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
partial to himself in this cause It is true self-Self-love in such a case is not easily discerned nor is Job to be assoiled even as to this yet his way of speaking insinuates that he held this to be a duty 3. It is to be expected that how clear soever men be in their light before trouble cometh yet trouble and tentation come accompanied with darkness and confusion so that they will hardly be able to judge any thing aright of their case or to know what to do For his way wherein he would walk toward an issue is hid See Lam. 3.1 2. Hence we may gather That the sad apprehensions of Saints under trouble ought to be looked upon as the conjectures of these who are groping the dark And they had need to examine well any light they get in an hour of tentation 4. Darkness confusion and perplexity are the immediate fruits of bitterness of spirit whereunto when men give way they involve themselves in a thick cloud much whereof might be prevented by meekness and patience whereby they possess their souls For upon that v. 20 that he is bitter in soul it followeth here his way is hid 5. Whatever way confusion and darkness come upon troubled Saints yet it is a very humbling exercise to be in a strait without knowing Gods mind in it or what to do for relief For this pressed Job to his impatient wishes that his way is hid This layeth a man as an object of great compassion at Christs feet 6. It is another great addition to the perplexities of Saints when as their light is darkned so their attempts to get relief are in vain and where-ever they turn them they are hemmed in with insuperable difficulties till they lose all hope of out-gate For this is a part of his grievous complaint that he is hedged in See Job 19.8 Lam 3.7 This may point out that mens troubles are never insupportable were they never so sad so long as there appeareth any hope of out-gate 7. Mens natural courage will be so far from bearing out under Gods hand that it will only contribute to heighten thâ—ir distemper and disorder when it is crushed and borne down For his complaint is that a strong stout man as the word in the Original is should have his way hid c. His courage and strength cannot shake it off but makes him repine the more 8. It is the duty and great advantage of men in trouble not to lose a sight of Gods hand in their troubles and perplexities Even albeit in stead of meekness which should be the result of that sight it should afflict them the more that their Rock should seem to sell them For Job loseth not this fight that God hath hedged him in though he fail in bâ—ing imbittered at it And albeit Job had a great hand in his own perplexities Yet God is the over-ruler and orderer even of that dispensation And this ought to be looked unto both to humble us when we see that God giveth us up to that confusion and perplexity which we sinfully choose and lets us lie under it till we see the folly of our passions and when we are humbled to encourage us considering that God who hath a holy hand in these distempers can remove them though insuperable by us and can give in due time some meat out of that eater and some blessed advantage and fruit even of our folly From ver 24. Learn 1. It concerns persons in trouble to guard welâ— that they make not a noise without cause For if it be sinful enough to be imbittered when trouble is saddest much more when they are so under very easie trouble Therefore Job to clear that he complained not without cause subjoyns to what he had said to the case in general what his case in particular was which drew on bitterness darkness and perplexity For my sighing cometh c. 2. It is the duty and commendable practice of godly men that how much soever they be weary of life Yet they dare use no unlawful shift to take it away nor neglect any mean of preserving life For while Job is complaining that his life is continued he still makes use of meat as resolving to wait Gods time and way of taking away that life which is so great a burden to him 3. When the spirits of men are broken with trouble whatever diversion lawful Recreations may sometime afford them yet they will not be always effectual Nor will Natural comforts at any time cure Spiritual exercise of mind For saith he my sighing cometh before the face of my meat He had not so much respite as â—o eat without sighing 4. A child of God may be under much perplexity and distress who yet is not able to vent it much through the abundance thereof over whelming him For he mentions his trouble as great even when he doth express it but by sighing and can do no more 5. When great distress of mind once gets an open vent it will be very impetuous and violent so long at the mind is unsubdued before God and the more violent that it bath been long restrained For from more secret sighing he proceeds to roarings lik a Lion who is rather violently over-powered then voluntarily yieldeth This is an expression usually made use of to represent the complaints of those whose great spirits have not yet learned to stoop to God nor have set about repentance Ezek. 24.23 Where in the Original it is Yee shall not mourn nor weep but roar one toward another and Prov. 5.11 the Adulterer shall roar at last as the Hebrew hath it See also Is 59.11 6. The impetuous disorders of mens spirits being once broken loose are not soon stopped in their course but they will abundantly overflow all to the weakning and exhausting of their spirits if grace prevent it not For his roarings were poured out like the waters in respect of the aboundance of them and in respect of the effects of them dissolving and pouring him out like water as Psal 22.14 7. Though Job do thus insist to aggravate his trouble that he may justifie his desire of death and complain that it is denied him Yet the argument is not sufficient to inferr that desire For neither is God to be quarelled nor pleaded with whatever he do nor was Job himself free of bringing on these distempers through his Passion And therefore he had no cause to blame God when himself had perverted his own way Prov. 19.3 Nor ought he to prescribe an out-gate of death to himself whereas he might find a nearer relief by his own patience and meekness And whatever his condition was which made his life heavy and grievous to him Yet it was great cowardise to long to be away only that he might be rid of trouble Sense of sin which cleaveth fast to us while we are in this life or a desire to be with Christ may justifie a moderate desire after death Phil. 1.23 Yea the tâ—oubles we
the wicked at any time prospered their prosperity was but momentany and ended in visible judgments And if the godly were at any time afflicted their afflictions speedily ended in visible blessings And therefore when they consider Jobs case being so suddenly turned out of his prosperity and so long and so sore afflicted beyond the ordinary tryals of faithful men especially carrying so ill under it as he had done chap. 3. They conclude that he behoved to have been either a grosly wicked man or a close hypocrite Hence they judge it their most seasonable way to prove him wicked and to bear him down and humble him that so they might have ground whereupon to comfort him being penitent That this was the drift of their Discourses will sufficiently appear from their several speeches and we may find Job noticing this as their particular and chief design chap. 21.27 28. chap. 32.1 they give him up as an obstinate man because he would not take with wickedness But Job upon the other hand maintains that neither love nor hatred can be known by outward afflictions but that Saints may be under as great outward trouble as the wicked And therefore he rejects their counsel to take with former wickedness and hypocrisie and begin anew to seek God and adheres to the testimony of his Conscience which bare witness to his Integrity notwithstanding all assaults from within or from without Hence he grants that he is a sinner but not that he is an hypocrite or wicked man That God is righteous who afflicted him and yet he is not unrighteous though afflicted by a righteous God albeit neither he nor they could sufficiently reconcile these two nor sufficiently clear how they were consistent That though he be not sinless nor perfect to seclude free grace Yet he was sincere according to the tenour of the Covenant of grace and perfect before men Those and many the like Principles we will find scattered throughout his speeches while he constantly insists to defend himself in the main cause 3. Having considered the state of the Controversie it is necessary We pass some verdict and censure upon the dispute on either hand whereby our thoughts may be regulated in going through it For albeit all that is here recorded be Sacred Scripture in so far as it contains an infallible account of what each of them said and that they spake so Yet when we consider that both parties are rebuked by God for what they utter in the debate and that they speak of many things in contradictory terms We can no further justifie the purposes uttered by them then we find the general consent of other Scriptures bearing witness thereunto as we cannot either justifie the complaints and tentations of Saints which are recorded in the Book of Psalms and elsewhere as sound Divinity but do look upon them as recorded in Scripture only for this end that their example and experience may serve for Caution and Instruction to the godly in all Ages Hence on the Friends part we may remark 1. They maintain a false principle throughout the Dispute That God afflicted none as he afflicted Job but wicked men which they insist so much upon because otherwise they were not able to reconcile such sharp dealing with the righteousness of God Whereas the Scripture elsewhere assures us that all things come alike to all Eccles 9.2 to which the Principle Job closely adhereth chap. 9.22 and elsewhere throughout the dispute 2. They do also express a rash and uncharitable judgment in their Discourse in that they judged of the godly mans state by his fits of tentation and disordered frame and expressions in the heat of his distemper Judging that to proceed from a wicked disposition and consequently to be the mark of a wicked man which was extorted from him through the violence of tentation and was only an evidence of that common infirmity of Saints which we find recorded in Scripture to have broken forth in David and other godly men as well as him Hence all their reflections upon his complaints do fall short of their conclusion to prove him a wicked man though indeed they reproved what was truly culpable in him 3. In their Doctrine concerning Gods Judgments upon wicked men which is the great Argument whereby they endeavour to prove him wicked we must acknowledge there is much truth if we take in eternal punishment among the rest to be inflicted upon the wicked whether they escape in this life or not and if we understand it of the deserving of all wicked men according to the sentence of the Law and that God useth so to deal with some wicked men whom he makes publick spectacles of his Justice to deterr others In these respects we find some of their speeches cited or at least alluded unto in other Scriptures as Job 5.13 with 1 Cor. 3.19 and several of their expressions will be found to have some parallels in other Books of the Old Testament Yet in their speaking of these outward and visible judgments that come on wicked men there is a double mistake One That they not only pleaded the Law-sentence and the Deserving of such men or that God did execute these threatnings accordingly on some even in this life which Job never denied chap. 27.11 12 13 14 c. But they pleaded also the real and actual execution of all that was threatned and that on every one of the wicked even in this life And so asserted that to be universally true which is only rue of some For Job agreeably to the Scriptures maintained that God exercised a great variety of dispensations toward wicked men in this life chap. 21.23 24 25. And as may be gathered from the scope of most of his speeches that oft-times God seeth it fit to spare wicked men in this life notwithstanding their ill-deserving yea and to heap prosperity upon them until their death That so he may exercise the faith and patience of the godly and may teach all to look out to a Day of Judgment and the eternal reward of Wickedness and Piety Another mistake is That they asserted these calamities to be proper to the wicked which are common also to the godly For albeit temporal calamities inflicted on a wicked man are real curses and fruits of his sin Yet the Scripture elsewhere cleareth that the same lots may also befal the godly either for chastisement or for the tryal of their faith and patience and that the supporting grace of God may he magnified in them as Jobs own experience doth witness Thus as to the external stroke there may be one event to the righteous and to the wicked c. Eccles 9.2 4. Their Doctrine concerning Gods Sovereignty Holiness and Justice whereby they laboured to drive Job from his confidence is true doctrine and therefore Job strives to out-strip them in commending those Attributes of God Yet they did ill apply this doctrine and made a bad use of it to crush a godly man as
for the connexion betwixt this and the former Verse we are not to conceive that God is thus gracious upon the Messengers shewing only unto man his uprightness but it must be so shewed as the afflicted man doth learn the lesson before these evidences of Gods love break forth of which more afterward 2. If it be enquired What a deliverance from the pit is here meant Answ It is not to be doubted but deliverance from eternal destruction which even a godly man deserves because of his sins for which he is chastened is the fruit of that ransome on which the penitent man layeth hold by faith and so that may be included here Yet since Elihu is principally speaking of mens bodily sickness and their deliverance from that v. 25 28 30. I incline rather to understand this of the preservation of the mans life opposite to that destruction wherewith he was threatned v. 22. Yet so as this must be looked upon as a pledge of his everlasting deliverance from Hell And albeit such a temporal preservation and deliverance be not alwayes afforded to godly penitent men Yet the sense will run clear enough thus That the penitent afflicted man closing with Christ shall get temporal deliverance from his affliction according to the tenour of the Covenant of grace about those things namely when it is for Gods glory and his good to get it and that as a pledge and earnest of his eternal deliverance 3. If it be enquired To whom it is that God saith Deliver him Answ The phrase may import no more but this That his effectual providence and operation shall be forth coming to deliver and to remove all impediments and so he may command sickness to spare him as when he spake at the Creation and the thing spoken was done But more particularly this Commission seems to be directed to the Messenger who instrumentally saves and delivers men 1 Tim. 4.16 and who must intimate these glad tydings to the afflicted man for his encouragement In summ this Verse imports That if this afflicted man repent and close with Christ according as Gods Messengers reveal to be his duty God for Christs sake will spare him and will give Commission to his Ministers to intimate so much unto him From this Verse Learn 1. The first thing that men should be careful to learn under affliction is their own duty before they come to know more of Gods mind in it For first man must be shewed his uprightness v. 23. and brought to repent and believe and then God is gracious c. It is true God hath preventing mercies and grace whereby he brings his people up to their duty he may also see the way of his froward people and heal them Is 57.17 18. Yet we are bound to mind our duty that he may appear for us and our neglecting of this method makes our troubles oft-times stick long with us 2. It is supposed here that the Messengers instruction v. 23. hath had success upon the afflicted man otherwise a step of this procedure should be wanting here For as hath been said it is not to be conceived that upon his shewing only unto man his uprightness God will be gracious till he understand and improve that lesson wherein he is instructed And this comprehending of the success of the message under ehe publication thereof may not only point out That however faithful Ministers will be approved when they have done their duty though it have no success Is 49.4 5. Yet as to the hearers part that message is as good as not told yea much worse which produceth not suitable effects That may be said in some sense not to be shewed which they see not and whereof they make no use See Jer. 8.8 But further this may import 1. That God who hath instituted a Ministry hath also promised to bless it and that if they declare their message he will bless it at least to some and therefore honest men may goe about their work in faith even in most difficult times 2 That imputed righteousness when it is preached in a right and lively way is very apt to gain ground upon hearts especially upon godly men to draw them to repent and close with it and to every other duty For that is the Doctrine here the shewing or publication whereof is supposed to be successful 3. It is the duty and property of godly men when in affliction especially to be tender and learn Gods mind from his Word and to be then humbled in the sense of sin and affected with the offer of grace For it is here supposed that when this godly man is chastened with sickness a Messenger from God shall not shew his message to him in vain See Ps 119.67 71. 4. That when God condescends to take pains upon any of his Children by Sickness and by his Messengers he will in mercy follow them with those means however they may prove stubborn for a time till they take effect upon them that so he may be gracious to them For it is supposed that those means will certainly have this effect at last Doct. 3. Whatever be the care and diligence of godly men in affliction to follow their duty Yet it is grace and grace only that must do their turn and the more diligent they are grace will be seen to be the more free For whatever success the message have yet God is gracious to him in delivering him And this may be another reason why no mention is made of the afflicted mans profiting by the message even because what he doth is not worthy to be mentioned in the day when grace appeareth to do him good and because this is one evidence of his sincerity in profiting by the Word that his diligence is nothing in his eyes and grace is all in all 4. It may encourage miserable sinners and particularly afflicted Saints that there is graciousness in God which will condescend to stoop and reach them even in their lowest condition For even then when he is lying at the gates of death and made sensible of his sinfulness and need of a Saviour he is gracious to him 5. No graciousness in God can be expected to be let forth unto sinners but in Christ and because of that ransome which he hath paid for satisfying of justice For this ransome or attonement is given here as the reason and procuring cause of all this gracious dispensation Not that Christ did purchase that God should be gracious in himself for that is one of his Attributes nor yet that God should have a purpose of grace and favour to his Elect for it flowed from his gracious purpose and eternal love to them that Christ was sent to dye for them But the meaning is that Christ by his ransome hath purchased the communication and effects of his love and grace to sinners in a way agreeable to his justice And this doth not only evidence that the Gospel was savingly though not fully revealed in
