they lookt for and sayd Thy Brother Benhadad If thou ownest him as a Brother surely thou wilt not use him as an Enemy There is to the point in hand a holy cunning in catching up words which drop from the lips of men in affliction and 't is our wisedome to make improvement of them As for instance There was an ancient Professor as I have been informed in much distresse of conscience even to despaire he complaining bitterly of his miserable condition to a Freind let this word fall That which troubles me most is that God will be dishonoured by my fall This word was hastily catcht at and turned upon him to the asswaging of his griefe Art thou carefull of the honour of God and doest thou thinke God hath no care of thee and of thy salvation A soule for saken of God regards not what becomes of the honour of God Therefore be of good cheere if Gods heart were not towards thee thine could not be towards God or towards the remembrance of his name Thus words should be watcht yea and silence should be watcht for advantages to ease a distressed soule Lastly These words may referr to God as if Job had said Whether I speake or whether I forbeare God doth not come in to my helpe I finde no comfort from him he puts no stop to my paine nor doth he asswage the floods of griefe which are ready to swallow me up He gives me no ease at my complaining cryes nor doth he give me any at my patient silence The next Verse seemes most sutable to this exposition where Job applyes himselfe to God shewing what hee did to him both while he spake and while he held his peace he wearyed him still and left him in a wearyed condition Vers 7. But now he hath made me weary thou hast made desolate all my company We may see in this context that the spirit of Job vvas much troubled by the troublednesse of his speech At this seventh Verse he speakes in the third Person He hath made me weary and before he gets to the end of it he speakes in the second Person Thou hast made desolate In the eighth Verse Thou hast filled me with wrinkles In the ninth Verse He teareth me in his wrath The tenth Verse is Plurall They have gaped upon me Strange kinde of Grammar sometimes in the third Person sometimes in the second sometimes in the Singular sometimes in the Plurall number His minde was uneven or unsetled and so was his discourse We must not play the Criticks with the words of men in paine nor submit their sentences to a Deske of Grammarians Broken language and incongruities of speech doe well enough become broken hearts and wounded spirits God will not call his Schollers in the Schoole of affliction to the Ferula for such faults or false Latine falling from their mouthes either in prayer or conferences while their hearts are true and the language of their spirits pure But now he hath made me weary But Now Now is not here a Particle of time onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a specification of the season noting that then God eyther began or still continued to make him weary but it carryes also a strong asseveration or the certainety of the thing as in that promissory exhortation Hag. 2.4 Yet now be strong O Zerubbabell saith the Lord and be strong O Joshua Though you see things yet below expectation though this be a day of small things yet take heart and encourage your selves to carry on this reforming worke Yet now be strong even now when so many things might weaken both your hearts and hands and be yee assured that I will not reject your confidence but vvill cause you to prosper in it Nunc in principio dictionis quandam cordis dulcedinem connotare solet Bold And in promises besides the certainety of the thing promised and the speedy fulfilling of them it intimates much sweetnesse of affection in him that makes the promise On the contrary in threatnings and comminations besides the certainety and speed of them it notes the sharpnesse and severity of his spirit who gives those threats So Isa 5.5 And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard Now goe too is chiding cheare As if the Lord had thus rated them What Have you served mee thus as sure as I formerly planted and hedged this Vineyard so surely will I now pull downe the hedge and root it up In this fulnesse of sense take it here But now he hath made me weary certainly or of a truth he hath I was once sweetly and strongly hedged about with mercy But now hee hath made mee weary and desolate He hath made me weary He is not expressed in the Hebrew and therefore there is a doubt who is meant by this He. Nunc autem oppressit me dolor meus Vulg. Some understand it of his griefe and sorrow and read it thus But now it hath made me weary my paine hath tyred me Secondly Others understand it of vvhat had been spoken by his Freinds your tedious discourses and severer censures have quite spent my spirits and made me weary Our translation leads us to a person and our Interpretation leads us to God He that is God hath made mee weary Job every where acknowledgeth that God vvas the Author and Orderer of all his sorrows Now he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non solum fatigationem denotat sed fastidium molestissimum tum animi tum corporis Hath made me weary Or He hath wearyed me it is but one word and it signifies not an ordinary wearinesse not such a wearinesse as comes upon us after a turne or two in the Feilds A man who walkes into the ayre to refresh himselfe may come home weary but it notes such wearinesse as vvee feele after long and tedious travell or after a hard journey yea it notes not onely wearinesse of body but the wearinesse of the minde It is possible for a man to weary his body and yet his minde remaine unmoved bare outward action stirres not the minde To ride to run to digg or thresh weary the body not the minde but those workes which with action have contention in them as to argue and dispute doe at once exercise and weary both minde and body The vvearinesse of the minde is the most painefull wearinesse Jobs wearinesse takes in both thou hast vvearied my body and vvearied my minde too I am full of soares vvithout and of sorrow within And such was that wearinesse spoken of by the Prophet Isa 47.13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels that is In going long journeys to aske counsell of thy adored wise men or Wizzards rather of Southsayers and Diviners In this pursuit thou hast laboured thy body and vexed thy soule but profited neither After all thy travels vvhat hast thou brought home but wearinesse Tyred flesh and a tyred spirit is all the fruit of our
case a man in nature is composed or constituted of sin and a naturall man is nourished and preserved by sinning Vt deficienti humido resarciendo nihil aptius est aqua utilius ia hominis beatitudini quae ipsi de est consummandae natura nihil suggerit nisi peccatum Coc. Continuall acts increase the habit and as a godly man is nourished by holy acts and strengthened in spirit by spirituall obedence doing the will of God is the food of the soule As Christ speakes John 4.21 so doth every true Christian in his degree It is my meat and drinke to doe the will of my Father which is in Heaven or as Job professeth of himselfe Chap. 23.12 I esteeme the words of thy mouth more then my necessary food Thus also the old man saith It is my meat and drink to doe the will of the flesh and that is indeed the will of his Father which is in Hell The words of his mouth his Counsels and Lawes I esteem more then my necessary food So much for the opening and illustration of this Scripture-phrase Drinking iniquity like water I shall propound one Quere in generall concerning the whole Verse and so conclude it Here is a full description of sinfull man But whether Eliphaz speakes this strictly of a person unregenerate and so applyeth it to Job or whether this description be not also applicable to a man who is regenerate and godly for the maine and was so intended by Eliphaz is here a question Some conceive that the words will suite none but an unregenerate man and t is granted upon all hands that they are most sutable to him An unregenerate man is abominable and filthy he drinks iniquity like water And yet in a qualified sense we may say all this of a man regenerate Even He in reference to the remaines of corruption is abominable and filthy and He under some distempers and temptations drinks iniquity like water Agit Eliphaz cum Jobo non ut improbo sed ut errante Coc. which words of Eliphaz a moderne Interpreter paralels with those of Paul concerning himselfe Rom. 7.25 With the flesh I serve the Law of sin And delivers his opinion in this case That though Eliphaz aimed at Job in all this yet he deales with him not as with a wicked man but as with an erring brother For whereas he had sayd Chap. 13.23 How many are mine iniquities Eliphaz might judge by his words that surely he thought his iniquities were not very many and whereas he had sayd at the 26. Verse of the same Chapter Thou makest me to possesse the iniquityes of my youth Eliphaz might collect surely this man thinks his elder yeares have been so free from sin that God can finde nothing in them which might justifie him in these severe punishments Now Eliphaz opposeth these apprehensions and would both teach and convince him that as originall sin pollutes every man wholly till he is washed and borne againe by the spirit so no man is so farre washed by the spirit but that many spots and pollutions of the flesh doe still cleave to him and often appeare upon him And Eliphaz may be conceived to handle Job in this manner First To shew him that though a man be in a state of regeneration yet he can deserve nothing at the hand of God because his holinesse is still imperfect and his corruptions are abominable Secondly That the greatest sufferings and afflictions of good men in this life are very consistent with the Justice of God Thirdly That he might humble Job who as he feared was still too high in his owne opinion and thought better of himselfe then did become him Fourthly To provoke him to resist his owne corruptions stedfastly And lastly To beare the crosse which the Lord had layd upon him for his good especially for the taming and subduing of his corruptions patiently So that Eliphaz doeh not dispute with him upon this hypothesis or supposition or not upon this onely That man by nature and without the grace of God is filthy and abominable drinking iniquity like water but upon this or this in consort with the former That man in a state of grace or a godly man is filthy and abominable in reference to the flesh that dwelleth in him and that in reference to his frequent sinnings he may be sayd to drink iniquity like water And therefore Job had no reason to be proud how good so ever he was or how much good soever he had done and that there was all the reason in the World he should be patient and take it well at the hand of God how much evill so ever he should suffer This resolution of the Quere as it is profitable so probable For howsoever Jobs Freinds had branded him in diverse passages of this dispute as a wicked man and an hypocrite and were so understood by Job as appeares in his answers and replyes yet 't is most likely his Freinds spake so in reference to his actions not in reference to his state That he had done like an Hypocrite or a wicked man was clearely their opinion but there is no necessity to conclude from what they sayd that they judged him absolutely to be one JOB CHAP. 15. Vers 17 18 19 20. I will shew thee heare mee and that which I have seene I will declare Which wise men have told from their Fathers and have not hid it Vnto whom alone the earth was given and no stranger passed among them The wicked man travelleth with paine all his dayes and the number of yeares is hidden to the oppressour ELiphaz having argued against Jobs supposed opinion of Selfe-cleannesse and personall righteousnesse proceeds to the confirmation of his owne position to which he leads us by a new Exordium or Preface in the 17 18 and 19. Verses of this Chapter Secondly he largely handles and illustrates it from the 20. to the 31. Verse Thirdly hee applyeth the whole Doctrine to Job by way of dehortation at the 31. Verse and so forward to the end of the Chapter The generall argument which he brings to confirme his Tenet may be thus formed up That is true which continued experience and the consent of wise men in all ages have taught and delivered to us But the experience and consent of wise men in all ages have taught and delivered this that a wicked man travels with paine all his dayes that he is punished outwardly by want and sicknesse and inwardly by the gripes and scourges of his owne conscience Therefore this is a truth The major proposition is the sum of the Preface contained in the 17 18. and 19. Verses The minor or second Proposition is held forth in the 20. Verse and is prosecuted to the one and thirtieth I will shew thee heare thou me and that which I have seene I will declare So the Preface begins He layes downe a double proofe in this Preface a proofe first from his owne experience secondly from the
