not right in my self my spirit is so overwhelmed and my thoughts are so troubled within me Quia non sic sum apud me ut nunc sum sc in hac affl ctione uti me nunc rractat exagitae Deus sum velut extra me animi impos Merc. Neque enim metuens possum respondere Vul. that I have not the free use of my own understanding nor can my reason doe its office much lesse my grace I am scarce in my right minde but rather as a man distracted so was Heman with the terrours of the Lord I know not how to manage faith under such fears the majesty and dreadfulnesse of God oppresse my spirit as I am I am not myself The Vulgar gives this interpretation instead of a translation For I cannot answer while I am afraid Hence note A godly man in sore temptaions may for a while appear lesse then a man Fears hinder him from shewing the best of his naturall self much more any thing of his spirituall self Further note two things experienced by many of the Saints in the day of their distresse First A godly man under greatest afflictions keeps to the opinion of his own integrity yet builds his comfort upon the free grace of God He can according to the first interpretation of these words challenge all with this Question Am I not right in my self Is there not integrity in my spirit And according to the second he is ready to make this negative confession I am not right in my self I stand not upon my own integrity Secondly The Saints in great afflictions are often so overwhelmed with the majesty of God that they are not able to expresse their interest in God much lesse make out the comforts of that interest The former of these arises from that seed of holinesse and stock of grace abiding in them The other ariseth from the naturall weaknesse of flesh and bloud in which they abide and from the morall corruption of nature abiding in them Thus we see how the sense of the text rises as the word Chen is understood nominally for right or just We translate it adverbially But it is not so with me or For it is not so with me This reading bears a three-fold interpretation First In construction with the former words thus Let him take away his rod c. then will I speak and not fear him for it is not so with me that is I am not so fearfull or of so low a spirit I am not such a stranger or of so little acquaintance with God that I should not know how to speak unto him or that I should be afraid to speak unto him If the Lord would but hide that brightnesse of his own glory which dazles me and ease me of my own pains which distract me I should sure enough speak unto him 〈…〉 But secondly We may rather refer it to the false and unkinde opinion of his friends who judged him a wicked man or an hypocrite which here he denies It is not so with me as if he had said If the Lord would be pleased to grant what I have petitioned I would speak unto him without fear or doubt of being heard for it is not so with me namely as you have suspected and imagined all this while or as you think it is I am not the man you take or rather mistake me to be if I were then though the Lord should take all his afflictions from me and all with-draw his terrours yet I should be afraid to speak unto him yea I should be afraid to pray unto him every prayer were I wicked would be a praying down judgement upon my self But seeing I can boldly affirm my conscience also bearing me witnesse that though I sinne yet I love not to sinne that though I am weak yet I am not wicked as ye have charged me Non sic impius ego apud me Pagn Non sum talis qualem me putatis Vatabl. Merc. my heart being thus clear before God I cannot fear to open my mouth and report my cause before God Hence observe which hath been offered from other passages in this book and therefore I shall only observe it That A godly man standeth to and knoweth his own integrity in the midst of all the clamours and slanders the misapprehensions or aspersions of friends or enemies Whosoever loads and charges him with studied or approved hypocrisie he will and he ought to unload and discharge himself at least with Jobs plain deniall you suspect me thus but I am sure it is not so with me Thirdly The words may bear this meaning I have sought and earnestly entreated the Lord to abate my afflictions and to remove his terrours But it is not so with me Alas I doe not finde that the Lord hath done any of these things for me His rod is still upon my back and his terrours stand as thick about my soul as ever was ever poor man in such a plight as I T is not alasse with me as I have praied or as I would have it The rod smarts and terrours amaze me still Hence note That a godly man may pray in affliction and not presently be relieved in or from his affliction Many a soul can say It is so with me as I have praied I have the wishes and desires of my soul yet many and I believe many more then can cannot say so The Lord lets precious praiers lie unanswered to our sense We may pray long before we finde it so with us as we have praied and yet those praiers are not lost but laid up not buried but sown And it
AN EXPOSITION WITH PRACTICALL OBSERVATIONS CONTINUED Upon the Eighth Ninth and Tenth Chapters of the Book of JOB BEING The Summe of thirty two Lectures delivered at Magnus neer the Bridge London By JOSEPH CARYL Preacher of the Word and Pastour of the Congregation there PSAL. 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all LONDON Printed by A. Miller for Henry Overton in Popes-head-alley and Luke Fawne and John Rothwell in Pauls Church-yard and Giles Calvert at the west end of Pauls 1647. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER To those chiefly of this City who have been the Movers and continue the Promoters of this Work I Am your Debtour and because my stock cannot passe out great summes at once therefore I am constrained to discharge my credit by these smaller paiments I need not call upon you for acquittances or cancel'd Bonds I know your ingenuity will confesse more received then I have paid I have paid you in the Book now presented as much as I intended for this time But time will not suffer me to pay you what I intended and had projected for an Epistle And I beleeve your selves will easier excuse a short Epistle then a longer stay for the whole Book Accept both with your wonted candour and let all these Labours on your behalf be the return of your own praiers to the Father of lights by the help of the Spirit of Grace in Jesus Christ for January 12. 1646. Your affectionate Friend and servant in this work of the Lord Ioseph Caryl AN EXPOSITION WITH PRACTICALL OBSERVATIONS CONTINVED Vpon the Eighth Ninth and Tenth Chapters of the BOOK of JOB JOB 8.1 2 3. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said How long wilt thou speak these things And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong winde Doth God pervert judgement or doth the Almighty pervert justice THe answer of Eliphaz to Jobs first complaint hath been opened in the fourth and fifth Chapters together with Jobs reply in the sixth and seventh In which he labours to disasperse and vindicate himself from what Eliphaz had rashly taxed him with Hypocrisie The name of an hypocrite like that of a heretike is such as no man ought to be patient under But while Job endeavours to clear himself in the opinion or from the imputations of one of his friends he runnes into a further arrere of prejudices with a second Some of those arguments which he had framed to pay his debt to Eliphaz and save his own integrity being again charged upon his account by his friend Bildad the Shuhite who presents himself a duty very commendable as an Advocate for God and he conceived there was but need he should Job in his reply having in his sense wronged the justice of God he takes himself obliged to stand up and clear it to shew Job his supposed sinne and provoke him to repentance both by threatnings of further wrath and promises of speedy mercy Thus in generall More distinctly there are four parts of Bildads speech First A confutation of Jobs reply to Eliphaz and he gives it us shadowed by an elegant similitude in the second verse How long wilt thou speak these things and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like the strong winde There 's a censure upon all that he had spoken Secondly He gives us an assertive Question concerning the justice of God to clear it from and set it above whatsoever might seem to stain it in the eyes of men This we have at the third verse Doth God pervert judgement or doth the Almighty pervert justice Not he Thirdly In the body of the Chapter he urges divers arguments to confirm this conclusion that God is just and there are three heads of argument by which he confirms it First From the example of Jobs children and from his own present with the possibility of his future condition in case he repent from the third verse unto the eighth The second argument is drawn from the testimony of antiquity and that 's laid down in the eighth ninth and tenth verses The third argument appears in the similitudes 1. Of a rush or flag in the 11 12 and 13 verses 2. Of a spiders-web in the 14 and 15 verses 3. Of a Tree flourishing for a time but anon plucked up in the 16 17 18 and 19 verses These are the arguments and illustrations of his grand assertion Doth God pervert judgement or doth the Almighty pervert justice No he doth not And thou maiest learn this lesson from thy own experience from the example of thy children from the testimony of antiquity yea the withering rush the spiders-web the luxuriant roots and branches of a tree may all be thy Masters and instructours to teach thee this truth That God is just The fourth and last part of the Chapter sets forth the favour of God to those who are faithfull and sincere for having maintained the justice of God and shewed how terrible he will be to hypocrites who deal falsly with him he now mitigates and mollifies his discourse by proclaiming the goodnesse of God to sinners repenting yea who are the worst of sinners to hypocrites if they repent pluck off their masks or disguises and truly humble themselves before him This is the subject of the three last verses of the Chapter Behold God will not cast away a perfect man c. As if he had said Though God be just to deal with hypocrites as he hath dealt with thee and thy children yet he will not cast away the perfect and upright shew thy self such and he will receive thee This he quickens by subjoyning the further severity of God to those that shall persist in their hypocrisie ver 20. and in the close of the 22. Neither will he help the evil doers and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought Thus you have both the generall scope and likewise the speciall parts of Bildads discourse which will give us some help towards a more clear discovery of particulars Verse 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said The Speaker is Bildad I shall not stay upon the person who this Bildad was of what line and pedigree was touched in opening the 11. verse of the second Chapter and therefore I shall passe to the matter about which he speaks Verse 2. How long wilt thou speak these things and how long shall the words of thy mouth be as a strong winde He begins very chidingly How long wilt thou speak these things The words import either first admiration How long As if he had said Could any man have beleeved that thou wouldst have spoken such things as these and these so long How strangely hast thou forgot thy self to twist such a threed and spin out a discourse so sinfully so frowardly so long Secondly The words may carry a sense of indignation in the Speaker How long wilt thou speak these things As if he had said I am not able
per loquelae instrumenta in verba formate Bald. And how long shall the words of thy mouth be as a strong winde The Hebrew word for word runs thus And the words of thy mouth a strong winde We resume in this later clause How long and adde be like to supply the sense There is no tearm of comparison expressed in the originall yet the strength of one is implyed and therefore to fill up the meaning we render And how long shall the words of thy mouth be as a strong winde M. Broughton translates it without a note of similitude How long wilt thou talk in this sort that the words of thy mouth be a vehement winde Words are air or breath formed and articulated by the instruments of speech Hence breath and words are put for the same in divers Scriptures Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth Breath in the later clause is no more then word in the first for it was a powerfull word which caused all the creatures to stand out in their severall forms So Isa 11.4 He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips or with the winde of his lips shall he stay the wicked It is not blowing upon wicked men that will slay them but it is speaking to them there is a power in the word of a Prophet when spoken in the Name of Christ which destroyes those who will not obey it Hos 6.5 I have hewed them by my Prophets I have slain them by the words of my mouth Secondly * Graeci latini Prophetas quosdam ex Hebraeo Cabiros cognominarunt ob insignem eorum ad extra gravitatem loquacitatem idem dicti Corybantes Bold Quos Authores latini Divos potes seu potentes vocant Graecis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicuntur ab hac voce quae potem sive potentem denotat Drus Ad magnanimitatem referri potest quod corpore attenuato exhaustisque viribus fortiter tamen persisteret in loquendo respondendo Cajet Iobi oratio non fuit frigida languidased vehemens concitata Pined Bildad is conceived to allude to a certain sort or sect of men For from Cabir here translated strong the name of certain Poets or old Prophets is derived whom the Greeks and Latines called Cabirs or Cabirims These men had an affected outward gravity yet were full of words and much given to Battologie repeating the same things over and over Bildad ranks Job say some with those Prophets How long shall the words of thy mouth be like those roming Cabirs who by a needlesse multiplying of words grated the eares and burdened the spirits of all the hearers Why doest thou speak as if thou couldst carry the matter with empty words and bare repetitions Thirdly The word strong winde may note the stoutnesse of Jobs spirit or the magnanimity he exprest in his words Jobs language was not cold and chill as if his breath were frozen but he spake with hight and heat The spirit and courage of a man breaths out at his lips How long shall the words of thy mouth be a strong winde When wilt thou yeeld to God and lie humbly at his feet What a heart hast thou Thou speakest as big as if thou hadst never been touched as if God never laid one stroke upon thee thou hast a weak body but a stiff spirit Thou speakest as if thou wouldst bear all down before thee and by thy boldnesse storm and bluster those out of countenance who are here to give thee counsell Fourthly Take in the similitude How long shall the words of thy mouth be as a strong winde That is how long wilt thou speak so much and speak so fiercely For the word Caber is more then Gadol which signifies barely great Gramarians note that it signifies both continued quantity and discreet quantity multitude and magnitude How many words wilt thou speak and how great words wilt thou speak Spiritus multiplex ermones oris tui Vulg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus multiloquus Sept. Shall thy words be as a great various enfolded winde so the Vulgar Wilt thou blow all the points of the compasse at once and like a whirle-winde invade and circle us on every side Such words are like a strong winde First Because of their blustering noise There are stormy and tempestuous words The tempest of the tongue is one of the greatest tempests in the world Passionate language troubles both the air and ear makes all unquiet like an enraged angry winde Secondly In such words as in stormy windes there is great strength to bear all down before them or to sway all to that point they blow for As all the trees in a forrest look that way which the winde sits so all the spirits in any Assembly are apt to turn that way which words bearing a fair shew of reason direct How often are the judgements and opinions of men carried by words either to good or evil to truth or errour And unlesse a man have good abilities of judgement and reason to manage what he knows or holds and to make himself master of it It is a hard thing upon a large winde of anothers discourse not to have his opinion turned Hence the Apostle Tit. 1.11 speaking of vain-talkers saith Their words subvert whole houses as a strong winde so strong words blow houses down They subvert whole houses as that subverts the frame and materials of the house so this the people or inhabitants of the house when Christ breathed graciously towards Zacheus he said Luk. 19.9 This day is salvation come to this house when false teachers breathe erroniously subversion comes to many houses The Apostle Ephes 4.14 using this similitude about the doctrines of men adviseth us to look to our ground and that we be well rooted That we be no more children tossed too and fro and carried with every winde of doctrine as if he had said The winde that blows from the lips of seducers unlesse you be well established will carry you to and fro like children or wave your tops up and down as trees yea endanger the pulling you up by the roots Thirdly Strong words are as strong windes in a good sense for as many strong windes purge and cleanse the air making it more pure and healthy so those strong wholesome windes from the mouths of men purge the minde of errour and cleanse the soul of sinne This is the speciall means which Christ hath set up to cleanse his people from infectious and noisome opinions These he disperses and dispels by the breath of his Ministers in the faithfull and authoritative dispensation of the Gospel Fourthly There are ill qualities in strong windes some are infectious windes they corrupt the ayr conveying ill vapours to the places on which they breathe So there is a strong unwholsome winde of words which carries unto
Jobs children whom God punished because of their transgression as he conceived 2. That God doth not pervert justice taking justice under that strict and distinct notion of rewarding and relieving the innocent he proveth by the readinesse of God to doe Job good in case he should humble himself and repent in the fifth sixth and seventh verses His argument for the former may be thus conceived He doth not pervert judgement who punisheth those who have sinned against him But God hath punished thy children for their sin Therefore he doth not pervert judgement His argument for the later may be thus formed He doth not pervert justice who is ready to pity assoon as an offender humbly seeks sues and submits unto him But God is ready to help thee assoon as ever thou humbly seekest unto him Therefore God doth not pervert justice Thus you have the generall sense of these four verses as arguments brought for proof of the former point that God doth not pervert judgement or justice I shall now open them distinctly If thy children have sinned against him There may be a two-fold sense given of these words First Thus Although thy children have sinned against him and he hath cast them away for their iniquity yet if thou wile seek unto him he will doe thee good Which translation makes the sense more clear then ours If thy children have sinned against him c. The one is a supposition of what might be the other a concession of what was Secondly By way of proportion thus As thy children have sinned against him so he hath cast them away for their transgression And so Bildad argueth with Job upon the same principle that Eliphaz had done before scil that his sonnes and himself had exceedingly provoked God and that therefore God had sent that judgement and laid that heavy stroke upon them If thy children or although thy children have sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against him That word is to be opened a little The Hebrew is Have sinned to him Which is indifferently translated either before him or against him we take the later Every sinne is committed against God that 's the first Sinne is most opposite to God It is against God in his nature against God in his will against God in his very being Sin would thrust God out of the world if it were possible and therefore it is rightly translated They have sinned against him No marvell if God doe so much against sinners when sin doth so much against him but is it not a miracle that God should doe any thing especially such great things for sinners when sinne doth so much against him David Psal 51.4 saw his sinne was so much against God that he overlooks all others against whom it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tibi tibi soli Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight which some mis-interpret as if because he was a King he could doe no injury to his subjects and therefore saith Against thee thee only have I sinned But They who rule men may sinne against man and David sinned in that act against man First by doing private wrong Secondly by giving publike scandall The reason then why David spake thus was because the sinne he had committed was so much against God that though he had grievously offended against man in taking away the life of one subject the chastity of another and by endangering the whole army to compasse a cover for his sinne yet in this his sinne exceeded in sinfulnesse that he sinned against God and therefore he saith Against thee thee only or take it comparatively the sinne is so much against thee that what is against any other is not worth the naming God is not only wronged but he is chiefly wronged in every sinne As because in the wrong done to the life or estate of a subject the King is chiefly wronged therefore all inditements runne in this stile Against the peace of our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity Lastly That place may be understood in the second sense of Against thee that is Before thee and so it seems to be expounded in the later part Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that is though others took no notice of this though it was done in secret 2 Sam. 12.12 yet it was committed clearly and plainly before thine eyes thine eyes which are ten thousand times brighter then the Sunne beheld me in the darknesse of that folly and therefore against thee have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight as noting that though it were conceal'd and hidden from men yet it could not be conceal'd and hidden from God If thy children have sinned against hi◠And he have cast them away for their transgression Bildads position is true in it self but false in the application If thy children have sinned against him It is a truth that godly parents may have wicked children Grace doth not alwaies run in a bloud But it was unevident unto Bildad that Jobs children had sinned against God in his sense It is not the common sinner whom Bildad meaneth by sinning against God he intends not the inevitable actings of sinfull nature but the voluntary studied improvements heightnings and provocations of sinfull nature Further In that he concludes They were cast away for their transgression He faileth again It is a truth that sinne is the meritorious cause of punishment Thy destruction is from thy self saith the Lord Hos 13.9 Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee Jer. 4.18 Sinne will help us to sorrow enough Yet this is not a truth that every man is afflicted for his sinne As no man knows the love or hatred of God so no man knows the sinne or holinesse of man by all that is before him we cannot argue every one is cast away for his transgression because he is cast away He hath cast them away for their transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew is very elegant He hath sent them away in the hand of their transgression or He hath put them into the hand of their transgression M. Broughton translates it so As thy children have sinned against him so he hath sent them into the hand of their trespasses Into the hand that is into the power as Chap. 5.20 the hand of the Sword is the power of the Sword and Psal 63.10 They shall fall by the Sword the Hebrew is They shall fall by the hand of the Sword Then He hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression is into the power of their transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simpliciter mittere aut ejicere significat quaficum recto tramire aberrassent aberrandi copiam pro libidine fecisset There are two things considerable about this expression of sending or giving up into the hand of transgression 1. It may note That God had delivered up Jobs children unto the raign or dominion of
their own sinfull hearts or had laid the raines in their necks suffering their lusts to hurry them whither they would to carry them captive unto every sinne and rush them head-long into every evil The word here used signifies either simply to send or violently to cast or to put a thing away from us and so it is as much as if Bildad had said For â—â—â—uch as thy children would sin against God he suffered them to sin their fill they being wicked he gave them up to doe all wickednesses They loved to wander from him and he let them wander We have this sense of the word Prov. 29.15 A childe left unto himself brings his mother to shame The Hebrew is A childe sent away sent to himself or put into his own hands A childe sent away to himself or left alone bringeth shame that is will certainly runne into vile and enormious courses to the shame of her that bare him A childe left or sent to himself is one that hath no guide no governour no instructour but himself A man that will learn only of himself hath but a fool to his Master How much more then a weak childe what a master what a tutour hath a childe if he have none but himself To be left or sent out to themselves is to have none to counsell or advise them in a right way or to give them any stop and check in an ill way The character that Paul and Barnabas gave of the former times when they preached to the Heathens at Lystra was this Act. 14.16 We exhort you to turn unto the living God that made heaven and earth who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own waies He let them goe and never staied them at all they had no bridle of restraint not so much as a word to bring them back He suffered all Nations as if he had said He left them in the hand of their transgression that their own evil hearts should doe what they would with them In which sense we may also understand that place Act. 17.30 when Paul at Athens disputed with the Philosophers he tels them that now God began to look towards them and had sent them the knowledge of Christ The times of that ignorance God wicked at but now he calleth all men every where to repent The words undergoe a two-fold interpretation Some thus to note the indulgence of God The time past of that ignorance God winked at that is he did not deal severely and strictly with them when they sinned because they had no means or so little means to keep them from sinne And there is a truth in it Nâ—hil aliud filtie volunt Pauli verba quam caecitati addict oâ— fuisse homines donec se illis Deus patefaciat Calv. for though ignorance doth not totally excuse sinne yet it doth abate the degree and measure of sinne But there is another sense which I rather embrace The times of that ignorance God winked at that is in those times wherein there was so much darknesse and blindenesse in the world God let men goe on in their sinne they sinned and he never called upon them he never opposed them or sent any to teach them better God did not manifest his will to them as unto the Jews Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation c. So that this winking is opposed to favour rather then to justice To have the eye upon a place or upon persons is to shew them favour 1 King 8.29 The later branch clears this meaning But now he calleth all men every where to repent now he doth not leave men in the hands of their transgressions He doth not winke and let them doe what they list now Gospel-light is risen to the world and there are many sent out to call in and reclaim wandering prodigals many to cry Return return He speaks of it as of the mercy and priviledge of that age beyond what the former ages had enjoyed That of the same Apostle hath a parallel sense Rom. 1.20 26. where describing the dealings of God with the Gentiles who sinned against the light of nature he concludes Therefore God left them in the darknesse of nature in the worst of nature they came not up so high as the principles of nature might have led them in the worship of God therefore he left them below the principles of nature in the things of man He gave them up to vile affectâ—ons which is as much as to say He put them in the hands of their transgressions And ver 28. He gave them over to a reprobate minde to a minde that could not judge aright which had not a true understanding of any thing Hence they elected the worst and reprobated the best things The like we have Psal 81.11 of Gods own people the Jews So I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels The Hebrew is I sent them into the pertinacy of their hearts because I had so often called upon them and they would not hearken nor return unto me therefore I said forasmuch as you will not hear you shall not hear because you will not obey you shall have none to call you to obedience follow the counsels of your own hearts as long as you will This is the first sense of putting or sending them into the hand of their transgression scil a leaving them to the raign of their lusts Expulit eos è mundo propter praevaricitâ—â—nem Pagn Permifit eis pervenire quod scelus eorum postulabat Tygur Secondly Which is the sense our translation holds out Thou hast left them or sent them into the hand of their transgression That is Thou hast left them in those evils which their transgressions did deserve and call for Our reading carries that meaning He hath cast them away for their transgression Others thus He hath thrust them out of the world for their transgression He hath suffered that to befall them which their transgression called for According to these the sense is Thy children sinned against him and he hath let those evils which their sinne deserved fall upon them He hath rewarded them according to their iniquity Isa 64.6 7. Our iniquities like the winde have taken us away Thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed or melted us because of our iniquities The Hebrew is Allisisti nos in manu iniquitatis nostrae Vol. Thou hast consumed or melted us in the hand or in the power of our iniquities And somewhat parallel to this sense is that Gen. 4.6 If thou dost ill saith God to Cain sinne lies at the door As if he had said Thou shalt be given into the hand of sinne presently thy sinne shall arrest thee and bring those evils upon thee which it deserveth thou shalt not need any other punishment then thy own wickednesse Hands and
seek unto God betimes and make thy supplication unto the Almighty c He would awake for thee There are two parts of Bildads counsell 1. To humble himself in prayer ver 5. 2. To purge himself by repentance ver 6. Or we may look upon this counsell as a patern of repentance and turning to God in three things 1. To seek unto God 2. To acknowledge our own unworthinesse to receive any mercy from God 3. To be sincere and upright-hearted with God in both If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est quafi aurorare aut diluculare DeuÌ„ Diâ—igenter sedulo magno studio quaerere Qui mare surgit precandi causa dicitur manicare DeuÌ„ Dâ—us We have met with the word more then once before and in strictnesse of translation it sounds thus much If thou wouldest seek unto God in the morning or If thou wouldest morning God be with him early in the morning that is If thou wouldest seek unto him diligently they that come in the morning about businesse are diligent in their businesse The Apostles rule is Heb. 3. To day harden not your hearts but here Bildad adviseth Whilest it is morning which is the first part or beginning of the day pour out thy heart to God So then it may be taken for seeking God either at the first of the day the morning or for any earnest diligent and fervent seeking unto God in any part of the day To seek God diligently though in the night is according to this Hebraisme a seeking him in the morning It was an ancient custome to seek God in the morning take it in the letter early in the morning David professes this Psal 5.3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And Heathens by the light of nature took this course in their profane and superstitious worship Herodot l 10. Plin Ep. 57. ad Trâ—jâ—â— Tertul. Apol. to p. 2. Herodotus in his tenth book tels us of the Persian Magi who addressed themselves early in the morning to seek their false gods And the Primitive Christians were wondered at for their early devotions Pliny in an Epistle to Trajan and Tertullian in his Apologeticks for the Christians report their assemblies before day-break to pray and call upon God And there hath been and still is a superstitious abuse of this among the Papists who call their morning prayers their Mattins because they begin early in the morning Hence observe First Prayer is our seeking unto God That 's the generall description of prayer When we pray our work is to get neer to God to finde God every soul that praies indeed feeles it selfe at a losse for somewhat that God only can bestow In God all that we want is to be found and therefore he invites us to seek him In this life the Saints are a generation of seekers in the next they shall be a generation of enjoyers when God is fully found there 's nothing more to be sought Having him we have all The work of heaven is to blesse God for what we have found not to seek him for what we want Secondly God must be sought unto without delay As it is with vows so with prayers Deferre not to pay them deferre not to pray Isa 5.5 Seek him whilest he may be found Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God first in time not only chiefly but early put not God behinde in the later end of the day or in the later end of your businesses It is best to begin with him who is best Thirdly God must be sought unto with diligence We must lay our strength and spirits out in seeking God It is not a sleight enquiry which findes out God We read that he is found of some who seek him not at all but that he is found of any who seek him negligently we read not Free-grace prevents those who have no ability to seek him but it meets not those who will not lay out their abilities in seeking him If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes And make thy supplication to the Almighty The word which we translate Make thy supplication is very significant of the manner how we should seek unto God namely Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotat gratuitaÌ„ illaÌ„ commiserationem quae sine ullo merito impenditur bottoming our selves upon free-grace alone A thought of our own worth is inconsistent with a supplication Call upon the Almighty for pity saith M. Broughton when we supplicate we desire that to be done for us for which there is no reason in us why it should be done To make supplication is to seek help and relief freely or gratis acknowledging there is nothing in us worthy love That adverb used in the first and repeated in the second Chapter where the devil objects Doth Job serve God for nought that is without respect of good pay for his pains from God that adverb I say comes from this verb. As we ought to serve God in this sense for nought and not like mercenaries for our hire So God helps us for nought without looking to any thing in us or from us as an hire of his help The Baptist had his name John from this word either because he preached the free-grace of God in Christ then exhibited or because God bestowed him upon his parents in their old-age as a speciall grace and favour The poor saith Solomon Prov. 18.23 useth intreaties some render it thus The poor maketh or speaketh supplications a poor man hath nothing of desert to plead why he should receive your charity but he lies at your feet and begs somewhat because he is in want because misery hath arrested and taken hold upon him The poor useth intreaties he doth not call for any thing of right and he will not wrest any thing from you by force he only supplicates your favour We in our drawing nigh unto God should pray for grace and favour as a poor man begging an alms who makes this his plea that he is poor So then Bildads counsell to Job is this Stand not upon thy tearms with God plead not thine own integrity and good works but cast thy self at his feet for mercy Make thy supplication unto him The word is used by Moses Deut. 3.23 when he describeth his own unbelief for which God said he should not goe into Canaan And I besought the Lord at that time saying c. When Moses perceived God was angry he did not reckon his former good services to balance this failing but he sought unto God for mercy as one that had never done him any service at all And as man expresses his desires of free-grace by this word so doth the Lord his highest actings of it Exod. 33.19 I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious To shew that to make supplication is to desire the Lord to be gracious and that to be
