Instructer 18. He keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword 18. Who by this means mercifully preserves him if he obey his Admonition from running on to his own destruction and rescues him from the violent death which the sword of Justice or of an Enemy would have inflicted on him 19. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain 19. Another way and more common then this by Dreams is the painfull Diseases wherewith he chastises man and lays him low on his bed though his constitution of body be never so firm and strong 20. So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat 20. In which languishing case he loaths his food yea nauseates that very meat which formerly was his greatest delight 21. His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his bones that were not seen stick out 21. Which makes so great a change in him that his Flesh which formerly appeared plump and fair cannot be seen and his Bones stick out which formerly did not appear 22. Yea his soul draweth near unto the grave and his life to the destroyers 22. There is but a step between him and his grave the pangs of death being ready to seize on him 23. If there be a messenger with him and interpreter one among â— thousand to shew unto man his uprightness 23. If then which is a third way whereby God teaches men there come a Divine Messenger unto him a rare person that can expound the mind of God and perswade the sick man to repent and amend his life 24. Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom 24. He shall beseech God to be gracious to him saying Spare him good Lord and rescue him from going down to the grave let it satisfie thee that thou hast corrected him and that I have found him a Penitent 25. His flesh shall be fresher then a childs he shall return to the days of his youth 25. Presently the sick man shall begin to recover and become a new man in his Body as well as in his Mind His Flesh shall look as fresh as when he was a child and he shall be restored to the Vigour and Strength of his youthfull age 26. He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy for he will render unto man his righteousness 26. His Prayer also shall be acceptable to God and prevail for the Blessings he asks He shall go into the House of God and with the most joyfull voice give thanks unto Him and praise his Goodness who will then acquit him and restore this poor man to his Favour 27. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not 27. And he as becomes a true Penitent casting his eyes upon his Neighbours shall openly confess and say I have offended God and He hath justly chastised me I have done wickedly and He hath punished me according to my desert 28. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light 28. But hath redeemed me from that Death into which I was going and not onely made me live but given me hope that I shall enjoy prosperous days 29. Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man 29. Behold in all this the wonderfull goodness of God who by so many means very often admonishes Man 30. To bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living 30. To reduce him from those evil courses which had just brought him to his Grave and to raise him up again to live in all true Happiness and Pleasure 31. Mark well O Job hearken unto me hold thy peace and I will speak 31. Mark this well O Job for it may very much concern thee consider what I have said and if thou pleasest to hear me patiently I will still instruct thee more fully 32. If thou hast any thing to say answer me speak for I desire to justifie thee 32. Or if thou hast any thing to object to what I have said I am willing to hear it Speak before I go any farther for I heartily desire thou mayst clear thy self and appear a Righteous person 33. If not hearken unto me hold thy peace and I shall teach thee wisedom 33. If thou hast no exception against my Discourse then continue thy attentions and silently listen to me and I will teach thee more Wisedom CHAP. XXXIV ARGUMENT Here Job shews himself a far more humble and teachable person then his three Friends for though Elihu had invited him to make what exceptions he pleased to his Discourse in the former Chapter he would not open his mouth because he plainly saw that Elihu had hit upon the thing wherein he was defective And so this young man proceeds to carry the Charge a little higher and tells him with more sharpness then before that there were some words in his Discourses which sounded in his ears as if he accused God's Justice and Goodness For what else did he mean when he complained that God did not doe him right and that he destroyed alike both good and bad Which rash Assertions he overthrows from the consideration of the Sovereign Dominion Power Righteousness and Wisedom of God and represents to him what behaviour and discourse would have better become him then that which he had used 1. FVrthermore Elihu answered and said 1. TO this last motion Job consented and replying never a word Elihu proceeded in his Discourse and said 2. Hear my words O ye wise men and give ear unto me ye that have knowledge 2. I do not desire to be Judge alone in this Cause but I appeal to them that are wise and beseech all those among you that hear me who are intelligent to mark and consider what I now deliver 3. For the ear trieth words as the mouth tasteth meat 3. You can discern whether it be true or false for the Mind is as proper a Judg of Discourse as the Palate is of Meat 4. Let us choose to us judgment let us know among our selves what is good 4. Let us agree to examine the buisiness that we may be able to pronounce a righteous judgment let us debate among our selves and resolve whether Job have a good Cause or no. 5. For Job hath said I am righteous and God hath taken away my judgment 5. For he hath said I am innocent and God who knows I do not deserve to suffer in this manner XXVII 2 6. will not doe me right 6. Should I lie against my right my wound is incurable without transgression 6. I scorn to defend my self with lies but I
