but so to destroy as workes the beholders into amazement and wonder This word signifes both to wonder and to destroy because great destructions cause wonder Thou hast made desolate all my company Thou hast made such a desolation among them that all who are about me lift up their hands as we say and blesse themselves admiring to see this day God brought such a desolation upon Jerusalem as set the World a wondering Lam. 4.12 The Kings of the Earth and all the Inhabitants of the World would not have beleeved that the Adversary and the Enemy should not have entered into the Gates of Jerusalem Christ will come at last with such mercies to be glorified in his Saints as will cause him to be admired in all them that beleeve 2 Thes 1.10 He now comes sometimes with such afflictions to his Saints as easily cause them who beleeve much more those who beleeve not to admire Thou hast wonderfully desolated or wasted All my company Et in nihilum redacti sunt omnes auctus mei Vulg. All my company The word which we translate Company is rendred The joynts or members of the body by the Vulgar Latine Thou hast reduced all my members to nothing As if hee had sayd Thou hast loosened the whole compages or structure of my bones and body thou hast untyed or cut asunder all the ligaments that held me together This translation is but an allusion because the members of the naturall body are like a company of men joyned together in a civill or spirituall body which is therefore commonly called a Corporation Some contend much for this sense Thou hast made desolate all the members of my body Especially because the scattering of his Family doth not so well agree or comply say they with the wearinesse before complained of nor with the leanenesse and wrinkles which are spoken of afterward both which belong properly to the body Yet I passe that and take the word as we read it to expresse a distinct affliction thou hast wearyed me in my person and hast made desolate all my company What company First q. d. desolasti omnem Synagogam meam Bold Some understand it of the company which used to flock to his Synagogue in holy duties and excercises As if he had answered the words of Eliphaz Chap. 15.34 The Congregation or Company of Hypocrites shall be desolate Here saith Job I grant it God hath made desolate all my company The Synagogues and places of publick meeting were wont to be filled but now that resort is stayed they are all scattered or diverted and those publick places are filled with howlings and lamentations Thus he grants Eliphaz what he had objected and yet denyes what hee thnnce inferred that he was an Hypocrite Secondly Rather interpret it of the company he had in his owne House or for his particular Family So it is a renewed complaint of the losse of his Children and Servants of his Freinds and Familiars who used to resort to him and stay about him Thou hast made desolate all my company Some of Jobs company were made desolate that is they were destroyed most of his Servants were slaine by the Chaldeans and Sabeans and all his Children were slaine by the fall of a House Chap. 1. This company was made desolate indeed Yet when he saith Thou hast made desolate all my company his meaning is as Master Broughton translates Thou hast made me desolate of all my company that is I am left alone Hence Observe The company of Children and Freinds is a very great mercy Heman complaines much when he wanted this mercy Lover and Freind hast thou put farr from me and mine acquaintance into darknesse Job makes as a more particular so a more patheticall enumeration of this losse Chap. 19.13 14. To be desolate in so great an affliction that it is often put for all afflictions and to be desolate of company is the worst desolatenesse When David had sayd I am desolate and afflicted he presently adds The sorrowes of my heart are enlarged Psal 25.16 17. A man may be much afflicted and yet not desolate but a man cannot beat all desolate but he must be extreamely afflicted When the Prophet would put all the miseries of the Jewes into one word he puts it into this Isa 1.7 Your Countrey is desolate your Land strangers shall devoure it in your presence And when a Land is devoured of strangers either it is made desolate of its owne company or its owne company is made desolate Babylon boasts Revel 18.7 I sit a Queene and am no widdow that is as I have power so I have resort and company enough I am not desolate The Apostle puts these two together Widdow-hood and Desolatenesse 1 Tim. 5.5 Now shee that is a widdow and desolate c. So that when Babylon saith I am no widdow her meaning is I am not desolate and hence the punishment of Babylon is threatned in this language Revel 17.16 The ten hornes which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and make her desolate c. Those ten hornes are ten Kings who sometime doted upon the painted beauty of that Whore and then made frequent addresses to her and did throng about her from all parts of the World but when once their eyes shall be opened their hearts will soone be alienated They shall hate the Whore And then as they withdraw affection so visits and messages Babylons Courts shall be crouded with Suiters no longer Thus they