most the wicked have cause enough to fear those in whom God delights Tâ—â—t of the Prophet which text hath variety of interpretations is taken in this sense Isa 53.8 Who shall declare his generation It is the word of the text Who shall declare his age or the generation of Christ Some understand it of his eterâ—â—â—â— generation Others of his â—â—â—â—â—rall generation when he was â—â—â—â—rnate the mystery whereof was beyond words A third of that eternity which followed his passion As if it were an Antithesis to those words He was taken from prison and he was cut off but who shall declare his generation You may quickly write up the daies that Christ lived here upon earth they were but few even his pilgrimage was short on earth but who can declare his generation Those infinite and eternall ages and revolutions thorow which he shall passe though now you have quickly cut off his life Others by his generation understand the holy seed and issue the children of Christ His Crosse was fruitfull and his sufferings productive of an infinite generation Who can declare it Though you cut off the Father yet this father by dying will give life to an innumerable posterity Who can declare his generation So vers 10. He shall see his seed But besides all these we may with good probability interpret the word generation for the time when Christ sojourned in the flesh Quis cogitare aut dicere potest quam perversi fuerint homines qui tempore ejus victuri sint Pined Who can declare his generation That is who can describe the time or the age wherein Christ lived As if he had said you see here in this glasse of prophecy how they will use Christ how bloudily and cruelly they will deal with him he shall be imprisoned he shall be cut off and numbred among transgressours Who can declare his generation What pen is able with lively colours to paint out the several wickednesses and tyrannies of that age acted against and inflicted upon that holy and innocent lamb Iesus Christ who came to die for the sins of the world Surely his generation or the story of his age will be such as no pen is able to draw out or fully to delineate Who shall declare his age The age which Bildad cals Iob to enquire into is not a part of mans life or the whole life of a man or one age of men or state of times but the whole space of time from the very beginning with all things done or suffered and the persons who have been active or passive doers or sufferers in those times Thus enquire of the former age The reason why he called him to enquire of the former age was because in those times the will of God was not reduced to writing The divinity of the first ages was traditionall The Scriptures were not composed for more than 2000. years after the creation buâ—â—he minde of God was either immediately revealed or carried from father to son from generation to generation being preserved not in paper and 〈◊〉 or other formall records but in the memories and hearts of tâ—â—â—â—ithfull untill the giving of the Dâ—â— Hence it was that Bildad refers Iob to those revelations or to the experiences of the fathers concerning the dealings of God in former ages Columnae duae inscriptae à nepotibus Adami characteres quosdam figuras mathematicas pro siderum observatione potius quaÌ„ ullam historiaÌ„ aut exquisitam de Deo ejus providentia doctrinam habuisse dicuntur Beros l. 8 Ant. Berosus in his eighth book of Antiquities reports that the fathers after Adam set up two great pillars upon which some affirm they inscribed many divine truths but he tels us that those pillars of which some monuments were seen after the floud were filled rather with Astronomicall observations Mathematicall scheams of the heavens and figures of starrs we cannot put much value upon either of these opinions The former cannot warrant us that any thing was registred and written by Gods appointment till the writing of the Law And therefore Bildad according to the usage of those times sends Iob for information to the traditions and reports of the fathers For after the Law was written the Prophets in case of emergent doubts and controversies sent the people not to the traditions or experiences of former ages but To the Law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light or no morning in them Isa 8.20 The word once written was the rule and though it cannot speak yet it must teach us how to speak If we speak not according to this there is no light in us But the word not being written Bildad advises Job well Enquire of the former age And prepare thy self to the search of their fathers Having counsel'd him to enquire of the former age he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepare thy self to the search of their fathers as if he had said Fundare aptare parare ordinare stabilire significat though I bid thee enquire yet I would not have thee rush hand over head upon this enquiry Prepare thy self The word signifies to lay a good foundation Due preparations are the foundations of action Hence it signifies also to establish because a matter is established and confirmed by wise preparations and considerate addresses to it Those things stand fastest about which we make not too much haste Further the word signifies the fixing of the minde Fix thy heart upon this work keep thy spirits intent Psal 108.1 My heart is fixed saith David which some render My heart is prepared I will sing and give praise Prepare thy self To the search of their fathers Before he advised him to enquire of the former age here To search their fathers as if he had said Do not confine thy self to the immediately fore-passed times but go as high as thou canst The former age as was touched upon that passage may include all times past but here to avoid all mistakes he gives it in expresly The fathers of the former age are the fathers of every age All that have lived before us come under the relation of our fathers The fathers were dead but they lived in their monuments and works these he must search so farre as any mark or remembrance of them could be found Hence observe First That as it is a duty in all so it was a custome in ancient times carefully to record the dealings of God with them for the use of ensuing generations To what end should Job search if nothing were to be found The Jews were commanded to remember the works of God for their learning after the word was written Psal 78.5 He established a testimony in Jacob c. That they should make them known to their children God hath alwaies had a book of his acts and monuments as well as of his laws and institutions Names given to children and yearly feasts
any time to come As then to morrow signifies the immediate day comming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sensus est antea nunc Nazianz. de Mat. or all time to come so yesterday signifies the immediate day past or all time past Thus one of the Ancients speaks of Matthew Yesterday a Publican to day a Preacher that is he was heretofore a Publican and now a Preacher For we are but as yesterday Bildad stileth himself and his friends yesterday to shew they had been but short-lived though they had lived long Some have given us the date of their years or an account how old they were They reckon Bildad an hundred and fourty Eliphaz an hundred and fifty and Zophar an hundred and twenty years old Histerni quasi unius diei homines sunt novi recentes In what records the years of their nativities were found I know not but probable enough it is that they were ancient men And Chap. 15.10 Eliphaz speaks as much With us are both the gray-headed and very ancient men much elder then thy father Yet Bildad calleth himself and them but as of yesterday either absolutely because the life of man is short or comparatively to the lives of the fathers in the first age of the world who lived much longer His meaning then is we will not bound thee to our experiences who have lived but a while but enform thy self from them who lived many years ago and lived many years some of them nine hundred years and more enquire of Methuselah and his contemporaries who are able to give thee a better account then we Therefore he addeth And know nothing The particle And is here causall We are but of yesterday therefore we know nothing in which sense we read it often Take an instance Ezek. 23.31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister therefore I will give her cup into thine hand The Hebrew is And I will give her cup into thy hand thou shalt pledge her in the same cup of affliction So here We are but of yesterday and know nothing that is We are but of yesterday therefore we know nothing Know nothing The negation is not absolute but comparative We know nothing that is we neotericks know but little in comparison of those who lived long ago and lived so long even many centuries gathering knowledge and making up their observations for Chap. 12.12 With the ancient is wisdome and in length of daies understanding Hence observe The short life of man is not sufficient to gain much knowledge We are but of yesterday and we know nothing we cannot know much who live but little The great Physitian complained long ago Life is short Ars longa vita brevis Hippoc. and art is long Naturall life is not long enough for the journey of naturall knowledge How much lesse is it for divine knowledge in the mystery of Christ which is the art of all arts and science of sciences Those mysteries are very long and our lives are very short therefore at our best we come short in the knowledge of them Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. speaking of the most perfect knowledge we have in this life concludes We know but in part there is a vast ocean of truths in the Gospel but we are straight-necked vessels we take in truth but by drops we are long a taking it in and we have not long to take it in hence the emptinesse of those who are fullest He that hath much to learn and out a little to live cannot learn much And as our time is little so we lose a great deal of our time Non parum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Sen. Our losses of the time we have hinder more then our having but little time Our daies are few but if we could number them we should apply our selves to and gain to our selves a sufficient stock of holy wisdome The greatest reason why we profit no more in knowledge is because we improve our time no more though that be a reason also because we have no more time Secondly Observe how modestly Bildad speaks of himself and of his friends We are but of yesterday and we know nothing It becommeth us to have humble thoughts of our own knowledge how much soever we know These were neither children nor fools who had to do with Iob they were the wisest of that age Oracles of wisdom yet we know nothing saith Bildad The best of our knowledge here is to know our imperfections it is as much knowledge as we can reach to know wherein our knowledge commeth short The Apostle 1 Cor. 8.2 is direct He that thinketh he knoweth any thing knoweth nothing as he ought to know He would not have us thinke that we know any thing Though he had said in the former verse We know that we all have knowledge the Apostle knew it but he would not have them thinke it His meaning is I grant there is knowledge abroad in the world I have some and you have some We know that we all have knowledge which yet some understand as if he spake in a secret irony against those who brag'd so much of their knowledge Yea We know you have knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 geminatio negantis particu ae vehementius negat Bez. but let me tell you thus much you who stand so much upon your knowledge He that thinketh he knoweth any thing knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know How can that be Is not a man to thinke that he knows what he knows Must a man thinke himself ignorant or otherwise he must be accounted ignorant Surely no. There are very many that know much and they may thinke that they may know something yea that they know many things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non signifiâ—at simpliâ—em aliquam persuasionem sed quae cum superbia insolentia conjuncta est alioquin nihil magis repugnat fidei quam Academica dubitatio Bez. But observe the word there He that thinketh the word doth not signifie a simple apprehension of a thing or a bare and naked knowledge for so a man may reflect upon his own knowledge and know that he knows as well as what he knows but it imports thinking with a kinde of insolency and pride of spirit with affectation boasting and vain-glory in that knowledge He that thinketh he knows any thing that is he that vaunts and stands upon his knowledge who conceits he hath so much knowledge such a head-peece that he can carry all before him by the strength of his wit and parts such a knowing man knows nothing That mans wisdome is but conceit who is wise in his own conceit In this sense we have the word Mat. 3.9 where the Baptist bespeaks the Pharisees Thinke not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our father Thinke not it was not a sinne for them to thinke that Abraham was their father and that they were descended from him but thinke
Observe That to lose our hope is the utmost of evils Bildad doth not say that the hypocrite is damned and shall go to hell and endure the wrath of God for ever This one expression Their hope shal perish amounts to all this and more if more can be Do but sit down and imagine in your thoughts and contrive the utmost of all evils felt by men yea the utmost were it possible of all the evils of punishment that are in the thoughts of God and all are wrapped up and comprehended in this one word Their hope shall perish Hell and wrath and fire and brimstone and the worm that never dies meet in this one word Bildad goes on to illustrate this by a further instance Verse 14. Whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be as a spiders web Verse 15. He shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure The hypocrite clings about the object of his hope as a man that is ready to drown takes hold on any thing upon a straw or a rotten stick but though he lean upon his house it shall not stand c. These words contain the second similitude which is both a confirmation and a further illustration of the former for having concluded in the 13. verse with these words The hypocrites hope shall perish he as it were doubleth and resumeth it here again Whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spiders web The originall beareth different interpretations and from that severall senses have been given of these words The word here used for hope is not the same in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we had in the last clause of the former verse His hope shall perish This word was opened at large in the fourth Chapter at the sixth verse where we translate it confidence Is not this thy hope thy confidence the uprightnesse of thy waies Now besides that the word signifies hope or confidence it signifies also folly inconstancy frowardnesse of spirit vanity and levity of minde And thus some render it here This hope shall be cut off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debilitatus laÌ„guef actus fuit per MetaphoraÌ„ maestitia â—olore taedio affectus fuit propriè tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. rem putidam et quae nauseam parit aversari eam abhorrere Non enim placâ—bit ei veâ—ordia ejus Vulg. That word also beareth different interpretations 1. To be weakned to languish and because those things which languish and are weak either are cut off or are ready to be cut off therefore it signifies likewise cutting off 2. Further the word imports gradually 1. displeasing 2. loathing or abominating 3. chiding or contending The words yeelding these senses receive different translations and interpretations First thus taking the former for inconstancy or folly his folly shall displease him or His folly shall not please him So the Vulgar Hypocrites never please God and at last they shall not please themselves The waies and works of hypocrites are ever displeasing to God and they shall at last be displeasing to themselves That 's the sense of their translation And not only shall the waies of an hypocrite be displeasing but they shall be a loathing an abhorring to him the Lord loaths him now The prayer of the wicked is an abomination and he shall loath himself hereafter Haec displicentia cum fastidio quodam tabescentia conjuncta est There is a double loathing There is a loathing of repentance And there is a loathing of despair The former though it be unpleasant yet it is an happy loathing of our selves Such loathing of our selves is pleasing to God in the act and will be pleasant to us in the fruit Ezek. 6.9 They shall loath themselves for the evils they have committed And again Ezek. 16.47 and 20.43 the word is taken for this loathing of repentance But the hypocrite shall have another kinde of loathing What a loathing of despair seeing himself utterly lost and his hopes quite cut off he shall be an abhorring to himself There is yet a third step or degree of sense in this word He shall not only be displeased with himself and loath himself but he shall fall out with himself his hope shall displease or vex him into self-anger Secum ipse liti gabit rixabitur quae omnia ad mentis commotionem animi cruciatum pertinent Pin. Some render the word by contending or chiding as a man that is displeased with another falleth out with him wrangleth and contendeth with him so an hypocrite at last shall chide contend and wrangle with himself he shall contend as much with himself at last as ever the word of God contended with him before An hypocrite never commeth to a Sermon but God chides him the Word of God contends with him and the Spirit of God hath a controversie with him this man will not be warned by the chiding of God nor take that to heart he still goes on in his hypocrisie But when no reproofs nor chidings can prevail upon his heart he is left to the reproofs and chidings of his own heart which will read him such a lecture and give him such a schooling as he never had in all his life Conscience may be long silent and it may long flatter but when once it begins to speak and to speak right it is the most terrible Preacher in the world There is no Boanerges or sonne of thunder hath so dreadfull a voice Mount Sinai it self did not thunder so loud as conscience will And as conscience speaks loud so it speaks long An hypocrite shall reprove and chide himself for ever What a fool was I What a beast was I thus to flatter my self thus to mask mine own filthinesse and to dawb over the rottennesse of my heart with the fair covering of a verball profession Why did I wilfully deceive my self into irrecoverable perdition Again Observe from Whose folly shall displease him That the whole course of hypocrisie is nothing but foolishnesse Of all fools the hypocrite is the greatest and the reason is because he takes a great deal of pains in profession and hath no good at all by profession he ventureth himself many times in the world to persecution he runs the hazard of his credit of his estate of liberty and life What a fool is this to take so much pains and subject himself to so many dangers in the outward profession of Christ yet at last to lose the fruit and benefit of all This folly must needs displease him he shall at last see what an extreme fool he hath been to trouble himself about that which bringeth him in no reall good but will really double and encrease all evil upon him No man sins at so dear a rate as the hypocrite A second translation takes the Noun as we for hope and not for folly and retains the former sense of
free grace of God to trust upon these are the two pillars of the Temple that support our hopes and the one is truly called Jachin established and the other Boaz strength The hypocrite hath a Temple an house and two pillars upon which he makes these inscriptions Vpon his worldly estate he writes Jachin Established Vpon his spirituall estate he writes Boaz Strength but he will be deceived in both They shall not endure When a wicked man begins to fall nothing shall support him As it was said of Haman in regard of his outward honour If these men be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt fall utterly So though when an hypocrite sees his house falling he takes fast hold of it and endeavours to support it yet it shall not stand fall it shall Vbi semel corruerit impius non erigetur Merc. The righteous fals and rise again he fals seven times in a day and yet is raised up again Prov. 24.16 but when an hypocrite begins to fall he falleth down down for ever It is said of the righteous Psal 37.24 Though he fall he shall not utterly be cast off for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand but when the hypocrite falleth he shall be utterly cast away for his duties only hold him by the hand he hath only somewhat of himself to support himself with therefore though he take hold of it It shall not endure JOB Chap. 8. Vers 16 17 18 19. He is green before the Sun and his branch shooteth forth in his garden His roots are wrapped about the heap and seeth the place of stones If he destroy him from his place then it shall deny him saying I have not seen thee Behold this is the joy of his way and out of the earth shall others grow THe context of these four verses holds forth to us the third similitude by which Bildad illustrates the condition of an hypocrite The similitude is explained in the 16 17 and 18. verses and applied in the 19th The hypocrite was first compared to a rush or a flag Secondly to a spiders web But now to a goodly tree This third similitude grants the hypocrite the best of his condition and puts him in the fairest posture that can be imagined and yet all proves naught his root is but rottennesse and his blossome shall go up as the dust or his branches shall be cut down and his root stubbed up It is as if Bildad had said If you thinke I have spoken too little and too low or have debased the hypocrite more then was meet by comparing him to a poor rush or a flag and his estate to a spiders web then take him in his highest notion let him be looked upon as a green flourishing tree before the Sunne fastening his roots and spreading out his branches yet you shall see at the last destruction is his end Behold this is the joy of the hypocrite That 's the summe and the generall sense of the words Three thingt are held forth in this similitude concerning the hypocrite First His outward happines and flourishing estate in the 16th verse He is green before the Sun and his branch shooteth forth in his garden Secondly His hurtfulnesse or the anoyance which he doth to his neighbours and brethren shadowed out in the 17. verse His roots are wrapped about the heap and he seeth the place of stones Thirdly We have his ruine or cutting down his destruction or pulling up in the 18th verse If he destroy him from his place then it shall deny him saying I have not seen thee His flourishing estate begins in the 16. ver He is green before the Sun The word green signifies moist juicy or sappy proper to trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Madere humidū succosum esse So Mr Broughton translates He is juicefull before the Sunne And others He is full of sap In which sense the word is used Chap. 24.8 of this book They are wet with the showres of the mountains or moist and sappy receiving in many showres from the mountains A tree green juicy and full of sap is in the height of his strength and beauty Juice and sap is to the tree as bloud to the veins and marrow to the bones of a man and therefore as a young man in the prime and strength of his age is described by having his veins full of bloud and his bones full of marrow so a tree is described in it's greatest verdure by having his root and branches full of sap and moisture The hypocrite may be such a flourishing tree He is green before the Sun Before the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew is Before the face of the Sun The word Shemesh the Sunne signifieth a Minister or servant because the Sun is the great servant of the world and ministreth those benefits of light heat influence This by the way should have kept the Nations from adoring it as a God which both in name and nature was their servant But what means this Before the Sun 1. Some take before the Sun to be only this openly conspicuously and in the sight of all for to do a thing before the Sun is to do it without covert or secrecy 2 Sam. 12.12 Thus the Lord threatneth David after that sin of privacy committed with Bathsheba Thou didst it secretly Ante solem i. e. palam in oculis omnium but I will do this before all Israel and before the Sun So the hypocrite is green before the Sun that is he flourisheth in the eye view and sight of all men He hath fair leaves and branches of outward profession in the Church and of outward prosperity in the world 2. Before the Sun that is as a tree in Summer when the Sunne returns to us or turns upon us In the beginning of the spring the Sun returns having travell'd furthest off from us it comes to the verticall point and turns about to us again So that before the Sun or the Sun looking towards us is a description of the spring And so it is as if he had said As a tree when the Sunne cometh towards it in the Spring and shines hot upon it in the Summer makes a fair shew So the hypocrite is very green joyfull full of contentment whilest he hath the Sun of prosperity shining upon him whilst those warm raies of outward comforts heat and nourish him so long he is green and flourishing 3. Before the Sun that is according to others before the Sun shines too hot upon him before the Sun scorches and withers him Antequam se◠veniat Bibl. Reg Ante exortum ardorem solis i. e. antequā o◠inardescens cum adurat q. d. priusquā à Domino puniatur visitatur Ardor est ira Domini Merc. as if he had said The hypocrite is a green tree till the heat comes upon him till the Sun ariseth in his strength but assoon as the heat of the
persecution at least before some scorching beams of that Sun though he is not able to bear it when it comes to the utmost triall to the extreme heat of the day Thus we see the hypocrites greennesse in his branches yet that is not all for in the next verse we finde his roots also he is seemingly setled below as well as beautifull above And when a tree hath flourishing branches and firm roots what can be desired more For as when a tree is cut down root and branch it is then utterly taken away so when a tree flourisheth root and branch it is in best estate and highest perfection Both these meet here not only doth he shoot forth his branches in his garden But he wrappeth his roots about the heap and seeth the place of stones His roots are wrapped about the heap The root of this hypocriticall tree is that by which he fastens himself Radices sunt divitiae liberi a micitiae dignitates honores any accommodation or strength which he hath in the world credit riches friends whatsoever strengthens a man that 's his root it is as necessary to fasten a tree as to moisten and feed a tree Now saith Bildad he spreads his roots he hath not only excellent branches outwardly but he laies his matter so that he hath rooting also in the world yea he seems to have rooting in the Church too His roots are wrapped about the heap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Volvit â summo ad imum The word in the Hebrew signifies to roll or to bring things together to put them up in a heap Hence the Verb is used for that act of the soul in believing whereby a Christian gathers himself together and all that he hath and laies it upon the Lord Psal 22.8 He trusted in the Lord the Hebrew is He rolled himself upon the Lord. Hence it is translated to signifie First a tempest wherein the windes roll and are enfolded together Secondly a wave of the sea which is a rolling water Thirdly as here a heap because in a heap a great many stones are gathered or rolled together As Gen. 31.47 after that contest and debate of Laban with Jacob about his departure Jacob said Let us gather stones together or roll stones together and make an heap and Laban gave it a name he called it Jâ—ger-shahadutha which is to say A heap of witnesse because these stones were rolled together for a witnesse Lastly which sense is applied by some interpreters to this text The word signifies a spring or a fountain Josh 15.19 because springs and fountains are as the gathering together of waters The sea is called the gathering together of waters Gen. 1. there waters are rolled and laid as upon a heap and so proportionably every spring fountain and river is a place wherein the waters are rolled or wrapped together Some translate the word thus His roots are wrapped about the water or about the fountain And that further sets forth the seemingly sure and stedfast estate of the hypocrite as he hath goodly green branches above so his roots are wrapped about the fountain he looks as if he were planted by the waters side as the flourishing tree described Psal 1. A godly man is as a tree planted by the rivers side so the hypocrite seems to have his roots wrapped about the waters as if he had an everlasting supply from an everliving fountain as if his leaves should not wither or his fruit fall off from him That 's one sense But most goe with our translation His roots are wrapped about the heap they are intricated and folded about the heap of stones and so the meaning of it may be giâ—en three waies 1. In that it is said Impius aliquaÌ„do floret inter varia impedimenta His roots are wrapped about the heap the heap of stones it notes his thriving against all opposition here shadowed by heaps of stones Heaps of stones are hinderances to the growing of a tree to the rooting of it therefore we set or plant trees in places free from stones but to shew that he may even overcome conquer and subdue those difficulties which hinder his growth he saith His roots are wrapped about the stones The seed that was cast in stony ground could not take root the stones hindered it from a due depth of earth Mat. 13.15 So that Bildad according to this sense magnifies the hypocrite and speaks high of him He wrappeth his root about the stones he grows in places of greatest disadvantage A wicked man may conquer oppositions and prevail against the pull-backs which hinder his worldly yea and his seeming spirituall estate he may encrease when he wants encouragements and means of encrease yea he sometimes encreases against stops and discouragements he thrives among stones 2. His roots are wrapped about the heap notes that he thrives Ita latè radices diffundat ut fuâ—damenti struem offendat in aedibus Domini sui Iun. In aliorum daÌ„num propagatio denotatur Idem or will thrive if he can though it be to the hinderance and damage of others for by the heap some understand the foundation of an house where stones are artificially heaped or laid together not a naturall or accidentall heap Trees that grow neer a house shoot their roots under or about the foundation of the house and so may be dangerous to the whole structure Thus the hypocrite will grow if he can though he inwraps himself about the foundation of another mans house raising or securing his estate upon his neighbours wrong or ruine Hypocrites care not whom they injure so themselves may thrive though they undermine the foundation of another mans house and loosen his estate to fasten their own 3. His roots are wrapped about the heaps may note the firmnesse and the seeming strength of his standing He is rooted not in some loose and sandy earth or in tougher clay but his roots are wrapped about a heap of stones As Mat. 7. the house founded upon the sand could not continue when the storms came but the house founded upon the rock did so a tree that is rooted only in loose sleight ground cannot stand against a great tempest we see such trees blown down but that which is rooted among the stones and wrapped about their heaps that which interweaves and incorporates it sâ—lf as it were with a rock this hath strength against all storms Thus hypocrites pretend to Christ and say they have wrapped themselves about that rock they will speak great words and bid defiance to all the world can do professing they have laid up a good foundation and that the munition of rocks is their defence And seeth the place of stones Domum lapiduÌ„ cernet id est inter lapides â—â—â—â—iciter provenit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Inter lapides commorabitur Vulg. Domum lapiduÌ„ oculis vidit Drus The words may be translated He dwelleth and he staieth in the
place of stones or He plants himself among the stones and then it carries the same sense with the former clause So M. Broughton He platteth about the house of stone The Septuagint thus He shall live in the midst of the stones And the Chaldee Paraphrast He shall see with his eyes the place of stones We are neer that sense And seeth the place of stones That is for all these rendrings of the Hebrew will come to a fair agreement and the result is this he lives abides converses or dwels even where there seemes to be the least probability of his stay he staieth in the place of stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domus vel generaliter sedes vel locus quo aliquid capitur vel continetur The Hebrew is house of stones and house is taken either for that speciall place wherein men dwell or generally for any place so that the house of stones is either an house naturally built Nature useth a kinde of art or an house artificially built art is but an imitation of nature He seeth that is he seems to abide or continue in that house of stones he is very eminent or glorious in that place The same word is read Dan. 8.5 where Daniel speaking of his vision saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cornu aspectus est cornu conspicuum eminens quod supra alià cernatur Alij cornu perplexitatis id est perplexum intricatum Merc. The Goat which he saw in the vision had a notable horn the Chaldee is a born of sight he had a horn of sight that is a conspicuous or a notable horn or as others render it he had a perplexed enfolded or enwrapped horn a wreathed horn So that the word signifies both the conspicuousnesse of a thing and likewise the infoldednesse and complication of it A learned interpreter gives yet another sense He looks into the house of stone that is he hinders the light or darkens the house by perking up so proudly by or neer the windows as if he had said he anoyes his Masters house both below and above at the foundation and at the windows The state of the hypocrite thus setled and made firm among stones is yet a tottering one it will not be able to stand the 18. verse shews this Verse 18. If he destroy him from his place it shall deny him saying I have not seen thee There is much difficulty in giving a clear sense of these words If he destroy him from his place c. If he Who is that Who is the Antecedent to this he There is no antecedent exprest in the Hebrew Some understand it thus If he that is if the Lord if God come to take vengeance of this man who seems to be a tree so highly grown and so deeply rooted Secondly we may carry on the similitude thus If he destroy him that is if the Gardener or the Husbandman if the Master or owner of that ground or place seeing a tree thus luxuriant growing so near the foundation of his house and so wrapped about the place of stones hindering the light darkning the windows of his house if he come to destroy or cut him down it shall deny him Or thirdly If he destroy him that is if the Sunne destroy him So M. Broughton translates If the Sunne root him up from his place But can the Sun root a tree up from his place Yes the Sun roots up a tree when the Sun before which a tree flourishes a while casts his beams so hot upon it that it is scorched Extreme heat draws out all the moisture of a tree and kils it In that sense the Sun may be said to root up a tree the Sunne killing the tree causeth it to be rooted up Thus we see divers Antecedents answering the he the agent in the Text. If he destroy him from his place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absorbuit devoravit Metâ—phoricè corrupit destruxit consumpsit quia quod deglutitur perditur absumitur The word which we translate destroy signifies properly to swallow down as a man swallows down meat and drink And it signifies to swallow as a man swallows when he is very hungry a man that is very hungry eats his meat greedily he throws it down whole into his throat rather then chews it Now because when meat is swallowed down the meat is consumed and spent and is destroyed and comes to nothing therefore the Hebrews elegantly translate that word which properly signifies to swallow up Pereleganter qui vinum multum degiutiunt à vino absorberi dicuntur Pined to destroy to destroy is to swallow up And in that sense Isa 28.7 wine is said to swallow up a man that is to destroy and consume him Intemperate persons swallow up wine and at last wine swallows up them The wine drinks up their estates their wits their healths their lives their all at last It is a metaphor taken also from cruell and savage beasts who devour men as Jacob saith of Joseph Surely a wilde beast hath devoured or swaâ—â—owed him up And Psal 35.25 vve have that word applied to wicked men conspiring against the Saints they say We have swallowed him up ah so would we have it that is we have utterly destroyed him this pleases this goes well on our side Then the meaning is Though the tree be in this state yet if the husbandman come he can quickly destroy it from his place Yea though it be thus fairly grown and firmly rooted the Sunne is able to kill this tree and to draw out all it's moisture and so leave it dry and feared fit only to be stubbed up for fewell Or take it for an hypocrite to whom the similitude referreth If God come to destroy him out of his place to swallow him up ther 's an end of him quickly It shall deny him saying I have not seen him From this consideration that the destruction of the tree is spoken of so immediately after the flourishing of it That word He is green c. is no sooner out but he adds If he destroy him c. We may note That the destruction of hypocrites and wicked men cometh often upon them in the height of their prosperity Even in the time of his greennesse he shall be destroyed and when his roots are wrapped about the heap Trees stand so long sometimes that they wither of themselves and then we cut them down for the fire but this man shall be cut down like a tree in his prime in his flourishing when affliction and withering seem farthest off when he thinks least of destruction then it shall come upon him when his estate is like Jonah's gourd a very pleasant plant and a great rejoycing to him a worme smites the roots and kils it That of Job Chap. 20.22 is full to this point In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits A strange thing that a man should be in straits when he is in his greatest enlargement that a