addresses for comfort to any but God or in the way of God The Septuagint translate yet higher Sept. Exponunt de defectu rationis q. d. vix prae dolore sum mei compos Thou hast made me mad or besides my selfe The Hebrew word signifies to distract or to put one out of his wits As if Job had sayd I am scarse my owne man being over-burdened with those sorrowes God hath layd upon me Hence Observe First A state of affliction is a wearisome estate A man may be vvearyed who never stirrs foot from the place where he stands or sits O the vvearinesse of a sick bed Suffering vvearies more then doing and none are so vveary as they who are vvearied with doing nothing Observe Secondly Some afflictions are a wearinesse both to soule and body There are afflictions which strike quite through and there are afflictions which are onely skin-deep As there is a filthinesse of the flesh and a filthinesse of the spirit properly so called for though every sin of the flesh or outward man defile the spirit yet there are many filthinesses of the spirit which are never acted by the flesh or outward man Thus the Apostle distinguisheth 2 Cor. 7.1 There are also some filthinesses which strike quite through flesh and spirit body and soule Thus there are some afflictions which are meerly upon the flesh there are other afflictions vvhich are purely upon the spirit the skin is whole the body is in health but the soule is vvounded an Arrow sticks vvithin And there are a sort of afflictions vvhich strike quite through body and soule as old Simeon tells the Virgin Mary a Sword shall peirce through thy soule Luke 2.35 or as the Psalmist speakes of Joseph Psal 105.18 according to the letter of the Hebrew Whose feet they hurt with fetters his soule came into Iron or the iron entred into his soule Such afflictions are like the Roll spoken of by the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 2. Written with lamentations mourning and woe within and without Some woes are vvritten onely vvithout some vvoes are writen onely vvithin others are written without and within Their Characters are legible upon the flesh and their effects descend and sinke into the spirit Jobs afflictions were of this extension he was smitten all over and vvritten quite through with woes and lamentations Thirdly As the word reacheth the distemper of the braine Observe Some afflictions doe not onely afflict but unsettle the minde They unsettle not onely the comforts but the powers and faculties of it a man under some afflictions can scarse speak sense vvhile he acts faith or doe rationally while hee lives graciously A soule that hath grace yea much grace may appeare much scanted in the use of reason As oppression from men makes a wise man madd Eccles 7.7 And the more wise a man is the more madd it makes him Fooles can beare oppression and not be troubled much because they doe not understand vvhat justice and right meanes and that 's the reason why in those parts of the World vvhere Tyrants reigne they love to keep the people ignorant poore and low for such are not much sensible of their oppressions but oppression is very grievous to an ingenious vvise and understanding man and therefore 't is sayd to make him madd The purest intellectualls have the quickest sense of injuries Thus also some afflictions from the hand of God may in a degree make a godly wise man madd and put him for a present plunge beyond the command of his understanding It is the confession of holy David Psal 73.22 I was even as a beast beefore thee so foolish was I and ignorant If David a godly man acted below reason when he saw the prosperity of the wicked how much more may a godly man act below reason under the feelings of his owne adversity Heman is expresse in this Psal 88.15 While I suffer thy terrours I am distracted Yet the word in the Psalme doth not signifie properly the distraction of a man that is madd but the distraction of a man that is in doubt or the distraction of a man who knowes not what to doe not of a man who knows not what he doth yet that distraction doth often lead to a degree of this for a man who is much troubled to know what to doe and cannot know it grows at last to doe he knows not what We may also take in that about distraction arising from affliction which was toucht about distraction caused by oppression Those Christians who are highest in spirituals and have the quickest sense of Gods dispensations towards them doe soonest fall into it whereas a soule upright in the maine yet being of weake and low parts and of small experience in the things of God will goe yea groane under a heavy burden of affliction all his dayes and not be much moved with it Fourthly Observe A godly man may grow extreame weary of his afflictions Affliction is the burthen which God layes upon us and it is our duty not onely to beare it but to beare it with contentednesse yea we should labour to beare it with joyfulnesse My brethren saith the Apostle James Chap. 1. Account it all joy when yee fall into diverse temptations that is Into diverse afflictions But yet the best cannot alwayes rejoyce in temptations nor tryumph under a crosse when affliction according to that description of the word Heb 4.12 comes quick and powerfull as a two edged Sword and peirceth to divide betweene the soule and the spirit the joynts and the marrow when affliction I say cuts to the quick a Beleever is put hard to it he may be so farr for a time from tryumphing and rejoycing that he can scarsely finde himselfe contented or patient his burden may cause him to cry out O the wearinesse Carnall men cry out at every burden of duty in the service of God O what a wearinesse is it They are tyred with an houres attendance in holy things O the burthen Much more doe they cry out under the lighter burdens of affliction How tedious is a day or an houre of affliction two or three fits of an ague an aking tooth a soare finger O what a wearinesse is this They sinke presently True Beleevers as they have more patience in doing so in suffering yet even their patience doth not alwayes hold out they as Job speak sometimes mournfully and complainingly But now he hath made us weary Thou hast made desolate all my company Quod loquitur nunc in secunda nunc in tertia persona nihil in sententia mâ—tat id quod admodum frequens est in Scriptura Pined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vastari seu desolari ita ut videntes obstupescant horreant It was Hee in the first clause Thou in the second hee and thou are the same person in Jobs Grammar as was toucht before Thou hast made desolate The word Shamam signifies to waste and destroy and that not by an ordinary destruction
God as he hath done by the Preaching of the Gospel turnes men from Idols to serve and worship him the living God then he famisheth those Gods When Idols lose their esteeme their leannesse riseth up and they goe downe Thus also it is with man his leannesse may be said to rise when his credit fals Further There is a twofold leannesse First Of the soule or inward man Secondly Of the body or outward man When the Jewes lusted in the Wildernesse and called for flesh to satisfie the flesh God saith the Text Psal 106.15 gave them their request but sent leannesse into their soule The soule in a proper sense is neither fat nor leane and therefore the soule in this place of the Psalme must be taken improperly or else the leannesse of it must The soule is put improperly for the body or for the whole man and so he sent leannesse into their soules is the curse of God caused them to pine secretly or he slew the fattest of them openly and smote downe the chosen men in Israel So this leannesse is expounded Psal 78.31 as if he had sayd God made them a thin and a leane company before he had done with them Yet besides this I conceive the Text doth intend some spirituall judgement and then the soule is taken in a proper sense but leannesse in an improper sense and so he sent leannesse into their soules is while they inordinately desired meat for their bodies God withheld the ordinary food of their soules He did not administer his grace and holy spirit which are the fatners of the soule while they were thus hungry after dainties for the flesh Jobs Freinds thought him a leane soule but he here confesses the leannesse of his body and in that his continuall sorrow the cause of it So the Prophet cryes out My leannesse my leannesse woe unto me Isa 24.16 My leannesse rising up Fatnesse riseth up and not leannesse when a man growes leane his flesh fals and abates skin and bone stick together Why then doth hee say My leannesse riseth up Though when a man is leane his flesh falls yet his bones rise A fat mans bones are as it were buried in flesh you can scase feele his ribs but when he growes leane his bones stick out and rise up That is the meaning here my leannesse rising up Maciei videtur dare personam ut paulo ante rugis Job ascribes a rationall act both to his wrinkles and to his leannesse as if both did speak and which is more give evidence concerning him he brings them forth as witnesses at the barr this speakes and that speakes he doubles it My wrinkles witnesse against me and my leannesse rising up witnesseth to my face When a witnesse is to give in his evidence in any cause before a Judge he riseth up or standeth forth that all may see him Job presents his leannesse in the proper posture of a witnesse rising up The Originall varies somewhat in the latter clause from the former we render both by vvitnessing but vve may read it thus Thou hast filled me with wrinkles that hath been or is a witnesse or as Master Broughton reads a proofe my leannesse rising up or vvhich riseth up against me answers or speaketh to my face The meaning is These outward evils are evidence enough to my Freinds that God is angry with me and that I am wicked against God Job grants that those wrinkles and this leannesse vvere witnesses of his afflictions he never questioned their testimony as to that point neither indeed could he Jonadab sayd to Amnon Why art thou being the Kings Son leane or thin from day to day wilt thou not tell me 2 Sam. 13.4 His leannesse told his Freind plaine enough that all was not vvell he read that in his face onely hee could not read the particular illnesse there Magnum certè peccatum quod tantum in florente illa aetate deformitatem senilem speciem induxit Putant tantas afflictiones testes esse magnae culpae irae Dei. Coc. If vve see a young man especially the Son of a Great man or of a King who is waited upon with all worldly delights vvrinkled and leane is it not a witnesse that he hath been sick or is overwhelmed vvith sorrow these testifie to his face he cannot conceale it But Jobs Freinds said these were vvitnesses of his sin they produced the wrinkles of his body as a vvitnesse of his vvrinkled soule and the leannesse of his outward man as an argument of his inward leannesse they sayd these testified plainely that he was not onely a great sinner but an Hypocrite And thus they argued all along this vvas their constant plea Job must needs be according to this opinion a man of an evill life because his life was filled with evills Thou hast filled mee with wrinkles which is a witnesse against me c. Hence Observe First Great afflictions leave their marks behinde them Little afflictions leave no wrinkles no leannesse behinde them vve recover out of them and nothing appeares of them as it is in sinning some sins leave no mark such are our daily infirmities and common failings but there are other sins which leave a mark behinde them you cannot get them off suddenly it may be you cannot claw off the marks of some sins as long as you live though the sin be fully pardoned yet the mark the vvrinkle the leannesse of it may remaine to your dying day David being defiled with adultery and murder prayes Cause the bones which thou hast broken to rejoyce Those two vvere such sins as broke his very bones they vvere to his soule as the breaking of a bone is to the body If a man break a bone though it be vvell Set yet it leaves a mark David carryed the skarr of those sins to his Grave Though God had forgiven those sins and did not remember them to impute them to David yet when God had occasion to speake of David to his highest commendation he could not forbeare the mention of those sins 1 Kings 15.5 David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the dayes of his life save onely in the matter of Vriah The vvrinkle or staine of that sin stuck upon Davids reputation when the guilt of it vvas quite removed and vvashed off from his person 'T is so with afflictions some afflictions leave no mark others goe deep Though all afflictions are light comparatively to the weight of glory as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 4.17 For our light affliction which is but for a moment workes for us a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Yet afflictions being compared among themselves some are light and some are heavy As a Cart that is heavy laden cuts deep into the earth and tells you where it hath gone so doth the vvheele of a heavy affliction drawne over body soule or state Secondly