shall make her desolate of the company of her old freinds before they make her desolate by bringing in new enemies who shall strip her not onely of her company but of her cloathes yea of her skin they shall make her naked and eate her flesh and burne her with fire Revel 17.16 Thus as the misery which came upon Jerusalem so the misery which shall come upon Babylon meet in this The making of their company desolate yet in this they differ the desolations of Jerusalem shall be at least mystically repaired but the desolations of mysticall Babylon when they are fully come upon her shall be irreparable Man is naturally as the Philosopher calls him a sociable creature he loves company they who are for a solitary life Monkes and Anchorets seeme to have put off the nature of man There is an elective alonenesse or retyrednesse at some times very usefull for contemplation and prayer And we are never lesse alone then when we are so alone for then God is more specially with us and we with him It is sayd of Jacob Gen. 32.24 Then Jacob was left alone not that Jacobs company had left and forsaken him but that Jacob for a time had left his company So some render the Text actively Hee stayed or remained alone Jacob stayed alone pueposely that hee might have freer communion with God in that recesse and retirement from the creature It is good for man to be alone from the company of man that he may
Noah and his Sonnes who indeed had the World to themselves for the Flood having swept away all mankinde except that Family to him and his Sons the earth was given alone these were the wise men saith this opinion from whom Eliphaz received the Doctrine which he communicated to Ista phâ—asi circumlo â—uitur mihi patriarcham Noe cum tribus ejus filiis Bold Methodius aliique patres antiqui vocant Noe tres filios Mundi chiliarchos and pressed upon Job there was never such a Monarch except Adam the first man as Noah was he had the whole World given him Hence the Ancients stile Noahs three Sonnes The Commanders and Colonels of the whole World But I conceive we need not determine it upon those though possibly Eliphaz might have an aime at them Most Interpreters take it in generall of the old good Princes of whom it may be said The earth was given to them and to them alone Abraham was a great Prince and to him The earth in one sense was given alone But who made this great deed of gift even the most high God whom Abraham calls Gen. 14. The possessor of Heaven and Earth He it is that then gave and still gives the earth and he gives it two wayes first by an act of common providence thus as Job expresseth it Chap. 9.24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked Secondly he gives the earth by an act of speciall providence or by vertue of a promise so Canaan was given to Abraham and his seed the people of Israel and thus the Kingdome of Israel and Judah was given to David and his seed When it is said here that the earth was given to such alone Sapientibus solis terra data esse dicitur quia bonorum terrenorum ipse sunt domini utentes iis ad suum bonum Aquin. in loc the meaning is not that none had any of the earth given them but they but none had the earth given them as they by peculiar promise and speciall providence Further the giving of the earth may be considered either as the giving that which is good or as the giving it for good as a gift of bounty or as a gift of mercy in the latter considerations the earth is given to good men alone None have it for good but they who are good and they onely make a good use of it Hence Observe That the earth or earthly things are disposed to the Sons of men by a deed of gift from God Secondly Wise holy men receive the earth and the things of the earth by speciall gift These alone receive the earth from a Fathers hand and good will it comes to them in the Covenant of grace to which the promise of the earth belongs as well as of Heaven Godlinesse hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come Optimorum principum circumloqutio est quorum administratio respublicas suas tuebatur omnemque hostium injuriam propulsabat Pined Authoritate sua usi sunt ad jus bonum aequum tuenduÌ„ ad injustum quodvis alienum propulsandum Jun. in loc Saints have the earth and all earthly things given to them in reference to their being in Covenant with God and thus the earth is given to them alone Againe we may expound that terme Alone by the next clause To whom alone the earth was given that is as they had great possessions in the earth so they had those possessions to themselves without any to trouble vex or molest them which Eliphaz thus expresseth And no stranger passed among them Some read No strange thing passed among them Both readings are a description of wise and godly Princes who having the earth given them No stranger or no strange thing passeth among them Strangers are here taken under a double notion First no stranger that is no enemy To cleare which notion of the word Stranger we must remember that as the Grecians conceiting themselves the best bred people in the World called all other Nations Barbarians so the people of Israel the stock of Abraham being Gods peculiar Covenant-people called all other Nations