besides was smitten with fore boiles as hoping haply he would have cursed God therewith Only upon himself put not forth thy hand Meddle not with his outward or inward man He would fain have been doing with both and had done it now but for this mercifull restriction which to the divel was no doubt a very great vexation But how could he help it otherwise then as horses digest their choler by biting on the bridle The will of the Lord must stand and Job though he shall have his back-burden of crosses of all kinds yet they shall not be laid upon him all at once but piece-meal Acts and Mon. fol. 1579. and at several times Fidelis est Deus saith the Apostle and Father Latimer died in the flames with those sweet words in his mouth God is faithfull who will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able c. but will surely proportion the burden to the back and the stroke to the strength of them that shall beare it See his gracious dealings with the Apostles at their first setting forth into the world and how by degrees he inured them to bear the Crosse of Christ Acts 2. 4. 5. 12. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord As thinking every houre two till he had sped his commission the divel descended like lightning upon the earth to search occasions to ruine Job and to triumph over his patience to touch all that he had and to touch him to the very quick This diligence of the divel in evil-doing how happy were it saith Mr. Beza if we could imitate in doing well But behold whilest Christs enemies watch and in the night set themselves in readinesse to take him his chief disciples do not only snort and sleep but cannot so much as be awaked in the garden Verse 13. And there was a day A dismal day it proved to Job a day of trouble and distresse a day of wastnesse and desolation a day of darknesse and gloominesse a day of clouds and thick darknesse as Zeph. 1.15 That subtle serpent set upon mischief purposely picketh out such a time to do it as wherein such a sad and sudden change was least of all looked for and then laies on amaine as if he were wood with the hail-shot hell-shot of sharpest afflictions He knowes well that as mercies and deliverances the more unexpected they are the more welcome as Abrahams receiving his son Isaac after a sort from the dead Israels eduction out of Egypt when they were forsaken of their hopes Jonah his being drawn out of the belly of hell as he phraseth it chap. 2.2 so crosses the more suddenly they befall men the more they amate them and finding weak minds secure they make them miserable leave them desperate When his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine Wherewith if their hearts were overcharged and what more easie the divel foiled our first parents by inordnate appetite and finding it then so successfull a weapon he maketh use of it still that day might come upon them unawares Luke 21.34 That was Satans drift surely however it fell out and so to destroy body and soul together But it is to be hoped that he was disappointed of his aime and that death was sent in hast to Jobs children as an invitant to a better feast and that they might do as our Saviour did who being at a feast at Bethany fell into a meditation and discourse of his death and bâ—â—â—al John 12.7 8. Sure it is that although the wicked may die firming and shall die in their sins John 5.21 and so be killed with death as Jezebels children were Rev. 2.23 Yet Gods children shall not dye before their time Eccles 7.17 or till the best time till their work is done Revel 11.7 No malice of man or divel can antedate my end a minute saith one whilest my master both work for me to do It is the happinesse of a Saint that he is sure not to die till that time when if he were but rightly informed he would even desire to die Happy is he that after due preparation is passed through the gates of death ere he be aware as Jobs children were Verse 14. And there came a messenger A sad relater not a divel in the shape of a man as the Rabbines would have it let that passe for a Jewish fable but one of Jobs own servants or some other eye-witnesse to make Job believe belike that as an evill man he only sought rebellion sith such cruel messengers were sent against him Prov. 17.11 The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding c. i.e. We were none of us either idle or ill-occupied but taking pains and tending our cattle when this disaster befell us Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted Psalm 107.17 they create themselves crosses such as must therefore needs come with a sting in them See Gen. 42.21 But Jobs servants were honestly employed when plundered and assassined which sheweth that his losses were not penall but probationall And the asses feeding beside them Peter Martyr upon the first of Samuel Com. in 1 Sam. 12. wittily applyeth this text to prelates and non-residents who when put in mind of their duty would usually answer that they had substitutes and curates to do their businesse for them Itâ— labor aliorum est proventus ipsorum So that others took the paines and they the profit saith he and as it is in the book of Job The axen plow and the asses feed beside them Verse 15. And the Sabeans fell upon them i.e. Sabai apud poetas molles vocantur but Satan set them a work Bâ—eerw Enquir 135. The Arabians a theevish people that lived by rapine and robbery They are at this day called Saracens of Sarac to rob for they keep up their old trade and are not all out so good as those Circassians a â—ind of mongrell-Christians who are said to divide their life betwixt sinne and devotion dedicating their youth to rapine and their old age to repentance Yea they have slain the servants Heb. The young men for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈…〉 It was happy howsoever that they were taken away when in their lawful â—alling and about their honest employments Eliah chose to be taken in such a posture for he knew the very time and yet when the charriots of heaven came to fetch him up he was going and talking to his Scholar Elisha The busie attendance on our holy vocation is no lesse pleasing to God or safe for us to die upon then an immediate devotion Happy is that servant whom the Master when he cometh shall find so doing And I only am escaped alone to tell thee For no other cause escaped this one this single one but to adde to Jobs affliction There was no mercy in such a sparing It was that Job might have the ill newes brought him suddenly and certainly That old
outward troubles when as to the wicked death is but a trap-door to hell we silly fish see one another jerked out of the pond of life but we see not the fire and the frying-pan whereunto those are cast that die in their sins to whom all the sufferings of this life are but a typicall hell the beginning of those terrors and torments which they shall hereafter suffer without any the least hope of ever either mending or ending Verse 10. But he said unto her He did not start up and lay upon her with his unmanly fist Chrysostome saith it is the greatest reproach in the world for a man to beat his wife but he reproveth her and that sharply as she deserved and so did Jacob his best beloved Rachel when the offence was against God Gen. 30.2 A wise husband saith Marcus Aurelius must often admonish never smite and but seldome reprove and that with the spirit of meeknesse too Gal. 6.1 Meeknesse of wisedome Jam. 3.13 That was wonderful patience that was exercised by D. Youngs Benef of Afflict 153. Cowper Bishop of Lincoln who when his wife had burnt all his Notes which he had beene eight years in gathering left he should kill himself with overmuch study for she had much ado to get him to his meales shewed not the least token of passion but only replyed Indeed wife it was not well done so falling to work again he was eight years in gathering the same Notes wherewith he composed his Dictionary Job though somewhat more tart as reason required the offence being of so high a nature yet he breaks not out into fierce and furious language he saith not Go go thou art an arrant fool a wicked woman an abominable wretch but Thou speakest like one of the foolish women like one of the women of Idumea that have no sap of wisdome or goodnesse in them but do whip their gods as the Chinois are said to do at this day when they cannot have what they would have of them and revile them for neglecting their worshippers Note here that Jobs wife might be a good woman for the main though in this particular she did amisse but it is a fault in Gods people when it shall be said unto them Are ye not carnal and walk as men when it shall be said of Gods daughters that they speak or act like one of the foolish women Davids daughters were known by their party-coloured garments so should Gods by the law of wisdome in their lips and lives by their patient minde made known to all men by their eximious and exemplary holinesse What should Jobs wife the Governesse of such a religious Family the yoak-fellow of such an holy Husband be talking of cursing God be speaking after the rate of profane Edomites The Heathen Comedian can say that she is a wise woman who can be well content to suffer hardship and not repine that it is now worse with her then formerly it hath been Job would fain bring his wife to this Quae aquo animo pati potest sibi esse pejus quam fuit and therefore addeth What shall we receive good c He seeketh to set her down not with rage but with reason and that indeed is the right way of backing a reproof wherein as there must be some warmth so it may not be scalding hot Words of reviling and disgrace they scald as it were But words that tend to convince the judgment and to stir up the conscience to a due consideration of the fault they be duely warm and tend to make the physick work the more kindly Shall we receive good at the hands of God and not evill Shall we not eat the crust with the crumbs drink the sowr with the sweet blesse God as well for taking away as for giving accept of the chastisement of our iniquity receive it patiently thankfully fruitfully Shall we be all for comforts and nothing at all for crosses Is it not equall that we should share in both sith it is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed Gen. 49.28 Jacob is said to have blessed all his sonnes Now he seemed rather to curse Reuben Simeon and Levi for he speaks only of evill to them But because they were not rejected from being among Gods people because they were not cut out of the list as Dan afterwards was 1 Chron. 7. Revel 7.7 though they were under great and sore afflictions they are counted blessed Doles quòd amisisti gaude quòd ◠vasisti saith Seneca Grievest thou at thy losses be glad that thy self art escaped Be ready at all hours to send God home again the blessings which he lent us with thankfulnesse There is a complaint of some men so ungratefull that if you do them nineteen courtesies Auson and then deny them the twentieth you lose all your thank with them Carry them on your back to the very suburbs of Rome and not into the City it self you do nothing for them God is not to be thus dealt with especially since he altereth the property of those evils and crosses which he layeth upon us turning them to our greatest good Rom. 8.28 like as the skilfull Apothecary turneth a poysonfull Viper into a wholesome Triacle Good therefore and worthy of all acceptation is that counsell of the Wise-man In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider Consider What This that God also hath set the one over against the other Eccles 7.14 and therefore thou must take the one as well as the other that 's but reasonable and equitable Plato saith that God doth alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 act the Geometrician do and dispose of all things in number weight and measure such an order and vicissitude he hath set of good and evill in the life of man that they are as it were interwoven Accept them therefore and acquiesce in them both as the Hebrew word here signifieth In all this Job sinned not with his lips Hitherto he did not though in a pitifull pickle and much provoked by the wife of his bosome He did not murmure against God nor let fly at his wife he did not threaten her as Lamech nor fall out with the whole sex as he that said Foemina nulla bona est He doth not wish himself single againe Sylla foelix si non habuisses uxorem Chaldaus Paraphrastes Talmudici as Augustus did or hold himself therefore onely unhappy because married as Sylla did No such unsavoury speech falls from Jobs lips as the Divel wished and waited for it Neither doth it follow as some Rabbines would inferre from this Text that Job sinned in his heart though not with his lips for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth would have spoken Look what water is in the Well the like will be in the Bucket and what stuff is in the ware-house the like will be in the shop If his heart had been exulcerate he would not meekly and
