the ghost The Hebrew is but one word which costs us five in English I give up the ghost the word signifieth that last act of those who are in the agonie of death In the Greeke and Latine that act is exprest by one word Luk. 23.46 Where it is said that Christ gave up the ghost The word is conceived to note a willing cheerefull resignation of our selves in death a dying without much reluctance or resistance a being active in death rather then passive we call it well a giving up the ghost Some apply it only to the death of the godly as Gen. 25.8 of Abraham c. whose lives are not violently snatcht from them but willingly surrendred When a godly man dyes a violent death he doth not dye violently Whereas a wicked man dies violently when he dies naturally and though sometimes being weary of his life or despairing of reliefe he drives out his ghost yet in a strict sense he never gives up the ghost It is said to the wicked rich man in the Gospell Luk. 12.20 Thou foole this night shall thy soule be required of thee demanded indeed but O how unwillingly doth the rich man pay this naturall debt who is so able to pay all civill debts Yet it must be confest that we find the word often used promiscuously applied as well to the death of the wicked as of the godly To Ismael Gen. 25.8 as well as Abraham to Annanias and Saphira Acts 5.10 Yea it is applied to the death of any or all living things Gen. 7.21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowle and of cattell and of beasts and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man Then againe If I had not so much favour to die assoone as ever I came from the wombe or to die in the very birth yet Why did the knees prevent me or the breasts that I should sucke Here are two steps aggravating the cause of his curse against his day If I had not been borne dead saith Job or died naturally assoone as I was borne yet why was I not left to perish I should have died quickly if they had let me alone though I were born alive into the world that is the meaning of those words Why did the knees prevent me why was there any care taken of me why did the Midwife and the Assistant women take me upon their knees why did they wash me swathe me and bind me up If they had not been so kind it had been a kindnesse unto me if they had spared their labour they had done me a favour If they had omitted their care how many cares had I escaped Why did the knees prevent me or which is a further step and the fift step by which this speech ascends why the brests that I should suck As if he had said If they would needs be so favourable as to take me up upon the knee to wash me to binde me up and cloath me yet why was the brest presented to me why was I layed to the brest If they had kept me from sucking the brest I should have suckt but little breath I had died quickly So that in these words there are five gradations by which Job aggravateth the cause of this curse against his day First Because he was conceived Secondly Because the doore was opened for him to be borne Thirdly Because being borne he did not presently give up the ghost or die assoone as he came into the world Fourthly Because there was so much care taken for him as to take him upon the knee and bind him up Fifthly Because there was a brest provided and papps for him to sucke If any of these latter acts had been neglected Job had died and so escaped all these ensuing troubles of his life sorrow had been hidden from his eyes And it is observed especially in these latter acts of this gradation that Job alludes to the custome of those times wherein unnaturall women left their children upon the cold earth naked and helplesse assoone as they were borne or casting them out expose them to misery or the casuall nursery of nature lent them by beasts more mercifull then those beastly mothers who would not afford them knees to prevent nor brests to give them suck As in that place Ezek. 16.4 5. the wofull condition of such an infant is exprest to shadow out the sinfully polluted and woefuly helplesse estate of that people and of all people by nature till the Lord prevents them by the knees of free grace and suckles them with the brests of his consolation Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite of a barbarous people and what then In the day thou wast borne thy navell was not cut neither wast thou washed in water thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all none eye pittied thee to doe any of these unto thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast borne Now this is a certaine rule that such parabolicall and allegoricall Scriptures are grounded upon known customes and things in use It is certaine there were some so unnaturall to their infants that they would bestow no care upon them when they were borne neither wash nor cleanse nor binde them up but cast them out as the Prophet speakes to the loathing of their persons The Heathen Romanes had a speciall goddesse or deity whose name imported her care and office that children when they were borne should be taken up from the earth and set upon the knee And for the preventing of this unnaturall cruelty very frequent as it seemes amongst them the Thebanes made an expresse law that infants should not be neglected or cast out when they were borne though the parents thought they would be a burden to them by reason of the charge or no delight to them by reason of their deformity Now saith Job I could wish I had had such a father or such a mother or such friends who forgetting naturall affection would have cast me out when I came first into the world Why did the knees prevent me From hence also we may observe first That an infant assoone as he liveth hath in him the seeds of death So Job speakes of himselfe Why died I not from the wombe why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of my mothers belly Or why was I not stifled in the wombe why was ever that doore opened to let me into the world I could have died as soone as I lived Not only is man acting sin but nature infected with sin the subject of and subjected to the power of death So the Apostle teacheth us Rom. 5.14 Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression And who were those Even little infants they had life yet death reigned over them they were under the
husband Curse God and die But could Job die when he listed that she biddeth him curse God and die What meanes this language Some interpret her meaning to be this die by thy owne hand destroy thy selfe as sons of Belial use to say goe hang thy selfe murther thy selfe make an end of thy selfe As God by these plagues is thy Judge so be thou to end the matter thy owne executioner Or as others Curse God that so he may be provoked to take thee out of the world quickly Or curse God and die ease thy heart somewhat and give it vent by breaking out against God in blasphemies take this revenge upon him and then let him doe his worst curse God though thou die for it Lastly curse God That so the Magistrate taking notice of it thou mayest be cut off by the Sword of Justice We know blasphemers were sentenc'd to death without mercy by the Law of Moses and it is not improbable that the light of nature might carry those Nations to as high and severe a revenge against that highest sin We know Socrates was adjudged to death by the Athenians as their naturall divinity taught them for an injurious or dishonourable speech concerning their gods I conceive her counsell curse God and dye had some of these intendements in it The best of them is bad enough and so bad that it renders this Objection against them all It is objected That surely any of these carry too high a straine of wickednesse for Jobs wife surely she could not imagine much lesse have the boldnesse to offer such advice to her husband I answer first in generall A good man may have a very bad wife A husband cannot infuse holinesse or make his wife good Marriage doth not change the heart Marriage with Christ doth but not marriage with a Christian or the holiest man that ever lived Therefore that reason is not cogent Secondly this speech and a holy person are not altogether inconsistent possibly Jobs wife was a good woman though actually she spake thus wickedly Divers of the Jewish doctours have an opinion that it was not Jobs wife that spake but the devill in her likenesse I shall leave that among their other dreames It is conjectured by others though it were not the devil that spake personating his wife yet that it was the devill speaking in or by the person of his wife as he spake in or by the serpent Gen. 3. Or as persons really possest of the devill who speake Satans words and do Satans works not their own Some I say carry it thus that she was for that time not only acted but actually possest by the devill and so spake the devils language One of the Ancients is expresse to this purpose These are the devils words not the womans words which another illustrates by that in the third of Genesis where it is said The serpent said unto the woman but it was the devill that spake unto the woman by the serpent so here it is said His wife spake unto him but the truth is it was the devill spake unto him in and by his wife And if so put the language into the worst exposition given or give a worse if truth will beare it and it will be no wrong to such an Orator I beleeve we cannot expound the words to a higher sense or straine of wickednesse then Satan could speake But we need not make Satan himselfe the speaker and yet cleare the matter too though we neither say as the Jewish doctours that it was the devill personally taking the shape of Jobs wife or as those Christian Fathers that the devill did actually possesse her yet we may say and so salve the difficulty that she was mightily over-powred and acted by the temptation of Satan to be an instrument of temptation in this grosse manner against her husband Though she were not acted as the Serpent was in whom Satan spake to Eve yet we may well say she was acted as Eve by whom Satan spake to Adam Eve spake the devils minde being prevailed upon by his temptation to perswade her husband to eat against the command of God and Jobs wife overcome by a like temptation attempts the perswasion of her husband to curse God For as it is possible for one that is good to fall into the grossest and most blasphemous temptation himself so it is possible for one that is good to be made an instrument of such temptations unto others We may see an instance neere if not fully reaching this assertion in the Apostle Peter who hearing Christ fore-telling his sufferings takes him aside and began to rebuke him saying Be it farre from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Mat. 16.22 23. Peter acted Satans part in this against his Master though unwittingly yet so wittily so to the life that he got his name by it Christ said to Peter get thee behind me Satan It was Peters tongue but Satan tun'd it Isaac said of his sonne Jacob in Esaus dresse The hands are the hands of Esau but the voice is the voice of Jacob Christ perceived here Satans counsell in Peters words he saw the wicked spirit through the cloathing of Peters flesh and therefore rebukes the Organ under the title of the chiefe agent Get thee behind me Satan Now as Peter though a holy man and full of good intentions to his Master yet spake the Devils mind and language so fully that the Devill himselfe as to that purpose could scarce have mended it So likewise Jobs wife might be a godly woman in the maine though abused and misled by Satan she thus excited her husband in the grossest construction those words can beare to curse God and die There is somewhat in the Text which may give us a hint of this that though she spake this yet Job esteemed her a good woman For observe Jobs answer to this advice What doth he say He doth not say Thou wicked woman thou abhominable wretch why doest thou give me such counsell All that he saith is this Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh Observe it he doth not call her foolish or wicked woman but thou speakest as one of the foolish women As if he should say How now wife what words are these that I heare from thee thou dost not speake now like thy selfe I use to heare other language from thee thou and I have had other kind of conference and I have received other kind of counsell from thee then this Whence is it that thou art so unlike thy selfe where are thy words season'd with salt which have so often ministred grace unto the hearers thou art degenerated in manners and corrupted in thy speech thou speakest now as one of the foolish women Intimating that she used to speake wisely and discreetely or as Solomon describes the vertuous woman Pro. 31·26 that heretofore she opened her mouth with wisedome and now she spake only as a foolish or wicked woman He doth not
