shed bloud when Satan would have God to afflict us doe it presently saith he when Satan would have us sinne against God doe it presently saith he now sinne now provoke God doe not stay till the next day but when we are called to give up our selves to God then to morrow will serve the turne and next yeare will serve to repent yea when you are old 't is time enough to repent when he tempteh to doe any mischiefe any sinne then now now sin but 't is time enough to doe good hereafter to morrow will serve for that Put forth now thine hand and touch all that he hath It is a truth which Satan here speakes concerning the hand of God That if God doe but touch the highest and greatest estate in the world it will fall to peeces quickly There is a truth in it take it in the easiest sense that can be if God doe but lightly touch the estate of a man it will soone fall in peeces God is not put to any stresse to afflict and punish as Psal 81.14 I should soone have subdued their enemies and have turned my hand against their adversaries God expresseth the utter over-throw of the enemies of his people but by the turning of a hand if God doe but turne his hand they are all gone presently soone subdued If he doe but touch the might the pompe the greatnesse the riches and the power of all those in the world that are opposers of his Church presently they fall to the ground A touch from the hand of God will end our warres If he touch the Mountaines they smoake as it is in the Psalme and consume to ashes they that are the mighty and great ones of the world the Mountaines by one touch of his hand fall as it were to nothing So if God doe but touch our estates they moulder away no creature can uphold them Then againe observe here the cunning imposture of Satan that puts such sore such heavy afflictions into such light and easie expressions he cloatheth his malice his utmost malice here in very faire words doe but touch him saith this enimie but you see what Satans touches are touch all that he hath Why Satan would nothing have made a tryall but only a touching of all For Job to have lost somewhat had been a tryall a touch for Job to have lost halfe his flockes of Sheepe or his Oxen had been a tryall and no very light one neither for Job to have lost a sonne to have found one of his children suddenly strucke dead had been an affliction and a heavy one too such a touch as that might well have touched the fathers heart Would it not serve Satan that a sonne should die or that some of his cattell should be destroyed but he must have all touched all that he hath The malice of Satan is unsatiable there is nothing will serve him unlesse he may devoure all This touch of Satan which he desireth might be laid upon Job is like the touch that many have given to those who have come into their hands amongst us they would but touch them but they would touch them in all when they put forth their hands as they pretended in wayes of justice in their Courts they would touch men in all touch them in their liberties by imprisonment and touch them in their estates by extreame vast fines and touch them in their names by disgrace touch them in their bodies by whipping and cutting and touch them in their relations by keeping all friends from sight of them No moderation no bounds but touch them in all that they had And O exactnesse of Justice when God came to touch that power he gave them a touch just after the rate and proportion of their owne touches for when those Courts and persons came to have their power and actions scanned it was not moderating or regulating or restraining or abating or limiting their power that satisfied they must quite downe and be taken away God gave them a touch just as they touched others before So that a man may say certainly there is a God that judgeth the earth These are the touches of Satan and the touches of mercilesse men are as like his as themselves are they thinke there is nothing done unlesse men be undone they never give over touching till they come to ruining Touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face Some render it thus Touch all that he hath if hee curse thee not to thy face So it is word for word out of the Originall nisi unlesse or Si non touch all that he hath and see if he doe not curse thee to thy face We give the sense of it in a direct affirmation touch all that he hath and he will c. Others put the force of an imprecation to it Touch all that he hath and see if he doe not curse thee to thy face that is as if he had said let me never be beleeved and never be trusted Indeed Satan is so farre disgraced and damned already that he hath nothing to loose he cannot damne himselfe further he cannot wish any thing to himselfe worse than he already is but yet here is a kind of execration or imprecation upon himselfe in it Doe this and if he doe not curse thee to thy face let me never be accounted of or as many use to say let me never be trusted or as some wretched hellish ones Let me be damned if such or such a thing be not There is such an emphasis in that manner of speaking used in the Text. But we translate it by a direct affirmation and that is a good sense too touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face that 's certaine so saith Satan he will doe it it is as sure as done already Curse thee It is the same word which is used before ver 5. It may be my children have cursed God The word signifies properly to blesse It was shewed that probably in that place it might be translated Curse but in this Text there is a necessity of translating it so seeing a cleare sence cannot be made out taking the word properly In cursing another these three things concurre First an ill opinion or conceit of that person 2. Hatred or malice against him 3. A desire that some evill may befall him This Satan meanes when he undertakes that Job being afflicted will curse God So then to curse God is to blaspheme God in our thoughts and words to think or speake unworthily of God and the wayes of God see if he curse thee not to thy face that is see if his heart be not imbittered against thee see if his tongue be not sharpened to wound thy honour to reproach thy goodnesse to accuse thy providence As it is said of those Isa 8.21 They shall be hungry and hard bestead And what then They shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke
and mysteriousnesse of the matter While a man speakes in a strange language wee heare a sound but know not the words and while a man speakes in our owne language though we know the words yet we may not understand the meaning and then hee that speakes is to us in that reference so the Apostle calls him a Barbarian While the leaves of the booke are opened and read to such or by such the sense is shut up and sealed When the Apostle Philip heard the Ethiopian Eunuch reade the Prophet Isaiah as he traveld in his Chariot hee said to him understandest thou what thou readest The Eunuch answered How should I unlesse some man would guide mee He understood the language but the meaning was under a vaile The very same may we say to many who reade the Scriptures understand you what you reade And they may answer as the Eunuch did How can we except we had some man to guide us Yea and alas for all the guiding of man they may answer How can we except we have the Spirit of God to guide us He hath his Pulpit in heaven who teacheth hearts the heart of Scripture Paul we know was a learned Pharisee and much verst in the Law and yet he saith of himselfe before his conversion that hee was without the Law but when Christ came to him then the Commandment came to him I was once alive without the Law but when the Commandment came that is when Christ came and his Spirit came in or after my conversion and expounded the Commandment to my heart then the Commandment came sc to my heart in the power of it and I understood to purpose what the Law was So that the teachings of the Spirit the teachings of God himselfe are chiefly to be looked after and prayed for that we may know the mind of the Spirit the will of God in Scripture But he hath set up this ordinance the ordinance of interpretation to doe it by both that the Scripture might be translated out of the Originall into the common language of every Nation which the Apostle calls interpreting in that place before cited and also that the originall sense of the Scripture might be translated into the minde and understanding of every man which is the worke we aime at and now have in hand Before I begin that give me leave to beseech you in the Name of Christ to take care for the carrying on of this worke a degree further I mean to translate the sense of Scripture into your lives and to expound the word of God by your workes Interpret it by your feet and teach it by your fingers as Solomon speakes to another sense that is let your working and your walkings be Scripture explications It is indeed a very great honour unto this Citie that you take care for a Commentarie on the Scripture in writing but if you will be carefull and diligent to make a Commentarie upon the Scripture by living or to make your lives the Commentarie of Scripture this will make your Citie glorious indeed It is the Apostles testimonie of his Corinthians Yee saith he are our Epistle for as much as yee are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with inke but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshie tables of the heart Give us we beseech you the same occasion of glorying on your behalfe that we may say You are our Expositions for as much as you are manifestly declared in your practise to be the exposition of the mind of Christ ministred unto you by us A walking a breathing Commentarie goeth infinitely beyond the written or spoken Commentarie And as the Apostle makes his conclusion before noted I had rather speake five words with my understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue So I say I had rather know five words of Scripture by my own practise and experience than ten thousand words of Scripture yea than the whole Scripture by the bare Exposition of another And therefore let the word of Christ by these verball Explications dwell richly in your understandings in all wisedome And by a practicall application let it be held forth plentifully in your lives in all holinesse Adde Commentarie to Commentarie and Exposition to Exposition adde the Comment of works to this Comment of words and an Exposition by your lives to this Exposition by our labours Surely if you do not these Exercises will be costly indeed and will come to a deep account against you before the Lord. If you are lifted up to heaven by the opening of the Scripture which is either a carrying of you up to heaven or a bringing of heaven downe to you and then walke groveling upon the earth how sore will the judgement be But it is to me an argument and an evidence from heaven that God hath put it into your hearts to be more glorious in the practise of holinesse because he hath put it into your hearts to desire more the knowledge of holinesse To draw in my speech nearer to the businesse Having a booke full of very various matter before me give mee leave to premise some things in the generall and some thing more particulars by way of Preface concerning the booke before wee come to the handling of the text First for the generall That which God speakes concerning the whole worke of Creation We may speake concerning the whole booke of Scripture It is very good Solomon observes that wheresoever the wisdom of God spake it spake of excellent things And David to quicken our endeavours and excite our diligence to the study of the word preferreth it in worth above thousands of gold and silver and in sweetnesse above the honey and the honey combe And when he ceaseth to compare hee beginneth to admire Wonderfull are thy Testimonies And well may that bee called Wonderfull which proceedeth from the God of Wonders All Scripture is given by divine inspiration or by inspiration from God and I need not stay to shew you the excellencie of any part when I have but pointed at such an originall of the whole As therefore the whole Scripture whether wee respect the majestie of the Author the height or puritie of the matter the depth or perspicuitie of the stile the dignitie or variety of occurrences whether we consider the Art of compiling or the strength of arguing disdaines the very mention of comparison with any other humane Author whatsoever so are comparisons in it selfe as Booke with Booke Chapter with Chapter dangerous There is not in this great volume of holy counsell any one Book or Chapter Verse or Section of greater power or authoritie than other Moses and Samuel the writings of Amos the Shepherd and of Isaiah a Descendant of the blood Royall the writings of the Prophets and Evangelists the Epistles of Paul and this historie of Iob must be received to use the words
you to take an Antidote to take a Preservative to seeke all the meanes you can to heale your soules and to make your peace with God And if Iob prayed thus when he only suspected his sons had sinned what shall we say of those Parents who are little troubled when they see and know their sons have sinned It is safest to repent even of those sinnes we only feare we have committed for then we shall be sure to repent of those we have committed A scrupulous conscience grieves for what it suspects a feared conscience is not grieved for what it is certaine either it selfe or others have done amisse Lastly Where had Iobs sonnes beene that he is thus suspitious Had they beene in any suspected place No it was only in their owne houses Had they beene about any unlawfull thing No it was only at a friendly meeting feasting of brothers and sisters together Yet Iob is affraid least his sonnes had sinned Hence observe That We may quickly offend and breake the Law while we are about things in their own nature lawfull especially in feasting It is an easie matter to sinne while the thing you are about is not sinnefull nay while the thing you are about is holy We may suspect our selves that we have sinned when we have beene praying much more then when we have beene feasting We may suspect our selves that we have sinned when we have beene hearing the word speaking the word just cause then much more we have to suspect our selves when we have beene trading buying or selling and working abroad in the world Lawfull things are oftentimes the occasion of unlawfull All the sinnes of the old world are described thus they eate they dranke they bought they sold they planted c. There is not one of these an act evill in it selfe yet they sinned away their peace and sinned away their soules in dealing about these things Therefore as you must be afraid of all things in their owne nature unlawfull so be jealous of your selves in things that are lawfull It followes And cursed God in their hearts Interpreters are much divided about the sence of these words First Some observe that the Hebrew word Barach doth signifie not only to blesse but to bow the knee So it is used 2 Chron. 6.13 Solomon at the dedicating of the Temple had made a brasen scaffold and upon it he stood and kneeled downe upon his knees before all the Congregation The word there kneeled downe upon his knees in the Originall is the same here used But Then further the word Elohim is used in Scripture not only for the true God for God himselfe but it is applied sometimes to Angels and sometimes to Idols to Devill gods to false gods Exod. 18.11 Now I know that the Lord is greater then all gods sc then all the Idols that the Egyptians did trust upon They observe further that the Hebrew Leb in their hearts Bilebabbam doth signifie not only the heart but the middle or center of a thing As when it is said in the Scripture they went downe into the middest of the Sea the word is they went downe into the heart of the Sea and in the middest of the earth it is the heart of the earth And so when it is said that Absolom was hanging in the middest of the Oake the Originall word is he was left hanging in the heart of the Oake From all all these acceptions of the single termes the sense is made up thus It may be my sonnes have sinned c. that is It may be my sonnes have sinned bowing downe to the false gods that are in the middest of them I confesse Feasting and false-worship sensuality and Idolatry goe often together Exod. 32.6 When the Golden Calfe was made they sate downe to eate c. And Moses foretells Deut. 31.20 When they shall have eaten and filled themselves and waxen fat then will they turne unto other gods Yet I cannot admit this of Jobs children surely he who had bestowed so much care in their institution and had them still under his eye could not suspect them of degenerating so soone into such palpable Idolatry Secondly Others take the word Barach in the Originall in its proper sense It may be my sonnes have sinned and blessed God and they expound and open it thus It may be my sonnes have sinned and instead of being humbled and seeking to God for the pardon of their sinnes they have rejoyced and blessed God Just as if a Theefe that hath sped well and hath got a good prey should thanke God that he hath prospered so well in his wickednesse So here as if Job should say my sonnes have done ill in their feastings and they are so farre from being humbled that they have blessed God in their hearts they have bin lifted up they have given God thanks for the plenty of creatures but have not repented for their abuse of the creatures So we may interpret it by that place Zach. 11.4 where there is such an expression the Lord speaking to Christ saith Feede the flock of the slaughter whose possessours stay them and hold themselves not guilty They that should have beene the feeders of the flock instead of feeding them have destroyed them yea they doe this and hold themselves not guilty and they that sell them say blessed be the Lord for I am rich They grew rich by selling soules as many since have lived by the same trade starving the people to feed themselves the just character of an idle Idoll shepheard and then they said Blessed be God we are growne very rich and have got much goods though we have done little good This is a second interpretation and a cleare one only me thinks it layes too high a staine of wickednesse on Jobs sonnes It is one of the greatest wickednesses for a man to blesse himselfe in his sinnes but for a man to blesse God in his sinnes is farre worse Thirdly Others interpret Benedicere by Valedicere blessing by departing Thus It may be my sonnes have sinned and departed from God in their hearts and they bring some Texts of Scripture wherein the word Barach signifies to depart or to take leave and goe away as Gen. 47.10 Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh he blessed him and departed So it is said likewise of Joab 2 Sam. 14.22 when he had obtained what he desired he fell to the ground on his face and bowed himselfe and thanked or blessed the King and went out Now they would interpret this Blessed God in their hearts to the same sense It may be my sonnes have sinned and blessed God in their hearts that is have departed from God in their hearts Indeed every sinne is a departure from God as the Apostle speakes Take heed least there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe to depart from the living God Sinne is a turning away from God yet every sinne is not nay few sins
are a farewell to God But I shall lay by this interpretation for the proofes come not home no nor neere the point In both those places blessing is not put barely for departing and besides departing in those Texts is taken in a good sense Jacob departed from Pharaoh not in a way of deserting him but in a way of saluting him So Joab departed from the King not that he did revolt from him as they would have the word to import a kind of revolting and apostatizing from God but onely he did obeysance and went away about his businesse therefore this interpretation cannot stand There is a fourth exposition much laboured by Sanctius and would it hold it were an excellent exposition according to the letter of the Text Thus It may be my sonnes have sinned and not blessed God in their hearts and so he makes those words to be exegeticall the explication of the former what the sinne of Jobs sonnes was It may be my sonnes have sinned and if you would know what they have sinned in I feare they have forgot to give God the glory for the refreshing they have had by the creatures they have not blessed God This were an excellent and cleare sense But the way he takes to make it out is very obscure For he doth it only by this rule when saith he there is a negative particle in the former a negative likewise is to be understood in the following clause His rule he cleares by divers instances But we find in thâ—s place no negative particle as Non or Ne or the like in the former part of the verse and how there should be a negative in the latter I cannot understand according to his rule Ne fortâ— It is here said It may be my sons have sinned that is a word of doubting not denyall rather an affirmative then a negative and have not blessed now saith he though that particle not be not in the Hebrew yet it must be understood of course because there is a negative particle in the former part How he can make ne forte peradventure a negative particle I doe not well apprehend yet the sense in it selfe is very good It may be my sonnes have sinned and not blessed God in their hearts Some would reade it with an Interrogation though I question whether the Grammer will allow it Thus It may be my sonnes have sinned and have they blessed God in their hearts As if he had said I feare they have not blessed God or not blessed him cordially Neglect of or slightnesse in such a duty calls for sacrifice Lastly That meaning which our Translation leads unto is most commonly taken by Interpreters both Ancient and moderne Namely That here in this Text the word Barach is to be expounded by cursing It may be my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts I shall present you with the grounds of this Interpretation and how it is made good And then leave it to the Readers judgement whether to choose this or those former which have had any countenance shewed them For in a Scripture which may without impeachment of any truth admit divers sences I would not be so positive in one as to reject all others Now this Translation is maintained by a figure either by an Antiphrasis which is the speaking of a thing sounding one way when it is meant another way when there is an opposition betweene the letter of the word and the meaning of the word Thus 1 King 21.13 Naboth is charged for blessing God and the King sc cursing Or by an Euphemismus that is when some filthy or execrable matter is expressed by a word of a fairer signification So in Scripture the uncleanenesse of some things is covered with a word that so the offensivenesse of it may be removed both from the eare and phancy As for example that vessell wherein nature doth unburthen it selfe it is called a vessell wherein there is no pleasure and so the word that the Hebrews use for a Harlot signifies properly a Holy woman as Gen. 38. when Judah asked whether they saw the harlot the word in the Hebrew Kedesah signifies a holy woman by an Antiphrasis or by an Euphemismus Yet some thinke a harlot so called because holinesse being the dedication of a thing or person such dedicate and give themselves up to or are possess'd with a spirit of uncleanenesse But to the Text take it by an Euphemismus or faire speaking It may be my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts they even abhorring to use such a word concerning God expresse it by blessing It may be my sonnes have sinned and blessed God in their hearts So the Latines use the word Sacrum pro execrandâ— that which is the most execrable thing they call a sacred thing Now taking it thus according to the common streame of Expositors upon the place it may yet be doubted how Job could suspect his sonnes of this that they should curse God I answer to that Here we are not to take cursing either for that abhominable act at which Heathens blush the casting of open reproach upon the Name of God or for a malitious and virulent though secret blaspheming of God and sending defiance to Heaven in their hearts But to curse God in the heart doth signifie any irreverent undue unfit unholy thought of God any thought unbecomming the Glory and Majesty of so great a God which how quickly the heart may send out especially at a feast who feeles not who findes not God is said to be cursed when he hath not that reverence and honour which belongs to him whose Name is Holy and Reverent In that sense only we are to understand the word cursing here And Mr. Broughton gives a translation which lets in some light to this It may be my sonnes have sinned and little blessed God in our hearts that is they have not had such high such holy thoughts of God as became them they have little blessed God carelesse thoughts of God are little blessing of God and both amount to a cursing of God So that the sense which results is this As if Job should have said I am well enough satisfied concerning my sonnes that they have not broadly blasphemed God that they have not beene such as have torne his Name with oathes cursings and execrations yet notwithstanding I know the heart is a deceitfull thing there are many starting holes in it it quickly conceives and closely conceales a sinne and therefore I am very doubtfull though my sonnes have carried it fairely and well in their actions and words while they feasted that yet their hearts have been loose and their affections vaine I am afraid they have cursed lightly regarded or little blessed God in their hearts Observe First That we ought to keepe our hearts with all manner of keeping in every thing we goe about If your hearts are disorderly it is a kind of cursing God Remember not only to keepe your
place is translated Psal 17.14 Deliver my soule from the wicked which is thy Sword you see a wicked man is Gods Sword and from men which are thy hand So that thy hand may be understood of an instrument Satan himselfe is Gods hand to punish in that sense as wicked men here are said to be Gods hand from the men that are thy hand though there be other readings of that place some reade it deliver me from men by thy hand and others Deliver mee from men of thy hand but our translation may very well carry the sense of the Originall in it from men which are thy hand as Nebuchadnezzar that wicked King is called Gods servant Jer. 43.10 I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar my servant God speakes of him as his servant or as his hand in the thing So then Put forth thine hand it may be understood I say either immediately or mediately doe it by thy selfe or doe it by Instruments strike him thy selfe or give me Commission or give others Commission to strike There is one thing further in this expression Put forth thine hand now Now. Some reade it put forth thine hand a little and some reade it I pray thee put forth thy hand The Originall word is translated to all these senses we translate it referring to the present importunity and instancy of Satan put forth thine hand now let not this businesse sleepe let it not be deferred a minute a moment let commission goe out speedily to afflict Job And touch all that he hath To touch notes sometimes a heavy and a sore affliction and sometime a light and a small affliction In the Scripture we find it both wayes used Sometimes I say to touch doth signifie the greatest and the sorest affliction or punishment that can be and so Job doth expresse all the afflictions that fell upon him at the last only by touching Job 19.21 Have pitty upon me have pitty upon me O yee my friends for the hand of God hath touched me Whereas Job at that time lay under the sorest and heaviest affliction that could be all his estate was gone and his body was full of diseases and his soule was full of horrour and all this he doth expresse by this the hand of the Lord hath touched me So Psalm 73.14 To be touched signifies the greatest affliction All the day long saith David have I been plagued That which we translate plagued is the same Originall word which we translate touch in the Text All the day long have I beene touched that is I have beene touched with the sorest plagues heavy afflictions have beene laid continually upon me So that to touch signifieth sometimes the greatest or the sorest stroakes of trouble Sometimes againe we shall find it signifies only a light affliction as Gen. 26. in two places of that Chapter at the 11th verse Abimelech charged all his people saying he that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death that is he that doth them the least hurt or wrong So at the 19th verse in that agreement betweene Abimelech and Isaac they conclude thus That thou wilt do us no hurt as we have not touched thee and as we have done unto thee nothing but good So that to touch notes the least ill or hurt that can be wee have not touched thee that is we have done nothing to thee but good Any thing on this side doing of good to them had bin touching of them We find the like expression in Ps 105.15 where the Psalmist speaking of Gods extraordinary care of his people He suffered no man to do them wrong he rebuked Kings for their sakes saying touch not mine annointed and doe my Prophets no harme Touch not mine annointed people that is the meaning of that place though in many other places we know Princes are called the annointed of God yet here it is meant of the people of God in generall they are Gods annoynted as the context clearely carries it for they have all received Unction from God an Unction of grace an Unction of the spirit and an Unction of Priviledge Touch not mine annoynted that is doe them not the least hurt And the sense that these words may beare Put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath might be carried as if Satan here intended only a touch in the latter sense Give him but the least stroake lay but the lightest affliction upon him doe but touch him you are so confident of your servant Job that he is such a man do but give him the least touch and you shall see how he will discover himself So some expound it He doth not say wound him smite him breake him to peeces but touch him only Neither saith he touch him but his And if thou give him but a touch with the top of thy little finger thou shalt presently find the rottennes of his heart In that sense the word imports an extenuation of Jobs sincerity or heightning of Jobs hypocrisie as if he had been so rotten in his profession that the least touch would overthrow him and make him discover himselfe to be starke nought Like the Apples growing about Sodome which have faire out-sides but if you touch them they moulder away into dust and ashes Though the words have this sense in them and Satan carries it cunningly expressing himselfe in such ambiguous termes yet certainly Satan had a further intendment whatsoever his language may beare he had an intention that Job should be touched in the former sense namely that he should have a touch to the quicke as we say that he should have the sorest and deepest wound that his estate was capable of he would have him whippt not with cords but with Scorpions he would have the little finger of God heavier upon him than his loynes upon others Destroy him undoe him by your touching He speakes by the figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is when we go lesse in our expressions then in our intentions when our words are lower then our spirits and that is proper for Satan who is the great deceiver the great jugler in word and deed to desire that Job should only be touched when he meant he should be utterly undone and ruined Touch all that he hath that is all his estate all his possessions his children his family his cattell whatsoever belongeth unto Job let all feele an undoing stroake from thy hand Before I come to that which he undertakes upon the affliction I shall observe two or three things from the words thus farre opened Put forth NOW thine hand We may note from that The extreame importunity of Satan to doe mischiefe He would not give God a minuts not a moments respite to consider this thing but doe it now presently let him presently be afflicted he makes haste to destroy he makes haste to shed bloud their feet are swift to shed bloud as the Psalmist speakes So Satan his feet are swift to