man should be emptied when he is full that a man should be nothing when he hath all sufficiency about him yet thus it shall be In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits As a godly man hath a sufficiency in his wants yea a fulnesse of sufficiency in his wants So on the other side an hypocrite whose heart is false with God hath want in his sufficiency yea want in the fulnesse of his sufficiency Which may be understood two waies either that his fulnesse in the greatest sufficiency of it is unsatisfying or that his fulnesse in the greatest sufficiency of it is upon decaying and abating Psal 78.13 Whilest the meat was in their mouths the wrath of God fell upon them while meat is in the mouth rich clothes upon the back while store of money is in the purse while the land brings forth abundance of encrease even in all these sufficiencies a man may be in straits As it was with Agag 1 Sam. 15. Surely saith he the bitternesse of death is past he thought himself safe and that the storm was quite blown over but then in that nick of time comes Samuel and cutteth him in peeces The Apostle Paul saith 2 Cor. 1.9 I had the sentence of death in my self that is I concluded I could not survive those sufferings I thought my self a lost man yet the Lord delivered him and fetched him from the grave But when hypocrites like Agag have the sentence yea the sweetnesse of life in themselves When they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes as pain upon a woman in travell and they shall not escape God cuts them off It follows If he destroy him from his place what then It shall deny him saying I have not seen thee Here is a further aggravation of his misery when he is destroyed It shall deny him What shall deny him Some read it thus his place shall deny him Can a place speak affirm or deny No it cannot but it is usuall in Scripture by a Prosopopeia a fiction of a person to ascribe speech to beasts to trees and places too things not only without reason but without life Such an elegancy is here It shall deny him that is when he is destroyed if any man shall ask the question where is this man Where is this goodly tree that stood here before The place shall answer He is not here now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ontietur ei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. er prosopope aÌ„ tribuit sermoneÌ„ mendacium rei inanimae quod insolens non est in his libris Ita è loco suo excidetur interibit ut nullus jam agnoscat eum ibi unquam fuisse Merc The Hebrew is The place shall lie the place shall feign and say we have not seen him we know not what is become of him So men use to answer when they are either afraid or ashamed to own one that is asked for Some understand it of a person Then one may deny him I see then no more so M. Broughton Suppose a traveller who oftentimes past by and saw this goodly tree when he commeth to the place again sees it no more the tree is down So he who hath past by such a mans house and beheld his goodly seat when he comes another time there is no such man there the man is gone It or he shall deny him saying I have not seen thee I have not seen thee We have neer the same words Psal 37.35 36. where the flourishing estate of a wicked man is shadowed under the notion of a tree I have seen the wicked flourish like a green bay-tree c. yet he past away and he was not as much as to say if it be asked what 's become of him A man shall answer he hath not seen him yea I sought him but he could not be found Such a sense hath been shewed Job 7.18 upon those words The place thereof shall know him no more A clear riddance shall be made of all men out of the world especially of wicked men In that description Dan. 2.35 of the four Monarchies under the similitude of a great Image whose head was of gold his brest and arms of silver his belly and thighs of brasse his legs of iron and his feet of iron and clay the text saith Then was the iron the clay the brasse the silver and the gold broken to peeces together and became like the chaff of the Summer threshing floors and the winde carried them away that no place was found for them or as the Chaldee They were found in no place A time will come when all Monarchies and worldly Kingdoms which have stood up in so much lustre which have dazled the eyes of all beholders with their splendour and kept all their neighbour nations under by their power a time shall come when this clay and iron and brasse and silver and gold shall be all beaten to peeces so that if a man ask where are the four Monarchies What 's become of the pomp and state of those great Empires The places of them shall know them no more no man can tell where they are There is such a meaning here this green tree This hypocrite shall have his branches so pull'd off his roots so stubbed up that it will be hard to give an account what 's become of him We finde the happy and flourishing estate of the Church and people of God described as if no place were large enough for them to dwell in Zech. 10.10 I will bring them again out of the land of Aegypt and gather them out of Assyria c. that is I will gather my Saints my Church together from all the parts of the world where they have lived while they could not live but sculking in corners I will bring them together so conspicuously that there shall be no place found for them that is no place capacious enough to receive them and their families We have the same promise of enlargement Isa 49. They shall say The place is too strait for me give place to me that I may dwell Now as the Saints shall be gathered together so eminently and abundantly that no place shall be found big enough to hold them so the hypocrite with all his greennesse and verdure shall be so blasted and rooted up that the place where he was shall not be visible as his he shall be so farre from filling all places that he shall fill none The place where he dwelt shall spue him out and by any remaining symptome it shall not be known where that man was So then the summe of all may be given thus taking the comparison from the tree to this wicked man That as a tree highly grown and deeply rooted may be so cut down and stubbed up that it shall not be known whether ever it grew upon that place or no so a wicked man though for a while he flourisheth and overcommeth all impediments that hinder him
more And he seeth the place of stones he will live upon a flint having a lively root of faith continually sucking in refreshings from Christ under whose protection and favour he remains strong and abounding in the worke of the Lord. But if he destroy him from his place it shall deny him that is if the wicked of the world attempt to root the godly man up the place that is the men of the place shall take part with them own him and deny to give him up into the hands of those who would destroy him But if the place should not secure him if the power and violence of the enemy destroy and pluck him up yet this is his joy a godly man may be destroyed but none can destroy the joy of a godly man This is the joy of his way he delights in persecution he is as sorrowfull but alwaies rejoycing even in death it self And out of his earth shall others grow He shall have a blessed posterity to stand up in his stead in whom he shall live when he is dead Or if the power of the adversary root him out of this earth in which he lived and drive him from this ground from house and home he shall grow in another earth The originall may bear that sense De terra alia germinabunt Pagn If he be removed from this place he shall grow in another place if you take him from his owne Countrey he can grow in any Countrey and if he be plucked from all Countreys he will grow up to and in Heaven Thus the whole Context may be made out as a similitude of a godly man in opposition to the hypocrite But I rather acquiesse and settle in the interpretation before that it is a third description of the condition of an hypocrite The originall and our translation fairly carry it so Bildad having thus farre prosecuted the point vindicated the justice of God and illustrated his former proof by a threefold similitude shuts up and states the point for God that He is just For he will not hurt the innocent neither will he help the evil doers c. JOB Chap. 8. Vers 20 21 22. Behold God will not cast away a perfect man neither will he help the evil doers Till he fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoycing They that hate thee shall be cloathed with shame and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought THese three verses are the epilogue or close of Bildads discourse with Job having in the former parts of the Chapter asserted and with great clearnesse illustrated the justice of God in his dealings against impenitents and hypocrites he now concludes in a mollifying language with the assurance of his favour and goodnesse unto those who return and humble themselves Yet this he interweaves with threats of the displeasure of God seen in the effects of it against the wicked in the twentieth and two and twentieth verses It is as if Bildad had thus said Behold God will not cast away a perfect man Job thou maist perceive by what hath now been spoken that God is no enemy to the righteous nor no friend to wicked men Thou seest what the portion of a wicked man is from God and how just God is in giving him such a portion yet know that mercy shall act as gloriously in the hand of God as justice doth as God is not unjust to favour hypocrites so neither will he be unjust to forget the righteous and the perfect man the hypocrite shall perish but he will fill the mouth of a godly man with laughing and his lips with rejoycing Or if we consider his speech more distinctly we may see two negative acts of justice one toward the perfect the other toward the hypocrite with the effects of both His justice acts towards the perfect man in that He will not cast him away The effect whereof is The filling of his mouth with laughing and his lips with rejoycing His justice acts against the hypocrite thus He will not help the evil doers The effect whereof is That evil doers shall be cloathed with shame and that their tabernacles shall not be We may cast all into a form of argument First to the generall and then to the particular case of Job He that doth not cast away a perfect and a good man is just and righteous in his dealings and administrations But God doth not will not cast away a perfect and a good man Therefore he i◠just and righteous in his dealings and admiministrations Then to the particular case of Job He that doth not cast away any perfect man will not cast thee away if thou art perfect Therefore Job return make thy way perfect before God and He will not cast thee away Or take this inference God will not cast away a perfect man therefore surely thou hast a great deal of imperfection or insincerity in thee because God hath thus cast thee off and laid thee aside The like arguments may be framed upon the other part of his justice in his dealings with the wicked From the generall sense of the Context thus given I come to open the particulars as they here lie in order Behold God will not cast away a perfect man Behold Is here a strong affirmation This is a certain truth God will not The strong God or the puissant will not cast away a perfect man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath infinite power but he putteth none of it forth Deus fortis non abutitur potenti◠sua ad conterendun simplicem Pined to this purpose he never laies out himself in opposing those who are perfect and righteous The powerfull God doth not cast away a perfect man Cast away The word which we translate cast away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was opened at the 14th verse of this Chapter and in the fifth Chapter vers 9. Fasti divit reprobavit There it was translated by despising Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord cast not away or cast not off the chastening of the Lord. And in the 14th verse of this Chapter The hypocrites hope shall be cut off he shall cast away his hope or his hope should cast away and abhorre him for so the word bears Non reprobabit innocentem 7◠The Seventy translate it to that sense He will not cast off that is he will not reprobate or disapprove he will not reject or discountenance a perfect man And M. Broughton Loc the omnipotent will not loath the perfect Either of the senses are full enough to the Text. Only take notice that in the words there is a figure for when it is said Meiofis That God will not cast away a perfect man this is not all the meaning as if God made no other reckoning of perfect men then thus that he would not cast them away more is intended then exprest namely that the Lord doth highly esteem and prize righteous men he laies them as
hatred in the common notion and then surely Jacob was not a man so forgetfull of a husbands duty as to hate his wife the meaning then is only this The Lord saw that Leah had a lesse portion of love than Rachel had or lesse then her conjugall relation called for Jacob did not love her with that strength of affection with which he loved Rachel Which exposition is clear vers 30. and he namely Jacob loved Rachel more then Leah then Leah was loved yet Jacobs loving of Rachel more then Leah is called hating of Leah Not to love another in that degree we ought is a degree of hatred And in this sense we may take it here for though such as maliciously and professedly set themselves against the righteous are chiefly intended and fitted for this vesture of shame yet it is cut out also for them who doe not love and esteem the righteous who do not prize and rejoyce in them as the beauty and dignity which Christ hath put upon them invites them to doe These haters shall be cloathed with shame according to the degree of their hatred shall be the degree of their shame They shall be cloathed with shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be ashamed at all is a great punishment what is it then to be cloathed with shame To be cloathed with shame is a great punishment and most proper for those who are proud of their cloathing Puduit aliquem rei vel facti Our English word abasht is as near it in â—ound as in sense Shame is the fruit of sinne When there was no sinne in the world there was no shame in the world The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed Innocency knew no shame and glory shall know none It is good to be ashamed when we have done evil but it is best to doe no evil whereof to be ashamed Shame is a perturbation or trouble of minde expressed outwardly by holding down the head or by blushing in the face And it ariseth three waies 1. From doing somewhat against common light though every act of evil hath matter of shame in it yet a man is not naturally ashamed of it unlesse it be done against the light of nature Not to be ashamed of such sinnes is to put out the light of nature Such men are grown down into beasts The impudence of Jerusalem is set forth in sinning against the light of Scripture without blushing Isa 3.9 Were they at all ashamed Some are so modest that they are ashamed to hear of much more to be praised for the good which they have done Others are so impudent that they are not ashamed to hear of no nor to be reproved for the evil which they have done Were they at all ashamed As if he had said what a boldnes or impudence is this people come to they are not ashamed of those things which are clearly forbidden in the Word A good man is ashamed of any thing he hath done against the light of Scripture Every man is ashamed of what he doth against the light of nature 2. Shame arises from long delay or detainments much beyond expectation When Moses staid long in the Mount the people were ashamed Exod. 32.1 So Judg. 3.25 when Eglon staid long in the inner parlour the text saith his servants who waited without were ashamed 3. Shame ariseth from utter disappointments If hope deferred causeth shame then much more hope destroyed When a man sees his hopes quite cut off so that he can no way reach the thing he looked for shame takes hold of him strongly David praies Psal 119.116 Vphold me according to thy word that I may live and let me not be ashamed of my hope that is let me not lose my hope for then I shall be ashamed my enemies will rejoyce and hoot at me where 's the word upon which you trusted to be upholden Read Isa 19.9 Psal 27.6 Psal 119.116 In all which Scriptures we finde shame following the totall frustration and disappointment of hope Evil doers shall be ashamed upon these three grounds they have done things against common light They shall stay waiting and gaping long for what they desire They shall see themselves totally disappointed and defeated in their desires hence shame shall fill their faces and they shall be covered with it as with a garment Here is more then bare shame waiting upon them the text saith They shall be cloathed with shame To be cloathed is applied both to ornament and dishonour There are three degrees of expression in Scripture about shame 1. Barely to be ashamed that 's the lowest 2. To have the face covered with shame Let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of hosts be ashamed for my sake Because for thy sake I have born reproach shame hath covered my face Psal 69.6 7. The Prophet complains that his face was covered with shame his enemies endeavoured to blot and asperse him they poured contempt and reproaches upon his face that is upon his reputation in the world to doe so is to cover the face with shame therefore he praies Let not those that wait on thee be confounded for my sake Lord they have covered me with shame but doe thou vindicate my reputation and mine honour let not them that wait on thee be ashamed for my sake because I have had shame upon me for thy sake that is let not any be discouraged in thy service through my sufferings The Apostle feared some would faint because of his tribulations Eph. 3.13 Indui confusione est Hebraismus quo exprimitur omnimoda uâ—dique con undâ—ns verecuÌ„dia Bold Vestimenta dicuntur abominari quasi maculam contrabere timentes 3. To be cloathed with shame which implies the whole man under a covering of disgrace Some are so cloathed with sin that their very cloaths are ashamed of them being unwilling to touch or hide such sinnes Job speaks that sense in the ninth Chapter vers 31. concerning his own righteousnesse in justification If I wash my self with snow-water and make my hands never so clean yet thou wilt plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall aâ—horre me that is if I should set my self up in my own righteousnesse my own cloaths would be doth to cover such a piece of spirituall pride as that act would witnesse me to be To be cloathed with shame notes four things First The extent or abundance of it To be cloathed with honour is to have much honour To be cloathed with humility is to be very humble 1 Pet. 5.5 He that is cloathed is covered all over with his cloathing Secondly The publikenesse of it that shame cannot be hid A man cannot goe abroad but his cloathingis seen Manifestè confundentur Aqu. the filthinesse which lies underneath may be hid but his cloathing cannot Their shame shall cloath them they shall not put their shame under their cloaths their shame shall
all these the Lord is mighty in strength Vis confilij expers mole ruit sua Never fear either a defect of power in God or a defect in mannaging that power Sometimes power overthrows it self by it's own bulk and greatnesse but mighty strength ordered with equall wisdome is dreadfull to enemies and comfortable to friends A rude rout an undigested Chaos of men though very great never did any great thing But suppose a very numerous army of men and every man in that army having as much wisdome as would fit a Generall to lead and command them all what could stand before them Thus it is with God and how admirable is the union and marriage of these two together he hath all power and all wisdome Every degree of power in God is acted with a sutable degree of wisdome therefore there can be no miscarriage Note further how this Attribute runs thorow all the Attributes of God He is mighty in strength he is mighty also in truth mighty in love mighty in mercy mighty in faithfulnesse a mighty strength is in whatsoever God is Again Take this generall concerning all the Attributes of God when it is said He is wise in heart and mighty in strength c. These are not qualities in God they are in men Wisdome is to them an accident and so is strength whether civill strength or naturall it may be severed from them and they still keep their being But the wisdome of God is the wise God and the power of God is the powerfull God and the knowledge of God is the knowing God These Attributes are not accidents but his essence not qualities but his nature From both these Attributes laid together Job draws down his great conclusion which he puts by way of question Who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered Shew me the man having described the Lord in his wisdome and power he challengeth all the world and sends defiance to all creatures in heaven and in earth to meet with this God As if he had said Friends Doe ye thinke I have any thought to contend with God No I know not one who hath accepted this challenge or hardened himself against God and prospered If my own conscience would not yet their harms who have attempted it might warn me from such presumption Hardened himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indurare aut obdurescere Metaphoricè à tactu ad alios sensus transfertur denotat crudele saevum difficile quod dura sunt difficilia Durum est quod in se per superficiem non cedit Arist l. 4. Met. c. 4. Durities est qualitas densas bene compactas habens partes difficulter cedens tactui Arist l. 2. de Gener. Hardening under a naturall consideration comes by withdrawing the moisture out of any substance whence the parts of it are condensed grew stiff and unyeelding to the touch So Philosophers define it That is hard which doth not easily submit to impressions from without In a morall sense to harden is to settle the spirit or immoveably to resolve upon the doing or not doing of a thing when a man doth purposely resolve and resolvedly purpose to carry on a design he hardeneth himself to doe it The word is used both in a good sense and in an ill sense In a good sense when a man is resolute to do the will of God that is when he grows so resolved that he will not be removed by hopes or fears by promises or by threats When a man hath not a soft sequacious spirit to be swaied this way and that way but stands fixed and firm like a rock such a resolute spirit in goodnesse is a spirit hardened to doe good When the Lord had told Ezekiel that he should finde the ears of Israel lock'd against his messages and their hearts hardened he gives him assurance of a sutable ability to deal even with such Ezek. 3.8 9. Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces and thy fore-head strong against their fore-heads as an adamant harder then flint have I made thy fore-head The words seem to carry an allusion to Buls or Rams who use to run head against head when they are enraged against one another And so the sense is as if the Lord had said I know this people will be mad at thee and runne upon thee like furious beasts but trouble not thy self I will through my grace make thee as strong in declaring my will as they through pride and unbelief are strong in opposing it Thou needest not fear to encounter these Buls and Rams holinesse shall make thy fore-head that is thy purpose to performe my command harder then wickednesse shall make their fore-heads that is their purposes to disobey what I command As to be hardened in sinne is worse then sinning so to be hardened in doing good is better then doing good Sinne and grace act most like themselves when they act against all opposition As an adamant have I made thy face The adamant is insuperable as the notation of the * Adamas ejus creditur esse naturae ut domet omnia neque ipse ab ulla vifive arte domari possit Vnde nomen traxit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sonat indomitum Sanct. in Ezek. 3. word imports A heart thus hardened in holinesse overcomes all the fears and terrours which the world can raise against it Heroicall Luther was thus hardened when he said he would goe to Worms though the tiles upon every house in that City were matcht with a like number of Devils ready to resist him and the truth of Christ But usually hardening is taken in an ill sense and so to harden the spirit noteth First A resolving to sin whatsoever God saith or doth Obdurare cor est Deum loquentē nolle audire contemnere pervicaciter resistere nec se ejus verbo subjicere velle Par. in Heb. c. 3. v. 8. To sin against the word and works of God that 's hardening of the heart against God when a man will go on in his way though a threat be sounding in his ears a judgment appear terribly before his eyes such a man is hardned indeed he is grown valiant and couragious in wickednes Secondly A man hardens himself against God when he speaks stoutly against God the hardnesse of the heart appears in the tongue Mal. 3.13 Your words have been stout against me Stout words are a sign of stout spirits Our language is usually the image of our mindes So the word of the text is used 2 Sam. 19.43 The words of the men of Judah were fiercer then the words of the men of Israel Their words were harder then the words of the men of Israel they spake more resolutely and manly When a man sets himself to speak boldly against God the waies or the works of God he hardens himself against God fearfully Thirdly We harden our selves against God when we are displeased with what God doth That man
Further There are Church-pillars as well as State-pillars men of eminency in knowledge and learning in parts and piety These are pillars of the Church of God So the Apostle cals James and Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2.9 As the Church it self is the pillar of truth so some particular members are pillars of truth bearing it up and holding it forth as pillars doe the Laws or edicts of Princes and Common-wealths As these pillars are of Gods setting up so of Gods bearing up In great shakings of the earth Common-wealth-pillars tremble and Church-pillars tremble yea they would fall did not the Lord sustain them with his hand From all learn the instability of the creature If that which is the basis or foundation of all outward comforts be so easily shaken and tost up and down what are the comforts themselves If Kingdoms and Common-wealths totter who can stand fast When the Saints feel the world shake and tremble under them their comfort is They have received a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Neither man nor devils have any power to shake it and God will not shake it nay with reverence we may speak it the Lord cannot shake that Kingdom for it is his own he cannot doe any thing to his own wrong or dishonour Earth may but heaven shakes not neither shall any of the pillars thereof tremble for ever We have seen two acts of the mighty power of God first in removing those mountains those great massie parts of the earth Secondly In shaking the whole masse of the earth Now the thoughts of Job grow higher and he ascends from earth to heaven and brings an instance of the power of God there in the 7th verse Verse 7. Which commandeth the Sunne and it riseth not and sealeth up the stars And the instance which he makes in the heaven stands as heaven doth to earth in a direct line of opposition to that which he gave about the earth The earth in all the parts of it is a setled fixed body â—â—cut de natura terrae est immobolitas qâ—â—es ita de naturâ coeli ut semper moveatur Aquin. and therefore the power of God is clearly seen in causing it to move but the Sunne is a moveable body a creature in continuall motion and therefore the power of God is clearly seen in checking and stopping the motion of it It cals for as strong a hand to make the Sunne stand still as to shake and remove the earth The staying of that which naturally cannot but move and the moving of that which naturally cannot but stand still require a like power and that which stands as the earth doth or moves as the Sunne doth requires an Almighty power to move or stay it Which commandeth the Sun and it riseth not Which commandeth the Sunne He describes God in the posture and language of a King giving out commands He commandeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dixiâ— illud dicere est cum potestate imperandi God is the Soveraign of the Sunne Yet the word in the Hebrew is no more but he saith or he speaks to the Sunne so Mr Broughton translates He speaks to the Sunne that it riseth not We clearly to the sense He commandeth the Sun because the Word of God to the creature is a Law or a Command upon the creature He commandeth the Sunne and it riseth not The phrase implies an ordinary or a common event But when was there such a thing as this How rare are such events I may ask Did the Lord ever command the Sunne that it should not rise Or did ever any day appear when the Sun did not appear we may answer four or five waies First Non ad factum sed ad Dei potentiam refertur qui si velit possit vicissitudinem ortus occasus solis tollere Olymp. Some conceive Job speaks only of what God can doe as in the former instance not of what he ever did He never actually gave out his command to the Sunne that it should not rise but he hath power to doe it if he pleaseth Many things are spoken of the power of God as presently done which onely are things possible for him to doe That 's a good interpretation of the place Secondly We may carry it further for when he saith It riseth not we need not take it strictly as if the Sunne were staid from making day at all but it may note any stop or sudden disappearing of the Sunne The Sunnes rising is the Suns appearing Non oritur sol tantum est non apparet nam vâ—tas solis apparitio quedam est Bold and when the Sunne disappeareth or is hidden it is to us as if the Sun were not risen Thus God hath actually more then once given out a command to the Sun not to rise Lavater in his comment upon this place reports that in the year 1585. March 12th such a darknesse fell upon the earth that the fowls went to roost at noon as if it had been Sunne setting and all the common people thought the day of judgement was come That of the Prophet is true in the letter as well as in the figure Amos 4.13 He maketh the morning darknesse And Chap. 5.8 He turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night The holy story records one famous act of God commanding the Sunne to stand still Josh 10.12 When Joshua was in pursute of his enemies he praied that the day might not hasten down Sunne stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon And the Sunne stood still c. Joshua speaks as if himself could command the Sunne Sunne stand thou still he talks to the Sunne as to his servant or childe stand still It was indeed at the voice of Joshua but by the word and power of God that the Sunne stood still So the Text resolves There was no day like that before it or after it no day so long as that that the Lord hearkned to the voice of a man So then the Lord hearkned to the voice of a man and then the Sâ—â—â—â— hearkened to the voice of a man First the Lord hearkned and then the Sunne hearkned that is by a command from God at the request of a man the Sunne stood still Thirdly It may be understood of ordinary eclipses which are disappearings of the Sunne and though they come in a course of nature and are by naturall light fore-seen many years before they come yet there is somewhat in them which should fill us with high thoughts of the power of God And though an eclipse of the Sun be no miracle yet God once made and can again make a miraculous eclipse When Christ the Sun of righteousnes was shamefully crucified the Sun in the heavens as ashamed to look upon that act as from man of prodigious cruelty and injustice hid his face and from the sixth hour that is Dionysius Areopagita from
24.63 The subject of his meditation was the starres or the heavens It is good to take field-room sometimes to view contemplate the works of God round about Only take heed of the former folly of Astrologicall curiosities confining the providence of God to secondary causes avoid that and the heart may have admirable elevations unto God from the meditation of the works of God Psal 19.1 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work if the heavens declare the glory of God we should observe what that glory is which they declare The heavens preach to us every day Their line is gone out thorow all the earth and their words to the end of the world Psal 19.4 Sun Moon and Stars are Preachers they are universall preachers they are naturall Apostles the world is their charge their words saith the Psalm go to the ends of the earth We may have good doctrine from them especially this doctrine in the text of the wisdom and power of God And it is very observable that the Apostle alludes to this text in the Psalm for a proof of Gospel-preaching to the whole world Rom. 10.18 So then faith commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God But I say have they not heard Yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world The Gospel like the Sun casts his beams over and sheds his light into all the world David in the Psalm saith Their line is gone out c. By which word he shews that the heavens being so curious a fabrick made as it were by line and levell do clearly though silently preach the skill and perfections of God Or that we may read divine truths in them as in a line formed by a pen into words and sentences the originall signifies both a measuring line 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat lineam non modo extensam hoc est funiculum sed etiam scriptam hoc est scripturam Par. in Rom. 10 and a written line Letters and words in writing being nothing but lines drawn into severall forms or figures But the Septuagint whose translation the Apostle citeth for Kavam their line read Kolam their sound either mis-reading the word or studiously mollifying the sense into a nearer compliance with the later clause of the verse And their words into the ends of the world Pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus I have endeavoured to make those things plain which are here represented to vulgar ears under strange unusuall and hidden expressions Job is full of Philosophy and Astronomy he was a great student in the heavens doubtlesse and a holy student Job having given these severall instances gathers them all into a generall conclusion in the tenth verse Verse 10. Which doth great things past finding out yea and wonders without number These words are repeated from the discourse of Eliphaz in the 5th Chap. v. 9. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause which doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number I will not stay in a particular disoussion of them but refer the Reader to the place before cited where the text is opened at large and particular observations given from it Take only this observation in generall That A godly man labours to exalt God both in his thoughts and in his words with heart and tongue when God depresses and humbles him most Mark in what a condition Job was when he speaks thus honourably of the name and power of God One would think Job had little reason to extoll the power of God which he felt to his own smart Job was stript of all he had his outward comforts were taken from him and the arrows of the Almighty wounded his very spirit Now when he had wounded Job thorow and thorow thorow flesh and thorow spirit even at this time when God appeared making no use of his power but to undo Job Job is in his Encomium all in the praise and commendation of God He endites a Chapter on purpose to set forth the power and wisdom of God while he imploied both to make his afflictions both great and accurate This shews the admirable frame of his spirit in all his distempers his heart stood right and he would speak good of God what evil soever befell him from Gods hand Let God afflict with his power yet a gracious heart rejoices in it A gracious heart will lift up that power which weakens and throws it down Let the Lord imploy his wisdom to undo to impoverish such a man to bring him into such straits that he cannot get out yet he hath enlarged thoughts of that wisdom He sees God is as wise in troubling us as he is in delivering That language of Spira is the right language of hell I judge not his person but his speech who in a great temptation spake thus I would I had more power then God or O that I were above God He was angry that God had so much power because God used his power against him A carnall man would be above God especially if God at any time puts forth his power against him When he is hard bestead and hungry he frets himself and curses his King and his God looking upward Isa 8.21 to murmur at God not to pray unto him or speake good of him Tertullian Illud est impiorum ingenium ut Deum non ulterius celebrent quam cum benefacit Fer. It is observed by one of the Ancients concerning the Heathen That if God did not please them he should be no longer God Such are our hearts by nature if God do not use his power wisdom mercy for us we presently wish he had no power wisdom nor mercy for any in the world we would be above God unles God will serve us but an holy heart saith thus Let God improve his power and wisdom which way he pleaseth if to afflict and chasten me yea to destroy and cast me to hell his be the power for ever I extoll his power Nature can only praise God and speak good of him when he is doing of us good But grace prompts the heart to indite a good matter and bids the tongue be as the pen of a ready writer to advance God when sense feels nothing but smart and sees nothing but sorrow round about Then grace is in her heights when she can lift up God highest while he is casting us down and laying us lowest When we can honour God frowning as well as smiling upon us smiting and wounding as well as kissing and imbracing us then we have learned to honour God indeed JOB Chap. 9. Vers 11 12 13. Loe he goeth by me and I see him not he passeth on also but I perceive him not Behold he taketh away who can hinder him who shall say unto him What doest thou If God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers doe stoop under him JOB having in