do gracelesse men that draw not their knowledge into practice but detaine the truth in unrighteousnesse it swimmeth in their heads but sinketh not into their hearts it maketh them giddy as wine fuming all up into the head but never coming at the heart to cheare it Such a man may cast out divels and yet be cast to the divel he may go to hell with all his unprofitable knowledge like as a Bull with a coronet and garland goes to the slaughter Unlesse a man heare and know for himselfe he shall find no more comfort of it then a man doth of the Sun when it shineth not in his own Horizon or then a traveller doth of the fatnesse of a farre Country which he only passeth through and taketh a light view of If therefore thou bee wise be wise for thy self Prov. 9.12 Let thy knowledge be not only apprehensive but affective â—illightning but transforming 2 Cor. 3 ult discursive but experimental and practical For hereby we know that we know him if we keepe his commanaments 1 John 2.3 CHAP. VI Verse 1. But Job answered and said ELiphaz thought he had silenced him and set him down with so much reason that he should have had nothing to reply yet Job desirous to disasperse himself and to clear-up his reputation answered and said For indeed Negligere quid de se quisque sentiat non solum arragantis est sed dissoluti saith one that is altogether to neglect what others think or speak of a mans self and not to make apology is the part not only of a proud but of a dissolute person â— silence sometimes argueth guiltinesse or at least it strengtheneth suspition Verse 2. Oâ— that my griefe were throughly weighed Heb. were weighed by weighing The word rendred griefe signifieth also Angâ—â— and is thâ— same with that wherewith Eliphaz began his speech chap. 5.2 where he saith Wrath killeth the foolish man pointing at Job as an angry man exalting folly Here therefore Job beginneth his refutation wishing that that anger or griefe of his so hardly censured were duely weighed in an even ballance for then it would appeare that there was some reason for his passion that he had enough upon him to cry for and that he had not complained without a cause We read of a certaine Philosopher who hearing of his sons death brake out into a loud lamentation for which being reproved Permitâ—â—â—e inquit ut homo sim suffer me I pray you said he to shew my self to be a man that is sensible of my sufferings And my calamity laid in the balances together That is that my calamity were accurately set against my grief my laments and my torments equally poised it would then appear that I have not yet grieved or complained up to the height or weight of those calamities which are upon mee Even to day is my complaint bitter saith he elsewhere in answer to Eliphaz too interpreting his complaints to be rebellion against God My stroake is heavier theâ— my groâ—ning chap. 23.2 Verse 3. For now it would bâ— heavier then the sand of the sea How light soever thou O Eliphaz esteemest it as being in a prosperous condition It is easie to swim in a warm bath and every bird can sing in a sunshine-day But grief lieth like a load of lead upon the soule heavy and cold afflicting it as an unsupportable burden doth the body It so oppressed the poor Israelites in Egypt that they had no mind to hearken to Moses Eâ—eâ—d 6.9 Solomon cryes out A wounded spirit who can beare Prov. 18. â—4 My soule is very heavy and exceeding sorrowful even unto death saith our blessed Saviour Matth 26.37 38. then when the Father made all our sins to meet upon him and be bare our griefs and carried our sorroweâ— Isa 13.4 12. Sure it is that had he not been God as well as man he had beene utterly crushed by that unconceivable weight of sin and wrath that he then groaned under Oh what will all Christ lessâ— persons do in hell where God shall lay upon them and not spare they would faine fly out of his hand Job 27.22 bur that cannot be Therefore my words are swallowed up Vix loqui possum vox faucibus haevet I want words which yet if I had them at will would be far too weak to utter the grief of my mind Broughton rendreth it Therefore my words fall short they are semesa saith Junius half-eaten before spoken I am as it were gagg'd with grief or my words are even smothered up with sighs and sobs Thus Job rhetoricates and yet thinkes himself greatly word-bound Verse 4. For the arrowes of the Almighty are within me What marvel then though his flesh had no rest but he was troubled on every side sith without were fightings within were feares 2 Cor. 7.5 The arrowes not of a mighty man as Psal 127.4 but of an Almighty God Troubles without and terrours within David felt these arrowes and complaineth of them heavily Psal 38.1 2. He shall shâ—ot as them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded saith he of those his enemies who had bent their bow and shot their arrowes at him even bitter words Psal 64.3 7. God will make his arrowes drunk with the blood of such persons Deut. 32.42 But the arrowes Job here complaines of were poisoned or invenomed arrowes The poison whereof drinketh up my spirits Dryeth them up and corrupts the blood in which the spirits are sprinkling in my veines a mortall poison working greatest dolour and destemper The Scrâ—hians and other nations used to dip their darts in the blood and gall of Asps and Vipers the venemous heat of which like a fire in their flesh killed the wounded with torments the likest hell of any other and hereunto Job alludeth The terrours of God do set themselves in array against me i. e. the terrible strokes of God who seemeth to fight against me with his own hand to rush upon me as the Angel once did upon Balaam with a drawn sword in his hand threatning therewith to cut off my head as David did Goliah's yea to send me packing to hell in the very suburbs whereof methinks I feel to be already and shall not I be suffered to complain a galled shoulder will shrink under a load though it be but light and a little water is heavy in a leaden vessel But the word here used for terrors noteth the most terrible terrors hellish terrors and worse for they are the terrors of God surpassing great 2 Cor. 5.11 which made Jeremy pray so hard Be not thou a terrour to me O Lord and then I care not greatly what befalleth me Whiles I suffer thy terrors I am distracted saith Hemun Psalm 88.15 Adde hereunto that these terrours of God had set themselves in array they were in a military manner marshalled and imbattailed against him as Jer. 50.9 God afflicted Job methodically and resolvedly he led up his army as a Reverend man phraseth it exactly
Elihu Cave tibi ne conjicias oculos ad vanitatem Beware thou cast not an eye towards such a vanity or iniquity as that is This was very good counsel and it is very well observed that this whole following Treatise to the end of the thirty seventh chapter is as it were a gentle lenitive of that foregoing sharp rebuke which otherwise was likely to drive Job beside all patience For this thou hast chosen rather then affliction That is this forementioned iniquity of speaking rashly and wickedly against Gods proceedings with thee this thou hast chosen rather then to bear thine affliction or thy poverty patiently Now this was an ill choice for Epist 3. quas non oportet mortes praeligere saith Zuinglius What deaths ought not a man rather to make choice of what torments not rather undergo yea into what deepest gulf of hell it self not rather enter then wittingly and willingly to sin against God The ancient Martyrs would not be delivered upon base termes Heb 11.35 Tertul. Daniel chose rather to be thrown to the Lions then to violate his conscience and so to have a Lion roaring in his own bosome The Primitive Christians cryed out Ad Leonem magis quam Lenonem I had rather enter into hell being clear from sin and innocent quam peccati sorde pollutus coelorum regna tenere then go to heaven if I might besmeared with the filth of sin faith Anselm I had rather leap into a Bonfire and be burnt said another of the Ancients then commit any sin against God Pintâ— ir Daniel Some write that there is a certain little beast called the Mouse of Armenia which will rather dye then be defiled with any filth insomuch that if her hole be besmeared with dirt she will rather chuse to be taken then polluted Such ought the servants of God to be Verse 22. Behold God exalteth by his power Vulg. God is high in his strength He both exalteth himself and others whensoever he pleaseth Beza reads it Behold God in his strength is above all q.d. It is he that must restore thee if ever thou beest restored Who teacheth like him Vulg. None amongst the Law-givers is like unto him But the word Moreh signifieth a Doctor or a Teacher as Moreh Nebuchim a Teacher of perplexed things an unriddler of Riddles He knowes all things exactly and does all things with singular skil and understanding He hath many wayes of teaching people and making them to profit Isai 48.17 and one is by afflictions which Luther therefore fitly calleth Theologiam Christianorum the Christians System of Divinity as hath been before noted Mr. Ascham was a good School-Master saith one to Q. Elizabeth but affliction was a better Verse 23. Who hath enjoyned him his way q.d. Wilt thou take upon thee to teach this great Teacher how to govern the world This were a strange kind of arrogancy Or Who can say Thou hast wrought iniquity Gods judgements are sometimes secret but alwayes just Let not men reprehend what they do not yet comprehend but content themselves with a learned ignorance till God shall further discover himselfe saying of Gods Works as Socrates did of a certain Book that he had read What I understand therein is very good and so I think is that I understand not When we come into an Artificers shop we see many Tooles the use whereof we know not and yet we conclude they are of some use Why then should men rashly censure Gods proceedings which are many times in mediis contrariis In Genes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. in Cypr. as Luther was wont to say brought about by contrary means that he may be the more admired as Nazianzen giveth the reason The Artificer with a crooked Tool makes straight work The Apothecary maketh of a poisonful Viper a wholsome Triacle so here Far be it from us therefore to charge God with iniquity for this were with those mad Manichees to affirme Manichaeorum diabolicus sarcasmus Paraeus That till he had created light he dwelt in darkness as if God were not an eternal Light 1 John 1.5 1 Tim. 6.16 Verse 24. Rememember that thou magnifie his works His work of Creation wherein the wisdome power and goodnesse of God is clearly manifested Rom. 1.19 in that glorious structure of the heavens especially which men behold Or his work of Administration and Gubernation whereof David saith All thy Works praise thee O Lord that is they yeeld matter of magnifying thee and thy Saints shall blesse thee Psal 145.10 Remember that this be done saith Elihu Junius by Gods Works here understandeth Noahs Flood Which men behold Or Whereof men do sing saying Id quod prudentes viri olim veluti gnomâ quadam communi sententiâ jactarunt dicentes Omnis homo aspicit c. Brent as in the next verse Verse 25. Every man may see it scil In quo est vel mica bonae mentis for a brutish man knoweth it not Psal 92.6 7. But stupidus est dignus cui oculi eruantur saith Plato He is a very blockhead and worthy to have his eyes pulled out of his head who looketh not above him and about him that he may magnifie and admire the wisdom of the Creator of all and Preserver of mankind Man may behold it afar off For heaven is far above earth and it is a wonder that we can look to so admirable an height and that the very eye is not tired in the way And for things that are neerer to us we see them but as through a glass obscurely our knowledg of them is very imperfect 1 Cor 11.13 the reason of many things is above our reach We read of one who had spent above forty yeares in finding out the Nature and Property of Bees and yet was not fully satisfied of many things therein Verse 26. Behold God is great Yea he is maximus in minimis Greatest and most of all seen in the meanest creatures as in Ants more then in Elephants c. Brent God sheweth in his works of all sorts se aliquantum esse sed quantus sit ruâ—sus operibus involuit that he is very great but how great he is that appeares not Neither can the number of his years be searched out How should they say when as his countenance is beyond all count Psal 102.24 27. Dan. 5 Yeares are here ascribed unto him and he is elsewhere called Ancient of dayes and the haires of his head are said to be white like snow Rev. 1.14 but all this is spoken of God after the manner of men and should teach us neither curiously to enquire into his counsels nor discontentedly to complain of his doings Verse 27. For he maketh small the drops of water Here Elihu beginneth to instance the greatnesse of God in his works and particularly in the Meteors many of which Aristotle confesseth he understood not And this I dare say saith a learned Interpreter here that there
Pageants And by this passage some conjecture that not the Whale but the Sea-dragon is here described Let it be what it will it must needs be a great heat within this great Fish that sendeth forth as it were burning lamps and sparks of fire and a strong sulphurous breath he must have like the out-bursts of Aetna by this description Aristotle saith the Whale is of an hot fiery nature and that he hath Lungs and breatheth a pipe or passage also he hath in his fore-head Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 anim cap. 〈◊〉 whereat he throweth out the water he hath taken in either by his breathing or eating This transparent water thus with a force thrown up against the Sun-beams may bear a shew of lightning or burning lamps Verse 20. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke c. Whiles his meat heateth in his stomack for concoction Sufflati as if fire were put under some great reaking pot or Caldron boyling Heb. blown for of blowing comes boyling Verse 21. His breath kindleth coals Or Would kindle coals as a Smiths bellows if there were any to kindle Such a kindle-coal was Arrius and Hildebrand of old the Jesuites at this day and not a few others Prov. 26.21 Es 33.10 your breath as fire shall devour you Some mens tongues are like Gun-powder which touched with the least spark will instantly be in the face Jam. 3.6 A flame goeth out of their mouths enough to set the whole course of Nature on fire Verse 22. In his neck remaineth strength Aristotle saith that among Fishes De part 〈◊〉 lib. 3. the Dolphin Whale and such as breath have necks proportionable to their bodies The word rendred remaineth is in the Hebrew lodgeth or abideth all night so spoken saith One because the Whale as also the Dolphin sleepeth with his head erected above water And sorrow is turned into joy before him i.e. He knows no sorrows he fears no hurt but alwayes rejoyceth bearing himself bold upon his strength God having made him to sport in the sea Psal 104.26 Others read it And before him danceth fear Pavor Pallor Tullus Hostilius his two gods men dance or start for fear Verse 23. The flakes of his flesh are joyned together Heb. The fallings Meland Tremell or the refuse and vilest parts as the word is rendred Am. 8.6 Now if God be so punctual in the description of these also can any one think that he hath let passe any thing in the holy Scriptures that belong to our Salvation What need is there then of humane traditions They are firm in themselves Heb. Moulton Firm they must be because so joyned together Vis unita fortior but dissention is the mother of dissolution England is a mighty Animal saith a great Polititian which can never die except it kill it self They cannot be moved Or He cannot be moved He may say as Terminus of old Nullicedo I give place to none unlesse I please Verse 24. His heart is as firm as a stone He is corpore corde validissimus Of the sword-fish Plutarch saith that he hath a sword but not an heart to use it But the Whale hath courage to his bulk his heart is as firm as a stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his head saith Scaliger is as hard as a flint In the hearts of some creatures saith Aristotle is found a bony or grisly hardness but the Whales heart is all as it were a bone and this bone as a stone As a pair of the neather milstone Metae upon which the whole weight lyeth the Greek call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 18.6 the Mill-Ass because it is the bigger and harder of the two The vulgar here for the neather Mill-stone hath the smiths-Anvil which by hammering is made harder Verse 25. When he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid When he shewes himself like some moving mountain upon the surface of the water the most assured Pilotes or passengers are seized with fear of death and seek to make peace with God as those Marriners did Jon. 1.5 6 c. By reason of breakin gs Broughton reads of shiverings They purifie themselves Expiantse they beg pardon of sin and prepare to die Others render it aberrant they are dispirited and know not what course to take Others again they purge downwards their retentive faculty being weakned with fear they let go their excrements as Loper the traytour did when he was upon his tryal before the Lords of the Council and as God somewhere in Ezekiel threatneth his rebels that for fear of his displeasure they shall not be able to hold their water Verse 26. