upon his estate upon the branches and the fruit of that goodly tree much like that in the vision Dan. 4. 13 14. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed and behold a watcher and a holy One came downe from Heaven He cryed aloud and said thus Hew downe the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit c. This Allegory may be rendred in the plaine words of Eliphaz I cursed his habitation his children are far from safety The Master of the Family is the tree His children are either fruit or branches His leaves are riches and honour the beauty and pleasantnesse of his habitation Some things in the letter of the text are to be opened but I shall first observe one thing in the generall from the connection of this fourth verse with the third I suddenly cursed his habitation verse 3. Then follows his children are far from safety Observe from it That Creatures cannot stand before the curse of God How strongly soever they are rooted the blast of the breath of Gods displeasure will either blow them downe or wither them standing The curse comes powerfully suddenly and secretly it is often an invisible stroake When we see neither axe nor spade at the roote nor strome at rhe top yet downe it comes or stands without leafe or fruit When Christ in the Gospell curst the fruitlesse figg-tree his Disciples passing by that way wondred saying how quickly is this figg-tree whithered it was but onely a word from Christ Never beare fruit more and the fig-tree which had no fruit lost its life Some are such tall Cedars such mighty Oakes that men conclude there is no stirring of them no Axe can fell them or blast loosen them yet a word from the Lord will turne them up side downe or if he doe but say to them never fruit grow upon your actions or out of your counsels presently they wither The curse causlesse shall not come but when there is a cause and God speaks the word the curse will come Neither power nor policies neither threatnings or entreaties can hinder or block it up It is said of the water of jealousie in the booke of Numbers that when the woman dranke that water if there were cause of her husbands suspition presently her belly swel'd and her thighes did rot the effect was inevitable So if God bid judgement take hold of a man family or Nation it will obey A word made the world and a word is able to destroy it There is no armour of proofe against the shot or stroake of a curse Suddenly I cursed his habitation and the next news is His children are far from safety If God speake the word it is done as soone as spoken as that mysterious Letter said of the Gun-pouder plot As soone as the paper is burnt the thing is done Surely God can cause his judgements to passe upon his implacable enemies such horrid conspiratours against Churches and Common-wealths truth and peace with as much speed as a paper burns with a blaze and a blast they are consumed That in the generall from the connexion of these two verses Assoone as he was cursed his children and his estate all that he had went to wrack and ruine I shall now open the words distinctly His children are far from safety Some reade Were far from safety and so the whole passage in the time past because he speaks of a particular example which he himself had observeâ— in those daies as is cleare v. 2. Having shewed the curse upon the eoot he now shews the withering of the brauches Some of the Rabbins understand by Children the Followers or Imitators of wicked men such as assisted them or such as were like them These are morall children but take it rather in the letter for naturall children such as were borne to them or adopted by them these come under their fathers unhappinesse They are far from safety The Hebrew word is commonly rendred salvation His children are farre from salvation But then we must understand it for temporall salvation which our translation expresses clearely by safety His children are farre from safety It is possible that the children of a wicked man may be neare unto eternall salvation Though godly parents have a promise for their seed yet grace doth not runne in a bloud neither is the love of God tied or entayl'd upon any linage of men Election sometimes crosses the line and steps into the family of a reprobate father Therefore it is not said His children are farre from salvation in a strict but in a large sence We find the word salvation frequently used for safetie 2 Kings 13. 17. when Elisha bad Joash the King of Israel shot the arrow he called it the arrow of the Lords salvation which we render the arrow of the Lords deliverance So Moses bespeakes the trembling Israelites aâ— the red Sea Stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord that is behold what safety the Lord will give you from all these dangers what deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh The Prophet represents the Jewes thus bemoaning their outward judgements We roare all like Beares and mourne sore like Doves we looke for judgement but there is none for salvation but it is farre off Isa 59. 11. They are far from safety To be far from safety is a phrase importing extreame danger As when a man is said to be far from light he is in extreame darknesse and when a man is said to be far from health he is in extreame sicknesse and when a man is said to be far from riches he is in extreame poverty So here His children are far from safety that is they are in extreame danger and perill they walk as it were in the regions of trouble in the valley of the shadow of death continually That phrase is used also respecting the spirituall estate of unbeleevers They are far off from God far off from the Covenant Isa 57. 