but it is not a sense of Him but onely the haughty Violence of their Oppressours which extorts it from them 13. Surely God will not hear vanity neither will the Almighty regard it 13. For we must not think that God though He be inclined to relieve the Afflicted will give ear to men so void of Piety He will not regard those who have so little regard to Him even for this reason because He stands in need of no-body 14. Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him yet judgmeni is before him therefore trust thou in him 14. Therefore although thou complainest that thou dost not see Him appear for thy deliverance XXIII 8. yet do not conclude from thence that He is unrighteous but go and condemn thy self before Him and then patiently wait for his Mercy 15. But now because it is not so he hath visited in his anger yet he knoweth it not in great extremity 15. But now because there is nothing of this in thee God hath thus severely afflicted thee and not at all regarded the exceeding great Prosperity wherein thou hast hitherto lived 16. Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain he multiplieth words without knowledg 16. And Job may spare his Complaints hereafter for they are to no purpose he heapeth up words without reason CHAP. XXXVI ARGUMENT Having reprehended some of the unwarrantable Expressions in Job's Discourses which he himself would not justify Elihu comes closer to the buisiness and speaks to the very Cause it self Shewing from the Nature of God and the Methods of his Providence that if Job had in stead of Disputing submitted himself humbly to God's Corrections He would have delivered him it being as easy for Him to lift up as to cast down And that his not discerning the Reason of his Corrections which Job had made a great cause of his Grief XIX 7. ought not to have hindred his humble Submission because we are not able to comprehend any of the Works of God which we see every day and acknowledge to be most excellently contrived 1. ELIHV also proceeded and said 1. JOB still keeping silence Elihu proceeded in his Discourse and said 2. Suffer me a little and I will shew thee that I have yet to speak on God's behalf 2. Be not weary and I will open my mind more fully for thou hast not yet heard all that God hath to say for himself by my mouth 3. I will fetch my knowledg from afar and I will ascribe righteousness to my maker 3. Which shall now from the most sublime Contemplations assert the Righteousness of my Maker 4. For truly my words shall not be false he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee 4. For assure thy self I will not seek to baffle thee with sophistical Arguments He that discourses with thee is none of those subtle Disputers but loves sincere and solid Reason 5. Behold God is mighty and despiseth not any he is mighty in strength and wisedom 5. Know then that God is most mighty but despiseth not the meanest The excellence of His Power and the greatness of His Mind will not suffer Him to wrong any-body 6. He preserveth not the life of the wicked but giveth right to the poor 6. When men are extreamly wicked and fit to be punished He will let them live no longer but the Poor at last shall recover their right and be delivered out of their Affliction 7. He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous but with kings are they on the throne yea he doth establish them for ever and they are exalted 7. For whatsoever Affliction the Righteous suffer God never ceases to take a special care of them and sometimes raises them to the highest Offices that Kings can confer upon them in which they are settled as long as they live and exalted above the power of their Enemies that would pull them down 8. And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction 8. Or if they should fall into any Trouble which lies as heavy on them and holds them as fast as if they were bound with chains and with cords 9. Then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded 9. It is onely to make them reflect upon their Lives and to shew them their Sins because they grow strong and begin to prevail over them 10. He openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity 10. He disposeth them hereby to listen to Instruction and admonishes them to forsake their Sins and return to their Duty 11. If they obey and serve him they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures 11. And if they profit so much by their Affliction as to obey this Counsel and devoutly serve Him they shall regain their former Splendour and pass the rest of their life in Prosperity and Pleasure 12. But if they obey not they shall perish by the sword and they shall die without knowledge 12. But if they be disobedient they shall be utterly cut off and die in their Folly 13. