exprest the righteous perish that is they dye as it is explained afterward they are taken away from the evill to come they rest in their beds sc in their graves so Matth. 8. 25. Master save us we perish say the Disciples when they thought they should all be drowned Lord helpe us or else we all dye presently and so we translate Job 34. 15. where Elihu speaking of the power of God thus describes it If he should but shew himselfe all flesh saith he shall perish together that is all flesh shall dye they are not able to stand before Gods power and greatnesse the word which he useth there strictly taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to expire or give up the ghost yet we translate it all flesh shall perish together that is they shall all give up the ghost and dye if God should appear in his power and greatnesse Thirdly by perishing we may understand outward afflictions and troubles falling upon either godly or wicked these are called a perishing Josh 23. 13. Joshua tels the people If you will not obey and walk according to the Commandements of God ye shall quickly perish from off this good Land that is ye shall be removed by outward afflictions from your Land you shall goe into captivity And so if I perish I perish saith Esther Chap. 4. 17. that is if I bring trouble and affliction upon my selfe let it be so I will venture it A Syrian ready to perish was my father Deut. 26. It is meant of Jacob a man much verst in trouble as he himselfe acknowledgeth Few and evill have been the dayes of my pilgrimage Fourthly to perish notes eternall misery as it is put for the miseries of this life so for the life of misery for that life which is an everlasting death John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave Omnimodam rei perditionem significat oâ—pâ—â—niâ—uâ— enim generationi his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life perishing is opposed to everlasting life and therefore implyes everlasting death Fifthly to perish notes utter desolation and totall ruine A cutting off or a destroying the very name and remembrance of a person or of a people He that speaks lyes shall perish Pro. 19. 9. that is he shall be utterly destroyed In this sense the word is used for the Devill because he is a destroyer to the utmost as Christ is a Saviour to the utmost He is called Abaddon from Abad the word here used Rev. 9. 12. and Apollyon his businesse is to destroy totally and eternally Thus also Antichrist The first-borne of the Devill 2 Thess 2. 3. is called the sonne of perdition take it actively he is a destroying sonne one that destroyeth bodies and soules as in Scripture a bloody man is called Ish dammim a man of blood and passively he is a sonne of perdition that is a man to be destroyed both body and soule These two latter senses namely eternall destruction in Hell and utter destruction in this life are joyned together Prov. 15. 11. Hell and destruction or Hell and perishing are before the Lord and Chap. 27. 20. we have the same words againe Hell and perdition or Hell and destruction are never full So that to perish in a strict sense notes even in this life an utter extirpation so some render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abscondit ne amplius auditur vel videatur per metonymiam sublatuâ— doletus succisus Sublata enim è medio non apparent amplius sed absconduntu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it here Who ever saw the righteous plucked up by the roots so as there should be no remembrance no remainder of them The other word which is joyned in the Text cut off carries the same sense though it signifies properly to hide a thing yet it is so to hide it as it appeareth no more or so to hide it that it can neither be heard of nor seen any more Hence by a Metonymie it signifies to take away or to cut off because things that are taken away and cut off are as things hidden and seen no more Here then is the height of the sense either to take it for perishing in Hell or for such a perishing in this life as is joyned with totall desolation and desertion Then for the termes innocent and righteous The word we translate innocent signifieth empty And it is therefore applyed to an innocent person because innocent persons are emptied of malice and wickednesse their hearts are swept and cleansed purged and washed there is in some sense a vacuum a holy vacuum in the hearts of holy persons they are freed from that fulnesse of evill which lyes in their hearts by nature that filth is cast out Every mans heart by nature is brim full top full of wickednesse as the Apostle describes the Gentiles Rom. 1. 29. being filled with all unrighteousnesse and it is a truth of every mans heart it is a Cage full of uncleane Birds a stable full of filthy dung he hath in him a throng of sinfull thoughts a multitude of prophane ghests lodging in him Now a person converted is emptied of these these ghests are turned out of their lodgings the roomes are swept and emptied therefore an holy person is called an empty person Emptied not absolutely emptied of all sinne but comparatively there is abundance cast out so that considering how full of sin he was he may be said to be emptied of sinne and that his malice is cast out In the fourth of Amos the Prophet threatens cleannesse of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teeth it is a suitable judgement that uncleane hearts and lives should be punished with cleane teeth or innocency of teeth for it is the word of the Text. Famine is elegantly so called Want of bread makes empty or cleane teeth And where were the righteous that 's the other terme cut off One may put the question where were the righteous surely Job had very good eyes if he could finde any righteous man upon the earth he might seem to have clearer eyes then the Lord himselfe if he could finde any righteous God looked downe from heaven and he saw none righteous no not one Psal 53. 3 4. Yet here Eliphaz bids Job enquire about the righteous where they were cut off To clear that By righteous here we are to understand not righteous persons in a strict and legall sense but in a Gospel mollified sense righteous with an allay righteous by way of interpretation and not in the strictnesse of the letter And so men are called righteous first in reference to the work of regeneration There are none righteous in the root or originall in their first setting and plantation in the soyle of the world but there are righteous persons as regenerate and transplanted into the body of Christ as wrought and fashioned by the Spirit of Christ Secondly there are none righteous that is none exactly perfectly compleatly
when God formed man out of the dust of the earth and had breathed into him the breath of life the result of all is and man became a living soule it is not said man became a living body though life was breathed into the body and the body stood up and lived yet the best part is named for all the dust and the clay are as it were quite forgotten in the story man became a living soule And that may be a reason why the fear of God and keeping 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Commandements Eccles 12. ult is called all man because these things chiefely concerne that part of man which upon the matter is all man The feare of God and keeping his Commandements are soule worke and tend to the eternall welfare of the soule and though the body shares in all the blessings and assists in most labours of the soule yet the soule labours most for and is the chiefest seate of blessednesse How strangely have some departed from this point of truth which the Scripture every where writes as with a Sun-beame who instead of making the soule to be the chiefe part of man deny that man hath any such part And whereas some toucht at before err'd on the right hand saying that Man was nothing but a soule These goe astray more and more dangerously on the left hand saying that Man hath no soule at all An opinion howsoever lately drest in some finenesse of wit and subtilties of Philosophy yet in it self so grosse so dishonourable to man so contrary to this Text and the whole tenour of the word of God that I hope it is very mortal and will shortly find a grave in every heart but theirs who have more reason to wish it then to maintain it I intend no dispute about it beyond the Argument before me which if it be not demonstrative as many others from Scripture are yet it carries at least a faire probability and an ingenuous ground for how can man be said to dwell in a house of clay if he himself be nothing else but a house of clay or how can the inhabitant and the house be in all but one and the same But I shall dwell too long upon these houses of clay in which man cannot dwell long for it followes Which are crushed before the moth What strength is there in houses which are crushed before the moth or as others read it Which shall be consumed after the manner of a moth Master Broughton thus Beaten to powder as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad facies tineae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in medum tineae Sept. Velut à tinea Vulg. Pagnine moth be they That is They are crushed as soon or as speedily as a moth Another They are consumed as it were with a moth A fifth translates differently from all these Which are crushed and consumed before Arcturus Arcturus is a Constellation in Heaven about the North Pole we read of it in the 9th of this Book of Job verse 9. Which makes Arcturus Orion and the Pleiades c. The same word here signifies a moth and sometimes a Constellation a knot or company of Stars The sense of this reading is made out thus They are crushed before the face of Arcturus That is they are crushed as long or whilst Arcturus doth continue in plain English as long as there is a Star in Heaven man will be a mortall man or man will never change this condition of mortality while the world stands We may thus expound it by that Psal 72. 17. where the Prophet describing the Kingdome of Christ in the extent both of place and time saith His name shall be continued as long as the Sun the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad facies solu His name shall continue before the face of the Sun to continue before the face of the Sun is to run in a line of equall continuance with the Sun so here They are crushed before the fate of those Starres that is they shall be in such a crushing perishing condition as long as those Starres continue which is as long as the course of this world continues Our owne translation which comes cleer to the letter of the Originall is further to be looked into They are crushed before the moth It may have a three-fold interpretation First before the moth that is before in time or sooner then the moth How quickly is a moth crushed man may be crushed before it sooner then it is crusht Secondly Before the moth may be as much as in the presence of the moth as if he should say man thinks he is able to stand it out against a potent Adversary yea against God himselfe but alasse poore creature he is not able to stand before a moth or contend with a flye if God arme any of them against him Thirdly They are crushed before the moth that is man is crusht and torne vext and worne out by a thousand miseries and troubles which attend his life before ever the moth has to doe with him before ever he lyes downe in the bed of death before the moth that is for the moth to fret on or as a companion for the wormes All these renderings though they differ in words come neer and meet in the same generall sense namely An illustration of mans frailty Take them first by way of similitude Man is crushed as it were with a moth it notes thus much to us That death consumes us without noise secretly and silently To doe a thing as a moth is to doe it silently and without noise Hos 5. 12. God himselfe saith that he will be as a moth unto Ephraim and as a Lion ver 14. when he saith he will be as a Lion it implieth open judgements which come violently and visibly which come in like thunder roaring as a Lion upon them But when he saith I will be as a moth unto Ephraim the meaning is I will send silent and secret judgements upon you which shall eate out your strength corrode your power and blemish the beauty of your garments and you shall not perceive it Ye shall be undone consumed and as we speak Proverbially ye shall never know who hurt you The open enemies of the Church are threatned with secret judgements under this notion of a moth Isa 50. 9. Loe they shall wax old as doth a garment the moth shall consume them Againe Chap. 51. 6 7. Feare ye not the reproach of men neither be ye afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eate them up like a garment and the worme shall eate them like wool that is whereas your enemies have made a great noise and clamour with their revilings against you I will come against them without noise they shall perish with as little clamour as a garment doth that is eaten with moths And thus the life of man is ordinarily consumed as it were by a moth sicknesses and diseases enter secretly into his house of
