doth teach 1. When any do sincerely cleave to God in trouble God will not think lightly of their trouble but will look upon it in all the aggravations thereof that he may take occasion to let out more of his compassion and may heighten their commendation who endure such sharp assaults For thus doth God describe Jobs tryal as a destroying or swallowing of him up both to testifie his own tender compassion and to commend Job who had held fast his integrity when he had so many tentations to discover his weakness being so destroyed and swallowed up 2. When God afflicts his people he doth it not willingly Lam. 3.33 or as taking pleasure in their miseries So much is importâd in this Thou movedst me to destroy him Where the borrowed phrase may intimate in a sound sense That as mân may be moved by solicitation to do that whâch otherwise they have no pleasuâe to do So God goâth about this work of afflicting Saints not as one pleased with their pressures though he be well sâtââfied with their behaviour under them He is the Lord who taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants Psal 35.27 And therefore he doth afflâct thâm only when it is necessary for trying of their graces or for correcting of them for their faults and purging of their corruptions 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Psal 89 30 33. Isai 27.9 And this will easily appear to the godly by his readiness to be reconciled unto them by his tender usage and kindness under trouble Psal 31.7 and by his bringing of them out of trouble when their tryal is perfected 3. Whatever God intend in afflicting his people yet such as have any hand therein shall bear the blame in whole Therefore is it all laid over upon Satan Thou movedst me c. as only guilty in this matter having done all he could to get Job ruined Hence it is that Gods afflicting of his people is so to sây a blowing of the bâllows to kindle his displeasure against wicked Instruments Psal 47 5 6. Zech. 1.15 4. Albeit the most perfect of Saints upon earth have so much sin as of it self deserves not only temporal afflictions but eternal wrath Yet the Lord is pleased sometimes to afflict them without respect to their sin only that his grace may shine in them and that the calumnies of Satan may be refuted For so much is imported in this Thou movedst me to destroy him without cause as hath been explained See Job 9.2 3. It is true as Saints are sinful creatures so their sincerity will not be a Saviour to expiate or cover their failings nor yet ought they to omit in every tryal how cleanly soever to become thereby more acquaânted with their own sinfulness and to make use of the Rod to purge it out Yet they are allowed to look out also toward Gods more high purposes in their tryals than only to chasten them for sin 5. Albeit the Lord will not respect such as come to him under justly procured strokes Yet a good Conscience under trouble is a great advantage For it is no small advantage to be destroyed without cause and not to have an evil Conscience to heighten the affliction And this the Lord noticeth and speaks of not only as heightning Jobs commendation but as being an advantage in it self See 1 Pet. 4.15 16. 6. It is a special commendation and proof of integrity to bear cleanly tryals with much submission and when mens hearts do not accuse them of dishonesty and yet they stoop and cleave to God For this is Jobs commendation Still he holdeth fast his integrity though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause It is true we ought so much the more to stoop and to bless God when our tryals are cleanly and not dipped in our own provocations Yet seldom do we abstain from judging of God when he judgeth except when sin stops our mouths Psal 51.4 with Rom. 3.4 Vers 4. And Satan answered the LORD and said Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life 5. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face In these verses we have Satans answer to the Lords Interrogation containing a new and further accusatino against Job as an hypocrite notwithstanding all that God had said to the commendation of his constancy under affliction Having before slandered Jobs actions and course of life during his prosperity he doth now slander his behaviour under his sufferings And though he did at first speak of those tryals which had already come upon Job as a plot which would discover his unsoundness when he desired God to try him therewith Chap. 1.10 11. Yet now he speaks diminutively of these sufferings as no sufficient tryal of his honesty Asserting that it was not any love to God made him carry so fair but meerly love to himself as not caring how many skins and bodies too were lost so himself were preserved and as desiring by his continuance in an hypocritical profession of godliness to prevent any trouble that might be sent upon his own person This Assertion he holds out and offers to clear by a common Proverb usual in in those times wherein the exchange of Commodities was the usual way of Traffick as yet one slave or captive useth to be exchanged for another Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life Which signifieth in general that nothing outward is so dear to a man as his own life Whence he would infer that it was no wonder Job did hypocritically stoop under his former losses that God might spare the Rod from off himself And for further confirmation of this Assertion he appeals to a new tryal desiring to have that link of the Chain loosed whereby he was restrained from touching Jobs person Avouching that if God would touch his bone and his flesh or smite him in his person so as might reach him to the marrow he would maliciously and desperately curse God even to his face Which in the Original as also Chap. 1.11 is propounded by way of tacite imprecation against himself or of an Oath importing an imprecation If he curse thee not c. This as to the form of speech is the same with that Chap. 1.9 10 11. where it was observed That it is Satans design in trouble to tempt men to curse God and How malicious a slanderer Satan is not caring how falsly he calumniate so he get Saints vexed As here not only doth he reflect upon Jobs integrity but upon his tenderness and sympathy as if he regarded not the stroke upon his Children Servants and Goods when the contrary did appear from his practice Chap. 1.20 But the subject-matter here may further teach 1. Satan is so incessant in his attempts against Saints that he will not give over when he hath got the soil but is ready to assault a fresh upon every occasion As here
Yet we must guard against a mistake here For albeit all men be born to trouble for sin nor doth affliction enter but by sin Yet it doth not follow that we ought to measure the greatness of a mans sins by the greatness of his affliction nor ought we to judge that God is still pursuing or punishing sin when he afflicts far less that he is calling upon every one whom he afflicteth sadly to be converted as if he had never known God before These were Eliphaz's Principles upon which he puts Job to this consideration which Job could never yield unto From the General Doctrine here propounded Learn 1. Faln man is born unto trouble and obnoxious to all the kinds thereof For Man is born unto trouble See Job 14.1 This being well studied might cure a great errour in many who are ready to look upon themselves as priviledged and exempted persons and who little apprehend that they come into the world to bear crosses but rather to spend their days in pleasure 2. A naked sight or sense of trouble will never profit men till they begin wisely to ponder some lessons concerning the rise and cause thereof Therefore Eliphaz before he press any counsel upon Job in reference to his carriage doth first lead him up to study this lesson To feel trouble is common to men with beasts and consequently can produce no useful effects but it becometh rational men and much more godly persons to read more in it 3. Albeit as wicked men have no will to let themselves feel the smart of a Rod so long as they can either hold it off or cause themselves to forget it So men in an evil way have no will to see God their Parây in trouble even when they are made to feel it 1 Sam. 6 9. 2 Sam. 11.25 as neither do wicked men desire to see God against them in âhis Word so long as they can avoid it Jer 5.12 13 yet it is a fixed truth That no affliction cometh casually or without a special hand of Providence which dispenseth it upon wise and holy grounds and the study of this is a mean to make trouble operative For Eliphaz presseth That affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground or from common and casual accidents but from above Amos 3.6 And because of this he presseth on Job to seek to God And indeed when this Truth is studied and believed not only will Saints see themselves still in their Fathers hand in the greatest of troubles But it will be mens chief care to see the hand of God in every affliction how unjustly soever inflicted by men 2 Sam. 16.10 and to search out the mind of God concerning the cause of every trouble and their duty under it 4. Albeit that trouble is ordinary proveth oft-times a snare to men hiding a sight of Gods hand in it 2 Sam. 11.25 yet even that it is ordinary is a document that it cometh not by chance but from God and consequently that it should be better improved For Eliphaz proves that affliction cometh not by chance Because man is born to trouble and what is so ordinary must have some sure and ordinary cause It is the great sin of men that trouble is so little improved even because it is ordinary And that either they foolishly think to shift trouble and spare not to make shipwrack of a good Conscience if they may reach their end when yet they will find it unavoidable turn where they will Or the custom of meeting with trouble leads them to harden themselves under it neither eyeing God nor minding duty 5. Albeit the Lord be not pursuing sin by every affliction which he sendeth but may be trying faith and other graces in his people Yet trouble hath its rise from sin and mans transgression is the door whereby trouble entred For Man is born to trouble as the sparks flie upward There is somewhat in mans nature that rendreth him obnoxious to trouble as there is a fire from which sparks do flie or as it is natural for a spark to flie upward and this is sin or the corruption of mans nature For if there had been no sin there had been no affliction And as this proves very Infants to have sin because they are obnoxious to sickness and death Rom. 5.14 So it should teach all even in their most cleanly tryals and when their Consciences assoil them from wickedness or hypocrisie yet to look upon afflictions as sent to make them sensible of sin especially of that fountain of Original sin Vers 8. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause Upon the back of this consideration Eliphaz propounds his Exhortation and counsel To seek and turn in to God by repentance and in stead of quarrelling with him to stoop to him and referr his whole case to his disposal This is a sweet counsel in it self and very affectionately propounded as a course he would follow himself were he in Jobs case Yet it is loaden with a double prejudice as it is propounded to Job 1. That by this submission recommended by Eliphaz he intends that Job should quit his integrity and pretend no more that he had been a godly man For so Job understands him and their other discourses expound it so This was an unjust desire and Proposition that a godly man should lie against his right though he did indeed fail in the way of maintaining his integrity 2. Upon this it followeth that this Exhortation to seek to God imported in Eliphaz's sense that Job should begin of new to seek God not looking on any thing he had before as honest and sincere This is indeed an usual tentation of the people of God either in great tryals or when they fall into guilt that they are ready to look on all they had before as hypocrisie and that they must begin of new if they look ever to obtain saving grace But such tentations are to be rejected by sincere Saints as keeping them still unfixed building and destroying again Laying aside these prejudices and mistakes Learn 1. It is the duty of godly friends not to content themselves wâth reproving what they find amiss in others in an upbraiding way but to counsel thâm also how to amend For so doth Eliphaz proceed with Job according to his Principles After as he judged he hath condemned him he doth now advise him how to do better See Gal. 6.1 Jam. 2.50 2. Seeking unto God is the only best course for men in trouble To turn to him who smiteth to double diligence in his service that they may be near him in sad conditions and to renew their repentance according as their case requireth For this is a wholesome counsel to a man in trouble to seek unto God When men have essayed all other remedies they will find this most profitable 3. Such as do rightly seek to God in trouble ought to be far from all bitterness and
him The third Argument of Refutation or the third fault he finds in Jobs discourses and carriage is his hopelessness under affliction and that he despaired of seeing God under it not simply for he looked to see him in glory but in this life This is the usual result of useless exercises and vain addresses under trouble that when men have wearied themselves in these without success they sit down at last discouraged and hopeless The Challenge relates to that Complaint Chap. 23.8 9. and others the like wherein he regrated that he could not have access unto nor a sight of God It is true he sometime desired an odde way of access unto God as a visible Judge to decide this Controversie But this Challenge doth relate more generally to what was at the bottom of that and his other complaints that he could not see through that cloud of his trouble nor had any hope of temporal relief from God For Elihu would never bid him trust but rather be humbled for his presumption in desiring God to appear in such a way and for his complaining that it was not so This fault Elihu tenderly reproves and refutes his mistake in a direction to trust in God notwithstanding this his hopelessness and diffidence Which he presseth from the consideration of what God is even a God of judgement in this Verse and of the sad effects of the want of this confidence v. 16. In this Verse Consider First The Fault here challenged Thou sayest thou shalt not see him He had not a comfortable sight of God in his trouble nor expected to get it which made him speak it out and complain of it Whence Learn 1. To be bemisted and lose a fight of God under trouble is a very sad and humbling Ingredient in it As here it was to Job not to see God Hence are those complaints of darkness under trouble Lam. 3.2 6. Is 59.9 10. Mic. 7.8 And God being his peoples refuge in trouble it must be sad when they can have no sight of him See Chap. 23.3 4 c. Now not to see him in trouble omitting mens want of hope to see God in glory when their temporal troubles are over and their not seeing his hand and providence in all their troubles For Job was clear enough in both these may import 1. Mens being in the dark about Gods mind in trouble and the causes of their affliction as Chap. 10 2. Yea when godly men see some causes of it as they cannot but see sin which deserves more than all they suffer they may be yet ready to wonder why the Lord suffers his people whom he hath freely chosen and loved to goe to ruine especially if their stroak be inflicted by Instruments more wicked than themselves as Hab. 1.13 And that he should give them up to be destroyed when yet no advantage redounds thereby to him as Psal 44.12 In which case we must learn if we can see no more to submit to his Soveraignty who giveth no account of his matters 2. It may import the want of his sensible and comfortable presence as Chap. 13.24 In which case we are not to think that one tryal will hide us from another or that God is engaged to give us sense because he sends trouble 3. It may impart no probable appearance of any issue oâ of Gods appearing to clear the cause of his people and to rid them out of trouble but their night growing still the darker and all the means of their relief being invisible as Chap 23.8 9. Of this afterward Only it would be remembred that this is made our lot to heighten the tryal of our faith Hab. 3.17 18. 4 It may import want of light in the matter of mens duty and that when they would resolve to follow their duty in most difficult cases whatever God do to them yet they are left in the dark and know not what to do This is imported in these perplexing questions Act. 2.37 and 9.6 From all these it may be inferred that however it be sad to be in such a case yet it is our mercy to feel it a burden upon us and to miss a sight of God most in our saddest exercises Only we should not only feel the smart of this but should search out the causes thereof Such as Desertion from God Chap. 34.29 Security and formality in the dayes of our ease Is 29.13 14. and 59.9 13. The astonishing power of great trouble Psal 60.3 Jer. 13.12 14 Our abuse of and sinning against clear light in known and ordinary cases and duties and our prescribing unto God that he may appear and be seen by us in some odde way as Job did which makes us vilifie and not discern his ordinary way and means wherein he appears to be seen by his people If those causes were laid to heart and the removal of them endeavoured the sad effects thereof would soon cease Doct. 2. Ordinarily Saints do judge of their future condition by what is present and if it be evil they make it worse by their apprehensions and diffidence For as Job did not see God for the present so he concluded his case would continue so for the future Thou sayest thou shalt not see him As in prosperity even Saints are apt to promise to themselves a perpetuity of it Psal 30.6 So in adversity they are no less ready to heighten their trouble by fearful apprehensions of the continuance thereof Psal 77.7 8 9. Saints have still somewhat of a principle of fainting and of a Spirit of bondage of their own making And hence flow their great mistakes either in passing their verdict upon the times that pass over them See Eccles 7.10 Or in making their present condition sadder and worse than indeed it is by their reading it wrong Or in their sad apprehensions for the future This we should be sensible of in our perplexities and should know that a change in the frame of our own hearts and our getting of open eyes to discern things as they are would case us of our greatest pressures And particularly in our apprehensions for the future ãâã should not judge by our present condition for ãâã can make a change Psal 77.7 8 9. with 10. not by our fears Is 51.12 13. nor by probabilities Zech. 8.6 nor even by our ill deservings if we be sensible thereof Ezek. 20.8 9. 3. Though it be a great fault to entertain discouraging and fainting thoughts though they should be smothered within mens own bosomes and a much greater fault when they are brought forth and expressed to others Yet they may be dear to God and may get a good issue at last who may be so over-powred with tentations as they must speak out their fears and apprehensions For so was it with Job though it was his fault Thou sayest thou shalt not see him Thus he was made to cry out in the Congregation Chap. 30.28 as Christ did also among the multitude Job 12.27 with 29. Secondly Consider
and who will pursue them further if they repent not For this is an addition to the stroke that they are crushed in the gate 5. This ancient practice of meeting in the Gates for administration of Justice doth oblige all ages in the moral equity thereof Namâly That Justice be patent to all and Courts of Justice easily accessible and that the proceedings of Courts be so just and impartial as if every one of their proceedings and actings were done in open view of all men For Judgment Seats being in the Gate strangers as well as others and the poor as well as the rich had easie access and the proceedings of the Judges were open in the view of a concourse of people 6. Albeit the truly godly in their cleanly tryals may find all bowels of compassion shut up from them that their tryal may be complete and that they may be stirred up to look the more to God Yet not to meet with sympathy and pity in straits is a sore tryal Psal 142.4 88.18 38.11 And when it is the lot of wicked men whom men are ready to flatter and fawn upon in their prosperity they ought to look upon it as the fruit of their cruelty toward others and of their neglecting to seek to God whose bowels being once moved for them would produce compassion even from enemies Jer. 42.12 For this is an addition to their stroke They are crushed in the Gate neither is there any to deliver them In ver 5. Eliphaz declares the stroke of God that cometh upon the wickeds wealth and riches spoken of under the name of their harvest or increase of the ground and their substance or increase of cartel and their other wealth for the word here is more general then to be restricted to cattel only The means of taking away this their wealth is The hungry belike those who through the oppression of Tyrants are empoverished and like to starve shall eat up their harvest and take it from among the thorns Not only shall they gather it up exactly not leaving so much as a stalk among thorns but rather they shall take it away though it be never so well fenced with hedges as it seems hath been a custom in those Countries Exod. 22.6 To this is added that the robber swalloweth up their substance where we are not to conceive that one sort of people devour their harvest and another their other wealth but both are the same persons Those who by oppression are so impoverished and hungry and thirsty as some render this word that they have no shift but to rob and who living wild are over-grown with hair as the word also signifieth those devour all the wickeds wealth In this Discourse he reflects upon Jobs losses by the Sabeans and Caldeans a needy theeving people And though this be a sore tryal in it self Deut. 28.33 Job 31.8 and it is a mercy to be delivered from it Isa 62.8 9. Yet it is no infallible evidence of wickedness to be under such an affliction as Eliphaz would inferr against Job However it may teach 1. Albeit the wicked trust much to their riches and by reason therof do stand out against God Yet they have but an uncertain grip thereof seeing they may either be stript of all and so die beggers or they may be taken from their enjoyments and then the great Question is Whose these things are Luk. 12.20 For so much did Eliphaz observe to be the lot of some wicked men as an evidence of the deserving of all that their harvest is eaten and their substance swallowed up And they are little better then those who having toiled for riches yet are so far slave to it that they deprive themselves of contentment and want the lawful use of what they injoy Their riches being an idol which they adore but dare not touch Eccl. 6.2 2. God is pleased sometime to affront so to say a wicked person or people by the baseness meanness or vileness of the scourge employed to smite them As here the hungry and the robber are employed to plague the wicked who belike had been oppressed by him and others like him 3. It is a sad plague upon many that they are deprived of the sanctified use of affliction and given up to use sinful shifts to help themselves As here those impoverished oppressed and hungry persons turn robbers of others and break through all difficulties thorns and impediments to purchase their prey 4. It is no easie tryal to be delivered up into the hands and power of ungodly men who are insatiable in oppression and covetousness For so do the wicked find when their harvest is eaten and their substance swallowed up by these hungry robbers See 2 Sam. 24.14 Vers 6. Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground 7. Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks flie upward Followeth to ver 17. Eliphaz his first Exhortation to Job wherein supposing that by his former reasonings he hath convinced him of wickedness and hypocrisie he perswades him to repent and turn to God encouraging him thereunto by diverse motives In all which there is sound Divinity and much affection toward Job but his counsel is impertinently given to Job as if he were a man yet unconverted and he presseth temporal motives and encouragments too hard as we may hear in speaking to the particulars Before he mention his counsell he doth in these verses make way for it by leading Job to a serious consideration of the cause of trouble Both the verses in the originall begin with Because which will clear the connexion with the following Exhortation For because affliction cometh not forth of the dust c or by chance ver 6. Therefore saith he ver 8. I would seek unto God And it is clear that affliction cometh not by chance Because man is born to trouble and it is as native and usual for man to be afflicted as for the sparks to flie upward ver 7. In sum It being so ordinary and usual for man to be afflicted as for a spark to flie upward afflictions must not be thought casual or to come by accident seeing they are so ordinary But a cause of this so constant a lot must be enquired into which is God as the Supreme efficient and sin or our nature as corrupted which is the procuring cause and the fire out of which those sparks do flie as the tongue setteth the course of nature on fire Jam. 3.6 Upon all which the Exhortation doth very fitly follow to seek to God That man being in affliction should turn to God who smites and that the conscience of sin procuring trouble should set him on work to seek Reconciliation This is very sound doctrine the same in substance with Lam. 3.39 40. c. That affliction is the fruit of sin That every affliction should make us sensible of sin and That our little sense of sin causeth our miscarriage under trouble
only do they in so doing bear testimony for God and his Truth in that particular but they retain that which will be a strong Bulwark against many other assaults which Job expresseth well Chap. 10 15. If I be wicked wo were unto me For further clearing of this Point It may be enquired 1. What course shall we take to be clear off the truth of our integrity and righteousness when it is cryed down by men and sad dispensations seem to condemn us Answ In Job's case where the only thing in question was his Piety the matter may be cleared by these many Characters of true godliness recorded in the Word But for more general satisfaction in all cases those rules would be observed 1. Men may be righteous as to the state of their persons being justified by faith when yet some of their actions may be faulty Every thing that we ought to mourn for as a sin doth not alter the state of our persons but our feet may need to be washed when our body is already clean Joh. 13.9 10. This consideration may contribute to solve many doubts arising upon the sense of guilt and if well improved will advance and not hinder our repentance 2. Men ought to beware of turning such Scepticks as to question whether there be righteousness and unrighteousness a right and a wrong in the courses of men in the world or to be so unsettled as to quit and abandon every course as wrong which is crossed and borne down No dispensation of Providence condemneth any thing as sinful which the word accounts integrity It is a woful way of being above Scriptures when Providences thrust the Bible out of our hands and do hinder us to go to the Law and the Testimony thereby to judge of our own and others cause and way 3. Men may be heinously guilty of many sins before the Lord and because of them justly punished by him immediately or mediately And yet may be innocent as to the instruments afflicting them and as to the cause of their tryal by men David when he is lying in the dust before God because of his folly and sins of his youth yet croweth over Saul as an innocent man in the matter of his tryal and suffering And when God sent Judah into captivity yet he pleads their cause against the Chaldeans Thus the Church distinguisheth betwixt her case before God and before men in her suffering Mic. 7.9 and we ought not to confound them 4. Men may be righteous both before God and men in the main point of their tryal and yet may sin in many accessories and in the way of managing that which is right As here in this case Job bears all the strokes and God pleads more against his carriage then the carriage of his Friends and yet the issue of all is Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Chap. 42.8 It may be enquired 2. How they who under sufferings have a testimony of their integrity in any of the forementioned respects shall improve it or adhere to it in a right and acceptable way Answ Here Job's errour who managed a good cause sinfully may give us warning that we are apt to miscarry in this And therefore these rules are to be observed 1. Men are then right and do in a right way adhere to their integrity when they are so fixed as they are ready to suffer and abide a storm for their adherence thereunto It is a dangerous case when men are confirmed in their way meerly because it prospereth in their hand for what will they do when that Argument fails them or when let a cause be never so just men cannot suffer any thing for it And when I speak of suffering I do not only mean that men in a righteous cause do act in their stations amidst many hazards or do resolve to endure trouble from implacable men who bring them at under But that they do not accept deliverance albeit it were offered upon their forsaking what is right Heb. 11.35 2. Right maintainers of their integrity ought to be no less tender and zealous for it when sin would assault it within and so wound the Conscience then when tryals and outward dispensations would decry it 3. In this case also the Conscience of our integrity ought not to imbitter our spirits against God who exerciseth and afflicteth us which was Jobs fault Chap. 40 8. For albeit the Conscience of uprightness may help a man to courage and confidence in trouble yet we ought to be humble before God making as good use of cross dispensations as if we were unrighteous and mourning for any thing that God may have to say against us And this seems to have been Job's way at sometimes Chap. 9.15 10.15 though his passion did at other times ouer-drive him 4. Is there iniquity in my tongue c ver 30 The sum whereof is They ought to hear him for he will speak right things and if it were otherwise his judgment and experience would âs easily discern it as his taste doth discern meat and having a tender Conscience he would abominate any unsound Principles as his taste would disrelish unsavoury meats In this matter he is so confident that he believes themselves are perswaded of it and therefore propounds it by way of question posing them if they judged otherwise of him And yet he did mistake himself for in some respects there was iniquity or sin at best in his tongue nor did his taste discern the perversity or sinfulness that was in his passionate desire of death upon which he insists so much in the next Chapter Hence Learn 1. It is duty of godly men and their property when in a right frame that their Consciences are very tender touch-stones of their Principles and way either to prevent their engaging in an evil way or to cause them relent it if they be engaged For so is here supposed that there should not be iniquity in their tongue and that their taste should discern perverse things Thus Joseph's Conscience broke the snares laid by his Mistriss Gen. 39 9. Thus David's reins did instruct him Psal 16.7 and his heart smote him when he had faln in an appearance of evil 1 Sam. 24 5. Hence it is a challenge that men are not ashamed when they do evil Jer. 6 15. This may give a check to men who bear down this light in themselves the doing whereof may soon lead them to do evils which even Pagans would be ashamed of Ezek. 16.27 2. Whatever be the duty of Gods people or their practice at sometimes in this particular Yet there may be great hazard in the best of men their leaning to their own discerning and spirits For Job missed his mark here in venturing too much on this Our own light spirits or impulses are dangerous guides seeing we have the Word wherewith we may consult in every thing and not only are all men lyars but many
to cause him know himself 3. No man can free himself from being quarreller of Gods Righteousness except the man who is sensible of sinfulness and misery under afflictions though he cannot condescend upon a particular cause for which God afflicts him Thus Job takes up man to be a frail sinful creature though he knew not in particular wherefore God contended with him Chap. 10.2 that he may witness that he is not quarrelling 4. Sense of sin is an especial mean to make a man carry right before God under trouble Therefore Job begins with this as his chief Argument why he would not quarrel with God For trouble and terrour may crush and silence the spirits of men but sense of sin bows them and makes them stoop to God In ver 3. Job as hath been said amplifieth that Argument formerly insinuated taken from mans sinfulness We need not enquire who this He is that will contend and with whom For it may be understood both of God and of the man that dare offer to quarrel with him And in sum it cometh to this Man is so environed with so innumerable infirmities and sins that if he should attempt to enter the lists with God and Gold undertake to contend with him he could not clear himself of one among never so many challenges but should be as often condemned as accused Hence Learn 1. Man is naturally a contentious striving creature As here is implied he would be at contending Not only is he apt to be contentious with men 1 Cor. 11.16 Rom. 2.8 Hab. 1.3 which is a fruit of flesh Gal. 5.19 20. but he is even ready to quarrel with God in the matter of his deep counsels Rom. 9.20 of his Law and Directions Rom. 8.7 Joh. 6.60 of his Providences and dispensations Psal 73. Jer. 12.1 Isa 45.9 58.3 and particularly in the matter of denying his own righteousness Rom. 10.3 This we should look upon as the result of our pride and the ordinary root and rise of much of our vexing exercise whereby we obstruct the use and profit we might reap by our condition 2. Nothing will subdue this proud contentious humour in man but sin discovered and charged home putting man to answer Either the Lord awaking the Consciences of contenders with him or with men either and so putting other work in their hand and curing their idleness which causeth contention or permitting them to fall in some sin to recover them from conceit and security which make them so quarrelsome 3. The best of the Children of God are environed with innumerable evils and frailties which may humble them For there are thousands of them here See Jam. 3.2 These should be seriously laid to heart Psal 40 11 12. lest we prove them to be not infirmities but presumptuous sins They should also be watched over and observed in every step of our way and when this is remembered it will call for charity one toward another and to bear one anothers burdens 4. Our unrighteousness and multitude of failings must be of Gods discovering when he comes to contend For he must make the challenge and put them to answer This is not only true of the wicked Psal 50.21 and of refined Formalists Rom. 7.9 But even of Saints who with David may lie over for a time in sin without discerning it either in the Glass of the Law or checks of their own Conscience till God come and put the Conscience to it So little cause have we to lean to our inherent grace And when we are most tender and vigilant in observing our own escapes yet how little are we able to pry into the Law or our own Consciences Who knoweth the perfection of the Law the depth of his own heart and all his escapes See 1 Joh. 3.20 This teacheth us to be mindful what strangers we are to our own errours Psal 19 12. and that therefore we ought not to lean to our own verdict of our selves 1 Cor. 4.4 Psal 139 23 24. 5. Albeit a spirit of bondage under tentation may cause Saints restore what they took not away and subscribe to every accusation of Satan as a true challenge yet all Gods challenges are true whether we see it or the conscience take with it or not And they are challenges which no man can ward off or answer but in a Mediator Every challenge of God is in it self a sentence of condemnation as often as we are challenged by him so often are we condemned For Man cannot answer him even one of a thousand He can neither deny them nor defend himself but must succumb in that debate See Rom. 3 4. Psal 130.3 and 143.2 This may demonstrate their folly who will not be concluded by the verdict of God in his Word concerning them but do stand out against it or who being convinced do not flee to a mediatour in whom alone they are able to answer to their dittay Vers 4. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered The Second Argument confirming this Assertion concerning the Righteousness of God and that he is not to be contended with as unrighteous is taken from the consideration of his power and wisdom This is propounded in this verse and amplified and enlarged in the several branches thereof His power especially though not secluding his wisdom ver 5. 10. and his wisdom especially ver 11. In this verse God is asserted to be wise and mighty where he is said to be wise in heart which is an expression borrowed from what the Scripture speaks of mens wisdom where the heart is taken not only for the seat of wisdom Prov 2 10. but for wisdom it self a man of heart is a wise man Job 34 34. Prov. 6 3â 19 8. in the Original So the meaning here is that God is singularly and infinitely wise and powerful And in this 1. There is a proof of Gods Righteousness supposed For he neither wants wisdom which might cause him err or mistake in any thing nor wants he power for execution to cause him fail and come short in any of his purposes as we see men of best integrity may miscarry or come short through want of either of those 2. There is proposed an express argument wherefore God should not be contended with He being so wise and powerful none will offer to contend with him but fools seeing they are not able to prosecute a controversie with him either by skill or power And this is confirmed from experience that never any who yet essayed this course found it thrive in their hand Hence Learn 1. A right study of the Attributes of God will prove a solid ground for religious dispositions toward God it will help faith to judge what he is doing and will do and teach us to expect that his operations according to his Word will be like himself and that our behaviour before him should be sutable to such a One Therefore doth Job recââr to
and in such a way 4. No rod is so sad to a Child of God as a dumb rod when he can know nothing of the cause end or use of it that he might walk accordingly and justifie God For this makes God seeming to condemn Job âad unto him when he knew not wherefore he contended with him 5. Mens afflictions may be so involved and intricate through their own mistakes or otherwise that even Saints when they are under trouble may feel the stroke but see no more till God teach them who when he hath inflicted a stroke must give light to discern his mind in it and grace to make use of it For when Job is sadly afflicted he is yet left in the dark till God shew him wherefore he contended with him Where his ignorance did not slow so much from his present desertion and confusion as from this false Principle that God was condemning him as a wicked man In which case it was no wonder if he could see no cause for that having the testimony of a good Conscience However Saints in trouble may expect to have other perplexities beside this and that when they have taken up the nature of their trouble aright only as a tryal or chastisement they may yet be kept in the dark about the particular cause of it or the special use they should make of it Beside those Truths we may here also observe some failings and weaknesses in Job and his reasonings which may serve for caution and instruction to us 1. It was but his mistake while he judged by his present sense that God was condemning him and this raised the tempest in his soul It is our weakness to fasten mistakes upon Gods dealing and by so doing make our lot more unsupportable then really it is Likewise It should seriously be looked upon as a mistake That even saddest afflictions do always speak Gods condemning of the afflicted For he may chastise them most sharply whom he approves 2. Albeit God were not condemning him to perish eternally with the wicked for neither could that be nor did Job believe it was so but dealing with him in outward corrections as he useth to deal the wicked when he plagues them for their wickedness yet it was his fault not to see sufficient cause of all this within himself but he will put God to it to shew wherefore he contended For the best of Saints have sins which deserve more then all this Psal 130.3 143.2 and even Original sin in man doth justifie God in inflicting saddest corrections For the wages thereof is death Rom 5 12 14. 3. Though he had never so much integrity and could see no procuring cause of his afflictions yet there was cause enough why God should exercise even an innocent and much more why he should try him to draw forth what either of weakness or of grace was in him 4. Though he could neither see a procuring cause nor the final cause of Gods dealing yet it became not him to quarrel with God as if his dealing were unjust For absolute soveraignty in God might silence him and God is not bound to give a reason of his ways as himself acknowledged Chap 9.12 Vers 3. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands and shine upon the counsel of the wicked Followeth Job's Prosecution of the complaint which he had propounded v. 2. wherein he presseth his Expostulation and desire by several other Arguments beside those formerly insinuated in the Rise and Proposition of his complaint In all which he leaveth to his Friends to judge of the relevancy and justness of his complaint by the strength of his reasons propounded to God to whom alone he makes his address So the third Argument pressing his expostulation and desire in this verse doth prosecute what he had propounded v. 2. and give some general hints of what is further enlarged in the âest of his discourse In it he points out his apprehension of what was in Gods severe dealing in condemning him and dealing with him as a wicked man 1. That it seemed to be an oppression of a righteous man 2. That it seemed to speak Gods despising of him who was the work of his hands both by Creation and by Grace for so it may be interpreted by what he subjoyns in this discourse both of Gods creating of him and of his grace in him 3. That God by his dealing toward him seemed to give favourable countenance to the plots projects and courses of the wicked Partly while the wicked as well as his Friends were ready to judge him to be a wicked man because afflicted Partly while God seemed to concur with and approve the deeds of the Sabeans and Chaldeans who robbed him and to give occasion to other wicked men to insult over him and abuse him now when he had afflicted him as Chap. 30.1 14. But chiefly while the wickeds prosperity and his adversity confirmed them who measure all things by outward advantages in this opinion that piety is of no worth Thus the counsel of the wicked is expounded of their sleighting of Piety because of their own prosperity Ch. 21.7 15. with 16. See Eccl. 8.11 Mal. 2.17 3.14 15. Upon these apprehensions Job founds his Argument which he propounds by way of question to God Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress c The meaning whereof is as if he had said Lord doth it beseem thy Nature and Goodness or can it be any pleasure or profit to thee thus to oppress and sleight thy own creature and servant and to seem as if thou would confirm and harden the wicked in their evil way The sense and use of this Argument and Expostulation may be reduced to these three General Heads First As to the way of propounding this Argument as also some that follow it is by way of question to God Is it good to thee that thou shouldest oppress c Wherein we have the language of two parties within him his sense and his faith His sense would absolutely have concluded all this to be true of God that he delighted to oppress and despise him and shine upon the counsel of the wicked But faith could not subscribe to all these conclusions and not being able to refute them yet it stands as it were a great stone in an impetuous River to stop the current of tentation if it were but with a question Can it be as sense saith as Psal 77.7 8 9. And here faith goeth further and propounds the matter to God wherein as sense layeth out its apprehensions of Gods dealing so faith propounds those apprehensions as questions to be resolved and cleared by God From this way of pleading in general Learn 1. Tentations may flie very high under trouble even against God himself For all that is here questioned was suggested to Job So also those apprehensions Psal 77. We are not to think it strange if a storm raise
his Family And upon the other hand if he would not reform to shew that no state or grandeur could secure him as he had found by experience Though as being a great man he had many Tabernacles or a stately Tabernacle of many rooms they were but Tabernacles still and could be reached by God Vers 15. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot yea thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear Zophar's first Argument pressing this Exhortation to v. 20. is taken from promises and encouragements if he will obey Those are in this verse propounded in general That sin and all the sad effects of it being purged away he shall be freed from confusion of Conscience And shall come boldly to God to call upon him and contemplate him and shall shine among men And that he shall be established as a firm thing compacted by melting as the word is in his outward good condition and shall not fear the continuance or return of his troubles For further clearing of the words Consider 1. As for this spot whereof he promiseth Job shall be free and upon removal whereof he shall lift up his face It doth indeed include the removal of all those spots of trouble wherewith he had been defiled being plunged in the ditch of calamity and those defilements of disgrace and ignominy which his Friends had cast upon him by reason of his troubles For the rest of the temporal promises do suppose his afflictions removed and therefore that must be implyed here Yet it doth also imply as a cause of all the rest the removal of the spot of sin by a pardon upon repentance to which he had exhorted him and the removal of that shame wherewith Zophar supposeth Job might be over-whelmed because of his sin 2. As for lifting up of the face We find in Scripture that bowing down of the face imports the Conscience of guilt Ezra 9.6 perturbation and distemper of mind Gen. 4.5 6. and fear Dan. 10.9 15. so that to lift up the face is to be free of confusion of Conscience through guilt and of fear and perturbation that we may with calmness of mind and boldness go to God as one reconciled and at peace with us as the phrase is used among men 2 Sam. 2.22 Job 22.26 and may look cheerfully among men Psal 42.11 3. As for the promise of Job's being free of fear in his outward condition Zophar doth not understand it of any stability or freedom from fear which Saints may attain even in the midst of their troubles but of an assurance of the removal of trouble and his being established and without fear of its return as the following promises do evidence As for the spiritual part of this promise that the godly man shall lift up his face without spot of sin or shame If we take it in general abstracting from his mistake of Job it may be admitted with two cautions 1. That this is the allowance of penitent Saints whom he hath formerly described in his Exhortation though for their exercise and by reason of their own weakness the use and comfort of it may oft-times be suspended and they who are washed from the spot of sin may yet be afraid to look up to God and dare not look chearfully among men 2. It is Zophar's mistake to think that Saints lifting up of their faces depends upon the removal of all their spots even of trouble also For when sin is pardoned and they make use of their priviledges they will be confident and glory and lift up their face in the midst of trouble Rom. 5.1 2 3. 8.35 c. Hence learn 1. Unreconciled and impenitent men are obnoxious to shame and confusion of Conscience which however they do not notice it yet before God and in a day of trouble it will not hide For so is imported in that this promise of lifting up the face is made only to the penitent Convert The wicked man may seem to want this confusion but he doth but steal by his terrours and he hath perturbation fear and guilt ready to break forth upon him whenever he comes into a strait Isai 33.14 and when he considers God who is greater thân his heart 1 Joh. 3.20 2. It is the penitents allowance and great mercy that he may be chearful and may come boldly to God and call upon him familiarly with calmness and serenity of mind Job 22.26 27. Psal 67.6 7. 1 Joh. 3.21 For herein he differs from the impenitent that he shall lift up his face His humility may put him to the Publicans posture Luk. 18.13 But faith allows him to look up and when it is not so he makes not use of his allowance And when a penitent doth not attain unto this As he should consider how he thereby wrongs God as well as himself and that it is his own weakness that keeps him so at under Psal 77 10. So he may look also to Gods hand and mind in it who hereby doth humble and exercise him doth correct him for former abused and ill guided allowances when they were enjoyed and doth discover how much he must be seen in our mercies who must first give ground of comfort and then apply it and make it comfortable 3. It is the reconciled penitents allowance also to be confident and cheerful among men not bringing up an ill report upon the way of God nor being confounded by enemies or difficulties For thus also may the lifting up of the face be understood And it is our duty to give proof of our encouragement in God in our ordinary walking and especially in difficulties and this is the way to obtain or continue the use of our allowance before God 4. Albeit some wicked and impenitent sinners be so impudent as to lift up their face and hold out their cauterized Consciences and whores forehead before God and men Yet that is but a proclaiming of their spots and pollutions whereof the penitent are free in their cheerful confidence For herein also the wicked and the penitent differ that the one may lift up their face without spot His sins being repented of and pardoned are not seen nor will they stand up to challenge his confidence and oppugn it Jer. 50.20 But the others confidence is refuted by his sin and spots which appear in his face when he lifts it up yea this aggravates his pollution that notwithstanding his uncleanness yet he is so impudent as to lift up his face As for the temporal part of this Promise relating to the removal of the spots of trouble from the penitent together with his confidence and security for the future It is certain 1. That Penitents have the promise of these things 1 Tim. 4.8 whereof the wicked have no assurance by any promise however they come to their hands 2. That they are given to Penitents in so far as they need them and the love and wisdom of God see them to be fit for them and that they will
thy face He would not so much have resented the pain of his body and other sorrows if this had not been as we find at first he bare his afflictions with singular moderation And since the favour of God is the godlies choice Psal 4.6 7. and their life Psal 30.5 They cannot but be most affected with the sense of the want of it And men may discern their own sincerity or unsoundness by reflecting upon what they miss most in trouble 7. As desertion is sad in it self so also in this respect that men in that condition are apt to put a sad construction upon dispensations and to look upon God as an Enemy in what he doth to them Therefore unto that Thou hidest thy face it is added and holdest me for thine Enemy As guilt so also desertion is a sad Perspective through which to look upon God and his dispensations And we should study to keep neer God lest distance and desertion breed many tentations 8. As desertion is thus sad in it self and in its effects so it is yet sadder when men are lying under such a burden and are in the dark as to the cause of it or Gods mind in it Wherefore saith he hidest thou thy face c implying beside his passion and failing of which after that if God would tell him the reason and cause of all this if would ease him much for then he would know what to do for recovering of his lost allowance whereas now being bemisted he knew not what to do but groan and lament under his pressure It is true men may pretend darkness when the cause of their trouble is legible enough yet in it self it is a great mercy to know the cause of Gods dispensations and a double mercy if we improve that knowledge As those things are found in this Discourse so Job's very mistakes and failings in thus arguing may afford us useful Cautions and Instructions As First That the righteousness of his cause and person did let him see so little of the desert of his ordinary infirmities and failings which if he had considered as the Psalmist doth Psal 130.3 143.2 he had not been so bitter in his complaints and resentments under affliction A fair warning to godly men That they let not their confidence as to the justification of their persons nor their innocence in some particulars hide the humbling sight of their infirmities or the desert thereof lest God be provoked to leave them to fall in foul miscarriages Secondly That because he was free of that gross wickedness or hypocrisie wherewith his Friends charged him therefore he is so peremptory in putting God to give a reason of his dealing with him as if no reason could be given seeing the reason they gave was false This was ill argued and did witness his distemper For 1. Gods Soveraign and absolute Dominion over Man did vindicate him from all imputations of Injustice as Elihu doth answer this same challenge Chap. 33.9 12 13. 2. God by those Rods might chasten and humble him even for his dayly failings as Elihu also tells him in his Discourses 3. God might put him by those afflictions to a tryal and proof of his honesty and graces and therefore he had greater cause to lament that he proved so weak then to quarrel that he was put into the Furnace 4. Though Job were guilty of no gross sins yet God might send those afflictions to prevent his falling into sin as well as to humble and chasten for sin already committed 5. God may inflict sad trouble even when he hath pardoned sin for vindicating of his honour and for making men more cautions in avoiding sin for the future So 2 Sam. 12.9 10 13 14. 6. God may afflict and desert his own Children that they may prize friendship more and improve it better when they recover it as was the practice of the Spouse Cant. 3.1 2 3. with 4 5. In a word The most upright men have nothing to plead against Gods afflicting and exercising of them if he please And if they can see no reason of Gods dealing it is because they are ignorant and because God is pleased to be unsearchable in his ways that the more of himself may be seen in bringing such dispensations to a good issue Thirdly Albeit it be true that God did in some measure desert him yet he did help it on and augment it by his own distemper and passion Gods Children may be deserted in their afflictions and it is a wonder if great afflictions do not draw it on Isai 57.17 And It is an evidence of their honesty to be afflicted with it Psal 30.7 But it is their weakness to augment it by their own affectionate resentments and ill management of such a tryal and to make unto themselves a spirit of Bondage when God allows them the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 Fourthly It flowed also from his weakness that because God hid his face therefore he suspects God in all his dealing to be an Enemy For frowns and desertions and afflictions also may consist with friendship Jer. 30.10 11 14. Matth. 15.22 28. yea and flow from it Rev. 3.19 Vers 25. Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble Job's second Argument whereby he pleads against Gods dealing thus with him is taken from his weakness It is propounded in this verse in general terms and then prosecuted by parts with an express application to himself wherein he sheweth how severely God dealt with him v. 26 27. and how weak he was to endure it v. 28. The Argument in this verse may be thus taken up That he was but a weak leaf before the wind easily shaken and moved upon the Tree Isai 7.2 and easily cast off the Tree and driven to and fro and like dry stubble before the wind or fire Yea he was already parched shaken and tossed with trouble From all which he argues that he was a weak and unmeet party for God to crush and break and pursue him as he did Hence Learn 1. However man conceit of himself yet he is but a weak frail thing like a leaf driven to and fro and like the day stubble See Isai 2.22 2. Since Man by Contemplation will not be serious in studying of hâs own frailty God sends afflictions to give him a clear sight of himself and to abase him For it is in trouble that Job hath this impression of himself We ought not to mistake if God put us to learn such lessons though we think we know them well enough before And when they are solidly imprinted upon our hearts then trouble hath done pair of its work 3. Weakness is our advantage and a good plea when we have to do with God and are sensible of our frailty For it is his argument here Wilt thou break a leaf c Wilt thou pursue the dry stubble God will account it no honour to run down a base worm as David pleadeth with Saul