Hosea reproves the like Strangers saith he have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not yea gray haires are here and there upon him and he knoweth it not ca. 7.9 That is he is in an afflicted in a declining condition and yet he layeth it not to heart A man may out of the greatnesse of his spirit but not out of the carelesnesse of his spirit say as Luther once did when things went very ill If the world will goe thus let it goe thus Otherwise it is a most unbecomming temper to be stricken of God and not to tremble at least to take it to heart When God afflicteth us then we should afflict our selves and be humbled when Gods hand is upon us our hands in this sence should be upon our selves We must beare our crosse upon our backs we must not make a fire of it to warme our hands Indeed the Apostle exhorts to rejoyce in tribulation and it is an excellent thing to rejoyce in tribulation but we must not sleight much lesse make a sport of tribulation Rejoycing ariseth from a holy satisfaction that the soule hath in the dealings of God with us But sleighting ariseth from an unholy contempt or at the best from a stupid insensiblenesse of Gods dealings with us The former hath in it the height of wickednesse and the latter hath not the least degree of goodnesse It is no vertue to beare what we doe not feele Secondly observe That in times of affliction we may expresse our sorrowes by outward gestures by sorrowfull gestures Iob was not only sorrowfull but he acts sorrow he puts himselfe into mourning postures he rents his garments he shav's his head downe he falleth upon the ground It is no hypocrisie to appeare what we are it is hypocrisie to appeare what we are not We use to say he mourneth truly that mourneth without a garment but if a man mourne in truth a mourning garment is comely To mourn in our cloathes and laugh in our sleeves is both sinfull and base Now Iob mourned indeed the shaving his head and renting his garment was but to keepe an outward correspondence with what he was within Therefore take heed of censuring those who in great sorrowes use sorrowfull gestures striking upon their breasts tearing their haire or the like Only let all take heed of excessive and immoderate mourning mourne not like Rachell who would receive no comfort mourne not like the Heathen who had no hope To be above passions will be our happinesse in Heaven to rectifie passions is much of our happinesse on earth To be without naturall affections is to fall below a man to steere and mannage them is one of the heights of a Christian Thirdly We shewed that this renting of his garments might have reference to his Repentance whence note That when God afflicteth us with sufferings we ought to afflict our selves to humble our soules for sinne Smarting times are good repenting times and worldly sorrow should get the company of godly sorrow It is not safe to be alone with worldly sorrow that workes death but if we mingle a few teares for sinne and our unkindnesse to Christ with those teares then they will refresh us We get by losses in our outward estate when they lead us to looke to the losses and repaire the breaches of our spirituall estates no question but Iob at this time fell a searching of his heart and a trying of his wayes renewing his repentance and assuring of his peace with God When afflictions cause us to returne thus into our owne breasts they have then a sweet influence a blessed operation upon us Lastly Observe That thoughts of blasphemy against God should be cast off and rejected with the highest indignation Iob rent his garments when Satan solicites Iob to rent the name of God with reproach and cursings Thoughts dishonouring God must needs be vexing to every good heart Nothing touches a godly man like that which touches God When the glory of his God is engaged and concern'd he cannot contain So much for those two acts he rent his garments and he shaved his head The two other acts are 1. He falleth upon the ground 2. He worshippeth The Originall words doe both signifie a bowing to the ground He fell upon the ground and bowed so some translate it you shall see the reason by and by He fell upon the ground and worshipped that is He fell upon the ground to worship To fall upon the ground is a gesture of worship and not only is it a posture of worship when the worshipper mournes but it is likewise a posture of worship when the worshipper rejoyceth Great joy as well as great sorrow transports a man in his next actions It is said Mat. 2.10 11. that the wise men when they found Christ rejoyced with exceeding great joy and presently they fell downe and worshipped him Neither is this posture peculiar to worship in times or upon occasions of extraordinary joy and sorrow unlesse in the degree of it for the ordinary invitation was O come let us worship and bow downe let us kneele before the Lord our maker Psa 95.6 I said in the degree for to fall downe is more then to bow down Falling down in worship proceeds not only from sorrow but from joy when the heart is filled with joy then we fall downe and worship And it is probably observed that the ancient Prophets and holy men the servants of God were called Nephalim from Naphal which is the Originall word of the Text Cadentes or Prostrantes that is prostrates or fallers because in their worship they usually fell downe upon the earth to humble themselves before God And because adoration was so commonly made by falling to the ground by bowing the head by bowing the knee by bowing the whole body therefore the same Originall word which the Hebrewes use for worshipping doth properly signifie to bow downe the body And that phrase to bow the body as it is often joyned with worshipping so sometime to bow the body put alone doth signifie to worship 2 King 5.18 When I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon scil When I worship c. So likewise the Greeke word to worship hath the same sense in it for that word signifies as a learned Writer observes upon it to bow after the manner of doggs that crouch at the feet of their Masters for favour or for feare So in worship the people of God crouch downe and abase themselves at Gods feet as not worthy in themselves to eat the crumbes under his Table Yet we are not to looke upon this as if it were the only true and acceptable worship-gesture for we shall find in Scripture that there were other worship-gestures with which God was well pleased Some have worship'd God standing some sitting some walking all these are worship-postures For standing we find it 1 King 8.22 at the Dedication of the Temple Solomon stood before the Altar of the Lord and made
The word which wee translate adverbially foolishly is a Noune in the Originall yet it is fully enough to the sense Hee charged not God foolishly or hee charged not God with folly so it is rather in the Originall That word which is here translated folly signifieth in the generall any thing that is indebite dispositum any thing that is unduely disposed any thing in disorder And wee finde it in Scripture referred divers wayes First It is put for unsavoury meat without salt or sawce as Job 6.6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt The word unsavoury there is the same with this here rendered folly or foolishly Secondly It is used for morter that hath not a due temper or mixture in it as Ezek. 13.14 I will breake downe the wall that yee have dawbed with untempered morter morter that is not well tempered is unfit for use Thirdly It is put for any rude undigested or indiscreet speech as La. 2.14 Thy Prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee They have seen foolish and unsavoury things for thee Hence the word is used to expres madnes because madnes is the height of folly being without any seasoning without any temper a thing that hath no taste of wisdom or goodnes in it Jer. 23.13 I have seen folly in the Prophets of Samaria that is they are unsavoury their speeches are untempered morter they are foolish and vaine So then he did not charge God with folly or charge God foolishly hath this sense Job did not speake any thing rashly or unbecomming the Majesty of God or charge him in the least to have dealt unwisely or unjustly with him As if the Lord had said Satan thou diddest expect that Job should now at this time have charged me home and have laid load upon me with complainings for dealing thus with him thou expectest that he should have broken out into the dialect of hell it selfe such words as these Why what have I done against God that he should deale thus with me Is this the wages that I shall receive for the worke and service I have done him Will he discourage and dishearten others from comming on to his service by my sad example Is it justice in God that I who have lived so innocently should be thus extreamely afflicted Could the Lord finde out no swearers no drunkards no adulterers in the world to let Satan loose upon but he must needs turne him loose upon me Had he no other Butt in the world to shoot the arrowes of his indignation at but at an innocent breast Is this a just God who uses his servants thus Or if he be omniscient and omnipotent why then did he not protect me from Satans rage Why did he not defend me from the violence of those evill men Such kind of speeches or to this effect Satan expected Job would have uttered rashly against the Lord but he is deceived Job hath no such thought much lesse did hee speake such words either against the justice or wisedome or power of God hee charges no folly upon God the only wise God but gives him glory saying Blessed be his Name whatsoever hee doth with me or mine Learne from hence first what blasphemy is or what it is to curse God To curse God is to charge God with folly or with doing things foolishly and rashly For these expressions expound one another Satan said Job would curse God the Holy Ghost saith Job hath not charged God foolishly therefore that is a definition of Gods owne making plainly declaring what it is to curse God Yet every speech or act unbecomming the Majesty wisdome and power of God doth not presently denominate a man a blasphemer There may be blasphemy in what is spoken and yet the person speaking not a blasphemer Job himselfe spake many things afterward unadvisedly in the heat of dispute but he blasphemed not Blasphemy or cursing of God properly taken is ever joyned with an intent to cast reproach upon God As every one is not a lyar that telleth what is not true but he that telleth an untruth knowing it to be an untruth with an intent to deceive and wrong others So he that thinkes or speakes a thing unbecomming God with an intent to reproach or slander God and his wayes this is blaspheming indeed Secondly observe Impatience under and murmuring at the crosse which God laies upon us is a charging of God with folly Murmuring against God questions the wisdome of God Complaints have a charge in them We taxe what is done while we submit not to what is done When we lie under Gods hand quietly and silently then we speak the praise of God then our carriage ascribes all wisdome honour and glory unto him Thirdly In that it is here said by way of excellency concerning Job that in all this Job sinned not referring it to his behaviour under these afflictions as if the Holy Ghost had said it is matter of admiration that in this in all this Job should not sinne Note from hence That it is an high act one of the highest acts of grace to be composed in thought and word under great afflictions In all this Job sinned not as if he had said it had not been much for Iob not to sin in other things but in this affliction in this distresse being so put to it being thus tryed in all this not to sinne is Grace almost to a miracle Lastly Note this What is well done by us shall be sure to receive a faire testimony from God When Iob had carried himselfe discreetly and spoken discreetly the Lord hides not this in darknesse hee shuts it not up in silence but proclaimes the innocency and uprightnesse of his carriage in this present passage of his life as he had done before concerning the whole course of his life and conversation that he was perfect and upright The Apostle publisheth Glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good Rom. 2.10 They that carry themselves well either in suffering or in working for God shall have glory and honour and peace from God No man needs blow a trumpet in his owne praise when he hath done well as the Pharisees did Math. 6. What we doe well the Lord himselfe will report to all the world In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly And so wee have done with this third part of the Chapter and with this whole Chapter which containes as you have heard those three generals the description of Iobs prosperous estate The description of his tryals and afflictions and the description of his carriage under those afflictions Now when he is come off from this assault without wound without any touch of sinne Satan perceiving himselfe defeated and frustrated in this attempt will not yet give it over he is restlesse he will attempt him once more We shall finde him in the next Chapter at the Assembly againe renewing his motion for a second assault that hee may have leave
from the seat of life to save the skin of that member which is so neare the seat of life Secondly by skin in the former place some understand all the outward estate that Iob had It was usuall in those times to expresse all riches by the word Skin and the reason of it was this because as was observed before their substance was cattell and so from the skin of their cattell they did denominate their estates Or as others because their mony was made of skins and so they did expresse their wealth and riches under the word skin Answerable to which custome the Latin word for houshold-stuffe or household goods is derived from that word which properly signifies a skin because either they were wont to wrap up their goods in skins or because they did put a great value upon skins and so their whole outward personall estate was comprehended under that notion Hence that common Proverbe amongst the Ancients Thou spendest out of another mans skinne To be liberall out of another mans estate was called a being lavish upon another mans skinne And then skin in the second place doth signifie the man himselfe or the person of a man the thing containing or that which covereth being put for the whole by a Synecdoche the skin for the whole man And it is usuall in good Authours to put the skin for the whole man as to looke to the skin is to looke to the whole body Take it thus that skin in the first place is all outward things and skin in the second is taken for the skin that covereth the body and so the sense runs thus Skin for skin c. that is a man will give all his outward estate to save the flesh upon his backe that is to save his life As if Satan had said this act of Iob which is so cryed up and made a matter so considerable being examined will be found as ordinary as the High-way It being common to a Proverbe for a man to part with all that hee may preserve himself There is a third exposition much labour'd by a learned Interpreter who by skin in the first place understands not generally all his estate but more especially his apparrell his cloathing which at the first were made of skins and were used long after for cloathings by Princes and great men in divers Countries from which the sense of the Proverbe is thus given skin for skin c. A man will part with his cloathes cast them off willingly easily that he may save the skin of his body save his life And so he expounds it by that act of Iob in the former Chapter vers 20 where it is said that Job rent his mantle and cast it off as if Satan had alluded unto that and said no marvell if Iob humbled himselfe to the dust and renting his garment cast that away when he heard all was taken from him Iob parted with the skin his garment that he might move thee to compassion and so save his other skin the garment which cloathes his flesh which he feared thou wouldest rent by wounding and so let out his trembling soule his beloved life A fourth gives this interpretation of the words Skin for skin c. The Originall Preposition which we translate for is often in Scripture likewise translated upon as in 2 Kingâ— 5 The widdow went from Elisha and shut the doore upon her and upon her sonne So in other places then the sence is made out thus Skin upon skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life that is if a man had never so many skins if it could be supposed he had an hundred skins one upon another he would let all be taken oft to save his life That place is expounded as a paralell Iob. 1.16 where it is said That of Christs fullnesse we receive grace for grace that is grace upon grace or abundance of grace all the grace we have this grace and that grace faith and love and patience and humility every grace all grace you receive from Christ Thus some illustrate these two places one by another So Satan saith of Iob here Skin for skin that is skin upon skin a man will give all his skins suppose he had many he would part with all or take skin for never so much of his outward estate he will let all goe to save his life There is yet another interpretation given of this Skin for skin ye all that a man hath wil he give for his life take the words comparatively we translate it yea all he hath That copulative particle in the Hebrew is rendered sometime and sometime yea sometime so according to which last exception the sense standeth thus as a man will give skin for skin so a man will part with all he hath for his life We finde some Scriptures wherein this particle is taken in the very same sense To give you instance Prov. 25.3 there the Hebrew reades it thus The heavens for height the earth for depth and the heart of Kings is unsearchable Now this is cleare that the sense is comparative and it is thus to be given as the Heaven is unsearchable for height and the earth for depth so the heart of the King is unsearchable So verse 25. of the same Chapter it is thus read out of the Originall word for word Cold water to a thirsty soule and good newes from a farre country now we translate it according to the sense and make it a comparison thus As cold water to a thirsty soule so is good newes from a farre country Thus also we may interpret this place and it carries a good sense Skin for skin and all c. As a man would give skin for skin one outward thing for another for they take skin in both places for outward things for the goods of this life as a man would give or barter away one commodity for another So a man will give all outward things for his life life is more valuable to all outward things than any one particular thing is to another It is ordinary to a Proverbe among men in danger to say spare my life and take my goods How willingly doth the Mariner in a storme unlade his Ship and cast all his rich wares over-board that he may preserve that precious jewell his life As a godly man will give life upon life a thousand lives if he had them rather then loose his soule So a natural man will give skin upon skin gold upon gold treasure upon treasure that he may save his life Let life lie at the stake and a man will give all things he hath in the world for it and thinke he hath a good bargaine Here are 5. expositions you see offered The two latter to me seeme the most cleare howsoever every one of them hath a faire sense in it and so we are agreed upon the generall which is onely to set forth the excellency and preciousnesse
is the profit of integritie that thou holdest and huggest it so fast Doest thou still retaine thine integritie This I conceive is the summe of the question it is an upbraiding a reproaching question and from that we may observe First That those things which commend us most to God usually render us most contemptible before the world Doest thou still retain thine integritie She slighteth him and scorneth him for this whereas God highly commends him speakes it to his praise That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of the Lord. And that which the Lord esteemes highly man abominates Secondly this It is the endeavour of Satan and his instruments to perswade that the profession of holinesse is vain and unprofitable Satan hath taught wicked ones and they like forward Schollars say it without book say it openly It is a vain thing to serve the Lord Satan would faine infuse this cursed principle into the hearts of Gods own people and make them beleeve their faith is also vain Doest thou still retain thine integritie Come take a little counsell at the last work like a wise man wilt thou hold a thing thou canst get nothing by Take it on my word thou canst not thrive this way thou canst make nothing of it what dost thou meane to go on madding in such a course as this Thou shalt never get bread by it to put in thy head no nor water to wash thy hands All thou gettest by it will be a knock a rod upon thy back a dishonour upon thy name And wilt thou still be so strait-lac'd and hold fast thy integritie Thirdly observe further from Satans intendment in putting such words as these into the mouth of Iobs wife That his great designe is to take advantage from outward troubles and ill successes to discourage the hearts and weaken the hands of Gods people in holy duties That was his project quite to discourage Iob and from the ill successe he had in the service of God to get him put off his Livery and give over his service It is the course that the world instructed by Satan as here Iobs wife was still holdeth with the people of God Their language is Why are you so precise why so not c Doe you not observe you get nothing by your prayers nothing by your fasting nothing by your holinesse All that you have got you may put in your eyes and see never the worse Shew us some of your gaines what have you got where are your deliverances where are your victories where is your Salvation you have prayed till you are almost undone you have fasted till all is almost lost things are worse then they were will you still goe on in these duties of fasting and praying of humbling and seeking of waiting and beleeving This is the language of Satan this the divinity of Hell And I shall answer it in one word It is far better to die praying then to conquer blaspheming Such doctrine may stop up a hypocrites mouth and weaken his heart from duty But it will more open the mouths enlarge the hearts of those who are sincere Will the hypocrite alwayes call upon God will he delight himselfe in the Almighty saith Job No he delights in God no longer then God gives him worldly delights nor calls upon God any longer then sensible blessings are sent in unto him If God stayes his hand he stopps in duty he quickly takes out Satans lesson and will no longer hold his integrity But Grace shewes us wages in the worke A godly man hath his fruit in holinesse and therefore though he receives no outward fruit he still holds fast his integrity But what would Jobs wife advise him to doe in case he should let goe the holinesse of his life That followes in the next words having endeavoured to take him off from one course she directs him to another Curse God and dye Here is the second part of her counsell cursed counsell indeed Curse God and dye It is the same Originall word which we have opened before and met with two or three times already In the proper signification it noteth blessing and so the word is by many expositors rendred in this place Blesse God and dye Mr. Broughton translates it so in one entire sentence Doest thou still retaine thine integrity blessing God and dying We must therefore examine both sides that we may find out more fully the sense of these words Some take the words in a good sense and some take them in an ill sense Some take the words in a good sense Blesse God and dye And others who translate Blesse God and dye doe yet expound it to an ill sense First Some make a good construction out of these words of Jobs wife affirming that she gave her husband wholesome advice and so they render the words Blesse God and dye to this sense What doest thou still stand upon termes with God wilt thou not humble thy selfe shouldest thou not rather Blesse God that is pray unto God humble thy selfe and seeke his face so to blesse signifies to pray to make supplication Thou seest in what a dolefull condition thou art therefore blesse God make thy humble prayer before God and die that is desire him to take thee out of this miserable world to release thee of thy paine begge that he would cut the thred of thy life which to appearance is the only remedy of all thy troubles death will be thy best friend Thou mayest die with more ease then live as thou doest Thy life is a continuall death it were better for thee to die once then to die daily Mr. Beza is very strong in this opinion excusing yea acquitting Jobs wife in making this motion to her husband He grants indeed that she being deceived and over-wrought by Satan did work strongly for him yet denies that either the counsell in it selfe or in her intendment was evill He layes the whole matter thus That she observing her husbands silence under the hand of God in these great afflictions suspected that he stood too much upon his own integrity that he was too well opinionated and conceited of his own worth or that this proceeded from fearednesse of conscience and insensiblenesse of Gods dealing and his own condition and therefore she adviseth him to consider that surely God was very angry with him to consider that God had brought all this evill upon him to humble him and should he now defend his owne innocencie should he either be silent and not acknowledge his sin or stand upon termes with God in defence and justification of himselfe Doest thou persevere in those high thoughts of thy selfe will not all this bring thy stomack down what will not thy uncircumcised heart be humbled Doest thou still retaine thine integrity doest thou still leane upon that broken reed thy owne integrity Blesse God that is confesse thy sins and acknowledge thy transgressions Indeed confessing of sin is a blessing of God
it is a giving of glory to God and our giving glory to God is our blessing of God Josh 7.19 Give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him Thus blesse God that is confesse thy sin and so prepare thy selfe to die in a holy manner seeing thou art past hope of life addresse thy selfe piously for death Thus he and all upon these grounds First because he could not be perswaded that a wife the Governesse of such a holy family as Jobs was a wife the companion of such a holy man as Job was should be so full of the Devill so wicked to speake the Devils words with the Devils heart And secondly because Satan himself could not be so sencelesse as to beleeve or hope that such desperate counsell could ever take upon Jobs heart And therefore he conceives that she advised him only as any one would a dying friend or a malefactor condemned and ready to be carried to execution yet persisting in his sin or unlamenting the wickednesse which procur'd that sentence Her errour saith he was only this that she judged him wicked because he was thus smitten and that he trusted upon his integrity because he held it fast whereas indeed Job looked for no good but out of the hand of Free-grace and accounted his very Integrity but dung to the righteousnesse and redemption of the promised Messiah But with humble respect to so reverend an Authour there are two reasons strong against this Exposition in my apprehension which I shall propose and submit to the readers judgement The first is this It had been quite against Satans designe that Jobs wife should give her husband good counsell For it had been so farre from being an addition to Jobs affliction that it had been a great abatement of it to heare his wife speake so holily and administring such wholesome counsell in the substance of it though mistaken in the application of it to him And surely a heart so composed as Jobs was under all these pressures would have shaped out such an answer as this My deare wife I thanke thee for thy care and counsell thou hast a holy jealousie over me that I am not in such a posture of spirit as becomes a dying man Though there be an errour in thy advise as applied to me yet I take it as an errour of love and thy reproofe though misplaced is very acceptable and pretious unto me But which makes my second reason He reproves her for it and tells her plainely Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh Whereas if that had been the meaning of her words she spake as one of the wise women like a wise woman indeed It is an act of wisedome and of love both to suspect ill of another when that suspition leads us only to advise him for his good It is an excellent thing when jealousies are improved into faithfull counsels Surely then Job had never numbred her with the foolish women if that speech of hers had imported only an humble preparation for his approaching death In the second place Some who translate the words Blesse God and die doe yet expound them as very sinfull counsell though the words sound faire yet the sense is made very foule These understand them as an Ironie as if his wife scoffing and jeering her husband had said Doest thou still retaine thine integrity blesse God and die thou shalt have enough of thine integrity take thy fill of blessing of God thou art all for blessing God and holding fast thy integrity goe on if thou wilt and blesse God still and see what thou shalt get by it thou shalt have no other reward but a wound thou shalt receive no wages of this Master but death blesse God and die repeate that speech now which you used under the first affliction Repeate againe that beloved maxime with which you seeme to be so much delighted The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord you shall see it will not fright death away or be any security from the graveâ— you thought when you spoke those words first that they would have prevented a second trouble and that God who saw you take the former stroake so kindly at his hands would not strike you againe But you see good words are no defence against blowes And if thou shouldest be so foolish to flye for refuge to the same submissive language experience would quickly teach thee that as before it could not protect thee from this soare disease so now it would be no protection from the arrest of death Blesse God and die Some strengthen this sense from the forme of speaking here used which is imperative Blesse God and die She bids him doe it I doe it and spare not Such expressions import a mixture of scorne as Lam. 4.21 Rejoyce and be glad O daughter of Edom Here is a grant if not a command a seeming direction if not an injunction to rejoyce and be glad what is given as the occcasion of this joy The Cup also shall passe thorough unto thee What cup A cup of blood a cup of trembling And is this to be rejoyced in Surely in such joy the heart must be heavy and the acting of such mirth is sorrow yet he bids her rejoyce as if he had said be as merry as you can yet the cup shall passe thorough unto thee thou shalt not escape So Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thine heart cheere thee and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes doe so but know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement Thus here Blesse God and die Goe on I pray take thy fill of blessing God blesse him as much and as long as thou wilt yet I see the image of death in thy face die thou shalt Mr. Broughton seemes to encline to such a meaning in his translation doest thou still hold thine integrity blessing God and dying As if she had said wilt thou be such a foole to goe on blessing God and dying blessing God while he is killing thee which was indeed Jobs wisedome and his resolution a little after Though he kill me yet will I trust in him So farre of those who translate the text blesse God and die with that two-fold exposition upon it I shall now consider what sense we are to make out of these words as we translate them and as they are indeed most generally translated Curse God and die This reading of the text seemes most answerable to Satans designe which being to provoke Job to curse God it was most proper to sute his wives spirit with such thoughts and to put his own words into her mouth Curse God and die This thred is of the same spinning with the former and carries Satans plot home upon his own principles She speakes this adversaries mind as fully as he could himselfe when she bids her