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold So close are his scales so thick his skin that there is no wounding of him There was not of old it seemeth But now there is a way found of shooting and piercing of him so that he dieth with an horrible noise and out-cry Nor the Harbergeon A defensive weapon will be as uselesse as those other offensive for the Whale will soon swallow up the armed as well as the unarmed Verse 27. He esteemeth iron as straw and brasse as rotten wood He makes nothing of any thing that shall be done against him Bears and Lions may be wounded with hunting-weapons other Fishes with Eele-spears and the like not so the Whale or not so easily Verse 28. The arrow cannot make him flee Heb. Sons of the bow as chap. 5.7 Sparks are called sons of the coal Arrows were then as much in use as bullets are now Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble Those stones which the sling castes with so much force make as little impression upon his body as a festraw would which the hand of a child should push Verse 29. Darts are counted as stubble When any thing in the Decrees or Decretals likes not the Pope he sets Palea that is stubble upon it or Hoe non credo so doth this Leviathan upon all kind of weapons he slightes them The word here rendred darts is as strange as the weapon it signifieth is to us unknown lapides ballistae an engin whereby great stones were thrown against Walles or Towers as now Cannon-bullets to make a breath in them Catapulta aries vel simile aliquod tormentum Be they what they will the Whale fears them not no though they were as terrible to others as those two great pieces of Ordnance cast by Alphonsus Duke of Ferrara the one whereof he called the Earthquake the other Grandiabolo the great Devil Verse 30. Acumina testacea Sharp stones are under him Heb. Sharp pieces of the potsheard which prick him no more than if he lay upon the softest couch◠so hard is his belly He spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mine When he might lye softer he scorns it as our hardy forefathers some two or three hundred years agoe who ordinarily lay upon straw-pallets covered with canvas and around log under their heads instead of a bolster Hollinshed As
planted turned it into the same nature with it self as copres which will turn milk into ink or leaven which turneth a very Passeover into pollution See Mich. 1.5 with the Note Verse 12. Now therefore give not your daughters unlesse ye have a mind to pitch them into hell-mouth See ver 2. with the Note Nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever For they were devoted by God to utter destruction and therefore Israel might have no intercourse with them The Jewes at this day count and call us Canaanites Edomites c. and hold it an almesdeed to knock us on the head The best among the Gentiles say they is worthy cui caput conteratur tanquam Serpenti to be killed up as a Serpent Tacitus long since observed of them that as they were very kind to their own so to all others they bare a deadly hatred Thrice a day in their prayers Buxtorf Synag Jud. cop 5. they curse us Christians and in Polony where they have a toleration they print base and blasphemous things against Christ and Religion That ye may be strong viz. by my presence amongst you and providence over you for cui adhaereo prae est as Q. Elizabeth could write how much more may God Almighty He whom I favour is sure to prevail And cat the good of the Land The best of the best the finest Wheat the choyfest fruit and those a pledge and fore-taft of the happiness of Heaven where there is nec fames nec fastidium as one saith neither lack nor loathing neither measure nor mixture but sweetest varieties felicities eternities And leave it for an inheritance personal goodnesse is profitable to posterity the righteous shall leave inheritance to his childrens children Prov. 13.22 God never casteth out his good tenants nor leaveth his servants unprovided for See Psal 103.17 and 112.1 2. Verse 13. And after all that is come upon us Affliction like foul wheather cometh before it is sent for yet not but of Gods sending and then it is ever either probational as Jobs or Cautional as Pauls prick in the flesh or penal for chastisement of some way of wickednesse as here For our evil deeds These he thanketh as well he might for all their sufferings sin is the mother of misery and hales hell at the heeles of it Seeing that thou our God Our God still and this is the sixth time that he hath so stiled Him in this holy prayer besides three times My God These are speeches of faith and refer to the Covenant that pabulum fidei food of faith When ye stand and pray beleeve when ye humble and tremble before God keep up your faith still Nihil retinet qui fidem amisit lose that and lose all Seneca Take away the iniquity of they servant saith David 2 Sam. 24.10 'T is as if he should say I am thy servant Lord still though an unworthy one And to prove himself so he addeth For I have done very foolishly I confesse it Lord that thon mayest cover it Homo agnoscit Deus ignoscit This he beleeves and speeds when Judas confessing but withal despairing misseth of mercy Hast punisht us lesse then our iniquities deserve Heb. Hast withheld beneath our iniquities The just hire of the least sin is death in the largest sense Rom. 6.23 What then might God do to us for our many and mighty sins or rather what might he not do and that most justly How great is his mercy which maketh him say Jerusalem hath received at Gods hand double for all her sins Isai 40.1 2. Too much saith God there too little saith Ezra here and yet how sweetly and beautifully doth this kind of contradiction become both And hast given us such deliverance as this A fruit of free mercy and calls hard for duty Gods blessings are binders and every new deliverance calls for new obedience Servaeti sumus ut serviamus Verse 14. Should we again break thy Commandements There is so much unthankfulnesse and disingenuity in such an entertainment of mercy that holy Ezra here thinkes that Heaven and Earth would be ashamed of it And joyn in affinity with the people of these abominations Especially when we may hear God himself screeching out as it were those words of his Oh do not this abominable thing Save your selves from this untoward generation c Wouldst thou not be angry with us Id est Chide us smite us and so set it on as no creature should be able to take it off Sin may move God when we ask bread and fish to feed us to answer us with a stone to bruise us or a Serpent to bite us Shun it therefore as a Serpent in your way or as poyson in your meats Kisse the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way c. Psal 2.12 So that there should be no remnant So that our late preservation should prove but a reservation to further mischief as was Sodoms Senacheribs Pharaohs Verse 15. O Lord God of Israel So called because he is their portion they His Deut. 32.9 He had avouched them for his and they him interchangeably Deut. 26.17 18. Seneca could say that the basest people meaning the Jewes gave Lawes unto all the World that is had the true God Creatour of all for their God Thou art righteous In all thy judgments inflicted upon us or thou art faithful and true in thy promises but we have forfeited thy favour and deserved destruction Behold we are before thee in our trespasses Or guiltinesses which is that iniquity of sin as David calleth it Psal 32.5 whereby the sinner is bound over to condigne punishment For we cannot stand before thee But must needs causâ cadere being self condemned and such as must needs subscribe to thy perfect justice in our own utter destruction CHAP. X. Verse 1. Now when Ezra had prayed HAD presented himself as a Suppliant and opened his cause to God the Judge appealing to him that he might determine And when he had confessed And begged pardon deprecating the divine displeasure Hithpallel as the word signifieth Weeping Of this we read not in the former chapter but of other effects of his passion as renting his garments tearing off the hair of his head and beard c. His sorrow at first might be above tears which afterwards came gushing out amain as the blood doth out of a Wound but not till it hath first run back to the heart to bear the newes to it as I may so say It is said of Athanasius that by his tears as by the bleeding of a chast vine he cured the Leprosy of that tainted age May we not say the same of this good man And casting himself down before the house of God Where all might see him that their eyes might affect their hearts and contribute some tears of compunction and compassion toward the filling of Gods bottle as they had done sins toward the filling of his bag Of Men Women and
these fair promisers turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their Fathers they were turned aside like a deceitful bow Psal 78.57 Look how a rotten bow though otherwise fair when an Arrow is drawn to the head and both eye and arrow is leveld to the mark yet it miscarryeth So do the desires purposes and promises that unsound hearts conceive in their afflictions and under just convictions Verse 13. Neither is this work of one day or two No more is repentance that first and continual work of every Christian Nulli reinatus â— isi poenitenti â— Tert. de poâ—n This made Tertullian say that he was born for nothing else but for repentance Surely as in a Ship there is continuall pumping and as in a Beggers coat continual piecing so in the best soul there wants not matter of daily repenting this House must be every day swept this Candle-stick every day scoured Besides some sins are past in time that are not past indeed if we dwell not in the undoing and reversing of them The best of these hereafter mentioned were to begin a new their repentance because they had not considered their marrying of strange Wives For we are many that have transgressed Heb. We have multiplyed to transgresse The comfort is that God will in like sort multiply to pardon if we return unto him that 's the expression Esay 55.7 Verse 14. Let now our Rulers of all the Congregation Our Sanedrim or seventy Seniors See Deut. 17.9 Let there be a matrimonial Consistory erected and matters in question orderly heard and determined Vntil the fierce wrath of God We must not think that he will cease pursuing us till the Traytours head be thrown over the Wall till there be a thorough reformation One Abimelech left alive may be the death of Gideons 70 sons so may one sin favoured be thine utter undoing Verse 15. Onely Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah These two Priests onely of all the company had kept themselves unspotted and so were fit to be employed in the work in hand Hier. Epist Diaconos paucitas honorabiles fecit saith Hierome of his times The paucity of good Deacons hath rendred them honourable And I do not think saith Chrysostome that among the Clergy there are many that shall be saved D. Hall Clerus Britannicus stupor mundi and yet there never wanted amongst us those dehonestamenta Cleri that might give some occasion to black-mouthed Campian to tell the World Ministris eorum nihil vilius Camp Raâ— Many of their Ministers are most base Verse 16. And the children of the captivity did so Appointed such a course should be taken And so it was a plain Plebiscitum and accordingly executed Verse 17. By the first day of the first moneth So that it was not the work of one day or two as ver 13. but of full three moneths and yet they were not slothful in that business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord. In the work of repentance take time enough dig deep enough by thorough humiliation lest the fall of the house be great The English are not sick soon enough saith One and they are well too soon This is true of their minds as well as of their bodies Verse 18. And among the sons of the Priests c. What a shame was this and a stain to their cloth These mens white ephods covered foul sinnes whereas they should have been carefull to have kept all clean as that Eleazer was of whom it is storied that he would not do any thing that might seem to be sinful because be would not spot his white head Of the sons of Joshua the son of Jozadak This good High-priest had sons none of the best White Halcyons hatch black young ones Caligula fuit optimi Viri Germanici filius Eli his sons were sons of Belial Samuels were little better and yet it is not likely that he was faulty in that indulgence for which his own mouth had denounced Gods judgements against Eli. When Cesar Borgia Duke of Valence invited his Nobility to a Feast and after Dinner cut off their heads Pope Alexander who was his Father hearing of it smiled and said his Son had served them a Spanish trick When Petro Alingi Farnesis had committed an unspeakable Violence on the person of Cosmus Chaerius Bishop of Fanum and then poysoned him he received no other Chastisement of his Father Pope Paul the third then Haec vitia me non commonstratore didicit he never learned these faults of his Father Good Joshua had better bred his children then thus to break out into an open violation of that Law which they could not but know and should have observed But God will shew that grace is by gift not inheritance and men will shew that though nourture may somewhat amend nature yet it is grace alone that can keep us within the bounds of obedience Verse 19. And they gave their hands Id est They plighted their troth and assured the assent of their hearts 2 Kings 10.15 That they would put away their Wives Though as dear to them haply as was George Carpenters Martyr burnt at Munchen in Bavaria My Wife and Children said he are so dear unto me that they cannot be bought from me for all the riches and possessions of the Duke of Bavaria but for the love of my Lord God I will willingly forsake them Act. Mon. 806. Let us do so by our dilecta delicta our dearest and most delicious sins They offered a Ram of the Flock This shewes that they sinned against knowledge for for a sin of ignorance the oblation was not a Ram but a goat Verse 44. And some of them had Wives by whom they had Children Who yet for all that were put away together with their children ver 3. The Hebrew hath it thus And there were of them Women they had put forth sons or exposed their sons to do as they might or to be disposed of by the Judges as that good Woman who told Bonner Act. Mon. that if he burnt her she hoped he would keep Faith Hope and Charity those were the names of her three daughters No by my troth will not I quoth the Bishop I le meddle with none of them A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION Upon the BOOK of Nehemiah CHAP. I. Ver. 1. The words of Nehemiah OR The deeds for he was good at both so a singular comfort to his Country-men according to the notation of his Name Nehemiah Id est The comfort or rest of the Lord. Here-hence also some inferre that Nehemiah himself was the Pen-man of this Book and not Ezra as the vulgar Latine So did Alexan der Severus and M. Aurelius Emperours and many ancients would have it like as Julius Caesar wrote his own acts and by a more modest Name called his book Commentaries and not Histories yet did it so well ut praerepta non praebita facultas scriptoribus videatur said Aulus Hirtius that