plant while it is rooted by the springs of heavenly promises And what is mine end that I should prolong my life The letter of the Hebrew is That I should prolong or lengthen out my soul that my soul should inhabit longer in the tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my body The word prolong is differently joyned to life or dayes Deut. 5. 16. Honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee that thy dayes may be prolonged c Ezek. 12 22. Son of man what is that proverbe that you have in the land of Israel saying The dayes are prolonged and every vision faileth To prolong dayes and prolong life are the same Yet hear the word Nephesh soul which we translate life may be taken for desire which is a vehement act of the soul The soul expresses it self so much in desires that the same word may expresse both And so we may render Jobs sence thus What is my end that I should lengthen out or extend my desires any further after the things of this world or that I should defer and put off my desires after the things of the world to come Is there any thing in this life worth my staying for it or any thing so worthless in the next that I should not wish presently to enjoy it In this sence the word Nephesh is often used as Gen. 23. 8. Abraham speaks to the children of Heth If it be your soul or your desire we translate if it be your mind that I should bury my dead So Prev 23 2. If thou be a man given to thy appetite or whose desires are thy Lord and master as the elegancy of that place beares And again Psal 27. 12. Psal 41. 2. Eccl 6. 9. The word is applied to signifie the will or desire So here What is mine end that I should prolong my life or my desire of life His End may be considered two wayes First His end may be taken for the latter part of his life which Eliphaz promised would be very comfortable Thou shalt come to thy grave in a good old age as a shock of corn commeth into the flore As if Job should say you are promising me good dayes and a happy old age but what is mine end what 's the latter part of a mans life that he should desire to prolong his dayes to take it out why should I desire to prolong my life I am now well stricken in years and as for the end the latter part of a mans life it is nothing for the most part but trouble and sorrow As old Barzillai 2 Sam. 19. 35. when David offered him the pleasures of the Court answers I am thus old and can I taste my meat and taste my drink or hear musique What is the Fagge-end of mans life that one should hunger after it The sweetest comforts of this life are in the fore-part of life in the spring of youth in the strength and flower of age As for the winter of life what is that but wet and cold but clouds and darkness What is my end of old age that I should desire my life to be prolonged or eeked out to that But rather we may take this End First For the end of his troubles As if he had said What end so gainfull or comfortable can I have of these evils that should recompence my pains in bearing them till I receive it No worldly comforts can answer my sorrows and therefore why should I desire to prolong my life for them Secondly Take End for the very last term of life not that latter part or condition of a mans life troublesome old age as before or a renewed estate as here But take End for the ending the termination the period of life What is my end that I should prolong my life and so End is as much as death what is my death that I should desire to live I know no evil in death that should make me afraid of the end of my life I know no such trouble in dying that I should be desirous to spinne out this troublesome life longer surely the trouble and pain of death is not so much as the present trouble and pain of my life and as for any other trouble I fear none then What is my end that I should prolong my life that I should not desire death or that you should be so angry with me for desiring it Hence observe first There is no strength in man that may give him assured hope of long life What is my strength that I should hope No though man be in the flourish of his age the greenesse of his years yet what is youth or strength or beauty what all those fair leaves and fruits which hang upon and adorn this goodly tree that he should hope to hand long Man in his best estate is altogether vanity Psal 39. 5. He that hopes to live upon any of these things hopes in a vain thing trusts but in a shadow Our hopes to live this natural life as well as the spiritual and eternal must be in the living God The Image of death sits upon the best of our strength and beauty while we grow we decline and while we flourish we wither The lengthening of our dayes is the shortning of them and all the time we live is but a passage unto and should be but a preparation for death We are most miserable if in this life only we have hope and we are most foolish if our hopes of this life be in our own strength And because there is no strength in nature which may give us hope to live long It is our greatest wisdome to consider what provision we have in grace to maintain our hopes that we shall live for ever They are in an ill case who when they cannot hope to live long care not to settle their hopes of living eternally It is a most sad spectacle to see a languishing body and a languishing hope meet in one man Some have a Kalender in their bones shewing them they have but few dayes here and many distempers upon the whole body crying in their ears with a loud voice what is your strength that you should hope to live who yet prepare not at all to die They are both unready and unwilling to be dissolved when they see no hope to keep up their tabernacle from desolution Secondly taking the word in the last sense which I conceive rather to be the mind of the holy Ghost in this place observe That there is no evil in the death of a godly man which should make him unwilling to die or which should make him linger after this life What is the end of a godly man that he should prolong his life All the bitterness of death is removed or sweetned by Christ Death the King of terrours is made a servant to let us in to our comforts by the power of Christ that prince of life who hath abolished death and brought life
wherein he is Fourthly observe That hope is the last refuge of the soule My dayes are spent without hope my hope is spent too If I had hope left I had somewhat left but my hope is gone It is so in naturall things it is so in spirituall things The Apostle Heb 6. tells us that hope is the anchor of the soule sure and stedfast while hope holds comfort holds and when hope 's gone all 's gone Observe lastly That sometimes a godly mans hope may lye prostrate My dayes saith he are cut off without hope Job thought as I have noted from some passages before that his case was desperate his hope lay in the dust as well as his body or his honour Every godly man is not an Abraham of whom it is said Rom. 4. 18. That against hope he beleeved in hope Nay Abraham is not alwayes Abraham he that hath such a strong hope hath it not alwayes even his hope may sometimes possibly be hopelesse There are weakenesses in the strongest and imperfections may come upon those who are perfect ebbings after the greatest flowings and declinings after the greatest heights of graces and gracious actings My dayes are spent without hope Job having thus complained of his condition and asserted his own desires of death now turnes from his friends with whom he had discoursed all this while and betakes himself to God to speake a while with him The next words are generally understood an Apostrophe to God Verse 7. Or member that my life is wind mine eye shall no more see good c. O remember that my life is wind To remember is not here taken strictly for to God all things are present Remembrance is the calling of that to mind which is past when the act of remembring is applied to God in Scriprure it hath one of these three sences 1. It notes a resolution or setled purpose in God to act his justice or inflict punishment upon his enemies Psal 137. 7. Remember O Lord the children of Edom that is Lord bring forth that decree of thine for the ruine and destruction of these bloudy Edomites who have been cruell against thy people Secondly it signifies an affection in God ready to help and releeve his own people Psal 74. 2. Remember thy Congregation which thou didst purchase of old that is doe good to thy Congregation blesse thy Congregation Thirdly To remember imports an act of present consideration to remember is fully to weigh observe and take notice of the estate of things or persons Psal 38. 39. He remembred that they were but flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not againe that is he consider'd and weighed the estate of man So in this place O remember that my life is wind that is consider and weigh it well Lord put my condition into the ballance observe what a weak creature I am how short my llfe is therefore deal with me as with a weak short-lived creature Thou needest not lay any great stresse upon me thou needest not trouble thy self much to make an end of me my life is but wind 't is but a puffe which quickly passes away O remember that my life is wind This is a proverbial speech Vita ventus Elegans proverbiale like that before of a weavers shuttle The word translated wind signifies the holy Ghost the third Person in the blessed Trinity As also a Spirit in general And because the wind is of a spiritual nature invisible swift powerful therefore it is applied to that aerial or elementary spirit And the operation of the holy Ghost is shadowed by wind or breath Christ breathed upon his Disciples saying receive the holy Ghost John 20. 22. and the holy Ghost came as a mighty rushing wind Acts 2. 2. When Job saith remember that my life is wind he means my Quasi ventus Targum life is like the wind It is a similitude not an assertion The life of man is like the wind in two things First the wind passeth away speedily so doth mans life Secondly the wind when it is past returns no more as you cannot stop the wind or change its course So all the power in the world is not powerful enough to recallor divert the wind which way the wind goes it will goe and when it goes 't is gone Ps 78. 34. He remembred that they were but flesh wind that passeth away in this sence Job calleth his life a wind it passeth away and shall not return by any law or constitution of nature or by any efficacy of natural causes Yet here observe Job saith not His soul was a wind but his life was a wind Some have philosophiz'd the soul into a wind a blast or a breath and tell us that it goes as the soul of a beast that life and soul are but the same thing when the life 's gone out of the body the soule 's gone from its being They acknowledg a restoring of it again with the body at the resurrection but deny it any existence when separate from the body How dishonourable this is to the noble constitution of man and how dissonant to Scripture is proved in mentioning it we acknowledge that life which is the union of soul and body is a wind and passeth away In all the learned languages Hebrew Greek Latine the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus a spirando Animum quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidam dictum existimant Graeci pro respiratione seu spiritu quem ducimas aceipiunt primo quod vita nostra respiratione indigeâ—t sccundo quod flatu videatur humana vita in prima sua origine constitisse word which signifies spirit or life hath its original from respiring and when we say my wind was gone or my wind was almost beaten out of my body our meaning is my Life was almost gone In the creation Gen. 2. 7. God breathed into man the breath of life or of lives implying the many facultes and operations of life And in as much as the body of man was first formed and this life brought in after to act and move it this is an abundant proof that the soule of man is not any temperament of the body the body being compleated as a body before it and yet no life resulting Wheras beasts to whom that beastly opinion compares man in his creation had living bodies as soone as bodies their totall form being but an extract from the matter Solomen Eccl. 3. 19 20 21. brings in the Atheist drawing this conclusion from those confused oppressions which he observed in the world men carried themselves so like beasts preying upon and devouring one another that he who had nothing but carnall reason to judge by presently resolves That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all
are vanity all goe to one place all are of the dust and all turn to the dust again And whereas the Atheist heard some speake of the ascent of mans spirit after this life he puts it off as but talke and guessing ver 21. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth That is who can tell that there is such a difference between the spirit of a man and of a beast who ever saw the one ascending or the other descending or from what Anatomie was this learned Thus the Atheist derides the doctrine of the soul and will therefore laugh and be merry with his body while it lasts that 's his portion For who shall bring him to sâ—e what shall be after him ver 22. Is it not strange that any who are called sober Christians should plant their opinions in this soyle of Atheisme and make that a proofe of their faith which Solomon brings only as a proofe of some mens infidelity The Preacher in this Book personated those whom he abhor'd and sometimes speakes the practises of other men not his own opinion There is no more reason to ground this Tenet of the Soules Mortality upon those texts then there is of encouragement to intemperancie in that chap. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine own heart Or in that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 32. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die If any would learne Solomons own sence about this point let him reade it as plaine as words can make it Eccl. 12. 7. Then namely when man dies shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it So then to the next before us the soule is not a wind but the Hujusmodi sententiâ— regressum animarum in corpora minin è negant sed necessitatem moriendi confirmant celeri atem life And all those Scriptures where life is compared to wind and dying to the passing of it without returning deny the regresse or returning of the soule to a naturall not to an eternall life and imply the short stay of the soule in the body and certaine departure from it not a not being when it parts These two must part and so part as never to returne to that estate againe Thus Iob expounds himselfe in the words following Mine eye shall no more see good Or as the Hebrew I shall not return to see good answerable to the metaphor of a wind it passeth away and returnes no more To see In this place as often elsewhere is to enjoy I shall not Videre bonum pro frui nota locutio est enjoy good Psal 4. 6. Who will shew or who will cause us to see any good It was not the bare sight of good which they desired but the enjoyment of it So Ier. 17. 6. The man whose heart departeth from God is threatned that he shall not see when good cometh that is he shall not enjoy good when it comes For though to see good be a mercy yet to see it and not to tast it is a curse Therefore at the last day they who thought themselves high in Gods favour but were indeed under his wrath are told that they shall Lam. 13. 26. see Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdome of God and themselves shut out they shall see what they cannot enjoy and that sight shall adde to their sorrow The Prophet cries out Lament 3. 1. I am the man that hath seen affliction that is I am the man that hath felt and had experience of afflictions And Psalm 16. 10. the great promise to Christ is that though he took a corruptible body upon him yet he should not see corruption that is partake of corruption corruption should have no communion with much lesse power over him And we have the same use of the word in this book chap. 20. ver 17. where Zophar tells the hypocrite that God will deprive and strip him of every good thing He shall not see the rivers the floods the brookes of honey and butter It is a rhetoricall expresson comparing the affluence of outward things to floods and rivers and brooks which send forth their streames plentifully as if he had said though there be great store of honey and butter those two are specified for the rest though there be rivers brooks and streames of these commodities yet he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall see none of them that is he shall not enjoy or tast a drop of Sicut Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latini bonum aliquando pro pulchro commodo utili usurpant Isa subinde Hebraei vocabudum Tob Fagius in Gen. 2. 18 them That unbeleeving Lord is told by Elisha that he should see plenty in Samaria the next day but should not eate thereof 2 King 7. 2. Not to see is not to eat and he that sees but eates not is not releeved but troubled at the sight Mine eye shall not see good What good when a man dies shall he see no more good we see but little good while we live and the greatest good is to be seen when we die or rather while we live what doe we see but evill and when the Saints die what have they to see but good how is it then that Iob saith when I die mine eye shall not see good what miserable creatures were we if there were no good to be seen beyond the line of this life our richest stock of comfort lyes in the good we shall see hereafter which is therefore called the blessed-making vision And Iob knew well enough that his eyes should see good after death for he saith chap. 19. 27. with these eyes shall I see God he knew also his soule had an eye to see good and a better good then ever he saw in the world while his body lay in the grave Then his meaning of Mine eye shall no more see good is no more worldly good none of †these good things which I have seen I shall be above the smart of earthly sorrows and above the sence of earthly joyes Good is either natural or civill or spirituall When God created the world he looked upon all that he bad made and he saw that all was very good Civill good is the order peace and prosperity of the world death stops the sight of all this good As for eternall or spirituall good death cannot close or dimme the eye against those objects Then here is no plea for Atheists against the resurrection nor any against the soules Being or being awake till the resurrection Iob speakes only about the speare and course of nature when man dies naturally and is in the state of the dead he enjoyes nothing he acts nothing according to the estate of the living * In his
