Baal 1 King 18.40 But these are not to be imitated and we are to take heed to wild-fire instead of true zeal And particularly well managed and sober zeal hath those properties which may be gathered from the Text. 1. It will nor drive men rashly and in an headlong way to engage in quarrels and debates which they can avoid For he waited long to see if these mistakes might be cleared and rectified without him This rule is transgressed by all who do precipitantly rush and engage in debates and particularly by private men when they do needlesly engage in Controversies and Church quarrels which lye out of their way See Prov. 26 17 2. Right and sober zeal proceeds according to knowledge see Rom. 10.2 and will not pass judgement upon any thing but after a fair hearing and serious tryal of the matter For before his anger was kindled and brake forth he had waited and heard them patiently that he might take up the business well as he professeth v. 11. See Prov. 13.10 and 18.13 This is little observed by an any whose wit is all in their fore-head and their heart at their mouth And therefore they rush upon courses before they ponder them they are beguiled with fair masks and pretences and they look not to the consequences of courses before they do engage in them 3. True and sober zeal will never lead men to seek themselves but makes them content that a good turn be done though they be not seen in it For he waited upon them as minding if the matter were otherwise cleared not to appear Hence it may be concluded That boasters of themselves and extollers of themselves do reflect upon their own zeal as not found 4. True zeal teacheth men to reverence those with whom they have to do for their age parts and experience For he waited and heard them patiently and reverently because they were elder than he Of this afterward Only it argues passion and not zeal when men leave the defence of their cause to reflect upon persons and do behave themselves unsoberly toward them Doct. 2. Though true zeal ought to be managed with sobriety as hath been said yet it is no evidence of sobriety or of a right temper of zeal for men not to see the errours that are in the best of men and not to defend truth were it even against never so many godly men For Elihu marks errours in Job and here also and v. 3. in his three Friends and argues against them all 3. It is also no kindly mark of zeal for men to be furious at a fit and then to cool if they be not taken at first but true zeal is constant in its heat and fervour For here after all his long waiting his wrath is kindled 4. Men and even good men may have that opinion of themselves and their way which differs very farr from truth For v. 1. they judged they had said enough and that Job was obstinate and yet Elihu finds there was no answer in their mouth as hath been fully cleared v. 3. 5. They are justly censurable in the judgement of all zealous men who deserts cause of God and either in a neutral way or otherwise lye by from defending it For this kindles his wrath that they had no answer to Job especially on Gods behalf Verse 6. And Elihu the Son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said I am young and ye are very old wherefore I was afraid and durst not shew you mine opinion 7. I said Dayes should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdome The rest of this Chapter contains Elihu's general Preface directed to both parties but chiefly to Jobs three Friends And he insists the longer in Prefacing Partly because he was a young man in which case it was necessary to clear that he appeared not in this cause out of any arrogance or impudence but meerly out of love to truth and to plead that it was equitable they should lay aside all extrinsick advantages of age experience wit c. which they had on their side in this debate and that none of these should pre-judge his cause but let naked truth carry it Partly that he might here once for all condemn and lay by the three Friends with whom he deals no more after this Preface but leaves them to see the errour of their proceeding by taking notice of that right way which he followed whereby also he might insinuate into Jobs affection and invite him to hearken more patiently to what he was to say seeing he did not take part with his Friends against him In these Verses we have the first branch of this Preface wherein he gâ—â—â— a reason why he had kept silence so long and had not interposed sooner to end this difference Namely That the conscience of his own youth and his respect to their age and opinion of their wisdome made him afraid to speak in so grave an audience upon such a subject v. 6. As reckoning and judging within himself for so this phrase I said is to be understood here as Gen. 20.11 where it is said and not thought in the Original that it became such aged men and they were only fit to speak to such a matter seeing their long experience should teach them more wisdome which they might communicate to others v 7. In general Learn 1. Albeit zeal should be managed with sobriety yet that zeal is not approved which burns only in mens breasts against an evil course or errour unless it break forth also as need requires in their station For he whose wrath was kindled v. 2 3 5. now answered and said c. and spake when he was called to it Not as many who dislike evil courses if men may trust their professions and discourses and yet they never appear to do any thing against them in their stations 2. Zeal in defending of a good cause may yet suffer prejudices in mens opinions by reason of disadvantages in the person who manageth it As here his youth might readily cause them mistake his zeal and frequently we find many ready to except against and reflect upon the persons of men that thereby they may render their cause suspicious And therefore men who would find out truth had need to try a cause impartially abstracting from the consideration of persons who manage it 3. Albeit real disadvantages in mens persons do not warrant them to desert a good cause yet they should teach them to manage it with soberness and fear As here Elihu doth considering his youth wherein he is imitated but by very few young men who have any thing of zeal and honesty in them In particular Learn 1. Youth considered in it self is attended with many weaknesses For so doth Elihu grant That his youth gave him cause to fear lâ—st he run into mistakâ—s in speaking of so weighty and grave matters and that their age gave them many advantages which he wanted Who so will consider the heat of young
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 â—s 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 recâ—â—r to
Truth which he hath revealed and we are commanded to imbrace by his Word as Job here argueth against them Then Truth must not be prejudged by any consideration of the greatest or best of men who oppose it but the consideration of their person must be laid aside till it be impartially tryed what is Truth and what is Errour 3. God will have no honour nor service tendered to him but by lawful and approved means He will not have his person accepted nor an attempt made to give him glory unless it be upon allowed and approved grounds He will not have an ill turn justified by this that it tends to his honour and service Rom. 3.8 nor will he allow that a pretence of being for the Righteousness of God should be a cloak to hide the wrath of man Jam. 1.20 4. Zeal and good intentions will never justifie unlawful actions in Gods sight For his Friends wanted none of these when Job tells them they miscarried most grossly 5. God doth not allow that we should devise opinions or worship thereby to serve and honour him but we must cleave to his own prescribed Rule For otherwise he will not be honored by our worship and service Matth. 15.9 6 The Consideration of Gods righteousness in afflicting of a person or people must not be urged to prove them wicked unless the Word prove they are so This is the very instance in the Text. Doct. 3. Whosoever do not walk according to those Rules but will study to set off Errour by specious pretences they deal both wickedly and deceitfully They wrong men whom they would falsly condemn of their right by imploying their wit to overthrow it craftily and they do insinuate iâ—l things of Godâ— by their pretending for him in their Errours Yea their course being wicked in it self their handsome and deceitful conveyance adds to the sin thereof Therefore Job saith that in all this they spake wickedly and deceitfully cheating him of his righteousness upon a pretence of Gods glory and sinfully implying that Gods Righteousness was gone and could not be defended if he were not wicked So far different may men in reality be from what they pretend to be that they may be acting wickedly even while they pretend to honour God in a singular way 4. His charging home this guilt upon them by way of question Teacheth 1. True zeal will not be blunted by the fair face put upon a bad cause but rather set on edge to oppose it so much the more For the questions import his indignation at their sinful and unhandsome way 2. Consciences are not easily convinced of the ill of a plausible and well masked course and Errour For he must put their Consciences to it to see the ill of their way before they put themselves to it 3. However Conscience be deluded for a time yet at last it will see and condemn the evil of a course notwithstanding all its pretences and fair shews For he puts the matter to their Consciences as a judge that would speak out impartially at last Vers 9. Is it good that he should search you out or as one man mocketh another do ye so mâ—ck him In this and the following verses to v. 13. Job insists to press and inculcate the former argument upon them that they may see the evil of their way And First in this v he points it out both in the sinfulness and hazard of it As to its sinfulness he tells them that their pleading to God was as really a mocking of him as ever one man mocked another And a reproachâ—ng of him and his righteousness as if he needed their lies and had a bad cause for which there were no better arguments then they brought And therefore as to the hazard of it he wisheth them to consider how little it would bâ— for their good or advantage that he should search them out or discover by effects that he looked upon them as mockers of him Doct. 1. God seeth things nakedly as they are notwithstanding all the specious pâ—etences wherewith they are adorned And when men will not so see them he is provoked to let then know them as indeed they are For in this sense is searching out attributed to God who knoweth all things He searcheth out men and their way when he looks upon them nakedly as thâ—y are as men do see things best after search And when he causeth men know that he so looketh upon them 2. Men are so shallow and so easily deluded that they may think they are eminently for God when in effect they are but scoâ—ning him And particularly they mock God when they seek the patrociny of his glory to a wrong cause or when they defend his cause wiâ—h false arguments For saith he of their plâ—ading as one man mocketh another so do ye mock him Men will be judged by their actions whatever their intentions be 3. Such deluded pretenders serve a thankless Master for God will not be mocked upon any accompt Gal 6.7 And their Consciences can tell them it will be little to their advantage when God shall discover them and their way Therefore he propounds it by way of question Is it good that he should search you out Do ye mock him Vers 10. He will surely reprove you if ye do secretly accept persons Secondly He confirms the hazard of this way by telling them that God who is the Truth will surely reprove and punish their partiality and respect of persons He propounds it in general of accepting of persons to shew that if God abhor all partiality much more this wherein beside the fault of partiality he is wronged in his glory He propounds also their fault bâ— way of supposition If ye do accept peâ—sons which is not a baâ—e supposition for Job had positively charged it on them before but it supposeth the fault to be real and the challenge true and insinuates that if they go on God though he had hitherto spared will surely punish He adds if they do it secretly not against the light of their Consciences but with cunning discourses and under the covert of good intentions which hid it even from themselves The punishment threatened if they persist in this fault is God will surely reprove them that is he will make them know they are in the wrong either by his Word and appearing to speak himself as he afterward did or if that will not do it by Rodâ— From this beside what is formerly marked Learn 1. Sin may be so masked with plausible and fair pretences and good intentions that even the act is cannot well discern the evil of it For this fault was acted secretly not only cunningly as to others but even so as it was hid from themselves 2. All this ignorance and inadvertency of men will not excuse their fault considering they are bound to know right and wrong and that they are accessory to the involving of themselves in mistakes For God reproves secret accepting of persons 3. God