aliens or strangers and because they were hated and maligned by all other Nations therefore they called all professed strangers enemies so the word is used Isa 1.7 Your land strangers shall devoure that is enemies shall invade and prevaile over you Psalm 144.7 Deliver me out of the hand of strange Children or out of the hand of strangers that is Alienus hoc loco idem est qui hostis Sanct. Hostis apud majores nostros quem nunc peregrinum dicimus Cic. lib. 1. Offic. out of the hand of mine enemies The Latine word Alienus is often put for Hostis and the Roman Oratour telleth us That he who is now called a stranger was called an enemy by our Ancestors The reason was because strangers proved unkinde to yea turned enemies against those that entertained them As formerly Kings were called Tyrants but because many Kings oppressed their people therefore now oppressing Princes onely are called Tyrants So then to say no stranger passed among them is as much as to say no enemy none to molest or afflict passed among them Satis apparet non de hoste temporali sed de eo qui alteri quam verae religioni addictus est vel qui numina extranea â—olit Bold Againe the word Stranger is taken for one that is erroneous or idolatrous for a man unsound in Doctrine or superstitious in Worship Wise men to whom alone the earth was given had no such stranger passing among them they were not mixed with idolatrous and uncircumcised Nations they did not communicate with them in worship as in after times the people of Israel did This notion of the stranger is an advantage to Eliphaz as if he had sayd The wise men whose authority I produce in this cause were sound in judgement and pure in worship they did not mingle themselves with Idolaters and Hereticks they neither learned their workes not received their Doctrines and are therefore witnesses worthy of credit and against whom there lyes no just exception No stranger passed among them If we take stranger in the first sense for an enemy then the word Passed signifies as much as invaded and may well be translated to a military motion No stranger or enemy passed that is none matched among them or through their Land to disturbe or plunder them when God is sayd to give Laws to the Sea or set it bounds which it should not passe this imports that the Sea like an enemy would march through the earth and overwhelme all unlesse bridled by a Divine decree But if we take Stranger in the second sense for an Idolater or a man of unsound Principles then No stranger passed among them is such were not received and embraced by them nor admitted among them From the first Observe That it is as the honour of a people to releive oppressed
yea and saved their soules among and towards vvhom hee hath diligently used those meanes appointed by God for the attaining of those great and noble ends though possibly those ends be not attained God himselfe reckons thus of all the labours of his faithfull servants they shall be rewarded as having done that vvhich they have been doing vvith their hearts hands and tongues though they see little fruit of eyther Then I sayd I have laboured in vaine Isa 49.4 but though it vvas in vaine to those for whom he laboured that is they got no good by it yet it was not in vain to him who laboured he got much good by it as it follows in the same Verse Surely my judgement is with the Lord and my worke or my reward one vvord signifies both reward and vvorke to shew that these can never be seperated my worke saith hee is with my God and Vers 5. Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength As vve are not to judge of the goodnesse of any cause by the successe but by the justice of it so neither doth God adjudge the reward of any vvorke by the successe but by the goodnesse of it together with the sweat and sincerity of him that doth it As the will of a godly man is accepted for the deed so his deed is accepted for the successe JOB CHAP. 16. Vers 6 7 8 9 10 11. Though I speak my griefe is not asswaged and though I forbeare what am I eased But now he hath made mee weary thou hast made desolate all my company And thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witnesse against me and my leanenesse rising up in me beareth witnesse to my face He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me he gnasheth upon me with his teeth mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me They have gaped upon me with their mouth they have smitten mee upon the cheek reproachfully they have gathered them selves together against me God hath delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over to the hands of the wicked IN the five former Verses of this Chapter Job reproved the personall faylings of his Freinds towards him hee now enters upon the confutation of their opinion This is the constant method both of Job and his Freinds they never come to the matter till they have fallen upon the man nor touch the opinion till they have dealt with the person And this is the tenour of most mens spirits to this day in disputes and controversies and some doe not onely deale with the man before the matter but lose the matter in dealing with the man entangling and engaging themselves so much in personall