mercy daily So that Job had no cause to complain of his afflictions seeing God might proceed further against him even to the taking away of his life Doct. 1. Mans breath and life is a borrowed loan which he holds by Gods gift For it is his spirit and breath Man 's indeed by use but Gods as the Author and Giver of it and therefore he gathers it to himsâ—lf when he recalls it as his own gift Both the words Spirit and Breath may signifie one and the same thing or the first may signifie his rational soul and the second his animal life common to him with beasts However this should teach men to make good use of their life and breath and not employ it against God They who look upon their enjoyments as their own will readily abuse them Ps 12.4 2. God may when he will take back his own loan and that easily For he can gather unto himself his spirit and breath See Psal 90.3 and 104.29 And therefore we should not promise unto our selves long tacks of our life See Luk. 12.19 20. 3. Albeit God be not moved with any thing about man as if it were a great business Yet as he doth nothing at randone so we should look upon the taking away of life as a very serious and important business Therefore doth he express this act thus as Gods setting his heart upon man Not that he is so taken up as we are with weighty businesses nor yet only because he doth not proceed to do this at randome but acts in it as a weighty matter however we do not alwayes see that or that he sets his heart in love upon his own people even when he is cutting them off But he speaks thus of God that we may learn to set our hearts and be serious about this change 4. Men by death return to God either to appear before him in judgement to receive the reward of their sin or to be absolved by him and to abide with him for ever For he gathereth the spirit and breath to himself Eccles 12.5 6 7. 5. Gods Dominion over the lives of men is irresistable For if God gather these unto himself man must perish his unwillingness will not help him 6. No person hath any priviledge against a sentence of death when or wheresoever God shall be pleased to pronounce it For All flesh shall perish together if he please 7. Whatever man think of himself in his life yet death will give him an humbling sight of himself For then he is found to be flesh and turns again to dust from whence he was taken Gen. 3.19 8. However men quarrel Gods exercising of his Dominion in some cases yet upon a serious review they may rather find cause to admire his goodness than to quarrel his severity For in answer to Jobs complaints that God had afflicted him Elihu lets him see that God might cut him off and not him only but all flesh together And it should be our work to study such mercies in our saddest grievances Verse 16. If now thou hast understanding hear this hearken to the voice of my words Elihu having propounded these Arguments to the Auditory doth now to v. 31. lay them more distinctly before Job himself And 1. He turns himself to Job and calls for his attention v. 16. 2. He propounds the Argument taken from Gods dominion and justice v. 17. 3. He amplifieth and instanceth it in several particulars wherein the exercise of dominion and justice are conspicuous Namely his dealing with Kings and Rulers v. 18.19 with People and Nations together with their Rulers v. 20 23. and with mighty men v. 24 28. 4. He recapitulates the Argument pointing out the efficacy of Gods administrations v. 29. and his end in some of those acts of his dominion and justice formerly mentioned v. 30. In this Verse Elihu turns himself from the Auditory and expresly and particularly addresseth his speech to Job craving that he would give him an hearing and that he would apply this Doctrine to his case whereby he should give a proof of his wisdome and understanding Doct. 1. General Doctrine is not sufficient to do Souls good without application Therefore doth Elihu tell over again to Job what he had already spoken to the Auditory 2. Mens case may be very plainly spoken unto who yet need to be rouzed up to make application For though he hath been speaking to this very business before yet he must direct his speech to Job end call upon him to hearken to the voice of his words and apply 3. In order to application men should be attentive hearers to which they need frequently to be excited Therefore again after all the former excitations he calls him to hear and hearken that so he might apply and be convinced 4. As men do evidence their wisdome by being willing to be taught For so is here supposed that if he have understanding he will hear of which also before So it is not enough to hear unless we understand For here understanding is required with hearing 5. There is great wisdome required in taking up the mind of God in his dark dispensations toward his people and in the World For this is the particular subject in hearing whereof he requireth understanding 6. Not only are natural men uncapable to perceive the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 and weak Saints unable while they continue such to comprehend many points of truth Joh. 16.12 But even men eminently wise and godly may have their wits to seek in some difficult and trying cases and when they are under the power of affliction and tentation For this Supposition If thou hast understanding imports no denial that Job was wise in an eminent measure but that his understanding had need to be quickened and he had need to rid himself of those mists which involved and darkened his judgement if he would take up this matter well Verse 17. Shall even he that hateth right govern And wilt thou condemn him that is most just In this Verse he summarily propounds the Argument taken from Gods Dominion and Justice for he joyns them both together to which he desires he may hearken As for the first part of the Verse Shall even he that hateth right govern The word govern in the Original is to bind up as a Chyrurgion And so it may point at a particular act of his government that he binds up and heals those whom he hath smitten upon their repentance as it is Chap. 5.18 Which speaks that he cannot be unjust or hate right seeing he is content upon repentance to heal those whom he hath smitten But the word is taken more generally for governing and a Ruler is called an Healer or binder up for it is the same word that is here Is 3.7 because government in the exercise thereof should tend to prevent or to heal and bind up breaches that are made upon or among a people And thus the Argument runs well That God being the
after Jobs former triumph over his calumnies he makes this fresh assault 2. As Satan is incessant in his malicious endeavours so he is fall of shifts and inventions in bearing out his calumnies against the people of God or in driving in those fiery darts of bosom-tentations wherewith he vexeth them For when all he had to say before against Job is immediately refuted now he hath a new pretence whereupon to question his integrity This is daily verified in the calumnies cast by Satans Instâ—uments upon the people of God One of them is no sooner refuted but they are ready to invent another And this is also felt by Saints in their spiritual Conflicts with Bosom-tentations which come in as waves and billows one upon the back of another to over-whelm their spirits 3. It is never to be expected by the Lords people but that Satan will be ready to extenuate and decry the grace of God in them so much as he can For here again he makes it his work to blast Jobs integrity in his former tryal Which may teach them not to trust or hearken unto his suggestions 4. Whatever measure of affliction Satan be permitted to bring upon Saints yet such is his malice that nothing will satisfie him but their utter ruine For now when Job is stript of all he thinks it not enough so long as his person and life are free Put forth thine hand and touch his bone and his flesh And therefore we have little cause to fall asleep because we have endured many tryals since we know not what sharper tryals this malicious Adversary may be designing for us if he be permitted by God so to do 5. Albeit Satan be a malicious lyar and do here notably injure this holy man yet there are some Geneâ—aâ— Tâ—uths insinuated in this Discourse whereof he makes use to drive his design As 1. That life and bodily health are special and chief outward mercies Membâ—rs of the body are sometime hâ—zarded for preserving of life and men have warrâ—ntabâ—y spent all they had on Physitians for recovering of health Luke 8.43 And therefoâ—e they do hainously sin who under-value this special benefit or do prostitute it to the service of their lusts 2. But albeit every tryal have its own weight yet personal tryals are most sharp and will most narrowly search out hypocrisie or sincerity in the person so tryed and the nearer they come they will be the more searching For in so far Satan said true that a man may be more ready to curse God or miscarry if the tryal touch his bone and flesh than if it come only on what more remotely concerns him Hence it appears to have been an act of special favour that Jobs own person was excepted in the former tryal Chap. 1 12. 3 That it is a special proof of unsoundness in men whâ—n tâ—yals and â—fflâ—ctions are sleighted because they touch not themselves so neatly or when they make a shew of Piety only that tryals may be keeped from off themselves For this was the som of Satans charge against Job which is an evidence of gross hypocrisie had it been true Verse 6. And the LORD said unto Satan Behold he is in thine hand but save his life In this verse we have the Lords further loosing of the chain permitting Satan to afflict Jobs body but not to take away his life Or this form of speech and of Gods limiting of Satan see Chap. 1.12 Here we may further learn 1. After the Lords people have endured many and sharp tryals it may please the Lord to inflict yet more and sharper tryals for further discovering of what is in them As heâ—e after all that Job hath endured more is laid upon him And albeit Saints may be ready to stumble at this yet it may silence aâ—d satisfie them if they remâ—mber the soveraignty of God who may dispose of his own as he will that Gods special love and sharp tryals may very well consist together that true grace will teach men not to quarrel God because of crosses and that tryals yea many and growing tryals are necessary to discover them unto themselves to fit them for special proofs of Gods love and to vindicate their Profession from the many aspersions cast upon it 2. As it is very consistent with Gods love to his people to suffer them to be tempted in their souls by the fiery darts of Satan So the bodies also of such as are dear to God may be left in Satans hand to â—fflict them by himself or by Witches his Instruments For so was it with Job Behold he is in thine hand Hence come many of those diseases which surpass the skill of Physitians Luke 13.16 3. Whatever be Satans hand in the tryals of the godly yet they ought still to eye an over-ruling hand of Providence ordering all of them and setting bounds and limits to Satans malice in them For here the rise of this tryal is from Gods holy Providence Behold he is in thy hand and Satan is limited but save his life 4. In the sharpest tryals of Saints there is still some mercy and moderation to be observed and that Satan is never able to compass all his design For here there is an exception and a reservation of that which Satan aimed at no less than the other degrees of his affliction But save his life or spare it and do not take it away 5. The continuance and sparing of life even under sharpest afflâ—ctions is a mercy for which God is to be acknowledged For here in the midst of Jobs tryals it is reserved as a mercy to him save his life See Lam. 3.39 The mercy whereof in Jâ—bs case though much mistakâ—n by him may appear partly in this That hereby the Lord would teach his Church in all Ages that he hath power of life and death and can preserve his people and interests in most desperate cases and betwixt the very jaw bones of death Psal 66.8 9 10. 68.20 And partly in this That however Job being a reconciled man would have died at any time in Gods favour Yet the Lord will not take him away in a cloud nor give Satan any appearance of advantage to say that Job died in an ill case or fretting But will have him to live in and after those storms as a monument of Gods mercy and to clear and vindicate his integrity As indeed It is no small mercy to the Lords people when clouds upon their condition are cleared before they go hence and be no more 6. The Lords people may enjoy many mercies which yet in their darkness passion and haste they esteem rather burdens than mâ—rcies For so will we afterward find Job judging of his continued life which here is reserved in mercy Vers 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD and smote Job with sore boyls from the sole of his foot unto his crown In this verse we have the tryal it self or Satans executing of what is permitted
partial to himself in this cause It is true Self-love in such a case is not easily discerned nor is Job to be assoiled even as to this yet his way of speaking insinuates that he held this to be a duty 3. It is to be expected that how clear soever men be in their light before trouble cometh yet trouble and tentation come accompanied with darkness and confusion so that they will hardly be able to judge any thing aright of their case or to know what to do For his way wherein he would walk toward an issue is hid See Lam. 3.1 2. Hence we may gather That the sad apprehensions of Saints under trouble ought to be looked upon as the conjectures of these who are groping the dark And they had need to examine well any light they get in an hour of tentation 4. Darkness confusion and perplexity are the immediate fruits of bitterness of spirit whereunto when men give way they involve themselves in a thick cloud much whereof might be prevented by meekness and patience whereby they possess their souls For upon that v. 20 that he is bitter in soul it followeth here his way is hid 5. Whatever way confusion and darkness come upon troubled Saints yet it is a very humbling exercise to be in a strait without knowing Gods mind in it or what to do for relief For this pressed Job to his impatient wishes that his way is hid This layeth a man as an object of great compassion at Christs feet 6. It is another great addition to the perplexities of Saints when as their light is darkned so their attempts to get relief are in vain and where-ever they turn them they are hemmed in with insuperable difficulties till they lose all hope of out-gate For this is a part of his grievous complaint that he is hedged in See Job 19.8 Lam 3.7 This may point out that mens troubles are never insupportable were they never so sad so long as there appeareth any hope of out-gate 7. Mens natural courage will be so far from bearing out under Gods hand that it will only contribute to heighten thâ—ir distemper and disorder when it is crushed and borne down For his complaint is that a strong stout man as the word in the Original is should have his way hid c. His courage and strength cannot shake it off but makes him repine the more 8. It is the duty and great advantage of men in trouble not to lose a sight of Gods hand in their troubles and perplexities Even albeit in stead of meekness which should be the result of that sight it should afflict them the more that their Rock should seem to sell them For Job loseth not this fight that God hath hedged him in though he fail in bâ—ing imbittered at it And albeit Job had a great hand in his own perplexities Yet God is the over-ruler and orderer even of that dispensation And this ought to be looked unto both to humble us when we see that God giveth us up to that confusion and perplexity which we sinfully choose and lets us lie under it till we see the folly of our passions and when we are humbled to encourage us considering that God who hath a holy hand in these distempers can remove them though insuperable by us and can give in due time some meat out of that eater and some blessed advantage and fruit even of our folly From ver 24. Learn 1. It concerns persons in trouble to guard welâ— that they make not a noise without cause For if it be sinful enough to be imbittered when trouble is saddest much more when they are so under very easie trouble Therefore Job to clear that he complained not without cause subjoyns to what he had said to the case in general what his case in particular was which drew on bitterness darkness and perplexity For my sighing cometh c. 2. It is the duty and commendable practice of godly men that how much soever they be weary of life Yet they dare use no unlawful shift to take it away nor neglect any mean of preserving life For while Job is complaining that his life is continued he still makes use of meat as resolving to wait Gods time and way of taking away that life which is so great a burden to him 3. When the spirits of men are broken with trouble whatever diversion lawful Recreations may sometime afford them yet they will not be always effectual Nor will Natural comforts at any time cure Spiritual exercise of mind For saith he my sighing cometh before the face of my meat He had not so much respite as â—o eat without sighing 4. A child of God may be under much perplexity and distress who yet is not able to vent it much through the abundance thereof over whelming him For he mentions his trouble as great even when he doth express it but by sighing and can do no more 5. When great distress of mind once gets an open vent it will be very impetuous and violent so long at the mind is unsubdued before God and the more violent that it bath been long restrained For from more secret sighing he proceeds to roarings lik a Lion who is rather violently over-powered then voluntarily yieldeth This is an expression usually made use of to represent the complaints of those whose great spirits have not yet learned to stoop to God nor have set about repentance Ezek. 24.23 Where in the Original it is Yee shall not mourn nor weep but roar one toward another and Prov. 5.11 the Adulterer shall roar at last as the Hebrew hath it See also Is 59.11 6. The impetuous disorders of mens spirits being once broken loose are not soon stopped in their course but they will abundantly overflow all to the weakning and exhausting of their spirits if grace prevent it not For his roarings were poured out like the waters in respect of the aboundance of them and in respect of the effects of them dissolving and pouring him out like water as Psal 22.14 7. Though Job do thus insist to aggravate his trouble that he may justifie his desire of death and complain that it is denied him Yet the argument is not sufficient to inferr that desire For neither is God to be quarelled nor pleaded with whatever he do nor was Job himself free of bringing on these distempers through his Passion And therefore he had no cause to blame God when himself had perverted his own way Prov. 19.3 Nor ought he to prescribe an out-gate of death to himself whereas he might find a nearer relief by his own patience and meekness And whatever his condition was which made his life heavy and grievous to him Yet it was great cowardise to long to be away only that he might be rid of trouble Sense of sin which cleaveth fast to us while we are in this life or a desire to be with Christ may justifie a moderate desire after death Phil. 1.23 Yea the tâ—oubles we
dispositions sutable to their condition whatever it be Vers 8. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for 9 Even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off Followeth to ver 14. Jobs desire of death which he laboureth to press and justifie by divers Arguments He bringeth it in upon the back of the former debate thus That though they would not give him leave to complain or desire death yet he seeing no comfort within time nor hope beside would take leave His desire is propounded ver 9. That God who is Soveraign Lord of life would be pleased to destroy him and would not measure out affliction by piece-meal and with a bound up hand but would let loose his hand and make an end of him which he might easily do any death so it were speedy being better as he thought then his present condition This sute he ushers in and presseth from the ardency of his desire ver 8. He had desired it before Chap. 3. and now being the worse of their essays to cure him and of more hopeless of any comfortable issue in this life his longing after death is increased This desire hath been spoken to in part Chap. 3.20 It argues great presumption in limiting of God and doating on a remedy of his own prescribing as if it only could serve his turn And albeit he had the testimony of a good Conscience so that he needed not fear death yet many desires had been more sutable then that he should venture on any death from Gods hand and that as it might seem in justice and when he is already lying under so much of that kind It teacheth 1. God is Lord of our life who can take it away when where and by what means he will For so much doth Job's desire import that he can destroy and cut off at his pleasure 2. An afflicted mind is a great strait and pressure so that many sharp dispensations would be a deliverance if they made men rid of it For Job's pressure of mind is such that it makes him account a violent death a deliverance They who enjoy peace and tranquility of mind in sad times have an easie part of it And men would beware to make a breach upon their inward peace by shifting outward trouble See Matth. 10.28 Many by sinful shifting of trouble have been brought to that extremity that many deaths would have been easier 3. A tentation once fixed in a broken spirit cannot easily be pulled out again For Job cannot be driven from this desire on which he hath once fixed but he presseth it over and over again Men had need to beware of the first rise of such distempers and to crush them in the bud 4. Albeit a Child of God may be pestered and haunted with many sinful passions and desires in his trouble yet it is his mercy to be kept from sinful actings in prosecution of those desires For in the midst of this heat of desire Job's honesty appears in that he will not help God to take away his life how much soever he desire death but will wait on him if he may be pleased to grant his desire in his own way Some sparks of honesty may appear even in the greatest weakness of Saints As to his ardency and fervour in pressing his desire it hath been spoken to Chap. 3.21 22. and that men in their distempers are very earnest that God would do what they desire though yet it were oft-times a sad judgment if God should grant it seeing they may in that case be apt to desire that most which is most prejudicial to them Yea our ardent desires after any outward lot are oft times too great an evidence that we are wrong To these add 1. Job's practice holds forth a right pattern though in a wrong instance of pursuing our lawful desires By praying and requesting for it and a longing expectation backing the Prayer and so renewing the sute often and walking under the delay as they who are afflicted and affected thereby Psal 88.11 12 13. This being Job's practice in so unwarrantable a desire it may give a check to our sluggishness in more honest desires 2. When men give way to sinful tentations they may in Gods holy Providence meet with many occasions to entertain them As Job here longing after death his Friends disappointing of him adds fuel to the fire and makes it more vehement as thinking he was hereby confirmed in the equity of his desires Thus tempters of God fall in snares Mal. 3.15 and hearkners also to false Prophets Deut. 13.1 2 3. This may terrifie men who enter upon a way without a rule and warrant that they may meet with such snares and every confirmation they think they meet with in their way may humble them if they consider that God thereby gives them up to strong delusions Vers 10. Then should I yet have comfort yea I would harden my self in sorrow let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy One The first Argument whereby he labours to justifie this desire is taken from the comfort he expected having the testimony of a good Conscience He professeth that notwithstanding all that had befaln him or could be in a violent death he should yet have comfort if it were a coming or already come And though it might be apprehended that he would repent and cool of that courage when it came to the push He professeth he would harden himself in sorrow he would harden and confirm his heart against that way of death or any sorrow attending it yea or any sorrow in the mean time provided that death were near and the sorrow hastning it forward And for a proof of this his courage and resolution he renews his request and desires that God will not spare Not that he dares desire to be dealt with in justice but it imports only his desire not to be spared as to cutting of him off but the sharper usage the better so it made an end of him And the ground of all this courage was that he had not concealed the words of the holy One he had been a sincere Professour of Gods Truth and had spoken truth in this particular that he was an upright man Or he had not put out the light of Gods Truth in his mind nor cancelled the Seal of his Spirit in his heart by sin Rom. 1.18 and had held forth the Truth of God in his Profession and Practice Psal 40.10 Phil. 2.15 16. And all this he did because God is the Holy One not to be dallied with and who cannot approve of sin By all which he clears that his desire of death was not a desperate wish but grounded upon the testimony of a good Conscience and his hope to be approved when he should come to be judged by God and not by men In this Discourse it flowed indeed from Jobs