in the bitternesse of my soul What the bitternesse Amarum non solum dulci opponitur sed etiam jucundo Amariorem me fecit senectus i. e asperiorem Plauâ— of the soule is hath been expounded already in the third Chapter therefore I shall not stay upon it It notes only the height or extremity of affliction Bitter is opposed to unpleasant as well as to sweet In the bitternesse of my soule The affliction appeared most upon his body but it afflicted him most in his soule He speaks little of the pain of his body in comparison of the trouble upon his spirit he insists principally upon that I will speake in the anguish of my spirit I will complaine in the bitternesse of my soule not in the pains of my flesh or sufferings of my body and yet that forme of speaking excludes not his sence and sensiblenesse of bodily paines for a man may well say his soul is in bitternesse by reason of the paines of his body Being in this condition we see what his remedy was he falls a crying and a complaining before God telling how it was with him Jobs complaints have been spoken of in former passages of the Book and why he complaines hath been shewed An afflicted soule finds some ease in complaining of affliction To complaine out of impatience distrust and hard thoughts of God is very sinfull in that sence we must be silent as David Psal 39. 9. when the hand of God was heavy upon him I was dumbe I opened not my mouth because thou didst it in reference to the dealing of God with him David had not a word to say Our Lord Christ the great patterne of suffering was as a sheepe before the shearer dumbe and opened not his mouth no impatient speech came from him Though the griefe of Job was very great and so it might somewhat as hath formerly been cleared excuse the greatnesse of his complaint yet in this Job shewed himselfe a Docemur quantae sint hominis virâ—s sibi à Deo derelisti Merc. man subject to like passions as we are Man thinks to get cure by complaining but usually he gets a wound What poore shifts are we poore creatures often put to How often doe we entangle our selves because we are straightned Though Jobs heart kept close to God in the maine though his spirit was preserved untoucht of blaspheming yet we find him touching too often and too loud upon this string of complaining He cannot be excused from some motions of impatience while we hear him setling upon these resolutions to take his fill of or to let loose the reins of his passion to complain I will complaine in the bitterness of my soul Anguish is a very ill guide of the tongue It must needs be troubled matter which passion dictates Observe further That when sorrow continues and hangs long upon us it grows boysterous and resolute We have three wils in the text as if Job had turned all his reason into Will and his will into passion I will not refraine I will speak in the anguish of my spirit I will complaine in the bitternesse of my soule He was grown to a kinde of resolvednesse in his sorrow It is as unsafe for man in this sence to will what Nec tamen is fuit Job qui quod sibi licere non putaret protervè ac procaciter vellet aggredi Meri he doth as to do what he will we ought to will the will of God but we must submit our own We should not mourne over our afflictions nor rejoyce over our comforts but as God wils Yet in this the wil of Job was rather strong then pertinacious He was not a man of that rough make to oppose his wil against the wil and good pleasure of God though that were a paine to him Having thus resolved to complain he complains in this very high Language Verse 12. Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me These are his first words words full of deep complaint like the sea which whether he was or no he would be answered Am I a sea Tell me His question is of like importance with that at the 12. verse of the 6. Chapter Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh brasse He expostulates with God why hast thou laid such trouble upon me Am I stone or brass that I should be able to bear it And here like a sea swolne with bitter waters in the bitterness of his soul he begins to break the bounds again Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me A sea or a whale The sea and the whale are often joyned in Scripture Psal 104. 25 26. O Lord how manifold are thy works c. the earth is full of thy riches so is the great and the wide sea there goe the ships there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein Againe Psal 74. 13. 14. Thou diddest divide the sea by thy strength thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters thou brakest the head of Leviathan in pieces But why doth Job speake this language In briefe the meaning is this The sea you know is a mighty boisterous and unruly creature and the whale is the strongest mightest and most dreadfull creature in the sea the greatest of the creatures whether upon sea or land The sea is the most boisterous of all the inanimate creatures and the whale is the most boisterous of all living creatures So that here Job gives instance in two creatures which are the most head-strong violent and out-ragious in the whole creation The whale and the sea And he sets forth his own weaknesse by the Antithesis of these two creatures surpassing all in strength with which God only is able to graple and encounter And in asking Am I a sea or a whale he may be conceived to speake thus Lord thou seemest to deale with me in a way beyond all thy dealings with the children of men Thou carriest thy selfe towards me as if I were more proud heady hard to be reclaimed then any man in the world thou seemest to take such a course with me as with the unruly sea and with the boisterous whale to keepe me in compasse He speaks as if God laid too heavy an affliction upon him and tooke too strong a course to tame him or as if he might be more gently dealt with and that God needed not prepare such bonds and fetters for him or lay such law upon him as upon the mighty sea and the monstrous whale But for the words in particular Am I a sea There are three things in the sea specially considerable at which Mare barbarum indomitum elementum est Job might have an aime here First the turbulency of the sea the sea is stormy and turbulent so stormy and turbulent that it threatneth to over-whelme all to over-whelme the ships sailing upon it to over-whelme the Visat est
atque in summa aqua extaret Herod l. 1. b Montanus ex iib. Mifna cap. de phase was anciently the Emblem of everlasting forgetfulness or of a resolution never to recal that which was resolved †A learned Hebrician observes that it was a custome among the Jewes to take those things which they abominated as filthy and unclean and cast them into the sea which act noted either the purging of them or the overwhelming them out of sight for ever And a like usage is noted by * Iosephus Aeosta l. 5. de Historia Natur Moral Novi orbis a reporter of the manners of the Americans that those barbarous people either desciphering some wicked thing upon a stone or making a symbole or sign of it used to throw it into a river which should carry it down into the sea never to be remembred Thirdly Pardon of sin is noted by washing and purging to shew that the filthiness of it is removed from us Psal 51. 2. Fourthly By covering Psal 32. 1. and by not imputing ver 2. Fifthly By blotting out Isa 43. 25. and blotting out as a thick cloud Isa 44. 22. All these notions of pardon concurre in this one that sin passes away is lifted up and taken off from the Conscience of the sinner when it is pardoned The summe of all which is read in that one text Jer. 50. 20. In those daies and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none c. why For I will pardon them whom I reserve So that pardoned sin in God's account is no sin and the pardoned sinner is as if he had never sinned Forgiveness destroys sin as forgiving a debt destroyes the debt and cancelling a Bond destroyes the Bond. Thirdly observe When sin is pardoned the punishment of sin is pardoned Both words signifie both the punishment and the sin and Job having complain'd that he was set up as a mark and wounded by sharp afflictions now seeks ease in the surest and speediest way the pardon of sin why doest not thou pardon my transgression c. There are three things in sin The inward matter the foul evil the stock the root of sin which is natural corruption dwelling in us and flowing out by actions Secondly The defilement and pollution of sin Thirdly The guilt when we say sin is pardoned or taken away it is not in the former though in pardoned persons corruption is mortified and the actings of it abated but in the latter the guilt is taken away which is the Obligation to punishment and so the punishment is taken away too nothing vindictive or satisfactory to the justice of God shall ever be laid upon that soul whose sin is pardoned Hence Isa 33. 24. the Prophet fore-shewing how happy a pardoned people shall be assures them The inhabitant shall nâ—â— say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall he forgiven their iniqâ—â—ty When iniquity is forgiven our infirmity is cured When the soul is healed the body shall be recovered Both the body natural and the body politick Plague and sword and famine and death all these evils go away when sin goes Judgments are nothing else but unpardoned sins sin unpardoned is the root which giveth sap and life to all the Troubles which are upon man or Nation And as sin committed is every judgment radically that is there is a fitness in sin to produce and bring forth any evil upon man so pardon of sin is every Mercy radically when you have pardon from thence every other particular Mercy springs you may cut out any blessing any comfort out of the pardon of sin particular Mercies are but pardon of sin specificated or individuated brought into this or that particular Mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin that 's pardon of sin and t'other is pardon of sin Forgiveness destroyeth that wherein the strength of sin lies it destroyeth our guilt and to us abolisheth the condemning power of the Law in these the strength of sin lies Hence when the people of Israel had committed that great sin in making the golden Calf the first thing Moses did was to pray for the pardon of sin and he did it with a strange kind of Rhetoricke Exod. 32. 32. Oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of Gold And now if thou wilt forgive their sin what then Moses There 's no more said Moses is silent in the rest it is an imperfect speech a pause made by holy passion not the fulness of the Sentence Such are often used in Scripture as Luk. 13. 9. And if it bear fruit what then Our own thoughts are left to supply the event Our translaters add well The Greek translators supply that in Exodus thus If thou wilt forgive them their sin forgive them We may supply it with the word in Luke If thou wilt forgive them well As if Moses had said Lord forgive them and then though they have done very ill yet I know it will be very well with them God cannot with-hold any mercy where he hath granted pardon for that with the antecedents and requisites of it is every mercy Moses knew what would follow well enough if they were pardoned and what if they were not therefore he adds And if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written If their sins must stand upon record Moses would not he knew if they were an unpardoned people they were an undone people all miseries would quickly break in upon yea overwhelm them and he desired not to out-live the prosperity of that people If Israel must bear their sins they must also bear the wrath of God and if their sin be but taken off then his love is settled on them God gives quailes sometime but he never gives pardons in anger Fourthly observe The greatest sins fall within the compass of Gods pardoning mercy The words in the text are of the highest signification Job speaks not in a diminutive language he is willing to lay load upon himself they whose hearts are upright will not stand mincing the matter and say they have sins but theirs are small ones sins not grown to the stature of other mens As the sins of a godly man may be very great sins so when they are he acknowledges that they are I know not where to set the bounds in regard of the nature or quantity of sin what sin is there which a wicked man commits but a godly man possibly may commit it excepting that against the holy Ghost These Job did and the Saints may put to God in confession and as he did not so they need not be discouraged to ask pardon for them because they are great The grace of the Gospel is as large as any evil of sin the Law can charge us with The grace of the Gospel is as large as the curse of the Law whatsoever the Law can call or