When Job was yet brought nearer to God he was more humbled Ch. 42.5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eie seeth thee that is I have a clearer and more glorious manifestation of thee to my soul then ever I now perceive thy power thy holinesse thy wisdom thy faithfulnesse thy goodnesse as if they were corporeall objects as if I saw them with mine eye Wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes he could not goe lower in his thoughts of himself then this expression laid him Abhorrence is a perturbation of the minde arising from vehement dislike or extreamest dis-esteem Abhorrence strictly taken is hatred wound up to the height As exulting is the highest act of joy and delighting the highest act of love so abhorring is the deepest act of hatred and to abhorre repenting in dust and ashes is the deepest act of abhorrence Thus low Job goes not only to a dislike but to the furthest degree of it abhorrence of himself when he saw the Lord. So Isaiah in the 6th of his Prophecy when God came neer him and he saw so much of God cries out I am undone for I am a man of polluted lips but did not Isaiah know he was a sinfull man a man of polluted lips till then Yes but he was never so sensible of it as then He saw his own pollution more then ever by the light of the glory of God that shone round about him He never saw himself so clearly as when the majesty of God dazel'd his eyes When the Sun shines bright into a room we may see the least mote in the air so when the glory of God irradiates the soul we see all the motes and atoms of sinne the least spot and unevennesse of our hearts or lives this brings the soul low and will keep it so The more we know of God the more we honour him and our selves the lesse These two are eminent effects of knowing God As God rises in our thoughts so we fall Paul who had been wrapt up into the third heavens and had a multitude of divine revelations cals himself The least of the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.9 and lesse then the least of all Saints Ephes 3.8 not that any thing can be lesse then the least The Apostles holy rhetorick doth not crosse Aristotles philosophy But the originall being a double diminutive his meaning is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was as little as could be therefore he puts himself down so little as could not be lesse then the least Job speaks neer him How much lesse shall I answer him The Question imports an inability in him for resolution He thought himself so much lesse able to answer then they that he could not tell how much lesse And therefore leaves others to cast it up and take the account how short he was of that businesse he knew it was much but how much it was he knew not How much lesse shall I answer him And choose out my words to reason with him The word signifies choice upon exact triall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elegit LXX vertunt per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 17.9 cap. 18.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ob 34 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 7. â— Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juvenis aâ— militiam negâ—â—ia electus idoneus Loqui selectis verbis ornataâ— composita oratione It is used in that sense Exod. 17.9 Moses biddeth Joshua choose out men to go and fight with Amalek he did not take them as they came to hand or lay his hand violently upon them to presse them but he advisedly took his choice he had pickt men for that service David gathered all the children of Israel he had a select company to fetch up the Ark 2 Sam. 6.1 and when he undertook the duell with Goliah the Text saith he went to the brook and chose him out five smooth stones they were choice stones fittest for his sling As it is among persons and things so among words there are choice words some are but rubbish refuse words others are precious wise sutable words How should I choose out my words to reason with him Shall I think by setting words in a curious frame to prevail with God or shall I by speaking rhetorically and elegantly overcome him There is much power in oratory in choice of words and therefore the holy Ghost forbids the Ministers of the Gospel to speak with choice words in that sense namely with rhetoricall and artificiall strained eloquence which naturally pleaseth the ear and takes the heart which kinde of speech is called wisdome of words 1 Cor. 2.17 and the enticing words of mans wisdome Chap. 2.4 They having an aptnesse in them to entice or perswade are called enticing or perswasive words And because he would have little or nothing of the creature seen in winning souls therefore the Apostle professes he used not such eloquence of words Great Oratours have carried whole Assemblies by the ears And lest it should be thought that the Ministers of the Gospel convert men with oratory therefore they must not use such choice words It becomes them not like Rhetoricians and Orators to polish their stile with an affected curiosity and exactnesse of language But as affected language is sinfull so neglect or rudenesse of speech is not without blame We should labour to speak properly and weightily so it becomes us to choose our words and not to speak till we have heard what our selves would say And thus Job knew he ought to chuse his words when he spake to God but he knew also he could not make any such choice either of rhetoricall and perswasive words or of logicall and argumentative words as might fit him to answer God or reason with him He was assured that neither the eloquence of his stile could perswade him nor the strength of his arguments convince him How shall I choose out words to reason with God In the Originall the word reason is not found only thus Shall I choose out words with him To choose out words with another bears this elegancy as if Job had said If I should set my self to choose words with God he would choose better words then I more forcible words then I he is more able infinitely to make choice of words and matter to convince me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then I to convince him Significat causam aut ratio nem sic eligere verba est novas in veâ—re rationes vel argumenta ad suaÌ„ causam suâ—ciendam For the word which we translate words may signifie not only words with which matter is cloathed but the matter it self cloathed with those words The summe of all is I can neither choose matter nor words to discourse and argue with God his invention and judgement about both infinitely exceeds mine M. Broughton refers the word choosing to Job and not to words thus Shall I choose to word it with God
to plead and debate the businesse with God Surely of all elections I would not make that I will not choose to make many words with God silence and submission becomes me better That 's a good sense But here a doubt may arise from a passage Chap. 13.3 where Job speaks thus Surely I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to reason with God how then doth he here say Shall I choose out words to reason with God As if he had said by no means I will not doe this thing and yet there he seems very ambitious of the attempt and confident of the successe I desire to reason with God I answer there is a two-fold reasoning with God There is a reasoning of declaration and a reasoning of contestation When Job saith I desire to reason with God his meaning is only this I desire to declare and set forth my case and condition before him We may reason with God by way of narrative He allows us to tell him how it is with us Furthâ—r Job speaks in that 13th Chapter comparatively shewing how much he had rather declare his case to God then to his friends God was a better friend to unbosome himself to then any of or all his three friends for he saith of them in the very next words Ye are forgers of lies ye are all physicians of no value to what purpose would it be for me longer to make known my case and shew my grief to you I had rather reason with God then man But as for that other reasoning by way of contestation and quarrelling with the providence or works of God Job professeth in this place he had no minde to it he would never choose that task or set himself to choose out words for that end it was too high for him He saw it was neither wisdome nor duty to deal with and undertake God either with an open or a closed hand either with logicall subtilties or rhetoricall flourishes Again Whereas Iob saith he would not reason with God it will be queried May we not reason with God at all The Lord himself saith Isa 1.18 Come let us reason together If the Lord calleth us to reason with him may we not then reason with him Is it not sinfull modesty to refuse what God offers To clear that I answer There are two waies wherein we may not reason with God 1. We must not reason with him in our own strength 2. We must not reason with him upon our own worth And that is the full meaning of Job I would not choose to reason with God that is to reason with God in my own strength as if I had power to deal with him Or secondly I would not reason with God upon my own worth as if there were any thing in me upon which I were able to make it out that God ought not to deal thus with me and that 's clear by the words which follow Though I were righteous yet would I not answer that is I would not at all speak with God standing upon this bottome or under the title of my own worthinesse In either of these waies it is sinfull to reason with God But we may reason with God in the way of declaration before spoken of In praier there is a reasoning with God and the reasonings and pleadings that are in praier are the life and strength of praier Praier is not only a bare manifestation of our minde to God by such a sute or petition but in praier there is or ought to be a holy arguing with God about the matter which we declare wâ—â—ch is a bringing out and urging of reasons and motives whereby the Lord may be moved to grant what we pray for The praiers of the Saints recorded in Scripture are full of arguments I shall shew it in one example as a taste for the rest Iacob in his distresse at the approach of his brother Esau flees to God in praier Gen. 32. and he doth more then speak in praier he argues yea he wrestles with God in praier The summe of it is set down vers 11. Deliver me I pray thee to the undertaking of this deliverance he urgeth the Lord by no fewer then seven arguments First From Gods Covenant with his Ancestours O God of my father Abraham c. As if he had said Remember those names with whom thou madest solemn Covenants of protection both to them and their posterity The second is from Gods particular command for this journey Thou saidest unto me Return I departed not on my own head but by thy direction and therefore thou canst not for thy honour but free me from danger seeing at thy word I am fallen into it Thou O Lord art even engaged to give me defence while I yeeld thee obedience Thirdly He puts him in minde of his promises thou saidst I will deal well with thee and that includes all other promises made unto him these he makes as a Bulwark to defend him or as his anchor in the storm This anchor must fail and this bulwark be broken down before the danger comes to me If thy promise stand I cannot fall The fourth is the confession of his own unworthinesse Faith is alwaies humble and while we are most confident in Gods word we are most distrustfull of our own desert I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies Though I am thus bold to urge thy Covenant yet I am as ready to acknowledge my own undesert Thou art a debter by the promise thou hast made to me not by any performance of mine to thee Fifthly He seeks to continue the current of Gods favour by shewing how plentifully it had already streamed unto him which he doth by way of Antithesis setting his former poverty in opposition to his present riches With my staff I passed this Jordan and now I am become two bands That is thou hast blessed me abundantly and shall my brothers malice blast all am I encreased only to make him abound The sixth argument is the greatnesse and eminence of his peril vers 11. I fear lest he will come and slay the mother upon the children a proverbiall speech in the holy language like that of cutting off branch and root in one day both denoting totall excision or an utter overthrow Seventhly He shuts up by re-enforcing the mention of the promise which he urgeth more strongly then before there it was only Thou saidst I will deal well with thee but here it is Thou saidest in doing good I will doe thee good that is as it is rendred in our translation I will surely doe thee good and therefore let not my brother doe me evil We see Jacobs praying was a reasoning with God and himself in the issue got not onely a new blessing but a new name Israel a Prince with God a prevailer both with God and men And thus we may reason with God in the strength and for the sake of Christ in all our praiers For as when God cals
striving in her womb the Lord answereth thus Two Nations are in thy womb and two manner of people and then addeth The one people shall be stronger then the other people it is this word Regnum regno praevalebit sc populuâ— prae populo robustior the one people shall be prevailingly strong and shall overcome the other both people shall be strong mighty and potent but there is one of them shall have the rule and shall conquer and subdue the other If I speak of strength he is strong The summe is If the Question be about strength and power then the Lord carries the day and the honour he is most powerfull he is strong above all Hence observe That God is of infinite and insuperable strength He hath strength many have malice and wickednesse boldnesse and presumption enough to oppose but none have power enough to overcome him He hath force which none can subdue and he hath authority which none ought to resist These two must concurre wheresoever there is full determining power A man may have authority or right to do a thing and yet have no strength to execute and effect it And many have strength to doe those things as to oppresse a man to take his goods or his life from him for which they have no authority both meet in the Lord therefore he is the Soveraign Lord he hath authority to doe as much as he can and he hath strength to doe as much as he will Some men would make strange work in the world if they had strength sutable to their authority and others would make a good world by their works if they had authority sutable to their strength both these meet in God who can contend with him If we speak of strength loe he is strong There are three things wherein this insuperablenesse of the strength of God appears 1. He hath strength to doe whatsoever he will There is nothing not fecible or too hard for him 2. He hath strength to doe what he willeth not the Lord is able to doe more then ever he will doe he could presently take vengeance upon all the wicked but he will not he is patient and good toward them who look not at all towards repentance to which his goodnesse and patience lead them Rom. 2.5 3. He is so strong that he can doe whatsoeveâ— imports strength because he only doth what he will doe To doâ—â—â—at which is not our will to dâ—e is a note of disability It argues a want of power to be forced to doe a thing as well as not to be able to it He that doth what he would not is not able to doe what he would God is therefore able to doe whatsoever he wils because he never did nor can be drawn to do any thing against his will It follows then That the Lord is so strong that he can doe whatsoever names him strong and only cannot doe those things which if he did he must be weak as was further shewed at the fourth verse of this Chapter Secondly Hence it appears That No creature is able to grapple with God He is strongest The Apostle gives that admonition 1 Cor. 10.22 Doe we provoke the Lord to jealousie Are we stronger then he Surely except man thought he were able to match God he would not be so fool-hardy so vain to throw down the Gauntlet or enter the lists with God The weaknesse of God is stronger then men 1 Cor. 1.25 not that there is any weaknesse in God but take that which men conceive to be weaknesse or weakest in him that 's stronger then man Or The weaknesse of God that is the weakest instruments which God uses are stronger scil in their effects then the strongest which men use God can doe more with ten men then man can doe with an hundred The most stammering tongue and flattest language shall perswade more if God speak with it then the most fluent tongue and sparkling Oratory spoken meerly by man If I speak of strength loe he is strong And if of judgement Who shall set me a time to plead If I cannot by force and power may I not by subtilty and wit by reason and argument by eloquence and rhetorick prevail against him No If of judgement Who shall set me a time to plead As I cannot deal with God at the sword or in the field so neither can I deal with him at the bar or at the judgement seat There are two words in the Hebrew which are used for judging 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudicium jus ratio The first is Dan the name of one of the twelve Patriarks and from him of a Tribe in Israel Dan shall judge his people Gen. 49.16 And that word in strictnesse signifies to give doom or sentence in a cause The other word is that in the text Shaphat which signifies more especially the doing of right or the righting of a man in any controversie The Greek word takes in both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now while Job saith If of judgement or if we speak of judgement the Question is What judgement doth he mean Judgement is taken three waies First For the rule of judging or for the Law whereby we judge It is said 1 Sam. 10.25 that Samuel after he had anointed Saul for King told the people the manner of the Kingdom and wrote it in a book this manner of the Kingdom was not the common practice and custom of the Kingdom but it is the word of the text the judgements of the Kingdom that is those rules and laws by which the Kingdoâ—â— ought to be governed and judged Secondly Judgement is put for an ability or fitnesse to judge to discern and weigh things to scan a cause and try out the uttermost truth of every circumstance judgement is the ability of the person judging And Thirdly Judgement is taken for the sentence given upon the person judged after the evidence of his cause is heard and taken Judgement in this third sense is the result of the former two For when by judgement as it is the rule of judging and an ability to judge the Judge hath wrought and tried out what the merit of a mans cause and the truth of a businesse in controversie is then the issue of both is Judgement in this third sense that is an act which is passed or a sentence pronounced upon the person that standeth in or the cause which is brought to judgement So If of judgement is If I bring forth my cause to be tried by the abilities of the Judge and by the rule of the Law this will be no relief to me I shall be in as ill a case as if I were to deal with God by plain strength There is an opinion that takes in a fourth sense about this word judgement as if judgement were not a forensicall or a judiciall term in this text but signified only afflictions or punishments upon a people or person Iulicium sumitur hoc loco
speak well of himself to God Let God report him perfect to men he will not report himselfe perfect before God Though Job had a free and a full certificate of his innocency not one bought begged or got with flattery yet he forbears in this case to bring it forth and read it to his friends They who have most reall worth and holinesse in them are least in their own eyes and lowest in their own thoughts they of whom God gives the fairest testimony give the meanest of themselves he cares not much to appear to be what God assures him he is God was positive without Ifs or And 's in his opinion of him Thou art perfect but he puts it into a supposition and concludes with an if If I were perfect c. In the 21. verse Job carries on the same businesse and bewraies a more humble and self denying frame of minde then before Though I were perfect yet c. There is a contention among Interpreters to which part of the Chapter this 21. verse belongs whether to that which went before or to that which follows after I shall open it first as the sense of it may be connected with the matter preceding Verse 21. Though I were perfect yet would I not know my own soul I would despise my life Though I were perfect Observe the gradation He had said before If I plead with God and justifie my self I shall be condemned and proved perverse But put my case at the best that I justifying my self the Lord should accept my justification and should concurre with my vote that I am perfect yet I could take no joy in this If the Lord should condescend to know me under that notion I would not adventure to know my own soul under the notion of my perfections The thing is an abhorring to me I would not know my soul Why not There are two senses given first thus If I were perfect that is if upon debate and pleading with God I should come off perfect in my own judgement certainly then I did not know my own soul That 's one sense and so it fals in well with the former words If I should justifie my self my mouth would prove me perverse And so the point that I shall note from it is That ignorance of our selves is the cause of proud and high thoughts of our selves He that knows himself must know himself to be imperfect seeing our greatest perfection in this life is to know our own imperfections When we see any standing upon their own bottoms and crying up themselves poor souls how are they benighted How little doe they know of their own hearts or lives How little doe they know of God! They are in darknesse therefore they see not their own spots If a man whose face is foul or deformed should boast of his beauty would you not say this man knows not his own face Or surely he hath not look'd in a glasse to day May we not much rather say to him who justifies himself and saith He is perfect Sure you never saw your face in the glasse in that pure Crystall glasse of the Word He that is in Gospel-light sees himself and as light encreaseth so doth his sight of himself And the more he sees himself the more evil he sees in himself In a cloudy day we think the air is clear but the shining of the Sun shews us millions of motes in the air if a man sees no motes in his life some see not beams there it is because he walks in darknesse and hath not the light He doth not know his own soul That 's a usefull interpretation of the words and the first sense Secondly If I were perfect Talem de me cogitationem non admittam sed omnino contemnam de monte mea penitus excutiam Quantum vis bene recteque vixerim hac penitus despiciam Bold Admirabili omni acceptatione dignissima doctrina ac si essâ—t ex purissimis evangelij fontibus hausta E coelo descendit Nosce teipsum Noverim me noverim te August If it should be told me I were perfect I would not know my own soul that is I would not take notice of my self as perfect I would be a stranger to my self under that title I would shake the thoughts of such a perfection out of my minde as much as I would shake the thoughts of sinfull corruption out of my minde It is as dangerous to lodge or nourish thoughts of our own perfection as to lodge thoughts of the most sinfull corruptions A holy heart loves good thoughts but it loves not thoughts of its own goodnesse So then I would not know my soul imports not affected ignorance but elected knowledge Job was no stranger to his own soul he had studied himself and was well verst in his own bosom Self-knowledge is a duty And self-knowledge may be a sinne Christians should read themselves more then books and yet they may pore too much upon themselves Heathens gave us this lesson and they say it came from heaven Know thy self Augustine is quick upon it Lord I know ME and I know THEE To know God and our selves is the summe of all knowledge God doth not know him who knows not himself There is a double knowledge of our selves First Of sinfull self or of our sins and failings Secondly Of renewed self or of our vertues and graces Not to know how frail we are how sinfull we are to what corruptions and temptations we are most subject is a sinfull and corrupt ignorance To know our imperfections is a part of our perfection Secondly Not to know our graces and vertues Talis ignorans a Deo ignoratur what the work of the Spirit and the new nature within us is this also is a sinfull ignorance It is no honour to be what we doe not know our selves to be it is to be in the state of a beast not to reflect upon our own estate The new creature is light and carries a light for it's own discovery The reprovable knowledge of our own souls is not the knowledge of intuition whereby we apprehend what we are but the knowledge of ostentation whereby we are proud of or trust upon what we are Non noscere animam phrasis est Hebraea quae tantum rei despectum prae se fert ut illam etiam respicere aut aliquo modo noscere quis renuat We have an ordinary saying amongst us which reaches this sense fully Such a woman is beautifull and she knows it Such a one is a proper man and he knows it Such a one hath many good parts a very fine wit and he knows it that is such persons pride and lift themselves up in their perfections You shall have a soul that will know it self into I know not how much pride many stand reflecting upon their own perfections either externall how proper strong and beautifull they are or internall how vvitty and eloquent they are vvhat excellent parts
made a Covenant with death and an agreement with hell were very full of faith such as it was Isa 28.15 When the over-flowing scourge shall passe thorow it shall not come unto us An over-flowing scourge 'T is an elegant metaphor taken from waters is a common spreading sweeping judgement which like an over-flowing river encompasses circles about and fetches in all Slay suddenly Every scourge doth not slay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subito statim ita ut non sentiatur donec res fiat and many which slay doe not slay suddenly We usually hear the clashing of the scourge before we feel the smart of it The Lord shews the scourge and threatens it before he smites with it he lets judgement hang like a black cloud over the heads of some long before it fals upon them But others He slaies suddenly Some take this suddennesse of the scourge in slaying for a mittigation of the judgement and others for the heightning of it In the former sense suddennesse doth not imply the sudden comming of it but the sudden killing of it a scourge which doth it's work quickly so that a man doth not hang long as it were upon the rack of an affliction The Church of the Jews Lam. 4.6 complains of their afflictions as if the judgement of Sodome and Gomorrah had been more easie and eligible then that which the Lord brought upon Jerusalem not that they thought God had dealt worse with them then with Sodome and Gomorrah but as to this particular because Sodom was overthrown in a moment but Jerusalem was pined away by degrees with famine A sudden scourge is a kinde of mercy Better die once then die alwaies Or as the Apostle speaks concerning the afflictions of the Saints Rom. 8.36 To be killed all the day long When one under torture petitioned Tiberius the Roman Emperour a bloudy cruell tyrant that he might be quickly dispatcht he desired not life or pardon but a speedy death the Emperour sent him word Nondum tecum in gratiaÌ„ redij That as yet he was not reconciled to him or become his friend His cruelty would neither suffer the man to live longer nor to die speedily And some observe that as the Prophet expresses his trouble at the prosperity of the wicked in their lives so at this kinde of prosperity in their deaths There are no bands in their death Non sunt nodi in morte eorum but they are lusty and strong Psal 73.4 that is when they die they die in their strength they are not pined away with long and tedious sicknesses They live in pleasure and die with ease They are not bound to their beds and tied down with the cords of chronicall lingring diseases It is some favour if the scourge must slay to be slain in this sense suddenly But here the scourge slaying suddenly is a judgement comming unexpectedly They who sleep in security seldom dream of scourges Observe hence God can send death and affliction in a moment When they shall say Peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth upon them as travel upon a woman with childe and they shall not escape 1 Thess 5.3 Wicked men are never so neer destruction as when they are most secure And that by the way is the reason why we have least cause to fear those men who fear God least Security springs from infidelity and both from sleighting if not contemning the Word of God no marvell then if the Lord hasten his wrath to justifie his truth and slay them on a sudden who would not believe no not at leisure But to the point The Prophet describes it elegantly Isa 30.13 This iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall that is this iniquity shall produce a judgement which shall be to you as a breach ready to fall Swelling out in an high wall whose breaking commeth suddenly at an instant If once a high built wall doe but swell down it comes Such a swelling wall fell upon and slew twenty and seven thousand of Benhadads scattered Army 1 King 20.30 And such a tower in Siloe fell upon eighteen and slew them Luk. 13.4 The Prophet Jeremy at once imprecates and fore-tels a speedy scourge upon the gain-saying Jews Let a cry be heard from their houses when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them Jer. 18.22 This hath been the case of many among us who thinking of no danger have been surprized by a troop themselves made prisoners and their houses spoil'd in one hour Such was the condition of our Brethren in Ireland it is almost incredible how suddenly that scourge slew them there was scarce a Protestant that had so much as a suspition of the danger nay some would not believe it when a great part of the countrey was on a flame and the enemy had butchered thousands That scourge if ever any slew suddenly the perfect and the wicked As mercies may come so suddenly to our senses that they overcome our faith so may judgements Some have been surprized with mercy Psal 126.4 When the Lord turned our captivity as the streams in the South that is gave us sudden deliverance rivers in the South rise not from a constant spring but from accidentall raines which make violent land-floods on a sudden At the approach of this sudden mercy the Jews were like to them that dream So when the Lord sends sudden judgements rivers of calamity rivers of bloud as rivers in the South when he brings in captivity as rivers in the South then are we in a dream too and are not only destroied but distracted and amazed But how fast soever judgements come tâ—â—y come not suddenly upon them who are awake much lesse on them who are watching for them when they come If the scourge slay suddenly what then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vel à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissolvit Vel à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tentavit He will laugh at the triall of the innocent M. Broughton reads it thus He scorneth at the melting away of the innocent The reason of the different reading is because the Hebrew word may spring either from a root signifying to tempt and try or from another To melt and dissolve He scorneth at the melting away of the innocent Afflictions are meltings They dissolve our comforts yea our very hearts in the same sense that godly sorrow breaks our hearts Pity should be shewen to him that is melted Cha. 6. but ye forsake the fear of the Almighty so M. Broughton translates there The Lord tempted Abraham Gen. 22.1 that is the Lord tried his faith to finde out of what strength it was and how much he could trust him in that great businesse of sacrificing his son He will laugh at the triall of the innocent At their melting or trying by afflictions The difficulty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ridere est irredere subsannare ut fit ab hostibus cum eos quos captivos detinent diuturnis
2.1 and he gives them what they have as they are his creatures as he hath given them a subsistence and a breathing in the world so he allots them maintenance in the world So then to receive by donation from God may note any way of possession What wicked men inherit by succession and descent from their ancestours is a gift of God Yea what they get and hold by violence and oppression is a gift of God The earth which wicked men tear out of the hands of the godly the earth which they stain with the bloud of lawfull owners that they may enjoy it even this is said to be given unto them by God in that common way of providence Nebuchadnezzar was a cruell oppressour yet he had the earth given him by God Jer. 27.6 Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him God gave him the land yet Nebuchadnezzar invaded it and got it by violence God sent him Isa 10.6 but he went of his own errand vers 7. He had no thought of serving the will and commands of God but of serving his own ambition and covetousnesse yet of this cruell oppressour the Lord saith I have given him all these lands c. Thus The earth is given Into the hand of the wicked There is a question whom we are to understand by these Donees or the receivers of this gift Some expound the text with a speciality of the devil The earth is given into the hand of that wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is us the Prince of the air so the Prince of this world and hath great power upon the earth But take it of wicked men who are the servants and heirs of Satan as the Saints are the heirs of Christ and receive all things from him so wicked men are the heirs of Satan his children and what they receive as a common gift from God they receive by a speciall gift from Satan The devil boasted to Christ Mat. 4. All these things will I give thee if thou will fall down and worship me Though the devil be a very beggar and hath not a shoe-latchet of his own to give yet for such services and homages he gives out large possessions of the world common providence so ordering it to wicked men his vassals Hence these words are interpreted as a reason of that confusion before spoken of Si flagellatur innocens quid mirum cum mundi judices corruptissimi sint Terrae potestas permissa est impiissimo daemoni qui dicitur mundi rector I de efficit ut reges principes judices quasi obvelatos haberent oculos caecè sine discrimine de rebus judicantes Eugub No wonder if innocent men are under the scourge for the earth is given into the hand of the wicked When they have most power who have least honesty things must needs be turned up-side-down and all put into disorder What can be expected from such a tyrannous Prince as Satan from such wicked instruments as rule under him but continuall disturbance amongst the children of men especially that good men should goe by the worst Godly men are like to have but little peace while these have the preeminence The devil clouds the understandings and vails the eies of those Princes and Judges whom he in this sense advances And justice is equally wounded and distorted when Judges cannot see Things as when they see Persons in judgement The bounty of God to the wicked is an occasion of their injury to the righteous But rather take the words which was hinted before as an argument whereby Job further proves that there can be no ground of judgement upon any mans spirituall estate by the appearances of his temporall for as righteous and innocent persons are under the scourge and laid low in the world so wicked men have the earth given them and are exalted I finde some reading the text as an expostulation Wherefore is the earth given into the hand of the wicked Wherefore doth he cover the faces of the Judges As if Joh did chide with God about this unequall carriage of things in the world and called him to give a reason of it But we have found Job in other places acquitting himself from the suspitions of such a charge and therefore I cannot joyn with these in laying it upon him here Job doth not complain but affirm That the earth is given into the hand of the wicked Whence observe First Wicked men may abound in earthly things They may have the earth and the fulnesse of it The earth and all that is earthly their bellies are filled by God himself with hidden treasure Psal 17.14 Precious things are usually hidden and all that 's named treasure though it be but earthly hath a preciousnesse in it Hidden treasures of the earth fill their bellies who sleight the treasures of heaven and whose souls shall never have so much as a taste of heavenly treasures riches and honour are the lot of their inheritance who have no inheritance among those whose lot is glory They have the earth in their hands who have nothing of heaven in their hearts they bear sway in the world who are slaves to the world they govern and order others at their will who are led captive by Satan at his will Be not offended and troubled to see the rains of government in their hands who know not how to govern themselves or to see them rule the world who are unworthy to live in the world Remember the earth is given into the hand of the wicked We must submit to the judgement of God though it leave us under the injustice 〈◊〉 men And we have little reason to envy them a great portion 〈◊〉 his life who have all their portion in this life The most wise God who hath all things to dispose disposes them with infinite wisdom He gives good things to those that are evil but he gives better things to those who are good He hath a Benjamins messe a rich portion for his own children after all these disbursments to the children of disobedience Their portion lies not in earth and dust or in the rubbish of the world Heaven is given into the hand of the Saints Spirituall blessings in heavenly things are given into the hand of the Saints The pardon of sin the love and favour of God the bloud of Jesus Christ peace of conscience joy in the holy Ghost are gifts worth the having These are given into the hand of the Saints As for the earth He giveth that into the hand of the wicked and yet all that is not given into their hands Wicked men have not all the earth and some wicked men have none of the earth The Lord often makes the portion of his own people fat and plenteous and the portion of his enemies lean and poor Heaven hath not all the