19. Ephes 12. 13. that is they have no benefit by the Covenant no interest in no favour at all or mercy from the Lord. To be far off from mercy is to be neare wrath and to be far from safety is to dwell upon the borders of danger And they are crushed in the gate In the forth Chapter Eliphaz describes man as crushed before the moth to shew how suddenly how easily man is destroyed This mans children are crushed in the gate as a man would crush a flie or a moth between his fingers They are crushed in the gate That notes two things First the publikenesse of their destruction they shall be destroyed in the sight of all men for the gate was a publike place Pro 31. 31. her workes praise her in the gates that is she is publikely knowne by her good works To doe a thing in the gate is opposed to the doing of a thing secretly To suffer in the gate is to suffer publikely Secondly to be crushed in the gate
the highest elevation both in parts gifts and graces shall he be more pure than his Maker Christ as incarnate or made man is called the Mighty God Isa 9. 6. God made a Mighty man or man becomming the Mighty God The Chaldee calls all Giants Gibbaraja and Nimrod the first of the Giants was called by this name a Mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. 10. 8. So then Let man be never so excellent his excellency is basenesse let him be never so strong so wise so holy he is but weake foolish filthy compared with him who made him Leave your Enosh your weakeling your poore sick creatures bring forth your Gibers your best they are as nothing yea lesse than nothing before the Lord. Shall mortall man be more just than God shall man the best of men be more pure than his Maker We are to marke the double opposition of the Text. Here is first mortall weake sick man set in opposition to the strong the mighty the all-powerfull God And then in the second place the opposition is between the strongest the best the holiest the wisest of men and the maker of all men Shall mortall man or shall the best of men be more just more pure than God their Maker There is a three-fold sense which we may give of the words joyntly First They are a deniall of all comparison between God and man No man may compare himselfe with God Shall mortall man that is mortall man ought not to be so bold and daring as to venture upon such a thing as this to stand upon termes of equality with the mighty the great the glorious God the Maker of all as the Apostle resolves in his own case 1 Cor. 4. 4. Though I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not hereby justified at all much lesse though a man know nothing by himselfe will this justifie him in this comparison that he is just as God is just But secondly Shall mortall man be more just than God It is as if he had said God who is infinite in justice would never doe that which a just man will not doe God who is infinite in power would never doe that which a weake man would not doe shall weake man be more just than God And so we may forme the argument thus No man no Judge is more just or incorrupt than God who is the supreame and Lord chiefe Justice of all men But there is no just Judge amongst men who will punish an innocent man therefore God doth not punish any one that is innocent The consequence or inference is plaine and cleare for God himselfe should either be unjust or he should be lesse just than man is if he should doe that which a just man upon true grounds would refuse to doe Therefore in Gen. 18. Abraham pleades with God under that title of a just Judge shall not the Judge of all the world doe right As if he should say faithfull Judges upon the earth will doe right therefore surely he that is the Judge of all the earth will doe right so Eliphaz here to Job Never complaine as if God had done thee wrong for certainly the just God will not doe that which a just man would not doe The word whereby God is exprest Eloha Eloha denotot judicem â—quissimum rerum arbitâ—um doth well comply with and answer this sense it being properly attributed to God as a Judge the great arbitrator and determiner of all the causes and cases of all men in the world Shall mortall man be more just than God Thirdly The sense may be taken thus If any man should come to impleade God or to pleade with God if any should dare to tax the Justice of God or be so hardy to put in a bill of complaint against him shall this man this weake man be found more just in his complaining than God hath been in sentencing shall his bill of complaint be better grounded than the Lords award of Judgement It is an allusion to those who supposing they have wrong complaine against the Judge and say that he hath erred in or perverted Judgement That word Justified here used shall man be justified before God is a Judiciarie word a Court or Law terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Veâ—bum forense spectans ad innocentis absolutionem The same word which the Holy Ghost uses in that great work of Free Grace the justification of a sinner before God And that imports the declaring and setting forth of a man to be righteous and his cause good in Jesus Christ whereupon he is cleered and acquitted When Satan accuses or pleads against us laying such and such sinnes