called our Saviour John 19.12 And as some think the ground of this report if any there were concerning Nehemah's practising to be King were the prophesies of Haggai and Zachary concerning the near approach of Christs Kingdome Nihil est quin malè narrando possit depravarier Terent. According to these words According to this report or somewhat to the same sense Verse 7. And thou hast also appointed Prophets c. That the thing might seem to be of God as the Beast hath his False-prophet that wrought miracles before him Rev. 19.20 As Mahomet had his prophets and John of Leyden had his to cry him up King of Munster the new Jerusalem as they called it yea of all Nations to rule them with a rod of iron And now shall it be reported to the King Who must needs be highly displeased and will as little endure it Rominos geminos unum non caperet Regnū quos unum uteri ceperat hospitiū Cyprian as the Heaven two Suns Sol quasi solus sic Monarcha Marriage and Monarchie will not away with corrivals Come now therefore and let us take counsel In commune consulere lest we all suffer for your fault But neither was good Nehemiah in any fault neither was their drift any other but this to draw him out of the City that they might mischieve him like as Dr. Bristow adviseth his Catholikes to get the Protestants out of their strong-hold of the Scriptures into the open Field of Fathers and Councels and then they might do what they would with us Verse 8. There are no such things done as thou sayest Nehemiah is not over-carefull to clear himself This was so transparent a lye that a man might see thorough it and was therefore best answered with a neglective denyal It falles out often that playn-dealing puts craft out of countenance Animus recti conscius objecta probra ut visus nocturnos vanas somniorum imagines digno supplicio punit festivo scilicet contemptu oblivione vel si tanti est misericordiâ elevat Joh. Woner Verse 9. For they all made us afraid This they aymed at but could not attain unto for faith quelleth and killeth distrustful fear Psal 46.1 2. Audacia est pro muro saith Sallust Let the wicked flie when none pursueth but the righteous will be bold as a Lion Prov. 28 1. Saying their hand shall be weakened from the work So measuring them by themselves as if they would have been soon scared and discouraged But they knew not the Aes triplex the power of the Spirit that Spirit of power opposed to the spirit of fear of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 They knew not the privy armour of proof that these good Jews had about their hearts Now therefore O God strengthen mine hands He acknowledgeth himselfe to be in the condition of a poor Garrison-souldier that hath no help or supplies but from the Captain of his salvation which therefore he thus humbly calleth in and craveth Of ejaculations See Chap. 2. ver 4. This here is dispatcht in four words Verse 10. Afterwards I came unto the house of Shemaiah Perhaps the same that is mentioned Ezra 8.16 but now fallen as a Star from Heaven Blazing Stars were never but Meteors Demas not only forsook Paul but became a Priest in an idols Temple at Thessalonica 1 Chron. 24.18 if Dorotheus may be beleeved A Priest Shemajah was would seem to be a Prophet but he proved not right All is not gold that glisters It was Tobiah's gold that made him a Prophet as Philips gold made the oracle of Apollo give what answer he pleased A house he had in the Temple there he had reclused and shut up himself that he might seem some singular Devoto expecting a revelation from Heavē or as one who sequestred himself from company of others with a stand further off come not near for I am holier then thou Or lastly to perswade people that there was a necessity of securing themselves from the night-inrodes of the Enemy Whatever it was that he was thus Anchoret-like pent up or locked up or deteyned as Junius rendreth it see the like said of Doeg that bloody Edomite 1 Sam. 21.7 Nehemiah went to his house to know what was the matter supposing him to be a friend but finding him suborned by the Enemy Let us meet together in the House of God Famous for sanctity and safety being within Gods precincts we shall surely be under his protection And let us shut the doors of the Temple Immure our selves and keep out the Enemy But this had been the ready way to invite them seeing his cow a dise for maximum his periculum qui maximè timent saith Sallust nothing betrayes a man sooner then his causelesse fear God helpeth the valiant Besides Shemaiah and his false complices having got Nehemiah to them from his friends and followers might have done what they pleased with him as the Romanes did by Caesar in the Senat-house For they will come to stay thee And Nehemiah must be made beleeve that Shemaiah as a special friend wished no long life and was zealous for it whence he so doubleth his prediction of the danger O deep dissimulation Verse 11. And I said should such a man as I flie To the dishonour of God and the discouraging of the people to the scandal of the weak and the scorn of the wicked Et Turnum fugientem haec terra videbit There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a comelinesse a seemlinesse a suitablenesse appertains to every calling and condition of life and Nature hath taught Heathens themselves to argue from dignity to duty and to scorn to do any thing unworthy of themselves Scipio when an harlot was offered him answered Vellem si non essem Imperator I would were I not a General Antigonus being invited to a Feast where a notable harlot was to be present asked counsel of Menedemus what he should do No more but this said he Remember that thou art a Kings son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Themistocles once after a Victory viewing the spoiles and pillage of the field said to his friend that bare him company Take thou these rich spoiles to thy self for thou are not Themistocles it is below me to stoop to them When Pompey had Caesar and Anthony in a Ship together it was suggested to him by Metrodorus to revenge himself for the death of his Father and Brother To whom he replyed that so to do might haply befit Metrodorus but in no wise Pompey It is not for you to be fishing for Gudgeons but for Towns Forts and Castles said Cleopatra to M. Antony It is not for Gods Saints to walk as men sith they are children of the Kingdome and must therefore regnum in pectore gerere carry themselves accordingly We usually say such a man understands himself well that is he knowes his place his dignity and walks accordingly It is a pusillanimity to do
Ezek. 17.4 Wells digged A great commodity in that hot Countrey Vine-yards and Olive-yards A singular help to house-keeping So they did eate and were filled They had enough of every thing and did eate whiles eating was good as they say Queen Elizabeth did seldome eate but of one dish rose ever with an appetite and lived about seventy years King Edward the sixth was wont to call her His sweet sister Temperance And delighted themselves in thy great goodnesse They lived in Gods good land but not by Gods good Lawes the refreshing they found by his best creatures was none other but such as his who warmeth himself and saith Aha I am warme I have seene the fire Isa 44.16 Verse 26. Neverthelesse they were disobedient and rebelled See how full in the mouth these holy Levites were in aggravating their own and their forefathers sinnes which swelled as so many toads in their eyes neither could they ever sufficiently disgrace them This is the property and practise of the true penitentiary They cast thy Law behinde their backs That is they vilipended and undervalued it God drew them by the cords of a man so the cords of kindnesse are called Hos 11.4 because befitting the nature of a man and likeliest to prevaile with rational people but they like men or rather like beasts transgressed the Covenant and as if God had even hired them to be wicked so did they abuse all his benefits to his greatest dishonour being therefore the worse because in reason they ought to have been better And slew thy Prophets which testified against them to turne to thee This was the worst they did to them and that for which they received mercedem mundi the wages of the mad world ever beside it self in point of salvation and falling foul upon such as seek its good This is that sinne that brings ruine without remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 Prov. 29.1 for precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116. And they wrought great provocations Or Blasphemies see verse 18. Verse 27. Therefore thou deliveredst them Flagitium flagellum sicut acus filum Sinne and punishment are tied together with chains of adamant Who vexed them Heb. Put them to straits so that they had not what shift to make or how to help themselves And in the time of their trouble Vexatio dedit intellectum The time of affliction is the time of supplication When out of the depths Gods people cry unto him they may have any thing Zach. 13.9 speedy audience unmiscarrying returnes of their prayers Thou gavest them Saviours i. e. Deliverers such as the Judges were Judg. 3.9 and such as Flaminius the Roman was to the poor Argives who therefore called him Saviour Saviour and that with such a courage Plut. in Flam ut corvi fortuito supervâ—lantes in stadium deciderent that the birds fell to the earth amazed with that outcry the aire was so dissipated with their acclamations Verse 28. But after they had rest they did evil again As standing pooles breed vermine as sedentary lives are subject to diseases If men be not poured out from vessel to vessel they will soone settle upon their â—ees Because they have no changes therefore they feare not God Psal 55.19 saith David of the wicked and Psal 30. David himself was afflicted delivered and then grew wanton Then troubled again verse 7. cryes againe verse 8.9 God turnes his mourning to joy again whereof if he surfeited not it was well bestowed on him But rarae fumant felicibus arae We are commonly best when worst and Pliny told his friend Plin. Epist that the best way to live well was to be as good in health as we promise to be when we are sick Therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies Who can do us no hurt but by Divine permission though they bandy together and bend all their forces to harme the Church yet are they bounded by God and can do nothing till he leave his people in their hands Had the dominion over them Ruled them with rigour And many times didst thou deliver them Even totiès quotiès for as the eye is not wearied with seeing nor the eare with hearing so neither is God with shewing mercy But as the Sunne shineth after it hath shone and as the spring runneth after it hath run so doth the Lord proceed to do good to his in their necessity and that according to his mercies which never fail Lam. 3.22 Verse 29. And testifiedst against them Toldest them of their sinnes foretoldest them of their dangers didst all that could be done to do them good but nothing would do Yet they dealt proudly See verse 16. And hearkened not Intus existens prohibuit alienum Hear and give eare be not proud Jer. 13.15 But sinned against thy judgements i. e. Thy Statutes though made with so much reason and respect to our good that if God did not command them yet were it every way our best way to practise them Esay 48.17 I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way which thou shouldest go As who should say It is for thy profit that I command thee this or that and not for mine own Which if a man do But that as now he cannot do and therefore not be saved by the Law Rom. 10.5 Our Saviour indeed said to that young justiciary This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 But that was all one saith Luther as if Christ had said unto him Vade morere Go upon thy death for do this of thy self and live thereby thou art never able And withdrew the shoulder When called to take up Christs yoke or to beare his crosse See the Note on Zach. 7.11 And hardened their necks To sinewes of iron they added browes of brasse Verse 30. Yet many years didst thou forbear them Heb. Protract over them or draw out thy loving kindnesse toward them to the utmost And testifiedst against them As verse 29. They wanted not for warnings or wooings with Woe unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made cleane when shall it once be Yet would they not hear But as Sea-monsters or Catadupes or men borne in a mill or as one that is running a race give him never so good counsel he cannot stay to hear it Therefore gavest thou them As uncounselable incorrigible Verse 31. Neverthelesse for thy great mercies sake Mans perversnesse cannot interrupt the course of Gods goodnesse In the middest of judgement he remembreth mercy which beareth the same proportion to his judgement which seven a compleat number hath to an Vnity Thou diddest not utterly consume them God will repent for his people when he seeth their power is gone Deut. 32.36 and be jealous with a great jealousie when the enemy goes beyond his commission Zach. 1.14 15. For thou art a gracious and merciful God And this is most seene when misery weighs down and nothing but mercy