which case breathing times would be sweet But to have new troubles added to the former when they are expecting ease from them For Job expecting ease in his Bed and Couch hath affrighting dreams and terrifying visions super-added to his former sorrows This may affright men from being unruly under their present Rods lest they get sharper rods added to them 8. The Lord may permit his people to add to their own trouble by promising themselves ease that so their disappointments may heighten their afflictions For Job's Dreams and Visions are so much the more bitter as he said my Bed shall comfort me my Couch shall ease my complaint Who so study sobriety in their expectations under trouble do take away much fuel from the flame of their own bitterness and discontentments Vers 15. So that my soul chooseth strangling and death rather then my life 16. I loath it I would not live alway let me alone for my days are vanity The third Argument whereby he pleads against his being so afflicted is taken from the hard shifts to which his trouble did drive him These are recorded here as the result of his restlesness of which he had complained ver 13.14 That he was so incessantly tossed sleeping and waking that he turned desperate So that were the matter in his option he had rather be strangled and die a violent and ignominious death yea his soul choosed and desired it very earnestly rather then thus to live without any intermission of pain torture and vexation And he had rather be dead then have his bones as it is in the Original which only were now left him the flesh being consumed away Job 16.8 and to which also the pain had reached ver 15. And although some may so inordinately love life as they would have an eternity of it yet he loathed his life and would not live alway ver 16 The meaning whereof is not barely this that he declined to continue always and eternally in this life For to dâ—sire that were to wish what is impossible and to decline it would speak little of his haste to be gone But that he loathed to live any longer at all A moment of longer continuance being an eternity to him Oâ— the meaning is as the words will also read That he was so full and weary of his life that it should never be at any time that he should desire to live nothing he could ever meet with in time should make him enamoured of life This is indeed a fit of very great despair yet so bridled as he dare not hasten death unto himself though he would gladly be at it as not casting off hopes of the life to come And it teacheth 1. Much oppression will make wise men mad and constant continued troubles and disappointments of all expectations of case may drive serious and sober men to hard shifts For Job gives this as the result of his former restless condition So that my soul chooseth strangling c. A day of tentation will discover strange things and involve men in sad perplexities 2. Even the breasts of the most godly and the spirits of strong Believers have seeds of despair in them which may break forth under tryal as here we see in Job Which may teach the godly to be humble in their walking that they be not led into tentation And may affright the stout-hearted who when their Consciences are wakened may meet with this or worse 3. However there be an inclination in corrupt men who have their portion in this life to have an eternity of time and to live always in it Yet God when he pleaseth can make their being in the world their greatest burden For so it was with Job I choose strangling and death rather then my life I loath it I would not live alway 4. It is Gods way with his people not to over-charge them with exercise but when they are over-driven he will moderate his dealing For Job's scope in laying before God this his desperate fit is to plead that since he was so over-charged therefore God may be pleased to pity and not deal so severely with him See Isa 57.16 Psal 99.4 Job 37.23 24. Only we would take heed that by our unbelief misconstruction impatience c. we do not make our lot insupportable when God hath not made it so For that will be no argument to plead for pity till first we be humbled for it as our weakness Psal 77.8 9 10. 5. The Lord so orders the tentations and conflicts of his people as even when they are in the height of their fits his grace doth one way or other appear in them For when Job would most gladly be at death yet he dare not cut off himself So my God which is the language of faith is the doubters designation of God in the height of his diffidence and complaints Psal 22.1 Isa 49.14 Beside the sin of despair in this discourse these failings may further be marked which ought not to be justified and may be drawn to our use 1. That by expecting ease as is marked on ver 13 14. and meeting with disappointment his heart swells at his condition and so he falls in the snare Humility and sobriety would prevent much vexation and toil to us and cut off many tentations 2. That he speaks his tentation so broadly and without any reluctancy as appears from his doubled and fervent expressions as his confirmed judgment It is too much that a rash word of diffidence and despondency escape us although faith and repentance presently follow after to recal and correct it But it is more gross when he spake and abide by it as if we had reason for it See Jonah 4.8 9. 3. That he contemns his life and any moderation in his affliction calling all that was left him his BONES when yet God in whom we live and move and have our being had great glory in preserving such an exhausted man amidst so many pressures and perplexities Much of Gods glory may shine in many of our lots wherewith notwithstanding our peevish hearts are not satisfied 4. That he was so peremptory in his own opinion that death was his only desirable issue as if he were wiser then God who had carved out another lot for him It is our duty to believe That God hath innumerable issues for his people in his hand That he can make any thing he pleaseth an issue to them and That issues prescribed by our selves particularly that of death when we are in perplexity are ordinarily none of the best 5. That he measures all things by his present humour as if because he now loathed life therefore he would never hereafter in any case desire it Little do Saints know what changes God may work as in other things so in their dispositions and inclinations and cause them see and acknowledge mercy where they could find nothing but bitterness Upon this his desperate resolution and choice he infers a sute ver 16. That seeing
yea sometime in a fit Nature getting the upper hand As here Corruption and Grace wrestle for it and at last Sense and Corruption carry it Afterward we will hear more of this conflict betwixt his Faith and Sense in this complaint And we find it was Paul's exercise to be tossed betwixt the law of his members and the law of his mind Rom. 7. This may teach us to have a jealous eye over our selves even in our best frame For trouble may discover much dross which doth not then appear And it teacheth us not to stumble when we find dross in trouble not only with our good but over-flowing it for a time We have as little reason because of that to say we have no good in us as we have to say we have no corruptions when they are borne down and disappear in our good condition Obs 2. As for the strength of his Argument That not only his Friends ought not to censure but it beseemed God to respect his extorted complaint and give him ease we may consider 1. God may justly take a proof of what is in man and how weak any inherent grace he hath is to resist tentation as it proved here in Job And therefore the Argument is faulty as to concluding that God should altogether forbear to put him to it to give this proof of himself which was so needful for him 2. Were Saints never so pressed with tentation and over-powred with infirmity in their failings as Job here was not malicious nor wicked in his complaints but forced to them through weakness and tentations yet even those their failings which flow meerly from infirmity and tentation are real sins which need a Mediatour to expiate them and a pardon for his sake upon their closing with him by faith and their renewing of their repentance And therefore his Argument cannot at all conclude that God or his Friends should look upon it as no fault in him thus to complain when he is put to it Yet 3. There is somewhat of an Argument in it both in reference to God and to his Friends In reference to God Albeit he may try what is in Saints and they ought to flee to Christ for the pardon of their infirmities Yet it is an Argument pressing that God should pity them when they do not run wilfully to sin but are driven out of the way through the power of tentation and they are sensible of their failings in such a case For God is a tender considerer of a willing spirit even when it is under the power of weak flesh Matth. 26.41 It is also an Argument pleading for pardon in a Mediatour and such infirmities will more easily obtain it then other sins Rom. 7.24 with 25. And further such a condition doth also plead for moderation of Gods dealing which yet ought to be pressed with much sobriety and submission and staying of his rough wind in the day of his East wind Isa 27.8 seeing God is a tender Shepherd who â—as Jacob Gen. 33.13 will not over-drive his flock Isa 40.11 1 Cor. 10.13 and who is tender in preventing his peoples being driven to sin Psal 125.3 In reference to his Friends the Argument may hold out this great truth That it is not just to be too rigid in judging of Saints or to judge of them and the state of their person though of their condition they may by their violent fits to which they are driven through affliction and tentation and wherein there is a conflict betwixt the flâ—sh and the spirit and the whole man consents not For however Job's Friends might have censured his complaints as passionate which yet in his weakness he would not admit yet there was no reason they should judge by his complaints which he could not suppress that he was a wicked man In particular If we look to the several parts acted by the flesh and the spirit in him in the rise of his complaints each of them may afford us useful instructions and cautions And 1. The flesh or his present sense speaks first My soul is weary or I am heartily or very weary of my life or my soul is cut off with wearying of my life or is cut off that it is in life All those readings come to one purpose That he did very earnestly and affectionately with his soul weary of his life he would very gladly be rid of it and was even killed that he was alive To this issue came his resolution Chap. 9.35 When he had resolved to smother his griefs they did so press and overcharge him that he was not only wearied of them but even of his very life because of them desiring to get an end of these miseries by the end of his life And this he must speak out before them Whence Learn 1. Gods people will not be always Masters of their own passions and resolutions under trouble For Job Chap. 9.35 had thought to digest all his sorrows with silence but now he is forced to speak them out My soul is weary or cut off And especially when men do digest their grievances but with a grudge as Job grudged and regreted that he could not be heard to plead his cause Chap. 9. 35. it will prove a boil that will break out at last 2. Albeit life be Gods gift and benefit and men do oft-times doat much upon it yet God when he pleaseth can make it one of their greatest burdens For saith he My soul is weary of my life It ought to be acknowledged as a mercy of God when he makes our life tolerable or in any measure comfortable to us 3. Men in their desires after death under trouble do oft-times discover much weakness as Job doth here For albeit it be mens duty to be ripening dayly for death and the duty of Saints to eye and long much for that end of their course considering the glory and happiness that abides them after death Phil. 1.23 2 Cor. 5.1 2. and considering their own sinfulness to which they are obnoxious in this life and the sins of the time wherein they live which may make them many a sad heart 1 King 19.14 2 Pet. 2 7 8. yet it is a sin even in those cases to weary and not submit to Gods pleasure as Elijah was faulty in his desires of death 1 King 19. Far more is it a sin when men out of desperation rush upon death or even when because of trouble or discontentment or diâ—â—idence of Gods help they weary and are not contenâ— to have their graces exercised as God pleaseth or when they look on death as their only issue from present trouble And here Job failed both in his aversion from the real advantages of his being tryed and in his fixing of his expectations too much upon death 2. Grace steps in to correct sense and what had flowed from his weak flesh I will leave my complaint upon my self The meaning whereof is not that he will complain at his own peril and take
argue our blindness for he cannot be unreasonable in what he doth Vers 5. Seeing his days are determined the number of months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass 6. Turn from him that he may rest till he shall accomplish as an hireling his day The third Argument enlarging the first is taken from the certainty of his death at the time appointed by God He shews that his life is bounded by God even how many days and months he shall live that he must die at the time appointed by God and cannot pass those bounds and limits which are set to him and that in the mean time his life was but short and troublesome like the time of an hireling Whence he argues That seeing death is the appointed punishment of sin which he had acknowledged to be in himself v. 4. Gen. 2.17 And seeing God had fixed the time of that at his pleasure and had made life short and troublesome he thinks that God needs not add a new sentâ—nce to the former and bring man into judgment of new And therefore he pleads that God would not abandon him by turning altogether from him but forbear to pursue him with such rigour and let him take some breathing and respite from these extraordinary afflictions till he accomplish his course in his ordinary toil and labour whereof he will be content to see an end whensoever God will as the word imports The substance of the grounds of this Argument being made use of Chap. 7.1 2 c. to prove another conclusion that he might lawfully desire death I shall here shortly Obs 1. Mans life and days are bounded so that Man must come to a period and must quit life whether it be sweet or sowr bitter or comfortable For so is here held out His days are determined he hath bounds that he cannot pass See Psal 49.10 Eccl. 2.16 Heb. 9.27 Obs 2. God is the infallible and irresistible bounder of mans life even to months and days For his days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds c. See Act. 17.26 This Truth 1. Doth not contradict other Scriptures which speak of the lengthening and shortening of mens days 2 King 20.1 6. Eccl. 7.16 17. Psal 55.23 For these speak of shortening or lengthening the days of Man in respect of what otherwise they might be according to probability or considering the course of Nature and second Causes but speak nothing of Gods altering the periods of Man's life which are set by himself Nor 2. Doth this warrant men to neglect lawful means which God hath appointed in order to his end as Paul reasons Act. 27.22 23 24. with 31. But it teacheth us 1. To adore the Universal Providence of God which extends it self to all persons and things See Matth. 10.24 30. Our not observing of this in common things makes us so Atheistical in greater matters 2. It teacheth us to submit to his will in all those turns and lots that befal us and in the use of all means of life to submit to live long in trouble or short while in ease as he pleaseth 3. It teacheth his people to rest confidently on him who hath Times and Seasons in his hand both of particular persons Psal 31.15 and of Nations also Gen 15.13 14. Jer. 29.10 Obs 3. Mans life till he come to his appointed end is but like a hirelings day For so is held forth v. 6. that he must accomplish as an hireling his day Not only is his life short like a day wherein the hireling is conduced to work But 1. Man ought not to be his own nor at his own work but his Masters For so it is with the hireling And if Man will not voluntarily do duty and what is commanded him Yet he shall be made to serve Providence whether he will or not And his most irregular enterprises shall be made subservient to Gods holy purposes Psal 76.10 2. Man is but an indigent empty creature standing in need of continual uninterrupted supply from God As an hireling must have wages if not meat also from his Master to maintain him at his work 3. Man must resolve to have much toil in the service of his Generation For he is like a toiled servant or hireling And this is the lot even of greatest Undertakers and Conquerours in the world Hab. 2.12 13. 4. Man is a servant who must be accountable for his work that he may be rewarded accordingly as it is with hirelings All this may teach men not to stumble if they find their life to be such as is here described And since it is thus they who sell Heaven for a Portion in this life make but a poor bargain and will get but sober chear for it Obs 4. Job's plea and desire in this Argument v. 6. hath somethings in it very commendable and imitable As 1. Turn saith he that is take away thy hand and displeasure evidenced by these severe afflictions Which Teacheth That it is only God who giveth a being or putteth an end to afflâ—ctions As this desire supposeth Also That as God appears to the afflicted to be angry when trouble is on So this affects a godly man most and the removal of this is more to him then the taking away of the affliction For he desires the cross to be removed under that notion of Gods turning frâ—m him and ceasing to pursue him in anger 2. Turn saith he from him in the third Person with an eye to what he hath spoken of all mens life and toil v. 5. and to shew that he would be content of the common lot of hirelings of Adam's posterity It Teacheth That it is an evidence of a subdued spirit when men do not seek to be singular in their lots and allowances but are content patiently to bear the common lots that befal mankind 3. Turn saith he that he may rest or have a cessation righteous and the wicked Christ will be glorified and admired in them 2 Thes 1.10 all clouds and mistakes will be cleared and when he raiseth their bodies he will raise their good Name also Vers 13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave that thou wouldest keepe me secret until thy wrath be past that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me 14. If a man die shall he live again All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change câ—mâ— 15. Thou shalt call and I will answere thee thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands The fourth Argument propounded in these verses and amplified and enlarged to the end of the Chapter is taken from the great perplexities and strange wishes to which his trouble drave him in so much that though he see somewhat of a black cloud in death in the foregoing verses yet here he would be content of something like it for a time The sum of the Argument whereof the Antecedent is expressed in
shall now devour him 2. However a wicked man may get some Serjeants shifted yet the Executioner will come at last whom he will not get declined For destruction will come at last which shall pay all home And this is enough let them escape never so often considering how dreadful it will be and how soon it may take hold of them Luke 12.19 20. 3. Death is a great Conquerour and Triumpher over men in their Bodies Dignities and outward Estate For It shall devour the strength or bars of his skin Yea it triumphs over Princes notwithstanding all their grandeur See Job 3.13 14 15 18 19. Psal 49.14 17. 146.3 4. Ezek. 32.23 26 27 c. This tells that men have need and ought to provide somewhat that will be Deaths-proof 4. A violent death is an addition to the sadness and terrour of death Therefore is that called the first born of death Though the godly may fall in common calamities and go to Heaven in a fiery Chariot and wicked men may die peaceably yet this is the desert of the wicked and is executed upon some of them nor have any of them any security against it and it is a mercy in it self to die a quiet and ordinary death 5. God hath reserved singular judgments for wicked men and their plagues are really such however they appear outwardly For their death come what way it will is still the first born of death considering all the consequences thereof whereas the godly are bound to judge that they are dealt with in a different manner though they fall under the same outward dispensation 6. God will at last make it evident that he is too hard for the stoutest of men and that all their strength must succumb and fall before his power For the first born of death shall devour his strength Vers 14. His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle and it shall bring him to the King of terrours In this verse the resemblance is further prosecuted and Job's renouncing of all confidence and hope in his family as making for death Chap. 17.13 14 15. is pointed at as resembling this wicked Malefactour his being desperate of all hopes in his wealth friends and family and his being brought to death which is the Prince and King of Terrours both in it self and in what it appears to be and really proves to the wicked man Here there are also several mistakes As 1. That Job was to die and be cut off at this time 2. That his renouncing of all his temporal enjoyments is looked on as an act of despair whereas it flowed only from his cleanly self-denial a practice which the world doth not understand 3. That Job did fear death or looked on it as the King of terrours who was rather too eager to be at it 4. Or suppose Saints do sometime fear death yet it is a mistake to think that therefore they are wicked For they may be afraid as considering they have a soul to save while the wicked may mock at death and step laughing into Hell And godly men may get proofs of their own weakness when God is to give them most notable proofs of his grace and love But passing those mistakes there are general sound Truths here also as it relates to the wicked And 1. Wicked men may have their own confidences whereby they uphold their hearts when many other things fail them For so is here supposed that there is his confidence This is a great snare to make them stubborn in an ill way Isa 57.10 though when those are removed it will not reclaim them Jer. 2.25 2. It is the wickeds plague that their confidences are but low base and perishing Such as his family wealth or friends all which are comprehended under the name of his Tabernacle See Psal 146.3 4 5. 3. All the carnal confidences of a wicked man will at last come to utter ruine His props will all fail him and his hopes will end in despair and he must quit them For his confidence shall even be rooted out of his tabernacle His confidences will at last prove too weak to bottom his hopes and Gods jealousie is provoked to crush them 4. If not before yet certainly at death all carnal confidences shall come to ruine For then his confidence shall be rooted out when he cometh to the King of Terrours 5. Death of all outward strokes is the chief terrour to men as being the punishment threatened and inflicted for sin and as cutting off all their outward enjoyments at one stroke Therefore is it called the King of Terrours or the chief of Terrours which are visible on Earth So that men had need to prepare for it and to close with Christ in whom they may triumph over it 1 Cor. 15.54 55. 6. Beside what death is in it self and as it is the common lot of all men it is especially dreadful and the King of Terrours to the wicked For it is in reference to them it is so designed here The godly may die in some trouble and fear though that be not their allowance but slow from their weakness But as for the wicked though some of them may die peaceably as others of them die full of horrour Yet to all of them it is terrible if they considered whither they are going Death in its most terrible colours may look sweetly upon the godly and the mildest aspect of it may be dreadful to the wicked 7. The more carnal confidence men have the more terrible will death be when it cometh and all their hopes are cut off For it is his confidence rooted out that brings him to the King of terrours Not so much because the ruine of his hopes hastens his death as because it makes death terrible that he hath fed upon so many vain hopes Vers 15. It shall dwell in his tabernacle because it is none of his brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation In the last Branch of this Similitude the destruction of Job's family is reflected upon as resembling the consequents of a Malefactours death or the confiscation of his Estate and ruine of his House He seems to allude here to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone and declares that destruction or terrible desolation for the relative It must be referred to what hath been spoken before of the wicked himself v. 11 12 14. as befalling his house also according as it is capable thereof shall dwell in his house and eat up his substance which he had so unjustly acquired and was indeed none of his by right And that his habitation shall be consumed as Sodom was by brimstone or brimstone shall be scattered upon it as a sign of perpetual desolation which the strawing of a place with Salt doth also signifie Judg. 9.45 Here there is an unjust reflection upon Job's purchase of his wealth and upon the stroke of God by fire upon some of his goods Chap. 1.16 as if that evidenced his wealth