borne such a devised worship God doth never trust man with the making of holy Institutions There is nothing doth please him in any act of worship unlesse he sees himselfe obeyed Obedience is better then Sacrifice and therfore a Sacrifice which is not out of obedience cannot be accepted he that sacrificeth doth but offer up a beast but he that obeyeth offereth up himselfe sacrificeth his owne will It could not be therfore but that Job had a word a word as all the world had at that time a word given by God and so carried downe from one to another by tradition as it was for more then 2000. yeares All the will that God would reveale or had revealed to them was carried from hand to hand or from heart to heart from the Fathers to the children till at the last the Law was written and the Scripture penned by Moses So then Job offered Sacrifice according to an Institution though it was not an Institution written yet it was an Institution sent foorth and given by God Himselfe Yet there is a third Quere upon it Suppose that there was an Institution of God for sacrificing why did God call for Sacrifices What is his meaning Doth God delight in the bloud of Bulls and Goats Thou delightest not in sacrifices saith David thou desirest not burnt offerings And what was the Sacrifice unto Job or unto his sonnes Could the killing of a Beast take away sinne Why then doth Job when he feareth that his sons had sinned goe presently and offer Sacrifice For answer It is true that the Sacrifices in themselves were nothing either to God or man they could doe no good they had no power in them either to pacifie God or to purge the soules of men But looke upon the Sacrifice as it was an Institution and then God saw his Sonne Jesus Christ in it and was well-pleased and likewise man beheld and believed Christ in it and was purged When the Sacrifice was offering man saw Christ suffering this tooke away his sin and pacified his conscience A Sacrifice in it self as it was the killing or burning of a Beast had no vertue in it but as it had respect unto Christ so God saw the death of his son and that satisfied him and man saw the death of his Saviour and that justified him Againe it was not the bare Sacrifice that was effectuall but the faith of Job and the faith of his sons carried up in prayer these mingled with the Sacrifice wrought the cure Therfore we find in the time of the Sacrifice still the people were at prayer they knew the Sacrifice the Incense could doe nothing but as joyned with the faith of the Sacrificer in prayer We reade Luk. 1.10 when Zacharias the Priest was offering the Incense within in the Temple the Text saith that the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of Incense The Incense might burne long enough and yet the anger of God burne too the Incense might burne and yet the people not purified but consumed But while the Incense was burning while the Sacrifice was offering the people were praying and beleeving These actings of faith and powrings out of prayer made the Sacrifice as effectuall for man so acceptable unto God Then in that he offered burnt-offerings which burnt-offerings were made when he feared that his sons had sinned these offerings typing out and leading them to Christ and his death We may note this That Christ was ever the only remedy and cure of sin As soone as ever there vvas any feare of sinne presently they had recourse to a sacrifice and what was that They went to Christ Christ hath been the helpe against sin in all the generations of the world from the first and will be to the last If any man sin saith the Apostle John we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes He is the Propitiatory Sacrifice for our sins It follows According to the number of them all That is he offered for each of his sonnes a Sacrifice There were some Sacrifices which did serve for the whole Congregation as we may see in Levit. 4.13 14. and in divers other Chapters of that booke Besides these there were personall Sacrifices Levit. 1. where the Lawes about Sacrifices are set forth If any soule had sinned that particular soule must come to the Priest and bring a Sacrifice for his sin So here Job doth not offer only one generall family sacrifice for them all but he offereth up a distinct particular sacrifice for every particular son This teacheth us First That every one is saved and pardoned by the speciall and particular actings of his owne faith Every soule must beleeve for it selfe Every one must have a sacrifice We have Congregationall prayers and we have personall prayers now it is not enough for people to pray in publike with the Minister or for the Minister who is the mouth of the Congregation to God to offer up a prayer for the pardon of the people But every one must apart and by himselfe sue out his own pardon which is as it were his owne sacrifice by offering up and tendering of Jesus Christ unto God for the pardon of his sins Then againe you may note in that Job offered a Sacrifice for every one of his sons That it is not enough for Parents to pray in generall for their children but they ought to pray particularly for them As Parents who have many children provide portions according to the number of them all and proportion out their care personally according to the number of them all and in the Family they provide meat and cloathing according to the particular number of them all So likewise they ought to be at a proportionable expence in spirituals to lay out and lay up prayers and intercessions according to the number of them all not only to pray in generall that God would blesse their children and their family but even to set them one by one before God and so beg and sue out a speciall blessing upon the head of every one of them as without all question Job did when the Sacrifice for every son was made he sent up a prayer to God for the pardon and acceptance of every son That for the opening of the second act in the Text first he sent and sanctified them and secondly he offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all Now follows the ground or the reason of this act of Job both in sanctifying them and in offering Sacrifices for them For Job said it may be my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Holy duties must be grounded upon reason There must be a reason why we pray before we pray we must see cause for it and great cause too To pray out of custome and formality to offer sacrifice onely because it is a day of Sacrifice is not praying nor sacrificing Job had a speciall
the house of the Lord the people shewing their willingnesse and readinesse exprest it thus Let us rise up and build that is let us build as we say out of hand speedily Secondly To arise implyes the courage constancy and strength of those who undertake or goe about a businesse they arise and doe it that is they doe it with spirit So here it may import as much concerning Job in his sufferings He arose and rent his mantle that is though he heard all these sad relations yet his spirit was not overwhelmed he was not drowned in those sorrowes he did not sinke downe under them but he arose and rent his mantle c. as if he had raised himselfe up to wrestle with the temptation and the tempter to wrestle with Satan himselfe In this sense the Lord is said to arise Isa 33.8 9. where there is that sad description of the Land The Earth mourneth and languisheth Lebanon is ashamed c. Now will I rise saith the Lord now will I be exalted that is now will I come and shew my selfe with a mighty power for the deliverance of my people I will be exalted and they shall rejoyce That prayer of the old Church Arise O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered hath the same intendment desiring the Lord to goe forth armed with strength for the helpe of his people and the subduing of their enemies Thus Job arose bound with a four-fold cord of affliction he raised himselfe up like Sampson though in humility yet with strength and courage And so it is opposed to the sinking of the spirit under troubles as you know the spirit of Eli did 1 Sam. 4.18 There was sad tydings brought to Eli concerning the death of his sonnes and the taking of the Arke the Text saith As soone as he heard these things he fell downe backward he had no spirit no strength left in him he did not arise and rend his garment but he sunke downe and brake his necke When Nabal heard of the danger that his churlish and inhospitable answer had almost drawne upon him 1 Sam. 25.37 His heart dyed within him and he became as a stone When all that Job had was dead and gone his heart lived yea he was erecto animo of a raised spirit not only when he arose but when he fell upon the ground for then he worshipped and worship is the lifting up of the soule to God In the worship of God while the body is upon the knee the mind is or ought to be upon the wing And rent his mantle That is the second act Renting or garments is very often spoken of in Scripture and wee finde it especially in these two cases In case of extreame sorrow and in case of extreame indignation In case of extreame sorrow and that of two kinds either in the sorrows of afflictions or in the sorrowes repentance in both these we find renting of the garments For the sorrowes of outward affliction so we reade frequently of renting garments When Jacob heard of the death of Joseph when his sonnes brought him home the bloudy Coat saying but falsely that surely their brother was torne with wilde beasts he presently rent his garment And when the relation of the death of Saul was brought to Davids eare to expresse his sorrow He tooke hold on his cloathes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him and so againe afterward at the funerall of Abner David rent his cloathes and gave order to all the people that were with him to do the like In great funeral or fatall