esse verbum alicut nihil aliud significat quam factam esse revelationem in aâ—iquo Deum cognitione futurorum instar luminiâ— mentem illustrasse Cyril in 1 cap. Hos v 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought unto me but it is usuall both in Hebrew and Greek to call A thing A word Luk. 2. 15. The Shepherds said Let us goe to Bethlem to see this thing the Greek is to see this word which is done Though here it is proper enough to say A word was brought unto me Now a thing or a word was brought unto me it was brought unto me secretly The language of the Prophets was The word of the Lord came unto me There are two words in our translation secretly brought but the Hebrew is one and that word signifies to steale or to do a thing by stealth so it may be translated A thing was brought unto me by stealth or was stole into me M Broughton near this A speech came by stealth upon me we translate fully to the sense A thing was secretly brought to me as if it were whispered into the eare and sent in closely to the spirit And it is thus expressed by way of opposition to another way in which God reveales his minde unto his people He sometimes comes openly and speaks aloud that all may take notice or because all ought Isa 58. 1. Cry aloud lift up thy voice like a Trumpet Things are brought openly to the people secretly to the Prophets what the Lord speaks in the eare or to the heart of a Prophet that he by the Prophet speaks on the house top to all his people A thing was secretly brought or a thing was whispered unto Eliphaz But he speaks it aloud to Job This word or this thing is said to be stolne into him or to be brought unto him by stealth for three reasons which I shall but name and proceed First a thing done by stealth is done suddenly The Thiefe hastens to doe mischiefe he makes no delayes Then secondly a thing done by stealth is done secretly a Thiefe comes closely in the dark stealth is committed with greatest privacy and to say a thing is brought by stealth is as much as to say it is brought privately Thirdly a thing done by stealth is done unexpectedly A man seldome looks for the Thiefe he is upon him in the way upon him in his house before he is aware A Thiefe is usually as unexpected as he is aâ— unwelcome guest So this word came or was brought in by stealth because it came suddely it came silently and it came unexpectedly to Eliphaz And in these three respects Christ himselfe is said to come as a Thiefe Behold I come as a thiefe in Rev. 16. 15. the night As the word of Christ comes to many of his people now so the person of Christ will come at the last unto all He will come by stealth or as a thiefe suddenly secretly unexpectedly when the world shall little dreame of him and his Church scarce be awake for him Note from this first That divine truths are infused into us not borne in us or borne with us every thing which is of Heaven commeth unto us from Heaven it is either stolne in secretly or thundred in loudly sometimes the Prophets and Ministers of Christ speaking aloud carry truth into the soule sometimes God whispers it into the soule one way or other truth must be brought in for it growes not in us our hearts by nature are not onely like white paper having no inscription not a letter of Gods will written in them but they are like paper blotted or blurred written all over with the corrupt principles and positions of our own wils God by his Spirit first crosses or wipes out those and then writes down his own golden rules of holy truth and heavenly wisdome This he doth first in conversion from sinne to grace and holinesse and afterward in all the increases of grace and growths of holinesse There is not a syllable of the law of God in any mans heart till the finger of God writes it there I will put my law in their minde and write it in their hearts which is an allusion unto the two Tables of the Law They were first written by the finger of God and then put into the Ark So God first writes the Law in our hearts and then puts it into our mindes he layes it up in the Ark of our understanding and memory Secondly observe That God steales truths into the hearts of his people unawares As they often expect and wait long for knowledge so they sometimes know before they expect A truth either in whole or part in the matter or clearer light of it comes like a Thief into the heart suddenly secretly unlooked for in which case it is ever true that truth unexpected is doubly welcom'd The way of the Spirit of God is alwayes undiscernable to flesh and blood The soule receives a thing and the man knowes not how he can scarce possibly not at all tell where by whom or which way it came to him it was brought secretly brought and with a most blessed gracious slight of hand conveyed into his heart Yet sometime truth enters in State may be said to make its passage visibly into the heart of a man The word comes not as a company of Thieves but as a band of Souldiers with weapons drawn and terrible shouts tearing open the soule and breaking open the iron gate of the heart lock'd and barr'd with unbeliefe to secure that cursed crue of lusts garrison'd within it The weapons of our warfare saith the Apostle are mighty through God 2 Cor. 10. 4. The word is mighty wonderfull in strength it comes upon the soule as an armed man to spoyle it of all sinfull treasures yea of the very life of sinne Sometimes the Lord proclaimes warre as by a Herald of Armes against a man and openly prepares for his siege and battery He surprises another and steals him into a happy captivity to himselfe A thing was secretly brought unto me and mine eare received a little thereof Mine eare caught somewhat of it so Mr. Broughton The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paâ—â—câ—la pars medicum signifies a part or a portion Mine eare received a little yet we are not to understand this as if Eliphaz had taken in onely some fragments or imperfect notes of what God delivered or had heard to halves For doubtlesse Eliphaz received all that was brought he turned nothing back he said not a little is enough I need not the rest that he received but a little was not from neglect of the rest but from inability to receive more or to receive it more perfectly And though he had not all of every part yet he had a part of all it was not a little of this and none of that little respects somewhat of every truth not some one truth He received though not all yet a perfect modell of all
not commit all to them he would not believe upon them We finde the word belief thus used Exod. 14. 31. when the children of Israel saw the great work that the Lord had wrought in destroying the Egyptians it is said The people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses he puts God and Moses as the joynt object of their faith as they had formerly been of their unbelief Except the servants of the Lord be believed the Lord himselfe is not And when they are believed the Lord is Believe in the Lord your God believe his Prophets saith good Jehosaphat to his people 2 Chron. 20 20. Moses had told them enough of the power of God before he had undertaken they should be delivered but they would not trust Moses upon his word nor would they trust the Word of God yet now when they saw this great deliverance present sight wrought faith for the time to come they perceived by this miracle that the Lord and Moses were to be credited they doubted not to credit them another time Though that faith which comes in at the eyes only seldome goes downe so low as the heart or sees further and longer then the eye Thus we may understand the first part of the Verse He put no trust no belief in his servants he gave no credit to them as knowing perfectly what their nature and power was what both could do that if left by God they would quickly leave God and prove unfaithfull I shall observe one point before I come to the latter part of the Verse for there the suspition of disloyaltie upon the Angels comes more fully to be considered from the title here given to the Angels His servants he put no trust in his servants Angels are the servants of God They are his servants as being altogether at his command and they are his servants as being fully conformable to his commands These great and glorious Spirits come under the same title and denomination with men who dwell in houses of clay servants of God To serve God is not only the duty but it is the honour of the highest creatures It is more honour to serve God then to rule the world The stile of the good Angels is Ministring Spirits Heb. 1. but the stile and title of the evill Angel is Prince of the power of the aire God of this word you would think these were weighty titles Prince of the aire God of the world but the additions diminish their weight yea make them lighter then vanity or rather heavie only with misery There is more glory in being a servant of God than in being a god of the world or a Prince of the power of the aire I might here enlarge my enquiry into the services of Angels in what they are servants and what their offices and duties are but I shall only touch Their service may be considered either in respect of the Church or the enemies of the Church Respecting the Church and people of God they have such services as these First they are as messengers to carry and reveale the minde of God They are as Tutors and instructors of the Churches Dan. 8. 9. God sent his Angel to teach Daniel the mysterie of those visions And Rev. 1. 11. an Angel was sent to instruct John Chap. 22. 16. I Jesus have sent mine Angell to testifie these things in the Churches Secondly they are sent as guardians and protectors of the people of God to take their part and to be on their side Psal 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that feare him Psal 91. 11. He giveth his Angels a charge over them lest at any time they should dash their feet against a stone Gen. 32. 2. When Jacob journied it is said the Angels of God met him an army of Angels was his Convoy Gods Hoast coming out for his protection and safeguard and therefore he called the name of that place Nahanaim that is two Hosts or Camps either because the Angels appeared in two bands and so made as it were a guard for Jacob to passe between them Or because the great Angelicall Royall Army quartered and marched with Jacobs little Army and so two confederate Armies appeared in the field together Angels are called Chariots Psal 68. 17. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels That is God useth Angels for defence of his people as Chariots in Warr. The ancient Prophets were called the Chariots of Israel 2 King 3. 13. and the Angels are the Chariots of God Our strongest Militia is of Spirits or of men spiritualiz'd Thirdly Angels suggest good things holy thoughts to us If the Devill who is an evill Angel a wicked spirit can suggest evill sinfull filthy thoughts and help on the heart in wickednesse then doubtlesse a good Angel can help on the heart in holinesse in heavenly thoughts and meditations Christ speaks of Judas that Satan had put it into his heart to betray him John 13. and Peter to Ananias Acts 5. Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost The nature of a good Angel is as fit his power given as great to deale with our spirits as either the nature or the power of an evill Angel That of the Apostle 2 Cor. 11. 14. gives a hint if not a proofe of it where he tels the Corinthians That deceitfull workers transforme themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvell for Sathan himselfe is transformed into an Angell of light and when is Satan in this change from an Angel of darknesse to an Angel of light even when He suggests good for evill ends or evill for good ends And if he is called an Angel of light for this reason then Angels of light good Angels suggest good for good ends otherwise Satan could not be said to imitate them in suggesting good for ill ends and under specious pretences of bringing glory to God tempting to transgresse the will of God Fourthly good Angels comfort strengthen and support in times of distresse anguish and trouble an Angel comforted Hagar Gen. 21 and Matth. 4. 10. after Christ had finished his terrible combat with that wicked Angel the good Angels came and ministred unto him Againe when he was in that most bitter Agony in the garden Luke 22. 43. an Angel appeared to him from Heaven strengthning him That which they do to Christ the Head they do to his members in their proportion Their fifth service is to conveigh and carry the soules of departed Saints to Heaven they are Heavenly Porters Luke 16. 22. Lazarus dyed and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome Lastly they shall convocate and gather all the Elect together at the last day Matth. 24. 31. Their services against the wicked and all enemies of the Church have been many and great Angels assist Saints and oppose the opposers of Sion Two Angels were sent upon a message of destruction to Sodome an Angel defeated the
which God raiseth his people shall be if he pleases like a mountain of Adamant which cannot be melted or like mount Sion which cannot be removed A high place is seldome a safe place All high things are tottering Nâ—tare solent excelsa omnia and the more high the more tottering Then how unsearchable is the wisdome how great the power of God who can set his people very high and yet very safe who can make a man stand as firme and steady upon the highest pinnacle of honour as upon a levell ground or in a valley of the lowest estate and condition He exalts to safety And hence wee may draw downe a difference between Gods exaltation of his own people and the exaltation of his enemies and wicked ones Wicked men are oft times exalted and God exalts them though they know it not but how He exalts them to a high place but doth exalt them to a safe place No the Psalmist after a long temptation concludes Thou hast set them in slippery places thou castest them downe into destruction how are they brought into desolation as in a mement Psal 73. 18 19. Haman was exalted high but not in safety Many are exalted as Jezabel exalted Naboth high among the people but it was to stone him rather then to honour him It is said of Pharaoh he lifted up the head of his chiefe Baker he lifted up his head out of prison indeed but he lifted up his head to the gallowes also he lifted him out of prison but it was unto his death Such is the lifting up of wicked men they may be set on high but they are never set in safety How many have we seen suddenly advanced and as suddenly depress'd We are never safe but where God sets us or while God holds us in his hand Fourthly observe It is a wonder a wonderfull work of God to exalt those that are low and set mourners in safety The 107 Psalme is a Psalme recounting the wonderfull works of God O that men would praise the Lord for his wonderfull works is the burthen of that holy song And all those wonders conclude in this ver 39. 40. Againe they are minished and brought low through oppression affliction and sorrow what then He powreth contempt upon Princes c. yet setteth he the poore on high from affliction and maketh him families like a flock How wonderfull is this that the Lord will give Kings for the ransome of his people and to raise his poore will powre contempt upon Princes The highest must downe rather then his low ones shall not be set on high There are foure things which encrease this wonder and make it exceeding wonderfull First These poore have no strength Deut. 32. 36. He sees that their strength is gone Secondly Many times they have no hope no faith When the Son of Man comes shall he finde among low ones faith this faith to be exalted upon the earth Luk. 18. 8. Thirdly They have many enemies subtill enemies powerfull enemies confident enemies enemies above hope arrived at assurance that they shall keep poore ones at an under for ever Lord saith David how many are they that trouble me So many they were that he could not tell how many Fourthly They are supposed to have no friends none to appeare for them Let us persecute and take him say they for there is Psal 71. 