after Jobs former triumph over his calumnies he makes this fresh assault 2. As Satan is incessant in his malicious endeavours so he is fall of shifts and inventions in bearing out his calumnies against the people of God or in driving in those fiery darts of bosom-tentations wherewith he vexeth them For when all he had to say before against Job is immediately refuted now he hath a new pretence whereupon to question his integrity This is daily verified in the calumnies cast by Satans Instâ—uments upon the people of God One of them is no sooner refuted but they are ready to invent another And this is also felt by Saints in their spiritual Conflicts with Bosom-tentations which come in as waves and billows one upon the back of another to over-whelm their spirits 3. It is never to be expected by the Lords people but that Satan will be ready to extenuate and decry the grace of God in them so much as he can For here again he makes it his work to blast Jobs integrity in his former tryal Which may teach them not to trust or hearken unto his suggestions 4. Whatever measure of affliction Satan be permitted to bring upon Saints yet such is his malice that nothing will satisfie him but their utter ruine For now when Job is stript of all he thinks it not enough so long as his person and life are free Put forth thine hand and touch his bone and his flesh And therefore we have little cause to fall asleep because we have endured many tryals since we know not what sharper tryals this malicious Adversary may be designing for us if he be permitted by God so to do 5. Albeit Satan be a malicious lyar and do here notably injure this holy man yet there are some Geneâ—aâ— Tâ—uths insinuated in this Discourse whereof he makes use to drive his design As 1. That life and bodily health are special and chief outward mercies Membâ—rs of the body are sometime hâ—zarded for preserving of life and men have warrâ—ntabâ—y spent all they had on Physitians for recovering of health Luke 8.43 And therefoâ—e they do hainously sin who under-value this special benefit or do prostitute it to the service of their lusts 2. But albeit every tryal have its own weight yet personal tryals are most sharp and will most narrowly search out hypocrisie or sincerity in the person so tryed and the nearer they come they will be the more searching For in so far Satan said true that a man may be more ready to curse God or miscarry if the tryal touch his bone and flesh than if it come only on what more remotely concerns him Hence it appears to have been an act of special favour that Jobs own person was excepted in the former tryal Chap. 1 12. 3 That it is a special proof of unsoundness in men whâ—n tâ—yals and â—fflâ—ctions are sleighted because they touch not themselves so neatly or when they make a shew of Piety only that tryals may be keeped from off themselves For this was the som of Satans charge against Job which is an evidence of gross hypocrisie had it been true Verse 6. And the LORD said unto Satan Behold he is in thine hand but save his life In this verse we have the Lords further loosing of the chain permitting Satan to afflict Jobs body but not to take away his life Or this form of speech and of Gods limiting of Satan see Chap. 1.12 Here we may further learn 1. After the Lords people have endured many and sharp tryals it may please the Lord to inflict yet more and sharper tryals for further discovering of what is in them As heâ—e after all that Job hath endured more is laid upon him And albeit Saints may be ready to stumble at this yet it may silence aâ—d satisfie them if they remâ—mber the soveraignty of God who may dispose of his own as he will that Gods special love and sharp tryals may very well consist together that true grace will teach men not to quarrel God because of crosses and that tryals yea many and growing tryals are necessary to discover them unto themselves to fit them for special proofs of Gods love and to vindicate their Profession from the many aspersions cast upon it 2. As it is very consistent with Gods love to his people to suffer them to be tempted in their souls by the fiery darts of Satan So the bodies also of such as are dear to God may be left in Satans hand to â—fflict them by himself or by Witches his Instruments For so was it with Job Behold he is in thine hand Hence come many of those diseases which surpass the skill of Physitians Luke 13.16 3. Whatever be Satans hand in the tryals of the godly yet they ought still to eye an over-ruling hand of Providence ordering all of them and setting bounds and limits to Satans malice in them For here the rise of this tryal is from Gods holy Providence Behold he is in thy hand and Satan is limited but save his life 4. In the sharpest tryals of Saints there is still some mercy and moderation to be observed and that Satan is never able to compass all his design For here there is an exception and a reservation of that which Satan aimed at no less than the other degrees of his affliction But save his life or spare it and do not take it away 5. The continuance and sparing of life even under sharpest afflâ—ctions is a mercy for which God is to be acknowledged For here in the midst of Jobs tryals it is reserved as a mercy to him save his life See Lam. 3.39 The mercy whereof in Jâ—bs case though much mistakâ—n by him may appear partly in this That hereby the Lord would teach his Church in all Ages that he hath power of life and death and can preserve his people and interests in most desperate cases and betwixt the very jaw bones of death Psal 66.8 9 10. 68.20 And partly in this That however Job being a reconciled man would have died at any time in Gods favour Yet the Lord will not take him away in a cloud nor give Satan any appearance of advantage to say that Job died in an ill case or fretting But will have him to live in and after those storms as a monument of Gods mercy and to clear and vindicate his integrity As indeed It is no small mercy to the Lords people when clouds upon their condition are cleared before they go hence and be no more 6. The Lords people may enjoy many mercies which yet in their darkness passion and haste they esteem rather burdens than mâ—rcies For so will we afterward find Job judging of his continued life which here is reserved in mercy Vers 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD and smote Job with sore boyls from the sole of his foot unto his crown In this verse we have the tryal it self or Satans executing of what is permitted
God that was upon him Now having in the former Chapter after the Preface propounded three Arguments to prove his Charge against Job In this Chapter 1. He adds his fourth and last Argument to prove that Job was not a godly but a wicked man Namely That no Saint was ever like him or in such a case ver 1. but he was very like the wicked both in his carriage ver 2. and his case ver 3 4 5. 2. Unto this Dispute he subjoyns two Exhortations unto Job sutable as he judged to his case 1. That he would repent and turn to God with submission and stooping which being ushered in with a motive taken from the consideration of the cause and rise of trouble ver 6 7. and propounded ver 8. is further pressed by many instances of Gods Providence in the world ver 9. 16. 2. That having repented and made his peace with God he would be patient under affliction considering the advantages and issue thereof if he will be penitent and patient ver 17. 26. Unto all which the Conclusion of the whole Discourse is subjoyned ver 27. Vers 1. Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the saints wilt thou turn THis last Argument is the same in substance with that Second Argument Chap. 4 7-11 taken from Experience and that there was never any like him but wicked men And there is here also somewhat couched of his first Argument as may appear by comparing ver 2. with Chap. 4.5 6. Only here he repeats this Argument in a new dress with many new flowers of Eloquence as putting much confidence in the strength of it And in this verse he propounds the Argument negatively That no Saint was ever like Job If he should call to all the Saints alive or turn him to any of them that ever were none of them would be of his opinion or take his part nor would the experience of any of them testifie that ever they had been in a case like his or which may be gathered as a part of the charge ver 2. had behaved themselves as he did As for Papists who from this Text would gather that it is lawful to pray to Saints departed and that we may expect the benefit of their Intercession Beside that this doth cross the clear literal Exposition already given it would be considered 1. This Text doth not affirm any such thing as that it would be to purpose to call on Saints but doth insinuate the contrary that Saints will not answer any who call to them For these affirmative Questions are to be expounded negatively that there will be none to answer though he should turn to the Saints 2. Their interpreting of this Text to this sense doth over-turn their fancy of a Limbus Patrum wherein they dream that the godly Fathers were kept till the Ascension of Christ And consequently they not being in Heaven as they alledge men could not in Jobs days expect any benefit of their Intercession Some do understand these Saints of Angels and that upon other grounds then that fancy of their Intercession for men as that Job had no Vision by the Ministry of Angels as Eliphaz had Chap. 4. or Angels would all abandon him if he should contend with God But this Interpretation is contrary to the opposition that is here made betwixt these Saints and the wicked or foolish man ver 2. which leads us to understand that by Saints are meant godly men For this Argument as it hath been interpreted I have spoken to the weakness thereof on Chap. 4. That neither did they know or at least remember the case of all the godly before them as of Abel and those who belike were oppressed by Nimrod that mighty Hunter Gen. 10.9 though their case did not in all things quadrate with Jobs Nor is it a sure Argument to conclude a man wicked because he had no pattern of a godly man so exercised before him For the first sufferer could not have any instances of sufferers going before him Nor ought the soveraignty of God be so limited as that he may not deal with Saints otherwise then he hath dealt with others before With these cautions we may from this verse Learn 1. Among other encouragements of the people of God under trouble this hath its own weight when they find that others of the people of God have been in the like case before them whereby they may be assured that such a condition is consistent with Gods love and will have a good issue here or hereafter For Eliphaz supposeth it had been a great advantage if Job had any to answer him or parallel his case or could turn to any Saint who had been like him See 1 Pet. 4.12 2. It may please the Lord so to order the tryal of a Saint as his case may appear singular such as no other godly man hath been in the like And that either because they are the first that are exercised in such a sort or if there have been any so afflicted yet they do not know of it or if they know of the sad afflictions of others yet they may be ready to cry up their own tryal as singular Thus Eliphaz judgeth Jobs case to be singular which might in some sense be true all circumstances considered nor doth Job in his Replies stand on the disproving thereof but rather aggravates his own tryal all he can See Lam. 1.12 3. Albeit to be so afflicted as never Saint was before do not prove a man wicked as hath been said whose state and carriage are approved by the Word yet it is a sore aggravation of a tryal to a child of God to be put in a singular condition from all the rest of Saints And though the exercise of others ought not to be the rule and standart by which we must limit God in his dealing to us yet it is a difficulty not easily got over when we are so dealt with For albeit this reasoning of Eliphaz be but weak yet his making an Argument of it implies that it is apt to be a tentation And so the Saints have looked on it Lam. 1.12 Dan. 9.12 And this may warn us 1. Not to make too much noise when our tryals are but ordinary and such as the people of God have essayed before us See Psal 73.15 1 Cor. 10.13 For it were presumption in us to seek exemption from what hath been the ordinary lot of the godly It is an evidence we are his people when he deals with us as formerly with others beloved of him Heb. 12.7 8. and in the experience of others we may be helped to discern both causes of troubles and snares in them 2. It may warn us not to set our lusts passion self-self-love and love to ease on work to aggravate our tryals above what they are in reality For herein we are not only injurious to God and his dealing but to our selves also by creating many discouragements and tentations
God For however Job's afflictions were eminently sharp yet God was not so far against him in wrath as he apprehended See Isa 40 27 28 c. 49.13 14 15. It is a special mercy to find wisdom whereby to discern our case without mistakes We will ere all be done see much cause to complain of our infirmity that mistook God when he was good Psal 77.8 9 10. And they are happy who cannot but believe love and have sweet thoughts of God in every lot and do not by their own mistakes imbitter their own crosses but do reckon that the harshest of dispensations may consist with love and flow from it 4. As tentations will soon make a mans life his burden So a mans self when he seems to be rejected of God is a very heavy burden to have himself to answer and care for in all things In both these respects this is the consequent of Job's sad apprehensions so that I am a burden to my self wearied of my life and left by thee to take charge of my self This may teach us as not to doat upon our life so to be sensible of what burdens God holds dayly of us and to study dependance on God in all things not provoking him to let us feel our own weight His Second inference ver 21. is That since God was a Preserver and neither his satisfaction nor Gods stroke for sin could make up the friendship Therefore he desires that God would put an end to the quarrel by pardoning his guilt and taking away his sin in its pollution and sad effects Whence Learn 1. The only way for making up of peace betwixt God and sinners is by free pardon and the Lords passing from the quarrel when men are sensible of their sin and inability For Job finds no issue unless God pardon his transgression See also Psal 32.1 2. And this affords us great encouragement that when neither any thing we can do nor any stroke inflicted by God can make up the friendship there is yet another way of attaining it by Gods free pardon 2. The grossness and heinousness of sin will not hinder Gods pardoning of them who come to him in the due order to obtain it For Job supposeth here that he pardoneth even transgression or rebellion and iniquity or crookâ—d perversnese See Isa 1.18 3. Albeit pardon cannot be merited by us but is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ yet only those sinners are pardoned who coming to God through Christ for pardon are sensible of their sin and inability to rid themselves of that burden as Job declareth he is ver 20. and who do so esteem of pardon that they cannot want it and are most solicitous about it as a priviledge without which they are undone So much doth Job's pathetick question impart And why dost thou not pardon By such God will be looked on as singular because he pardoneth iniquity Mic. 7.18 4. As the filth and pollution of sin must be abhorred and pursued by every pardoned man so it is the power of God alone that can effectually remove it For so much is imported in what is subjoyned to pardon of taking away iniquity not only by pardon but by renovation which he seeks with the former and seeks it to be done by God who alone can remove it If we do not employ the power of Christs death for Renovation and Mortification of sin as well as the price of it for pardon Law-convictions and discoveries will but make sin more alive Rom. 7.8 9. and our pollution will continue and grow notwithstanding our diligence and pains 5. When Sin is pardoned and Renovation endeavoured it doth not only bring peace with God but ease also if not an out-gate of all afflictions for sin For so much also is imported here when he pardoneth transgression he also taketh or makes to pass away iniquity in its sad effects and punishments inflicted for it So iniquity is taken for the punishment of sin Gen. 19.15 Psal 31.10 49.5 It is true pardoned men are not alwayes freed from afflictions yet being pardoned the sting and bitterness is taken out of them 1 Cor. 15.55 56. Isa 33.24 A pardoned man may sing of blessedness in the midst of his troubles Psal 32.1 2. 