mournings it was usuall among the Hebrews to rent their garments This also was a frequent custome among the Heathen as the Poet describes a mourner in his mixt lamentations for private and publike losses he went with his garments torne being astonished at the death of his wife and the ruine of the City Many such instances there are amongst their ancient Historians Secondly It was used in token of Repentance when sorrowes for sinne brake forth and multiplied Josh 7.6 When Joshua humbled himselfe upon the defeat flight and slaughter of the Israelites before Ai it is said he rent his cloathes and fell to the Earth This renting was of their garments in respect of the outward affliction but withall in token of repentance for Joshua and the people humbled themselves with fasting So when the booke of the Law was read to Josiah and he saw how farre they had departed from the rule and word of God it is said He rent his clothes and he was afraid he humbled himself and his heart was tender before God But it may be objected that in the 2. Joel 13. when we are exhorted to rent the heart we are stop'd from renting the garment Rent your hearts and not your garments in the case of Repentance For answer to that I say the Not there is not an absolute prohibition of renting the garment it is not so much a negation as a direction Rent your hearts and not your garments that is Rent your hearts rather then your garments or Rent your hearts more then your garments or be sure that you rent your hearts whatsoever ver you doe with your garments Negations doe not alwayes quite deny a thing in the 2 Cor. 3.6 take an instance for it where the Apostle treating of the preheminence of the Gospell in the new dispensation saith Who hath made us able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit Not there doth not deny as if the Ministers of Christ did not speake and publish the letter of the word for the letter of the word is the vessell wherin the Spirit is contained and unlesse we speake the letter to the eare the Spirit cannot in an ordinary way come into the heart therefore understand the Apostles meaning thus he hath made us able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit that is he hath made us Ministers rather of the spirit then of the letter or more of the spirit then of the letter because of the promise of the plentifull effusion of the Spirit after the ascension of Christ A further instance we have in that speech of God I will have mercy and not sacrifice That is rather mercy then sacrifice Sacrifice is not rejected but mercy is preferr'd So Rent your hearts and not your garments that is rather rent your hearts then your garments For otherwise you find that not only it was lawfull as in the former places in times of repentance and sorrow to rend the garments but they are taxed because they did not repent and rend their garments The not renting the garment is charged as a conviction of an un-rent heart When the roull of curses that Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah was read before Jehojakim and his Courtiers the King cut the roll with a pen-knife and cast it into the fire their impenitence is thus described yet they were not afraid nor rent
shame for they were at liberty but it is therefore said that the men were greatly ashamed because amongst them it vvas a marke of shame and slavery to be shaven Hereupon David giveth order that they should tarry at Jericho till their beards were growen it was a dishonour to be shaved And it is noted in Plutarch concerning Demosthenes that when he had a mind to sit close at his study and vvould not goe abroad or be interrupted by visits of friends at home that he would shave himselfe that so he might be ashamed to goe forth or see any body but be constrained to keepe to his booke for tvvo or three moneths together till his haire vvere grovvne againe The bondage and reproach that Nebuchadnezzar brought upon Tyrus is thus described Every head was made bald And Aristotle observes that the haire vvas a token of liberty Thus the shaving of the head in Job might be a signe both of his sorrovv and great reproach that vvas come upon him being one novv that vvas ready to be mocked and made the scorne and by-vvord of the vvorld as vve see afterward he was during this affliction Yet it is considerable from Scripture example that the cutting off the haire and shaving of the head had not alvvayes either of these significations hitherto discuss'd but did vary according to the diversity of places and of times In the Booke of Genesis we reade that cutting and shaving of the haire vvas a token of joy and liberty both together When Joseph vvas delivered out of prison it is said that he shaved himselfe and came to Pharaoh And it is noted concerning Mephibosheth as a matter of his sorrow for Davids absence that he let his haire grovv He trimmed not his beard being much troubled at the Kings absence I confesse neither of these instances come home enough to the point both of these neglecting the care and culture of their bodies in their troubles now being delivered prepare themselves by shaving and trimming the hayre for the presence of those Kings But it is in some Nations shaving hath beene a marke of Honour All the Romane Emperours were shaved till Nero. And it was an ancient Proverbe Thou art a slave for thou wearest lockes or long haire There is an Objection that may be made concerning this act of Job because afterward it is said that in all this Job sinned not whether or not Job might shave his head without sinne for you have an expresse rule to the contrary Levit. 19.27 cap. 21.5 You shall not round the corners of your heads neither shalt thou marre the corners of thy beard and so you have it againe in Deut. 14.1 that they should not cut their haire or make any baldnesse upon their heads for the dead namely by shaving or cutting off the haire How is it therefore here that Job shaved himselfe for the death of his children and in regard of those great troubles that were upon him I answer briefly for that first Job lived as we have cleared when we spake of the booke in generall before that Law was given which did prohibit the cutting of the haire in that manner Secondly It appeares in those places where those Lawes are set downe that the Lord did forbid only conformity to the Heathen they must not shave or cut themselves as the Heathen did who cut their heads round like a halfe globe as it is observed concerning them and were wont to dedicate their lockes to their Idoll-gods That vain fashion and grosse superstition were the things forbidden in that Law of Moses Thirdly Though the Jewes were forbidden to shave their heads as mourning for the death of their friends yet in the judgment of learned Junius the shaving of their heads was not only permitted but commanded in case of mourning for sinne or in times of solemne repentance and humiliation He instanceth in two places before mentioned First the Prophet Isaiah reproving the unseasonable mirth and desperate security of the Jewes in a time of publike trouble and treading downe tells them In that day did the Lord God of Hoasts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sack-cloth Isa 22.12 Secondly There is councell given answerable to that reproofe by the Prophet Micah cap. 1.16 Make thee bald and pole thee for thy delicate children enlarge thy baldnesse as the Eagle for they are gone into captivity from thee We will observe something from these two actions the renting of his garments and the shaving of his head These referre to the expression of his sorrow for those losses in estate and the death of his children As the other two actions his falling upon the ground and worshipping referre to the expression of that homage and honour that he tendered up to God in the middest of these sorrowes From those two acts of sorrow learne we First That when the hand of God is upon us it becommeth us to be sensible of it and to be humbled under it Job hearing these sad relations doth not stand out stoutly as if nothing had touch'd him but to shew that sorrow did even rent his heart he rent his garments to shew that his affliction touch'd his spirit he shav'd his head There are two extreames that we are carefully to avoyd in times of affliction and the Apostle doth caution all the sonnes of God against them both in one verse Heb. 12.5 My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Those are the two extreames despising and fainting when God doth correct He would not have us despise his chastning to say I doe not regard this let God take all if he will If my estate must goe let it goe if my children die let them die this is a despising of the chastening of the Lord and God cannot beare it that we should beare it thus lightly There is another extreame that is fainting If when goods are taken away the heart be taken away and when children die then the spirit of the Parent dies too this is fainting Take heed of these two extreames Job walkes in the middle in the golden meane betweene them both He doth not carelesly despise neither doth he unbeleevingly faint he riseth up and he rents his garments He would have it knowne that he fainted not under the stroake and he would have it knowne that he felt the stroake he was not like a stocke or a stone he would not carry it with a stoicall apathy but with Christian fortitude and magnanimity Sencelesse ones are taxed Jerem. 5.3 Thou hast striken them and they have not grieved Such are compared by Solomon to him that lyes downe in the midst of the Sea or as he that lyeth upon the top of a mast secure and carelesse in the greatest dangers They have stricken me shalt thou say and I was not sicke they have beaten me and I felt it not Prov. 23.34 35. The Prophet