it or I did fully heare it I saw it with mine eyes that is I am sure I saw it So the Scripture saith We are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 A thing cannot be bought but with a price there must be some price or other either money or money-worth somewhat answering the intrinsick value of every thing that is bought but to shew that we are bought with a full price that Christ did not compound our debt with his Father but paid the uttermost farthing it is said we are bought with a price So the Prophet Malachie tells the sacrilegious Jewes Ye are cursed with a curse c. 3.9 A man cannot be cursed but with a curse but to shew the greatnesse of the curse he saith ye are cursed with a curse So here Job opened his mouth and spake or opened his mouth and cursed that is he cursed his day greatly even with a bitter and grievous curse He cursed it as we say to purpose Thus to shew the excellency of Christs doctrine that his was A Sermon of Sermons And he the Messenger the Interpreter the One of a Thousand yea the One of All the Thousands that ever shewed to man his uprightnesse the Gospell saith Mat. 5.1 When hee saw a great multitude he opened his mouth and spake Hence In the third place To open the mouth and speake is to speake upon mature deliberation to speake considerately prudently punctually to speake elegantly to speake orderly to speake the words of truth and sobernesse A foole is said to speake with an open mouth but a wise man openeth his mouth and speakes A wise godly man hath his tongue at his command but a fooles tongue commands him His tongue runs faster then his wit as we say A fooles mouth as Solomon tells us Prov. 15.2 powreth out foolishnesse Their mouthes are alwayes open and therefore they cannot be said to open their mouthes A foole hath not a doore to his mouth therefore also he cannot be said to open his mouth much lesse hath he a lock and a key a bolt or a barre to his mouth but a wise man hath a doore to his mouth yea his mouth is lockt with wisdomes key and that unlocks it I will open my mouth saith the Psalmist Psal 78.2 in a Parable Parables are the speeches of wise men yea they are the extracts and spirits of wisedome The Hebrew word signifies to rule or have authority because such speeches come upon us with authority and subdue our reason by the weight of theirs Now when he is about to speake Parables he saith I will open my mouth When wisedome calls for audience and obedience Prov 8.6 she saith Heare for I will speake of excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be right things David invokes God to open his mouth when he would shew forth that excellent thing the praise of God Psal 51.15 God opens not the mouth of a foole neither doth a foole open his mouth and speake but his speech opens his mouth But did Job open his mouth in this sense wisely and discreetly did he well to be so angry with his day spake he wisely in cursing his day I answer Though there was much passion in this speech yet Job spake out of much deliberation he considered what to speake before he spake A man may speake with much passion and yet speake out of much deliberation and so did Job here in that long silence he was learning what to speake And as there was much heate of passion so there was much light of wisedome in what he spake Fourthly To open the mouth and speake is to speake boldly and confidently to speake with freedome and liberty of speech as the Greeke word signifies to speake all a mans mind without feate or favour of any man Prov. 31.8 9. Open thy mouth for the dumbe open thy mouth judge righteously c. that is be bold for those that are poore and dare not appeare themselves speake thou aloud for the dumbe and freely for those that cannot plead their own cause or make-out their owne innocence The Apostle begs of the Ephesians Chap. 6.19 that they would pray that utterance might be given him that he might open his mouth boldly to make knowne the mistery of the Gospell and neither feare the faces of men nor conceale the truth of God You see then by the opening of this expression there was more then bare speaking meant when Job opened his mouth and spake When a wise and a holy man opens his mouth you may looke for more then words even the treasures of wisdome and of knowledge Let us now examine what treasure we can make of those words which Job spake when he opened his mouth He opened his mouth and cursed his day But is there any treasure in a curse except that which the Apostle speakes of as the fruit of Gods abused patience Rom. 2.5 A treasure of wrath Or did Job deliberate for a curse was he moulding and fashioning so deform'd an issue as this in his thoughts so long Yes faith the Text he opened his mouth and cursed his day The word here used to Curse is not the word which we have met with so often in the two former Chapters where Satan undertooke that Job would curse his God That word in its native sense signifies to blesse But here when Iob curseth his day a word is used which hath neither name nor shadow of a blessing And it is derived from a roote which signifieth a thing that is light moveable or unsetled And so by a Metaphor it signifies any thing or person which we dispise contemne and slight or the act of despising and cursing and the reason of it is because those things which we despise contemne or curse we looke upon as light things triviall or vaine or hurtfull On the contrary the word in the Hebrew for honour and glory comes from a roote which signifieth heavy or ponderous because that which we honour and respect we looke upon it as a thing that hath weight and substance in it And the Apostle calls that most glorious estate of the Saints in Heaven a weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 The opposite word which we have in the Text is frequently translated to despise or contemne and likewise to curse and blaspheme and doth properly signifie such a cursing as arises from the contempt or light esteeme which we have of a thing or person So we have the word clearely used Levit. 20.9 Every one that curseth his father or his mother Now observe cursing of the father or mother it is directly opposed to the 5th Commandement which saith Thou shalt honour thy Father and thy mother thou shalt looke upon thy father and thy mother as upon persons of weight and honour whom thou art bound to reverence and esteeme so that to curse the father or mother is to account them vile and contemptible The same word expresses that villanous act of Shimei 2
wrestle for it or the Crowne they must strive for it We must dig for heavenly hidden treasure before we have it And yet both the treasure and the strength to dig for it are freely given Fourthly observe That Those things which we esteeme most we labour to secure most It is said that they digg'd for treasures and that the treasures were hid I told you in opening the words there is a naturall hiding of treasure and an industrious hiding Take it in the last sense men that have treasures will labour to preserve them why because treasures are much esteemed and the things we esteeme most we preserve most In the Hebrew the word that signifies treasure signifies the hiding of treasure or hidden treasure Among all treasures spirituall treasures are most hidden they are so hidden that they are called mysteries or secrets The knowledge of Christ was a hidden treasure for some thousands of yeares the Apostle in his time calls it the mysterie which was kept secret since the world began Rom. 16.25 Againe he calls it the wisedome of God in a mystery even the hidden wisedome which God ordained before the world unto our glory which none of the Princes of this world knew 1 Cor. 2.8 9. And as spirituall knowledge so our spirituall life is called a hidden life your life is hidden with God in Christ Col. 3.3 And as our life so our spirituall comforts are hidden therefore called Hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 All our spirituall estate is treasure and it is all hidden treasure so hidden that the Saints dig deepe to find it and when they have found it they hide it as Christ shewes us Mat. 13.44 speaking of the Kingdome of God which he compares to a treasure hid in the field the which when a man hath found he hideth He hideth it not to obscure it from the light but to secure it from danger Mary hid those pretious sayings of Christ her Son and her Saviour in her heart Luk. 2.51 And David having found the Commandements of God which he prized above any treasure above thousands of gold and silver he hid them in his heart Thy word saith he have I hid in my heart that I might not sinne against thee Psalm 119.11 Verse 22. Which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Having said that they long for death and dig for it as for hidden treasure Now supposing that they find death he shewes how it affects them they rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave There is little or no obscurity in these words only consider the emphasis of this expression the word which we translate rejoyce or rejoyce exceedingly noteth such a rejoycing as breakes forth in some outward gesture as when a man doth leape for joy And Mr. Broughton translates it thus which joy till they skip againe noting an extraordinary joy and gladnesse when they can find the grave that is when they die Yet some joyne the sense of this verse with the former to carry on or lengthen out the similitude thus Which long for death and digge for it as for hid treasures And finding death they are affected as they who seeking for treasures find a grave For if in digging they did but hit upon a grave then they thought themselves sure of treasure and great riches because treasure and riches was used to be put into graves as was shewed in opening the fifteenth verse of this Chapter The sense is faire and comes up to the same point from either of these expositions Observe hence first That What at one time we feare most in that at another time we may exceedingly rejoyce Death is dreadfull and the grave is a place of darkenesse yet here is joy and rejoycing yea exceeding joy and rejoycing when they find the grave Secondly They rejoyce in it but why It was that which they had longed for that which they had long sought for if at another time they had bin shewed the grave or commanded into the grave they would have taken little pleasure in it The same thing inflicted or threatned by another is dreadfull to us which desired by our selves is pleasant and delightfull It pleaseth us to have our desire satisfied though the thing desired be never so unpleasant And to be eased of present evill makes a future evill appeare in the likenesse of a persent good For Joy is an affection of the mind arising from the apprehension of some present good even as hope springs from the apprehension of some good that is to come Further We may consider the issue of all these acts after they had longed for death and digged for death and found death presently upon the finding of it they rejoyce and rejoyce exceedingly Hence observe That which any one truely desireth and endeavoureth to find causeth him to rejoyce when he hath found it If you desire death and seek for the grave the finding of these will be to you as life and as a house of mirth How much more then shall we rejoyce having found good things the best things after earnest longing and digging for them When the wise Merchant had found the treasure hid in the field the next words enforme us of his joy Matth. 13.44 When the man after long seeking on the mountaines had found his lost Sheepe and the woman after lighting her candle and sweeping her house and diligent search had found the lost groat they both rejoyced and called in their neighbours and friends to rejoyce with them Luk. 15. It troubles a man to be found of that or him whom he hates or feares Hast thou found me O mine enemy saith Ahab to Eliah 1 King 21.20 And it cannot but delight us to find that or him whom we love and long for Have I found thee O my friend will such an one say And if a miserable man rejoyces exceedingly when desiring he finds death and a grave how will the soule leape for joy when we shall find him who is the longing and desire of all Nations Jesus Christ. How exceeding exceedingly will the soule rejoyce when we shall find what we have so much longed for not death but life and life not only in Christ but with Christ when we shall find not the house of the grave but a house of glory and glory in the height an exceeding excelling superexcellent weight of glory And by this effect we may make proofe of grace here If thou hast found Christ in ordinances in duties in meditation in prayer in the promises for here in these things the longing soule diggs after Christ joy will at one time or other fill thy heart yea thy heart will leape for joy thou wilt rejoyce in Spirit as Christ did in his Father Luk. 10.21 For this joy is a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 and one of the first fruits And God seldome misses to give the soule a tast of this joy at the first or presently after conversion though afterwards clouds may
make Yee have heard of the Patience of Job and what end the Lord made Could we but heare of the Repentance of England all the world I am perswaded should heare and wonder at the end which the Lord would make Even such an end as he made for Job if not a better he would give us twice as much in Temporals double Riches double Oxen and Sheepe double Bracelets and Earings double Gold and Silver double Sonnes and Daughters And hee would give us which is not specified in the Inventorie of Jobs repaire seven-fold more in Spirituals seven-fold more knowledge of his Truth purity in his worship order in his house he would make the light of our Moone to be like the light of the Sunne and the light of our Sunne to be seven-fold as the light of seven dayes in the day wherein he bindes up our outward breaches and heales the stroake of our wound Thus we may looke to be restored not only as Job to more in kind but to better in kind I am sure to better in degree We may looke that for brasse we shall have Gold or our Gold more refined that for Iron wee shall have Silver or our Silver more purified that for wood we shall have Brasse or our Brasse better furbished that for Stones we shall have iron or our Iron better tempered We may look that our Officers shall be peace and our Exactours righteousnesse that violence shall no more be heard in our Land wasting nor destruction within our borders but men shall call our Walls salvation and our Gates praise When these glorious issues of our troubles shall be is in his hand who held Jobs estate in his hand so fast that Satan could not touch a Sheepe nor a shoe-lachet till himselfe willed and who when his time came restored Jobs estate double to a Sheep and a shoe-lachet whether Satan and his Sabeans would or no. We have already seen in Job an Epitome of our former prosperitie and of our present troubles the good Lord hasten the latter part of our National likenes unto him in the doubled and O that it might be a seven-fold restauration of our Peace and Truth In the meane time these Meditations upon this Scripture well digested and taken-in may be through the blessing of God upon them a help to our patience in bearing these afflictions upon the Land a help to our faith in beleeving to our hope inwaiting for the Salvations of the Lord. Whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning but this Booke was purposely written that we through patience and comfort of this Scripture might have hope Nor doe I doubt but that the Providence of God without which a Sparrow fals not to the ground directed my thoughts to this Booke as not onely profitable for all times but specially seasonable for these times It is a word in season and therefore should as a word upon the Wheeles making a speedy passage into all our hearts And how should it not While wee remember that these Wheeles are oyl'd with bloud even with the heart-bloud of thousands of our dearest friends and brethren I finde that this is not the first time that this Booke hath beene undertaken by way of Exposition in such a time as this Lavater a faithfull Minister of the Tigurine Church opened this Scripture in preaching and printed it in the Germane tongue which was afterwards published in Latine by Hartmanus Sprunglius as himselfe expresses in the Title to support and refresh the afflicted mindes of the godly in that last as he then supposed and saddest decliyyning Age of the world Ferus a Popish Fryer but very devout according to the Devotion of that Religion Preacher at Ments chose this Scripture in the time of Warre and publick Calamity as the Title also of his Booke holds forth to comfort his Citizens In his fourth Sermon hee makes this observable digression You know saith hee to his Hearers that I began to expound this Historie of Iob to the end I might comfort and exhort you to patience in these troublesome times This was and is my Intendment this mooved me to handle and explaine this Booke But now in my very entrance upon it the Storme grows so blacke that I see you amazed dejected and almost desperate Some are flying others are preparing to flie and in this great Calamitie no man is found to comfort his Brother But every one encreases his Neighbours feare by his owne fearefullnesse Hee prescribes as farre as their Principles will admit Cordials for the reviving of their spirits and medicine for the cure of these distempers The whole Booke of JOB is a sacred Shoppe stor'd with plentie and varietie of both that you may open your hearts to receive and with wisdome to apply the Consolations and Instructions here tender'd from this part of it is and through the strength of Christ shall bee the desire and prayer of November 8th 1643. Your very loving Friend and Servant for the helpe of your Faith IOSEPH CARYL ERRATA PAg 3. lin 33. for more particulars reade in particular Pag. 5. l 24 for sinneâ— sinne p. 9 l. 2. for distinctions r distinct ones p 27. l 39. for whence r. whom p. 30 l. 21. for all grace goes r. all graces goe p. 40. l. 21. dele But. p. 106. l. 8. r. former p. 118. l. 34. r. and before in such p. 124 l. 1. dele the. p. 179. l. 40. for garments r. garment p. 1â—3 l. 21 for we r. he p 206 l. 39. r. lesse love p. 207. l. 5. r. of a Fathers love p. 239 l. 39. for si r. as p 273. l. 39. for troublers r. troubler p. 306. l. 15. misplaced p. 323 l. 34 for ceise r. seise p. 338. l. 38. for sight r. site pag 371. l. 16. for the r. then p. 402. l. 40. for interrupted r. uninterrupted p. 424. l. 8. adde that p. 452. l. 38. for utmost his r. his utmost p. 454. l 35. for was r. were Divers errors have escaped in the Poyntings which the understanding Reader may easily correct where the sense is obscured as p. 321. l. 11 there wants a Colon after the word Counsell c. AN EXPOSITION Vpon the three first Chapters of the BOOKE of JOB The Introduction opening the Nature Parts and Scope of the whole Booke IT was the personall wish and resolution of the Apostle Paul I had rather speak five words with my understanding then ten thousand words in an unknowne tongue And surely it is far better to speake or heare five words of Scripture with our understandings than ten thousand words yea than the whole Scriptures while we understand them not Now what an unknown tongue about which the Apostle there disputeth is in reference unto all the same is the Scripture unto most even in their owne tongue that which they understand not For as an unknowne tongue doth alwayes hide the meaning of words from us so doe oft times the spiritualnesse
and the word for low is Bene-Adam sonnes of Adam If we should translate the Text directly according to the letter the words must runne sonnes of men and sonnes of men for sonnes of Adam and sonnes of Ish are both translated sonnes of men Yet when they are set together in a way of opposition the one signifieth low and the other high and so our Translators render it according to the sense not sonnes of men and sons of men but low and high Junius translates to this sence though in more words as well they who are borne of meane men as they who are borne of the honourable A like instance we have Isa 2.9 The meane man boweth down and the great man humbleth himselfe The meane man that is the sonne of Adam and the great man the sonne of Ish the great man in regard of his excellency is by such a circumlocution described to be more then a man not onely the sonne of man but the sonne of an honourable and great man So I finde the word divers times used to signifie the excellency and greatnesse of the person Then further it signifieth not onely a man that is great but it signifieth a man in authority There was a man that is an excellent man a man of worth There was a man that is a man in authority It signifies a Magistrate and so in divers places of Scripture Man is put for a Magistrate especially when it is exprest as here by Ish Gen. 43.11 Carry a present to the man scil to the Governour of the Countrey Jer 5.1 Goe thorough Jerusalem and search and see if you can finde a man What were men so scarce in Jerusalem at that time Was there such a dearth of men that a man could not be found Surely no. Jerusalem had throngs of men in every street The meaning then is explained in the words following if there be any that executeth iudgement that is if there be a Magistrate a publike man that 's the man I meane So in Numb 27.16 We find the word to signifie a Magistrate Let the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the Congregation A man that is a Magistrate for there that 's â—he businesse if you reade the Text you will find it a man in auâ—â—â—rity a man fit to rule And that is it which is meant in Act. â— 31 concerning Christ God saith he hath appointed a day â—â—rein he will iudge the world by that man whom he hath ordaiâ—ed It noteth Christ the man in power in authority because all â—ower in Heaven and in Earth is committed to him So you know â—was usuall among the Romans to call their Magistrates by the â—ame of The men as the Triumviri the Septemviri the Decemâ—iri to call them sometime the three-men sometime the seven â—en sometime the ten-men Those who were the speciall men in â—uthority that were men in place and eminency they carried away the Name of men as it were from all men as if they were the only men So that we have these two things to take notice of when it is said here that Iob was a man you must carry it further then the word is ordinarily taken Hee was a great man he was a man in authority a Magistrate Some carry the Magistracy so high as to set him on a Throne affirming that he was a King a point very much contended for by divers Expositors but that he was a Magistrate in Authority a Chiefe in his Countrey is cleare by that which is exprest of him in Chapt. 29. where he speakes of his deciding mens rights and executions of Justice In the Land of Uz. I will not trouble you with any Geographicall discourse In a word we may consider 3. things about Vz. 1. Why it was called so 2. Where it was seated 3. What manner of people they were that dwelt in Vz. 1. For the Name let it be taken from Vz the Name of a Man And there were three called by that Name in Scripture Gen. 10.23 Gen. 22.21 Gen. 36.28 from either of these Iobs Countrey might derive its name but from which of these would be â— thinke a nice debate yet it is rather ascribed to Vz or Huz the eldest Sonne of Nahor Gen. 22.21 2. For the place where it was seated it is cleare that it was upâ—on the borders of the Sabeans and of the Caldeans and of thâ— Arabians those Easterne people Some affirme that the lot 〈◊〉 the halfe Tribe of Manasses on the other side Iordan which waâ— set forth for them when the people of Israel came into Canaan was the very place where Job lived and that was called Vz. Its cleare that it was neare those parts above mentioned First froâ— Lament 4 2â— There the Prophet Ieremie speaking of Vz saiâ— Rejoyce and be glad O daughter of Edom that dwellest in 〈◊〉 Land of Uz. And Ier. 25.20 he speakes againe of the Lanâ— Uz All the mingled people and all the Kings of the Land of 〈◊〉 they shall drinke of the Cup he mentions the Cup also in tâ—â— place Lam. 4. Rejoyce and be glad O daughter of Edom 〈◊〉 dwellest in the Land of Uz the Cup also shall passe thorough 〈◊〉 thee Secondly Vz border'd upon those Countreyes for thâ— people made out their Parties invaded slew and tooke 〈◊〉 Jobs Estate Cattell and servants therefore the place in all proâ—â—â—bility lay neere these Countries For the Condition and manners of the people It is generally received that they were a people prophane in their lives and superstitious at least in their worship Edumeans and Edomites the descendants of Esau heare ill all the Scripture over Among these Iob lived among these Iob govern'd there he exercis'd those pretious graces and practis'd those excellent duties both of holinesse toward God and of Justice toward men It was in the midst of a sinfull and perverse nation in the Land of Vz. Then Observe First God hath his servants in all places in the worst places There was never any ayre so bad but that a servant of God might breath in it Here God had a choice peece even in the Land of Vz a place of prophanenesse Here was Bethel in Bethaven a House of God in a Land of wickednesse Lot dwelt in Sodome Ioseph in Egypt David in Mesech and in Kedar There were Saints in Caesars wicked Neroes houshold Babylon holds many of Gods people yet let them not make such places their refuge much lesse their election But remember the call Come out of her my people Secondly We may observe from hence this being spoken of Iob to set him forth in the excellency of his spirituall condition that he lived in the Land of Vz. That It is a great honour and a high commendation to be good and do good amongst those that are evill You shall be recorded for it This was one reason why the place is named that the honour of Iob might be lifted up that he was good not
indeed provokes God many times to blast an outward estate It is a common fault that when we see those whom we conceive godly faling in outward things wee are taken up onely in finding out answers how to acquit the justice of God in his promises What shall we say to such a promise Seeke first the kingdom of God and his righteousnes and all these things shal be added unto you We trouble our selves often to satisfie the point in reference to the justice of God and the truth of his promise We seldome suspect whether or how they have performed the condition of the promise We should rather doubt that they have not evangellically performed the condition then trouble our selves so much with seeking how to satisfie the justice of God in answering the ingagement and promise on his part For without all question they that doe seeke according to the tenour of that condition God will administer all things unto them Or secondly we should say thus rather that they who are so much exercised in wayes of communion with God have surely gain'd a great spirituall estate And that now God brings them to the proofe of it by losses in their temporall estates These or the like interpretations we ought to make if we see them going backward in outward things who have beene very forward in spirituall things And so much concerning Iobs outward estate in regard of his riches both what they were in the kind and in the number In the next place his outward happinesse is described by the unity and concord of his children Verse 4. And his sonnes went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drinke with them This verse sets forth the third part of Iobs happinesse in respect of his outward estate He had children and many children in the second verse Here in the fourth we find all these children sonnes and daughters agreeing and feasting one with another We may note from the words foure things concerning this Feasting 1. Their alacrity and chearefullnesse which most doe observe out of that expression they went and feasted which phrase in the Hebrew signifies the doing of a thing with chearfulnes and readinesse 2. Their unanimity It is not said that some two or three of his sons feasted but his sons indefinitely all his sons and not onely his sons but his daughters the three sisters were called too So that they were all of one mind they all met together in love though they were ten in number they were but one in heart the same in spirit 3. The place where they feasted it was in their houses they did not goe to suspected places but in their owne private houses and families where it was most convenient and where they might celebrate those meetings with most security both for their bodies and for their soules 4. The frequency of that feasting it was not onely once but every one his day They did meet at every one of their houses upon a speciall and a set day Every one his day some make the sence thus they feasted in their houses one every day as if it had been a continuall feast with them they feasted all the weeke long and they would seeme to allow it by the moderation used in their feasting out the words every one his day note a course a certaine time wherein they did feast not a continued feasting Some conceive it was upon their birth-dayes whether that be so or no there is nothing appeares from the Text only it is said They feasted every one his day And they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drinke with them In that we may observe 3. things 1. The humanity of the brethren they would not banquet alone and leave out their sisters but they sent and called them 2. The modesty of the Sisters that they would not come but upon speciall invitation they were not forward of themselves but they were sent and called for 3. The end of this invitation it was to eat and to drinke with them As under the notions of bread and water or bread and wine all necessaries for food are comprised so under the actions of eating and drinking the whole businesse of feasting is contained Luk. 12.19 Isa 22.15 Eccl. 2.24 There is nothing further in the words that we need stay longer in opening or clearing of them We shall onely give you some few notes out of them His sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day This is set forth as the third part of Jobs outward happines Then note we first That The love and mutuall agreement of children is one of the greatest blessings to a parent The love of children is the fathers blessing and it is a great blesâ—sing How many fathers have their hearts rent and divided by thâ— rents and divisions that are amongst their children It doth blaâ— and wither all the comfort the Parent hath to see that there is no agreement of love no correspondency of affection amongst those that come all from the same bowels from the same loynes Thâ— is a blessing which was not common in the world no not in thosâ— times Adam had not this blessing Adam when he had only two sonnes they could not agree but one murthereth the otheâ— Abraham enjoyed not this blessing when he had but 2 sons oneâ— mocking the other Ishmael is mocking Isaac Isaac fail'd of thâ— blessing he had but two sonnes and one threatned to murther thâ— other The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand then wilâ— slay my brother Jacob. This was not Iacobs blessing he had 〈◊〉 sons there was one of them Joseph the common Butt of aâ— his brethrens envy they did all spight him the Archers did shoâ— at him and grieved him sorely and hated him They could not aâ— agree there were divisions among them It is no ordinary bleâ—â—sing then You see David a holy man yet what divisions weâ— there among his children one murdereth another Absolom cause Amnon to bee murthered Adonijah riseth up against Solomon he cannot beare it that his brother should have the Crowne Yâ— see then that it is a blessing and it is an extraordinary blessing Therfore take notice of it you that have an agreeing family children that live together in love and unity looke upon it as a speciall blessing from God Secondly We may observe That It is a very comely thing for brethren and sisters to live together in unity In Jobs children we have that of Psalm 133. fullfilled Behold he calls all to looke upon it how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity Such a sight may draw all eyes after it Jobs children were many in number in heart but one in love the same And as there is nothing more troublesome so nothing more uncomely and unnaturall than rents and divisions in a family Thirdly we may