144 15. For then troubles come for necessary profit so that it were a prejudice to want them how humbling soever they be Heb. 1â— 10 They are fraught with love sweetened with the hope of glory Rom. 5.2 3. and do occasion many gracious visits from God Psal 31.7 It is a plague upon men that they follow not this method in their troubles of pressing first and chiefly after pardon of sin which would turn saddest storms into Summer days whereas they seek unto many refuges in their difficulties forgetting their resting place Job shuts up these his Inferences with this confirmation of his plea ver 21. That if God did not grant his desire but would still proceed in a course of severity he would indeed be crushed and cut off thereby but the Lord so to say would himself repent it and would miss poor Job when he had destroyed him and seek him early to do him good but should not find him and so speaking after the manner of men and upon an impossible supposition he should repent that he had dealt so severely with his poor servant In this pleading Learn 1. Job's mistake that he would presently die if God withdrew not his hand doth tell us That our apprehensions do breed us many crosses wherewith we will never really meet 2. His mistake that in the case wherein he is he will die if God relent not is yet grounded on this general verity That however we think lightly of sin yet a wakened Conscience wanting pardon of sin and reconciliation and pursued with strokes and wrath will soon over-charge a frail creature even to the cutting off of his life if God interpose not For Job being in the condition himself describes convinced of sin pursued by wrath and not pardoned it was only the power of God that prevented this consequent of all this Now shall I sleep in the dust And God is pleased oft-times to put his people to those pinches that they may think seriously on death and provide furniture for it 3. It is the duty and property of faith to keep the Covenant-style and take a Covenant-look of all their lots how terrible soever they be For though Job be dreadfully tossed now when he apprehends he is passing over the Bar of death yet he takes a Gospel look of it and gives it the Gospel-name a sleep 4. Faith in the truly sincere will not and ought not quit its grip although it obtain none of its desires But though strokes wrath pursue even to the death and sense Friends and all outward probabilities say God hath cast off yet faith will believe love and that God will own them although he should seek them after death and shew wonders to the
must â—moâ—â— of his Friends against him This sharpning and quickning of our renewed tryals is ordered by God to keep us from formality and carelesness under them 3. The Children of God in their tryals may expect not only hard usage from God himself but to be hardly allowed audience by others in their complaints or get a good construction in what they say that so they may be fully tried on all hands For so doth Bildad carry toward Job and his discourses How long wilt thou speak these things and the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind full of violent impetuous passion but without any thing of reason Not only are the godly to lay their account to be mocked by the wicked in their troubles Psal 69.10 but to be a fear to their acquaintance Psal 31.11 and to have their godly friends not only mistaking but very angry at them as here This the Lord doth That he may wean his people from applause That he alone may have the glory of supporting them under all those loads superadded to their burdens And That by such examples as these we may be armed for such a tryal to have many godly friends on our tops and condemning us not only in a particular cause and debate but even in our personal state As here they dealt with Job 4. Passion prejudice and mistakes will breed ill constructions and misrepresentations of things which would appear otherwise to the impartial observer For from these causes it flowed that Bildad so judgeth of Job's discourses which were true and serious though mixed with frailty Prejudices do indeed hinder the sight of truth and our right estimation of things And while we charge every consequence that may follow upon a principle upon the maintainer of the principle as if that consequence were expresly intended by him while we charge every thing as a design upon a man that his way leads to and while we judge that such and such persons or persons so and so dealt with by God cannot have a good cause we will never judge right And therefore jealousie over our selves and love and calmness in reference to others are requisite if we would judge righteous judgment Vers 3. Doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert justice In this verse which begins the second part of the Chapter he asserts the justice of God which he thought Job reflected upon and so taxes his doctrine more particularly And for confirmation of this Assertion he appeals to Job's own conscience if it be right to assert that God who is Omnipotent doth not walk according to the title of justice in his procedure with men As for the two words here used Judgment and Justice they may be taken indifferently as expressing one and the same thing Or if we distinguish them sometime one of them serves to express Gods righteous procedure in punishing the wicked and the other his procedure in vindicating the righteous when they are oppressed Yet so as both these words are indifferently used in Scripture to express the one or other of these Or they may be differenced thus judgment points at the accurate tryal of the cause speaking after the manner of men before he proceed to sentence and justice at his sentencing according as the cause requireth Or they may be more exactly differenced thus justice is between two the Judge and the Party judgment is betwixt three the Judg and two Parties And accordingly the meaning of Bildad's assertion may be thus extended That Job had no cause to impeach Gods justice neither in what he had inflicted upon him immediately by his own hand or in punishing him for his sins against himself nor yet in what he inflicted mediately by instruments or for his sins against his neighbours This is a true Assertion but Job is unjustly charged with the denial and quarrelling of it in their sense and accordingly he vindicates himself Chap. 9.2 For 1. Job's maintaining of his own righteousness is not a quarrelling of Gods righteousness who afflicted him Job held both to be true though he could not reconcile Gods deâ—ling with the testimony of his own Conscience that did evidence his weakness but not charge God with unrighteousness 2. As for his complaints of Gods dealing he was indeed more culpable therein and convinced to be so by God then he would at first see and acknowledge Yet therein he intended no direct accusation against Gods righteousness But they only shew that the weight of trouble and frailty of the flesh will put Saints so hard 〈◊〉 it that there will be a conflict betwixt Faith and Sense about Gods dealing in which case there is a liberty of laying out their perplexity before God as a mean to break and weaken their tentations This was Job's way though sometime his sense prevailed too much in it which because Bildad understood not through want of experience therefore he mistook him From this purpose we may Learn 1. The Justice of God is so uncontrovertedly clear in all his proceeding whether he act immediately or mediately by instruments that the Conscience of the greatest complainer when put to it seriously must subscribe to it and all are bound to the defence of it as witnesses for God So much doth Bildad's way of propounding this doctrine import He is not content nakedly to assert it that God is righteous but by way of interrogation puts it home to Job's Conscience as a truth he could not deny Doth God pervert judgment c And by his vehemency in asserting this he witnesseth his own bounden duty zealously to stand for the maintenance thereof And therefore they do sin egregiously who do indeed quarrel God Psal 73.10 Mal. 2.17 3.13 14 15. And Saints ought to be very careful of justifying God even in his hardest dispensations Neh. 9.32 33. Psal 22.3 51.4 and to be very wary of giving any occasion to others to misconstruct them as if they were quarrelling God as Job did to Bildad by his passionate complaints 2. Such as know God in his perfect and holy nature and Attributes will see clear cause to justifie God in his proceeding and particularly they who look upon his Omnipotent Power and All sufficiency will see that he can neither be moved to injustice by hope of any reward nor hindered to be just by the fear of the greatness of any or any other by-respect and therefore must be unquestionably just This confirmation of Gods righteousness is insinuated in that he calls him God who is infinitely pure and holy and the Almighty or All-sufficient And this doth teach us partly that the right way to judge of Gods dealing and his righteousness therein is not only to look downward upon his sharp dispensations wherein passion and sense may be ready to bemist us but to look upward to God the worker believing that his work is like himself whatever our sense say to the contrary And partly that such as quarrel Gods dealing do indeed reflect
knew him better then he knew himself Yet it is indeed incomprehensible nor is man capable to find it out by any search of his For he could sooner scale Heaven and dive to Hell or the depths of the Earth and search through and measure all the Earth and Sea which yet are an impossible task for man then comprehend this Wisdom which infinitely surmounts all those Albeit the Text speaks only of searching to find out God and the Almighty And it is true that his Nature and every one of his Attributes are unsearchable Yet the Context and what he hath spoken before of the secrets of Wisdom v. 6. lead us to understand it chiefly of the Wisdom of God the secrets whereof cannot be dived into by men nor can they ascend into the heights thereof nor fathom it as being Infinite and Incomprehensible The Original Text favours this Interpretation for not only may v. 7. be rendered as diverse also do read it Canst thou find out the searchings of God or his Wisdom whereby speaking after the manner of men he searcheth and knoweth all things But in the rest of the verses that which he saith cannot be comprehended of God is expressed by words in the Feminine Gender which have a reference to that Attribute of Wisdom which is expressed by a word of the same Gender v. 6. It is further to be marked as was also hinted v. 6 that albeit Zophar do only speak of the secrets of Gods Wisdom v. 6. in that one particular of knowing man and his faults Yet here he commends his Wisdom in general as it shineth in all his counsels and purposes his Providences and proceedings in the world in all which it is unsearchable and incomprehensible and therefore must be so also in that particular upon which he insists Were this Doctrine concerning the unsearchable Wisdom of God made use of by Zophar only to check Job for thinking that either he behoved to see such causes of Gods dispensations towards him as he thought reasonable or otherwise he had just cause to challenge and complain of Gods proceedings there would be no cause to censure him for any thing here spoken Only Job's miscarriage in that could prove no more but that he was in a fit of passion and under the power of tentation And therefore could not conclude against his state that he was wicked Or were this Doctrine only made use of to convince Job that God saw more in him then he could discern in himself there were no cause to quarrel it as hath been hinted on v. 6. See 1 Job 3.20 Jer. 17.9 10. But when it is made use of to prove that God knew him to be wicked and plagued him as such for his iniquity or sins which use to reign in the unregenerate as may be gathered from v. 6. and from his counsel v. 13 14. this cannot be granted For the matter of our state is none of those depths which are hid up in the unsearchable wisdom of God but is revealed from the Word for our comfort Rom. 5.1 2. 8.15 16. From all this Learn 1. The Counsels and Wisdom of God are deep and unsearchable For so is here held out And mens Consciences may tell them that they are so Therefore he poseth Job with it by way of question to shew that his Conscience cannot deny it See Rom. 11.33 This should teach us to be sober in our thoughts of our knowledge 1 Cor. 8.2 especially in this particular wherein though we may know somewhat yet we should be sensible of our short-coming and that we are far from finding it out to perfection See Job 26.14 42.4 5. We should also be sober in prying into Gods deep counsels in his ordering the affairs of the World and whatever we believe we know of them yet we should beware of laying weight upon our own searching and should lean only to Divine Revelation Likewise we should adore and not quarrel God in his Providences when we cannot see through the wisdom that is in them blessing him that we are allowed to believe that deep and unsearchable Wisdom is imployed about us and our affairs 2. As Gods Al-sufficiency and Infinite fulness proves his Wisdom in particular to be Infinite so he is Almighty to crush all those who obstinately oppose him And all those who dare to pry too curiously and presumptuously into his deep Counsels Therefore gets he the Name of Almighty or Alsufficient here To demonstrate that it is no wonder if such a One be deep in his wisdom and counsels And to deter Job from his supposed opposition to God and his presumption in judging of his counsels 3. All that large vastness that is in the creatures for height and depth length and breadth is short of the infinite depth that is in the wisdom of God For so is here held out that the heights of Heaven the depth of Hell the length of the Earth and breadth of the Sea are nothing to this wisdom See Chap. 28. throughout 4. Mans inability to reach the knowledge of the perfection of the creatures and to travel through them all for that effect and his ignorance of things neer and about him much more of things far from him may humble him for his conceit of his knowledge of the deep counsels of God and his presumptuous essays to pâ—ie into them For if man cannot get up to the height of Heaven nor dig down to Hell c. How much less can he reach this He can do nothing nor undertake any thing whereby to find it out nor can he know it if he should essay it 5. It is mans great mercy that his being in a state of grace is not hid up in a mystery but may be known from the Word by the help of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.12 And so the thoughts of the Infinite Wisdom of God needs not drive a godly man from any assurance of this nor ought he suffer any thoughts of the perfections of God to discourage him in it For this was Zophar's mistake that the Infinite Wisdom of God was enough to prove Job to be wicked which failing to be true his whole Argument proveâ— naught To which add 6. If there be such a depth here from the search whereof he would deter Job and from the consideration whereof he would have Job concluding that he was not righteous How comes it that he himself is so bold and so little sober in judging of Job's state meerly because God who is infinitely wise had afflicted him Might it not as safely be concluded that Gods Infinite Wisdom might see causes wherefore to afflict Job though righteous which none of them could comprehend But self-self-love is so blind that it will see a mote in anothers eye and pass over a beam in a mans own eye and pre judged Opinions shut mens eyes against most obvious and clear Truths Vers 10. If he cut off and shut up or gather together then who can hinder him The