to our charge thus and thus this man hath offended then God is said to justifie a man that is to declare him to be just his sinnes being covered and himselfe accepted in Jesus Christ Hence that divine challenge to all accusers Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. So now if man should accuse and complaine against God he hath done thus and thus in the world afflicted a Job troubled a righteous person shall mortall man be more just than God Shall this man in his complaint be justified shall not God rather be justified against whom he complains Certainly he shall God shall be declared just yea he shall be declared just by man A man un-ingaged and rightly principled Such a man shall say verily there is a God that judgeth the earth In the judgement of man that judgment shall speak a God and all shall be forced to Daniels mourning acknowledgement O Lord righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face Dan. 97. 9 We may enlighten it further by that of David Ps 51. 4. where he professes thus I will confesse my sins c. that thou maiest be justified when thou speakest and be cleare when thou judgest as if he should say if hereafter thou shalt afflict me and lay thy rod upon me I know many will be ready to complaine and say why doth God thus why doth he afflict David David a holy man a man after his own heart a man of whom he hath given such large testimony of whom he hath said I have found a man after my own heart Now to the intent all these may be cast in their suits and answered in their complainings I here acknowledge before all the world that I have sinned greatly therefore though thou hast pardoned my sinne and so wilt never charge it upon me to condemnation nor punish me for it in a way of satisfaction yet hereafter thou maiest in thy fatherly wisdome see it needfull to chastise me to prevent and purge out sin or to help me against the weaknesse of my nature and the strength of temptation for the time to come So here in the Text Shall man be justified before God If Job or any of his friends for him should complaine against God why he being
of the imagination of mans heart it is evill and onely evill and that continually the Hebrew is every figment or every creature in the heart of man whatsoever a man moulds and fashions within himself naturally is evill and nothing but evill and it is alwayes so The naturall births of mans heart have all one common face and feature They are all of one common constitution Evill all Secondly We may observe That The meritorious cause of mans suffering is from his sinne Iniquity springeth not from the ground neither doth trouble come out of the dust As iniquity springs from our selves so we may resolve it that misery springs from our sinne It is a truth as hath been touched upon the second Chapter that God in many afflictions laid upon his dear children and servants respects not their sin as the cause procuring and drawing on these afflictions And very many are afflicted by the world not for sinnes sake but for righteousness sake As Christ so some Christians may say in their spheare We have done many good works for which of them doe ye stone us Yet this is as cleare a truth that the sinne of any man is in it selfe a sufficient meritorious cause of any yea of all afflictions A creature cannot beare a greater punishment then the least of his sinnes deserves Man weaves a spiders webb of sinne out of his owne bowels and then he is intangled in the same webb the troubles which insnare and wrappe about him are twisted with his own fingers Thirdly observe Naturally every man seekes the reason of his sorrows and afflictions out of himselfe When man is afflicted he is not willing to owne himself as the cause of his afflictions or acknowledge that they spring from his sinne and that may be the reason why Eliphaz speaks thus to Job as if he had said thy thoughts are wandring abroad thou little thinkst that thy afflictions were bred in thy owne bosome Thou art fastning the cause of then upon this and t'other thing Thou art complaining of the day wherein thou wast borne but thou shouldest rather complain of the sin wherein thou wast born Thâ— birth-day hath not hurt thee but thy birth-sin Thy birth-sin hath given conception to all the sorrows of thy life The Jewes in the Prophet Isa's time were in great distresse and could get no deliverance The ports and passages of mercy were all obstructed Now whether went their thoughts And what did they looke upon as the reason of those abiding lingring evils we may reade their thoughts in the refutation of them we may see what the disease of their hearts was by the medicine which the Prophet applies unto them he labours to purge them from that conceit as if either want of power or want of love in the Lord were the stop of their deliverance The Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his eare heavy that he cannot heare Isa 59. 1 2. as if he had said I know what your apprehensions are in these affliction you thinke the reason is in God that either he cannot or he will not save you You think the hand of Gods power is shrunke up or the eare of his mercy shut up but you reflect not upon your selves nor consider that Your iniquities have separated between you and your God Your sinne does you hurt and you touch not that with a little finger but lay the weight of your charge upon God himselfe So Hos 13. 