from their intended misapplication that this is the lot only of the wicked And therefore Job who was so afflicted must be a wicked man And if we do consider only these true Observations of what befel some of the wicked which Job doth acknowledge v. 17. c. And which they might reflect upon in this discourse it holds out 1. God may make the wickedness of some conspicuous in their plagues because they will see it in no other mirrour As here is seen in their houses and dwelling places 2. He may in justice smite not only the persons of the wicked but their children and familâes As here we are taught 3. He may smite them even with utter ruine so that they shall not be found any more As this question imports Where is the house Where are the dwelling places See Psal 37.35 36. 4. The authority and power of wicked men will be no fence against Gods vengeance but will rather make Gods justice more conspicuous in reaching them For even the house of the Prince may be a seeking if he be wicked 5. The number of wicked men combined together in evil can âs little secure them from Gods vengeance as their power but God can reach many of them as well as one For the house of the Prince and the dwelling places or tent of the Tabernacles of wicked men in the plural number âare all one to him Obs 2. If we consider their design in this remark which is to suggest to him that he is a wicked man because thus afflicted it teacheth 1. Afflictions upon godly men may have strange tentations fastned upon them and may be represented in a sad mirrour to the afflicted As here Job's case is represented to be not only full of sharp trials but an evidence of wickedness Hence the afflictions of the godly are frequently called tentations which are the saddest ingredient in them and the engine whereby Satan drives his design in them either to cause godly men run into a sinful course to be delivered from troubles Or to doubt of their good estate because of their troubles And in this we need not help from without to suggest tentations to us our own hearts being too prone to fasten tentations enough upon every affliction as we read in the tryals of David and others Hence to be hid from tentations under affliction may make any simple affliction easie And when we cannot get them avoided it is our duty to distinguish betwixt what is real and what is a tentation only in our lot And for the curing and removing of these tentations when they assault us we should consider That afflictions do weaken crush our spirits and weakness is the breach at which tentations do enter Psal 77.8 9. with 10. and therefore we should be upon our guard and know that we have our own weakness to accuse more than any thing else when tentations prevail upon us Further if we studied to be humble and bear down pride and did not love case too well but would be content to be at pains and stir up our selves to cleave to God tentations would do us little hurt For it is pride idleness and diffidence which put an edge upon our tentations Withal we should remember that we ought nor to lie down and die but are called to a battel and should not cast away our weapons though we prevail not at the first in the use of these means 2. It is one of the saddest of tentations when tryals contribute to bring mens Estate and their Interest in God in question as here his troubles are made use of to prove him wicked It is sad enough when mens sad lots seem to speak Gods Fatherly displeasure their rebellion in some particular miscarriages their distance from God their unbelief c. But it is much sadder when they seem to speak them wicked and cast off by God Hence we may gather 1. That the assurance of a mans good estate and reconciliation is a notable Cordial in all Afflictions and other tentations So long as that is not questioned men may grapple the better with other assauâts and therefore men should study to make their calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 and to keep the evidences thereof clear Rom. 8.35 c. And on the other hand this imports that to be wicked and unreconciled to God is the saddest of conditions especially when God is reckoning with men as such 2. Though Saints may be sometime troubled with questions about their estate especially in great difficulties or upon gross miscarriages Yet they should not be so ready as oft times they are upon every assault to destroy and rase these very foundations seeing an interest in God may consist with sharp tryals and many distempers and failings a marriage bond stands firm when yet the parties may fail much in their duty one to another and the faith of that will enable them to bear troubles and help them to repent of and amend their faults 3. It should be looked upon as Satans great policy at every occasion to cast in doubts about our personal Interest and Reconciliation with God that so he may divert and take us off all other real fruit and use of our afflictions and tentations to which the Lord is calling us by these dispensations And while we are perplexed and debating about that without cause he finds a way to make us neglect our present work of Humiliation Repentance Self-denial c. or what other duties our condition calls for 4. We should remember that trouble and tentations do put us in a fever in which case we are very unfit to judge of our estate And therefore we should leave such a tentation till we be more fit to grapple with it And in the mean time should set about our present work and duty in bearing troubles and enduring assaults which will indeed prove that we have true grace and so refute the tentation 5. If at any time it vex us as it may fall forth that ever we yielded to these tentations which bring our grace in question yet we should not be discouraged For if it be not persisted in we should know that it is not an evidence of the want of grace to be troubled with such a tentation but godly men have been over-taken in the snare though they have recollected themselves again Obs 3. If we consider that these tentations are not suggested by his own heart but by his Friends it teacheth That besides tentations fastned upon our troubles by our own hearts God may permit others and even godly men to give a sad representation of our condition and estate as Job here found And as this tryal of Job from his Friends may be an encouragement to the godly in all ages in the like case So the Lords ends in putting of us to this kind of tryal from godly friends are 1. That we may be narrowly tryed when we are assaulted from within and from without 2. To prevent
that the dispute continued he finds that none of them had convinced Job or convincingly proved what they had asserted against him that he was a wicked Hypocrite Nor yet had they answered his words which imports not only that they had not refused his arguments and repelled these evidences of his integrity which he had produced in his own defence âut further that they had not made that reply to Jobs miscarriages in his discourses which was necessary for his humiliation and casting down as he speaks v. 13. And so Job is declared to be Victor in the debate betwixt him and his Friends concerning the calamities of godly men of which v. 3. And yet somewhat remained to be answered to Jobs words which they had not hit upon From these two Verses Learn 1. When Debates are once started they may continue very long For not only have there been long discourses among them but it seems they have taken time to study this controversie and search out words or what to say whereby the debate was much lengthened Debates may be soon begun but they are not so easily composed again For mens wilfullness may continue debates long And God in his holy providence may permit them to continue that men may be fully tryed 2. It is mens duty to search into Controversies and to be well advised in what they speak to a weighty cause For in so farr they did right that they searched out what to say Men do sin hainously when they engage in debates before they understand them and before they consider to what they may tend 3. When men are once engaged in Debates if they be non plust they are ready to bend their wits to maintain their cause rather than they will yield and quit the plea For thus also they searched out what to say when Job put them to it but it was but words as it is in the Original and somewhat wherewith to flourish and make a shew that they studied or found Thus when men are once engaged and grown warm with passion they will readily seek victory rather than truth 4. It is mens duty when Debates are started and agitated not to be idle spectatours but diligent observers that thereby they may be edified and may be able to know what is truth For Elihu professeth he was not sleeping but diligently attending all the while of the debate and no doubt this debate did edifie many Auditours as well as him 5. It is a duty also to let men say their minds to the full before we judge of their Doctrine and Opinion For he heard them out and did not halve their discourses by interrupting them 6 It is also mens duty to ponder well what is said that they do not wilfully nor negligently mistake the discourses of them who speak For Behold saith he inviting them to consider how seriously he had proceeded I waited I gave ear yea I attended unto you 7. It is a clear and determined case and a truth to be much remarked and improved That a man may be afflicted and yet righteous For here the Controversie is determined in Jobs favours who had maintained this truth constantly against his friends and that with a Behold Not that every man may claim to this that he is righteous when afflicted if he want evidences of his integrity For a wicked man may be plagued as well as a godly man afflicted in this life Nor yet doth this warrant godly men not to be sensible of their failings when in affliction because their persons or cause are righteous But that which it imports is That godly men may see love in rods and that they are consistent with love and That they ought not to suffer the weight of their afflictions to light upon their state and personal reconciliation with God to call that in question because they are afflicted 8. Not only may men think they have refuted their Adversary when it is nothing so as they gave Job over as an obstinate man v. 1. when yet Elihu tells them they had neither convinced nor answered him but God may sometime be pleased to raise up some to own them who are for a right cause when they are over-powred with multitude of opposers and lye under many disadvantages As Elihu here takes part with Job who had so many godly men against him Let men abide by truth though they were even left alone in that quarrel and God will send them friends at last when their tryal is perfected 9 Men may be very able and express great abilities in what they say who yet do erre For he acknowledgeth they had reasons or as it is in the Original understandings and gave proof of their great abilities and yet they did not convince nor answer Job 10. So weak are men that before they be convinced they must not only have an assertion proved but their objections against it answered otherwise they will not heartily embrace a truth how clearly soever it be proved For he desiderates both these in their dealing with Job and intimates that they ought both to have convinced him by strong arguments and answered his words or objections if they would have brought him to be of their opinion 11. Men may prevail against men and have the righter cause and the better of them in debate who yet are faulty before God even in that cause and deserve a reproof from him For here Job is assoiled and declared Victor in the debate with his Friends and yet Elihu intimates there was an answer which should have been given to his words but they had not touched upon it as he resolves afterward to do v. 14. Men had need to look to this that their righteous cause and the errours and miscarriages of their Antagonists do not blind their eyes that they see not their own failings Verse 13. Lest ye should say We have found out Wisdome God thrusteth him down not man In this Verse the former Reason is amplyfied from the consideration of Gods end and design in ordering this business which also was his end in passing so free a censure upon their Doctrine This is propounded in general in the beginning of the Verse That whatever were Jobs failings yet God had so ordered the matter that Job had got the victory in the debate and they had succumbed in their undertakings against him that they might not glory in their wisdome nor might ascribe it to their abilities and experience that they had found out what was sufficient to put an end to this Controversie And he had freely told them so much v. 12. that they might no longer entertain that good opinion of themselves As for that which followeth God thrusteth him down not man Some take them to be the very words whereby they might be ready if not prevented to express their thoughts of their own wisdome to this purpose That they by their wisdome had found out so much for convincing of Job that they had left him nothing wherewith to
considering his sympathy and interest Hereby anticipating that calumny ver 4 5. that Job was but little concerned in what had hitherto befallen him 2. The motive and rise of this trouble Thou movedst me against him to destroy him This doth not import any imputation upon the blessed God as if he were moved by Satan to do any thing especially without cause as it after followeth But the borrowed expression doth only intimate thus That as God purposing to do good unto his people makes way for fulfilling of his purpose by their Prayers to him which he is pleased to say do move and prevail with him So purposing to try his people he takes occasion of the wicked calumnies cast upon them by Satan and his Instruments to manifest this his purpose 3. The causlessness of this trouble Thou movedst me without cause Albeit it be true thaâ God did thus destroy Job to no purpose or in vain which the word will also signifie as to Satans great design who gained not his point by it Yet that is not the chief thing intended in this expression of destroying him without cause Neither doth it import that God afflicted him without any cause of reason having nothing before his eyes but only to vex him For he had holy purposes in it to try his graces refute calumnies afford a singular ground of experience for all after-ages c. But it is to be understood of the procuring cause or quarrel that God did thus afflict him without any quarrel at him Which yet must not be understood absolutely For Job had Original sin and many actual infirmities and those of themselves did not only deserve great temporal afflictions but eternal death also if God should have proceeded in justice against him But the meaning is that as to Satans accusation there was no such hypocrisie in Job as he alleadged he was guilty of to procure this stroke For he had endeavoured to serve God sincerely and did not sin maliciously or wilfully which are the faults at which God is specially angry in his peo Deut. 32.5 1 Joh. 5 18. In sum Job was no hypocrite as Satan did insinuate and the Lords chief end in afflicting him was not to punish his sin but to try him Wherein notwithstanding the Lord was just and holy even when he thus afflicted without cause For he hath soveraign power over the Being which he hath given to inflict upon it what he pleaseth And there is so much also in the most innocent as may stop their mouths under greatest tryals All these considerations put together tend to the heightening of Jobs commendation That he held fast hâs integrity not only in prosperity or when God was sending a light touâh of afflictâon but when he was destroying and swallowing him up and when the Lord was doing this not in pursuance of any quarrel but was destroying an innocent man to refute the calumnies cast upon his integrity To omit what hath been already observed on Ch. â 8 we may here gather some further Instructions And First The Lârds repeating of that commendation of Job being now in an afflâcted condition which formeth he had given him in his prosperity doth teach That the Lords estimation of his people and of his grace in them doth not alter with their external condâtion But true grace hath the same lustre in the Eyes of God upon the Dunghil that it hath upon the Throne Foâ now in Jobs low estate he gets the same commendation whâch he got before My Servant Job there is none lâke him in the Earth c. Secondly The addition to his commendationâ and still he holdeth fast his Integrity notwithstanding his tryal may teach 1. Constancy in Piety notwithstanding the sharp tentations of an afflicted condition is a singular commendation in Gods esteem For hereby Job so acquiââ himself that the old Characters of his Piety are not sufficient without this new addition to his commendation See 1 Pet. 1.7 And the reason of this is insinuated in the word holding fast which in the Original imports a retaining and holding of a thing firmly and with our whole strength because of difficulties and opposition as the traveller keeps his garment in a windy day Implying Not only That when Gods people are assaulted with tentations it is their duty and their practice when in a right frame to put forth their strength that they may hold fast their integrity and what they have received from the Lord Heb. 4.14 Rev 2.13.25 3.11 But That it is an hard task to stand fast in tryal and therefore the more commendable to bear out in such a tempest 2. Whatever it be in Religion wherewith men please thâmselves yet nothing pleaseth God better than sincerity and upâightness especially when it is preserved in under affliction and in a trying condition For this is the Lord commends that Job still holdeth fast his integrity And he doth as it were glory over Satan in this Hast thou considered my servant Job and still he holdeth fast his integrity The Question doth not only import that God had an eye upon him and did notice him now when he was in the furnace but that he did delight to vex Satan with thâ sight of his constant integrity See Revel 2.13 3.10 3. As God is especially pleased with mens sincerity so it is against that that Satan plants his cheif Engines and Battery For the thing which Job had chiefly to hold fast in this tryal was his integrity Satan did not assault Jobs outward prosperity but to barter his integrity thereby Nor is it mens Formality or outward Profession that he doth so much malign if he can keep them from being sincere in âhat they do And Saints may be helped to know their own sincerity if it were but by Satans great opposition unto them wherewith Formalists are not acquainted 4. Albeit it be no small dâfficulty to stand fast and to continue streighâ and upright in sharp tryals Yet the truly sincere are by the grace of God ââle to do it and to abide never so many and sharp assaults For hereof we hâve an experience in Job still he holdeth fast his integâiây Greate is he who is in Believers than he that is in the world 1 Job 4.4 and even weak grace suppoâted by God is a party too hard for all opposition 5. It is an act of Divine Wisdom when kângs of the world are going to ruine not to cast away Piety also and a good Conscience oâ because God strips us of outward contentments therefore to turn our back upon that which ought to be a Cordial under all pressures For this is commended as act of great wiâdom in Job that when other thing wâre pâlled from him still he hold fast his integrity To take another course will nothing bâne ât men or ease their griefs but doth indeâd double their losses Thirdly The amplification of this commendation though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause
sometimes upon the ground beside him in token of joyning with him and their keeping silence all the while at least speaking nothing of what was their main errand which was also an expression of their great sorrow Lam 2.10 5. The reasons of this their practice Which are 1. That when they lift up their eyes afarr off they knew him not ver 12. Job being either now walking abroad or lying in the fields to take the fresh air when they came toward him or they looking upon him at distance when they came unto the room where he was do find him so altered with his afflictions and boyls that they can hardly know him which doth excite them to so much sorrow 2. which is the reason of their so long silence in particular They saw that his grief was very great ver 13. which was no doubt awaked and augmented at their coming to him This did not only render Job incapable to admit of any comfort they intended for him but did also astonish them selves and leave them in the dark where to begin to deal with him a man so afflicted considering their principles upon which they afterward proceed with him In all this as we find much tenderness and affection in them so their long silence forbearing to be comfortable to a man so distressed is not free of blame as contributing not a little to make Job apprehend that they judged hardly of his condition because of his stroke and so giving occasion to these distempeâs which afterward brake forth Though in all this the holy Providence of God is to be adored who would have Jobs comfort suspended that he might be tryed yet more and who by their unseasonable silence gave occasion to Job to open his mouth in the next Chapter and so made way for the following debate which is so useful to the Church of God in all Ages From ver 11. Learn 1. It is not strange to see such things befal godly men as may be matter of talking and may expose them as a wonder to all about them For such things befel Job as are heard by his Friends in their several Countries See Psal 71.7 2. It is a point of spiritual prudence in Godly men beside their ordinary familiars and acquaintances to make sure of some special and godly friends of whom they may make use in all exigents and if they cannot have such nearer at hand to make use even of such as are at a distance For Job hath his three friends in the Countries about Which may condemn them who may have godly friends nearer at hand and yet make no use of them See Eccles 4 8. 12. 3. It is the duty of Godly Friends to be tender of those in affliction Neither staying for invitations to come and visit their afflicted Friends nor yet contenting themselves with occasional visits but coming of purpose to tender them in their sad condition For when they heard of all this evil they came every one from his own place Friends are tried by adversity See Prov. 17.17 18.24 Psal 38.11 4 There is no affliction of the truly godly so desperate that it is destitute of any ground of comfort or warranteth them to give themselves wholly up to sorrow For they Judge that there is need and cause as to mourn with him So to comfort him See Ezra 10.2 I Thess 4.13 5. Such may be the sad condition even of Godly and experienced Saints and so exceedingly may afflictions and tentations confound and over-whelm them that they will need the help of others to point out these comforts and encouragements which are allowed upon them For they find it a necessary duty to come to comfort Job in this extremity 6. Albeit the Consolations of God have their own weight by whomsoever they be tendered yet none can so fitly or with hope of success minister them unto the afflicted as those who feelingly sympathize with them in afflictions Whereby they become serious in seeking out fit encouragements and tender and feeling in the application thereof and do also conciliate favour with the afflicted making way for their applications For they come first to mourn with him and then to comfort him 7. As the afflictions of some Saints may be so great as to need the sympathy of many to afford them some case so the comforting of such is a work of such intricacy and difficulty as will require the concurrent help of many able men For upon these considerations They made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him From ver 12 13. learn 1. As trouble will soon make a strange alteration upon men so it is nothing strange to see these bodies of the Saints which will one day be glorious in Heaven so transformed with sores as Friends and Acquaintances can hardly discern the faces of their old friends And to see such a change upon the outward state of Saints as their friends can hardly know they are the men they are For they lift up their eyes a far off and knew him not by reason of the present deformity of his body and the sordid condition wherein he was compared with his former state and grandeur See Lam. 4.7 8. 2. It is the duty and property of truly godly friends to be really and not in appearance only affected with the afflicted condition of their friends and to joyn cordially with them in humiliation and sorrow So much do they witness by their practice weeping renting their Maâtles sprinkling dust on their heads and sitting down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights 3. The more narrow view men take of the afflictions of others the more will it affect them if they be truly tender For albeit they were affected with the report yet it is when they lift up their eyes and knew him not that they are so singularly affected it being rare to find such sense of a trouble at a distance See Lam. 3.51 4. It may please God to let out such troubles upon his people as surpasseth all humane Consolation that himsâlf alone may be seen in supporting and comforting For though they can sympathize yet they cannot comfort but spake not a word to him 5. Such is our weakness that one lawful duty is ready to shuffle out another And particularly great abundance of sorrow given way unto may hinder men from being comfortable to the afflicted as it doth hinder the afflicted from receiving it For though notwithstanding their erroneous principles of which afterward they resolved upon the report to come and comfort him Yet now when they come and saw that his grief was very great and his affliction so extream that he is scarce capable of comfort they are so over-whelmed with sorrow that in stead of comforting him they sit silent See Is 24.4 6. In all our good and honest purposes we have need of especial dependance upon God that they be not frustrated For they who came not only to mourn
And on the contrary he produceth his own observation of the wickeds so perishing which was so ordinary equitable and proportionable to their sin that it past for a common Proverb That the wicked did justly reap the fruit of their sinful ways and courses v. 8. In this Argument we may observe these truths 1. It is our duty to remark all the dealings of God with the sons of men in mercy or in judgment and to make use of them as Eliphaz here calls on Job to bring forth what he remembred and doth himself give an account of what he hath seen See Psal 28.5 37.35 36. 64.9 3.4 Isa 5.12 2. It is also commendable in fallible men that they do not imperiously obtrude their light on others but are as willing to receive as to offer light that so truth may be lifted out For in propounding this Argument he puts Job to bring forth his Observations as he gives an account what himself had seen 3. Such as lay claim to true Piety ought to be righteous persons by being sheltered under the wings of imputed righteousness and drawing vertue from Christ to enable them for a sincere and upright conversation so as they may be innocent and free at least of gross provocations For so are they here described the innocent and righteous 4. None who are truly godly do ever perish eternally nor are they so left in trouble as they have no door of hope here or hereafter For in that sense it is true none perish being innocent nor are the righteous cut off though Eliphaz take it more generally See 2 Cor. 4.8 9. 6.9 10. 5. As to be wicked is oft-times no easie task but laborious like plowing and expensive like sowing So they will sooner or later though not alwayes visibly here reap a proportionable reward of their wickedness For in this sense his own Observation ver 8. is true and just that as men sow so they should reap Gal. 6.7 8. Though there may a long time intervene betwixt the sin and the punishment as there is betwixt Seed-time and Harvest 6. When the Lord lets the wicked prosper and the godly seem to perish and be cut off in this life it may be sore tentation even to an holy man to think hardly of the godlies way because so afflicted For Eliphaz is induced on this account to condemn Job And albeit his Principles did mislead him so to judge yet even where mens light is clear it will not be easie to get over such stumbling blocks unless we go to the Sanctuary Psal 73.3 17. But beside these truths there are divers great mistakes in this Argument First In the main Argument taken from outward lots and dispensations in this life whereby he would prove Job and his Children to be wicked For the General Principle is false that none are so afflicted but the wicked and that every one who perisheth and is cut off as his Children were is wicked It hath been already cleared that the godly and wicked may fall under the same outward sufferings Eccles 9.1 2. and consequently that no mans former life ought to be judged by his present afflictions These Friends held as appears from their debates that there is no such stroke inflicted but as a punishment of sin according to the rule of strict justice But the Scriptures make clear that beside afflictions which are punishments properly so called there are also fatherly chastisements of such as are dear to God for their folly 1 Cor. 11.32 Psal 89.31 32 33. Tryals and exercises of faith 1 Pet. 1.6 7. and Martyrdom for a testimony to the truth Rev. 12.11 Yea the Scriptures do clear that not only the godly and wicked may be under the same affliction But that the wicked may prosper while the godly are in affliction Psal 73.3 12 13 14. And that the wicked may prevail to afflict him that is more righteous then himself Hab. 1.13 All which truths as they contrary to Eliphaz's principles so they may help us to judge righteous judgement concerning the various dispensations of God in the world and to judge charitably of these under affliction And particularly we may here conclude That events in war are no concluding argument to prove that those who are put to the worse have an unjust quarrel For people in a most just quarrel have been put to the worse by wicked men in a wicked quarrel because of their sins who have maintained the just cause as appears from the war with Benjamin Judg. 20. and the war of the ten Tribes against Judah 2 Chron. 28.6 7 8 9 10. Nor doth Gods determining against a people after a solemn Appeal prove the injustice of their Cause For 1. All wars are upon the matter an Appâal to God after that appeals to Justice by Law suits or to the people by Declarations do not put an end to Controversies And therefore if God may deny success in a righteous cause for holy and righteous ends where there is not a formal Appeal The solemnity of an Appeal hath nothing in it to oblige God beyond the equity of the Cause 2. Appeals have been made to God by his Saints as by David Psal 7.3 4 5. who yet have long suffered after their Appeal For Appeals in Scripture terms import no more then our committing of our cause to God that he in due time and by his own means may clear our innocency and this will certainly be granted 3. If an Appeal be made to God that by the next immediate event he may clear the righteous Cause such an Appeal is a great sin and aâ lâmiting of the Holy One of Israel And being a sin on both hands God useth to punish it rather in his people maintaining his cause then in Enemies owning an unjust cause For they who work wickedness are delivered when they tempt God Mal. 3.15 And not they who are Gods people maintaining his Cause and Truth And consequently in such a case The loss of a Battel is rather a proof of a just quarrel which God will not let prosper by sinful means then of an unjust Secondly As the general Principle is false and consequently concludes nothing against Jobs Children upon whom he reflects ver 10 1â So the Application thereof to Jobs case is nothing sounder It is true he was sore afflicted and Job himself did not expect an issue and though he had been cut off out of this life it had not proved him wicked as hath been said yet he had not perished nor was cut off But in the issue God made it appear that he can raise up men when he pleaseth from the pit and when their bones lie scattered about the graves mouth to see his goodness in the land of the living Whence we may gather That Saints may seem to themselves and others to be in a desperate and lost condition when yet it will prove otherwise So also may a righteous Cause be triumphed over as irrecoverably
crushed which yet at last will prove a Conquerour Thirdly His confirmation of this main Arguments taken from Experience is a weak proof For 1. Albeit they found by experience which was indeed their stumbling block That in that non-age of the Church God had more ordinarily trained on his people with outward encouragments and plagued the wicked Yet that did not evince that he would always follow that method seeing it was not promised His outward signal dispensations in one time or age are not a constant ground for our expectation and faith but the word alone Though indeed it be true that after eminent proofes of Gods appearing for his people and against the wicked it is not easie to submit to want the like again 2. Though the world had but lasted a short while till their days compared with its continuance since yet they could not undertake they had known all that God had done or did remember all they knew or seriously remark all they saw And consequently their observation and experience could not found an universal Principle seeing they might be deficient in it And indeed before their time there were not only instances of Noah and Lot much vexed in soul but of Abel cut off by his wicked brother which might fully answer that Question ver 7. and refute what he brought from experience But it seems that that and the like were not marked either because more rate or because their principles did so prepossess them as they did not advert to any thing which contradicted the same As it is most ordinary that prejudices and preingagements do shut out clearest truths 3. Their expârience was not so large then as now and therfore it needed not seem strange albeit Job should cast the first copy to all after-ages of a godly man so afflicted Nor need Saints stumble being approved in their way by the Word to hazard upon a tryal wherein no godly man hath trode before them and when they have no experience of any in the like case before them to leave in their tryal an experience to all who shall come after them as it seemeth Abel and Job did In sum from all this we may conclude how safe and sure it is to judge of persons and lots by the word and what hazard there is to looke to dispensations or experiences without it Vers 9. By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed 10. The roaring of the lion and the voyce of the fierce lion and the teeth of the young lions are broken 11. The old lion perisheth for lacke of prey and the stout lions whelps are scattered abroad This Argument from Experience is in these verses further enlarged And to make it have impression on Job he amplifieth the stroke of God upon the wicked with divers reflections upon the case of Job and his Children to make him apprehend how like the one case is to the other And 1. He sets before him the manner of the wickeds destruction ver 9. where by the blast and breath of God we are to understand his anger immediately let forth and his extraordinary power exerted against sinners to consume them and make them perish as Eliphaz supposeth that God had destroyed Jobs Children and some of his Goods for the expressions allude to that which had befaln them 2. He sets before him the object of those judgements which are oppressours and their Children who are compared to Lions for their cruelty and fierceness ver 10 11. Where most of the names of Lions in Scripture taken from their several Ages are gathered together to point at old Job and his Children in their several ages 3. He points out the effects of Gods destroying of them That then their terrour and cruelty signified by their roaring voyce and teeth are made to cease ver 10. and old oppressours want necessary means of subsistence and comfort as Job did and their children were scattered and gone as his were ver 11. Here it may be enquired for further clearing of the words 1. Whether by these reflections he point at Jobs Children also as oppressours Answ Though they may be called by the name of young Lions only as Children to him who was as he judged a Lion-like oppressour yet the breaking of the teeth of young Lions implyeth further that he judged them oppressours also and elsewhere we find Chap. 8.4 that they charged guilt upon his Children for which God had destroyed them 2. It may be enquired how Job could be charged as guilty of such a crime of oppression who had such a publick testimony of being a lover of Justice and Equity Job 29.11 17 or How his Children could be charged with it of whose meddling with affairs nothing is recorded far less of their cruelty Answ 1. Eliphaz's Principles led him to charge this crime upon them though there were no other evidence of it but that they were thus afflicted For his way of reasoning was thus sure they must have been oppressours else they had not been so crushed 2. If we consider that Job in doing justice and it may be his sons under him and at his command behoved to irritate those whose were in the wrong and whom he crushed Chap. 29.17 we may easily gather that these would be now ready to say God had justly rewarded him thus for wronging and oppressing of them as they judged it to be which agreeing with Eliphaz's Principles he without any further examination takes it for granted that their complaints were just This Discourse is no less faulty then the former Argument to conclude that because this is Gods common course with Oppressours therefore none of them are exempted and only such were so crushed and that every calumny against a Saint in trouble should be looked on as a just and true accusation And his mistake in these Reflections may further teach us 1. It is usual for Saints to lie under great misconstructions both concerning their afflictions and the cause of them Not only to have sore trouble lying upon them and it painted out in its worst colours as if God in wrath were a party and in all the branches thereof But imputations upon their carriage received in the world and believed by godly men as well as suggested to their own bosoms As here Job hath his case held out to him by Eliphaz as pursuâd by an angry God to utter ruine in his person and posterity for his great oppressions This may teach men to look and learn to a surer testimony being denyed to popular applause and not stumbling though they be misconstructed even by Saints 2. It may please God after he hath taken innocent men out of the world to suffer their names to lie under reproach behind them for the tryal of their Relations who are left behind and that all may expect that day wherein there will be a Resurrection of names as well as of bodies For here Jobs Children after their death lie
seeking to root and establish themselves on the earth Whereas the godly being in a right frame do labour to be strangers in the abundance of all things Otherwise they may surely expect to be shaken Psal 30.6 7. For it is an evidence of their folly that they are taking root and settling themselves 3. The Lord seeth it sometime sit suddainly to over-turn the wicked and their families that he may vindicate his justice in the view of the world may give warning to all the wicked of what they deserve that they abuse not his forbearance Rom. 2.4 and may encourage the godly to keep his way and trust in him whose Providence is not asleep in the world Psal 58.10 11. For it is true Eliphaz saw this verified on some that their habitation was suddainly cursed 4. Albeit the Lord do not suddainly and visibly plague every wicked man yet there is still so much of divine displeasure lying upon all of them even in their prosperity as may make godly men look upon their best estate as detestable and not to be desired For in so far this is true of all the wicked that their habitation may be seen to be accursed by right discerners And these instances of visible and suddain judgments observed by Eliphaz are evidences to discover how matters stand with all the rest It is true Saints may be tempted to judge otherwise when they look on their prosperity Psal 73.2 3 c. Yet when they go to the Sanctuary they will find that tentation to flow from their own brutishness Psal 73.16 17 21 22. And though no visible evidences of displeasure appear against every one of them Yet there is still a clear cause why their way should not be affected but their condition abominated even because they fear not before God Eccl. 8.11 12 13. 5. This is an evidence of the deplorable condition of the wicked that whatever their condition be it is a curse to them whether it be adversity or prosperity Psal 69.22 106.15 For that he saw of them suddainly cursed in their habitation or beautiful estate as the word will bear doth evidence that all of them are under and obnoxious to the curse and that visible curse is but a Declaration of what they are under before And this ought to be more adverted unto then any outward lot seeing the curse of any condition whether it be prosperity or a cross is worse then any thing beside 6. As God doth very suddainly plague some wicked men So it becometh the godly to be very clear in their judgment concerning the deserving of all and in their affections to be far from liking of their way For this suddain cursing as it relates to Eliphaz imports that in his judgment there held no long debate to conclude them miserable and that his affections do no otherwise relish their way and state then as under a sad curse And indeed It is the wisdom of the people of God not to hearken much to any debates and suggestions concerning the prosperity of the wicked nor to suffer their hearts to abate any thing of holy zeal and abhorrency of their way lest the abating of their affection and tampering with tentations prove inductive to a snare Eliphaz proceeds to branch out the particulars of this ruine of the wicked which are like the plucking up of so many branches of their roots In ver 4. he speaks of the condition of their Children who bear the prints of Gods judgments in that they are left in an unsafe condition being crushed and burne down without pity and relief from any That they are crushed in the gate may import either that they are condemned by publick Judicatories which usually met in the gates of the Cities Ruth 4.1 2 c. Or further that their afflictions whether immediately from God or from men were seconded with publick acclamations of all men for in the Gates also were the publick concourses of people Gen. 34.20 as justly and righteously inflicted and deserved by them Not to insist on the common defects of this branch of his Argument Nor how it may be the sad exercise of godly men to have their tryals represented by their own hearts or others in their blackest colours As here this reflection on Jobs Children could not but be sad and grievous to him We may further Learn 1. A chief part of a man wealth and prosperity is his Children who are a part of himself in whom he liveth after he is gone and they being pious it is his happiness to have been a parent to such heirs of glory Therefore doth Eliphaz begin at the ruine of Children as the saddest of the wickeds stroke See Psal 127.3 c. And this should teach Parents to esteem of Children and to emprove that mercy according as they are of worth in themselves 2. Albeit none will perish eternally but for their own sins Ezek. 18.2 3 4. And albeit the Lord do punish none even in this life were they only Infants but such as are guilty of sin Yet wicked Parents are ordinarily great snares and Plagues to their Children Partly while the Lord is provoked to punish Parents by afflicting their Children in their Bodies or Estates which they have from their Parents So Exod. 20.5 Thus Gods quarrel for the sins of Manasseh continued in the days of good Josiah 2 King 23.26 Thus also godly Children may bear in their bodies the fruits of their Parents uncleanness or intemperance and their Estates which they had from their Parents may moulder away in their hands Partly while the Lord who is debtor to none doth leave their Children to themselves to imitate their sins and so they serve themselves heirs to their Parents sin and punishments Matth. 23 31-35 For these causes the Plagues that come upon Children are marked as the fruit of wicked Parents sins See Deut. 28.32 And this may teach Parents as they love their Children to beware of leaving such sad debts upon the heads of their posterity 3. To be in an unsafe condition oppressed and trode upon by every one is in it self a great affliction and being the lot of wicked men it ought to be looked on as the just fruit of their insolent spirit toward God and his Law and toward others as they had power For this is the stroke drawn on by sin His children are far from safety they are crushed See Deut. 28.29 33. 4. Albeit godly men in a righteous cause may be oppressed by Judicatories on Earth and in that case they are to look up to an higher Tribunal Eccl. 5.8 Yet in it self it is a sad ingredient in trouble to be condemned by an Assembly of Gods Vicegerents which should perswade all to pray much that Judicatories may be directed of God in judgment and when such do pass a sentence against wicked men for their crimes they ought to look upon it as the sentence of Him who sitteth among the Gods Psal 82.1 pursuing them for their sins
humbly submissive to what he shall dispense For this also is found in a seeker unto God that he commit his cause to God or lay his words and matters as the Original imports before him that he may do therein as pleaseth him and make his requests known to God Phil. 4.6 let him give what answer he will See 2 Sam. 15.26 This submission imports 1. That a Supplicant should be free of bitterness and anxiety resting on God by humble confidence For the Prayers of anxiety are full of dross 2. That he ought to submit to what dispensations it pleaseth God to allow so long as he finds grace to seek on and is not driven from God as that wicked man was 2 King 6 33. 3. Though a godly man be not called to deny the truth of the grace of God in him or the Conscience of his integrity yet he ought not to build his expectations upon it but to commit all to Gods mercy from which he may expect more then he can promise himself upon the account of his integrity in it self considered Doct. 4. Albeit sin be the cause of trouble and we ought to be most sensible of sin under trouble yet no sight of God nor of God as a party in trouble ought to discourage us from seeking in to Him For the contrary is argued Because of these considerations concerning the cause of trouble ver 6 7. he infers here I would seek unto God or Surely I would seek unto God as it is in the Original For whether else can a man go or what amends can he make to God by his running away See Chap. 7.20 Yea Gods stroke is a call to come with our bleeding wound Hos 6.1 and he strikes for sin that we may bring both our wound and our sin to be cured by him Hos 5.15 5. Exhortations ought to be very tenderly and warily given to afflicted persons so as they may be cherished in duty And particularly Such as would press duties effectually ought to essay and commend them by their own practice As here Eliphaz recommends his counsel as a thing himself would follow in the like case I would seek to God c. Untender applications do oft-times âar good doctrine and it would be well remembred that it is hard to speak to afflicted broken minds That so men may deal prudently and tenderly with them and they themselves may remember they are in a distemper and therefore ought not to reject every thing as unwholesom which is unpleasant to their taste 6. Men at ease do readily think it a more easie task then indeed it is to prescribe a rule to the afflicted and that they would do far better under trouble then the afflicted do For Eliphaz doth here evidence his weakness no less then his tenderness even as to what is found in his counsel He thinks it easie to seek to God and calmly to submit and not to fret as Job did But had his soul been in Jobs souls stead and if these waves and billows which assaulted Job had passed over him he would not have found it so easie to avoid bitterness and submit to Gods dealing See Chap. 16.4 Vers 9. Which doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number This Exhortation is pressed by a motive taken from a due consideration of God as he is manifested in his works of Providence He had insinuated that God is the supreme cause of all trouble ver 6 7. and had pressed Job to seek unto God ver 8. Now he declareth that God hath so manifested himself by his works in the world as may encourage men to seek to him and may terrifie them if they will not For this end he doth first speak of Gods works in general ver 9. and then doth instance this general in some particulars such as Gods common Providence in the earth ver 10.11 and his more special Providences toward men both wicked ver 12 13 14. and the poor who are oppressed ver 15 16. In this verse God is described by some general properties of his works Such as 1. Greatness His works of Creation and many works of Providence are great in themselves and so is his work of Redemption Yea the meanest thing that he is about as he is about all things is great in this respect that a great God doth it and much of him may be seen in it 2 Unsearchableness A property of Gods works whereby God himself convinceth Job of ignorance and presumption Chap. 38 c. For not only is the nature of things wrought by God unsearchable but the manner also of working and bringing many things about Psal 92 5 6 7. And the reason and end of doing them as Joh. 13.6 3. Admirableness or that they are marvellous things As the former two properties may be referred to the works of Nature and the ordinary course of Providence which are great and unsearchable because the power and wisdom of God shine in them Rom. 1.20 So this third property may relate to those rare and marvellous Providences above or contrary unto the ordinary course of nature wherein God appears for his people Such as those recorded Dan. 3.27 6.22 and many the like Or it may rather be understood more generally that this is an effect of the other two Because they are great and unsearchable therefore they are marvellous things 4. That they are Innumerable the whole earth being full of his glory and riches Isa 6.3 Psal 104.24 and these kind of works being ordinary with him See further of these properties Job 9.10 Psal 72.18 Rom â1 33 In general we may from these properties Learn 1. Such as would seriously draw near to God ought to study what he is that so they may know how to approach and what to believe and expect Therefore doth he subjoyn this description of God as necessary to be taken along with his purpose of seeking to him See Psal 9 10. Hâb 11.6 2. Albeit God can be fully taken up only by his Word yet so much of him doth shine in his working as may both invite sinners to come to him and discover their hazard who are rebellious Therefore he presseth him to seek unto God by an argument taken from his works or what he doth For here seekers of God will find that there are as great wonders daily wrought as any they shall need to be done for them and despisers of God may see by what God daily worketh that he can easily reach them 3. Gods works even in ordinary are so great and like himself that we must not expect to see through the riches of his glory shining in them but should look upon them as unsearchable For they are great and unsearchable So that when we see most in his working we should be humbled that we see no more And if this be true even of his ordinary works how much less are we able to sound the depth of his more special Providences about his people 4.