Uprightness hath boldness and nothing in God will be terrible to honesty and to the man reconciled through Christ For though God be the Almighty yet Job declines not to speak to him See Job 23.6 Psal 99.4 5. It is not mens passions and humours which ordinarily are aloft in trouble that will prevail with God or be approved in their addresses to him but when having solid grounds of confidence they do humbly and soberly plead them before him For thus as hath been explained Job desired to reason with God or humbly to plead his innocency and integrity upon solid grounds as Job 23.4 And though in his practice he miscarried as many good resolutions are over-powered by tentation especially in his expostulating about his afflictions yet this was his resolution Vers 4. But ye are forgers of lies ye are all Physitians of no value 5. O that you would altogether hold your peace and it should be your wisdom The first reason justifying this his desire and resolution and taken from their carriage is that they were unskilful in their way of dealing with him This is propounded v. 4. That they were all of them ignorant erroneous and unskilful in their dealing with him Forging false principles setting them forth with fine language and bearing him down with Truths that were impertinent Thus they alledged that either he behoved to be a grossly wicked man or a close hypocrite or else God could not be just who afflicted him seeing he punished none so as he did him but only wicked men As also that Gods Majesty was so great that he could not maintain his innocency before him And so while they dealt with him as a wicked man and exhorted him to repentance upon that accompt they proved unskilful and hurtful Physitians who either made use of Errour or misapplyed Truth to cure him and therefore he did justly quit them betake himself to God Unto this he subjoyns a wish v. 5. shewing that however they thought they behoved to speak Chap 11.3 yet he could save them a labour and would be obliged to them if they would continue silent as they had been at the beginning Chap â— 13 and let him debate his cause with God And as by so doing they should do him a kindness so they should evidence more wisdom by their silence then by babling thus to spoil his cure From v. 4. Learn 1. As there are lies and unsound doctrine oft-times hatched and vented in the Church so these may be very well busked For they may be forged or dressed up Psal 119.69 The word imports that they may be patched up so as the word is rendered to sow up Chap. 14.17 like so many old rags till they become some kind of garment or patched over with Fig tree leaves of pretenceâ— or fair shews that they may be taking Errour usually goeth not abroad without some such Mask and as forgers or inventers of them are worse then those whose simplicity and credulity is imposed upon to own them so those fine pretences do heighten the sin of the course See 1 Tim. 4.2 2. Where Dâ—ctrinal Lies and Untruths are discerned it is no ill manners to call them so in debate as Job saith his Friends were forgers of Lies To charge the maintainers of Eâ—rour with speaking against their mind and light which is a moral vice may be injurious and uncivil but they may lawfully be charged with untruth in the thing which they maintain And thus erroneous persons should be sharply deaâ—t withal Tit. 1.13 though with some difference and respect had to their condition Jude v 22 23. 3. A troubled afflâ—cted person is under a Souls-sickness that needs the tender and skilful Physitian as Job here insinuates concerning himâ—elf 4. Sound Doctrine is Souls-medicine in such an afflâ—cted condition For so would Job have accounted of it if they had ministred it It is an unsanctified afflâ—ction where that medicine is not souâ—ht after but loathed and the godly should beware that their afflictions do not out-grow Scripture-comforts and relief 5. False Doctrine or true Doctrine mis applyed will never give true comfort and a needy soul will soon find busked words and lies to be empty For thus doth Job account them Physicians of no value 6. It is not easie to apply spiritual Physick to a troubled Soul but even godly men who are well-affected to the Patient may prove Physitians of no value if they do not put themselves in Gods hand and deal soundly and prudently in their applications For thus did it prove with Job's Friends 7. When godly men in affliction are disappointed of their expectations and friends prove uselss or hurtful or forge lies against them their case is not desperate seeing they may go to God For so doth Job resolve to help himself v. 3. seeing they were forgers of lies and Physicians of no value From v. 5. Learn 1. A bad cause may have abundance of language to set it off As Job insinuates they had said enough and too much 2. Much empty talk will not ease the afflicted nor commend a cause to rational men For Job would be free of it O that you would altogether hold your peace 3 Men do not only not profit their bad cause but they bring no credit to themselves by their much speaking in it or for it and they would evidence more wit or at least hide their folly better by their silence For saith he O that you would altogether hold your peace and it should be your wisdom See Prov. 17.28 James 1.19 Vers 6. Hear now my reasoning and hearken to the pleadings of my lips 7 Will you speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him 8. Will ye accept his person will ye contend for God The second reason taken also from their carriage is that they were sinfully partial in their judgments This he ushers in with a Preface v. 6. wherein as he had desired them to be silent v. 5. so now he desireth they would hearken to his impleading of their lies that they might be instructed And then he propounds his argument v 7 8. which is further pressed in the following verses wherein he doth not lay it to their charge as a sin simply that they pleaded or contended for God as the words would seem to bear v. 8. seeing God needed not as Baal to be pleaded for as being God who could plead for himself Judg. 6.31 For it is unquestionably lawful and a duty to plead for God and his interests But that which he challengeth is that in their contending for Gods righteousness they dealt partially in condemning him And this he poseth them with by way of question both in testimony of his indignation at their way and to evidence that their own Consciences could not justifie their procedure For clearing of this purpose Consider 1. This challenge will be clear if we remember what is the partiality and accepting of persons condemned among men with an eye to which Job
and how unable he was to abide that For if the most fixed and solid things cannot endure continual assaults especially from the hand of God how much more easily can he over-turn mans hopes ver 18 19. and get a complete Victory over him especially by cutting him off ver 20. and in the mean time so exercise him with his own afflictions that he cannot be affected with the good or ill condition of his nearest relations ver 21 22. Vers 1. Man that is born of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble JOb's first Argument v. 1 2 3. whereby he pleads against Gods severe dealing toward him is taken from the condition and misery of all Men by Nature Wherein he propounds that they have but a short life and that obnoxious to many troubles and all their enjoyments are but transient and passing And from thence inferrs as to his own particular that seeing he would certainly die and had trouble enough otherwise though God dealt not thus extraordinarily with him he could not but wonder that God should notice him as if he were a fit party to be thus afflicted and exercised by him In this verse we have Job's Proposition of Mans misery wherein he evidenceth himself to be well versed by reason of his own trouble in the knowledge of mans vanity and misery which he describes First in its Universality It is common to Man or to all that are come of Adam which is the name here given to Man He speaks thus of men in general though with an eye to his own condition as appears from his inference v. 3 Because this is Mans common condition which is after mentioned And it Teacheth That whatever may be the particular and various dispensations of God toward men yet to be miserable by Nature is common to Adam and all his Posterity who come of him Aâ—l the sons of men are attended with some of thâ— common miseries of mankind and though some want the peculiar cross-lots of others yet they may have some of another kind no less sad and all of them whatever their condition be yet if their eyes be opened will find themselves but in a state of misery This teacheth men not to weary of their particular lots and tryals For did they shift never so oft they will find that they are still Man whom misery attends It Teacheth also That we have no cause to complain so long as our tryal is but common 1 Cor. 10.13 and our self-selfe-love should not get place to perswade us to aggravate our sorrows that we may have some pretence to complain of their singularity as Job oft-times doth for they will still be proportioned to what our case requires and to what strength God will give his own people Secondly Mans misery is described from its â—ise which is insinuated in mans Original that he is born of a woman This he mentions rather then that he is begotten of a man 1. Because the Woman was first in the transgression 1. Tim. 2.14 whence is the rise of all sin and of a defiled issue which produceth trouble So Job 15.14 2. Because the Woman is the weaker vessel 1 Pet. 3.7 And 3. Because a peculiar threatening and sâ—ntence is past against her in the matter of Conception and Birth Gen. 3 16. and so her issue must be weak and wretched like her self Hence Learn A sight of Mans original may humble him and make him see his misery when he considers what a sinful womb he comes from how ugly he comes out of it and how he begins his life with crying and weeping This is a lesson should stick by us as a document of our misery in all our mirth and jollity Thirdly This common misery of mankind is described in its parts That man is of short days and those full of trouble as Jacob also professeth Gen. 47.9 Doct. 1. Mans life is but short and it is a part of his misery that it is so For Job brings this as a proof of mans misery that he is of few days or short of days his time is but short That mans life is but short is evident from Scripture and from daily experience And it is to be accounted short especially now and â—ven in Job's time also though then they lived much longer then men do now both in respect of eternity and in respect of the continuance of Mans life if he had not sinned and even in respect of the age untill which men lived of old For as men now live but short while in comparison of the times about which Job lived so in those days their age was far short of the Patriarchs before the Floud And as mans days are thus few so for the misery that is in this shortness of his life though it be true that it is a mercy to the Godly that their days being ill are few and shortened see Math. 24.22 and that thereby they are hastened to glory Yet the shortness of mans life is in many respects a misery 1. If we consider it in the root and rise of it Mortality is the fruit of sin and therefore whatever beauty God put upon it yet in it self it is bitter and a misery 2. If we look upon it and consider what it is to natural men it must be concluded a great misery For whatever be their portion within time yet they must die and being dead sink into the pit eternally And in the mean time their life is so short and uncertain that it can hardly be measured even by days and they are exposed to so many hazards that they know not at what turn death may take hold of them and hurry them away 3. There is a misery in our few days in regard of the ill improvement of them We are for a while in the state of infancy before we know what it is to live After that many spend along time of youth before they settle and before they know how to number their days even as Rational Men And when we come to be more composed business sickness and distractions do impede and interrupt us and old age disables us to spend our time to any purpose In those inconveniences even the Godly do so much and frequently share that in that respect their short time is a misery 4. There is this misery also incident to us in our short time that both godly men and others are pulled away by death before they see many of those things which they desire accomplished So did Job apprehend to be hurried away in a cloud such also was David's exercise Psal 39.13 And this made Jacob complain of his days that they were few and evil Gen. 47.9 The study of this Point affords many useful Lessons That we do not doat on long life or an Eternity here as Luk. 12.19 20. for we will be disappointed and sin will help to shorten our dayes Psal 55.23 Prov. 10 27. And that we make not that use of the shortness of our
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
no covering in the cold and are wet with the showers of the mountains c. 3. When men are under great afflictions small mercies will be very great in their eyes As those stripped persons are content to embrace a rock for want of a better shelter Undervaluers of meâ—cy do proclaim that they are so dealt with as they forget the difficulties of others See Heb. 11.37 38. Verse 9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast and take a pledge of the poor 10. They cause him to goe naked without clothing and they take away the sheaf from the hungry 11. Which make Oyl within their walls and tread their Wine presser and suffer thirst In these Verses Job proceeds yet to give an account of further acts of these Robbers cruelty and of the aggravations thereof And 1. That they spare not even the weakest but pull the very fatherless babes from their mothers breasts that they may keep them themselves or sell them to others for slaves or cause their mothers redeem them again v. 9. 2. That they spare not even the poorest but take the apparel of the poor for a pledge and take away the sheaf which the hungry have gathered among the reapers v. 9 10. Where that they are said to take a pledge doth not import that they do legally pursue or make use of any pretences of Law but only that they take somewhat as a pledge from the poor Mothers for redemption of their Children or take other rewards from these they reach to deliver them our of their hands 3. For what is subjoyned v. 11. some understand it of oppressing Masters who not only defraud labourers of their hire Jam. 5 4. to deprive them even of meat and drink and that when they are about the labours of their harvest making their oyl and treading their wine-presses which is the time wherein very beasts are not denyed the plentiful use of the creatures Deut. 25.4 But the context leads us rather to understand it of the condition of the poor formerly mentioned if not of others also by reason of these Robbers That though they tread their Wine-presses and make their Oyl within their walls for greater safety yet they are robbed and get not leave to enjoy the fruit of their labours but suffer thirst Doct. 1. There is no age nor condition of persons exempted from tryals but God may exercise them therewith when he will For even babes upon the breast and others may be tryed No men should plead exemption to themselves and as they should acknowledge it a mercy when they are free so when they have been long spared they should look that possibly they may be met with ere their course be ended 2. As God distributeth conditions and lots in the World as he pleaseth and maketh some fatherless poor hungry and thirsty So it is not to be expected that former afflictions will exempt men from new tryals when the wicked are let loose or God hath them to exercise For even the fatherless upon the breast the poor the hungry and thirsty are exposed to new tryals by these Robbers God in his Soveraignty may so dispose of men if he please and mens sins deserve all this Is 9.12 17 21. and 10.4 especially when they improve not former troubles Lev. 26.21 22 c. Amos 4.6 12. 3. It is a mercy to parents to get leave to enjoy their own children and a sad affliction to be robbed of them As here it is a great tryal that they pluck the fatherless from the breast Which as it condemns the barbarous cruelty of those Nations who pull away Infants that they may sell them to others or make Slaves of them themselves So it should quicken Parents who are free of such a tryal to look well how they educate their Children that they may find them their company and liberty a mercy to themselves and others with whom they live 4. God will own the cause of the indigent and afflicted especially when they are wronged in their very livelyhood and necessary apparel For so Joh supposeth that if God avenge any Injuries visibly in thâ—s life he will avenge Injuries done to fatherless babes to the poor hungry and thirsty We ought to be sober when we are deprived of superfluities only for that is oft-times a just chastisement upon Gods part and may prove a mercy to us if we mortifie lusts diligently when their fuel is taken from them and when it cometh to extremities God will appear and be a party against those that wrong us especially when we are humbled before him 5. It is a great addition to tryals when mens endeavours to prevent them do not avail them That even within their walls where they think to secure their harvest they get not so much as a drink of their own Wine but suffer thirst and that when they have gathered their sheaf it is taken away Endeavours to prevent trouble though it be our duty to use them will but imbitter us with disappointments and so augment our afflictions till our tryal be perfected Especially if we think to secure our selves by our own endeavours without turning to God Is 22.9 10 11. Mal. 1.4 Verse 12. Men groan from out of the city and the soul of the wounded cryeth out yet God layeth not folly to them Here Job closeth this instance of Oppressours and Robbers shewing how God spareth them notwithstanding their cruelty For however by reason of the cruelty of these Oppressours in Cities or Civil Societies and these open Robbers formerly mentioned men are heard to groan because of oppression from out of the very Cities and the soul of the robbed and wounded to death belike by Robbers without do cry out of this horrid cruelty yet the Lord doth not visibly charge this sin and folly upon the Oppressours but suffers them to escape unpunished in this life Because the supplement to them in the end of the Verse is not in the Original therefore some render the words thus God disposeth no absurdity But the sense of this must fall in with the former reading That notwithstanding Oppressours be thus cruel yet the Lord doth no absurd or unbeseeming act in not pursuing them visibly but permitting them to vent their cruelty Doct. 1. Oppression may draw very deep even to enter Cities and may put the oppressed not only to secret groans but to crying out through deadly wounds Which may teach oppressed people to observe and acknowledge Gods mercy when they meet with a more gentle measure 2. Oppression is a crying sin and as it makes the oppressed groan and cry out so God will hear those though none other regard them as he hears the cryes of the young Lions and Ravens Psal 104.21 Job 38.41 For so are we here taught that their groans and cryes are heard and God would avenge them if he did not see it fit to testifie his long suffering 3. The moe they be who are oppressed it adds to the weight and hainousness