quarrels that they forget or desert the doctrinall quarrell Job and his Freinds though they were too mindfull of the former yet they did not forget the latter and here Job addresses himselfe unto it Yet before he enters upon the state of the question he sets forth his owne state and shews how it was with him granting which Eliphaz had made the ground of his accusation that he was in an extreamely afflicted condition yet denying what he from thence inferred that he was therefore wicked or continued knowingly in any sinfull course He describes his afflictions with much variety of Argument and Elocution to the seventeenth Verse First Aggravating them by their unmoveablenesse or remedilesnesse His sorrows were stubborne and such as would not yeeld to any kinde of remedy Vers 6. Though I speake my griefe is not asswaged and though I forbeare what am I eased In the former Verse Job speakes in a high straine of assurance that if his Freinds were afflicted The moving of his lips should asswage their griefe But it seemes his owne experience had taught him that the moving of his lips could not asswage his owne greife Though I speake saith he here my griefe is not asswaged Hence Observe A man may doe that for others which he cannot doe for himselfe He may comfort others in their sorrows when hee cannot comfort himselfe he may resolve others in their doubts when he cannot resolve himselfe hee may answer to cases which their consciences put him when he cannot answer his owne yea 't is possible for a man to speak such words to another as may turne him from his sin and save his soule and yet himselfe continue in sin and lose his owne soule for ever Naturalists have a rule concerning the senses That when a sensible object is brought too neere or layd upon the sense it not onely hinders but takes away the present sensation This holds a proportion in rationall actings the neerer any one is to us in relation the harder it is to fixe counsell upon him and because wee are neerest to our selves therefore it is hardest of all to counsell our selves Our Saviour Christ prevents what he foresaw some ready to object against him Luke 4.23 Yee will surely say unto me this Proverbe Physitian heale thy selfe The Proverbe in its Originall is I conceive to be understood personally but as Christ suggests it there it is to be understood Nationally or Provincially Heale thy selfe is heale thy owne Countrey exercise thy power of working miracles there as well as thou hast done it in other places that this is the meaning of it appeares plainely by the next words Whatsoever we have heard done in Canaan doe also in thine owne Countrey For Christ as yet had wrought no mighty workes of healing there Mark 6.5 But why was Christ so slow in manifesting himselfe to his owne Countreymen Hee gives the reason Vers 24. And he sayd Verily I say unto you no Prophet is accepted in his owne Countrey The Gospel of Mark Chap. 6.4 adds two closer relations His owne Kin and his owne House They in a mans house are neerer to him then his kindred abroad and his kindred are neerer to him then his Countrey-men now among these a Prophet hath no honour They know him so much that they doe not respect him or his sayings The Jewes sayd Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Mary the Brother of James c. Christ being thus neere to them had little honour among them Now for as much as a man is neerer to himselfe not onely then his Countrey-men but then any of his Kin therefore his owne counsels and comforts have ordinarily so little effect upon himselfe he is not accepted in his owne breast There are some indeed so gracious or great in their owne eyes that they vvill aske counsell of none but themselves nor follow any advise but their owne but usually man seeks out as being neither able to satisfie his owne doubts nor abate his owne sorrowes though possibly more able for both then he to whom he seekes Though I speake my griefe is not asswaged and though I forbeare what am I eased Some conceive Job speaking here like an Orator who seems to stand in doubt vvhat to doe
eyther to our future or our present peace Thus the Prophet Isaiah was sent to Preach that people blinde and deafe and ignorant Chap. 6.9 10. Goe tell this people Heare yee indeed but understand not and see yee indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed As if the Lord had sayd This people shall want neither meanes nor Ministers neither word nor light but they shall reape no benefit neither by meanes nor Ministers neither by word nor light yea all these meanes shall produce contrary effects they shall be hardned and not softned blinded and not enlightned their eares shall be deafned not bored by the Word They would not heare therefore they shall not they would not understand therefore they shall not be able to understand They who refuse the offers of mercy shall be destroyed with the offers of mercy And as God doth often take away the Gospell in wrath so he sometimes sends it in wrath It is a great misery to have the Gospell hid from a people for want of revelation but it is lowest misery to have it hid in the revelation Jerusalem signifies The vision or sight of peace and this was the glory of