Hosea reproves the like Strangers saith he have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not yea gray haires are here and there upon him and he knoweth it not ca. 7.9 That is he is in an afflicted in a declining condition and yet he layeth it not to heart A man may out of the greatnesse of his spirit but not out of the carelesnesse of his spirit say as Luther once did when things went very ill If the world will goe thus let it goe thus Otherwise it is a most unbecomming temper to be stricken of God and not to tremble at least to take it to heart When God afflicteth us then we should afflict our selves and be humbled when Gods hand is upon us our hands in this sence should be upon our selves We must beare our crosse upon our backs we must not make a fire of it to warme our hands Indeed the Apostle exhorts to rejoyce in tribulation and it is an excellent thing to rejoyce in tribulation but we must not sleight much lesse make a sport of tribulation Rejoycing ariseth from a holy satisfaction that the soule hath in the dealings of God with us But sleighting ariseth from an unholy contempt or at the best from a stupid insensiblenesse of Gods dealings with us The former hath in it the height of wickednesse and the latter hath not the least degree of goodnesse It is no vertue to beare what we doe not feele Secondly observe That in times of affliction we may expresse our sorrowes by outward gestures by sorrowfull gestures Iob was not only sorrowfull but he acts sorrow he puts himselfe into mourning postures he rents his garments he shav's his head downe he falleth upon the ground It is no hypocrisie to appeare what we are it is hypocrisie to appeare what we are not We use to say he mourneth truly that mourneth without a garment but if a man mourne in truth a mourning garment is comely To mourn in our cloathes and laugh in our sleeves is both sinfull and base Now Iob mourned indeed the shaving his head and renting his garment was but to keepe an outward correspondence with what he was within Therefore take heed of censuring those who in great sorrowes use sorrowfull gestures striking upon their breasts tearing their haire or the like Only let all take heed of excessive and immoderate mourning mourne not like Rachell who would receive no comfort mourne not like the Heathen who had no hope To be above passions will be our happinesse in Heaven to rectifie passions is much of our happinesse on earth To be without naturall affections is to fall below a man to steere and mannage them is one of the heights of a Christian Thirdly We shewed that this renting of his garments might have reference to his Repentance whence note That when God afflicteth us with sufferings we ought to afflict our selves to humble our soules for sinne Smarting times are good repenting times and worldly sorrow should get the company of godly sorrow It is not safe to be alone with worldly sorrow that workes death but if we mingle a few teares for sinne and our unkindnesse to Christ with those teares then they will refresh us We get by losses in our outward estate when they lead us to looke to the losses and repaire the breaches of our spirituall estates no question but Iob at this time fell a searching of his heart and a trying of his wayes renewing his repentance and assuring of his peace with God When afflictions cause us to returne thus into our owne breasts they have then a sweet influence a blessed operation upon us Lastly Observe That thoughts of blasphemy against God should be cast off and rejected with the highest indignation Iob rent his garments when Satan solicites Iob to rent the name of God with reproach and cursings Thoughts dishonouring God must needs be vexing to every good heart Nothing touches a godly man like that which touches God When the glory of his God is engaged and concern'd he cannot contain So much for those two acts he rent his garments and he shaved his head The two other acts are 1. He falleth upon the ground 2. He worshippeth The Originall words doe both signifie a bowing to the ground He fell upon the ground and bowed so some translate it you shall see the reason by and by He fell upon the ground and worshipped that is He fell upon the ground to worship To fall upon the ground is a gesture of worship and not only is it a posture of worship when the worshipper mournes but it is likewise a posture of worship when the worshipper rejoyceth Great joy as well as great sorrow transports a man in his next actions It is said Mat. 2.10 11. that the wise men when they found Christ rejoyced with exceeding great joy and presently they fell downe and worshipped him Neither is this posture peculiar to worship in times or upon occasions of extraordinary joy and sorrow unlesse in the degree of it for the ordinary invitation was O come let us worship and bow downe let us kneele before the Lord our maker Psa 95.6 I said in the degree for to fall downe is more then to bow down Falling down in worship proceeds not only from sorrow but from joy when the heart is filled with joy then we fall downe and worship And it is probably observed that the ancient Prophets and holy men the servants of God were called Nephalim from Naphal which is the Originall word of the Text Cadentes or Prostrantes that is prostrates or fallers because in their worship they usually fell downe upon the earth to humble themselves before God And because adoration was so commonly made by falling to the ground by bowing the head by bowing the knee by bowing the whole body therefore the same Originall word which the Hebrewes use for worshipping doth properly signifie to bow downe the body And that phrase to bow the body as it is often joyned with worshipping so sometime to bow the body put alone doth signifie to worship 2 King 5.18 When I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon scil When I worship c. So likewise the Greeke word to worship hath the same sense in it for that word signifies as a learned Writer observes upon it to bow after the manner of doggs that crouch at the feet of their Masters for favour or for feare So in worship the people of God crouch downe and abase themselves at Gods feet as not worthy in themselves to eat the crumbes under his Table Yet we are not to looke upon this as if it were the only true and acceptable worship-gesture for we shall find in Scripture that there were other worship-gestures with which God was well pleased Some have worship'd God standing some sitting some walking all these are worship-postures For standing we find it 1 King 8.22 at the Dedication of the Temple Solomon stood before the Altar of the Lord and made
he had many weakenesses upon him yet he preached the Gospell And then it followes in the next verse My temptation which was in my flesh you despised not observe he calleth his bodily infirmity a temptation The afflictions of the body are great temptations to the soule It is very considerable to this purpose what the Apostle James saith when he speaks of the severall conditions of the Saints and their duties in them Chap. 5. v. 13 14. Is any man afflicted let him pray he speakes that in generall Is any man merry let him sing Psalmes Is any man sick Is he pained by sicknesse in his body What shall he doe then He doth not say Is any man sick let him pray but Is any man sick let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he should say A sick man is very unfit to pray himselfe though for himselfe he hath need to call others to pray with him and for him he hath enough to doe to wrastle with his pain and conflict with that affliction In other afflictions let him pray but if he be sick let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him A diseased body unfits the mind for holy duties The prayer of sick Hezekiah is called chattering like a Crane or Swallow so did I chatter Isa 38. it was rather chattering then praying such a disquietnesse and uncomposednesse was upon his spirit thorough or by the infirmity of his flesh Paine is a piercing shaft in Satans quiver of temptations Though the spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmity yet oftentimes a wound in the body wounds the soule and the diseases of the flesh make the spirit sick A wounded spirit no man can beare and a wound in the body is a burden too heavy for many men And if it be so Then the pain and the weaknesse of the body is no advantage to repentance and returning unto God How pittifully are they mistaken who put off repentance till their bodies be in paine till they are sick and weake they doe it upon this ground because when they are in paine they thinke they shall repent with more ease Observe if Satan thinks to have such an advantage upon a holy man as to make him blaspheme when he is in paine doest thou thinke paine will be an advantage to thy repentance It is said that at the powring out of the fourth Viall Rev. 16.9 when God did smite the inhabitants of the earth and scorched them with great heat that they blasphemed the Name of God they did that which Satan presumed Job would doe and they repented not to give him glory It is a woefull thing to put off repentance to a pained body paine in its own nature fits us rather to blaspheme and turne from God then to returne to him Never thinke to have helpe for the cure of your soules by the diseases of your bodies usually we find that either sick persons repent not or theirs is but a sickly repentance At the most paine can but restraine your lusts it can never heale them The actings of some sins are quickned by diseases At the most a disease can but abate the acts of sin it can never destroy the life of it Death it selfe cannot kill sin The sins of wicked men live when they are dead the grave cannot consume them no nor the fire of Hell wast their strength the sins of unbeleevers shall remaine not only in their guilt but in their power to all eternity So much of Satans motion But put forth thy hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face Verse 6. And the Lord said unto Satan Behold he is in thy hand but save his life Here we have the Lords grant unto that motion of Satan He is in thy hand but save his life Thou mayest doe with his bone and his flesh what thou wilt He is in thine hand We have opened what it is to have a thing put into the hand in the former Chapter where the same expression is used therefore I shall passe those words here Note only this that the Lord saith here He is in thy hand to prevent Satans cavill as if he had said Thou movest me to touch his bone and his flesh well lest thou shouldest say that I have dealt too gently with him and have smitten him with favour I will put the rod or staffe into thine hand doe thou with 〈◊〉 bone and his flesh what thou canst spare him not We know the Lord is able to strike stronger stroakes and give deeper wounds infinitely then Satan can if he pleaseth yet the love of God to his children stops his hand and breakes the blow He corrects in judgement and debates in measure Isa 27.8 when he strikes his children he strikes them as children gently Thus 2 Sam. 7.14 speaking of Davids family If he commit iniquity saith God I will chasten him with the rod of men the word there used is Enosh which signifies a weake man I will chasten him with the rod of a weake man of one that hath but a weake arme or hand the hand of a sickly fraile man A weake a sickly man cannot strike very hard Thus saith God I will chasten thy children if they commit iniquity they shall rather see my care then feele my power in their corrections Now I say lest Satan should pretend partiality God puts Job into Satans hand and gives him liberty to lay on as hard as his hand acted with utmost malice could smite him thou hast liberty to smite him into the very valley of the shadow of death to bring him so neere death that he may looke into the graves mouth but no further Save his life Here is Satans chaine the limitation or restraint of his power When God puts any of his servants into Satans hand he keepes Satan in his owne hand And as all the Elect are in Gods hand to keepe them from taking hurt so the Devill is in Gods hand to keep him from doing hurt to his Elect. Save his life The word Nephesh here used signifieth properly the soule and the soule is in Scripture often put for the life because the soule is the spring the fountaine of life life is derived or diffused into the body from or by the soule and as soone as the soule is parted from the body life departs Hence both this Hebrew word and the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have their names from breathing or respiring For life goes out when breath goes out when we cease breathing we cease living Our life is but a blast a breath the Lord formed man out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrills the breath of life and he became a living soule Gen. 2.7 This is that vitall spirit by which all quick things move therefore Beasts Birds Fish and creeping things are called living soules Gen. 1.20 24. And