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath they cry not when he bindeth them 13. And they that are false-hearted do but heap up Wrath to themselves by their counterfeit Piety which surprises them so suddenly that it gives them no time so much as to cry to God when his Punishments seize on them 14. They die in youth and their life is among the unclean 14. They die before their time in the flower of their age and perish like the impure Sodomites with an hasty and unexpected Destruction 15. He delivereth the poor in his affliction and openeth their ears in oppression 15. Whereas He delivers the poor humble man in his Affliction and makes his Oppression the means of giving him wholesom Counsell 16. Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place where there is no straitness and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness 16. Even so would He have rescued thee if thou hadst humbly submitted to his Correction out of these miserable Streights to which thou art reduced and not onely inlarged thee but set thee so far from all danger of falling again into them that Peace and Plenty should have been thy portion 17. But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked judgment and justice take hold on thee 17. But thou hast maintained the cause of the Wicked and such as a man's Cause is such will the Judgment of God be upon him 18. Because there is wrath beware lest he take thee away with his stroke then a great ransom cannot deliver thee 18. And because God is angry with thee take heed lest thou farther incense Him to punish thee so heavily that upon no terms He will deliver thee 19. Will he esteem thy riches
Eliphaz endeavours to establish this for a certain truth That as Afflictions do not come by chance but by the Providence of God so they are sent for the sins of men and therefore without all doubt Job was a great offendour which was the cause he was handled on this manner This opinion says Maimonides he held to the last onely was fain to adde in conclusion that all the ways whereby we deserve punishment do not appear Then after him when Job had argued against this comes Bildad who produces a new opinion grounded upon the doctrine of permutation or recompence as they speak That is he believed the Evils which Job indured here should if he proved innocent be changed into good things and in the issue be highly serviceable to him in another world After whom succeeds Zophar with a different resolution from all these which was that God acts according to his own pleasure and that we are not to search for any cause of his actions out of his own will nor to say why doth he this and not that In short we are not to seek the way of equity and the decree of wisedom in his doings for it necessarily belongs to his Essence that He doe what He will and our understanding is too shallow to comprehend the secrets of his Wisedom whose right and propriety it is that He may do according to his Pleasure and for no other cause And these four Opinions about Providence Maimonides undertakes to shew have had their several Assertors since who have propagated them among their Scholars Job's opinion he saith is the same with Aristotle's who attributed all to accident Bildad was followed by the Sect of Mutazali a kind of Pharisees among the Ismaelites who ascribed all to Wisedom Zophar by the Sect of Assaria who attributed all to will and pleasure And Eliphaz he fancies held the opinion of the Law which is that God deals with men according to their works But when all that these men had disputed nothing moved Job there stands up another whose name was Elihu who first proves the Providence of God from prophetical dreams XXXIII 13. and to those things which Eliphaz had said adds according to the imagination of Menasseh Ben-Israel the doctrine of the transmigration of Souls which he labours to find in v. 14. and thereby in a wonderfull way says he resolves all the doubt by determining that Job and other just men may be punished for sins which they committed in a former body But as there is no footstep that I can see for this fond conceit which he honours with the name of a mystery so it is evident these men follow their own vain inventions in all this discourse directly contrary to the Book it self For they make Job's opinion the very worst of all the rest when the Lord himself tells Eliphaz in the conclusion of the Book XLII 7. that He was angry with him and his two other Friends because they had not spoken of him so rightly as Job had And it doth not appear by their speeches that they held several opinions about Providence and took every one of them a different way that 's a meer Rabbinical subtilty to solve the doubt wherein Job's unusual sufferings had perplexed them But they seem to have harped all of them upon one and the same string as I have represented in the Arguments before each Chapter which it is thought fit should be here set down by themselves that the Reader may take a view of the whole work all together From whence the conclusion of Maimonides will be very evident which is the best thing he says that The