lives in any knowne sinne unrepented of Secondly That which is unquiet and unsetled about the pardon of those sins which we have repented of We should get both these evil consciences but especially the first cured and removed by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ before we draw nigh to God in prayer as also our bodies washed in pure water which is either an allusion to the old Ceremonies among the Jewes who before they came to worship at the Tabernacle purged themselves with diverse outward washings leading them to the consideration of that morall puritie both of heart and life in which God is to be worshipped or it is an allusion to Baptisme in speciall in which there is an externall washing of the body signifying the washing of the soule by the blood of Christ and by the effectuall working of the spirit The sum of all is unlesse the person be pure his prayer is not pure These are the ingredients which constitute pure prayer all these met in Job and therefore he concluded not onely confidently but truely My prayer is pure And as these are the ingredients of prayer so they are all necessary ingredients so necessary that if any one of them be wanting the whole prayer is impure They are necessary by a double necessity First As commanded by God in prayer Secondly As meanes without which man cannot attaine his end in prayer The generall end of prayer is that prayer may be heard accepted and answered God heares accepts answers no one prayer without some concurrence of all these The Incense of the Ceremoniall Law was a shadow of prayer which is so great a duty of the morall Law But if this Incense had not been made exactly according to the will of God both for the matter and the manner of the composition prescribed Exod. 30.34 35 36. If after it had been thus made it had not also been offered according to those rules given Levit. 16.12 13. it had been an abomination to the Lord or as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Chap. 66.3 Such a burning of Incense had been but as the blessing of an Idol We may conclude also That if prayer be either composed or presented in any other way then God himselfe hath directed it is not onely turned away but turned into sin That man hath spoken a great word who can say in Jobs sense My prayer is pure Thus Job justifies the prayer he made to God and mainetaines his justice towards men There is no injustice in my hands also my prayer is pure A high profession yet in the next words he goes higher and makes both an imprecation against himselfe if it were not thus with him and an appeale to God for his testimony that it was thus with him JOB CHAP. 16. Vers 18 19. O Earth cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place Also now behold my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high JOB having with much confidence asserted the integrity of his heart and the righteousnesse of his way both towards God and Man confirmes what he had thus confidently asserted by a double Argument First By a vehement imprecation Vers 18. O earth cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place Secondly By a free appeale an appeale to God himselfe Vers 19. Also now behold my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high He shewes the necessity of this appeale Vers 20. My Freinds scorne me therefore I am constrained to goe to God When men have done us wrong and will not doe us right it is both time and duty to appeale to God Upon this ground Job appeales Est juramenti deprecatorii forma quo asseverat nullius sibi iniquitatis consâ—ium esse Aben. Ezra and he concludes according to our translation his appeale with a passionate yet holy wish Vers 21. O that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his Neighbour The reason both of his appeale and wish is given us further Vers 22. he looked on himselfe as a man standing upon the very confines of death the Grave was ready for him therefore hee beggs that this businesse might be dispatched and his integrity cleared before hee dyed Hee was loath to goe out of the World like a Candle burnt downe to the Socket with an ill savour He that hath lived unstained in his reputation cannot well beare it to dye with a blot and therefore he will be diligent by all due meanes to maintaine the credit which he hath got and to recover what he hath lost This was the reason of Jobs importunity discovered in these two Verses now further to be opened Vers 18. O earth cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place There are two branches of this imprecation or rather these make two distinct imprecations The first in these words O earth cover not thou my blood The second in these Let my cry have no place Job engages all upon the truth of what he had sayd being willing that his worst might be seen and his best not heard if he had not spoken truth O earth cover not thou my blood Poeticum sane patheticum in dolore aut re alia gravissima res mutas mortuasve omni sensu audituque carentes testes auditores compellare Job speaks pathetically or as some render him Poetically while he bespeakes the earth and makes the inanimate creature his hearer The sacred Pen-men doe often turne their speech to the Heavens and to the Earth Thus Moses Deut. 32.2 in the Preface of his Sermon his last Sermon to that people Give eare O yee Heavens and I will speak and hear O earth the words of my mouth So the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 1.2 Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me God speaks to that which hath no eares to heare eyther to reprove those who have eares but heare not or to raise up and provoke their attention in hearing Thus Job O earth c. as if the earth were able to take his complaint and returne an answer as if the earth were able to make inquisition and bring in a verdict about his blood O earth cover not thou my blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 texit operuit abscondit The word signifies not onely common but a twofold metaphoricall covering First Covering by way of dissimulation to dissemble a matter is to cover a matter In that sense Solomon speakes Prov. 12.16 A fooles wraâ—h is presently knowne but a prudent man covereth shame that is He dissembleth his wrath or his anger he will not let it alway break forth for that would be a shame to him Secondly The word signifies to cover by forgetfulnesse That which is not remembred is hid or covered Eccles 6.4 He commeth in with vanity speaking of man and departeth in darknesse and his name shall be covered with darknesse that
the words abstractly they yeeld us this usefull observation That it is an argument of an evill heart to shorten Hic proponitur tanquam ingens piaculum quod homo afflictus remittat orandi studium or restraine to lessen or to give off Prayer in times of trouble That King spake to the height of prophanenesse when he said 2 Kings 6. This evill is of the Lord and why should I waite on the Lord any longer When we have done waiting we have done praying No man will aske for that which he doth not expect to receive How long so ever affliction lasteth so long prayer-season lasteth if the Winter day of our trouble be a Summer day in length if it be continued many dayes yea many moneths and yeares prayer should continue Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will heare and thou shalt glorifie me Let the day of trouble be short or long God lookes to heare of us all that day Is any afflicted let him pray saith the Apostle James it is a duty to pray when we are not afflicted when we prosper in the World But is any man afflicted then is a speciall season for prayer A sincere heart prayes alwayes or continues in prayer an hypocrite never loves to pray and at two seasons he will restraine or lay aside prayer First when he is got out or thinks he hath prayed himselfe out of affliction Prosperity and worldly fulnesse stop the mouth of prayer and he hath no more to say to God when he hath received much from God Secondly a Hypocrite restraines prayer when he perceives he hath got nothing by prayer he sees he cannot or feares he shall not get out of trouble and therefore he will pray no more in trouble his spirit failes because his afflictions hold out Upon which soever of these two grounds the Hypocrite restraines prayer he shewes the wickednesse of his heart If from the former he shewes that he beares no true love to God if from the latter he shewes that he hath no true faith in God or dares not trust him Further to cast off prayer is to cast off God and he that lives without prayer in the World lives without God in the World Hence the Heathen who know not God and the Families that call not upon his Name are joyned together or rather are the same Jer. 10.25 Further to restraine prayer is worse then not to pray The latter notes onely a neglect of the duty the fromer a distast of the duty To give over any holy exercise is more dangerous then not to begin or take it up The one is the prophane mans sin the other is the Hypocrites Thou restrainest prayer and hee that doth not utter prayer with his mouth will soone utter wickednesse with his mouth as it follows Vers 5. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity and thou chusest the tongue of the crafty Here Eliphaz explaines and proves what he said before that Job had cast off the feare of God and restrained prayer as if he had said If thou hadst kept in holy feare that would have kept in thine iniquity Hadst thou not restrained prayer that would have restrained and bridled downe thy sin but thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity and that sheweth that prayer is restrained and that feare is cast off here is a demonstration of it If you should come to a Princes Court and see a great croud about the doore you would say the Porter is there he stops and examines them if at another time you see all going in as fast as they please you will say the Porter is out of the way Thus while the feare of the Lord stands like a Porter at the doore of the soule we keep our thoughts and actions in compasse we examine what goes in and what comes out but when once that 's gone Non opus est ut te doceam in quo pecces cum ipse tuus sermo doceat te iniquum esse Vatab Reus verbis oris tui Sept order is gone Any thing may be sayd any thing may be done by him who feares not who prayes not Thou hast cast off feare and restrained prayer for thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity out it comes as fast as it can I need not tell thee wherein thou hast offended thy mouth powres it out Hence Note That the evill which is in the heart will out at the mouth unlesse prayer and the feare of God restraine it As the good that is in the heart will come out of the mouth especially when prayer unlocks the mouth David prayes Lord open thou my lips and then he undertakes for his mouth that it shall shew forth the praise of God Psal 51.1 My heart is inditing a good matter the heart doth this in prayer or meditation what follows My tongue is as the Pen of a ready Writer Heavenly thoughts in the heart shoot out at the tongue in heavenly words When the heart is devising of a good matter the tongue will be swift to speake and set all to a good tune Thus also while the heart is inditing an evill matter the tongue runs to evill Such a man needs not learne from others he hath a root of bitternesse in himselfe Hence our Saviour concludes Matth. 12.37 By thy words thou shalt be condemned and by thy words thou shalt be justified Why shall we be condemned by our words Qualis vir talis oratio Mens mala linguam movet vos fingit ad improbos sensus neque aliud os loquitur quam quod interior suggerit atque imperat sensus The Prophet complaines of those who made a man an offender for a word I answer our words shew what we are they declare our hearts as a man may be discovered of what Country he is when he speakes so of what spirit he is The tongue is the scholler of the heart and speakes what that dictates A man is justly condemned by evill words because they testifie that he is evill Thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity Observe Secondly There are some iniquities which are more properly ours then some others are Thine iniquity Job had as Eliphaz seemes to suggest a kind of peculiarity in it As God ownes some people in a speciall manner though all the people of the earth be his yet they are his beloved people So man ownes some sin in a speciall manner though a corrupt heart hath a relation to all the sins in the World yet some one is his beloved sin and may be called by way of emminency his iniquity 'T is his as his Houses and Lands as the Money in his Purse and the Garments on his backe are his Observe thirdly Every man is most ready to act and utter his speciall iniquity Thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity There are some sins in a mans heart which possibly he may never utter all his dayes but he must be talking of or acting his beloved one Hence David speakes it as a high worke
extinguisht and the fountaines dry Thus Eliphaz asserts that his abâ—ttors and instructers in the opinion he maintained were both old and learned old men From this contest about Antiquity and ancient men so often renewed and so much urged betweene Job and his Friends We may observe First That they who have most yeares upon their backs are or may be supposed to have most knowledge and wisedome in their heads and hearts Secondly They who have Antiquity on their side are apt to conclude that they have Truth on their side That which is indeed most ancient is most true yet there are very many very ancient untruths It is no new thing to see a gray-headed errour and a false Doctrine much older then our Fathers But I shall not prosecute either of these points having met with matter of this straine before Chap. 8. v. 8 9 10. Chap. 12. v. 12. to which places I refer the Reader Eliphaz having finished his third reproofe of Job for his arrogancy and the high conceit he had of himselfe proceeds to a fourth and that is as hath been sayd for the low conceit which he had of the comforts tendered him in the Name of God Num parum a te consolationes Dei Heb. Supplendum est verbum reputantur Numquid grande est ut consoletur te Deus Vulg. q. d. facile est Deo ut te ad statum prosperitatis reducat Aquin. Existimasnè tuis aerumnis non posse Deum parem consolationem afferre Vers 11. Are the consolations of God small with thee or is there any secret thing with thee These words undergoe much variety of interpretation the Vulgar Latine neer which some others translate gives a faire sense but at too great a distance from the letter of the Originall thus Is it a great thing that God should comfort thee As if he had sayd Art thou so low that all the consolations of God are not able to raise thee up Is it a worke too big for God himselfe to comfort thee Cannot he change thy outward and inward sorrowes into joyes Will not the consolations of one that is infinite serve thy turne Hath not hee balme enough in store to heale thy wounds nor treasure enough in stock to repaire thy losses T is no hard thing with God to comfort the most disconsolate soule that ever was he that made light to shine out of darknesse can give us light in our thickest darkenesse An minores sunt consolationes dei quà m ut te consolari possint Vatab. This is a truth but for the reason above I stay