at some times only but very often and habitually as their condition required It is good not to weary in well-doing or to sit down and please our selves with doing some few acts only of charity or justice 3. It is not sufficient that Magistrates do good to the poor in their righteous cause if they do it out of vain-glory or give them surly looks or checks though they do their business But they must do for them with fatherly affection For Job was a Father to the poor He owned their cause affectionately and with that same solicitude that a Father hath for his Child As men are bound to do all acts of charity not by constraint but willingly and from a principle of love 2 Cor. 9.7 So Magistrates owe this affection to all their subjects especially to the poor as being bound to be Fathers and Mothers to them which is the common designation of all Superiours as well as of Parents Exod. 20.12 4. As Magistrates ought to know causes well before they give out sentence in them for the Law requires that men should hear before they judge Joh. 7.51 though many even of all ranks are ready to condemn that out of prejudice or respect to the opinion of others which they understand not and others are ready to speak of things when they neither understand what they say or whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 1.7 So there is need of narrow search and enquity to find out the truth in causes if either they be dark or intricate of themselves or darkned through the subtilty of Adversaries Therefore Job searched out the cause which he knew not See Deut. 13.12 13 14. Prov. 25.2 and 29.7 And though this seem to be the genuine interpretation of this place yet the other interpretations formerly mentioned may put us in mind also of other duties oâ— Magistrates which are elsewhere commended in Scripture Namely That Magistrates should be careful to prevent Contentions and Law-suits so far as may be by looking into and studying to compose these differences which are not yet brought before them That they should be careful to try if there be any so crushed with oppression that they dare not have recourse to Magistrates for redress through fear of their potent Oppressours And they should have a care that judgement proceed not according to their acquaintance with persons and that justice be not wrested to gratifie their Kindred Friends or Allies See Deut. 33.9 Verse 17. And I brake the jawes of the wicked and pluckt the spoyl out of his teeth In this Verse Job gives an account how he took course with these Oppressours who had wronged the poor and made â—hem restore their ill purchase and disabled them that they should not oppress afterwards Doct. 1. Oppression of the poor is a beastly bruitish wickedness and the Oppressours are more like ravening beasts than like men For Job describes them that not only they are wicked but that they are like beasts tearing and devouring a prey with their teeth See Ps 58.6 2. It is the duty and will be the care of faithful Magistrates to protect the poor against Oppressours and to cause the poor be restored to their right not turning Oppressours themselves Zeph. 3.3 Nor colluding with Oppressours for a part of the spoyl Mic. 7.3 For Job pluckt the spoyl out of the wickâ—d's teeth and gave it to the righteous owners See Rom. 13.3 1 Pet. 2.13 14. 3. Not only should Oppressours be made to restore what they have unjustly taken but they should be punished and cut short of their power that they may not be able again to oppress For Job brake the jawes of the wicked when he pluckt out the spoyl that so they might tear no more And where this duty is neglected by these in Authority as ordinarily petty Thieves are punished and great Oppressours and grinders of the faces of the poor goe free God interposeth by his own hand to destroy these Oppressours and root them out Verse 18. Then I said I shall dye in my nest and I shall multiply my dayes as the sand In the fourth and last branch of this description of Jobs former prosperity he gives an account of the apparent stability thereof and of the confidence he had it should continue it being so great and well fixed In this Verse he declares what his confidence was unto which he subjoyns the grounds of his confidence in a new account of his prosperity Shewing That it was well rooted and spread abroad and watered with the blessing and influences of God v. 19. And that his honour and power were in the prime and still growing upon his hand v. 20. All men having a great opinion of his wisdome v. 21 22 23. And keeping a great distance even when he conversed familiarly with them v. 24. And his Authority being very eminent among his people v. 25. His assertion of his confidence in this Verse contains this in summ That being so setled he expected that after a contented life and a life of long continuance or of many dayes like the sand without number he should have dyed quietly and peaceably at home in his own house as a Bird in its nest and not have been made a prey of as he was Concerning which confidence and expectation it may be enquired First Was not this a fruit of his carnal disposition thus to please himself with the thoughts of a long continuance of his prosperity Answ As Job is not altogether to be condemned in this his confidence For he is not only thinking on death when he is at the height of it but he might justly be free of distempering slavish fears of a change having laid so good a foundation of peace and security through Gods blessing in Gods favour and a good Conscience yea it proved thus with him in the end Chap. 42. And no doubt Job would never have mentioned this in this so calm an Apology for himself if he had not been certain that at least there was somewhat justifiable in it So he is not altogether free of excess in it and his confidence was mixed and had some tincture of the flesh and unrenewed part in it For his very complaint about the disappointment of his hopes and the encouragements he looked to as supports of this his confidence v. 19 20 c. do evince so much Especially if we compare this with a parallel practice of David for which God did chasten him Ps 30.6 7. Secondly It may be enquired How this assertion that he had been confident of the continuance of his prosperity doth consist with his own profession Chap. 3.25 26. that he had feared what was come upon him and was not in safety nor quiet even before trouble came Answ This difficulty hath been touched on Chap. 3. And it will not suffice to clear it that we assert That Job might have been looking out for some trouble and yet have expected to dye in his nest for all that as never
violent in them Therefore men ought to look not only to the evil which they do but to their violence and impetuousness in doing of it which though sometimes it prove Satans last fits before he be dispossessed as in Paul Act. 26.11 12 13. yet in it self it is an evidence of strong corruptions and that men are posting to Hell See Pro. 4.16 Jer. 50.38 Mic. 7.3 4. Men may be very upright and sincere in their way who yet are little believed in the World that they are so For it is here made a question If or Whether Job have walked with vanity c. And he is put to prove his uprightness if not by Oath as some understand this form of expression yet by an express desire that God may be judge and by arguments and reasons Thus David is put to vindicate his own integrity Ps 7.3 4 5. And Paul was accounted a deceiver though yet he was true 2 Cor. 6.8 And it is not to be thought strange though godly men be oppressed with calumnies and mistakes and be put to make Apologies for themselves For hereby the Lord leads them to eye him and his approbation which they usually forget when men are satisfied with all they do and self-seekers may read Gods mercy in such a lot if they improve it well From v. 6. Learn 1. It is not mens opinion or conceit of their own uprightness that will bear them out unless God do see it and approve it For saith he Let him weigh me as it is in the Original See 2 Cor. 10.18 Men had need to try well their condition before they rest satisfied and they have cause to suspect their own blindness and self-self-love in this tryal 2. It is an evidence of true piety and sincerity when men are willing to have their condition tryed as knowing the deceitfulness of their own hearts and being unwilling to be deceived in that matter For saith he Let him weigh me See Ps 139 21 22. with 23 24. 3. That wherein godly men are able to approve themselves and which God noticeth in trying of them is not their perfect conformity to the Law of God but their integrity and sincerity For it is his integrity which here he offers to tryal And this may be attained by these who are not perfect if so be that having fled to Christ for righteousness they endeavour a sincere obedience and respect to all the Commandements Luk. 1.6 Ps 119.6 do mourn for and set themselves in opposition unto the remainders of corruption in themselves Rom. 7. And do close all these endeavours with a renewed closing with Christ in whom they are compleat 4. Sincerity will be judged and tryed not by the great bulk or fair shews of duties but by their real and solid worth Therefore he desires to be weighed alluding to the practice of skillful Merchants who will not be cheated with the bulk of Commodities but will try their real weight in ballances 5. There is a Standard of the Gospel according to which a godly sincere man needs not fear to be tryed For this Let him weigh me in an even ballance or in ballances of justice imports not only his desire to be tryed but his confidence that being tryed his integrity shall appear See Ps 17.1 2 3. 6. If God know and approve mens integrity it is the less matter what men do think or judge For this satisfies Job If God know his integrity It is true when godly men are misconstructed by others it cannot but be an exercise unto them even albeit they have the testimony of Gods approbation Yet if Gods approbation and the testimony of a good conscience do not support them under that exercise it is just they be deprived of these also Verse 7. If my step hath turned out of the way and mine heart walked after mine eyes and if any blot hath cleaved to my hands 8. Then let me sow and let another eat yea let my Off-spring be rooted out The third Vertue whereof he makes profession is Justice and Righteousness in his conversation and particularly that he was free of unjust purchase and gain He professeth in general That in his practice he did not debord from the way or rule set before him and that his heart did not follow the lust of his eyes when they were allured with any pleasant or taking object And particularly he professeth that no blot of unhonest gain or what was not his own did cleave to him v. 7. The confirmation whereof v. 8. is by way of Imprecation or consenting to it as equitable that another should eat what he had sowen and pluck up what he had planted if he had done otherwise than he saith As for what he saith v. 7. that his heart had not walked after his eyes it must be understood of a full consent of his heart For no doubt he had tentations and might sometime be over-powered with tentation though it prevailed not to make him do unjustly And for his Off-spring v. 8. if we understand it of his Children as some do the meaning must be That if he had been unjust he grants it had been equitable his Children had been cut off in wrath and judgement which way of their being cut off he did ever deny as being conscious to himself of his own integrity Or That if yet he had any Children it were just they should be cut off if he had beâ—n an unjust person But the word seems more clearly to point at his plantings which in justice might be rooted up if he had deprived others of 〈◊〉 lawful possessions From these Verses Learn 1. Men are not left to walk at randome and as thâ—y please but have a way prescribed wherein to walk For here Job acknowledgeth there was the way whereof he was bound to take notice 2. It is the duty of such as would approve themselves to God not to walk presumptuously as if they had not a Lord over them but to keep themselves in all the steps of their practice within the bounds of the rule prescâ—bed to them For Jobs step turned not out of the way He looked to evâ—ry particular step that he might not debord in it God is supreme Lord and if we acknowledge him not to be so in his directions he will prove himself to be supreme in his providential dâ—spensations punishing our presumption 3 It is not sufficient before God that men look to their outward practice unless also they guard their hearts the enslaving whereof by corruption and lusts is both a sin in it self before God and may tend to grossest out-breakings Therefore as he looked to his step so also to the walk or frame and inclinations of his heart See Pro. 4.23 4. Beside the inward corruption and inclination of mens hearts toward evil they are obnoxious to baits and tentations from without which their Senses and particularly their eyes are ready to let in to their hearts For so is here intimated That as the heart doth
but do rush into them upon all hazards Which may be a document to us of the corrupt nature of man who will hazard upon sin though he purchase his imagined satisfaction at never so dear a rate unless the grace of God renew and restrain him Verse 13. If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they contended with me 14. What then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him 15. Did not he that me in the wombe make him and did not one fashion us in the wombe The fifth Vertue whereof he maketh profession is meekness and his moderating of his power and authority in the exercise thereof He hath asserted Chap. 29. That he was just in the exercise of his Office as a Magistrate Here he asserts more particularly his justice and moderation in his carriage towards his very servants and hand-maids whereby he refutes in part that charge of injustice which was fastened upon him Chap. 22.5 6 7. The summe of his assertion v. 13. is That however servants were then bond-slaves who had no power to enter into judgement with their masters yet he would not deal as he pleased with them but did give them free liberty to plead their cause against him when at any time they thought he wronged them This is not necessary so to be understood as if Job had at any time wronged his servants or they did ever conveen him who was a supreme Magistrate before an inferior Judge But that when at any time they desired himself to hear them make their complaints of his carriage towards them though it was not required by God that he should endure their saucy gainsayings Yet he meekly heard what they had to say and did endeavour to satisfie them as justice and equity required Unto this assertion he subjoynes an account of the reasons perswading him to this meek and moderate carriage which were 1. His fear of Gods judgements to whom he and his servants were equally subject and who was more high above him than he was above his servants v. 14. He considered when God should arise to visit him whether by death and judgement following upon it or by some tryal and affliction in this life he could expect no favour from his supreme Judge if he because of his eminency should sleight these his inferiours nor could he stand in judgement if God should visit him for his neglect of duty 2. His consideration of his Original and way of conception common to him with his meanest servants v. 15. When he considered that both he and they were formed by one God in the wombe and that in one womb as the Original may read not the same individual wombe but the same for kinde When I say he considered this he durst not abuse his power to hurt them how mean soever they were From Verse 13. Learn 1. Distinction of stations and degrees as betwixt other Superiours and Inferiours so also betwixt Masters and Servants hath been in all ages of the world as here Job had man-servants and maid-servants who were subject to him and so it still continueth though the condition of servants be not so servile and low in many places as then it was And as this distinction of estates is for the good of human society and the low condition of some is a document of mans misery and matter of humiliation to all seeing God might have lay'd others low as well as those with whom he so deals So all ought to keep their stations 1 Cor. 7.20 Considering that it is in so doing they are allowed to expect a blessing that they may do service to Christ in the meanest station as well as if it were more eminent Eph. 6.5 6 7. Col. 3.22 23 24. And that every station is blessed to these who are in Christ 1 Cor. 7.21 22. 2. Even godly men when they are in eminency may expect to meet with provocations and irritations from very mean persons For it is supposed here that these his servants were ready to contend with him Not so much because he was apt through infirmity to do them wrong though godly men have need to take heed how they walk especially in their families and toward their inferiours and how they manage any power they have as because that might be his lot which is common to others that the humours of some servants may prove sharp tryals to godly Masters and Heads of Families Yea they may take the more liberty that they have to do with masters who are tender walkers Hence godly men had they never so much power must resolve not to want tryals but that some will be raised up even within their own doors if others be wanting to scowre and exercise their graces And servants should take heed how they walk that they disturb not the peace of families especially if they profess piety themselves and have to do not with froward Masters to whom notwithstanding their frowardness they owe subjection but with godly men who are unwilling to interrupt their own peace and the peace of their families by meddling with them Sâ—e 1 Pet. 2 18. 3. Grace will teach men to walk tenderly even where usually men take most liberty as in their families and retirements as considering that God especially remarks what their carriage is there For so was Job here 4. Grace will teach men to walk tenderly in their families not only by studying to have their servants acquainted with the wayes of God but by avoiding insolency in their families among their Inferiours not doing them wrong or refusing to hear their complaints because they are under their power For Job would not despise the cause of his very servants and slaves as being sensible of his own proneness to miscarry toward them And not being willing to persist in it if it were found to be so and desiring to satisfie them with reason if they complained without cause rather than to bear them down with authority A tender conscience will not suffer a man to oppress the meanest by his power and will be a strong bond upon him when no other can reach him See Gen. 42.18 Neh. 5.15 From Verse 14. Learn 1. Godly men do avoid evils upon religious accounts and motives and with an eye to God and his approbation and condemnation and are not carnal Politicians in their walk For Job here was restrained from this evil by the fear of God 2. Godly men are taught to entertain serious thoughts of being called to an account by God and of an enquiry to be made what their wayes have been either in this life or at death For Job is put to think of Gods rising up and visiting him See Eccl. 11.9 and 12.14 The consideration whereof may excite men to call themselves frequently to an account and to judge themselves that they may not be judged 1 Cor. 10.31 3. Piety also teacheth men to consider that their miscarriages unless they