In many cases men may be said to be ignorant of a Providence and Judgment who do not only acknowledge it in General Professions but are really godly For they were godly men and did not deny this truth and yet must be taught to know there is a judgment Men know not their Principles as they ought when they act not according to them as they did not And men may know much in General and by Contemplation who yet in their Passions can but little consider and improve it in particular cases For they considered not their way and whether it tended till God tell them in the close of this debate 4. Afflictions are sent to teach men Lessons and particularly to cause them know and make right use of a just Providence of God For here they are threatned with punishments that they may know there is a judgment Here Consider 1. Men must not only look what they feel but what they are made to know under affliction and must be careful that Rods be not dumb Psal 94.11 2. Though oft times carnal men turn Atheists under and because of great troubles Ezek. 9.9 yet afflictions should lead men to be better acquainted with a Providence in the World which ordinarily is but little minded or studied For that is the lesson here inculcated 3. Such as study the Providence of God in the world will be afraid of doing wrong as knowing that there is a righteous judgement to follow 4. In Particular This study should make men afraid to injure the afflicted especially if they be godly seeing such are left upon Gods hand that he may redress all their wrongs and grievances For that is the particular lesson he would have them taking from this study 5. This study should yet further perswade men to take heed of being incorrigible by the Word seeing there is a Providence and Judgment to inculcate that which men will not learnâ— from the Word Therefore he counsels them to be afraid in time lest to their own cost they be made to know there is a judgment and so have that sad reflection upon their own course that their being untractable made them need the Rod to teach this lesson See Psal 32.9 10. CHAP. XX. In this Chapter Zophar the third of Job's Friends assaults him now the second time It is not the proper place here to enquire how it comes that this is his last speech to Job and that he doth not answer him the third time as the rest did though it be clear that Job did not at all satisfie him by his following discourses and so laid him by but as all of them did at last give him over as a stubborn man Chap. 32.1 So Zophar wearied sooner then the rest as being it may be more passionate then they Here it sufficeth us to know that he takes yet his turn with the rest and falls fiercely upon Job Wherein as hath been marked of the rest also as he brings forth no new matter so he layeth aside all that meekness and all those encouragements whereof he made use in his former Speech Chap. 11. as being now more heated with his own passion and further prejudged in his thoughts of Job The Chapter contains these two First A Preface wherein he declareth that he will answer and gives the reasons of his resolution ver 1 2 3. Secondly The answer it self where in a long Discourse which he confirms from the consent of Antiquity he gives an account of the calamities that befal the wicked that he may perswade Job that his lot is the same with what befals only wicked men and hypocrites And therefore doth prove him to be one of them And having hinted whence he had this Doctrine ver 4. 1. He gives an account of the wickeds ruine in their downfal from their prosperity That it is speedy ver 5. a shameful and utter ruine to the admiration of all from which no grandeur shall secure them ver 6 7. And a ruine which shall discover the emptiness of their former prosperity and which shall not be repaired ver 8 9. 2. He gives an account of the miseries wherewith they are pressed after their fall That their Children shall be miserable ver 10. That their sins and the effects thereof shall accompany them to their grave ver 11. And that all their pleasure in following wickedness shall prove bitter and deadly ver 12 13 14. And particularly they shall have no comfort but much bitterness in their ill purchase ver 15 16. when God shall deprive them of expected sweet ease ver 17. and make them restore what they had unjustly acquired ver 18. as the just fruit of oppression ver 19 20. yea and take away their very meat ver 21. 3. He amplifieth this Narration both concerning the ruine and subsequent miseries of the wicked pointing out That in their greatest prosperity ruine shall come upon them being pursued by wicked men who shall be the instruments of Gods vengeance ver 22. And by God himself pursuing them in anger ver 23. That God shall pursue them with variety of weapons or judgments ver 24 25. From which they shall neither secure themselves nor their families ver 26. And That all creatures shall conspire their ruine thereby as so many witnesses to convince them that they are wicked ver 27. upon which their utter ruine shall follow ver 28. 4. He sums up all this Narration by way of Conclusion that he may press Job to take more notice of it ver 29. Vers 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and said 2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer and for this I make haste 3. I have heard the check of my reproach and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer IN this Preface is not only recorded that Zophar did answer v. 1. but his profession that his thoughts did drive him to be in great haste with it and caused him to answer who it seems otherwise intended to have kept silence together also with the causes moving him to make this reply which are expressed more generally that somewhat in Job's discourse did so fill him with thoughts as he could not forbear nor delay to answer v. 2. and more particularly v. 3. That he had bin reproached in Job's discourse and therefore would answer for himself though yet that only did not move him but his sound knowledg of the Truth in this debate furnished him with matter which he would bring forth deliberately having gravely thought upon it And so however he had met with passion yet he thinks he will not answer in passion That I may further explain and make use of these verses Observe 1. We find here that Zophar doth yet answer Job And albeit he bring forth no new purpose but what hath been often refuted by Job of which afterward yet he will not give over Yea we find not in all this discourse that he doth any thing consider all those miseries of Job which
these verses 1. He shews whence he learned and how he will prove and confirm all his following Narration v. 4. Namely by the consent of Antiquity and the testimony of all Ages from the beginning of the world and therefore he propounds it by way of reprehension of Job that he should be ignorant of that which hath been of old and even from the beginning of the world that man was placed upon the earth 2. He subjoins this account concerning the downfal of the wicked man or hypocrite that it shall be speedy his triumphing and joy being but short and for a moment v. 5. Some from this do gather that by Jobs former discourses he is somewhat convinced and persuaded to remit a little of the rigour of their opinion And to yield that the wicked may sometime prosper as Job maintained though he will maintain that their prosperty is followed with speedy shameful and irreparable ruine But no such change appears in the debate for all a long they denied not that the wicked might sometime prosper Only this they maintained as herein Job contradicted them that if the wicked were not still in misery yet any prosperity they enjoyed was soon overturned As for this way of probation by consent of Antiquity and the experience of all ages I have already cleared that is not true as to matter of fact that all the wicked and only the wicked meet with such downfals For the experience of Nimrod and Abel to seek no more assureth us of the contrary Neither is the Argument valid or relevant in point of right suppose the allegation were true For not only will it not follow that because they knew of no contrary instances therefore there were none but it will as little follow that because there had been no such instances in the times before them therefore there should never be any such And because no godly man had faln from such an height of prosperity as Job did therefore he could not be a godly man whom the Lord had now brought down For the Scriptures teach us that Gods proceedings in those external things are variable according to his pleasure And for the Doctrine it self which he delivers v. 5. and prosecutes in the rest of his discourse I have spoken often to it that the wicked do deserve all those things and it is agreeable to the sentence of the Law that they be so dealt with and in so far we may safely make use of his Doctrine But it is still unsound to assert that all the wicked are actually so plagued and only the wicked And that the godly may not be exercised with the like lots either for correction or for tryal So from this way of arguing and his mistakes in it in General Learn 1. Men once engaged and prejudged will not soon see their Errours though never so often and so clearly refuted For he yet insists upon their common Doctrine and Argument as valid and sufficient to convince Job though he hath often demonstrated the falshood or weakness of it More is needed to draw men from Errour than the Proposition of clear and convincing light even that they shake off and renounce passions Prejudices Interests and their engaged Reputation and that they pray to God that there be not a judgment or spiritual plague upon their hearts 2 Thess 2.10 11 12 2. Men of parts though never so often refuted will not want abilities to set a new and good face upon an ill cause For though Zophar repeat the same thing that had been spoken before yet he repeats it in new terms and variety of flowers of Eloquence are made use of to render it plausible and cause it to take with Job This shews how dangerous mens abilities are in an ill cause and how needful it is that we take off all masks and buskings that may be put upon things and discourses that we may see them in their true and native colours and what is at the bottom of them If we look upon this purpose in it selfe abstracting from these mistakes and what may safely be gathered from it It teacheth 1. It is mens duty to be so acquainted with Gods works in the world as to make good use of them For he finds fault with Job for being ignorant as he supposed of what God had wrought the study whereof might have humbled him And albeit he mistook in the particular yet it is of general verity that we should have our eyes exercised to observe what God is doing in the world and should be careful to improve it Psal 64.9 2. The more obvious and general Truths are ignorance of them is the more sinful For he aggravates Jobs ignorance from this and it had been a great crime if the charge had been true that he knoweth not this of old or which hath been of old even since man was placed upon the earth or that this Truth was common and verified in all ages and yet he was ignorant of it 3. God in all ages hath put such marks of his displeasure upon the wicked as may warn men to abhor their course and way For albeit this Doctrine taken from the experience of all ages be not broad enough to bottom Zophar's conclusion Yet there is enough in it to make this out That albeit God make not every wicked man a publick spectacle or monument of his justice nor doth exempt the godly from the like exercises and lots yet beside what he hath declared in his word he hath in all ages so testified his displeasure against the wicked by his judgments upon some of them that they must be mad who are not deterred from following their wayes 4. In Gods account a wicked man and an hypocrite are all one and they may expect the same portion from God if the hypocrite fare not worse because he is an hypocrite Therefore the wicked and the hypocrite are joyned here as sharing in the same lot And by this he warns Job that this Doctrine belonged to him as having been a close hypocrite as he supposed though he should clear himself of gross wickedness 5. Wicked men and hypocrites may for a time not only have matter of ordinary joy but even of triumph as being to their own apprehension victorious and set up above the reach of all difficulties For so is here supposed that they have their triumphing and joy All of them are not so dealt with but many of them buy their wicked courses dear enough and find vexation and misery enough in following a Trade of sin yet some may attain to such a measure of prosperity as they please themselves to joy and triumph in it And hereby they bewray their carnal dispositions that can so rejoyce and exult in such base objects when they are rather to be pitied considering they will get no other portion And it calls upon the people of God to be sober and not to fix their happiness and satisfaction in these things which the wicked may