not upon it The Septuagint translation is farre wider then the former Thou hast received but few wounds in comparison of the sinnes that thou hast committed which is a Paraphrase not a translation and such a Paraphrase as seemes to lye quite without the compasse of the text The meaning and intendment of it may be given thus as if he had sayd Thou complainest that thou art greatly afflicted that thy sorrowes are innumerable Pauca prae iis quae peccasti accepisti vulnera Sep. but if thou considerest thy great and many sinnes thy sufferings are few yea thy sufferings may rather be called consolations and thy losses gaines Are the consolations of God small to thee seeing thou hast sinned so much When God layes but a little affliction upon sinfull man he may be sayd to give a great deale of mercy A third gives this sense An consolationes Dei tam contemptibiles judicas ut projiciat eas ante blasphematores Are the consolations of God small to thee That is Doest thou esteeme the consolations of God so cheape that he will give them to such a one as thou or that hee will lavish them out upon the wicked and cast these Pearles to Swine to such as are blasphemers and contemners of God But why doth Eliphaz call these the consolations of God Did God administer them to Job with his owne hand or did he speake to Job from Heaven Some conceive that though he and his Freinds spake them yet Eliphaz calls them the consolations of God by an Hebraisme because he judged them great consolations Thus in Scripture The Mountaine of God Suas et sociorum consolationes vocat Dei consolationes non sine arrogantia fastu Drus and the River of God are put for a great Mountaine and a great River so here As if he had fayd Thou hast received many great consolations from us thy Freinds and doest thou account them small But I rather take the sense plainely that he calls them so because God is the author and giver the fountaine and originall from whom all consolations spring and flow The Consolations of God are two-fold First Arising from good things already exhibited to us Secondly From good things promised to us The Consolations of God in this place are good things promised or offered Promises are Divine conveyances of Consolation The Freinds of Job had made him many promises that he repenting God would make his latter end better then his beginning c. Hence Eliphaz tells him that he had slighted the consolations of God Any man who reads his story may wonder why he should Surely Job was not in case to refuse comfort considering how he was stript of all comfort The full soule indeed loatheth the honey Combe but to the hungry soule every bitter thing is sweet that is those things which dainty palates distast he eates very savourly Job was kept short and low enough he had nothing of consolation left either without or within he was poore and sore without he was full of horrour and terrour within the arrowes of the Almighty had even drunk up his spirit and layd all his comforts wast and doth he yet neglect or undervalue comforts 'T is true he had reall consolations as appeares by that profession of his assurance of Gods favour towards him I know that I shall be justified yet he had no sensible consolations his frequent complaints shew he had not So then the consolations of God for esteeming which little he is reproved were the promises of consolation made to him in the name of God by the Ministry of his Friends Are the consolations of God small unto thee Hence observe First That consolation is the gift and proper worke of God Thou saith David Psal 71.21 shalt encrease my greatnesse and comfort me on every side The Lord shall comfort Sion he will comfort all he wast places Is 51.3 And againe As one whom his Mother comforteth so will I comfort you and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem God comforts as a Mother tenderly and he comforts as a Father yea as a Master effectually I will comfort you and yee shall be comforted As the corrections of God are effectuall and prosper in the worke for which they are sent so also are his consolations Ephraim sayd Jer. 31.18 Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised So every soule
revolt from him will not feare to runne upon his necke even upon the thicke Bosses of his Buckler Thus Eliphaz hath given us an account why the Lord afflicts a wicked man all his dayes he fights against God all his dayes We have a reason of this reason in the next words why it is that this wicked man is such a valiant Champion against God why he commits wickednesse with so much greedinesse it is Because he covers his face with his fatnesse c. The fatter and fuller he grows in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh the more hungry and sharpe set he is to fulfill them Full-feeding in sin doth not satisfie but increase a sinfull appetite JOB Chap. 15. Vers 27 28 29 30. Because he covereth his face with his fatnesse and maketh collops of fat on his flankes And he dwelleth in desolate Cities and in Houses which no man inhabiteth whiâ—h are ready to become heaps He shall not be rich neither shall his substance continue neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof vpon the earth He shall not depart out of darknesse the flame shall dry up his branches and by the breath of his mouth shall he goe away AS the two former Verses shewed sin the cause of those evills which befall a wicked man so here Eliphaz shewes us two causes of their sin First Their riches Secondly Their power The first is here described tropically by Fatnesse Vers 27. He covereth his face with fatnesse and maketh collops of flesh on his flanks Both parts of the Verse meane the same thing shewing the wicked mans worldly prosperity by the usuall visible effects of it a fat face and fleshy flanks He covereth his face with fatnesse 〈◊〉 prae aâ—pe oculus eorum i. e. exisse videntur prae genarum tumore pinguedine Bold That is he is exceeding fat a phrase like that Psal 73.7 Their eyes stand out with fatnesse The Hebrew is Their eyes are gone out of their heads through fatnesse that is They seem as gone or going out of their heads 'T is usuall in the language of the Holy Ghost to describe wicked men by fatnesse Psal 78.31 He slew the fattest of them that is the worst of them those who were most rebellious longing after dainties Singulaâ—i quodam infamiae titulo impii iniqui in scriptura vocantur pingues when God had given them bread from Heaven David sets forth his Enemies and so the Enemies of Christ of whom that Psalme is a Prophesie under this notion Psal 22.12 Strong bulls or fat bulls came about me By the fat Bulls he meanes the Scribes and Pharisees the high Priest and Rulers who as it were beset Christ with continuall conspiracies More plainely Psal 17.9 10. Keepe me from mine Enemies that oppresse me They are inclosed in their owne fat with their mouth they speake proudly Againe Psal 119.70 Their heart is as fat as grease but I delight in thy Law The Scripture speakes thus not as if fatnesse had any morall evill in it or as if leanenesse had any morall good in it Fatnesse doth not discommend us nor doth leannesse commend us to God yea a man leane in body may have the worst fatnesse he may be proud swolne and puft up in spirit and â— man fat in body may have the best leannesse much selfe-emptinesse and poverty of spirit But because they who have abundance and grow fat with the Creature are tempted to forgetfulnesse of and rebellion against God and because a body overburdened with flesh and fat renders the minde more indisposed to holy and spirituall activity and usually they who bestow most care and cost in pampering their bodies goe with pined starved and leane soules therefore fatnesse heares ill in Scripture Hoc Aegyptii inuere videbantur dum sâ—cerdotes Isiaci solerent dare Api Bovi quem colebant potum ex quodam puteo non autem ex Nilo quia ejus aqua pota creditur pinguedinem carnisque magnum facere incrementum Plutarch Tract de Iside c. Iberi etiam Galli antiqui zonae mensuram habebant quam si mulier quae gravida non esset capere non posset probro magno afficiebatur Alex. ab Alex. l. 2. c. 25. It is observed by Plutarch that the Aegyptian Priests gave their Apis a Deity which they worshipped in the forme of an Oxe the water of a Pit or Well not the water of Nilus to drinke the reason was not as some assigne it because they thought those waters were prophaned by the Crocodile for the Aegyptians had that River in high veneration but because the waters of Nilus were fatning nourishing waters therefore their Apis whom they adored as a God and from whom they expected continuall helpe must not drinke of it least the grosnesse of his flesh should disable him for their assistance Fat corpulent men are in common experience unweildy sleepy and comparatively unfit for action It was a custome as my Author reports among the ancient Spaniards and Gaules to keep a constant measure which if a Woman shee not being with Childe did exceed in the compasse of her waste she fell under disgrace and lost much of her reputation by having got so much of fat and flesh about her And doubtlesse it had somewhat of disrepute in it in Jobs time else Eliphaz a man of experience had not given this as a peice of a wicked mans description He covereth his face with fatnesse And maketh collops of flesh upon his flanks Which Master Broughton renders thus And maketh plaites upon the panch Master Calvin Translates it thus He hath larded his guts Est descriptio summae abunddamiae Jun. This latter clause of the Verse is of the same intendment with the former And that which both reprove as sinfull is the intentnesse of mans Spirit about the pampering of his Flesh He covereth his face with fatnesse he makes collops c. He doth not say Because he is fat but because he covers his face with fatnesse c. That is he sets his heart upon his belly and makes it his businesse to pamper his body He is active yea full of activity in getting this cover or mask of fatnesse upon his face and this mask discovers the naughtinesse of his heart Hence Observe That it is a signe of an evill heart or a leane soule to intend the flesh or to study the satisfying of the bodily appetite A carnall man gives himselfe to deliciousnesse his greatest labour is about that for which Christ forbids our labour The meat that perisheth John 6.27 This covering of our selves with fatnesse and makings collops of fat the Apostle reproves in those Whose God was their belly Phil. 3.19 and in those who served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their owne belly Rom. 16.18 They who serve their belly as they should serve God make a god of it and they who serve their belly at all doe not serve Christ at all We may provide for the belly but
say What if the wicked man doe not grow rich for the present What if his substance doth not continue What if he prolong not his perfections or fall from the top-stayre of his high condition Yet we hope at last he may outgrow all this and get riches which he had not or regaine those which he had No saith Eliphaz Either the wicked man shall not rise to riches or if he rise he shall fall and when once he is fallen he shall rise no more eithâ—â— he shall not get into the light or if he doe he shall be soon overtaken with darknesse and when once he is in the dark he shall come out no more Hee shall not depart out of darknesse When the wicked man is in the light he sings Loth to depart but he must and when he is cast into darknesse he crys Hast to depart but he cannot The wicked man like the evill Angels is held in chaines of darknesse which he is neither able to break off nor to file off He hath sayd to God who is light yea because he is light Depart from me and God saith to him Thou shalt not depart out of darknesse There is a twofold darknesse First Inward Secondly Outward Both metaphoricall By darknesse some understand inward trouble or griefe of spirit others expound it of outward troubles and calamities upon his estate 'T is true of both for he shall depart neither out of the one nor the other but rather take it here for outward trouble and then Not to depart out of darknesse imports abiding misery irrecoverable sicknesse decayes and losses which shall never bee repayred Hence Note Wicked men falling into trouble shall not know the mercy of a resurrection out of trouble The just man falleth seven times and riseth againe Prov. 24.16 The just man is subject to take falls of two sorts and both of them Seven times that is often First He falls into sin Secondly He falls into trouble He riseth from both these falls He riseth from the first by repentance he riseth from the second by deliverance Solomons Text is to be understood of this second sort of falls and may therefore be expounded by the direct words of David Psal 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all The righteous have as many resurrections as falls But as Solomon makes the Antithesis in the place fore-cited the wicked shall fall into mischiefe Solomon doth not tell us expressely what the just mans fals into but he tells us he shall rise againe He tells us expressely what the wicked man shall fall into but he doth not tell us that he shall rise againe nay he tells us implicitely that he shall never rise againe He that riseth againe did not fall into mischiefe how great soever the evill was which he fell into and he that doth not rise againe fell into mischiefe how little soever the evill was which he fell into Nothing makes our falling either into sin or trouble a mischiefe to us but our continuing in it He goes farr we say in our Proverbe who never returnes surely he fals low who never riseth and he stayes long in darknesse who never departs out of it Darknesse is the portion of a wicked man and he shall never depart out of darknesse neither out of that darknesse of sin nor misery he hath no desire