scope of the Book is to establish the great Article of Providence and thereby to preserve us from errour in thinking that God's Knowledge is like our Knowledge or his Intention Providence and Government like our Intention Providence and Government Which foundation being laid nothing will seem hard to a man whatsoever happens Nor will he fall into dubious thoughts concerning God whether He knows what is befaln us or no and whether He takes any care of us But rather he will be inflamed the more vehemently in the love of God as it is said in the end of this Prophecy Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes So say our Wise men They that act out of love will rejoyce in Chastisements THE ARGUMENTS TO THE SEVERAL CHAPTERS CHAP. I. ARGUMENT THIS Chapter is a plain Narration of the flourishing condition wherein Job lived before the envy and malice of the Devil brought upon him the sorest Calamities which are particularly described with the occasion of them and his admirable Constancy under them whereby he became as eminent an example of Patience in Adversity as he had been of Piety and all manner of Vertue in his Prosperity fol. 1 CHAP. II. ARGUMENT The first part of this Chapter is a continuation of the Narration which was begun in the foregoing of the Calamities which befell this good man whom God suffered the Devil to afflict in his Body as he had already done in his Goods and Children And then follows a farther testimony of his Constancy notwithstanding his Wife 's angry and profane accusation of the Divine Providence Though it is true he was so much dejected to see himself reduced to this extremity of Misery that neither he nor his Friends that came to visit him were able for several days to speak a word fol. 11 CHAP. III. ARGUMENT Here begin the Discourses which Job and his Friends had about his Affliction which are all represented by the Authour of this Book poetically not as hitherto in a plain simple Narration but in most elegant verse And being overcharged with Grief without the least word of comfort from his Friends he that had for some time born the weight of his Asslictions with an admirable Constancy could not contain himself any longer but bursts out to such a degree was the anguish of his spirit increased into the most passionate Camplaints of the Miseries of humane Life The consideration of which made him prefer Death much before it and wish that either he had never come into the world or gone presently out of it again or at least might now forthwith he dismissed fol. 17 CHAP. IV. ARGUMENT Eliphaz incensed at this Complaint of Job in stead of condoling with him and pitying the Miseries which had put him into this Agony and applying fitting Lenitives to his Anguish bluntly rebukes him for not following the good Advice that he used to give to others in their Adversity and tells him he had reason to suspect his Piety because the Innocent were not wont to suffer such things but onely wicked Oppressours whom though never so mighty God had always humbled Witness the Horims who dwelt in Seir II. Deut. 12. whom the ancestours of Eliphaz XXXVI Gen. 11. had overcome though they were as fierce as Lions To those Beasts of prey of all sorts he compares the Tyrants whom
of Disputing submitted himself humbly to God's have Corrections He would have delivered him it being as easy for Him to lift up as to cast down And that his not discerning the Reason of his Corrections which Job had made a great cause of his Grief XIX 7. ought not to have hindred his humble Submission because we are not able to comprehend any of the Works of God which we see every day and acknowledge to be most excellently contrived fol. 229 CHAP. XXXVII ARGUMENT Elihu continues his Speech which he had begun before concerning the incomprehensible Works of God and limits himself chiefly as he had in the foregoing Chapter to the Wonders God doeth in the Clouds To which at last he subjoyns the amazing extent brightness and firmness of the Skie in which the Sun shines with a lustre which we are not able to behold And thence concludes that the Splendour of the Divine Majesty is infinitely more dazling and that we must not pretend to give an account of his Counsels fol. 237 CHAP. XXXVIII ARGUMENT What Elihu had said concerning the Divine Majesty in the 22. verse of the foregoing God declares to be true by a sensible demonstration as I have expressed it in the first Verse of this Chapter In which God appears himself as a Judge according to Job's repeated desires to decide this great Controversy And taking up the Argument begun by Elihu who came nearest to the truth and prosecuting it in unimitable words excelling his and all other mens in the loftiness of the style as much as Thunder doth a Whisper He convinces Job of his Ignorance and Weakness by shewing him how little he understood of the most obvious things in this World Intending from thence at last to infer that he who found himself puzzled when he went about to give an account of the meanest of God's visible Works should not presume to penetrate into his secret Counsels nor question his Goodness no more then he could his Wisedom and Power though he knew not why he was afflicted One instance had been sufficient to bring Job to a Non-plus but He heaps up abundance to humble him the more when he saw