9. Thy destruction is from thy self in me is thy help God is forced to tel them so that their destruction was from themselves they would not believe it they supposed it was from the cruelty or malice of the creature from the wrath and rage of enemies from some oversight or neglect of their friends therefore the Lord speaks out in expresse termes Thy destruction is from thy self It springs not forth of the dust neither is thy destruction from me In me is thy help in both the heart of man failes equally we are ready to say that the good we have comes from our selves that our help and comforts are from our own power and wisdom and so offer sacrifice to our own nets as if by them our portion were fat but for evil and destruction we assigne it wholly over somtime to men and so are angry sometime to God and so blaspheme We naturally decline what reflects shame upon our selves or speaks us guilty From our translation Although affliction c Observe First Every affliction hath a cause The Proverbe carries that sense in every common understanding Our afflictions have a cause a certaine cause they come not by hap hazzard or by accident Many things are casuall but nothing is without a cause Many things are not fore seene by man but all things are fore-ordained by God The Prophet Amos Ch. 3. 6. sets forth this by an elegant similitude Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no ginne is for him As if he should say is a bird taken in a snare by chance where none have prepared set or industriously laid a snare or a ginne to take him The bird saw not the snare but the snare was set for the Bird. Snaresfall not on the ground at adventure they grow not out of the earth of themselves but the fowler by his art and industry invents and frames them a purpose to catch the bird Thus the calamity and troubles in which men are caught and lime-twig'd insnared and shackled in the world come not out of the ground They are not acts of chance but of providence The wise and holy God sets such snares to take and hold foolish unruly men like silly birds gaping after the baits of worldy pleasures Which meaning is cleare from the scope and tendency of the whole Chapter but the next question resolves it in the letter Is there any evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it Those words are both the conclusion and explication of the former similitude Secondly observe Affliction is not from the power of any creature As it comes not by chance or without a cause so not by the power of creatures they are not the cause dust and the ground are opposed to Heaven or to a divine power Creatures in this sense can neither doe good nor doe evill The world would be as full of trouble as it is of sin if sinfull men could make trouble It is not in the compasse of a creature no not of all the creatures in Heaven or earth to forme or to make out one affliction without the concurrence and allowance of God himselfe Men alone can neither make staves of comfort nor rods of affliction Whence thirdly A consectary from both may be That Afflictions are from the Lord as from the efficient cause the directer and orderer of them These evils are from a creating not from a created strength I saith the Lord forme the light and create darknesse Isa 45. 7. Naturall darknesse hath
or as soone as ever he is a servant to it Thus without the wisdome of the world Christ overcomes the wisdome of the world And by the foolishnesse of preaching as men count foolishnesse saveth those that beleeve 1 Cor. 1. 21. the foolishnesse of God is wiser then man That is those instruments which Christ impioyes how foolish soever men account them shall foile all the wisdome of man Therefore let no man boast of his natural parts unles they be spiriualiz'd and resign'd up for such Christ commonly uses though he can make use of others to the service of Christ Consider to whom you are instrumentall with your parts and knowledge All wit out of Christs work degenerates into craft and wisdome into wickednesse It is Satans worke to sollicite the learning of men even as an Adulterer sollicites the beauty of women that he may commit folly with it and beget some monstruous birth of mischiefe and villanie For when such appeare on Satans side they are a great credit to his cause and by the reputation of their learning and parts draw others to it Doe ye not see will he suggest to inferiour ones such and such wise learned men goe this way such learned Divines such learned Lawyers such deepe Politicians and doe you scruple And how many have been caught in this snaâ—e and led aside by the noise of their abilities whom Satan abuseth to his own side what such wise men such learned men thinke thus and doe you simple ones stand off Hath he not reason then to say of wise men as it was once said of one Seeing ye are such I wish you Cum talis sis utinam noster esses Habeo Themistoclem Atheniensem would come over to me and to bragge of them as much as ever that Persian Monarch did of Themistocles whose revolting to him from the Grecians transported him so that he broke suddenly out of his sleepe with these words I have Themistocles the Athenian I remember what Augustine observes it is a very remarkable passage in an Epistle unto a young noble man of great learning who it seems had been sometimes his Schollar Augustine having received from him a Poem or copie of accurate verses but Augustinus ep 39. ad Licentium Juvenem nobilem doctuÌ„ Da Domino meo te qui tibi illud donarit ingeniuÌ„ c. Accepisti