earthly-poor nor hell all the earthly-rich God doth not give wicked men all the earth but all the earth which they have is of his giving Most of the earth is given to be their possession and all the possession which is given them is of earth therefore it is said He giveth the earth into the hand of the wicked And seeing God giveth the earth into the hand of the wicked we may observe also That wicked men have a just title to the earthly things which they enjoy They are not meer usurpers neither shall they be dealt with as meer usurpers They have no spirituall title no title by Christ they claim not by promise which the Saints doe They have forfeited their title by sinne all is lapsed and escheated into the hand of the great land-Lord Their goods are forfeited and so are their lives into the hand of God and he gives both back for a while into their hands He gives them their lives back and reprieveth them for which time of their reprieve he giveth them the earth to live upon or to maintain their lives and so farre as they use earthly things for the continuance of life they shall not be accounted or reckoned with as usurpers They shall not be charged for using the creaturâ— but for abusing it for making the earth serve their lusts not 〈◊〉 making it a support of their lives And seeing as the Lord hath given them back their forfeited lives so also their forfeited lands by a deed of gift sealed with generall providence this is enough to secure them in those worldly possessions which they have neither got nor hold by injustice from the brand of usurpation Dominium non fundatur in gratia and from the violence of dispossession As what God hath joyned no man may put asunder So what God hath given no man must take away Neither riches nor rule are founded in grace He hath given the earth into the hand of the wicked He covereth the faces of the Judges thereof He covereth There is some Question whom we are to understand as the antecedent to this relative He who is he that co-covereth Tegit ne videant quod aequuÌ„ justum est â—rus Some make the antecedent a wicked man Others say 't is God The earth is given into the hand of the wicked and he that is the wicked one covereth the faces of the Judges thereof Or He that is God covereth the faces of the Judges thereof I shall a little open this expression it needeth some uncovering for it is dark in both relations First Look upon that interpretation which refers it to wicked men He covereth namely That wicked man who is preferred and exalted covereth the faces of the Judges that is he stops the course of justice And there are four waies by which wicked men cover the faces of the Judges Munera caecos reddunt judices First By gifts and rewards Bribes vail yea put out the eyes of a Judge that he cannot see to give every one his due Hence that charge Exod. 23.8 thou shalt take no gift for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous Secondly The faces of the Judges are covered by threatnings Fear of losse blindes as well as hope of gain Some send terrible messages to the judge Will not you doe as we would have you Will not you give your sentence and opinion thus at your peril be it Now the Judges face is covered his eyes are put out by a threat the mist and cloud of a Princes displeasure of a great mans indignation is before his eyes His face is covered Thirdly The Judges faces are covered by actuall putting them to shame by casting them out of favour and clouding them with disgrace by taking away their commissions or sending them a Quietus est laying them by as unfit for service any of these is a covering of the Judges face There is a fourth way of covering the Judges face to which the second and third are often made a preparatory And that is by putting the judge to death So much that expression implies in the 40th of this book of Job vers 13. where the Lord with infinite wisdome and holinesse insulting over Job to humble him bids him arise and doe some great thing somewhat which might speak him a man of might Deck thy self now with majesty and excellency and aray thy self with glory and beauty cast abroad the rage of thy wrath and behold every one that is proud and abase him look on every one that is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked in their place Hide them in the dust together and binde their faces in secret that is cover their faces as men prepared for death as men ready to goe out to execution We may expound it by that Esth 7.8 where as soon as ever the word went out of the Kings mouth They covered Hamans face And by that Mark 14.65 where when Christ was judged worthy of death the text saith They spit on him and covered his face The covering of the face was a mark of a condemned man held as unworthy to behold and enjoy the light of the Sunne or the light of the Princes countenance Thus to cover the faces of the Judges is to condemn the Judges and to take them out of the world by sufferings rather then suffer them to doe right I finde that of Elihu Job 34.29 interpreted to this sense When he giveth quietnesse who can make trouble That is when the Lord doth absolve and acquit a man giving him a discharge then he is free no man can sue him or trouble him much lesse condemn him but if he hide his face who then can behold him So we translate it meaning thus If the Lord hide his own face But this exposition saith If the Lord hide the face of that man that is If the Lord condemn that man or passe sentence of death upon him of which covering or hiding the face was a symboll then Quâ— rei faciem poterit amplius videre quasi absolutus sit Bold I lictor colliga manus caput obnubito in foe lici arbori suspendito Cic. in orat pro Rabir. who can behold him That is who then can see his face or have society with him whom God hath separated to death It was a custom also among the Romans when sentence was pronounced upon a malefactour thus to command the executioner Take him away binde his hands cover his face hang him up And usually with us malefactours who are ready to suffer the pains of death put a covering upon their faces This also may be a good sense of the words He covereth the faces of the Judges that is a wicked Prince oppresseth and putteth the Judges to death And whereas good Princes say Let justice be donâ— though the world perish he saith Let the Judges perish rather then justice should be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudices
the antecedent to be the wicked As if he had said Who but a wicked man will cover the faces of the Iudges and hinder the execution of justice And so they acquit God accounting it blasphemy to attribute the act of covering unto him The Lord is a God of justice he loves judgement he opens the minde and clears the eye he doth not cast clouds and mists before it It 's true so farre as the act is sinfull God forbid we should ascribe it unto God But as was shewed before we need not use this subterfuge left we should lay any aspersion upon his justice and holinesse God can leave men to their injustice without any thought 〈◊〉 or touch of injustice in himself Others interpret this Question as a challenge It is thus Si non ubi est scil qui me falfi arguat prodeat si quis me potest falfi arguere Merc. Vbi est qui mentiri me censet Pagn If it be not where and who is he Who and where's the man that will argue or implead me of falshood in what I have asserted Who is it that undertakes to convince me of errour in the doctrine I have delivered This is my opinion these positions I have laid down for truth That the Lord destroieth the perfect and the wicked that he laugheth at the triall of the innocent that he gives the earth into ohe hand of the wicked that he covereth the faces of the Judges If it be not thus if any one hold otherwise Let me see the man Let him appear as my Antugonist or Opponent Where and who is he that dares charge me with errour I am ready to answer him But rather take it in the sense before given If it be not the Lord who doth this then shew me who it is Where and who is he There is an elegant concisenesse in the Hebrew which speaks only thus If not where he or who he The sense is If it be not God who doth this shew me tell me Who is it And so the words are an exclusion of any other power ordering and disposing the things of the world When old Isaac was disappointed in his intention of giving the blessing to Esau he trembled exceedingly and spake in the language of this Text Who where is he Gen. 27.33 As if he had said I thought thou my sonne Esau hadst brought me venison before and if it was not thou I know not who it should be I was never so deceived in my life if it was not thou Such a broken speech Job uses here If it be not God who doth these things I am much deceived for I know not any in the world to whom I might probably assign them but only unto him You must be wiser then I if you finde any thus powerfull besides God If not where and who is he Whence observe First That The greatest confusions in the world are ordered by God What greater confusion then this to see the earth given to those who deserve not to live upon the earth that they should rule the world who are unworthy to breathe in the world Yet even these things are disposed of by the Lord and are the issues of his counsels That wherein we see no order receives order from the Lord. Secondly Observe The very confusions that are in the world are an argument of the power of God For seeing the world continues in the midst of such confusions it shews there is a mighty power balancing these confusions so exactly that they cannot ruine the world If there were not an over-ruling power in God wicked men ruling would soon ruine all There are mysteries of providence as well as of faith And many are as much puzzl'd to enterpret what God doth as what he hath spoken I finde Heathens often stumbling at this stone and ungodding their Idol gods at the sight of such distributions among men Cum rapiunt mala fata bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos. Ovid. Marmoreo Licin◠tumulo jacet Cato parvo Pompeius nullo quis puter esse Deos When evil takes away good men this is my next thought saith one of them I am sollicited to thinke there are no gods Another observing how unequally men were buried buries God in that observation Licinus a cruell oppressour lies interred in a stately monument Cato a sober grave wise and just Senatour hath a mean and poor sepulchre scarce looking above the ground Pompey the great that famous Commander and Conquerour had no tomb at all he was buried no man knoweth where When we see saith he things go thus who would thinke that there are any gods Thus they stumbled at the supposed uneven dispensations of their idol gods And we finde great offence taken and an horrible blasphemy belched out against the true God upon the same occasion and almost in the same terms Mal. 2.17 Ye have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say Wherein have we wearied him When ye say Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of judgement Though they fell not directly into the former blasphemy to conclude there was no God because wicked men prospered yet they fell into a blasphemous opinion that God delighted in and loved wicked men because they prospered Wherein have we wearied the Lord Yes ye have Not that the Lord is at all moved or troubled in himself with the contumelious speeches of men but thus if any thing would tire and weary him this may to hear himself arraigned and judged by the world as a lover of evil men because he doth not presently smite them with the visible marks of his displeasure that because the earth is given into the hands of the wicked therefore the Lord must needs be a friend to the wicked Thirdly Observe That No creature is master of his own waies or ends The Lord giveth the earth into the hand of the wicked Man cannot get the earth into his own hand let him be as wicked as he will The Lord covers the faces of the Judges If he enlighten them no man can cloud them if he open no man can shut No creature can doe good without the directing and enabling hand of God No creature doth any evil without the supporting and over-ruling hand of God Isa 41.23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods yea doe good or evil that we may be dismaied and behold it together Let us see you doe any mischief if ye can Man is set upon mischief but he cannot act mischief unlesse God at least permit We were in an ill case if man could doe all the evil he hath a minde to It is matter of comfort ☜ to consider that the waies and issues of good and evil are in his hand who is good and doth no evil JOB Chap. 9. Vers 25 26. Now my daies are swifter then a
post they flee away they see no good They are passed away as the swift ships as the Eagle that hasteth to the prey THese two verses are a confirmation of Jobs former argument As he had shewed in generall that the wicked are exalted and the innocent afflicted so now he shews the later branch from his own experience or example Verse 25. My daies are swifter then a post they flee away they see no good c. We have here three similitudes by which Job sets forth the uncertainty of his prosperous estate and how soon the time wherein he enjoyed it was blown over 1. The similitude of a Post 2. The similitude of a Ship 3. The similitude of a Eagle As in the seventh Chapter he used three similitudes viz. 1. of A weavers shuttle 2. of The winde 3. of A dissolving cloud So here he bringeth in three more to clear the same point Jobs thoughts travel'd thorow all parts of the world to finde out illustrations of mans frailty In these two verses three of the four elements are enquired into The earth The air and the water A post upon the earth A ship upon the water an Eagle in the air are called in as witnesses to this truth Now my daies are swifter then a post c. Now my daies That is my prosperous daies so Mr Broughton glosses Troublesome times are all night and darknesse yet we may take it of daies in generall They are swifter then a post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levitas velocitas tam ex Graeco quam Hebraeo etiam Latino pro eodem accipiuntur Levis armatuturae milites celeriter subveniunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cursor qui ex una urbe in alteram c. proficiscitur cum literis aut nunciis The word which we translate swifter signifies any thing that is light because light things are quick in motion We call a man that is swift of foot light of foot And here it is joyned with that which among men is most swift and passing a post who rides or runs without any stop or stay without the least considerable stop or stay So that it is grown into a proverb To run post or To ride post is as much as to be in haste To say You are in post haste is to say you are in great haste My daies saith Job are swifter then a post they out-runne those curreers sent out upon the most important messages The post whether sent to carry news good or bad or intelligence for the dispatch of businesse publike or private is engaged to ride hard he must not spare horse-flesh or as we commonly speak suffer the grasse to grow under his horse-heels Hence observe First Time is very swift 't is gone suddenly My daies are swifter then a post We seldome consider or consider as we ought this common truth We live for the most part as if we could not tell how to get rid of our time or as if we were weary of our time and knew not how to spend it out as if time were rather chained to a standing post then were like a running post The Ancients emblem'd Time with wings as if it were not running but flying The next word in the text comes neer that sense They flee away My daies saith Iob flee away The word doth not signifie flying as a fowl with wings but fleeing as a fugitive from hard bondage or as a man from some imminent danger which because 't is done with speed therefore the word imports any speedy motion especially that of a post A post riding or running is an excellent embleme of Time There are many considerations in post-riding which shew how exceeding speedy time must be to which it is here compared First A post rides upon fleet or speedy horses Secondly He rides his horses upon their speed a man may have speedy horses and goe softly but a post spurs on Thirdly A post hath change of horses at every stage that he may keep them upon their speed Fourthly He hath horses standing ready for change they are not to fetch out of the field or to make ready when he comes to his stage it is but leaping into the saddle and away Fifthly He that rides post makes no long meals much lesse feasts he takes a bit and away Sixthly He lies not long a bed he scarce goes to bed till he comes to his waies end Seventhly A post hath extraordinary pay for his service and that will cause him to make speed Eighthly Sometimes he rides upon pain of death with a halter about his neck No man will loiter when his life laies on 't Ninthly If a man rides post all must give him way he picks and chooseth his path and no man must hinder him Tenthly He staies not to salute much lesse like other travellers to gaze and view the Countrey the Towns buildings Gardens c. All these things laid together evince that the Post makes speed Yet saith Job My time out-runneth the post my time goes faster then he The post must stay a little sometimes but time will not stay at all The post must stay for change of horses but the charriot of the Sunne never staieth to change horses the Sun is the measure of time and that makes no stop hath no stages or baiting places Our daies are swifter then a post Further Experiences speak this most true of that speciall time the time of prosperity The best things of the world are in a moveable in a passing posting condition They scarce abide with us long enough to learn what they are If a man ride post we can hardly discern who he is the good things of the world the pleasures and profits the form and fashion of it passe away so fast that none can perfectly report what they are excepting this Transitory and vain As the artificiall fashions of the world the fashions in building and in apparell passe so speedily that few know what the fashion is before 't is gone a new one is abroad before the greatest number are in the old So the naturall fashions of worldly things some in themselves all as to our enjoyment the excellency and dignity the lustre and beauty of the creature are out of sight before we can well say of what colour and shape or what manner of things they were When the Painter takes the perfect feature of a mans face or the lineaments of his body he must sit The world sits not so long with any man as for him to take the picture of it Creatures perish in their using while they are in our hands we know not what they are for even then they are perishing and declining from what they were One said when a creature-comfort was taken from him If I had it again me thinks I could enjoy it we seldom enjoy what we have And what we have is alwaies in transitu passing from us while we have it it is in motion while in possession We can scarce be acquainted
come to the port 4. There is another sense given by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In micari piratarum naves quae onèrariae non sunt sed tactumad capiendam praedam who derive the word from a root which signifies to hare and oppose or to be an adversary and then it is thus rendered My daies passe away as a Pirats ship or as a ship that goes out to take a prey as a ship that goes out to take prizes upon the sea Now we know when ships go out either upon piracy which is robbery at sea or upon any lawfull way of taking prizes by publike authority these ships of all others are the swiftest they are prepared on purpose to make way and overtake other ships their lading is not burden but ballast that they may be swift of said so saith Job My daies passe away like a swift ships not like some great Merchant-ship deeply laden which can make no great way in the sea but as a ship of piracy that hath nothing in her but weapons artillery and ammunition to oppose those they meet such are as your nimble Frigots Fly-boats and Catches which sail with every winde or Galleyes which passe without winde carried with strength of arms and oars all being vessels used to runne in upon and surprize a booty This also is a good interpretation and so M. Broughton translates it My daies doe fleet away as the Pirats ships That 's the second similitude My daies are passed away as the swift ships And as an Eagle hasteneth to the prey This is the third similitude A ship moveth swiftly especially a ship upon a swift river or a ship laden with desirable commodities or a ship laden with Summer fruit or a pirats ship a man of war But here is an instance implying greater speed then that of the most speedy ship As â—n Eagle hasteneth to the prey An Eagle of all the fowls in the air is the swiftest and strongest of wing An Eagle is the chief of birds We finde in Scripture swiftnesse expressed by this similitude of an Eagle Hab. 1.8 the Chaldeans who invaded the people of Israel are thus described Their hors-men shall come from farre they shall flee as the Eagle that hasteth to eat See the like instances Jer. 48. Jer. 49. Ezek. 17. And in Isa 40.31 They shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles c. noting the exceeding swiftnesse of the Saints in the waies of God the speed they shall make in waies of holinesse though the youths faint and the young men utterly fall yet they that wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as Eagles that is they shall be swift and strong But here is more expressed then the naturall swiftnesse of the Eagle here is somewhat occasionall which adds wings to her wings We had four interpretations of the ships swiftnesse Here is one expression exceeding all those four An Eagle hastening to the prey Quoniam avidâ—ssinè appetit ideo pernicissimè volat San. An Eagle is a greedy fowl Hence that of Christ Matth. 24. Where the carcase is there the Eagles gather together that is look where ever there is any prey there you shall have Eagles if there be a carcase to be had the Eagle will be sure to make towards it My daies saith Job are passed away as the Eagle hasteneth to the prey The Naturalists observe that the Eagle soars aloft in the air so high that the eye of man cannot discern her yet the Eagle is of such a piercing eye Eagle-eied is a proverb for quick-sighted that she can discern her prey upon the earth yea in the water and assoon as the Eagle espies her prey she pours or sowces down upon it like a thunderbolt Tanquam fulmeâ— se è sublimi in terram jaculatur like a bullet out of a gun or an arrow out of a bowe Thus Jobs daies passed as an Eagle in her flight and not in her ordinary flight but as an Eagle that hasteneth to the prey when hunger adds swiftnesse to her wings such was the passage of his daies There is somewhat further observable in this from the translation of the Seventy who render it thus Is there any sign or mark in the way of a ship or of an Eagle So the meaning of Job should be that his life in respect of former comforts and contentments Numquid est navibus vestigium viae aut aquilae volantis c. Sept. was past away and had left no marke no sign behinde it The ship in the sea passeth away and there is no rode no tract left and the Eagle in the air passeth and you cannot see where the Eagle made her flight the air closeth presently there is no way to be seen Solomon useth those similies Prov. 30.19 There be three things which I know not the way of an Eagle in the air the way of a Serpent upon a rock and the way of a Ship in the Sea Quae nullum sui cursus signum relinquunt per aviuÌ„ volatuÌ„ navium transmissionem significantur Sanct. And it is frequent in Authours to expresse those things which passe away not leaving any tract or print behinde them by the motion of a ship in the sea and of an Eagle in the air Hence note That The best of worldly things when they are gone are as if they had never been There are two motions which will certainly leave a mark behinde them First motions in sin 2. In holinesse Every step we tread in the waies of sin or of holinesse leaves a print a remembrance behinde it but when the riches and honours the pleasures and contentments of this life are past nothing remains of them It is said Dan. 8.5 which may serve for the illustration of this place in the vision of the He-goat that he touched not the ground that He-goat was a type of Alexander the great who set up the Grecian Empire and he is compared to a He-goat which did not touch the ground because of his speedy conquests When man or beast runs upon the ground with extreme speed we say they do not touch the ground When the Hare leaves a deep tract the hunter knows she runs slowly and is almost spent Alexander conquerd the world sooner then a man could well travell over it And as Alexander came in so he passed out both in his person and posterity For within a short time no man could tell what was become of the Grecian Monarchy the conquests of Alexander could not be found no more then the way of a ship in the sea or of an Eagle in the air or of a man running so fast that he leaves no print behinde him Secondly Taking both these similitudes in the ordinary notion as they import the swift passage of Jobs prosperity T is questioned How Job can be excused for speaking thus sleightly and undervaluingly of his temporall estate which was so raised and so enriched that
am very confident that how pure and righteous so ever I am or by further washing and cleansing believing and repenting shall appear to be yet the Lord hath an intent to try me further even to the uttermost and will cast me into the ditch mire and dirt of further afflictions so that they who make up their judgements by your rule though they were as neer to me as the clothes upon my back must yet abhor and loath me as ye my friends now doe as a wicked person He seems to speak as the Apostle doth 1 Cor. 4.9 I thinke that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were men appointed unto death for we are made a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men This is the summe and generall sense of these five verses The words are full of difficulty and there is much variety of judgements about them but I hope in the close to make out a sense upon every particular which shall be matching and sutable with this which hath been given in generall If I say I will forget my complaint If I say In this Iob answereth directly to the charge of Bildad at the 8th Chapter ver 2. How long wilt thou speak these things and shall thy words be like an East-winde To which Iob answers Bildad If I should cease speaking as thou seemest to chide me into silence If I should say I will not complain any more I will give over these mournfull discourses and bite in my strongest pains What then will the event prove what thou hast promised surely no I am afraid of all my sorrows and almost assured that they will return upon me If I say I will forget my complaint I will forget The word which we render forget may signifie a three-fold forgetfulnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est oblivisoi ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First Forgetfulnesse coming from the neglect of our naturall abilities when we are carelesse and take no heed to remember Recordari cum cura diligentia Secondly Forgetfulnesse arising from the weaknesse of our naturall abilities when though we are carefull yet we cannot remember But Iob means neither of these he intends a third kinde of forgetfulnesse even a studied and an affected forgetfulnesse when how able soever we are yet we will not or would not remember If I say I will forget my complaint that is If I purposely set my self or labour to forget my sorrows yet I cannot get off their remembrance As the Hebrew Zachar signifies not only the naturall act of memory but diligence in remembring So doth the Hebrew Sachah to forget It is sometimes as hard a work to forget as it is at any time to remember How do the damned in hell strive to forget their pains and complaints they would count it a happinesse if they could put their misery out of minde and memory one hour but they cannot And they can no more forget what they have felt then not be sensible of what they feel If I say I will forget 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My complaint Sapit hoc verbum meditabuÌ„dum quendam sermonem anxium intellectiâ— vocisque discursum The word notes meditation and here a mournfull meditation a breathing forth in mournfull expressions The same word is used Chap. 7. vers 13. When I say My bed shall comfort me and my couch shall case my complaint or my mournfull meditation then thou scarest me with dreams Miseriae memoriam omnem depoâ—am Drus So then Jobs meaning is If I should set my self with greatest intention to forget that is to lay aside the thought of my troubles and sorrows and say I will leave off my heavinesse and complain no more I will not pore upon my afflictions but resolve to be above them yet it will not be I finde no case forgetfulnesse is a medicine for some diseases and pains but I finde no cure no remedy that way for mine Whence observe There are some things which man can very hardly forget or get out of his minde We may study their forgetfulnesse and yet not be able to forget them And they are of two sorts First Worldly pleasures Secondly Worldly sorrows These will not fail to minde us We need the art or rather the grace of forgetfulnesse to lay these aside And there are two things which we are slow to remember First Our own duties And secondly The mercies of God About these we need the art or rather the grace of memory And usually they who have most neglected to remember duty are most afflicted with the constrained remembrance of their own sorrow And they shall not be able at all to forget the wrath of God who would not remember the mercies of God If I say I will forget my complaint I will leave off my heavinesse and comfort my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leave off my heavinesse The Hebrew word for word is I will lay aside my face for that which strictly and in the letter of that language Notat faciem iram etiam â—â—istitiâ—m signifies the face or countenance of a man doth also signifie First Anger and wrath Secondly Sorrow and heavinesse 'T is put for anger Psal 34.16 The face or anger of the Lord is against such as doe evil So Lam. 4.16 Levit. 17.10 I will set my face that is I will shew my anger and manifest my displeasure against them And the reason why that word which signifies the countenance or face signifies also anger and wrath sorrow and heavinesse is because both anger and sorrow break forth in the face If a man be very angry you shall see his anger scribled in the uneven character of his countenance If a man be very heavy and sorrowfull you shall see the lines of sorrow drawn in his face Therefore it is said of Hannah 1 Sam. 1.18 when she received a refreshing and reviving answer from the Lord in praier the poor soul sate drooping and mourning as much as praying but as soon as she had a hint of audience and acceptance it is said She went away and did eat and her countenance was no more sad the sadnesse of her heart appeared no more in her countenance there was fair weather in her face and Sunne-shine in her fore-head the rain and showres of her tears were blown over and dried up As in some sinners The shew of their countenance doth testifie against them Isa 3.9 that is they are so grossely wicked that you may see sinne in their faces whereas others can keep sinne close enough in their hearts they can keep the disease in and shut themselves up when they are sick of the plague of their hearts 1 King 8. nothing but holinesse is discernable in the face of their conversation when nothing but rottennesse and corruption lies at the bottome of their spirits But as the corruption of many a mans heart breaks forth in botches upon the face of his actions and the
qui verba detorquet aliam figuram i. e. significationem iis tribuit To seek comfort any where but in Christ is to seek the living among the dead Christ is comfort cloathed in our flesh and he is the comfort of our spirits Till he gives comfort every man must conclude as Job I am afraid of all my sorrows I am afraid The word signifies strong trembling and shaking fear Of all my sorrows The root hath a double signification First To afflict with grief Isa 63.10 They vexed his holy Spirit Secondly To fashion or form a thing Job 10.8 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me round about The same word by a Metaphor signifies both to grieve and to fashion to vex and to form because a man that forms fashions a piece of wood or stone seems to put it to pain by cutting and hewing And he that forms wax vexes and chafes it in his hands Thus I say because in the fashioning of a thing a man doth bruise cut and as it were put it to pain therefore the same word signifies both to vex or grieve and to form or fashion And this word is applied unto the ill usage of words Psal 56.5 Every day saith David speaking of his enemies they â—rest my words or they put my words to pain and grief or they painfully and grievously wrest my words Davids enemies took up what he spake and put a new shape upon it and this they did so vexingly that they are said to wrest his words a thing is vexed when it is wrested or wrought quite out of the form it before had The same Metaphor the Apostle Peter useth in reference to Doctrine 2 Pet. 3.16 speaking of the Epistles of Paul in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest or put upon the rack they painfully form his words and represent them in a meaning which he never intended What is spoken may be right both in the matter and intendment of the speaker yet another wrests forms and fashions it in his own mould and makes it bear a sense which the speaker never dream'd of In this Text we have the Noun only which importeth either the labour or pains which a man taketh or the pain and grief which a man feeleth Hence in the Hebrew this word signifies an Idol and both acceptions fall into the reason of it First because Idols are made fashioned and formed up curiously with a great deal of art and labour the wax or clay or stone is put to pain you must cut it and carve it to make an Idol Secondly because Idols are served attended and worshipped with much pain and grief False worship or the worship of Idols is alwaies more servile and painfull then true worship is False worship is a painfull service a servile service a toil rather then a worship but the service of the true and everliving God is an holy an ingenuous a noble and an honourable service Idols are troublesome both in their making and in their worshipping From this two-fold interpretation of the word I finde a two-fold translation given First Thus I am afraid of all my works as if Job Verehar omnia opera mea Vul. having a design to comfort himself in a reflexion upon his good works and former holy walkings feared they would not serve his turn or bear up his spirit in the evil day which was come upon him As if he had said I have lived as exactly by the rule of the Word as I could I have had respect to all the Commandments of God that I might not sinne against him Yet I am afraid of all my works the anger of God will surely soak thorow them all or finde holes and breaches in them to come in upon me at Thus he is conceived reasoning with himself But doubtlesse it was not Jobs meaning to look to the innocency or holinesse of his life past as the ground of his present comfort he that would doe so may justly be afraid of all his works When we see the best of our selves we have more reason to be afraid then to be comforted As we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling so we have cause to fear and tremble at our works But rather as we translate I am afraid of all my sorrows that is I no sooner endeavour to comfort my self but presently my sorrows throng about me they appear before my face and make such a gastly apparition that I am afraid Sorrows charge and assault me afresh when I am purposing to make an escape from the hands of sorrow When I think of leaving off my heavinesse or of getting out of the sight of it sorrows come upon me with greater violence then before While a prisoner is quiet and content with his restraint the keeper laies no great restraint upon him but if he perceive him meditating an escape or attempting to break prison and set himself at liberty presently more irons are clapt upon him and an advantage taken even to load him with chains Such hard usage this poor prisoner feared at the hand of his sorrows If I say I will leave off my heavinesse I will throw off my bolts and fetters and get out of these troubles I am afraid of all my sorrows I shall have all the Keepers and Jailers about me they will lay more load upon me and watch me more strictly then before You tell me I am in love with my sorrows but the truth is fears of sorrow incompasse me round about I am afraid of all my sorrows Note hence First this generall truth That affliction is the matter of fear Naturall fear arises from the apprehension of some approaching evil and as fear grows more boisterous and inordinate so it represents us with sadder though but supposed evils Secondly Observe A godly man may be much opprest with the fear of afflictions When I would comfort my self I am afraid of all my sorrows It is terrible to me to think that they still encrease upon me and that whilest I hope to escape I am more ensnared Christ himself when he was in our nature and clothed with our flesh was afraid of all his sorrows he was a man of sorrows and he was afraid of his sorrows too Matth. 26.38 He said My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death and he offered up praiers and supplications with strong cries and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Heb. 5. His were extraordinary sorrows indeed such as no creature ever felt or tasted The Cup of sorrow which he drank was mixed and tempered with all our sorrows and with the cause of them our sins This was it he feared being in our nature though as that nature was hypostatically united unto the divine nature it had infinitely more power to bear all those sorrows then we have in our nature to bear the least sorrow Now if Christ himself
in our flesh was afraid of his sorrows which yet he knew he should overcome how much more may the fear of sorrows overcome us while we are in the flesh Lastly Observe That the fear of afflictions assaults and oppresses some most when they set themselves most to conquer and overcome them I saith Job would comfort myself but I am afraid of all my sorrows I fear they will be doubled and trebled upon me therefore I had rather sit still then by striving to unloose straiten the cords of my affliction faster upon me The next clause seems to hint this as a reason why his sorrows hung so close upon him I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent But how did Job know this As God said to Adam Gen. 3.11 Who told thee that thou wast naked So I may say to Job Who told thee that God would not hold thee innocent Or where hadst thou this assurance of thy condemnation The Saints may know or be assured that God will pardon them but a wicked man cannot know or be assured that God will not This knowledge of Job was but a suspition or at the most a conjecture And the giving out of this conjecture was but the language of his fear his faith could say no such thing for God had no where said it The best men speak sometime from their worser part Their graces may be silent a while and leave corruption to have all the talk When the flesh is under great pain the spirit is hindered from acting its part and then sense gets the mastery over faith Had it not been upon such a disadvantage Job had never offended with his tongue by saying he knew what he could not know I know that thou wilt not hold me înnocent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word which we translate innocent commeth from a root which signifieth pure and clean purus mundus per Metaphorae innocent insous and in the verb to cleanse and make pure And because innocency is the purity or cleannesse of a person therefore the same word signifies to cleanse and to hold or make innocent In which sense it is used frequently Exo. 20.2 Thou wilt not hold him guiltlesse or innocent that taketh thy Name in vain The counsell that David gave upon his death-bed unto Solomon concerning Joab was Therefore hold thou him not innocent or guiltlesse 1 King 2.9 that is let the bloud which he hath shed be upon him let his honour and his name continue stained and blemished in thy thoughts and judgement Hold him not innocent Here the Question is To what antecedent we are to referre the relative Thou I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent Thou who There are two opinions about it Some referre it to God and some to Bilaad to whom Job maketh answer in this place They that refer it unto God make out the sense thus Either first taking the word properly for cleansing and healing the sores and wounds which were upon his body Adversus illud quod amici statuunt probos videlicet etiam castigatos nunquam succidi hoc pro certo statuam ô Deus nunquam esse me ab istis quibus totus scateo foedissimis ulceribus ac vermibu◠repurgandum Bez Novi quod non sis me liberum dimissurus Coc. I know thou wilt not cleanse my body from this filthinesse from these diseases that now anoy me And so it is an answer to the words of Bildad telling Job that in case he sought unto God and humbled himself before him he would awaken for him and remove those judgements No saith Job when I think of ease and deliverance all my fears return upon me and I know God will not yet cleanse ease or deliver me from them Again Taking it tropically as we render it for a judiciall cleansing or purification so Thou wilt not hold me innocent is as much as this Lord such sorrows and troubles are upon me that I fear thou wilt not declare or pronounce or give testimony concerning me to the world that I am an innocent person Because the sores and troubles upon him were as an evidence against him in the judgement of his friends that he was a wicked person therefore saith he Lord I am afraid Thou wilt not hold me that is Thou wilt not declare me to be innocent by taking away these evils Non mundabis i. e. purum justum vel etiam innocentem non declarabis that so this opinion of my friends concerning me may be removed or confuted From this sense note First That even a godly man in deep afflictions may have misgiving thoughts of God The soul misgives sometimes about the pardon of sinne and is even swallowed up with despair concluding I know God will not hold me innocent he will not be reconciled unto me or blot out my transgression But especially which is rather the minde of Job the soul misgives about release from punishment Some being hamper'd in the bands of affliction conclude God will never let them loose or set them at liberty again Such a conclusion Davids unbelief made against himself I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 When Jonah was cast into the deep in the midst of the seas when the flouds compassed him and all the billows and waves passed over him then he said Chap. 2.4 I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes Indeed Jonah began to recover quickly his next words being a breath of faith Yet I will look again toward thy holy Temple Secondly Observe That untill fear of guilt be removed fear of trouble will not remove Job was not very clear about the pardon of his sinnes somewhat stuck upon his spirit while he was under the clouds and darknesse of this temptation therefore saith he I am afraid of all my sorrows Till the soul is setled in the matter of pardon or freedome from guilt it can never be setled about freedome from punishment Hence the Apostle Heb. 2.10 15. speaking of the Saints before the comming of Christ cals Christ the Captain of our salvation and assures us he took flesh that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver those who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The language is very near this of the Text I am afraid of all my sorrows As Job was in bondage under his afflictions through the fear of his returning sorrows So they were all their life time subject unto bondage through the fear of approaching death All the Saints before the comming of Christ were under such a bondage for the Apostle speaks as of a generall state That he might deliver those who through the fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The reason hereof was because they had not so manifest and convincing a light concerning the pardon of sinne the freenesse of grace