a trade of sin procuring it 5. As the trade of sin is old so also are the instances of Gods judgments pursuing for it And as men make an habitual trade of sin so his judgments are also conspicuous For this is also the old way which wicked men have trodden even the judgments of the Lord which they have suffered for their sin Not that God as frequently plagues as they sin and so makes the one path to be trodden as oft as the other but that there are some instances of Gods judgments no less conspicuous than mens sins are notoure and open So that wicked men sinning after these instances of Gods manifested anger against sin do sin against that witness and do split upon rocks whereupon God hath set very conspicuous Beacons 6. As wicked mens courses do prove them to be men of iniquity and slaves to it so the fruit and issue thereof doth prove that they follow and labour for vanity therein For so the words will also read men of vanity Yea the name here given to men in the Original taken from death or Mortality doth point out That were there no other plague inflicted upon wicked men their very mortality demonstrats the folly of their course seeing all the imagined contentments they expect by sin serve at best but for this natural life and will flee away and serve in no stead to secure against death or comfort them in it 7. God propounds the example of wicked mens ways and the plagues following thereupon to be marked and observed by others for the information of their judgments concerning sinful courses and the fruites thereof and for exciting of them to look well to their own ways For this question Hast thou marked the old way c. Imports that it was Job's duty to mark these instances that thereby as he judged of him he might be helped to correct his opinions and practices See Psal 107.43 Hos 14.9 Luk. 13.1 2. c. God in his great indulgence will not always destroy all sinners by visible judgments For so he should soon destroy the whole world which yet he continues for wise ends particularly that he may gather his elect out of it But yet he seeth it meet to set up some sinners as Beacons to warn all the rest So that they are stupid and mad who do not observe and improve such examples and who looking upon the way of Gods judgments upon men do not reflect upon the way of their sin procuring these judgments that they may avoid it but do persist in sin against all such warnings or think themselves innocent because they are not smitten as others were or do look rather upon mens following of duty then their sins as the cause of their calamities as Jer. 44.16 17 18. 8. Men in the heat of present distempers and debates will readily be in the dark and be misled unless they make use of the light that somtime they have had oâ— the experiences they may find abstract from their present case to clear them Therefore he leads Job from the consideration of his own present case to mark the old way as a more effectual mean to clear his mistakes And it is indeed a General Truth however he erred in the particular 9. Godly men may be much be mistaken by others as if they did not read a right the strokes of God upon themselves oâ— others For this question Hâ—st thou marked c imports also a challenge that he had not observed these things Which yet was most false for had he observed them never so much he could never read Eliphaz's opinion therein nor that it was consumed thereby For 1. Though great calamities ought to daunt stubbornness and deterr men from standing out in rebellion against God Yet they ought not to be so formidable as to affright men from the testimony of a good Conscience For that is a part of Godly mens tryal to cleave to their integrity notwithstanding they be afflicted 2. No rods should make men condemn that in themselves or their cause which is approved by the Word of God as Job's integrity was 3. No judgments upon wicked men should make us think that all the wicked will be so dealt with as Job's Friends did and so make us assoâ—â— all those who are spared 4. Nor should any judgments inflicted upon men for their wickedness make us condemn Godly men because they fall under the same outward lot which was another of his Friends mistakes In a word Afflictions upon godly men ought to make them the more tender but not discourage them noâ— make them cast away the evidences of their integrity Vers 16. Which were cut down out of time whose foundation was overflown with a flood In the second branch of this argument Eliphaz propounds the particular to be observed of the way 〈◊〉 Gods judgments upon these wicked men That they perished suddenly out of time or as the Original hath it they were cut down and no time that is they were cut of in a moment and before they could expect it and that the foundations of their imagined happiness were overthrown as by a deluge and floud This may very well be understood of the general deluge but doth not at all prove Eliphaz hiâ— conclusion as hath been shewed v. 15. In General Learn 1. It is very commendable in godly men and a duty incumbent to them that they be acquainted with and keep in memory the proceedings of God against sinners For here those men are notably versed 〈◊〉 the History of the old world and many other passagâ—s of divine providence in the world See Psal 78.5 â— Here we are to consider 1. If they learned these things only by Tradition without the written word and yet kept them so fresh in memory How much more should we remember them who have them written to us to relieve the infirmity of our memories 2. As they remembered those examples not for contemplation but for use and practice And accordingly Eliphaz produces this instance for directing of Job how to judge of his afflictions and improve them though he erred in the application So we ought likewise to make use of what is recorded in the Word or otherwise comes to our knowledge for the like end and not as theâ—e did Psal 78.19 20. 106.12 13. Prov. 23.35 For all these acts of God are loud preachings to warn and direct sinners Psal 78.22 23 c. 3. If they remembered and studied to improve what was done long before their own time much more ought we to be sensible of and to improve what our selves do see and feel that we be not as these who saw Gods works and yet neither considered nor made use of them Psal 10â— 7 Doct. 2. The instance of Gods severity against the old world is full of documents to sinners in all ages Therefore it is made use of here as a speaking lesson though it do not prove his point as also 2 Pet. 2.5 c.
no covering in the cold and are wet with the showers of the mountains c. 3. When men are under great afflictions small mercies will be very great in their eyes As those stripped persons are content to embrace a rock for want of a better shelter Undervaluers of meâ—cy do proclaim that they are so dealt with as they forget the difficulties of others See Heb. 11.37 38. Verse 9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast and take a pledge of the poor 10. They cause him to goe naked without clothing and they take away the sheaf from the hungry 11. Which make Oyl within their walls and tread their Wine presser and suffer thirst In these Verses Job proceeds yet to give an account of further acts of these Robbers cruelty and of the aggravations thereof And 1. That they spare not even the weakest but pull the very fatherless babes from their mothers breasts that they may keep them themselves or sell them to others for slaves or cause their mothers redeem them again v. 9. 2. That they spare not even the poorest but take the apparel of the poor for a pledge and take away the sheaf which the hungry have gathered among the reapers v. 9 10. Where that they are said to take a pledge doth not import that they do legally pursue or make use of any pretences of Law but only that they take somewhat as a pledge from the poor Mothers for redemption of their Children or take other rewards from these they reach to deliver them our of their hands 3. For what is subjoyned v. 11. some understand it of oppressing Masters who not only defraud labourers of their hire Jam. 5 4. to deprive them even of meat and drink and that when they are about the labours of their harvest making their oyl and treading their wine-presses which is the time wherein very beasts are not denyed the plentiful use of the creatures Deut. 25.4 But the context leads us rather to understand it of the condition of the poor formerly mentioned if not of others also by reason of these Robbers That though they tread their Wine-presses and make their Oyl within their walls for greater safety yet they are robbed and get not leave to enjoy the fruit of their labours but suffer thirst Doct. 1. There is no age nor condition of persons exempted from tryals but God may exercise them therewith when he will For even babes upon the breast and others may be tryed No men should plead exemption to themselves and as they should acknowledge it a mercy when they are free so when they have been long spared they should look that possibly they may be met with ere their course be ended 2. As God distributeth conditions and lots in the World as he pleaseth and maketh some fatherless poor hungry and thirsty So it is not to be expected that former afflictions will exempt men from new tryals when the wicked are let loose or God hath them to exercise For even the fatherless upon the breast the poor the hungry and thirsty are exposed to new tryals by these Robbers God in his Soveraignty may so dispose of men if he please and mens sins deserve all this Is 9.12 17 21. and 10.4 especially when they improve not former troubles Lev. 26.21 22 c. Amos 4.6 12. 3. It is a mercy to parents to get leave to enjoy their own children and a sad affliction to be robbed of them As here it is a great tryal that they pluck the fatherless from the breast Which as it condemns the barbarous cruelty of those Nations who pull away Infants that they may sell them to others or make Slaves of them themselves So it should quicken Parents who are free of such a tryal to look well how they educate their Children that they may find them their company and liberty a mercy to themselves and others with whom they live 4. God will own the cause of the indigent and afflicted especially when they are wronged in their very livelyhood and necessary apparel For so Joh supposeth that if God avenge any Injuries visibly in thâ—s life he will avenge Injuries done to fatherless babes to the poor hungry and thirsty We ought to be sober when we are deprived of superfluities only for that is oft-times a just chastisement upon Gods part and may prove a mercy to us if we mortifie lusts diligently when their fuel is taken from them and when it cometh to extremities God will appear and be a party against those that wrong us especially when we are humbled before him 5. It is a great addition to tryals when mens endeavours to prevent them do not avail them That even within their walls where they think to secure their harvest they get not so much as a drink of their own Wine but suffer thirst and that when they have gathered their sheaf it is taken away Endeavours to prevent trouble though it be our duty to use them will but imbitter us with disappointments and so augment our afflictions till our tryal be perfected Especially if we think to secure our selves by our own endeavours without turning to God Is 22.9 10 11. Mal. 1.4 Verse 12. Men groan from out of the city and the soul of the wounded cryeth out yet God layeth not folly to them Here Job closeth this instance of Oppressours and Robbers shewing how God spareth them notwithstanding their cruelty For however by reason of the cruelty of these Oppressours in Cities or Civil Societies and these open Robbers formerly mentioned men are heard to groan because of oppression from out of the very Cities and the soul of the robbed and wounded to death belike by Robbers without do cry out of this horrid cruelty yet the Lord doth not visibly charge this sin and folly upon the Oppressours but suffers them to escape unpunished in this life Because the supplement to them in the end of the Verse is not in the Original therefore some render the words thus God disposeth no absurdity But the sense of this must fall in with the former reading That notwithstanding Oppressours be thus cruel yet the Lord doth no absurd or unbeseeming act in not pursuing them visibly but permitting them to vent their cruelty Doct. 1. Oppression may draw very deep even to enter Cities and may put the oppressed not only to secret groans but to crying out through deadly wounds Which may teach oppressed people to observe and acknowledge Gods mercy when they meet with a more gentle measure 2. Oppression is a crying sin and as it makes the oppressed groan and cry out so God will hear those though none other regard them as he hears the cryes of the young Lions and Ravens Psal 104.21 Job 38.41 For so are we here taught that their groans and cryes are heard and God would avenge them if he did not see it fit to testifie his long suffering 3. The moe they be who are oppressed it adds to the weight and hainousness
Name of the second imports one so sweet as Aromatick Cassâ—a and the Name of the third implieth that she was one so fair as if an Horn or large measure of Paintry or Varnish had been powred upon her to make her appear beautiful 2. Their Estate and Portions and that they were made joint heirs with their brethren of their Fathers Lands and Estate v. 15. Which doth not import that they were never married but that their Father was careful to settle them near himself and his Sons that so they might have a Society among themselves for Gods Service because of the many Idolaters that were about them who might be ready to infect and corrupt them Doct. 1. Children in themselves are a â—lessing as continuing us in them to serve God even when we are gone for here they are ranked among Jobs Blessings See Psal 127.3 128.3 So that it is a sin to murmure at this mercy or not to improve Children aâ— a Blessing 2. It is in special a Blessing to them who have Wealth to have Children who may succeed to them in their Estates for this mercy of Children is subjoined to Jobs wealth v. 12. to intimate that his wealth would not have been so sweet if he had wanted Children to enjoy it after him So that it is the fault of men of great Estates and Power if they breed not their Children well who are to succeed to their Estates and Dignities whereby they not only wrong their own Families but their Countrey also wherein their posterity may have power And they are also culpable who having great Estates do not marry that so themselves may have a care of educating their Heirs if God give them any but do suffer those who shall succeed them to be bred by they cannot tell whom 3. Even the multitude of Children is a blessing as here it heightens Jobs mercy that he had so many And albeit Job was a rich man and had enough to give them yet they are indefinitely a blessing to poor or rich Psal 127.5 not to be murmured at though not to be doated upon either 4. Every sex of Children sons or daughters is a mercy as here is distinctly marked though we ordinarily doat upon those we want whether sons or daughters 5. Though Favour be deceitful and Beauty vain Prov. 31.30 and God may compense want of Beauty with excellent qualities nor must men cast off their Children because of deformities yet beauty is in it self a mercy not to be abused with a polluted life or wiâ—h pride because of it for therefore is the singular beauty of Jobs Daughters marked 6. It is a great blessing both to Parents and Children when Children are dutiful and obedient for so were Jobs Daughters as appears from his care to provide for them and his delight to have them near himself and this is marked as one of his mercies 7. It is a great blessing and an evidence that Children are dutiful when they live in love one with another as here the sons and daughters delight to live near together See Chap. 1.4 8. It should be a special part of Parents care and an evidence of their love to their Children to study to prevent their infection in the matter of Religion and so to settle them that they be not cast upon tentations so much did Job evidence by setling his Daughters among their Brethren Verse 16. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations The fourth Particular in this account is his long life after his restitution even for the space of 140 years so that he saw four generations come of him before he died If we apply that General v. 10. to this also and make this sum double to what he lived before his trial we may conclude that he was 70 years old which is the half of 140 when his trial began and lived in all 210 years beside the time of his trial Which if there were not somewhat singular in it might help to prove to the antiquity of this History and that Job lived before these days wherein mens lives began to be shortned as Moses sheweth Psal 90.10 But this supposition of the doubling of his years not being so certain we may only here Learn 1. Albeit our life on earth be but a warfare yet long life is a mercy in it self and to godly men a reward of piety and a benefit to the Church with whom they are continued for therefore is Jobs long life marked as one of his mercies See Psal 34.12 13. It is true godly men have some loss by their long life being so much the longer kept from heaven yet death being in it self a fruit of sin the deferring thereof is in it self a mercy And a long life may be full of rich advantages to godly men while they see Gods goodness in the land of the living before they go hence Psal 27.13 while they have opportunity to honour God and do him much service Phil. 1.23 24 25. while they get many proofs of Gods love Gen. 48.15 1 Kings 1.29 while they have opportunity to sow largely for a rich harvest 2 Cor. 9.6 and get leisure to ripen for death which is their difficult step and great trial All which doth not import that we should doat upon long life but it serves to condemn the Godly who are weary of their life and all those who make little good use of a long life but do thereby render themselves obnoxious to a sudden stroke Psal 68.21 2. It is yet a further proof of kindness when God sweetens our long life with mercies particularly of posterity as here Job saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations 3. Our long life is then especially sweet when we see the Church well and are doing good therein in our stations as Job here had opportunity to train up and see a Church of his posterity See Psal 128.5 6. Verse 17. So Job died being old and full of days The last particular in this account is his happy death when he is full of days Whence learn 1. Did men live never so long and in great prosperity yet they must at last die as here Job did See Psal 49.6 7 8 9. Heb. 9.27 2. It is a mercy in it self when men are ripe to be taken away for it is ranked among Jobs mercies that he died being old It is true young persons do doat upon time expecting an happiness in it but when men come to what Job attained of years or any thing proportionable to it they will count it their mercy to get their Pass to be gone if they be godly 3. Were men never so old when they die yet to be full of days and satisfied with the time they have lived is a mercy and gift of it self for it is here marked as a distinct mercy that he was not only old but full of days when he died And this is a mercy
considering his sympathy and interest Hereby anticipating that calumny ver 4 5. that Job was but little concerned in what had hitherto befallen him 2. The motive and rise of this trouble Thou movedst me against him to destroy him This doth not import any imputation upon the blessed God as if he were moved by Satan to do any thing especially without cause as it after followeth But the borrowed expression doth only intimate thus That as God purposing to do good unto his people makes way for fulfilling of his purpose by their Prayers to him which he is pleased to say do move and prevail with him So purposing to try his people he takes occasion of the wicked calumnies cast upon them by Satan and his Instruments to manifest this his purpose 3. The causlessness of this trouble Thou movedst me without cause Albeit it be true thaâ— God did thus destroy Job to no purpose or in vain which the word will also signifie as to Satans great design who gained not his point by it Yet that is not the chief thing intended in this expression of destroying him without cause Neither doth it import that God afflicted him without any cause of reason having nothing before his eyes but only to vex him For he had holy purposes in it to try his graces refute calumnies afford a singular ground of experience for all after-ages c. But it is to be understood of the procuring cause or quarrel that God did thus afflict him without any quarrel at him Which yet must not be understood absolutely For Job had Original sin and many actual infirmities and those of themselves did not only deserve great temporal afflictions but eternal death also if God should have proceeded in justice against him But the meaning is that as to Satans accusation there was no such hypocrisie in Job as he alleadged he was guilty of to procure this stroke For he had endeavoured to serve God sincerely and did not sin maliciously or wilfully which are the faults at which God is specially angry in his peo Deut. 32.5 1 Joh. 5 18. In sum Job was no hypocrite as Satan did insinuate and the Lords chief end in afflicting him was not to punish his sin but to try him Wherein notwithstanding the Lord was just and holy even when he thus afflicted without cause For he hath soveraign power over the Being which he hath given to inflict upon it what he pleaseth And there is so much also in the most innocent as may stop their mouths under greatest tryals All these considerations put together tend to the heightening of Jobs commendation That he held fast hâ—s integrity not only in prosperity or when God was sending a light touâ—h of afflictâ—on but when he was destroying and swallowing him up and when the Lord was doing this not in pursuance of any quarrel but was destroying an innocent man to refute the calumnies cast upon his integrity To omit what hath been already observed on Ch. â— 8 we may here gather some further Instructions And First The Lâ—rds repeating of that commendation of Job being now in an afflâ—cted condition which formeth he had given him in his prosperity doth teach That the Lords estimation of his people and of his grace in them doth not alter with their external condâ—tion But true grace hath the same lustre in the Eyes of God upon the Dunghil that it hath upon the Throne Foâ— now in Jobs low estate he gets the same commendation whâ—ch he got before My Servant Job there is none lâ—ke him in the Earth c. Secondly The addition to his commendationâ— and still he holdeth fast his Integrity notwithstanding his tryal may teach 1. Constancy in Piety notwithstanding the sharp tentations of an afflicted condition is a singular commendation in Gods esteem For hereby Job so acquiâ—â— himself that the old Characters of his Piety are not sufficient without this new addition to his commendation See 1 Pet. 1.7 And the reason of this is insinuated in the word holding fast which in the Original imports a retaining and holding of a thing firmly and with our whole strength because of difficulties and opposition as the traveller keeps his garment in a windy day Implying Not only That when Gods people are assaulted with tentations it is their duty and their practice when in a right frame to put forth their strength that they may hold fast their integrity and what they have received from the Lord Heb. 4.14 Rev 2.13.25 3.11 But That it is an hard task to stand fast in tryal and therefore the more commendable to bear out in such a tempest 2. Whatever it be in Religion wherewith men please thâ—mselves yet nothing pleaseth God better than sincerity and upâ—ightness especially when it is preserved in under affliction and in a trying condition For this is the Lord commends that Job still holdeth fast his integrity And he doth as it were glory over Satan in this Hast thou considered my servant Job and still he holdeth fast his integrity The Question doth not only import that God had an eye upon him and did notice him now when he was in the furnace but that he did delight to vex Satan with thâ— sight of his constant integrity See Revel 2.13 3.10 3. As God is especially pleased with mens sincerity so it is against that that Satan plants his cheif Engines and Battery For the thing which Job had chiefly to hold fast in this tryal was his integrity Satan did not assault Jobs outward prosperity but to barter his integrity thereby Nor is it mens Formality or outward Profession that he doth so much malign if he can keep them from being sincere in â—hat they do And Saints may be helped to know their own sincerity if it were but by Satans great opposition unto them wherewith Formalists are not acquainted 4. Albeit it be no small dâ—fficulty to stand fast and to continue streighâ— and upright in sharp tryals Yet the truly sincere are by the grace of God â—â—le to do it and to abide never so many and sharp assaults For hereof we hâ—ve an experience in Job still he holdeth fast his integâ—iâ—y Greate is he who is in Believers than he that is in the world 1 Job 4.4 and even weak grace suppoâ—ted by God is a party too hard for all opposition 5. It is an act of Divine Wisdom when kâ—ngs of the world are going to ruine not to cast away Piety also and a good Conscience oâ— because God strips us of outward contentments therefore to turn our back upon that which ought to be a Cordial under all pressures For this is commended as act of great wiâ—dom in Job that when other thing wâ—re pâ—lled from him still he hold fast his integrity To take another course will nothing bâ—ne â—t men or ease their griefs but doth indeâ—d double their losses Thirdly The amplification of this commendation though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause
yet it appears from her expressions that the thing it self was then known by the light of Nâ—ture or by immediate Revelation 9. We may also from her speech take notice of some of the wicked suggestions of Satan and our corrupt flesh in an hour of tryal As 1. When mens hearts do rise in pride against Gods dealing and do under-value Piety because of afflâ—ction and want of ease Doest thou still retain thine Integrity saâ—th she when thou art thus afflâ—cted See Mal. 3.13 14. 2. When men have such a prejudice against afflictions and tryals that they scruple at no sin which may seem to promise ease of a present trouble Curse God and die saith she and so thou wilt get out of this toil and vexation 3. When men are so earnest to avoid a present trouble as they do not consider that they may be running upon a greater afflâ—ction Curse God saith she and die that so thou may see an end of thy pain little considering that death is not the end of all trouble to all men and especially to those who enter in at the gates of death voluntarily blaspheming and cursing God as she adviseth him to do Vers 10. But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speakâ—th what shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil In all this did not Job sin with his lips Followeth Jobs answer unto and refutation of this suggestion Albeit he had hitherto kept silence yet he cannot let this suggestion pass without a reply And though no doubt he was a tender husband who behaved himself so conscientiously even toward servants Chap. 31.13 14.15 Yet in this case the zeal of God prompts him to make a sharp return to her motion And 1. He points out how unbecoming it was that such a motion should flow from her It might possibly have been expected that one of the foolish women Nabalesses so the word is in the Original or Pagans about them should have spoken so in a day of tryal But it did not beseem one so instructed and who enjoyed so many means of knowledge as she did to be so badly principled 2. He points out the absurdity of her counsel in it self That they who have received good things from the Lord Should not be content to submit to evil things or afflictions when God seeth it meet to exercise them therewith But that whenever the tyde begins to turn they should be weary of Piety and turn blasphemers For clearing whereof consider 1. That question What or also and his propounding of the Refutation by way of Interrogation doth insinuate both the vehemence of Jobs zeal and the clear evidence of the truth propoâ—nded that it may extort a confession from those who are most prejudged if they will but consider it 2. What he speaks of receiving good and evil is not to be understood of the simple act of receiving For in that the Lord doth not sâ—â—k oâ—t confâ—ne but fâ—nds good or evil as it pleaseth him and makes them our lot But he speaks of the manneâ— of receâ—ving that as we receive and entertain good things cheerfully and contentedly so it is our duty to receive evil things submissively and patiently Doct. 1. As zeal for God is seemly and becometh Saints so tentations and suggestâ—ons should be roughly entertained and not dallyed with from whomsoever they come Foâ— Job doth entertain this motion from his wife with much zeal and indignation See Matth 16.22 23. So also ought rising suggestions in our own bosoms be entertained 2. As sin is odious and hateful in any so it is moâ—e abominable in some thâ—n others And when sin is looked upon not only in its own nature but as committed by such persons who have lived under many means and had many engagâ—ments to holy walking put upon them â—t will exceedingly heighten the sinfulness thereof For so doth Job aggravate the sin of his wife Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh 3. To renounce God and Piety under trouble or because of it is an act of the highest folly and rather beseeming Pagans then Professors of the true Religion who will find it their advantage to cleave to God in trouble and that to do otherwise were to lose more then trouble can otherwise take from them and to deprive themselves of a soveraign antidote against the venom of afflictions For in the counsel she gave Job reckons that she speaks as one of the foolish women 4 It is not enough that we reprove faults in others unless we take pains also to inform them and to root out the prejudices and corrupt principles which mislead them Theâ—efore Job after the reproof subjoyns an information What or also as the word will read adding this to the former reproof Shall we receive good c 5. When men do rightly consider their own case they will find that an hour of tentation doth so bemist them and over-cloud their judgments that they want the use of their very common Principles Therefore doth Job put home this Refutation with Questions as being so clear that her Light and Conscience could not decline it if she would advert 6. It is a very great fault in men to arrogate to themselves to be their own carvers and that they will endure no lot but what pleaseth them For we are but receivers not prescribers 7. Seeing all the good we enjoy comes by the gift of God there is no reason we should murmur if he dispose of his own as he will and take back his gift at his pleasure For We receive good at the hand of God and therefore should acquiesce in his disposing thereof at his pleasure 8. It is a very great fault to limit God constantly to one way of dealing with his people and that we cannot endure to submit to changes For Job insinuates that we must resolve both for good and evil in the service of our Generation 9. It is also a fault that men enjoying a long time of prosperity should so settle themselves in case that they cannot endure a new assault of trouble seeing these vicissitudes in our condition are necessary for us and Gods sparing of us long may very well perswade us to endure tryals in their season For Shall we receive good and shall we not receive evil 10. It is yet a further degree of miscarriage when men have received so many proofs of love from God and yet when the same hand le ts out a needful trouble they are ready to question and doubt of this love and so quarrel him For if we have received good we ought without mistaking receive evil when it is made our lot For as evil coming to us out of the hand of God changeth its nature and becometh good so it becometh them who have tasted much of Gods bounty and love not to mistake every change of dealing In a word Jobs arguing doth teach That no man doth rightly improve prosperity
are worth the waiting for albeit we be kept in a furnace of affliction These are some of Jobs infirmities which without further descanting upon the words we are to take notice of in this discourse not to conclude him wicked but passionate and to point out what tentations and infirmities we are especially to provide against in an hour of tryal For which end it is that God will have all that Job spake and said ver 2. here recorded To shew that he takes notice of his peoples behaviour under afflictions and to set up a Beacon to all after-ages in the experience of this holy man Vers 11. Why died I not from the womb why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly 12. Why did the knees prevent me or why the breasts that I should suck In these verses we have Jobs second wish to which reasons as subjoyned v. 13. 19. His wish is set down by way of Expostulation of which see on v. 20. And it amounts in sum to this That since his former wish was to no purpose seeing he was born and came into the world he now wisheth he had died so soon as he was born And therefore regrates that in the birth ha was not left in that helpless hour by the Mid-wife or that ever any care was taken of him by laying him when he was born upon their knees or by giving him suck without which he had soon perished From this complaint no less passionate then the former Observe 1. The mercies which he complains to have received of knees preventing him and breasts to give him suck do insinuate to us That so soon as we come into the world we have so many seeds of death in us that every step of our life needs a proof of mercy to preserve it Without the knees to bear us and the breasts to give us suck we would soon return to dust again So that we may truly be said to be born to die and to be going to death from the day wherein we first receive life 2. Job having quit his former wish as unprofitable and impossible he is not for all that brought to submit but bends his wit to devise new ways of his own and with a great deal of Oratory paints them out as plausible Teaching That is no easie task to bring our minds to a conformity with Gods way and will but many divers courses and shifts will we essay rather then submit to God and follow that way of relief which he hath pointed out to us Submission and patience was a nearer and more ready case of Jobs grievances then any of those yet he wâ—ll rather multiply impossible wishes then come to that 3. We may observe how all these mercies of his birth care of him in his infancy c. wherof Saints have esteemed much and made good use Psal 22.9 10 11. are now all become crosses in his account Which as it flows from great ingratitude in him or whosoever shall be found guilty of the like So it teacheth us not to place our happiness in these or any the like common mercies which may be so soon and easily imbittered and made grievous to our frail and corrupt nature Vers 13. For now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have slept then had I been at rest 14. With kings and counsellers of the earth which built desolate places for themselves 15. Or with princes that had gold who filled their houses with silver 16. Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been as infants which never saw light 17. There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest 18. There the prisoners rest together they hear not the voyce of the oppressour 19. The small and great are there and the servant is free from his master His reasons whereby he endeavours to render his passionate wish plausible may be summed up in this one the great rest and quiet like a sleep which he fancieth in death ver 13. This he further amplifieth 1. That whereas he is now abased he had then been equal with the best even with Kings and great Counsellers who built themselves stately Houses or Monuments where desolations had formerly been ver 14. and who had their Houses replenished with wealth ver 15. 2. That at least if he had died from the womb he had been in no worse case then an Abortive and so had prevented all those miseries which befel him since his birth ver 16. 3. That as he fancieth the rest of death is a singular rest beyond any ease he could find here For wicked troublers cannot pursue men thither but they who are wearied with oppression get leave to rest there ver 17. particularly prisoners or slaves are free from their oppressing creditors and exacters ver 18. and death doth so level all as Masters and Servants are equal and Servants are no more under the power of their imperious Masters ver 19. In sum he points out death as a common rest from outward violence and oppression from weakness weariness servitude or any the like toil reflecting in some of those upon his own sufferings by the Sabeans and Chaldeans and upon the wearied and tossed condition of his body In this Reason we may remark those Truths 1. That death is a rest to man from outward troubles whatever they be As is here at length deduced Which in its own kind is a mercy that outward troubles will follow us no further then death if all be well beside 2. That as nothing temporal gives men a priviledge against death Psal 49.6 7 c. So albeit there be diversity of ranks of men here yet death levels all and makes them equal Ezek. 32.21 22 c. For Kings Princes Oppressours the weary small and great the Servant and his Master do all tryst at death and are all alike there But in Jobs reasoning from these considerations and in reference to his scope we will find many mistakes 1. Whatever rest and ease be in death yet it was not the will of God that Job should be resting now but fighting and serving his Generation by the will of God after which he was in due time to fall asleep as Acts 13.36 Now it is our great fault to see a beauty in any temporal condition save in so far as it is the will of God to make it out lot who makes every thing beautiful in its season Eccles 3.11 2. His reasoning imports that his great drift in wishing he had died is his own case Now ease how desirable soever it appear is not to be impatiently sought after But we should rather acquiesce to be on service as it is carved out wherein we may meet with many proofs and experiences of what is in ourselves and in God for us 3. Albeit desires and longings after death be the fools only back-door in trouble Yet death and the rest thereof in it self considered ought nor to be so
Yet we must guard against a mistake here For albeit all men be born to trouble for sin nor doth affliction enter but by sin Yet it doth not follow that we ought to measure the greatness of a mans sins by the greatness of his affliction nor ought we to judge that God is still pursuing or punishing sin when he afflicts far less that he is calling upon every one whom he afflicteth sadly to be converted as if he had never known God before These were Eliphaz's Principles upon which he puts Job to this consideration which Job could never yield unto From the General Doctrine here propounded Learn 1. Faln man is born unto trouble and obnoxious to all the kinds thereof For Man is born unto trouble See Job 14.1 This being well studied might cure a great errour in many who are ready to look upon themselves as priviledged and exempted persons and who little apprehend that they come into the world to bear crosses but rather to spend their days in pleasure 2. A naked sight or sense of trouble will never profit men till they begin wisely to ponder some lessons concerning the rise and cause thereof Therefore Eliphaz before he press any counsel upon Job in reference to his carriage doth first lead him up to study this lesson To feel trouble is common to men with beasts and consequently can produce no useful effects but it becometh rational men and much more godly persons to read more in it 3. Albeit as wicked men have no will to let themselves feel the smart of a Rod so long as they can either hold it off or cause themselves to forget it So men in an evil way have no will to see God their Parâ—y in trouble even when they are made to feel it 1 Sam. 6 9. 2 Sam. 11.25 as neither do wicked men desire to see God against them in â—his Word so long as they can avoid it Jer 5.12 13 yet it is a fixed truth That no affliction cometh casually or without a special hand of Providence which dispenseth it upon wise and holy grounds and the study of this is a mean to make trouble operative For Eliphaz presseth That affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground or from common and casual accidents but from above Amos 3.6 And because of this he presseth on Job to seek to God And indeed when this Truth is studied and believed not only will Saints see themselves still in their Fathers hand in the greatest of troubles But it will be mens chief care to see the hand of God in every affliction how unjustly soever inflicted by men 2 Sam. 16.10 and to search out the mind of God concerning the cause of every trouble and their duty under it 4. Albeit that trouble is ordinary proveth oft-times a snare to men hiding a sight of Gods hand in it 2 Sam. 11.25 yet even that it is ordinary is a document that it cometh not by chance but from God and consequently that it should be better improved For Eliphaz proves that affliction cometh not by chance Because man is born to trouble and what is so ordinary must have some sure and ordinary cause It is the great sin of men that trouble is so little improved even because it is ordinary And that either they foolishly think to shift trouble and spare not to make shipwrack of a good Conscience if they may reach their end when yet they will find it unavoidable turn where they will Or the custom of meeting with trouble leads them to harden themselves under it neither eyeing God nor minding duty 5. Albeit the Lord be not pursuing sin by every affliction which he sendeth but may be trying faith and other graces in his people Yet trouble hath its rise from sin and mans transgression is the door whereby trouble entred For Man is born to trouble as the sparks flie upward There is somewhat in mans nature that rendreth him obnoxious to trouble as there is a fire from which sparks do flie or as it is natural for a spark to flie upward and this is sin or the corruption of mans nature For if there had been no sin there had been no affliction And as this proves very Infants to have sin because they are obnoxious to sickness and death Rom. 5.14 So it should teach all even in their most cleanly tryals and when their Consciences assoil them from wickedness or hypocrisie yet to look upon afflictions as sent to make them sensible of sin especially of that fountain of Original sin Vers 8. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause Upon the back of this consideration Eliphaz propounds his Exhortation and counsel To seek and turn in to God by repentance and in stead of quarrelling with him to stoop to him and referr his whole case to his disposal This is a sweet counsel in it self and very affectionately propounded as a course he would follow himself were he in Jobs case Yet it is loaden with a double prejudice as it is propounded to Job 1. That by this submission recommended by Eliphaz he intends that Job should quit his integrity and pretend no more that he had been a godly man For so Job understands him and their other discourses expound it so This was an unjust desire and Proposition that a godly man should lie against his right though he did indeed fail in the way of maintaining his integrity 2. Upon this it followeth that this Exhortation to seek to God imported in Eliphaz's sense that Job should begin of new to seek God not looking on any thing he had before as honest and sincere This is indeed an usual tentation of the people of God either in great tryals or when they fall into guilt that they are ready to look on all they had before as hypocrisie and that they must begin of new if they look ever to obtain saving grace But such tentations are to be rejected by sincere Saints as keeping them still unfixed building and destroying again Laying aside these prejudices and mistakes Learn 1. It is the duty of godly friends not to content themselves wâ—th reproving what they find amiss in others in an upbraiding way but to counsel thâ—m also how to amend For so doth Eliphaz proceed with Job according to his Principles After as he judged he hath condemned him he doth now advise him how to do better See Gal. 6.1 Jam. 2.50 2. Seeking unto God is the only best course for men in trouble To turn to him who smiteth to double diligence in his service that they may be near him in sad conditions and to renew their repentance according as their case requireth For this is a wholesome counsel to a man in trouble to seek unto God When men have essayed all other remedies they will find this most profitable 3. Such as do rightly seek to God in trouble ought to be far from all bitterness and