Conclusion concerning the vanity of all their endeavours about him ver 34. Vers 1. But Job answered and said 2. Hear diligently my speech and let this be your consolations BEfore I enter upon Job's Reply if we consider what is here premitted as also elsewhere by the writer of this Book that Job did answer and so answered distinctly and calmly as is after cleared in his discourse We may Observe 1. Though Errour and Delusion may be talkative more then enough yet Truth is so strong and invincible that it will never leave its Champion without a defence and somewhat to say on its behalf For this is now the sixth time that Job hath an answer in readiness Truth is a sure friend which will never desert them who do not desert it Obs 2. Friends of Truth ought not to be discouraged nor weary were the assaults made upon them never so frequent or sore For Job doth not weary though he be so often put to it We must resolve upon a continual fighting life one way or other and it is good service to God thus to continue stedfast notwithstanding all the indefatigableness of men who are against Truth and when we are toiled still the longer the more we should remember that it is service to God still first and last Obs 3. All his Friends heat and violence doth not cause him forget the cause and question in Controversie but he still handles that solidly and searcheth into the grounds of it accurately Which teacheth That it should he mens great care not to loose Truth by Debates nor to be driven from their point by needless janglings For a small point of Truth is of more worth than much of our wills and humours Obs 4. The more they are in heat he is the calmer and argues now more moderately than ever Which teacheth 1. Calmness is necessary in managing of Debates that we wrong not God and our selves our just Cause and the Truth of God because men by their miscarriages do wrong us or it 2. Though calmness be not an infallible evidence of mens being on Truth 's side yet readily they are most in the right who are most calm as Job here was 3. Continued and renewed assaults should not irritate but rather compose godly men so much the more as here to Job grows the longer the calmer I proceed to Job's Preface the scope whereof is to crave their attention to what he was to say Which he presseth by five Arguments And in this verse after the Exhortation to attention he propounds the first Argument wherein he puts them in mind of their duty and of their errand they came about when they came to visit him And shews them that however they came to comfort him Chap 2.11 and probably that was their ultimate design in all they spake yet they followed that design in so ineffectual a way that it would be better to him than all the Consolations they offered him if they would say nothing and only hear him peaceably and therefore he judgeth they should attend to what he saith seeing he craves no greater proofs of hindness from them Doct. 1. It is no easie task to be right hearers of grave and weighty Truths and particularly when men are prejudged and preoccupied with their own Opinions they will not hearken attentively to what is said against them For Job's Exhortation imports that they had not heard diligently his speech that is however they had heard all he said yet they did not so ponder it as to embrace the Truths he asserted or to be enabled thereby to speak more pertinently to his case 2. It is the duty of friends to endeavour what they can to be comfortable to their godly friends in affliction For consolations were that which he might in reason have expected from them and which they also intended in their way Though God afflict his Children yet he allows Consolation upon them and to be useless this way in sad times and lots will be very grievous to them who lay duty to heart as being not only grievous to the afflicted but prejudicial to themselves and depriving them of these blessings which are promised to the tender-hearted and compassionate Psal 41.1 2. 3. The Consolations which godly afflicted men meet with even from their godly friends may be oft-times little worth For Job implies that their hearing of him speak were better than all of their Consolations Hear saith he my speech and let this be your Consolations or in stead of these comforts which ye offer me Want of skill to deal with afflicted souls which requires one of a thousand Chap. 33.23 may render men very useless to them yea most able and qualified men will not be useful unless they put themselves over upon God for that effect And here by God would humble men as is observed much to this same purpose Chap. 32.13 and fit the afflicted for an immediate proof of his own compassion 4. They can never be useful or comfortable to any in affliction who do not wisely take up their case what it is For this obstructed their intended Consolations that they had not heard him diligently nor taken up his case aright from his own Narration and so could not apply sit remedies See Psal 41.1 Prov. 18.13 And here men cannot but fail in their duty if they judge of men by outward appearance or their own inward prejudices or if they do not give many grains of allowance to the afflicted in their distempers as Elisha did to the Shunamite 2 Kings 4.27 or if they do not put their souls in the afflicteds souls stead as Christ bare all the Sicknesses by Sympathy which he cured Mat. 8 16 17. 5. When afflicted men can find no other comfort they should account it a comfort to get their grievances vented and patiently heard For so Job accounts it Consolations to be diligentgently heard Humility will make afflicted persons stoop to very mean comforts And it is indeed an case and they should complain the less if they get but a friend to whom they may pour out their hearts and not be misconstructed and such should be made use of as a special favour Mal. 3.16 lest otherwise the afflicted meet with the sad tryal of impatient and misconstructing friends And especially they should have a care to pour out their grievances to God not neglecting that as Ezek 24 â—3 which will bring solid ease 1 Sam. 1.15 18. Vers 3. Suffer me that I may speak and after that I have spoken mock on In this verse Job repeats the Exhortation to Attention in other terms desiring that they would suffer him to speak out his mind and not interrupt him as formerly they had done and adds the second Argument which is that if once they would hear him out he could bear their mocking the more patiently He expresseth this in the singular number mock thou on as the Original hath it as pointing at Zophar and his late insolent discourse in particular
which he could not answer and repell Verse 6. Will he plead against me with his great power No but he would put strength in me 7. There the righteous might dispute with him so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge The third Particular in this branch of his complaint is an account of his encouragements which make him so earnestly desire to plead his cause with God One v. 6. is That he would thus if he could have access come unto God because God would not employ his great power against him in the debate but would even strengthen him to plead and prevail Or God would not destroy him when he appeared to debate his integrity but would only produce Arguments if there were any against him as some read the latter part of the Verse and strengthen him to answer if he had any thing to say And it is indeed true That God will not employ his power to crush men if they be able to answer what may be excepted against them Yet if any come presumptuously to plead they deserve that he should put forth his power to cause them know themselves Another ground of encouragement v. 7. is That at the Throne of grace the righteous may plead their cause with God and by that debate and the sentence upon it he should not only be delivered from their slanders who took upon them to be his Judges but from Gods condemnatory sentence in the day of Judgement and from the judgement and sentence which he might pass by vertue of his transcendent Soveraignty From v. 6. Learn 1. If God proceed in justice or exercise his Soveraignty over the best of men and put forth his power against them they cannot stand For Job declines to have God so pleading with him 2. God in his dealing with Saints doth not proceed according to their perfection but their sincerity nor doth he employ his Soveraign power to crush them For Will he plead against me with his great power No. See Job 37.23 24. Psal 99.4 This is a great encouragement to humble Saints though Job did justly fore-fault his priviledge if God had pleased to deal in severity by his pride and passion 3. God not only with-holds his great power in pleading with his people but he strengthens his people when he pleads with them to make them prevail For He would put strength in me or would put in me for strength is not in the Original that which would bear me out in this plea. Thus did he strengthen Jacob to wrestle and prevail with himself Gen. 32. And thus doth he deal with his people even when he leaves them to be pursuers of him Ps 63.8 4. As Saints who know the great power of God will not hazard to make it their party So they dare not lean to their own inherent strength as sufficient to bear them out even when God condescends to plead most gently and tenderly with them For Job needs that strength should be put in him even when God makes no use of his great power in pleading From v. 7. Learn 1. Albeit God allow not quarrellings such as many of Jobs pleas were yet he approves of the pleading of Faith at the Throne of grace For there they may dispute with him if they manage their plea in a right way 2. God allows his Saints even their righteousness and integrity though they be conscious to themselves of many imperfections For the righteous might there dispute with him But hypocrites who are neither perfect nor sincere should not dare to appeal to him 3. Godly men in their pleading may lawfully challenge the effects of Gods goodness and plead against his harsh usage of them and desire him that he would reconcile his present dealing with their priviledges and the testimony of their consciences providing they do all this modestly and reverently For so much is imported in this disputing or arguing which is indeed allowed to the righteous if they do not miscarry in the managing of it 4. Saints notwithstanding their integrity are obnoxious to the misconstructions of men and lyable to the Justice and Soveraignty of God if he please to put it forth to call them to an account for every miscarriage For these are to be understood by that