and the abundance of that mercy which was brought in afterwards and revealed by Jesus Christ when he actually made our atonement by the bloud of his crosse For howsoever it is undeniable that the faithfull under the old Testament had knowledge of that satisfaction which was to be made by the Mediatour for the removing of sinne and the taking away of guilt every sacrifice spake this shewing that there was an atonement to be made by some other bloud which the bloud of the sacrifice typified yet notwithstanding there was not a clearing and a quieting of their hearts because Christ though in the promise slain from the beginning of the world was not actually slain nor offered up for sinners The Apostle Heb. 10.1 2. argues upon the same point That the Law with those Sacrifices could not make the commers thereunto perfect that is it could not assure the heart that sinne was taken away for if it could then saith he the sacrifices should not have needed to be offered up so often What needed any repetition seeing they who were once so purged should have had no more conscience of sinne that is sinne should never have troubled and vexed their consciences any more But now Christ by one offering hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified vers 14. that is he hath made a perfect satisfaction for them and compleated the peace of their consciences So then while there remaineth any scruple about sinne fears of evil will hang upon the spirit And we finde that the old Saints were very fearfull of outward afflictions because they had as it were a relish or taste of the disfavour and displeasure of God in them And in proportion as any of them had more or lesse of free grace appearing to them so they were more or lesse enthralled with these fears We may observe thorow out the old Testament that there was not such a spirit of rejoycing in sufferings and afflictions as we finde breakings forth in the new Paul never saith I am afraid of all my sorrows No he saith As sorrowfull yet alwaies rejoycing You never hear him complain of his afflictions He indeed complains of his corruptions O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But he never said O miserable man how am I afflicted I am in deaths often who shall deliver me from this death of the body We finde the Saints under the Gospel clothed with a spirit of exultation and rejoycing of which we hear little if any thing at all under the Law The want of which we are to ascribe to their want of a clear light about the removing of guilt and the pardon of sin I know thou wilt not hold me innocent Thirdly Observe That God often deals with his best servants in regard of outward troubles as if they were guilty I know thou wilt not hold me innocent that is thou wilt not deal with me as with an innocent person As the Lord dealt with his Son so he deals with his servants God the Father dealt with Jesus Christ as with a guilty person Isa 53.9 12. He was numbred among transgressours and made his grave with the wicked The Lord reckoned him as a sinner while he was satisfying his justice for sinne and making an atonement for sinners Job is no where called a type of Christ but he was like him and their parallel might be drawn in many things especially in this that both were numbred with the wicked and in that both were used as if they had been guilty The dispensations of God to his own beloved Sonne once did and to his faithfull servants often doe look like those to the greatest transgressours His Son was handled so that he might redeem sinners his servants are so handled sometimes to prevent often to purge them from sin sometimes to try their graces alwaies to make them fitter vessels for glory Though we cannot make any earnings toward glory by the weightiest afflictions yet these light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory I shall passe from this reference of the word Thou when I have briefly vindicated the text from the corruptions of some Papists Bellarm. l. 5. de justif cap. 5. who urge it to prove the uncertainty of our justification Job say they doubted whether God would declare him just or no. I answer Justified persons may have doubts yet that doth not argue the uncertainty of justification Justification is a sure act in it self and we may be sure of it though some are unsetled about it This Scripture gives no shelter much lesse support to that doctrine of doubting The Vulgar reading grossely varying from the originall is all the shadow it hath in this place For as that Translatour mistakes the former clause which he renders I am afraid of all my works So this later which he renders Sciens quod non parceres delinquenti Vulg. Knowing that thou wilt not pardon or spare him that offendeth He that seeks to be justified by his works shall not want fears about his justification And if this be a truth which their translation seems to hold forth that God will not pardon him that offendeth the best and holiest men in the world have reason not only to fear whether they are justified but to resolve they can never be justified in his sight If every man that sinneth must doubt of the pardon of sinne all men must doubt In that common acception of the word offend it is false that God will not pardon him that offends whom should he pardon but such as offend They who are above sin are above pardon Job never thought God would not pardon him because he had sinned it being one of the royall titles of God The God pardoning iniquity transgression and sinne But if we take sinning or offending in a stricter sense as it imports a man obstinate and still engaged with delight to sin in which sense the next title of the Lords great name after Forgiving iniquity transgression and sinne is to be understood And that will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 The Hebrew is And that clearing will not clear We supply the word guilty which the Chaldee well explains by this periphrasis Him that will not convert or turn to the Lord such offenders the Lord will not pardon But to say that the Lord will not spare and pardon such guilty persons such delinquents as will not return unto him but go on to adde one wickednesse to another is no deniall of the Saints assurance of pardon they being already turned and converted to the Lord. So much for that clause as the antecedent referres unto God I know thou wilt not hold me innocent But rather take the antecedent to be Bildad I know Thou Bildad wilt not hold me innocent as if Job had said When I think of comforting my self my wounds bleed afresh and my sorrows present themselves to
seek unto God Surely your opinion of me and your counsel to me can never agree for if I am wicked as you hold me to be I labour in vain while I obey your counsell There is a sense wherein it is in vain for a wicked man to seek unto God and a sense wherein it is not in vain for a wicked man to seek unto God we must distinguish of this interpretation If a man be wicked it is in vain for him to seek unto God while he loveth wickednesse and delighteth in it Psal 66.2 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my praier He that is so wicked as to love wickednesse praies in vain fasts and humbles his soul in vain The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord that is the Lord abominates his sacrifice but The prayer of the upright is his delight Solomon describes an hypocrite in the former words he is one that will pray and offer sacrifice and yet puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face Ezek. 14.4 So they Jer. 7.4 cried The temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these The Prophet discovers who these zealous Templers were vers 9. Will ye steal murder and commit adultery and swear falsly and then come and stand in this house which is called by my Name and say We are delivered to doe all these abominations Some mingle prayer and fasting with stealing and murdering such praying and fasting are as unacceptable to God as stealing and murdering are Such labouring to please the Lord is displeasing to the Lord. What hast thou to doe saith God to the wicked to take my Covenant into thy mouth Psal 50.16 Doth God say to the wicked What hast thou to doe with my Covenant For whom is the Covenant made but for the wicked If men were not wicked or sinfull what needed there a Covenant of grace The Covenant is for the wicked And the Covenant brings grace enough to pardon those who are most wicked why then doth the Lord say to the wicked What hast thou to doe to take my Covenant into thy mouth Observe what follows and his meaning is expounded Seeing thou hatest to be reformed As if God had said Thou wicked man who protectest thy sinne and holdest it close refusing to return and hating to reform what hast thou to doe to meddle with my Covenant Lay off thy defiled hands He that is resolved to hold his sinne takes hold of the Covenant in vain or rather he lets it goe while he seems to hold it Woe unto those who sue for mercy while they neglect duty Thus a wicked man labours in vain But there is a sense in which a wicked man doth not labour in vain how wicked soever he is What else means the Prophets invitation Isa 55.5 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Let him forsake his waies and then no matter what his waies have been let him return to the Lord and then his former departures shall not hinder acceptance Christ died for the ungodly Ro. 5.6 God justifieth the ungodly Ro. 4.5 It is not in vain for an ungodly man to come to God indeed and when he doth he ceases to be ungodly They draw nigh only with their lips whose hearts are not changed and they draw nigh in vain As God hath not said to the seed of Iacob reall Saints Seek ye me in vain So he hath not said in vain to wicked men Seek ye my face For with the word which bids them seek he gives them power to seek and the mercy they seek for The grace of God prevents us that we may seek him and blesses us when we doe seek him If all who are wicked labour in vain then all had laboured in vain forasmuch as all vvere wicked Thirdly You may take the meaning of it thus If I am wicked that is Si adhuc mecuÌ„ agit Deus tanquam cum impto quoâ—sum frustra laboreÌ„ Philip. Haec sunt verba hominis à Deo derelicti Vatabl. if I am reputed by men and still afflicted by God as a wicked man then why should I labour in vain or trouble my self any further to so little purpose If this sense may be admitted 't is a passionate speech proceeding from impatience and distemper of spirit Much like that of David and very near it in words Psal 73.13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning Davids afflictions wrought as hard conclusions in him as Iobs did Grace acts and speaks ever like it self but a gracious man doth not David shewed there was vanity and remainders of defilement in his heart by saying I have cleansed my heart in vain Mr Broughton renders to this sense I shall be holden as wicked now why doe I labour in vain Hence observe That where hope faileth endeavour faileth too I have no hope saith Job to get out of these afflictions which fall upon wicked men or to get one step beyond a wicked man in your reputation my labour is in vain why then doe I labour When the heart sinks the hands hang down Where the one gives over believing and hoping the other give over acting and working Hence the afflicted are called upon by the Apostle to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 Hands and knees are the instruments of action and motion and the hanging down of these imports both retarded or stopt Those afflicted Hebrews saw little or no hope of deliverance therefore they gave over endeavouring and moving after deliverance Lastly Taking the words as in the originall absolutely without any supposition I am wicked Why then labour I in vain As if he had said I am wicked not only in the opinion of men but I acknowledge my self to be wicked indeed In vanum laborarem si coram Deo justificare me tentarem ut falso me hec velle praesupponis considered with the most holy God and then his sense is Lord if thou art pleased to goe this way to vvork vvith me to set the rigour of thy justice a work to finde out my sinne and to judge me according to vvhat thou findest then in vain doe I seek to comfort my self for in thy sight no flesh can be justified I as vvell as others am wicked In vvhich acknowledgement he seems to meet vvith and confute that supposition of Bildad Chap. 8.6 If thou wert pure Pure saith Job alas I can never be pure before God When the Lord examines my purity he vvill finde it impurity You tell me if I vvere pure the Lord vvould awaken for me I shall never be pure in your sense I am as pure as ever I shall be that is I
ad percutiendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye go out with a message of peace in your â—â—uths let there not be so much as an instrument of contention in your hands But in Mark he useth the word Misnan which signifies a staff to lean upon Take a staff to rest or ease your selves upon or to help your selves on in your travell Virga vel baculus ad sust entandum A walking staff but not a striking staff Thus they reconcile the difference But though this interpretation be good yet this ground of it appears not either in the Syriack which in both texts hath the word Shebet or in the Greek which expresses both by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then we must rather say that the same word signifies a staff for both uses and that when Christ forbids his Disciples a staff he means a staff to strike with Preachers must be no strikers according to the Apostles rule in Timothy and that when he bids them take a staff he means a walking staff Iunerant Preachers might be wearied with travelling as well as with speaking But to the Text. The rod which Job desires might be removed Nihil aliud postulat Iob quam ut Deus vel mittigaret vel penitus auferret ab eo flagella sc morbos dolores Non aâ—at pro jure sed gratiae moderationi faciat locum Coc. is That sore affliction which the soveraign power of God laid upon him and exercised him with As if he had said Lord thou dealest with me upon the height of thy prerogative and I acknowledge thou maiest do so But my humble sute and prayer is that thou wouldest afflict me lesse then thou hast though thou hast not afflicted me more then thou maiest Thou hast not injured me at all but ô that thou wouldest relieve me He speaks to this sense with a little variety of words Chap. 13.20 21. Onely doe not two things unto me then will I not hide my self from thee with-draw thine hand from me and let not thy dread make me afraid And in a language not unlike this he describes the peace and prosperity of wicked men Chap. 21.9 Their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them We finde also that Elihu who undertook Job and debated the matter with him when these three had no more to say or would say no more He I say perceiving what it was which Job had complained of as an impediment of speaking unto God promises that himfelf would give him no such impediment or cause of complaint Chap. 33.7 Behold my terrour shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee As if he had said The Lords hand hath been heavy upon thee and his terrour hath made thee afraid but take my word I will deal gently and mildly with thee My terrour shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee So that Jobs desire is only this That he might have ease or release from â—is present sorrows And 't is not improbably conceived that he alludes to the custom of the Judges in those Eastern Countries who laid a rod upon some offenders in token of condemation and took it off from others in token of absolution of grace and favour Take thy rod away from me Affliction is called a rod in a three-fold consideration 1. Because of the smart of it Afflictions are grievous and painfull to flesh and bloud They grieve and pain the outward man while the inward man takes pleasure in them I saith Paul take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in persecutions in necessities in distresses for Christs sake 2 Cor. 12.10 that is my spirit doth for no affliction not that for Christs sake is joyous for the present but grievous to the flesh For as the Spirit would not doe those evils of sin which the flesh would and doth The evil which I would not that I doe was Pauls cry Rom. 7.19 So the flesh would not endure those evils of sorrow which the Spirit would and doth And as a believer delights in the Law of God after the inward man when corruption is vext and troubled at it so a believer delights in the rod of God after the inward man when corruption is most impatient and unquiet under it Hence the Apostles counsell to the dispersed Jews Rejoyce when ye fall into divers temptations Jam. 1. that is into divers afflictions the flesh hath it's sense and feels smart but the Spirit is armed with faith which overcomes the smart Affliction were not so much as a rod if it did not make us smart and we are not so much as Christians if we cannot bear the smart with patience or overcome it with faith 2. Affliction is called a Rod in regard of the hand that useth it A sword is in the hand of a Judge and a Rod in the hand of a father God deals with his people as a father with his children in afflicting them When we most provoke his fatherly displeasure against us he doth not wish as Balaam when his Asse offended him that there were a sword in his hand to slay us he only takes up a rod to scourge us Hence 3. Affliction is called a rod in regard of the end for which it is sent A rod is not prepared to kill nor is it an instrument of cruelty A rod is not for destruction but for correction There are indeed destroying rods which God will destroy and save his people who are destroied by them I will destroy the rod of the oppressour Isa 9.4 Nebuchadnezzar the rod of Gods anger was a destroying rod yet they among the Jews who feared God were only corrected while they were destroied The Lord means no hurt to those who are good when he makes them smart and die under the rod of those who are evil If ever any man might think he had a sword in his bowels rather then a rod upon his back Job might yet even he cals it a rod while he cals to God for the removing of it Remove thy rod away from me And seeing he cals to have it removed we may observe That it is lawfull for to pray against affliction We may pray to be eased of that which we must be patient under To be discontented with affliction is sinfull buâ— it is no sinne it is a duty to desire the taking of it away For 1. We may pray for the preventing of afflictions therefore we may pray for the removing of afflictions we may pray Lord keep thy rod off from us therefore we may pray Lord take thy rod off from us 2. Afflictions themselves are evil There is no good in them nor can they doe us any good of themselves The good commeth from a superiour work from those admirable influences and concurrences of God upon and with corrections The rod is an evil in it self and will make us worse unlesse the Lord make it a blessing to us Some are
for the perturbation of fear When Job saith I would speak and not fear him his meaning is not to lay down that fear of God which is a bridle to the soul keeping it from sin or that reverentiall affection which fits us for and should act us in every holy duty we perform to God When Job praied to be free from the fear of God he resolved thus to fear God T is only the perturbation of fear distracting fear not sanctifying humbling fear which Job would lay aside when God should please to with-draw his terrifying fear And so his minde is plainly this If the Lord will be entreated to remit the extremity of my affliction and remove those terrours wherewith I am affrighted then I would speak boldly and chearfully to him I would set out the truth of my case and declare the innocency of my person Qui injudicio consiernatur non potest recté agere causam suam seque ita utoportet desendere ac tueri terror enim impedimento est ei Pâ—ned Vehement passions hinder my reason 't is uneasie to speak till I am eased of my pains I cannot tell how it is with me so long as it is thus with me Hence note That extremity of fear is an interruption to speech While sense is much troubled reason cannot act much When Ephraim spake trembling he exalted himself in Israel Hos 13.1 There to speak trembling is to speak humbly Our words to God should be accompanied with low thoughts of our selves Ephraims trembling is opposed to pride and hardnesse of heart They who thus tremble at the Word of God are fittest to speak to God yet excessive trembling hinders us in speaking And untill the Lord quiets and composes our hearts by a word from heaven till he speak to our distempered mindes as once to the raging sea Be quiet and still we cannot utter our hearts or declare our mindes unto him When God sends a gracious message to poor sinners and invites them to a conference as he did his ancient people Isa 1.18 Come let us reason together then they come boldly to the throne of grace notwithstanding their crimson and scarlet sins Then they are not afraid to speak they may speak and not fear him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quia non sic ego mecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non enim sic conscius sum But saith Job it is not so with me There is much diversity of opinion about these words M. Broughton translates I am not so with my self and gives this note upon it I am not such with my self as Gods scourge seemeth to make me or such as your words would make me The Septuagint renders it I am not so conscious to my self or I am not so self-guilty The Hebrew word for word runs thus For not so I with my self Some difference arises from the first particle we read But Most For The originall is rather causall then exceptive I would speak and not fear him for it is not so with me Particula Chen propter variam quam habet significationem varijs quoque interpretationibus ansam praebit est enim vox aequivoca plura significans Bol. But the word which causes the greatest difference is that which we translate So It is not so with me The Hebrew is Chen and that hath two principall significations It signifies sometimes right or just and is applied both to persons and to things First Unto things Jer. 8.6 The Lord hearkned and heard and there was no man that spake Chen aright or things which were right Jer. 23.10 The word is opposed to evil Their course is evil and their force is not right that is the force might or power which they have is not set upon or imploied about that which is right but wholly bent to do wrong or they commit evil with all their might Qui bonam habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rectus apud seipsum testatur igitur se bonam habere conscientiam inde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Deum si non projure suo agere vel gratia uti velit Coc. Secondly The word Chen is applied unto persons noting a man that is upright hearted faithfull and honest both in conscience and conversation When Iosephs brethren Gen. 42.11 19 31. pleaded for themselves they say unto him We are Chenim right men we are no spies We are not come to finde out the weaknesse of the Land but to get a supply of our own wants Ioseph said Ye are spies ye come to circumvent us to put tricks upon us to work your own ends by discovering what we are No say they pray Sr do not misunderstand us we are Chenim honest right-hearted plain-meaning men Secondly The word is used adverbially It is not so with me that is It is not so as you imagine In which sense we finde it Gen. 1.7 The Lord said Let there be light and it was Chen so as the Lord commanded so it was Eccles 8.10 I saw the wicked buried who had come and gone from the place of the holy and they were strangers in the City where they had done so Upon both these significations of the word different interpreâ—ations of the whole are grounded First Taking the word to note an upright hearted man Iob is conceived to speak interrogatively as if he put this Question For am I not right in my self As if he had said If you thinke it too much boldnesse that I have said I would speak unto God and not fear him Am not I right in my self Am not I found and true at heart Thus he seems to allude unto that testimony which God gave of him at the first verse of this book A man perfect and upright As if he had said I am no turn-coat or apostate I am as I was and I doubt not but I shall be what I am still perfect before God and upright with men And if so why may not I have boldnesse to come unto God and speak freely with him They who are sincere with God may have great boldnesse in comming unto God Uprightnesse hath boldnesse with men and uprightnesse hath boldnesse towards God Though no uprightnesse or righteousnesse in man can give him boldnesse in himself yet it may give him boldnesse in another He may be assured that though he cannot be accepted for his uprightnesse yet being upright he shall be accepted Secondly Others read it negatively I would speak and not fear him for I am not right in or with my self And so the sense may be made out thus I have not gone about to justifie my self all this while I have not stood upon my own righteousnesse pleading with God if my righteousnesse were in my self then I might fear to speak with God though his fear should not terrifie me and though he should take away his rod from me but I have a better bottom then my own I am not right in my self I am
should depart or abide in the flesh but the straight was not in reference to himself he was assured dying would be to him but a travelling to Christ and therefore death was to him an easie election His straight was only this whether he should not abide still in the flesh to to supply the needs of the Church and forbear glory a while that he might prepare others for glory The same Apostle 2 Cor. 5.4 saith in the first verse We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house made without hands eternall in the heavens When their faith was thus upon the wing soaring up to the assurance of an house made without hands they grew weary of their smoaky cottages presently they could not endure to live in those poor lodges corruptible bodies having a view of such glorious pallaces therefore he adds In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from heaven The word signifies groaning as a man that hath a weighty burden lying upon him which makes him fetch his winde even from his bowels The body is the burden rather then the house or the clothing of the soul when once the soul knows it shall be clothed with an house which is from heaven As I said before much of hell in this life makes wicked men vveary of this life so also doth much of heaven Cic. in Tuscul Quest de Cleombroto The Roman Oratour tels us that a young man who lived in great prosperity having read Plato about the immortality of the soul was so affected that he threw himself violently from a high wall into the sea that he might have a proof of that immortality by his experience of it The Gospel forbids such haste and knows no such vvaies to happinesse As Christ not vve hath purchased that estate so Christ must lead us we must not thrust our selves into the possession of it but yet the earnests the fore-tastes and first-fruits of heaven which the Saints finde in this life though they be such as eat the marrow and fatnesse such as may have the very cream and spirits of the creature to live upon make them groan often and earnestly for the next life This is good but heaven is better Lastly Which is the case of this text the Saints may grow vveary of their lives from the outward afflictions and troubles of this life Sicknesse and pains upon the body poverty and vvant in the estate reproaches and unkindenesses put upon our persons vvith a thousand evils to vvhich this life is subject every day cause many to vvish and long for an end of their daies And though they are ready to submit to the vvill of God if he have appointed them to a longer conflict vvith these evils yet they cannot but shew their vvillignesse yea their gladnesse to part vvith their lives that they may part vvith such troubles accompaning their lives And as the afflictions of the body naturall so of the body politike may make them vveary of their lives How many in Germany and Ireland have been so vvearied vvith hearing the voice of the oppressour that they have vvished themselves in their graves only to get out of their hearing And vvith us since these troubles began have not many been tired with living Have they not cried after death and wooed the grave as being weary of the world The Prophet Isa 32.2 speaks of a weary land A man meaning Christ shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land The land it self being insensible could not be weary but he cals it a weary land because the inhabitants living in the land were wearied with the troubles and continuall vexations which they found there In these cases the soul of a believer stands like Abraham when the Angels passed by at the tent door of his body ready to come forth looking when God will but call yea he cries out that he may be called in the language of Job My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul I will leave c. That is I will carry my complaint no further it shall trouble none but my self The originall signifies also to strengthen or fortifie Nehem. 3.8 They fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall we put in the Margin They left Jerusalem to the broad wall So the sense of Job may be this My pains do not abate but increase why then should I remit or abate my complaint I will strengthen my complaint as long as my sorrows are strengthened My complaint That word hath been explained before it signifies an inward as well as an outward complaint and that most properly Some translate it so here I will groan in silence with my self Per mittam mihi mussitationē Tygur Silentio egomet ingemiscam Philosophabor Polychron Deponam à me querimoniam meam Jun. But the text requires rather that we interpret it of an externall complaint formed up into words The Septuagint are expresse and so is Austin I will leave my words upon my self both interpreting it of a vocall declaration of his minde and meaning The greatest difficulty lies in those words upon my self One renders I will leave my complaint off or lay it aside from my self As if Iob meant to give over this work of complaining and to compose his heart to quietnesse how unquiet soever his estate continued But his following practice seems to confute this interpretation and to deny any such intention Others give this sense I will speak at my own peril and if any danger or inconvenience come of it I will bear it my self I will run that venture Job uses such language chap. 13.13 Hold your peace let me alone that I may speak and let come on me what will We may glosse it with that heroicall resolution of Queen Esther Esth 4.16 So will I go in unto the King which is not according to the Law and if I perish I perish The Hebrew preposition hath various acceptions Praepositio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequenter per super nonnunquam per cum aliquando per adversus redditur Nihil contra Deum in me tantum desaeviam Pined First As we It is translated Vpon Secondly With. Thirdly Against Fourthly Concerning or about We may take in any of or all these translations And from all the meaning of Job seems to rise thus I intend not to speak a word against God I will not charge the Almighty with injustice or with rigour to doe which were highest wickednesse I purpose indeed to complain but I will complain only upon or with my self concerning or against my self I will not utter a word against the wisdome of God or accuse his providence I will not shoot an arrow against heaven or send out a murmur against the most high There are two waies of leaving our complaints
double oppression First An oppression by our words And secondly An oppression by our actions the oppression of the tongue and the oppression of the hand The tongue is a great tyrant the tongue will lay on load and draw bloud The Vulgar understands it of this tongue-oppression Is it good for thee that thou shouldest calumniate or slander me that is Give others occasion to speak evil of me That is a good sense Slander and censure wound deep hard words bruise the credit and break the heatt as well as hard blows bruise the flesh and break the bones But take it here rather for oppression by outward violence So the word is often used Psal 119.122 I have done judgement and justice give me not â—ver to mine oppressours to those who would wrong me because I have done right And it noteth as an open or violent oppression so a cunning subtil oppression a cheating fraudulent oppression All wrong how close and cunning soever is oppression We have that sense of the word Hos 12.7 He is a merchant the balances of deceit are in his hand he loveth to oppresse How doth a Merchant oppresse He comes not like a thief or a Nimrod with a sword in his hand bidding you Deliver your purse or your life commanding you to give up your right or your liberty but while in buying and selling in trading and dealing he offers you a fair bargain or as we say a penny worth for your penny he smites you secretly and cuts your throat as famine doth without a knife the balances of deceit are in his hand Balances are put for all instruments or means of trading by these he deceives light weights oppresse the State as a heavy weight presses the body The word imports also oppression by with-holding what is due as well as by taking away what we duly hold Deut. 24.14 Thou shalt not oppresse an hired servant that is poor and needy that is thou shalt not detain or keep back any part of his wages The word you see is of a large sense Is it good unto thee to oppresse I know thou wilt not oppresse me either by speaking evil of or over-censuring me either by open violence or by secret fraud either by taking from me what I have or by detaining from me what I ought to have Thou wilt not oppresse either with tongue or hand either as a robber with thy sword or as a merchant with thy balances Thus Iob expostulates upon highest confidence both of the justice and holinesse of God as if he had said Lord I know thou doest not love to oppresse no thou art mercifull and full of compassion Whence is it then that thou seemest to act so unlike thy self Is this thy pity to a poor creature and thy love to the work of thy hands Thou usest to rejoyce in the consolation of thy people and mercy pleaseth thee thou usest to send out rivers of goodnesse for wearied souls to bathe in and streams of comfort for thirsty souls to drinke and be refreshed in How is it then that a bitter cup is put to my lips continually and that I am overwhelmed in a salt sea in a sea of gall and bitternesse Hence observe God is so good and gracious that he loves not to grieve his creature Among men Mica 7.4 The best of them is as a brier the most upright is sharper then a thorn hedge Even they that seem most gentle and compassionate will yet sometimes scratch like briars and tear like thorns but the Lord changeth not neither do his compassions fail The actings of God appear sometimes unsutable to his nature but they are never so When he breaks us to pieces he delights not in our breakings nor doth he ever break his own but with an intent to binde them up again God is so farre from loving to oppresse that one of his most eminent works of providence is to relieve those who are oppressed Ps 12.4 For the oppression of the poor will I arise saith the Lord. And when the Lord arises oppressours shall fall O Lord cries Hezekiah in his sicknesse I am oppressed undertake for me Isa 38.14 As if he had said This disease like a mercilesse tyrant oppresses my spirit death hath even master'd me and got the victory over my house of clay Lord Come to my rescue thou wast wont to deliver poor men as a prey out of the hand yea mouths of their oppressours O deliver me from this cruell sicknesse which is ready to oppresse my life and hale me as a prisoner to the grave Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppresse And That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands This clause hath the same sense in generall with the former It is not good unto thee It is neither pleasing nor profitable nor honourable That thou shouldest despise the worke of thine hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat rejicere cum fastidio tanquam vile comtemptum quid Mer. in Pagâ— Exfastidâ—o contemptu sequi solet rei contemptae oppressio aut abj ctâ—o Huâ—c hominem quem â—uis maâ—i bâ—s fo masti de luto terrae Dru. Some translate this clause by oppression Is it good that thou shouldest oppresse the work of thine hands The word in propriety signifies to dâ—spise we have met with it more then once before it noteth also loathing yea abhorring And it may very well bear that other sense of oppressing for when a man loaths a thing and abhors it he will quickly slight and oppresse it who cares what becomes of that which he abhors These two are joyned together 2 King 17.20 The Lord rejected all the seed of Israel and afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of spoilers untill he had cast them out of his sight When once the Lord rejected or despised the seed of Israel they were presently afflicted and delivered up to spoiling That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands He means himself or any other man all men being the work of Gods hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè laboreÌ„ lassitudinem quandam in efficiendo opere denotat ex quo orationis bujus vis amplificatur The word which we translate work strictly taken signifies hard work extream labour labour with wearinesse Here understand it in a large sense for God works not to wearinesse And when after he had finished the whole work of creation it is said by Moses Gen. 2.2 That he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made The meaning is only this he gave over or ceased to work not that his work put him to any pain or need of rest But why is man called The work of Gods hands Hath God who is a Spirit hands or any bodily parts By an ordinary figure in Scripture hands and feet eyes and ears are ascribed unto God He is therefore said to have hands because he works not because he works with hands The hand is the