to depart out of the former and he hath no promise to depart out of the latter Thus we have seen the negative punishment of a wicked man what he shall not be what he shall not receive this is enough to make him miserable but positive evill will make him outright miserable This Eliphaz prosecutes in the next words The flame shall dry up his branches The flame is taken two wayes either First For the wrath of God which goeth forth causing judgement to take hold of sinners or Secondly For the judgement it selfe which is an effect of his wrath The wrath of God burneth against the wicked as a flame and then judgements burne up the wicked there is no heat to the heat of Divine wrath neither is any thing punitively hot till Divine wrath heats it Sunt qui eius liberâ—s intelligunt sed noâ— allegoriâ—è intelligimus omnem ejus splendorem opes c. Meâ—c The flame shall dry up his branches Some by his branches understand his Children they shall dye Children are branches they stand saith the Psalmist like Olive plants or branches round about the Table of a man fearing God Such branches Job had but they were dryed up and probably Eliphaz might give him a rub upon that soare in this expression Secondly Others by branches understand His followers and flatterers who live upon him as branches upon a Tree but to passe these restrained Interpretations Flamma exurens in Heb. est vehementissimi supplicii atque adeo aeterni symbolum Duci videtur translatio a more hostium vastantium regionem aliquam qui segeâ—â— arberes succendunt I conceive we may take the Branch in generall for all that belongs to a wicked man his Children his Freinds his followers his flatterers his Honour his Riches his Power all these look green and are his beautifull branches and all these the flame dryeth up The Prophet complaines Joel 1.19 O Lord to thee will I cry for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the Wildernesse and the flame hath burnt all the Trees of the Field The flame of which he cryes out and which did not onely dry the branches but devour the Trees of the Feild was the extreame heat of the Sun which as it usually sends out refreshing beams so when God is angry it can send out scorching flames and those beames which tempered with showers of raine nourish the Earth in the long withholding of raine scorch the Earth And what then befell the Trees properly taken and their branches doth often befall both Trees and branches taken in the metaphoricall sense as herein the Text a flame dryes them up A godly man is compared to a Tree flourishing and growing by the water side wicked men are compared somtimes to flourishing Trees but they grow by the fire side The flame dryes up their branches Hence Note First The wrath of God is a drying yea a devouring flame the flame of Gods displeasure puts all into a flame That flame will burn up branches how goodly how strong how high soever they are growne though as strong as the Oakes of Bashan though as high as the Cedars in Lebanon yet this flame will dry them up The Prophet Zechariah speaks this point while he thus bespeaks Lebanon Zech. 11.1 Open thy doores O Lebanon that the fire may devoure thy Cedars 'T is interpreted as a Prophesie of the destruction of Jerusalem and Judea by the Roman power as Christ after threatned them for rejecting him and his Counsell The words of the Prophet may be understood two wayes either litterally for the
a Servant of God Holy Job cannot be excused for his faylings in this who as he complaines here that he was reproached by his Enemies yea and by his Freinds too yet he gave his Freinds some advantage to complaine also of harsh words if not of reproaches cast upon them Thirdly Observe Reproach is a very heavy burthen Remember Lord the reproach of thy Servant how I doe beare in my bosome the reproach of all the mighty people wherewâ—th thine Enemies have reproached thee O Lord wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine annoynted Psal 89.50 51. And againe Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen on me Yet more Psal 42.10 As with a Sword in my bowels or in my bones they reproach me while they say c. Reproach is not onely a burden upon the back but a Sword in the bowels A reviling reproaching tongue is compared in Scripture to three things First To a Raisor Secondly To a Sword Thirdly To an Arrow A Raisor is so keene that it takes off every little hayre reproach cuts a hayre it will have to doe even with undiscernable evils A Sword wounds at hand and smites those that are neere an Arrow wounds afarr off So that whether a man be farr off or neer whether his error be small or great or but imaginary it is all one to a reproachfull spirit his tongue serves him for all turnes David was tryed by all manner of reproaches but those which pinched and pressed him most were his reproaches about spirituall things Any reproach is bad enough but a reproach in Religion is worst to be reproached with our prayers and with our God Where is your God Such reproaches how deep doe they goe They strike to the very heart Credit is a precious commodity a man is more tender of it then of his flesh now all reproach falls upon our credit and the more excellent that peece of our credit is upon which the reproach fals the more greivous is that reproach to us Credit in spirituall things is the most excellent credit Thus David was reproached and so was Job Is this thy feare and thy confidence Is this the thing thou hast so long boasted of Christ was to beare the greatest burden of affliction and therefore he did not onely beare the Crosse but reproach with it he suffered death and reproach with death he suffered the shamefull death of the Crosse in which there was more then a reproach a curse Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree Christ must dye an ignominious death as well as a painefull and the ignominy was a heavier burden then the paine Wee are exhorted Heb. 13.13 To goe out bearing his reproach as intimating that to beare the reproach of Christ would be harder to us and a stronger temptation then to beare the crosse of Christ As the greatest part of Christs sufferings for us was to beare our reproach so the greatest part of our sufferings for Christ is to beare Christs reproach Let us goe forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproach And indeed reproach is so great a burden that were not this consideration in it that is Christs no man would bear it and they will yeeld to doe any thing rather then suffer reproach who are not able to say that their reproach is the reproach of Christ Moses looked upon his reproach as the reproach of Christ he did not esteeme his owne reproach but the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Aegypt Heb. 11.26 Our reproach is nothing but dung or drosse which hath weight in it to presse us but no worth in it to enrich us but the reproach of Christ is treasure which though it have weight in it to presse us yet it hath abundance of worth in it to enrich and crowne us The Apostle cals it The reproach of Christ both because Christ did beare such reproach himselfe and because Christ owned Moses in bearing that reproach yea he owned that reproach which Moses bare as if he had borne it himselfe while we are reproached for Christs sake Christ is reproached and though it should grieve us that Christ is reproached in us yet it may comfort us that Christ takes our reproach as his They have smitten me on the cheek reproachfully and yet they have not done with me They have gathered them selves together against me It seemes they contemned and reproached him singly or every man apart but they joyned altogether in consulting and plotting against him The word that we translate to gather together hath a second signification namely to fill either as a roome is filled with Goods or Persons or as the stomack is filled with meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Implere complere 2. Colligere congregare quod rebus collectis impleantur loca or food or as an Army with Men. Hence Master Broughton translates They come by full Troops upon mee And another They will be filled with me or upon me The Vulgar explaines it thus They are filled or satiated with my punishment or as a third They have taken their fill of pleasure at my miseries The reason of this sense ariseth from the former because where many things or persons are gathered together they fill up that place First It signifies to gather together as men are gathered in a civill Society and combination Job supposed his Freinds conspired his hurt and that they gathered themselves together against him who pretended to gather themselves together for him or wee may apply this to his professed Enemies who were very unanimous to vex and trouble him Hence Note Super me implebuntur Mont. Men are apt to agree in doing hurt Union is not alwayes a signe of a good cause 'T is but seldome we can agree to doe a common duty Good men want the cement of love in a good cause evill men seldome want it in a bad Behold saith God Gen. 11.5 6. This people are one and they all speake one language their language was one and so were their hearts to build a Tower whose top might reach to Heaven The builders of Babel are more united then the builders of Sion The Psalmist complaines of the Enemies onenesse Psal 83.5 6 7. They have consulted together with one consent or heart they are confederate against thee Gebal and Amon and Amalek the Philistims and them that dwell at Tyre Ashur is also joyned with them c. All Nations even Hetrogeniall Nations can joyne in mischiefe men of severall Kingdomes and spirits Pilate and Herod joyne to crucifie Christ but as it is most beautifull and pleasant Psal 133. So O how hard a thing is it for Brethren to dwell in unity They who have one God one Lord one Faith one Spirit one Baptisme one Hope yea they who in one sense are one Body and one Spirit Ephes 4.4 5. are seldome one Satiati sunt paenis meis Vulg. In malis meis voluptatem suam exploverunt Tygur From
many because every one hath many Arrows Men carry but one Sword and one Speare but they carry many Arrows therefore the word signifies many His Archers or many compasse me round about Hence note in prosecution of the same point That God hath variety of meanes to afflict He can make any creature his Archer and he hath many Quivers full of Arrows Old Jacob sayd of Joseph Gen. 49.23 The Archers shot sore at him and grieved him Joseph was a mark of envy because God had put so many markes of honour upon him His owne Brethren were the Archers Job had many Archers shooting at him I can name you seven eminent Archers that shot at Job First Heaven was an Archer the heavens shot fire which burnt up his flocks of sheep Secondly The Ayre was an Archer that shot winde and downe fell the House upon his Children Thirdly The Chaldeans and Sabeans were Archers and they shot spoyling and plundering they tooke away all his Cattell and slew his Servants with the edge of the Sword Fourthly The Devill was an Archer he shot diseases and wounded his body all over with soares Fifthly The earth was an Archer and that shot Wormes he was cloathed with Worms and clods of Earth Sixthly His Wife was an Archer or an Archeresse she shot terrible Arrows evill and bitter words Seventhly His Freinds were Archers they shot reproofes and uncomfortable comforts they peirced him with their salyes and the very meanes that they used to heal him grieved him more All these shot at him hee must needs have many hurts who was compassed about with so many Archers David felt the anguish of these Arrows Psal 38 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten mee in thy hot displeasure For thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore David was full of Arrows what those Arrows were is not determined in the Text. One of the Ancients saith They were the threatnings of God with which his conscience was wounded for sin as for his body and outward estate they were in a whole skin 't is true judgements or wrath threatned wound the spirit deeper then judgements or wrath executed wound the outward man and as the whole word of God so that part of it especially which consists of threatnings is as the Apostle speakes Heb. 4.12 Quick and powerfull and sharper then any two-edged Sword peircing even to the dividing asunder of the soule and spirit c. Yet I rather conceive that Davids Arrows were bodily troubles or diseases already inflicted the immediate cause of which was the anger of God and the cause of that vvas his owne sinne both vvhich are expressed at the third Verse There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin When sin stirrs up the anger of God the anger of God can quickly send his Arrowes abroad nor is there any thing in this World so neere unto us but hee can make an Arrow or an Archer of it His Archers compasse me round And see what kind of Archers his were they were no bunglers they were good marks men like the left handed Benjamites Judg. 20.16 They could shoot at a haires breadth and not misse For it follows He cleaveth my reines asunder They are expert Archers who can cleave the reines The reines are in the middle of the back he that shoots at a Butt and hits the middle of it shoots exactly the whole Butt is not the mark but the White vvhich is set according to a Geometricall proportion in the middle of it He that hits the mark hits the middle of the Butt but he that cleaves the Pin that 's the Archers Dialect which fastens the mark to the Butt That 's the Archer or That 's He as they also use to speake at their sport he wins the prize Renes sedes sunt affectus libidinis vehementissimi Renum nomen in Hebraeo a desiderando dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulnerare renes est tenuiores affectus configere An Archer may hit the man and not his reynes but to hit his reynes is skilfull archery