lead more weight of that then they receive of this c. Ibid. 990. Also they have dominion See the Note on verse 30. At their pleasure Their will was a law which to argue or debate was high misdemeanour to detrect or disobey present death Verse 38. And because of all this Our sinne and misery We make a sure Covenant See Ezra 10.3 And write it Litera scripta manet And our Princes Levites and Priests seale unto it In the roome and name of all the rest who have sworn and will performe it that we will keep thy righteous judgements CHAP. X. Verse 1. Now those that sealed were Nehemiah the Tirshata HE is first mentioned not as a Priest but as Provost and one that held it an honour to be first in so good a matter As Caesar never said to his souldiers Ite but Venite Go ye but Come along I will lead you And as Abimelech said What ye have seene me do made haste and do accordingly So should all Superiours say to their inferiours Plin. Vita Principis censura est imò cynosura the life of the Prince is the load-star of the people upon which most men fix their eyes and shape their courses Magnates sunt Magnetes Great men draw many by their examples they are as looking-glasses by which others dresse themselves And hence Nehemiah's forwardnesse here to seale first There follow in their order Priests Levites Princes and people solemnly sealing a sure Covenant God had caused them to passe under the rod and now he is bringing them into the bond of the Covenant that he may purge out the rebels from amongst them Ezek. 20.37 38. Verse 28. That had separated themselves In Saint Pauls sense 2 Cor. 6.17 Come out from among them and be ye separate c. from such stand off Stand up from the dead save your selves from this untoward generation shun their sinnes lest ye share in their plagues These holy Separates or Proselytes sealed the Covenant and became free denisons of the Common-wealth of Israel having right to all Gods Ordinances Exod. 12.48 Such were Araunah the Jebusite 2 Sam. 24. Jether the Ismaelite 1 Chron. 7.17 with 2 Sam. 17.25 those Acts 2.10 the Jewes called them Advenas Justitiae Deodate interpreteth this text of such Jewes as were come again out of Babylon to serve the Lord according to his Law Others of such as had separated themselves from their Heathen-wives and children Their wives their sonnes and their daughters These also were then and still may be Covenanters as partakers of the benefit 1 Tim. 6.2 and heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 Every one having knowledge Of their own misery by sinne and of the great mystery of godlinesse Verse 29. They clave to their brethren Heb. They laid fast hold on them viz. by taking holy of the Covenant to keep the Sabbath from polluting it and chusing the things that please God as Esay 56.4 6. And entred into a curse The more to confirme the oath and to keep their deceitful hearts close to God See Deut. 29.12 21. This is called the oath of God Eccles 8.2 Confer Isa 19.18 and 44.5 2 Chron. 15.12 14. and 34.31 To walk in Gods Law Ex gnomone Canone decalogi to walk accurately and exactly by line and by rule In all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blamelesse Aug. in Exod. Quaesti 55. Luke 1.6 so far as by his grace He should vouchsafe to assist them For lex jubet gratia juvat The bowles of the Candlestick have no oile but what droppeth from the olive-branches David can wish well to the keeping of Gods Commandments diligently Psal 119.4 5. but promise no further then God shall please to enlarge his heart verse 32. Vows and Covenants indefinitely and absolutely made as that of Jephta Judg. 11.31 prove a snare Condition with the Lord for his strength and grace rely not on thine own sufficiency lest it repent thee of thy rashnesse and self-confidence as it befell Peter Consider that thou art but a poor garison-souldier and without supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 thou canst do nothing David knew this and therefore called earnestly for help from heaven Psal 51.13 14 15. 119.106 107. Verse 30. And that we would not give our daughters This is the first particular branch of the Covenant that they would make no inter-marriages with the Heathen as knowing the snare that herein Satan laid for their souls In the first sentence against man this cause is expressed Because thou obeyedst the voice of thy wife c. By the rib as by a ladder Satan oft climbs to the heart and corrupts it as Gregory hath it O wives saith another the most sweet poyson the most desired evil in the world c. Make a wise choice therefore The Heathen well saith that every man when he marrieth brings either a good or an evil spirit into his house and so makes it either a heaven or a hell Verse 31. And if the people of the land bring any ware As they might without the Jewes leave and did chap. 13.16 and some of these Jewes forgetting their Covenant bought of them too even the children of Juda in Jerusalem ib. as if they had been of her religion in the tragedy who said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is I swore with my tongue but not with my heart But shall they thus escape by iniquity Be not deceived God is not mocked A God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32.4 That we would not buy it of them Lest we should trouble and disquiet that holy Rest and God should sue us upon an Action of wast For the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God Exod. 20.11 Jer. 17.21 Or on the holy day Now abrogated Col. 2.16 And that we would leave the seventh yeare That Sabbaticall yeare prefiguring the year of Grace the Kingdome of Christ Qui noxas nexus omnes solveret who giveth his people a generall release Deut. 15.2 and comes not over them againe with an after-reckoning Peccata non redeunt The Land also was to rest from tillage this year Exod. 23.11 And the exaction of every debt For that year at least and the next too if the debter were not able to pay the lender was to expect a recompense from God Deut. 15.6 Verse 32. To charge our selves yearly with the third part of a shekel Beside the Poll-mony the half-shekel required Exod. 38.26 the third part of a shekel was no great sum yet somewhat more then what Saul and his servant presented the Seer with whom they could not but know to be the Judge of Israel 1 Sam. 9.8 These had learned that thankfulness was measured both by God and good men not by the weight but by the will of the Retributor God doth highly accept the small offerings of his weak servants when he seeth them to proceed from great love
his countrey Far be it from me to out-live Troy Curtius telleth us that Alexander the great when he was extreme thirsty and had water offered him he would not receive it Curt. 17. but put it by with this brave speech Nec solus bibere sustineo nec tam exiguum dividere omnibus possum There is not enough for all my souldiers to share with me and to drink it alone I cannot finde in my heart I will never do it Compare herewith this speech of Esther and you shall finde it far the better as being full of those precious graces whereunto Alexander was a perfect stranger humility prudence faith zeal toward God and ardent love toward his people Oh how great is the number of those now adayes saith Lavater here qui ne micam Spiritus Estherae habent who have not the least parcel of Esthers spirit but are all for themselves and for their own interests Or how can I endure to see Heb quomodo potero videbo How can I and shall I see how should I do otherwise then sink at the sight as she did in the Romane history when her sonne was butchered and as the Virgin Mary felt a sword at her heart when she beheld Christ crucified Luke 2.35 Melancthon said that good Oecolampadius died of grief for the Churches calamities Nehemiah was heart-sick for the breaches of Joseph chap. 2.3 with Amos 6.6 Moses wished himself expunged and Paul accursed rather then it should go ill with Gods people Verse 7. Then the King Ahashuerus said unto Esther c. Here Hamans letters of Mart are reversed by Ahashuerus whose answer to Esther is full of gentlenesse and sweetnesse but yet such as discovereth a minde perplexed and cast into straits as Princes eft-soones are by the subtilties and malice of wicked counsellours Dan. 6.15 so that they cannot do as they would unlesse they will bring all into a combustion though usually where the word of a King is there is power Eccles 8.4 and the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh was wont to say that he knew not what an Act of Parliament could not do in England and King James in his speech in the Starre-chamber Anno 1616. said as much Behold I have given Esther the house of Haman i. e. I have done somewhat toward the performance of my Promise made to Esther chap. 7.2 and more I am willing to do only I must observe good order and do things with discretion Behold I give you potestatem plenariam omnimodam all the power I have that therewith you may help your selves only my former decree I cannot reverse but I shall stirre up great garboiles in the Kingdome Josephus indeed telleth us that Ahashuerus did retract the Edict procured by Haman and further gave power to the Jewes that if any withstood the Kings will herein they should kill them c. But we are not bound to believe him in all things as neither Herodotus Livy nor any of the Historians the Sacred always excepted for Vopiscus In vita Aure â—â—iani who was one of them confesseth nominem historicorum non aliquid esse mentitum that there is none of them that hath not taken liberty to lie more or lesse and it is manifest that Josephus his manner is to recite what he thinks likely to have been done and what is fit to be written of such a businesse Baronius annales facit non scribit saith one think the same of Josephus he rather maketh an history sometimes then writeth it And therefore that is but a sorry excuse that the Papists make for their sacrilegious forbidding the people to reade the Scriptures when they refer them to Josephus as having the History of the Bible more largely and plainly described Joh. Barclai M. Paraenesi Because he laid his hands upon the Jewes He did it because he designed it Like as Balak also arose and fought with Israel Josh 24.9 and yet the story saith nothing so But that is in Scripture said to be done that is intended or attempted And this the Heathen also saw by the dimme light of nature Hence that of Seneca Fecit quisque quantum voluit And another saith Quae quia non licuit non facit illa facit Polybius attributeth the death of Antiochus to his sacriledge only in his purpose and will This Josephus thinks could not be scil that a man having a purpose only to sinne should be punished by God for it Hence he derideth Polybius for the forecited censure but he had no cause so to do for the Heathens herein exceeded the Pharisees who helâ— thought free and Josephus was sowred with their leaven Verse 8 Write ye also for the Jews Here was one Syngram or authoritative writing crossing another What could the people think of this but that crownes have their cares and it were a wonder if great persons in the multitude of their distractions should not let fall some incongruities We must not think saith Lavater here if Princes or States command things different one from another that it proceedeth from lightnesse of minde but that they make Lawes and set forth Edicts according to the state and necessity of the times and as the publick good requireth In the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign here when mens mindes differed concerning Religion and Reformation could not safely be wrought at once it was by one and the same Proclamation commanded that no man should speak unreverently of the Sacrament of the Altar Camd. Eliz. p. 9. Ib. 17 20 and both kindes were permitted in the administration Religion was changed without commotion by degrees after that the Romish superstition had stood a whole moneth and more after the death of Queen Mary as afore The sacrifice of the Masse was not abolished till half a yeare after nor images cast out of Churches till two moneths after that Here then let St. James his counsel take place Be swift to hear slow to speak to speak evil of Governours when they answer not our expectations but seem to command contradictories There are certain Arcana imperii secrets of State that most men understand not and must therefore dedicate them to victory as the Romanes did that lake the depth whereof they could not fathom nor finde out Besides we must know that there will be faults so long as there be men and faults will slip betwixt the best mens fingers as Bishop Jewel was wont to say And as we endure with patience a barren yeare if it happen and unseasonable weather so must we tolerate the imperfections of Rulers and quietly expect either reformation or alteration As it liketh you Having been so lately deceived in Haman and by him miscarried to the ratifying of that bloody Edict he will no more trust his own judgement but referres the managing of the Jewes deliverance which now he greatly desired to their prudence discretion and faithfulnesse Few Kings would have yielded to have retracted lest they should thereby seem light and inconstant