this life is called the blood because 〈◊〉 contained or carried in the blood Gen. 9.4 Further it is 〈◊〉 observable that the Hebrewes call the Body seperated from 〈◊〉 soule or a dead corps Nephesh Numb 5.2 c. 9.10 c. 19.11 Hag. 2.14 Though the life be quite gone out departed from the carkasse or body of a dead man yet that dead body is called life or soule to note that it shall live againe and that the soule shall returne unto it The mistery of the Resurrection from death was implied in the name of the dead Wee find also that the Heathens called a dead body a soule possibly from some glimpse of the resurection We lay up a soule in the grave saith the Poet. Animamque sepulchro condimus But how is this worke put into Satans hand The saving of his life What is Satan become a saviour what salvation can we expect from him whose name is Apollyon and Abaddon Rev. 9.11 both which signifie a destroyer Shall we send to the Wolfe to save the Sheepe or to the Vulture to save the Dove Destruction is the delight of Satan and it is his way as he hath no hope to be saved himselfe eternally so no will to save others temporally Observe then That here to save life notes only a sparing from death not a delivering from destruction but a forbearing to destroy Satan saved his life negatively that is he did not take it away he can not save positively or restore that which was ready to perish he doth not save as a deliverer but as a murtherer who would kill his brother but cannot He saves not for want of will but for want of power when he is forced to spare his nature is to devoure This devouring Lyon hunts for the pretious life even when God saith Save his life It may be questioned here Why Satan for that is implyed desired so to destroy the life of Job God would never have limited and chained him up but that Satan had a mind to suck his blood or afflict him unto death These two reasons may be given why Satan would have his life The one might be this Because it was a thing doubtfull with him though he bragged much of it whether he should attaine his end or no to make Job curse God when therefore he saw he could not overcome his spirituall life it would have bin some revenge to him to destroy his naturall life As some wicked ones his agents when by all their threats or flatteries they cannot make a 〈◊〉 sin which is to destroy his spirituall life their revenge breakes 〈◊〉 against his naturall life to destroy that This is the method of persecution first to attempt the death of the soule by drawing or terrifying unto sin and if they faile of that then death is inflicted on the body Or againe in the second place he being doubtfull in himselfe though he made no doubt in words whether his plot would be successefull to make Job curse God he I say doubting this designe might not draw him to sin resolved to take away his life that so Job might never have told tales of his victory or have reported his conquest to the world At least by his death he might obscure the businesse and bury it with some slander saying that Job died with discontent and griefe that he blasphemed God when he died that he wished for death and could not hold out any longer Much like that device of some Jesuits who have blowne it abroad that our most zealous opposers of Romish errours whom they could never move either by writing or disputing while they lived have yet recanted all when they dyed Wherefore least Satan should have drawen a curtain over the glory of Jobs victory by aspersing him after his death the Lord saith Save his life Job shall survive his troubles that matters may come to light and a true report be made and left upon record both of thy implacable malice and enmity and of his invincible patience and sincerity And this may lead us yet further to consider why God was so carefull of that precious part his life For some may say Had it not been glory to God and honour to Job like that of Martyrdome if he had died under the hand of Satan holding fast his own integrity blessing God even unto death I grant this but yet God knew that the saving of his life would be more advantagious both to himselfe and his Job for those ends wherefore he saith Save his life destroy him not First thus God intended to make Job a Monument of mercy as well as a Monument of suffering he intended to set him up to all the world as one in whom they might behold the goodnesse of God in raising up mixt with his wisdome in casting down that men might learn hope from Job as well as patience from Job Therefore saith God Save his life I have somewhat else to do with him I will raise him up again and in him an everlasting Monument both of his patience in suffering and of my own power in restoring Indeed if he had died in the conflict and left his bones in the field he had been a wonderfull example of constancy but he had not been such an example of mercy if his life had not been saved There may be this in it too Save his life saith God I will have him preserved in this combate his courage and carriage in it is my delight God loveth to see his people holding out tugging and continuing in such assaults and temptations If any thing in the world gives delight to God this is the thing that delighteth him The Heathen thought this the sport of their gods Seneca in his Book of Providence speaking of Cato and other gallant Romane spirits saith the gods delighted to look upon them in their conflicts with fortune To see them wrastle with some great calamity with some great danger was such a spectacle as would draw off Jupiter from his greatest businesse It is a most certain truth that the most true God doth love and delight to see his children wrastling with some great calamitie to see a poor man man who is but flesh and bloud wrastling with principalities and powers with the devill and powers of darknesse this is a sight that God himself as we may so speak rejoyceth in When Abraham had finished that great combate about sacrificing his sonne he calleth the place Jehovah-jireh the Lord will see or the Lord doth see the Lord doth behold as if that had been a sight which God himselfe came down to look upon As when some great man or strange shew passeth by we goe out to see it so God cometh down upon mount Moriah to see a sight And what was it To see Abraham in that great temptation assaulted and overcomming Here was a spectacle for the great Jehovah and therefore he cals the place Jehovah-jireh the Lord hath seen I doubt not but this place
say she was one one act is enough to assimilate but it is not enough to denominate Thus much may serve to evince that though we take the words in that worst sense yet it doth not necessarily inferre that Jobs wife was a wicked an ungodly woman which is the objection against that Exposition From the words translated Curse God and die and thus expounded we may observe First That Satan is restlesse and unwearied in this designe to bring the people of God to thinke ill and speake ill of God It is that he laboured for in the carrying on of this whole businesse concerning Job and every stone is turned every way tryed to accomplish this proposed end Secondly In that he perswadeth Job by his wife when he was in this wofull condition to curse God and die Observe That Satan would perswade us to ease our selves of troublesome evills by falling into sinfull evils Job was grievously diseased you see the medicine and the cure that Satan prescribeth Goe sinne saith he curse God and die whereas one of the least evills of sin is worse then all the evills of suffering that can befall us All sorrowes are more elegible then one sin It hath been rightly taught us from Antiquitie that the lowest degree of a lye because sin is not to be made or admitted if that medium could be assured so noble an end for the saving of a world What a father and teacher of lyes then is Satan who directs many a poore soule to save it selfe from or helpe it selfe out of a small affliction by adventuring upon some great transgression Thirdly Curse God and die It is sinfull to wish our own deaths though we are under paines more painefull then death It is sinfull to desire death absolutely we may desire it with submission to the will of God To live is an act of nature but to be willing to live because God wills it is an act of grace And as it is our holinesse to doe the will of God while we live so it is our holinesse to be content to live while we suffer according to his will On the other hand to die is an act of nature but to die because God wills it is an act of grace Christ is said to be obedient unto death because he died in contemplation of Gods decree and in conformity to his good pleasure To die thus is the duty of a Christian and the crowne of all his obedience Satan would have us live as we will and die when we will he tempts us as much to die when we list as to live how we list Satan puts Job upon it peremptorily curse God and die desire or procure thy own death To wish dâ—â—th that we may enjoy Christ it is a holy wish but yet we must not wish that neither absolutely The Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ yet you see how he qualifies and debates it To wish for death that we may be freed from sinne is a holy wish but yet wee must not wish that absolutely neither we must referre our selves to the pleasure of God how long he will let us conflict with our corruptions and with our lusts with this body of death and sin which we beare about us But to wish for death because our lives are full of trouble is an unholy wish God may yea and hath as much use of our lives in our troubles as in our comforts We may doe much businesse for God in a sick-bed We may doe God as much worke when we are bound hand and foote in a prison as when we are at liberty passive obedience brings as much glory to God as active doth therefore we must not wish for death especially not with an absolute wish because we are under troublesome evils And if it be sinfull to wish for death how wicked is it to procure or hasten death to pull down our house of clay with our own hands because we are under troublesome evills Fourthly Observe further Satan would perswade that death is an end at least an ease of outward troubles Wouldest thou have an end of thy troubles and of thy sorrowes Curse God and die here is the remedy We say indeed of some remedies that they are worse then the disease but I am sure this is Death to ungodly ones it is so farre from being an end or an ease of their troubles that it is to them as Christ speakes in another case the beginning of sorrowes the entrance to eternall death and the very suburbs of Hell Yet how many doth Satan perswade when they are in Jobs case in great extremities that death will be the cure of all their troubles Fifthly Observe That Satan would make men willing to die when they are most unfit to die You see what preparation Satan directs Job unto he biddeth him curse God and die Would not Job thinke you have bin in a fit posture in a fit frame for death when he had bin cursing God Repent and die pray and die humble thy selfe and die beleeve and die take fast hold of Christ who is our life our way to life and die are the counsels and voice of the holy Ghost but Satans language is curse God and die sin and die be impenitent and die blaspheme and die And it is an experienced truth that oftentimes they seeme most willing to die who are most unfit most unready for death you shall see some men venturing yea casting away their lives without feare or wit the whole visible businesse of whose lives hath been nothing else but a working out of their own damnation without feare or trembling They as it were give diligence all their dayes to make Hell and reprobation sure and yet goe out of the world as if they were sure of Heaven This is Satans preparation curse God and dye Lastly Note this That the holiest person is lyable to the most blasphemous temptation One would have wondred that Satan should ever have ventured to suggest such a grosse thing as this to so holy a man as Job But Satan where he hath been often foyled growes impudent and will then suggest such things not because he hopes to prevaile but because he resolves to vex such as he cannot overcome He troubles as much and as many as he can So much of the counsell which Jobs wife gave him reproving him as foolish and over-credulous in holding fast that unprofitable thing his integrity and advising him to be worse then mad or out-ragious in cursing God and dying Let us now consider Jobs holy and wise reply in the tenth Verse But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh what shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill These words containe Jobs reply wherein two things are considerable First A reproofe Secondly A refutation First He rejects her counsell with a sharpe and wholesome reprehension and then he refuteth her counsell by strong