2. Albeit man since the fall be in himself a miserable creature Yet this is his mercy that his misery doth not tender him uncapable of happiness For the word here in the Original signifieth mortal man as it is rendred Chap. 4 â7 or frail and miserable man and though he be such in himself yet Eliphaz asserteth that even such are capable of happiness Yea it is to be remarked that here and else-where the various names given to man from his base original of red-earth from his mortality his strength or other vertues and excellencies are all mentioned in assertions or promises of mans blessedness compare Psal 1.1 32.2 94 12. in the Original To shew that to be partaker of this happiness is mans glory and crown when he is considered in all his excellencies and in his basest estate this happiness will stoop to reach him in Gods way 3. Not only is frail and mortal man made capable of happiness But this happiness is oft-times promoted in such a way and by such means as will not be soon seen especially by a blind prejudged eye that can mark what displeaseth us and forget to see our own mercy and being seen it may be matter of wonder and admiration and of praise to God who brings about such mercies by so unlikely means For Behold saith he happy is the man c. It will require attention to see it and should be wondered at when we see it 4. In particular This is no less admirable then it is difficultly discerned by them who are concerned That however afflictions are bitter to our sense and seem to threaten ruin Yet they are so far from secluding happiness that they may carry a blessing and much happiness in their bosom For this is the wonder Happy is the man whom God chasteneth This is not to be understood of afflictions in their own nature For so they are the fruit of sin and consequently are in themselves a curse Nor yet doth it import that afflictions are chief causes of this happiness but only means in Gods hand who brings about the happiness of his people thereby And in particular these mercies and happinesses as the word in the Original is in the plural number may be observed in this lot 1. It is a great happiness that those dispensations do not only consist with but flow from love Heb. 12.5 Rev. 3.19 2. It is a mercy to be corrected and chastened only when we might be destroyed if we got our deserving Lam. 3 22. 3. It is a mercy that chastisements are sent to prevent judgments if they be well improved 1 Cor. 11.32 4 It is a mercy that corrections sent of God are seconded by Gods gracious purpose to do good thâreby to his own Psal 94. â2 13. and accordingly do produce blessed effects Psal 1â9 67 71. Rev. 12.11 Psal 31.7 Provided that we patiently endure Jam. 1.12 5.11 And in a word Be man what they will and be their stroke what it will they may come to blessed advantages by improving and walking aright under it Sâranger may find acquaintance made up Rebels and Wanderers may be reclaimed Such as were under a cloud may find a Joseph making himself known c. All which may teach us As not to decline afflictions when called thereunto as we would not deprive our selves of much happiness So to be much affected with the mercies we meet with in such lots and to learn from it that the love of God is not a fond love but respects our profit rather then our humour Doct. 5 As the advantages of trouble are met with in our making ââât use of them So none do rightly believe or prize thoââ advantages but they who in the expectation thereof are encouraged to patience For so doth Eliphaz argue Happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty Vers 18. For he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole The second Argument pressing the Exhortation doth confirm the former and point out one branch of this happiness reaped by Gods chastisements Namely That God makes up all losses to the right improvers of affliction which is expressed in tearms borrowed from Chirurgeons who do lance and rip up putrified sores and wounds that they may heal and cure them perfectly and for that end do tenderly bind up all those wounds Learn 1. Gods purpose of doing good by afflictions will not appear by the afflicteds ease and his want of pain and grief under them For even where be intends the afflicteds happiness yet he maketh sore and woundeth See Heb. 2.11 2. Albeit God might exercise his absolute Soveraignty over all his creatures yet it is his kindness to his people that in his greatest severity he cometh not to them with the Souldiers Sword but with the Chirurgeons Lancet wounding when it is for their health chastening for their profit to rip up unmortified and deadly sores For so doth the Metaphors import See Heb. 12.10 And this teacheth us As to be sensible of dangerous sores when God falls thus to work So also to account it our happiness that they are not let alone but we are made sore and to smart with them 3. It is the afflicteds great encouragement to seek to God in afflictions and to bear them patiently waiting on him That as all strokes comâ from the hand of God so no wound given by himself is above his own cure and no stroke too hard for him to remedy For he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole Were it even a slaying stroke he can cure it Deut. 32.39 1 Sam. 2.6 4. Gods wounding of his people who make right use thereof not only doth not take away ground of hope of his help but on the contrary doth endear them to his care so that he will tenderly wait on them till they be made up again For whatever afflictions or Gods afflicting seem to say yet to such it is an Argument if he make sore he will bind up if he wound his hands will make whole See Hos 6 1. Psal 147 2 3. And therâfore they miss much who either do not see him or not wait on him in trouble 5 Albeit afflicted Saints when delivered be only restored to their former condâtion and so there seem to be no gâeat advantage in it but rather a disadvantage that they have ââamed it so long yet right disceâners will find an happiness in trouble even upon the account of thiâ issuâ For they are happy whom God correcteth for he maketh sore and bindeth up c. It is an happiness that they are not irrecoverably ruine bât restored after affliction Every restored mercy after we have been deprived of it should be a double mercy in our eyes and sensible souls will esteem it so It is an happiness that what we enjoyed before as a common favour is returned as a gift of special love when we havâ profited by
smother whole Armies and yet when it is much augmented by its continuance and renewed provocations from his Friends he is made to subsist under all of it The third evidence of the greatness of his trouble is taken from an effect of its weight that it swallowed up his words or it put him to silence and he wanted words when he spake to express the greatness of his grief This must not be understood so as if Job could justifie himself that he complained too little For how little soever he spake he complained too much But in this respect it is true that his trouble went above his expression though he ought not to have reflected on God because of that And the truth of this evidence may appear not only from his seven days silence with his Friends before he spake Chap. 2.13 with 3.1 But that when he spake his speech was interrupted with sighs and groans and what he said was far short of his case It is true his own distemper and bitterness had no small hand in this yet it is no less true that his real afflictions were so vast and great that it was nothing to be wondered at if he could nor express them fully Doct. 7. It is a great ease to an afflicted person to get liberty to express and pour out his grievances whether in the bosom of a confident tender friend or especially to God For so much doth this regret import Such as get their heart poured forth with Hannah 1. Sam. 1.15 have reason to be thankful 2. It is the great aggravation of some afflictions that they are above all complaints and expressions of sorrow that silence is the best oratory that can express them and that they who are under them do sadly feel them but cannot utter them For so was it with Job my words are swallowed up They who are in this case ought to look much unto God who not only hears what we lay but observes what we need Hos 14.8 and ought to believe that when they are full of confusion he will see and ponder their affliction Job 10.15 Vers 4. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in aray against me The fourth evidence of his great trouble clearing and confirming all the rest is taken from the cause and kind of his trouble That it was the Almighty God with whom he had to do and that in apparent severity Whose dealing with him he expresseth in two Metaphors 1. Of poisoned arrows made use of by some Nations which had not only given him a piercing wound but the poyson of them had proceeded further even to the inflaming of his vital spirits to the hazard of his life By which poysoned Arrows we must understand not only his boils the heat and inflammation whereof had dried up his moisture vigour and strength but all his other outward troubles also which stuck fast in him and his inward tentations and sense of Gods wrath flowing there-from which like the inward deep wound of the arrow had by the furious poyson thereof so exhausted him that he was ready to faint and give it over See Psal 38.1 2. 2. Of an Army set in Battel-aray By which he understands the terrours of God shewing that he had not only present tentations but future fears mustered up before him and that not in a tumultuary way but as in Battel-aray so that he could not think to escape In this sad description of his case there want not some weaknesses and mistakes For he doth apprehend God more terrible then he was or intended to be in his dealing toward him Nor wanted he special proofs of Gods love if it were but that he had grace given still to cleave to God which he ought to have observed and ackowledged amidst all his resentments And albeit his case had been really no less terrible then he apprehended Yet it had been no argument to justifie his bitter complaint Chap. 3. which is his scope in this Narration But on the other hand we ought to avoid the errour of Eliphaz in censuring too rigidly the complaint of this deserted Saint who doth here represent his case truly as his present sense and deserted condition represented it to be For as he did well in not noticing of Satan but eying of God in all that befel him So the multiplicity of his strokes on every hand and his inward desertion could not but make him apprehend that his case was thus deadly Hence Learn 1. Though to quarrel and complain of God in any case be a great fault Yet it pleads for much compassion to Saints when they do not make a stir about their lot except when their trouble is extream For so doth Job prove the former general evidences of his great trouble by producing real instances thereof For the Arrows of the Almighty are within me c. 2. It is the duty of those in trouble to turn their eyes off all Instruments that they may look to God For Job hath not a word of Sabeans Caldeans or of Satan but of the Almighty God They who see and eye him little in trouble their trouble will do them the less good or rather no good at all 3. As it is our duty always to entertain high and reverent thoughts of God Gen. 14.19 20 22. So trouble will cause men to know his Almighty power Therefore is Job in this particular made to see him the Almighty 4. A sight of God as a party and of his great power put forth in trouble will make it very formidable and this may be represented to the truly godly for their tryal and exercise For this affects Job that he hath seen God as the Almighty in his trouble 5. It is an humbling sight of Gods Almighty power in trouble when his strokes are like Arrows and do not only pierce deep and come suddenly and swiftly upon men as an arrow doth But especially do speak God angry at them in that he makes them his Butt at which he shoots and God at a distance from them in smiting of them as Arrows are shot by an Enemy at a distance And all this may a Child of God apprehend in his trouble As Job here doth while he compareth his trouble to the Arrows of the Almighty 6. In this case the number of troubles doth contribute much to afflict the Child of God every particular stroke adding to the weight So Job resents that there was not one Arrow only but Arrows of the Almighty shot at him 7. When God in his power and displeasure appears to be the godlies party his strokes cannot but pierce deep and wound even the soul For saith he the Arrows of the Almighty do not only touch or hurt and wound me but are within me As an Arrow shot by a strong hand makes a deep piercing wound so do strokes coming thus from Gods Almighty hand For if it be a fearful
duty he expected should have been performed to him Namely that he who was afflicted should have met with pity and kindness from a friend and a godly friend Especially when his affliction was not ordinary but a melting down as the word is or a wasting of his courage and strength 2. He chargeth him with the neglect of this duty pointing at the cause of this neglect which was the abandoning of the fear of God which would have restrained him from this cruel and rigid way of proceeding and withal he insinuates how dangerous it was to forsake this fear of God who being the Almighty could easily punish contemners of his Majesty And so whereas Eliphaz chargeth on him that his carriage spake him to be destitute of the fear of God Chap. 4.4 5 6. he retorts the charge asserting that his inhumanity did much rather prove that to be his own case From this verse Learn 1. Afflictions especially if they be great and sharp will soon exhaust created strength and cause it melt like wax before the fire For Job insinuates that he was melted See Psal 22.14 2. In a condition of sad affliction albeit none can give complete case or deliverance but God alone Yet sympathie and compassion from men will contribute somewhat to sweeten and allay the bitterness of that cup For pity from a friend would have afforded some ease to Job 3. True friendship ought to shew it self in times of affliction were it but in sympathie and pity when men can do no more and they ought so to compassionate as they may be stirred up to do all that they can for the afflicteds relief And especially it is required when the greatness of the affliction calls aloud for it that not only men forbear to be cruel but that they be kind also For to him that is afflicted or melted pity should be shewed from his friend A brother is born for adversity Prov. 17.17 and tryals are let forth not only to try those who are touched with them but to try the tenderness and sympathie of others also See Obad. ver 11 12. 4 Though sympathie with those in trouble be the duty of friends yet godly men may expect to be deprived of this for the perfecting of their tryal For Job may well assert that this is their duty but he finds no such thing among them 5. The fear of God in the hearts of men is so effectual to make them charitable in judging of the state of others Iam 4.11.12 and compassionate and tender toward these in troubles Gen. 42.18 That where these are wanting men cannot sufficiently evidence that they have the fear of God by their Professions Prayers or other common practices For Job interpreteth this want to be a forsaking of the fear of the Almighty See Iam. 1.27 Col. 3.12 13. 1 Joh. 4.20 For true Piety and Humanity flowing there from do require that men do not deny sympathie and what help they can afford to the afflicted were it but a room in their heart and a wise consideration of their case Psal 41.1 And therefore it cannot be Piety that prompts men to discourage the godly under their afflictions far less to be active in inflicting their troubles 6. As it is said to be altogether void of the fear of God so it is a very heinous sin when men who pretend to the fear of God do make apostasie and relinquish that course Or when they who really fear God do abandon it in part especially in these practices and duties which are their present work and exercise to which God calls them For this he chargeth upon Eliphaz that he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty Not that he peremptorily asserteth him to be an hypocrite or a total Apostate but that he did abandon his present duty of sympathie whereby God called him now to evidence his Piety 7. It is a very dangerous thing to evidence the want of the fear of God or to give any proof of our forsaking thereof in particular exigents and trying duties he being the Almighty God with whom men have to do in that case Therefore doth he point out this sin to be a forsaking of the fear of the Almighty See Jer. 5.20 Vers 15. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook and as the stream of brooks they pass away 16. Which are blackish by reason of the ice and wherein the snow is hid 17. What time they wax warm they vanish when it is hot they are consumed out of their place 18. The paths of their way are turned aside they go to nothing and perish 19. The troops of Tema looked the companies of Sheba waited for them 20. They were confounded because they had hoped they came thither and were ashamed 21. For now ye are nothing ye see my casting down and are afraid In these verses Job chargeth all his three Friends with deceitful and unfaithful disappointing of his expectation This charge is propounded in proper terms ver 15. that his Brethren had dealt far otherwise with him then he expected And it is illustrated by a comparison in the rest of the verses Wherein we are to consider 1. The Proposition of the comparison ver 15 20. It is taken from Winter-brooks in those dry and hot Countries ver 15. which being full of water and locked up with black Ice and Snow do seem to promise that they will keep that store for another season ver 16. But in Summer when the heat cometh the Earth drinketh and the Sun drieth up these Brooks so that they vanish and come to nothing and their current is not to be found like a passenger that is gone out of the way ver 17 18. Whence it came to pass that those Travellers of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah and Ishmael Gen. 25.1 2 3 13 14 15. who with other Easterlings marched together in troops with their Beasts for carriage Gen. 37.25 Isai 21.13 and so needed much water were pitifully disappointed For seeing those Brooks so full in Winter when they travelled that way they laid their account to lodge by them in Summer ver 19. But not only did they miss of their expectation but were confounded and ashamed that ever they should have expected such a benefit by them ver 20. 2. The Application of the comparison Which is not only summarily hinted in the entry ver 15. but more clearly put home ver 21. Wherein 1. He asserts they are nothing or which is the same ye are like to it nothing as they are Before they seemed to be his great Friends such as he might have expected much kindness from in his affliction and their unexpected visit might have heightned his expectation But now in his strait he finds that they are nothing or as good as nothing in respect of what they should have been and he expected from them being unfit to play the friends in his strait as he asserteth Chap. 13.4 2. He gives an evidence and proof of this assertion
this was an evidence that Job's course was wrong seeing he came so easily by it in his passion 2. Albeit complaints against God be in any case unlawful Yet this adds to the sinfulness thereof when we run voluntarily and without any restraint upon them As Job professeth to do here Otherwise it is an extenuation of the fault when our complaints run violently over the belly of our consent as we will find it befel Job afterward Chap. 10. where he speaks more distinctly of this exercise Obs 3. The more remote ground and rise of this complaining is bitterness of soul and anguish or as the word is straitness of spirit which cannot contain his griefs Oâ this distemper of an imbittered spirit See Chap. 3.20 Only here we may further Learn 1. However mens spirits when at ease do rove at large yet trouble will soon straiten them It will hem them in from gadding abroad to seek imaginary delights and will soon over-charge them so as they cannot contain or bear their sorrows For Job here is put to anguish or straitness of spirit 2. Bitterness and discontent rather then humility is the ordinary result of a straitned spirit For upon anguish of spirit followeth bitterness of soul 3. Bitterness is a very unsutable frame wherewith to go to God in trouble and will produce unbeseeming language to God For in this condition all his speaking is to complain Thus we find the Prayer of the Disciples very passionate in trouble Mar. 4.38 Obs 4. The immediate rise of this his resolution is implied in the inference Therefore I will not refrain c As if he had said Seeing my end is so neer at hand when I will be deprived of all worâdly enjoyments and seeing I can get no ease from God by laying my case before him as he had essayed to do ver 7 8 9 10. I will now rather then be over-charged with affliction ease my self by complaining This teacheth 1. It is a great snare upon afflicted spirits when they think they have reason for their distempered humours As Job here speaks of his way and resolution as a rational inferânce drawn from the consideration of his case and what he had said formerly Thus was it also with Jonah Joâ 4.9 2. Long-continued trouble and our seeing no relief nor ease under it may discover much boisterousness and untractableneness in us For in this case more of will appears in Job's resolutions then formerly 3. Disappointment of help and relief when we pray to God in trouble will readily incâease bâtterness and heighten our distemper For Job not speeding in his former desire ver 7 c doth upon that infert that therefore he will now complain It is indeed a sore tryal when Prayer to God in trouble seems not to be successful Job 3â 20 Psal 80.4 And therefore we ought to guard against stumbling at it By believing aâceptance in wârrantable desires though we cannot discern it 1 Joh 5 14 â5 By humility causing us think little of our selvâs or of our Prayers and this will prevent that quarrelling unto which hypocrisie prompts men Isa 58 3 Mal 3.14 â5 By justifying and commending of God whatever our sense suggest against his dealing Psal 22.1 2. with 3. and By a fixed resolution to pray on how unsuccessful soever it seem to be Psal 88.1 13 14. Vers 12. Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me Followeth the complaint it self where the thing he complains of may be gathered from the whole Discourse to be his great and insupportable trouble That being arrested by affliction ver 12. without any rest or ease ver 14 15. God would neither cut him off ver 16. nor mitigate his trouble ver 19. nor be reconciled with him and take away any quarrels he had against him ver 21. But left him under his burden without relief one way or other Those particulars regrets may be considered as I go through the words Here I shall summarily take up the words as a complaint directed against God that he should be so sharply afflicted This he presseth upon four grounds or Arguments The first whereof in this verse is That his trouble was disproportionable not only to his strength of which see Chap. 6.12 but to any need he conceived he had of such a measure of trouble seeing in his judgment less might serve his turn What he hints at of the Sea and Whale doth point at what is more fully expressed Job 38.8 9 10 11. of the boisterous nature of the Sea if it were not hemmed in and of the Lords confining of the vast Whale to be kept within the Sea Psal 104.25 26. or Land-Dragons as the word also signifieth to abide in Deserts lest they should hurt men or at their being chained by men when they are taken So the meaning of the words is That he is neither so tumultuous and untameable as he must be hemmed in from sin and violence by those strong afflictions nor so terrible a delinquent that he should need so strong a guard to keep him under arrest till he be tryed and his cause judged Of this arrest and enquiry we find him complaining again Chap. 10.6 7. Chap. 13.27 This Argument and way of reasoning doth point out those truths 1. The Lords Providence extends it self to the ordering of all creatures even to the over-ruling of the most unruly For he hath a watch over Seas and Whales or Dragons to bound and limit them His hand can find men even in the uttermost parts of the Sea and among Sea-monsters as a proof that he is there Psal 139.9 10. Amos 9.3 and there he can give proofs of love to his people as he did to Jonah in the Whales belly in the midst of the Sea and to Daniel in the Lions den 2. It is a great mercy and brings much ease to men when they are not stubborn and untameable and are not as a Sea or Whale that need a watch over them For stubborn mockers do procure strong bonds Psal 68. 6. Lev. 26.21 23 24 27 28. Isa 9.9 10 11. Chap. 28.22 whereas the meek do dwell at much ease See Psal 32.9 10. Hos 10.11 But beside those general Truths there are many mistakes and weaknesses in this arguing For First It is mans weakness that he hath too good an opinion of himself and is ready to think he hath no need of Gods way of dealing with him Am I saith he a Sea or a Whale that thou settest a watch over me Whereas man should reckon he needs every thing that God makes his lot and that it is but if need be that he is in any heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 Secondly Job's enquiry if he was a Sea or Monster needing such a guard doth bewray his ignorance of mans nature and even of himself though gracious in particular For 1. Every man by nature is no less tumultuous and untameable then the raging Sea Isa 57.20 which may be instanced In
must âmoââ of his Friends against him This sharpning and quickning of our renewed tryals is ordered by God to keep us from formality and carelesness under them 3. The Children of God in their tryals may expect not only hard usage from God himself but to be hardly allowed audience by others in their complaints or get a good construction in what they say that so they may be fully tried on all hands For so doth Bildad carry toward Job and his discourses How long wilt thou speak these things and the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind full of violent impetuous passion but without any thing of reason Not only are the godly to lay their account to be mocked by the wicked in their troubles Psal 69.10 but to be a fear to their acquaintance Psal 31.11 and to have their godly friends not only mistaking but very angry at them as here This the Lord doth That he may wean his people from applause That he alone may have the glory of supporting them under all those loads superadded to their burdens And That by such examples as these we may be armed for such a tryal to have many godly friends on our tops and condemning us not only in a particular cause and debate but even in our personal state As here they dealt with Job 4. Passion prejudice and mistakes will breed ill constructions and misrepresentations of things which would appear otherwise to the impartial observer For from these causes it flowed that Bildad so judgeth of Job's discourses which were true and serious though mixed with frailty Prejudices do indeed hinder the sight of truth and our right estimation of things And while we charge every consequence that may follow upon a principle upon the maintainer of the principle as if that consequence were expresly intended by him while we charge every thing as a design upon a man that his way leads to and while we judge that such and such persons or persons so and so dealt with by God cannot have a good cause we will never judge right And therefore jealousie over our selves and love and calmness in reference to others are requisite if we would judge righteous judgment Vers 3. Doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert justice In this verse which begins the second part of the Chapter he asserts the justice of God which he thought Job reflected upon and so taxes his doctrine more particularly And for confirmation of this Assertion he appeals to Job's own conscience if it be right to assert that God who is Omnipotent doth not walk according to the title of justice in his procedure with men As for the two words here used Judgment and Justice they may be taken indifferently as expressing one and the same thing Or if we distinguish them sometime one of them serves to express Gods righteous procedure in punishing the wicked and the other his procedure in vindicating the righteous when they are oppressed Yet so as both these words are indifferently used in Scripture to express the one or other of these Or they may be differenced thus judgment points at the accurate tryal of the cause speaking after the manner of men before he proceed to sentence and justice at his sentencing according as the cause requireth Or they may be more exactly differenced thus justice is between two the Judge and the Party judgment is betwixt three the Judg and two Parties And accordingly the meaning of Bildad's assertion may be thus extended That Job had no cause to impeach Gods justice neither in what he had inflicted upon him immediately by his own hand or in punishing him for his sins against himself nor yet in what he inflicted mediately by instruments or for his sins against his neighbours This is a true Assertion but Job is unjustly charged with the denial and quarrelling of it in their sense and accordingly he vindicates himself Chap. 9.2 For 1. Job's maintaining of his own righteousness is not a quarrelling of Gods righteousness who afflicted him Job held both to be true though he could not reconcile Gods deâling with the testimony of his own Conscience that did evidence his weakness but not charge God with unrighteousness 2. As for his complaints of Gods dealing he was indeed more culpable therein and convinced to be so by God then he would at first see and acknowledge Yet therein he intended no direct accusation against Gods righteousness But they only shew that the weight of trouble and frailty of the flesh will put Saints so hard ãâã it that there will be a conflict betwixt Faith and Sense about Gods dealing in which case there is a liberty of laying out their perplexity before God as a mean to break and weaken their tentations This was Job's way though sometime his sense prevailed too much in it which because Bildad understood not through want of experience therefore he mistook him From this purpose we may Learn 1. The Justice of God is so uncontrovertedly clear in all his proceeding whether he act immediately or mediately by instruments that the Conscience of the greatest complainer when put to it seriously must subscribe to it and all are bound to the defence of it as witnesses for God So much doth Bildad's way of propounding this doctrine import He is not content nakedly to assert it that God is righteous but by way of interrogation puts it home to Job's Conscience as a truth he could not deny Doth God pervert judgment c And by his vehemency in asserting this he witnesseth his own bounden duty zealously to stand for the maintenance thereof And therefore they do sin egregiously who do indeed quarrel God Psal 73.10 Mal. 2.17 3.13 14 15. And Saints ought to be very careful of justifying God even in his hardest dispensations Neh. 9.32 33. Psal 22.3 51.4 and to be very wary of giving any occasion to others to misconstruct them as if they were quarrelling God as Job did to Bildad by his passionate complaints 2. Such as know God in his perfect and holy nature and Attributes will see clear cause to justifie God in his proceeding and particularly they who look upon his Omnipotent Power and All sufficiency will see that he can neither be moved to injustice by hope of any reward nor hindered to be just by the fear of the greatness of any or any other by-respect and therefore must be unquestionably just This confirmation of Gods righteousness is insinuated in that he calls him God who is infinitely pure and holy and the Almighty or All-sufficient And this doth teach us partly that the right way to judge of Gods dealing and his righteousness therein is not only to look downward upon his sharp dispensations wherein passion and sense may be ready to bemist us but to look upward to God the worker believing that his work is like himself whatever our sense say to the contrary And partly that such as quarrel Gods dealing do indeed reflect
in the world and what they ought to submit unto if it be made their loâ As 1. When they are in a settled estate and all things go smoothly with them they may meet with a breach and wound For he breaketh me and there are wounds 2. This breach may be made suddainly and violently as if it were in great displeasure He breakâth me with a tempest This may teach us to digest breachâs and find them more sweet when come on in a more mild and calm way 3. This breach may be made by many strokes reaching uâ in many of our concerns in body mind goods fââânds c. and reaching each of them by stroke after stroke He multiplieth my wounds This may teach us when we are under calamity rather to be looking and preparing for more then quarrelling what is lying upon us and to account it a mercy to want any tryal which in probability might befal us and that one waye of trouble is not following upon the back of another 4. These multiplied breaches and wounds may come upon us incâssantly not suffering us to take our breath that we learn to acknowledge the mercy of breatââng times See also Chap 7.19 5. Upon all these sâd ingredients in the Saints cup there may follow the sad affliction of being imbitterâd yea filled with bitterness at and because of them See King 4.27 Hereby the Lord discovers his mercy to those who possess a quiet mind under trouble and calleth them to be humbled whose bitter dispositions he permits to break loose and so discovers what is in their hearts Doct. 4 In all these sad tossings of Saints it is their duty and advantage not to lose the sight of Providence but to see an hand of God doing all these things that they may be humbled before him who puts them in the furnace to discover their dross and may be comforted when they know they are in his hand who is infinitely wise compassionate and faithful Therefore doth Job ascribe all this to God He breaketh me c. Yea even his bitterness he looks upon it as his weakness which God will have for wise ends discovered See Lam. 3.15 5. Saints are also bound to believe that all their sad lots from God may consist with their being righteous and approved of him For notwithstanding all Gods terrible dispensations toward him yet he asserts God did them without cause This is Gods own verdict concerning Job and his tryals Chap. 2 3. The meaning whereof is not that God had no cause nor end in doing all this nor yet that Job wanted sin to deserve all of it if that were his meaning it were a most passionate and unjust complaint even when he is declining to complain or contend But that he was not guilty of gross wickedness and hypocrisie which are the evils which God pursues with his wrath This Job was not convinced nor guilty of and therefore refuseth to take with it And this teacheth godly men not to mistake as if sad afflictions did prove them wicked and were sent to cause them renounce the testimony of their own Consciences And it may warn the wicked who may expect sad things when such things as these are done even to the righteous 6. The strokes which are inflicted upon Saints walking in their integrity should humble them and make them afraid of gross provocations for so much doth the scope of all this argument teach He who was so afflicted being innocent could not expect that contending with God would prosper in his hand It is a very sweet frame of spirit when mens good Conscience under trouble makes them the more tender and afraid to sin though oft-times their corruptions and weakness over-drive them to do otherwise Vers 19. If I speak of strength loe he is strong and if of Judgment who shall set me a time to plead The fourth ground of Job's resolution not to contend is the same in substance with that general Argument v. 12. taken from the power dominion of God which he repeats and acknowledgeth to be of force in his case to keep him from contending The sum is as if Job had said It were madness in me to offer to strive with God For if I presume to do it by the strong hand he is strongest and invincible and I am lying on a dunghil like a filthy Leper And if I offer to plead by way of argument and law there is no Superiour Judge to set a day for pleading betwixt him and me to cause parties compeere to give security to me in pleading and to execute the sentence But he is Supreme Judge who can do no wrong and from whom there is no appeal Hence Learn 1. God is the Omnipotent and strong Lord for whom nothing is too hard and with whom no creature can grapple for If a speak of strength lo he is strong This may teach Saints to trust in him in greatest difficulties and when he maketh use of weak means of help 1 Cor. 1.25 and to stoop before him 1 Cor. 10.22 2. As God is Omnipotent and invincible in power so he is also supreme and soveraign Judge accountable to none and before whom none can stand in judgement by the help of any creature For If I speak of judgment who shall set me a time to wit to plead as is well added in the Translation For the word imports an appointing of a solemn time for any affair and here for judgment and pleading in judgment as the context makes clear 3. God is then rightly known and acknowledged in his power and soveraignty when it humbleth us and makes us stand in awe to sin before him for Job brings in those as an argument here why he will not contend with God Vers 20. If I justifie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse The fifth ground of his resolution is taken from the prejudice that would redound to himself by his pleading himself to be righteous and perfect before God Which is not to be understood as hath been marked before of his righteousness by justification nor of his sincerity and integrity in begun renovation and sanctification For these and even this last particularly he pleads before his friends and before God also according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace But it is to be understood of perfect righteousness and sinlesness before God and according to the Law and Covenant of Works and of his pleading of this or any other righteousness to the prejudice of the Righteousness of God who afflicted him And so the meaning is as if Job had said If I should presume thus to plead my righteousness He could not only put my Conscience to it to make me condemn my self with my own mouth but that same very proud speech in justifying my self were sufficient to condemn me not only by reason of the many failings which God would find in the way of my managing my defence
temporal enjoyments and contentments do hinge and to deprives us of them irrecoverably and without hope of restitution which other stââkes do not and leaves us in an unchangeable estate And therefore if men have not some cordial for it and somewhat provided which it cannot reach it is no wonder if it affright them 9. The consideration of the ugliness of death and the grave doth call upon all to provide somewhat before they lie down in that cold bed wherein they will continue so long and somewhat that may light them through that dark passage and especially to be careful that they be not deserted or distempered by then passions when they are to grapple with death For so doth Job desire that he may take comfort a little before he go c. Whatever thoughts men may have of death yet none do âightly mind it but such as are thus imployed Only we must take this caution along That if God see it fit to suffer our Sun to go down in a cloud and send us out of the world in a violent tempest we ought to submit and reckon that our Sun is not out of the Firmament though it be over-clouded For this was one of Job's mistakes if he did reckon it as absolutely necessary that he must have a breathing and some comfort before he die CHAP. XI Job having answered to the Discourses of two of his Friends Zophar the third of them doth now set upon him And albeit he might have had much to say against his distempers and fits of passion for which Elihu and God himself do condemn him yet he chooseth rather to fall in with his Friends opinion and take their way of condemning Job Which he prosecuteth with very bitter and sharp language though he take other Arguments to prove their common Conclusion that Job was neither sound in judgment nor in practice In the Chapter we have 1. A Preface wherein he doth in general condemn Job and his Discourses and pointeth out the necessity he conceived there was of replying to what he had said v. 1 2 3. 2. A more express endeavour to refute his Principles and Assertions For whereas Job had asserted his own soundness of judgment and his purity in conversation v. 4. He wisheth that God would discover the mysteries of wisdom to him which would let him see more of his own ill deservings v. 5 6. And insists to commend the wisdom of God v. 7 8 9. his Irresistibleness v. 10. and his Holiness and Justice accompanying his Wisdom and Knowledge v. 11. giving a check to brutish mans proud folly who dare presume to compete with God in the point of wisdom v. 12. 3. He seasons this harsh usage with an Exhortation to repent and turn to God v. 13 14. subjoyning ample ground of encouragement if he obeyed v. 15 19. and of terrour if he continued obstinate v. 20. Vers 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and said 2. Should not the multitude of words be answered and should a man full of talk be justified 3. Should thy lies make men hold their peace and when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed IN this Preface Zophar passeth a general censure upon all Job's Discourses accusing him of much idle talk as if he were a man of lips or all made of lips as it is in the Original of being a liar or a contriver of witty devices to make his cause seem plausible and probable and of mocking in his discourses or being one who contemned all admonitions and those who would reprove him and who spake in his own defence as if he would insult both over God who refuted him by afflictions and over men who advised him for his own good Upon this he inferreth that as all those would not prove his cause good but rather make it worse so it could not hinder men to answer and refute him lest they should be accessory to his guilt in his idle empty discourses and should wrong belyed truth and fail in their duty in not labouring to bear down his proud and scornful insolency This he propounds to Job himself by way of question both to testifie his vehement detestation of these supposed faults in Job and to shew that he thought his duty to reply was so evidently necessary that Job himself might see it As for this Discourse it is in Thesi or taken abstractly and in the general true and sound and will afford as useful Instructions But in the application of it to Job and his Discourses there is a double fault 1. That he erred in his judgment concerning Job For whatever fault was in his discourses for which the Lord and Elihu do reprehend him and particularly he is reprehended for scorning Chap. 34.7 either in the preceeding or some following Discourse yet in what Zophar and his other Friends do reprehend he was right and they wrong And particularly whatever faults are to be reprehended in Job's way of discourse which are neither few nor light as may be gathered from the remarks upon them yet it was great want of charity to count him a babler who though he spoke more then they yet fought only to lay out his distress for his own ease and whose grief was above expression Chap. 6.3 Or to account him a lyar who had resolved the contrary Chap. 6.28 and who whatever untruths he asserted in justifying his passionate desire of death and his other arguings with God yet spake truth in the controversie betwixt him and his Friends Nor was it just he should account him a mocker who not only was now so afflicted that he is thinking only on death but did not insolently reject any sound counsel of theirs and whatever height of spirit appeared in his managing of his just cause yet none of those prove him wicked which is the conclusion his Friends do inferre against him 2. Whatever might have been justly charged upon Job's discourses yet it was Zophar's fault to reprove him so hotly and bitterly without any charity meekness or moderation So this Doctrine considered together with the misapplication thereof Teacheth 1. Gods people when they are put in the furnace must expect not to have soon done with it but that one tryal will follow another and that it will be the longer the hotter For so Job after he hath refuted two of his friends is assaulted by a third more bââtel and sharp then they 2. It is one sharp tryal of Saints to lie under misconstructions and mistakes and never to be seen in their true colours but through the Perspective of Prejudices and Passion and that even by good men so that either untruths are charged upon them or these weaknesses which they are driven upon in extremities are misconstructed For such is Job's lot from his Friends See Psal 56.5 69.10 This should teach men to guard against taking of prejudices and even godly men should beware of judging others who are afflicted and tempted when themselves have no experience