their lives Not one whereof was lost in this hot encounter in this sharp revenge they took off their avowed enemies This was even a miracle of Gods mercy Who would not feare thee O King of Nations c. And had rest from their enemies Or That they might have rest from their enemies who would not otherwise be quieted but by the letting out of their life-blood but would make an assault upon the harmelsse Jewes though it were to die for it so that upon the matter they were their own deathsmen besides the wilful losse of their immortal soules which our Saviour sheweth Mat 16.26 to be a losse 1. Incomparable 2. Irreparable And slew of their foes seventy and five thousand Neither was it any dishonour to them to be God Almighties slaughtermen Even the good Angels are Executioners of Gods righteous judgements as they were at Sodom in Sennacheribs army and oft in the Revelation There cannot be a better or more noble act then to do justice upon obstinate Malefactours But they laid not their hands on the prey They would not once foule their fingers therewith No godly man in Scripture is taxed for covetousnesse that sordid sin See the Note on verse 10. Verse 17. On the thirteenth day of the moneth Adar On this day they stood for their lives that they might rest from their enemies And accordingly On the fourteenth day of the same rested they i. e. the very next day after their deliverance they would not defer it a day longer but kept an holy rest with Psalmes and sacrifices of praise those calves of their lips the very next day whiles the deliverance was yet fresh and of recent remembrance This they knew well that God expected Deut. 23.21 and that he construeth delayes for denials Hag. 1.2 4. he gave order that no part of the thank-offering should be kept unspent till the third day to teach us to present our praises when benefits are newly received which else would soon wax stale and putrifie as fish I will pay my vowes now now saith David Psal 116.18 Hezekiah wrote his Song the third day after his recovery Queen Elizabeth when exalted from a prisoner to a Princesse and from misery to Majesty before she would suffer her self to be mounted in her charet to passe from the Tower to Westminster Englands Eliz. she very devoutly lifted up her hands and eyes to heaven and gave God humble thanks for that remarkable change and turn of things And made it a day of feasting and gladnesse Exhilarating and chearing up their good hearts that had long layen low with a more liberal use of the creatures that they might the better preach his praises and speak good of his name and that sith they could not offer up unto him other sacrifices prescribed in the Law because they were far from the Temple they might not be wanting with their sacrifice of thanksgiving which God preferreth before an oxe that hath hornes and hoofs saith the Psalmist Words may seem to be but a poor and slight recompence but Christ saith Nazianzen calleth himself the Word and this was all the fee that he looks for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee With these calves of our lips let us cover Gods Altar and we shall finde that although he will neither eat the flesh of bulls nor drink the blood of goats yet if we offer unto God thanksgiving and pay our vowes unto the most High Psal 50.13 14. it will be look't upon as our reasonable service Rom. 12.1 Verse 18. On the thirteenth day thereof and on the fourteenth What they could not do on one day they did it on another Men must be sedulous and strenuous in Gods work doing it with all their might and redeeming time for that purpose Eccl. 9.10 On both these dayes they destroyed their enemies They did their work thoroughly Let us do so in slaying our spiritual enemies not sparing any Agag not reserving this Zoar or that Rimmon but dealing by the whole body of sinne as the King of Moab did with the King of Edom Amos 2.1 burn the bones of it to lime destroy it not to the halves as Saul but hew it in pieces before the Lord as Samuel As Joshua destroyed all the Canaanites he could lay hold on As Asa spared not his own mother as Solomon drew Joab from the Altar to the slaughter and put to death Adoniah the darling so must we deale by our corruptions ferretting and fetching them out of their lurking holes as these Jewes did their enemies on the fourteenth day that had escaped the day before Sith we must either kill them up all or be killed by them for as that one bastard Abimelech slew all Gideons sonnes upon one stone so one lust left unmortified will undo the soul And as one sinner so one sin may destroy much good Eccl. 9.18 And on the fifteenth day of the moneth they rested So shall the Saints do after death which will be the accomplishment of mortification for he that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 and filled with joy Isa 35.10 The ransomed of the Lord shall then return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Verse 19. Therefore the Jewes of the villages c. Pagani This is expounded in the next words that dwelt in the unwalled townes Such as is the Hague in Holland that hath two thousand housholds in it and chuseth rather to be counted the principal village of Europe then a lesser City Made the fourteenth day c. See verse 17. while the Jewes in Shushan were destroying the remainder of their enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Mac. 15.36 This day was afterwards called Mordecai's Holiday And of sending portions one to another See Nehem. 8.10 To the rich they sent in courtesie to the poor in charity and both these to testifie their thankfulnesse to God for their lives liberties and estates so lately and graciously restored unto them Verse 20. And Mordecai wrote these things He wrote with authority as a Magistrate say some that the Jewes should keep these dayes with greatest solemnitie He wrote the relation of these things before-mentioned say others as the ground of this annual festivitie Or else it may be meant more generally that Mordecai was the Pen-man of the Holy Ghost in writing this whole book of Esther as was before hinted And sent letters unto all the Jewes both night and farre Propinquis longinquis that they might all agree together about the time and manner of praising God and so sing the great Hallelujah See 2 Cor. 1.11 2 Chron. 20.26 27 28. Psal 124.1 2. and 126.1 Psal 136. penned for a recorded publike forme to praise God among the multitude Psal 109.20 and in the great Congregation Psal 22.22 25. David would go into the presses of people and there praise the Lord Psal 116.18
There the 〈…〉 or 〈◊〉 as do their cruell creditors and hard task-masters There that is in the state of the dead whether by land or sea the 〈◊〉 or 〈…〉 the miserable captives â—est such as were those poor Christians shut up so close by Barbâ—rusâ—a the Turkish Generall returning toward Constantinople under hatches among the excrements of nature that all the way as he went Turk hist 750. almost every houre some of them were cast dead over-board Such were many of the Martyrs kept fast shut up â—n â—ollards Tower in the Bishop of London cole-house a dark and ugly prison said Mr. Philpot as any is about London but I thank the Lord I am not alone but have six other faithfull companions who in our darknesse do lightsomely sing Psalms and praises to God for his great goodnesse Acts Mon. 1669 1670. but especially for this that I am so near the apprehension of eternall blisse God forgive me mine unthankfulnesse and unworthinesse of so great glory What pitifull hard usage Gods poor prisoners met with in the late troubles at Oxford especially from which death God graciously delivered me when I was in their hands and in the Western parts pag. 38. see Mr. Râ—nas Sermon called Jâ—b in the West where he compareth the enemies cruelty to that of the American Cannâ—bals who when they take a prisoner seed upon him alive and by degrees to the unutterable aggravation of his horrour and torment They hear not the â—ice of the oppressors Their harsh and hard speeches Jude 15. that were as a murthering weapon in the poor prisoners bones Psal 42.10 Send me back to my frogs and toads again where I may pray for you conversion said one of the Martyrs to his raiâ—â—g adversaries Art thou come thou villain how darest thou look me in the face for shame said Sâ—even Gâ—râ—iner to Dr. Tayloâ— the Martyrâ— who told him his own freely Acts Mon. but fairely for the spirit of grace is 〈…〉 Est autem Saranâ— poctus 〈…〉 saith Luthex the divell and his agents are bitter railers fetching their words as farre as hell to breaâ— the hearts of Gods prisoners Psalm 69.20 But besides that they have their cordiall of a good conscience by them 2 Cor. 1.12 in the grâ—ve they heare not the voice of the oppressor nor the barking of these dead dogs any more Verse 19. The small and the great are there In Calvary are sculls of all sizes say the Hebrewes Stat sun cuique dies It is appointed for all once to die Virg. Aeneid lib. 10. be they great or small low or high Mors sceptra liganibus aequat death makes no difference Kings and captives Lords and losels come then under an equall parity death takes away all distinctions William the Conquerours corps lay unburied three dayes his interment was hindred by one that claimed the ground to be his Daniel King Stephen was interred at Fever sham Monastery but since Speed 498. his body for the gain of the lead wherein it was coffined was cast into the river where at length it rested as did likewise the dead corps of Edward the fifth and his brother smothered in Speed 935. the Tower by Richard the third and cast into a place called the black deeps at the Thames mouth The servant is free from his Master Servant is a name of office he is not his own to dispose of but the masters instrument saith Aristotle and wholly his till he please to manumit him if he do not yet death will and by taking away his life give him his liberty his body resteth from all servile offices for a season howsoever and if with good will hee hath done service as to the Lord and not to men he shall receive of the Lord the reward of inheritance even a childs part Colos 4.24 Verse 20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Job hath not done yet though he had said more then enough of this matter but for want of the oyle of joy and gladnesse his doors move not without creaking his lips like rusty hinges open not without murmuring and complaining Good therefore is that counsel given by David Cease from anger and forsake wrath take up in time before it hath wholly leavened and sowred you fret not thy self in any wise to do evill Psal 37.8 Hee shall not chuse but do evil who is sick of the fret David had the sad experience of this when he had carted the Ark and thereupon God had made a breach upon Vzzah David was displeased saith the Text and how untowardly spake hee as if the fault were more in God then in himself though afterwards he came to a sight of his own error 1 Chron. 13.11 with 15.2 And so did Job no doubt when come to himself but here he proceeds to expresse his peevishnesse and impatience yea against God himself though not by name forsan sese cohibens ob bonae mentis reliquias saith Mercer out of his good respect to God which he still retained and calls for a reason why the miserable should be condemned to live since death would be much more welcome to them How apt are men to think there is no reason for that for which they can see no reason Verse 21. Which long for death and it cometh not The bitter in soul long for death those that are in paine or penury are apt to desire to be dispatch'd upon any terms and would freely pardon them they say that would give them their pasport But these for most part consider not the unsupportablenesse of the wrath to come that eternity of extremity in hell that death usually haleth at the heeles of it so that by death whereof they are so desirous they would but leap out of the frying-pan into the fire as Judas did they do as the asse in the fable who desired to die that he might be no more beaten at post mortem factus est tympanum but when he was dead he was made a drum-head of and so was ten times more laid on then ever in his life-time before And dig for it more then for hid treasures Covetousnesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-daring saith an Ancient and men for love of wealth will dig to hell light a candle at the divel as they say With such an eagernesse of desire do some that have little reason for it all things reckoned long and labour after death not to bee rid of sin or to bee with Christ as Phil. 1.23 but to bee freed from misery incumbent or impendent Thus Cato having first read Plato's book of the souls immortality laid violent hands on himselfe that hee might not fall into the hands of the conqueror Thus Adrian the Emperour having lain long sick and could get no help by Physicians but was the worse for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he complained at his death would gladly have slaine himselfe if those about him would have suffered
have been dumb because thou didst it But it is a faire step to perfection and victory when one can kisse Gods rod and say as Psalm 44.17 All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee nor declined from thy way Job was not without his impatiencies but being he was right for the maine and at length bewailed them God looked not upon him as he doth upon those refractaries who to their impatience adde impenitence and to their passive disobedience active That thou set test a watch over me That thou surroundest me with sorrowes and wilt not suffer me to die Psal 191. â—sal 141.3 Here Job should have set a better watch over his lips then thus boisterously to have blustered against God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be called to an account for his proceedings like the raging sea or unruly whirle-poole He should have considered that the best men have somewhat of the sea in them that must be bounded and somewhat of the whale that must be watched and kept under and that God never layes more upon a man then there is need though he may think otherwise Verse 13. When I say my bed shall comfort me The bed was the most proper and probable meanes of refreshment but it is not the bed that can give sleep nor the couch ease Creatures are not able of themselves to give out the comforts committed to them their common nature must be assisted with a special word of blessing or else they do us no good Man liveth not by bread only c. God maketh the merciful mans bed Psalm 41.3 So he giveth his beloved sleep quiet sleep Shena with an Aâ—eph quiescent Psal 127. He is the God of all mercies and the Father of all consolation 2 Cor. 1.3 It is he that shines through the creature which else is but as the aire without light Look now the aire lights us not without the Sun nor fuel heats us not without fire so neither can any man or means comfort or content us without God My couch shall ease my complains Heb. Shall lift up or take away viz. the burthen of my cares and griefe some part of my load at least but it fell out otherwise for Verse 14. Then thou skarest me with dreames Extremam tentationem describit saith Vatablus and the divel doubtless had a great hand in this business for it was within his commission and he would not neglect any part of it but Job taketh notice of none but God the chief agent and to him he applieth himself His providence is exercised even about dreams which in melancholy people fall out especially when they are sick to be oftentimes very horrid and hideous as that they fall down from some high place commit some capital offence are slain torn in pieces by divels c. Bishop Foliots terrible night-vision was before mentioned Richard the third after the murther of his two innocent Nephews and Charls the ninth of France after the Parisian massacre had such dreadful dreams that they became a terror to themselves and to all about them But to instance in better men Beza in vitae Calvin in the year of grace 1562 being sick of the gout dreamed that he heard a great noise of drums beaten up most vehemently as they use to be in warlike marches Pareus also Anno 1618 saw in a dream the City of Heidelberg set on fire in may places and the Prince Electors palace all on a light flame this he set down the next morning in his day-book and added these words O Deus clementissime averte sinistrum omen c. Such fearful dreams cause a sick sleep and a worse waking This Job complaineth of here Philip. Par. in vita Patris and yet more fully in the next words Verse 15. So that my soul chuseth strangling i. e. Quamvis durissimam sed praesentissimam mortem any violent or ignominious death so it were a speedy death Hippocrates telleth us that may have been so affrighted with dreams and apparitions that they have hanged themselves leaped into deep pits or otherwise made themselves away Let those that either have not been so terrified or so tempted or so deserted of God bless him for that mercy And death rather then life Heb. Rather then my bones that is any kind of death rather then such a body which is no nothing else but a bag of bones or then such rotten bones full of sores and ulcers he maketh mention of his bones because his pain had pierced as farre as his very bones the putrefaction had sunk down into his marrow Verse 16. I loath it I would not live alway I loath or abhor it that is my life or I loath them that is my bones verse 15. I would not live alway that is Aug. de civitato Dei l. 9. c. 10. long in this world and in this condition Plotinus the Philosopher held it a special mercy of God to men that they were mortal and did not alwaies live to labour under the miseries of this wretched life Caâ—o professed that if he might have his age renewed as the Eagles so that he might be made young again he would seriously refuse it Cic. Cato Major How much better might Job say thus sith the righteous hath hope in his death and might well take up that of the Poet. Vsque adeóne mori miserum est The dayes of the best are so full of evil both of sin and pain that it is good they are not fuller of dayes if they should have length of life added to heaps of sorrows and perpetuity with all their misery how miserable were they Christ promiseth it as a point of favour to his that the dayes of trouble should be shortned Matth. 