11. none to deliver him Not a man no nor God as they conclude They say of my soule there is no help for him in his God I need not say it is a wonder to exalt a people upon all these disadvantages The fact speakes should you see a man trod upon the ground and many there holding him downe one by the arme another by the leg a third laying a great weight upon his breast were it not a wonder to see this man rise up and rescue himselfe from them all Thus it is with the Church and servants of God when they are low all the world is upon their backs the world of wicked ones hang about them one with his power another with his policie all with their utmost endeavours to hold them downe yet the Lord sets them on high who were thus low and exalts them to safety who were thus in danger Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare his wonderfull workes to the children of men And this is further cleared in the 12th verse He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hand cannot performe their enterprise As if Eliphaz should say would you know how God exalteth his people and setteth them in safety 'T is true they have many enemies many that plot and devise evill against them but the Lord breakes their plots he out-plots them He disappointeth the devices of the crafty c. And as this is a proof of the former so it is a further instance of Gods wonderfull works The first was in naturall things sending raine The second and third were in civill things first exalting his own people and secondly in defeating the policies and power of their adversaries so then this twelfth verse may be taken either as it hath reference to the former or as a further instance of Gods wisdome and power He disappointeth the devices of the crafty Or he defeateth the purposes of the subtill so Mr Broughton readeth it that their hands can bring nothing soundly to passe The Apostle in 1 Cor. 3. 19. sets the holy stampe of divine authoritie upon this whole booke by quoting this or the next verse as a proofe of his doctrine For it is written saith he He takes the crafty in their own counsell He disappoints the devices of the crafty saith Eliphaz and He takes the wise in their own craftinesse He disappointeth The word signifies to breake to breake a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fractus contritus thing to peeces and by a metaphor to disappoint or to defeate because if an engine or instrument with which a man intends to work be broken he is disappointed of his purpose and cannot goe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confregit dissipavit Metaphoricè irritum fecit Latinè potest reddiâ—abrogari on with his work So here He breakes the devices of the crafty the crafty frame very curious engines and instruments they lay fine plots and projects but the Lord breakes them and then they are defeated or disappointed The word is often used for breaking or making voyd the law as Psal 119. 126. Ezra 9. 13 because wicked men as much as in them lies would defeate and disappoint the holy purpose designe of God in giving those lawes They would repeale abrogate the laws of God that they might enact their own lusts They would doe that by the will of God which the Lord doth with their wills Null and disappoint it The devices The word which we translate devices signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉
by them all together or debated first in private conference and agreed on that thus Eliphaz should speake because he saith we have searched it But the meaning is only this I suppose I have spoken the sense of my two friends who stand by and I beleeve they are ready to subscribe to or vote every word I have now uttered therefore behold we have searched and thus it is Heare thou it To advise thee was our part to heare and hearken is thy part therefore heare it But had he not heard them all this while why doth Eliphaz now bid him heare it It is true he had heard but there is more required then the hearing of the eare when such a Sermon as this is preached To heare is more than the worke of the eare It is First To beleeve and give credit to what was heard Joh. 9. 27. I told you before and you would not heare saith the blind man wherefore would you heare it againe that is I have told you already but you would not beleeve nor give credit to what I spake Secondly To heare is to hearken that is to yeeld and consent to what is spoken Gen. 3. 17. Forasmuch as thou hast hearkned to the counsell of thy wife Barely to heare a temptation to sin is no act of sin as barely to heare an exhortation to good is no act of grace Therefore because thou hast hearkned is because thou hast yeelded and consented to that which she hath spoken Thirdly To heare is to obey Isa 55. 3. Heare and your soule shall live It is not every hearing af the eare that bringeth life to the soule obedient hearing is enlivening hearing So here we have searched it so it is heare it that is beleeve what we have spoken submit unto and consent to what we have spoken obey and practise what we havespoken To heare is both an act of sence and an act of reason an act of nature and an act of grace To heare one requesting and praying is to grant and to heare one counselling and commanding is to obey When God heares man he grants and when man heares God or heares men speaking in the name of God he yeelds and obeys It followes And know thou it for thy good The Hebrew is know it for thy selfe Now because that which a man knowes for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himselfe is for his profit therefore we translate know it for thy good that is know it as that whereby thy selfe mayest receive good The meaning of know it for thy selfe is not this know and keep it to thy selfe let none partake with thee of it It is against the use of knowledge that a man should so know for himselfe though a mans selfe hath or may have good by all he knowes So we must understand that of Salomon Prov. 9. 12. If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy selfe that is thou shalt be advantag'd by thy wisdome Wisdome brings in a faire revenew though many know much and seem very wise who know nothing for themselves and are not wise at all for their own good There are three sorts of knowing men First Some know onely to know They know but the propose no end to themselves beyond knowledge They know not for the good of others no nor for their own good As it is with riches and honour so with knowledge covetous men gather riches that they may be rich they propose not any other end of having riches but only to be rich An ambitious man desires honor that he may be honourable he proposeth to himselfe no other end of his desiring honor but to be honourable So many are covetous and ambitious of knowledge they read from book to book and from point to point from science to science and what do they with all this knowledge only this that they may know to know thus is not to know for good To know only to know is no better then not to know Secondly Others know that they may be knowne to know this is their end that other men may know that they are knowing men that they are great Schollars great read-men men of great abilities and boundlesse studies Even as some desire riches that they may be accounted rich and honour that they may be fam'd for honourable To know only that we may be known is worse then not to know But thirdly That which is the right way of knowing is to know that others may know or to know that our selves may practise These are the true ends of knowing to communicate knowledg and to obey knowledge The great end of knowing should be our own profiting in holinesse and obedience And so here Know it for thy good is to know it so as to make an advantage of thy knowledg To know for our good is the only good knowledge Hence observe first Truth deserves our most diligent search We have searched it saith Eliphaz The promise of finding truth is only to such as search for truth Prov. 2. 4. Thou shalt find wisdome c. If thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures There are two places two veines especially where truth is to be found There is the book of Gods word and the book of Gods works The book of Scripture and the book of providence In these two books we are to search in them to study out truth for our own practise and for advise to others Secondly Observe That which we offer to others for truth we ought diligently to make tryall of our selves or we should make truth our own before we distribute it to others We have searched the thing out saith Eliphaz we know the truth to be thus we are masters of what we teach They who hear aright search as the Bereans those things which are taught them and they who instruct aright ought to search the things which they teach If there must be after-searching of those things we hear certainly there must be fore-searchings of the things we teach Truth ordinarily is not worth the having unlesse it be come in by our own searching They who receive that for truth which they never searcht will not hold any truth when themselves are searcht Truths merely borrowed and taken upon trust are no stock no abiding treasure of knowledge And yet most can only say of all the truth they have as he of his axe head 2 Kings 6. 5. Alas master for it was borrowed they snatch up one truth from this hand and another from that they take it upon the credit of this and that learned man very few are able to say as Eliphaz here Loe this we have searched it The more paines we take to find truth the more pleasure we take in it That is sweetest to us which we sweat most for in praying and studying Morsells of Truth dipt in that sawce fatten and strengthen the soul most Observe thirdly What a man knoweth by search and disquisition he is confident of We have
of them together Sometimes we see a duell or single combate one man matcht with one trouble Bellum atque virum Here a man and an affliction there a man and an affliction but another time we may see a man and an army as he spake in the story when one made good a passe against a whole host of the enemy in the spirituall war one soul grapples with a multitude of troubls and conflicts with a thousand temptations As there are legions of evill spirits so legions of spirituall evils assaulting at once Secondly Observe God sometimes appeares as an enemy to his own servants The terrours of God and the arrowes of God saith Job God shootes the arrowes and sets the terrours in array Job expected favour and succor from God but he finds terrours and arrowes Those wounds make our hearts bleed most which we apprehend given us from his anger whom we have chosen as our only friend The Church had that apprehension of God Lam. 3. 3. Surely against me is he turned he turneth his hand against me all the day The Church speakes as if God were quite changed as if he having been her friend were now turn'd enemy So Job I that was wont to have showers of sweet mercies shot and darted into my soule now feele deadly arrowes there shot from the same hand my spirit was wont to drinke in the pleasant influences of Heaven but now poison drinks up my spirits I was wont to walk safe under the guard of divine favours but now divine terrours assault me on every side Thirdly observe When God appeareth an enemy man is not able to hold out any longer See how Job poor soul cries out as soon as he found that these were Gods arrowes and Gods terrours Job was a man at armes a man of valour and of an undaunted courage A man that had been in many skiâ— mishes with Satan and had often through the power of God foiled him and come off with victory Chaldeans and Sabeans were indeed too hard for his servants and conquer'd his cattell yet the spirit of Job beate those bands of robbers and triumphed over them but he was never in battell with God before and perceiving now God himselfe to appeare as an enemy in the field he cries out O the terrours of God O the arrowes of the Almighty When God is angry no man can abide it 2 Cor. 5. 11. Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men We saith the Apostle who have felt by experience or by faith have understood the terrour of the Lord we knowing it experimentally or knowing it beleevingly we being fully perswaded that the terrour of the Lord is most terrible perswade men O take heed you put not your selves under the terrour of the Lord or provoke the terrour of the Lord against your selves Those terrours of the Lord which come from pure wrath are altogether intollerable And those which come from love and are set in array by the infinite wisdome and gratious providence of God ordering all things for good to his in the issue even those are very dreadfull no man not the holiest of men and they are the strongest in this warre are able to stand before them Psal 38. 2. Thine arrowes stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore there is no soundnesse in my flesh by reason of thine anger that is I am as a man who hath not a whole peece of skin all his body over all is a wound or I am as one whose flesh is all rotten by reason of his wounds As Ely speakes to his sonnes 1 Sam. 2. 25. If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreate for him So we may say on the other side if man contend with man some one may helpe him he may have a Second to releeve him but if once a man be contending with God who will be his Second who will undertake for him who can come in to the rescue when God is fighting and contending with us We wrastle not against flesh and blood saith the Apostle Ephes 6. 12. when he would shew what a terrible thing it is to wrastle with the Devill but against principalities and powers against spirituall wickednesses in high places Flesh and blood is no match for a spirit though a created spirit though an uncleane spirit a Devill how then shall flesh and blood be able to wrastle with the creating Spirit with him who is a most holy Spirit with God who is The Principality The Power The High the Srong The Almighty Shaddai In other battels it is man with man or at worst man with Devils but here it is man with God weaknesse and frailty contending with omnipotency and therefore when once God appeares against the soul the soul can hold out no longer His anger who is The Spirit quickly drinks up our spiirts Fourthly observe Inward wounds and terrrours are most terrible Doe not think that the soares upon Jobs body fetcht all these complaint from him He shewes you now what it was that made him complaine indeed The arrows of the Almighty are within Tanto poena intolerabilior quanâ—o spiritus corpore subtilior me the terrours of God set themselves in array against me As the joyes and exultations of the spirit doe infinitely exceed all the pleasures which come in from the senses all bodily pleasures so the troubles and afflictions which are upon the spirit infinitly exceed all the troubles and afflictions which fall upon the body As God hath such comforts such joyes to bestow upon his people as the world can neither give nor take away so likewise he hath terrours and troubles which all the world is not able to remove or mitigate There are no medicines in the whole circuite of nature that can heale a wounded spirit All your friends all your relations all your riches yea all your naturall wisdome will be but as the white of an egge to your tast in the day when God smites the heart with these terrours These arrowes and terrours are often preparatorie to conversion when some men are overcome to receive Christ an Army of terrours is sent out to take them captive and bring them in There are many I grant whom God wounds with love he shootes an arrow of favour into their hearts and overcomes them with Troopes of mercies Againe An army of terrours is sent out to try the holy courage of those who are converted as well as to conquer the unholy enmity of person unconverted That was Jobs case here and these second armies may be as terrible to the soule as the first and often are more terrible And we have such cases a man that was converted without an army of terrours may have an army of terrour sent against him after conversion The dispensations and methods of God are various though both his rule and end be ever the same But whether this army of terrour comes