Job with when he questions doth Job feare God for nought Satan accuseth with a question doth Job feare God for nought The question may be resolved into this Accusation Job doth not feare God for nought The word which we translate for nought hath a threefold sense from the Hebrew First Some render it in vain Doth Job feare God frustra in vaine We are then said to doe a thing in vaine when we cannot attaine the end which we propose in doing of it The Egyptians helpe in vaine that is they cannot procure that salvation and deliverance which was desired or intended and so the sense here may be doth Job feare God in vaine No he doth not he hath his end he looked for riches that he intended in taking up the service of God and that he hath attained Secondly It is interpreted by without cause Doth Job feare God without cause so the word is translated Psal 35.7 where David complaining of his enemies saith without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soule As if he should say I never gave them any cause why they should lay snares for me I never wronged or hurt any of them According to this sense when Satan saith doth Job feare God for nought namely without cause it is as if he had said The Lord hath given Job reason enough he hath given him cause enough to doe what he doth Job seeth reason in his Flocks and in his Heards in his many Children and in his great Houshold in his Substance and in his Honour he seeth reason in all these why he should feare God and be a very obedient servant having so bountifull a Master Doth Job feare God without cause Or thirdly The word is translated by Gratis as we expresse it to doe a thing gratis that is to doe a thing without any reward without any price or without pay I shall instance Scriptures wherein the word is rendred in that sense Gen. 29.15 Laban saith to Jacob when he was come to him to serve him Thou art my kinsman shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought that is shouldest thou serve me gratis or without wages as he explaines his meaning in the next words tell me what shall thy wages be So that to doe a thing for nought is to doe a thing without wages without price And so there is the same interpretation of the word Exod. 21.11 where Moses speaking of the Maid that was taken into the family and was not married saith If he doe not these three unto her then she shall goe out free without money she shall pay nothing she shall goe out gratis or for nought So here we may take in this sense to fill up the forme doth Job serve God gratis doth he serve God without price or without pay Surely no thou hast given him sufficient hyre wages sufficient for all his service Job doth not serve thee gratis out of good will and affection to thee but he serveth thee for hire because thou payest him so plentifully So the generall sense of the words Doth Job feare God for nought is as if Satan had bespoken the Lord in such words as these Lord thou doest enquire of me whether I had considered thy servant Job I confesse I have and I must needs acknowledge that he is a man very diligent and zealous in thy worship and service neither doe I wonder that he is so seeing thou hast out-bid all his labours and indeavours by heapes of benefits There is no question but thou mayest have servants enough upon such termes at such rates as these no marvaile if Job be willing to doe whatsoever thou commandest whenas thou bestowest upon Job whatsoever he desireth Thou seemest as it were to neglect all other men and only to intend the safety and prosperity of thy darling Job Is it any great matter that he who hath received a flocke of seven thousand Sheepe from thee should offer a few 7. or 10. to thee in sacrifice Is it any great matter that he should give some of his fleeces to cloath the poore who hath received from thee so many thousands to cloath and enrich himselfe Is it a strange thing that he should feede a few that hath 500 yoake of Oxen Is not Job well hired to worke for thee doth he feare God for nought who hath recived all these Yet a little more distinctly for the opening of this expression I shall give you Satans sense in three notable falsities or lyes which he twists up together in this one speech Doth Job feare God for nought First That riches will make any man serve God that it is no great matter to be holy when we have abundance a man that prospers in the world cannot choose but be good This Satan implyes in these words and this is an extreame lye for as there is no affliction so there is no outward blessing can change the heart or bring it about unto God They did not serve the Lord in the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 Abundance doth not draw the heart unto God Yet Satan would inferre that it doth This might well be retorted upon Satan himselfe Satan why diddestnot thou serve God then thou diddest once receive more outward blessings from God then ever Iob did the blessednesse of an Angell yet that glorious Angelicall estate wherein thou wast created could not keepe thee in the compasse of obedience thou diddest rebell in the abundance of all blessings and diddest leave thy habitation Satan thou shouldest not have served God for nought Why then didst not thou serve him thine owne Apostacy refutes thy errour in making so little of Jobs obedience because he had received so much Secondly There is this in it Doeth Job feare God for nought Satan intimates that God could have no servants for love none unlesse he did pay them extreamely That God is such a Master and his worke such as none would meddle with vnlesse allured by benefits As if Satan should say you have indeed one eminent servant but you should not have had him unlesse you had beene at double cost with him Here is another lye Satan windeth up closely in this speech For the truth is Gods servants follow him for himselfe the very excellencies of God and sweetnesse of his wayes are the argument and the wages by which his people are chiefely moved and hired to his service God indeed makes many promises to those that serve him but he never makes any bargaines with them His obey him freely Satan makes bargaines to hire men to his service as he did with Christ Mat. 4.9 All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship mee God makes many large and gracious promises but he never makes any such bargaine and agreement with men for their obedience Then there is a third sense full of falsehood which Satan casteth upon Iob Doeth Job feare God for nought that is Iob hath
a byas in all that he doth he is carryed by the gaine of godlinesse not by any delight in godlinesse thus to serve God Job is mercinary he serveth God for hire Job hath not any desire to please God but to benefit himselfe Job doth not seeke the glory of God but he seekes his owne advantage This is the sense which the words have in reference to the person of Job that as once Satan accus'd God unto man so now he accuseth this man unto God He accus'd God unto man Gen. 3. When God had forbidden him to eate of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill and told him that in the day he did eate thereof he should surely die You shall not surely die saith Satan for God knoweth that in the day you eate thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evill As if he should say God hath not forbidden this tree because it will doe you any hurt but because he would be God alone he would have all the knowledge to himselfe he hath an ill intent he knowes that if you eate of it you will be like him as gods knowing good and evill So heere hee accuseth man to God Job serveth you indeed and offereth you sacrifice and obeyeth you but it is that he may get by you that he may receive more and more from you he likes the pay the reward not the worke he cares not for God but for the good that commeth from him This is the accusation which here the slanderer casteth upon all the holy services and duties of Job Thus in briefe you see the sense I shall give you some observations from it The first is this It is an argument of a most malignant spirit when a mans actions are faire then to accuse his intentions The Devill hath nothing to say against the actions of Job but he goes downe into his heart and accuseth his intentions Malice mis-interprets the fairest actions but love puts the fairest interpretation it can upon foule actions Malice will say when a man doth well it is true he doth it but it is for vaine glory it is to be seene of men it is for his own ends it is for gaine But when a man doth ill love will say this he hath done through ignorance or inadvertency or violent temptations love covers a multitude of sinnes as fairely as possibly it may with wisedome and with justice How faire a cover did Christ himselfe put upon the foulest act that ever was in the world upon his own crucifying Father forgive them they know not what they doe they doe it indeed but they doe it ignorantly So Peter afterward I wot saith he that through ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers Love excuseth what is ill done in another and malice accuseth what others doe well Let such men learne from hence that in so do â—â—â—y are the mouth and tongue of Satan Secondly We may observe from hence That it is an argument of a base and an unworthy spirit to serve God for ends Had this been true of Job in Satans sense it had indeed spoyled and blemished all that he had done Those that come unto God upon such termes they are not holy but crafty they make a trade with God they doe not serve God it is not Obedientia but Mercatura as one expresseth it it is merchandizing with God not obeying him There is reward enough in God himselfe there is reward enough in the very duties themselvs work and wages go together Therfore for any to be carried out to the service of God upon outward things argues a base an eartthly spirit As sin is punishment enough unto it selfe though there were no other punishment though there were no hell to come after yet to do evill is or will be hell enough unto it selfe So to do good is reward enough unto it selfe A Heathen Poet observed it as a brand of Infamy upon the age wherein he lived that most did repent that they had done good or were good gratis or for nought that the price of all good actions fell in their esteeme unlesse they could raise themselves If a Heathen condemn'd this how damnable is it among Christians But here a Question will arise and I shall a little debate it because it doth further cleare the maine point May we not have respect to our owne good or unto the benefit we shall receive from God Is it unlawfull to have an eye to our owne advantage while we doe our duty Must we serve God for nought in that strict sense or els will â—od account nothing of all our services I shall cleare that in five briefe Conclusions and these will I suppose fully state the sense of this Text and of this speech The first is this There is no man doth or possibly can serve God for nought God hath by benefits already bestowed and by benefits promised out-vyed and out-bid all the endeavours and services of the creature If a man had a thousand paire of hands a thousand tongues and a thousand heads and should set them all on worke for God he were never able to answer the ingagements and obligations which God hath already put upon him Therfore this is a truth that no man can in a strict sense serve God for nought God is not beholden to any creature for any worke or service that is done unto him Againe secondly this is further to be considered The more outward blessings any one doth receive the more he ought to serve God and the more service God lookes for at his hands That is another Conclusion Therefore we find still that when God hath bestowed many outward blessings upon any either persons or Nations he chargeth an acknowledgement upon them Hos 2.8 She did not know that I gave her corne and wine and oyle and multiplyed her silver and gold which she bestowed upon Baal therefore I will come and recover it saith God You having received this you ought to have served me with it You see how God upbraideth David 2 Sam. 12.7 8. I annoynted thee King of Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome and if this had beene too little I would moreover have given thee such and such things How is it then that thou hast despised the Commandement of the Lord to doe evill in his sight As if he should say the more I bestowed upon thee the more obligations thou shouldest feele thy selfe under to obey me faithfully In the third place it is lawfull to have some respect to benefits both received and promised by way of Motive and incouragement to stir us up and quicken us either in doing or in suffering for God Moses Heb. 11.26 had respect to the recompence of reward therefore it is not unlawfull and Christ himselfe Heb. 12.2 looking at the joy that was set before him These
are examples beyond all exceptions that respect may be had to benefits and blessings received or exspected Fourthly Then reference unto benefit is sinfull when wee make it either the sole and only cause or the supreame and chiefe cause of our obedience This makes any thing we doe smell so of our selves that God abides it not when we respect our selves either alone or above God God hath no respect at all to us As Christ taxes those Joh. 6. You did not seeke me but the loaves to have respect to the loaves more then to Christ or as much as to Christ is to have no respect at all to Christ Thus when the Sichemites Gen. 34.23 admitted of circumcision and so gave up themselves as a Covenant-people to God here was all the argument they proposed to themselves Shall not their cattell and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours What beasts were these Sichemites what shadowes of Religion who would take upon them this badge of Religion for the gaine of beasts and worldly substance Such pure respects to our selves defile all our services and render our persons odious unto God Therefore in all our duties and holy services we must set the glory of God in the Throne that must be above and then we may set our desires of Heaven and glory on the right hand we may set the feare of hell and the avoyding of misery on the left hand we may set our desires of enjoying outward comforts here in the world at the foot-stoole Thus we must marshall and ranke respects to God and our selves And thus we may look upon outward things as motives and incouragements we must not make them ends and causes we may make them as occasions but not as grounds of our obedience Lastly We may looke upon them as fruits and consequents of holinesse yea as incouragements unto holinesse but not as causes of our holinesse or we may eye these as media through which to see the bounty and goodnesse of God not as objecta on which to fixe and terminate our desires So much for the clearing of the first part of Satans answer Doth Job serve God for nought Wherein you see he casts dirt upon Jobs sincerest duties and how we may carry our respects in the service of God to outward blessings whether received or promised It followeth Verse 10. Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side Thou hast blessed the worke of his hands and his substance is increased in the land Here Satan more fully expounds himself and what he meaneth by Jobs not serving God for nought You shall see it is not for nought He casts up the particulars of Gods benefits conferred on Job and they amount to a great summe 1. Hee hath an hedge about him that is somewhat 2. He hath blessed him that 's more 3. He doth increase and multiply there 's the highest degree of outward happinesse Here are three degrees of Gods dealing with Job These Satan reckons up in this verse that he may make Jobs goodnesse of no account and leave his person in no degree of acceptance with God Here is first Protection in the hedge Hast thou not made an hedge about him Secondly Here is a Benediction upon that which was protected It was not a bare keeping of that from spoyling but it was a blessing of it Thirdly here is also an increase or multiplication he was not only blessed to keepe himselfe and all he had in the state and plight wherein he stood but there was a daily increase and an augmentation Thou protectest him thou blessest him and thou doest increase all that he hath he is increased in the land That is the summe and sense of the words I shall now open them a little more distinctly First He speaks here of his protection hast thou not made an hedge about him Some render it Hast thou not made a wall about him Or Hast thou not made a trench about him It is an elegant Metaphor frequent in Scripture shewing that as when a field is well hedg'd or a Towne well wall'd and entrench'd then it is safe So when God is said to make an hedge or a wall about a man or about a Nation the safety of that man or Nation is assured by it Isa 5.2 We have this word used where God speakes of his vineyard He planted a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and he fenced it or he made a wall or a hedge about it So verse 5. when God is angry with his vineyard and will destroy iâ— it is thus exprest I will saith he take away the hedge thereof that is I will take away my protection from it In the same sense Zach. 2.5 I will be saith God a wall of fire round about that is I will be a defence unto it So when it is said here that God had made a hedge about Job it notes divine Protection he was under the wing and safeguard of the Almighty This hedge of protection is two-fold It is said God made this hedge Hast thou not made an hedge about him First There is an hedge which is made immediately by the hand of God Sometimes God makes the hedge immediatly yea somtimes God expresseth himself to be the hedge or wall as Zac. 2.5 so Psal 18. all those are words of protection vers 2. Thou art my rocke and my fortresse my deliverer my strength my buckler the horne of my salvation and my high Tower c. There God was the hedge here God makes the hedge God hath not put out this hedg to others to make but he makes it himselfe Satan observes as much Hast not thou made an hedge about him Secondly Sometime the hedge of protection is made by the hands of others God sends out his Angels to guard his people Psal 34.7 The Angell of the Lord encampeth round about them that feare him Encamping and hedging are to the same purpose Gods hedge is as strong for safety as any wall as any trench Sometime God doth make one man to be a hedge or a defence to another The servants of Naball said of David 1 Sam. 25.16 That he had been a wall unto them both by night and day that is he had been a protection and a guard to them he had defended them all the while his Army was quarter'd in those parts God makes a good man to be as a wall to a wicked man How much more will he make men and Angels to be wals and hedges for the security of his owne people The Text further goes on and shewes the compasse of this hedge what ground it takes in how farre it reacheth and here we shall find that it was a very large hedge of a great extent We know there are some Cities that have not only a single wall but a double wall yea some strong Cities and places have a treble wall about them So wee finde a
upward that is they shall speake basely of their King and of their God in whom they have trusted and whom they have followed he speakes of those wretches that did seeke to false gods or worship the true God falsely they shall curse their King and their God It is the very same that here Satan promiseth himselfe and undertakes with God that Job will doe Doe but make him hungry saith he and hard bestead and he will fret himself and curse thee It was very ordinary among the Heathen to doe so when their gods did not please them then they would curse their gods The Poets bring them in often raging against their gods as he speakes of the mother that found her sonne dead she calls the gods and the starres cruell she flies in the face of heaven presently who would serve such gods as these are that thus slay my son c. Satan interprets Job to be a man of the same temper Aquinas takes the word properly Touch all that he hath and he will blesse thee to thy face And endeavours to make out the sense thus touch all that he hath and thou shalt see he hath blessed thee to thy face he reades it in the Preterperfect tense that is if thou afflict him thou shalt find that all his former Religion was nothing but meere out-side formality that he served thee only from the teeth outward served thee to thy face he blessed thee pray'd unto thee and honour'd thee only to thy face He had no regard to thy worship in his heart he did not worship thee ex animo because he loved thee or delighted in thee but gave thee an outward complemental blessing because thou didst blesse him outwardly As the Apostle directs servants Eph. 6.6 Not with eye service as men pleasers Satan makes Job an eye-servant to God or as if like those of whom Christ complaineth Math. 15. in the words of the Prophet He had drawne nigh to God with his lipps while his heart was farre from him The heart of Job hath beene farre enough from thee he only blessed thee with his lips and to thy face Indeed this interpretation hath a faire face but touch it by a serious examination and it will be found without a heart The construction of Gramar is quite against it and for us to change the Text and make it to speake in the Preterperfect tense of a thing past whereas the words are in the future tense of an act to be done for the time to come is too much boldnesse with Scripture Therefore though that opinion hath a plausible sense in it yet I shall lay it by and take the ordinary translation that he indeed intended this that Job would breake forth into blasphemous revilings of God if God did but try him with an affliction And when he saith that Job would doe it to his face the meaning of it is that he would doe it openly he will curse thee openly he will curse thee boldly he will not goe behind the doore to tell tales of thee but he will speake of it before all the world that thou art a cruell God an unjust God and a hard master he will tell such tales of thee even to thy very face We have a like speech Gal. 2.11 When Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face saith Paul that is openly I did not goe behind his backe to tell Peter his owne but I told him it to his face plainly openly before them all as it is explained vers 14. I said to Peter before them all that were then present Jerome because he would not have Peter receive such an open repoofe judging it would be a disparagement to Peter to be rebuked by Paul gives a quite contrary sense of those words of Paul I withstood him to his face that is saith he I did speake somewhat roughly to him before them but there was no such thing in my heart I did it but to his face very slightly least I should offend the Jewes whose Apostle Peter was and I did it to his face a little that I might satisfie the Gentiles who were scandalized by Peters walking otherwise in my heart I had no quarrell with Peter he and I agreed well enough As if Paul had made but a shadow fight ad faciendum populum to delude the people But we must not be thus wise I withstood him to his face is not opposed to withstanding him cordially but to a withstanding of him secretly or behind his backe So here he will curse thee to thy face that is he will curse thee as the Greeke Scholiast hath it openly and impudently himselfe indeed was afraid least his sonnes had cursed God in their hearts but for all his nicenesse and seeming feare of his childrens sinning in secret he will curse thee with impudence he will not only curse thee in his heart but the curse will breake out at his lipps Out of the abundance of his heart his mouth will speake blasphemie against God He will curse thee to thy face We may give some exemplifications what it is to curse God to blaspheme God thus to his face You may reade what it is Mal. 3.14 Your words have beene stout against me saith the Lord you have spoken to my very face why what had they spoken to the Lord What have we spoken say they so much against thee Ye have said It is vaine to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts c. This is to curse God to his face when the wayes of God are blasphemed and the worship of God reported as unprofitable when men say it is in vaine to serve God when they cast aspersions and bring up an evill name upon any holy duty this is to blaspheme God They did only speake against the service of God and they thought they had not blasphemed God in it Wherein have we spoken against thee yes saith God you have spoken against me in that you have spoken against and discredited my wayes So if Job had said the wayes of God are unprofitable and I see now it is in vaine to serve God and to feare him this had beene blasphemy and cursing of God to his face David was neare upon the very brinke of this blasphemie Psal 73.13 when he said I have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands in innocency because saith he I am plagued every morning the judgements and afflictions that were upon him began to make him breake out thus But he presently be fooles himselfe for such speeches and by that repaires God in his honour Secondly To quarrell and be angry with the Providence of God as if he were not wise or just or good in his dispensations either to particular persons or to the Church This I say likewise is a cursing a reproaching of God Thirdly To curse the servants and people of God is to
the souls under the Altar cry How long Lord how long They cry to God how long they knew that he only had the time in his hand he only could tell how long and it should be as long as he pleased How long Lord They cryed not to cruell tyrants how long will ye persecute but Lord how long will it be before thou come to revenge And so David Psal 31.15 My time it is in thy hand speaking of his afflictions There is no affliction but it is in the hand of God for the continuance of it as well as for the manner of it and as no enemie man or devill can make thy crosse greater or longer or heavier so no friend man or Angell can make thy crosse lighter or lesser or shorter then God himselfe hath appointed Onely upon himselfe shalt thou not put forth thine hand thou shalt not move an inch further not a haires bredth further As our afflictions for the matter of them are by the will of God as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 4.19 While you suffer saith he according to the will of God those words according to the will of God note not only the righteousnesse of suffering that it must be in a good cause but also the spring from whence those sufferings come they are Ex voluntate Dei so Mr. Beza translates it they are out of the will of God Now I say as they are out of the will of God or from the will of God springing from his will and flowing from his dispensation of things in the matter of them so also in every circumstance God himself gives thy crosse length and bredth and thicknesse he fills thy cup of sorrow he directeth how many drops to a drop shall be put into it thou shalt not have a drop more then God prescribes and which is more comfortable knowes will be for thy good Secondly Observe That Satan is boundlesse in his malice toward the people of God If God did not set him bounds he would set himselfe no bounds therefore saith God unto him Onely upon himselfe c. He had a mind to have gone further he would have been upon Job himselfe as well as upon his estate if God had not stop'd and curb'd him Therefore the Apostle gives that assurance for the comfort of the people of God 1 Cor. 10.13 God saith he is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able As if he should say Satan would with all his heart lay more upon you than you are able to beare Satan would breake your backs if he were let alone but God will not suffer it Satan hath a boundlesse malice against the people of God Some observe this from his name Leviathan Isa 27.1 In that day the Lord with his great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent Leviathan is put there for Satan and for all the instruments of Satan now Leviathan signifieth in the Hebrew an augmentation an addition or an increase And Satan is so called because say they he ever desires to lay more burdens upon to increase the afflictions troubles and temptations of Gods people he never thinkes he hath done enough against them His thirst to worke mischiefe is never quenched but still he desires to doe more he would faine have his Commission inlarged to doe more mischiefe in the world Therefore God is said not to strike after their stroake in the 7th verse of that 27. of Isa Hath hee smitten him as he smit those that smote him In the Hebrew it is Hee hath not smitten him according to the stroake of those that smote him according to their stroake noting that the stroake of Leviathan and the stroake of his instruments is an unmeasurable stroake a boundlesse stroake they would never give over striking They thinke the wound is never deepe enough nor blood shed enough but saith the Prophet verse 8. God doth it in measure so that he opposeth their striking to Gods afflicting by the measure of it God keepeth his afflictions in such a bound and compasse he afflicts in measure but Satans stroake and the stroakes of wicked men are without all measure that is without all moderation unlesse God stop them they would never make an end Lastly Observe how Satan is by this proved a deceiver he intended more than he spake you may see it plainly in this because God put a restraint upon him Touch all that he hath saith Satan that referred to his possessions outward estate as if that had bin the mind of Satan in the motion do but afflict him in his outward estate I desire no more to make this tryal now when the Lord saith All that he hath is in thy hand there he grants him the motion in the letter of it but the Lord God saw that Satan had a further reach when he said Touch all that he hath which words seeme to extend no further then his estate but had not God limited and restrain'd him he by an indefinite grant to his motion had likewise fallen upon his person that was the great morsell he gaped after all this while he would have been doing with Job himselfe else there was no need of this limitation Onely upon himselfe put not forth thy hand Satans fingers itcht to be medling with Job though his words called for what he had not for himselfe And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. As soone as he hath leave and his Commission he is gone presently He went out from the presence of the Lord. The word is he went out from the face of the Lord Now the face of the Lord in Scripture it is taken sometimes for the essentiall glory of God that inaccessible Majesty of God Exod. 33. ult Thou canst not behold my face Sometimes the face of God is put for the favour and love of God Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate Dan. 9.17 and cause thy face to shine upon thy servant So in many other places the face of God is put for the favour of God because as the favour and love of a man is seene and discovered in his face so there is somewhat in those dealings of God which discover God he is said to make his face to shine upon his people when he doth discover by any act of his that he loves and favours them that is the shining of his face upon them The face interprets the heart and shewes the meaning of the spirit so in those things which interpret somewhat of the love of God to us God is said to make his face shine upon us On the other side the face of God is put sometimes for the anger and wrath of God because anger is seene in the face too so in those things by which God discovereth his anger he is said to set his face against men there is an expresse place for it in this sense Lam. 4.16 The anger of the Lord the