wickedly So we must understand that of the Apostle John 1 Epist 3.8 He that committeth sin is of the devil Thirdly To be wicked is ordinarily opposed to our being just and so Thou knowest that I am not wicked is Thou knowest that I am not condemned or cast at thy bar for a wicked man I am not condemned but justified in thy sight In which sense the word is used in that prophetique curse against Judas who betraied Christ Psal 109.7 When he shall be judged let him be condemned so we render it the Hebrew is elegantly translated thus Exeat improbus When he shall be judged let him go out wicked that is let him go out from before the bar and tribunall of his Judges a condemned man or Improbus justus verba sunt forensia Drus Let him proceed wicked Let that be his title and his honour wicked and just are judiciary or Court-terms equivalent with justified and condemned Some joyn these words with the verse going before Dost thou search into mine iniquity that thou maist know whether I am wicked As if he had said Lord thou needest not make enquiry about this thing for as I am not wicked so thou art not ignorant thou hast not afflicted me because I am wicked nor hast thou searched me because thou art ignorant Thou knowest that I am not wicked Hence observe First That the Lord knows the state of every man and of every thing exactly The foundation of God stands sure having this seal The Lord knoweth them that are his 2 Tim. 2.19 and he knoweth them that are not his not his by the grace of election and regeneration for all are his by the right of creation and dominion Thus he knows all the fowls of the mountains and the beasts of the field are his Psal 50.11 David gives this glory to God in his own case Psal 139.1 O Lord Thou hast searched me and known me God did not search him to know him but he searched him and knew him The knowledge of God was not a consequent but a concomitant of that search or it is spoken in opposition to man a man may search his neighbour and yet not know him There are depths and turnings in the heart of man which no man can reach or finde out but God hath a threed which will lead him into all and thorow all the labirynths a line which will found all the depths of man Hence David makes a particular of the knowledge of God God knew him in all that he was and in all that he did Thou knowest my down-lying and my up-rising and thou art acquainted with all my waies God is the Judge of all men therefore he knows all men Heb. 4.13 There is no creature which is not manifest in his sight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are naked and open before him with whom we have to doe The Apostle by two metaphors in these words teaches us that as the out-members and lineaments of the body together with their beauty or deformity are clearly seen when the body is naked and uncloathed that as the bowels and intrals of the body together with their soundnesse or diseases are perfectly discovered when the body is dissected or cut up by the hand of a skilfull anatomist even so are we in all we do and in all we are perfectly known or as the same Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.11 manifest unto God even manifest with as much clearnesse to the knowledge of God as the light is to the eye of man He knows 1. Our persons 2. Our actions 3. He knoweth the manner of our actions 4. He knoweth with what hearts we act 5. He knoweth not only the means we use but the ends we propose in every action 6. He knoweth what we have been as well as what we are And 7. He knoweth what we will be as well as what we are or have been He knoweth what we have done as well as what we do and he knoweth what we will do as well as what we do or have already done He seeth all creatures in the glasse of his own counsels thorow and thorow His eye hath thorow lights in all parts of the world and in the hearts of all men in the world And seeing man cannot be hid from God it is the vainest attempt for any man to think of hiding himself from God yet that 's not only the attempt but the hope of many who while they do what they would not have seen please themselves with this conceit that they are not seen in doing it or that they can secure what they have done from being seen We learn'd this of our first parents in whom the first thing that appeared next their shame after they had sinned was the hiding of their sinne Man loveth to draw a curtain between God and himself to raise up artificiall darknesse and to walk in thick clouds as he vainly hopes undiscovered Again Doth God know us then let us labour to know our selves God knows who are wicked many are wicked and know it not It is a wofull mistake when we think our selves to be in a good estate and God knows us to be in a bad estate It is a wrong to God and our selves when God knows us to be in a good estate and we think our selves to be in a bad estate but it is farre worse when we think our estate good and God knows it to be bad We should be acquainted with our condition lest we like Laodicea flatter our selves into an opinion that we are rich and clothed and have need of nothing when God knows we are poor and naked and wanting all things Secondly Observe from the elegancy of the Hebrew expression It is upon thy knowledge that I am not wicked God knoweth all things in and of himself This gives glory to God and lifteth him up above the creature in the fulnesse of his knowledge Men who have the greatest knowledge and vastest comprehensions of things yet have not that knowledge in and from themselves they fetch it in by borrowed helps and glad they can have it so too It costs man a great deal of travell and study to make himself master of a little knowledge Job 12.12 With the ancient is wisdom and in length of daies is understanding Some indeed get wisdom and understanding and are owners of a vast stock and treasure of knowledge but when but how When they are old when they have had long experience and have studied hard for it With the ancient is wisdom and in length of daies is understanding Thus men get knowledge But mark what is said of God in the next words vers 13. But with him meaning God is wisdom and strength He hath counsel and understanding With him it is and he hath it The Lord doth not grow more knowing by years nor doth his understanding mend by the multitude of daies though he be the Ancient of daies yet it is not his antiquity
shall be the patern of ours as here upon earth the spirits of believers are of the same fashion with Christs the same minde is in the Saints which was in Christ there is but one draft of grace in the main upon the souls of all holy men and that is a copy of Christs his being the originall So in heaven the bodies of all believers shall be of the same fashion with Christs There shall be but one draft of glory in the main for degrees do not vary the kinde upon the body of Christ and the bodies of all his members In reference to this future change of the body the body in its present state is vile Secondly Hence it follows That as we must not undervalue the frame of mans body in generall as imperfect so we may not despise any for their speciall bodily imperfections It is God who hath made and fashioned them round about It is said 2 Sam. 5.8 that the blinde and the lame were hated of Davids soul Yet to hate any for defects in the body is a very great defect in the soul and to contemn any for naturall blemishes is a spirituall blemish How then could David hate the blinde and the lame and not sin or are we to number this among his sins There are two expositions of those words upon either of which we may clear the difficulty First That when David sent to summon that fort the Iebusites who were the defendants trusting in the strength of the place told David in scorn that he must first conquer the blinde and the lame As implying that blinde and lame souldiers were garison good enough to deal with his great Army upon the advantage of such a fortresse Secondly The blinde and the lame may rather be the Idols and strange Gods which the Iebusites worshipped of whose protection they were not the lesse confident because the Jews counted them but blinde and lame As if they had said even these gods which you call blinde and lame see well enough what ye are doing and will come fast enough and too fast for your ease to our aid and succour These blinde and lame gods were justly hated of Davids soul but he had learned better then to hate men who were made lame or blinde by God Thirdly Seeing all men are fashioned round about by the hands of God then as we must not despise any for their bodily imperfections so not envy any for their bodily perfections Some are as much troubled to see another have a better body or a more beautifull face as many are alike sinfully both to see another have a better purse or a more plentifull estate then themselves Fourthly Let not the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus If thy earthly Tabernacle be not so highly so strongly built if the materials of it be not so pure or not so exactly tempered if thou hast not so good a constitution so elegant a composition if thou art not so adorn'd and polish'd as some others are yet be not discontented the hands of God have made and fashioned thee round about It is a great honour to a vessel that he made it though he have made it in this sense a vessel of dishonour Fiftly If God hath fashioned our bodies then we must not put them out of fashion It is dangerous to deface the work of God to undo that which God hath done to unmake that which God hath made How sad is it that any should pull down a building of Gods own setting up without warrant from God! Self-murder or the murder of another is an high affront to God and should have a severe revenge from man He that sheds his own bloud takes revenge upon himself And who so sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the image of God made he man Gen. 9.6 As what God hath joyned by a civil so by a naturall band Let no man put asunder Lastly If thou art made and fashioned by God then let God have the use of all thou art Let God dwell in the house which he hath set up Let thy body be imploied for God he that made it hath most right to it Every thing in man shews forth the wisdom and goodnesse of God towards man let every thing in man shew forth obedience and submission unto God This was the ground of Davids praier Psal 119.73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments as if he had said Lord I would use this body this soul this all which thou hast made for thy glory therefore give me understanding that I may learn thy will I would not do the will of another while I dwell in thy house and am thy tenant at will I would not imploy those members which thou hast given me to fulfill the Law of sin or the commands of Satan The Apostle is clear upon this argument in reference to redemption 1 Cor. 6.19 Ye are not your own ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your bodies and in your spirits which are Gods Now as in the work of redemption we are of God by grace so in the work of creation we are of God by nature The reason holds in both glorifie God with your bodies which are not your own but Gods It is usuall in letting out of houses to put a clause in the lease that the house shall not be imploied to such and such uses but only to such as are expressed in the indenture Surely the Lord who hath built and furnished these houses hath taught us how to imploy them and what trade to exercise in them even the trade of holines Take heed you do not let out any room or corner of a room in this house for sin to trade in or for the work of iniquity This is to let out a house of Gods making to the devils using Yet thou dost destroy me The word signifies to swallow up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absorbere est morsicatim destruere Coc. Deglutio significat omnimodā exterminationē resumque omnium profundissimum exitium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to swallow up with greedinesse Psal 52.4 Thou lovest all devouring or swallowing words words which swallow down thy neighbours credit and devour his good name as one morsel The holy Ghost expresseth our finall victory over death by a word which reacheth this sense 1 Cor. 15.54 Death is swallowed up or drunk down in victory death is drunk up at a draught Christ called his sufferings by which he got this victory a cup. The Apostle uses the same word again 2 Cor. 5.4 That mortality might be swallowed up of life When this mortall shall have put on immortality death shall be swallowed up in victory that is there shall be a compleat victory over death and not only so but mortality shall be swallowed up of life In heaven there shall be no death nor any thing like
being firm and stiff in themselves are moveable by the sinews There are other parts of the body which concur to the making up of this armour gristles muscles ligaments membranes all which serve for motion fastning and defence as well as bones and sinews but these being the principall and most known are here expressed for all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippocr Bones give the body stability straitnesse and form They are as the carcase of a ship whereto the rest of the parts are fastned and by which they are sustained They are as the posts pillars beams and rafters of a house by whose knittings and contignations the whole building is both proportioned and supported And though the bones are for number very many and in their forms exceeding various some thick some thin some plain some hollow some of a greater others of a lesser bore yet are they so connected and fitted together by articulation or by coalition by contiguity or continuity as the Anatomists speak that they all appear as one bone or pack of bones Sinews or nerves derive their pedigree from the brain and are the organs by which the animall spirits are conveyed and flow into the whole body and with them both sense and motion Sinews have so much of strength in them that the same word is put to signifie both strength and sinews and to do a thing strongly and vigorously is to doe it nervosè sinewously It is wonderfull which Naturalists write of the conjugations and uses of the sinews to whose labours I referre the studious Reader for further satisfaction I have given enough to shew what this Text cals me to That God hath indeed clothed man with skin and flesh and fenced him with bones and sinews Some have quarrelled with the wisdom and goodnesse of God for turning man altogether naked and unarmed into the world This Scripture is enough to confute the unreasonablenesse of that quarrel Job thankfully acknowledgeth That he was both clothed and armed though not in the sense of these complainers It is more honourable for man to make himself artificiall clothing and arms then to have had none but naturall God hath given man reason to invent hands to prepare and a tongue to call for those things which by a Law of nature are imposed upon other creatures the power of reason and the skill of the hand are a better safeguard to man then any the beasts have and can provide whatsoever man wants to secure him either from cold or danger And though the body as now it stands be but as it were the sepulchre of that which God at first created though we lie open to so many diseases and deaths that the soul may well be said to inhabit an unwalled and an unfortified City yet man hath great cause for ever to extoll the bounty of God in those still continued ennoblements of this earthly mansion his mortall body Yea The noble structure and symmetry of our bodies invites our souls not only to thankfulnesse but to admiration One of the Ancients stileth man a great miracle Another The miracle of miracles A third The measure of all things A fourth The patern of the universe the worlds epitome The world in a small volume or a little world They also have distinguished the whole frame of the body into three stories in allusion to a like frame observable in the world First The superiour which they call intellectuall or angelicall because they conceived it to be the habitation of Angels or Intelligences The second or middle part they call celestiall or heavenly the seat of the Sunne and starres The third Elementary in which all corporeall creatures are procreated and nourished This division of the world is eminent in man for he also is a building of three stories The head which is the seat of reason the mansion the tower of wisdome and understanding is placed highest the brest or middle venter is the celestiall part wherein the heart like the Sun is predominant some have called the Sun The heart of the world and the heart The Sunne of mans body by whose lustre beams and influences all the other parts are quickned and refreshed hence we say when the heart fails all fails and while the heart holds all holds The third part of the body or the lower venter containing all parts necessary for the nutrition of individuals or the propagation of the species carrieth a cleare resemblance with the elementary or lowest parts of the universe There are five things in particular which as so many rounds of a lather may help us to raise our thoughts higher in the duty of holy admiration about this work of God First That God frameth up this goodly and beautifull fabrique out of such mean and improbable materials To consider out of what stuff our bodies are made advanceth the honour of him who made us Man can make his work except the form no better then the matter out of which he formeth it But as the form of mans body is better then the matter so the matter becomes better then it was before it received that form Secondly The matter out of which God maketh man is originally homogeneall or but of one kinde yet there is a strange heterogeny or variety in the very substance as well as in the shape of the severall parts which are therefore divided by the survaiers of this building into parts similar and dissimilar Is it not incredible to meer reason that one lump should be spread out into thin tender skin wrought into soft flesh extended into tough sinews hardened into strong bones that one piece should make an outward jerkin or cassock of skin an under garment of flesh columns and rafters of bones bands and ties of sinews that the same should make veins like chanels to carry and blood like water to be carried into every part to moisten and refresh it When an Artificer buildeth an house he requires more materials then one he must have stones and timber iron lead Quomodo ex re tantula sibi simili tamvariae discrepantes partes extiterunt haec profecto est stupenda omnino opifiâ—iâ— nostri sapientia vis ad quicquid efficienduÌ„ Merl. c. to compleat his fabrique but the Lord frameth all the parts rooms and contrivances of the body out of one and the same masse Thou dost not know saith Solomon how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with childe Eccles 11.5 Who can know by a meer rationall demonstration how a solid substance should grow out of that which is so fluid And that parts materially as well as figuratively unlike should arise out of a like matter Thirdly The work of God in the framing of man is internall as well as externall A statuary or an engraver will make the image or pourtraiture of a man but his work is all outward he cannot make bowels or fashion a heart within he cannot cut out veins bones and sinews
dead It is usuall in Scripture by a dogge to set forth the vilest estate of man and the most excellent by a lion When Mephibosheth would shew how low he was in his own eyes though the son of a noble Prince he joyns these two Dead and a dog together 2 Sam. 9.8 What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am He cals himself not only a dog as Christ did the woman of Canaan and as she acknowledged her self to be but to lay himself as low as lownesse it self he cals himself a dead dog implying That life giveth some honour and casteth a lustre upon every subject which it inhabits though it be the meanest When Esau was near perishing with hunger Gen. 25.32 he resolves thus I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birth-right do to me As if he had said Shall I keep my birth-right and lose my life My life is more precious Thus he spake and he spake profanely in it yet there is some truth in what he spake for if we take birth-right precisely in the notion of a civil priviledge so life is better then a birth-right but he is called profane Esau because there was a spirituall priviledge in his birth-right which he ought to have valued above his life Any spirituall good thing is better then naturall life but life is the best of naturall and better then all civil good things When the Prophet would expresse how great a blessing a King was to his people he called him The breath of their nostrils Lam. 4.29 and live for ever was the highest apprecation given the Babylonian Kings The most noble imitations of art are about this piece of nature It is the ambition of a painter to draw to the life or to shadow the motions and actings of life When we would commend a picture we say It is done to the life How precious a favour is reall life the very shadow of which is of so great a price He that laieth down his life paieth the greatest debt whether to justice or to nature Christ went to the highest price for and shewed the greatest favour to sinners when he parted with and pawned this jewell for them his precious life This should minde parents as to pray for quickning after conceptions so to give thanks when the embryon is quickned Now if this naturall life be such a favour What is spirituall and eternall life Thou hast given me life and favour Chesed omnia beneficia Dei promiscuè complectitur Coc. Non solum vitam dedisti sed cumulasti banis omnibus quae ad victum honorem rem vitae necessariam pertinent Hoc nomine coÌ„plectitur etiam omnia beneficia quae ultra vitaÌ„ Deus homini concedit dum educandum euÌ„ instituendum informanduÌ„ in lege sua timore curat Merc. or life as a favour Thirdly By favour in conjunction with life we may understand the accidents of life that is those good things which accompany and accommodate our lives Thou hast given me life not a bare life not a meer subsistence or being in the world but with life thou hast also given me favour many mercies and comforts to make my life sweet and pleasant to me Besides favour takes in not only those outward comforts of health strength liberty plenty but those inward ornaments of life also good education and instruction in knowledge both humane and divine It appears Iob had a fair portion of these favours His was not a naked but a clothed soul a soul gilded and engraven all over with heavenly truths So that Job in this word reports the bounty and munificence of God towards him in all the former additions and accomplishments of his life Many have lives which they scarce look upon as a favour Some accidents of life are more worth then the substance of it Our well-being is better then our being It may prove a desirable favour to be rid of life In which sense Iob spake of himself at the first verse of this Chapter My soul is weary of my life His life was then a burden but once a favour Thou hast granted me life with favour Fourthly Iob may here intend spirituall and eternall favour Quoniam Chesed significat aliquid perfectum in amore idcirca slatuimus Iohum hic intelligere istaÌ„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive studium quod Deus exercet erga suos quâ—s facit filios suos in Christo Coc. Chesed signifies the grace or favour of God in Christ Psal 89.33 My loving kindenesse will I not take from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to fail If he fail in duty I will chasten him in mercy I will not remove mercy from him The Vulgar translates Thou hast given me life and mercy which some expound of that speciall mercy the pardon of his sinne and his washing from originall corruption As if Iob had said I partake not only of life but also of that which is better then life it self Thy favour or loving-kindenesse Psal 63.4 The favour of God in spirituall things in pardoning sin in regenerating the soul in sending the holy Spirit is the perfection of his favour What is man without that favour which makes him a sonne of God but even a beautifull or at most a rationall beast as David cals him Psal 49.21 And should a man give thanks for outward favours only without any reflection upon spirituall a beast could he speak might give such thanks The life of sense and growth is a mercy but beasts and plants live thus The life of reason is a greater mercy but wicked men live thus many are in hell unto whom God granted this life and they would be glad God would call in his grant and take it from them But unto these three lives God adds a fourth to his elect even a life of grace through Jesus Christ This is the favour of favours and the blessing of all our blessings except this favour be granted with our lives it were better for us never to have had a grant of our lives It is more eligible not to have been born then not to be born again Chesed sumitur pro venustate corporis Coc. There is a fifth Interpretation taking the word Chesed for corporall favour or the beauty of the body we say such an one is well favoured he hath an excellent feature the favour of a man is seen in the feature of his face Favour is the perfection of beauty Some have a clear mixture of white and red yet no favour In this sense the word is used Isa 40.6 where the Lord makes a proclamation The voice said Cry and he said What shall I cry All flesh is grasse and the goodlinâ—sse thereof as the flower of the field The word which we translate goodlinesse is Chesed All flesh is grasse man withers quickly and Chesed the goodlinesse thereof all of man his favour beauty strength all these are as the
then much more God who is the Judge of conscience marketh us if we sin God needs not judge upon information but upon his own observation He will reprove every man whom he doth not pardon And is able to set before us in order whatsoever any of us have done How then do some say That God sees not sinne in his children Job saith That God marked his sinne but according to this doctrine he should rather have said If I sin thou dost not mark me Some through ignorance sin and see it not sin and perceive it not but no man among all the multitudes of men can sin unseen or unperceived by God If I sin then thou markest me And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non purges me ut sim immuni◠ab omni peccata Will not the Lord acquit Why have we a Gospel then What 's the businesse of mercy And where 's the efficacy of Christs bloud Doth not this purchase and do not they offer acquittances from iniquity The words are interpreted three waies First That Iob speaks from his unbelief as if he could not see pardon through the thick cloud of his troubles or have any evidence that God had mercy in store for him while he endured such plenty of miseries Secondly That he speaks thus upon a supposition of impenitency As if he had said If I sinne and humble not my self thou wilt not acquit me Thirdly That by iniquity he means his affliction putting the cause for the effect So Thou wilt not acquit me for mine iniquity is Thou wilt not take away these afflictions which are counted as the proceed or issue of mine iniquity Hence observe First Sinne is a debt Every acquittance supposeth an obligation All men as creatures are in a debt of duty to God and when they fail in that they are in a debt of penalty as sinners Observe secondly When sinne is pardoned the sinner is acquitted his debt is taken off and his bonds are cancelled Pardon is our discharge our quietus est sealed in the bloud of Christ All processe at law or from the law is then prohibited there 's no more to be said or done against us Again The word signifies to cleanse and purge as well as to acquit Note from it That as sinne defileth the soul so pardon cleanseth it Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter then snow was Davids prayer for pardon after his great defilement Psal 5.1 7. If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse 1 Joh. 1.9 Fourthly Forasmuch as Iob groaning under burdens of sorrow speaks so often about the pardon of sin we learn That while sinne remaineth to our sense unpardoned the soul seeth no way to get out of sorrows The removing of affliction is a sign that sinne is forgiven and the sense of our forgivenes is an argument that affliction shall be removed Fifthly Taking the former words in conjunction with these If I sinne knowingly and wickedly as they charge me Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity Observe That a persisting sinner is an unpardoned sinner There is abundant mercy for returning sinners but I know of none for those that resolve to go on in sin There is a promise of repentance and a promise to repentance but there is no promise which doth not either offer or require repentance Repent and thou shalt be saved is the tenour of the Gospel as well as beleeve and thou shalt be saved Though many who are going on in their sins are overtaken by grace yet there is no grace promised to those who go on in their sins The holiest are threatned with wrath if they doe surely then none are put into an expectation of mercy if they do The promises either finde us repenting or they cause us to repent No sinner is pardoned for repentance nor without it Iob speaks that language more clearly in the words following which some make an exposition of these Verse 15. If I be wicked Woe unto me If I be wicked What it is to be wicked hath been shewed and the difference between a wicked man and a sinner discovered at the 7th verse upon those words Thou knowest that I am not wicked Woe unto me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ejulatu deducit Rab Mos Kimchi The word is derived saith one of the Rabbins from a root signifying to houl Great mourning is a kinde of houling and they who are in woe are bid to houl Isa 13.6 chap. 23.1 c. Wicked men houl rather then pray in their distresse because of their extream worldly woe They have not cried unto me with their hearts when they houled upon their beds Hos 7.14 There are legall woes and there are evangelicall woes The Law cries woe and so doth the Gospel Gospel woes are the worser of the two For if the Law say woe to us the Gospel may say mercy to us but if the Gospel say woe to us as it doth to hypocrites who abuse and to unbelievers who refuse mercy where shall we have mercy All woes may be understood in this place Law woes and Gospel woes temporall woes and eternall woes If I be wicked then woe unto me Hence observe Woe is the portion of wicked men Though they laugh yet woe is their portion yea they are therefore threatned with woe because they laugh Luk. 6.25 Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Some wicked men are as merry as if mercy were their peculiar But we may say to their mirth What doth it Or if we should ask them What they do to make themselves so merry David will resolve us what their course is Psal 36.2 The wicked flattereth himself in his own eyes untill his iniquity be found to be hatefull He that would be flattered shall never want a flatterer for if none will do it he will doe it himself He speaks well of himself and therefore he thinks all 's well But usually he hath some others ready enough to speak well of him too The true Prophets complained of the false for crying peace peace when there was no peace for saying all is well when they should say all is woe But though wicked men flatter themselves and though they get their neighbours to flatter them yea though Ministers flatter them yet God will not flatter them and at last their own consciences will not flatter them neither Conscience will preach them a Sermon of woes at last though possibly it hath been silent through ignorance or silenc'd through malice for a long time As all the promises of grace and mercy hang over the heads of the godly and sincere which way soever they go a cloud of blessings drops and distils upon them So clouds of wrath and bloud hang over the heads of wicked men dropping upon them yea
Sight which is the chief sense is put for any sense And so the meaning is Though I am righteous yet I cannot hold up my head or take any comfort because I am so full of confusion and see so much affliction As if he had said Can a man at the same time mourn and rejoyce Can a man lift up his head while he hath such a load upon his heart Hence observe They who see much affliction can hardly take in any consolation Come to a godly man under great outward or inward troubles tell him of the love of God of the pardon of sinne of an inheritance among the Saints in light as his portion you can hardly fasten any of these things upon him sorrow within keeps comfort out As till sin be cast out we cannot act holily so till worldly sorrow or the excesse of godly sorrow be cast out we cannot act joyfully The Saints in a right posture of spirit are joyous in all their tribulations and Christ is able to make consolations abound as tribulation doth abound yet where there is abundance of tribulation consolation is usually very scarce Drops will hardly be received where rivers are offered and poured forth Another reading of the words representeth Iob bespeaking God in praier mixed with complaining If I were righteous Satis habeas ignominiae vide impotentiaÌ„ meam Coc. yet cannot I lift up my head be thou satisfied with confusion and behold my affliction So M. Broughton As if Iob had said Let it be enough Lord let it now suffice give me some ease that I may lift up my head a little before I lay it down for altogether Thus David praied Ps 39.11 12. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth surely every man is vanity O spare me that I may recover stâ—ength before I go hence be no more When Nehemiâ—h was humbling himself and confessing his sin and the sinne of that people he concludes according to this interpretation Chap. 9.32 Let not all the trouble seem little before thee that hath come upon us on our Kings on our Princes and on our Priests and on all thy people as if he had said Lord consider that now we have been greatly punished though we have been punished lesse then our sins deserve Thou maist justly inflict more but we are not able to endure more Rectius in imperativo q. d. vide Domine quo sim statu tum cognosces ita esse ut dico Mâ—rc Thirdly We read imperatively Therefore see thou mine affliction So his meaning is Lord take notice of my sad condition I am full of trouble Hence observe That when sorrows are come to a great height it is time for us to pray that God would cast a compassionate eye upon them When we are past the cure and help of man we are fittest objects for God When the pressures of the people of Israel were greatly encreased in Aegypt then the Lord himself saith I have seen I have seen Exod. 3.7 and when affliction is boyl'd up to the height then let us say See Lord see Lord. When the rage and blasphemy of Rabshakeh both by speaking and writing reached even unto heaven Then Hezekiah went and spread the letter before the Lord 2 King 19.14 As if he had said Lord do thou read this letter Lord bow down thine ear and hear Lord behold and see we are full of confusion See thou our affliction And when the enemies of the Jews in Nehemiah's time fell to scoffing and jearing the work they had in hand and them in the work then that zealous Governour puts it unto God Hear O our God for we are despised Secondly Note That when our afflictions are at the highest and greatest thou the Lord is able to master and subdue them I am full of confusion see thou mine affliction As if he had said It is in vain for me to shew my diseases and my wounds to creatures but I know I am not past thy cure though I come thus late or thus I have shewed my wounds and my diseases to the creature I have made my moan to men but they cannot help Now I bring them unto thee O see my affiction All our ruines may be under the hand of God he hath bread and cloathing for us he can be our healer when none can either in heaven or earth Lastly Observe When our afflictions are at the highest then usually God comes to deliver When the waters of affliction swell over the banks and threaten a deluge then God turns the stream when our sores fester and are ready to gangrene then God applies his balsome He seldome appears in a businesse which others can do or undertakes that which is mans work As in the sore travel of women in childe-bearing other helpers undertake it not till as they speak it be past womens work so God seldome meddles eminently he acts alwaies concommitantly till our deliverance is past mans work that so the whole praise of the work may be his When danger is upon the growing hand then desire God to take deliverance in hand then pray and pray earnestly that God would see your afflictions when you perceive them to be encreasing afflictions So it follows in the next verse See thou mine affliction Verse 16. For it encreaseth Thou huntest me as a fierce lion and again thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me This verse with the next are an elegant and patheticall description of Iobs yet growing and prevailing sorrows for having closed the 15th verse with an Assertion and a petition I am full of confusion therefore see thou mine affliction he presseth and pursueth both in these words For it encreaseth Thou huntest me as a fierce lion For it encreaseth M. Broughton renders How it fleeth up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In bonum elevâ—tâ—â— eminuit in malum intumuit superbiit de inanimatis â—revit auctus â—uit The Hebrew word is taken sometimes in a good and sometimes in an ill sense In a good sense it signifies to be lifted up or to be eminent in excellency In an ill sense it signifies to be lifted up or exalted with pride The word is applied also to things without life and then it signifies to augment by addition or encrease The Vulgar takes it in that ill sense as noting pride and high-mindednesse translating by the Noun thus For pride thou dost catch me as a lion or thou dost hunt me as a lion because I am proud A lion is a stout creature and may be an embleme of pride Another gives a sense near that When it lifteth up it self then thou huntest me as a fierce lion When what lifteth up it self when my head lifteth up it self he had said in the former verse If I be righteous yet will I not lift up my head for if I doe lift up my head in pride then thou wilt hunt me as a fierce lion I shall