Jobs Archers were thus cunning in their art They compasse mee about and cleave my reynes asunder That 's the first Further We may understand it by a metaphor and so two wayes First The reynes being the seat of desire as Naturalists speake some interpret he cleaveth my reines asunder thus He smites me in that which is to me most pleasant and desireable and then the seat of affection is put for the thing which we affect This holds out a profitable truth God can wound us in that upon which wee most entirely set our affections He knowes how to cleave our very reines asunder and he often doth it that which vve inordinately love is usually the mark at vvhich he aymes his Arrow The readyest vvay to lose any comfort is to over-love it I add that by vvay of caution not of direction And indeed though it be a great deal of smart to us yet it may prove a great deal of ease to us to be vvounded in that which vve over-love God in much mercy to those he loves takes that from them vvhich they love too much that so they may love him the more to whom all their love and more if they had it is but due He cleaves their reines that their reines may cleave to him Secondly The reines in a metaphor Renes occultissima denotant cor intelligit renes consulunt signifie that which is most secret and hidden Psal 16.7 My reines also instruct me in the night season that is my most inward thoughts instruct me I have secret communion with my selfe and my heart reads me a curtaine Lecture every night My reines instruct mee in the night season This metaphoricall interpretation gives us this plaine Note God peirceth into our most retired thoughts and can punish our most secret sins Those sins which lye as much out of sight as the reines doe he seeth and he seeth them as plainely as an Archer doth the White or marke which stands open to the eye for all things are naked and manifest anatomiz'd or cut open to the reines of the back so much the word beares and so manifest are we before his eyes with whom we have to doe Take it literally and then to cleave the reines is an expression of putting a man to the greatest sorrow or paine imaginable if the back vvere chyned as we speake and cut quite downe through the reynes this would be an exquisite torment the reynes are a very tender part A deep vvound in some other parts of the body is but a scratch and such vvounding were a kinde of embracing in comparison of that Secondly To cleave the reynes is to weaken because the reynes or the loynes are the strength of a man or of any creature Loe his strength is in his loynes saith God of Behemoth
vve have used them both for our owne good and the good of others I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe thus saith the Lord Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised Jer. 31.18 Ephraims outward moanes were as musick in the eares of God Ephraim did not murmure against God but he bemoaned himselfe Ephraim was not angry at his chastisement but Ephraim mourned being chastised God heard this fully in hearing hee heard it or it pleased him to heare it It is our duty to testifie our sorrow by the saddest notes of a troubled spirit and it is a delight to God when vve doe so not that hee delights in our sorrows but he delights in the witnesse vvhich vve beare to his wisedome righteousnesse and faithfulnesse in sending those sorrowes I heard Ephraim bemoane himselfe Will an offendor that lookes for mercy come before the Judge in rich apparrell or in some affected dresse Comes he not rather in his Prison clothes puts he not on the garments of heavinesse The Messengers of Benhadad put dust on their heads and ropes about their necks and sack-cloth on their loynes when they came to mediate for the life of their Master And thus the Lord speakes to the Israelites Exod. 33.5 when they had sinned and he was wroth Put off your Ornaments that I may know what to doe with you Ornaments are uncomly when God is threatning judgements It is time for us to lay by our bravery when God is about to make us naked Sack-cloth sowed upon the skin and our horne in the dust are the best ensignes of an afflicted state The Prophets counsell indeed is Joel 2.13 Rend your hearts and not your garments Rending the garments may be taken not onely strictly for that act but largely for all outward actings of sorrow Yet when he saith Rent not this is not a prohibition of but a caution about the outward acting of their sorrow Not in Scripture is not alwayes totally negative it is often directive and comparative So in this place Rend your hearts and not your garments is your hearts rather then your garments or be sure to rend your hearts as well as your garments The one must be done the other ought not to be left undone See more of this Chap. 1. Vers 20. upon those word Then Job rent his Mantle Thirdly Observe Great sorrow produceth great effects and leaveth such impressions as testifie where it is The Apostle saith of the sorrow of the World That it worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 The sorrow of the World may be taken two wayes First For the sorrow of carnall worldly men whose sorrow for sin is only a vexing of their hearts not a breaking or humbling of their hearts which being separate both from true faith for the pardon of sin and from any reall purpose of leaving their sin worketh death both temporall death often wearing out their naturall life lingringly and sometime destroying their naturall life violently as in Judas as also hastning them on to eternall death of which it selfe is a foretast or beginning Secondly This sorrow of the World is a sorrow for the losse of or disappoyntments about worldly things This also worketh both those deaths in meere worldly men and when it is excessive as under a temptation it may be in a godly man it may be sayd to worke the death of the body in him yea great and continued sorrow though it be not excessive worketh towards this death in a godly man drying his bones and drawing out his spirits as is cleare in Job on whose eye-lids the very shadow of death sate while hee wept and sorrowed 'T is hard to dissemble a little griefe but a great deale cannot be hid As godly sorrow manifests it selfe in excellent effects upon the soule of which the Apostle numbers up seven at the eleventh Verse of that Chapter For this selfe same thing that yee sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulnesse it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves c. Now I say as godly sorrow manifests it selfe in manifold effects upon the soule so doth the sorrow of the World set its marks upon the body As a good mans heart is made cleane by weeping the teares of godly sorrow so every mans face is made foule by weeping the teares of worldly sorrow and as godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation and life eternall so the sorrow of the World vvorketh an entrance to temporall death yea we may say that godly sorrow doth sometimes worke temporall death Paul was afrayd lest the incestuous person while he was repenting might be Swallowed up with over much sorrow 2 Cor. 2.7 vvhich as vvee are to understand cheifely of a swallowing up in the gulfe of despaire so we may take in that also as a consequent of the other a swallowing of him up in the Grave of death as if hee had sayd The poore man may both despayre and dye under this burden if you let it lye too long upon him As soone as Heman had sayd in his desertion My soule is full of troubles he presently adds And my life draweth nigh unto the Grave I am counted with them that goe downe to the pit free among the dead Psal 88.3 4 5. To which he subjoyns Ver. 9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction and then expostulates Vers 10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead Shall the dead arise and praise thee As if he had sayd These sorrows will bring me to my grave or in the language of Job On my eye-lids is the shadow of death Till wee enjoy a life beyond the reach of all sorrows wee shall not be beyond the reach of death Hence that promise Revel 21.4 God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neyther sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine And as that life which hath no death in it shall have no sorrow in it so that life which is a continuall death the life of the damned is nothing else but sorrow There shall be weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth for evermore Mat. 13.42 Their eyes shall ever weep their faces shall ever be foule with weeping and on their eye-lids the shadow of death shall dwell for ever Fourthly The hand of God being heavy upon Job he defiled his horne in the dust and fouled his face with weeping he regarded neyther the beauty of his face nor the dignity of his condition all was nothing to him Learne from it Great afflictions take off our respect to the World and all worldly things What is honour What is Gold or Silver What is a goodly House What is a beautifull Wife and pleasant Children What are fine cloathes or a faire face in a day of sorrow or in the approaches of death Spirituals are highest prized when we are lowest Grace shines clearest in worldly darknesse but the light of worldly enjoyments is darknesse to us and that vvhich some esteeme as a Sun is but a
Doctrine is the purity of it and the sincerity of prayer is the purity of it Job did not boast his prayer pure without infirmity but he did professe it pure without hypocrisie Yet besides this casting out of hypocrisie there are diverse ingredients to be taken in towards the composition of a pure prayer of which I shall touch more distinctly by and by We read in the Institutes of the Ceremoniall Law of pure Myrrhe of pure Frankincense of pure Oyle of pure Incense all which concurred to pure worship among the Jewes and typed out all pure worship both among Jewes and Gentiles of the latter the Lord saith Mal. 1.11 From the rising of the Sun unto the going downe of the same my name shall be called upon among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering This pure offering Job intends when he saith My prayer is pure Under these two There is no injustice in my hand and my prayer is pure Job conteines the whole duty of man both to God and to man Here is Justice comprehending the dutyes of the second Table His duobus membris utramque tabulam complectitur Merc. and Prayer comprehending the duties of the first Table Thus Job was compleat in all the will of God and had respect to all his Commandements And thus he verified Gods testimony of him Chap. 1.1 and approved himselfe to be A man perfect and upright fearing God and eschewing evill which is the whole duty of man From the words in generall Observe First Man hath great support in bearing afflictions from the witnesse which his heart gives of his owne integrity 'T is matter of wonder that ever Job should beare so many burdens and endure breach upon breach till wee remember that though he had many breaches upon his body and estate yet he had none upon his conscience Indeed his spirit had breaches by way of tryall and temptation from God but it had none by way of disobedience against God The spirit of a man saith Solomon will sustaine his infirmities Prov. 18.14 There are two sorts of infirmities First Sinfull infirmities such are impatience doubtings deadnesse of heart and vanity of thoughts Secondly Penall or painefull infirmities such as are poverty sicknesse diseases or any outward crosse whatsoever These latter are the infirmities which Solomon meanes and these the spirit of a man will sustaine even while his flesh or body sinks under them Yet here spirit is not taken meerely in opposition to bodily or materiall flesh though the spirit under that Physicall notion is able to beare much more then the body can but as spirit is opposed to spirituall and sinfull flesh that is to a carnall corrupt minde The spirit of a man furnished with grace supported with the favour of God and the testimony of a good conscience will sustaine all his infirmities that is cause him to beare with much not onely patience but courage and cheerfulnesse the heaviest burdens of affliction which eyther the wisedome of God doth or the malice of man can lay upon him Holinesse makes the weake strong and the strong like Giants to endure all shocks of trouble and hardship A whole skin feeles no smart though you bath it with brine and if a man have a sound conscience if his spirit be not galled and raw he is able to stand at any time and sometimes to rejoyce in the saltest waters of worldly sorrow For though he be not as was shewed before senslesse of or without outward smart yet having no inward smart which is the worst smart hee is above it The paines and wants of the body are almost lost and swallowed up in the comforts and enjoyments of the minde A wounded spirit who can beare A spirit unwounded what can it not beare He that hath no injustice in his hands hath much peace in his heart and while our prayer is pure our spirits will not be much troubled in any of our troubles Secondly Observe It is possible to live without any knowne sin Job knew of no injustice in his hand nor was he conscious of any impurity in his prayer The Apostle John writes to Saints of all Ages and Statures under the title of His little Children not to sin 1 John 2.1 And in that he doth not only admonish them of what they ought not to doe but of what they might attain not to doe For though he that saith he hath no sin deceives himselfe and sins in saying so 1 Joh. 1.9 yet it may be sayd of some without sin and they in Jobs case may say it of themselves without sin that they sin not The best Saints have and know they have sin in their natures and sin in their lives yea and sometimes they fall into great sins yet such a degree of holinesse is attaineable in this life that a man may be sayd not to sin For then in a Gospell sense we are sayd not to sin when we cast off and are free from all grosse and scandalous sins and doe both carefully avoyd and make conscience of the least and the most secret sin Zacharie and Elizabeth Luke 1.16 were both righteous before God walking in all the Commandements and Ordinances of the Lord blamelesse that is They did not live in any open or knowne sin they lived so that no man could blame them or bring any just complaint against them eyther in matters of morality which seeme to be meant in the word Commandement or in matters of worship which seeme to be meant by the word Ordinance And when I speak of not living in any knowne sin I meane not onely that Saints may rise so high as not to live in any sin which the World takes notice of but they may yea and often doe arrive at that hight of holinesse not to live in any sin knowne to themselves if once a true Beleever discovers sin he cannot owne it much lesse live in it be it injustice or wrong towards men be it any fayling in the worship and service of God he will not suffer it to lodge with him He that hath grace in his heart cannot live with injustice in his hand there is an inconsistence between these two a life of grace and to live in sin Sin may be much alive in him that hath grace but he cannot live in sin he may be often tempted to the act of it and sometimes possibly overtaken with it yet he cannot live in it He cannot keep injustice in his hand nor frame an impure prayer in his heart A good man may doe an act of injustice but he continues not unjust he restores what he hath taken unjustly from men and repents before the Lord but usually he is not conscious to himselfe of doing unjustly towards men If a Laban one with whom hee hath had converse and dealing twenty yeares together should come and search his house he is able to say to him as honest Jacob did to his Uncle