4.4 2. Cor. 10.18 And being clean in his eyes or having his approbation we ought not much to regard misconstructions from men Psal 35.11 12 13. Job 16.20 3. Men even good men may be so far blinded as to judge Truth to be Errour either simplie mistaking the one for the other or misconstructing mens true expressions and charging more upon their speaches then they meant by them For so doth Zophar quarrel and intend to refute this true assertion of Job In the first branch thereof condemning his pure Doctrine as unsound and in the second relating to his Conversation and purity of life reckoning it unsound that he who was so afflicted should reckon himself a regenerate and purified man or at least judging him an insolent lyar in asserting that he was without sin This should warn godly and Orthodox men to be guarded against such exercises as these 4. As men ought not to quit the testimony of their integrity so they ought to speak very soberly and humbly of it before God Not only that they may avoid guilt and sin which they contract by pride and insobriety but that they may also prevent the misconstructions of others For herein Job failed as God afterward marketh and by his way of managing his good cause in bitter Complaints and Expostulations with God gave some occasion of this challenge and misconstruction as if he had thought and spoken too highly of his own purity Vers 5. But O that God would speake and open his lips against thee 6. And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdome that they are double to that which is know therefore that God exacteth of thee less then thine iniquity deserveth In the second place Zophar in these verses subjoyns his intended Refutation of this Assertion of Job wherein for the more distinct understanding of the words we are to consider First The way he takes to refute Job Which in stead of arguing with him himself is by wishing and desiring that God would take him in hand to dispute with him according to his own desire Chap. 9.34 35. and refute and convince him v. 5. He speaks of God in terms taken from among men and wisheth that God would not only speak or make him know his mind which might be done by inward Inspiration but that he would open his lips against him or speak with an audible voyce to him and convince him in the hearing of all of them Consider Secondly That whereby he expects God could convince him and wisheth he could do it is by shewing him the secrets of wisdom that they are double to that which is v. 6. For understanding whereof we are to remark 1. This wisdom the secrets whereof he desireth may be shewed is the wisdom and knowledge of God which though it be in it self a great depth and be unsearchable in his Providences and Dispensations in the world Rom. 11.33 and is commended as such in general v. 7 8 9. to confirm his particular conclusion intended here yet in this place it is only to be understood of his secret or infinite wisdom in knowing of men and what their faults are as may be gathered from the Inference in the end of the verse And what is more expresly asserted v. 11. 2. These secrets of wisdom are said to be double to that which is which is not to be understood of any exact Proportion as if they were only double and no more to it but generally the meaning is that those secrets of wisdom are much more then that which is so Isa 40.2 3. But the great obscurity in these words is occasioned by the word rendered here that which is It signifieth sound wisdom a law and that which hath an essence or being and really exists or is as here All those agree and come to one purpose here That the secrets of Gods wisdom in knowing man and his faults according to the strict rule of the spiritual law which was then imprinted in their hearts and otherwise revealed to them though not as yet written were double or much more then any thing man can know of himself or then what exists in mans soundest judgment and knowledge of himself or he can see and take up in that law And that therefore God knew that of man which deserves double to any trouble that is or exists and lies upon him This last clearly followeth upon the former considering the demerit of sin and doth sute well with his Inference which is the Third thing to be considered and a Key to open the former words v. 6. wherein he would have Job know and consider that notwithstanding all the afflictions had befaln him yet God did exact less then his iniquity deserved or God so to say forgets of his iniquity and doth not remember all of it when he chastiseth him Or he lends out of his iniquity as the word will also bear upon interest or to a day when he afflicts him that is he oâeth God more then he hath yet payed and is obliged by reason of his sin to greater punishments then he yet fâlt Thus the meaning of this whole purpose in short is That if God would interpose to debate this cause with Job and let him know how spiritual the Law is how much he knoweth of man according to that Law above what man knoweth of himself and how much man sins according to the sentence of that Law deserve above what is inflicted upon him in this life Job would not have spoken so much as he did of his own purity but would have looked upon his sufferings as far short of his deservings This is sound General Doctrine That Gods Law is most spiritual and perfect That his Wisdom and Knowledge of Man is above what he can know of himself That mans sins transcends his own knowledge and even godlies mens deservings are above their saddest calamities But all this proves nothing against Job who whatever his failings were in the heat of the debate never pleaded perfection according to the strict rigor of the Law nor sinlesness but only that he was sincere according to the tenor and condescendance of the Covenant of Grace Nor did he deny his own ill deservings but only pleaded that he was not wicked notwithstanding his afflictions and his afflictions being very sharp he resented that they should have been inflicted upon him a reconciled man as if God were about to destroy and cut him off in anger In this purpose considered abstractly and in general we may observe those sounds Truths and Instructions 1. Errours are such bewitching and intangling evils that whatever be mens duty to oppose them yet the rooting out thereof is above their reach Therefore doth Zophar quit this task of refuting Job's supposed Errours as too hard for him and prayeth that God will interpose in it Man is neither able to hold out clear grounds of light for every thing he knoweth and believeth to be a truth nor though he had clear light is he
knew him better then he knew himself Yet it is indeed incomprehensible nor is man capable to find it out by any search of his For he could sooner scale Heaven and dive to Hell or the depths of the Earth and search through and measure all the Earth and Sea which yet are an impossible task for man then comprehend this Wisdom which infinitely surmounts all those Albeit the Text speaks only of searching to find out God and the Almighty And it is true that his Nature and every one of his Attributes are unsearchable Yet the Context and what he hath spoken before of the secrets of Wisdom v. 6. lead us to understand it chiefly of the Wisdom of God the secrets whereof cannot be dived into by men nor can they ascend into the heights thereof nor fathom it as being Infinite and Incomprehensible The Original Text favours this Interpretation for not only may v. 7. be rendered as diverse also do read it Canst thou find out the searchings of God or his Wisdom whereby speaking after the manner of men he searcheth and knoweth all things But in the rest of the verses that which he saith cannot be comprehended of God is expressed by words in the Feminine Gender which have a reference to that Attribute of Wisdom which is expressed by a word of the same Gender v. 6. It is further to be marked as was also hinted v. 6 that albeit Zophar do only speak of the secrets of Gods Wisdom v. 6. in that one particular of knowing man and his faults Yet here he commends his Wisdom in general as it shineth in all his counsels and purposes his Providences and proceedings in the world in all which it is unsearchable and incomprehensible and therefore must be so also in that particular upon which he insists Were this Doctrine concerning the unsearchable Wisdom of God made use of by Zophar only to check Job for thinking that either he behoved to see such causes of Gods dispensations towards him as he thought reasonable or otherwise he had just cause to challenge and complain of Gods proceedings there would be no cause to censure him for any thing here spoken Only Job's miscarriage in that could prove no more but that he was in a fit of passion and under the power of tentation And therefore could not conclude against his state that he was wicked Or were this Doctrine only made use of to convince Job that God saw more in him then he could discern in himself there were no cause to quarrel it as hath been hinted on v. 6. See 1 Job 3.20 Jer. 17.9 10. But when it is made use of to prove that God knew him to be wicked and plagued him as such for his iniquity or sins which use to reign in the unregenerate as may be gathered from v. 6. and from his counsel v. 13 14. this cannot be granted For the matter of our state is none of those depths which are hid up in the unsearchable wisdom of God but is revealed from the Word for our comfort Rom. 5.1 2. 8.15 16. From all this Learn 1. The Counsels and Wisdom of God are deep and unsearchable For so is here held out And mens Consciences may tell them that they are so Therefore he poseth Job with it by way of question to shew that his Conscience cannot deny it See Rom. 11.33 This should teach us to be sober in our thoughts of our knowledge 1 Cor. 8.2 especially in this particular wherein though we may know somewhat yet we should be sensible of our short-coming and that we are far from finding it out to perfection See Job 26.14 42.4 5. We should also be sober in prying into Gods deep counsels in his ordering the affairs of the World and whatever we believe we know of them yet we should beware of laying weight upon our own searching and should lean only to Divine Revelation Likewise we should adore and not quarrel God in his Providences when we cannot see through the wisdom that is in them blessing him that we are allowed to believe that deep and unsearchable Wisdom is imployed about us and our affairs 2. As Gods Al-sufficiency and Infinite fulness proves his Wisdom in particular to be Infinite so he is Almighty to crush all those who obstinately oppose him And all those who dare to pry too curiously and presumptuously into his deep Counsels Therefore gets he the Name of Almighty or Alsufficient here To demonstrate that it is no wonder if such a One be deep in his wisdom and counsels And to deter Job from his supposed opposition to God and his presumption in judging of his counsels 3. All that large vastness that is in the creatures for height and depth length and breadth is short of the infinite depth that is in the wisdom of God For so is here held out that the heights of Heaven the depth of Hell the length of the Earth and breadth of the Sea are nothing to this wisdom See Chap. 28. throughout 4. Mans inability to reach the knowledge of the perfection of the creatures and to travel through them all for that effect and his ignorance of things neer and about him much more of things far from him may humble him for his conceit of his knowledge of the deep counsels of God and his presumptuous essays to pâie into them For if man cannot get up to the height of Heaven nor dig down to Hell c. How much less can he reach this He can do nothing nor undertake any thing whereby to find it out nor can he know it if he should essay it 5. It is mans great mercy that his being in a state of grace is not hid up in a mystery but may be known from the Word by the help of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.12 And so the thoughts of the Infinite Wisdom of God needs not drive a godly man from any assurance of this nor ought he suffer any thoughts of the perfections of God to discourage him in it For this was Zophar's mistake that the Infinite Wisdom of God was enough to prove Job to be wicked which failing to be true his whole Argument proveâ naught To which add 6. If there be such a depth here from the search whereof he would deter Job and from the consideration whereof he would have Job concluding that he was not righteous How comes it that he himself is so bold and so little sober in judging of Job's state meerly because God who is infinitely wise had afflicted him Might it not as safely be concluded that Gods Infinite Wisdom might see causes wherefore to afflict Job though righteous which none of them could comprehend But self-love is so blind that it will see a mote in anothers eye and pass over a beam in a mans own eye and pre judged Opinions shut mens eyes against most obvious and clear Truths Vers 10. If he cut off and shut up or gather together then who can hinder him The
him More particularly Learn 1. Men that would attain to sound and approved knowledg ought to be very accurate observers of Gods works and ways of Providence Isa 5.12 Psal 28.5 Such was Job's practice here mine eye hath seen or observed all this or all these works of Providence formerly recorded He hath a treasury of those Observations This was the practice of the godly especially before the Word was written and much more ought we to study those and profit by them now when we have the written Word by which we may read them One eye upon Providences without us and another upon our heart and condition within will make wise men if we look upon them through the Perspective of the Scriptures 2. Approved Students of Gods works will not grow proud of their own Observations but knowing how short their time is and how much they may be blinded in present things and times they will take the help of others either in their Discourses or Writings to better their knowledge For Job not only saw this but he took help of hearing mine ear hath heard whosoever know any thing as they ought to know it they will be far from conceit of their own knowledge or from neglecting means whereby they may be helped to make proficiency 3. Such as are right Students of those excellent things will not content themselves with bare observation and hearing of them as many go no further but will be careful to digest them in their understandings and to ponder them that so they may become practicable and be solidly rooted in their hearts For Job also understood it Notional men who have some Thoughts of Divine Truths only fleeting in their brain are upon the matter but fools 4. The example of others should stir up men to know God and his works and not to come behind with any in those necessary things For saith Job What ye know the same do I know also as being excited by what they spake on this subject to give proof that he had known the same things also 5. This comparison betwixt him and them beside what is already marked Chap. 12.3 That it is necessary to vindicate and commend our selves not out of contention or from any contempt of others but when Truth and a good cause suffers through our sides may Teach That it is needful to see what God hath done to us or in us even for our own comfort when others would decry us it being very comfortable when we find our selves to be in a better condition then others judge us to be As Job finds it was with him when they undervalued him as an ignorant Vers 3. Surely I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to reason with God Followeth to v. 20. Job's appealing from them and his betaking himself to debate his cause with God which here he propounds as his professed desire yea and delight to set about it Zophar Chap. 11.5 6. had wished that God would take him in hand and then he was sure Job would be made to see his own ignorance of the Wisdom and Power of God and God would condemn him and pass sentence against him in his cause Now Job as formerly he hath declared and proved that he is not so ignorant as they took him to be So here he declines not Zophar's overture but doth himself also wish and desire to reason his cause with God as not fearing to compeer before him as a Father in Christ according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace He saith he desires or as it is in the Original it would be his delight to reason with God whereby he not only signifieth his eagerness to be at it but implyeth also that there were disadvantages and discouragements in his way such as sharp rods humbling desertions and apprehensions of Gods terrour which he would gladly have removed out of the way that he might deal with more freedom and boldness in defence of his cause And so his meaning in desiring to reason with God will be that he would gladly set about it if he durst And albeit afterward he both resolves v. 13. and actually enters upon the debate v 23 c. upon all hazards Yet he still retains the sense of those disadvantages and his desire to have them taken away that he might go about it more confidently v. 20 21 22. What faults were in Job's actual reasoning with God will come to be considered in their own place Only while he desires to reason or argue with God we are not to conceive that he resolves to plead his own sinlesness Or to accuse God or to justifie his own boisterous fits in debating with God But only humbly to maintain that he is righteous notwithstanding his afflictions which was a true and just plea though his passion did over-drive him in the prosecution thereof And in this he is not to be justified It Teacheth 1. Men should debate Controversies as in the sight of God and not dare to maintain that before men which they dare not avow in the presence of God For Job dare speak that to the Almighty which he hath spoken before them When men forget thus to mind God their Parts Interest and Reputation may bear them out and not only make them stiffe in their own way but afford them much to say for themselves which yet would be found empty and vain before God 2. Albeit Honesty and a good Cause may be borne down and so traduced as if it were but lies and mens humours that it will get no entainment in the world Yet it is enough if God approve of it And men should satisfie themselves with that not being discouraged that they are left upon God alone for hâs approbation For notwithstanding all the mistakes of his Friends Job is satisfied that he may reason with God and hopes for his approbation It is good that men be sometime thus mistaken in the world that they may try how matters stand betwixt God and them how they will be satisfied with divine approbation when other testimonies are denyed them and how they have taken with former applause in the world And this is needful to be well adverted unto for those who are much affected with applause in a right way may readily take a wrong course to retain it or to recover it if it be lost 3. Mâintainers of a good Cause may not only be deserted by all and lâft on God but in coming to him for his approbation they may have sad discouragements desertions tentations afflictions c. to weaken their hands though they be right in their cause For so Job can but desire to reason with God if he durst as hath been explained See Job 19.5 6. 23.3 10. Psal 80.4 The right cause must go against all winds and tides and the maintainers thereof must be throughly tryed Their desertions tentations discouragements and cross lots ought not to be misconstructed as if thereby God intended to condemn them 4.
3. Though Job timed his expectation of those advantages ill yet here are held out sweet Truths and Consolations of Saints which they may expect will be accomplished and made out to them at the last day and it may be sooner though God will not be limited far less will he condiscend to such a way of it as Job proposed And 1. It makes a sweet time indeed when God after frowning begins to smile again upon his people As Job here supposeth it would be when Gods wrath is is past v. 13. Thou wouldest call and I would answer c. See Jer. 31.20 Isai 40.1 2. 54.7 8. 2. Albeit Saints were so low as one in a grave that they could not help themselves not get a look of God yet then the kindness will begin on his side For Thou wouldest call saith he by a voyce of Omnipotency upon dead Job So Chap. 7.21 Thou wilt seek me 3. When God but speaks and calls on a Saint to comfort him he will be made to answer were he in his grave For saith he Thou wouldest call and I should answer thee Here his faith goeth further then it did Chap. 7.21 where he said Thou shalt seek me but I shall not be though he spake more truly then as to Gods ordinary way by the course of Nature 4. When God hath wrought a work of grace in any he will respect that and have a care of them as his own workmanship were they even in a grave For Thou would have a desire to the work of thine hands See Chap. 10.3 Vers 16. For now thou numbrest my steps dost thou not watch over my sin 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag and thou sowest up mine iniquity Job proceeds unto the end of the Chapter to amplifie this Argument And first In thse verses he gives an account of the cause which drave him to this irregular wish Namely his apprehension of Gods severe dealing and strict marking and calling him to an account for his sin This he had expressed more generally by the name of wrath v. 13. and now he Comments upon that The meaning is as if Job had said I have cause to long and wish that I were thus hid till that fair day should come about wherein thy wrath should be past and thou should appear to be reconciled with me v. 13. For then the intercourse would be sweet v. 15. whereas now thou seemest to count all my goings not that I may taste of the fruits of thy sympathy as Psal 56.6 but that thou mayest watchfully and carefully mark all my sins v. 16. and having marked them thou keepest them fast in thy remembrance as a Treasure is sowed and sealed up in a bag that they may be all forth-coming in a process to punish me for them v. 17. By which expression he doth not so much point out his apprehension that God formerly had been laying up his sin to an account till now that he punisheth for them as that now by his present afflictions of which he is complaining God is putting him to torture to find out his guilt in order to further punishment See Chap. 10.14 13.27 Hos. 13.12 Hence Learn 1. Sore afflictions may cause sincere Saints and tender and accurate walkers apprehend that God is pursuing their sin as here may be seen in Job who would not yield to his Friends that he was wicked and who in the beginning of this complaint asserts himself to be free of transgression and iniquity Chap. 13.23 and yet here he apprehends sin transgression and iniquity to be marked and pursued We are not to mistake though trouble shake the sloutest and in a fit of distemper loose their grips Every man whose confidence staggers in a hard time must not be cast away 2. As Gods watchful Providence is a sublime and high study even for Saints in their best times Psal 139.1 6. So there is no abiding of sin strictly marked by this eye of God For he would be in his grave when now God numbered his steps and watched over his sin This may perswade them who have not sled to Christ for pardon to do it in time and those who have made him their refuge would hold fast their grip and pray that they be not led into temptation nor given up to such a terrible apprehension 3. Sore afflictions may not only be looked upon by Saints as a present pursuit for sin but may affright them also with the apprehension of a future account and that all Gods rods at present are but to discover and draw out all their guilt in order to a sadder sentence For this is Job's apprehension Thou watchest over my sin my transgression is sealed up in a bag and thou sowest up mine iniquity Such terrours for the future are a sad addition to present tryals and it warns us still to remember that caution Matth. 6.34 4. Saints in all these sad exercises and the consequents thereof may be lying under great mistakes and sense may say God is marking and pursuing sin when he is not For whatever Job's sins deserved yet Job was mistaken in his apprehensions For God was not marking his sins nor sealing them up but only exercising him for the Edification of Believers in all Ages James 5 11. We have need to guard against tentations of this kind for Sense is a great mistaker It will say God is pursuing sin when he is but trying and that he is far off when yet he is very near And it is our mercy that when our fears are many and sad we may suspect they are but the suggestions of mistaken Sense 5. Whatever pressure real or apprehended only lie upon Saints yet their only safety is 1. Not to run away but to go to God with it as Job doth here It is better to tell it to him then muse on it only in our own hearts or complain of it to others 2. To be so affected with it as to press God to consider it and leave it on his tenderness and wisdom For so much doth that question import Dost thou not watch not that he had a doubt of it in his own apprehension but that he would have God consider what a burden this was to him And indeed we may hazard upon Gods considering of our case and when sense suggests to us that we tell God our case and yet he helps it not we are bound to silence it with our submission to whatsoever his tender consideration of our case seeth not meet to remove 3. We ought also for our support in such extremities to remember that God makes good use of such sad apprehensions to humble Saints as Job was brought low here And therefore when our hearts quarrel that should leave us to be perplexed with many fears that are not real we are to silence them with this that however they be not real yet through Gods blessings they produce much real good and advantage Vers 18. And surely the Mountain
wisdom is always streight and sincere 2. It is a special part of mens sinful craft when they employ their invention parts and eloquence to defend and give a lustre to a bad cause As here he thought Job made use of the tongue of the crafty in his own defence And indeed the greater parts men have in a bad cause they have the more sins and snares and they sin the more in so employing them For it is horrid impiety when men being once engaged in an ill cause will rather bend their wits to maintain it then stoop to truth 3. It is a great aggravation of mens sins when they are their own choice As he supposeth Job did choose the tongue of the crafty Men do thus choose sin either when there is much of will and inclination in sin rather then of weakness or tentation Or which I think Eliphaz chiefly intends here when they voluntarily betake themselves to a sinful course though they have another and better way at hand As he thought Job might have come better speed by humble confession of his wickedness then by his defences So when men reflect upon all their by-ways under tentation it will be bitter to them that the word did direct them to a better course though they judged otherwise of it From the conclusion and inference ver 6. Learn 1. Men ought not to judge rashly of others nor ought they to condemn them further then their own words and actions proclame what they are As here Eliphaz implyeth that he did not condemn Job till he condemned himself 2. It is no breach of charity to condemn men when they write their hearts upon their fore-heads by their carriage or expressions As here Eliphaz clears that he was not to be accounted rigid since his own mouth condemned him and not he The meaning whereof is not that he did not at all condemn Job for his very scope in this discourse is to condemn him but that he said nothing of him but what might be clearly deduced from his own discourses 3. That is the strongest conviction and condemnation which is from a mans own self in his light and conscience or actions For this was an heavy charge if it had been true Thine own mouth condemneth thee and not I. See Mat. 26.65 Luke 19.22 Tit. 3.11 4. Albeit men are not easily convinced by others of their bad condition yet their carriage in word or actions is a convincing and undeniable witness to demonstrate to others what they are and a witness which themselves in reason cannot decline nor will get declined at last Therefore it is added yea thine own lips testifie against thee and do cry down all the clamours and noise which thou makest in behalf of thine integrity Vers 7. Art thou the first man that was born or wast thou made before the hills 8. Hast thou heard the secret of God and doest thou restrain wisedom to thy self 9. What knowest thou that we know not what understandest thou which is not in us 10. With us are both the gray headed and very aged men much elder than thy father The third fault which Eliphaz reprehends in Job's discourse and way is arrogance and presumption both toward his Friends and toward God His presumptuous carriage toward them in these verses is instanced in his unjust arrogating of wisdom and knowledge to himself above them which he chargeth home very sharply with pungent questions Here we are to Consider 1. The fault wherewith he chargeth him v. 7 8. which is that he restrained wisdom to himself or accounted himself the only wise man above then all and that he did this no less confidently then if he had lived not only since the first man but even before the hills were made and so had remarked and learned all the experiences of time or then if he alone were admitted to be on Gods secret Councill or had some secret revelation known to none else These two namely experience through observation and secret and peculiar revelation were the means of attaining knowledge before the word was written and therefore he pitcheth upon them and layeth it to Job's charge that he was so arrogant as if those were appropriated to him alone or he had them in some singular way 2. The groundless presumption that was in this supposed clamâ of Job to wisdom may not only be gathered from what is said that he had no singular advantages to make him so singularly wise but is expresly demonstrated v. 9 10. That however Job did thus conceit of himself yet they knew as much as he could know v. 9. if not more some among them being elder then his Father v. 10. which may be understood of some of the Disputants themselves who were very old or of some others in their Countrey who were of their opinion and had taught them these things as Teman which was the Country of Eliphaz was indeed a place famous for wisdom Jer. 49.7 As for the truth of this Challenge and how justly this fault was charged upon Job It seems Eliphaz did ground it upon what Job had said Chap. 12.2 3 7 8. Chap 13.1 2. where Job had checked them for their conceit of themselves and shewed that their Knowledge was common and obvious that their Errour might be refuted from the consideration of very common things and that himself was not an Ignorant but understood right and wrong in this Controversie as well as they Now as for Eliphaz's Inference from this 1. Albeit Job was wiser then they in this Controversie yet he was not arrogant as Eliphaz alleageth but did only shew that their light was not so singular as thây fancied and that himself understood Truth in this matter 2. As for the harshness of his expressions in declaring this Eliphaz and the rest little considered his great grief and the irritations given him by their imprudence rigour and false Doctrine which drave him to speak so to them 3. As he did unjustly charge Job with arrogance so the Grounds and Principles upon which he asserts their Knowledge in this matter are unsure as shall be cleared and therefore do not certainly conclude they are in the right 4. What Job wanted of conceit and arrogance Eliphaz really had it in taking it so ill that Job should as he judged prefer himself to them Having cleared the words I shall not insist upon what is implied here of the means they had of attaining knowledge before the Word was written Namely Experiences gathered by Observation and extraordinary Revelation both which are abundantly supplied by the written Word especially when we have still the advantage of Experience to clear and confirm it Only this may put us in mind That they had great toil in gathering Experiences for their Institution which renders us inexcusable in our Ignorance who may learn Knowledge more compendiously from the Scriptures As they needed both Observation and the secret of God to instruct them So men have need of much
as before it come upon him And if we compare the end of the verse with the beginning of it we will find the sense to be this That the wicked mans Conscience causing him every day to fear approaching want and distress as if it were ready to take hold of him He takes a poor impatient heartless and hopeless shift to provide and heap up against such a time So that although he be not presently poor yet he can never get enough provided to secure him against his fears that he may die a beggar From this verse Learn 1. Albeit some wicked men may be plagued with Security and Presumption because of their prosperous condition as Luke 12.19 Yet it is ordinary with many of them that plentiful enjoyments do not secure them against fear of want And therefore they wander abroad for bread that is for their livelyhood which is comprehended under the name of bread because it is the staffe of a mans life Isai 3.1 and because a man ought to be content if he get so much as bread to sustain his life And all mens endevours to acquire the things of the world are called endevours to get bred because they who purchase most will get no more of it but their meat Eccl. 5.10 11. 2. It is a sad Plague upon men when their faithless fears are let loose upon them and their imagination gets leave to multiply vexations without end For this is the wicked mans plague that he wandereth abroad for bread out of an apprehension of a day of darkness or trouble and want which he knoweth or assureth himself is ready at his hand Such faithless fears are more tormenting then many real crosses 3. Wicked men through want of contentment in their lot and of trust in God are justly driven upon heartless anxious sinful and hopeless shifts For so is imported in his wandering abroad for bread and in the question subjoyned Where is it Which signifieth that he is restless and impatient in seeking doubtful to find or see what he seeks and ready to take any shift good or bad and to go any where to find it 4. Albeit wicked men do ordinarily put an evil day far away Amos 6.2 yet they will not still get it done but their Consciences will be set on work to prognosticate their own miseries and represent their miseries as near approaching that so they may be tormented befor the time For here are some wicked men who have misery and want still before their eyes He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand Vers 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battel In this verse the wicked mans inward misery is summed up in this That trouble and anxiety shall not only affright him but shall astonish and prevail over him as easily as a King with his Royal Army being well provided when he is in the Field in Person and ready to joyn in battel will prevail over an inferiour subject or single person Whence Learn 1. However the wicked when they are at ease think lightly of anxieties and vexations of Conscience Yet as those are sad and heavy in themselves so God can make them find by experience that they are so Therefore is their exercise here called trouble and anguish The words in the Original signifie that which straitens men and closeth them up from all comfort as when they are besieged in a City and that which being painful cleaveth to men however they would and do endevour to shift it 2. Anguish and trouble of mind is very affrighting to them who are not at peace with God and that both in it self and in that it begets fears of more and greater trouble Therefore it is said Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid 3. However the wicked may think to shake off their affrighting perplexities and to encourage themselves again after they are borne down with them Yet if God pursue they will be forced at last to succumb under the pressure For they shall prevail against him whereas the godly may fall and rise again 4. The terrour of God or anxiety inflicted by him as a Plague is too hard a party for weak man and as irresistible as it is impossible for a weak subject to resist a King with his Army For They shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle It points both at the force and strength and at the numerous variety of terrours like so many several Troops or Souldiers which God hath in readiness to overwhelm him thereby Vers 25. For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty Before Eliphaz proceed to rehearse the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the outward plagues which befal the wicked He doth in the Second Head of this Narration and as would appear from the Doctrine of those Ancients also interlace to v. 29. the cause both of their outward and inward miseries to clear the equity and justice thereof And that is their presumptuous wickedness because of their prosperity Their wicked attempts are recorded v. 25 26. and that their prosperity emboldens them to this is asserted v. 27 28. In this verse this account is given of the wicked mans attempt that he is stout-hearted in his sinning against God provokes him with an high hand and is obstinately pertinacious in that course Thus to stretch out the hand against any notes a resolute and eminent opposition against them and an endevour to destroy them if it can be effectuated It seems to be the same in substance with what is elsewhere spoken of doing any thing with a stretched out arm Exod. 6.6 and with an high hand Exod. 14.8 which in other cases imports eminent resolution and courage and acting accordingly and in the wickeds course of rebellion against God it imports his presumptuous sinning Numb 15.30 in the Original And for his strengthning of himself subjoyned to this it imports how obstinate he is in his course notwithstanding all means used to reclaim him In this Character of the wicked it seems Eliphaz would reflect upon Job's carriage who would not humble himself and stoop to God but stood it out rebelliously as he thought both against his Word and the dispensations of his Providence And indeed had Job been guilty of this his condition had been dreadful But his resolution and stiffeness in the point controverted was better grounded than Eliphaz thought and any failing in it was his infirmity only and not presumptuous wickedness From this verse Learn 1. It is not sufficient that men feel or be sensible of judgments inflicted unless they see also the causes thereof distinctly and so they be neither dumb nor confused rods Therefore doth he subjoyn a reason of all the former miseries For he stretcheth out his hand c. 2. As all sin is an opposition unto God so especially presumptuous sinning is a waging war against him For such a
in an apprehension that God is all mercy without any justice or severity who will be miserably confounded when they find it is otherwise Isai 33.14 Some in their external shews of Religion wherewith they are puffed up Gal. 6.3 And some in their prosperity which is not only lying in it self Psal 62.10 but far more deceitful when it is made a mark of Gods favour This should teach men not to look so much to their confidence as to the grounds of it and to be very tender and cautious in bottoming themselves especially upon the former false grounds of confidence 3. Men are so desperately averse from true Piety and so prone to delude themselves that even experience of their folly in some measure will not divert them but they will persist in it For he thinks it needful thus to advise Job even after he hath been once deceived already Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity He doth indeed wrong Job yet the general holds true that it is only grace and no experience without it that will divert men from deluding confidences or any other ill course See Prov. 23.35 4. How mad soever men be on this course of self-deceiving Yet it is their great sin and misery to be thus deluded Therefore doth Eliphaz so seriously disswade from it It will make Hell to be a double Hell that men delude themselves till they slip into it See Matth. 7.21 22 23. 5. If men will not take notice of this hazard in time from the Word yet the issue will sadly refute them Therefore he subjoyns this certification if his counsel be not followed for vanity shall be his recompence As his hope was vain so the recompence can prove no better then vanity And albeit he will not see this in particular disappointments yet he will be made to find it in end 6. Men by reason of their false Principles and Prejudices may so far mistake Saints and the grounds of their confidence that they may account their faith to be presumption and delusion For so doth Eliphaz judge of Job's faith here And it is a tryal for which a godly man should be aâmed Vers 32. It shall be accomplished before his time and his branch shall not be green 33. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the Vine and shall cast off his flower as the Olive In the first of these verses we have other two Arguments further pressing this counsel One is That it that is his vain hope or trusting in vanity shall not only prove vain and come to a sad end but this shall come to pass even in the deluded mans sight and before he die It shall be accomplished or cut off and come to an end before his time The other is his branch shall not be green that is not only shall his present flourishing state and posterity fade away as is said v. 30. and so be accomplished or cut off and come to an end as is said in the beginning of the verse but being so his confidence for the future shall come to nothing as a withered branch can promise no fruit These Arguments are illustrated by a similitude v. 33. That as Trees sometime shake off theiâ unripe fruit and flowers and so the owner can expect no increase of them So the self-deluder shall see the untimely death of his Children and the overturning of his prosperity and shall lose all future expectation In both those verses he hath a tarâ but unjust reflection upon what had befaln Job and his Family his mistake in which having been so frequently marked before I shall now pass it From the General Doctrine Learn 1. How stable and well rooted soever deluded wicked men seem to be Yet they may out-live all their enjoyments and confidences For it shall be accomplished before his time 2. The suddenness of calamity adds to the sadness thereof For it is an Argument pressing deluded souls not to persist in that course that not only their confidence shall be accomplished and cut off but that it shall be thus before their time and they shall see their own rise and fall See Psal 37.25 26. Lam 1.9 3. It evidenceth the wicked mans great abuse of mercy and Gods great anger against him because of that when God not only plagues his person but smites his enjoyments and Children that he may refute his delusion For this is threatened as a sad fruits of his way His branch his wealth that adorns him and his Children that grow out of him as the root shall not be green And this should be sad to wicked men that they are such a plague to themselves and to all that is theirs 4. No present stroke on wicked men will convince them of their folly unless also their hope and future expectation be cut off and God when he pleaseth will do so to them For his branch shall not be green 5. It is an easie thing for God to ruine all the enjoyments of deluded sinners and their hopes also For as the unripe Grape and Flower are soon shaken off so he shall shake off his unripe Grape as the Vine c. that is God shall make him lose and be deprived of it 6. Wicked men are so stupid and slow of heart to believe those sad things which they deserve and do abide them here and hereafter that they need to be very plainly and seriously inculcated upon them Therefore are these similitudes here made use of to explain and inculcate this threatning Vers 34. For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery Those threatnings inculcated in the former Arguments are in the close of all this Discourse amplified and the equity thereof cleared from the consideration of the sins procuring these judgments Wherein he instanceth his assertion that self-deluding sinners will be plagued as verified on several sorts of them In this verse he pitcheth upon the sins of hypocrisie and bribery of both which he unjustly suspects Job was guilty and asserteth that when men are guilty of those their Societies and Families though never so great and straitly combined are justly laid desolate and wrath like âiâe pulls down and consumes their houses however they delude themselves in their sinful courses Whence Learn 1. Hypocrites are under a special curse from God as mocking him and wronging the holy Profession Therefore in this reason of the former judgments taken from the sins of wicked men Hypocrites are put in the first rank here as those especially whom God cannot endure For the Congregation of Hypocrites shall be desolate 2. It is righteous with God not only to plague Hypocrites in their persons but to ruine their families for their cause as well as the families of the openly prophane and to break their combinations were they never so strong or numerous For both these are included in the Congregation of the Hypocrites which shall be desolate 3. As bribery is an horrid sin so it