Hebrew is the face of the Lord hath divided them that is the Lord hath done such things as have the character of anger upon them that doe represent and hold forth nothing but the anger of the Lord unto a people and that anger of the Lord is called the face of the Lord unto a people Thirdly by the face of the Lord in Scripture we may understand the ordinances and the worship of God because in them and by them God is revealed manifested and knowne to his people as a man is knowne by his face So in the old Testament comming to God in those institutions was called appearing before God because in them God had promised to manifest himselfe unto his people Lastly the face of God is put for the common and generall presence of God in the world by which he filleth Heaven and Earth Psal 139.7 Whether shall I go from thy presence Now when it is said that Satan went forth from the face of God or from the presence of God it cannot be understood in the first or in the second sense for he cannot so come into the presence of God or before the face of God before his face of glory or before his face of favour Satan never came nor ever shall And as the presence of God is taken for his worship so Satan cares not to come into his presence Lastly as the face of God signifies his common and generall presence in the world so Satan cannot possibly goe out from his face Whether shall I goe from thy presence nor men nor devils are able to go out of the presence of the Lord in that sence for he filleth Heaven and Earth Then these words He went out from the presence of the Lord are spoken after the manner of men When a servant commeth to his Master to receive Commission to doe some businesse and hath his errand given him then he goeth out from the presence of his Master about his businesse So Satan comes here upon a businesse unto God he makes a motion and desireth to have such power put into his hand to doe such and such things the Lord grants it and so soone as ever he had his dispatch he goeth out of the presence of the Lord. So that the meaning is only this that Satan left off speaking with God left off moving God any further at that time and went out to execute that which he got commission to doe as servants goe out from the presence of their Masters when they have received warrant or direction what to doe While a servant is in expectation of his message or errand so long his eyes are upon his Master Our eyes wait upon thee O God as the eyes of servants looke unto the hands of their Masters Psal 123.3 The eyes of servants wait upon the face of the Master till they have received their message and then they goe out from their presence It notes the speed that Satan makes when he receives power from God to afflict or to chasten and try any of his children he makes no stay presently he goeth out from the presence of the Lord. Satan is speedy and active in executing any power that is committed unto him against the people of God against any particular member or against the Church in generall As soone as ever he hath but his Commission to afflict he is gone about it instantly As the good Angels in Heaven are described to have wings because as soone as ever they have received a command from God they are upon the wing they fly as it were to fulfill the will of God and in that sense goe out of his presence So Satan and the wicked Angels are upon the wing too in that sense as soon as ever they have received power they presently put it in execution And we may in this make Satan himselfe our patterne As we pray that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven in heaven by the good Angels So in this sense I say we may desire that we may doe the will of God with as much speed as the evill Angels It is not unwarrantable to learne from Satan speedily to be doing about the will of God JOB 1.13 14 c. And there was a day when his sonnes and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brothers house And there came a messenger unto Job and said The Oxen were plowing and the asses feeding besides them And the Sabeans fell upon them c. IN the former context we shewed you the affliction of Job mooved by Satan and permitted by God Touch all that he hath is Satans motion All that he hath is in thine hand is Gods permission From this 13th verse to the end of the 19th the afflictions of Job are particularly described and we may observe 6 particulars in the Context concerning his afflictions 1. The time or season of his afflictions And there was a day when his sonnes and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brothers house ver 13. 2. The instruments or the meanes of his afflictions Satan who undertooke the afflicting of Job stands as it were behind the doore he doth not appeare in it but sets on others His instruments were first cruell and bloody minded men the Sabeans verse 15. The Chaldeans verse 17. Secondly those active creatures devouring fire and stormy windes the fire verse 16. the winde verse 19. 3. The matter of his affliction or in what he was afflicted it was in his outward estate 4. The variety of his afflictions he was not smitten in some one thing in some one part of his outward estate but he was afflicted in all his Oxen his Asses and his Camels violently taken away his Sheep burnt up by the fire his sons and his daughters over-whelmed and crushed by the fall of an house all his servants attending upon these slaine consumed destroyed excepting only one from every stroke to be the sad relator or messenger of these calamities 5. The suddennesse of his afflictions they came all upon him in one day 6. The uncessantnesse of the report of these afflictions the sound of them all was in his eares at once as they were all brought upon him in one day so they are all told him in one houre yea by the story it doth appeare there were but very few moments betweene the first and the last For the Text saith that no sooner had one messenger ended his dolefull news but another begins nay they did not stay so long as to let one another make an end but the Text saith While the former was yet speaking there came another and said and so while the next was yet speaking there came another and said while he was yet speaking another c. So that Satan did not give Job so much as the least minute of intermission to breath a while or recollect himselfe His troubles both in the acting and in the reporting were close
The Lord hath taken What will Job charge all those robberies upon God himselfe Doth not this looke like the blasphemy that the devill hoped would come out of Jobs mouth I answer when Job saith the Lord hath taken it doth but set forth the supreame power and soveraignty of God in ordering all things and as we opened before that God gave the Commission to Satan or leave to spoyle him or else Satan could not have touched one of the dogs of his Flocke Job knew that God had all men and devils fire and wind all creatures in his hand He saith the Lord hath taken because none could take but by the will of God and he was satisfied that God willed that in righteousnesse and in judgement which they acted with so much cruelty and injustice Is there any evill in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 Every evill of affliction or of trouble is said to be the Lords doing because it cannot be done without the Lord. Wicked men in all their plots and in all their successes are either the rod of God to chasten his people for their sins or else they are as Gods fornace to try his peoples graces and purge them from their sins Thus the hand of the Lord is in all our sorrows The Lord saith Job hath taken away We should from hence learne In all our afflictions to looke beyond the creature In all the evils we either feele or feare let our hearts be carried up unto God As then we rightly enjoy outward blessings when those blessings carry us up unto God when upon creatures our hearts are raised up to Heaven So then we make a right use of afflictions of crosses and troubles when we are led by crosses in our meditations unto God Job doth not say the Lord hath given and the Caldeans have taken away the Lord hath enrich'd me and Satan hath robb'd me but as if he had never heard any mention of Satan or Chaldeans of fire or winde he saith the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken He doth not fall out with man or complaine of the devill he is not angry with chance or fortune with starres or constellations many in the troublesome evils which they suffer are apt to fly out upon all creatures and upon all causes rather then to cast an eye upon God whereas indeed we should not take either good or evill out of the hand of any creature There were some of old Marcion and his followers who could not relish this Doctrine nor endure that we should carry our evils and lay them before Gods doore and say the Lord hath done this Therefore they found out two beginnings that is two Gods rather then they would make the same God the authour of such extreames as they thought of good and evill They said There was one God that was a good God and another an evill God the one a giving God the other a taking God the one a loving God a mercifull God the other an angry God a severe God Many of the Heathen taught better divinity then those Heretikes For they feyned that their Jupiter had two great vessels placed at the entrance of his Pallace whereof the one was filled with Good and the other with Evill These he dispenced according to the dictate of his owne will among the sons of men And they painted Fortune in two formes with two faces of contrary colours the formost white the hindermost blacke to signifie that good and evill which they shadow'd under white and blacke came both from goddesse Fortune which comes neare that language in the Prophet Isa 45.7 I forme the light and create darkenesse I make peace and create evill And we are taught to looke upon the same God as the spring and fountaine of all good and of all this sort of evill Though it be a truth as the Apostle speakes that the same fountaine cannot send forth bitter water and sweet take it in a naturall or morall sense yet the same fountaine may send forth bitter and sweet take it in a civill sense that is the same may be the authour of outward corrections and of outward favours God is not the fountaine of good and of evill in a morall sense so nothing but good floweth from him but take it in a civill sense and so both good and evill bitter and sweet come from the same fountaine Consider the words as they are an argument and then see their strength to the purposes for which Job doth especially here apply them First the acquitting or justifying of God 2. The supporting and comforting of himselfe and so wee may note from them First That the absolute soveraignty of the Lord over us is enough to acquit him from doing us any wrong whatsoever he doth with us Job saith only this The Lord hath given and the Lord hath fallen He is the soveraigne Lord therefore I have no reason to complaine he doth it upon whom I have laid no ingagement upon whom I have no tie at all to doe this or that for me he doth it who may resolve the reason of all his actions into his owne will he is the Lord. God cannot injure his creature therefore the Apostle hath recourse to that onely in the 9th Rom. for the answer of all cavils and objections against Gods dealing with man Hath not the Potter power over the clay The soveraignty and supremacy of the Lord is enough to beare him out whatsoever he doth with or to his creatures O man who art thou that repliest against God Then againe it is as strong for the second end for the support of the soule in bearing evill consider that it is the Lord that giveth and the Lord that takes The thought of Gods soveraignty over us and over ours may quiet our spirits in all that he doth unto us or ours As it doth justifie God so it should quiet us heare David Psal 39 9. I was dumbe saith he and opened not my mouth because thou diddest it he doth not say I was contented because thou dealest thus and thus with me but I was dumbe I opened not my mouth because thou diddest it that it was the act of God the soveraigne Lord satisfied him he had not a word to say because God did it So Job here The Lord hath taken away is as if he had said I could not have borne this at the hands of any creature but at the hands of my soveraigne Lord that may dispose of me and mine and doe what he pleaseth at his hands I not only beare it but take it well Joseph had not a word of discontent to vent against his brethren being thus resolved It was not you that sent me hither but God Gen. 45. And David layes aside all revenge against rayling Shimei on this ground So let him curse because the Lord hath said unto him curse David 2 Sam. 16.10 A godly man cannot be angry at the doing or speaking of that which pleaseth
to lay his siedge nearer and closer to Iob presuming that though he had not prevailed at the first yet he shall at the second charge let me charge him but once more and then see his fall He will curse thee to thy face JOB 2.1 2 3 4 5 6. Verse 1. Againe there was a day when the sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himselfe before the Lord. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan from whence commest thou And Satan answered the Lord and said from going too and fro in the earth and from walking up and downe in it 3. And the Lord said unto Satan Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evill and still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause 4. And Satan answered the Lord and said skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life 5. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face 6. And the Lord said unto Satan Behold he is in thine hand but save his life AS the Prophet Ezekiel when in vision he had beene shewed one abomination was led forward to a second and a third and a fourth with Come see a greater abomination than this or these Or as the Angell proclaimeth in the Revelation One woe is past and another woe is at hand The same may we say concerning this History of Jobs sorrowes Having shewed you his first affliction in the former Chapter I must now leade on your attentions with Come behold a second a greater then that and having shewed you one woefull day I must now shew you a second Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves This whole Chapter presents us in the generall with Jobs second tryall About which wee may observe these particulars 1. The occasion of it 2. The causes of it 3. The manner of it 4. The consequents of it 1. The occasion of it was Satans appearing at that heavenly Session and being there questioned about that former affliction of Job he answers with slander and desireth that Job may be brought about to a second tryall 2. The causes of this affliction as of the first are two 1. God And 2. Satan 1. God permitting and limiting it 2. Satan provoking and then inflicting it Both are laid downe in the words of the context now read to the end of the sixth verse 3. The manner of this affliction was the striking and smiting of Jobs body with a sore and noysome disease which you have contained in ver 7 8. 4. The Consequents of this affliction or what followed upon it and those are three 1. His wives sinfull councell ver 9. As soone as she saw him thus smitten What saith shee doest thou still retaine thine integrity Curse God and die There 's her counsell 2. His wise and holy reply ver 10. 3. His friends loving visit vers 11 12 13. They hearing of the affliction of Job came from a farre country to see him and to comfort him These are the distinct parts of the whole Chapter These six verses descipher the occasion and the causes of Jobs affliction Satan inciting and provoking the Lord and the Lord permitting and limitting Satan The three first containe the same matter which we have opened and explained in the former Chapter and they are almost word for word the same therefore I shall not need to stay long upon them Only I shall enquire a little further about two things First about the day of this great appearance And secondly about the persons appearing who are said to be the sons of God To the former of these the Jewish Doctors contend much That this was the first day in the recourse or returne of the yeare intimating if not contending that the first day of every yeare was as Gods day of generall Audit in which he conveen'd or called together his Angels to give him an account of all the passages and dispatches of the yeare past and to give them instructions what to doe the yeare comming which opinion I leave under the censure of a learned Interpreter as grosse and groundlesse Others fixe it upon the last day of the weeke affirming that this was the Sabbath day And that this was a convention or Assembly of the Church on Earth for the solemne worship of God upon that day which is here called A presenting themselves before the Lord in concurrence with which opinion the sonnes of God must needs be interpreted holy men I find some affirming that men are not called the sons of God in all the old Testament but the Angels only And so they take that Text Gen 6.2 The sons of God saw the daughters of men c. for the Angels either good or bad who being taken with the beauty of those daughters assuming bodies came into them of whom came the Giants A conceit as monstrous as those Giants and fitter for a fabulist then a Divine On the other extreame Chrysostome denyes that the Angels are at all called the sonnes of God We may walke safely in a middle way betweene these two For both Angels and men are called the sonnes of God Why Angels are called the sons of God hath been shewed Chap. 1. v. 6. Men are called the sons of God for two reasons either for their power or greatnesse so they Gen. 6.2 might be called the sonnes of God because great and powerfull on the earth Or rather secondly for their piety and holinesse by which they resemble God and in which they serve God as a sonne doth the Father Indeed the Apostle affirmes that the priviledge of sonship was brought-in by the Incarnation of Christ who is said In the fullnesse of time to be made of a woman c. That we might receive the adoption of sonnes Gal. 4.5 But in Scripture a thing is spoken of as newly done when it is more fully done Joh. 7.39 The Holy Ghost is said not to be given at that time because he had not been so plentifully given And the Apostle to the Hebrewes speakes as if the way into Heaven had been but then opened because it was then more clearly opened Heb. 9.8 So we are said to receive the adoption of sons when Christ came in the flesh because then our son-ship was more apparant though before it was as reall So then according to this Interpretation the sence of the words is That upon the Sabbath day when the servants of God the faithfull of that age and place were met together to celebrate the publick worship of God Satan the evill spirit who is ever ready to oppose and resist us to interrupt and hinder us when we appeare before the Lord in holy duties came also among them to
the soule is more worth then a thousand lives What will it advantage a man to gaine the world and loose his soule Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule The truth is a man should not gaine much to get the whole world and loose his life that losse is a losse irreparable irrecompensible from the creature Nature teacheth us to prize our lives above the world and grace teacheth us to value our soules above our lives Therefore how unnaturall are they that preferre a little profit before their lives but O how ungracious are they who preferre a little profit before their soules Some will sinne as we say for six-pence selling their owne soules as those false Prophets did the soules of their people for hand-fulls of barley and for peeces of bread Ezek. 13.19 And whereas a man should give all for his life they will give their soules for a thing of nought Know therefore the worth of your soules Jesus Christ thought soules worth his life and therefore dyed to save soules How much then doe our soules transcend our owne lives And if Christ laid downe his life to ransome soules doe you rather lay downe a thousand lives if you had them then indanger your soules either by acting sinne or by submitting unto errour In that case let estate goe let liberty goe let life let all goe for life hath not so much preheminence over all as the soule hath over life Fourthly If your lives are worth so much then what is the Gospell worth If a man would give all for his life what should he give for his Religion to maintaine and uphold that in the purity and power of it Life is a precious thing a thing of great value but when the Gospell comes in competition then life is a poore commodity and our breath but a perishing vapour Such was the judgement of that great Apostle Act. 20.24 when the Holy Ghost had witnessed in every City that bonds and afflictions did abide him in preaching the Gospell he thus resolves But none of these things move me neither count I my life deare unto my selfe so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministery which I have received to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God His life came to a low rate in his esteeme how cheape was life when the Gospell was spoken of I count not my life deare saith Paul as all other outward things are meane and low compared with life so life it selfe is a meane a low thing in comparison of the Gospell This life is but the life of the body but the Gospell is the life of the soule Many men live but no soule lives on this side or without the Gospell Now if you will offer much to save your lives will not you offer much more to save the Gospell In and about this we may make the best improvement of Satans argument Skin for skin and all that a man hath should he give for the Gospell for Gospell ordinances for Gospell priviledges for Gospell light Where or for what will you venture and bid high if not for the precious Gospell Lastly If life be worth all then hereby we may take measure of the love and bounty of Christ to poore sinners who not onely spent himselfe in all to his life but spent life and all that they might not perish the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding great towards us That though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poore 2 Cor. 8.9 That though he was in the forme of God and thought it no robbery to be equall with God yet he made himselfe of no reputation Phil. 2.6 7. But how superabundant was his grace towards us that though he was the Prince of life Act. 3.15 Yet became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse Phil. 2.8 that we might live If a man loves his life so that he will give skin for skin and all that he hath to redeeme it then O how did Christ love his Church who gave not only his riches and his reputation but his life also for it's redemption JOB 2.5 6 7 8. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face And the Lord said unto Satan Behold he is in thine hand but save his life So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boyles from the sole of his foote unto his crowne And he tooke him a pot-sheard to scrape himselfe withall and he sate downe among the ashes IN this fifth verse Satan goeth on and makes a motion unto God as we observed his method in the former Chapter but put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face This is Satans motion In the sixth verse we have a grant of this motion bound up yet with a limitation as it was in the former Chapter For the motion But put forth thine hand now and touch c. What it importeth to put forth the hand that was opened in the former Chapter vers 11. where we have the same expression therefore we shall not stay upon it here Consider now only that which is differing a new object upon which the hand must be put forth and which Satan desireth might now be touched It is the laying of his hand not upon his Cattell or upon his estate or upon his children but upon his flesh and his bone Touch his bone and his flesh that is afflict his body The bone and the flesh are the two chiefe parts the materiall parts of the body of them the whole Fabrique doth consist the bone it is as the timber in this house and the flesh it is as the lime and morter filling of it up Touch this saith Satan And in that he saith touch his bone and his flesh he intends and requires a deepe and a sore affliction upon his body for if he had said only thus Touch his flesh that had beene an affliction upon his body For we know often in Scripture the flesh is put for the whole body and sometimes for the whole man therefore Satan is not satisfied with an expression generall but he putteth it in direct and expresse termes Touch his flesh and his bone that is touch him so as that the paine and the distemper may sinke into his very bones into his very Marrow touch him thus and then you shall see what he will doe The Bone it selfe is a part without feeling yet to touch the bone imports the greatest paine that can be felt Touch his bone and his flesh and then saith he He will curse thee to thy face What it is to curse to the face hath bin opened already in the former Chapter at the eleventh verse and I must referre you thither for the sence of this phrase only in a word take it thus Hee will curse thee to thy face is as if
say she was one one act is enough to assimilate but it is not enough to denominate Thus much may serve to evince that though we take the words in that worst sense yet it doth not necessarily inferre that Jobs wife was a wicked an ungodly woman which is the objection against that Exposition From the words translated Curse God and die and thus expounded we may observe First That Satan is restlesse and unwearied in this designe to bring the people of God to thinke ill and speake ill of God It is that he laboured for in the carrying on of this whole businesse concerning Job and every stone is turned every way tryed to accomplish this proposed end Secondly In that he perswadeth Job by his wife when he was in this wofull condition to curse God and die Observe That Satan would perswade us to ease our selves of troublesome evills by falling into sinfull evils Job was grievously diseased you see the medicine and the cure that Satan prescribeth Goe sinne saith he curse God and die whereas one of the least evills of sin is worse then all the evills of suffering that can befall us All sorrowes are more elegible then one sin It hath been rightly taught us from Antiquitie that the lowest degree of a lye because sin is not to be made or admitted if that medium could be assured so noble an end for the saving of a world What a father and teacher of lyes then is Satan who directs many a poore soule to save it selfe from or helpe it selfe out of a small affliction by adventuring upon some great transgression Thirdly Curse God and die It is sinfull to wish our own deaths though we are under paines more painefull then death It is sinfull to desire death absolutely we may desire it with submission to the will of God To live is an act of nature but to be willing to live because God wills it is an act of grace And as it is our holinesse to doe the will of God while we live so it is our holinesse to be content to live while we suffer according to his will On the other hand to die is an act of nature but to die because God wills it is an act of grace Christ is said to be obedient unto death because he died in contemplation of Gods decree and in conformity to his good pleasure To die thus is the duty of a Christian and the crowne of all his obedience Satan would have us live as we will and die when we will he tempts us as much to die when we list as to live how we list Satan puts Job upon it peremptorily curse God and die desire or procure thy own death To wish dâ—â—th that we may enjoy Christ it is a holy wish but yet we must not wish that neither absolutely The Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ yet you see how he qualifies and debates it To wish for death that we may be freed from sinne is a holy wish but yet wee must not wish that absolutely neither we must referre our selves to the pleasure of God how long he will let us conflict with our corruptions and with our lusts with this body of death and sin which we beare about us But to wish for death because our lives are full of trouble is an unholy wish God may yea and hath as much use of our lives in our troubles as in our comforts We may doe much businesse for God in a sick-bed We may doe God as much worke when we are bound hand and foote in a prison as when we are at liberty passive obedience brings as much glory to God as active doth therefore we must not wish for death especially not with an absolute wish because we are under troublesome evils And if it be sinfull to wish for death how wicked is it to procure or hasten death to pull down our house of clay with our own hands because we are under troublesome evills Fourthly Observe further Satan would perswade that death is an end at least an ease of outward troubles Wouldest thou have an end of thy troubles and of thy sorrowes Curse God and die here is the remedy We say indeed of some remedies that they are worse then the disease but I am sure this is Death to ungodly ones it is so farre from being an end or an ease of their troubles that it is to them as Christ speakes in another case the beginning of sorrowes the entrance to eternall death and the very suburbs of Hell Yet how many doth Satan perswade when they are in Jobs case in great extremities that death will be the cure of all their troubles Fifthly Observe That Satan would make men willing to die when they are most unfit to die You see what preparation Satan directs Job unto he biddeth him curse God and die Would not Job thinke you have bin in a fit posture in a fit frame for death when he had bin cursing God Repent and die pray and die humble thy selfe and die beleeve and die take fast hold of Christ who is our life our way to life and die are the counsels and voice of the holy Ghost but Satans language is curse God and die sin and die be impenitent and die blaspheme and die And it is an experienced truth that oftentimes they seeme most willing to die who are most unfit most unready for death you shall see some men venturing yea casting away their lives without feare or wit the whole visible businesse of whose lives hath been nothing else but a working out of their own damnation without feare or trembling They as it were give diligence all their dayes to make Hell and reprobation sure and yet goe out of the world as if they were sure of Heaven This is Satans preparation curse God and dye Lastly Note this That the holiest person is lyable to the most blasphemous temptation One would have wondred that Satan should ever have ventured to suggest such a grosse thing as this to so holy a man as Job But Satan where he hath been often foyled growes impudent and will then suggest such things not because he hopes to prevaile but because he resolves to vex such as he cannot overcome He troubles as much and as many as he can So much of the counsell which Jobs wife gave him reproving him as foolish and over-credulous in holding fast that unprofitable thing his integrity and advising him to be worse then mad or out-ragious in cursing God and dying Let us now consider Jobs holy and wise reply in the tenth Verse But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh what shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill These words containe Jobs reply wherein two things are considerable First A reproofe Secondly A refutation First He rejects her counsell with a sharpe and wholesome reprehension and then he refuteth her counsell by strong
upon the rock unshaken unmoved He that is held up by everlasting armes shall stand fast for ever In all this Job sinned not The words referre to what was past For Job afterward did faile and sinned with his lips through vehemency of paine and heate of disputation he spake some things rashly though nothing blasphemously So he confesses Chap. 42.13 I have uttered things that I understood not But in all this so farre as Job had gone he had not sinned with his lips As Samuel after many victories and deliverances sets up a stone or a pillar with this inscription Eben-Ezer The stone of helpe saying Hitherto hath the Lord helped us 1 Sam. 7.12 So here the holy Ghost doth as it were erect a pillar raise a monument of Jobs compleate and glorious victories over Satan Thus engraven Hitherto In all this Job hath not sinned Yet you may remember that such speeches concerning the Saints are to be understood in a qualified sense not in an absolute sense For who can bring a cleane thing out of that which is uncleane Perfection out of imperfection Not to sin is here our duty and should be our endeavour it shall be our reward in Heaven On earth we are said not to sin when we desire not to sin as hath bin more at large shewed upon those words of the last verse of the former Chapter In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly There reade the point handled more distinctly For the opening of these words note only this that when it is said In all this Job sinned not There is more to be understood then is exprest for Job did not only not sin but he overcame and triumphed gloriously over Satan he did excellently and he spake excellently in all this So then these words carry the sense not only of a bare acqittall but of a high approbation In all this Job sinned not with his lips With his lips Some of the Jewes inferre from hence that he sinned in his heart because it is said he did not sin in words they conceit there was some irregularity in his thoughts Surely if his heart had been disorder'd his tongue would have been disorder'd too for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh therefore it is rather an argument that his heart was free from sin because his tongue was In all this Job sinned not with his lips That is he did not murmure or repine or blaspheme these are the sins of the lips Observe first Not to sinne is the highest and truest the most honourable and lasting victory of all This victory God himselfe applauds the holy Ghost will cry you up for strength and valour when you come off from a temptation untouch't you shall be recorded for it among Christs worthies In all this Job sinned not And secondly To governe the tongue under great and sore afflictions is a high act of grace It is spoken as matter of wonder In all this Job sinned not with his lips Moses you know was a meeke man yet he was so put to it that he spake unadvisedly with his lips He opened his lips so unadvisedly that God shut him out of the temporall Canaan for it rash words cost him deare David was a very holy man and very carefull over his tongue Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sinne not with my tongue I will keepe my mouth with a bridle And knowing though as the Apostle James teacheth us we put bits into the Horses mouthes that they may obey us we can turne about their whole body Jam. 3.3 that no bridle of his putting could keepe his mouth he puts this worke into the hand of God praying with all earnestnesse Set a watch O Lord before my mouth keepe the doore of my lips Notwithstanding all this we find him sinning with his lips more then once Psal 73.13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands in innocency And againe Psal 116.11 I said in my hast all men are lyars Job had the preheminence in this he sinned not with his lips no not when he was afflicted and smitten with bitter words He that offendeth not in words saith the Apostle James is a perfect man he is a perfect man indeed who can rule his tongue and so keepe the doore of his lips as that he offends not either by silence or by speech The lips doe offend both wayes negatively as well as positively by speaking and by not speaking Sometimes silence is a loud sinne not speaking is to some on some occasions a crying sin Job sinned not with his lips either by being silent when he should speake or by speaking wherein and when he should be silent And so much concerning this second consequent of Jobs affliction His wives sinfull counsell with his prudent and gracious answer sharpely yet moderately rebuking strongly yet lovingly convincing her folly In and by both faithfully indeavouring at once to discover and cure her errour The third consequent of his affliction now followes namely the visit of his friends described in the three last verses of this Chapter which leads us into the body of the Booke with all the debates disputes and arguments held and maintained with much acutenesse of wit and strength of reasoning between him and these three his friends and visitants JOB 2.11 12 13. Now when Jobs three friends heard of all this evill that was come upon him they came every one from his owne place Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuite and Zophar the Naamathite for they had made an appointment together to come to mourne with him and to comfort him And when they lift up their eyes afarre off and knew him not they lifted up their voice and wept and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards Heaven So they sate downe with him upon the ground seven dayes and seven nights and none spake a word unto him for they saw that his griefe was very great THese three verses containe the third generall consequent of Jobs second affliction In the division of the Chapter we called it his friends visit In which visit we may here observe First The number of the visitants They were three Now when Jobs three friends Secondly We have here the names of these visitants Eliphas the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite Thirdly We have the occasion of their visit And that was the report of all the evill that was come upon Job Now when Jobs three friends heard of all this evill that was come upon him then they came Fourthly We have the ground of this visit It was a mutuall agreement or a compact made betweene them so saith the text For they had made an appointment together to come Fifthly We have the end or the intendment of their coming what they aimed at in visiting Job And the end is exprest in the Text to be two-fold 1. To communicate with him in his