Jerusalem yet at last this glory was taken from Jerusalem though her name continued Jerusalem the sight of peace could not see her peace Luke 19.41 42 43. When Christ came neere to Jerusalem He beheld the City and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace What then Christ suppresses the happinesse which they should have enjoyed by such a sight with a silent admiration and onely tells them weeping But now they are hid from thine eyes How hid Was there no more Preaching in Jerusalem no publique Ministry after that day Yes the whole Colledge of Apostles Preached there and they Preached the things which belonged both to their temporall and to their eternall peace yet as the things which belonged to their eternall peace were hidden from most of their eyes so the things vvhich concerned their temporall peace were hidden from so many of their eyes that their ruine was unavoydable God hid their heart from understanding therefore hee did not exalt them yea therefore hee cast them downe Thus Job describes the sequell of that sad dispensation to his Freinds Thou hast hid their heart from understanding What followes Therefore shalt thou not exalt them Master Broughton renders it Therefore thou shalt not give them Honour And is this all That they shall not be exalted or honoured No the Negative hath this affirmative in it Thou wilt therefore cast them downe or humble them As Prov. 17.21 Solomon speakes of the Father of a Foole Hee that begets a Foole doth it to his sorrow and the Father of a Foole hath no joy Is that all that he hath no joy No the meaning is that the Father of a Foole hath much sorrow yea the denyall of all joy affirmes more then the feeling of much sorrow for it speakes all sorrow So to accept persons in judgement is not good that is It is extreame ill There is nothing worse then that which in this sense is not good Thus here thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them that is Thou shalt humble and abase them and though Non-exaltation in this place doth not carry all kinde or the extremity of abasement yet it carries a very great abasement Why What was this abasement or non-exaltation We may interpret it two vvayes Thou shalt not exalt them that is First Thou shalt not give them this honour to determine my cause thou wilt take the matter out of their hands into thine owne or thou wilt put it into some other hand Secondly Thou shalt not exalt them to the honour of a conquest over me Hinc colligo te nolle ut de reportata super me victoria glorientur Bold or to carry the cause against me yea they shall be overthrowne and the cause shall goe against them Both these wayes answer the event Jobs three Freinds had neyther the honour to end this controversie nor did they at all prevaile in the end they went not away vvith victory nor could they glory that they had got the day of Job Thou shalt not exalt them Note hence First Exaltation is from God Promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South that is It comes not by the power of any creature in any coast or quarter of the earth Whence comes it then The next Verse directs us For God is the Judge he putteth downe one and setteth up another Psal 75.6 7. we can no more make our selves great men then wee can make our selves men Our civill frame is as much from God as our naturall by what hand soever we are exalted it is God that exalts us Secondly Observe God hides understanding from them whom he is about to abase or cast downe The fall of most men is from their owne folly and usually God takes away their wisedome whose honor he takes away They shall not see the way to their own preservation who are intended for destruction All Ages have taught us this Doctrine in the downefall of the greatest Princes who have refused all counsels and overtures for their owne good Quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat till their evils have proved past cure and themselves irrecoverably lost That vvhich a Child might foresee they have had no eyes to see nor hearts to consider because God would eyther not exalt them or not establish them in their exaltations therefore he hid their hearts from understanding the things of their owne peace Fooles are not fit to be exalted to high places and whâ—n once we see those who are in high places acting the foolish man we shall soone see them tumbling down from their high places and acting the miserable man Some who were never very wise have been exalted to and continued in high places but there was scarse ever any man who in this sense lost his wits that hath eyther been exalted to a high place or continued in his exaltation Thirdly Considering those particulars wherein the Non-exaltation here prophesied of did consist Observe It is an honour to heare and judge the cause of another man God is the Judge of all the Earth he will heare nad determine the causes and cases of all mankinde He that hath the hearing but of any one case shares in this honour of God and they who are set apart by office to doe so are called Gods Psal 82. God puts so much of his owne worke into the hand of a judge that he therefore puts his owne name upon him Againe We may looke upon Jobs Freinds not as Judges of his case