dominion of death and subject to that king of terrour Sin is the seed of death and the principle of corruption God doth infants no wrong when they die their death is of themselves for they have the seed of death in them We may affirme in one sense that when infants die they have no losse and we are sure in every sense when they die they have no wrong All death except death to sin is the wages of sin and therefore can be no injury to the sinner Secondly We may observe concerning man in his birth what a helplesse creature man is If I saith Job had been left a little I had bin gone quickly there had been an end of me I could not have helped my selfe if the knees had not prevented me if the brests had not given me suck if I had been destitute of these succours then presently I should have been free among the dead I should have been quiet and gone into silence Thirdly Observe That every step of life stands in need of a step of mercy When the infant is conceived there must be an act of mercy to quicken it an act of mercy to nourish it in the wombe an act of mercy for the birth an act of mercy being borne to take it upon the knee an act of mercy to binde it up an act of mercy to give it suck The beginning of our lives and the progresse of our lives our generation and our preservation call for acts of mercy or else poore creatures as we are we quickly perish and returne unto our dust We owe our lives to God at first and we owe them every moment if he did not renew mercy every moment we could not continue life one moment As it is with our spirituall life so it is with our naturall Our lives are hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 Of and from our selves we cannot subsist either in grace or nature It followes For now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have slept then had I been at rest These words are an inlargement of the former reason taken from a description of the state and condition of the dead For now saith Job I should have lien still If you should aske me a reason of my former reason why I was so angry with that day or night wherein I was conceived and borne wherein I had that to me unacceptable mercy to be preserved and kept alive This I subjoyne for the reason of it If none of those unwelcome favours or naturall rights had been done me then I had lien still I had been quiet I should have slept I had been at rest Either I should have been as one that never was or I should have been at rest and quiet The argument lyes thus Rest and quiet are desireable things but death in the omission of those succours would have given me rest therefore I desire those succours had been omitted This conclusion is in the 11th and 12th verses which we heard before The assumption is in this 13th verse which he further confirmes in the 6 verses following by an argument which we may thus forme I will prove saith he that in death I should have rest and been quiet and lien still for all conditions and sorts of men are quiet and lie still in death There or in that estate where all degrees and sorts of persons are at rest there sure I should have found rest but in death all sorts and degrees of persons have found rest therefore I should have found rest too Now that all sorts of people lie still and are at rest in death he proves by an elegant enumeration of the severall sorts and conditions of men He makes an argument by way of induction of all or most of the rankes of men First He shewes it in Kings and Counsellours of the earth these men that make such a bussell in the world when once they are dead they are quiet enough And then he shews it in Rich-men and Princes who load themselves with thick clay who toile and moile all their days to heape up and amasse much wealth when these come to the grave ther 's an end of all their labours then they must give over all their pursuite of riches Fourthly He shewes it in children either abortives borne before natures time or borne in full perfection of nature ver 16. Lastly He shewes it in oppressors and the oppressed in prisoners and those that imprison them in the small and in the great in the servants and in their Masters Thus making an innumeration of all these from thence he infers That if all these are quiet when they are in the grave then surely his condition had been so too I should have been quiet and lien still then I should have slept and been at rest We must here take notice that Job speaking of the state of death speakes only in reference to an outward condition and our resting from outward calamities and troubles he doth not handle the point at all concerning mans eternall estate For death is not rest to all sorts of men in that sense Kings and Counsellours and rich men c. may rest from the troubles of this world and goe to a world of everlasting troubles Such a totall rest is the sole priviledge of the Saints Thus only blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes follow them Rev. 14.13 When the Saints die they rest from their labours and their works follow them through free-grace in glorious rewards When the wicked die they rest from their labours but their workes follow them through divine Justice in everlasting punishments And Job resting assured of his own eternall rest wishes only a rest from those temporall commotions Further We may observe 4 words used by Job to expresse the same thing First I should have lien still And been quiet there is a second I would have slept there is a third and fourthly Then I had been at rest I should have lien still The word signifies to lie down in any kind and it signifies to sleepe Gen. 19.4 Before they lay downe that is before they went to bed It is applied likewise to the sleepe of death 2 Sam. 7.12 Isa 43.17 They shall lye downe they shall not rise that is they shall die so the next words expound it They are extinct they are quenched as towe And been quiet The word signifieth also to be silent we may put both together then had I lien still and been silent and you know death and the grave are called silence I had been like those that goe downe into silence saith the Psalmist Ps 115.17 that is like those that go down into the grave And Hezekiah in his mourning describes that silence Isa 38.18 The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee I should have slept Sleepe is the image of death and death is more then the image
I am sure with passions or the working of many passions together The word you see in the Hebrew hath a neere affinity in sound and sense with our English word raging and we translate it so Psal 2. Why doe the heathen rage It is the same word So here the wicked cease from raging or from troubling that is from that madnesse of rage in troubling the poore especially such as feare God Wicked men are not only sinfull but they are mad in their sin As Paul speakes of himselfe before his conversion I punished them oft in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even unto strange Cities Acts 26.11 In Paul unconverted see the picture of a wicked mans spirit he could not cease from troubling but in death he shall And there the weary are at rest The weary Some by the weary understand those whom the wicked have wearied by troubling of them and that is a truth that in the grave the wearied those that wicked men have turmoiled and vexed are at rest so the sense is made out thus that in the grave they that trouble others and the troubled the poore persecuted and the proud persecutors are at rest But rather by the wearied we are to understand only the wicked themselvs There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest that is there those wicked men who weary and tire out themselves with vexing and troubling of others are at rest they then cease from those vexatious undertakings which have consumed their spirits and worne out their bodies And the reason why I rather expound the weary to be the wicked though the other be a good sense is because Job afterward speakes of the rest of those that are wearied who are passive under the cruelties and plottings of those wicked ones There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest Hence observe first That wicked men are troublers both of themselves and others There the wicked cease from troubling as if the wicked did nothing in the world but trouble the world As before Job had given the speciall character of great ones and Princes They get gold build Palaces and Sepulchers and fill them with treasure So when he speakes of wicked ones he saith There the wicked cease from troubling As intimating that while they live in the world they are a perpetuall trouble to the world The Prophet Isaiah is expresse chap 57.20 The wicked are as the troubled sea that cannot rest they can doe any thing better then be quiet they have not strength enough to sit still they cannot rest King Ahab had this apprehension of Elijah 1 King 18.17 when the kingdome of Israel was full of trouble for God did vex them with great adversity Art not thou he saith Ahab that troublest Israel No saith Elijah who could make up a better judgement then Ahab in that point I am not he that troubleth Israel but it is thou and thy fathers house Ahab had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse and so had stock enough to purchase trouble for Israel wicked ones are the troublers of all they are troublers of their own families troublers of the places and Cities where they live the troublers of a whole Kingdome troublers of the Churches of Christ and the troublers of their own soules they are borne to trouble both active and passive they love to trouble and they have what they love It is the character and the argument of an extreame wicked man to be a troubler Even as it is a great argument of great grace when you see one a