Judge which Job desires to be delivered from 5. Saints by pleading and prevailing at the Throne of grace are liberate from these Tribunals and Judges Gods approbation there fortifieth them against all slanders and answers all the accusations of the Law For so by pleading my cause at the Throne of grace and disputing there with him I should be delivered from my Judge 6. When God assoyles his people at the Throne of grace he assoyles them for ever so that however the godly man may in his tenderness mind his faults often and God may put him in mind thereof to excite him to more tenderness and caution yet the sentence passed there will stand valid and ratified in the great day For saith he so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge Verse 8. Behold I goe forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him 9. On the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him The last Particular of this branch of the complaint is the Complaint it self wherein he regrates that though he had this earnest desire to find God that he might plead his cause with him and had these grounds of hope to be absolved yet let him turn himself where he will upon all hands he cannot get a sight of God nor access to him to plead his cause For clearing whereof Consider 1. Jobs scope in all this is not to deny Gods Omnipresence or that he is to be seen in his works upon every hand But only to assert that he could not find nor discern him in so sensible if not also a visible way of presence as he might plead his cause with him as one party doth with another 2. While he mentions his going forward and backward to the left and to the right hand in his successless quest the meaning is only this that no where and by no means could he meet with God And as to what he speaks of the left hand where he doth work some do understand it of the Northern parts of the World which are on a mans left hand when he stands with his face toward the East the West being behind him the South on his right hand and the East before him which was the way of designing the quarters of the World among the Hebrews where Gods working is more conspicuous as being more inhabited than Southern Climates But however the Jews did indeed so design the quarters of the World and Job alludes to it this is too subtil to be looked on as Jobs scope here For though he speak of his working only here yet it is not to be doubted but that he saw him in his
a godly mans esteem For here Job reflects on this as a desirable coâ—dâ—tion when he had darkness and Gods light whereby he might walk through it when he had humbling steps and God remembring him in his low estate as Ps 136.23 Such a trade as that is the most enriching trade that a Saint can drive and far beyond ease and idleness with whatsoever refreshment it seem to be attended 9. Gods people must not expect that they will alwayes get easily and comfortably through their difficulties or that they shall have a life-time of these sweet proofs of Gods favour which they sometimes finde For now Jobs case is altered He may wish for the Dayes when by his sight he walked through darkness but doth not enjoy them In those dayes see got easily through his difficulties and could see through a thick cloud but now he sticks in the mire and is involved in the clouds of thick darkness Thus we finde the people of God walking in darkness without any light Is 50.10 groping like blinde men Is 59.10 yea foolish and ignorant like very beasts Ps 73.22 This other life is no less necessary and needfull in its season as contributing to squeeze out our lusts and corruptions to pluck up these weeds in us which are apt to abound when we receive showres of refreshfull influences to discover us to our selves and exercise our faith and to fit us for proofs of Gods care and love when we are emptied Ps 73.22 23. And particularly Saints are not to mistake if after they have got easily through trials for a while they finde them stick faster afterward For hereby the Lord trains them on in his service till they be so engaged that they cannot retire and then he ministers strong Physick which will be more operative upon them As they grow in grace so their trials may grow in sharpness and continuance Whereas their Spirits were fresh and vigorous at first they may crush them afterwards by discouragement and then difficulties which were easie before become unsupportable burdens and their Spirits growing peevish and bitter they may make themselves an uncomfortable life And besides instead of lively tenderness security and lazyness may creep upon them and then they will take worse with disquiet and exercise than formerly they did All which should be adverted unto in this change of Saints lot and exercise Verse 4. As I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle In the third Branch of this Description to Verse 18. Job gives an account of the parts of his former prosperity And first to verse 7. of his prosperity as a Parent and Master of a Family wherein also he continues to point out the presence and favour of God as the fountain and cause of his good Condition The good condition of his Family is generally propounded in this Verse and instanced in two Particulars v. 5 6. In the general Proposition he wisheth to be as he was in the dayes of his Youth when the secret of God was upon his House and Family Where consider 1. By the dayes of his youth we are to understand the time of his former prosperity which began early in his youth and was very sweet then unto him Some instead of youth read winter as the word will also bear And it points out that these dayes of his prosperity in his youth were dayes of case like a Souldier in his winter-quarters Or the words may also be read the dayes of my reproach or These dayes of his Prosperity for which he was now reproached by his Friends as if he had been a wicked man in them but he would be content he had them again All these Readings come to one purpose but that which we have in our Translation is clearest in this place 2. By the secret of God which was upon his tabernacle we are to understand both that special favour of God which the World knoweth not wherewith he was made acquainted in his youth when God dwelt in his Family as in his Church and the providence of God which protected his Family and made it to prosper Ps 91.1 3. He calleth his House and Family his Tabernacle not so much because these Arabians dwelt sometimes in Tents for we finde here a City where he dwelt v. 7. and his Sons had Houses chap. 1.18 19. as because he looked upon his House as but a Tabernacle that might easily be pulled down when God would and as the place of his pilgrimage his constant Dwelling-place being above Doct. 1. Acquaintance with God in youth is a great mercy and will prove comfortable to men when they come to old age For Job reflects upon the dayes of his youth as desirable dayes not onely for the prosperity thereof but because of the favour of God from which that flowed See Eccl. 12.1 Many have sad reflections upon the sins and follyes of youth who did not begin to look toward God in time 2. Rewards of Piety will begin as early as men can begin to be godly For these dayes were desiâ—able also upon the account of prosperity that flowed from the favour of God And albeit these temporal advantages do not alwayes accompany Piety yet men when ever they begin to seek God shall finde they do it not in vain Is 45.19 And they who are long a beginning to seek God do lose many precious opportunities and advantages they might have enjoyed especially when they had youth and vigour to have improved them 3. Prosperity accompanying Piety is a mercy especially when men have youth and health to make use of it and it should be improved as such For Job accounts his former prosperous condition in his youth desirable However Prosperity in it self be still a Mercy yet to the wicked who want piety it proves a snare and though it be a mercy at any time yet especially in youth and when old age hath not taken away mens pleasure in their dayes Eccl. 12.1 And therefore such as are made partakers of this mercy ought to remember the account they must make to God for it 4. Such as do make right use of Prosperity they do look upon it as an uncertain passing thing As Job calls it here his Tabernacle See 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. Undervaluers of Gods bounty in a prosperous lot do proclaim their ingratitude and their immortified lusts and that they are seeking happiness in temporal enjoyments which because they cannot finde they are therefore discontented and deprive themselves of that good which is really to be found in the good things of this life As Solomon missing of happiness and finding only vanity as to any felicity the creatures can bring to man in his pursuits after pleasure and delights falls a dispairing and hating of all his labour and hates his very life till he recollect himself and acquiesce in that good thing which God allows in the use of the creatures though they cannot make man happy Eccl. 2.1
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
I was before 3. It is of great use also to look upon death and the grave as the common lot of all mankind For so doth Job describe the grave here that it is the house appointed for all living For however some get not a grave when they dye yet they get somewhat in place of it and though some as Enoch and Elijah were caught up to Heaven immediately yet they had a change in place of death and those instances are so rare and singular that they need not be stood upon as exceptions to this general assertion See Josh 23.4 1 King 2.2 Ps 89.48 Heb. 9.27 The study hereof should cause men more easily digest death as a common lot and should excite all to prepare for it it being none of these tryals wherewith some only are exercised It may also let men see that there is no cause why they should glory in their advantages within time seeing death and the grave will make all equal See Chap. 3.13 14 c. Ezek. 32.18 27. 4. It is also useful to know that God is the dispenser and orderer of all our tryals and particularly that he hath the supreme hand in bringing us to death that so we may know that our times are in his hands and not in the hands of men Ps 31.15 For saith he Thou wilt bring me to death c. 5. Albeit godly men are not unwilling to dye when God calls them to resign their life to him yet it cannot but be sad to them to be taken away in a storm For this is the scope of Jobs complaint that he was put to expect death when God was so cruel and opposite to him v. 21. So that when men are called to close their course in peace they should not decline it considering that God if be please can make death more formidable to them 6. The people of God in trouble are ordinarily too rash in their conjectures and apprehensions for the future They may be more afraid than really hurt and when they have discovered their weakness and fears God may be pleased mercifully to disappoint them For though Job was certain that he would presently dye I know thou wilt bring me to death yet he was disappointed See 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. Verse 24. Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave though they cry in his destruction This Verse hath a dependance upon the former but the scope and meaning thereof is difficult by reason of the various readings especially of the latter part of the Verse Some conceive that Job is repeating a promise then current in the Church Namely That God will not stretch out his hand to the grave to send men to the grave if in his destroying them they cry And so the words will contain an aggravation of his complaint that God was bringing him to death v. 23. That howbeit there was such a promise and he was one who might claim a right to it being not only a cryer unto God v. 20. but a merciful man v. 25. yet God would cut him off This interpretation doth import That the best way in difficulties is to have our recourse to the promises to see what grounds of hope there are there and that Gods dispensations may sometime seem to contradict his promises As Job is here conceived to complain But it may suffice to justifie God That this was but a promise of temporal deliverance and such promises are not absolute but conditional to be performed in so farr as God seeth to be best for his people and That Job was disappointed in his apprehensions and was not cut off nor this supposed promise made void to him But I choose to follow our Translation which carries it as a cordial against approaching death That however God send him to the grave as he apprehended v. 23. yet he will not stretch out his hand to the grave or heap alluding to the custome of raising up heaps upon graves that they might be known to afflict him there but death will end all his bodily pain That in the end of the Verse is added as an amplyfication Though they cry in his destruction that is However they who are innocents and cut off do cry in the mean while that he is destroying them or however their enemies cry out while they are a cutting off that they are wicked as his friends and others did raise clamours against him yet they will be at ease there Others read it by way of confirmation thus Is there any cry there in the grave of his destroying them Certainly none at all None ever heard any such cry of these who are in the grave This encouragement which Job takes to himself is not so to be understood as if men had no joy or pain after death but he speaks only of the ease men have after death of that bodily and temporal pain which they endure in this life And albeit all this and much more might have been expected by Job had he been to dye at this time Yet he evidenceth too much weakness that he looks not to further comfort than simple case in the grave which was also his fault in his impatient wishes Chap. 3. Doct. 1. Every bitter lot that befalls the children of God hath its own consolation to sweeten it if it were well studied As here Job finds a cordial to sweeten his apprehensions of approaching death If mens eyes were opened as Hagars Gen. 21.15 16 19. and Elisha's servants 2 King 6.15 16 17. they might discern ground of encouragement even in the midst of their perplexities 2. This may sweeten all our bitterness and toyl in this life that death will put an end to it beside what further may be expected after death by godly men For so doth Job reckon that he will not stretch out his hand to the grave 3. No sad dispensations or rods upon men while they are going to the grave will frustrate them of rest there but death will make a sudden change of all their outward and temporal troubles For so much doth the subjoyned amplyfication and confirmation teach however we read and understand it Though men be crying and groaning in going to death and though clamours and calumnies be raised against them yet the experience of none doth witness that there is any cry there of Gods destroying them 4. The people of God do oft-times come short in their expectation of what is allowed upon them For Job comforts himself only in the expectation of that which is common to all as to the outward part of it whereas he might have looked for much more 5. It is also an evidence of the people of Gods weakness in trouble that they do at too much upon simple case of their pains and troubles For this is all he expresseth here though elsewhere he speak out his mind more fully Verse 25. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble Was not my soul grieved for the poor The third Evidence
of Gods anger in his calamities to the end of the Chapter is That so many evils had befallen him who had sympathized so tenderly with others and who when he might have looked for good things having the testimony of a good conscience found his prosperity unexpectedly changed into misery In prosecution of this purpose 1. He gives an account of his carriage v. 25. 2. He sheweth how he had been disappointed of the good he expected v. 26. 3. He gives a particular account of the sad change that had befallen him v. 27. 31. In this Verse he solemnly asserts his integrity in the matter of sympathizing with others in trouble as a ground of the following complaint Whence Learn 1. In all ages of the world it hath been no un-usual thing to see the Sons of Adam exercised with trouble to make them see and feel the bitter fruits of sin For in Jobs dayes there were men in trouble or hard of day that is who had an hard and bitter time of it And we are not to mistake albeit we find the same truth verified in our dayes 2. Among other afflictions wherewith the Sons of Adam are exercised Poverty is a special one which is a very sharp affliction in it self and exposeth men to many tentations and snares Pro. 30.9 For the poor are here mentioned as a special instance of those who are in trouble 3. It is a special evidence of true piety to sympathize with these who are in trouble For Job produceth that as a mark of his integrity and David was afflicted with the miseries which befell his very enemies Ps 35.13 14. Sympathy and compassion is a commanded duty Rom. 12.15 Considering that we are of the same nature with those in affliction and are obnoxious to the same or the like tryals Heb. 13.2 And therefore it must evidence a sinful disposition when men are selfish and idle spectatours of the miseries of others much more if they do rejoyce at or add to their afflictions or do account them only to be wicked persons because they are afflicted Luk. 13.2 3 4 5. 4. Albeit a bare profession of sympathy without endeavours to relieve the miserable as we are able will not evidence integrity Jam. 2.15 16. Yet upon the other hand our supplying of the necessities of the miserable will as little evidence it unless it flow from a principle of love and tenderness And where that principle is men will be accepted who are able to do no more but to be affected with the miseries of others Yea it will cause men to stretch themselves beyond their ability and look upon the utmost they can do as short of what they would do For these causes albeit Job was liberal and did supply and relieve the indigent Chap. 31.17 19. Yet he expresseth his sympathy rather by his weeping and being affected with their miseries than by his supplying of them See 1 Cor. 13.3 5. Whatever way men express their sympathy they should take heed that it be not counterfeit but that it flow from inward tenderness For his weeping flowed from his soul-grieving 6. Whatever imputations malice or prejudice would cast upon mens wayes to darken their right to the promises yet the testimony of a good conscience will stand it out in all assaults For his questions Did I not weep c. do import that however they accused him and looked upon him as a man that had no right to these promises of the non-performance whereof he complains v. 26. Yet he would stand to the defence of his integrity as that which they could not disprove Verse 26. When I looked for good then evil came unto me and when I waited for light there came darkness In this Verse upon the former ground v. 25. he complains that he was disappointed of his expectation and that while he looked being a godly and tender man for good things and the continuance and increase of his prosperity and comfort evil and sorrow came upon him In summ This complaint supposeth that upon the former ground he had been looking for another lot than he found and therefore now it looks sadly upon him and as an evidence of Gods anger that he was disappointed For further clearing of this purpose Consider 1. If it be enquired How Jobs expectation of good things doth agree with that solicitude be professeth to have entertained Chap. 3.25 26. Answ This difficulty hath been touched and cleared on Chap. 3. and Chap. 29.18 Only in short it is not to be doubted but as Job had grounds of hope considering the promises made to godly men So actually he did expect some accomplishment of these promises though his expectations were mixed with that godly solicitude Chap. 3. which he doth not now remember while he is in the heat of his resentments and complaints 2. If it be enquired How it câ—me to pass that Job expected good things and yet was disappointed Answ Piety having the promise even of this life 1 Tim. 4.8 and there being peculiar promises made to merciful and compassionate men such as he was v. 25. Ps 41.1 2. Mat. 5.7 which no doubt were known and observed to be accomplished to some in Jobs dayes these were his grounds of expecting good things And yet being but temporal promises which must alwayes be understood with an exception of the Cross when it is needful to try Sains it is not to be wondred at that the Lord was pleased to suspend the performance thereof to him And this Job understood well enough when he was in a calm temper Chap. 3.25 26. though now as hath been said he forget or doth not notice it that so he may take the more liberty to complain Doct. 1. Whatever trouble be as it cometh from the hand of God and whatever it prove in the issue to godly men yet as prosperity is in it self good so trouble is in it self evil and a fruit of sin and godly men will find it bitter to their sense Therefore it is here designed by the name of evil See Amos 3.6 2. It is also to be expected that when trouble cometh there will much dark and humbling perplexity and affrightment accompany it which is wanting in a prosperous condition For with this evil darkness cometh instead of light See Amos 5.18 And therefore we should be providing light for such a lot before it come and should depend upon God who can enlighten our very darkness Ps 18.28 3. The encouragement and refreshment of the people of God floweth much from the expectation of what is before their hand As in spiritual things they draw their chief encouragement from the hope of glory So albeit they are taught to have contentment in their present temporal lot be what it will Heb. 13.5 Yet the expectation of the continuance of their good condition heightens the refreshment they find in it Therefore doth he express the satisfaction he had in his former condition by what he looked for And this may very clearly
And albeit men may pretend many excuses why they should not pity such even in a just cause such as their multitude unworthiness ingratitude c. Yet it is the will of God that men who have wealth skill to advise power or authority do help them in what is right and as they need For so did Job here satisfie the desires of the poor and the expectation of the widows Men ought to consider that they are advanced not for themselves only but for the good of others also as Mordecai said to Esther Est 4.14 And as it is an evidence of the grace of God in them to be helpful to those whom God doth compassionate Ps 68.5 So the neglect thereof is a cause of Gods controversie against great men especially Is 1.23 And doth provoke him to cause themselves smart under the like difficulties Pro. 21.13 4. It is not sufficient in Gods account that men do somewhat for the poor widows or others in distress unless as the desires and expectations of the indigent are earnest and pressing so it be chearfully and speedily done For Job was so active in doing good that he caused not the eyes of the widdows to fail or did not out-weary them with expecting and looking for relief before he gave it for so this phrase signifieth in Scripture Ps 69.3 and 119.82 123. Lam. 4.17 nor did he cause them weep out their eyes with complaining of his backwardness See Pro. 3.27 28. 