things may concurr to corrupt the senses of men in particular exigents Prosperity may blunt their tenderness and bribe their light to allow them ease Desertion as befel David in the matter of Bathsheba and Hezekiah in the matter of the Ambassadours of the King of Babylon may draw forth proofs of weakness and good men may miscarry under it especially when they are not sensible that they are deserted but the refreshments of prosperity do supply the the room of spiritual life And troubles do readily produce a feverish distemper of senses especially when false Christs appears in time of trouble Matth. 24 22 23 24. This may teach us to walk in a continual jealousie of our selves and not to lean to our own understanding Prov. 3.5 CHAP. VII Job having in the preceeding Chapter excused his own complaints renewed his desire of Death and sharply rebuked his Friends for their inhumane cruelty and for their being deficient in that duty he might have expected from them in his need and withal having exhorted them that laying aside prejudices they would take a second look of his condition He now in this Chapter for their further Information falls on a new Discourse concerning his case wherein he labours to justifie his desire of death desires pity and commiseration and complains he can find it at no hand So in this Chapter 1. He studies to justifie his desire of death For seeing mans life was not perpetual but had a prefixed period ver 1. and it being lawful for all oppressed creatures to seek a lawful and attainable out-gate ver 2. Why might not he seek that lawful out-gate of death who was afflicted beyond others ver 3 4. and so neer unto death that he expected not ease but by it ver 5 6. 2. He pleads for pity in regard of his frailty and his miserable and hopeless condition ver 7 8 9 10. 3. He complains sadly of Gods dealing toward him and having resolved to ease himself that way ver 11. regrets that his trouble was greater then he needed to tame him ver 12. that it was uncessant ver 13 14. and put him to hard shifts ver 15 16. And that God needed not deal so severely with him either for tryal ver 17 18 19. or for punishment of his sin ver 20 21. Vers 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his days also like the days of an hireling IN this Discourse concerning Job's desire of death I need not debate whether the discourse be directed to God to move him to grant him that desired out-gate or to his Friends to convince them of their errour in the matter as he judged it For both may be intended in the Discourse as spoken in their audience to God His conclusion or particular desire of death is no further expressed here then in that general Proposition v. 2. and as it may be gathered from the Arguments and the account he gives of the causes pressing him to seek after it Only it is more expressly afterward poured out in the complaint His Arguments justifying this desire may be taken up in that one sum set down in the Analysis of the Chapter But for more clear unfolding of the Text I shall take up three Arguments in it Whereof the first in this verse is taken from the condition of mans life which is not to be perpetual but limited by God to such a period at which it shall end as a Souldier hath a set time of his warfare and watching and an hireling of working And therefore he thinks he may safely desire that end of his task and service on which all men ought to be resolving This argument he holds forth in a general Proposition and appeals to God or his Friends Consciences to which soever of them we take the speech to be directed if this were not a truth That there is an appointed time for man upon earth it being prefixed by God and mans frailty as his name here in the Original imports holding out that he cannot be perpetual within time The word rendered an appointed time signifieth also a warfare which is very opposite to the purpose in hand as not only pointing at the condition of mans life being a perpetual toil and a condition of many tentations and hazards such as a souldier is exposed to in wars See Chap. 10.17 But serving also illustrate the matter of prefixing a period to mans life man being like a Souldier who hath a prefixed age for his coming on service and for going off as Miles emeritus Or a certain time for which he is conduced for such a service in war and afterward disbanded and dismissed Or a prefixed time for standing on his Watch as Centinel after which he is relieved And to this purpose also serveth that other similitude of an hirelings days both pointing at their hard service and toil and the prefixed time for which they are hired This General Proposition holds forth these truths 1. The time of our life is prefixed to us by God There is an appointed time to man upon earth See Job 14.5 Which as it gives us no latitude for unwarrantable hazarding of our life for we ought to live according to his appointment who hath appointed our time So it may teach us not to live as those who are Masters of their own time Isa 56.12 Luk. 12.19 20. To be willing to die when God declares we shall live no longer for many are so far from Job's temper here that they come not the length of duty in this and not to fear them who threaten our life for his sake for they will not get our life till his time come Psal 31 13 14 15. 2. Mans life will end his glass will run and his course draw at last to a period For there is but an appointed time for man upon earth Let men think to make themselves never so perpetual yet they cannot avoid death Psal 49.6 c. Which men ought seriously to think upon Gal. 11.9 and not to be excessively eager in seeking great things seeing they must die and leave them all 3. Our life till we come to the period of it is like unto a warfare wherein as good Souldiers we are not to serve or please our selves 2 Tim. 2.4 nor to dispute our Generals Orders and should resolve to be in perpetual motion and travail and watching to â—un many hazards and look for no issue but either absolute victory or death or to be led captives by Satan And it is also like the dayes of an hireling who is bound to many hard services and much toil So much doth the Text hold forth and they who look otherwise on their life will be deceived Yet in all this we have this encouragement That we are doing our Captain and Master service that we are working our own work as well as his for a Souldier earns pay and an hireling wages by his work and that the worst of it will
have an end As for the Inference that Job would draw from this Proposition That because mans life hath a prefixed period therefore he might peremptorily desire to attain this end of his toil It is faulty in divers respects the observing whereof may give light in the rest of his Discourse And 1. The condition of our life before God is not in all respects like the condition of a Souldier or hireling For our task and service is just debt as theirs is not always it is not needed by God as men need the assistance of Souldiers and Servants we have no skill of our selves to do our work as they have nor do we know our term-day as they do and therefore cannot prescribe it Unless we take him up to be God and our selves but creatures we will never steer a steady course especially under trouble 2. It is ill reasoning to say that because God hath determined our time therefore we should fix the end of it when we will For God hath kept up that from us that we may be ready either to die or honour him in the World as he shall please to order 3. Because there is an end of our toil it is ill argued that when toil cometh we should seek presently to be at the end of it Whereas we should rather bear it couragiously remembering the end of the Lord and that it will not be perpetual Jam. 5.11 4. It was unseasonable for Job to wish so eagerly for the end of his warfare and toil when such a dark cloud was betwixt God and him Saints have acknowledged â—t a mercy that death was kept off in such a condition Lam. 3.22 Psal 27 13. But this was an evidence of his great distress and of his distemper of mind which corrupted his sense and discerning Vers 2. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work 3 So am I made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed me 4. When I lie down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day The second Argument which presseth the former and cleareth it is taken from that common liberty allowed to all creatures in their strait to press and long for a possible and lawful out-gate The sum of it is as if Job had said If hirelings being weary do long after refreshment and the end of their task when they shall receive their wages So may I under my troubles long after death which is the appointed end of my toil and that so much tâ— rather as my task is sorer then any of theirs In this Argument Consider First The Proposition of the Argument in a comparison ver 2. That as a wearied servant oâ— hireling longeth after some cool shadow or the shadow of the night wherein he may rest and longeth â—oâ— the time wherein he may receive his wages For to work as it is in the Original is taken not â—o much oâ— the end of work as for the reward of it Psal 10â— 20. Jer. 22.13 So mighâ— he long for death whâ—â—e he expected to find the only true eâ—se of his grievances and reward of his integrity In this reasoning beside the former mistakes we may further add 1. That bâ—â—ng an hireling to so great and so good a Master and so uncertain of the length of his day he ought so to long for the close oâ— it as yet he prescribed not to God 2. It was his fault to look on death as the only out-gate and shadow from this â—oil â—â—â—peâ—â—ing that sufficient grace and proofs of love in the midst of trouble might have relâ—â—sheâ— him 3. It was also his fault to eye so much his own ease and the reward of his integrity and that he 〈…〉 rather condescend to what might honour God and edifie others albeit it were greivous to himself as was Paul's practice Phil. 1.22 25. Every one of those mistakes and faults may afford us Instruction But further these Lessons may be observâ—d in it 1. It pleaseth God to let some of Adam's posterity endure much toil in earning their bread that they may be sensible of sin and that others may learn thankfulness who have an easier lot though they be in the same guilt and of the same lump For so is held out in the instance of those wearied servants and hirelings Yea it is to be marked that though many are not put to those hard pinches yet even the greatest of men want not their own toil 2. It is ordinary for men not to find rest in their present condition but they are driven still to look after somewhat they want before them For so are servants and hirelings put to desire and look for somewhat they want And this holds not only true of men in great misery but generally of all men while they are within time Contentment with every estate is a choice lesson Phil. 4.11 Heb. 13.5 and would be more easily attained if men remembered they are within time where complete satisfaction is not to be expected and if they were studying to get the right use of every lot as it cometh 3. The many tossings and vexations wherewith the godly are essayed within time may allow them to look toward death with submission to the will of God as a sweet issue and to make it welcom when it cometh For this comparison imports that there is a lawful desire of death as the servant desires the shadow See 2 Cor. 5.4 Rom 8.23 A spiritual mind finds many calls thither though with submission and therefore do Saints find so many worms in their goâ—â—ds Only it should be our care that a desire to be freed from sin and a body of death do chiefly prevail with us to look to that issue 4. Death will never be a shadow to a man from his trouble who hath not so walked as he may expect a reward of his integrity then also For so much also doth the similitude import As the hireling looks both for the shadow and reward of his work so they whoÌ„ look comfortably on death must see both these in it And therefore a desperate desire of death in wicked men is abominable Secondly we have to consider the amplification and further pressing of this Argument from his particular case ver 3 4. Where in stead of inferring from that Proposition ver 2. that he might long for death as servants do for the shadow or more earnestly long for that issue then they do for their ease He only sheweth that he had greater cause so to long then they had being more hardly put to it And to prove this he holds out the dissimilitude betwixt his case and an hirelings in two 1. The hirelings task is ordinarily for a day but this was much longer even whole Moneths of vanity or eminently vain for any fruit of ease or comfort otherwise in respect of perfection all
God For however Job's afflictions were eminently sharp yet God was not so far against him in wrath as he apprehended See Isa 40 27 28 c. 49.13 14 15. It is a special mercy to find wisdom whereby to discern our case without mistakes We will ere all be done see much cause to complain of our infirmity that mistook God when he was good Psal 77.8 9 10. And they are happy who cannot but believe love and have sweet thoughts of God in every lot and do not by their own mistakes imbitter their own crosses but do reckon that the harshest of dispensations may consist with love and flow from it 4. As tentations will soon make a mans life his burden So a mans self when he seems to be rejected of God is a very heavy burden to have himself to answer and care for in all things In both these respects this is the consequent of Job's sad apprehensions so that I am a burden to my self wearied of my life and left by thee to take charge of my self This may teach us as not to doat upon our life so to be sensible of what burdens God holds dayly of us and to study dependance on God in all things not provoking him to let us feel our own weight His Second inference ver 21. is That since God was a Preserver and neither his satisfaction nor Gods stroke for sin could make up the friendship Therefore he desires that God would put an end to the quarrel by pardoning his guilt and taking away his sin in its pollution and sad effects Whence Learn 1. The only way for making up of peace betwixt God and sinners is by free pardon and the Lords passing from the quarrel when men are sensible of their sin and inability For Job finds no issue unless God pardon his transgression See also Psal 32.1 2. And this affords us great encouragement that when neither any thing we can do nor any stroke inflicted by God can make up the friendship there is yet another way of attaining it by Gods free pardon 2. The grossness and heinousness of sin will not hinder Gods pardoning of them who come to him in the due order to obtain it For Job supposeth here that he pardoneth even transgression or rebellion and iniquity or crookâ—d perversnese See Isa 1.18 3. Albeit pardon cannot be merited by us but is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ yet only those sinners are pardoned who coming to God through Christ for pardon are sensible of their sin and inability to rid themselves of that burden as Job declareth he is ver 20. and who do so esteem of pardon that they cannot want it and are most solicitous about it as a priviledge without which they are undone So much doth Job's pathetick question impart And why dost thou not pardon By such God will be looked on as singular because he pardoneth iniquity Mic. 7.18 4. As the filth and pollution of sin must be abhorred and pursued by every pardoned man so it is the power of God alone that can effectually remove it For so much is imported in what is subjoyned to pardon of taking away iniquity not only by pardon but by renovation which he seeks with the former and seeks it to be done by God who alone can remove it If we do not employ the power of Christs death for Renovation and Mortification of sin as well as the price of it for pardon Law-convictions and discoveries will but make sin more alive Rom. 7.8 9. and our pollution will continue and grow notwithstanding our diligence and pains 5. When Sin is pardoned and Renovation endeavoured it doth not only bring peace with God but ease also if not an out-gate of all afflictions for sin For so much also is imported here when he pardoneth transgression he also taketh or makes to pass away iniquity in its sad effects and punishments inflicted for it So iniquity is taken for the punishment of sin Gen. 19.15 Psal 31.10 49.5 It is true pardoned men are not alwayes freed from afflictions yet being pardoned the sting and bitterness is taken out of them 1 Cor. 15.55 56. Isa 33.24 A pardoned man may sing of blessedness in the midst of his troubles Psal 32.1 2. 144 15. For then troubles come for necessary profit so that it were a prejudice to want them how humbling soever they be Heb. 1â— 10 They are fraught with love sweetened with the hope of glory Rom. 5.2 3. and do occasion many gracious visits from God Psal 31.7 It is a plague upon men that they follow not this method in their troubles of pressing first and chiefly after pardon of sin which would turn saddest storms into Summer days whereas they seek unto many refuges in their difficulties forgetting their resting place Job shuts up these his Inferences with this confirmation of his plea ver 21. That if God did not grant his desire but would still proceed in a course of severity he would indeed be crushed and cut off thereby but the Lord so to say would himself repent it and would miss poor Job when he had destroyed him and seek him early to do him good but should not find him and so speaking after the manner of men and upon an impossible supposition he should repent that he had dealt so severely with his poor servant In this pleading Learn 1. Job's mistake that he would presently die if God withdrew not his hand doth tell us That our apprehensions do breed us many crosses wherewith we will never really meet 2. His mistake that in the case wherein he is he will die if God relent not is yet grounded on this general verity That however we think lightly of sin yet a wakened Conscience wanting pardon of sin and reconciliation and pursued with strokes and wrath will soon over-charge a frail creature even to the cutting off of his life if God interpose not For Job being in the condition himself describes convinced of sin pursued by wrath and not pardoned it was only the power of God that prevented this consequent of all this Now shall I sleep in the dust And God is pleased oft-times to put his people to those pinches that they may think seriously on death and provide furniture for it 3. It is the duty and property of faith to keep the Covenant-style and take a Covenant-look of all their lots how terrible soever they be For though Job be dreadfully tossed now when he apprehends he is passing over the Bar of death yet he takes a Gospel look of it and gives it the Gospel-name a sleep 4. Faith in the truly sincere will not and ought not quit its grip although it obtain none of its desires But though strokes wrath pursue even to the death and sense Friends and all outward probabilities say God hath cast off yet faith will believe love and that God will own them although he should seek them after death and shew wonders to the
but because in the very substance of the defence I should be a contradictâ—r of God who hath concluded and delared all men to be unrighteous and under sin and even the regenerate not to be perfect or such as God cannot afflict them without injustice And if notwithstanding all this I persist in such an Apology and say still that I am perfect that should not only prove me sinful but perverse and stubborn in my sin Hence Learn 1. There is no pleading of mens righteousness by their own works or their sinlesness but God can easily improve and refute it all For If I justifie my self God hath a way to condemn me 2. Mens very pleading for their righteousness to the prejudice of Gods Righteousness is cause and evidence sufficient that they are to be condemned as wicked and naughty who dare contradict and quarrel God For if I justifie my self my own mouth in speaking to my own justification shall condemn me Such a disputer is self-condemned and refuted by his very debate for himself and the more a man esteem and prize his own Righteousness he is thereby the worse in effect and in the sight of God 3. As men are very prone to persist in their high swelling thoughts of themselves So this doth but heighten the quarrel and prove them to be not only sinners but wicked and perverse For if I say I am perfect or persist in justifying my self and say it over and over again It shall also prove me perverse Vers 21. Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soul I would despise my life The scope and meaning of this verse is rendered obscure and difficult by reason of the conciseness of the Original phrase which runs thus I perfect I know not or shall not know my soul I despise my life And so some make it an assertion beginning the second part of the Chapter as if Job had said though I be in such danger and grief that I know not or regard not my soul or my life for so it is in the latter part of the verse but do despise it and wouâ—d gladly die yet I am perfect and no hypocrite though not sinless But seeing that part of the Chapter begins clearly at the next verse where we have the express assertion which he maintains against his Friends Therefore here we are to repeat though or rather if from the beginning of v. 20. as is also done in the latter part of the same v. 20. where the words are the same in the Original that are here I perfect and yet the sense and coherence of the purpose leads us to repeat from the beginning of the verse If I say I am perfect or If I be perfect to wit in mine own eyes The Text being thus read will afford a new ground of his resolution against contending and the sense will be either 1. According to the Translation Though I were or be perfect c. as if Job had said Though I be sincere and not an hypocrite and do plead so before you yea were I never so perfect yet would I not plead the matter before and against God to the prejudice of his Righteousness But on the contrary my not regarding of my life and my despising of and yielding it up to God as a sinful man testifieth for me that I mind no such thing For my voluntary quitting and resigning up of my life witnesseth that I judge my self a sinner As indeed sense of sin will make humble submitting to afflictions and stooping and submitting to Gods afflicting hand particularly in death proves a man to be sensible of sin and no pleader of his own perfection Or 2. If we read these words as in the former verse which seems most favourable If I say I am perfect c. or If I be perfect in mine own eyes I would not know my soul c. The sense will be this as if Job had said as my pleading my perfection before God were enough to condemn me and prove me perverse v. 20. So it were but my ignorance and not knowing of my own soul or condition that would make me plead so And coming before such a Majesty with that plea he might justly so terrifie me as to make me despise my very life as well as my righteousness before him and a fight of his perfect purity would make me abhor such thoughts and my self for them Thus the ground of his resolution and the Argument moving him not to contend is That he will not by contending bewray his ignorance of himself nor madly run upon his own ruine or do such things as might afterward make his life a burden to him Hence Learn 1. It is mens ignorance or their being in a sort out of their wits that makes them boast of their own worth or righteousness For If I say I am perfect I know not my soul It is an horrid crime proclaiming a mans ignorance of what he should know best even himself or his soul and his madness that he regardeth not his own soul or what become of him 2. A sight of God in his Majesty and Purity as a party to the self-justifier will soon lay him low and not only make his righteousness but his very life abominable and a burden to him For in that case saith he If I say I am perfect I would despise my life Not only would the Majesty of God crush such a proud contender and consequently such a one doth despise his life when he enters on such a course as Job himself observeth Chap. 13.14 But if a man be honest when he comes to consider in cold blood after his fit is over with what a holy God he hath contended it will make him abhor high thoughts of himself and himself because of them and make him love his righteousness the worse that he swelled so much with the conceit of it Vers 22. This is one thing therefore I said it he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked Followeth unto the end of this Chapter the second part of Job's Reply to what Bildad had spoken Wherein he proveth that notwithstanding God was righteous and not to be quarrelled yet himself was a righteous man in opposition to hypocrisie or gross wickedness nor could the afflictions that were come upon him prove the contrary And this is the very point in controversie among them In this verse we have him stating the Controversie and holding forth the Truth which he asserts and maintains This is one thing c. The meaning whereof is as if Job had said I agree with you as you may perceive from what I have already spoken in all you have said concerning Gods Righteousness and Mans Sinfulness yet this is one thing wherein I differ from you and which without any derogation to the Righteousness of God I have maintained and will maintain That my afflictions do not prove me wicked but calamities even to destruction and rooting out of the world come alike upon all