a Deo ingenium spiritualiter aureum ministras inde â—ibidiâ—ibus in illo Satanâ— proâ—inâ—s teipsum Ornari abs te diabolus quaâ—it perceiving that he abused his wit to wantonnesse or uselesse curiosity returns him answer to this effect I have read this Poem and I know not with what verses or with what lamentation to mourne over it because I see an excellent wit sparkling in every line but such an one as I cannot dedicate unto God A little after he thus exhorts him Give thy selfe unto my Lord who hath given thee this excellent wit If thou hadst found a golden Cup what wouldst thou have done with it Wouldst thou not have given it to some good publicke use God hath given thee a golden wit Thy understanding is a golden Cup and wilt thou let thy lusts drinke out of it or wilt thou drinke thy selfe to the devill in it I tell thee thus much the devill would faine make thy wit his ornament and thy parts the oredit of his Court and Cause Satan serves himselfe of the best wits and his is the worst service of wit Such shall be paid at last with crying We fooles Of all fooles the knowing wise fooles will be in the saddest condition Observe thirdly The craftie are full of hopes that their devises will succeed and full of trouble because they succeed not Otherwise it could not be said that God disappointeth the devises of the craftie Disappointment implies expectation And it is no afflicting affliction to misse of that which we never looked for These thought all sure These doubted not to over-wit and over-power all at last This brought them somewhat beyond hope even to the borders of assurance at least it so endeared them their hopes that they would rather hazzard their souls than loose their plots they were burthen'd to be delivered Having conceived mischiefe they were in travell with iniquity Psal 7. 14. As the Lord suffers his own people to feare much that when deliverance comes their joy may be full so he suffers wicked men to hope much that their sorrows may be full when they cannot be delivered A woman forgets the pains of her travell for joy that a man childe is borne into the world And these men shall remember the paines of their travell for sorrow that a monster such are their designes is not borne into the world That their mischiefe comes not in their sense to light leaves them in desperate darknesse Fourthly observe What such plot and devise they labour to act and effect Their hands cannot performe their enterprise which intimates that they put their hands to the worke as well as their heads as soone as they have layd their plot they fall to acting We should in this imitate our enemies not to stand devising and consulting this is a good way and t'others a good way and then doe neither or then sit still and moulder away in expectation love to and zeale for Christ and his truth should render us as full of action as of invention of execution as of designe Fifthly though they did attempt it with their hands yet they could not effect it with their hands Their hands did not performe their enterprise Hence note That Craftie men may devise strongly but they have not strength sufficient to accomplish their devices The Pharisees after all their confederacies against Christ were forc't without any racke but that of their owne consciences to make this confession Joh. 12. 19. Perceive ye how we prevail nothing At this day they have many fine devices and Idaeas ready framed in their heads but the hand shakes They cannot performe their enterprise They want not counsell nor craft nor skill nor will nor desires nor endeavours only they want God with them Hence it is that though they gather very proper materials and lay very strong foundations yet they cannot reare up their building And in the issue Luk. 14. 29. All that behold it shall mock saying These men began to build and were not able to finish It is the maine worke of God to stop evill men in their workes what they would doe he saith they shall not and what they would not doe he saith they shall Pharoah devised a devise against the children of Israel but his hands could not performe his enterprise Haman devised a devise against the Jewes but his hands could not performe his enterprise Achitophel gave craftie counsell against David but his hands could not performe his enterprise Herod the Fox plotted against Christ to hinder the course of his Ministerie and Mediatourship but he could not performe his
world that the losse of a world is not discerned in their estate and worldly gaines are not often discerneable in their estates therefore though in Christ they are heires of all things and all is theirs yet their ranke and titles are among the poore Fifthly observe They are poore ones yet what devising and plotting is here against them Crafty counsels drawne swords envenom'd tongues strong hands lifted up Against whom are all these Against the poore Note thence That Wicked men plot against the people of God how poore and low soever they be As David said unto Saul 1 Sam. 24. 