comforter of others or busie to helpe others to doe good to others The tree is knowne by the fruites Secondly Taking the latter words of this verse There the weary be at rest for those wicked men who are wearied by troubling others we may observe That wicked men by troubling others doe as much weary and tire out themselves And though they find that in troubling others they weary themselves yet they will not give it over they will trouble still Job saith thus of a wicked man in the 15th of this booke ver 20. The wicked man travaileth with paine all his dayes not only doth he put others to paine but himselfe is in paine and they are frequently expressed in Scripture as wearying themselves sometimes as weary of themselves so Jer. 9.5 They weary themselves to commit iniquity And thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels Isa 47.13 Thou art wearied in the greatnesse of thy way Isa 57.10 and that was but a way of troubling the Church She wearieth her selfe with lies Ezek. 24.12 The sins which wicked men commit only in and against themselves weary them but they are most wearied when they are persecutors of others It is observed of Antiochus Epiphanes that famous troubler of the Church by him that hath written the Itinerary of the Saints that he did undertake more troublesome journeyes and went upon more hazardous designes meerely to trouble and vex and oppose the Church of the Jewes then ever any of his predecessors did about any other conquest or noble enterprise that he travail'd more miles to doe mischiefe then as the Authour doth compare their journeys any of the Saints did to doe good and therefore he concludes the story of him with this generall truth concerning persecutors All such wicked men goe with more trouble to eternall death then the Saints doe to eternall life they toyle themselves more and suffer more to worke out their own damnation then the godly doe in working out their salvation To be wicked in the height is the height of trouble Solomon saith that a good man is mercifull to his beast but a wicked man is unmercifull to himselfe he will tire himselfe more then a good man will tire his beast This is a certaine truth he that will follow sinne and serve his own lusts especially the lust of pride and oppression whosoever serveth those lusts serveth a hard master a master that will make him toile and sweat and weary himselfe while he lives and at the last pay him with death The worke of sin is bad enough but as to the sinner the wages of sinne is worse The last thing I shall note from it is this There the wicked cease from troubling There where is that At the grave when they come to die they make an end of their troubling not before Observe then Wicked men will never cease troubling untill they cease to live In the grave they cease troubling there they are at rest If they should live an eternity in this world they would trouble the world to eternity As a godly man never gives over doing good he will doe good as long as he lives though he fetches many a weary step so wicked men never give over doing evill untill they step into the grave And the reason of it is because it is their nature to doe
evill and that which men doe naturally they doe alwayes they never give it over nothing but death can suspend and stop nature There are indeed two cases wherein wicked men cease troubling while they live One is when they are desperate in their designes and see they cannot by troubling themselves trouble others sufficiently when they cannot have their will nor compasse their ends fully they being in despaire of doing the mischiefe they would will doe no more So the Historian notes concerning Dioclesian the most bloody persecutour that ever the Church had at the last he gave over the Empire and declined the governement not because he was weary of persecuting but he was weary of being disappointed Because he saw he could not hatch that which he had long brooded or bring forth those designes he had contrived for the utter extirpation of the Christians Being thus out of hope to doe all the mischiefe he intended he puts himselfe out of power to doe that mischiefe resignes the Empire A second case wherein wicked men cease troubling is when they have fully attained their ends in this life sometimes they bring their worke to such perfection to such a period that they thinke they have attained all all their plots have taken all 's theirs and when they have fully done the Devils work then he gives them a play day they have some cessation But otherwise except in these two cases they never cease from troubling therefore the Apostle Paul Gal. 5.12 prayeth that they which trouble them might even be cut off As if he had said they are such a kind of men there is no curing of them they will never have done doing mischiefe untill they be cut off by death As God threatens death to deterre men from sin so sometimes he is as it were constrained to send death to keepe or take men off from sin A godly man saith If God kill mee yet will trust I in him and some wicked men say in effect if not in the letter Till God kills us we will sinne against him The Psalmist askes the question Psal 94.4 5. How long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph How long shall they utter and speake hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves They breake in pieces thy people O Lord. What answer shall we give what date shall we put to this How long The answer is given ver 23. The Lord shall bring upon them their own iniquity and cut them off in their own wickednesse yea the Lord our God shall cut them off As if he had said except the Lord cut them off in their wickednesse they will never leave off doing wickedly The wicked saith Hannah in her song 1 Sam. 2.9 shall be silent in darknesse The wicked will sinne while they have any light to sin by therefore God puts out their candle and sends them downe into darknesse and there they will be quiet The wicked shall be silent in darknesse They will sinne against the light of the word as long as they enjoy the light of the world and doe the workes of spirituall darkenesse till they are shut up in poenall darkenesse It followes There the prisoners rest together they heare not the voice of the oppressour Here is another sort The Prisoners The word is those that are bound And these prisoners may be of two sorts First Slaves and captives who are under hard taskmasters such as set them to hard labour Or men that are in debt and put into prison by cruell creditors Prisoners in either of these respects are at rest or they rest together in the grave when they have paid that debt to nature all their other debts are discharged death is their debt to nature and when they have paid that debt they saith Job receive an Acquittance a quietus est they rest together when they have done that worke the worke of dying poore captives and prisoners have done all and paid all It is added They heare not the voice of the oppressour The word which we translate an oppressour signifieth by violence to compell one to worke or to pay a debt So the Taskemasters Exod. 5. are said to compell the people with violence to goe on about the worke The same word signifieth both an Exactor and an Oppressour An Exactor of Debt an Exactor of Tribute an Exactor of Labour in all these wayes the word is used and because those three Tribute Debt and Labour are demanded many times against right and equity often with much violence and cruelty therefore the word signifies also an Oppressour Exaction is alwayes within a step of oppression and is often put for the same and because oppressours use bitter words and hard speeches wounding with their tongues as much as with their hands therefore poore prisoners dying are said to be free from the voice of the oppressour Poore prisoners heare not the voice of the oppressour in the grave there they are beyond the sound and out of the hearing of those vexing railing taskemasters or exacting creditors Hence observe first That an estate of bondage is a misereble restlesse estate There the prisoners rest together Captives and bondmen have little rest untill they rest in the grave The language of prisoners is a sorrowfull language their speech is sighs Psal 79.11 Let the sighing of the prisoners come before thee and Psal 12.5 because of the oppression of the poore and for the sighing of the needy It is a restlesse condition which yeelds nothing but sighs and groanes Indeed we reade in the Acts chap. 16.25 of prisoners that spake another language even the language of joy we reade there of the singing of the prisoners Paul and Silas did not sigh but sing in the night while they were bound in prison but this was extraordinary They receiving enlargement of heart and wonderfull consolation from the holy Ghost pray in prison and sing praise to God Christ sent the comforter that night to them who made them a feast in the prison and they sung to it they made musick heavenly musick they sung praise to God It was not from the good cheare or any comfortable message which they had from the Jaylour or from their oppressours but Christ came and visited them any place or any estate is comfortable when Christ is present to the soule But in it selfe imprisonment is a sad condition Therefore the Apostle biddeth us remember those that are in bonds even as bound with them Heb. 13.3 and Christ takes a prison visit as a speciall point of service and kindnesse done unto him I was in prison and ye visited me Mat. 25.36 I in my afflicted members was in prison and your visit was an ease to my affliction and as it were a loosening of my chaines Such visits are now seasonable now remember the bondage and captivity the hard usage and imprisonment of our bretheren in many parts of this nation Let the sighing of the prisoners come up before