v. 10 11 12. which now he wishes had never been Ingratitude is an heinous sin in it self and will produce ill humours 3. When any condition how empty and poor soever seems better to men thâ—n what they have and what God hath sweetned with many proofs of his love For he dwells upon his dying from the womb as a sweet condition v. 19. which yet would have deprived him of many proofs of Gods love which he had found in his life God is better and kinder to his people then they many times wish to themselves 4. When men are so devoted to themselves and their own will that they will quarrel all that God doth if it fit not their mind as if all things were to be foâ— them and subservient to their humour For he complains that he was not carried from the womb to his grave only because it would have prevented his great trouble and kept him at great case Selfishness is an ill toot of much distemper 5. When mens passions having distempered them they lay the blame upon Providence As he urgeth this as an argument against Gods dealing that it made him thus discontent with his life Whereas if he had been more sober and borne his trouble and the testimony of his Conscience with more calmness it would have prevented those distempers See Prov. 19.3 Vers 20. Are not my days few cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little 21. Before I go whence I shall not return even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death 22. A land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darkness In the close which is the second part of the Chapter Job begins to calm a little and in stead of his former expostulating with God and his last great fit of discontent v. 18 19. he tacitly submits to Gods will that he is alive and in what he hath done And seeing death in its own colours he will not rashly hazard upon it but craves this only that he may have some respite and breathing and a little ease in his life For 1. His days were short and he was not like to live long Therefore he would have some speedy help that he might draw his breath a little and have opportunity to shew that he was not the man that his Friends esteemed him or his passion seemed to prove him to be v. 20. 2. Albeit he believed a Resurrection and believed never to go to Hell and knew what it was to die in Christ who is the destroyer of death for he speaks to none of those here nor are his words to be taken in any sense relating to those yet death in it self is ugly being without restitution in this life being a dark and dâ—â—â—ry estate without any order of variety or vicissitude of light and darkness wherein much of this worlds beauty consists but whereas light comes in its turn here it is still darkness there even most dark as darkness it self as it beseems those shadows of death and the grave to be Therefore he would have some change of his condition here before he go to that unchangeable state and some blink of light and comfort before he entered into that dark passage and habitation ver 21 22 with 20. This Doctrine laying aside his mistake of speedy death by this trouble may safely be admitted with little caution as containing only a desire of that which God afterward granted to him though yet it was not necessary he should be peremptory in such a sute It teacheth 1. Saints highest sits of passion will not last but mercy will reclaim them and give them a cool of that Feaver As Job found here 2. As the Feavers and distempers of Saints may come to a very great height So ordinaâ—â—ly that height or excess of them proves the step next to their cool As Job here calms after that â—â—â—â—ly of passion v. 18 19. As God pitieth them in theâ—â—â—xtremities so their very rising to an height and extreâ—â—ty 〈◊〉 â—â—use themselves relent whereaâ— they would have thought less of their passionâ— if they continued moâ—◠〈…〉 3. Humble sober Prayer is a notable 〈…〉 and mean in calming distempered spirits it is as the shower to allay that boisterous wind For Job fâ—lls a praying in stead of quarrelling when he calms See Phil. 4.6 4. As mans life is but uncertain and short so the thoughts of this should make men imploy their time well and to be very needy and pressing after God and proofs of him and where it is thus improved it is an argument of pity and help For so much may be gathered in general from Job's arguing Are not my days few cease then c. though he mistook in his particular case that himself was shortly to die See Psal 39.13 89.47 5. Such as are exercised with much trouble and have their exercises blessed to them will be sober and esteem much of little case to get leave to breath or to comfort and refresh themselves a little with a sight of God or of his grace in them and not their own passions which they ought to abhor For this is his sute when calmed to get comfort a little not only liberty to breath from sore trouble but especially to get his spirit calmed from these passions which he now abhors in himself They who are indeed humble will not despise small things Zech. 4 10. and a victory over their own spirit will be their greatest deliverance 6. The least ease breathing or comfort under trouble cannot be had but of Gods indulgence He must cease and let him alone from vexing of him before he take comfort a little See Joh 34.29 7. It is the duty of men to acquaint themselves with death before-hand and especially in times of trouble they should study it in its true colours For Job in his trouble is so acquainted with it that he can here very pathetically describe it This is Moses study when God is making havock of the Rebels in the Wilderness Psal 90. 8. Death and the Grave in themselves and when Christs victory over them is not studied and men are hurried away to them in a tempest of trouble are very terrible and an ugly sight as bringing an irreparable loss as to any restitution in this life and being so dark and disconsolate an estate that the very common favour of a vicissitude of day and night light and darkness is a mercy when compared with it For so doth Job describe that estate here as it may appear to an afflicted Saint as he was or to one at a distance from God much more may it appear so to men in an unrenewed state or nature And indeed death is in it self a curse and if any find a beauty in it or get a sweeter sight of it it is by the special gift of God And withal it cuts the thread of our life upon which all our
Original thus Mine eye poureth out or droppeth unto God And he who is true God and doth now subsist to exerce his Office shall plead for a man that is for Job himself spoken of in the Third Person to shew that it is a common priviledge of all godly men such as he was with God and the Son of Man as Christ was to become true Man also for his friend So the meaning of this will be Christ who is God and will become Man shall plead with God on my behalf who am at friendship with him This Interpretation hath those Truths in it That Christ the Mediatour was then known as in his Offices so also what he was or would be as to his Persons and Natures That it is in Christ only that godly men can think to stand or have their integrity approved and That Christs pleading and intercession is a sweet Antidote against the scorn and mistakes of dearest friends As he subjoyns this to what he said of them v. 20. But this doth not so well agree with Job's scope here who as formerly doth assert his integrity rather by wishing he might plead his cause with God if it were possible then by believing it was pleaded as is also implied in the repetition of this wish Chap. 17.3 And withal this verse so interpreted will have no connexion with the reason subjoyned v. 22. Therefore I had rather understand it according to his former practice of his wish that himself might plead his cause with God And for the Original Text which seems to favour the former reading it would be considered that the copulative particle and may be variously â—endered either and or as or otherwise as may best fit the scope Likewise the particle rendered for in both parts of the verse may be rendered for or with or to as frequently it is And if we render the verb which signifieth pleading not only in the Optative mode by way of wish as here it is but Impersonally also not that he or one might plead but that there might be pleading if I say the verb be thus rendered the Text will run fairly thus O that there might be pleading for a man that is that a man might have leave and opportunity to plead with God as a man pleadeth with his neighbour or friend And so the words contain a desire that he might plead his Integrity as familiarly with God as one man pleads with another who is his friend I shall not insist on the particular weaknesses that may be marked in this desire of which see Chap 9 34 35. Chap. 13.20 21 22. Here we may Learn 1. Mens scorn and misconstructions should put men to seek to have their condition cleared betwixt God and them For this Job would be at when scorned by his Friends 2. There is no small disadvantage on the creatures part in seeking to plead with God considering the distance that is betwixt God and them For that Job can wish this only imports that God cannot be pleaded with as with a neighbour or friend And this should be minded not only to terrifie those who presume to enter the lists with God as a Party but to make us sober and humble in all our approaches to him 3. Integrity doth not fear Gods Tribunal in Christ oppose it who will For this wish whatever weakness be in it imports also the strength of his faith that at all disadvantages of scorn from Friends and afflictions from God he is content to plead if he might 4. Men who have a good Conscience have need to guard well under afflictions and misconstructions that they miscarry not For Job did over-drive in the rashness and presumption of his offer It is not enough men have a good Conscience unless they bear it fair and soberly 5. Weaknesses may very often recurr and prevail over Saints in an hour of tryal As Job falls again and again upon his passionate wish This should humble us but not crush us as if we had no grace when we are thus assaulted and borne down 6. Saints may be long exercised with wishes and desires which are not satisfied For so was it with Job who not only is not satisfied as to the passionate and presumptuous way which he propounds for clearing of his integrity but even the substance of his desire which was to have his integrity made manifest is not granted till his tryal was perfected And in general it holds true that many desires of the godly are not satisfied either because they desire not good things in a right way or because it is unseasonable to grant their good desires or because God hath a mind to try them yet more Vers 22. When a few years are come then I shall go the way whence I shall not return In this verse we have the reason pressing this wish taken from the certainty as he judged of his near approach unto death which makes him desire to be cleared before he be removed In this he seems to reflect upon what Eliphaz had said of the wickeds being without hope to be delivered from trouble Chap. 15.22 For he expects no issue from his trouble but by death Only he is under no slavish fear as the wicked are nor will he grant that he is wicked though he have those apprehensions Doct. 1. Saints in their troubles may be in a great mistake concerning their condition and the issue thereof For albeit this General be true that mans life is but short being measured by a few years or years of number any time that can be numbered being short in comparison of Eternity yet he is mistaken in that he thought to die so shortly which that it is his mind in this expression though he speak of years appears from Chap 17 1. 2. Men had need to have their condition cleared against death come it being a dark passage in it self we have need of no clouds beside For upon this supposition that he is to die shortly he desireth to plead his cause that he may be cleared before-hand 3. Men ought so much the rather to have all clear against death that after it there is no helping of our condition if it be wrong as it is in other turns of our life For if once a man go that way he shall not return and this consideration made Job the more solicitous to be cleared 4. The more near men apprehend death to be approaching they should be the more busie For so was Job here supposing that death was near 5. Reproach and unjust imputations are in special a tryal whereof Saints would desire a good account before they die seeing other outward miseries end at their death but reproach will live after them as a blot upon their name For it is upon this account in part that he would be cleared that his Friends might cease to scorn and reproach him as a wicked man 6. The Conscience of mens integrity will not be quelled even with approaching death For Job
3. Many of the dispensations of Providence in the world and particularly of the lots of Saints may be such as might astonish right discerners For saith he both in reference to his own condition and his doctrine concerning Gods Providence Mark me and be astonished We adore not God in what is ordinary And therefore singular dispensations are sent to rouze us up And albeit stupid astonishment be not good yet this imports that in effect Gods dispensations cannot well be pried into but ought to be wondered at 4. Men will be so much the more astonished at the dispensations of God in the world and toward Saints when they consider them narrowly and do remember that they have been in an errour and have not considered them well before For this is required of them in particular that they be astonished when they shall consider them well and reflect upon their own mistakes about them As it is not unusual that men get open eyes to be astonished at their own mistakes in things wherein they thought they were very clear 5. A wise consideration of Gods dispensations will cause men silently to adore rather than to carp and foolishly talk and prate of them For he supposeth that if they mark well they will find all their former babbling so refuted as may cause them lay their hand upon there mouth Vers 6. Even when I remember I am afraid and trembling taketh held on my flesh The last Argument confirming the former is taken from his own sense of his condition and of what he was to say When he thinks upon the deep counsels of God and his various and strange dispensations in the world and toward himself and other Godly mâ—n it causeth him tremble and admire at the Majesty Wisdom and Power of God shining therein and at the ignorance and incapacity of shallow man Whence he would infer that they ought to learn at him who was so well trained and exercised in that study and should hear him speak of that subject who was so sensibly affected with it Whence Learn 1. What men do press upon others they should first essay it themselves that they may recommend it by their practice as well as by their counsels Therefore Job having recommended astonishent and rereverence to them v. 5. doth press it further here by his own Practice When I remember I am afraid 2. Such as would take up and understand the ways of God to any purpose or good effect ought to be much at serious meditation For I Remember saith Job when he gives an account of his fear and trembling intimating that his meditating upon these things produced these effects 3. Afflictions are then blessed when they fix mens wandering and unstable minds and draw them seriously to ponder and consider what God and his Dispensations are For so Job in his affliction is brought to remember these things more seriously 4. It is a further evidence of the blessing of an afflicted condition when those serious thoughts do not evanish or miscarry in mens hands but do produce sutable effects and impressions upon their hearts For Job's Remembring of those things had such effects of fear and trembling 5. However men at ease may lightly pass over things of greatest importance and concernment Yet in an afflicted condition men especially godly men will find that thoughts of God and his dealing ought to take deeper impression upon them For however his frinds looked upon all things yet he was affected with them 6. Gods dispensations may be very affrightful even to his own Children when they think upon them in their afflictions For saith Job when I remember I am affraid and trembling taketh hold on my flesh He had such an awful regard of God manifesting himselfe by these dispensations as made him fear yea and tremble Wherein beside that fear and reverence which he owed in duty to God and that horrour which their ignorance and mistakes might beget in him there wants not some excess unto which Saints remembring God in trouble are apt to fall Psal 77.3 Which as it flows from their crushed spirits becoming a spirit of bondage unto them And it may be their fruit of not delighting in mercy that they are put to this School So it is oft times very needful to excite them to renew their peace with God Vers 7. Wherefore do the wicked live become old yea are mighty in power 8. Their seed is established in their sight with them and their off-spring before their eyes 9. Their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them 10. Their bull gendereth and falleth not their cow calveth and casteth not her calf 11. They send forth their little ones like a flock and their children dance 12. They take the timbrel and harp and rejoyce at the sound of the organ 13. They spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave Followeth unto v. 27 the second part of the Chapter wherein Job refutes their common assertions concerning the miseries of all and only the wicked And resolving to clear this question more fully he doth not content himself as formerly for most part with contradicting of their assertion only and proving that many wicked men did prosper But giving an account of the various lots of wicked men both separately and conjunctly he clears how God exercises a great variety in these things and that however they might produce some instances of wicked men who had been plagued yet these were not sufficient upon which to found a General Assertion nor did they refute his opinion who notwithstanding these instances could make it appear that even many of them prospered to their graves And consequently these outward dispensations of Providence could not convincingly prove a man to be either righteous or wicked From this to v. 17. Job in the first place proves from experience the prosperity of many wicked men even till death The Narration consists of three Branches the first whereof in these verses is an assertion contradictory to what his Friends maintained that many of the wicked have a constant and uninterrupted gale of prosperity even to their grave This he branches out in several particulars opposite to the many branches of the wickeds misery mentioned by Zophar and the rest And namely First that in their life 1. In their persons they live to old age in strength vigour and power or wealth v. 7. 2. In their relations they prosper also their children and off spring are many and setled in their sight v. 8. 3. Their families within doors are peaceable without fear of trouble from a Rod of God v. 9. 4. Without doors their Wealth is great and their Cattel fruitful without miscarrying v. 10. 5. And as their Children and Off-spring are many so because of their great prosperity they live in great mirth and Jollity v. 11.12 Secondly That in death after they have lived long in much prosperity and have spent their days in mirth and
he spares the world and many wicked men in it that he may gather in all his Elect out of it 3. God would have his Chidren weaned from doating upon outward favours which he may heap upon wicked men and would have them look unto and judge of things according to the Word and acquiesce in spiritual mercies 4. Some few instances of Gods displeasure let fourth against wicked men are enough to give warning to all other wicked men especially these of them who have the Word which if they believe not they will believe nothing else Luke 16.27 31. Doct. 4. As dispensations are but a crooked rule when by them we would judge of mens estate before God so it is yet more unsafe to draw an ordinary rule from extraordinary and rare precedents As here they would draw a general conclusion from that which was not so often verified Thus are we also to Judge of Gods singular manifestations and impulses and instincts given to some of his people which are not to be expected by all not the effects following their upon to be drawn into an example for imitation by others I come to the particulars of the wickeds misery here mentioned Wherein pointing at the expressions they had used in their discourses he grants such things may be as they speake of but not so frequently as to bottom that General Conclusion Chap. 20.29 In these verses he speaks of the extinguishing of their glory and prosperity like a Candle put out which was Bildads phrase Chap. 18.5 6. that his stroke comes upon them even to destruction And that the supreme cause hereof is God who measures out sorrous to them in anger v. 17. And that so violently easily and effectually as chaff and stubble are driven away by the wind and storm v. 18. Whence Learn 1. All men are by Nature and in themselves dark and destitute of the light of comfort and encouragement For it is common to all of them that they need a Candle or Lamp without them to give them light not only for their direction but for their Encouragement and the cheering of them up also 2. Albeit godly mens comforts may be compared to a Candle Chap. 29.3 because they are but borrowed and without these they would be in a dark condition yet the wickeds comforts are so called because they are but artificial and of the basest sort not like a Sun c. but like a Candle or Lamp in a darkhouse or night See Isa 50.11 3. Not only can all the wickeds comforts be easily reached and are such as may be extinguished by outward trouble but calamities will put and leave them in an ignominious condition like a Candle put out which leaves a stinking snuff in stead of a shining light 4. Gods Judgments upon some wicked men tend to their utter destruction in a violent way For their destruction cometh upon them They have no security against this whereas it is otherwise with the godly 2 Cor. 4.8 9. Psal 118.18 5. God is the Author of any calamities which befal the wicked who can reach them when they are without the reach of others and who ought to be looked unto for repressing the insolency of wicked men by his plagues and seen in them when they come For it is God who doth this and distributeth sorrows 6. God carveth out and distributeth mens lots and portions to them He giveth unto them what and how much he pleaseth and he makes Rods great or small easie or heavy as he will For God distributeth and is a carver in these matters 7. The wickeds calamities are accompanied with much and many sorrows and without any such encouragement as the godly have For God distributeth sorrows as the chief ingredient in their lot 8. It is a sad ingredient in the wickeds lots and sorrows that they flow all from wrath and are not mixed with that love which sweeteneth the bitter potions of the godly Rev. 3.19 For God distributeth sorrows in his anger See Psal 11.5 c. 75.8 Ezek. 5.13 9. As the wicked even in the height of their prosperity are but light and vain when put in Gods ballance Dan. 5.27 So the violent storms of Gods Judgments will easily over-power them For they are at stubble before the wind and as the chaff that the storm carrieth away See Psal 35.5 Vers 19. God layeth up his iniquity for his children he rewardeth him and he shall know it 20. His eyes shall see his destruction and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty In these verses he further declareth That the wicked mans Children shall also reap the fruit of his sin and that not after his death but in his own time v. 19. That he shall know and feel his destruction in his own and his Childrens mine and shall drink largely of the wrath of God in these plagues v. 20. Whence Learn 1. The sins of wicked men are a sad Patrimony to their Children in whom they are often punished as here we are taught See Exod. 20.5 2. God will not always forbear to plague the Children of wicked men till themselves be gone but will make them sad witnesses thereof For he shall know and see it 3. All these plagues which the wicked undergo in their Persons Children and Estates are procured by themselves and the just recompence of their way For God rewardeth him by those 4. God can make the stoutest and most stubborn feel his hand and the bitter effects of their sin For when he rewardeth him he shall know it or be made to feel it and know it is the reward of his way See Isa 26.11 Levit. 26.21 22 23 24 c. Stubbornneses and stupidity under rods do but portend sadder strokes till we be made sensible and till God get a witness in our bosoms to plead for his Righteousness in afflicting 5. It is a sad aggravation of mens misery when in their own time they see their own ruine and the ruine of all that belong to them For his eyes shall see his destruction This should teach men to prepare for such a lot and to be laying their account that they may out-live all their temporal enjoyments and contentments 6. It is yet sadder to consider that the wickeds lot flows from wrath or indignation that they shall drink and that largely of it and that God who is their party is Almighty or Alsufficient too hard for them to oppose who can make his threatnings effectual and cause them drink of the cup of his wrath whether they will or not Jer. 25.28 All these are held out here in that He shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty Vers 22. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his months is cut off in the midst Here is subjoyned a reason and confirmation of what is formerly said Wherein is shewed that this makes all the former strokes sad and speaks the wrath of the Almighty in them that he hath no