14. After whom is the Facis quod est tanto rege indignum dum me tenuissimum tanto comiâ—atu persequeris Jun. in loc King of Israel come out after a dead dog after a flea As if he had said whom dost thou pursue thou doest that which is unworthy and much below so great a King wilt thou set thy strength against my weaknesse Why dost thou arme against him by whose conquest thou canst get no honour Alas I am but a poore man a meane subject no match for thee I wonder you trouble your selfe so much in following or opposing me I am in comparison but as a dead-dog or as a flea A dead dog cannot bite or if I bite it is but a flea-bite A dead dog can doe no hurt and a living flea can doe but little The people of God as such never have any will to doe wrong and it is seldome that they have any power to doe wrong and yet the world is all up in pursuit against them What 's the reason of it what 's the matter The truth is how poore and low soever they are yet there is an eye of jealousie awake upon them The world looks upon them as a suspected party the world hath secret misgivings that one time or other they must rise upon their ruines and therefore they will keepe them downe yes that they will as long as they can What a distance was there between Haman and Mordecai the one sate in the gate and the other stood at the Kings elbow and had his eare yea and his signet upon the matter at his command yet this Haman must needs oppresse Mordecai because he would not bow Haman had a jealous eye upon him he was a suspected person Though he could not reach Haman yet Haman fear'd he might undermine him Againe there is a continuall Antipathy between the two seeds and Antipathy is incureable To oppose the godly is not so much the disease as the nature of wicked men And we know antipathies are against the whole kind revenge against this or that individuall is no ease to it Antipathy is not spent but in the consumption of the whole kind It is not this or that sheepe which the wolfe hates but every sheepe fat or leane shorn or unshorne that 's all one to the wolfe he will suck the blood of a sheepe that hath not a lâ—ck of wool upon his back as greedily as if that sheepe had a golden fleece Let a godly man be poore or rich low or high their sword shall be unsheath'd and their mouth open'd against him the old hatred and quarrell is against all Haman thought scorne to lay hands on Mordecay alone wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jewes Hest 3. 6. He hated those whom he never saw those who had never wrong'd him haply had bowed unto him yet because Jewes dye they must Sixthly observe But he saveth the poore God delights to help the poore He loves to take part with the best though the weakest side Contrary to the course of most who when a controversie arises use to stand in a kind of indifferency or neutrality till they see which part is strongest not which is justest Now if there be any consideration besides the cause that draws or engages God it is the weaknesse of the side He joynes with many because they are weake not with any because they are strong therefore Psa 10. 14. 18 Hos 14. 3. he is called the helper of the friendlesse and with him the fatherlesse the orphans finde mercy By fatherlesse we are not to understand such only whose parents are dead but any one that iâ— in distresse as Christ promiseth his Disciples Joh. 14. 18. I will not leave you orphans that is helplesse and as we translate comfortlesse though ye are as children without a father yet I will be a father to you Men are often like those clouds which dissolve into the sea they send presents to the rich and assist the strong but God sends his raine upon the dry land and lends his strength to those who are weake This poore man cryed and the Psal 34 6. Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles Forget not the Congregation of thy poore for ever The truth is he never Psal 7. 4. 19. firgets them They are graven upon the palmes of his hands such poore are his treasure his Jewels as the signet upon his right hand Therefore alwayes in his eye yea alwayes in his heart though they lye in the dirt or be trodden under foot like mire in the streets The Prophet makes this report to God of himselfe Isa 25. 4. Thou hast been a strength to the poore a strength to the needy in his distresse a refuge from the storme c. Thus farre Eliphaz hath given instance of the great marvellous and unsearchable works of God in a double reference First to wicked crafty oppressors Secondly to poore helplesse innocents He shuts up this narration with a double effect of these works upon those two sorts of men First shewing what effect they produce in the poore namely hope Secondly what in the wicked namely shame and confusion of face Vers 16. So the poore hath hope and iniquity stoppeth her mouth Here is the conclusion or result of all the Epiphonema or exulting close in which Eliphaz perfects the story of those admirable works of judgement and of mercy So the poore hath hope c. This Originall word for poore varies from the former though a radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhaustus de humo repropriè per metaphoruÌ„ de viâ—ibus corporis opibus attenuatus tenuis fortunae homo the persons and their estate be the same That word noted them full of desire and this which is the cause of it empty of comforts Properly it signifies one that is exhausted or drawn dry Poore persons are exhausted persons exhausted of their strength exhausted of their estates exhausted of friends and credit in the world It is a metaphor taken from rivers ponds or pooles that are drawn dry when we would take the fish or take away the defence which they give to forts or Cities Isa 19. 6. And they shall turne the rivers farre away and the Brookes of defence shall be emptied and dried up which also enlightens that text Isa 33. 21. Where the righteous Lord will be