prevent them or repent of them will not only meet them in their greatest straits and take them at a disadvantage but may provoke God to arise and visit them with judgements Therefore Job mentions Gods rising up and visiting in case he had failed in this and puts a perplexing question What he shall do or answer if God do rise up To intimate not only that such a miscarriage might sadly trouble him when God riseth up to visit Jam. 2.13 but that it might justly provoke God to arise and plague him Ps 12.5 4. It is also seriously to be studied that however some men be set on high above others yet God is infinitely more high above them and able to reach them For so much doth the scope of Gods argument import that though he needed not regard what his servants could do to him though he wronged them being so eminent above them Yet he durst not grapple with God above him when he should arise to plead their cause See Eccl. 5.8 No eminency of men should make them forget the super-eminency of God or cause them say Who is the Lord Exod. 5.2 But they should abase themselves daily before him lest he make them know upon their own expences that these that walk in pride he is able to abase Dan. 4.37 5. Such as do rightly study the super-eminent Majesty of God will tremble to do wrong to the meanest as considering that all sinners and particularly Oppressours will be at their wits end when he calls them to an account For this perswaded Job not to despise the cause of his man-servant c. v. 13. For if it had been otherwise What then saith he shall I do when God riseth up And When he visiteth what shall I answer him See Is 10.1 2 3. Eph. 6.9 Col. 4.1 From v. 15. Learn 1. God is the curious framer of man in the womb as well as he created man at first For saith Job He made me in the womb This doth demonstrate the perfection of God this little World Man pointing out what a God he is who made him as well as the greater World is full of his glory Ps 139.13 14 15 16. is a ground upon which we may claim an interest in him when other grounds do disappear Ps 22.9 and 119.73 Job 10.8 c. and an argument why we should not employ what he hath made as weapons wherewith to fight against him 2. God is the framer of all mankind the small as well as the great and that equally of the same kind and in the same way whatever difference of state there be afterward For He that made me made him and one did fashion us in the womb or in one womb The meanest have favours of this kind which they should acknowledge albeit they want other things See Pro. 22.2 3. The greatest of men if they be gracious will not forget their Original common to them with others though they differ in degrees of Civil dignity from them For so did Job here and propounds it by way of question as a certain truth and a truth which he seriously thought upon Humility is the Ornament of Eminency and it is sweet to see men a base themselves when God exalts them and not swelling up with pride because they are raised out of the dust and set above others 4. Such as do seriously consider their Original common to them with others will bear a low sayl toward the meanest as considering they are their own flesh Is 58.7 That by sleighting or wronging them because they are mean they reflect upon God who made them and who carved out their lot Pro. 14.31 And that God can soon cause those who are insolent because of their eminency know themselves and that they are but men Ps 9.19 20. Ezek. 28.9 For this was an argument disswading Job from sleighting or wronging of his servants Did not he that made me in the womb make him c. Verse 16. If I have with-held the poor from their desire or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail The sixth Vertue whereof he maketh profession whereby also he refutes that challenge of injustice Chap. 22.6 7. is Humanity toward all distressed and indigent persons and that he was so farr from wronging any of them that he was helpful to all of them This he instanceth in several particular branches to v. 24. according to the several sorts of distressed persons and their several necessities which he supplyed Confirming those several assertions by tacite asseverations intimated in the form of expression If I have done so and so which imply an Imprecation or submission to Gods judgements if it were not as he said and subjoyning to the last an express Imprecation and Argument In this Verse we have the first branch of that Humanity whereof he professeth to have made conscience That not only he appeared for the righteous cause of the poor and of widows but having promised to assist them in their cause he did not disappoint and kill them with delayes but chearfully and speedily performed what he had promised Or it may be understood more generally That whatever were their lawful desires whereof rationally they might expect satisfaction from a man of his piety wealth prudence or authority or wherein he had promised to give them satisfaction he chearfully and readily satisfied them Whence Learn 1. Mens Consciences in a day of distress will find as much peace in their humanity and tenderness toward others as in any other fruit of faith and act of piety Therefore doth Job insist so much upon that here See Jam. 1.27 When men are thus tender and compassionate it evidenceth that they are humble and have a sense of the common miseries of mankind that have entred by sin and that they do read their own deservings in the sad lots of others It is also an evidence that they are sensible of Christs kindness to them which kindleth these bowels of compassion Yea this is the touchstone whereby men will be tryed in the last day Mat. 25.54 55. And therefore it cannot but be refreshful when men find this fruit of the Spirit in themselves 2. The Lord hath so ordered that poverty widow-hood accompanied with distresses and other miseries will not be wanting among the children of men both for the tryal and exercise of those who are under these lots and to be a tryal to others also and a touchstone of their sympathy and humanity For so were there poor and widows in Jobs dayes who were afflicted with their miseries and driven to seek relief from others and who gave Job occasion to give proof of his disposition See Deut. 15.11 Crosses of all kinds will not be wanting in any time and who so are free of these particular afflictions here mentioned may yet look for others no less searching and trying to them 3. Albeit poverty or widow-hood or any other affliction doth not warrant any to countenance men in an ill cause Exod. 23.3 Lev. 19.15
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
blood which makes young men rash and precipitant and their zeal to out-strip their knowledge and light their youthful lusts want of experience c. will easily perceive that youth is not easie to manage aright Whereas to men of age many of these snares are broken Time and experience will let them see many things to be but folly and vanity which youth will not believe that they are such Those strong passions which do oft times master and over-power even true grace in younger persons may be more subdued and cooled in them c. This may let us see that it is a great mercy to be helped well through a time of youth and to be kept from the snares of it and the sad effects of these disadvantages which attend it 2. One great advantage of age above youth is in the matter of wisdome gathered by study and experience and in the cooling of their heat and passions which usually represent things to men through false Perspectives For this is the advantage intimated here On his own part he was afraid and durst not shew his opinion considering that he was young and they old Not only was he afraid lest he should goe without the bounds of his station in offering to speak before them but lest being but a young man he should miscarry in speaking to the matter it self And on their part he reckoned this their advantage That dayes or men of dayes should speak that is Not only is it their priviledge to speak when young men should be silent and hear but it is expected they should be able to speak to purpose on such weighty subjects and that multitude of years should teach wisdome that is their long life should be so improved as they may be taught much experimental knowledge by living long in the world which also they should teach and communicate to others It is true this difference betwixt age and youth doth not universally hold as Elihu afterwards tells them yet many times it proves true that age out-strips youth in these things as Rehoboam found by experience in the matter of his Counsellours 1 King 12. And however it hold eventually yet the characters here assigned of youth and old age do point out that it is a great defect in young men not to be well acquainted with their own precipitancy and want of experience And that it is a great shame for aged persons if as they have place to speak so they be not wise and able to speak to purpose and if the long time they have had hath not so taught them as makes them both able and willing to communicate their light to others who possibly are not so able or sensible of the good and evil of courses as themselves are But they themselves are no less rash and head-strong than if they were still children 3. It is an evidence of grace and a great mercy to young persons when they are made to discern and take notice of the disadvantages they lye under For so is Elihu sensible here of what might rationally be expected from his youth and their age Thus Solomon is sensible of the disadvantages of his youth 1 King 3.7 8 9. When young men are not sensible of their disadvantages they cannot but run headlong on snares while they think themselves wise enough and so prove in effect but mad fools Whereas these who are afraid lâ—st they do miscarry and so are not rash to do or speak any thing they prove themselves to be most able and do seldome miscarry 4. When God gives young men a blessed sight of their own disadvantages it will produce much sobriety As here it doth in Elihu See Tit. 2.6 And if we consider the words we will find these evidences of sobriety in young men 1. They who are sober will have no conceit of themselves For Elihu here is free of that And where conceit is it is an evidence that the weaknesses of youth are not well studied 2. Sober young men will have a good esteem of aged men and their opinions till they find very clear cause to judge otherwise For he judged that such should speak and teach wisdome 3. They will still be modest and respect age even when they are dis-satisfied with their opinion As here he waited till they had spoken out and reckoned that dayes should speak or had place to speak before him 4. They will be farr from presumptuous boldness and full of humble fears in their undertakings especially when they are called to oppose others who are elder than themselves As here he enters with much fear upon this undertaking Verse 8. But there is a Spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding 9. Great men are not alwayes wise neither do the aged understand judgement 10. Therefore I said Hearken to me I also will shew mine opinion Followeth to v. 21. the second branch of this Preface wherein he gives five Reasons why he now interposeth to speak in this cause The first Reason in these Verses is more general containing this in summ That the fountain of wisdome not being in man himself but from God who giveth it to whom he pleaseth v. 8. And who doth not always give it to great men and men of experience v. 9. Therefore though he be a young man yet they having given over he will hazard to speak somewhat in that cause v. 10. Which he might well undertake being indeed inspired by God as he tells them v. 18 19. though here he speak of that inspiration only in general and abstractly v. 8. which might supply his want of years and experience For clearing of this purpose Consider 1. These tearms of Wisdome understanding and Judgement are here to be taken promiscuously for a gift of discerning to judge betwixt right and wrong and truth and errour in matters and opinions together with a gift of prudence or ability to speak rightly and pertinently to a cause For these are the particulars of which Elihu is treating which he expresseth by all these words 2. As for that Spirit which he saith is in man Some understand it of the reasonable Soul of man and take up the purpose thus That all men have a reasonable Soul which by the special inspiration of God may be so elevated that even young men by that assistance may comprehend these things which aged and experienced persons cannot know without it Others understand it of the Soul of man yet they take up the scope of the Verse thus That though there be such a Spirit in man yet it is not that but the inspiâ—ation of the Almighty which makes truly wise But it is clearer to understand it of the Spirit of God and so the latter part of the Verse is exegetâ—ke and explains the former That it is by that Spirit in man even by the inspiration of the Almighty that any attain to this understanding here spoken of 3. As for this Spirit or inspiration as it is not
that the dispute continued he finds that none of them had convinced Job or convincingly proved what they had asserted against him that he was a wicked Hypocrite Nor yet had they answered his words which imports not only that they had not refused his arguments and repelled these evidences of his integrity which he had produced in his own defence â—ut further that they had not made that reply to Jobs miscarriages in his discourses which was necessary for his humiliation and casting down as he speaks v. 13. And so Job is declared to be Victor in the debate betwixt him and his Friends concerning the calamities of godly men of which v. 3. And yet somewhat remained to be answered to Jobs words which they had not hit upon From these two Verses Learn 1. When Debates are once started they may continue very long For not only have there been long discourses among them but it seems they have taken time to study this controversie and search out words or what to say whereby the debate was much lengthened Debates may be soon begun but they are not so easily composed again For mens wilfullness may continue debates long And God in his holy providence may permit them to continue that men may be fully tryed 2. It is mens duty to search into Controversies and to be well advised in what they speak to a weighty cause For in so farr they did right that they searched out what to say Men do sin hainously when they engage in debates before they understand them and before they consider to what they may tend 3. When men are once engaged in Debates if they be non plust they are ready to bend their wits to maintain their cause rather than they will yield and quit the plea For thus also they searched out what to say when Job put them to it but it was but words as it is in the Original and somewhat wherewith to flourish and make a shew that they studied or found Thus when men are once engaged and grown warm with passion they will readily seek victory rather than truth 4. It is mens duty when Debates are started and agitated not to be idle spectatours but diligent observers that thereby they may be edified and may be able to know what is truth For Elihu professeth he was not sleeping but diligently attending all the while of the debate and no doubt this debate did edifie many Auditours as well as him 5. It is a duty also to let men say their minds to the full before we judge of their Doctrine and Opinion For he heard them out and did not halve their discourses by interrupting them 6 It is also mens duty to ponder well what is said that they do not wilfully nor negligently mistake the discourses of them who speak For Behold saith he inviting them to consider how seriously he had proceeded I waited I gave ear yea I attended unto you 7. It is a clear and determined case and a truth to be much remarked and improved That a man may be afflicted and yet righteous For here the Controversie is determined in Jobs favours who had maintained this truth constantly against his friends and that with a Behold Not that every man may claim to this that he is righteous when afflicted if he want evidences of his integrity For a