how much cause there was for it whether he considered the Earth or the Heavens the Sea or the Sun things contained in the bosom of the Sea or in the bowels of the Earth especially all the Meteors as we call them which are formed in the Clouds and the Constellations in the higher Regions together with the Beasts upon the earth and the Birds which fly in the air one of each of which he mentions in the end of this Chapter fol. 244 245 CHAP. XXXIX ARGUMENT This Chapter continues the Discourse begun in the latter end of the foregoing concerning God's Providence about Beasts and Birds And to the Two before mentioned he adds Seven more First the wild Goat or Hinde whose hard labour among the rocks God is wont to help and promote as the Psalmist observes XXIX 9. and other Authours agree by a clap of Thunder the terrour of which puts her into such an agony that she presently excludes her young one which sticks in the birth Then he mentions the wild Ass and after that a tall Creature in those Countries called Reem which we render an Unicorn but Bochartus hath proved to be a two-horned Goat in Arabia of great strength with an erected head and ears Of the rest I need say nothing here they are so well known fol. 254 CHAP. XL. ARGUMENT Job modestly declining to say one word in his own defence though he was graciously invited by God to speak if he had any Plea remaining is still more humbled by a plain declaration from the Divine Majesty that Elihu had reason to reprove him for his immoderate Complaints which some might look upon as an Accusation of God's Providence and for maintaining his own Righteousness so much and God's Righteousness so little in the Dispute he had with his Friends Shewing him withall that he was not sensible enough of the infinite Distance and Inequality between him and God when he desired so vehemently to argue his Case with Him that he forgot to make those Submissions to the Divine Majesty which had better become him This Disproportion is most lively represented and illustrated by an admirable description of the strength of the BEHEMOTH a word of Egyptian termination signifying not the Elephant which seldome lies down and never among reeds as this doth v. 21. but a creature in that Country called by the Greek Writers Hippopotamus i. e. River-horse For it appears by the Second book of Esdras Chap. VI. v. 49. that the Hebrews reckon Behemoth not among the Land-creatures but among those belonging to the Water which were created on the fifth day And there is none that we know of that sort to whom the Characters here mentioned belong but the Creature now named fol. 261 262 CHAP. XLI ARGUMENT In this Chapter another Creature of vast bigness and strength is described called in the Arabian language LEVIATHAN By which we are not in this place to understand the Whale because that Fish is not armed with such Scales as Leviathan is here said to have v. 15. nor is impenetrable as every body knows and to say no more never creeps upon the Earth which is part of the description of this Leviathan v. 33. Whereby we are therefore to understand the Crocodile to whom every part of this description exactly belongs a Creature as big again as a Man of the greatest stature and in some places vastly greater there having been Crocodiles seen of twenty nay forty foot long and in some places of an hundred To this fierce and untameable Creature God sends Job that he might learn more Humility then to contend with his Majesty when he saw how unable he was to stand before one of his Creatures That use he himself teaches Job to make of this description v. 10 11 12. fol. 268 CHAP. XLII ARGUMENT This Chapter concludes the Book with an account how Job compleated the Submission which he had begun before to make to God Whose Pardon he sorrowfully begs confessing and repenting of his Fault resigning himself intirely to be instructed by Him but resolving never hereafter to complain nor to move any questions about his Providence This Repentance God accepts and for his sake grants a Pardon also to his Friends whom he condemns as more faulty then Job Who after this receives extraordinary marks of God's Favour and hath such an ample Recompence made him for his Losses as may incourage all posterity to persevere in well doing and patient suffering believing stedfastly that nothing can be done or permitted by God without much reason whose Wisedom shines so gloriously in all his Works and humbly expecting a comfortable issue out of all our Troubles fol. 277 THE END ERRATA PAGE 158. lin 17. and p. 165. l. 16. for MASCHAL reade MASHAL p. 247. l. 23. r. cliffs p. 250. l. 6. r. abundance p. 298. l. 21. r. great p. 302. l. 25. r. God alone A Catalogue of some Books Printed for R. Royston viz. Books Written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick THE Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour in Four Parts The Third Edition corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of humane Life The Second Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The Third Edition in Twelves A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist in Octavo Two Parts Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth in Two Parts in Octavo new The Glorious Epiphany with the Devout Christians love to it in Octavo new The End of the Catalogue