word alone signifies as it were all degrees and all kinds of sorrow then consider both the variety of kind and intention of degrees collected in Jobs sorrows which a word so comprehensive is not sufficient to expresse the aid of two other words is called in to helpe out our conception of his sorrowes They saw his griefe they saw his griefe was great yet you have not all They saw his griefe was very great exceeding great this aggravates his griefe and winds up his sorrow to the highest as if now the affliction were growne to a full stature God threatens Babylon Isa 47.9 These two things shall come upon thee in a moment in one day the losse of children and widdow-hood these things shall come upon thee in their perfection Sometimes imperfect judgements are upon a people or a person they are as it were infant judgements judgements beginning anon they grow to a greater height and anon they come to a perfect stature to be mighty ones giantly judgements at that time God had even brought Jobs affliction to its perfection and his griefe was proportionable very great For this reason his friends kept silence this reason hath an influence on all the acts of their sorrow but especially upon this their keeping silence For they saw his griefe was very great From these ceremoniall acts of sorrow I have observed divers things heretofore Now take one thing in generall That great sufferings call us to and warrant us in solemne mournings Iobs friends doe not only mourne but they mourne as it were in state there is a kind of magnificence in mourning a pomp in mourning I approve not a proud pomp but an humble pomp they mourne you see with all the formalities of mourning so it becometh us sometimes as great mercies call for great rejoycings so great afflictions call for great lamentings There is a decency in it when our affections keepe pace with the dispensations of God whether they be mercies or judgements comforts or afflictions Secondly Forasmuch as Jobs friends seeing his sorrow to be thus very great kept silence Observe That in great in over-whelming sorrows the mind is unfit to receive and take in comfort When griefe is very great words give little ease pretious words are wasted and throwne away comfort it selfe is a trouble in the greatnesse and height of trouble I am sure a mind full charg'd with sorrow hath no roome for comfort is not at leisure for counsell It is a profitable rule in visiting friends that are sick or in distresse when you see them in extremity of paine of body or in extremity of anguish and trouble of spirit keepe silence waite a while Let the waters asswage a little and the winds fall before you meddle Let them come to themselves before you move them As sodaine anger so sodaine sorrow is a kind of phrensy No wise Physitian will give a medicine in a fit The body must settle before it is fit for physick and so must the mind too silence is as good as physick in some distempers both of mind and body A talkative comforter is another disease to a sick man unseasonable councell is a wound instead of a plaister and instead of healing tortures the patient It is as high a point of prudence to know when as to know what to advise a distressed friend Solomon tells us in generall Eccles 3.7 There is a time to keepe silence and a time to speake Let me advise this for one particular time or season to keepe silence namely the extremity and height of trouble The Prophet Amos c. 5.13 speakes of a time wherein the prudent shall be silent and he shewes us why in that time the prudent shall keepe silence for it is an evill time Some interpret this as an addition to the common calamity of those times They should be so evill that wise-men would hold their peace The Apostle prophecies of such times wherein men will not endure sound doctrine 2 Tim. 4 3. in Religion And such times may be wherein men will not endure sound doctrine in policy Then the prudent hold their peace and none speake but fooles or flatterers such times make the quickest market for their sophisticated wares no other will goe off Such are very evill times and this is a sore judgement upon those times There is hope of good when wise men speake A word from their mouthes may cure and deliver a nation Yet I conceive that this Text of Amos may be understood as a description of a wise mans duty at least of his property in some high and great distempers upon a people He sees them uncapeable of counsell to give them good advice is at that present but the casting of pearles before swine all is lost and undervalued if not trampled on Yea he sees that the more he labours to reforme the more he enrages them therefore till this fit be over prudence teacheth him to keepe silence Thus also it is with private persons in regard of the evills they endure they cannot endure faithfull counsell in such an evill day upon any private person let the prudent keepe silence and waite for an opportunity which may open a passage to let in their reproofes or directions or consolations with a taking advantage into the hearts of their afflicted friends and bretheren The Prophet Isaiah seeing the troubles approaching Jerusalem resolves to take his fill of mourning Therefore said I looke away from me I will weepe bitterly labour not to comfort me chap. 22.4 He either thought that the beholders would faint to see him and therefore saith looke away from me or that seeing him they would say he fainted and so would be giving him comfort that therefore his sorrow might have full scope He saith Looke away from me I will weepe bitterly labour not to comfort me When a man is resolved to mourne let him mourne your advise may anger him but it will not help him Let sorrow have its way a while and that will make way for comfort We have thus farre carried on the sad story of Jobs visitation his griefe is now come to the height It is very great We have also seene his friends visit with a double intendment both to mourne with him and to comfort him We have seene them mourning they fully reacht that end We leave them now silent waiting for a time to attempt and accomplish the other end they miserably failed in that it was to comfort him but they proved miserable comforters Which in the progresse and processe of this Booke will receive a large and full discovery JOB 3.1 2 3 c. Verse 1. After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day And Job spake and said Let the day perish wherein I was borne and the night wherein it was said There is a man-child conceived c. THE former Chapter concluded with the astonishment and silence of Jobs three friends This Chapter beginneth with an astonishing speech of Job
Sam. 16.15 who came forth and cursed David still as he came That act was alike opposite both to the rule and word of the 5th Commandement which saith honour thy father c. taking-in the civill father as well as the naturall Shimeis cursing David lightly esteemed David he did not looke upon him in or according to the weightinesse and honour of his Kingly person or of his Kingly office a King is a weighty person a Crowne is a weighty thing Shimei despised and so cursed both Sometime the word is translated directly to despise I will give you two texts for that Gen. 16.4 When Hagar saw she had conceived her Mistresse was despised in her eyes it is the same word with that used here for cursing the meaning is she did lightly esteeme her Mistresse Thus she thought now shall I have the honour of raising Abrahams family now I am at least as good a woman as my mistresse thus she despised Sarah Againe 1 Sam. 2.30 where the Lord saith concerning Elies sonnes Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed I will make little account of them that make little account of me and woe be to those though all the world honour them whom God despiseth That man looses more then honour whom God doth not honour And they who deny God his honour deny him all good and offer him all evill such a dispising of God is a cursing of God Further To curse if we consider it in the nature of the thing and not strictly in the literall sense of the word is to wish evill to a thing or person This also is the meaning of the curse in this place for when Iob explaines this curse in the parts of it he doth as it were with wonderfull art and skill gather together whatsoever may be thought the evill of a day or the evill of a night and calls it up to seize upon them A curse or to curse virtually containes in it all evill As a blessing or to blesse containes in it virtually all good Every mercy we enjoy is a blessing specificated And so any evill that falls upon man as Sword Famine Pestilence c. is a curse specificated Howsoever possibly those things which are in their nature evill and in their matter a curse may be qualified in reference unto some persons into a blessing But take a curse properly and it containeth all evill and only evill in it Therefore as when God had given the world an esse a being that he might give it a bene esse a well being he adds to the work of Creation the word of benediction And God blessed them and said unto them be fruitfull c. Gen. 1.22 28. So afterward when man had sinned and the Lord intended to leave the world groaning under part of those evills which sin had brought upon it he wraps up all in the word of a curse Cursed be the ground for thy sake c. Gen. 3.17 So then when Job curseth his day he wisheth all the evill to it that a day is capable of And Job opened his mouth and cursed his day But what was this day that Job was so angry with it and that his passion doth so burne against it The Text speakes indefinitely Job cursed his day Some understand it of the day of his present suffering he cursed the day on which such troubles befell him And we find sometimes in Scripture that a day put thus alone is an evill or a troublesome day As in the 12th verse of the Prophecie of Obadiah the Lord rebukes the children of Edom thus Thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother that is the day of thy brother Jacobs sufferings the day wherein I had him under my rod and afflicted him So the day of the Lord is the day of the Lords anger when he powres wrath and trouble upon the earth Isa 2.12 The day of the Lord of hostes shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty and upon every one that is lifted up and he shall be brought low The day of the Lord or the day of a man undetermin'd often signifies an evill day But here we may rather understand it for that day which was as the occasion or for the occasionall day of all Jobs troubles and that was his birth-day If his birth-day had beene prevented all his troublesome dayes had beene prevented therefore he falls out with that as himselfe explaines it verse 3. Let the day perish saith he there wherein I was borne and the night in which it was said there is a man-child conceived It is usuall to call a mans birth-day his day so the Scripture is conceived to speake Hos 7.5 In the day of our King the Princes have made him sicke with bottles of wine That is on his birth-day which among Princes is commonly solemniz'd with feasting As we reade of Pharaoh and of Herod So then the day is his birth-day the day of his nativity which some take precisely for the day upon which he was borne and others more largely for the annuall returne of that day as if he had laid in a curse for a day whensoever or how often soever it should returne in the yeares of his life A little further to cleare the sense of this curse let us consider the whole matter as we have considered the words There are two or three questions which being debated and resolved will give light to this context Job you see takes upon him to curse First it may be questioned whether a curse be in the power of man or no Can a man curse persons or things Surely blessings and cursings are both in the hand of God whether we respect persons or things There is a ministeriall curse and a ministeriall blessing in the power of man but it is not in the power of any man magisterially to make any thing or person blessed or to make any thing or person accursed It was a great brag which Balack made of Balaam Numb 22.6 I wot saith he that he whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed He thought he had the curse in his command he could curse whom he pleased and what he pleased and when he pleased but he was deceived he reckon'd beyond his strength and beyond the strength of a creature What the Apostle speakes in another case concerning the ministery of the word Paul may plant and Apollos may water but it is God that giveth the increase is as true in this one man may plant a curse and another man may water it with a hearty wish that it may grow but it is God only that giveth the increase of evill and the decrease of good Curses are not in the power of any creature if they were we should have a miserable world quickly How many should we see daily blasted with the breath of malicious execrations Some mens mouthes are full of cursing Psal 10.7
Christ speakes Mat. 6.23 If the light that is in thee be darkenesse how great is that darkenesse While Job wisheth that his very day which is light should be darkenesse how great a darkenesse doth he wish unto it And if the day be darkenesse how darke must the night of that day be Then againe Let the day be darkenesse he doth not say let the day be mistie or cloudy or duskie or darke he doth not wish it like that day described Zech. 14.6 It shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be cleare nor darke but he saith Let it be darkenesse Both in Scripture and common language Abstracts are emphatically significant and carry more then an ordinary sense in them When David saith Psal 27.1 The Lord is my light there is more in it then if he had only said the Lord doth enlighten me So to set forth the wofull condition of those who are unregenerate or in the state of nature the Apostle tells them Ephes 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkenesse not only in the darke but darkenesse So here to expresse how great a curse he wishes upon his day Job saith Let the day be darkenesse it selfe Now darkenesse may be taken two wayes Either Properly or Improperly Proper darkenesse is nothing else but a privation of light it is no positive creature it hath no cause in nature but is the consequent of the Sunnes absence When Job wishes let that day be darkenesse we may understand it of this darkenesse as if he had said whensoever that day commeth about in the recourse and revolution of the yeare let it be darkenesse or a very darke and gloomy day This had bin a great evill upon his day This kind of darkenesse was one of the 10 plagues with which God smote Egypt And yet there is darkenesse which is a greatet evill then this I meane darkenesse improperly taken and so frequently in Scripture any sorrowfull troublesome sad condition is express'd by darkenesse A condition of darkenesse is a sad condition a darke day is as much as a sad day So then Let that day be darkenesse that is let it for ever be accounted a sad and sorrowfull day Thus the Prophet Joel Chap. 2.2 calls a day of great trouble a day of darkenesse and gloominesse a day of clouds and of thicke darkenesse When Solomon Eccles 12.2 would shew by way of Antithesis the sad and evill condition of old age comparatively to youth he unfolds it by darkenesse remember now thy creatour in the dayes of thy youth make haste serve God betime But what needs such haste I tell thee why as times change so thy estate will change Evill dayes will come I therefore counsell thee to doe it while the evill dayes come not nor the yeares draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them while the Sunne or the light or the Moone or the Starres be not darkened A day without pleasure is a day without the Sunne take away the joy of a day and you take away the light of a day Young-men have the Sunne and the Moone and the Starres all kind of light and comfortable influences upon them but these will be darkened and ecclipsed when old-age cometh that will put out or at least obscure your light your day will be gone and your night will have neither Moone nor Starre in it therefore worke while you have light that is while you have health and strength of body while you have freedome and activity of spirits fit for that great service remember that is know and serve your Creatour So in the Text we may take darkenesse improperly as darkenesse notes an uncomfortable estate and it is used in Scripture to note a two-fold uncomfortable estate First An estate of sinne Secondly An estate of misery This latter darkenesse is the daughter of the former The Prophet Isay Chap. 9.2 speakes of the people that sate in darkenesse which is repeated Mat. 4.16 that is in the darkenesse of ignorance of sin and guilt They had naturall light enough and they had civill light enough aboundance of outward comforts they had health and strength and riches and peace and plenty but they had not a Christ to take away their sins and cleanse their consciences and therefore they were a people that sate in darkenesse Jobs curse intends not this darkenesse of sin but that other improper darkenesse the darkenesse of sorrow the darkenesse of penall evill As if he had said let sorrow and sadnesse over-shadow let mourning and teares overwhelme let calamity and trouble for ever possesse the day upon which I was borne Let not God regard it from above Here is a second part of the curse and a more grievous curse then the former Let not God We may observe here the Name whereby God is expressed it is Eloah The learned Hebricians observe ten severall Names of God in Scripture three of which note his Being Jehovah Jah Ehejeh Three his Power El Eloah Elohim Three his Governement Adonai Shaddai Jehovah Tsebaoth One his Excellency or Super-excellency Gnelion The Name Eloah here used is derived from El which signifieth Mighty and so by that addition to the word there is an addition made to the sense Eloah is Most Mighty or Almighty This word in the singular number is very rare the Name Elohim which is the plurall is very frequent in holy Scripture Christ upon the crosse cryes out to God by this Name in the singular number Eloi Eloi my God my God as calling for the Almighty power of God to support and carry him through his sufferings David useth it in the 18th Psalm ver 31. Who is a God save the Lord. Who is Eloah save Jehovah that is who is a mighty strong God save the Lord Jehovah so the next words explaine it Who is a rocke save our God So Job being about to impleade and accuse his day calls to the mighty God as it were to judge this day to his everlasting neglect Let not God regard it from above Regard it from above The word signifies sometimes to inquire and search after or to take an account of a thing exactly and judiciously as they that are called to reckoning or to judgement are enquired after and so it hath relation to that Name of God Eloah a powerfull or mighty Judge Let not God regard it is let not God take any account of it or enquire after it let it passe as not worth the looking after Secondly The word signifies to have a care of a thing to have a thing or person in account as well as to call unto account to take care and be watchfull over another for good is our regarding of it In this sense the word is used Deut. 11.12 where Moses speaking concerning the Land of Canaan saith It is a Land which the Lord thy God careth for Careth for is the same word with this and this Text may well be expounded by that which followes as the
only begotten sonne that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish here is the removing of evill but have everlasting life here is the bringing in of good And this is the better part of the blessing So on the other side to have all good light and life removed is the most bitter part of the curse Let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it Darknesse and the shadow of death These words are the fourth branch of the curse upon his day he repeates the former curse but with new additions He had said before let this day be darknesse now he saith let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it The shadow of death The word considered in the composition of it may be translated image of death And because the shadow of a body gives us the image of a body as in the shadow of a man you have the image and proportion of a man in the shadow of a Tree you have the image and representation of a Tree because I say the shadow gives the image of a body therefore the Hebrewes by a Metonymie call an image a shadow So that the shadow of death is such darknesse as is like death the very image of death He was not contented in generall to say let darkenesse staine it but if any would know what kind or degree of darknesse he intends these words expound his meaning to be the worst darknesse that can be Any darknesse is evill but darknesse and the shadow of death is the utmost of evils David put the worst of his case and the best of his faith when he said Psal 23.4 Though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill that is in the greatest evill I will feare no evill The estate of those men who lived beyond the line of the Gospell and that is a very dolefull place to live in though a paradise for outward pleasure is thus described by the Prophet Isa 9.2 The people that walked in darknesse have seene a great light Jesus Christ they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined Againe The shadow of a thing in Scripture notes the power of a thing and to be under the shadow of a thing is to be under the power of a thing The bramble Judg. 9.15 said unto the trees if in truth yee anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow that is trust to that helpe which I am able to afford you So likewise to be under the shadow of the Almighty under the shadow of his wings is to be under the power of the Almighty for safety and protection Thus we may conceive it here to be under the shadow of death is to be so under the power or reach of death that death may take a man and seize upon him when it pleaseth Though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death that is though I be so neere death that it seemes to others death may catch me every moment though I be under so many apparances and probabilities of exreame danger that there appeares an impossibility in sence to escape death yet I will not feare Thirdly To be under the shadow of death is to be under the influences of death the influences of death are those feares and doubtings divisions and vexations of spirit those distractions and distempers of mind which fall upon man in times of imminent and unavoidable danger Let the shadow of death staine it that is let it be filled with those feares and cryes and confusions which usually accompany or prepare the way for death Fourthly Let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it that is such darknesse as dwells with death such darkenesse as fills the house of death the grave The grave is a darke house We use to say of that which we would have forgotten let it be buried in darknesse There is no worke in the grave and therefore there needs no light in the grave neither indeed can there be Lastly thus Darknesse and the shadow of death that is deadly darknesse thick stifling darknesse such as is in deepe pits and mines under the earth where vapours and noysome dampes doe many times strike men with death We may here take notice how Job heapes up words words very like in sound and all alike in sense or concurring to make up one sense Such amplifications in Scripture are vehement asseverations As Joh. 1.20 It is said of the Baptist He confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ And those phrases Thou shalt dye and not live I shall not dye but live Thou shalt be below and not above So Job of his day Let it be darkenesse let not the light shine upon it let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it The word which we render staine signifies properly to redeeme a thing either by price or by power to redeeme a thing by paying for it or to redeeme a thing by rescuing of it Hence among the Jewes he that was to redeeme his deceased brothers land and marry the widdow was called Goel from this word as we may reade in the fourth of Ruth So the avenger of blood was called Goel Numb 35.12 because he likewise did redeeme the blood of his brother fetch it back againe as it were by a price in the execution of justice The learned Junius with some others translates according that sense of the Originall word O that darknesse and the shadow of death had redeemed that day or fetched back that day he referres it to the day past upon which he was borne and so takes it for an allusion to the first state of things we know at the first darknesse had dominion over all over all that Chaos or rude matter which God made at first Darknesse saith Moses was upon the face of the deepe Gen. 1.2 Then God gave a command to light saying let there be light ver 3. presently light went forth and rescued the creature from under the power of darknesse Now saith Job here Oh that darknesse and the shadow of death had redeemed that day or fetched againe that day out of the hands of light Oh that darknesse had recovered that which in the beginning was under its power that so my day being wrapt up in darknesse might be without forme and voide But the word is frequently translated and well here to pollute or to staine a thing as Mal. 1.7 Yee offer polluted bread upon mine altar and ye say wherein have we polluted thee And that of lamenting Jeremie They have polluted themselves with blood so that men could not touch their garments Lam. 4.14 So darknesse is said to staine or pollute the day as filthinesse or blood staines and pollutes discoulours and defiles the beauty of a garment Darknesse obscures and blindes the beauty of the most glorious creatures naturall darknesse doth it Suppose you should come into a roome furnished with
musick no not the voice of a mil-stone We have great cause to feare that the joyfull voice may suddainely be taken away not only from our nights but also from our dayes not only from our houses but also from our Temples For the voice of sin hath bin heard from both Darknesse hath begun to seize upon our light the seed of division is not only sowne but sprung up among us our troubles increase yea our joyfull voice is already changed into the sound of the trumpet and the Alarum of War into the neighings of Horses and the confused noise of bloody battels Isa 9.5 And which may afflict our hearts more we heare the mournefull voice of the Widdow crying out My Husband my Husband We heare the mournefull voice of the Orphan crying out my Father my Father Husband and Father slaine by the sword while they went out to helpe the Lord against the mighty It is time for us to sit solitary and alone to mourne every family apart and our wives apart Zach. 12.12 to lift up our voice in prayer night and day least the joyfull voice be utterly taken away and for ever silenced amongst us Least it be said of us as of Jerusalem Lam. 1.1 How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become as a widdow she that was great among the Nations and Princes among the Provinces how is she become tributary As that Heathen said of the time past I had perished if I had not perished So we may say of the time to come We shall mourne if we doe not mourne we shall be solitary if we sit not alone Our nights of sinfull joy in chambering and wontonnesse have bereft us and will bereave us more of refreshing joyes And instead of the voice of friend and brother you may heare only the voice of the enemy and avenger and that is no joyfull voice When Jacob was enformed of the approach of Esau his bloody brother he put all things in order and presently the Text saith Jacob was left alone Gen. 32.24 What deserted did his company run from him No it was an elected solitarinesse not a necessitated solitarinesse he desired to be alone and he staid alone that he might not be alone He staid alone that he might get God neerer in communion with him and his that his family might not be scattered from him and his house left desolate So if we would be voluntarily alone from the world to be with God wrastling out nights in prayer as Jacob did we might as he did prevent solitary nights and prevaile with God by the voice of prayer in the mediation of Jesus Christ and the powerfull cry of his blood to continue unto us the voice of joy JOB 3.8 9. Let them curse it that curse the day who are ready to raise up their mourning Let the Starres of the twi-light thereof be darke let it looke for light but have none neither let it see the dawning of the day IN the former verses Job himselfe curseth the night in this he inviteth others to curse it that his sorrow might appeare not only serious but solemne he calleth for those who made mourning their profession and to weepe for and with others their trade such as used to rise early and awaken their companions to come away and joyn in prepared and studied lamentation This I take to be the summe and sense of these words which yet in the letter are very full of difficulty and have divided interpreters exceedingly I shall briefely touch the most of those senses given and then more fully present you with what I apprehend as sutable to this Text and consonant unto truth First Take a briefe of the divers readings of this verse Let them curse it that curse the day who are ready to raise up their mourning So we in our Bibles The Vulgar and the Septuagint reade it thus Let them curse it that curse the day who are ready to raise up Leviathan Another renders the latter clause Who are ready to raise up the Dragon Theodot Mr. Broughtons translation runs thus May they curse it who doe curse the day who will hunt Leviathan Junius and Tremelius have a translation different from all these I would they had cursed thee that inlighten the day who are ready to stirre up Leviathan or the Whale That which all other Interpreters I have met with call cursing of the day they call inlightning the day You see there is much variety about the rendring of these words out of the Hebrew And there is as much diversity of opinion grounded thereupon First Some apprehend that Job in this verse alludes to the custome of a certaine people in Ethiopia called the Atlantes frequently mentioned in divers histories who living under the torrid Zone in an extreame hot climate used to curse the Sunne when it arose because it scorched them with vehement heate This made them in love with the night and hate the day And so the sense is made out thus Let them curse this night who use to curse the Sun-rising every day whose paine hightning and imbittering their spirits caused them to powre out the most bitter and revengefull execrations But I will lay this by though some set much store by it as a speciall treasure of invention For I much question not only whether this custome of cursing the day amongst that people was known unto Job but whether he ever heard of such a people being so remote and distant from him Secondly I shall a little open the meaning of that Translation given by Junius Let them curse it who inlighten the day who are ready to raise up Leviathan or the Whale By those who inlighten the day he saith the Starres are to be understood Let those curse thee who inlighten the day that is let the Starres curse thee And who are ready to raise up Leviathan that is let the windes be against thee let the winds curse thee or be a curse unto thee The reason he gives is because Starres are Illustratores Diei the inlightners of the day And to salve it we must not saith he take the day strictly for a day artificiall for then the Starres are of no use but for that part of the day naturall which is darke namely the night the Starres are the inlightners of the day namely of the darke part of the day the night And so Job calls here to the very Starres that they should oppose and trouble that night We reade in that notable history Jug 5.20 That the Starres in their courses did fight against Sisera such expressions there are making as it were the Heavens angry and the Starres to oppose the designes of men The host of Heaven is under the command of the Lord of Hosts when he calls them forth to the help of his people Thus he conceives Job inviting the Starres to take part with him in this quarrell against his night Let the Starres curse the day those