not mine eye continue in their provocation And therefore he renews his appeale to God and beggs to be heard before indifferent Judges or Umpires Lay downe now put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me In the fourth and fifth Verses he further urgeth the reasons of his appeale or he backs his motion that God would doe him right from the insufficiency of his Freinds to doe him right Thou hast hid their heart from understanding As if he should say Who would stand to the judgement of those who want understanding Thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them so To this honour of judging my cause and deciding this controversie yea I finde them so unfit to be eyther my Judges or my Arbitrators that they are indeed but Flatterers and therefore they may rather expect some sudden judgement upon themselves or their Children then that God should doe them this honour to judge for me He that speakes flattery to his Freinds even the eyes of his Children shall faile Vers 5. Thus I have opened Jobs scope in the context of these five Verses which I have put together because the matter runs in a continued dependence And though for the maine it be the same with which he concluded in the sixteenth Chapter yet the variety of reading and expression will yeeld us variety of meditation I descend to particulars Vers 1. My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Here are three things every of which speakes a dying man First Corrupt breath Secondly Extinguished dayes Thirdly A grave made ready Pereo spiritu agitatus Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ligavit constrinxit per antiphrasin significat solutus ruptus corruptus accommodatur etiam ad dolores intensissimos quales sunt parturientium quia cor valde constringunt First My breath is corrupt Ruach There are three interpretations given of that word My breath some understand it of his minde or whole inward man As if he had sayd My thoughts are or my minde is exceedingly troubled and so most of the Greek Interpreters read it and then the word which we translate Corrupt may signifie greived pained or afflicted and it is often applyed to those paines which are most painefull even the paine of a Woman in travell And so the sense is made out thus as if Job had sayd I am extreamely troubled ' or I am pained like a Woman in the houre of travell as shee is in bodily paine so I am pained in minde I hvve felt many inward pangs and throwes and yet I am not delivered But I conceive this exposition unsuitable to the scope of the place Job being about to describe the state of his body or of his outward man and not the affliction and trouble of his minde Secondly The word Ruach signifieth the vitall powers or spirits which support man Spiritus vitales qui animae instrumentum sunt ad vitae functiones Aquin. and serve him in all the functions of life spirits are the promoters of action and when the vitall spirits are corrupted man is unable not onely to act but to live The expence of spirits is the most chargeable expence to the life of man and when a mans spirits are much spent he is like a dead man though he be alive Wee say ordinarily when we are weary Our spirits are spent that is Our vitall spirits which give activity and strength to the whole body Thirdly Rather understand it literally and strictly for the breath which comes forth by respiration My breath is corrupt and then the corrupting here spoken of is not to be taken for any ill savour in his breath they who have corrupt breath are offensive to others in breathing Corruptio non hic denotat spiritum graveolentum sed spiritum qui cum ingenti nisu dolore emittitur Pined Medici Asthma vocant quia Asthmaticus suffocari videtur ideo legitur hic jam quidem Ago animam Tygur The breath is said to be corrupt because it smels of the corruption of those parts from whence it is drawne we must not understand Job so But when he saith My breath is corrupt his meaning is that eyther hee had obstructions and stoppings of breath which distemper Physitians call the Tissicke a man under that infirmity may be sayd to have his breath corrupted because he breathes difficultly And as it is so in some diseases so it is alway so in the approaches of death a little before a man dyes his breath shortens he breathes hardly or he hardly breathes he lyes gasping for life and catching for breath Such a state Job here intends The Tygurine translation takes that sense My life is departing or I am giving up the ghost Hence Note The breath of man is corruptible though his soule be not These two are very distinct Some make the soule and breaâ—h one thing and argue the corruptibility of the soule from such Texts as this But the breath differs not onely from the soule but from the life The soule hath a life of its owne and the life of the body is its union with the soule breathing is the acting of life proceeding from that union and ending when that union is dissolved Breath may be corrupt and life may banish but the soule continues the breath is so vanishing that the Prophet gives caution Isa 2.22 Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills The breath of man is so ready to cease that it is our wisedome to cease from man for when breath goes man is gone and all goes with him in that day his thoughts perish and therefore Job had no sooner sayd My breath is corrupt but he adds My dayes are extinct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox tantum hoc loco reperta significat excidere amputare extinguere My dayes that is The time appointed for my life which is measured by dayes by naturall dayes or by artificial dayes Our dayes come and goe continually and when our tale of dayes is come and gone our dayes are extinct The word which here we translate extinct is found no where else in the Hebrew of the Old Testament It is rendered three wayes First Thus my dayes are cutt off which metaphor is often used in reference to life our dayes are as it were so many threads Excissi sunt Pagn and our life is like a peece of clooth woven together by many dayes when the Webb be it more or lesse longer or shorter is finished the thred is cut My dayes are cut off Secondly The Vulgar reads it my dayes will be shortned they shall be put in a narrow roome into a little compendium I shall soone be able to read over the volume of my dayes Breviabuntur dies mei Vulg they are but short a meer Epitome Thirdly We read my dayes are extinct or put out Which is a
metaphor taken from fire from a Torch or Candle which is the sense of the Tygurine translation My dayes faile as a Candle or as a Lamp which when the oyle is consumed goes out Mr. Broughton keeps to the metaphor of fire Deus mei ritu lucernae deficiunt Tygur My dayes are quenched There is a flame of life in the body the naturall heat is preserved by the naturall moysture these two Radicall heat and Radicall moysture worke upon each other and as long as Radicall moysture holds out to feed the Radicall heat life holds out but when the heat hath once sucked and drunk up all the moysture in some acute diseases it drinks all at a draught as the flame drinkes up the Oyle of the Lampe Vita extinguitur quando humor nativus in quo vita consistit extinguitur then wee goe out or as Job speakes here Our dayes are extinct Excessive moysture puts out the fire and for want of moysture it goeth out Hence Note First Mans life as a Fire or Lampe consumes it self continually There is a speciall disease called a Consumption of which many dye but the truth is every man who dyes dyes of a Consumption he that dyes of a Surfet may be sayd in this sense to dye of a Consumption The fewell and food of mans life is wasted sometimes more sparingly and gradually but 't is alwayes consumed except in those deaths which are meerely occasionall or violent before man dyes Againe Job speaks peremptorily My dayes are extinct He was not then dead but because hee saw all things in a tendency to death and was himselfe in a dying posture therefore he concludes My dayes are extinct Hence note Secondly What we see in regard of all preparatorie meanes and wayes ready to be done we may speake of as already done The Scripture speakes often of those things which are shortly and certainly to come to passe as come to passe and as the Apostle argues in spirituals We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the Brethren and he that believeth hath eternall lif So we may argue about naturals he that is sick beyond the help of meanes and the skill of the Phisitian is translated from life to death and we may conclude of a man in this case he hath tempoall death or he may say of himselfe as Job doth in the next words The graves are ready for me The Originall is very concise it is only there The graves for me we supplie those words Are ready And because of that shortnes of the Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sepulchra mâ—hi Cum mutila sit oratio indifferens est ut variis modis porfici possit there have been many conjectures for the supplie or filling up of the sence Some thus The graves for me that is there is nothing for me to thnke of now but only a grave I may lay aside all other businesse and attend that alone how I may lye downe in the dust with peace I am not a man for this world it is best for me to retire or withdraw my soule quite from the earth seeing I have no hope to keepe my body long out of it or if I doe let out my soule to the earth it shall be only to so much of it as will hold my body or serve to make me a grave The graves for me Secondly The graves for me that is I desire or wish for nothing but a grave A grave for my money as wee say of a thing that we greatly desire so saith Job A grave for me As if he had more largely spoken thus As I perceive I am going to the grave so I desire to goe thither I have as to this sence made a covenant with death Sepulchra mihi supple opto quaero cogito aut quid simile Sepulchra mihi inhiant ego sepulchris q. d. Aliis omnibus rebus valedico atque renuncio Jun. and an agreement with the grave The grave and I shall not fall out now that I am ready to fall into it For if I had my vote or might put downe in writing what I would have I would write A Grave A Grave for me as I am declining and decaying in my body so my spirit and my minde are as willing that my body should decay I am as ready for the grave as that is for me A grave for me So the words carry a reciprocation of readinesse betweene Job and the Grave The grave gapes for me and I gape for the grave Wee may parallell this kinde of speaking with that in the Booke of Canticles Chap. 2.16 where the Spouse saith My beloved is mine and I am his The Originall is My beloved to me and I to him There are no more words then needs must be The largenesse of their affection bred this concisenesse in language My beloved to me and I to him We are to one another as if we were but one The expression notes two things First Propriety My beloved to me or my beloved is mine that is I have a propriety in him Secondly It notes possession I have him I have not onely a right to him but I enjoy him I have not onely a title but a tenure God hath given me Liverie and Seisin as our Law speakes he hath put me into possession of Jesus Christ and I have given Jesus Christ full possession of me I am no longer my owne but his and at his dispose So here The grave for me and I for the grave The grave is my right yea the grave is my possession The grave is a house that every one hath right to and some are so neere it that they seeme possessed of it The grave is mine saith Job or I am as a dead man ready to be carryed to my grave The grave is not made ready till man is undressed by death and so made ready for the grave We say of very old men though in health and we may say of very sick men though young They have one foot in the grave Job speakes as having both his feet in the grave Yea wee may say that Job speakes as if he had not onely his feet in the grave but which is farr more his heart in the grave There are many who have their feet in the grave whose hearts are at furthest distance from it Job had both Heman Psal 88.4 5. describes his condition in such a language My soule is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh to the grave I am accounted with them that goe down into the pit I am as a man of no strength free among the dead like the slaine that lye in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and that are cut off from thy sight That Scripture may be a Comment on this My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Further Job speakes in the Plurall number he saith not the grave is ready for me but The graves