nice delicate dames of Jerusalem with such things as their proud spirits and naughty soules refused to touch Isa 3. 24. It shall come to passe that instead of sweet smell there shall be a stinke and instead of a girdle a rent and in stead of well set haire baldnesse and instead of a stomacher a girding with sackcloath and burning instead of beauty Take heed of coynesse and curiosity many a dainty tooth hath been taught by hunger to knaw bones and water for a crust of bread Observe secondly That which makes afflictions most grievous to us is the unsuitablenesse of our spirits to afflictions Delight and content consist in suitablenesse of the object to our affections and desires God offers spirituall food to the naturall man but his soule refuses to touch it he loathes Angels food and is weary of the manna of the word The precious Gospel the bread of life is an affliction to him because his heart is unsutable to it how will such be afflicted at the last when they find That as their sorrowfull meate for ever which their souls will for ever refuse to touch They who loath Christ and his wayes shall find nothing in the end to feed upon but what is most contrary to their appetite even fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest these shall be the portion of their cups and the meate in their dish for ever How sorrowfull will that meale be But we may rather apply all to the words of Eliphaz in the two former Chapters And Jobs ready submission in the first and second Chapters to the afflicting hand of God argues for him that afflictions how grievous soever were not the things which his soule refused to touch And the apprehension of a learned interpreter atisfies me in it This sense saith he is too low for a man Sensus humilior est quam hominem deceat gravioribm malis exagtiatum Pined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflicted with troubles farre above these which concern'd his outward man The Septuagint are expressely for this opinion who translate those words Is there any tast in the white of an egge thus Is there any tast in vain words they are so farre off the judgement that these unsavoury things the things which Jobs soule refused to touch and the white of the egge in the Text are all meant of vain words that they put it into the very text It is a usuall boldnes with them and a very unwarrantable one to vary so from the words of the Originall and make their glosse the text but it shews us how strongly they were engaged to that sence Most of the Greek writers concurre with them in it viz. that Joh aimes at the counsels and speeches of Eliphaz which wanted the seasoning of wisedome and prudence yea of truth and soundnesse as applied to the spirit of so sick a man as Job was And besides many moderne writers are cleare in the same apprehension giving the summe of all plainly to this effect as the mind of Job in those fore going passages I would not have complained of the things which ye have spoken if they had been meate for me but I assure you your counsels are not nourishing I can find no food much lesse any sweetnesse or fatnesse in them Your counsels want the due seasoning of wisdome and the right temperament of holy zeale They are either unsavory or tastlesse Taneum abest ut sermonibus vestris recreet aut corum condimento reficiatur vita mea uté contrà â—â—bum ipsum mihi amarioreÌ„ vitamque injucundiorem reddâ—t Jun. Absit ut vir sâ—nctu aliquando amicorum suorum dicta despexerit qui humilio servut fueris Greg. saplesse stuffe Such as I am so farre from being refreshed with that indeed they are a burden to me and the remedy you prescribe me is worse then my disease How can you expect that I should submit or subscribe to what you have spoken or that I should rest and acquiesse in your reproofes or advices seeing I assure you they are not for me they hit my state or spirit no more then unsavoury meate doth my palate or that which I abhorre to touch can please my tast And therefore with my soule I refuse and reject what you have spoken And you have not only not satisfied me all this while but you have vext or tired me and instead of mitigating my sorrowes have added to them But an objection arises against this and one of the Ancients is very angry with those who make this application to the counsels of Eliphaz as if Job had rejected them as unfit food and unsavoury meate Let no man saith he think that this holy man despised the counsell of his friend who himselfe was humble as a fervant To which I answer That the counsels of Eliphaz are to be considered either in the doctrine or in the use His counsels in the doctrine of them were good and savoury he spake wholesome food but as to Jobs case he was quite mistaken in their use and so instead of easing troubled him A Physitian may give his sick patient that which is good in it selfe very cordiall and soveraigne and yet it may kill him instead of curing him if it be not proper for his body and his disease Thus it is also in giving counsell what we speake must be fitted to the person and to the season There are many good counsels of which we may say as Hushai did of Achitophels ill ones 2 Sa. 17. 7. They are not good at this time That which is good counsell to a man at one time may be or might have been ill to the same man at another I have many things to say saith Christ but ye cannot beare them now Joh. 16. 12. And that which one man can beare another cannot at the same time And therefore the Apostle was made all things to all men 1 Cor. 9. 2. And accounted himselfe debtor both to the wise and to the foolish to the learned and unlearned to the weake and to the strong that is he looked upon it as his duty to speake truths suiting the state of every degree and sort of men which is the meaning of his rule to all the dispencers of holy mysteries that they divide the word aright The rightnesse respects not only or not so much the subject or word divided as the object or persons â— Tim. 2. 15. to whom the division is to be made in giving every one his portion or foode convenient for him One man may surfet with that which another digests kindly what fattens a second may sicken or starve a third This plainly is the meaneing of Job what Eliphaz had said was not savoury foode for him nor drest for one in his condition His soule did even refuse to touch what he spake because his soule was not of that temper for which Eliphaz had fitted his speech He was a Physitian of no value to him because he brought a wrong
and when he wills he can reach the life Secondly observe If God put out his power no creature can stand before it If God doe but let loose his hand man is cut off presently It is but as a little twigge or as grasse before the sith or before a sword there is no more in it As when God openeth the hand of his mercy he satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 2. So when God looseth the hand of his judgements he takes away the life and comforts of every living thing God hath a hand full of blessings and mercies if he please but to open that hand all things are filled with comfort God hath another hand full of judgments and afflictions if he open or loosen that all creatures fall before him like a withered leafe The reason why the enemies of God live and are mighty is because God doth not fully loosen his hand against them if he would but unprison his power and let out his hand he can with ease destroy and cut them off in a moment Therefore the prophet prayes but for this one thing Psalm 74. 11. That God would pluck his hand out of his bosome why with drawest thou thy hand even thy right hand pluck it out of thy bosome Lord saith he this is the reason why enemies yet prevail thy hand is tyed up that is Thine owe act hath tyed up thy hand thy will stayes thy power or thy power is hid in thy will Gods power kept in by his will is his hand in his bosome Among men a hand in the bosome is the embleme of sloth Prov 19 24. Man hides his hand in his bosome because he will not be at the paines to worke God is said to hide his hand in his bosome when it is not his will and pleasure to work therefore he saith Lord if thou wouldest but let loose and put out thy hand all mine enemies shall be consumed And that 's the reason why there are such various dispensations of providence in these times when the enemy prevailes God with draweth his hand he keepeth his hand in his bosome And when at any time his servants have victorie it is because his hand hath liberty If God holds his hand men stretch forth theirs in vain Observe Thirdly Assurance of a better life will carry the soule with joy through the sorrows and bitterest pains of death It was not any Stoical apathy or ignorant regardlessenesse of life which raised the heart of Job to these desires He did not invite his end like a Roman or a philosopher or by the height and gallantry of naturall courage set the world at nought and bid defiance to destruction But he had laid up a good foundation against this day upon this he builds his confidence He knew as Paul that he had Christ while he lived and should have gaine when he dyed The joy which was set before him made him over-look the crosse which was before him So much of his request now he tels us the consequence or effect it would have upon him in case it were granted Vers 10. Then should I yet have comfort yet I would harden my selfe in sorrow Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy One Then should I yet have comfort If I had but this suit granted I were refreshed notwithstanding all my sorrows the very hope of death would revive me Nothing doth so much refresh the soule as the hearing of a Prayer and the grant of a desire when desire cometh it is as a tree of life saith Solomon therefore Job might well say when my longing comes I shall have comfort and lest any should think that as David would not drinke the water he so longed for when it was brought unto him So when the cup of death should be brought to Job he might put it off somewhat upon those termes which David did and say I will not drinke it for it is my bloud my death therefore he adds Yea I would harden my self in sorrow As if he had said though some call hastily for death and repent with as much haste when death comes yet not I I would harden my selfe c. The Hebrew to harden hath a three-fold signification among the Jewish writers though it be used but this once onely in all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat 1. Solidare roborare 2. Calefarere urere 3 Orare suppliciter praecari Scripture And hence there is a three-fold interpretation of these words I would harden my selfe in sorrow It signifies 1 To Pray or to beseech 2 To heat or to Warm yea to scorch and to burn 3 To harden or to strengthen strengthning is hardning in a metaphor According to the first sense the text is rendred thus Then should I yet have comfort yea I would pray in my sorrow that is I would pray yet more for an increase of my sorrow that I might be cut off If I had any hope that my request should be granted this hope would quicken my desire and I would pray yet more that I might obtain it Secondly as the word signifies to warm or to heat the sense is given thus Then should I have comfort yea I would warm my selfe in my sorrow And so it refers it to those refreshings which his languishing soul his soul chilled as it were with sicknesse and sorrows should receive upon the news of his approaching death This newes saith he would be as warm cloaths to me it Hac spe certissin â moriendi incalescerem refocillarer would fetch me again out of my fainting to heart of dying But besides a warming or a refreshing heat the word also notes scorching burning heat Mr. Broughton takes that signification of the word I shall touch that and his sence upon it by and by We translate according to the third usage of the word I would harden my self and so the construction is very fair I should yet have comfort yea I would harden my self in sorrow that is I would now set my selfe to endure the greatest sorrowes and afflictions which could come upon me for the destroying and cutting off the threed of my life And so he seems in these words to prevent an objection before hinted Why Job dost thou desire to be cut off and to be destroyed thou hast more pain upon thee already then thou art able to bear thou cryest out of what thou hast thou must think when death comes thy wound will be deeper and thy pain sharper Iob seemes to answer I have considered that before I know there will be a hard brunt at parting I prepare for it and am thus resolved I would harden my self in sorrow that is I would set my selfe to bear the pangs and agonies of death if I had but this hope that my miserie were near expiring The Apostle useth that phrase 2 Tim. 2. 3. in his advices to young Timothy Thou as a good souldier of Jesus Christ endure