5. Men should walk so streightly and deal so ingenuously in the matter of their carriage as if they were to give an Oath upon it that they are what they declare themselves to be and as if they were to undergoe a present curse and judgement if it be otherwise For so much is imported in this taciâ—e Oath and Imprecation If I have with-held c. whereby he confirmeth this assertion and many others in this Chapter Which is both a tacite Oath and appeal to God that he speaks true and implyes a consenting to what God shall please to inflict if he do lye though he do forbear to express it as elsewhere he doth Mens want of seriousness and their putting of an evil day farr from them make them very loose in their walk and professions But if they would look upon Nadab and Abihu consumed by fire Lev. 10. Zimri and Cozbi cut off by Phinehas Num. 25. Jeroboams hand withering 1 King 13. Uzziah smitten with leprosie 2 Chr. 26. All of them in the very act of their sin If I say they would look upon these as beacons warning all what they deserve and for ought they know what they may meet with they might see cause to look better to their way Verse 17. Or have eaten my morsel my self alone and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof 18. For from my youth he was brought up with me as with a Father and I have guided her from my Mothers womb 19. If I have seen any perish for want of cloathing or any poor without covering 20. If his loyns have not blessed me and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep The next branch of this profession of Humanity confirmed also by a tacire asseveration is That he was a liberal Communicator of his own substance to the indigent both in food and apparel As for his meat he professeth not only that he did not eat it alone but Orphans shared with him in it v. 17. But that he had been habituated from his youth to tenderness and fatherly care of Orphan boyes and had also been a Guide Conducter and Patron to Orphan maids whose weak Sex exposed them to many hazards even from his infancy v. 18. Where it is to be considered that Job speaks of persons of both Sexes of whom he had been tender and careful He was brought up and I guided her Which some understand thus That by the first are meant the fatherless spoken of v. 17. and by the second the widow of whom he had spoken v. 16. And it is not to be doubted but Job was liberal to all those and many others in distress But the words run more smoothly if we understand them of fatherless boyes and girls who were poor and that having spoken in general of the fatherless v. 17. here he points out more particularly his tenderness to every sort and sex of them It is further to be considered that while he professeth he was thus tender not only from his youth but from his mothers womb the meaning of that hyperbolick expression is only this That as the grace of God began early to work in him and which probably was a mean of that his parents began soon to instruct him in the principles of piety compassion and charity so the fruits of his tenderness appeared very early as if it had come into the world and been born with him As for his humanity and liberality in the matter of cloathing he professeth that he gave apparel to the naked and poor who were ready to perish through want v. 19 So that they had cause to bless him being warmed by the apparel that was made of the fleece of his sheep v. 20. It is said the loynes of the poor blessed him where the loynes are put for the whole body that was cloathed possibly because their garments were girded upon their loynes and the meaning is that the poor man was excited to bless him when he found his loynes or body warmed with the apparel he had given him Or whatever the poor man did the very covering of his loynes and body spake Job to be a blessed man who had done that act of compassion From Verse 17. Learn 1. It is not enough that men be liberal of their power credit and authority to do good thereby unto others unless they expend of their wealth and meat also as need requires without which neither professions of love Jam. 2.15 16. nor of piety Isa 58.5 6 7. will avail Therefore beside what is professed v. 16. Job addes this that he had not eaten his morsel alone 2. As it is the commendation of great men if they be sober in their diet So albeit men had never so little they are bound to communicate of it to others as their need requires In both these respects he calls his allowance his morsel because he was sober in his diet and because he was charitable Not onely because he was a great and rich man who might well spare somewhat to others but he was ready to have given a share even of a little Nature needs but little to maintain it and charitable men will straiten themselves much that they may be beneficial to others And if men would indeed be sober their very supersluities might relieve many who are in distress 3. As hospitality is a commanded duty Rom. 12.13 and ought to be performed to these who are really indigent not to the rich onely who are able to requite us Luâ—e 14.12 13 14. far less to sturdy vagrants
word for word from the Original They found no answer and they condemned Job And so they will contain his censure of a double fault whereof they were guilty One is that already mentioned That they had unjustly condemned Job And the other is That by their finding no answer to Jobs Apologies they had quit Gods cause which he is now about to maintain against Job as overcome And by their silence in what they might and should have spoken in answer to his discourses they had condemned God no less than they had unjustly condemned Job by what they had spoken Though the former reading be most agreeable to the scope here yet both may very well be joyned together For as they were faulty in condemning Job without a reason and without answering his defences for himself So they were no less guilty in finding no answer such as he afterward produceth on Gods behalf against Jobs complaints and quarrellings From this Verse Learn 1. It is an evidence of a truly sober and gracious Spirit so to be taken up with one evil or errour as not to be blind in discerning others also upon another hand For Elihu discerns exactly the errours of both parties and on both hands in this debate and passeth his censure upon both And did not as the three Friends who to avoid the errour upon the one extreme of impeaching the righteousness of God who had afflicted Job do run to an errour on the other extreme and conclude Job to be wicked because afflicted As it is too usual for men while they are eagerly opposing one errour to rush into another on the other hand 2. As mens light should be universally clear in discerning errours and mistakes So their zeal ought to be uniform and against every one of them For against his three Friends was his wrath kindled for their errour as well as against Job for his Not as many who in their heat of opposition to one errour which it may be is their present exercise and in so farr it is commendable that their zeal is most bent against it do look with more indifferency upon another which seems to be opposite unto it as being upon the other extreme 3. It is a very great and yet a very usual fault in many to condemn men and bury them and their opinions and way under imputations and calumnies which neither are nor can be proved and made out For this was their practice and Elihu is angry because of this that they condemned Job when they had found no answer to his discourses proving his integrity as he tells them v. 12. Malice prejudices serving of designes c. as well as ignorance and errour which were the cause of their miscarriage may drive men to take such courses whereby they commit great cruelty and do justly provoke the anger and zeal of godly men against them As Elihu is hereby provoked to anger against Jobs Friends 4. Though it be a fault at any time or in any case to condemn men unjustly yet this fault is much aggravated and true zeal and indignation is provoked thereby when men deal so with afflicted men and so add to their affliction For this was an addition to their fault and helped to kindle Elihu's anger that they had so condemned Job who was now so sadly afflicted as himself states the case in this very particular Chap. 19.5 6 c. It is very sad when men are so cruel as to give a godly man a load above a burden See Psa 69.26 5. Albeit a multitude of words and fine discourses may blind many who think they have the best cause who talk most and who are easily deceived with good words and fair speeches Rom. 16.18 Yet that will not satisfie consciencious and rational men For these Friends spake enough as themselves thought to purpose and seemed to plead much for God and against impiety and yet Elihu discerns that they found no answer even to clear these things they intended to conclude against Job farr less did they hit upon the true answer which should have been returned to Job See Prov. 18.17 Men have need of solid wisdome that they may discern what is truth or errour in well-busked discourses and they who would speak to purpose in a debate ought to beware that unsound principles and heat in dispute do not blind-fold them and so cause them miss their mark as befell these Friends 6. In whatever case silence be lawful in some debates yet it is a great fault in any case to desert a cause of God when it is controverted and opposed For thus according to the other reading it is a fault by it self that they found no answer for God as well as that they condemned Job Verse 4. Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken because they were elder than he 5. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men then his wrath was kindled The third Antecedent and a more near occasion of Elihu's speech which explains and enlargeth that Antecedent v. 1. is That having patiently kept silence so long as they spake however they spake not right as reverencing their age now he must break off his silence with indignation considering that they gave over without any reply to Job which was to purpose and particlarly without speaking a word to his last discourses It is said only He had waited till Job had spoken but it imports also that he had waited and hearkned to what all of them had spoken all the while of the dispute For when a reason is given of this his silence they are all of them spoken of in the plural number They were elder than he to intimate that he had waited on them all Only it is here said that he waited till Job had spoken or expected Job in his words because Job spake last and because this is spoken more particularly with a reference to that last discourse which closed that debate upon which he is now to pass a judgement And so it importeth That he waited patiently in hearing Jobs long discourses and waited also after Job had spoken to see if they would say ought in answer to him And finding them silent his zeal breaks forth in the following discourse This purpose will come to be spoken of afterward when Elihu himself mentions it Here Learn 1. True zeal is not furious but bounded with sobriety and drives not a man without his station For such is Elihu's zeal here who silently waits all the time they spake however he was dis-satisfied and le ts not hâ—s zeal and wrath break forth till they have all given over whereby a call is given him to interpose It is true there are some heroick acts of zeal which fall not under ordinary rules As when Phinchas a Priest slew Zimri and Cazbi Numb 25.7 8 12 13 14. Samuel then only a Prophet slew Agag whom the Magistrate had spared 1 Sam. 15.32 33. And Elijah slew the Prophets of