is a sin wherein Hypocrites may fall as well as the profane They are not sound in their Religion nor are they mortified to their interests and therefore they are ready to seek after the things of the world in a wicked way and it is an evidence of their unsoundness that they do so Therefore is bribery here subjoyned as a sin that may go hand in hand with the former 4. Though men may gather much wealth by bribery yet wrath followeth it which will consume all that purchase and all that the taker of bribes hath For fire shall consume the Tabernacles of bribery or their whoâe House and Family which shall prove but like a flitting Tabernacle before the Indignation of the Lord See Hab. 2.9 10 11. Vers 35. They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity and their belly prepareth deceit In this verse he pitcheth upon another sin procuring these judgments and that is malicious hatching of wickedness which provokes the Lord in justice to cause their plots miscarry and resolve in vanity As for that which is subjoyned that their belly prepareth deceit it doth not only point out that after one plot miscarries they set on again to project new deceits But it may be taken more generally that in those words he resumes and repeats what he had said before shewing that as they prepare and intend deceits for others so God makes them prove deceits and disappointments to themselves Hence Learn 1. Wicked men are put to much toil and pain in sinning and it is a punishment to it self For it is a conception and a birth prepared in the belly 2. As sin hath its degrees of growth for there is a conceiving a preparing in the belly and a bringing forth so mischeivous and malicious sins are so much the more hateful that they are not the result of a sit of tentation but are so long in breeding and bringing to maturity For all these steps of their malicious plots are marked to shew how hateful they are 3. The Lord abhorrs not only deliberation but affection in projecting of sin That not only they conceive and then bring soâth but that their belly which in Scripture is made the Seat of affection prepareth deceit 4. As all mischief greedily committed is abominable so also deceitful plots mischeivously contrived against others in special Therefore the general of mischeifs is instanced in the matter of deceit as a mischief specially hateful to God 5. It is Gods just judgment upon wicked men that their assiduous projecting of sin tends to their own sad disappointment at last For whatever they conceive the birth is vanity and their Preparations to deceive others prove deceit to themselves also at last CHAP. XVI In this and the following Chapter we have Job's Reply to Eliphaz and his other Friends wherein he reprehends them for their Discourses enumerates his miseries and yet proves that he was righteous for all that prosecutes his wish to debate his Cause with God and rejects all the Consolations they offered to him upon his repentance In this Chapter 1. He premits a Preface wherein he reprehends them more generally for their Discourses as being but trivial and nothing to the purpose ver 1 2 3. such as would be bitter to them were they in his case and such as he would be loath to propound to them were they in distress ver 4 5. 2. He refutes Eliphaz's former Discourse that only the wicked were sadly afflicted by shewing that himself was under sad âfflictions ver 6 16. and yet was not wicked ver 17. as he proves by several Arguments ver 18 19 20. 3. He repeats his former wish that he might plead his Cause with God before he die ver 21 22. Vers 1. Then Job answered and said 2. I have heard many such things miserable comforters are ye all 3. Shall vain words have an end or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest IN these verses we have the first part of Job's Preface and the first fault he finds in their discourses Namely that they were but light and trivial and nothing to the purpose And First He propounds this censure v. 2. that Eliphaz had said nothing concerning the miseries of the wicked but what he had often heard not only from others long ago as he speaks of other their discourses before Chap. 12.2 3. 13.1 2. but from themselves also His Discourse was to the same purpose with what he and the rest had said before and contained nothing but a tautologie and idle repetition of what he had often heard from them Secondly He amplifieth and presseth this censure by several Inferences from it 1. That however Eliphaz pretended that he propounded the Consolations of God to him Chap. 15.11 Yet in effect he and all the rest were but cruel comforters while they augmented his grief by such idle and useless tautologies v 2. 2. That it was a wonder they would never end nor give over those vain and superfluous discourses that were so little to purpose v. 3. 3. That he could see no cause wherefore Eliphaz should thus repeat those things which had been so often refuted And therefore he puts him to it to consider what vain presumption was in it what reason he had for it what encouraged him to it and what spirit he was of in doing of it v. 3. It is to be marked that though sometime he direct his speech to Eliphaz who spake last in the singular number v. 3. as he did also to another before Chap. 12.7 8 and though his scope in the second part of the Chapter v. 6 c. be to refute particularly what Eliphaz intended in his Narration concerning the miseries of the wicked Chap. 15.20 c. Yet he directs his speech also to all of them in the plural number v. 2 4 5. Chap. 17.10 because they all agreed in one opinion and when one of them spake it made him resent the like injuries done to him by all of them From v. 1 2. Learn 1. Saints must not be weary to bear out under never so many assaults and renewed conflicts whether from men or from tentations within suggesting the same things which men through mistake do utter and the Conscience of mens integrity will bear them out under all this For notwithstanding this renewed opposition Job answered and said 2. Men may be very much in love with their own conceptions and opinions which yet are very trivial and common For notwithstanding the estimation Eliphaz had of his Doctrine Chap. 15.11 17 18 19. yet saith Job I have heard many such things Thus many things which men cry up as new Lights are in effect but old Errours 3. Albeit there may be much precious excellency in common and obvious Truths which is not to be sleighted Yet oft-times the ordinary method of curing afflicted souls will not prevail in extraordinary cases For saith he I have heard many such things as being common notions and yet am not the better What
God whereof this was a visible sign that he covered his head which of late had been exalted with dust and ashes and sate down upon the dust and ground See Chap. 1.20 2.13 3. His weeping and that so long and so sore that his face was all soul and clayed where the Original word is doubled to intimate how very foul he was and his eyes were sunk in his head as if he were dead or presently going to expire with tears and weeping Doct. 1. The best way to refute aspersions is by contrary practices As here that calumny of being stout-hearted against God wherewith Eliphaz at least indirectly chargeth him Chap. 15.25 is refuted by his submissive carriage It is good when mens practices do refute calumnies And when calumniators are let loose the Lord thereby calls men to see their walk And whatever the evils be that are unjustly charged upon men the Lord thereby points at the contrary graces or practices either as having been formerly neglected or as singularly excellent to be studied yet more 2. It is to little purpose how much men have to say of their afflictions before God unless they have also somewhat to say of their own good carriage and exercise under them at least of their endevours after these things For Job counts it not enough that he had all the former evidences of his afflicted condition unless he have this also and unless his being afflicted be seeen in his stooping and going to God with it as well as in his strokes Without this mens sense of their many crosses is but a dittay against themselves nor can their complaining thereof plead any thing before God unless it be to inflict yet more upon them till they be set on work to their duty 3. Of all carriage under affliction humiliation and submission âlowing from faith is the chief and a root of all other good behaviour This was signified by putting on of sackcloth and lying in the dust Here it is to be considered 1. That afflictions are sent to abase men and to put them out of conceit with themselves because ordinarily they esteem too highly of themselves in prosperity See Psal 9.20 Ezek 28.9 2. That affliction is the great Touch-stone of our hearts and we do then prove really either the prevalency of corruption by proud swelling against God or of our grace by stooping to him See Jer. 5.3 with 31.18 3. That till we be abased and lie low before God we proclaim that affliction hath not done its errand but that we need yet more of it 4. That there can no use be had of affliction till it first humble us 5. That the humble man lies so low under the lash of trouble that the storm blows over him and he gets an out-gate by patient bearing of his cross This may make us lament that we are so much humbled and yet become so little humble that we are broken with trouble but not bowed and brayed but not melted and purified This doth evidence that we know neither our selves nor God as we ought and it makes difficulties to slay us which otherwise would prove medicinal And if we were more acquainted with humility in our prosperity it would be more easie in our adversity whereas otherwise it is long ere trouble bring us down Doct. 4. Such as abase themselves before God ought in particular to lay down all their excellencies before him whether Grandeur and Authority or spiritual Priviledges Thus he defiled his horn in the dust and Israel were bid put off their ornaments Exod 33.5 Here Consider 1. These very outward signes of putting on of sackcloath and lying in the dust whereby he witnessed his abasement notwithstanding his dignity doth shew that although these Ceremonial practices be ceased yet men that are humble under trouble should look like it in their deportment Thus Israel put off their ornaments when they sinned Which speak sadly against excess in Apparel and adorning of mens bodies in sad times as looking rather like Jezebel 2 King 9.30 then Saints 2. However God be pleased to exalt us above others either in grace or other dignities Yet we are in our selves nothing before him and ought to esteem so of our selves especially when he humbleth us by afflictions 3. Though we may keep fast our spiritual Priviledges to assure us of Gods favour Yet we must never make use of them to fight against him or to quarrel his Providence and disposing of us at his pleasure but we ought to lay them all at his feet and put our hand upon our mouth Otherwise if our hearts do rise against God because he afflicts us who have been made partakers of his grace we may fall into that tentation Psal 73. and do deprive our selves of the comfortable sight of what God hath wrought in us 4. When God strips us of our outward dignity we must not be imbittered by reflecting upon what we were and how we are now dealt with but must stoop to be lifted up and cast down at his pleasure as Mordecai being honoured by the King is content to return to the Kings gate again Esth 6.11 12. For men have the surest grip of those things when they are cast at Gods feet Doct. 5. When men are truly abased they will be very tender before God For Job in this condition was put to weeping Grief will draw tears from the stoutest and especially from tender Saints who are lying in the dust as Job was unless sometime their trouble be so great that it goeth above tears and other expressions of it And as the Lord approves of no external shews and expressions of sorrow unless a man be a mourner indeed So he approves not of tears which go before humility which may be wrâng out by pride bitterness and discontânt but would have a man first humbling himself in the dust and then weeping as Job did This condemns them who however they mourn or roar as the word is one toward another Yet do not mourn and weep to God Ezek. 24.23 And them also who evidence how little they are afflicted and humbled under the cross by their neglect of Prayer and want of tenderness and sorrow This was not the way of Job here nor of the godly in sad times Jer 9.1 Psal 44.24 25. 6. The Lord may suffer his humbled people even sink to death to their own sense in sorrow before they seem to be respected For his face is soul with weeping and on his eye-lids is the shadow of death and yet he is not only not delivered but gets not so much as any evidence of pity and sympathy either from God or his Friends Saints are sometime under a tentation and mistake in this and may have much sorrow when yet they need no real deliverance but only open eyes to discern their good condition But even when their afflictions and causes of sorrow are real the Lord may thus exercise them as he did Job 1. That all may be warned
to lay their account how deep their tryals may draw and that when they are almost consumed with sorrow yet the tryal may go on 2. That he may try what estimation men will have of duty and of grace to go about it in trouble though they get no outward deliverance For it is indeed a mercy to get grace to cleave to God and lament after him whatever he do to us 3. That he may try mens sincerity by their perseverance and continuance in duty though they seem not to be respected or noticed As it was with Heman Psal 88.1 13 14. 4. That men may be quickened to increase in diligence and to be more seriously and solidly rooted in what they have attained 5. That God may give proof under how much distress and pressure and under how many disadvantages he can uphold his people 6. That he may give proof how he can recover that which seems to be irrecoverably lost as he did with Job This may discover that it is no wonder others be sleighted in their troubles who come not near this length in sorrow when even the most tender Saints seem not to be noticed And it warneth those who are over-charged with sorrow and left to their sense to sink there that as they should moderate their sorrows as not mourning without hope and not suffer them to cause them forget all Covenant-encouragements so they should not mistake such a condition nor reckon that they have not an out-gate so long as they get grace to mourn before God and are not left to themselves to undervalue and cast off the exercises of Piety as it is Mal 3.13 14. for that is a real deliverance Vers 17. Not for any injustice in mine hands also my prayer is pure In this verse we have the Second Branch of this part of the Chapter Wherein Job asserts that notwithstanding all those afflictions he was not wicked but a righteous man being just in his conversation and practices toward men and pure in his Religion and Addresses to God Though Job did manage this debate and assertion about his integrity with too much heat and reflection for which he is afterward censured by Elihu and God Yet this Assertion is true as to the substance of it and doth teach 1. A man may be sadly afflicted who yet is a righteous man so that afflictions do not prove a man wicked or that God is angry at his person unless there be other Evidences For so much doth Job maintain here His Friends inferred upon his being afflicted that he was wicked but he grants that he was afflicted yet denies their conclusion and asserts the contrary that those things befel him not for any injustice in his hands c. Thus tentations from Satan about the good estate of Saints may be fastened upon true and real things which they cannot deny and yet Satan draws wrong conclusions from them This Truth is the main point debated in this Book and it ought not be wrested by every one who is in affliction as if he might rest upon a conceit of his integrity notwithstanding his afflictions unless he can make it out upon solid grounds Only it teacheth 1. That men ought to stoop to Gods absolute Dominion who may when he pleaseth afflict and exercise most holy and righteous men 2. That we should study the worth of inward Peace and a good Conscience which will support and afford a testimony under greatest difficulties as may be seen in Job's experience 3. That we may learn that Gods love is not tied to these things with the want whereof Job was exercised For all those tryals may come upon men and yet they may be beloved Doct. 2. Not only may righteous men be afflicted but they may attain to be assured of their own integrity in the midst of their afflictions For so Job here is assured that he is afflicted not for any injustice in his hands c. Here we are to consider 1. Trouble will try and search men what they are As here Job in his affliction is put to it to see whether he was righteous or not Trouble will be a furnace to discover whether we have built upon the foundation or not and what we have built upon this foundation in our ordinary walking 2. Men ought not to quit a good Cause the Truth of God or the testimony of a good Conscience for any trouble as Job cleaves to his integrity here Troubles are sent to humble us but not to drive us from any of our Rights and Priviledges 3. Saints may attain to see the favour of God and their interest in him through the thickest of clouds as here Job doth See also Chap. 10.13 23.8 9 10 11. Rom. 8.35 36 37 c. Doct. 3. Such as would be approved of God as righteous must testifie their integrity by their respect to both Tables of the Law For so doth Job here who was free of injustice in matters of the Second Table and looked well to his Prayers in obedience to the First Table Where Prayer includes all other religious performances and duties to God being that which draws forth furniture for them and makes us lively in them as injustice includes all Transgressions of the Second Table Where those two are conjoyned as the fruits of faith in Christ men are indeed righteous neither mere Civilians who mind only the duties of the Second Table nor yet Hypocrites who look only to some performances of the First Table And when men are wanting in either of these it will meet them in a strait As Job in his trouble is put to look to both 4. Though Prayer be a chief exercise of Religion and therefore only named here and frequently Saints are designed by their calling upon the Name of the Lord. See Joel 2.32 Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.13 Yet it will not prove mens integrity unless it be rightly qualified especially with purity For so Job avows his integrity as to this my Prayer is pure Without this Prayers may be very hateful to God See Psal 109.7 Prov. 28.9 1 Tim. 2.8 And here purity is required 1. Of the person praying that he be washed in the blood of Christ justified and reconciled Prov. 15.8 2. Of the matter of Prayer that the things sought be agreeable to the will of God 1 Joh. 5.14 3. In the manner of Prayer that it be offered up through faith James 1.5 6. 4. In respect of the condition of the person who prayeth that he be pure in his walking 1 Tim. 2.8 not unjust as it is here in the Text. See Matth. 5.23 24. Isai 1.15 The want of this obstructs the success and acceptance of the Prayers of godly men Psal 66.18 and renders the Prayers of the wicked yet more abominable Prov. 21.27 5. In respect of the end that Prayers be not made to be seen of men Matth. 6.5 nor to be a cloke of wickedness Matth. 23.14 And that good things be not sought in Prayer for sinful ends
proves his integrity by this that he dare plead his cause with God even when he thinks he is going to die 7. Saints ought to submit to go out of the world uncleared and under a cloud if it be Gods will For this was Job's exercise wherein for a long time he saw no issue though at last it came And by this delay God exercised his submission as indeed a man that hath a good Conscience may commit the ordering of all these things to God 8. Whatever debates Saints may have with God about his dealing yet at last they may find that they get all their will For whereas Job thought that since he could not be admitted to plead with God he would die shortly and so go out of the world uncleared the Lord at last gave him his will before he died though not in his way nor yet so soon as he desired seeing he died not so soon as he expected CHAP. XVII In this Chapter Job continueth his Reply to Eliphaz and the rest of his Friends And First He prosecutes his desire to plead his cause with God which he had propounded Chap. 16.21 Wherein having premitted somewhat which might evidence his great distress and extremity putting him upon this desire namely that he is very weak ver 1. and ill intreated by his Friends ver 2. he renews his desire to plead with God ver 3. and presseth it by several Arguments taken from his Friends unfitness to determine in the cause ver 4 5. from his great affliction blâsting his Reputation ver 6. and wasting his body ver 7. and from the advantage that should be reaped by such dispensations toward a godly man and Gods clearing of his Integrity notwithstanding his troubles ver 8 9. Secondly He rejects all those Consolations as vain which they offered him upon his repentance Wherein he condemneth them as unwise in the way of their dealing with him ver 10. And to instruct this he declares what is his present low condition ver 11 12. and that he could not in reason expect any thing but death to follow it ver 13 14. and consequently that the hopes they laid before him were groundless ver 15 16. Vers 1. My breath is corrupt my days are extinct the graves are ready for me AS it is usual in some cases that in Courts of Judgment the pursuer giveth an Oath de calumnia or that he pursueth not his cause needlesly or maliciously but because he thinks it right so Job being to prosecute his desire that he might enter the lists with God doth premit an Assertion that he did not propound nor pursue this desire out of a wicked disposition as Eliphaz seemed to insinuate of all he said Chap 15.5 but upon pressing grounds and causes And to clear this he gives two grounds of his pressing desire the first whereof in this verse which also clears further what he had said Chap. 16.22 is taken from the weak condition of his body His breath which maintained his life was corrupt and that either in respect of its savour being tainted with his inward diseases and savouring of wasting and being spent Or in respect of motion his breath was so spent and over-charged that he could not breath without great difficulty Hence he concludes that this portended his days to be at a period that his life was ready to be extinguished like the snuffe of a Candle through the decay of natural moisture and that he was near ready to be cast into the graves or some one or other grave The consideration of all which put him to it to insist so much upon this desire In General we may here Observe 1. Job is careful to premit the consideration of his great affliction to his desire of pleading his cause that he may clear how much he is pressed to insist upon it Whatever was his mistake yet the General Doctrine teacheth That men ought not to make too much noise about lesser troubles Unless the pressure of their afflictions be answerable to their cry they do but proclaim that they are unruly and unsubdued and do need more trouble to tame them It argues great moderation of spirit and mortification as not to be stupid so to suppress and digest at least those afflictions that are but ordinary Obs 2. That Job insists thus upon this subject and having begun it Chap. 16.22 he here dwells upon it and that with so much Eloquence it may import some or all of these 1. That it is good for men to be acquainted with their own condition For this was so far commendable in Job that he was not ignorant how much he was spent and how near in appearance to death Men ought not to be forgetful how much of their time is spent what is their debility and what it may portend And in a word they ought not to be strangers to themselves or their condition one way or other 2. That some troubles may be so pressing as they will be Monitors of themselves For it was Job's distress that put him to it that he could not get his thoughts off this subject So was he also continually haunted with the indignities done him by his Friends v. 2. It is no strange thing to see troubles so pressing that they continually haunt our minds and are before our eyes where-ever we turn us It is our mercy that such a condition hath been essayed before us 3. That the Conscience of honesty will make a man very sweetly converse with thoughts of frailty of a decaying Tabernacle mortality and death For not only Job's pressing necessity but his affection and assurance of his own integrity made him dwell upon this subject as sweet to him and as his hoped-for issue So also v. 14. and elsewhere Others are ordinarily so far averse from death that they banish all such thoughts 4. That much poring upon sad conditions doth readily beget many distempers about them For whatever necessity or sweetness drew Job to dwell upon these thoughts as ordinarily tentations fasten themselves on that which is good or justifiable and usher in themselves under the Cloak thereof Yet they beget a false apprehension of approaching death and passionate and unruly desires to be cleared before it came Therefore 1. We ought not to study what is sweet only as thoughts of death were to him but what is our present work and we should set about that however it rellish as oft times our present duty is least pleasant 2. However we may be driven to pore much upon troubles yet we should endevour not to be taken up only therewith but to mix all our exercises of that kind with some other diversions otherwise we will fall in a distemper 3. In eyeing what trouble seemes to threaten we should also look to what God can do in extremities and bring out of our troubles As here God was to give a sweet issue of all those troubles and not to cut him off by them as he apprehended Having
to extricate Saints out of deadly difficulties and to give glorious issues from deadly extremities when he seeth it good for them so to do See Isai 26.19 Ezek. 37.11 12. Vers 2. Are there not mockers with me and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation The Second Ground of his pressing desire to plead with God is That being thus afflicted and near unto death his Friends spared not to mistake censure and mock his condition and his discourses and carriage thereupon which did so imbitter him that it deprived him of nights rest This both added to his affliction that when he was a dying he was thus dealt with and it helped on his bodily weakness portending his death And therefore he desires to betake himself to debate his cause with God having such cruel Friends to deal with upon Earth Of this see further Chap. 16.20 Here Learn 1. It is great cruelty to add affliction to the afflicted as here they did to Job when they mocked him who was so low See Psal 69.25 26. Job 19.21 22. 2. Saints in their troubles may expect to meet with this measure of having tryal heaped upon tryal upon them as here Job found One tryal will not be a shelter from another when there is need of it their tryal must be complete to search them throughly others also must be tryed in their compassion and sympathy by the greatness of their tryal and God delights to give proof under how much tryal he will support his people 3. Afflicted men have oft-times cause to ascribe much of their death to the cruelty of their Friends under their affliction as to an instrumental cause For Job subjoyns their cruelty as no small cause of his weakness v. 1. portending his death Vnfaithful friends in a sad time are guilty of many degrees of murder 4. Friends prove very cruel in trouble by their want of tenderness and mocking of the afflicted See Chap. 21.3 When they look lightly upon their afflictions Lam. 1.12 When they read them wrong as if they were evidences of wickedness and do weaken the hands of the godly afflicted man under them For Job finds provocations or imbitterings in their mocking which deprived him of rest 5. He asserts this by way of Question Are there not mockers with me c or by way of grave Asseveration and Oath If there be not mockers c. whereby he purgeth himself of prejudice and calumny in asserting this and expresses his regret that his case was so little considered that he must so strongly assert it and excite others to notice it It teacheth That Saints may get that to bear which is really very sad and yet get little credit or pity under it It will not easily be believed how deep some troubles will draw upon them and how much they will wound and imbitter them They who are cruel to them may be so little sensible what hurt they do that they will rather be ready to justifie themselves And others may be laid by and the afflicted left alone without pity for their tryal 6. Saints may be so afflicted that nights rest would be a great mercy and yet even that be denied unto them For saith he Mine eye continueth or lodgeth in their provocations Not only was this injury not done behind his back but to his face and in his very sight and eye a tryal which Saints may look for but he was kept waking in the night thereby noâ could he get off his eye from poring on it 7. Whatever injury was here done to Job yet his own weakness bred his distemper in that he was first imbitttered by these provocations and then being so he could not rest for it which was contrary to that Precept Ephes 4.26 It Teacheth 1. How sad soever our condition be yet our own distempers thereby give the immediate rise to our vexations 2. To be at some times distempered and imbittered even to the want of rest though it be a gross fault and a fit of impatience for the time yet it will not conclude one be an impatient man who approves not of those sits and wrestles against them For Job who is so commended for his patience in this tryal James 5.11 fell in such a fit here Vers 3. Lay down now put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me In the Second Branch of this part of the Chapter contained in this verse Job subjoyns to his former pressing grievances his renewed desire to plead his cause with God which he propounds to God himself Those words of striking hands with him are borrowed from their way of closing and engaging in bargains particularly in Suretyship Prov 6.1 And as it was their practice that Parties should strike hands in other Covenants So it seems it was their practice also when they engaged to answer in Law which is the business here in hand As for the first part of the verse where he speaks of laying down and of a surety with God some read it thus Appoint I pray thee my surety with thee that is Appoint Christ to be my Surety and then Who is he that will strike hands with me that is upon these terms I decline no man who will engage to enter the lists to debate against me in the matter of my integrity It is indeed certain that Job durst not boast of his integrity but in a Mediator And I would very willingly put this favourable construction upon his wish if I found not God and Elihu pass a more severe censure upon it Others understand it as a desire that God would appoint a common Surety or Umpire to himself and Job who might dispute against his Friends for that cause which was common to them both seeing both God and he were wronged by their doctrine This interpretation hath a truth in it That they who are imbaâqued in a common cause with God may expect that he will see it pleaded for both But it agrees not with the latter part of the verse where Job desires that some might strike hands with him as a party in the debate and not as one whose cause was to be pleaded by a common Umpire Therefore I understand it to import his renewed desire that he might have access to plead his cause with God or at least with some who would appear on Gods behalf in this quarrel And the form of speech is taken from the practice of those times where Parties did give in surety or pledges that they would stand to the determination of the Judge and perform what was judged And so the words will run thus lay down now a pledge and if thou do not that for it must be read disjunctively then appoint me a surety not for me or on my behalf to be forthâcoming for me but for my behoof and security in this debate with thee The meaning is in sum as if Job had said Give me some assurance that thou wilt not judge me according to
eternal confusion For saith he I shall see him for my self or for my behoof 4. Believers shall see God in the same individual bodies they have here For mine eyes shall behold him and not another or a stranger The qualities of the body will then be different and glorious above what now they are 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. yet the substance will be the same And as the dayly decays and reparation of our bodies in this life do not make them cease to be the same bodies which we bring into the world with us So neither will the changes they undergo by death make them other bodies when they are raised again 5. Faith must look over many impediments to believe this wonderful restauration and take Gods Word for all For so doth he look over the consuming of his reins within him 6. Under present wasting of our bodies and the future consumption thereof by death and in the grave Saints should comfort themselves in the hope of a blessed Resurrection and that Christ will gather their dust again and raise it up in glory For so Job triumphs both over his present decay and over death when it shall come and consume his reins within him See 2 Cor. 5.1 Vers 28. But ye should say Why persecute we him seeing the root of the matter is found in me In this verse is contained the Conclusion of Job's Third Argument the same in substance with that Conclusion v. 22. that considering what he hath said for himself they should not thus persecute him Only further 1. He subjoyns a sum of what he hath argued concerning his integrity as a ground of the challenge That the root of the matter is found in him or he was solidly rooted in true grace and notwithstanding any frailties he had the substance of Religion and the Word also as the word rendered matter signifies also the Word whereby it was begotten and cherished were fixed and rooted in his heart And he was not an hypocrite who had only some external shews And therefore they should not thus persecute and reproach him and add to his sorrows 2 He amplifieth the challenge That not only they should not persecute him but should condemn such a practice themselves and so either prevent it or not need his reproof if they did it For it was a fault to be so cruel and a double fault that they did not censure themselves most severely for it Doct. 1. Religion and Piety is the great matter and concernment of men about which they should be busied above all things Therefore here it is called the matter or thing by way of excellency See Mark 8.36 Luke 10.41 42. 2. It is not enough men have fair flowers of Profession unless Religion be well rooted in their hearts For Job claims to a root of the matter in opposition to shews only That men may attain to this they should be careful that the Word take deep root in their hearts and so it may be rendered the root of the Word or a root fixed in them by the Word Psal 119.11 And that by this Word faith closing with a Mediatour be wrought in them for that was Job's root here v. 25 26 27. See Col. 2.6 7. and that they be sincere having the heart stored with solid and sound Principles not as the temporaries who want a root Matth. 13 20 21. 3. It is not enough that men pretend they are thus rooted in Piety unless it be really so and unless it be able to abide a tryal For this root of the matter must be sound after the most serious search See 2 Cor. 10.18 4. Where this root of Piety is it will remain and afford a testimony even where there are many failings For Job asserts and comforts himself in this root of the matter even when he confesseth he was not sinless yea and had more failings than he descerned See 1 John 3.9 This truth ought not to be abused to foster presumption or to embolden decliners while they are turning away and not returning yet it may comfort Saints who are humbled with their dayly failings that such weaknesses do not alter the state of their persons and it may encourage backsliders in their returning that a seed in them through Gods blessing may soon revive again 5. It is great cruelty and injustice to persecute an afflicted man who is solidly pious and rooted as to the state of his person and right in his cause For he argues that they should not persecute him who had the root of the matter in him Here Consider 1. It is dangerous to be found in opposition to what is right or to a good man in his right cause Whatever mens interest may seem to plead which ordinarily is more minded then what is right or wrong yet they should be able to do nothing against Truth 2 Cor. 13.8 For God is a party against the opposers of Truth and Truth and its Friends will be found too hard for any Creatures 2. As it is a sin and unbeseeming Saints to be cruel to any seeing the sense of mercy to themselves should make them merciful to others Matth. 18.23 35. Tit. 3.2 3 4. So in Particular It is an heinous sin not only to be against godly men in what is right but even to be violent and bitter and persecute them And readily this followeth upon the former any opposition to Truth tends to persecuting of it if there be a tentation 3. That favourers of Truth are afflicted by God is the great disadvantage of those who oppose and persecute them For if we joyn the former Argument with this we will find that their fault was so much the greater that they persecuted a righteous man who was already afflicted Doct. 6. Albeit men ought not to spare any sin yet they may be cruel in persecuting men for real faults so long as the root of the matter is found in them For so much may be here gathered that though Job had failings yet since the root of the matter is found in him they should not thus persecute him This should not he abused to excuse men who it may be have this root in them when either they maintain a wrong cause or turn loose in their conversation yea no good that is in any should excuse any of their faults Yet when men are righteous both as to the state of their person and their cause as Job was his cause relating to the state or his person and they fail in the way and manner of maintaining their cause it must be great cruelty violently to persecute them especially when they are under the hand of God And though their miscarriages he real sins yet they should not be charged upon the state of their person as altering it and they should be meekly dealt with as Brethren in reproving them 2 Thess 3.14 15. 7. It is a sin and shame for men not only to fail in their duty but that they should need admonition to set about
it from others or a reproof if they neglect it And that they do not put themselves to it either to prevent miscarriages or to mourn for them For ye should say Why persecute we him It is sad when Saints are not the first and most severe censurers of their own neglect of duty and when it may be said by others as of the wicked Psal 53.4 where is their Conscience and tenderness that they walk so contrary to their rule 8. Men engaged in debates and over-driven with passions do not readily see their own duty but their actions do out-run their reason and others will see what they ought to do better than themselves For Job must tell them what they should say See Jer. 8.6 Vers 29. Be ye afraid of the sword for wrath brângeth the punishments of the sword that ye may know there is a judgment In this verse we have Job's last Argument pressing his Challenge taken from their hazard if they went on thus to persecute him Wherein 1. He asserts they had cause to be afraid of the sword or some extraordinary judgment because of their cruelty 2. He confirms his Assertion from this that wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword that is if we take wrath largely the wrath and displeasure of God will inflict it and that because of their rage and wrath against him who was an afflicted godly man 3. He amplifieth and confirmeth the equity of this proceeding by pointing at Gods end in it that ye may know there is a judgment Whereby we are not to understand that by this their punishment God would have them to correct their former Errour and know that there is a judgment to come And that therefore they should not judge of men before the time nor expect that God by his dispensations within time should put a visible difference betwixt the wicked and the godly as their opinion led them to think But the meaning is That God by these punishments would teach them that there is a Providence to execute judgment upon these who offended as they did which they had but sleightly considered As for the Assertion and Exhortation that they should be afraid of the sword If we consider it in it self as is is an Argument diswading them from their cruelty It teacheth 1. The carriage even of Gods people particularly when they are cruel to the godly in affliction doth deserve and may draw on sad strokes even the Sword or some such Rod. So far may they miscarry not only a visible Church but even particular sincere Saints 2 Sam. 12.9 10. and so sharply may God pursue them especially for cruelty 2. The judgments of God even against his sinning people are dreadful Lev. 26. Deut. 28. 1 Sam. 3.11 12. and ought to be feared and will be feared by all godly men who are in their right wits For Job out of his own experience bids them he afraid of the Sword See Psal 90.11 Heb. 10.31 This is true of every judgment of God and of the Sword in particular 3. It is the duty and were the great advantage of men not to need to be put to learn the dreadfulness of Gods judgments by feeling them but to be afraid that they may prevent them For Job bids them before-hand be afraid of the Sword It is sad that we seldom fear Gods displeasure till we feel it and it is yet sadder if we fear not though we feel it but do harden our selves as may be gathered from those complaints Psal 90.11 Isa 1.5 4. There is no fear of Gods displeasure sound or acceptable but that which perswades men not to provoke him by sin or to quit sin if they fall in it For he perswades them so to be afraid as to give over their persecuting of him They do not fear God aright as a Judge who do not fear him as a Law-giver If we look upon this Exhortation not only in it self but as it is made use of by Job and is his counsel to his Friends who had injured him it teacheth further 1. Whatever be the dreams of secure souls yet such as know the sharpness of Gods displeasure against his sinning people and of the corrections that flow from it will even pity their very Enemies if they undergo them For therefore Job warns them who had injured him of their hazard 2. No injury can warrant us to neglect our duty toward those who have injured us or to wish or not study to prevent their hurt who wrong us especially when they are running the hazard of making God their party For therefore also doth Job warn them of their danger who were so cruel to him Mens wronging of God and us also doth not warrant us to sin against God and our own souls by the omission of any duty he hath enjoyned us 3. When men are tender and do duty to others it is not only their advantage to whom they do it but their own much more Therefore Job presseth this not only as their interest and advantage but as affording himself ease and comfort in that he is kept so tender toward them When we reckon right we will find that in doing duty to God or our Neighbours the advantage is chiefly our own and our selves have the greatest disadvantage if we neglect it From the Confirmation of this Assertion For wrath bringeth the punishments of the Sword Learn 1. Even the Children of God may lie under wrath and fatherly displeasure for their faults as here is supposed of these three godly men See 2 Chron. 19.2 Isa 64 7. 2. Rage and wrath against godly men is a special quarrel and cause of Gods displeasure For so this wrath doth also if not chiefly here signifie 3. Though men think little of Gods displeasure particularly against their rage at the godly when it is only intimated in the Word or may be read from their sin yet it will prove sad in the issue and portends sad corrections and those many of them pursuing sinners till they repent For if there be wrath then there are the punishments even many of them of the Sword If God be angry his wrath brings them as is here supplied in the Translation And as for mens wrath and rage it may be thus tendered wrath is the iniquities of the Sword or one of these sins which are punished with the Sword From Gods end in these Corrections That ye may know there is a judgment Learn 1. There is a Providence executing just judgments in the world For there is a judgment See Psal 58.11 But as Atheists deny this Ezek 9 9. Mal. 2.17 So the godly do not enough draw out the comforts of it 2. This Providence and Judgment of God will be exercised against them who rashly judge others For this is directed to them who rashly judged him him which is an heinous fault when the creature set is himself on Gods Throne to pronounce sentence against others Rom. 14.4 James 4.11 12. See Matth. 7.1 3.