Prayer Meditation and the whole course of holy obedience The life of man is a continued temptation and that 's a spiritual warfare a continual bickering with a world of enemies And though they without stand still yet a soul can scarce passe one hour but he shall have many fights and bouts with his own heart In this sence Is there not an appointed time of warfare or temptation to man upon earth Our life is a warfare in divers respects First it is a warfare because Christians do or ought to live under the greatest command of any in the world they ought to stand armed at a call A Souldier is under absolute command he must not dispute the Orders of his General but obey them The Centurian in the Gospel saith I have Souldiers under me and I say to one go and he goeth to another come and he cometh and to a third do this and he doth it which he speaks not as commending the special vertue and good disposition of his own Souldiers but as describing the duty of all Souldiers therefore Souldiary is well defined To be the obedience of a stout and valiant mind Militia est obedientia quadam fortis invicti animi arbitrio carentis suo out of his own dispose A Souldier moves upon direction so must a Christian he is in a warfaring condition he must have a charge or a word from his Commander for every step he treads or action he undertakes Secondly it is a warfare in regard of perpetuall motions and travels A Souldiers life is an unsetled life while he is in actuall service he hath no rest he is either marching or charging and when he comes in his quarters his stay is but little he cannot build him a house he can but pitch him down a tent for a night or two he must away againe Mans life hath no stop we have here no abiding City we dwell in tents and tabernacles waifaring and warfaring out our dayes Thirdly a warfare because of continual watching It is the watch-word which Christ gave his followers I say unto you watch that 's the souldiers word and work too warring and watching goe together The Souldier stands Centinel fearing the enemies surprise A Christian should stand upon his guard and his watch at all hours is not that a warfare Fourthly a warfare because Christians ought to keep their rank and file that is the places and relations wherein God hath set them A Souldier commanded to stand such a ground must not stirre though he die for it and if he stirs by Martial law he shall die There is so much keeping of order in warre and Battels that whatsoever keeps order is said to fight or warre The Sarres are said to have fought against Sisera in their courses Judg. 5. 20. The Stars are embattaild or encampt in their sphears out of which they move not and are therefore often called the Militia or host of Heaven Fifthly a warfare because so full of hazzards troubles and labours or because so much hardship is to be endured A Souldier converses with dangers and dwels in the territories of death continually This caused Deborah to begin her Triumphant Song with praise to the Lord because the people offered themselves willingly Many are forc'd and press'd to the warrs and most who are not press'd by the Authority of others are press'd by their own hopes of gaine or desire of vain-glory and renown A true Voluntiere in warre is a rare man There is so much danger in it that there is seldome much of the will in it The whole life of man is full either of visible or invisible dangers he passes the pikes every day The Apostle reckons eight distinct perlis in one verse which met him which way soever he turned 2 Cor. 11. 26. He was in deaths often And though there are but few such Heroes as he yet 't is seldome but any of us are in deaths Especially while we remember the mighty spirituall enemies and oppositions which encompasse and beset us every day We wrastle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers c. And are therefore advised to take to us the whole armour of God never to stir without our sword Sixthly a warfare in regard of the issue victory and triumph or slavery and death is the issue of our lives Either we overcome and are more then conquerours that 's the Apostles language Rom. 8. or else we are conquered and more then captives that 's the Apostles sence too both in allusion They are taken captive by the Devill at his will To be led captive by the Devill is the lowest captivity lower then any captivity unto men In reference to 2. Tim. 2. 26. the spirituall part of our warfare there 's no comming off upon equall rermes We must be victors or slaves conquer or die Only this is the Saints assurance that as the Captaine of their salvation was made perfect by sufferings and conquer'd by dying so at the worst shall they spirituall death as sinners hath no power over them at all and when they die as men naturall or by men violently they shall receive fuller power Thus our life is a warfare upon earth But take the word as we translate for an appointed time Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth And the reason why it beares that sence is grounded upon these two things 1. Because there is a speciall season of the yeare most fit and Non significat tempus simpliciter sed tempus certum ac constitutum ea analogia quod determinato anni tempore exerceri solet militia Militia ideo tempus determinatum dicitur quia non quae vis aetas bello apta est sed determinata certa sutable for warre 2 Sam. 11. 1. And it came to passe at the return of the yeare when Kings go forth to battell The time for war is such a known appointed season that the same word signifies warfare and any appointed season 2. Because men go out to war at a speciall time of their age There is an appointed setled time of mans life wherein he is fit to beare arms Every age is not fit for arms Old men and children are not fit for the field Hence we finde Numbers the first throughout that the muster of the children of Israel is thus made ver 3 20 22 c. From twenty yeares old and upward all that are able to goe forth to warre The Roman and Greek histories are distinct in this In some Common-wealths from Fifteen to Fifty in others from Twenty to Sixty and in ours the appointed time is between Sixteen Sixty so men are press'd and listed for war And because there is such an appointed or a set time of life in all States to goe out to war therefore that word is elegantly applied to signifie a set or an appointed time for any businesse Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth Vpon earth
In Heaven our time knows no bounds there are no termes or distinctions in eternity Seasons and variety of times vanish and shall not be heard of in Heaven Eterenity is time fixt But there is an appointed time To man upon earth The word is Enosh miserable weake fraile man is there not an appointed time to this man upon earth that is while he walks in this lower region of the world and lives on mould The summe of all may be thus conceived as if Job had said Singulis dichâ—â— sua certaminae praesto sunt adeo non nisi cum ipso vitae terminautor labores vitae ac proinde se cuâ—dum naturam finem vitae expeto Jun. Every day hath evill annexed some affliction or other waites upon every houre so that there is no period of mans sorrow but the period of his life and therefore I walk by the rule of sound reason when that I might see an end of my trouble I call for the end of my daies Observe hence first The life of man is measured out by the will of God Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth There is As God hath set out bounds and limits to the sea Hitherto thou shalt come and no further by a perpetuall decree so he hath also set out bounds and limits to the life of man his life it is an appointed time Thus far the line of thy life shall reach and no further We live not at adventures neither can our care lengthen out our own dayes As all our care cannot adde one cubit to our stature so not one minute to our glasse or houre And as we cannot lengthen so we cannot shorten our own dayes in respect of this appointed time They who die in a time when God forbids yet die when God appoints And they live â—ut all Gods time who wickedly shorten their owne They cut their thread of life but they cannot cut the thread of Gods decree we live not at our own will but at the will of God we are tenants at his will in these houses of clay He is the maker of time and the measurer of our dayes he gives us the lease of our lives for what yeares he pleases and it is most fit that he who created time should dispose of time God is the Lord of time and farmes it out as and to whom he thinks good Christ might doe what he pleased upon the Sabbath for saith he the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath God is the Lord of time and therefore hath power to appoint to one more to another lesse My times saith David are in thy hand Psal 31. 15. Thou mayest lengthen or shorten continue or break them off as thy pleasure is Some live as if they were masters of time and could appoint out their own term as if they lived at their own discretion and could make a covenant with the grave and agree with death when to come for them They article with it for this yeare and the next rhey say to the grave thou shalt not take me yet thou shalt spare me yet I have such ends to drive such pleasures to take before I would die They Isa 56. 12. speak as if their tongues and their time were their own and they knew no Lord of either To morrow shall be as this day and much more aboundant they speak of the next day as if they could command it and bid it come to serve their lusts That wretched rich man Lu. 12. could say soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many yeares see how liberall he is to his soule out of anothers right and because he had got a great stock of riches he gives himself a rich stock of time many yeares He resolved to make his life larger as he had done his barns and because they were full of corne he also will be full of dayes whereas the word came Thou foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee And he could not live till next morning who resolved upon many yeares to live Secondly observe That the decrees of God concerning our lives must not lessen our care to preserve our lives Is their not an appointed time to Non in absurdum trabenda est haec Iobi sententia ut temere se quispiam periculis objiciat quia spatium vitae definitum est man upon earth Yes that there is man lives at Gods appointment but he must not live upon that appointment that is withdraw himself from meanes of his preservation and say God hath appointed how long I shall live therefore what need I take care how to live or what need I take care for the preserving of my life As it is in spirituals so also in temporals God hath determined and appointed the portion of every man all comes under a decree under an everlasting and unmoveable decree yet the decree which is past concerning us must not take us from our care about our selves Though only the elect are saved yet none are saved by their election Infants who attaine not the use of reason much lesse the actings of grace yet are not saved barely by election what they cannot doe is done for them they are saved as elect in Christ not precisely as elect how they are united to Christ we know not but we know they must be united or else they could not be saved But they who grow in yeares must also grow in the graces of sanctification otherwise they are not saved by the grace of election The decree of God appoints us to salvation but the decree of God doth not save us we must runne through all the second causes and wayes which the word of God hath chalked out to eternal life and glory Thus also our temporall life passeth under a decree it is by appointment but woe unto those that shall say God hath appointed how long I shall live therefore what need I take care about my life This is to walk contrary to one part of the decree while we seeme to submit unto the other For God who appoints life appoints all the means which concerne the preservation of life It hath no shadow of a warrant for any man to cast himself upon needlesse dangers or to forbear necessary helps for the sustaining of his life because he heares his time is appointed and that his dayes one earth are all reckoned and numbred to him from Heaven Thirdly for as much as there is an appointed time we should learne patience and wait quietly upon God It is not in creatures be they never so angry to prolong the time of our sorrows The same word which shews us that our life is a warfare shews us also that it is an appointed time Men cannot appoint you one moments trouble or lengthen this warre when God will shorten it Our haires are numbred much more our daies Honour God and have good thoughts of him for whether your times be faire or foule calme or
of God only The clouds also shew forth the handy work and power of God Psal 147. 8. Who covereth the heavens with clouds The hand of God drawes those curtaines and puts that maske upon the face of Heaven But as the heavens declare the glory of God so they publish and declare the weaknesse of man the vapours and the winds shew forth how fraile he is As the invisible things of God to wit his eternall power and Godhead are seen in the things which are made God is as it were visible in the creatures so likewise the frailty and mutability the weaknesse and inconstancy of man is visible in the things which are created we may reade a lecture of our own transitorinesse in the most transitory texts of nature And that is an admirable contrivance and complication of things that out of the very same text of the creature where the infinite wisdom power of God may be learned man also may learn his own frailty He that studies the creature much shall find much of God and of himselfe Some conceive when Isaac Gen 24. 63. went forth into the field to meditate that he studied the booke of the creatures probably the holy man did so but we are sure he might How will it shame those men at last who know not God not themselves when they have or might have had without cost or travell so many tutors and instructers JOB Chap. 7. Vers 11 12 13 14 15 16. Therefore I will not refraine my mouth I will speake in the anguish of my spirit I will complaine in the bitternesse of my soule Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me When I say my bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint Then thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me through visions So that my soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life I loath it I would not live alwayes let me alone for my dayes are vanity IN the context of these six verses we may take notice of foure things 1. Jobs violent resolution to complaine ver 11. 2. His vehement complaint ver 12. 3. An amplification of his sorrowes ver 13 14. 4. A renovation of his often repeated desires to die and the tediousnesse of his life ver 15. 16. Therefore Job having in an apostrophe to God shewed his weake condition takes up a fresh resolution of complaining to God Therefore I will not refraine my mouth c. as if he had said The consideration of these things is so farre from putting me to silence that it doth rather enlarge my heart and open my mouth to speake and complaine once more seeing death is by Gods appointment the certain end of all outward troubles and perceiving my self upon the very borders or brink of death my body past cure my estate irrecoverable and remedilesse therefore I will complaine yet againe I will yet farther lay open my misery before the Lord and presse him to hasten me thorough the confines of this land of sorrow that I may accomplish my dayes and see an end of these troubles for my soule is in great bitternesse I will not refraine my mouth The word signifies to stop inhibit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proprie est continere probibere cum ad liuguam orationem refertur â—ffert suppressionem quandam cohibitionem eluctantis spiritus sermonis conantis se aperto ore effundere or prohibit Those writs which stay the processe of inferiour Courts are called Prohibitions and then no man may open his mouth more in that businesse untill the Prohibition be dissolved or taken off I saith Job will not give my self a prohibition I will not silence or suppresse my sorrowes I will give my heart full liberty to meditate and my tongue to speake out my sufferings Being emptied of all my comforts I will surely take my fill of complainings It will be some ease to me to make known how I am pained I will not refraine my mouth That word is used Isa 58. 1. Cry aloud spare not when the Prophet is commanded to tell the people of their sins the Lord sets his tongue at liberty spare not thou art not silenced or limited therefore cry aloud Theirs were crying sins and crying sins must have crying reproofs loud sinners must not be whispered to therefore Cry aloud spare not I will not spare my mouth saith Job or refraine as we translate But I will speake in the anguish of my spirit or in the straightnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ie in angustiis spiritus mei coarctat me spiritus pectore inclusus patefaciam liberum illi aditum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proprie meditari vel ex meditatione interius animo concepta aliquid exterius agere loqui orari conqueri Vocem edam querulam musfitando meditandi Merc. of my spirit I am in a straight I am pent in my spirit and unlesse I let my spirit out my heart will breake I must give it vent and ayre I will speake in the anguish of my spirit I will complaine in the bitternesse of my soule The word render'd complaine signifies to meditate and so to speake upon meditation or to speake deliberately It implies first a forming and fashioning of what we would say in our thoughts Thoughts are the moulds of our words Job intends not rash speaking what he intended to speake should be moulded shapt and wrought in his heart before brought forth by his tongue Prayer is exprest by this word because prayer ought first to be formed in the heart Prayer is the manifestation of our desires to God If the tongue speakes before the heart before the heart makes up our requests we take Gods name in vaine Hannah takes up this word 1 Sam. 1. 16. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial for out of the aboundance of my complaint or meditation so the word is rendered and greife have I spoken Hunnah was praying her voice was not heard only her lips moved which caused Eli to suspect and censure her for drunk or distracted but she answers in words of turth and sobernesse O my Lord count not thine handmaid a daughter of Belial for though my voice hath not been heard yet I have been speaking out of the aboundance of my complaint that is out of the aboundance of my meditation my complaints are not the work of my tongue but of my heart and my lips moved not untill my heart moved my complaint is my meditation Hence likewise that phrase of powring out prayer Psal 142. 2. I powred out my complaint before him He that powres out must have somewhat yea much within where there is a constant stream there also is a fountain I powred out my complaint or my complaining prayer it is the same word here I have gathered the bitter waters of sorrow into my own heart and now I powre them forth in complainings I will complain