Whale and so to that successelesse fishing which provokes to cursing But take it in the generall The Whale we know is a very formidable monster to Sea-men and Marriners the whole Ship with the lading of it and all their lives being endangered if a Whale strike it So we may understand that of Iob speaking of Leviathan Chap. 41.25 When he raiseth up himselfe the mighty are afraid Now the Whale being so formidable and dangerous to Sea-men they perceiving the Whale neere them or themselves at unawares ready to stir up or raise the Whale are exceedingly afraid And as great feare in some sets them a praying and causeth strong prayers so feare in others sets them a cursing and causeth strong curses Prophane marriners seeing themselves in such imminent danger by the approach of the Whale presently curse the day that ever they loosed Anchor or set saile from the Harbour the day that ever they fell within the reach of this sea-monster now ready to sinke their vessell and overwhelme them all Such a curse Job wishes upon that night the night of his conception as men of this ranke conceive and bring forth in the day of their most pressing feares when anguish and sorrow take hold of them as travaile upon a woman with child and they cannot escape Thus I have given you the summe of those apprehensions which are offered for the making up of this Exposition namely That the word is here to be taken for that mighty fish Leviathan And that either in respect of those who make it their businesse and goe out purposely to catch Leviathan or of those who unawares are ready to be catcht by Leviathan The former disappointed of their hopes and the latter surprized with feares making a curse their refuge and easing themselves by execrations There is a fourth opinion which giveth the sense of these words quite another way though it retaines the same translation For passing by the allusion to fishing or customes of fishermen they make these words as a character or description of the extreamest and vilest of wicked men as if Job saying Let them curse thee that curse the day who are ready to stirre up Leviathan had said let the worst or most wicked among the children of men curse this night And we know that the worst of men are most for cursing they curse deepest as the best of men are most for prayer and they pray highest and holiest So then Jobs mind being to lay the sorest curse upon this night thinks or finds his own spirit too straight his owne heart not large enough to doe it therefore he doth as it were call in aide from those Masters of cursing Let the most expert the most skill'd in cursing such as are verst in oathes and blasphemies the very dregs and scum of men let them powre out the dreggs the worst the bitterest of their curses upon that night But how shall we make out this notion that the vilest of men are here described That we must consider and open further to shew the substance and dependance of this opinion The worst and wickeddest of men are conceived to be here meant in two expressions First By them who are said to curse the day Let them curse it who curse the day Secondly In those words Who are ready to raise up Leviathan Both these are supposed as descriptive circumlocutions of the most wicked and vilest men How so First They that curse the day That which a man hates he is forward enough to curse Wicked men love darknesse and they hate the light therefore they curse the light Light is of two sorts either naturall that of the Sunne or metaphoricall that of knowledge Take light either way take light properly for the naturall light or take light improperly for the light or the day of knowledge wicked men and especially the worst of wicked men will be found cursers of the day First They are so exprest in this booke of Job respecting the naturall day chap. 24. where having described many acts of violence committed by cruell oppressors who know not God ver 1. he concludes ver 13. They are of those that rebell against the light they know not the wayes thereof nor abide in the pathes thereof And ver 16. In the darke they dig thorough houses which they had marked for themselves in the day time they know not the light for the morning is to them even as the shadow of death If one know them they are in the terrours of the shadow of death Men to whom the morning is a terrour and light as the shadow of death cannot but curse the day whose approach hinders them in their night-workes in their black designes and purposes Secondly Other Scriptures discover more deadly hatred in wicked men against the light of knowledge they rebell more against the day of grace then against the day of nature or the naturall day The former hinders only the outward practise of sinne but this opposes the inward principles of sinne We see what cold entertainement yea what war this light found in the world and why Joh. 3.19 20. Light is come into the world that is Christ and the knowledge of his wayes and men not men in generall but ungodly men loved darknesse rather then light Why Because their deeds were evill evill deeds and evill doers seeke covert in this darknesse for every one that doth evill hateth the light neither cometh to the light least his deeds should be reproved They are ignorant willingly that they may sinne more freely For though they are resolved to sin in and against the light of knowledge yet they had rather sin in and with the darknesse of ignorance no man can sin with so much ease and delight in this light as he can in darknesse A man that hath light in his understanding can hardly sinne without smart upon his conscience Hence they who love sin hate knowledge On this ground it is as cleare as the day that wicked men are Lucifugae such as avoide shun and hate the day no marvell then if they curse the day And to be angry with or curse the day is an evidence as cleere as the day of a wicked man He that desires not to know the truth hath no desire to practise it And he who hates the knowledge of the truth hates the practise of it yea he therefore hates knowledge because he hates practice This is wickednesse at the height To commit a sin against light is not so great an argument of an evill heart as to be troubled at the light which rebukes or would prevent the committing of that sin Thus we see in what sense by those who curse the day we may understand the worst of wicked men But for the second part Who are ready to raise up Leviathan How is this a description of wicked men To make out this we must expound Leviathan not properly for the Whale but improperly and mystically for the Devill that great Leviathan
Under which name he with all spirituall wickednesses the opposers of Christ and of his Church are comprehended by the Prophet Isa 27.1 In that day the Lord with his sore great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan the crooked serpent and he shall slay the Dragon in the sea Now they that raise up this misticall Leviathan the Devill are surely the vilest men But who doe thus or how can this be done They are said to raise up Leviathan who seeke occasions of sinning such as doe not stay till Satan tempts them but they as it were tempt Satan They are so hasty so forward to doe evill that they think the Devill comes not fast enough and therefore they doe even goe out to meete provoke and raise up the Devill they invite temptation There is a truth in this All sins are not from the temptations of Satan our own hearts are not only the soyle and have in them the seed of all sin but they are sunne and raine to warme and water those seedes that they may grow And as a godly man from the new principle at first planted in him by the holy Ghost doth often stirre up the holy Ghost to come and helpe him he doth not alwayes stay till the holy Ghost sensibly comes but finding his own weakenesse and wants and deadnesse to and in duty he goeth and stirreth up the Spirit of God and prayeth that the holy Ghost would breath upon him quicken and enliven him in prayer and other holy duties So many ungodly wretches doe not stay for Satan or waite till he comes to tempt them but they such is their desperate wickednesse and delight in sin wish that he would tempt them oftner They doe not only keepe open house and open heart for him ready to entertaine and welcome him when he comes but they goe forth to solicit his company and his coming This is to stirre up Leviathan So that the whole sense according to this exposition may be given to you thus as if Iob had said Let this night be cursed with a grievous curse even with as black and foule a curse as can be moulded and fashioned in the hearts or spit out of the mouthes of the vilest miscreants even of such as are so set upon sin that they hate the light and curse the day which either the Sun makes in the aire or which knowledge makes in their hearts lest that should stop and hinder them in the acting of sin yea let such a curse be upon it is they use to vomit out who are so set upon mischiefe and engaged to their lusts that they pray in aide from the Devill to assist and quicken them in their wickednesse that so their naturall corruptions being oyled and smoothed with his temptations their motions to sin and indeed to Hell may be swifter and more violent These are they that give diligence to make their damnation sure These are they from whom the kingdome of Hell suffers violence and these violent ones rather then not have it will take it by force Surely their damnation sleepes not who least they should not sin enough awaken the Devill to shew them sinning opportunities To such as these according to the interpretation now suggested Iob commits his night to cursing Let them curse it who curse the day c. Now though there be a truth in the things which are asserted in this opinion taken abstractedly though it be a truth that wicked men are such as curse the day of ayre-light and the day of knowledge-light though they are often so madde to be sinning that they provoke and tempt the Devill yet I will not give this for the sense and meaning of the words rather you may take it and make use of it as an Allegory upon then an Exposition of the Text. The last opinion with which I shall conclude the opening of the words is this That Iob in this verse doth allude to the custome of his own Countrey and of other Easterne Countries who had certaine persons amongst them both men and women whom upon solemne occasions either of joy or sorrow they were wont to hire or call in for reward to come and helpe them out either in rejoycing or in mourning We find mention of such in Scripture divers times who were thus called and invited or hired to mourne and lament in times of sad and sorrowfull accidents whether personall or publick These had Lachrimas venales teares to sell or sale-teares making both a profession and a profit of mourning Such the Prophet speakes of Ier. 9.17 18. Thus saith the Lord Consider ye and call for the mourning women he speakes of them as of a society or sister-hood well knowne and as well custom'd and cunning women that they may come that is women cunning in mourning And let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may runne downe with teares and our eye-lidds gush out with waters for a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion How are we spoiled And ver 20. Teach your daughters wailing and every one her neighbour lamentation you see it was an art taught amongst them for death is come up into our windowes c. In 2 Chron. 35.25 We have a record to the same effect concerning the lamentation for Josiah And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing-men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day So that there were both men and women prepared and usually called forth to lament such occasions of sorrow Againe Amos 5.16 Therefore the Lord the God of Hosts the Lord saith thus wailing shall be in all streets and they shall say in all the high-wayes Alas Alas And they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skillfull of lamentation to wailing Observe here different mourners they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skillfull of lamentation to wailing You see he speakes of two sorts of persons they shall call the husbandman to mourning Husbandmen are such as mourne when they mourne when they mourne they mourne indeed they mourne down-right but besides these who mourned Ex animo really there was another sort who did but personate sorrow and act a part in griefe So saith the Prophet Call in some who are skilfull of lamentation men or women who have studied the point and know how to move a passion and to heighten an affection beyond that which the plaine husbandman can doe Let the husbandman mourne but besides that let there be art and solemnity in the mourning call in those that are skilfull of lamentation There was a kind of profession trade or art of mourning Which is further evidenced 2 Sam. 14.2 Joab sent to Tekoah to fetch thence a wise woman which is interpreted in the words following to be a woman skilfull in lamentation and said unto her I pray thee faine thy selfe to be a mourner Thou art a cunning
Gender for another are frequently observed in Scripture by the learned in the Originalls Secondly The relative word is conjectured to be put in the Feminine gender because women were most usually called forth to that worke of mourning And it is further observeable that where the Scripture speakes of those actions of mourning or rejoycing or loving which are workes of affection it useth to ascribe them to women rather then to men because they are quicker in affection and faile of affection then men and so more ready to act or expresse such joyes or sorrowes then men are For the close of this point I shall adde the apprehension of a learned Expositor who taking the words in this last sense as referring to those solemne mournings yet conceive that the word Leviathan must stand here in the letter not as if Job had any intendment to speake of the fish Leviathan or to allude to fishing for Leviathan but either because Heathens in those execrations did invoke or provoke Leviathan that is the Devill Or because in those solemne songs of lamentation Leviathan was a word much used or Leviathan was the first word of some of those lamenting songs For in execrations strange uncouth dreadfull words were purposely used the more to affect and astonish the hearers Now there is no word more dreadfull then Leviathan whether we take it for that sea-monster the Whale or for that Hell-monster the Devill And so the meaning is this Let them curse it who curse the day who are ready to raise up Leviathan that is Let those mourners who sing that most passionate song of mourning which begins with or is entitled Leviathan It is ordinary among us to call for a song or to call a song by the generall subject matter of it or by the first word of it And so many bookes of Scripture have their names in the Hebrew from the first word as the booke of Genesis is called Beresith or In the beginning And Exodus Veele semoth that is And these are the names because both begin with those words in the Hebrew So the song which was the forme of those Lamentations might be called Leviathan because saith this Authour it began with that word and he alledgeth a proverbiall tradition for it out of Mariana which he had received from a Jew that it was forbidden upon the Feast-day to raise up Leviathan That is they might not take up that execratory song which beginneth with Leviathan I only present this opinion because it suites with and illustrates the former notion of solemne mourning Thus I have with as much speed and clearnesse as I could given you the meaning of these words That which favours their sense most who keepe to the word Leviathan is that this booke speakes afterward of Leviathan to shew the power of the creator in that powerfull creature And I find the very same phrase of raysing or stirring up Leviathan used in that place chap. 41. ver 10. None is so fierce that dare stirre or raise him up The Hebrew word which there we translate stirre in this third chapter is translated raise Leviathan Yet I rather encline to the latter exposition respecting mourning both because it hath the authority of our English Bible to countenance it our Translators putting mourning in the Text and Leviathan in the margin As also because it carries a clearer correspondence and agreement both with Antecedents and consequents both with the matter and with the frame of Jobs complaint and curse in this chapter Taking the words in this sense that Job calls to have his night cursed in such a solemne manner as those hired mourners used to lament and bewaile the dayes of humane calamities we may observe First That hope of profit will turne some spirits into any posture Lamenting and mourning is an unpleasant worke but profit and reward sweetens and makes it pleasant Some men will be in any action so they may get by it they will mourne for hire and curse for hire So did Balaam Balaam was sent for to curse the people of God Numb 22. He made many delayes and seemingly conscientious scruples yet at last he goâ—s about the worke as black and bad as it was But what overcame him and answered all his doubts about the undertaking of such a worke The Text in Peter resolves us he loved the wages of unrighteousnesse He that loves wages will quickly love any work which brings in wages Upon the stage you might have any passion for your money Joy and sorrow love and hatred all acted and personated beyond the personall temper or occasions of the men meerely for reward And which is the highest argument of a mercenary spirit some act holinesse for hire and are godly for outward gaine Secondly In that Job calls others to mourne over and condole that night Observe That some troubles exceed our own sorrowes And we may want the eyes and tongues of others to expresse them by My heart saith Job is not large enough and I have not art enough to act much lesse to aggravate my own afflictions let them doe it whose profession and practise it is to curse the day Sometimes the mercies which we receive and the joy that the soule conceives is more then we can expresse or be thankfull enough for and then we send to others both private Christians and whole Congregations desiring them to help us to lend us their hearts and their tongues their affections and their voices in that Angelicall worke the praises of our God Let them blesse God who blesse the day who are vers'd in dayes and duties of thanks-giving who are ready to raise up their rejoycings David saith Come and heare all ye that feare God and I will declare what he hath done for my soule Psal 66.16 He had not told them what God had done for his soule but to gaine the help of their soules in praising God for what he had done Sometime also a Christian is so engaged in prayer for the obtaining of a mercy and finds his heart so much below his suite that he calls out to all those who have any holy skill in praying pray for me pray with me the businesse is too bigge for me alone How earnestly doth Paul begge prayers Now I beseech you bretheren for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in prayers to God for me that I may be delivered c. Rom. 15.30 As it is thus in praying and rejoycing so it may be in mourning and in sorrowing And troubles are very deepe when they exceed our own sorrowes as mercies are very great when they are beyond our own praises Wee in this Nation have cause to feare such troubles even such as may cause us to invite the hearts and spirits the bowels and compassions of all the Christians in the world to come and lament over us we may be forced to send not only for the Husbandman
angry with my day and I shew you why because it shut not up the doores of my mothers wombe c. The reason or the argument stands thus There is cause I should curse that day and that night which not hindering my conception or my birth brought me forth upon the stage of the world to act a part in all these sorrowes But the day and the night did not hinder my conception or my birth therefore I have cause I have reason enough to breake out in such complaints and curse them I doe it because these shut not up the doores of my mothers wombe This is the argument or reason by which he defends his passion and this argument will be found to have more passion in it then reason if we examine it to the bottome For he complaines of that as the cause which was not the cause of his troubles what did the night or the day that he thus chargeth them They had no efficiency in bringing those evills upon him circumstances are not causes Effects are produced in time but time doth not produce effects Only this we may say to helpe it he doth not curse the day as if it could have shut the doores of his mothers wombe but because on that day those doores were not shut But leaving the reason of his speech we will consider the sense of it The Hebrew word for word is thus rendred Because it shut not up the doores of my belly And that the Chaldee Paraphrast renders thus by way of explanation Because it did not shut up the doores of my lips the mouth saith he being as it were the doore or the in-let to the belly or stomack every thing goeth in by that doore and so he carries the sense thus let that night be cursed because it did not stop my breath and so make an end of mee The Septuagint hath it thus because it shut not up the doores of my Mothers belly which answers our translation the doores of my mothers wombe Mr. Broughton to the same sense because it shut not up the doore of the belly that did beare me that is my mothers belly I shall in silence passe over that secret or mystery in nature which may be the ground of this expression There are two secrets in Divinity which are the grounds of it and of them I shall speake The first is this When God layes that affliction of barrennesse upon the woman he according to the phrase of Scripture is said to shut up the wombe And when he sendeth the blessing of fruitfulnesse he is said to open the wombe We have both Gen. 20.18 When Abimelech had taken Sarah Abrahams wife the Lord fast closed up all the wombes of the house of Abimelech The meaning of it is this he made all the women barren or withheld the blessing of conception The Jewish Expositors render the meaning in the very words of this Text that the Lord had shut up all the doores of the wombes of the house of Abimelech And so likewise for fruitfulnesse God is said to open the wombe as Gen. 29.31 And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated he opened her wombe but Rachel was barren Then to shut the doores of the wombe notes the power of God in denying and to open those doores the blessing of God in giving conception and making fruitfull Secondly It may referre to the birth for there must be an opening of those doores and that by an Almighty power for production as well as for conception And therefore David Psal 22.9 ascribes it to the Lord Lord thou art he who tookest me out of my mothers wombe It was not the Midwife did it It was not the womens helpe that stood about his mother but Lord thou didest it The hand of God only is able to open that doore and let man into the world Unlesse he as we may so speake turne the key the poore infant must for ever lye in prison and make his mothers wombe his grave In either or both these respects Job here speakes against the night because it shut not up the doores of his mothers wombe to stop his conception or stay him in the birth For then either he had not been or he had not been brought forth as the subject of all those calamities Hence observe first That fruitfulnesse or conception is the especiall worke and blessing of God God carries the key of the wombe in his own hand From him we receive life and breath Acts 17.25 yea in his booke are all our members written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them Wee are fearefully and wonderfully made Our substance is not hid from God when we are made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth As the holy Ghost admirably and most elegantly describes the conception and formation of man in the wombe Psal 139.14 15 16. There are foure keyes of nature all kept in the hand of God First The key of the Raine The clouds cannot open themselves the flood-gates of Heaven cannot be unlocked nor those sluces opened to let downe a drop of raine untill God turne the key Deut. 28.12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure the Heaven to give the raine unto thy land in his season Secondly The key of Nutrition or of Foode Psal 145.16 Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing The strength of the creature is shut up in the hand of God and untill he unlock his hand the creatures cannot strengthen or nourish us though we have our houses and our hands full of them Thirdly The key of the Grave Eze. 37.13 I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves We are so fast lockt up in death that all the power in the world is not able to release us till God speake the word and turne the key of the graves-doore That place in Ezekiel is meant I know of a civill death But it is as true of naturall death And the argument is stronger for it If when a Nation as the nation of the Jewes then did lyes in the grave of bondage and captivity no man can unlock that doore without the key of Gods speciall providence much lesse can any hand or power but his open the doore and bring us out of the grave of our corporall dissolution There is this fourth key belonging to the doore spoken of in the Text the doore of the wombe Which was shadowed in that ceremoniall law among the Jewes of giving their first-borne unto God as a thankefull acknowledgement that the beginning of all propagation and increase was from him Further observe That our birth and production is the speciall worke of God Thou art he that tookest me out of my mothers wombe saith David And he apprehended the power of God so great in his naturall birth that he from thence takes an argument to strengthen his faith that God could doe any
of sleepe sleepe is a short death and death is a long sleepe Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth saith Christ to his Disciples Jâ—h 11.11 but I goe that I may awake him out of sleepe In the 14th verse Jesus said unto them plainely Lazarus is dead Then had I beene at rest We usually say when a man goes to sleepe he goes to rest Yet rest is more then sleepe for sometimes a man sleepes when he doth not rest his very sleepe being troubled and he troubled in his sleepe But when rest is joyned with sleepe it is perfect sleepe The word here used signifies a very quiet setled and peaceable condition Hence Noah had his name And he called his name Noah saying this sonne shall comfort us concerning our worke and toile of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed Gen. 5.29 He was rest and comfort to the old world by preaching righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is by faith which alone gives rest unto the soule and is able to refresh us in the midst of all those toyles and labours which that first curse brought upon the world both new and old Such rest and sweet repose had I found saith Job from all my toile in the house of death and bed of the grave Having thus foure words concurring in the same sense we may here not unprofitably take notice of that elegant multiplication of words in the holy Scriptures There store is no soare and variety is no superfluity yea there Tautologie is no superfluity It is the usuall rhetorick of the Holy Ghost to speake the same thing in divers words yea sometime in the same words We find such a congeries or heaping up of words used for the most part in some heate of passion or vehemency of spirit As first when God would expresse a great deale of anger and wrath against a people he speakes thus Isa 14.22 23. I will rise up against them saith the Lord of hostes and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant and sonne and nephew I will also make it a possession for the Bittern and pooles of water and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction Here are a multitude of words and all tending to the same purpose setting forth the fiercenesse of Gods anger and the resolvednesse of his judgement for the ruining of Babylon The towring confused pride of the King of Babylon is presented to us in such a heape of words Isa 14.13 14. heare the pure language of pride from that Kings heart Thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my throne above the Starres of God I will sit also upon the mount of the Congregation I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most High The manifold apostacies and backslidings of Judah are described in many words by the Prophet Zephanie chap. 1.6 And them that are turned bank from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for him Chap. 3.2 She obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not neere to her God When our Lord Christ would shew the extreame ignorance and darknesse of his Disciples in those great Articles of his sufferings death and resurrection having taken the twelve unto him and discoursed of those points he concludes Luk. 18.31 34. And they understood none of these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken As if Christ had said their ignorance in these mysteries was so great that they had not the least glimpse or glimmerings of light about them So here I should have lien still and been quiet I should have slept and been at rest and all to note the interrupted-quiet and tranquility of the grave As if he had said Had I died then not only had not these stormes been upon me nor these waves gone over me but the least breath of wind had never blowne upon me Hence we may observe First That in regard of all outward troubles death is the rest of man Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours And they who die out of the Lord rest from all that labour they have had in this world There is no worke nor device nor knowledge nor wisedome in the grave whither thou goest Eccles 9.10 This life is a day of working and death is a night of resting The Sunne ariseth man goeth forth to his labour untill the evening Psal 104.23 When the Sunne of our life ariseth we goe forth to our labour untill the evening of death This life is a continued motion death is a continued rest This life is but noise and tumult death is silence Our life is a stormy passage a tempestuous sea-voyage death bringeth us to the harbour There is a foure-fold rest which we obtaine in death First A rest from labour and travaile no working there Secondly There is a rest from trouble and oppression no warres no bloody battels there Thirdly There is a rest from passion no sorrow no griefe shall afflict us there In the grave there is a fourth rest better then all these a rest from sin a rest from the drudgerie of Satan a rest from the winnowings and buffetings of Satan a rest from the law of our members warring against the law of our minds When Saul went to the witch of Endor for advise with Samuel that Samuel or the Devill in the appearance of Samuel speakes as one disturb'd being raised from the grave Why saith he hast thou disquieted me to bring me up 1 Sam. 28.15 I was at rest why diddest thou call me up to a land of trouble It is the observation of an ancient Father and the resolution of an ancient Councell concerning Christs weeping over Lazarus Joh. 11. That not his death but his rising drew those teares When Christ came to the grave where Lazarus lay the Text saith that Jesus wept Why did Christ weepe saith Jerome in comforting a mother that had lost her daughter It is cleare that Christ wept over Lazarus that was dead but he did not weepe thy teares Christ did not weepe because Lazarus was dead but he wept rather because Lazarus was to be raised up againe he wept to thinke that his friend Lazarus should be brought back into so troublesome a world And it was the resolution of the third Toletane Councell that Christ did not weepe over Lazarus because he was dead but because he was to be raised up againe to feele the burdens and afflictions of this life that was their apprehension of it And it is a truth that whosoever lives the common life of nature lives in trouble But such is not the life of him who is raised from the dead The lives of such though here