than if they had never enjoyed it It is like meat that being eaten doth not feed and so it is all one as if they had not swallowed it Yea their vomiting of it up again makes it better they had not swallowed it at all In this part of the discourse Zophar no doubt reflects upon Job's losses but unjustly as not distinguishing in such a lot betwixt punishments or plagues for sin and cleanly tryals not yet remembering that Job did not so rejoyce in his prosperity chap. 31.24 25. as he asserts here the wicked do However the General Doctrine teacheth 1. Wicked men want not their own toil in their purchases either in their ordinary callings or courses of oppression For here he laboureth for what he hath one way or other 2. All this toil and labour doth not give wicked men a sanctified title to their purchases nor will secure them unto them For though he labour for it yet he shall restore 3. Oppression is a plague in mens estates and deprives them even of their other lawful purchases as well as of what they gained by oppression For what he laboured for any way as hath been explained shall he restore 4. When wicked men count all costs their success in oppression is no success if not worse than if they had never succeeded at all For so he shall not swallow down even what he hath swallowed down as hath been explained 5. God pursues wicked mens ill purchase so long as they have any thing left and till they be as poor as ever they were rich For the restitution or Gods taking away of his wealth and giving of it to others shall be according to his substance even all the substance which he hath 6. Whatever be the joy of wicked men because of their enjoyments yet oft-times God cuts them short of their joy and lets them see how empty it was and how sobriety had beseemed them rather than joy For when this change cometh upon the wicked he shall not rejoyce or exult in his purchase nor shall he have any joy at all for in the Original it is only he shall not rejoyce as not knowing how to rejoyce in God and in spiritual things in the want of temporal enjoyments Vers 19. Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not 20. Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly he shall not save of that which he desired In the third place this spoiling of the wicked man is amplified and the equity thereof cleared from the consideration of the procuring cause That since he oppressed the poor and cast them out of their houses and possessions without law v. 19. Therefore he shall have no true peace of mind nor enjoy his desirable things but shall loose them all v. 20. or as it is v. 14 15 16. he shall have no quiet with those morsels which he hath got into his belly till he quit them again In this also he reflects unjustly upon Job who neither was an oppressour nor wanted peace with God in his trouble However the General Doctrine teacheth 1. Oppression of the poor is a quarrel wherein God will appear and be a party For this is a cause of all those plagues because he hath oppressed or crushed the poor See Exod. 22 22-27 23.6 Psal 12.5 2. While he subjoyns this to the sin of oppression and hath forsaken the poor it may in general point out That to forsake the poor in his extremity and as we are called to help him in our stations may be joyned with oppression of the poor as a sin little inferiour to it But more particularly It may point out the height of the wicked mans cruelty That having crushed the poor till he did exhaust and leave them nothing he did not extend the least compassion toward them when he had thus oppressed them but turned them out of doors as is after subjoyned and dealt with them as Amnon dealt with Thamar 2. Sam. 13.15 16. And so it teacheth That oppressors are very cruel and do never give over till they exhaust and extenuate men as the name poor imports and leave them so to wallow in their miseries and God marks every step and degree of this oppression For he oppresseth and forsaketh and because of that God punisheth 3. God not only looks to mens right whatever their possession be but he abors that height of cruelty when men are turned out of their very habitations by oppressours For it is a sad quarrel against this wicked man that he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not 4. Oppressours need expect no true peace nor contentment whatever they enjoy but that God will shake them out of their enjoyments as a man vomits up a Surfeit For surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly nor brook that morsel in peace till he cast it up again 5. Albeit Oppressours set their hearts and build their felicity upon their unjust possessions yet all that will not secure them but it will rather be their plague that they have desired those things so much which they must loose For he shall not save even of that which he desired and that shall be bitter to him Vers 21. There shall none of his meat be left therefore shall no man look for his goods In the last place it is declared that this ruine shall be so great that he shall not have so much as a bit of bread left him and therefore shall no man look for his goods that is he shall have nothing left him which his heirs may expect who in his prosperity no doubt looked greedily for that day wherein they should succeed to so great wealth Or men shall never cease spolling him but will still have their eyes upon his goods so long is he hath a bit of bread and when that is gone they need look for no more It teacheth 1. That men have meat whereby to subsist is a great mercy and it is a sad tryal to want it Therefore it is here threatened as a sad stroke there shall none of his meat be left or there shall be none left of his desired substance v. 20. for his meat They who enjoy what is simply necessary have little cause to complain of the want of superfluities 2. When men are not content with food and rayment but would still heap up more it is just with God to leave them not so much as bread and to suffer men to have an evil eye upon them and to pluck at them even so long as they have meat For none of his meat shall be left and then no man shall look for his goods 3. Albeit wicked men do not stand to provoke God and rob others that they may leave much to their heirs Yet God when he pleaseth to pursue a Controversie can make them poor heirs yea and deprive them of all hope even in the wicked mans own life
and sometime to cure and drive us from entertaining our own inward tentations as Hereticks are permitted to vent the tentations of Saints as their own opinions that Saints may loath them And this mercy or medicinal correction of our own folly and weakness should we observe and improve when others do misconstruct us under tryal 3. That hereby we may have not an Argument to subscribe to the suggestion but an exact tryal of our faith when it is thus assaulted by godly friends For the more eminent the tryal is the more eminent will our faith be if we hold fast and we are called to give the more eminent proof of it 4. That hereby we may be weaned from seeking after or building upon the applause or approbation of godly friends which when we rest too much upon it provokes God to put us to this exercise Obs 4. If we consider Job's noticing of this their design his opposition thercunto and his condemning all their proceedings as devices wrongfully imagined against him it teacheth 1. It is great iniquity in godly friends to judge rashly of the estate of godly men especially to proceed upon false grounds and by indirect means in that matter For he challengeth their thoughts as devices wrongfully imagined against him being both wrong in the matter and wrong in the manner in that as the word imports they violenced or forced their wits to devise arguments to prove him a wicked man and tartly reflected upon him in their general discourses concerning the wicked As godly men may be left to themselves to mistake their afflicted friends So it is their great fault not to judge righteous judgment of godly men especially when they are afflicted or to plead their afflictions against them to question their estate or righteous cause thereby evidencing that they are too much taken up with outward prosperity that the want thereof causeth them to stumble and taking the Name of God in vain by reading his dispensations wrong or to bend their wit and put it upon the rack to forge cavillations lies and calumnies to bear in upon them that they are wicked and by their salt and sharp way of dealing to evidence that they want love to godly afflicted men 2. It is the duty of godly men under affliction as to labour to discern the thoughts and drift of these who oppose them so not to be daunted or discouraged thereby For here he tells them he knew their thoughts and that they were devices wrongfully imagined and prefixeth a behold to this to intimate what a mercy it was to him that he could thus discern and judge of their way It is a commendable duty yea and a mercy not to call Truth in question were the opposition never so great nor are they stupid secure or presumptuous who will not succumb under every calumny yea it is a mercy when God gives godly men strength to bear out against such a stream of opposition See Chap. 27.5 6. Vers 29. Have ye not asked them that go by the way and do ye not know their tokens 30. That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath In the Second Head of Doctrine in this part of the Chapter in these verses we have Job's resolution of this Controversie and his refutation of their Principles Wherein he declares that if they would but ask any Traveller by the way and were acquainted with their tokens v. 29. they would easily be resolved thereby that though some of the wicked be plagued yet generally they are reserved till a day of destruction and wrath in the life to come and at the day of Judgment v. 30. The Assertion it self v. 30. concerning the common and ordinary lot of the wicked is clear and evinceth Job's point that if the wicked be so generally reserved then they receive not their visible reward here and so to be afflicted is neither common to them nor peculiar to them only But the way of clearing and confirming this assertion v. 29. by asking at Travellers and knowing their tokens is not so clear It holds out in General that this Truth was obvious and could be cleared not only by these Travellers who had made many Observations and seen much concerning the lots of wicked men but by any ordinary Traveller they first met with by the way But that is not sufficient to clear the latter part of the verse and by what means these Travellers could resolve this case Therefore we must know that Travellers especially in desert or ill peopled Countries such as these Countries of Arabia were had marks and tokens whereby they took up their way and directed their journeys from one place to another when they had no beaten path nor Inhabitants to enquire at And as they had some such marks and tokens which were natural as Hills Mountains Rivers c. whereby they took up their way and some artificial called by the Romans Mercuriales Statuae set up in cross ways or at other sit places for that very purpose to direct Travellers which way they should follow to come to the place they minded So it seems they made use also of the Tombs and Monuments of great men which are called heaps v. 32. in the Original which were buried here and there in the Country Thus we find that Rachel's grave was a noted Monument long after her death Gen. 35.19 20. with 1 Sam. 10.2 So the meaning will be clear that if they will but ask at Travellers how they direct their way and take notice of their tokens how they point out their way from such a Tomb to such a Tomb of wicked and eminent oppressors this would clearly inform them that many wicked men went to their graves in outward peace and with honourable burial and get leave to rest quietly in their Tombs or Heaps as it is v. 32. their visible recompense being reserved till the day of General Account Doct. 1. Very eminent men for abilities may by reason of mists raised by passion and prejudices be ignorant of what is very obvious As here is imported that they knew not that which any body could tell them In many cases we stand not so much in need of outward evidences as of inward serenity and clearness of spirit to take up what is evidently represented to us See Chap. 12.7 And wise men may be ignorant especially in heavenly mysteries of what the meanest know Math. 11.25 1 Cor. 1.26 27. 2. As it is a shame for men of parts to be ignorant of what is common and obvious so it is their duty to be humble and willing to learn what they know not were it even at inferiours For he would have them ask at them that go by the way and makes it a question Have ye not asked that he may check them for their ignorance of what they might so easily know 3. It is a clear Truth that Gods displeasure is not let forth against
trouble may be inflicted upon godly men that it may help them to find the worth of Piety in these cordial supports and refreshments which the favour of God and the testimony of a good Conscience do then afford 7. Whatever profit men reap by Piety yet it redounds not to God who reaps no profit by it nor hath any pleasure in it upon that account For here it is enquired Can a man be profitable to God Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous c. to assure us that it is an undeniable truth that he cannot be profited thereby And this commends the self-sufficiency and infinite goodness of God who takes so much pains to seek us and our service for our own good and cries down all opinion of ouâ merit all conceit of our selves and all murmuring at Gods dispensations 8. Whatever be the Lords condescendence in taking pleasure in his peoples righteousness and service yet they lose all this advantage who conceit or boast of their own worth For to such in special it may be said Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that that thou art righteous as here it is said to Job in the like case And afterward God confirms it by Elihu See Gal. 6.3 9. Men are naturally so so selfish that they will far more easily assent to general Truths then admit of particular Applications wherein they are concerned Therefore he propounds this Assertion first in general v. 2. that he may make way for the particular Application of it v. 3. 10. Whatever fault there be in a godly mans pleading of his own integrity yet that will not prove him wicked For Eliphaz did mistake in this and his true challenge did not prove his conclusion And we ought to be careful that we fasten no more even upon mens real faults than they will bear and that we judge not of Saints estate by the weaknesses that break forth in an hour of tentation Vers 4. Will he reprove thee for fear of thee will he enter with thee into judgment This verse contains his Second Argument to prove Job wicked which may be interpreted diverse ways The word Fear of thee may be rendered thy fear and so it comes to this sense as if he had said God doth not reprove and enter in judgement with thee as by his rods he doth for thy Fear Reverence and Religion Therefore since he hath entered in judgment with thee it must be for thy wickedness This is indeed a truth That whatever God do to any yet he hath no quarrel at their Piety if it be sincere and godly men ought to reckon that it is so Yet this will not prove Eliphaz's conclusion For God may reprove and even plead his quarrels because he loveth his own and he may afflict them that he may prove and try them and that he may manifest his own glory in their support and the truth of his own grace in them But as the words are translated the sense is as if had said As thy righteousness cannot profit God v. 2 3. so neither doth he fear hurt from thee nor needs he pick a quarrel lest otherwise âe should sustain prejudice by thee See Chap 35.6 Therefore his proceeding cannot be partial but according to justice and consequently thou must be wicked since he afflicts For thy afflictions must either be for sin or for nothing seeing he needs neither fear thou wilt grow so good that he cannot reward thee or so great that he cannot command thee This Argument is faulty and proceeds upon the same mistake with the former Interpretation that there can be no cause found why God afflicts men but either for wickedness or for goodness or fear of hurt from the party if he were not afflicted whereas as hath been said there are many more wise reasons of his procedure However the General Doctrine may teach 1. Gods reproofs are judicial processes or they will draw to that if not taken with Therefore are they joyned here reproving and entering into judgment the one as explicating the other 2. Mens passions and particularly their cowardly fears are great enemies to justice Therefore it is supposed here that to act out of fear is inconsistent with doing justly cowards being always cruel and unjust 3. God is above all fear of the creatures or of any hazard from them For saith he Will he reprove thee for fear of thee c which as it proves his greatness so also the justice of all his proceedings Vers 5. Is not thy wickedness great and thine Iniquities infinite Followeth to v. 12. the third Argument taken from the many sins against the Second Table wherewith he thinks he may justly charge Job and for which he thinks he is justly punished The argument may be thus framed He whose life abounds with abominable sins is justly plagued But thy life saith he to Job is such Therefore thou art justly plagued The first proposition being supposed as true of it selfe the second is proved partly by a general challenge v. 5. Partly by particular instances of crimes charged upon Job v. 6 7 8 9. Upon all which he infers the conclusion v. 10 11. Here the General Doctrine is sound That the evils here mentioned are gross sins and deservedly punished though yet they be not always actually punished in this life But these faults are unjustly charged upon Job And it may be wondered at upon what pretence Eliphaz could charge all these foul crimes upon him who clears himself so expressly of them Chap. 29. 31. But it appears that he judged thus of Job Partly from the event because he was afflicted as v. 10 11. And because his afflictions of Poverty being oppressed and sleighted c. seemed to be such as a man might read such sins in them as the procuring cause of them And partly it is not improbable that these wicked oppressors whom Job had crushed and made to fall under the hand of Justice as himself declares Chap. 29.12 14 15 16 17. did now complain when they saw him in affliction that he had wronged and oppressed them And that Elipaz harkened to their Calumnies as suiting well with his own Principles But to come to the particulars as they ly in the Text In this verse we have a General Challenge of Gross and multiplied wickedness whereof he poseth Job if he were not guilty not because he did but conjecture it was so and would have Job try if it were true for he asserts it positively v. 6. c. But being sure he was guilty his Principles leading him to judge so of Job he chargeth it upon his Conscience if he could shift it Whence Learn 1. It is not enough men know their faults unless they also ponder the sinfulness thereof and aggravate them Therefore before he speak of the particular faults whereof he supposeth Job to be guilty he premits this General to mind him that he ought to look on these faults as wickedness and iniquity
assert Gods Providence to be universal and do assert a decree of Election of some and Reprobation of others men spare not to averr that we make God the Author of sin and do decry his love Because we cannot grant a corporal and carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Supper we are charged with the denying of the power of Christ and the truth of his Word c. But we should take heed lest we measure Truth by such odious consequences From the false grounds of this supposed crime as they are supposed in that Principle v. 12. and expressly deduced and enlarged v. 13 14. Learn 1. An evil course or sin is then most dangerous and odious when it is mens light and principles that lead them to it and they think they have reasons to justifie it as here it is supposed as an aggravation of the crime that Job not only denies Providence but thinks he can justifie his denyal by strength of Argument This also added to the sin of Jonah's passion Jonah 4 9 2. Greatest Atheists do carry a conviction and refutation about with them in their very bosoms and principles For that General Assertion v. 12. upon which he supposeth that Job bottomed his Argument doth refute an Atheist as hath been cleareed And mens vexing of themselves and keeping themselves throng with ungodly courses that they may drive away thoughts of a Deity Providence and Judgment to come doth clearly evince that the contrary thoughts do haunt and trouble them much Mens Atheistical thoughts are bottomed only upon their carnal mistakes and their measuring of God by themselves and by their shallow conceptions For so are we taught by the Arguments here produced which amount only to this That because God is said to dwell in a special manner in Heaven therefore he is only there and the distance and intervening darkness do hinder his sight and knowledge and turn him idle all which are gross mistakes flowing from mens low conceptions See Zech. 8.6 And therefore if we take him up as God and not man who is infinitely exalted above what we can conceive it will refute our distempers and mistakes Isa 55.8 9. 4. In opposition to these mistakes we ought to fix upon these Truths 1. God is so in Heaven as he is not secluded from the Earth Jer. 23.23 24. We may even feel after him in the works of his Providence Acts 17.27 28. and should eye him as present where-ever we are Psal 139.7 8 c. 2. There is no impediment of darkness secresie c. that can hide men good or bad and their ways from God For even darkness is as noon-day to him Psal 139 11 12. He seeth us when we see not nor mind him nor believe that he seeth us 3. God is not an idle spectator or walker in the circuit of Heaven but an actor in things below John 5.17 Which we should study acknowledge and improve Vers 15. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden Followeth to v. 19. the fifth Argument whereby Eliphaz would prove Job to be wicked which is taken from the judgments that have been inflicted on wicked men who lived before them Which serves not only to refute Job's supposed Atheism v. 12 13 14. And to prove that God doth know and order the affairs of the world but also as he thinks to prove his General Assertion concerning the miserable ruine of the wicked and that Job was wicked because so afflicted The discourse may be understood more generally and abstractly of all wicked men who formerly had been destroyed by calamities as by a floud But his mentioning the old way of wicked men and a floud v. 16. whereby they were destroyed doth lead us to understand it of the old world destroyed by the floud in Noah's days and that rather than of the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red-Sea For it is not certain that Job lived after that time and it is certain that could not be an old way and History in his time who lived as hath been cleared in the entry to this Book before the giving of the Law and the astricting of Sacrifices to that place where God had recorded his Name and withal in that instance of Pharaoh's ruine the condition of the people of God suffering in Egypt might have been produced to refute his opinion As for the Argument it self it cannot be denyed but that destruction of the old world was a document of Gods Justice to be observed and improved in all Ages But from this it cannot be inferred that God deals so with all wicked men because he hath made Beacons of some of them to warn others Neither will it follow that because God destroyed the old world for their sins therefore Job who is afflicted must be wicked likewise For the issue proved that Job's calamity was not so desperate and irrecoverable as theirs and not only mens lots but their carriage which is expressly spoken too of these who perished in the floud must be looked unto to clear what they are To follow this Argument by parts it may be taken up in four Branches In the first whereof in this verse he excites Job in general to mark and consider the old way of wicked men both the way of their sin and of the ruine that followed upon it Whence Learn 1. God hath given many Refutations of Atheism to the no small damage of wicked men For this instance of Gods justice refutes all these Atheistical conclusions wherewith he hath charged Job See Zeph. 1.12 Thus also are men refuted when they deifie themselves Ezek. 28.2 6 9. 2. Sin is a very old trade in the world For here in their days it was called an old way Which may commend Gods Patience and long suffering who hath continued the world so long notwithstanding the provocations thereof And may affright sinners from their sinful ways lest they be served as heirs to all these who have sinned in the like kind before them Matth. 23.34 35. 3. A course of wickedness once engaged in becomes very ensnaring For men being engaged become bold in sin and habituate themselves in it For they become wicked men or men of iniquity and they tread in that way it is so habitual to them as if they made a path by constant walking This is the cause why they are not easily reclaimed Jer. 13.23 And this deludes many who think they have peace in their sinful ways when it is only their stupidity and impudence that encrease upon them as they make progress in sin 4. Albeit the least sin or any one wicked act doth deserve extremest judgments and wrath Yet ordinarily men are grossly wicked and habituated in a course of sin when God makes them spectacles of his justice For such were those whom he instanceth to have been plagued here they were men of Iniquity treading in the way of wickedness So that when wicked men are plagued they ought to reflect upon
things are with him to deal with others as he dealt with Job So when the Lord hath tryed any of his people much he is still Soveraign and absolute to try them yet more Thus Job apprehends that many such things are with him to be yet performed against himself And it is true we should not think to shelter our selves under one tryal as if that should exempt us from another Amos 9.4 But God when he pleaseth may send many tryals one upon the back of another or all of them together Lam. 2.22 5. As God hath variety of tryals to send as he pleaseth upon the Sons of men So he hath variety of wayes means whereby to bring about their tryal and exercise Even many such things whether tryals or wayes and means of trying Therefore we ought not to boast that because we have endured one kind of tryal therefore we can stand in whatsoever assault For Hezekiah stood firm in adversity who yet succumbed in prosperity 6. It is an evidence of the weakness of Saints that when they get not their will in being delivered from present trouble they are ready to fear there are yet greater troubles to come upon them For so did Job conclude here that because God would not ease him nor grant his desires therefore many such things were yet abiding him It is our duty in trouble to hold our selves at our present work which is oft-times interrupted by these fears without either presumption or anxiety about what may befall us for the future And as we are not to judge of Gods purposes about our future lot by what is present seeing he can soon change his way of dealing nor yet by the thoughts of our own hearts when they are crushed and distempered by present troubles So neither are we to judge how we will be able to endure future tryals if it please God to send them till they be our tryal at which time we may expect grace to help as being a time of need Provided that for present we be not asleep but self-denied and living in a continual dependance upon God Verse 15. Therefore am I troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him In the last branch of Jobs complaint he summs up all his former complaints in a new complaint Wherein he sheweth how grievous these things formerly mentioned were unto him and what matter of fear perplexity and regrate they ministred unto him In this Verse he propounds in general That the consideration of God as he had taken him up in the former complaints Namely that he had not only smitten him with sad stroaks v. 2. but would not be found of him v. 8 9. was inexorable and unchangeable in his purpose of afflicting him v. 13 14. and particularly seemed to be about to afflict him with more plagues v. 14. The consideration I say of all this did perplex and affright him Whence Learn 1. The sadness of mens afflictions ought not to be measured only by the weight of the stroak inflicted upon them for much trouble may be made easie to some but by the exercise of Spirit which it produceth in the afflicted For Job aggravates all his former complaints and the causes of them from the effects thereof that he was troubled and afraid This is seriously to be considered that men may be pitied when God makes lesser troubles prove heavy to them and that he may be acknowledged and commended when he makes a heavy burden prove very easie to the afflicted 2. It is a sad and humbling effect of afflictions when they so perplex and confound men that they know not what to do and do keep their minds in a perpetual restlessness and tossed with confusions and when they are accompanied with fears and terrours which break the courage of mens Spirits For this is the matter of Jobs sad complaint that he was troubled or perplexed and afraid by reason of his troubles Men should expect to be thus exercised in trouble that they may neither lean to their own wits nor courage and when their Spirits are not broken by trouble they ought not to complain of any sharp tryal 3. Sad stroaks in themselves will not so easily put Saints to perplexities and fears as their apprehensions of Gods thoughts in the stroaks he inflicts For saith he I am troubled at his presence and afraid of him Hence it is that wicked men prove so stout-heatred in outward troubles which may be ready to crush godly men because they do not look to God nor regard his thoughts in their afflictions as the godly do 4. Saints do much augment their own perplexities and fears by their dwelling much upon the consideration of their condition For saith he Whân I consider I am troubled at his presâncâ and afraid of him As the wicked want exercise through want of consideration of their own wayes and of what God is doing to them So the godly do beget it through too much poring upon their condition And therefore they should be sober and cautious in ruminating upon their tryals 5. As God is terrible and dâeadful in himself and in his pursuing of wicked men So a sight and thoughts of him may be affrighting and breed perplexities even in Saints when they are in trouble For so was Job troubled at his presence and afraid of him So that godly men ought not to question their own state because of these apprehensions of God 6. Looking unto God through a wrong Perspective will readily breed Saints more perplexity than is allowed For so was it with Job here His looking upon God not as his revealed will declares it to be our mercy that we are in his hand in trouble and that he minds the good of his children thereby but as his passion and present distress misrepresented him his poring upon his own sad condition and his missing of these out-gates and wayes of appearing to plead his integrity which he devised breed him all this trouble and fear and not any thing God minded to his prejudice by this tryal if he could have discerned aright Verse 16. For God maketh my heart soft and the Almighty troubleth me 17. Because I was not cut off before the darkness neither hath he covered the darkness from my face In these Verses Job expresseth his complaint and grievance more distinctly together with the cause thereof His grievance and sad case v. 16. is That God did not only trouble and confound his spirit and judgement but did make his heart soft not so much soft by reason of tenderness as by taking away the strength and fortitude of his Spirit So that it was apt like wax to take any impression of fainting and terrour A particular cause and reason of this his dejected condition is subjoyned v. 17. Namely That God had made his life bitter with sorrows and had not prevented these his sorrows either by taking of him away by death before they came or by with-holding them from coming upon
others and feed upon them or feed them as their own v. 2. 3. That they oppress these who are already afflicted even the fatherless and widow by taking away under pretence of a pledge what is most necessary for them as an Ass to bear their burdens and the Ox that should plough their ground v. 3. 4. That they not only oppress the poor and afflicted in the matter of their goods but are a terrour to their persons so that they dare not be seen openly or in the way whether their affairs call them but they must hide themselves for tear of these oppressours In general Learn 1. Men given up to errour are pestered with ignorance and will not see clearest light that might refute them For Job produceth clear instances disproving their assertion which yet they had never heeded The power of delusion is very great and love of errour will make men be willingly ignorant as 2 Pet. 3.5 2. Oppression is a sin that lyeth as near a stroak as any For Job instanceth that sin first to shew that if any sin were alwayes punished in this life it would be one And if it went unpunished not onely was their assertion false but it was no wonder if God winked also at other sinnes Naboth's Vineyard cost Ahab dear and none have cause to bless themselves in that sin though they have present immunity 3. Oppression is committed not only by open and notorious Thieves or Robbers but even by these who living in Civil Societies as neighbours do by deceits Law-tricks or boisterous violence undo others For of these Job here speaks first In particular from v. 2. Learn 1. God hath given men a right and propriety in their goods and possessions For if it were not so robbery were no sin the contrary whereof is here supposed nor needed there any Land-marks to distinguish mens possessions nor would there be any breaches of the Eighth Command which prohibiteth stealing Men may be ready to plead against this propriety of goods when themselves are in want who could soon change their opinion if themselves were possessed of what they desired 2. It is mens duty in prudence to prevent contests about interests and possessions For for this end were Land-marks appointed to prevent future debates It is the fruit of a sanctified Spirit to abhor and endeavour to avoid these contests Gen. 13.7 8. 3. It is a great sin to remove these Land-marks or what distinguisheth mens interests or to encroach upon the rights of others especially in the matter of their Inheritances which perpetuates the injury to men and their posterity For therefore it is instanced as a branch of oppression that some remove the land-marks And if it be oppression to remove a land-mark were it but a little how much more if men deprive others of all their inheritance Mic. 2.2 Senacherib boasted that he was good at removing the bounds of the people Isa 10.13 and God suffered his sons to pass over the bounds of duty and kill him Is 37.37 38. And if it be a crime to remove the bounds in Civil interests it must be much more hainous to remove the bounds which God hath set in the matters of Religion See Hos 5.10 And such as proclaim this liberty in Gods matters to secure their own interests may justly be plagued with licentious invasions upon what they think thus to secure 4. Oppression is odious in little things as well as in greater matters Therefore removing of Land-marks were it but a little is ranked in with taking away of flocks 5 Wicked Oppressours do not regard reason or right so they have power to execute their will For they violently take away flocks See Mic. 2.1 It is a rare thing to find men of Joseph's and Nehemiah's Consciences Gen. 42.17 18. Nehem. 5.15 when they have power but they are rather like the Fishes of the Sea Hab. 1.14 where the greater devour the lesser 6. Wicked men have not only their Consciences stupified to engage them in an ill course but they persist impenitently in it For when they have taken these Flocks they feed them in the land which they have taken by oppression or they feed thereof and make use of them for their daily provision See 1 King 21.19 Conscience is very readily deaded after an ill turn were it even in a child of God as David's experience after his Adultery and Murder doth witness 7. Wicked men notwithstanding their oppression and their secure stupidity in it may yet be long spared For these Oppressours get leave to feed or feed upon their ill purchase From v 3. Learn 1. Wicked men are so set upon evil that they will oppress for very little advantage For they will take were it but an Ass or an Ox only Men may vent very much wickedness and corruption in a very small matter as may be seen in the transgression of our first parents Gen. 3.6 And it will not excuse men that they do but little acts of wickedness if they put forth all their power were it but like snail-horns and improve all the opportunities they have to do evil 2. The less mens tentations be to oppress their sin in it is the greater For because an Ass or an Ox is but a poor prey for such Oppressours their sin in taking thereof is the greater Small tentations do aggravate mens sin and bear witness of their perverse dispositions which cause them to run to sin of their own accord when tentations do not effectually draw them 3. Oppression is yet more heinous when it is committed against the poor Eccl. 4.1 and 5.8 and especially the widow and fatherless whom God owneth and when Oppressours are so cruel as to take from them what is necessary for their very being and subsistence As here they take the very Ass and Ox of the fatherless and widow See 2 Sam. 12.3 4. 4. Oppression is nothing the less odious that it is committed under pretext of Law For here it is Oppression though they take things for a pledge It is a great sin to abuse Law which is an Ordinance of God to palliate injustice and solemnities and formalities of Law in committing of iniquity do add to the ugliness thereof as may be seen in the way of Jezebel's purchasing Naboth's Vineyard 1 King 21.7 13 23. From v. 4. Learn 1. Wicked men make no end of sinning nor keep any bounds in it For they proceed from oppressing of men in their Lands and Goodâ to oppress their persons Men by sinning do but drink themselves dry and committing of a lesser sin breeds them to commit a greater without remorse 2. Violence to mens persons is the height of oppression when poor men are not only deprived of their good and livelyhood but they cannot live nor dare be seen beside oppressours especially if they appear to vindicate themselves As here these oppressours turn the needy out of the way where their affairs calls them to walk and the poor of the earth hide
fears and disquiets For therefore they know not the light but shun it and in some cases they are in the terrours of the shadow of death Thus wicked men buy some sins at a dear rate being tortured and tossed betwixt their lusts and their fears 5. It argues an height of wickedness and rebellion when men goe on in sin notwithstanding their fears and terrours For though it be thus with them and they are often affrighted as with the shadow of death yet they still persist to mark and digg thorow houses 6. It is a plague upon wicked men that many times their fears are unreasonable For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death as well as they are in the terrours of the shadow of death if one know them and yet the morning light may come and they possibly not be seen or known by any See Prov. 28.1 7. When the fear of God or of offending him is put away by men God may justly plague them with much torturing fear of shame and punishment as here those wicked men are 8. When wicked men have cast off fear of God and of his pursuing vengeance yea and fear of outward shame also in following many sins Yet gross sins may still be accompanied with some terrours and fear of shame For in these gross sins of Murder Theft and Adultery it is supposed that these wicked men may yet be afraid of being seen however they commit other sins openly So that they who commit even abominations and are not ashamed are in a woful plight Jer. 8.12 9. Wicked men have no longer security and quiet in their evil courses than they can lurk and walk secretly in committing them For if the morning come or one know them presently they are filled with terrours Verse 18. He is swift as the waters their portion is cursed in the earth he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards This Verse wherein the wicked are sometime spoken of in the singular number as of one person sometime in the plural number as of many to shew that God eyeth one as well as many and can if he will reach many as well as one is by some understood of the judgements that come upon the wicked That they are suddenly and easily hurried away as waters fall down a precipice that their portion is visibly cursed and they enjoy no fruitful and pleasant lot like vineyards in the World But this Interpretation crosseth Jobs scope in this Chapter which is to prove that some wicked men are pursued with no visible judgements Others following our Translation understand the words of some sort of wickedness in men whose lusts from within meeting with tentations from without do hurry them here and there and make them unconstant and unsetled in their manners and lives like the fleeting waters and keep them from following any thrifty calling in the World so that they do not so much as look toward the most pleasant easie and profitable calling such as the labouring of vineyards is Such sort of wicked persons are our sturdy beggars and vagrant persons who are indeed remarkably and notoriously wicked persons for most part being in effect neither members of the Church nor Common-wealth And the Interpretation may also be verified of other wicked men in so farr as their lusts render them restless and unsetled But the Original Text He is swift upon the face of the waters seems to point at another peculiar sort of wicked men even Pirates who in their Ships run swiftly upon the Sea or Rivers to get a prey As no doubt there were such on the Red Sea which bordered upon Arabia As for what followeth of their portions being cursed c. It may point out Either That when all these wicked men who are formerly mentioned their prosperity and way of thriving by oppression theft and murder hath failed them on the Land and they are pursued with curses from all and when they can expect no enjoyment of vineyards any longer there then they turn Pirates by Sea Or which seems to be the most simple Interpretation That they so follow their trade of Sea-Piracy that they never come to land in places where men resort and inhabit or where there are vineyards and other fruits of mens husbandry But when ever they come ashore they lurk in some barren place or cursed portion till they have occasion to goe to Sea again Thus this instance is not unfitly joyned with these formerly mentioned who follow works of darkness because in some respect they are men who walk in darkness because they converse not among men or in the way of the vineyards but are either at Sea or in some cursed portion of the earth I shall not insist upon what might be gathered from the first Interpretation of the latter part of this Verse Namely 1. That whatever be the indulgence of God toward sinners as to their cutting off yet they want not marks of Gods displeasure against them Particularly that some of their ill courses thrive not well in their hand As this Interpretation supposeth that those Pirates portion was cursed in the Earth or Land before they went to that trade 2. That when one trade of sin hath failed wicked men they will find out another As here when their portion is cursed upon the land they turn Pirates Which point out their obstinacy that when God blasts an ill course in their hand they will not give over to sin But I shall from the whole Verse according to the second and more simple Interpretation of the words Observe 1. Many and various are the trades of sin which wicked men invent to themselves For after all the wicked courses formerly mentioned here is a new instance of another sort of wickedness 2. Piracy and Sea-robbery is a sin that very justly deserves a stroak at Gods hand Considering that where themselves are daily in so much hazard and where they may see so many of Gods wonders Psal 107.23 24 there they sin with an high hand and are inhumane and cruel Therefore doth Job instance those who are swift upon the face of the waters as sinners who would certainly be punished if his Friends assertion were true 3. It is a plague upon wicked men and an evidence of their obstinacy and should shame godly men from their unwillingness to endure in a good cause that they endure much vexation in following of sin and that at best it is but a vile drudgery and yet they will not give it over For here they have a tossed life upon the face of the waters all they come to on land is a cursed portion and they behold not the way of the vineyards and yet do not weary Verse 19. Drought and heat consume the Snow waters so doth the grave those which have sinned In this and the following Verse Job sheweth how these sinners formerly spoken of notwithstanding all their wickedness are cut off but in an ordinary way Here omitting other readings of
cleared and vindicated they may be ready to take it ill As here Job complains that God had taken away his judgement or had not given him an hearing to silence the reproaches and mistakes of his Friends See Psal 69.20 and 120.3 4. Men should acknowledge it a mercy when they are born out under this tryal and though it do prove sharp unto them yet that is not a mark of wickedness for godly men have been afflicted with it before them and withall others should take heed that they inflict not such a tryal which may prove so sharp and vexing to an afflicted godly man 6. Beside misconstructions and other outward tryals under which godly men may be continued and God not interpose to vindicate and deliver them godly men should resolve to be exercised with soul-trouble by their outward troubles breaking in upon their spirits to distemper them and Gods hiding of his face under it For when Job is not delivered from misconstructions nor his cause cleared he is also vexed in soul Here we are to consider 1. Godly afflicted men may meet with more trouble instead of being delivered from what they are under As Job iâ not only not delivered and cleared but his soul is also vexed 2. Troubles are never sharp and searching till they get in upon mens spirits and souls For Job complains of this as a sad addition to the former tryal Then tryals will become insupportable Prov. 18.14 and they will readily discover any scum of corruption that is within us So that men have cause to bless God if they be free of this whatever their lot be otherwise Hence 3. Men should look well to what their souls are doing under trouble for if they be not vexed with sin Jer. 2.19 they are justly made to smart under other vexations Doct. 7. Bitterness is ordinarily the result of soul-trouble For here his soul is made bitter as it is in the Original See Chap. 9.18 Troubles are of themselves grievous and bitter Heb. 12.11 and when they break in upon our spirits they work upon our bitterness and we represent them to our selves as more bitter and grievous than indeed they are And therefore we should be upon our guard that we may possess our souls in patience and meekness Luke 21.19 And for this end we ought to remember that it is our distance from God our pride our hearkning to every tentation and our aversion from exercise that breed us all our bitterness 8. Soul-bitterness is the great distemperer and misleader of godly men under affliction For this bred all his resentment here and whatsoever is afterward censured in this discourse flowed from this beginning of it with a reflexion upon his soul-bitterness Which may tell the afflicted where to find a cure of their own distempers even in wrestling against their bitterness 9. It is but a tentation and fruit of bitterness to father our distempers upon God or to reflect on him in what he doth As here Job complains of him that by his dispensations which were most cleanly and justifiable he had made his soul bitter when it was indeed the result of his own weakness See Prov. 19.3 Yea by calling God the Almighty in doing of this he insinuates a sharp reflexion that God had employed his power thus against him who was a weak afflicted man See Jer. 20.7 10. Godly men notwithstanding their weaknesses under affliction are yet giving proofs of honesty and integrity which may be seen by right discerners As here may be seen in Job who notwithstanding all these distempers 1. Seeth Gods hand in all and never takes his eye from off his providence which was commendable though he fathered his own distempers unjustly upon him 2. By his swearing by God though he thus dealt with him he gives proof that he will still worship him and reverence him as the supreme Iudge the witness to the conscience and maintainer of truth and so will cleave to him and appeal to his Tribunal and will not suspect any prejudice from him whatever his sense may say of him for present 3. He loves integrity and will still abide by it yea he will swear himself Gods servant and that he will not deal deceitfully And so he gives proof that he loves piety and integrity even when he thinks God deals hardly with him which may condemn them who are wicked when they are well dealt with Verse 3. All the while my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils Thirdly unto his oath and description of God he subjoyns an account of his constancy in the resolution after-mentioned wherein he swears that he will persevere all the dayes of his life Whence Learn 1. Mans life is but in his lip and nostrils and continues but for a while For it depends upon the breath in his nostrils See Psal 146.3 4. Isa 2.22 So that we ought not to set up our rest upon time or the enjoyments thereof Psal 49.11 12 c. Luk. 12.19 20. 2. Our life and breath are from God and consequently at his disposal For it is the spirit or breath of God given by him in his nostrils See Psal 104.29 30. Act. 17.25 28. The consideration whereof 1. Obligeth man to glorifie God upon this very account Dan. 5.23 2. Is an argument why man should âender his life as the gift of God not cutting it off by intemperance neglect of the body wearying of it under trouble or otherwise 3. It may secure us in troubles that our times are in Gods hand Ps 31.15 and 66.8 9. 4. It is an argument perswading us to live in a continual dependence upon God Jam. 4.13 14 15. Doct. 3. Godly men ought to be constant and persevere to the end in good resolutions not being shaken by vicissitudes at length of time For Job swears that all the while his breath is in him c. he will abide at his resolution See Matth. 24.13 4. When men consider the uncertainty of their life and that it is at Gods disposal it should make them very serious and ingenuous in the maââeâ of their integrity For that his breath is the breath of God and that but in his nostrils may be looked on also as an argument and reason why he will be sincere in what he hath sworn to declare concerning his integrity Verse 4. My lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit Fourthly In this and the two following verses he subjoyns the resolution it self which he swears to abide by so constantly and that is to maintain his own integrity which is the state of the controversie betwixt him and his Friends In this verse he gives an account of this his resolution in general termes That he will not speak wickedness nor use deceit to see off his cause as men use to do when they have a bad cause Whence Learn 1. It is a great proof of piety to take heed to the tongue For Job begins his resolution to maintain
madness when men please themselves with a temporary portion of prosperity even albeit it be plenteous when in the mean time it may prove a Belshazzars feast at least like the lot of the rich Glutton Luk. 16.19 22 23. or that of the rich man Luk. 12.19 20. And their real portion and heritage shall be with hypocrites and unbelievers And albeit all wicked men smart not under visible judgements yet they should judge of their portion not by their enjoyments but by their deserving 4. Mens portion and heritage are not in their own hand either to carve them out or secure them but in Gods only who will as little ask the wickeds advice in appointing their portion as they consult with him in the choice of their way For this portion is with God or purposed and determined by him and they shall receive this heritage from the Almighty Men would gladly be their own carvers both in what they should do and what should be their lot But as God is the Law-giver to prescribe duty so if his authority be contemned in that he will make it known that vengeance and recompence are his and do belong to him Deut. 32.35 5. It were mens wisdome to read from the Word what is their portion in the purpose of God before this purpose break forth in execution For this portion of the wicked which is said to be from God Chap. 20.29 is here pointed out as with God laid up in his purpose as among his treasures Deut. 32.34 35. that they may consider it in time As the gracious thoughts of God should comfort godly men even when his dispensations are sharp and therefore an account of them is sent as good news to the Cartives at Babylon Jer. 29 11. So these purposes of God to plague for sin may justly affright wicked men or even godly men in a sinful course And therefore it is a sad close to all Davids endeavours to cloak his Adultery and Murder that yet his way displeased the Lord 2 Sam. 11.26 6. What wicked men will not see in the Word revealing Gods purpose they are justly made to feel in effects For they shall receive this heritage at last which is their portion with God And albeit all of them do not receive it here yet they who have plenty of the means of grace and will not see Gods controversie against them but do take some favourable Providences for their Bible and conclude that they are in Gods favour because of these whatever the Word say to the contrary he justly speaks to them in a language which they will be made to understand 7. God is Omnipotent and powerful to make his purposes effâctual and to cause the wicked drink of what cup he pleaseth Therefore is he called the Almighty here to shew his power to cause them receive this heritage were there not only one but many Oppressours of them together From v. 14. Learn 1. Even those of the wicked whom God is to plague in this life may for a time enjoy mercies and special favours As here is supposed that they may have Children This the Lord doth That these mercies in his holy Providence may be a snare unto them That thereby he may try them as prosperity is a searching lot as well as adversity and they may bring forth the naughtiness of their hearts being emboldened thereunto by their prosperity That he may make use of these mercies as witnesses for himself against them in the day of account Rom. 2.4 That he may give proof how he can curse blessings Mal. 2.2 And that outward mercies are nothing unless he bless them nor doth mans happiness consist in them And That by heaping benefits upon them he may imbitter their after-miseries when they are stripped of all those As here the Sword taking away their Children after they are multiplyed renders their case more miserable than if they had never enjoyed them 2. Children and a multiplyed Off-spring are in themselves a special favour Therefore are they begun with in this account that the wicked man hath Children multiplyed and Off spring to shew that they are chief benefits the want whereof will affect them above many tryals See Ps 127.3 4 5. Of this see on Chap. 24.21 Only Children should be looked upon as a mercy and a great trust and jewel and when men have no care of their education especially in times wherein errours and snares abound it is just with God that among other plagues they prove curses and crosses unto them 3. Wicked Parents prove oft-times a plague and a cause of plagues and judgements to their posterity As here ruine comes upon the wicked mans Children and off-spring as a punishment of his sin See Exod. 20.5 This doth not necessarily import that the wicked man himself is suffered to dye in peace and leaves his posterity to reap the fruit of his sins though sometimes it may so come to pass 1 King 21.28 29. For himself is smitten also v. 19 20 c. But the meaning is That whatever befall the wicked man himself his Children also do smart under the fruits of his sin It is true if we except the first sin of Adam which is imputed unto all his posterity and they deserve eternal wrath for it upon this special account that they were in him and sinned that sin in him Rom. 5.12 who as a publick person represented all mankind who should descend from him by ordinary generation in that Covenant of works made with him in his integrity It is true I say that God imputeth not the sins of Parents to their Children unto eternal condemnation unless by imitation they witness their approbation thereof Yet wicked Parents may have influence upon their posterity in divers respects As 1. All men being sinners and come short of the glory of God in Adam and God being a debter to none as he may deny his grace to whom he will so in particular he may with-hold his grace from the Children of wicked Parents and the Parents may contribute thereunto by their ill education of their Children that so they may sill up the measure of their Parents sins and ripen for judgements Matth. 23.31 32. Which yet is not so to be understood but that God who is absolute and Soveraign in dispensing his grace may when he pleaseth make choice of the Children even of very wicked Parents as indeed he hath none to choose but the Children of sinners and is not bound to give grace to the Children of godly men and make them eminent vessels of mercy As we see in Hezekiah the Son of Ahaz Josiah the Son of Ammon and divers others And thus the Lord preserves some reprobate and wicked persons who do eminently deserve to be cut off that some of his Elect ones may spring out of their loynes 2. Wicked men by slighting of the Gospel may provoke God to take it away from them and their posterity and so their Children are left without the pale of