fears and disquiets For therefore they know not the light but shun it and in some cases they are in the terrours of the shadow of death Thus wicked men buy some sins at a dear rate being tortured and tossed betwixt their lusts and their fears 5. It argues an height of wickedness and rebellion when men goe on in sin notwithstanding their fears and terrours For though it be thus with them and they are often affrighted as with the shadow of death yet they still persist to mark and digg thorow houses 6. It is a plague upon wicked men that many times their fears are unreasonable For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death as well as they are in the terrours of the shadow of death if one know them and yet the morning light may come and they possibly not be seen or known by any See Prov. 28.1 7. When the fear of God or of offending him is put away by men God may justly plague them with much torturing fear of shame and punishment as here those wicked men are 8. When wicked men have cast off fear of God and of his pursuing vengeance yea and fear of outward shame also in following many sins Yet gross sins may still be accompanied with some terrours and fear of shame For in these gross sins of Murder Theft and Adultery it is supposed that these wicked men may yet be afraid of being seen however they commit other sins openly So that they who commit even abominations and are not ashamed are in a woful plight Jer. 8.12 9. Wicked men have no longer security and quiet in their evil courses than they can lurk and walk secretly in committing them For if the morning come or one know them presently they are filled with terrours Verse 18. He is swift as the waters their portion is cursed in the earth he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards This Verse wherein the wicked are sometime spoken of in the singular number as of one person sometime in the plural number as of many to shew that God eyeth one as well as many and can if he will reach many as well as one is by some understood of the judgements that come upon the wicked That they are suddenly and easily hurried away as waters fall down a precipice that their portion is visibly cursed and they enjoy no fruitful and pleasant lot like vineyards in the World But this Interpretation crosseth Jobs scope in this Chapter which is to prove that some wicked men are pursued with no visible judgements Others following our Translation understand the words of some sort of wickedness in men whose lusts from within meeting with tentations from without do hurry them here and there and make them unconstant and unsetled in their manners and lives like the fleeting waters and keep them from following any thrifty calling in the World so that they do not so much as look toward the most pleasant easie and profitable calling such as the labouring of vineyards is Such sort of wicked persons are our sturdy beggars and vagrant persons who are indeed remarkably and notoriously wicked persons for most part being in effect neither members of the Church nor Common-wealth And the Interpretation may also be verified of other wicked men in so farr as their lusts render them restless and unsetled But the Original Text He is swift upon the face of the waters seems to point at another peculiar sort of wicked men even Pirates who in their Ships run swiftly upon the Sea or Rivers to get a prey As no doubt there were such on the Red Sea which bordered upon Arabia As for what followeth of their portions being cursed c. It may point out Either That when all these wicked men who are formerly mentioned their prosperity and way of thriving by oppression theft and murder hath failed them on the Land and they are pursued with curses from all and when they can expect no enjoyment of vineyards any longer there then they turn Pirates by Sea Or which seems to be the most simple Interpretation That they so follow their trade of Sea-Piracy that they never come to land in places where men resort and inhabit or where there are vineyards and other fruits of mens husbandry But when ever they come ashore they lurk in some barren place or cursed portion till they have occasion to goe to Sea again Thus this instance is not unfitly joyned with these formerly mentioned who follow works of darkness because in some respect they are men who walk in darkness because they converse not among men or in the way of the vineyards but are either at Sea or in some cursed portion of the earth I shall not insist upon what might be gathered from the first Interpretation of the latter part of this Verse Namely 1. That whatever be the indulgence of God toward sinners as to their cutting off yet they want not marks of Gods displeasure against them Particularly that some of their ill courses thrive not well in their hand As this Interpretation supposeth that those Pirates portion was cursed in the Earth or Land before they went to that trade 2. That when one trade of sin hath failed wicked men they will find out another As here when their portion is cursed upon the land they turn Pirates Which point out their obstinacy that when God blasts an ill course in their hand they will not give over to sin But I shall from the whole Verse according to the second and more simple Interpretation of the words Observe 1. Many and various are the trades of sin which wicked men invent to themselves For after all the wicked courses formerly mentioned here is a new instance of another sort of wickedness 2. Piracy and Sea-robbery is a sin that very justly deserves a stroak at Gods hand Considering that where themselves are daily in so much hazard and where they may see so many of Gods wonders Psal 107.23 24 there they sin with an high hand and are inhumane and cruel Therefore doth Job instance those who are swift upon the face of the waters as sinners who would certainly be punished if his Friends assertion were true 3. It is a plague upon wicked men and an evidence of their obstinacy and should shame godly men from their unwillingness to endure in a good cause that they endure much vexation in following of sin and that at best it is but a vile drudgery and yet they will not give it over For here they have a tossed life upon the face of the waters all they come to on land is a cursed portion and they behold not the way of the vineyards and yet do not weary Verse 19. Drought and heat consume the Snow waters so doth the grave those which have sinned In this and the following Verse Job sheweth how these sinners formerly spoken of notwithstanding all their wickedness are cut off but in an ordinary way Here omitting other readings of
this Verse not so consonant to the Original That in drought and heat and Snow waters in all seasons they robb they sin till the grave which would intimate their assiduousness and pertinacy in sinning Job gives an account how these wicked men continue in the World till they be ripe by age and then dye easily Which he illustrates from a similitude where the Original as in other places implyeth the note of similitude though it be not expressed That as Snow in some places is not taken away till Summer and heat come and then the drought and heat easily turn Snow into waters and then quickly and insensibly consumes them So they dye in a great age and Death takes them to their grave in an ordinary way quickly and easily without any matter of horrour or any languishing infirmity So that here by the Grave which consumes those sinners we are to understand Death which draws to the grave and which easily and quickly pulleth sinners away Though it may point further at their being insensibly consumed in the grave of which more v. 20 as an amplification of the former Doct. 1. Wicked men may dye and goe to their graves without any remarkable token of Gods displeasure against them For so is here supposed as a thing without controversie that though as the other reading hath it they sin incessantly and in all seasons till their graves yet they live long and are not soon cut off And there is no odde thing befalls them in their life till they come to death and the grave See Psal 73.5 And albeit this dispensation of God breed tryal and exercise to godly men Psal 73.3 13 14. Yet it would be considered for breaking of that snare 1. That this indulgence is a great snare upon wicked men to embolden them to sin Psal 73.5 6 7 8 9. 2. It causeth death surprize them while they have not been trained nor made acquainted with it by former tryals Psal 73.19 20. 3. It depriveth them also of proofs of love which afflicted Saints receive for sweetening of their bitter cup Psal 73.26 Doct. 2. Even the death of the wicked may be gentle and in a common way yea and in a way short of what befalls others For when death and the grave come they make an insensible and quick dispatch as drought and heat consume the Snow waters See Psal 73.4 This the Lord doth that men may mind a judgement after death that they may not judge of mens state by the way of their death or think they are approved of God who quickly and easily sleep away and are snatched away from pain and torment and that by this experience they may learn to read wrath even in the want of rods or in an easie way of dying and living which doth not stirr up men to look how they are before God Thus even want of reproof is a judgement Ezek. 3.26 Hos 4.14 3. How easie and sweet soever the wickeds way of dying he yet that we be not ensnared thereby the Text affords several antidotes As 1. Let God deal with the wicked as he will yet they must at last dye and leave all their enjoyments and be content to get a grave for all Now under whatever mask death come unto them or whatever they think of it yet they are triumphed over by it Psal 49.14 and there is matter of terrour in it to them Psal 73.19 See Luk. 12.19 20 21. 2. Whatever be the way of their death yet it is certain they have sinned and as the other reading hath it they have continued to sin even till the grave and it is marked they have done so even here where Gods indulgence is asserted To intimate not only that there will be an after account taken of them for their sins Psal 50.21 whatever indulgence they find in life or death For sin will never be forgotten if it be not pardoned But further to assure us that there is present wrath in their lot be what it will Is 64.5 and a woe upon them Lam. 5.16 3. There is a snatching or violence as the word imports in their death as the heat and drought quickly pluck away the Snow waters Which beside the quick dispatch that is made in their death without any lingring pain and their natural antipathy against death which is common to them with all men and therefore they must be plucked violently away may import that they are never ripe nor ready for death in their resolutions or if it be otherwise it slows only from delusion or a surfet of sin and pleasures not from any assurance of the favour of God And however they judge or look upon death yet the most easie death snatcheth them away as Executioners and Serjeants hurry a Malefactour to the Scaffold And in their resolutions for death they are but like drunken and madd-men who regard not the danger till they be sober Hence it is that their Soul is required of them at death Luk. 12.20 But they do never voluntarily resign it whatever their carriage seem to be Verse 20. The womb shall forget him the worm shall feed sweetly on him he shall be no more remembred and wickedness shall be broken at a tree This easie and ordinary way of the wickeds death is further amplified and enlarged in several branches 1. That the Mother whose womb bare this wicked man and which gets the name here from affection and tenderness shall forget him not so much because he is not worthy to be remembred who had been so wicked in his life as because death takes him away so calmly without any violence or disaster which might leave an impression of horrour and resentment 2. That he shall feed the worms as others do and get an easie and sweet bed in the grave See Chap. 17.14 and 21.33 3. Though he be so grossely wicked as he may be called wickedness in the abstract yet he shall leave no more memorial of any singular or remarkable thing in his death than there is of the cutting down or mouldering away of an old rotten tree Doct. 1. Memorials within time of Estates Children affection of Friends c. are but written on the sand and little to be regarded seeing men may be forgotten by their dearest friends For the womb shall forget him and he shall be no more remembred And if he be forgotten as to the way of his death other memorials of him may also perish See Psal 37.35 36. and 49.11 12. A name with God is much surer Is 56.5 2. As some get no cure of their evils but by forgetting of them The godly may be driven upon this shift Job 9.17 either when they are overcharged and not able to overtake all their sorrows or when they are unsober and refuse the consolations of God they must drive this poor trade And it is the wickeds frequent practice after they have possibly repined a while because they know not how to make up their grievances in God So
however men may be too stupid in not observing and making use of ordinary stroaks yet they should not be remembred with too much resentment were there never so much affection to the parties who are smitten For the womb shall forget him he shall be no more remembred but broken as a tree Which may both import a defect that there is not only no resentment but no use made of this death because it comes but in an ordinary way in which case singular tryals come Is 26.10 11. And also a duty not to make too much noise of ordinary tryals by way of resentment murmuring and repining which argue the strength of lusts though it be our mercy to be exercised thereby lest God do strange acts Is 28.21 to rouze us up 3. The best of men will putrifie in the grave and make a sweet feast to the worms For it is here marked as an ordinary lot that the worm shall feed sweetly on him So low must the highest stoop as being but worms themselves Job 25.6 And then mens high thoughts will fall when Death the great Leveller takes hold upon them 4. The wicked deserve so much severity even in this life that an ordinary death is an easie and great favour to them For it is a proof of Gods indulgence that such sinners dye but an ordinary death and have no odde thing in the way of it to be remembred when they are gone If wicked men were pursued according to their deservings there would be moe than these of old who should not dye the common death of all men Numb 16.29 5. No indulgence of God doth prove the innocency of wicked men nor is their sin the less hainous in Gods sight nor ought others to think more lightly of it that he spareth them For those who are thus spared are yet even wickedness in the abstract It is an horrid sin to call evil good yea or to have more favourable and diminishing conceptions of sin because of sinners success or Gods indulgence towards them And our hearts should rise against prospering sin and call it wickedness otherwayes we are in hazard to be tempted to concurr with sinners in it Verse 21. He evil extreateth the barren that beareth not and doth not good to the widow From this to v. 25. Job returns yet to give more instances of Oppressours who are cut off but in an ordinary way In this Verse he gives an instance of some who oppress the barren and widows who either want Children or Husbands to relieve and succour them Whence Learn 1. Oppression is one of the most rise and odious sins and lyeth as near vengeance as any Therefore doth Job instance that as a sin which God would not pass over if he alwayes punished notorious sinners as his Friends asserted See Exod. 37. Ps 12.5 Eccl. 4 1 2 3. and 5.8 2. Barrenness is a sharp tryal wherewith the Lord is pleased to exercise some Women For here the barren is joyned with the widow as a person already afflicted Yea among the people of Israel it was a special reproach 1 Sam. 1.5 6 c. Luk. 2.24 25. And here 1. Godly persons who are exercised with that tryal ought to remember and make use of the Eunuch's promise and blessing Is 56.4 5. 2. They should also remember that some have been exercised with that tryal that they might afterward receive singular proofs of love in obtaining their Children Thus barren Sarah and Rebekah got Sons of the promise Hannah a Samuel Elizabeth John the Baptist c. 3. All ought to guard lest being unmortified under this tryal they get Children that will but augment their sorrow And however it succeed we should beware of Abraham's tentation Gen. 15.2 and of Rachel's distemper Gen. 30.1 For both sinned in it and Rachel took a sinful course to help it Gen. 30 3. though God at last gave a good issue 4. This should teach them who have Children from the consideration of the tryal of others to improve them as a blessing that their name do not stink for their ill breeding of them Doct. 3. Widowhood is another tryal and exercise of some of Adam's posterity For here the widow is a person afflicted whom men ought not to oppress And by this tryal 1. The Lord would let some see how little sensible they have been of mercy when they were under the shadow of an Husband who cared for them and how ill they have improved marriage society 2. He would invite them to give him more imployment 1 Tim. 5.5 3. He would also sit them for proofs of his love who is the Widows God Ps 68.5 Doct. 4. It pleaseth the Lord to exercise great variety in afflicting the children of men by withholding mercies from some as the barren who want children and depriving others of them after they had them as the widow whose Husband is taken away Hereby as the Lord fits tryals in his deep wisdom to every ones strength temper and need of tryals and none ought to judge that the tryal of another were fitter for them than their own So he would teach these who never had these outward mercies to be content considering how they might be tryed with the want of them after enjoyment and he would teach these who enjoy them to be sober considering that enjoyment especially if they be immoderate in their affections toward what they enjoy may but imbitter and put an edge upon an after-tryal 5. When persons are already under some tryals it may please the Lord yet to exercise them with more tryals For here the barren and the widow are under oppression Hereby to omit how this may be procured by hainous sins and peoples incorrigibleness Is 9.12 Lev. 26.21 22 c. 1. The Lord proves his absolute and soveraign dominion to inflict upon the children of men what he pleaseth 2. He prevents security and takes away all grounds of presumption that one tryal shall hide us from another Amos 9.4 But being once shaken loose in any thing we should loose our hearts from all things if the Lord please to strike 3. He discovers more of our weakness that we may be humbled for it and study to amend it by continued and multiplyed tryals than would appear in one tryal only 4. He quickens us to our duty by a new tryal when habitual sit-fast tryals become blunt and we fall asleep under them 5. He teacheth that being once broken with trouble it is sit to hold us still going and in exercise whatever breathing-times we get lest our spirits should be worse imploy'd if we were idle 6. He fits his people for many proofs of his love by the manifold tryals and times that pass over them 2 Cor. 1.5 Doct. 6. It is the height of cruelty and oppression to add affliction to the afflicted For this is marked as an eminent oppression to be punished as soon as any when men evil entreat the barren c. This holds true of Oppressours whether they
as particular persons and he hath national plagues for national sins so that the multitude of sinners cannot secure themselves in their sin against God For they shall dye that is both rich and poor v. 19. and the people and the mighty as after followeth 4. When God reckons with Nations no particular persons will be able to secure themselves by any personal priviledges and advantages For even the mighty shall smart with the people See Is 3.1 2 3. 5. God may justly pursue his quarrel against a Nation not only to the impoverishing thereof but even to the cutting of many of them off and to sending of them into captivity out of their Land For they shall dye and pass away and be taken away So that an afflicted Nation have reason to acknowledge God in what they suffer less than this 6. Let a people seem to be never so strong and sure rooted Yet a short time may make a great change upon them For in a moment shall they dye Death can soon sweep multitudes of them away 7. Surprizals are sad ingredients in trouble and they are justly the lot of an impenitent people For their sin deserveth that they should be surprized at midnight See 1 Thes 5.3 So that as the people of God are oft-times surprized with unexpected deliverances Is 17.14 So the wicked may meet with plagues which they discern not before they come 8. National stroaks are full of darkness and discomfort farr beyond personal tryals Therefore also do these stroaks come at midnight and are very dark 9. Perplexities which attend such dark stroaks are very bitter to them who smart under them For being at midnight the people are troubled So that we should guard against perplexity of spirit providing we be not stupid at such times lest if that door be once opened we be over-whelmed therewith 10. The Lord needs no help nor probable means to bring about the greatest changes For they shall be taken away or they that is the judgements inflicted by God shall take away even the mighty without hand Verse 21. For his eyes are upon the wayes of man and he seeth all his goings 22. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves 23. For he will not lay upon man more than right that he should enter into judgement with God In these Verses the equity and justice of this proceeding is held out 1. In general from the ground thereof Namely the Omniscience of God who as he is careful to observe mans wayes so he actually seeth all of them v. 21. And that so exactly as nothing can hide mans wickedness from him v. 22. And therefore he cannot do unjustly through ignorance and mistakes as men often do 2. In particular from his inclinations and proceedings upon his seeing mans wayes and therefore it comes in as a reason that he who seeth all will be just and proceed against the workers of iniquity That he will not excessively and unjustly afflict man that so he may prevent mans quarrelling with him which Job had often essayed v. 23. From v. 21. Learn 1. All Gods proceedings in the World are upon sure and just grounds though we do not discern them For here a reason is given of these proceedings v. 20. For his eyes are upon the wayes of men c. 2. Gods perfect knowledge is a proof of his justice in his procedure For that is the reason given here to prove the equity of the former proceedings Which not only teacheth Judges to try well before they come to give sentence and see it executed in imitation of this Soveraign Judge but warns us when we quarrel Gods proceedings to suspect that we see not things so well as he doth 3. Gods knowledge is certain and effectual to reach and take up what he intends to observe For not only are his eyes upon them but he seeth things as they are without mistaking So that we should trust his verdict of things rather than our own 4. Gods knowledge is also universal of all the things of men of all sorts of men and in all times and places For his eyes are upon the wayes of man and he seeth all his goings See Chap. 31.4 and the parallel places marked in the Margin both here and there So that he will not judge of men by their fits and we should remember his eye upon us in all places and should believe that he seeth his people even when he seems not to notice their condition as he saw the affliction of Israel in Egypt before he appeared to deliver them Exod. 3.7 From v. 22. Learn 1. Men and especially wicked men are not easily convinced of Gods Omniscience Therefore it must be here told again and inculcated 2. Men also have their subterfuges whereby they seek to hide their courses from God and whereby they do deceive themselves and others and think to do so with God also For so is here supposed that they seek darkness like the shadow of death where they may hide themselves not so much from punishment for that is not the scope here as from being known or seen Hence it is that they seek to conveigh their designes secretly and make use of fair pretences handsome conveighances c. 3. All mens subterfuges and lurking holes will not avail them at Gods hand But as no shelter can secure them from his pursuing vengeance Amos 9.1 2 3 4. So no darkness nor shadow of death will hide them from his All-seeing eye See Psal 139.7 8 c. 4. As Gods Omniscience is for the comfort of godly men walking in his way 2 Chron. 16.9 So it is matter of terrour to the workers of iniquity As here it is inculcated for their terrour 5. Every worker of iniquity carrieth his own dittay and doom in his bosome however such do seem to carry with a high hand For while they seek to hide themselves they do openly profess that if they be not hid they are undone for they are neither able to defend their cause nor to resist that vengeance which they are convinced they deserve From v. 23. Learn 1. God is the Imposer and layer on of mens lots and exercises as here we are taught So that his people should know that they are in a Friends hand they should stoop to him and not add loads of their own through unbelief mistakes discouragement impatience c. with his burdens 2. God doth exercise and afflict man in great moderation and equity For he will not lay upon man more than right The words than right are a Supplement the Original hath only He will not lay upon yet or still that is he will not inflict and inflict yet still more and so impose excessively or too much either above mens deservings Neh. 9.33 Ezr. 9.13 or above the strength which he is ready to give them or more than he will do them good by or so as there is no moderation to be seen in his