wicked man may be plagued as well as a godly man afflicted in this life Nor yet doth this warrant godly men not to be sensible of their failings when in affliction because their persons or cause are righteous But that which it imports is That godly men may see love in rods and that they are consistent with love and That they ought not to suffer the weight of their afflictions to light upon their state and personal reconciliation with God to call that in question because they are afflicted 8. Not only may men think they have refuted their Adversary when it is nothing so as they gave Job over as an obstinate man v. 1. when yet Elihu tells them they had neither convinced nor answered him but God may sometime be pleased to raise up some to own them who are for a right cause when they are over-powred with multitude of opposers and lye under many disadvantages As Elihu here takes part with Job who had so many godly men against him Let men abide by truth though they were even left alone in that quarrel and God will send them friends at last when their tryal is perfected 9 Men may be very able and express great abilities in what they say who yet do erre For he acknowledgeth they had reasons or as it is in the Original understandings and gave proof of their great abilities and yet they did not convince nor answer Job 10. So weak are men that before they be convinced they must not only have an assertion proved but their objections against it answered otherwise they will not heartily embrace a truth how clearly soever it be proved For he desiderates both these in their dealing with Job and intimates that they ought both to have convinced him by strong arguments and answered his words or objections if they would have brought him to be of their opinion 11. Men may prevail against men and have the righter cause and the better of them in debate who yet are faulty before God even in that cause and deserve a reproof from him For here Job is assoiled and declared Victor in the debate with his Friends and yet Elihu intimates there was an answer which should have been given to his words but they had not touched upon it as he resolves afterward to do v. 14. Men had need to look to this that their righteous cause and the errours and miscarriages of their Antagonists do not blind their eyes that they see not their own failings Verse 13. Lest ye should say We have found out Wisdome God thrusteth him down not man In this Verse the former Reason is amplyfied from the consideration of Gods end and design in ordering this business which also was his end in passing so free a censure upon their Doctrine This is propounded in general in the beginning of the Verse That whatever were Jobs failings yet God had so ordered the matter that Job had got the victory in the debate and they had succumbed in their undertakings against him that they might not glory in their wisdome nor might ascribe it to their abilities and experience that they had found out what was sufficient to put an end to this Controversie And he had freely told them so much v. 12. that they might no longer entertain that good opinion of themselves As for that which followeth God thrusteth him down not man Some take them to be the very words whereby they might be ready if not prevented to express their thoughts of their own wisdome to this purpose That they by their wisdome had found out so much for convincing of Job that they had left him nothing wherewith to
impediments removed For the day is coming wherein all men even the most stubborn will be made to hear whether they will or not And that wofull comfort of hardening ourselves against what the Word can say will fail the most stubborn and stout-hearted at last Nor need men entertain prejudices at the Word because it speaks alwayes sad things to them For if they would hear and improve what is unpleasant it would speak comfortably to them at last 5. As God can remedy this evil of a stopped ear in man and must be the Physician to cure it Act. 16.14 Is 50.4 5. And doth sometime employ sharp means to cure it in his Children Job 36.10 15. and therefore is to be looked unto for what we want and acknowledged in what we have of this mercy For so much doth this phrase of opening the ear import when it is made use of to express Gods effectual operation upon his people So God hath given to his people sufficiency of external means to cure this evil and the more singular the means are they should hear the better For so much doth this phrase import That God afforded this as a sufficient mean to open the ears of men and that that extraordinary mean contributed to that end When God speaks to the Creatures he should find patent doors and albeit we want those extraordinary means yet the Word preached ought to be no less effectual Luk. 16.29 30 31. And when God comes to speak by his rods of which after to press home his Word or when he makes his Word more lively than is usual in the mouths of his Servants or continueth his Word with us in sad times it should rouze us up so much the more 6. It is not enough that men hear and understand and be affected for the present unless what they hear leave a constant impression upon them For as God seals his doctrine by his authoritative publishing thereof so this instruction should be sealed and leave an impression upon us See Heb. 2.1 Jam. 1.23 24. 7. When God reveals his mind especially in a more singular and eminent way men have sufficiency of means to cause what God saith take impression upon them For those means are here held out as sufficient to seal mens instruction Thus did Daniel's Visions affect him And albeit men have not now extraordinary Revelations yet as hath been marked from Luk. 16. the consideration of Gods Authority speaking in his Word is sufficient in its own kind as a mean to cause men tremble Ezra 10.3 Is 66.5 For men will not readily slight what a Prince saith unto them farr more should the Word of the great God have impression upon us And where the Word prevails not he is provoked to write his mind in deep and sad characters of affliction Chap. 36.8 9 10. Verse 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man In this and the following Verse Elihu gives a more particular account of what God saith by dreams and visions and what is the scope of that instruction which he seals thereby v. 16. In this Verse we have an account of the more immediate scope thereof Namely to humble man and bring him to repentance As for the first part of the Verse if we take the word Purpose in a strict sense it will import That man naturally is a purposing projecting Creature who would lay down his own setled way which he means to follow and prosecute neglecting dependance upon God That man chooses this way that he may exalt himself in pride as is supposed in the latter part of the Verse as Master and Orderer of his own affairs and That God doth overturn all these fine projects of proud men Not only do the messages of his Word speak against this evil and his rod doth actually overturn these projects if the Word be not obeyed but even the variety of wayes whereby God then manifested his mind all which are comprehended under these mentioned v. 15. served to abase man and keep him in a continual and humble dependance upon the pleasure of God in his purposes But the word must be taken in a larger sense for Work as it is in the Original or some evil work and undertaking from which God withdraws and calls men by his Word which was then revealed in dreams and visions Thus mans work is all one with his transgression Chap. 36.9 And as for the latter part of the Verse And hide pride from man To hide pride here is to take it away and withdraw man from it so that it becomes as a thing that is hid and lost which appears not and cannot be found or by taking away that which pride feeds upon to prevent mans pride and so to hide it from him that he shall never find it nor any thing whereof to be proud And this is added to the former either as a particular instance of that general of mans work which is to be abandoned Pride being an especial evil work whereof God would have his people free or as Gods end in instructing man to abandon his evil work and that by letting man see his work to be mourned for and amended he layeth his pride and lets him see there is no cause for it In summ the meaning of the whole Verse is That the messages of Gods Word even when directed to godly men tend to lead them to renew their repentance daily and by what they see of their own evil works to make them have a low esteem of themselves To clear this yet a little more Consider 1. The first part of this Verse is concisely expressed in the Original For the words From his are a Supplement and the Original hath only word for word To withdraw or cause to remove mans work Hence some render it thus That man as the Agent may remove work and so the purpose will run very smoothly That God instructs man v 16. that may remove work or abandon evil courses But as in the following part of the Verse it is God who hides pride so it seems clearer to understand the first part of the Verse of him also That he by instructions withdraweth man c. And as for the Supplements required to this reading the Particle From is here brought from the latter part of the Verse as is not unusual in this language to clear the reading that he withdraws man from work as well as he hides pride from man And as for the relative His which must be supplyed also in the other reading it is not only expresly added Chap. 36.9 their work but the subject matter necessarily implyeth it For that God withdraws man from work is not to be universally taken that God turns men idle from duties of a lawful calling or from good works but only from these evil works which are not the works of God but their own as they are corrupt men 2. It being Elihu's scope as hath been cleared and otherwise he could not
is further cleared in the following Verse Hereby as he explains how scornful Jobs way was it being a repugnancy and a ridiculous thing that a man should be asserting his righteousness and yet walking in the wickeds way So he affrights him from such courses and invites him to be humbled for them by leading him to consider that whatever he might say for his complaints yet they seemed to sadden godly men and to harden the wicked Doct. 1. Albeit all men be sinners and even the wicked may pretend that their faults are but infirmities Yet there are wicked men or men of wickedness contradistinct from simple sinners as here is insinuated 2. It is the character of wicked men that they make no conscience of any kind of sin were it even iniquity and that they make a trade of sin and are workers af iniquity as here we are also taught 3. It is a great sin and will be so esteemed by godly men when they are in a right frame to joyn in any measure with wicked men in their ill courses For he would rouze up Job to abhorr his way by shewing him that it was a going in company with the workers of iniquity and a walking with wicked men Whereby he means not so much a fellowship and keeping company with wicked mens persons which is not simply unlawful if men have a calling thereto however it be full of snares as a joyning with them in their courses 4. Even godly men in an hour of tentation may goe out of their way and play odd pranks whereby they may seem to justifie or joyn issue with wicked men or do or say that which may occasion their hardening in their way As here Job seemed to joyn issue and walk with wicked men while he wronged the righteousness of God and saw not the advantages of piety so well as he ought 5. It is good service to let godly men see the evil of their way and complaints to humble them and drive them from them For therefore doth Elihu point out Jobs carriage to him in so ugly a shape to make him abhorr such a course which did so much gratifie wicked men in their way Verse 9. For he hath said It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God In this Verse Elihu doth not so much point at any particular expressions of Job as he did v. 5 6. as prove confirm these general accusations v. 7 8. by shewing what consequentially might be gathered from these his former expressions and others like them For when he complained so hard of Gods dealing with him a righteous man and had else-where said that God destroyed both the righteous the wicked Chap. 9.22 and had spoken so much of the wickeds prosperity Chap. 21.7 8 c. and of his own sad adversity Chap. 30.26 and frequently else-where What could any hearer gather but that he reckoned that there was no advantage to be reaped by piety It is true Job spake only of temporal events that they come alike to all Chap. 9.22 which was a truth he had warrantably maintained against his Friends Nor is it to be conceived that Job meant that there was no advantage in piety even in this life though godly men be afflicted But Elihu puts him to consider how that assertion attended with so vehement complaints about his lot to which he was driven through the heat of contention did so overcloud all as the Auditors might conceive he saw no advantage in piety since he a godly man complained so bitterly as if all were gone because he was afflicted Doct. 1. It is the duty of those who would prove their piety to be real to converse and be much with God to do this not only out of necessity but to delight in God and to keep communion with him And for this end to study to be well pleased and satisfied with God and his dispensations as the word also signifieth 2. Whatever men think either in prosperity Chap. 21.14 15. and 22.17 or in adversity Mal. 3.14 15. yet there is a real advantage in piety 1 Tim. 4.8 and 6.6 For he quarrels Job as contradicting this truth without cause For beside the eternal reward piety hath advantage in this life that it brings a man solid peace in all conditions and that all things are sanctified blessed and done in love to godly men 3. As it is a sin in any so a godly man especially will think it so in himself to speak or do any thing to the disadvantage of piety For he useth this as a strong Argument to convince and humble Job that he said It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God 4. Even godly men may fail and come short in their due esteem of piety when either for a time they slide and cast out with piety as Psal 73. or when in an hour of tentation they cannot see the advantages of piety by reason of their present pressures As here he chargeth upon Job So that to love piety in weal and woe and not to regard our profit so God may be honoured is a noble victory and an evidence of a man in a good frame Verse 10. Therefore hearken unto me ye men of understanding Farr be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity 11. For the work of a man shall he render unto him and cause every man to find according to his wayes 12. Yea Surely God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgement Followeth a more particular refutation of these expressions by shewing how injurious they were to God All his discourse may be summed up in one or two Arguments taken from the Justice and the Soveraignty and Dominion of God which sometime he calls the Auditors to observe to v. 16. and sometime Job himself to v. 31. and clears and confirms those Arguments and the Justice and Dominion of God asserted therein from several effects and evidences that they may the more effectually convince We find that Jobs Friends had also insisted upon this Argument taken from Gods justice See Chap. 8. 〈◊〉 But they inferred another Conclusion from it That Job was wicked because a righteous God had afflicted him which Job rejected and oppugned We find also that Job hath frequently acknowledged and commended the righteousness and dominion of God and yet Elihu and God himself afterward insists upon this Argument in refuting of his complaints to let him see that however he acknowledged that God was righteous and the Soveraign Lord yet his complaints could not be reconciled with that acknowledgement In these Verses after a repeated invitation to the Auditory and discerning persons among them to hearken unto him v. 10. we have the first Argument whereby he refutes Jobs complaints taken from Gods righteousness and justice who doth not deal wickedly nor pervert judgement And therefore he is not to be quarrelled and complained of as if he