he had prescribed to them to walk in and the wayes of his providence toward them and others v. 27. 2. The effects flowing from this fountain or their particular miscarriage is oppression and causing the poor to cry out which God heareth and therefore punisheth them v. 28. From v. 27. Learn 1. Want of union and communion with God is the root of mens miscarriages For because they turned from him or from after him in a close cleaving to and following after him therefore they do sin and are punished 2. This distance from God is the more odious when men make Apostacy from what they have enjoyed or do not accept his offers of keeping fellowship with them For thus wicked men do turn back from him when they turn their backs upon his offers and invitations and when they make Apostacy from any profession of goodness and any degrees of moral goodness they sometime had 3. Men do prove that they turn their backs upon God when they do not follow his directions nor observe his wayes For so is here held out They turned back from after him whom all are bound to follow in his prescribed directions and would not consider his wayes 4. Gods wayes which he hath prescribed for us to walk in would be better followed if it were well pondered of what importance and concernment they are to us and if we would also take notice of the wayes of his providence For they turn from after him because they consider not his wayes neither his directions nor his providences Psal 28.5 As it is distance from God that makes men not to be serious in his matters if they turn back they will not consider so their being little serious confirms them in their distance and augments it so that their whole life is but a continual turning more and more from God 5. The sins of wicked men and particularly of backsliders from God are so much the more hainous that they flow not from simple ignorance but from inadvertency and from the power of their lusts which makes them not seriously consider what they are doing For so is it here they consider not or do not wisely ponder what it is that God saith and doth to them Thus the wicked cast Gods Laws behind their back Ps 50.17 From v. 28. Learn 1. Mens loose walking with God will appear in their miscarriages toward men which will write their neglecting of God upon their foreheads For this followeth upon the former They turned back c. v. 27. So that they caused the cry of the poor to come c. 2. As great mens oppression of the poor and especially of Gods poor people is a grievous sin so it doth evidence the Oppressours great distance from God For they who turn back v. 27. do cause the cry of the poor to come unto him that is unto God See Psal 14.4 And the meaning here is not that the Oppressours intended any such thing as to cause the poor cry unto God or to cause their cry come unto him but only that this is a consequent of their oppression 3. Such as are oppressed and can find no remedy upon Earth ought to cry and make their moan to God As here is supposed 4. God is an hearer of prayers Psal 65.2 and particularly of the cryes of oppressed persons For their cry cometh unto him and he heareth the cry of the afflicted See Exod. 22.27 5. God will give proof that he hears the cry of the oppressed by taking vengeance on Oppressours For his hearing of the cry of the afflicted is here subjoyned as a reason of his crushing of these mighty men See Ps 12.5 Verse 29. When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble And when he hideth his face who then can behold him Whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only 30. That the Hypocrite reign not lest the people be ensnared In these Verses Elihu summarily recapitulates the Argument and those instances formerly mentioned Pointing out 1. The efficacy of Gods procedure in those things and that none can resist or remedy what he is pleased to do whether toward Nations or particular persons So that none can obstruct the peace which he gives to the oppressed nor resist his crushing of Oppressours or ruining of sinful Nations v. 29. 2. His end in all these revolutions particularly in breaking of great men Namely to pull down wicked and hypocritical Rulers whereby the people are kept from being ensnared either in sinful snares by their authority and example or entangled in oppression by their power v. 30. This purpose in the first place must be understood of outward peace or trouble seeing it is applicable to whole Nations yet the expressions being general it may be taken more largely and comprehensively From v. 29. Learn 1. God hath variety of dispensations in his hand to be let forth for several ends and uses either as men do deserve or the condition of his people requireth As here he hath quietness and hiding of his face All that we need and all that our several conditions call for is in his treasury Our weal and woe are in his hand See 2 Chron. 25.8 Is 45.7 2. All the dispensations of God good or evil are effectual and irresistable As here we are taught They are not purposes and inclinations such as may be in men and come no further but effectual operations So that we may easily lean to what good he undertakes to do and may be afraid of the evil which he threatens 3. Quietness and peace whether inward or outward is at Gods disposing and in his hand to give it to whom he will For he giveth quietness both to people and particular persons and that both inward and outward peace See Psal 46.9 Is 26.12 and 45.7 So that they do forsake their own mercy who run from God or forsake his way to obtain peace and quiet See 2 King 9.22 Is 57.21 And if it be his gift we may come and seek it freely when we deserve it not when we have received it we should improve it as a special gift not to be abused as Jer. 48.11 Zeph. 1.12 and should beware to interrupt it by needless anxieties Ps 127.1 2 3. 4. They who have quietness from God will not want opposition to endeavour their trouble For so is here supposed that there will be who would make trouble if they could Enemies without will not be wanting to disturb outward peace and Satan and tentations will not fail to assault inward peace This we should not mistake as if because our peace is assaulted it were not found or would not be effectual Yea our peace with God will be joyned with trouble from the World and opposition from Satan 5. When God gives peace he makes it prove an effectual gift against all opposition during his pleasure For when he giveth quietness who then can make trouble None can hinder outward peace nor will a Dogg move the tongue so
sheweth what light he can cause arise unto his people even in darkness how God hath so disposed all things and ballanced them as he makes us dwell safely under such a weight of Clouds which hang over our heads in the thin air whereby he sheweth that he is able to preserve his people when they are kept under the hazard of eminent perils how much of God doth shine in warm seasons whence we may gather some Documents concerning the refreshful warmth of the light of his countenance lifted up upon us after cold blasts especially in our heavenly Countrey Also concerning the emptiness of all temporal enjoyments and the Mercy that is in their being moderated evidenced in this that however we desire hot seasons in cold weather yet we can no more endure the extremity of heat than of cold and that our Cloaths which sometimes we find comfortable do at other times prove a burden through heat And how much of his Glory shineth in the stately Canopy of the Firmament Psal 8 19. Whence we may gather how much more glorious those upper Mansions are But passing all these I shall only take a few Observations with an eye to Elihu's scope in these Instances And 1. All things in the world whether more permanent or transient are of Gods sole making As here we are taught Which affords much ground to Faith upon which it may lean in greatest difficulties See Rom. 4.17 2 Cor. 4.6 1 Pet. 4.19 2. Not only Gods power in making but his Wisdom in ordering all things ought to be observed For he disposed them So that there is not so much as an hot day but his Wisdom shâ—nes in it 3. As all things are ordered by God so they are at his Command and in his Hand to sâ—cure his People As he causeth the light of his Cloud to shine when he wâ—ll ballanceth the Clouds c. 4 As Gods Gâ—ory shineth in every one of his particular works so it shines yet more illustriously if we consider many of them together For which cause they are here represented to Job together 5. Not only singular and extraordinary works of God but even those which are ordinary and obvious are full of deep and unsearchable things For here he goeth no further than to the Sky Clouds Heat c. to convince Job that God is incomprehensible in his works 6 Gods works being all so incomprehensible it is the duty of those who would contemplate them aright to raise their thoughts of them As here they are called his wondrous works v. 16. which he again repeats from v. 14. 7. In studying of the works of God we should ascend up to high thoughts of himself As here he subjoyns to his sight of those wondrous works that he is perfect in knowledge 8. Whatever else we see in Gods works we should be careful to observe his perfect and infinite Wisdom to be adored and trusted by us therefore doth he point him out as perfect in knowledge and declared to be such by the operations of his hand 9. Whatever may be the frame of men unconcerned or how easie soever they think Lessons are yet men under tentation are not easily brought to adore God in his working or to learn these Lessons which are inculcated thereby Therefore must this counsel v. 14. be so much pressed upon Job by so many new Instances For men are then peevish too confident of their own opinions and apprehensions apt to pore too much upon their own case c. All which do darken their understanding 10. When men are disordered and mistake in their thoughts of God he hath not one only but many witnesses to convince them and even to overwhelm their stiffness as here he heaps up instances to refute Job 11. Whoso study Gods ordinary works well will find cause to stoop to him in his singular dispensations as here we are taught For if no man be his Counseller in his ordinary working nor will he give an account of it nor should any murmure at it much less will he give an account of his special dispensations about man but man must acquiesce and submit to his pleasure And we who are but of yesterday and ignorant of what is most obvious as here he confounds Job by enquiring what he knoweth of these works must not think to pry into his deep counsels Verse 19. Teach us what we shall say unto him for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness 20. Shall it be told him that I speak if a man speak surely he shall be swallowed up In the second branch of this Application Elihu checks Job for his desire to plead with God the reproof whereof he coucheth in a counsel or desire by way of sharp Irony v. 19 That if Job desired to plead with God or would have them Elihu or any of his Friends to plead or interpose for him he would give them inâ—ormation how to go about it and furnish them with some of those Arguments wherewith he said he was well stored Chap. 23.4 This in effect imports that however Job was so daring as to desire to plead yeâ— he could satisfie no impartial and unconcerned man that he had a just ground of Plea or valid Arguments to produce This is further confirmed from their experience and observation that God could not be so pleaded with 1. Because it is impossible mans darkness and ignorance and the mysteries in Gods dispensations being so great that none can order their pleas or defences before him v. 19. 2. Because of the hazard that is in such an attempt v. 20. Where he alludes to the customs of those times wherein men did record their Names in a Book or otherwise gave publick notice that they were to plead such a Cause as they did also write all their disputes in the Cause Chap. 19.23 31.35 Now Elihu professeth that he durst not make any intimation to God that he was about to speak in these terms that Job desired to plead with him seeing he could not plead but he was in hazard to be swallowed up From v. 19. Learn 1. It is mens great fault that they presume to quarrel with God as this check given to Job imports 2. It heightens mens faults when they are not satisfied to harbour inward thoughts of secret murmurings and resentments against God which yet are their sin but they presume to utter and speak them out For this check imports That Job was about to say somewhat unto him 3. How high soever mens resolutions fly in their passions yet they will not know how to follow them out in cold blood for he supposeth that Job cannot teach what to say nor convince even the Auditory who were but men that he had any valid Arguments or defences 4. However men will not be convinced of their irrational presumption in offering to plead with God as a party while they are in their fits of distemper yet it may help to calm them if they consider that no
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 â—epineth 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 â—nes 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 â—ad 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 Enâ—mies 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