desert them or afflict them yet more And afflicted persons are hereby taught not to expect that one affliction will hide them from another when God hath them to try exactly 4. Albeit Magistrates ought to do justice to all nor ought they to countenance poor men indifferently in whatsoever cause they have Exod. 23.3 Yet it is their Duty by vertue of their Office to protect the poor in their just rights For Job delivered the poor that cryed or from crying so that they needed cry no more and the fatherless c. 5. Albeit Magistrates in protecting and delivering the poor can look for no reward from them and may expect to be much maligned and hated by Oppressours Yet it is a blessed work so to do and a mean and way to be blessed of God Prov. 24.11 12. And such Magistrates ought to be blessed by these who are helped by them For in all these respects it is true that the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon Job 6. It is the duty of the afflicted when God raiseth up Instruments to do for them to be comsorted in his providence and care even though their condition be otherwise sad For even the desolate and sad widows heart did sing for joy by Jobs means 7. It is no strange thing to see compassionate men meet with misery themselves As here befell Job who had been a compassionate man to the afflicted Hereby the Lord in his wise and holy providence layeth stumbling blocks in the way of many as no doubt many took advantage of Jobs misery to reproach him and his justice and tenderness as we have heard from Chap. 22.5 6 7. And hereby also God teacheth godly men to be sober and denied to all the good they are enabled to do that they may not alwayes expect visible advantages thereof but may be satisfied in the testimony of a good Conscience Verse 14. I put on righteousness and it cloathed me my judgement was as a robe and a diadem Lest any might object that Job did all this for the poor out of an affected desire of vain-glory and popularity or as being byassed with pity He in this Verse vindicates his practice and clears that he did all this justly and in righteousness which he persevered in and gloried in it above a robe and diadem and all other ornaments of his magistracy and dignity Whence Learn 1. No action can he rendred acceptable by any pretences unless it be good in it self Nor will pity to the distressed render a Magistrate approved unless his actings be just and he so relieve them that he do no wrong to others For therefore doth Job clear that his actings for the poor and fatherless c. v. 12 13. were in righteousness and judgement Where the two words righteousness and judgement may signifie one and the same thing Or judgement subjoyned to righteousness may import that he did not alwayes judge according to the strict rigour of the Law but did observe moderation and equity when the cause required it 2. It will not commend a Magistrate nor be comfortable to him that sometime he is just unless he be constant in it against all opposition For Job put on righteousness and it cloathed him his judgement was as a robe and a diadem Righteousness and Judgement were no less conspicuous in his administrations and habitual to him than his very garments and they did cover him on his head as a diadem and on his body as a robe so that there could be no access for injustice at any passage and being so it proved indeed warm and comfortable as mens garments are to their bodies that good practice being indeed commendable wherein men are habitual and constant and from which they are not driven by any tentations 3. As Magistrates have their badges of honour and eminent persons have that allowance in their apparel to which inferiour persons ought not to aspire as Job had his robe and diadem So to a godly discerning Magistrate the faithful discharge of his Office is his chief crown and ornament without which he is but a Statue in all his robes and splendour For Jobs righteousness and judgement were in his eyes a robe and diadem Yea vertues are the chief ornament of any person without which their gorgeous apparel doth but serve to cover so many monsters See 1 Pet. 3.3 4. Verse 15. I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame 16. I was a Father to the poor and the cause which I knew not I searched out In these Verses Job gives a further and more particular account of his pains and the active assistance which he gave to the afflicted in judging their cause That he was any thing to them that they needed to set their cause right He helped such as had no skill in legal proceedings with his counsel and so was as eyes to the blind He was feet also to the lame not only in supporting those who were weak and like to be crushed and their righteous cause ready to be lost by the violence of potent Adversaries but in directing and helping them to act and strirr in defence of their cause and it may be going about it himself And he was in a word not only a Judge but a Father to all the poor and searched out the cause which he knew not that is he took pains to sift it to the bottom that he might find out what truth and justice was in it Or he searched out causes which otherwise he could not know as not being brought before him because either persons were unwilling or durst not complain that so he might prevent contentions and remove secret grudges and discontents among the people Or he searched out every cause that came before him even the causes of these persons whom he knew not as well as the cause of his acquaintances Doct. 1. It is not enough that Magistrates do judge justly in causes as they come and are presented before them But they must have a care especially if they be superiour Magistrates that righteous causes be not crushed in the very entry and either hindred from being presented in judgement or misguided and mis-represented in judgement through the simplicity weakness or poverty of the party wronged but that all these defects be supplyed For Job was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame c. He either acted all that was needful himself or caused others do it and saw that it was done and did not leave all to his inferiour Officers 2. As variety of causes and persons come before Magistrates and innocent persons may lye at many disadvantages So Magistrates must be ready to do all that the poor need who are oppressed and for any poor oppressed persons who need their help and that never so often For he was eyes or feet or whatever they needed in any cause and he was all those to the blind and lame indefinitely and he was those things to them not
point out to wicked men the vanity of their imagined happiness that in all they attain or enjoy they can never find that happiness they seek after but it is still before their hand 4. Albeit hope of future good be that whereby all men who are not drowned in despair do chear up their own hearts whether they be in weal or woe yet only godly men have the promises upon which they may ground this hope And particularly the merciful have a promise that they shall obtain mercy So that it is no wonder they fall into trouble who do not shew mercy Jam. 2.13 Mat. 25.41 42 43. For it was upon this ground that he was a godly man and particularly a merciful man that he looked for good and light 5. Mens expectations of good things promised are then rightly managed when their affections are keeped lively to prize the mercies expected and to esteem highly of God the giver of them when they patiently wait Gods time and way of conferring these promised mercies and when they wait on God in his way for them not taking any sinful shift to bring them about Therefore doth he expound his looking or expecting by waiting which imports earnestness of affection opposite to indifferency and security Ps 130.5 6. and patience Rom. 8.25 and is accompanied with tenderness Ps 37.4 6. Not only may a sinful people or godly men interceding for them be disappointed of their expectations Is 59.9 Jer. 14.19 But even godly men walking in an approved way may be disappointed of the temporal mercies they look for because they out-stretch themselves in expecting these things absolutely which God hath promised only conditionally with an exception of the Cross and needful tryal and in so farr as he seeth good for them For so Job is disappointed here When I looked for good then evil came unto me and when I waited for light then came darkness 7. Disappointments of mens expectations do not only make their sad lot yet more bitter As it may be upon this account also he calls his sad case both evil and darkness But do otherwise look sad upon them and seem to speak anger from God against them if they be godly and tender For this is to Job an evidence of Gods anger and of his being turned to be cruel to him that he is thus disappointed 8. The people of God in the heat of tryal do oft-times lose the benefit of the sober and serious thoughts they had before And albeit they meât with nothing but what sometime they looked for or judged probable and equitable Yet their passion causeth them forget all this and so they make their own tryals more bitter For albeit Job notwithstanding these expectations was also looking out and preparing for trouble Chap. 3.25 26. Yet now he forgets that when he would complain of his sad case and aggravate it Verse 27. My bowels boyled and rested not the dayes of affliction prevented me In the rest of the Chapter Job proceeds to give an account of the sad change that had befallen him contrary to his expectation And albeit he had spoken of his sad case before yet he insists here upon it again by reason of his passion and present resentment and that he may more fully and pathetically enumerate the particular evils and dark clouds that had over-whelmed him This account he prosecutes in several particulars in the several Verses to the end of the Chapter The purpose in this Verse as also v. 28 being expressed in the by-past time sâme do take them up as a Commentary upon what he had said v. 25. Or a further account of his Sympathy and that the three last Verses only do give an account of his present trouble notwithstanding this his Sympathy And for this Verse in particular they expound it thus That his Sympathy kept his bowels of affection in continual motion and exercise without any intermission and that he was prevented by affliction or seldome if ever did he pass a day without sadness in behalf of some one or other But the words do not so clearly bear that sense and the Original phrase in both Verses may be as well read in the present time And therefore this Verse is to be looked on as containing the first evidence of his sad condition taken from a fruit of his sickness and trouble of mind Namely that his pain and grief did so continually toss and affect his bowels or inward parts as if he were in a feaver and that the dayes of affliction did not only prevent him at first or stole upon him before he thought of them of which see what is said v. 26. and Chap. 29.18 but even now they prevent him and come betwixt him and comfort and all other thoughts Doct. 1. Affliction will make great Oratours in speaking of their miseries and will cause them dwell much upon that sad subject For here Job cannot get off but must insist again upon this sad subject as finding no case but in telling he wants it 2. Much thinking upon and repeating of the same grievances over and over do contribute to heighten the affliction of the afflicted and to make new exercises unto them For albeit Job had said all this before or somewhat to the same purpose v. 16 17. yet he repeats it over again as a new tryal at every repeating thereof 3. Albeit pain upon the outward parts of the body and inward sickness upon the vitals be distinct afflictions which God oft-time seperates not inflicting the one when he inflicts the other Yet a godly man may be exercised with both at once For Job had pain in his bones and sinews v. 17. and here his bowels or inward parts are affected 4. Much Soul-exercise and grief accompanying other crosses will soon draw on sickness and feaverish pains For Job being in this case his bowels boyled So that a Gospel-frame of Spirit is good medicine to prevent these wasting Soul-pressures which accompany trouble 5. Want of intermissions or breathing times in trouble is a sad addition to the tryal which yet godly men may taste of in their afflictions For saith he My bowels boyled and rested not 6. God will exercise his own children till they find their trouble to be an affliction indeed and he may so put them to it that their time for a long while will be remarkable for nothing but for their bearing of afflictions in it For these causes doth he call them the dayes of affliction dayes of sharp searching tryals and nothing but tryals 7. As it adds to mens affliction if they be unexpectedly surprized with it So even these who are most resolved may be surprized with it when it comes For albeit they resolve to meet with trouble yet they may be surprized with troubles shaking and pinching them more than ever they expected and with the exhausting of all their habitual furniture and resolution thereby till new and fresh supplyes come from Heaven For in these respects the dayes
prevent them or repent of them will not only meet them in their greatest straits and take them at a disadvantage but may provoke God to arise and visit them with judgements Therefore Job mentions Gods rising up and visiting in case he had failed in this and puts a perplexing question What he shall do or answer if God do rise up To intimate not only that such a miscarriage might sadly trouble him when God riseth up to visit Jam. 2.13 but that it might justly provoke God to arise and plague him Ps 12.5 4. It is also seriously to be studied that however some men be set on high above others yet God is infinitely more high above them and able to reach them For so much doth the scope of Gods argument import that though he needed not regard what his servants could do to him though he wronged them being so eminent above them Yet he durst not grapple with God above him when he should arise to plead their cause See Eccl. 5.8 No eminency of men should make them forget the super-eminency of God or cause them say Who is the Lord Exod. 5.2 But they should abase themselves daily before him lest he make them know upon their own expences that these that walk in pride he is able to abase Dan. 4.37 5. Such as do rightly study the super-eminent Majesty of God will tremble to do wrong to the meanest as considering that all sinners and particularly Oppressours will be at their wits end when he calls them to an account For this perswaded Job not to despise the cause of his man-servant c. v. 13. For if it had been otherwise What then saith he shall I do when God riseth up And When he visiteth what shall I answer him See Is 10.1 2 3. Eph. 6.9 Col. 4.1 From v. 15. Learn 1. God is the curious framer of man in the womb as well as he created man at first For saith Job He made me in the womb This doth demonstrate the perfection of God this little World Man pointing out what a God he is who made him as well as the greater World is full of his glory Ps 139.13 14 15 16. is a ground upon which we may claim an interest in him when other grounds do disappear Ps 22.9 and 119.73 Job 10.8 c. and an argument why we should not employ what he hath made as weapons wherewith to fight against him 2. God is the framer of all mankind the small as well as the great and that equally of the same kind and in the same way whatever difference of state there be afterward For He that made me made him and one did fashion us in the womb or in one womb The meanest have favours of this kind which they should acknowledge albeit they want other things See Pro. 22.2 3. The greatest of men if they be gracious will not forget their Original common to them with others though they differ in degrees of Civil dignity from them For so did Job here and propounds it by way of question as a certain truth and a truth which he seriously thought upon Humility is the Ornament of Eminency and it is sweet to see men a base themselves when God exalts them and not swelling up with pride because they are raised out of the dust and set above others 4. Such as do seriously consider their Original common to them with others will bear a low sayl toward the meanest as considering they are their own flesh Is 58.7 That by sleighting or wronging them because they are mean they reflect upon God who made them and who carved out their lot Pro. 14.31 And that God can soon cause those who are insolent because of their eminency know themselves and that they are but men Ps 9.19 20. Ezek. 28.9 For this was an argument disswading Job from sleighting or wronging of his servants Did not he that made me in the womb make him c. Verse 16. If I have with-held the poor from their desire or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail The sixth Vertue whereof he maketh profession whereby also he refutes that challenge of injustice Chap. 22.6 7. is Humanity toward all distressed and indigent persons and that he was so farr from wronging any of them that he was helpful to all of them This he instanceth in several particular branches to v. 24. according to the several sorts of distressed persons and their several necessities which he supplyed Confirming those several assertions by tacite asseverations intimated in the form of expression If I have done so and so which imply an Imprecation or submission to Gods judgements if it were not as he said and subjoyning to the last an express Imprecation and Argument In this Verse we have the first branch of that Humanity whereof he professeth to have made conscience That not only he appeared for the righteous cause of the poor and of widows but having promised to assist them in their cause he did not disappoint and kill them with delayes but chearfully and speedily performed what he had promised Or it may be understood more generally That whatever were their lawful desires whereof rationally they might expect satisfaction from a man of his piety wealth prudence or authority or wherein he had promised to give them satisfaction he chearfully and readily satisfied them Whence Learn 1. Mens Consciences in a day of distress will find as much peace in their humanity and tenderness toward others as in any other fruit of faith and act of piety Therefore doth Job insist so much upon that here See Jam. 1.27 When men are thus tender and compassionate it evidenceth that they are humble and have a sense of the common miseries of mankind that have entred by sin and that they do read their own deservings in the sad lots of others It is also an evidence that they are sensible of Christs kindness to them which kindleth these bowels of compassion Yea this is the touchstone whereby men will be tryed in the last day Mat. 25.54 55. And therefore it cannot but be refreshful when men find this fruit of the Spirit in themselves 2. The Lord hath so ordered that poverty widow-hood accompanied with distresses and other miseries will not be wanting among the children of men both for the tryal and exercise of those who are under these lots and to be a tryal to others also and a touchstone of their sympathy and humanity For so were there poor and widows in Jobs dayes who were afflicted with their miseries and driven to seek relief from others and who gave Job occasion to give proof of his disposition See Deut. 15.11 Crosses of all kinds will not be wanting in any time and who so are free of these particular afflictions here mentioned may yet look for others no less searching and trying to them 3. Albeit poverty or widow-hood or any other affliction doth not warrant any to countenance men in an ill cause Exod. 23.3 Lev. 19.15
sufficient to prove mens piety that they use some Hospitality even toward strangers unless they do it readily chearfully and so as may witness no constraint or unwillingness in the matter For Job opened his doors to the Traveller or toward the way to witness how willing he was to receive them and to wait upon them that he might invite and bring them in As men ought to be ready to every good work Tit. 3.1 So in particulars in their charity they ought to be ready to distribute willing to communicate 1 Tim. 6.18 And they ought to use Hospitality without grudging 1 Pet. 4.9 Verse 33. If I covered my transgressions as Adam by hiding mine iniquity in my bosome The eleventh Vertue whereof he makes profession the truth whereof he confirms by a tacite asseveration is Ingenuity in confessing of his faults when at any time he fell into them So that he was no fosterer of sin as a bosome-darling nor did be hide and palliate extenuate and excuse his sins but did freely confess them before God and before others also as the cause required in all the aggravations thereof and did judge himself for them While he adds that he did not thus cover his sin as Adam the name Adam may be taken properly for the name of the first man whose fall and the covering of his transgression Gen. 3.12 were not unknown to Job nor yet his own natural inclination derived to him by that fall of Adam to imitate him in the like course though by grace he was enabled to overcome that his inclination Or the name may be taken appellatively as the common name of all mankind who being infected by the fall of Adam do generally use to palliate and cloak their sins And so the meaning is That he did not act after the manner of men by nature in confessing and acknowledging his sins but acted upon a principle of regeneration whereby he became a new man Both those readings may be joyned together for as Adam first began so all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation do follow his footsteps in cherishing and hiding of their sin Doct. 1. As the most righteous of meer men in this life are not free of sin so they make conscience to remark their failings For Job had and can here tell he had transgressions and iniquity Whereby also he obviates an exception that might be put in against this Apology and vindication of himself as if he delighted only to found his own praises and boast of his perfections therein To obviate this he clears here That he asserts not his perfection and sinlessness in all things but only his sincerity in this his Apology and that he looks upon it as indeed it is as a part of a godly mans integrity and proof of his righteousness to be sensible of his failings 2. It is the mark of a godly man ingenuously to take with his faults neither denying or hiding them nor defending excusing or extenuating them For Job did not cover nor hide his sin or did not cover it that it might be hid and not appear at all or not appear in its true coloers As for the sins of other men it is our duty to cover them by endeavouring to turn them from them by admonitions Lev. 19.17 with Jam. 5.20 by forgetting and digesting wrongs and injuries in love Pro. 10.12 1 Pet. 4.8 by constructing as tenderly and charitably as lawfully we may of their failings 1 Cor. 13.5.7 by not blazâng abroad their infirmities Gen. 9.21 22. and other the like acts of love But as for mens own sins Albeit it be not required that they should uncover all even their secret sins to men nor is it possible that they can distinctly overtake and enumerate them all in their confessions to God Ps 19.12 And albeit it should be their desire and endeavour to have their sins covered before God by a free pardon Ps 32.1 Jer. 50.20 Yet they should beware of sinful coverings of their own whereby they think to spare their sins or avoid the punishment which they deserve Hence Men should not conceal their sin as thinking it enough if they get them hid from the eyes of men as Achan did Josh 7.20 21. They should not deny their sin as Ananias and Saphira did Act. 5.2 8. They should not justifie their sin with Jonah Jon. 4.9 They should not extenuate their sin with Aaron Exod. 32.24 nor excuse it with these who are mentioned Luk. 14.18 19. They should not cast the blame of their miscarriages upon others as some father them upon Satan as Evah did Gen. 3.13 Whereas however Satan be a cunning and active Seducer yet mens own dispositions are the great movers in their debordings Others do blame others with whom they have to do as Aaron did Exod. 32.22 23 24. and Saul 1 Sam. 15.13 14 15. as many say they swear only because others will not believe them that they are passionate and do injuries to others because they provoke them and that they do such and such evils because they see others who it may be are better men than themselves do so or worse all which are but figg-tree leaves since we are bound to live by rules and not by examples and since no miscarriage of others warrants us to sin against God Others do not spare to cast the blame of their sinning even on God himself and his dispensations at least indirectly as Adam did Gen. 3.12 Thus many do blame ill times their poor and mean condition their callings c. for their miscarriages and debordings All these are sinful wayes of covering sin unto which this may be added That men knowing themselves to be guilty and not being willing to defend their sin should not cover it by not confessing of it or repenting for it as David did Ps 32.3.5 3. As godly men may fall even in gross faults and many of them So if they be indeed tender they will not think light of them especially if they should endeavour to palliate and hide them Therefore Job not only supposeth that he had transgressions in the plural number but he calls his transgressions iniquity Whereby he not only intimates his own tender frame of heart which made him aggravate all his miscarriages but doth further shew that if he did endeavour to cover his least failing this were a way to make it more sinful and even an iniquity Thus David speaks of an iniquity of that sin which he long concealed Ps 32.3.5 4. Men by concealing or extenuating of their faults do not only aggravate them before the Lord but do also evidence their great love to them For so much is imported in hiding of covered sins in his bosome that men do cover their sins because they delight lovingly and warmly to embrace them And so the words may also be read hiding mine iniquity in my love or because I love it In this respect the phrase my transgressions and mine iniquity will import not generally every
good For here he finds faults even in holy Job So that it is the duty even of good men to be frequent in the study of their infirmities 2. Men ordinarily do not easily discern their faults nor are they easily convinced of them For Job had vindicated those expressions against the exceptions of his three Friends and yet Elihu finds him faulty in them Men of able parts meeting with an unskilfull Reprover may soon acquit themselves of what he can say whereby they do but ensnare themselves in an opinion that they are right And therefore in judging of our way it is good to eye God and Conscience much which would put an end to many debates 3. However men carry in ordinary yet sore trouble and sharp tryals may discover weaknesses in the best For it is in the time of Jobs tryal that those faults are found Trouble is a Furnace which will discover dross and they who are not upon their guard then will find the snare the greater And as it is good to watch and mark our failings then so we must be careful not to reject all as Reprobates whose weaknesses break forth at such a time Only whatever pity God have for the weakness of his Children under tentation Yet no humble man will give himself a dispensation to miscarry or prove weak 4. Godly men do then most readily miscarry under trouble when they look only to their own integrity who are afflicted For albeit men may lawfully maintain their integrity yet Elihu by citing Jobs expressions about it v. 9. would intimate to him that he had managed that cause ill when he looked not more to Gods Soveraignty and to the remainders of sin in himself It is needful that men under trouble have an eye upon their guilt and sin even albeit God be but exercising their faith and other graces and where there is much sincerity the sight of sin must not be lost as Elihu tells him afterward And when it is not so men get sinful crosses because they do not manage more cleanly tryals well Psal 51.4 5. Men do then manage their integrity ill when because they are sincere they will not submit meekly to needful exercise and tryal For herein did Job miscarry while looking upon his integrity v. 9. he takes it not well that God exercised him as he did v. 10 11. Upright men should have no more to say against Gods exercising of them than if they had not such a testimony of their integrity but they should rather bless God that they have that testimony to support them A querulous and murmuring good Conscience is in so farr not good 6. Men under trouble are apt to have hard thoughts of God and his dealing For Elihu by citing his words v. 10 11. doth intimate that he quarrels him for his complaints as an injury done to God It is not easie to keep up right thoughts of God in times of tryal and therefore men should be upon their guard as to that evil and if they be kept free from it they ought to acknowledge that they are preserved from a great snare 7. Godly men cannot but be sadly affected when they find God opposite unto them and watching over them to mark their faults and take all advantages against them For this his complaint though he bitter in it yet testifieth his honesty that he resents that as his great affliction Men ought to try what affects them most in trouble for thereby they may get a proof of their sincerity or unsoundness 8. It is a very great mistake to suspect God of cruelty and severity towards his Children under never so sad trouble For he quarrels Job that he should say God sound occasions and counted him for his enemy For if it were so it would have produced sadder effects than any he had yet felt Godly men should mourn when they commit so horrid injustice against God and should be convinced that they are in the wrong when they hearken to such tentations See Psal 77.7 8 9 10. And it is the greatest hast to bring us first to mourn for these miscarriages before we be delivered out of trouble 9. Though Gods sharp dealing be a lesson ill to read yet it will not warrant mens quarelling of him more than if they complained without the least probable cause For all those evidences which he produceth v. 11. are no proof nor give him warrant to say that God counted him for an enemy v. 10. For even the saddest of dispensations will not prove his enmity against Saints but they may consist with and slow from his love to them Verse 12. Behold In this thou art not just I will answer thee that God is greater than man Followeth to v. 31. the second part of Elihu's Speech or his refutation of these assertions of Job concluding this in summ That there is no cause why a godly man should complain or querulously seek a reason of such dispensations Seeng God is not only Soveraign and absolute v. 12 13. but doth clearly speak more to men by those lots than they do well perceive or mark v. 14 30. In this Verse we have 1. Elihu's general censure of Jobs speeches intimating That whatever he was as to the state of his person or in other things Yet in this he cannot but account him unjust that as was marked Chap. 32.2 he should so justifie himself as to complain of Gods dealing toward him a righteous man and that he should not only desire to argue with God as is insinuated v. 13. upon that matter but because he saw not a reason of Gods dealing therefore he will presumptuously conclude that there was no reason nor could God give any reason for it all which may be gathered from the following dispute 2. We have the first Argument whereby he refutes Job propounded in general Namely That God is greater than man Which is to be understood not only in respect of his beeing power authority c. but also in respect of his holiness wisdome and every other Attribute And albeit Jobs Friends made ill use of this Argument to prove Job wicked Yet it proves Elihu's conclusion strongly Namely That the best of men should be more humble than Job was before and under the hand of so great a God and in their pleading with him and should deferr more to his wisdome and holiness than to their own For whereas Job talked so much of his righteousness and complained that he was afflicted being such a man Elihu answers That God who had afflicted him was infinitely above him in the matter of righteousness and every way greater than he and therefore he should have been more sober in his discourses From this Verse Learn 1. In clearing of marches betwixt right and wrong or truth and errour men should not only make use of clear light and Arguments but they should set affection on work also and strive to put conscience to it which would help much in debates Therefore before
expressions beside those formerly marked Tentation and tryal may discover what we would little dream of and will let us see that as it was with Hazael 2 King 8.11 12 13. we are little known till we be tryed And therefore we should not presumptuously rush or cast our selves upon tentations and when they are made our Lot we should watch and be sober and should observe those ugly sights of our selves which then may be discovered unto us 2. Albeit the people of God think little of their faults when they are in passion especially if they do but drop out now and then and some good is mixed among them Yet when they are impartially reviewed and put together they will appear ugly Therefore however the summ of what is here challenged may be gathered from Chap. 27.2 6. Yet it is Elihu's scope to gather together also the summ of Jobs speeches scattered here and there that he may look upon them all together and be convinced of the evil of them This may give even unto godly men a sad and humbling sight of their wayes and therefore they should study to avoid relapses and should call themselves frequently to an account and reckoning lest otherwise all their accounts come at once upon them Yet it will be much sadder to the wicked when all their faults shall be gathered together and laid to their charge Ps 50.21 3. It is good service to God and a kindness to godly men not to flatter them but to lay open their faults till they see them in their ugliness and when they are humbled in part to humble them yet more that they be not too soon satisfied with themselves Therefore albeit Job was silent at his former charge yet he goeth on with this new charge against him Thus when men are even pricked in their hearts there is yet need that they should repent Act. 2.37 38. 4. It is not enough that godly men mean well or have good intentions in what they do or say but even their very disorderly language or the least other defect ought to be mourned for Therefore he challengeth what Job had said or seemed to say albeit he thought not so ill Even the least defect is a blemish in good actions and unadvised language in our passion should not be lightly passed over but repented of See Ps 106.32 33. 5. Any reflection upon God and his dealing though never so indirect ought to be mourned for As here he challengeth Job that he said God had taken away his judgement or obscured his integrity and gave occasions of suspicions against him by his afflicting of him and not appearing to clear him High and right thoughts of God under trouble are not easily attained and yet the want of them is not justifiable 6. Though righteous men may lawfully maintain their integrity notwithstanding their afflictions or when it is called in question Yet ordinarily this defence is but ill managed under trouble especially when the righteousness of God is not exalted For albeit Job spake true when he said I am righteous yet he took occasion from this to complain of Gods dispensations Men have need to look how they manage the testimony of a good conscience under trouble and they have cause to suspect themselves when they are only complaining and forgetting to praise and commend God 7. As the integrity of godly men may sometime lye long under a cloud and not be cleared so this is a very sad tryal in a time of affliction though no just cause of complaint For however Job sinned in complaining of God yet this was really a sad affliction that being righteous his judgement was taken away and he lay buried under the misconstructions and censures of his Friends And therefore they are cruel who put afflicted godly men to this tryal by their uncharitable censures And those who are thus put to it ought to be upon their guard that they may bear it well and for this end they should comfort themselves in Gods testimony 8. It is indeed a sin for men to lye against their right or to deny the goodness of God to them and his grace in them or to acknowledge a wrong where there is no cause For this Question Should I lye against my right imports so much in general And many doubters raisers of quarrels and jealousies about their own condition should take heed to this 9. Saints may be right in the main cause which they defend who yet may over-act in the defence of it For though Job was right and his Friends wronged him yet this is laid to his charge as a presumptuous expression Should I lye against my right because his presumptuous and passionate defence of the right put him in the wrong And here we may observe Partly That Saints are never more ready to miscarry without discerning it than when they are right upon the matter in what they are about They will not so openly wander in wayes of open provocation and at least not see it and be sensible of it as when they are about right things and do only fail in the way of going about them As Job having a right in this debate doth not so easily discern how unhappily he expressed his defences of it Partly That irritations and injuries received from others will easily hide from us our miscarriages in seeking to vindicate and repair our selves As Job is so eager in looking to his Friends injustice in bidding him renounce his integrity and so lye against his right that he doth not heed how his passion in resenting that doth mis-lead himself 10 Boysterous willfulness is an ordinary distemper of Saints under tentation and an addition to their sin For this vehement Question Should I lye c and an addition of a new complaint My wound is incurable c. instead of retracting any thing he had formerly said argues him to be resolute and wilfull in his undertaking and Elihu chargeth him therewith as an addition to his dittay Sins are so much the more hainous as there is much of will in them and they are not free of this who have been much dealt with and yet do not amend 11. Men do heighten their own resentments at Gods dispensations by mistaking their own condition For though it was true he was wounded by Gods arrow who may pierce and wound whom and when and where he pleaseth it was true also that his wound was incurable by himself or any other creature Yet it was his errour to pronounce it simply incurable whether in respect of the power of God which he never meant or his good will as the issue proved Therefore if men would prevent much vexation and miscarriage they would study to read their condition aright remembring that a case may seem incurable which really is not so nor will prove so and that we may well see what our tryal is but we cannot tell what God will make of it as Job found in the issue 12. Were the condition of
Saints never so sad and even desperate as to any hopes of a temporal issue yet that is no just cause to complain or quarrel God and reflect upon his dispensations For suppose it had been as Job thought yet Elihu chargeth it upon him as a crime that he should so bitterly complain My wound is incurable 13. It is the great sin of Saints when because they see no gross transgressions in themselves they see no cause wherefore God may humble and afflict them seeing their other faults may deserve all that and God may put them to give proof of their graces under the cross For this was a fault in Job that he said My wound is incurable without transgression Verse 7. What man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water Followeth the third part of the Chapter or Elihu's Refutation of those expressions which he doth 1. More generally by pointing out the absurdity and gross consequences thereof v. 7 8 9. 2. More particularly by commending and demonstrating the Righteousness and Soveraignty of God which those expressions seemed to contradict And these he both propounds to the consideration of all unbyassed persons v. 10 15. and layeth them before Job in particular so amplifying and enlarging them as might convince him of his miscarriage v. 16 30. So in the first place and before he proceed to the proper Arguments for refuting of Jobs expressions he premits in this and the two following Verses a more general acount of his thoughts of them and how much he detested them as evidencing Job to be an odd man who so greedily followed so ridiculous a course v. 7. and who did strengthen the hands of the wicked too much by what he had spoken v. 8. Particularly by his speaking to the disadvantage of piety v. 9. In this Verse we have to Consider 1. Jobs singularity in this fault What man is like Job The meaning whereof is not that there was none so gross and wicked as he even in this particular miscarriage For wicked hypocrites have reviled Gods providence and dispensations more directly and grosly Is 58.3 Mal. 3.13 14 15. but that there was none like him all things considered in miscarrying so farr being a man so eminently godly 2. A general account of his ill carriage in this that he drinketh up scorning like water See the like phrase Chap. 15.16 Here I do not take scorning actively that Job was turned a scorner though indeed he did sometime taunt his Friends and did speak it reverently of God and his providence and to be such a scorner or any thing like it is a very hainous sin Psal 1.1 Prov. 1.22 But passively and as a due Epithete of the matter which he spake that it was scornful and ridiculous As it was indeed ridiculous to offer to decry the righteousness of God and to ascribe righteousness to himself while he denied it to God in the sense which hath been often cleared This his fault is further aggravated that he drank this like water that is as a thirsty man will drink water which was their ordinary drink in those times and places greedily and abundantly to refresh himself and quench his thirst so Job very greedily earnestly and frequently persisted in this course and the more he was irritated by his Friends the more he went on in it as if it had been a refreshful subject and an ease to him to vent his passion against God and his dispensations From this Verse Learn 1. It is a great kindness to deal freely and fully with Gods people in telling them their faults to prevent their being so blinded as not to see them or their being cheated and deluded with a conceit that they are but small faults when indeed they are gross Therefore doth he deal so roughly with Job that he may drive him from those fits of folly and passion Wherein he doth not evidence any want of charity in putting his expressions upon the rack and putting the hardest construction upon them that any mistaker could fasten upon them which is his scope in these sharp expressions and foul consequences which he draweth from his words in these Verses for he doth not charge Job with all these as if he intended them but doth evidence his love in letting him see what might be made of his expressions that so he might mourn for them It is better that Friends deal thus in time than that God and mens own consciences do it afterward little to their comfort 2. Even sins which seem small when well ripped up by a spiritual discerner or tender conscience may appear very gross and hainous For so doth Elihu construct of Jobs complaints 3. Sins are nothing the less hainous that they are committed by godly men but their falling in sin doth aggravate it and the more eminent they are their sin is the greater For saith he What man is like Job When godly men do that which other Saints or the generation of Gods Children use not to do or when they speak to the prejudice of God or of holiness which they should commend or when they persist in any fault all which were Jobs faults here their being godly persons doth not extenuate but aggravate those miscarriages 4. Albeit sin be but a sad sport yet even the wise and solid children of God may in their fits of tentation be very absurd and ridiculous in their miscarriages As here is charged upon Job that he did drink scorning or did that which was scornful and ridiculous Yea Saints may in such cases prove very beasts Psal 73.22 Which may very much humble them when they consider it 5. It is in particular a very scornful and absurd thing for a man to offer to bear out his own righteousness to the prejudice of the righteousness of God in his dispensations or to contradict our profession by our practice For thus did Job drink scorning by crying up his own righteousness to the prejudice of the righteousness of God by which practice he contradicted what else-where he spake to the commendation of God 6. When men once engage in a sinful course it will easily grow upon their hand and godly men may persist long and be very eager in their miscarriages if their tentation continue For Job drank scorning like water 7. Mens eagerness and obstinacy in an ill course is a great aggravation thereof For thus doth he aggravate Jobs fault that he did not only meddle with scorning but did drink it like water Verse 8. Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity and walketh with wicked men In this Verse Elihu doth yet further point out the evil of Jobs complaints shewing that consequentially and upon the matter he joyned issue with wicked men Not that he will fasten upon him that he is wicked or that he intended wickedness in his complaints But that if his complaints were narrowly examined they could not but be found scandalous and to homologate the principles and opinions of prophane men as
is further cleared in the following Verse Hereby as he explains how scornful Jobs way was it being a repugnancy and a ridiculous thing that a man should be asserting his righteousness and yet walking in the wickeds way So he affrights him from such courses and invites him to be humbled for them by leading him to consider that whatever he might say for his complaints yet they seemed to sadden godly men and to harden the wicked Doct. 1. Albeit all men be sinners and even the wicked may pretend that their faults are but infirmities Yet there are wicked men or men of wickedness contradistinct from simple sinners as here is insinuated 2. It is the character of wicked men that they make no conscience of any kind of sin were it even iniquity and that they make a trade of sin and are workers af iniquity as here we are also taught 3. It is a great sin and will be so esteemed by godly men when they are in a right frame to joyn in any measure with wicked men in their ill courses For he would rouze up Job to abhorr his way by shewing him that it was a going in company with the workers of iniquity and a walking with wicked men Whereby he means not so much a fellowship and keeping company with wicked mens persons which is not simply unlawful if men have a calling thereto however it be full of snares as a joyning with them in their courses 4. Even godly men in an hour of tentation may goe out of their way and play odd pranks whereby they may seem to justifie or joyn issue with wicked men or do or say that which may occasion their hardening in their way As here Job seemed to joyn issue and walk with wicked men while he wronged the righteousness of God and saw not the advantages of piety so well as he ought 5. It is good service to let godly men see the evil of their way and complaints to humble them and drive them from them For therefore doth Elihu point out Jobs carriage to him in so ugly a shape to make him abhorr such a course which did so much gratifie wicked men in their way Verse 9. For he hath said It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God In this Verse Elihu doth not so much point at any particular expressions of Job as he did v. 5 6. as prove confirm these general accusations v. 7 8. by shewing what consequentially might be gathered from these his former expressions and others like them For when he complained so hard of Gods dealing with him a righteous man and had else-where said that God destroyed both the righteous the wicked Chap. 9.22 and had spoken so much of the wickeds prosperity Chap. 21.7 8 c. and of his own sad adversity Chap. 30.26 and frequently else-where What could any hearer gather but that he reckoned that there was no advantage to be reaped by piety It is true Job spake only of temporal events that they come alike to all Chap. 9.22 which was a truth he had warrantably maintained against his Friends Nor is it to be conceived that Job meant that there was no advantage in piety even in this life though godly men be afflicted But Elihu puts him to consider how that assertion attended with so vehement complaints about his lot to which he was driven through the heat of contention did so overcloud all as the Auditors might conceive he saw no advantage in piety since he a godly man complained so bitterly as if all were gone because he was afflicted Doct. 1. It is the duty of those who would prove their piety to be real to converse and be much with God to do this not only out of necessity but to delight in God and to keep communion with him And for this end to study to be well pleased and satisfied with God and his dispensations as the word also signifieth 2. Whatever men think either in prosperity Chap. 21.14 15. and 22.17 or in adversity Mal. 3.14 15. yet there is a real advantage in piety 1 Tim. 4.8 and 6.6 For he quarrels Job as contradicting this truth without cause For beside the eternal reward piety hath advantage in this life that it brings a man solid peace in all conditions and that all things are sanctified blessed and done in love to godly men 3. As it is a sin in any so a godly man especially will think it so in himself to speak or do any thing to the disadvantage of piety For he useth this as a strong Argument to convince and humble Job that he said It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God 4. Even godly men may fail and come short in their due esteem of piety when either for a time they slide and cast out with piety as Psal 73. or when in an hour of tentation they cannot see the advantages of piety by reason of their present pressures As here he chargeth upon Job So that to love piety in weal and woe and not to regard our profit so God may be honoured is a noble victory and an evidence of a man in a good frame Verse 10. Therefore hearken unto me ye men of understanding Farr be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity 11. For the work of a man shall he render unto him and cause every man to find according to his wayes 12. Yea Surely God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgement Followeth a more particular refutation of these expressions by shewing how injurious they were to God All his discourse may be summed up in one or two Arguments taken from the Justice and the Soveraignty and Dominion of God which sometime he calls the Auditors to observe to v. 16. and sometime Job himself to v. 31. and clears and confirms those Arguments and the Justice and Dominion of God asserted therein from several effects and evidences that they may the more effectually convince We find that Jobs Friends had also insisted upon this Argument taken from Gods justice See Chap. 8. ãâã But they inferred another Conclusion from it That Job was wicked because a righteous God had afflicted him which Job rejected and oppugned We find also that Job hath frequently acknowledged and commended the righteousness and dominion of God and yet Elihu and God himself afterward insists upon this Argument in refuting of his complaints to let him see that however he acknowledged that God was righteous and the Soveraign Lord yet his complaints could not be reconciled with that acknowledgement In these Verses after a repeated invitation to the Auditory and discerning persons among them to hearken unto him v. 10. we have the first Argument whereby he refutes Jobs complaints taken from Gods righteousness and justice who doth not deal wickedly nor pervert judgement And therefore he is not to be quarrelled and complained of as if he