24.22 and that he may put an end to the world he dispatcheth away the generations with all the convenient speed that may be Therefore let me alone Some read thus I cannot live for ever or very long Quod citò cessat deficit Mercer in Pagnin therefore let me alone that is give over afflicting me and let me go quietly to my grave Psalm 39.13 Here one well observeth that the world and time while they continue are alwaies ceasing and therefore have their denomination from this word which signifieth to cease For my dayes are vanity Hebel a puffe of wind or a bubble on the water Mans body is a bubble his soul the wind that filleth it The bubble riseth higher and higher till at last it breaketh so doth the body rise from infancy to youth from youth to age c. till at length it cracketh and dissolveth The life of man is a vain life This Job often beats upon and why see the Note on ver 7. Verse 17. What is man that thou shouldst magnify him i. e. make so much adoe about him or look upon him as a fit match for the great God to grapple with Psalm 14.3 or to take care of his
upon him as silver and although he now crushed him together and brake him to pieces as the silver-smith doth an old piece of plate which he means to melt yet that he would in the grave as in a furnace refine him and at the Resurrection bring him out of a new fashion Lo this is the right Logick of faith to make conclusions of life in death and of light in darknesse to gather one contrary out of another Verse 16. For now thou numbrest my steps Or But now thou numbrest c. thou keepest an exact account of every sin of mine of every step that I have trod awry yea though it be but some wry motion of my mind as the Septuagint here translate so curious art thou and critical in thine observations of mine out-strayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See chap. 10.14 But is this Job that speaketh or some other How confident was he 〈◊〉 while and comfortable in the hope of a glorious resurrection but now down again upon all four as we say and like an aguish man in a great fit of impatiency which holdeth him to the end of the chapter But for this who knoweth not that every new man is two men that in the Saints the flesh is ever lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh that in the Shulamite is as it were the company of two armies maintaining a continual contest Cant. 0.13 â—said I am cast out of they sight yet I will look againe toward thine holy Temple Jon. 2.4 See the Note there Dost thou not watch over my sin This is the same with the former but without a figure The Rabbines have a saying that there is not any doubt in the law but may be resolved by the context the Scripture is its owne best Interpreter Verse 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag As the writings or informations of a processe which is ready to be sentenced Deut. 32.34 Hos 13.12 Thou hast as it were sealed up and made sure work with all my sins saith Job to have them forth-coming for the increase of my punishment Look how the Clark of Assizes saith one seals up the indictments of men and at the Assizes brings his bag and takes them out to read the same against them so God dealt with Job in his conceit at least The truth is God had not sealed his transgressions in a bag but had cast them behind his back a bag God hath for mens sins and a bottle he hath for their tears Psalm 56.8 Now Job was one of those penitents that helped to fill Gods bottle and therefore he saw at length though now he were benighted all his sins bag and all thrown into the sea and sinking as a waighty milstone in those mighty waters of free-grace and undeserved mercy And thou sowest up mine iniquity Adsuèsne aliquid iniquitati meae so the Tigurines translate i. e. Wilt thou sew or adde any thing to mine iniquity wilt thou tye to it that tag as a Martyr phraseth it of the Lawes malediction conjoyning the punishment to the sin Adsuere ad iniquitatem est poenas poenis continenter adjungere Merl. Some make this an explication of the former q. d. the bag is not only sealed but for more surety sewed too and that purposely for a purchase of punishment as some sense it Verse 18. And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought q. d. If thou Lord proceed to deal thus rigidly with me viz. to number or cipher up my steps to watch over my sins to seal them up in a bag c. and all this in fierce wrath that thou mayest lay load upon me what mountain what rock what other creature is ever able to abide it chap. 6.12 chap. 7.12 Job had said before Is my strength the strength of stones Am I a sea or a whale Were I these or any the like robustuous creatures yet could not I expect to stand before the displeased Omnipotency who takest the hills like tennis-balls and crackest the rocks like a Nut-shell See Hab. 1.4 5 6. with the Notes And the rock is removed out of his place As in earth-quakes it sometimes falleth out See on chap. 9.5 or by reason of the sea underlaking it decayeth in time and waxeth old as the Hebrew word signifieth Verse 19. The waters weare the stones Gutta cavat lapidem c. the weakest things wear out the hardest by often falling upon them or continual running over them so doth Gods wrath though let out in minnums secretly but surely consume Hos 5.12 I will be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the house of Judah as rottennesse or that little worm teredo that eats into the heart of wood and rots it Thus he plagued the Egyptians by lice and flies There may be much poison in little drops Thou washest away the things that grow out of the earth Or Thou ever-flowest as once in the general deluge when the face of the earth was grown so foul that God was forc'd to wash it with a flood and frequently since we see that after great rains there are huge floods that marre whole meadows and corne fields not only discolouring but drowning all their beauty and plenty This is the fourth comparison used in this and the former verse where a man would wonder saith an Interpreter Olymp. audire Jobum in medus â—rumuis philosophantem to hear Job in the midst of his miseries making use of his philosophy and travelling thus in his thoughts for illustrations of his own case over mountains and rocks c. Thou destroyest the hope of man viz. In destroying the things above-mentioned or so thou destroyest c. though some reserve the raddition to the next verâ—â— so Thou prevailest against him c. i.e. So thou never ceasest with thy might to cast down sorry men till such time as they changing countenance and departing with an heavy and sorrowful heart thou violently throwest them out their lives and hope ending together if they have been wicked as if godly yet their vain and groundlesse hopes of prosperity and plenty c. come to nothing though over the red sea yet Gods people may be made to tack about two and forty times in the wildernesse Verse 20. Thou prevailest for ever against him This and the rest of the words to the end of the Chapter some make to be the Application of the Similitudes Others an Amplification only of what he had said Thou destroyest the hope of man Thou must needs when thou overmatchest and over-masterest him and art never worsted Exod. 15.3 the Lord is called A Man of War the Chaldee there hath it The Lord and Victor of Wars And the word here rendred Ever cometh from a root that signifieth to finish conquer and triumph And he passeth scil Out of the world by a violent or untimely death Violenâ—â— mortâ— aut certe immaturà Merlin with as ill a will many times as the unjust Steward did out
of his Office as the Jebusites did out of the Fort of Zion or as the Devil out of the Demoniack Sâ—d voluntas Dei necessitâ—s rei he passeth because he can neither will nor chuse as they say Thou changest his countenance and sendest him away Eleganter vero mors notatur immutandi verbo saith one Elegant is death set forth by changing the countenance for death taketh away the faire and fresh colour of a man and makes him look wan and withered pale and ghastly It is easâ—e to see death many times before it come in the sick manâ—face in his sharp nostrils thin cheeks hollow eyes c. Facies Hippocratica those Harbingers of death whereby God sendeth for him and so sendeth him away extrudit amandet as once he did Adam out of Paradise Lavaters Note here is Propone tihi semper horribileus speciem mortis ut eò minus pecces Set before thy self alwayes the horrid face of death to restraine thee from sin Verse 21. His sons come to honour and he knoweth it not Whilst he lyeth sick Omnis in Ascanio chari statcura parentis Vir. he regardeth no earthly thing no not what becometh of his children formerly his greatest care whether they be advanced or impaired in their outward condition As when he is dead he can take no knowledge of any thing done in this world Isai 63.16 Eccles 2.19 and 96. be his children or friends rich or poor high or low he is both ignorant and insensible It was a base slander published by a Jesuit some years after Queen Elizabeths death That as she died without sense or feeling of Gods mercies Cambd. Eliz. Prefat so that she wished she might after her death hang a while in the Aire to see what striving would be for her Kingdome As for that opinion of some Papists That the dead do sometimes returne into the Land of the living that they know how things go here and make report thereof to those in heaven it is contrary to the whole Scripture Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain That is say some But as long as he is living his body is afflicted with a thousand evils and though his soul by the condition of her creation be exempt from them yet she beares a part in them and becomes miserable with it A dying man hath sorrow without and sorrow within the whole man is in misery as Job here felt himself Others hold Aben-Ezra Mercer Deodate that this Poetical representation hath no other meaning but that the dead have no manner of communication with the living Broughtou rendreth it His flesh is grieved for it self and his soul will mourn for it self q.d. he takes no thought or care for his children or neerest relations CHAP. XV. Verse 1. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanice and said LApides locutus est In this second encounter Eliphaz falls upon Job not so much with stronger Arguments as with harder words reproving him sharply or rather reproaching him bitterly Facundiâ quadam caninâ with more Eloquence then charity So hard a thing is it saith Beza espetially in disputing and reasoning to avoid self-love as even in these times experience daily teacheth us He hinteth I suppose at the publick Conference betwixt himself and Jacobus Andreas at Mompelgard Lib. 35. Hist whereby the strife was rather stirred then stinted as Thuanus complaineth Or else at the Disputation at Possiacum wherein Beza Speaker for the Protestant party Hist of Counc of Trent 453. before the Queen Mother of France the young King Charles and many Princes of the Blood entring into the matter of the Eucharist spake with such heat unlesse the Historian wrongs him that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own side so that he was commanded to conclude Such meetings are seldome successeful saith Luther because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather then verity In this reply of Eliphaz to Job we may see what an evil thing it is to be carried away with prejudice and pertinacy which make a man forget all modesty and fall foule upon his best friends Here 's enough said to have driven this sorrowful man into utter despaire had not God upheld his spirit whiles he is fiercely charged for a wicked man Non affert ullaâ—â— consolationem non invitat eum ad panitentiam sed potiâ—â— ad desperationem complelas Lav. and hated of God neither doth any of his friends henceforth afford him one exhortation to repentance or one comfortable promise as Lavater well observeth Verse 2. Should a wise man utter vain knowledg Heb. Knowledg of the wind light frothy empty discourses that have no tack or substance in them but only words that are no better then wind a meer flash or Aiery nothing Solomon thinks a wise man should beware of falling into this fault lest he forfeit his reputation Eccles 10.1 Dead flyes cause the Oyntments of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour as spots are soonest observed in the whitest and finest garments and envy like wormes and moths doth usually feed on the purest cloth Neh. 6.11 A great many dead flies may be found in a Tar-box and no hurt done but one of them falne into a pot of sweet Odours or precious Perfumes may soone taint and corrupt them And fil his belly with the East-wind Per ventrem mentem intellige per ventum Orientalem vanam opinionem saith Vatablus By belly understand the mind and by the East wind a vain conceit or frothy knowledg blown forth out of a swelling breast to the hurt of others for the East wind is destructive to herbs and fruits Hos 12.1 Gen. 41.6 But doth not Eliphaz here by these bubble of words and blustering questions betraying much choler and confidence fall into the very same fault which he findeth with Job Doth not he also fill his belly with heat so the Vulgar rendreth this Text which kindling in his bosom blazeth out at his lips Doth not this angry man exalt folly and shew himself none of the wisest though he were the oldest in all the company Verse 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk Why But if he do should he therefore be thus rippled up and rough-hewed And not rather reduced and rectified with hard Arguments and soft words Man is a cross crabbed creature Duci vult trahi non vult Perswade him you may compel him you cannot A fit time also must be taken to perswade him to better for else you may loose your sweet words upon him The Husbandman soweth not in a storm The Mariner hoyseth not sail in every wind Good Physicians evacuate not the body in extremity of heat and cold A brother offendâ—d is harder to be 〈…〉 a strong City Prov. 18.19 This Eliphaz should have considered and not so rashly censured Job for a fool and his talk for trash but