turned up-side down To wipe Ierusalem as a dish was to do that which was never done before Some expound that place of the frequency of affliction that God would smite them again and again as they that make clean a dish wipe it over and over that no filth may stay in it The Seventy and the Vulgar translate Delebo IerusaleÌ„ sicut deleri soleÌ„t tabulae Vulg. I will blot out Ierusalem as they use to blot out a table-book that is written all over He that hath a table-book full of writing and would write more takes a cloth or a spunge and blotteth out what was written that he may thorowly wipe his table-book he rubs it often with his spunge to get the letters clear out Thus God threatned to do with Ierusalem He would wipe or blot out her golden characters and honourable inscriptions till nothing of Ierusalem but her shame and her sinne should remain unblotted out Was not the judgement brought upon Ierusalem a wonder when the Prophet saith Lam. 4.12 The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed it The Apostle speaks thus of his own and of his fellow-Apostles afflictions 1 Cor. 4.9 We are made a spectacle as upon a theater unto the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to Angels and to men All begin to wonder at us what the matter is what strange creatures we are whom the Lord suffers to be thus used The people of God are often a gazingstock to the world in regard of what they do and not seldom in regard of what they suffer Secondly Observe That when God doth greatly afflict his own people he goes out of his ordinary way He shews himself marvellous or wonderfull a man is never marvelled at when he goes his old pace in his old path God loves to have his hand in the hony-pot therefore it is strange to see him give his people a bitter cup to drink or feeding them with wormwood and with gall Judgement is the strange work of God Isa 28.21 The Lord shall be wrath in the valley of Gibeon that he may do his work his strange work and bring to passe his act his strange act And if every work of judgement be his strange work a work he delighteth not to be conversant in what then are great and sore judgements Though the Lord be infinitely pleased in the executions of judgement yet because if a more may be conceived in infinity he is more pleased with mercy therefore judgement is called his strange work his strange act To see a Prince renowned for clemency and pity passing a severe sentence is a strange sight We say he hath shewed himself marvellous he hath gone against both his practice and his nature his custome and his inclination To see any man do what he useth not hath somewhat of wonder in it much more to see God do so When he taketh up his rod we begin to start how much more when he taketh up his sword when he hunts those like a lion whom he dearly loveth and uses those as wilde beasts who are his precious children when he smites them with rigour whom he carrieth in his own bosome These these are acts which represent him to admiration as many acts of his power and mercy cause the Saints to cry out admiringly yet joyfully Who is a God like unto thee So some acts of his visible severity cause others of them to cry out admiringly yet sorrowfully Why O God dost thou act in appearance so unlike thy self Verse 17. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me or thou bringest new witnesses against me and encreasest thine indignation upon me changes and war are against me This 17th verse is but a further amplification of what he had spoken before setting forth the greatnesse and frequent returns of his trouble Thou renewest The first day of the moneth is called Chodesh Chodesh novilunium primus dies mensis quo quasi luna innovatur in the Hebrew from the word here used because then there was a new moon or a change of the moon so Thou renewest thou makest a change I have many new moons but they are all and alwaies at full in sorrow Thou renewest Thy witnesses The Septuagint saith Thy examinations so it is an allusion to the triall of a malefactour who is examined by the Judge and if he deals not plainly in confession then his examination is renewed Thus saith Job Thou sendest as it were new examiners with more articles and additionall Interrogatories as if I had conceal'd somewhat and had not told thee my whole heart We translate and so the word most properly beareth witnesses the sense is the same As some malefactours are often examined so more evidence and new witnesses are brought against them though in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established yet where there are more witnesses then two or three there is more establishment Again As they who are of a wrangling and unquiet disposition will never sit down in a suit when by the examination of some witnesses they have brought the matter to a triall and are cast yet this doth not satisfie them they will have their writ of errour Non tam videtur de instauratione plurium testium queri quam de sententiae ferendae dilatione morâ Pined and bring the matter about again in another Court Thus saith Job as if the Lord were resolved this sute should never have an end He reneweth his witnesses against me When I think all is concluded and agreed between us I am as much to seek as ever he brings all about again So that after all my travell I am as farre from an end as I was at the beginning I am where I was and am like to continue there for I see the Lord renewing his witnesses against me still The doubt is What or whom he meaneth by these Witnesses Philippus in lo. One saith These witnesses were devils Satan accused him at first and he is not alone either in tempting or accusing he can soon have a legion to joyn with him in any design of wickednesse But I passe that opinion Secondly Others say The Witnesses were Iobs three friends they all testified against him Eliphaz began and Bildad was his second Zophar stood ready to follow all against Iob. Poena â—â—ius peccati quasi destatione decedeÌ„te aliam quasi succenturiatam suffecturus es Coc. Thirdly By Witnesses most and they most clearly understand his afflictions Thou renewest thy witnesses that is thou bringest new troubles to testifie against me When one affliction hath spoken at thy bar against me thou callest for the testimony of another and of another and when there will not be another I know not unlesse it be when I am not When Naomi was become Marah her former pleasures being turned into bitternesse she saith Ruth 1.21 The Lord hath testified against me Iob is very expresse in the
per flagella conflictum Changes and warre are upon me that is such changes as there is in war when first one regiment charges and another seconds and so regiment after regiment company after company file after file now the right wing and then the left at last the reserve Thus the Lord seemed to bring up his bands and troops of afflictions to assault Job in turns and changes till his whole army had assaulted and skirmished with him Those military terms of shooting and warring are frequent figures in Scripture shewing how God conflicts with sinfull weak man after the manner of men Observe hence First That afflictions are at the command of God He marshals and disposes them as armies are by their Generals in times of war He can say to one affliction as the Centurion to his souldiers Go and it goeth to another Come and it cometh to a third Do this and it doth it All armies of sorrow are led by God in chief They charge whom he pleaseth and where he pleaseth high or low person or nation if he gives the word they fall on presently nor will they return till he orders their retreat Secondly Note That the Lord hath variety of waies and means to afflict and try his people Changes and war are against me The Physitian hath variety of medicines for his sick patient if one removes not the distemper he changes and tries a second There is nothing so full of changes as warre not only in regard of the uncertainty of events but variety of means new forces being raised and new stratagems used from day to day Hast thou but one blessing said Esau to his father Isaac the hand of man may be straightned to one blessing or one blow but the hand of God is never straightned As he hath store of blessings so of blows and can give both out both in degree and kinde diversified if one army of evils doth not humble and conquer us to his obedience he can quickly levy a new one All creatures will come in to his help if he do but set up his standard or give command to beat his drum He changed his armies ten times against Pharaoh Pharaoh had indeed changes and warre upon him yet no change wrought in him therefore the war was changed till he was destroied This war with â—ob was not a destroying one but it was a terrible one so terrible that he cries out in the language of his former complaints Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb JOB Chap. 10. Vers 18 19 20 21 22. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb O that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me I should have been as though I had not been I should have been carried from the womb to the grave Are not my daies few Cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little Before I go whence I shall not return even to the land of darknesse and the shadow of death A land of darknesse as darknesse it self and of the shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darknesse THese five verses are the conclusion of Jobs reply to Bildad there are four things remarkable in them First He complaineth that ever he lived a day or an hour in the world at the beginning of the 18th verse Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb Secondly He wisheth that he had died speedily seeing he could not have that supposed happinesse not to be born into the world his next request is that he might not have staied long in the world he would not have appeared as a man no nor as a childe but that birth and buriall might have been contiguous not knowing the distance of a day vers 18 19. O that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me I should have been as though I had not been I should have been carried from the womb to the grave Thirdly He sheweth that however he had been disappointed of both those votes yet he could not live long As if he had said Though I have found much trouble in the world yet I shall not much trouble the world the time of my departure is at hand I have lived most of my daies already and all my daies are not many vers 20. Are not my daies few Fourthly He entreateth and sueth that the few daies of those few daies which he had to live might be good daies Are not my daies few Cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little before I goe whence I shall not return c. The 18th and 19th verses carry a sense very like to that which hath been opened at the third Chapter of this book where Iob complained of his birth and was troubled that he had the favour of a being Sui obliviscitur ut supra vi doloris Merc. because he found such an il-being in the world His passion runneth out here into a vehement expostulation Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb As there Why died I not from the womb ver 11. Job puts the Question and demandeth an account of God Why he came out of the womb There are three sorts of questions First Such as arise from a desire of necessary information 'T is good to ask that we may learn Secondly Such as arise from a needlesse curiosity 'T is not good to ask what no duty enjoyns us to learn Thirdly Such as arise from pure passion or rather from mudded perturbation not so much desiring information from others as to vent our selves 'T is very ill to ask when we care not to learn Such is the question here put say some a passionate question arising from the fume and vapours of a distempered minde desiring to ask rather then to be answered Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb As if he had said Was I born only to be an object of evil Came I into the world to be made a sad spectacle to the world to Angels and to men Have my daies been lengthened out on purpose that my troubles might be lengthened Such a troubled sense there is in these words The complaints of Saints may sometimes look like the blasphemies of wicked men Iob complaineth of his birth and seems forgetfull of all former benefits Hence observe Dum ita agis mecum fit ex beneficio tuo noÌ„ beneficium Coc. When we want the mercies we would have we grow angry with the mercies which we have had David speaks it to the praise of God Thou art he that tookest me out of my mothers womb Psal 22. Iob speaks it as a damage to himself Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb Secondly observe We are ready to think we live to no end if we have not our own ends That 's the voice of nature and so far as nature prevails in us it speaks in us Thirdly
Man is apt to say there is no reason for that of which he seeth not the reason When we are at our wits end and at our reasons end we think there is an end of all wisdom and reason as if neither God nor man could give an account beyond ours or answer when we are non-plust Yet we may conceive Iob had a further sense which yeelds a more mollifying meaning of these words for though he as all the Saints in the old Testament was much in the dark about the benefit of sufferings which the Gospel hath now more clearly revealed to us and called us unto yet he might have some other intendment in these expostulations We may charitably suppose him troubled that he was in a condition of life which as he conceived hindered the main end of his life the glorifying of God Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb As if he had said Lord I am in a state wherein I know not how to honour thee and then what is my life worth unto me Thy justice is greatly obscured towards me many are ready to say for my sake that surely thou art a hard Master leaving them to reap evil who have sowed good and paying thy faithfull and most active servants their wages in sufferings And as for mercy I taste little of that Nunc in me justitia tua obscuratur ego non sentio fructum gratiae tuae quâ in re ergo gloriae tuae inservire potest vita mea Coc. comforts are dainties with me my cup is bitter my sorrows are multiplied Now when neither justice nor mercy move visibly towards me how shall I glorifie thee And wherein can my life be usefull or advantagious to thee Am I not like a broken vessel a vessel wherein there is no pleasure Wherefore then was I brought forth out of the womb This exposition teaches us That A godly man thinks he liveth to no purpose if he do not live to the praise and glory of God God hath made all things for himself and it is the design of the Saints to be for him While that end is attained they can easily part with all their own and where that is crossed they cannot be pleased in the attainment of any of their own The interest of Christ is not only their greatest but all their interest Any stop of much more a disservice to this causeth an honest heart to cry out with Iob and 't is easie to conceive it caused Iob to cry out Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the wombe O that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me O that I had given up the ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Facilem sine dolore mortem innuit The originall signifies usually a gentle and an easie kinde of death Giving up the ghost is not a pulling or a violent rending of life away from us but our laying it down our surrender or willing resignation of it Some read this clause not as we optatively O that I had given up the ghost but declaratively Wherefore hast thou brought me out of the womb for then I had quickly given up the ghost But rather take it as a wish O that I had given up the ghost And no eye had seen me That is say some I would I had died before I had been born for then no eye had seen me Or more generally thus O that I had died speedily so speedily that I might have gone out of the world before I was observed to have been there Who delights to see the dead especially a childe dead-born or dying as soon as born Sarah was the delight of Abrahams eyes whiles she lived and yet assoon as she was dead he gives any money for a sepulchre to bury her out of his sight Or again Job that he might shew how little he regarded life disregards that which is most desirable in life Innatum est omnibus ut cognosci se velint studio teneantur res alias cognoscendi Man naturally desires To see and to be seen to know and to be known That which carries a great part of the world is an affectation to be pointed at and taken notice of as Some-bodies in the world He that liveth unseen in the world is as a man out of the world or as one buried alive To be in prison is a great punishment because a prisoner liveth out of view he cannot freely see or be seen Job wishes no eye had seen him rather then his eyes should have seen so much evil or that others should have seen him in the midst of so many evils Hence note First That undue and unreasonable questions are usually followed and fruited with undue and unreasonable wishes Having put the question Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb See what a wish comes upon it O that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me He that takes undue liberty to speak or do knows not where he shall restrain himself They who alwaies act as farre as they may shall often act beyond what they ought And they who act at all beyond what they are directed are often carried beyond what themselves intended Secondly Observe Man had rather not be seen at all then to be seen miserable To be seen is a great part of the comfort of this life but who would not gladly exchange it for ease in obscurity It is an honour to be seen but who would be seen cloathed with dishonour When Christ is prophecied of as the great patern of patience and self-deniall it is said He hid not his face from shame and spitting Isa 50.6 To be a spectacle of misery is to some worse then their being miserable They would count it a piece of their happinesse to be unhappy in a corner and their troubles half removed if they might steal their troubles As to be in a good estate and to know that we are so makes our estate better to us So to be in an ill estate and to be known that we are so makes it to some tempers a great deal worse As the hypocrite hopes when he sins that no eye sees him so many wish when they suffer O that no eye had seen me Verse 19. I should have been as though I had not been I should have been carried from the womb to the grave Some read this verse also as a wish O that I had been as though I had never been O that I had been carried from the womb to the grave He confirms what he had said by a further declaration of his condition in case he had not been brought forth out of the womb or had died before he had been seen in the throng of the world Why what then Job Then I should have been as though I had not been and my afflictions should never have had any being so speedy a death had quitted me of all the evils of my life I
should not have sipt or tasted Est non est Octimestris partus Hippocr much lesse have drunk so deep of this cup of sufferings It is said of Abortives who die in the womb and of such as die immediately after they are born They are and they are not they who live but a moment in nature shall live for ever A life here lesse then a span long Abortivuâ— pro non nato ceâ—setur in jure will be eternity long yet as to the world such a life is no life such a being no being Lawyers say They who die before or as soon as they are born are reckoned as unborn they make no change in states they never had a name or an interest in the world and so they go for nothing in the world The Prophet Obadiah verse 16. threatens Edom That they shall be as though they had not been that is they must perish and their memoriall with them Some are so thrust out of the world that they shall be as if they had never been and some come into the world so that their being was as if they had never been A short life is by common estimation no life As in heaven where we shall live for ever we shall be as if we had ever been So on earth some live so little that they are as if they never were That which hath an eternall duration and shall never end is as if it had ever begun and that which is but of a short duration and ends quickly is as if it had never begun The reason why the fruit of sinne goes for nothing is because the pleasure of sinne is but for a season and that a very little season What fruit have ye of those things whereof ye are now ashamed That is Ye have no fruit or your fruit was nothing we may say of all the pleasures of sin their cradle is their grave or more near Iobs language they are carried from the womb to the grave So he speaks next of himself I should have been carried from the womb to the grave I should have passed without noise or notice There would have been little trouble with me in the world I should have made but one journey and that a short one The speech is proverbiall From the womb to the grave Proverbiale est ab uâ—ero ad sepulchrum cum quis simulac natus est moritur is the motto of Infant-death The Septuagint read it as an expostulation Wherefore was I not carried out from the womb to the grave It would have been a happinesse to me either not to have been at all or to have had a being but equivalent in common account to a not being And thus it had been with me if my first step out of my mothers womb had been into the womb of that grandmother the earth Iob is often upon the same point renewing his desires after death he did so as hath been toucht at the third Chapter and at the sixth and now he is as fierce and fresh upon it as ever A godly man may often discover the same infirmity Whilest the same stock of corruption remains in us it is productive of the same corrupt fruit There is a seminall vertue in the earth look how often it is plowed and sowed so often it sends forth a crop there is a seminall vertue in the earthly part of man which makes him to put forth evil as often as occasion plows and temptation soweth his heart Verse 20. Are not my daies few Cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little Are not my daies few There is a difference in the reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primo adjungunt colo Numquid non paucitas dierum meâ—rum finiatur brevi Vulg. Annon pauci dies mei cessantes sc deficientes â—arg Annon paulisper diebus meis cessabit Juâ— Many translatours joyn the verb Cease with this clause so that whereas we read Are not my daies few Cease then and let me alone they read Will not my few daies cease then let me alone that I may take comfort a little M Broughton and he hath a second varieth yet further Will not he leave off a little in my daies Instead of applying the word few unto daies Are not my daies few they taking in the verb joyn it to the act of God Will not he leave off a little in my daies That is Will not God forbear a little to trouble me Will not he give me a breathing time in my daies which are but few Surely he will he will not be so strict with me I doubt not of a gracious answer to this humble petition But rather follow our sense and let the first clause be a question Are not my daies few And then the next words are an inference or use which he makes from it Cease then and let me alone c. Are not my daies few The question doth affirm Yes my daies are few The sense may be made out one of these three waies and not unprofitably by all three First thus As a justification of his former wishes and desires to die Have I not upon good reason wished that I had never lived Who can be in love with a short life and a long trouble Are not my daies few Or Secondly As an answer to such as objected against him for wishing he had not lived Doe you know said they what you have said Is life such a small matter with you Or doe you understand what you desire when you desire death Is deformed death become a beauty in your eye What ever you think of it life is a precious jewel Yes saith Job I know very well what life is and I know of I had died before I was born I had not lost much life What 's the life of a few daiis The life of eternity is worth the having and esteeming but why should you think I have wished away a matter of moment when I wished away this life For are not my daies few Whence observe The losse of a whole life in this world is no great losse We cannot lose a great deal when all is but a little nor many when we have but a few in all He looseth but a few daies who dieth the first day then what have we got when we have lived according to the calculation of nature many daies Job makes this an argument to satisfie others about his wish that all his days had bin cut off May not we satisfie our selves by it when a piece or a part an end the worst end of our daies is cut off What if we have abated ten or twenty of those years which possibly we might have lived Twenty years are but a few daies for a whole life consisting of three twenties and ten is but a few daies This we are sure of that the few daies we loose on earth shall never be missed in heaven it will be no abatement to our comfort there to
think we lived but a little here all the sorrows of this life will be swallowed up in the next and so will our sudden parting with this life Thirdly The clearest sense of these words Are not my daies few is that they are the ground of a petition for the mitigation of his troubles As if he had said Lord I have but a while to live in the world my daies are few therefore doe not think much that I should have a little comfort and refreshing in these my daies Consider my life is short O that thou wouldest slack thy hand and yeeld me some ease and comfort in this short life He had used this argument at the seventh Chapter verse 16. Let me alone for my daies are vanity Paucitas dierū i. e. paucissimi dies Abstracta significationem incitant acuunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imminutionem decrementumque significat q d nunquam crescit sed descrescit ad angustias majores indies reducitur in perpetua consumptione evanescit Bold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quanti aevi ego Mont. here Let me alone for my daies are few The fewnesse of our daies is one of the vanities of our daies Are not my daies few The Hebrew is Is not fewnesse of daies mine Yes That 's my portion Abstracts often encrease and sometimes they diminish the sense Here the sense is diminutive as if he had said My daies are so farre from many that they are fewnesse it self Mine are not encreasing and growing but declining and abating daies My daies are going down they are brought into a lesser and a narrower compasse every day The Chaldee renders Are not my daies ceasing My daies fade and wear out every day Shew me how short my life is closer to the originall how soon ceasing I am or as others What or of what quantity mine age is how transitory how temporary I am Cease then and let me alone Some read it in the third person Therefore let him cease from me and let me alone we in the second Cease then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deponat à me sc flagellum aut supplicium Deponat exercitus suos procul à me Jun. and let me alone Job looks upon himself as one besieged and straitned with afflictions Now saith he I beseech thee raise thy siege and draw off thy force from me or if thou wilt not make a finall peace with me yet grant me a cessation let me have a truce for a limited time let me not have such continuall alarms or be forced to stand armed continually Let me rest saith the Septuagint Issachar stooped to burdens because he desired rest Some are so burdened that they cannot rest how much soever they desire it Job desires God to give him rest because his daies were few Hence observe First It is an argument moving the Lord to forbear sending us many troubles because we have but few daies Thus David praies Psal 89.47 Remember how short my time is wherefore hast thou made all men in vain Lord I have but a few daies and shall my daies be nothing but clouds and darknesse The same argument is used Psal 39. ult O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more I shall soon be gone let me have some ease while I stay here Observe Secondly That except the Lord withdraw his hand nothing in the world can give us ease Cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort as if he had said If thine hand be upon me in vain do friends comfort me creatures offer me their help in vain Cease then and let me alone From the matter of his argument Observe The life of man is short It is a common theame and every man thinks he can declaim upon it and speak to it but there are very few can live to or act by it A multitude of instructions arise to us from the fewnes of our daies And did men know indeed that their daies are few their evil deeds would not be so many and their good would be more Again That mans daies are so few yeelds us not only many instructions but many wonders Is it not strange that we who have but a few daies in our lives should have so many afflictions in our lives That we should have few daies and many sorrows Is it not strange that we should have few daies in our lives and many cares about our lives Many cares and few daies yea many cares upon one day Thou art carefull about many things saith Christ to Martha Is it not strange that we should have so few daies and so many sins Few daies and innumerable sins so many sins as no man can number them and so few daies that a childe may number them And is not this a wonder above all the rest that we should have but a few daies and yet be gravell'd and puzl'd so as we are in numbring them A little humane learning will serve to number our daies but we need a great deal of spirituall learning to number them A little study in the Mathematicks will do it but we need more then study experience in Divinity before we can do it and yet neither study nor experience can do it unlesse God himself be our Tutor He only can teach us so to number our daies that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome We shall commence fools at last if we have not one wiser then the wisest upon earth to teach us this truth That I may take comfort a little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Roboravit confortavit respiravit vires collegit The word which we translate to take comfort signifies such comfort as they finde who being heated extreamly and extream thirsty come to drink at a fountain of sweet waters The Vulgar readeth it Let me alone that I may mourn a little yet taking in the former sense He seems thus to explain himself If the Lord would let me alone I would go and ease my self with complaining the waters of my head the fountain of mine eyes would be a refreshing to my wearied soul Sorrows are sometimes joyous and moderate mourning gives the minde a reviving But rather Take it in the generall Let me alone that I may comfort my self and that these sorrows may abate I desire to rally and recollect my scattered thoughts a while and so take in somewhat of the sweetnesse of this life before I die Si dolorem amov re non vult respirandi locū aliquem spacium concedat Merc. Cease from me for some refreshing saith M. Broughton I do not expect much Lord let me have some before I go whence I shall not return Here observe one common principle of nature Man desireth his own good A well-being as well as a being What is there in life for nature to prize if there be nothing but sorrow in it Secondly Observe That great sufferings make us very modest in our demands Job was in
the Verb and so the words are thus Whose hope shall loath him that is Quem fastidit spes sua Jun. Eum quasi fastidius fugit idipsum quod sperat Jun. The thing which he hoped for shall loath him how loath him It shall loath him not formally but equivalently because it shall doe that which man doth when he loaths any thing when we loath a thing we flee or turn away from it so His hope shall hath him that is the thing which he hoped for shall flee farre away and quite depart it will not come near him Good shall remove from the hypocrite when he expects and makes after it An hypocrite at once loaths true grace and hopes for true comforts but comfort here and glory hereafter shall loath him heaven shall shut against him Or take it for the act of hope as others he shall loath his hope Spes ei molesta erit quòd eâ excidat nec id consequatur quod expectarat Merc. that is the very hope which he hath had shall be grievous and vexatious to him nothing shall grieve him more then this that he hath hoped so much His hope shall grieve and afflict him as bad as all his afflictions Raised expectations disappointed prove our greatest sorrows That man sinks lowest in grief whose heart was highest in hope How extremely shall the hypocrite be grieved who fals as low as hell when his hopes were raised up as high as heaven The hypocrite both in his way and in his end is like the King of Babylon He saith in his heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most high yet he shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit Isa 14.13 14. Take the words as we translate so they yeeld a clear sense and very agreeable to the originall Whose hope shall be cut off * Sumitur Melaphoricè quòd ij quos taedet sese torquent vestes se membraque sua dâ—scindant ac lacerant vâ—lut dissecent Merc. The word is rendred Cut off by a Metaphor because when a man is exceedingly displeased and vexed as the word properly signifies he many times tears his garments and even cuts his own flesh like the idolatrous Priests of Baal who were so angry because they could not get an answer that they cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancers till the blood gushed out upon them 1 King 18.28 Grief cuts the heart alwaies and sometime causes cutting of the flesh The Lord complains Psal 95.10 Fourty years long was I grieved with this generation it is this word fourty years long was I vexed and cut with this generation with their murmurings backslidings and unbelief They did as it were cut the Lord to the heart as in another place They broke him with their whorish hearts Eze. 6.9 God speaks there as a man whose patience is almost spent or as an husband grieved with the disloialties of an adulterous wife And thus we may joyn it with hope either as hope imports the act of hope or the object of hope Whose hope shall be cut off the expectation which the hypocrite hath had shall come to an end Or a time is at hand when an hypocrite shall be past hoping Observe hence Despairing is the cutting off of hope and such is the condition of an hypocrite To have hope cut off is the greatest cut in the world Will the hypocrite pray alwaies No at last his prayer shall be cut off Will the hypocrite hope alwaies No at last his hope shall be cut off The Saints in heaven have in a sense their hope cut off because they are above hope and at last all wicked mens hope shall be cut off because they are below hope It is better to have all our possessions cut off then our hopes Better have the threed of our lives cut off then the Anchor-cord of our hope cut off and so we left to the rage and tempest of despair Again joyn it with the object of hope thus All that an hypocrite hopeth for or expects shall be utterly taken away and cut off from him His worldly comfort will be gone and heavenly comforts will never come He shall finde that he hath been in a golden dream that he hath been as one that is hungry who dreameth that he is eating but when he awakes his soul is empty or as a thirsty man that dreams he is drinking but he awakes and behold he is faint Isa 29.8 When dreams satisfie hunger and thirst the hypocrites hope shall be satisfied Hypocrites shall have as good as they bring They bring God nothing but words and empty professions and they shall have nothing from God but air and empty expectations their reall hopes or the thing they hoped for shall be cut off When hypocrites awake out of their sleep their hopes vanish as a dream Not only doth the world but the Christ on whom they hoped prove a shadow a fancy an image an idoll of their own making Their hearts were filled with leaves instead of gold as the devil cosens his greedy votaries Their hope shall be cut off And whose trust shall be a spiders web As hope before so here trust may be put either for the act or object of trust and both by a Synecdoche for the whole profession of an hypocrite Hope and trust are often taken promiscuously There is a graduall difference between them not an essentiall Trust being the strength of hope or the acting of a strong faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The originall word signifies a very quiet secure setled trust when a man trusts upon or about a thing wâ—thout casting so much as a jealous thought after it Thus the hypocrite trusts he never suspects himself his heart saith all is well Levit. 25.18 Ye shall dwell in the land in safety the word is Ye shall dwell in the land in trust because an opinion of safety is the companion of trust when we trust our condition is good then we think our selves safe There are two things noted by this word First Boldnesse and confidence Secondly Security and peaceablenesse The hypocrite feels no trouble and he fears none The language of his heart is like that of Babylon the mother of whoredoms and hypocrisie who saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Revel 18.6 This trust where it is true hath a double effect The want of which discovers the falsenesse of it in the hypocrite First It confirms and strengthens the heart against all oppositions And Secondly It encourages the heart against all dangers He that trusts in God will walk thorow the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil He dares take a bear by the tooth or a lion by the beard In both these the trust of the hypocrite faileth He will work and