though I will not boast of my selfe yet this I feele and speake by experience Hee that hath cleane hands shall wax Stronger and stronger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Addet fortitudinem purus manibus sumet audaciam Sept. Is cujus vita pura est addet robur i. e. magis ac magis invalescet ut bene aget Merc. The Hebrew is He shall add strength that is Hee shall goe on from one degree of strength to another But vvhat strength shall hee add Hee meanes not bodily strength The best of Saints may loose that in the battels of affliction and grow every day weaker and weaker But hee shall add spirituall strength so the Apostle states it 2 Cor. 4.16 Though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day The more evill a Beleever suffers the stronger he is in goodnesse and to doe good while his flesh weares off and wasts he gets new spirits hee takes heart and is more couragious as the Septuagint render Jobs text Hence Observe First Grace is of an increasing nature it growes stronger and stronger True grace lives and therefore it must needs grow The graine of Mustard-seed proves a great tree Psal 84. They goe from strength to strength or from company to company that is From one good company to another still gathering up goodnesse as they goe As the Bee goes from Flower to Flower to gather Honey so Beleevers goe from duty to duty from Ordinance to Ordinance from praying to hearing to gather grace and strength every grace hath strength and the more grace the more strength till we come to that which is strictly called Strength of grace Secondly Observe A thorow godly man doth not onely not fall from grace in time of trouble but hee increaseth and groweth in grace hee addeth strength As affliction gives a proofe of grace vvhether it be true or no so where it is true it is improved by affliction Naturalists tell us that the reason of thunder and lightening is Tanto magis integritati studebit Bez. because the heat being pent in and imprisoned by the cold of the middle Region breakes out by an Antiperistasis with terrible noyse and flashings And thus when grace is pent in by opposition persecution and affliction it enlargeth it selfe and breakes out with greater strength yea with a kinde of heavenly violence and not onely maintaines its owne but is a gainer It is sayd of the Lacedemonian Republique That vvhen all other Kingdomes were undone by Warr that onely grew rich was bettered by it Wee may say that whereas all prophane persons and Hypocrites are undone by affliction all their Paint is washed off their Varnish discovered onely true Beleevers thrive and are advantaged by it He that hath an upright heart and cleane hands growes stronger and stronger His inward man encreaseth in outward decayes It is sayd of the Israelites Exod. 1.12 that the more the Egyptians afflicted them the more they multiplyed and grew They multiplyed in number they grew in strength and stature their oppression their was addition in temporals It is so with all true Israelites in spirituals the more they are afflicted and troubled the more they increase And whereas the Lord speakes in reference to wicked men Isa 1.5 Why should you be smitten any more yee will revolt more and more The more evill men are smitten for their good the worse they are We may say on the contrary that the righteous the more they are smitten with evill the better they are yea they sometimes put wicked men to such a stopping expostulation as God makes there concerning wicked men Why should we trouble them any more They will hold fast more and more they will not be beaten off with sowre lookes and hard words no nor with our hardest blows We may trouble and weary out our selves yea and breake our owne hearts but we shall never dishearten them All Ages have given experiments of this The Apostles in the Acts rejoyced when they were threatned and were emboldned with scourging 'T is sayd of the suffering Saints Heb. 10.34 They tooke joyfully the spoyling of their goods They were glad of an opportunity to put off their worldly goods at so great a rate as a proofe of the sincerity of their graces Our goods never goe off at so high a price nor come to so good a Market as when they are spoyled in a good cause Paul tells us That many waxed confident by his bonds Phil. 1.14 They were so farr from withdrawing from the profession of the Gospell because Paul was clapt up in Prison and layd by the heeles that they were more bold to avouch it As some have been weakned and terrified by the sufferings of others so many have been confirmed and heartned they have been not onely kept from discouragement but they have waxed confident by bonds and their spirits have been at greater liberty by seeing others in Prison though they had reason enough to expect their turne would be next Exquisitior crudelitas gentium adversus Christianos illecebra est magis sectae plures efficimur quoties metimur Tertull. One of the Ancients tells us The more cunning and exact our Persecutors are the more constant and exact Beleevers are The Christians of those times grew into a kinde of artificialnesse in grace while the Heathens grew so artificiall in cruelty and the oftner they were mowed downe by the bloody Sword the more were begotten and quickned by the Word The opposition which truth and holinesse found was a provocation to owne the truth and to them a sweet temptation unto holinesse Thirdly Note When God gives new tryals he will give new strength The righteous grow stronger as their afflictions grow stronger Never feare greater tryals when you are promised greater strength If you have more burdens you shall have more shoulders Whether the Lord calls us to passive obedience or to active hee is wise and faithfull to proportion and give out suitable ability It is not from the improvements of Free-will but from the fresh annoyntings of the spirit that we are strengthned with might in the inner man Eph. 3.16 And againe Col. 1.12 We are strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-sufferance with joyfulnesse Affliction it selfe cannot strengthen us in grace it rather weakens us the increase of strength flowes from the same Fountaine whence wee had the first strength All is from God In the Lord have we righteousnesse and strength Isa 45.24 And he is an everlasting strength the rock of Ages Isa 26.4 As he is an everlasting strength in himselfe so he is to his people And the reason why his people are everlastingly strong is because he is so Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they
prayer heard by God is the greatest misery that can befall man 359. Presumptuous sin spoken of in the Old Testament why thought to be the same with the sin against the holy Ghost in the New Testament 130. Pride causeth opposition against God 141. Promises three acts of the soule upon the Promises 514. Prosperity to have been in prosperity adds to the bitternesse of any present adversity 285. Punishment proportioned to sin two wayes 131 153. Provocation what it is 414. There is a good provocation 415. Three ill effects of provocation 416. Purposes must be followed by action if not a double danger 505. Death breakes all our purposes ibid. R. Recompence of two sorts 180. Rejoycing to see others rejoyce at our troubles is very greivous 462. Reproach the best Saints on Earth have been deeply reproached 271. Good men have often reproached one another 272. Reproach is a very heavy burden 273. A reproaching tongue is compared in Scripture to three things 274. Reproofe some in reproving other mens faults run into the same themselves 30. Repentance a returning the two termes of it 494. Revelation of divine secrets two ways of it 26. Revenge belongs so God man must not revenge himselfe 236. Revenge is very sweet to some spirits 276 277. Reward it is undoing of some to have their reward 183. Reynes what they signifie in Scripture 298. To cleave the reynes what 299. Riches it is not in the power of man to get riches 156. Riches ill gotten will not hold 157. A carnall man would have perfection of riches 158. Riches lying vanities shewed two wayes 177. In what sense riches are deceitfull 178. Rich men the same word signifies a rich man and a man at ease in Hebrew two reasons of it 283 284. Righteous men persevere in the wayes of God against all discouragements 479. Their perseverance is from the power of God 480. S. Sack-cloth taken two wayes in Scripture 315. Saints who 62. Saints by some called Heaven two reasons of it 63. Scandall at the crosse or sufferings of Professors 472. Scorne how opposite to love 375. They who are highly honoured by God are often scorned by men 375 376. Three words in the Hebrew signifying to scorne their difference 410. Secrets of God or divine secrets of two sorts 25. Seeing a sure sense 77. Seeing taken two wayes 77. Seers old Prophets why so called 77. Servants in what sense they must not answer againe 50. Security wicked men are neerest destruction when they are most secure 101. Shaddai name of God signifies three things 134. Sick Freinds not to be flattered how to be dealt with 439. Sicknesse unfits most for spirituall duties 506. Sin some sins more proper to some men 17 Man is most apt to act his proper sin 18. Sin kept close hinders the receiving of the word 41. Sin and sin onely makes men abominable in the sight of God 69. Multiplyed acts of sin argue mans sinfulnesse 69. All sins are against God yet some are more against him 130. Sinning with a high hand two things in it 130. Sin the greatest evill and why 132. Sin runs against reason 137. No danger can keep a wicked heart from sinning 144. Sin deceitfull 174. There are three emminent evils in sin 175. Sin deceives by a threefold promise 175 176. Some speciall characters of the sinne of a wicked man 199. To be a plotter of sin is worse then to be an actor of it 200. Wicked man cannot but sinne 202. They are oft put to much paine in sinning 202. Sinfull conceptions often prove abortive 203. Sin is the stng of affliction 216. Great sins leave their marke 261. It is possible to live without any knowne sin 331. Crying sin what 351. Solitatinesse in what sense good 253. Sorrow is dry 257. Sorrow makes old before the time 257. Sorrow under sufferings is not contrary to patience 322. Sorrow worldly and godly its effects 324. Sorrow taken two wayes 464. The sorrows of the minde break and weaken the body 465. Spirit of man in an ill sense what it signifieth 51. To turne the spirit against God most sinfull 51. In what cases a man may be charged to have turned his spirit against God 52. Smiting on the cheeke what it signifies in Scripture 269. Sparing mercy what 300 301. Sparing sinfulnesse 304. Sparing mercy is the lowest degree of mercy 306. Spirit helpes to pray no pure prayer without the helpe of the spirit 340. 341. Strangers a double notion of them 83 84. Strangers why called Enemies 84 Soule put for the whole man 227. Soule-sufferings put for all sufferings and why 227. Superstition or false worship hath a tange of basenesse and slavery in it 90. Surety what it is to be a Surety 420. Christ is our Surety 425. How Christ is called the Surety of a better Testament shewed two wayes ibid. Christ being our Surety we need not feare 426. Our Surety is of Gods appointing not of ours ibid. Sword how taken in Scripture 106. T. Tamerlaine the majesty of his eye 266. Teaching what we teach others wee should be well assured of our selves 78. Teares of three sorts 320. Teares have a voyce 377. Eight sorts of teares in Scripture all vocall 378. Teares are very powerfull Orators 379. Temptation no standing in it without the helpe of Christ 122. Thoughts called the possessions of the heart why 503. Threatnings a godly man makes use of threatnings as well as of promises to provoke himselfe to his duty 443. Tongue the Scholler of the heart 17. Sin hath got the mastery of the heart when it freely vents it selfe at the tongue 55. Tongue a light member yet fals heavy 167. Tophet why so called 455. Tradition when in use of what force now 80. Trusting in thing or person is upon a twofold supposition 61. To trust and to trust in or upon the same 61. Man will have somewhat to trust to and why 178. It is mans duty to trust God 179. Man is most apt to trust that which hath deceived him 179 180. The creature is most vain to those who trust it 181. Truth a precious commodity it should be conveyed to posterity 80. Truth must not be hid 81. Some truths are of very common observation 211. Ordinary truths will not serve in extraordinary cases 212. Tryalls when God brings to new tryalls he gives new strength 486. Tympanization or drumming what kinde of torture it was 456. Tyrant the common name of Kings in old time 84. V. Vaine Scripture calls things vaine foure wayes 5. Vanity what it is 171. Vanity taken two wayes ibid. Vanity of the creature 176. When a man brings forth vanity shewed in three particulars 201. Vau an Hebrew particle its diverse significations 388. Unbeleife of threatnings as dangerous as of promises 184. The use which Satan makes of such unbeleife ibid. Unbeleife is the sheild of sin 185. Understanding how God may be sayd to hide the heart from understanding shewed foure wayes 429. That it is the worke of