among the unclean or Sodomites who have their name here from Holiness either by an Antiphrasis because they are most unholy or because that abomination was committed among some Pagans upon pretence of Religion and so we find their houses near the Temple in the time of the defection of the Jews 2 King 23.7 And this phrase that their life is among the unclean doth not only point at the violent manner of their death as young men contracted violent diseases by that vile unnatural sin but at their being odious in the sight of God as the worst of sinners See Ps 125.5 10. It is not unprofitable that the godly under fits of tentation and tryal take a look of the hypocrites way and lot Partly that they may abhort their own distempers when they look so like the hypocrites ordinary way And partly that the fear of the hypocrites lot may terrifie them from what is like their way Therefore is this account concerning the hypocrite laid before Job here From v. 15. Learn 1. Whatever hypocrites do prove in trouble yet when they have discovered themselves and are gone there will be found truly godly men who will cleave to God in saddest times and will get a blessed account of all Gods dealing toward them For so much doth this Verse added by way of opposition to the carriage and lot of hypocrites teach us See Is 33.14 15 16. This imports 1. That it is not a thing simply impossible for men to bear out in saddest times and so to walk as they may sing that song Is 25.9 when God cometh with deliverance It is true it may prove very difficult so to do as is said in another case Numb 24.23 and Saints may make foul slips and come off humbled 1 Sam. 27.1 Psal 73.2 and 116 11. yet experience doth also witness that it is not impossible to get well through a sad tryal 1 Sam. 30.6 7. Hab. 3.17 18. Hence 2. When men do succumb and fail in an hour of tryal their faith failing them and their hands being weakened they ought not to blame the dispensations of God but their own weakness for it and therefore they should search out and mourn for this their weakness See Prov. 24.10 Psal 73.21 22 23. and 77.7 8 9 10. And this were a profitable way of refuting and curing tentations 3. Whoever do decline in a day of tryal they will not want witnesses who by their practice will testifie against them that Gods wayes are equal and his yoak easie Doct. 2. The property of the Children of God who are in the right way to be carried through troubles and do lye near mercies is their poverty and affliction As here they are called the poor or afflicted This is their designation v. 6. and frequently throughout the Scripture so that the followers of God are called the congregation of his poor Psal 74.19 And albeit external poverty and affliction have some hand in this of which afterward yet that is not only or chiefly meant here For however when people are otherwise humble their external miseries have their own weight with God Judg. 10.16 Yet all those of themselves do not signifie much without that poverty and affliction of Spirit which is chiefly noticed by God Matth. 5.3 And that we may find out what this is the Emphasis of the word especially as it is variously rendered in divers places of the Old Testament by the Greek Interpreters may be taken up in those particulars 1. A man truly poor is not puffed up with a conceit of his own worth and fulness but is acquainted with his own emptiness and indigence See 1 Cor. 4.8 Rev. 3.17 2. He hath nor only a contemplative notion of his poverty but is afflicted and exercised with it it is not a dreamed of but a felt poverty and being poor he is sorrowful Ps 69.29 3. The effect of this exercise is not to lye still sinking under it but to cause the poor man turn a beggar and supplicant to God Hence the poor become needy Psal 40.17 and are fervent in their addresses as they who may not want long Psal 70.5 4. In all these addresses the poor man is humble as the word also signifieth and is rendered His discovered and exercising poverty doth not irritate him or provoke his pride but layeth him in the dust So that as a really poor man in his prayers he useth intreaties or speaks supplications Prov. 18.23 and he is humble when he is put to attend and in entertaining the returns which he gets Where these properties are wanting it is no wonder that men do slide in an hour of tryal Doct. 3. The people of God do frequently need afflictions and even sore oppression to promove this their spiritual poverty As here they are the poor in affliction and oppression and the Scripture speaks frequently of their poverty in an afflicted and sorrowful condition See Psal 69.29 Zeph. 3.12 Godly men do frequently question why they are so much under affliction and especially sore oppression of which they complain Psal 44.24 25. But the question may be easily answered thus That as godliness doth not exempt men from necessary trouble So godly men may bear it best of any seeing they have an hope above it and their happiness lyeth not at the stake But in pursuance of the point in hand this may be further added That most ordinarily there is but little poverty of Spirit among godly men and therefore sharp afflictions are necessary to purge out their pride and folly And though it be granted that some are already poor Yet 1. Afflictions are necessary to keep them so and to prevent pride as Chap. 33.17 For preventing mercies are sweet however they be little observed by us 2. They are necessary to help their spiritual poverty to grow and if they love to be in that posture nothing will be bitter that may promove it 3. They are necessary to give them opportunities of evidencing their humility and spiritual poverty in eminent services whereby God is honoured and that is no small mercy and advantage to a right discerner Hence 1. This commends Gods mercy who will not spare to do us a good turn though we should carp at the means whereby he brings it about He is a Father who will not spare for our crying when we need the rod Prov. 19.18 And hence it is that our choicest mercies come oft-times to us in a way wherewith we are but ill satisfied 2. It doth also commend his mercy who gives us meat out of such an eater and who makes oppression which is ready to make a wise man madd a mean in his hand to work poverty and other blessed effects 3. We should be careful to mind this use and improvement of affliction for when it hath got its errand and done its work it will be removed And for tryal of our proficiency we may reflect on these characters of the poor man formerly mentioned and what may be after
sweet unto them when they are restored for so much is intimated unto Job by this Instance 2. That which befals the wicked is amplified v. 15. That their light shall be withholden not only by their being put to flee into corners but by their being deprived of all light of comfort in their evil way and of the light of Life when Magistrates shall punish them and break their lofty and insolent power as is added in the end of the v. Whence Learn 1. It is much and seriously to be studied how little allowance the wicked have to share in these comforts which are allowed on others therefore is this again repeated how prejudicial the common mercy of light proves to the wicked 2. All the light of comfort or life that wicked men have is in hazard for they lie under the lash of having their light withholden 3. The mercies of wicked men are nothing the surer that they have probabilities that they shall continue for their light shall be withholden and intercepted 4. Men that are proud and insolent in the exercise of their power may expect to be crushed for the high arm shall be broken 5. It is useful to the godly to study the Lot of the wicked that they may be humbled and excited to walk tenderly therefore is this inculcated so much upon Job that he may beware of the wickeds pranks which make the light sad and dreadful to them and might humble him now when God appeared Verse 16. Hast thou entred into the Springs of the Sea or hast thou walked in the search of the depth 17. Have the gates of death been opened unto thee or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death 18. Hast thou perceived the breadth of the Earth Declare if thou knowest it all As in the former Verses God had informed Job how little command or skill he had of the light so here he proceeds to speak of the opposite darkness which may allude somewhat to Gods dark dispensation toward him and sheweth that he was as little acquainted with the places of darkness such as the springs or weeping sources which drop continually of the See into which he had never entered and the depth in the search whereof he had never travelled v. 16. Also the gates of death or the inferiour parts of the earth where the dead are kept and where none can come living and the approach whereunto casts the shadow of death upon men or would affright them with deadly horrour Hither Job had never come v. 17. Yea there are things which are lightsom and visible in themselves and yet are dark to him as never seen by him such as the breadth of the earth or the circumference thereof which is spoken of according as it is represented to our sense not round but broad which however Geometers guess at it yet they cannot tell it exactly nor give a reason why it is not broader or narrower far less could Job or any man else travel over it all himself that he might know it all or all its dimensions by ocular inspection or know what is in doing through the wide world but he would find many a Remora in that journey v. 18. By this Instance is pointed out 1. That as light so darkness also is ordered by God and known to him for these Questions propounded to Job do intimate that God knew all those things and if Job were ignorant of them it did not beseem him to compete with God as he did See Psal 139.11 12. 2. Man is ignorant and soon put to a non-plus in many things many things are shut up in darkness from him as the springs and depth of the Sea and the Gates of death and of the shadow of death and many things are visible which yet he cannot reach as the breadth of the earth all of it For so much do these Questions import So that man should be sensible of his Ignorance and not presume to measure all by his skill nor mistake albeit many things be in the dark to him 3. Not only doth God order and know the places of darkness but even in darkness and what is unaccessible his Glory doth shine no less than in what is visible For so much doth this Instance import the scope whereof as of all the rest is to convince Job of the Glory and Majesty of God From which in reference to the scope and to Job's present case we may further gather 1. Gods glory shines in his works no less in what is hid than in what is visible to us 2. Hence in dark cases we must not think all is wrong because we cannot comprehend them and what is in them for he brings deep things out of darkness 3. We should in stead of quarrelling rather see cause to adore him who employs deep and unsearchable wisdom about us so that it is as easie to dive into the depth of the Sea c. as to comprehend it 4. As we rest satisfied albeit there be many things in Gods works which we cannot reach so ought we also to submit in our own case when it is dark 5. Yea as the more unsearchable the depth the gates of death c. be the more they speak of him so the further our condition be taken out of our own fight we ought to expect the more of him in it Verse 19. Where is the way where light dwelleth and as for darkness where is the place thereof 20. That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof 21. Knowest thou it because thou wast then born or because the number of thy days is great In these Verses the places of light and darkness are spoken to conjunctly whereof whatever conjectural knowledge men may have yet they have not so perfect knowledge as either to direct them to their places and prescribe them their home and bounds if they should wander abroad or to be able by travel to go to that place v. 19 20. This he amplifieth v 21. That those things were ordered before Job was born so that he might as well fancy that he was born before he had a being as think to have the command of them And as he could not have skill of those things by being at the first ordering thereof so neither by long experience since for the experience of never so many years could not supply that defect of knowledge Hereby is pointed out 1. That we have abundance of the works of God at our door wherein we may see much of him even every day and night and every vicissitude of light and darkness 2. If men have not the command nor can direct the least of Gods ordinary works How much less should they dare to prescribe to God who ordereth them all 3. The works of God though never so obvious do require our serious and second thoughts to take them up aright therefore are those things here spoken of again 4. It
which the Children of the wicked man shall be redacted and that they shall seek to please the poor that is they shall beg the poors favour and that they will not molest them nor reveng upon them the injuries done by their father to them Or they shall seek to be relieved by the poor in their extremities being now poorer then they And yet as some read the words though the Original beare it not so well they may have but bad success in all these their endeavours the very poor whom their father impoverished may oppress them again which is a sad scourge Prov. 28 3. As for that which is added in the end of the verse and his hands shall restore their goods it may be understood of the wicked mans children formerly mentioned that every one of them for the word is here singular shall restore the goods of the poor taken by their Father that so they may please and appease them But it is clearer to understand it of their Father himself who shall restore his ill purchase as it after followeth and therefore his Children are unpoverished and must please the poor Thus the copulative And must be rendered for as it hath various significations the latter part of the verse giving a reason of what is said in the former part His Children must seek to please the poor for his hands shall restore their goods To say nothing how sad a calamity it is to be driven upon this necessity to please the poor and to be a servant to the meanest slave as Job complains he was despised by base persons Chap. 30.1 2. c. we may from this verse according to the general Rules Learn 1. The sins of wicked men may have sad effects not only upon themselves but on their Posterity also in whom they may be plagued and that either when themselves are alive to see it or even after they are dead For the fruit of the wicked mans sins teacheth his children See Exod 20.5 2. It is no strange thing to see men who in their prosperity have mounted to the skies brought so low as they or their Children shall become so poor as to be in the reverence of the meanest As here is held out So uncertain and vaine are the things of time and so little cause have men to aspire or seek to climb high which oftimes brings so fowl and low a fall after it 3. Men in Power and Eminency ought to be very condescending and not look too high above the meanest far less above others Lest they or theirs be made to stoop to the lowest As here is threatned against the children of the wicked man See Chap. 31.13 14. 4. No unjust possession of Riches giveth a man a true title thereto before God For However the wicked man had gotten and possessed these Goods yet they are still their or the poors Goods from whom he had unjustly taken them 5. God can make the unjust title of ill Purchases appear by restoring to the poor what was unjustly taken from them and that by the oppressours own hand though to the impoverishing of himself his family For here the poor shall get their goods his hands shal restore them by which means his children are brought low The Lord may bring this about by drawing the Oppressour to-repentance as he did Zacheus Luke 19.8 though that be not meant here Or by terrours of Conscience let out upon them though without true repentance making them as glad to be rid of an ill purchase as ever they were to get it Or by forced restitution when the oppressour is over-powered and brought down This may assure us that wicked men have no sure hold of their ill purchase though there were none to oppose them so long as themselves have Consciences and hands to restore it And it may teach the appressed to wait patienly upon God who can right them by very unexpected means 6. God can make calamities very grievous and he doth order them so as they may be most bitter to the wicked As here it cannot but be a vexation to the wicked man whose affections are not mortified to part with his wealth which he loveth so well and much more to put it away with his own hands and yet God can make him do it Vers 11. His bones are full of the sinne of his youth which shall lie down with him in the dust A second branch of the wickeds misery after his fall is set forth in a similitude taken from riotous young men who by their lewdness in their youth do contract infirmities which cleave to their bones till they put them in their graves And the meaning of the words is That even the sins committed by the wicked man or hypocrite in his youth do stick to him in the guilt thereof and it may in some sad effects also and are inseparable from him till he go to his grave and even then also they continue with him In place of sins of youth the Original hath only youth and because the word signifies also hidden therefore some understand this of the wicked man hidden sins as it is also rendered Psal 90.8 which how closely soever he conveigh them shall thus cleave to him But I shall hold to the Translation where as the name given to his youth which is taken from hiding points out how early he begins to sin and God begins to reckon up his sins upon his account even from the time that he lives hid under his Parents shadow and before he appear in the affairs of the world So while the sins of his youth are called only his youth of which his bones are full it serves to point out how ordinarily in all men and always in the wicked youth and youthful lusts are inseparable so that if they have youth or be young they will have the other In this Branch of the Narration Zophar tartly reflects upon what Job had spoken of Gods making him possess the iniquities of his youth Chap. 13.26 but unjustly in that he measures the truth of the godly mans condition by his own tentations about it when he is in a distemper And in that he judgeth what will be his end and his condition in the grave by this exercise within time For albeit Job apprehended in his fits of tentation that God was pursuing the sins of his youth yet it doth not follow that it was really so and albeit God had indeed been chastening him for these yet it would not follow that therefore he should lie down in the grave with his bones full of them but rather of the contrary that God was now pursuing him for them that by sleeing to a Redeemer he might attain to true peace in life and death However the General Doctrine may teach 1. Though the courses of men in their youth may be looked upon as hid as the word signifieth yet youth is a very dangerous time and a time of much guilt and provocation For so is
there intimated that the wicked man hath sins of his youth or his youth is such as draws on sad consequents and there is a fulness of the miscarriages of his youth which accompanies him See Psal 25.7 2 Tim. 2.22 2. Though men ordinarily think light of the sins of their youth and do apprehend that they should not be much noticed because they are done in youth Yet they stick with the impenitents as here we are taught 3. Sin the longer it be continued in sticks the faster and is removed with the more difficulty For in process of times his very bones and marrow are full of them Not only may the Conscience of sin in a day of trouble go through all the faculties of the soul and consume the marrow and bones And some effects of some sins cleave to some men in their bodies and bones But the guilt of every sin cleaves to all of them still the longer the faster 4. Even the dust and grave will not separate impenitent sinners and their sin and the sad effects thereof For these sins shall lie down with him in the dust Some of these sins do hasten men to their graves by consuming their bodies or bringing them under a stroke of justice And all of them go to the dust with them and do rise and appear against them in the Resurrection So that they are foolish who think that length of time can remove their sin or that they have done with it because they forget it Vers 12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth though he hide it under his tongue 13. Though he spare it and forsake it not but keep it still within his mouth 14. Yet his meat in his bowels is turned it is the gall of Asps within him A third Branch of the wickeds misery after his fall which contains in sum that all his pleasure in following of wicked courses and particularly oppression shall then prove deadly and bitter to him is held forth in a similitude taken from a mans eating of a sweet but poisoned morsel which therefore he must vomit up again and it proves deadly to him This is 1. Generall propounded with Relation to all his wicked courses v. 12 13 14. 2. It is applyed particulurly to his ill purchase v. 15 16. 3. This Metaphor as it relates to his sinfully acquired wealth is more particularly and in proper terms explained and instanced v. 17. 21. In these verses the allusien is plain and obvious The wicked mans following of wicked courses is compared to a mans eating of a sweet poisoned morsel or Tablet and as a man finding it sweet keeps it long in his mouth and is unwilling to chew and let it over into his stomach but being once swallowed it turns into the gall of Asps or is found to have been poisoned and so proves another thing then meat and doth change and alter his health So he delights in prosecuting wickedness but it proves bitter and deadly in the issue There may be witty allusions made upon his hiding of wickedness under his tongue as pointing at his dissembling defending palliating and excusing his sin by his fine language but it is safer to take it more generally as pointing at his complacency in sin as a man that keeps the taste of a sweet morsel so long as he can in his mouth and so the rest of the expressions in the Text expounded it Doct. 1. As to the godly it is their greatest delight and refreshment to converse with Gods Word and do his will John 4 34. with Job 23.12 So sin is to the wicked as their very meat and drink as this Metaphor imports that wickedness is as a sweet morsel to the wicked mans mouth They sleep not except they do evil Prov. 4.16 and it is their very souls delight to wallow in sin for which they have great cause to mourn 2. The wicked in the choice of their way are not led by any principle of Grace nor so much as by sound reason but only by their corrupt sense So that though the way that is sweet and delectable to flesh and blood ought therefore to be suspected seeing the right way is cross to our humours and inclinations Yet they are only affected with what seems sweet to their taste For he followeth wickedness because it is sweet in his mouth 3. It is a Character of wicked men that they find much sweetness in sin which draweth them to it as here is also imported 4. It doth further evidence their wicked disposition that they are not surprized with some fits only of delight in sin which may befal a godly man but they persist to delight and have a continued complacency in it whether in their fansies and contemplations or in acting of it For it is sweet in his mouth he hides and spares it as a man is not willing to let a sweet morsel go soon over and forsakes it not c. All which variety of words shews how hard it is to express that great delight the wicked find in sin 5. All the sweetness of sin will prove bitter in the end For his meat in his howels is turned it proves as poisoned meat which being swallowed down changes and proves to be another thing than it seemed to be in the mouth and changes the mans health into sickness and bitter pains and wringings See Rom. 6.21 6. Sin delighted in doth not only prove bitter and vexing for a time but without repentance it proves deadly and destroying also For this meat is the gall of Asps which is bitter and deadly poison within him Vers 15. He hath swallowed down riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his belly 16. He shall suck the poyson of Asps the Vipers tongue shall slay him In these Verses this Metaphor is particularly applied to the wicked mans ill purchase where his wealth and riches resemble a mans food or a morsel desired for its sweetness his ill shifts to purchase riches resemble the poyson that is in that morsel His actual acquiring of riches by those means resembles a mans swallowing down this morsel into his stomack Gods judgments depriving him of his purchase and destroying of himself resembles the working of a deadly poyson like that of Asps or which cometh from a Vipers tongue which causeth a man to vomit up all that he hath swallowed and takes away his life This general Doctrine omitting his mistakes teacheth 1. The world and the enjoyments thereof have a special sweetness to the wickeds taste and are a special snare drawing them wrong For what was said of wickedness in General v. 12. is here instanced in the matter of riches in particular to shew that those are a sweet morsel to a wicked man 2. It is an evidence of the wickeds inordinate affection to the things of the world that they are most eager and violent to have them not caring what or how they have so they may have them upon