tempt in the day but as he hath a power given him but permitted he causes sometimes sinfull and fifthly dreames as Augustine bewailes in the tenth book of his Confessions sometimes terrible and troublesome Aug. confess li. 10. Ca. 30. dreames sometimes treacherous and deluding dreames It is by some conceived that the dreame of Pilats wife Mat. 27. 19. was from the Devill she comes to Pilat and desires him to have nothing to doe with that Just man for saith she I have suffered many things this night in a dreame because of him The reason why some conceive that dreame was from the Devill is this because thereby Satan would have hindred the work of mans redemption if Christ had not died and so by saving him would have destroyed us all I will not assert this but it is cleare to the point in hand that there are dreames from the temptations motions and suggestions of the Devill who hath a power over us as God lengthens out his chain both day and night But when it is said Thou skarest me with dreames what dreames were these divine or Diabolicall Job speaks unto God Thou skarest me with dreames doubtlesse divine dreames had an influence upon his spirit and left terrifying impressions there But Satan having power to afflict Job which way he pleased was instrumentall here and yet Job saith to God Thou skarest me As before when Satan by his instruments took away all from him he said The Lord hath taken so here when Satan vexed him with visions representing horrid and fearfull spectacles yet he saith Thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with visions as pointing still unto the power and providence of God who hath all second causes Satan and all at his own dispose Observe here first That even our dreames are ordered by God Though Satan be the instrument yet we may say Thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with visions Job was not ignorant that second causes had a great power upon the body to produce dreames and nightly fancies he was not ignorant that the strength of a disease might doe very much in this and that Satan his former enemy was busie to improve the distempers of his body for the trouble of his mind yet he overlooks all these as he did before and saith Lord thou skarest me with dreames and terrifiest me with visions Dreames are in the hand of God As our waking times are in the hand of God so are our sleeping times when we are sleeping we are in the armes of an ever waking Father Satan hath not power to touch us sleeping or waking without leave Secondly Ged can make our sleepe an affliction Jobs were skaring and terrifying dreames Some dreames are for warning and admonition The Lord warned Joseph in a dream Some are for counsell and instruction he revealed great things in dreames Others are for comfort and consolation Many a soul hath tasted more of heaven in a night-dreame than in many daies attendance upon holy Ordinances As the lusts of wicked men have dreames attending them so also have the graces of the Saints Jobs dreames were for terrour and afflictions Observe secondly Satans desire of troubling poore souls is restlesse It is restlesse indeed for he will not give them leave to rest they shall not sleep in quiet their very dreames shall be distractions and their nightly representations a vexation to them Note further That if God permit Satan can make dreames very terrible to us He can shew himselfe in a dreame and offer ugly sights extreamly perplexing to the Spirit He is able to cast himself into a thousand ill favour'd shapes into horrid and dreadfull shapes he can cloath himself with what habit he pleases if God give him a generall Commission And hence the devill terrifies not only by temptations to the mind but by aparitions to the eye and is seen at least conceived to be seen especially by such as labour under strong diseases like a Lion a Beare a Dogge gaping grinning staring whence we say of any terrifying sight it looks like a devill We depend upon God as for sleep so for the comfort of sleep Many lie downe to sleep and their sleep is their terrour As that evill spirit in the Gospel went about seeking rest but found none So he hinders some and would more from finding rest when they seeke it Therefore blesse God for any refreshing you have by sleepe Blesse God when your dreames are not your skares nor your beds your racke See the effect what deepe impressions dreadfull dreams made in Jobs spirit he was so affrighted with them that he professes with his next breath Verse 15. My soule chuseth strangling and death rather then life I loath it I would not live alwayes So that my soul chooseth strangling He renews his former often repeated motion but with a greater ardency He not only prefers death before his troubled condition but a violent death and in the opinion of some the worst of violent deaths strangling which though it be not the most painfull of violent deaths yet it is looked upon as the most ignominious of violent deaths Some referre these words to the terrour which Job had in his dreames and visions as if they were so violent upon him that they almost distracted him and made him mad that they even put him upon desperate thoughts of destroying himselfe My soule chooseth strangling that is I am often tempted and almost prevailed Ab hujusmodi spectris multos sejam strangulasse profiliisse in puteos asserit Hippoc. with to make my selfe away The learned Physitians tell us that their Patients have often attempted to destroy themselves thorough the terrours of dreams and visions Yet we may understand the word strangling only of naturall and ordinary Every death is a kind of strangling and some diseases stop and choke a man even as strangling doth so that My soule chooseth strangling may be taken in generall My soul chooseth death rather then life My soul chooseth He puts the soul as it is often in Scripture for the whole man and the sence of all is as if he had said If I might be my own chooser if I might have my election I would even take the worst of deaths rather than the life which now I live My soul chooseth strangling And death rather then life If we take strangling for a speciall death then here death is put in generall As thus if strangling be too easie a death let me die any kind of death Death rather then life The Hebrew in the letter is And death rather than my bones which some render thus And death rather than to be with my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Os a robore dictum nihil in ipso taem sorte firmum quod vis doloris non debilitarat confregerat Aquin. bones To be with our bones is to live Others make this choosing an act of his bones My soul chooseth strangling and my bones death that is every
things have been spoken from preceding passages of his reply and I will not double upon them here But I take the former reading and meaning of the words as most proper to the coherence conclusion of Jobs discourse and so they are but a repetition or re-inforcement of what he spake at the 7 and 8. verses There he said O remember that my life is wind mine eye shall no more see good the eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more Thine eyes are upon me and I am not Here he speaks the same thing in some variety of words Thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be The severity of my sickness threatens to prevent thy earliest preparations for my relief Thus through the strength of Christ some discoveries have been made about this first congresse or charge between Eliphaz and Job But Job hath not yet done Behold a second and a third Combatant ready to enter the list against him And when these three have once tryed their skill and strength upon him they all three charge him a fresh a second time and two of them a third Was ever poor soul held so hard to it as he How much doth the life of grace make him exceed man when he as a man could scarce be reckon'd among the living Truth and grace will triumpth and prevail notwithstanding all the disadvantages of flesh nature Is it not strange that a man should not be weary with arguing while he often professes he was wearied with living That while he could scarce fetch his breath for pain he should do so much work in a manner without a breathing For as the Messengers of his troubles gave him no rest But while one was yet speaking there came another also and said c. And while a second was yet speaking a third came and said c. So neither did these disputants about his troubles While Eliphaz and Job were yet speaking Bildad answered and said c. While Bildad and Job were yet speaking Zophar answered and said What Eliphaz said and Job answered in this first undertaking you have heard The opening of what Bildad had to say and Job to answer waits till the Lord shall be pleased to vouchsafe it a further opportunity What is now as himself hath pleased to enable his unworthy instrument offered waits upon him for his blessing To him all blessing is for ever due on him let praises ever waite for all his blessings Amen FINIS A TABLE Directing to some special Points noted in the precedent Expositions A ADvancement is from God pag. 267. The difference between Gods advancing his own People and enemies pag. 270 Afflictions Sore afflictions indispose for duty p. 15. Affliction often disturbs the seat of reason p. 17. Times of affliction special seasons for the use of our graces p. 23. Affliction discovers our hearts and our graces to our selves p. 28 29. Afflictions good for the Saints p. 115. They are but trials 116. Affliction is a cleanser how p. 117. They are sent to humble us ib. To bring the Saints nearer God p. 118. Man naturally seeks the reason of his afflictions out of himself p. 220. Every affliction hath a cause pa. 221. It comes not by the power of any creature ib. It is from the Lord p. 222. It is our wisedome and our duty to seek God in times of affliction p. 230. We are to seek him about foure things in affliction ib. It is a great ease to the soul to do so p. 231. Affliction and happiness meet in the same person p. 309 310 312. Yet every one that is afflicted is not happy p. 313. The best of Gods children sometimes entertain afflictions unwillingly p. 321. They sometime apprehend them as unuseful p. 323. As disgraceful p. 324. The least affliction ought not to be sleighted p. 324 325. We ought highly to prize them 326. Afflictions of others are to be throughly weighed and wherein that consists pag. 315. It is an addition to a mans affliction when others are not sensible of it pag. 416. Afflictions are heavy burdens p. 420. They come by multitudes 433. Afflictions are the higher services of grace p. 487. They are measured out by the hand of God 589. Man apt to think he needs not so many or so great Afflictions p. 630 631. It makes a little time seem very long to us 643. Affliction is the magnifying of a man two wayes p. 659 660. Why called visitations 665. They are tryals 668 669. They are bands and such as man cannot break 674. It is a great ease to an afflicted mind to know the reason why afflictions are sent p. 699 703. God brings his eminentest servants to the most eminent tryals by afflictions pag. 701. Angels are the servants of God p. 129. Their several services for the Church 129 130. And against the wicked 131. Angels how chargeable with folly p. 135. Pride and self-confidence the sins of Angels p. 138. Angels as creatures mutable ib. Yet now confirmed by Christ 139. God hath no need of Angels p. 141. Answering how taken in Scripture p. 409. It is the duty of a man to answer when he is questioned or charged with any fault ibid. Application of general truth very necessary p. 403. Arrows how taken in Scripture p. 425. Arrowes of God why so called p. 427. Afflictions like arrowes in four things ib. 428. Poyson'd arrowes p. 429. Assurance To be assured of a mercy is better than the enjoyment of a mercy p. 383. B BEasts in what sence put for men in Scripture pag. 368. Beasts of the earth hurtful to us three wayes p. 369. Beasts how at peace with us p. 378. Sin hath made the beasts and all creatures hurtful to man 379. It is from special providence that the beasts hurt us not 380. Beasts complain not without cause p. 440. Man in passion worse than beasts p. 628 630. Behold a note either of derision or of asseveration p. 8. Belial wicked men why called sons of Belial p. 47. Blast and breath of God what they signifie in Scripture p. 55 56. Blessednesse three degrees of it p. 384. Body of man compared to a house in two respects p. 145. Why called a house of clay 146. How it should humble us 147 148. Much care of the body is usually joyned with neglect of the soul p. 148. Bread the staffe of life p. 345. It is a pretious comfort to have bread in a promise when we have none upon the board p. 347. Brethren many sorts of them p. 497. Brethren deceitful 499. The deceit of a brother is double deceit especially of a brother in the faith ib. Burial A comely burial is an honour and a blessing p. 394. C CHarity Four acts of spiritual charity p. 8. Spiritual charity best p. 13 14. Charity especially spiritual charity is open handed p. 14. Chastnings see Afflictions What is properly a chastning p. 326. How we may improve this notion that Shaddai God