on these tearms he beggs light Our darkness floweth oft-times from our ill improvement of light and Rebellion takes away reproofs Ezek. 3.26 as unfruitfulness turns corrections into destroying plagues Isaiah 1.5 Jer. 2.30 9. Even sincere and honest resolutions against sin had need to be often renewed lest we become remiss in them Therefore after that resolution and engagement v. 31. this is added 10. Even very sticking sins which cleave fast to us and do resist many resolutions may through grace be prevailed over if we follow forth our resolutions For though he should find need to double his resolutions yet reformation is not hopeless Therefore we should not set about this work in a discouraged way nor should difficulties in it cause us give it over 11. Who so will consider not only that there can be no true repentence for by-past sins without a resolution and endeavour of reformation for the future and that it is inconsistent with a gracious state to continue in any known sin without serious endeavours against it But what hath been the grosseness and the present folly and emptiness and subsequent bitterness of their former debordings they will see cause to fortifie their resolutions against them for the future Therefore this is premitted If I have done iniquity as a strong Argument to engage him to do no more For beside the adding of sin to sin Is 30.1 and that what men have already committed is more than enough 1 Pet. 4 3. it must argue strange madness when men hazard again upon these courses under which they have smarted See Prov. 23.34 35. Verse 33. Should it be according to thy mind He will recompence it whether thou refuse or whether thou choose and not I Therefore speak what thou knowest In this Verse Elihu presseth the former counsel and advice by a strong Argument which some do strangely put upon the wrack by looking upon some of the words as spoken by Elihu in his own person and some of them as spoken by him in the person of God as if God himself were immediately speaking of himself But the Translation comes nearest to the Original and the summ of the Argument is That it was best for Job to follow his advice seeing otherwise God would not be at his disposal but would take his own way to recompence his folly whether he liked it or not To this the words do well agree Wherein 1. He propounds a very pungent Question to Job Should it be according to thy mind Or Should it be from thee That is whether thought he it just that he should have the disposal of himself and his lots so that God should deal with him according as the prescription should flow from himself or according as he did carve out and were satisfied and no otherwise 2. He answers the Question himself by an assertion He will recompence it namely Jobs folly and rashness whether thou refuse or whether thou choose That is whether he consent or not or be well or ill pleased God will requite his folly and miscarriage unless he follow the advice he hath given him 3. He subjoynes a Negative and not I which may relate either to that of recompencing that it is God and not Elihu who will recompence him and therefore he should consider who is his party Or to that of refusing and choosing and so it imports that Elihu would be farr from taking Jobs way of it to be a chooser and refuser or a prescriber unto God 4. Upon all this he inferrs a Conclusion Therefore speak what thou knowest that is See if thou canst defend thy self against those former challenges mentioned in this debate and give reasons why God should not recompence thy folly and if thou find thy self unable for that then follow my advice So that this provocation and challenge imports That when Job had said all he could he would produce nothing which might warrant him to expect any safety but in taking his counsel From this Verse Learn 1. It is naturally incident to the Sons of men that they presume to be carvers of their own condition and would have their will in every thing For he supposeth that Job among the rest aimed at this to have things according to his mind or from with him As men naturally incline not to be subject to the Law of God in the matter of their duty Rom. 8.7 So neither to the will and good pleasure of God in the matter of their lot And hence flow their pride discontentment impatience c. when they get not their will 2. Whatever be mens inclinations that way yet their own consciences when seriously put to it cannot own nor approve of such presumption For Should it be according to thy mind saith he referring the matter to the impartial and serious verdict of Jobs own conscience 3. God will not cede or be subject to mens passions and humours but whether they will or not he will take his own way and so will make them patient perforce and let them see that they will gain nothing by impatience For Whether thou choose or whether thou refuse he will recompence 4. So long as men are impatient and submit not to the will of God their afflictions are not simple tryals but chastisements if it were but for that their folly and presumption For therefore doth he tell Job that God by the continuance of his affliction is recompencing those his miscarriages So that impatient persons should look upon this their guilt as pursued even in their otherwise most cleanly tryals 5. Impatient persons should consider that God is their party who will prove too hard for them and when Messengers are sent to them with hard tydings they should look to God and not to the Instruments in them For saith he He will recompence and not I. 6. It is also to be pondered that whatever men do in their passion yet sober minded men will be afraid to presume to prescribe unto God Therefore doth Elihu decline that as hath been explained 7. When men have said never so much in defence of their own presuming to prescribe unto God they will lose their cause For this Conclusion Therefore speak what thou knowest is a defiance to Job to produce any thing which might infringe what he hath said as the following Verses do further clear Verse 34. Let men of understanding tell me and let a wise man hearken unto me 35. Job hath spoken without knowledge and his words were without wisdome These Verses contain the second part of the Conclusion wherein as before he appeals to wise and judicious men whether Job can be assoyled and declared not to have spoken imprudently in his complaints against God And albeit Elihu propounds this by way of desire that such may resolve him whether it be so or not Yet it implyes a confident assertion that wise men will tell him or hearken and assent to what he hath said concerning Jobs folly in his discourses And so some
Chap. 22.2 3. Learn 1. Truths must not therefore be cast away because they are not seasonably applyed Nor must we reject them upon the account of any prejudices or because we do not like them Therefore Elihu bears in upon Job those truths which Eliphaz had propounded to prove a wrong Conclusion and therefore had been rejected by Joh. 2. Whatever be mens thoughts of their own wayes or however God do recompence their attempts and endeavours in evil or good Yet neither of them do reach God to hurt or advantage him For that is the Doctrine of these two Verses That his sinning and even multiplied transgressions cannot do any thing against him and that his righteousness giveth him nothing nor doth he receive any thing thereby Whence it may be inferred 1. That God is All-sufficient who seeks men to be holy only for their own good when himself cannot be benefited thereby See Ps 16.2 Rom. 11.35 2. That when men have attempted to do their worst against God by great and many sins yet all those darts will fall back upon their own heads For What do they against him or unto him 3. That the consideration of this transcendent excellency in God should abase men and make them sober in their complaints and humble also notwithstanding the good they are helped to do For Elihu's scope in this Doctrine is to abase Job and to check him for his complaints and his conceit of his own righteousness 4. It is not easie to keep even good men from somewhat of conceit as if God were obliged to them And as a day of tryal will discover conceit and pride where men little dreamt of it So where-ever men complain of their tryals because they have a good conscience under them there wants not such a proud conceit Therefore must this Doctrine be inculcated to humble Job though he was a godly man and walked soberly in the day of his prosperity 5. Whatever be Gods gracious condescendence yet when men are proud and full of a conceit of their own righteousness he will plead his Prerogative against them Therefore albeit he stoop to others to assure them he delights in their piety yet to a proud and passionate Job he speaks in other tearms and tells him that he is not profited by his righteousness From v. 8. Learn 1. It is an evidence of mans low and empty condition that as he needs and is capable of profit and advantage So he is also obnoxious to hurt and prejudice As here we are taught 2. How little soever mans good or evil can do to God yet they are of no small importance or concernment to himself For thus also his wickedness or righteousness may reach himself being but a man and the Son of man 3. A man by his wickedness or righteousness may not only hurt or profit himself but others also For thus he may reach a man who is like himself So that men should look wherein they are hurtful to others and what good they might do which yet they neglect Verse 9. By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty Followeth to v. 14. the second Argument of refutation or the second fault which he finds in Jobs discourses and carriage That not only he conceited much of his own righteousness of which before but that he took not a right way of dealing with God to get deliverance while he did only exercise himself in useless complaints This hath not so much a relation to what Job had spoken of mens groaning under oppression Chap. 24.12 as to all Jobs own complaints about his afflicted condition and that he got not access nor audience with God Those he frequently joyned with what is censured v. 3. and this challenge is well added to the former because mens proud conceit of themselves doth usually produce such unprofitable complaints in trouble This Challenge is held forth in a general account of mens carriage under afflictions and of the reasons why men so exercised are not regarded leaving to Job to apply it in so farr as he was guilty So that we need not be careful to charge all the faults that may be found here upon Job though he had some of them yea he might be concluded guilty in some measure of all of them And although it be true that God may delay to hear honest men in trouble for their tryal and this was Gods chief design next to his own glory in Jobs tryal Yet what is here recorded is his ordinary way of dealing with the Sons of men and Job had need to look to it in some respects And if we look upon Elihu's way of dealing thus with Job it may teach in general Not only how necessary prudence is in dealing with men general Doctrine in some cases being most effectual and alwayes more taking than bitter reflections and That the consciences of hearers should examine what they hear so as they discern how farr they are concerned in it and accordingly apply though it be not directed to them so partâcularly But That it is useful even for godly men to consider Gods dealing in common with men wherein they may read many spots that are upon their own faces The Discourse may be taken up in this general summ That men are oft-times taken up with an useless sense of their affliction v. 9. which is accompanied with no thankfulness v. 10 11 nor humility v. 12. but is a vain empty exercise and therefore not regarded by God v. 13. But I shall take it up in four branches In the first whereof in this Verse is held out both what is the lot of many men and their usual carriage under it Namely That being under much oppression which also clears how men may hurt others v. 8. they cry out but unprofitably as is not only cleared in the following Verses but is also insinuated here in that it is only because of the oppression and the arm of the mighty that they cry out Whence Learn 1. Oppression is an usual sin and a suffering wherewith the Sons of men are frequently exercised As here is supposed See Ps 12.5 2. Ordinarily one oppression comes not its alone but many of them come one after another and deep calleth unto deep Psal 42.7 For here is supposed that there may be a multitude of oppressions 3. Men are so corrupt that readily if they have any power they employ it to the oppression of others For so is here also supposed that if they have the arm of the mighty they oppress and cause men to cry See Mic. 2.1 4. To be sensible under affliction and oppression is no fault for to be stupid is a sin and God sends oppression to rouze men out of their Lethargies For in this men are not guilty that they cry 5. All the sad consequents of oppression will lye at Oppressours doors For it is charged on them that they make them to
guilty of this sin For though Jobs tryals were cleanly yet because of this He that is God hath visited in his anger 5. Moderation and tenderness is to be seen in Gods dealing toward his people even when he is angry at them and is chastening them in displeasure For though he hath visited in his anger yet he that is Job knoweth it not or hath not felt it in great extremity Which doth not import Jobs stupidity and that he was not sensible of his afflictions though they were upon him in great abundance as the word will also read for he was sensible and complained but too much however he made not a right use of them but Gods moderation in his dealing toward him considering his deserving and miscarriage 6. Others are oftentimes fitter Judges of Gods dealing toward his people and particularly of his moderation in afflicting them than themselves are Therefore in this matter he turns to the hearers and speaks of Job in the third person He knoweth it not in great extremity Verse 16. Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain He multiplieth words without knowledge Followeth the Conclusion of this Speech wherein he asserts that Job had spoken much in vain and without knowledge He propounds this also to the Auditory as most fit Judges and deduceth it by way of inference and conclusion from what he had said Therefore doth Job open his mouth c. Which may relate either to the whole Speech from which this Conclusion may be inferred or particularly to v. 15. that because he was moderately dealt with therefore he dared to be so rash in complaining Doct. 1. It is a proof and evidence of mens faithfulness to tell others their faults as they have a calling and opportunity For here he freely points at Jobs miscarriages 2. Even godly men may need to hear of their faults over and over again and especially of their miscarriages under trouble before they take with them and be sensible of them as they ought Therefore he doth here tell him over again what he had told him before Chap. 34.35 3. It is required both in justice and prudence that we charge upon men only their true and real faults and do forbear either unjust surmises and aspersions or unjust aggravations of their real faults which may tempt them to reject all admonitions For he tells Job his faults as they were and doth neither charge wickedness upon him nor fasten blaspemy upon his complaints as Eliphaz did Chap. 22.13 14. 4. When men do charge their friends with faults and miscarriages they should walk upon solid grounds and then they may be free in their censures and those who are reproved will be more easily convinced For he concludes this from the premisses wherein he hath been scanning Jobs expressions and carriage Therefore Job hath opened hâs mouth c. 5. As tryal will waken mens passions so when they are any way moderately dealt with in tryal they are ready to miscarry the more For so may this be inferred from what immediately preceded Men under tryal have need to watch especially that by their miscarriage they do not provoke him to tame them with more trouble 6. It is a great though usual fault under trouble to speak in vain or to no purpose and that which will not help or profit us in our distress For Job is challenged that he opened his mouth in vain 7. Ignorance and want of knowledge hath a great influence upon mens vain expressions and carriage in trouble Therefore is it added to the former that his words were without knowledge 8. Very wise men may have their wits to seek in trouble and so may be exercised to little purpose For Job a wise man opened his mouth in vain and had words without knowledge 9. When men are under trouble and in their fits of passion readily they are most eager upon that which is to least purpose and which proclaims their folly most For in this distemper Job multiplieth words So that we have cause to be jealous of that course and way to which we have strongest inclinations at such times 10. When men are in their fits of passion and folly every addition to their words is but an addition to their sin For it added to Jobs fault that he multiplied words without knowledge CHAP. XXXVI In this and the following Chapter we have Elihu's fourth and last Speech Wherein having in the former Speeches reprehended some of Jobs rash expressions he doth now proceed to speak to the whole matter and cause in general clearing God of what Job seemed to lay to his charge and shewing that Job had no cause to complain of him as he did In the Speech beside a Preface v. 1 4. and a Conclusion wherein he recapitulates the whole Discourse Chap. 37.23 24. there is contained 1. A Vindication of the Righteousness of God in his dealing with men wherein is shewed that albeit he be great yet he doth wrong to none Chap. 36.5 21. 2. A Commendation of the Greatness and Soveraignty of God which ought not to be quarrelled from Chap. 36.22 to Chap. 37.23 And this is subjoyned to the former to shew that albeit men should not be able to discern the righteousness of this great God Yet he ought not to be quarrelled This division of this purpose may be gathered from Chap. 37.23 where these two are recapitulated as the summ of what he hath spoken So in this Chapter we have First A Preface wherein after the Transition v. 1. he craves attention for several Reasons which give an account of his scope in the following Discourse v. 1 4. Secondly A Vindication of the Righteousness of God in his dealing with men which is generally propounded v. 5. Then it is more generally confirmed and cleared from the way of his proceeding both with the wicked and righteous v. 6 7. And more particularly vindicated and cleared in his afflicting even of godly men v. 8 15. And having spoken all this in general he makes Application of this Doctrine to Jobs present case v. 16 21. Thirdly A Commendation of the Greatness of God which is confirmed from the singular monuments of his Power and Wisdome v. 22. from his absolute and Soveraign Dominion v. 23. and from his admirable Greatness which shines and ought to be observed in his most obvious works Which Argument he propounds v. 24 25. and after a repeated Proposition v. 26. instanceth it v. 27 33. and in the most part of the following Chapter Verse 1. Elihu also proceeded and said IN this Verse the Writer of the Book premits an Historical Transition to this Speech shewing that Elihu proceeded or added this Speech to the former wherein he speaks more generally to the whole cause Whence Learn 1. It is necessary that men who would inform or convince those who are in the wrong do inculcate their instructions much that so they may take them up when they hear them and they may be riveted upon them
intended in his tryal we are to remember another Argument taken from the Soveraign Dominion of God which clears the case yet further From v. 9. Learn 1. It is not simply our being afflicted and made miserable by trouble that God doth mind Lam. 3.33 34. nor is it that which we should be chiefly affected with under afflictions but we should mind another lesson taught by it which if we neglect our sense of trouble will be to little purpose Therefore here is subjoyned an account of Gods end in afflicting and of the lesson we should learn under the cross See Josh 7.8 9. with v. 10 11. It is the property of beasts to feel only the smart of a rod but men and especially godly men should make another use of it And yet many fail in this and do long for deliverance when they really obstruct it by their negligence or their fair promises in trouble which they would soon forget if they were delivered But whatever God be pleased to do according to his Soveraignty in grace we should still remember that sad process that may justly pursue us till we mind some other thing in our trouble beside our afflictions Lev. 26.14 40 41 42. 2. This may sufficiently justifie God in afflicting his people that the best of them have sins which deserve and may procure affliction and especially miscarriages under trouble which may continue them For they have work which is transgression and Job did slâde in the hour of his tryal Such as are imbittered because of trouble do prove that they have little sense of sin And they who look not upon their lesser sins of infirmity as sufficient to procure any trouble that cometh upon them are justly given up under the Cross âo miscarry more grossely as Job did Whence it cometh to pass that afflictions which were but simple tryals before become real chastisements for sin as here he intimateth it fared with Job 3. No affliction should be accounted bitter which may help to cure and purge out sin For upon that account is Gods righteousness here vindicated that he afflicts to discover and purge out sin They evidence their love to sin who repine at rods and they who would find trouble easie ought to be diligent in purging of sin and that will make it sweet Ps 119.67 71. 4. When God afflicts his people most sharply his aim is only to cure their sin and it will have no worse effects unless they turn incorrigible For he binds them in the cords of affliction v. 8. for this very end See Is 27.9 He intends not their hurt but only the destruction of sin unless as we sayâ they will take the ridders-stroaks by interposing to spare their lusts 5. The right cure of sin must begin at the discovery of it and at convictions for it without which there will be no reformation or it will not prove sound For this work begins at shewing them their work and where this root is not the fruits will not follow or they prove but withered and blasted 6. Men do not readily see sin nor are solidly convinced of it till they be in trouble For when they are bound v. 8. then he sheweth them their work Either the affliction must point it out mens sin being written upon their rods or when they rage and fret or will not stay to admit of or digest reproofs affliction tameth and holdeth them So that it must be sad when convictions decay under trouble 7. Whatever men attain of convictions under the rod yet it is not the rod of it self but God by it who worketh and produceth them For he sheweth them their work 8. Conviction is wrought by Gods leading men through their work by examination till they find out what transgression is in it For he sheweth them their work and their transgressions which he discovereth to them in their work when they see it well 9. True and solid convictions under trouble will discover sin in its aggravations both in the frequency thereof that there are transgressions and in the nature thereof that there are transgressions wherein they have exceeded or prevailed and run violently âver all bounds and limits as waters overflow their banks If the Law should discover sin to be sinful Rom. 7.13 much more when the rod is joyned with it should sin be seen in its aggravations Jer. 2.19 10. When God comes to plead against sin by the rod it is an evidence of the greatness of sin were there no other thing to prove it but that he must plead his quarrel that way For when they are bound v. 8. then he sheweth that they have exceeded They must be no small faults which provoke God to plead against his people in the publick view of all and therefore they should beware of extenuating sin at such a time From v. 10. Learn 1. Conviction of sin were it never so great is not all the fruit that should follow upon chastisements but there should be also conversion and turning from sin For this is subjoyned to the discovery formerly mentioned that they return from iniquity without which it will be to little purpose to sigh and turn backward Lam. 1.8 2. Men will never be brought to turn from sin in earnest till first they be brought under discipline and order which is opposite to that inbred opposition which is in their hearts to Christs Kingdome and Bonds Psal 2.3 and 12.4 to that excessive love of pleasures which causeth men behave themselves as bullocks unaccustomed to the yoak Jer. 31.18 Job 21.14 and to that wild fruit of security which meeting with affliction drives men further away Therefore they must first be under discipline before they return from iniquity And no particular practice or endeavour will thrive well or be to any purpose till first we set our selves to come under this yoak of discipline and to submit to the will of God in every thing 3. For bringing men under this york of discipline there is need of an open discovered car that a passage may be opened to instructions to get in to the heart For he openeth also with that discovery v. 9. their ear to discipline Of this see v. 15. Chap. 33.16 Is 50.4 5. Psal 40.6 And it imports 1. That our advantage cometh not simply by our being afflicted but by some instruction conveighed to the heart by the ear accompanying it Psal 94.12 2. That there are many impediments in the way to hinder out receiving of this instruction such as laziness Is 50.4 subtil wiles Psal 58.4 5. habitually contracted indisposition Matth. 13.15 rebellion Jer. 22.21 and 44.16 and divers others of which see on Chap. 33.16 3. That as a time of affliction is a time of teaching many lessons Psal 94.12 So the Cross should help to pierce our ear and make us tractable as Act. 9.6 4. As this is the scope of afflictions so when God sends the rod he will one way or other cause men to hear Is 26.11 Jer. 1.15
the tryal of his faith and other graces but only that his folly and miscarriage under the rod for which also God humbleth him though he employ Elihu first to handle him more sharply did draw on fatherly displeasure From v. 16. Learn 1. General truths will not avail nor prove usefull particularly to persons in affliction till they be applyed Therefore doth he subjoyn this particular Application to the former general Doctrine 2. There is no general promise recorded in Gods Word but it will be forth-coming to every one of his people as they have need Therefore that promise v. 11. is applyed to Job as that he had right unto if he had been in a right frame Yea the promise made to Joshua a great and eminent man Josh 1.5 is repeated Heb. 13.5 as belonging to every particular distressed Hebrew in the general scope of it abstracting from what was personal and relative to his special employment in it 3. The Children of God for their exercise or because of their folly may be brought under great distress As here is supposed in the contrary promises For the promise to remove them out of the mouth of straitness as it is in the Original imports That they may be under pressures which are ready to devour and swallow them up like a beast of prey And the promise of a fat table imports That they may be exercised with penury and want And the conjunction of those two promises imports That their penury and other sad pressures may goe together 4. It may encourage men to stoop to God and to receive instruction under the rod That there is no condition so sad but repentance and turning to God will amend it As here these promises import And albeit he will not take off all our pressures within time nor yet alwayes deliver his penitent people yet our being near to God takes away the bitterness of pressures and affords sweetness in every lot and may assure us that God will care for our table and will have an eye upon our pressures And though godly men before they repent may complain that possibly the promise will never be performed yet let rhem once repent and be near God and that will silence all their complaints 5. It may be matter of sad thoughts to godly men under trouble when they consider how much better their condition might have been were it not for their own folly As here he lets them see Even so would he have removed thee c. if thou had not thus miscarried See Psal 81.13 14. Isa 48.18 19. From v. 17. Learn 1. It is not unusual to see godly men fail in an hour of tryal and so to run away from their own mercy As here he lets him see that his case was farr otherwise than it might have been 2. As it is a kindness to tell Friends their condition freely so they have need to have it told them by others they being ready sometime to take it up too sadly and at other times to look too easily and partially upon it Therefore doth he so freely tell Job his condition here 3. As godly men in their fits of distemper may homologate too much the principles and wayes of the wicked so it is their great fault so to do For here he chargeth him with fulfilling the judgement of the wicked Of many pranks of the godly in trouble it may be said What will they leave to the wicked to do when they do so 4. The longer these courses be persisted in it is the greater sin For it aggravates his fault that he fulfilled this judgement of the wicked or confirmed them in their way by the length that he proceeded in it 5. Sin would appear more formidable if it were looked upon as inseparably attended with judgement As here the wickeds way is called their judgement not only because it is their judgement and determined sentence and fixed principle to follow it but because it is the cause of a sentence of judgement from God 6. Whatever others do find of judgements attending sin the godly may lay their account not to escape For this sinful course is proved to be judgement or sentenced by God because judgement and justice take hold on thee 7. As godly men may come under fatherly displeasure and this will be sad to them when they discern it So it is yet sadder that their own folly should change the nature of their cleanly tryals and mix anger with them As here he lets Job see that his cleanly tryals were turned into judgement and justice though with moderation as Chap. 35.15 8. Whatever Saints may dream of yet Gods fatherly chastisements will not only reach them when they miscarry but will hold them fast till they quit their folly For they take hold on thee The word also signifieth and is else-where rendered to support or sustain but here as also Prov. 5.22 it signifieth to apprehend or hold fast and includeth the person of whom hold is taken as is supplyed in the Translation Verse 18. Because there is wrath beware lest he take thee away with his stroak Then a great ransome cannot deliver thee 19. Will he esteem thy riches No not gold nor all the forces of strength Elihu having stated Jobs case doth now give him his counsel relative to his case as it stands And though the counsel be but one in substance that he would amend his faults yet I shall take it up as it lyeth in the words in three branches which will clear wherein Elihu thought Job had fulfilled the counsel of the wicked The first whereof in these words is That heing now under wrath he should be afraid to provoke God by his miscarriages when he was under his hand to cut him off without remedy For then no ransome or wealth or power could rescue him Whence Learn 1. It is no proof of true friendship only to reprove men for their faults without giving them counsel how to rectifie what is amiss For here Elihu subjoynes advices to his former reprehensions hereby witnessing that he was a Friend indeed who was not seeking nor taking advantage of him in reprehending his faults 2. It is a special part of our duty especially under trouble to examine and try our condition how it stands and it is a proof of real friendship to help us in this tryal As here Elihu points out unto Job how it is with him and tells him there is wrath 3. It is the great and concerning Question of Saints to try how God is pleased with them and to try what wrath or displeasure may be in their cuâ when they are afflicted Therefore doth he give Job an account of that especially 4. As Saints may be under wrath or fatherly displeasure as he told Job in the former Verse and here again repeats it So when they are in such a case they ought especially to take heed to their walk that they do not rage and free against God For because there is
shakes as he did uphold Job Doct. 3. Such changes in our outward condition may be a tryal even to the mortified Child of God For though Job did not set up his rest upon his prosperity and dignity yet here he complains of the loss of it and that he wants his Crown and Glory Here Consider 1. Saints have sense and flesh which cannot but feel and grieve under trouble and contempt and they are not to mistake though they find somewhat in themselves that âepineth at the Cross 2. By this God makes it evident that Saints are not Stoicks or wholly insensible of troubles and that it is not themselves but Grace in them that bears them out 3. When the spirits of Saints are otherwise broken as Job's was then any thing will be a burden though otherewise in their judgment they think little of it 4. Our bitterness and peevishness may cause us have too great an esteem of things when we want them which we were but little thankful for when we had them and so we disquiet our selves Vers 10. He hath destroyed me on every side and I am gone and mine hope hath he removed like a tree The Fifth proof and instance of his misery wherein he alludes to the destroying of Houses and plucking up of Trees whereof Bildad had also spoken and whereby he further explains what he had said v. 6 is That his present enjoyments and future hopes were quite overthrown and gone as an House that is quite overturned and a Tree that is plucked up by the roots Whence Learn 1. The sense of grievances being entertained will make men great Oratours in pointing them out As Job's insisting upon his complaint may teach and experience of others recorded in Scripture who have dwelt long upon their lamentations and complaints doth witness This 1. May encourage them who cannot get an end of their complaints nor have soon done with them when they consider that they want not company at that sad Trade 2. It may warrant us to study our grievances well that they may press humility upon us and we may make use of them as Arguments to plead for pity and by the sense thereof may be fitted for proofs of Gods love and withal we may glorifie God by our submission to him and our hope in him notwithstanding all those grievances Yet 3. We should beware to dwell upon this subject only out of bitterness or a desire to complain Upon those terms we should think one word of our distresses too much and the least moment of time too long to spend about them seeing we have better exercises wherein to be imployed And herein Job failed who spent much time and talk on this in his bitterness when he might have been better imployed Doct. 2. God can and sometime will surround his Children with an universal havock and desolation in their Children Goods Body Name Peace of mind c. As here Job was destroyed on every side See Lam. 2.22 Here 1. The repeating of this again from v. 6. serves to confirm Saints that such a condition is not inconsistent with a gracious state and to warn us that we should not make exception of any outward tryal as if it were inconsistent with grace in a person 2. This doth also teach murmurers that it is their duty to look upon their lesser tryals as abounding with mercies when they consider this total overthrow of a godly man as to his outward condition Too much noise about those and little praise to God who moderates his stroke do argue much self-love ingratitude and need of more afflictions 3. Such as are made to drink of this bitter cup should submit to God in it believing that no less is necessary to try them to put them out of themselves and to fit them for the singular proofs of love which God intends for them Doct. 3. When God engageth with the Creature especially in any measure of severity the Creature will soon succumb For saith he He hath destroyed me and I am gone So that stooping is our best when God becometh our party 4. Hope is the last refuge and life of a destroyed and gone Saint For so is here supposed that whe he is destroyed and gone he looks what hope will afford to comfort him Saints should not cast away hope and confidence Psal 42.11 Heb. 10.35 but should wrestle from under the ruines of their destroyed condition by hope 5. Not only the present enjoyments but the future hopes of Saints may be destroyed and gone to their sense For his hope was removed like a Tree that is rooted out of the ground This is to be understood of his hopes about temporal favours and restitution wherein though Job was mistaken in casting off hopes of restitution men ought to be very sober and submit all to the good pleasure of God For to do at upon those things is to feed murmuring evidence insobriety and breed our selves many disappointments But even other and better hopes of Saints may fail much that God may try how we will hope against hope out of our love to him and may take a proof of our delight to give him credit in difficulties and that he may give proof what he will do for his own Children who sometime will not so much as cherish hope in him 6. God can and will do for his people even far above their present sense and hopes For Job thinks he is gone and his hope removed and yet he is carried through See Ephes 3.19 Psal 94.18 19. Vers 11. He hath also kindled his wrath against me and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies 12. His troops come together and raise up their way against me and encamp round about my tabernacle The Sixth proof and instance of his misery wherein he alludes to a mighty Kings making war against his Enemies or rebellious Subjects is That God seemed to deal with him in wrath as with a Rebel and Enemy v. 11. and accordingly had let loose afflictions and Satan the Sabeans Chaldeans the Wind and Fire and other Instruments of his trouble which irresistibly hemmed him in like so many Troops raising up Trenches and drawing ânes about their besieged Enemies v. 12. While Job speaks here of Gods wrath kindled against him and Gods accounting him an Enemy he doth not hereby absolutely contradict what elsewhere he speaks concerning his own integrity and his faith in Gods favour For by faith he still cleaves to this that he is a righteous man and beloved of God though in his complaint he sometime speak this language of sense that God was wroth and looked upon him as an Enemy From the first part of v. 11. He hath also kindled his wrath against me Learn 1. The dearest of Saints may be under sad apprehensions of Gods anger and wrath For so was Job here and David frequently They may not only be really under fatherly displeasure but âad afflictions joyned with tentation weakness and desertion may cause
them tremble under the sense of wrath And this 1. Should cause Saints not stumble if they be so exercised They may have a sure interest in the love of God whose eyes and thoughts are held fixed upon wrath 2. It should make them careful not to judge by sense which is rash and judgeth by appearance and not by the Word and represents our condition worse then it is Doct. 2. Apprehension of wrath is most dreadful Saints and puts the cap-stone on all their other sorrows Therefore he joyns this to the rest of his grievances with an also as an over-charging addition to them See Chap. 13.24 And this gives us a sure evidence of Saintship and that it is but our sense that affrights us when we are most affected with wrath of any thing See Isa 64 5. 3. This also contributes to make the apprehen-of wrath sad especially to Saints 1. That it is not lying buried under the ashes but kindled and broken out And indeed wrath when it is deferred or but apprehended at a distance may seem but little in respect of what men will find it when it breaks out Then it will be found unsupportable Isa 33.14 Psal 90 11. And Saints will see cause to lament that they apprehended it so little till it came to that issue 2. After wrath hath been revealed against the Elect in their natural condition or against converted Saints for some particular faults and it hath been buried again and God reconciled with them It cannot but be sad that it should kindle up again and that after they have tasted of kindness and sweet imbracements they should again fall under the lash of wrath As Job here apprehends it This is matter of sad regret Psal 85.3 with v 4.5 3. This also heightens the sadness of such an apprehension that it is his wrath and that he hath kindled it against them whose way many time with his people is not to stir up all his wrath but to quench and take it away Psal 78.38 Isa 57 16 17 18. and that he who is their hope and refuge in all their troubles Jer. 17.17 should become their party Isa 63.9 10. Now albeit all those sad sights be but Saints apprehensions and tentations or at most there is only fatherly displeasure in their lot yet from this we may gather That true Saints cannot endure to have God their party in anger on any terms and it will be no small grief to them in such a condition that evidences of displeasure have not been seen before-hand in the Word and it will sadly affect them in their distress when they remember it was sometime otherwise with them as is said in another case Lam. 1.7 In all those respects Job complains of this here From the last part of v. 11. He counteth me to him as one of his Enemies wherein he clears and explains the former that God looked upon him as an Enemy and so let out wrath upon him or strokes which seemed to speak wrath Learn 1. Such as are indeed Enemies to God are obnoxious to wrath which will break out at last in sad effects For so much doth the connexion betwixt those two import Where God accounts a man an Enemy there he hath wrath and this wrath will break out in hostile acts such as those which made Job apprehend wrath and that God counted him an Enemy See Psal 7.11 12 c 75.8 2. However men may bear out under the harsh judgments of men who neither are infallible nor can judge of mens estate Yet God is Supreme Judge whose sentence is always just and irrepealable For Job looks here to what he counted him to be and though he was not shaken by his Friends mistakes yet this is matter of sad complaint that to his sense he counted him to him or in his judgment as one of his Enemies 3. It is the saddest of wrath that is let out on Enemies and which cometh from God looking on the party whom he pursues as an Enemy For this aggravates end heightens his sense of kindled wrath that it comes upon him as an Enemy In respect of this Fatherly displeasure is a deliverance and mercy as being mixed with and flowing from love And Saints should read it so and bless God that it is so 4. Saints may look upon their lot as inflicted on them as Enemies when yet it floweth from real friendshid For Job mistook in this there was neither wrath nor enmity in all this Saints are thus affrighted because they cannot discern Gods tender heart which may be warm toward them when his hand seems to speak severity Jer. 30.14 with 31.20 Therefore it is a sweet study wherein Saints should be much exercised To know how much of cross dispensations may consist with love yea and flow from it To know that all real displeasure is not pure and unmixed wrath That Senses language under trouble is Apocryphal and not to be credited and That we may read much from our ill deservings and guilt in our trouble which yet Gods love doth not intend in it as not pursuing our pardoned guilt nor chastening because he hath a quarrel though we deserve it should be otherwise From v. 12. wherein he clears how he thought God pursued him as an Enemy Learn 1. Where God hath a quarrel we need not doubt but he can avenge himself seeing he hath forces in aboundance to prosecute his Controversie For here there are Troops to send out against an Enemy 2. Afflictions tryals oppressors c. are Gods Armies sent against man though not always in wrath yet to subdue Rebellion and make him stoop Therefore are those called his Troops to shew that he as Supreme General hath them at his command to cause them come and go at his pleasure and that as Armies are sent out to subdue Rebels and conquer Enâmies so they are imployed to bring and keep us in subjection to God And therefore we should be careful that they get their errand lest he send out more Troops against us Lev. 26.21 22 23 24 c. 3. God when he pursueth men by afflictions is irresistible For those Troops raise up their way against him and encamp round about his Tabernacle So that it is to no purpose to struggle or contend with such a dispensation but it is our only safety to stoop 4. When sad afflictions come upon Saints it is not easie for them to avoid thoughts that God is angry and looks upon them as an Enemy For because of those Troops Job suspects that wrath is kindled and that God counts him as one of his Enemies v. 11. Vers 13. He hath put my brethren far from me and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me 14. My kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me From this to v. 20. we have the Seventh proof and instance of his misery Namely That while he is thus afflicted he is diserted of Friends Servants his Wife and most intimate familiars and
me Behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that mine Adversary had written a book 36. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a Crown to me 37. I would declare unto him the number of my steps as a Prince would I goe near unto him Job having made this fair Profession and Apology wherein he haâh produced so many evidences of his integrity so solemnly confirmed and proved and being now about to câose this discourse He breaks out for further confirmation of all he hath said in a solemn wish and desire That One even the Almighty would hear and answer him v. 35. The meaning whereof is not That he would have God appearing as his Party either as Plaintiff or Defendant as Chap. 13.22 For here he speaks of another Adversary or Party But that God would appear as a Judge to give him a fair hearing and to judge of his whole Cause that so he might be vindicated from all calumnies and aspersions that were cast upon him On this condition he professeth 1. That he would contemn the accusations of all forts of Adversaries and would be content they should write a Volume of them and produce all they had to say against him v. 35. 2. That he is sure these accusations would tend to his commendation and should be an ornament and crown and not a reproach to him and he would bring them as such before his Judge v. 36. For he was sure their accusations would prove him a just man seeing he had made himself no enemies but such as opposed him for his justice and for his fortitude in prosecution thereof of which he hath been speaking v. 34. Or his Friends could charge him with no real crime but he might glory that he was innocent and free of it 3. That he would not only defend his integrity against all accusations of Adversaries but he would generally lay open his conscience and give a reason of all his actions to his Judge v. 37. 4. That he would not behave himself as a guilty man but as a Princely confident man in so good a Cause both before his Judge and Accuser v. 37. This his confident desire and profession somewhat like unto that he had desired before Chap. 19.23 24. doth indeed say more to prove his integrity than all the particulars he hath mentioned before For what guilty man being in his right wits and already so sharply afflicted durst wish God to be a Judge and to have a quick Accuser and would not rather seek to decline judgement Yet he carrieth the matter too confidently for which he is afterward reproved and without that submissiveness which is due to such a Judge though the pressure of his miseries and his unjust vexation from his Friends plead some excuse or extenuate somewhat his failing in it From this purpose Learn 1. As sincere men will decline no tryal so it is oft-times their lot to lye buried under mis-constructions without fair hearing and judgement For his general desire O that one would hear me imports both that he declined not but earnestly desired to have his cause heard and his integrity tryed before any Judge whatsoever so he were impartial and indifferent and yet that he could not get a fair hearing that his integrity might be cleared 2. God is the Judge who is most eyed by godly men in the matter of their integrity As being he whose testimony alone can be leaned unto in this matter whose Tribunal when he proceeds according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace a righteous man needs not fear and who is the Patron of those who are unjustly judged by others Therefore doth Job thus instance his general desire My desire is that the Almighty would answer me or It is my sign or evidence of my righteousness and integritry that the Almighty would answer me or that I desire him to answer not to his questions or pleadings but to his sute that he would give him an hearing as a Judge See Ps 26.1 and 43.1 3. The support of a good conscience in a trial is admirable and to be marked by all both to invite others to be sincere and to terrifie accusers Therefore he prefixeth a Behold to this desire that all might remark how confident he was of his integrity and how it supported him 4. Even these who are most righteous and approved of God must expect not to want opposers and calumniators For Job intimateth that he would have an adversary 5. When a man is sincere and upright though he may expect that observers will notice and mark his wayes yet he may sleight all they can say when God sits Judge For he cares not though his adversary had written a book So long as the Book of a Mans conscience is right he needs not care what books others write against him See Acts 23.1 6. Unjust accusations are so far from prejudging the integrity of the righteous that when they have vindicated themselves they clear their righteousness the more and are matter of their gloriation For not onely would he not smother them but take them openly upon his shoulder as no burden but he would binde them as a crown to him or crowns in the plural number even so many Crowns as Accusations This will be the issue of all calumnies cast upon godly men when either they are aspersed with the evil they have not done or when the good they do is called evil and therefore they need not lye drooping under them 7. Such as are truly godly men are exact numberers of their steps that in so far as can be nothing may escape them and they do not huddle up their walk in confusion For he hath the number of his steps to declare at least all the kindes of his steps though he could not overtake every particular 8. God should be ingenuously dealt with by such as would approve themselves as righteous in laying out their way before him For saith he I would declare unto him the number of my steps at least he would not hide any fault whereof he knew he was guilty 9. Whatever pain there be in circumspect walking yet the comfort of it will be as great when men look back to it in a day of tryal For now it affords Job peace that he may declare unto God the number of his steps See Ps 44.17 18 19 20. 10. The godly man may have much confidence in coming to God For saith he as a Prince would I go unto him A godly man who is justified is Israel a Prince with God and may come boldly to the Throne of Grace in full assurance of Faith and when he is calumniated he is a Superiour and Prince over his adversaries as having the better of them in the quarrel and he may come forward to God with an heroical spirit See Rom. 8.33 Heb. 4.16 and 10.22 Prov. 28.1 11. It is hard for godly men when under tentations and afflictions to manage a
good cause rightly and without passion and excesse For Job is too violent here and albeit he was righteous as to the matter in controversie yet it became him to have been more submissive before such a Judge before whom he could not have given such an account of the number of his steps if he had entered in judgement with him Ps 143.2 When men are managing the best cause in dispute they have need to take heed lest they miscarry and fall into some excesse Verse 38. If my land cry against me or that the furrows likewise thereof complain 39. If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life 40. Let thistles grow instead of wheat and cockle instead of barley The words of Job is ended In these Verses Job closeth all this discourse and apology with the profession of a Thirteenth Vertue which is his equity toward all those with whom he had to doe in the matter of his Land whether former Possessours Tenants or Labourers for himself for to all these it may be extended In general he professeth that he was not an oppressor whose very land might cry out for vengeance upon him when men durst not v. 38. In particular He professeth that he did not eat the fruit of his land without money either to the former owners from whom he had it or present labourers who manured it for him nor did he make the owners thereof to lose their life that is he did kill none as Ahab did that he might possess their land nor did he rack his rents to the undoing of the Tenants nor did he oppress and wear out the spirits of poor labourers by withholding their wages Or as some though without clear ground understand it of poor widows and strangers who were owners in so far as somewhat of his increase was due to them in charity whom he did not kill by defrauding of them v. 39. All this he confirmes by an imprecation or consenting to it as equitable that in that case his land should bear no fruit but what is evil and noysome such as thistles and cockle or noysome weeds v. 40. Unto all which a conclusion is added by the writer of the History that Jobs words here ended both what he hath spoken in the whole dispute and particularly this his large Apology So that he speaks nothing after this but onely have some few words to God towards the close of the Booke v. 40. From these Verses Learn 1. It is not enough that men be just in their publick actings in Judicatories unless they be just also to these who are under them in their more private relations For as Job was couragious in the publick administration of Justice v. 34. So here he makes conscience also of justice in his dealing with his inferiours 2. Albeit oppressed men dare not mutter against oppressours because they are mighty yet their oppressions will cry to God and the very creatures will get a mouth to witness and complain to God against them For if he had been an oppressour he intimates that the very Land would cry and the furrows thereof complain or weep See Exod. 3.7 Hab. 2.10 11. Which imports that the sins of men especially when not punished are a burden under which the creatures do groan 3. It is a crying oppression to wrong righteous possessours to enlarge our heritage or to wrong labourers or tenants For Job would not eat the fruits thereof without money See Jer. 22.13 Maâ 3.5 Jam. 5.4 4. As oppressours may become so cruel as even to wring the life out of their inferiours if not also to cut them off 1 King 21.19 So this is a very heynous sin For so Job accounts it to cause the owners thereof to lose their life 5. Albeit men think to enrich themselves by oppression Yet it is just they be plagued that God change the very natural course of things to them and that he defeat all their expectations of advantage and take that and much more from them which they have withheld from others For Job subscribes to it as just if he had been an oppressor that contrary to the course of Nature and to his expectations thistles grow instead of wheat and cockle in stead of barley 6. When men have said enough in defence of a good cause it is meet to give over and not to trouble themselves with every calumny and aspersion For after Job hath thus vindicated himself it followeth The words of Job are ended CHAP. XXXII Here begins the third part of this Book containing a decision of this Controversie betwixt Job and his Friends which is begun by Elihu a Young man who had stood by all the while and heard the dispute to Chap. 38. and brought to a close by God himself to Chap. 42.10 And albeit both Elihu who speaks first and God himself do find that Jobs Friends were in the wrong in the main Controversie betwixt them as is declared here v. 3. and Chap. 42.7 Yet they insist most in reproving and refuting of Job because he was the Patient to be cured of his distemper that so his tryal might be finished And withall their better and more effectual way of dealing with him was sufficient to inform his Friends also of the errour of their way And accordingly Elihu after he hath laid by the three Friends in this Chapter spends the rest of his discourse in dealing with Job in four speeches The first Chap. 33. The second Chap. 34. The third Chap. 35. And the last Chap. 36 and 37. The State of the Controversie or a true and exact account of that which he maintains both against Job and his Friends is propounded v. 2 3. of this Chapter where we will have occasion to speak of it Only it will be necessary in the entry as was also done in the entry to the former dispute Chap. 4. to premit somewhat in general which may help us to aright understanding of his procedure with Job For albeit he find fault with Jobs Friends that they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job yet it should seem he run the same way with them in condemning him and that with as much sharpness as they did Yea he seems not only to fasten expressions upon him which we find not in this Book but even to charge him with wickedness while he asserts that he went in company with wicked men c. Chap. 34.8 That I may make way for removing of this difficulty and for clearing what was Elihu's scope I must premit these general truths 1. Whatever identity seem to be betwixt his discourses and the discourses of the three Friends yet himself is to be credited who expresly asserts that he will not answer him with their speeches Chap. 32.14 Which imports that his sense and scope was not the same with theirs let the expressions seem to be never so much the same 2. This godly and able young man did not utter