bitter in soule that they account the very bitternesse of death sweetnesse They say not as Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 Surely the bitternesse of death is past but O that the sweetnesse of death would come To be rid of sin makes us long for death spiritually to be rid of paine makes us desire death naturally therefore he saith the bitter in soule long for death The word which we translate by longing signifieth a very vehement desire as you know in our tongue to long for a thing is the highest and hottest acting of desire after a thing It signifieth properly to gape or to breathe Hence by a Trope it signifieth strong desire because they who desire a thing much are said to gape or breath after it just as an hungry man gapes after meate wheresoever he sees it and his mind runnes upon it when he cannot see it that is the force of the word Hence also the word is used in Scripture to note the strong actings of faith and vehement expectations of hope in God when the soule is raised up mightily to beleeve the word of promise then it longs after and opens its mouth wide as it were to receive the thing promised As in Isa 8.17 I will waite upon the Lord who hides his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him The Prophet Hosea applies the word to robbers and theeves who stand watching and longing for the traveller and looking at every turning chap. 6.9 As troopes of robbers waite for a man Yet further to cleare this we may take notice that in the Hebrew there are two words which come from this roote whereof the one signifieth the Palate of the mouth because the palate is the part affected with the tast of such meates as we long for Hence we say the mouth waters after such or such a pleasing dish The other word signifies a Fish-hooke and the reason is double either because those hookes are pleasantly baited which when the fish sees he longeth after it and greedily swallowes it downe Or because when the angler hath cast in the hooke he is in great expectation waiting and looking earnestly when the fish will be enticed and bite By all these uses of the Originall word we may collect the exceeding intensivenes of that desire which is here exprest by longing for death They long for death even as a hungry man longeth for any meate or as a woman with child longeth for some speciall meate as a fish longs for the baite or as an angler longeth till the fish bites or as a beleever which as it is the most spirituall so the most ardent desire of all desires to have any promise fulfilled upon which he hath pitch'd his faith and anchors at by hope Which long for death and it cometh not that is it cometh not so soon as they would have it for death will come at one time or other but death doth not come at their time or their pace It cometh not in the Hebrew it is only thus which long for death and it is not we supply it cometh not And dig for it more then for hid treasures To illustrate the greatnesse of this desire after death he adds a similitude of those who seeke for treasures if there be any naturall desire more strong then that of a woman with-child or a longing woman it is the desire of a covetous man the desire of gaine or treasure covetousnesse is the strongest appetite Observe but what a gradation there is in this expression to set forth the greatnesse of their desire after death they doe not only long for it but they dig for it digging you know is no ordinary labour it is an extraordinary worke a hard labour As longing is a strong desire so digging is strong labour hard labour And then it is no ordinary digging neither but digging for a treasure men will dig hard for treasure you see men will dig hard for a stone for iron for coales how then will they dig for a mine of gold or silver A man will dig the earth for a little money but when a man diggeth hoping to find money in the earth that will make him worke indeed now they dig after such a manner And beyond that he saith they dig for it as for hidden treasure that 's a further degree of their endeavour after it That which we translate hidden treasure is but one word in the Hebrew It signifies any hidden thing especially treasures because treasures use to be hid or close layed up And there is a two-fold hiding of treasures There is a naturall hiding and there is an industrious and artificiall hiding There is a naturall hiding so treasures are hid that lie in the bowels of the earth they are naturally hid Then treasures are hid by industry and by art when we are afraid we shall be spoiled of our treasures or that they shall be taken away then there is a hiding them and often a digging to hide them in the earth As now in these times of spoile and violence if a rich man heare that those spoilers are nigh he presently hides his treasure Now either as robbers digge and search for treasures industriously hid or as miners dig and search for treasures naturally hid so saith Job with such earnestnes doe these dig for death There is one thing here to be resolved by way of question before we come to the Observations Namely whether it be lawfull to wish for or to desire death Job here proposeth such as long for death Is it lawfull to desire death doth he speake here only de facto of a thing which some doe or of that which may be done I answer first That death in it selfe is no way desireable and it is not an object of desire We cannot desire that for it selfe which is an enemy or destructive unto us If any should desire death as death or under the notion of death they should desire that which is destructive that which is their enemy so the Apostle calls death 1 Cor. 15. The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death Death is an enemy therefore as death no man can desire it Indeed many have desired death but still we find somewhat else at the bottome of that desire But what bottome or ground makes the desire of death lawfull I answer First It is a holy desire of death if we desire death to be free from sin when the soule saith thus because I see only the end of living will be the end of sinning therefore I long for death that I may sin no longer Secondly It is lawfull to desire death that we may have more full communion with Christ the Lord of life I desire to be dissolved saith Paul but why not that he desired dissolution but that he might be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Christ is life and Christ is our life It is better to enjoy life then to live How much better then is
they who rejoyce in soule would even willingly be rid of their bodies they are above the body So they who are bitter in soule are desirous to be ridde of their bodies the body is a burden when the soule is bitter This bitternesse of soule caused those bitter complaints before and now this vehement expostulation Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Wherefore We are apt to thinke there is no reason for that for which we can see no reason Job was in a darke condition and could not see the reason and therefore almost concludes there was none When we are posed we thinke all the world is posed too If we cannot interpret and expound the dealings of God we thinke none can nay in such cases some are ready to thinke at least to speake as if they thought that God himselfe can scarce give a good account of them This wherefore goes through the earth and reaches Heaven Tell me O my friends shew me O my God Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Why Job there may be many reasons many answers given to this wherefore a man should be in light though he be in misery and why his life should be continued though his soule be in bitternesse What if God should appeare and tell thee It shall be thus and the reason of it is because I will have it so Is not that therefore answer enough to any mans wherefore The will of God is reason enough for man and ought to be the most satisfying reason If God say I will have life remaine in a man that is bitter in soule that man should say Lord it is reason I should because it is thy pleasure though it be to my own trouble Yet it is but seldome that God makes his will his reason and answers by his bare preâ—â—gative He hath often given weighty reasons to this quaerie First The life of nature is continued that the life of grace may be encreased Again Such live in sufferings That they may learne obedience by the things which they suffer God teaches us by his workes as well as by his word his dealings speake to us And It is as great an act of holinesse to submit our selves to the will of God in his workes as it is to the will of God in his word Another reason of this wherefore may be this God sets up some as patternes to posterity he therefore gives the light of life to some that are in misery to shew that it is no new nor strange thing for his Saints to be darkenesse And what if God doth it to magnifie the strength of his own power in supporting and the sweetnesse of his mercy when he delivers such bitter soules Further observe first That The best things in this world may come to be burthens to us See here a man weary of light and life light one of the most excellent creatures that God made the most excellent next to life yea life the best the most excellent thing in nature both these become burthensome How gladly would Job have bin rid of light how gladly rid of his life Consider then how burthensome other things which at the best are burdens may be unto you If you heare a soule complaining of light and life and why are these given me when I am in misery Then what comfort thinke you will honour give you or what comfort will riches give you or what comfort will beauty give you in such a condition as makes you weary of light and life What comfort will sin give you what ease will your lusts give you in such a condition as makes you weary of light and life I never heard of any of the Saints that were troubled at any time with their grace or weary of the favour of God I never heard any of them say why is grace given to one that is in misery or the light of Gods countenance to the bitter in soule I never heard any say wherefore is faith given to a man that is in misery or hope and patience to the bitter in soule grace was never a burden to any man under greatest burdens or unsavoury to the bitterest soule when you are weary of all other things in the world these will be your supports Therefore labour after those things which you shall never be weary of even after those things which will be more pleasant to us then ever light was when light shall be to others more troublesome then ever darknesse was to any let us labour after those things which will be more sweet to us then ever life was when life shall be to others â—ore bitter then ever death was to any Secondly observe It is a trouble to possesse good things when we cannot injoy them Would you know how Job spake here as one weary of light and life It was not under the notion of light and life as if he had been weary of these in themselves but it was because he could not enjoy these Solomon assures us Prov. 25.20 that As hee that taketh away a garment in cold weather and as vineger upon Nitre so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart Musick to one that is in sorrow doubles his sorrow why because he cannot enjoy the musick a heavy heart can worse intend musick then a heavy eare only those things which we can injoy in the use of them please in the possessing of them Of all temporalls the possession and enjoyment may be separated but for spiritualls the very possession of them is joy therefore enjoyment their presence is a pleasure and therefore their presence shall ever please We may distinguish between their use and their comfort but we can never seperate them One thing further When Job saith Wherefore is light given and life given The meaning of it is wherefore is light continued and wherefore is life continued for he speakes of himselfe and others that had light and were alive and yet he saith wherefore is light given c. From this we may learne That Every act of continuance of good things to us is a new act or deed of gift to us Mercy is given every moment it is enjoyed not only is a new mercy and a renewed mercy a new gift but continued mercy is a gift and a new gift life is a new gift every houre of time we live on the earth and glory will be a new gift every minute of eternity we shall live in Heaven Which long for death and it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures This 21. verse doth further explicate who are the bitter in soule even such as long for death when a soule from naturall principles finds a sweetnesse in death that soule is in bitternesse Our affliction and our misery is indeed worme-wood and gall as the Church complaines Lam. 2.19 when death is as honey and long'd for as the honey-combe There is bitternesse in the death of the body and yet some are so