these times Chap. 2.8 It teacheth 1. Manifestations of God when they are in mercy will be practically improved and not gazed upon or plaid with only as here appears in Jobs practice 2. When God is indeed seen the most holy of Saints become loathsome and vile in their own eyes so that they will not get leisure to be puffed up because of the manifestation For when Jobs eye seeth God it followeth wherefore I abhor to wit my self as is added in the Translation So was iâ— with Isaiah Isa 6.5 And so did God prevent Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 3. Abhorrency of our selves upon a sight of God ought to be more eminent when we have miscarried through our ignorance and mistakes before for that was Jobs fault for which he now abhors himself when his eye seeth God Whatever we think of these faults in the heat of tentation yet they will lay us low in our own eyes when God appears and they ought then to be looked upon as very sinful and not as ordinary failings 4. Iâ— is not enough that men be convinced of their follies and mistakes of God unless they also repent of them for Job adds that here I abhor and repent 5. Repentance particularly for such faults ought to be very deep and serious and lay the penitent very low for he repents in dust and ashes wallowing himself there in his sorrow and covering himself therewith according to the custom of those times Mat. 11.21 And it is no wonder that convinced men do thus repent of these sins when they reflect upon the injuries thereby offered to God and what persons they are who commit them 6. Whoever see God aright and most clearly they will not run away from him with their guilt but will humbly and penitently run to him which is an act of Faith for so doth Job here when he gets the clearest sight of God and of his own vileness See 1 Sam. 12.20 No sight of God in his Holiness Justice Dreadfulness c. nor of our own sin in his injuriousness to God warrants us to run away for that were in stead of seeking a remedy to adde that sin to all the rest whereby the remedy is neglected and they become incurable Verse 7. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two Friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my Servant Job hath Followeth to v. 10. the second part of the Chapter wherein God having now ended what he had to say to Job about his particular miscarriages the great controversie betwixt Job and his Friends is decided in Jobs favours and upon these terms which were premitted in the Introduction to Chap. 4. and so the Dispute ends And this decision of the Controversie may in the entry teach us That albeit God suffer Controversies and Debates to arise and continue even among his people yet in due time they will be cleared in Truths favours Psal 94.15 And so the truth will at last set its asserters free John 8.32 This part of the Chapter may be taken up in three Branches the first whereof in this v. is the decision of the Controversie held out in a Charge against Eliphaz and his Companions wherein God testifieth his displeasure against them for their unsound Doctrine concerning Him Here for more distinct handling of the words we are to consider First The time when this Sentence cometh forth After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job Where no mention is made of Jobs speaking to God recorded in the former Verses not because God did not accept it or because that while Job is preparing to repent and to make that Confession mentioned in the preceding Verses God had in his audience sent this Message to Eliphaz to encourage him yet more to repent But this doth also take in his Repentance as a fruit of Gods speaking to him wherein the power and efficacy of his Word did much appear And this Circumstance doth teach 1. It is a sweet property of godly men that they are not ill to convince but are soon brought to â—â—e and be sensible of their faults for this immediate connection betwixt Gods former Speech to Job and this decision of the main cause doth intimate that Job was not long from setting about the duty of Repentance and from bringing forth the former confession after God spake to him 2. When God doth most sharply reprove his people he is not seeking their ruine nor yet that they should make an amends for the wrongs they have done but only to humble them for after his former words unto Job which he improves by humbling himself before him he speaks no more against him 3. When the Godly have cleared what is betwixt God and them they will soon get a comfortable account of their trials from others for It was so that after and not before the Lord had spoken these words to Job and he is humbled thereby the Lord said to Eliphaz c. and began to clear his cause with his Friends Whence the people of God may observe how far they sit in their own light by their neglecting of this Method 4. Whatever change be wrought in Gods people antecedent to his appearing for them in their trials yet the glory of all that is done to them or for them is to be ascribed to God only so much may be imported in this that no mention is made of Jobs confession but only of Gods speaking to him antecedent to Gods passing sentence in his favours Whence we may gather that his Confession and Repentance were no cause of Gods appearing for him but the glory of all is to be ascribed to God whose free love prevented him by speaking to him when he was in his passionate and stiffe humour whose efficacious grace and power made these words work upon him and whose graciousness in a Redeemer appeared in taking that Confession off his hands Secondly Consider the persons who are challenged Eliphaz and his two Friends who are also expresly named with him v. 9. Where it is to be observed that Elihu is not comprehended in this Charge as having spoken amiss of God So that his Doctrine may be admitted without any scruple as hath been cleared in the Introduction to his Discourses It is also to be observed that though all the three Friends were guilty yet the Lord directs his speech to Eliphaz concerning them all and that because he was as appears the oldest and most eminent among them and had first breached those Errours in the Dispute wherein the rest did follow and concur with him This teacheth That however all be guilty who engage in an ill course yet the more eminent persons be in themselves and the more eminently they appear in that evil course their fault is the greater for which causes Eliphaz is here chiefly spoken unto Thirdly Consider the sentence past
in the Cause Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my Servant Job hath Where the Sentence is pronounced 1. Absolutely Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right Not that they had not spoken any thing right of God but that their Principles which they managed in the dispute were injurious to God as Job also had told them Chap. 13.7.8 For they set limits to his Soveraignty prescribed rules to his Justice in his proceedings with men judged amiss of his dispensations represented him as terrible and dealing in wrath with an afflicted godly man asserted that God did always in this life visibly reward men according to their ways c. In all which they spake not of God the thing that was right as hath been cleared in the progress of the Dispute Doct. 1. Right Thoughts and Interpretations of Gods ways and proceedings are good in trying times so here they are missed 2. Those right thoughts of God should be spoken out as we have a calling and opportunity for glorifying of God and edifying of others for they should have spoken of him the things that are right 3. They may seem to be much for God and for his Holiness and Justice whom yet God will find to be otherwise employed for these Friends made it their chief Plea to plead for God against Job and yet saith he Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right So that fair pretences if there be no more will not avail before God 4. In particular we may from this censure conclude That such Principles as are maintained by these Friends wherein Job opposed them and which have been marked in the progress will never be approved of God let men set them off as they will for of these God saith Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right 2. The Sentence is pronounced comparatively Ye have not spoken as my Servant Job hath Whereby an Objection is obviated for they might be ready to say If we be wrong so also may Job be In answer to which he asserts that they had not spoken right as he did The Comparison is not instituted betwixt Job and them with an eye to what Job had lately spoken in his Confession to convince them that they had not repented of their Errours and Mistakes as he had lately done But it is instituted betwixt Jobs Principles and theirs in the dispute wherein albeit Job be not simply assoiled for he had spoken rashsy of God in his passion yet in the main cause he is declared Superiour and that his Principles concerning God were sound in what he had maintained against them Doct. 1. Godly men are right at all times when they cleave to God and his love and an interest in him whatever befall them for in this Job is assoiled and approved 2. Mens being in the right ought not to be called in question notwithstanding any stream of Providence or opposition from godly men against them for here Job is approved in speaking out his interest in God against all these 3. Men may be right in their main cause who yet have their own failings as Job also had who though he be commended above them and declared to have spoken right of God in the main cause yet he is not simply assoiled as may be seen in Gods challenging of him in the preceding Discourses God would have us to look not only to faults but to degrees of our accession to them that we may neither please our selves in gross evils because others are some way involved in them nor yet satisfie our selves that we are more right than others when yet we are not right as we ought to be 4. When we do rightly consider and compare faults we will find that unsound Principles such as the Friends had are worse than sinful and rash expressions in a Fit of Passion which were Jobs fault wherein he is assoiled in comparison of his Friends For unsound Principles are like a corrupted Fountain which doth send forth corrupt waters whereas rash Expressions do only evidence weakness and not a corrupt disposition and mens sound Principles will help them to retract them 5. Whatever be the failings of Gods poor people and whatever God do or say to them for their faults yet the reconciled estate of their persons is not altered thereby as they will find when they take with their faults for Job here is his Servant still as at the beginning Chap. 1.8 2.3 and this is again thrice repeated here v. 8. Fourthly Consider how God pronounceth in the merits of the Cause or how he relisheth this their miscarriage My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two Friends for ye have not spoken c. Whence Learn 1. It is not enough that men know their way what it is and whether it be right or wrong unless they ponder also the hazard of it which here is intimated to them 2. It is sad enough and imports hazard enough in a way if God be angry at it whatever he do further upon it for however ordinarily men regard this little yet God propounds it as a certification sad enough that his wrath is kindled against them for their fault See 2 Sam. 11.27 3. Even Gods Children may fall in miscarriages whereby they will incur his displeasure though their persons be justified for his wrath is here kindled against those godly men 4. It is a mercy when God by his Word doth evidence that he is displeased and doth not keep it up till some Judgment intimate it as here he tells them that his wrath is kindled against them and so doth he by his Word daily to them who hear it if they would be attentive 5. It is also a mercy when God distinctly points out and makes his people know the sin he is angry at and doth not leave them under displeasure and confusion at once as here he tells them the quarrel Such distinct Convictions are a singular mercy 6. Maintaining of Errours and particularly Errours concerning God and the crushing and discouraging godly men under their troubles are evils which provoke God to anger for here his wrath is kindled because of these faults in Jobs Friends Verse 8. Therefore take unto you now seven Bullocks and seven Rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering and my servant Job shall pray for you for him will I accept lest I deal with you after your folly in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right like my servant Job In the second Branch of this Part of the Chapter we have God prescribing a way to these Friends of Job for preventing the hazard which they incurred by their sin namely That they should bring Sacrifices to Job as a Priest whom he would accept in his sacrificing and praying for them as a godly man and especially as a Type of Christ Here we have to consider First The general