troubles turne a Pallace into a desolate place so riches and plenty power and peace meeting together in Kings and great men turne desolate places into Pallaces Kings and Counsellours are of such wealth and power that they can alter the most desolate and ruinous places into delicate edifices and stately dwellings Or lastly Which doth best suite with the subject of Jobs discourse or curse in this Chapter He speaking so much of death by the desolate places we may understand Tombes and Sepulchers places of buriall which Kings and Counsellours build to or for themselves And so taken the sence may be given thus as if Job had said if I had died I should have lien in the grave with as much ease and quiet as those great Princes and Kings of the earth who build themselves stately monuments to lie in It would have been as well with me as with any of them though interr'd under stately tombes We know it was an ordinary thing for Kings and great men especially in ancient times to prepare for themselves costly monuments while they lived as houses for their bodies being dead Which grew to such excessive charge among the Romanes that they were forced to make a Law to restraine it The Egyptians bestowed more care and cost in building their tombes then their houses Even Abraham Gen. 23.16 bought him a burying place before he built himselfe a house though while he lived he dwelt in a moveable tent yet he would be as sure as he could of a certaine grave And good Joseph of Arimathea had made himselfe a sepulcher in a rock Math. 27.60 And it is said of Absolom 2 Sam. 18.18 That in his life time he had taken and reared up a pillar that is he had artificially raised a great pile of goodly stones in the Kings dale For he said I have no sonne to keepe my name in remembrance And he called the pillar after his own name Now as this pillar was to keepe his name so he intended it likewise to keepe his body when he should die For it being related in the verse before how as soone as he was slaine they made no more adoe with him but cast him into a great pit in the wood and layed a very great heape of stones upon him The holy Ghost to shew us the vanity of man in preparing for a dead body while he neglects an immortall soule and how God disappoints the vaine conceits of men in supposing to perpetuate their own name and greatnesse The holy Ghost I say to shew this presently subjoynes in the sacred story Now Absolom in his life time c. As if he had said Doe ye observe how this ambitious Prince was buried even tumbled into a pit with a rude heape of stones cast upon him This man had prepared himselfe another kind of monument even a sumptuous pillar c. So that under or by that pillar he had archt a curious vault for himselfe to be buried in called Absaloms place namely his burying place And the word which we have here for desolate places is in Scripture clearely applied to the grave or a place of buriall We have it in Ezek. 26.20 where the Prophet foreshewing the destruction of Tyre speakes from the Lord thus When I shall bring thee downe with them that descend into the pit and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth in places desolate of old There are three words in that verse and they are all Synonima's words of the same signification First The pit Secondly The low parts of the earth Thirdly The desolate places and all these are but severall expressions for the grave or for a place to bury in It is no more but this When I shall bring thee downe even with those that lie buried in the grave So that the word which we translate desolate places being also in other places used for the grave or a place of buriall we may very well expound it so here that desolate places are the graves or sepulchers of Kings and Princes and Counsellours of the earth which we may doe especially because Job treats in this place about death and the state of the dead Now Tombes and Monuments may be called desolate places in two respects First Because when the body is layed in there all company and all friends leave it you shall have a mighty traine following their friend to the grave but there they leave him Kings and Counsellours have stately Funerals but when their subjects or friends favourites or flatterers have brought them to the tombe and opened the doore of the grave they goe no further they will not goe in with them and dwell with their bodies in the dust of death as much as they honour'd or ador'd them when they lived so that they are in desolate places Secondly Graves may be called desolate places because Tombes and Sepulchres were in desolate places they were made in some high Mountaine or caved Valley in some place remote from the company and habitations of the living for in former times they did not bury in Cities or in Townes but in places where few came till they were carried and therefore properly called desolate places It is observed that among the Romans the first Emperour that was buried in Rome was Traian And the law of the twelve Tables did prohibit both the buriall and the burning of the dead within the City So then it is cleare that anciently Tombes and Monuments were erected in desolate places and that great cost was bestowed in building and beautifying of them both which favour and illustrate the exposition given It followes in the Text Or with Princes that had gold who fill their houses with treasure The word Sar a Prince in the Hebrew as in most other languages signifies the chiefe the head the first Some Criticks conceive that our English word Sir comes from it it is very neere in sound and so is the French word Mounsier to this Originall for a Prince or Chiefe Job describeth Princes thus they are such as had gold noting both what the study and indeavours of Princes are namely to lay up gold and likewise what is requisite for them Gold is of great use in a high estate Treasures are necessary for Princes Princes that had gold Therefore Solomon that wise Prince saith of himselfe Eccles 2.8 And he putteth it among his Princely workes I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of Kings When the Wise-men came to Christ the first thing they offered him was gold and they did wisely for he was a Prince gold being the chiefe and as it were the prince of Mettals is a very proper offering for Princes And howsoever wisedome and goodnesse justice and clemency are farre more necessary requisites in Princes then gold yet there is such a necessary conjunction of these two that we find him in the Prophet Isa 3.7 refusing the governement because he was poore Be thou our Ruler say
they vers 6. and let this ruine be under thine hand that is be thou our Prince and take charge of us Not I saith he I will not be an healer for in mine house is neither bread nor cloathing make me not a Ruler of the people As if he had said I am but a poore man a man of a weake estate Princes must have treasure and great estates to beare up the dignity of their places As covetousnesse so poverty is very unbecoming in a Prince The Romane story tells us that when two great Consulls stood in competition for a great employment in the affaires of that Common-wealth One of the Senators being as'kt upon which of the two he would bestow his vote Answered upon neither And gives this reason One hath nothing and the other can never have enough One was so poore that he had nothing to support him and the other was so covetous that nothing would satisfie him Therefore as before Job joyned Counsellours with Kings so here he joyneth gold with Princes The next expedient for Princes to counsell and wisedome are gold and treasures We find indeed that God gives it in charge to the Kings of Israel concerning their gathering of treasures that they should not be excessive Deut 17.17 Neither shall he greatly multiply to himselfe silver and gold He doth not say your Prince or your King shall not multiply silver or gold but he shall not greatly multiply silver or gold that is he shall not set his heart upon them or thinke he never hath enough he shall not greatly doe it but let him be carefull to doe it proportionably to his occasions either of peace or warre Further It is added Who fill their houses with treasure The word which we here translate treasure is ordinarily translated silver The root from which it springs signifieth to desire and the reason is because treasure silver or gold are such desireable things or things upon which the desires of most men are set therefore the Hebrewes give silver a name proper to its own nature or rather to the nature of men whose desires are enflamed after it With this desireable thing Princes fill their houses What are these houses A house is a place wherein man liveth or inhabiteth while he liveth this is the ordinary acception of the word and so it may be taken here for the ordinary dwelling houses or Pallaces of Princes And then it is an heightning of the sense They had gold yea they had so much as they filled their houses with it Then againe That we may keepe in this clause to the exposition given in the last of the desolate places we may understand by the houses that these Princes filled with treasure the graves the Tombes wherein they were buried And it is the language of Scripture to call the grave a house mans house Two Texts I will give you for it one out of this booke Job 30.23 where Job speaking of the grave calleth it the house appointed for all living And Eccles 12.5 where Solomon calls it our long home Man dieth and goeth to his long home the word in the Originall is he goeth to the house of his age or to the house of age God is called the rock of ages because he is an everlasting strength Isa 26.4 The grave is called an house of age because it is a very lasting house an abiding house a house where man must abide till God sound him up by the voice of a Trumpet to the resurrection So then the grave is likewise called an house the house of all living because thither every one that is living is travailing man travailes to the grave as to his house And a long-home in opposition to our short home our uncertaine abode in those houses wherein we dwell upon the earth Princes saith Job that had gold and this is one use they make of it they fill their houses that is their graves or their tombes with this treasure In those times it seemes they did not only bestow great cost upon their Tombes and places of buriall but they put great store of treasure into the Tombes with them According to this interpretation the meaning of Job may be thus represented If I had died before and had been buried poorely and obscurely yet I should have done as well as Kings and Counsellours who with vast expence of treasure build stately Tombes for themselves yea as well as Princes that put their treasure into their Tombes with them That it was a custome to put in much treasure into Tombes is observed by Josephus in his 13th book of Antiquities and 15th chapter shewing how Hircanus opened Davids Sepulcher and tooke out three thousand Talents And in his 16th booke chap. 11. he notes that afterward Herod opened the Sepulchre of David and thought to have found a great deale of treasure there but found only some precious garments c. And the story is famous out of Herodotus concerning Semiramis That she having built a stately Tombe makes this inscription upon it Whatsoever King shall succeed here and wants money let him open this Tombe and he shall have enough to serve his turne Which Darius in after-ages being in streights for want of treasure attempting to doe in stead of money found only this reproofe written and laid up there Vnlesse thou hadst been extreamely covetous and greedy of filthy lucre thou wouldest not have opened the graves of the dead to seeke for money The Lord threatens by the Prophet Jeremie that the Chaldeans shall bring out the bones of the King of Judah and the bones of his Princes and the bones of the Priests and the bones of the Prophets c. out of their graves chap. 8.1 It is conceived that the reason why the Chaldeans digg'd up and raked in the graves of the Jewes was not so much from cruelty as from covetousnesse They having heard that the Jewes used to put rich ornaments upon the dead or riches into their graves with them Or this might be as a just punishment of that grredinesse after gaine so eminent in the Jewes that the Prophet in the very Chapter where this is threatned chargeth them thus ver 10. Every one from the least to the greatest is given to covetousnesse Thus it is cleare that there was a custome to put riches and treasure into the grave with the dead to which Job might allude in this place So much for the opening of the words from the sense given Observe first That neither power nor wisedome nor riches are any priviledge at all against the stroake of death Here are Kings men that have great power Counsellours men full of wisedome Princes that have riches so much gold that they can stuffe their graves with it yet these cannot defend themselves against death Death will not obey the authority of Kings nor doth it feare their frownes the subtilty or policy of Counsellours is not able to defeate it there is no eloquence no
I am sure with passions or the working of many passions together The word you see in the Hebrew hath a neere affinity in sound and sense with our English word raging and we translate it so Psal 2. Why doe the heathen rage It is the same word So here the wicked cease from raging or from troubling that is from that madnesse of rage in troubling the poore especially such as feare God Wicked men are not only sinfull but they are mad in their sin As Paul speakes of himselfe before his conversion I punished them oft in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even unto strange Cities Acts 26.11 In Paul unconverted see the picture of a wicked mans spirit he could not cease from troubling but in death he shall And there the weary are at rest The weary Some by the weary understand those whom the wicked have wearied by troubling of them and that is a truth that in the grave the wearied those that wicked men have turmoiled and vexed are at rest so the sense is made out thus that in the grave they that trouble others and the troubled the poore persecuted and the proud persecutors are at rest But rather by the wearied we are to understand only the wicked themselvs There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest that is there those wicked men who weary and tire out themselves with vexing and troubling of others are at rest they then cease from those vexatious undertakings which have consumed their spirits and worne out their bodies And the reason why I rather expound the weary to be the wicked though the other be a good sense is because Job afterward speakes of the rest of those that are wearied who are passive under the cruelties and plottings of those wicked ones There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest Hence observe first That wicked men are troublers both of themselves and others There the wicked cease from troubling as if the wicked did nothing in the world but trouble the world As before Job had given the speciall character of great ones and Princes They get gold build Palaces and Sepulchers and fill them with treasure So when he speakes of wicked ones he saith There the wicked cease from troubling As intimating that while they live in the world they are a perpetuall trouble to the world The Prophet Isaiah is expresse chap 57.20 The wicked are as the troubled sea that cannot rest they can doe any thing better then be quiet they have not strength enough to sit still they cannot rest King Ahab had this apprehension of Elijah 1 King 18.17 when the kingdome of Israel was full of trouble for God did vex them with great adversity Art not thou he saith Ahab that troublest Israel No saith Elijah who could make up a better judgement then Ahab in that point I am not he that troubleth Israel but it is thou and thy fathers house Ahab had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse and so had stock enough to purchase trouble for Israel wicked ones are the troublers of all they are troublers of their own families troublers of the places and Cities where they live the troublers of a whole Kingdome troublers of the Churches of Christ and the troublers of their own soules they are borne to trouble both active and passive they love to trouble and they have what they love It is the character and the argument of an extreame wicked man to be a troubler Even as it is a great argument of great grace when you see one a comforter of others or busie to helpe others to doe good to others The tree is knowne by the fruites Secondly Taking the latter words of this verse There the weary be at rest for those wicked men who are wearied by troubling others we may observe That wicked men by troubling others doe as much weary and tire out themselves And though they find that in troubling others they weary themselves yet they will not give it over they will trouble still Job saith thus of a wicked man in the 15th of this booke ver 20. The wicked man travaileth with paine all his dayes not only doth he put others to paine but himselfe is in paine and they are frequently expressed in Scripture as wearying themselves sometimes as weary of themselves so Jer. 9.5 They weary themselves to commit iniquity And thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels Isa 47.13 Thou art wearied in the greatnesse of thy way Isa 57.10 and that was but a way of troubling the Church She wearieth her selfe with lies Ezek. 24.12 The sins which wicked men commit only in and against themselves weary them but they are most wearied when they are persecutors of others It is observed of Antiochus Epiphanes that famous troubler of the Church by him that hath written the Itinerary of the Saints that he did undertake more troublesome journeyes and went upon more hazardous designes meerely to trouble and vex and oppose the Church of the Jewes then ever any of his predecessors did about any other conquest or noble enterprise that he travail'd more miles to doe mischiefe then as the Authour doth compare their journeys any of the Saints did to doe good and therefore he concludes the story of him with this generall truth concerning persecutors All such wicked men goe with more trouble to eternall death then the Saints doe to eternall life they toyle themselves more and suffer more to worke out their own damnation then the godly doe in working out their salvation To be wicked in the height is the height of trouble Solomon saith that a good man is mercifull to his beast but a wicked man is unmercifull to himselfe he will tire himselfe more then a good man will tire his beast This is a certaine truth he that will follow sinne and serve his own lusts especially the lust of pride and oppression whosoever serveth those lusts serveth a hard master a master that will make him toile and sweat and weary himselfe while he lives and at the last pay him with death The worke of sin is bad enough but as to the sinner the wages of sinne is worse The last thing I shall note from it is this There the wicked cease from troubling There where is that At the grave when they come to die they make an end of their troubling not before Observe then Wicked men will never cease troubling untill they cease to live In the grave they cease troubling there they are at rest If they should live an eternity in this world they would trouble the world to eternity As a godly man never gives over doing good he will doe good as long as he lives though he fetches many a weary step so wicked men never give over doing evill untill they step into the grave And the reason of it is because it is their nature to doe
He lives by that caution Psal 62.10 If riches flow in or encrease yet set not thine heart upon them In the highest flood and spring-tide of worldly prosperity we should keepe our hearts within the channell When riches are encreased into a mountaine and to the eye of nature into a mountaine of rocks yet then doe not set thy heart upon them as upon a foundation so the Hebrew word imports to settle thy contentments All the creatures in Heaven and earth are not strong enough to beare the weight of a mans heart God only can doe that who is the rocke of ages or an everlasting strength Isa 26.3 all besides him is a foundation of sand and so a godly man takes them What nature lookes at as a foundation of rockes that grace sees to be a foundation of sand and therefore will not rest upon it neither indeed can it A godly man in his afflictions is as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 and in his aboundance he hath all things but possesseth nothing for he so possesses things as if he did not possesse them as the Apostles counsell is 1 Cor. 7.31 He marries as if he married not he weepes as if he wept not he rejoyces as if he rejoyced not he buyes as if he possessed not because the fashion of this world passeth away It was an excellent speech of Luther concerning worldly things I have protested that I will never be satisfied with the creature this is to be a Protestant indeed as well as in truth A godly man is an Epicure in Christ he would never play the Epicure but in Christ and in God In them and towards them he gives his affections their full swing and as a wicked man is said to enlarge his desires after the earth as Hell Hab. 2.5 so he enlarges his desires after Heaven as Heaven and complaines his desires are no larger In the thoughts of Christ he sits downe and would take his fill he saith I am safe in him I am quiet and at rest He saith to his soule soule doest thou see That Christ and doest thou take notice of those promises Thou hast goods layed up in him in them for many yeares yea for eternity soule take thine ease take it fully thou hast riches thou hast an estate that can never be spent soule eate drinke and be merry his blood is drinke indeed and his flesh is meate indeed joy in Christ is joy indeed unspeakeable joy here and fullnesse of joy hereafter In his presence there is fulnesse of joy and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore Untill the soule pitches thus on Christ it is not in safety much lesse in rest or quiet As the needle in the compasse is in continuall motion till it points towards the North where as it is conceived there are rocks of Load-stone with which it sympathiseth So the soule is in continuall motion untill it points to Christ who we are sure is that living rock with whom all beleevers sympathise and the true Load-stone which attracts all beleevers to him A beleever like Noahs Dove finds no rest all the world over for the feete of his soule untill he returnes to this Arke of safety and salvation And therefore after all his flights and flutterings among the creatures he saith with the Psalmist returne unto thy rest thy Christ O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Psal 116.7 Thou hast been abroad in the world and that like a narrow-hearted Master deales niggardly with thee If thou shouldest stay long either in the service of or dependance upon the world the world would starve thee Therefore returne unto thy rest in the Lord for the Lord hath dealt and will yet deale more bountifully with thee O my soule Lastly In that Job saith I was not in safety neither had I rest c. yet trouble came We may observe That the more our hearts are loosened from the creatures the more assurance we may have of enjoying the creatures It is as if Job had said I was not fastned to the world my heart was not engaged to any thing on this side Christ and this was the fairest the most probable way for the continuance of my outward comforts yet trouble came The redditive particle yet supposes somewhat in reason or probability at least that might have carried it another way As when the Prophet Amos reckoning up the judgements of God upon his people speakes to them thus in his Name chap. 4.6 8 9. I have sent you cleanenesse of teeth yet have you not returned unto me I have sent you the pestilence the sword yet have you not returned unto me The yet shewes there was great reason God should expect their returne or that he had done that which in all probability might have caused them to returne when he sent those judgements So here when Job saith I was not in safety c. yet trouble came The yet implies that there was somewhat even in that unquietnesse which gave him hopes of settlement in his outward comforts It seemes to carry such a sense in it as if he had in more words explained himselfe thus Had I dwelt securely and given my selfe up to the contentments of my flesh or trusted in an arme of flesh for safety I should not have wondred at my calamity or thought strange of my trouble But this is a riddle which I cannot yet expound that when my heart was no way set upon my estate my estate should fall That when I rested not in the creature I should meet with such troubles in the creature This is not the manner of God It is not usuall for God to doe thus in his dispensations toward his people and servants It is very rare that he takes their outward comforts from them when they are not taken with their comforts Hence it is as I apprehend that Job putteth it in with a yet trouble came This way of God with me is out of the ordinary course of providence I confesse Mercer a very learned commentator doth not favour this exposition of laying such a weight upon the particle yet and therefore renders the Originall Vau as a bare copulative I was not in safety c And trouble came Yet having the authority of our translation and the frequent use of the word to that sense in other places we may venture upon it yea I thinke it is no venture but a certaine advantage both to the Text and to our selves And I am certaine the position is true though the exposition should not prove so For the truth is troubles are never so neere as when we put them furthest off Nor is the world ever so unsure to us as when we make surest of it God often pulls their comforts from them whose hearts are glued to their comforts As it is said of those in the 1 Thes 5.3 when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction shall come upon
upon themselves or upon their Land Further the sprinckling of dust upon the head was a memento of mortality They put dust to dust that man might remember himselfe to be but dust And they sate with him upon the ground seven dayes and seven nights Here is the third ceremoniall act of their sorrow In the 20th verse of the former Chapter it is said Job fell upon the ground these sate upon the ground As falling so sitting upon the ground is the posture of a mourner of a mourner greatly humbling himselfe under the hand of God and the sense of his own or other mens afflictions When God layes us low he can lay us lower and therefore it is best for us to lay our selves as low as we can so doth he who sits upon the ground if his heart sit downe with him too It is possible for the body to lye groveling upon the earth when the spirit is nestling among the starres not in faith as the Saints doe but in pride as Lucifer did Isa 14.13 However he either is or appeares to be humbled to the lowest and emptied to the full of worldly comforts who with Jobs friends sits downe upon the ground especially if he sit long there as Jobs friends did seven dayes and seven nights The time seemes almost incredible How could they hold out to sit so long or how could Job a sick and diseased man For it is said They sate downe with him seven dayes c. I answer We need not interpret it for seven continued dayes and nights without any intermission it is frequent in Scripture to put a part especially a greater part for the whole that which is often done is said to be alwayes done as Luk. 24.53 The Disciples were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God And Luk. 2.37 It is said That Anna the Prophetesse departed not from the Temple but served God night and day Not that she was there without any intermission but the greatest part of night and day or at the usuall time both of night and day Paul testifies before the Church of Ephesus that by the space of three yeares he ceased not to warne every one night and day with his teares Act. 20.31 Did he therefore actually preach three yeares night and day without intermission That had been a long Sermon indeed Then his meaning is but this that in those three yeares he watched and made use of all possible opportunities both by night and by day to preach the Gospell So we may understand it here they sate downe seven dayes and seven nights that is a great part of seven dayes and seven nights or all the time of those seven dayes and seven nights which were fitting for such a visit Origen will have it seven nights and seven dayes without intermission In maintenance of which assertion he saith they were preserved by miracle without sleep and without meate all that time But here is plaine truth without a miracld Secondly Whereas it is said seven dayes and seven nights we may note further that the number seven as other numbers may be understood indefinitely a certaine time being put for an uncertaine as Jer. 15.9 The Prophet saith She that hath borne seven that is many children languisheth And Eccles 2.7 Give a portion to seven that is to many Thus we may interpret it here they sate downe seven dayes and seven nights that is many dayes and many nights as it is expre'st of Nehemiah chap. 1.4 That when he heard of the calamity of Jerusalem he mourned many dayes Thirdly We may take it strictly for seven precise dayes and nights and then it referres to the ceremony of mourning for the dead it was a custome to mourne seven dayes for the dead Jobs friends looked upon him as a dead man and so they mourned for him according to the manner of mourning for the dead Joseph made a mourning for his father Jacob seven dayes Gen. 50.10 We have the like time of mourning mentioned 1 Sam. 31.13 The time of mourning varied both in times and places The Egyptians mourned for Jacob threescore and ten dayes Gen. 50.3 The Israelites mourned for Moses thirty dayes Deut. 34.8 which custome of mourning thirty dayes for the dead continued long after among the Jewes For Josephus reports that when the Jewes thought he had been killed they mourned thirty dayes for him So that we may take it here precisely for seven dayes and seven nights and referre it to the custome of mourning for the dead or in cases of extreame sorrow among that people It followeth And none spake a word unto him This is the fourth ceremony of their mourning their silence In great mournings silence makes up the solemnity So Lam. 2.10 These are joyned together The Elders of the daughters of Zion sit upon the ground there is the former ceremony and keepe silence Now whereas it is said they kept silence we need not understand it so strictly as if for seven dayes and seven nights they never spake a word It is usuall likewise in all languages and very frequent in Scripture that what is but seldome done or done but a little is said not to be done at all as in Acts 27.33 Paul saith of those that were in the Ship that for fourteene dayes they had fasted having taken nothing a thing beyond the strength of man take it strictly to fast foureteene dayes taking nothing But it is usuall to say that is not done at all which is but a little done They tooke nothing to eate that is they tooke very sparingly they did eate only so much as would according to our language keepe life and soule together In Isa 20.3 it is said that Isaiah walked naked and barefoote for three yeares Now it cannot be conceived that the Prophet walked as we say starke naked for three yeares together He is said to walke naked because he had not such or so much cloathing as formerly and usually he had worne So here they spake not a word to him that is they did not speake much they spake very little to him Or secondly thus Restrictively to the matter they spake not a word by way of dispute or argument which was the businesse they fell upon afterward either to convince him or reprove him The reason of this fourth ceremoniall act of mourning their silence is added in the last words of the Chapter For they saw that his griefe was very great The word here used for griefe though it had bin alone without any epithite to heighten the sense notes a very intensive a deepe and great sorrow And it is put sometimes for griefe and sorrow arising from the paine of the body and sometimes for griefe and sorrow of mind Now here I conceive it may carry both senses they saw that the griefe and paine of his body was very great his body was in a wofull plight and they saw that his spirit was much perplext too his mind was troubled But if this