every step in their journey and every lot which may befall them by the way All which if we do believe may encourage us to entrust our selves to him and to sleep in his bosome in our sad and dark lots 8. That it is Gods glory and prerogative to have the sole guiding of his people So that either we must commit and resign all to him or do all our selves for he will not share it with us The belief whereof will perswade us to resign our selves intirely to his will as we would not be wholly left to our selves and so become a burden to our selves 9. That it is the will of God we never cast out with him but believe his love whatever he do Psal 77.7 8 9 10. Job 10.13 The faith whereof will make us shut our eyes upon whatsoever would breed mistakes and quarrells with God These are some few of the common principles which may feed Faith in most dark and sad conditions Doct. 2. Our Discouragements ought not to give a check unto nor impede our Faith in relying upon God in dark and sad conditions Therefore saith be Even although thou sayest thou shalt not see him yet trust in him Faith is still a commanded duty whatever difficulties and discouragements interpose and therefore Christ pressed faith upon the Ruler of the Synagogue even albeit his Daughter did dye while he is employing him to recover her of her sickness Luk. 8.49 50. And Faith is called to step over all improbabilities Psal 46.1 2. Hab 3.17 18. Yea difficulties serve to stirr us up to believe Faith being given us for such a time as that and then especially called for Psal 56.3 Rev. 13.10 and the want thereof at such a time being especially culpable Prov. 24.10 Thirdly Consider The Ground upon which he presseth this Direction and encourageth to believe Judgement is before him therefore trust thou in him Some read it Do judgement and trust in him or expect him But if we take the phrase To do judgement strictly for judging and dealing righteously with others as it is 1 King 3.28 and 10.9 Prov. 21.3 though the words in the Original be different from that which is here that cannot be the right reading here For whatever was the opinion Jobs Friends had of him yet I find not that Elihu ever judged that he had been an unjust man that he needed advise him to amend that fault Others read it thus Judge to wit thy self which they adde before him and trust in him that is repent and believe And it is true That none can warrantably believe but those who are self-judgers and who do abase and condemn themselves before the Lord in the sense of their sinfulness And That even those who find cause thus to judge themselves have yet a warrant to believe and trust But beside that the word here is rather a Noun Judgement than a Verb to judge which makes against both these readings and that this last reading requires a Supplement to make out the sense all this self-judging may be imported and pre-supposed in trusting as hath been cleared And therefore according to our own Translation I take the words to hold out this ground of encouragement to trust in God That Judgement is before him as his scope and design is in all his dealing especially toward his people and that which he will be careful to have observed Where by Judgement we are not only to understand his strict justice and that he is a righteous Judge and will prove so at last to Job in deciding of his cause and in the mean time will do him no wrong But his tender moderation in his dealing with his people and that he tenderly considereth their condition to deal moderately with them as there is cause as he speaks of Jobs lot in the next Verse Thus the phrase though the word in the Original be different is used Is 30 18. Psal 99.4 See also Job 34.23 and 37.23 Doct. As the sound knowledge of God is a sure bottom for Faith to rest upon Psal 9.10 So particularly it encourageth Faith to know that he is not only righteous but full of tenderness and moderation in all his dispensations toward his people So that no sâ—verity takes away his tender consideration of his peoples condition For saith he Judgement is bâ—sâ—â—â— him therefore trust thou in him Hence he is said to know our mould and frame Psal 103.13 14 15. Is 57.16 to remember mercy in wrath Hab. 3.2 Judg. 10.13 16. to pity even our sinful disposition if our selves be sensible of it Gen. 8.21 to make use of the stroaks which he hath inflicted in displeasure as arguments of his sympathy and pity Jer. 31.20 and to measure our burdens by our strength and ability Is 28.27 28. 1 Cor. 10.13 Hence Gods people are to blame when they complain of his severity to the weakening of their own confidence The causes whereof are their inordinate love to ease which makes them to be vexed when they get not leave to sleep securely their love of their lusts which imbittereth their Spirits when those are crushed their want of spare strength which dissatisfieth them and rendereth them still jealous even notwithstanding that they are supported and their not looking in to his tender heart when his hand is sad upon them nor considering that as a faithful Chyrurgian he may wound with the wound of an enemy and the chastisement of a cruel one Jer. 30.14 when yet he minds nothing but love to them Verse 15. But now because it is not so he hath visited in his anger yet he knoweth it not in great extremity This advice and remedy of Jobs evil is here further pressed from the sad fruits of the want of it and that because of his despondency and neglect of faith he was chastened in displeasure though yet moderately Whence Learn 1. It is nothing strange to see Saints deficient in their duty especially in the matter of trusting in God For here it is not so as he hath advised As we come alwayes short in duty especially in times of trouble and tentation So there is no duty wherein we are then more deficient than in believing 2. Want of humble trust in God in trouble is so great a sin before God that it is just cause of a quarrel against these that are guilty of it For Because now it is not so he hath visited This they ought to advert unto who think they do well and have a call and warrant to distrust because they are in trouble 3. Gods quarrel against his people for their unbelief may be prosecuted and appear in sad stroaks and chastisements For because of this he hath visited or chastened Few do read their condition thus and that their diffidence may have an hand in bringing on or continuing of their stroaks 4. The want of trust in God doth provoke God to displeasure which should be read and observed by Saints in their most cleanly tryals when they are
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
against sinners as the word threatens Jer. 12.4 Or that God doth not send his messsengers with all these hard messages they hear Jer. 5.12 13. So others fear not him nor his Word at all do what they will Exod. 5.2 Isa 36.20 Jer. 17.15 Isa 5.19 2 Pet. 3.4 7. When men have most low thoughts of God and of the advantage of Piety and are most presumptuous judgments may be nearest to them as in the like case it was with the old world And it is indeed true that such insolency in sin highly provokes God to plague though yet he may spare as Job cleared in the former Chapter 8. Men may be equal in sin who yet meet with different lots in the World For those who were overthrown by the floud and these whom Job asserteth to have been spared Chap. 21.13 14 15. are guilty of the same sins Vers 18. Yet he filled their houses with good things but the counsel of the wicked is far from me In the Fourth Branch of the Argument He subjoyns a caution to these corrupt Principles of the wicked as Job had done before him Chap. 25.16 And 1. He asserts that though they sleighted God as an unprofitable Master Yet he had for a time given them prosperity which gave the lie to the insolent undervaluing of him 2. Lest he should seem to be taken with that he had spoken of their impiety he expresses his abhorrency thereof in these same words that had been used by Job Chap. 21.16 Hereby intimating that he might more justly say their counsel was far from him who believed their speedy ruine than Job who flattered them with hopes of prosperity till their death Doct. 1. Though wicked men have low thoughts of God yet his bounty may for a time follow them to refute their ingratitude and contempt of him For though they saw not what the Almighty could do for them v. 17. Yet he filled their houses with good things See Matth. 5.45 2. The things of this present life are not only good in the wickeds esteem who have no other portion but they are good in themselves and ought so to be esteemed of and God praised for them and however the wicked abuse them which will heighten their guilt they are given for good ends not only to supply mens pressing necessities but to draw them to repentance Rom. 2.4 Therefore are they here called good things as also Job 2.9 Luke 16.25 though other things be comparatively far better Luke 10.41 42. 3. God may heap prosperity upon wicked men and may fill their houses with his good things that so he may give a large proof of his bounty and long suffering toward them who sin against so much mercy and that in his righteous judgement it may prove a snare whereby wicked men harden themselves in sleighting of him For he filled their houses with good things 4. All the favours that wicked men get are but temporary For they are only good things filling their houses in this life For they seek after no more and by this the godly are warned not to think too much of these things but to leave them to the wicked who have there Portion in this life Psal 17.14 5. The more kind God hath been mens sin in despising of him is the more hainous As here their impiety v. 17. is aggravated from this that he filled their houses with good things See Jer. 2.2 3 4 31. Mic. 6.3 4. 6. They may receive great heaps of temporal mercies who will be sadly plagued ere all be done As here these who thus prospered were overthrown with the floud 7. In all debates amongst godly men it is commendable to emulate who shall be most opposite to impiety As here he contends with Job about that which of them put the counsel of the wicked far from them 8. Men may pretend to be most against impiety and for godliness and may look upon others as hypocrites in that matter when yet it is nothing so but themselves have the worst cause For Eliphaz thinks he may better say The counsel of the wicked is far from him than Job might who as he judged said he hated the wicked when yet he continued in his wicked course and strengthned the hands of the wicked by his principles and discourses and yet Job was a godly man and maintained nothing but what was truth in that matter Vers 19. The righteous see it and are glad and the innocent laugh them to scorn 20. Whereas our substance is not cut down but the remnant of them the fire consumeth The sixt and last Argument and an Amplification of the former is taken from the estate of godly men contrary to what befals the wicked This is first propounded more generally v. 19. That the righteous shall have cause of joy and of deriding the wicked when they are afflicted 2. The ground of this their carriage is more particularly subjoyned v. 20. which is Gods different dealing with the wicked and them the one being preserved from ruine and the other consumed even to their very least remnants As the former Argument pointed chiefly at the time of the general deluge So this may point at the lot and practice of Noah who was preserved and had occasion to sing that Song v. 20. yet so as the godly may make use of it in all ages when they meet with such a dispensation And as Eliphaz and the rest did look upon Job as the instance of a wicked man consumed by God while themselves were preserved so it is like he repeats this Song even in reference to that As for the strength of this Argument it contains a truth of the preservation of some godly men at sometimes when the wicked were destroyed as we see in Noah Lot c. yet it is not so universally or frequently true as to contradict Job's Doctrine And as for this joy and laughing at the wicked it is not to be approved if it flow from the want of humanity or from a spirit of private revenge Job 31 29 30. Prov. 24.17 18. Yet it is lawful and right when it flows from love to the glory of God whose justice shines in these acts of vengeance See Psal 58.10 11. 107.42 Doct. 1. God when he pleaseth can make the plagues of wicked men remarkable For the righteous shall see it So also Psal 58.10 Men should make use of more secret and hid tryals blessing God that they are not made Beacons much more are they called to be fruitful when the world may see their calamities 2. As the prosperity of the wicked and especially their insolent profanity and cruelty when they prosper do sadden godly men so their calamities will revive and make them glad Fot this in particular is the cause of joy here The righteous shall see it or what befals such insolent profane men as have been above described and be glad As the godly may find matter of comfort in all their tribulations James 1.2 Rom.
5.3 when they observe Gods love in taking pains upon them Rev. 3.19 Heb. 12.6 7 8. that he vindicates the glory of his Holiness in not winking at their faults 2 Sam. 12.14 that he supports them under trouble 2 Cor. 4.8 9. 6.9 10. 12.9 10. that he makes their troubles useful to them 1 Pet. 1.6 7. James 1 2 3. and sits them thereby for his Consolations 2 Cor. 1.5 and that their afflictions cannot reach their best things 1 Pet. 1.5 6 and all their sorrows will end in joy at last So in particular the ruine of the wicked will afford them joy When they see Gods justice and consequently his Providence made conspicuous for their comfort Psal 58.10 11. when in the ruine of the wicked they observe proofs of Gods Truth and Power to be made use of in other cases And when they consider how they have been kept from the wickeds evil way and so have escaped ruine with them 3. Though wicked men during their prosperity be looked upon by many as the only wise men in the world yet in their misery they will be found ridiculous when all their witty projects shall fail them and the courses they have taken for their own security shall be found to have tended to their ruine Therefore it is said the innocent shall laugh them to scorn which doth intimate that they will be found to have been ridiculous in their way and that innocent straight walkers have the advantage of them See Psal 52.6 7. 4. Not only will the godly have cause to rejoyce at the calamity of the wicked but because of Gods contrary dealing with themselves and the difference he makes between the one and the other For so much doth their Song import Whereas our substance is not cut down but the remnant of them the fire consumeth See Mal 3.18 Isa 65.12 God may sometime make this difference even by preserving the righteous from common calamities and by exempting of them when tâ—ouble is most violently consuming the wicked as a fiâ—e as he did to Noah and is still able to do it if he please Yet this is not always to be expected but there may be a difference made even though they taste of the outward trouble God can moderate trouble to his own when it consumes the wicked as a fire Isa 27.7 He can make it easie to their spirits how violent soever it be in it self while the wicked sink under it Isa 33.14 15 c. He can deliver his own after they are afflicted and can make them rise after they have faln Mic. 7.8 and not be cut down while the wicked never recover but their remnants are consumed by the fire Or though they be cut off by trouble he can make up all with eternal happiness when the wicked are sent to the pit by their temporal plagues 5. None can claim to the priviledges of the godly or to be righteous persons who do not study Innocency in their Conversation For the righteous who are glad and enjoy this priviledge are the innocent Vers 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and â—e at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Followeth the Second Part of the Chapter wherein Eliphaz having endeavoured to convince Job that he was wicked doth now as he had done in his first discourse sweeten this sharpness with an Exhortation to be converted and repent pressed upon him by many encouragements The Exhortation is propounded in several branches with some encouragements intermixed v. 21 22 23. Unto which other encouragements are expressly subjoyned v. 24 c. Concerning this part of the Chapter it is to be marked in General 1. That the Exhortation contains sound Doctrine concerning the way of an unrenewed man or hypocrites conversion and turning unto God But it is ill directed and applyed to Job as if he had been an hypocrite before and ought now to cast away the testimony and evidences of his former integrity 2. As for the Arguments or Encouragements especially these promises of temporal prosperity upon his repentance whatever truth be in them that such Promises are put in the Believers Charter to be performed as God seeth good 1 Tim. 4 8. Yet they hold not true in Eliphaz's sense that prosperity will be heaped upon every penitent and godly man For the Scriptures and Experience in all Ages do bear witness to the contrary In this verse we have 1. An Exhortation in two Branches that Job should acquaint himself or become familiar with God and be at peace which is a good counsel when given to the fit person 2. A General Encouragement subjoyned that he shall reap good and advantage by so doing Obs 1. It may be one of the godlies tryals under affliction to have all their Piety judged to have been hypocrisie and that they must begin of new as if they had never done any thing in sincerity before For so is Job dealt with here And godly mâ—n may be tempted to yield to this both on the left hand by rough usage wherewith Job hath been essayed in the former part of the Discourse and on the right hand by soft and smooâ—h insinuations wherewith he is assaulted here Hence 1. It is the duty of men to expect that their state will be tried and that their integrity real or supposed will be assaulted when tryals come as the winds and raâ—tâ—y how the house is builded Mat. 7.24 27. 2. It is acceptable service in the truly godly to stand fast in this tryal and not to rase the foundations whatever infirmities and miscarriages they see cause to acknowledge For it is sent to be a tryal wherein they ought not to faint 3. They are very cruel and do try sharply who call the grace of godly men in question in the day of their tryal Obs 2. Greatest sharpness against mens persons and faults ought to be seasoned with sweetness and love As here Eliphaz subjoyns sweet insinuations to his former sharp discourse though he had omitted it in his last discourse Chap. 15. and falls a beseeching acquaint thy self now or I beseech thee Sharp rebukes ought to be mixed with love to make them take For it is no easie art to reprove men aright but requires much honesty tenderness and love Obs 3. Afflictions do never speak rightly to men but when they press Reconciliation with God upon them either to secure it by renewed evidences and assurances if they be already reconciled or to make it up if it be otherwise For in this sense his Doctrine is sound though it must not be granted that every afflicted man is unrenewed and hath the friendship to begin But otherwise whatever afflictions seem to say from God to us yet it speaks love in God and safety to us if our afflictions lead us to God-ward to make sure his favour and to have all our losses made up by it and to run away fâ—om God in afflictions speaks our condition to be very deplorable Isa 1.5 Jer. 5.3 Obs 4.