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
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
And that this was a greater affliction then any of or then all the former is so cleare that I shall not need to stay long in the confirming of it only to quicken the point a little take notice of the greatnesse of it in 5 respects First It appeareth without controversie to be the greatest of all because it was upon his children a mans children are more then all that he hath in the world a mans children are himselfe every child is the father multiplyed A sonne is the fathers bowells and therefore when Paul wrote to Philemon concerning Onesimus whom saith he I have begotten in my bonds sc to the faith of Christ Receive him who is mine owne bowels A spirituall sonne is the very bowells of a Minister he doth but allude to a naturall sonne a sonne is the very bowels of the father this affliction reached unto the very bowels of Job himselfe Satan had no leave to afflict the body of Job and yet you see he afflicts him in his very bowels Secondly The greatnesse of it is seene in this his children were all taken away To loose all our children is a grievous as to loose an only child Now that is made a cause of the highest sorrows Zach. 12.10 They shall mourne for him as one that mourneth for an only sonne that is they shall mourne most bitterly Now as the measure of mercies may be taken by the comforts which they produce so we may take the measure of an affliction by the sorrow which it produceth And that is the greatest affliction which causeth the greatest sorrow Thirdly It was a further greatning of the affliction that they were all taken away suddenly Had death sent them summons by its usuall messenger sicknesse but a day before to prepare themselves it had much sweetned the bitternesse of this cup but to heare they were dead before he knew they were sick yea when he thought they were merry and rejoycing how sad was this Fourthly That they died a violent death by a mighty wind casting the house downe upon them Had they dyed in their beds though suddenly it had bin some ease to the Fathers heart violent death hath an impression of wrath upon it And men can hardly judge well of those who fall by such judgements Suspition will arise if censure passe not from better men then Barbarians if they see a viper on the hand of a Paul Act. 28. It is more then probable from our Saviours question that those eighteene upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell and slew them were commonly supposed greater sinners or sinners above all men that dwelt in Hierusalem Luk. 18.4 Fifthly They were all taken away when they were feasting and this did exceedingly aggravate the affliction upon Job that his children were all destroied feasting for you know what the thoughts of Job were concerning his children at their feasting after they had done he offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all for he said it may be my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Now at this time when Satan knew that Job was most solicitous lest his children should sinne at that time doth he destroy them that so their father might be afflicted with the thought that his children died unreconciled to God that they died with sinne upon them unrepented of That they died a double death death at once seasing upon both soule and body This then was a further degree of Satans malice to wound vexe and grieve the spirit of Job unto the utmost How sadly and pissionatly did David lament Absoloms death Some conceive this was the head of the Arrow that pierced him because he feared his sonne died in a sinfull condition he was suddenly taken away in his rebellion unreconciled either to God or man Such a thought might fall upon Jobs heart my children are suddenly dead and dead feasting it may be they forgot God it is possible they sinned in feasting and cursed God in their hearts Alas my children died before they could so much as thinke of death I feare they are gone rejoycing to Hell where they shall weepe for evermore Doubtlesse Satan did or might fasten such a temptation upon his heart who was so tender of his childrens soules and so fearfull of their sinning in feasting So then it is cleare from all these particular considerations that this was the greatest affliction Be prepared then not onely to receive another affliction but to receive a greater affliction and have thoughts of receiving the greatest affliction at the last Satan will come with his strongest assaults when thou art weakest At the time of death when he seeth he can doe no more but that he must then doe it or never doe it then thou shalt be sure to have the strongest temptations It should therefore stirre up the people of God still to looke for more and more strength to beare afflictions and tentations and to beg from Christ the greatest strength at last because they may justly feare the greatest temptations at last If as Satan doth greaten his temptations Christ doth greaten his assistance we shall be able to beare them and be more then conquerours over them So much of this fourth charge in the generall I shall now open the words more particularly for those in the 18th verse I shall not need to say any thing of them they have been handled before at the 13th verse which runnes thus And there was a day when his sonnes and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their Eldest brothers house The 19th verse describes the manner of this tryall And behold there came a great wind from the wildernesse c. And behold Ecce or behold in Scripture ever notes more then ordinary matter following 1. Great things call for attention 2. That which is sudden and unexpected calls us to behold it 3. Rare things things seldome seen invite all to see and wonder at them Here is matter of admiration What God threatens in the Law he seemes to fulfill upon Job I will make their plagues wonderfull There is no Ecce prefixed to any of the former three affiictions but this as being the most strange and terrible comes in with an Ecce And behold There came a great wind It was a wind and a great wind that came The wind is elegantly said to come as the Sunne out of his chamber and rejoycing as a strong man to runne a race Psal 19.5 Hence the word which the Latines use for the wind is derived from a word that signifies to come Because the wind comes with force and violence The wind in the nature of it is an exhalation arising from the earth drawne upwards by the power of the Sunne and other Heavenly bodies but meeting and conflicting a while with the cold of the middle region of the ayre is beaten backe againe And being so light that naturally it cannot descend and so resisted that it cannot peaceably ascend it takes a
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