fugitivus Tertul. as Cain that Caitiff and those Hivites with their hornets of a clamorous conscience worse to them then if their bodies had been tormented with stings or torn with stripes Exod. 23.28 What a sound of terrour in their ears frighted those Syrians 2 Kings 7.6 And those Persians and Saracenâ— overcome by Theodosius Panice terrore incusso saith the Historian afraid of their own shadowes they desperately cast themselves into the River Euphrates and there perished above an hundred thousand of them Auno Dom. 394. Fusic The wicked flyeth when none pursueth Prov. 28.1 The sound of a shaken leaf chaseth him Lev. 26.36 when the righteous is bold as a Lion and not dismayed at evil tidings Psal 112.7 His heart is balanced with the fear of God and thence it is that he floateth steddily blow what wind it will he sailes to the Port stormes and tempests do but beat him into it In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him Heb. In peace when he shal say Peace and safety 1 Thes 5.3 When he is at the highest he shall be destroyed Dan. 4.30 31. In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits Job 20.22 his short Spring shall have an eternal Winter Psal 92.7 Vltimus sanitat is gradut est morbo proximus say Physicians the utmost degree of health is nearest to sickness so the wicked when nearest misery have greatest prosperity Verse 22. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness He despondeth and despaireth of a better condition sighing out that doalful ditty Desperat qui summus est diffidentiae greadus Jun. Spes fortuna valete he looks for no further light and delight of former comforts he knowes that they that go down into the dark pit cannot hope for Gods truth Isas 38.18 There being left them neither hope of better nor place of worse And he is waited for of the sword Or looked upon by the sword which waiteth as it were an opportunity to slay him Circumspectans undique gladium so the Vulgar He looketh this way and that way as fearing the Murderer his guilt representing to him on all sides nothing but naked swords he believeth that they will assassine him in his bed This was the case of Saul who suspected his best servants of Dionysius the Tyrant who durst not trust his own daughter with his throat Of Alexander Pheraeus who would not go to bed to his wife Thebe whom he loved Tul. Offic. lib. 2. till he had first searched the room and her pocket for edge-tools Dan. Hist 249. Of Richard the third who after the death of his two innocent Nephewes had fearful dreames and apprehensions insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark and catching his sword which alway naked stuck by his side he did go distractedly about the Chamber every where seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet saith the Chronologer Tiberius felt the remorse of conscience so violent Tacit. that he protested to the Senate that he suffered death daily through fear of death whereupon the Historian maketh this profitable Observation Tandem faâ—inora fâ—agitia in supplicium vertuntur Heinous sins will at length have heavy punishments Verse 23. He wandreth abroad for bread saying Where is it He is hard put to it for necessaries and would be glad of a piece of bread as 1 Sam. 25.36 Herodot This was the case of Pythias once so rich that he entertained a million of men even Xerxâ—s his whole huge Hoste for three dayes space at his own proper charge but afterwards so poor that he dyed through hunger And the like befell Gillimer King of Vandales of whom it is storied that being overcome and beleagured by Bellisarius he sent to him for a Sponge to dry his tears a Cittern to ease his grief and a piece of bread to save his life Bellisarius himself was afterwards glad to beg his bread And Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany after ten years Raign was desposed and driven to the like exigent whereupon he is said to have made use of those words of Job chap. 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me And there is no doubt but Eliphaz glanceth at Job in all these expressions as if he were the man whom he here describeth with much Eloquence but small charity He knoweth that the day of darknesse is ready at his hand His conscience telleth him that he is not yet at worst he knowes in himself say the Septuagint that further evil shall be upon him that his misery is inevitable and at next door by and this knowledg being ful of feare is also full of torment it is even hell afore hand and above ground Verse 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid Or Scare him not only out of his comforts Mentis inops moritur Epist Hist Gal. Plut. but out of his wits and senses too as it did Charles the great Cardinal of Lorrain See Deut. 28.34 Tullus Hostilius the third King of Romans deriding the Religion of his Predecessour Numa as that which did emasculate mens minds was afterwards so terrified that he set up and worshipped two new gods viz Pavorem Pallorem Trouble and anguish which he had perpetually present with him as Lactantius reporteth What a pitiful agony Vitellius the Emperor was in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Vespasians Army marched toward Rome is notably set forth by Dio in his life Not long after that at the sack of Jerusalem some Jewes killed themselves left they should fall into the hands of Vespasians souldiers Hic rego non furor est ne moriare mori They shall prevail against him Or begirt him as a King is inviron'd in peace by his Guard in War by his Army Or They shall destroy him as a King ready to the battle doth his enemies forces which he routeth and ruineth Fear hath a deadly force upon feeble spirits neither is it nay wonder that they ring their bells backward when things begin once to be on fire Verse 25. For he stretcheth out his hand against God Worthy therefore to have a dead Palsie transfused into it or dryed up as Jeroboams was when but stretched out against a Prophet and as Valens the Emperors hand was made unable to hold a pen when he would have subscribed a Warrant for the banishing of Basit Such a Giant-like generation there are to this day among men as face the heavens cast down the gantlet against God Erecto collo valido impetu arrogantiâ incurvi cervicâ saith Brentius upon the Text with stiff necks full force and insufferable insolence as it were on purpose to crosse the Almighty and to wrestle a fall with him they sin with an high hand Levit. 26.21 Numb 15.30 and do as wickedly as they can Jer. 3.5 yea with both hands earnestly Mich 7.3 Persecuting his
Devil with a Writ of Habeas animam when the cold earth must have his body and hot hell hold his soul according to that of the Psalmist Let death seizâ— upon them and let them go down quick into hell for wickednesse is in their dwellings and among them Psal 55.17 The sad forethought hereof causeth many unutterable griefs and gripings perplexities of spirit and convulsions of soul a very hell above ground and a foretaste of eternal torments The word here rendred terror signifieth utmost affrightments such as put a man well nigh out of his wits and distract him R. Solomon understandeth it of devils others of furies such as the Poets fain Most certain it is Cic. Orat. pro Rosc Amer. that a body is not so tormented with stings or torn with stripes as a mind with remembrance of wicked actions and fear of future evils And shall drive him to his feet As they did Cain that Caitiff Qui factus est à corde sâ—â— fugitivus Tertul. who would fain have fled from his own conscience if he could have known whither and became a Fugitive and a Vagabond upon the earth Gen. 4.12 seeking to outrun his terrors which yet dogged him hard at the heels They shal presse him at his feet so Broughton readeth this Text. Verse 12. Fit famelicum robur ejus His strength shall be hunger-bitten Heb. His strength or wealth shal be famine Or Famine shall be his strength He who whilom having health and wealth at will fared deliciously and gathered strength shall be hunger-starved and hardly have prisoners pittance so much only as will neither keep him alive nor suffer him to dye See 1 Sam. 2.5.36 'T is as much faith Brentius as we use to say of an extreme poore or feeble person his wealth is poverty his strength weaknesse And destruction shall be ready at his side i.e. Shall suddenly and inevitably seize upon him there will be no running away from it for can a man run from his side The word signifieth not an ordinary calamity but a dreadful and direful destruction Some understand it of the Plurisie or Vlcers in the side of a man Others of ribrost as they call it tortures inflicted on condemned persons as Heb. 11.34 who are beaten with bats Verse 13. It shall devour the strength of his skin i.e. his bones which support his skin these destruction shall devour or swallow up at a bit as an hungry Monster The first born of death shall devour his strength i.e. The Devil say some that Destroyer Rev. 9.11 that old Man-slayer John 8.44 Prince of death Heb. 2.14 as Christ is called Prince of Life Act. 3.15 and first born of death as Christ is the first born of the Resurrection Col. 1.18 Others understand it De cruentissima at funestissima morte of the most tragick and cruel kind of death See Isai 14.30 Broughton readeth it A strange death shall cat the branches of his body judgments shal come upon thee in their perfection saith God to Babylon Isai 47.9 Verse 14. And his confidence shall be rooted out of his Tabernacle Whatsoever he trusteth in about his house shall be pulled up by the roots or grub'd up Thus it befel Doeg Psal 52.7 And this disappointment this broken confidence of his shall bring him or make him go to the King of terrors i.e. to death that most terrible of terribles Aristot as the Philosopher calleth it Or the Devil as R. Solomon interpreteth it that black Prince Eph. 6.12 to whom wicked men are brought by death which to them is not only Natures Slaughterman but Gods curse and hels Purveyour hence Rev. 6 8. death haleth hell at the heels of it Verse 15. It shall dwell in his Tabernacles because it is none of his Heb. Not his for why the King of terrors hath turned him out of it and taken it up for an habitation for himself Some render it thus nothing or have nothing that is want shall dwell in his Tabernacle his house shall be replenished with emptinesse scarcity shall be the furniture of his habitation Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation As is also threatned Psal 11.6 And as was executed upon Sodom and her sifters as also upon Dioclesian the Tyrant who giving over his Empire Euseb de Vita Const lib. 5 decreed to lead the rest of his life quietly But he escaped not so for after that his house was wholly consumed with lightening and a flame of fire that fell from heaven not without a sulphurous smell he hiding himself for fear of the lightning dyed within a little after Verse 16. His roots shall be dryed up beneath c. The meaning is saith Dâ—odate he shall be deprived of Gods grace which is the root of all happinesse and of his blessing which is the top of it Verse 17. His remembrance shall perish from the earth As a tree when root and branch is gone is clean forgotten and no man remembreth where it grew so shall it be with the wicked Mercer Non celebrabitur ejus nomon fama nise in malum Eccles 8. 10. It is reckoned as a great benefit to a wicked man to have his memory dye with him which if it be preserved stinks in keeping and remains as a curse and perpetual disgrace And he shall have no name i.e. no honourable Name no renowne A good name only is a name Eccles 7.1 as a good wife only is a wife Prov. 18.22 Every married woman is not a wife Zillah Lamechs wife was but the shadow of a wife as her name also signifieth In like sort those only have a name in the streets or publick places who are talked of for good as the Martyrs who have left their names for a blessing Isai 65.15 when as their wretched Persecutors have left a vile snuff behind their Lamps being put out in obscurity Verse 18. He shall be driven out of light into darknesse Heb. They shall drive him scil the devils shall drive him out of the light of life into outer darknesse as they did that rich wretch Luke 12.20 confer Mat. 8.12 and 25.30 The Dutch Translation readeth it Men shall drive him Others understand it of his troubles and sorrowes And chased out of the world As Tarquin was by Collatine as Phâ—â—as was by Heraclius kickt off the stage of the world as one phraseth it or as Job saith of some wicked buried before half dead chap. 27.15 Men shall chap their hands at him and shal hiss him out of his place verse 23. Verse 19. he shall neither have son nor Nephew c. A sore affliction to be written childlesse which yet is the portion of some good people as Abel many Prophets and Apostles for whose comfort that is written Isai 56.4.5 God as he will be to his childlesse children better then ten sons so he will give them in his house 1 Sam. 1.8 Isal 96.5 and within his wals a place and a name better then
in the dark cast into straits inextricable plunged into sorrowes inexplicable and yet all these are but the beginning of sorrows For How oft cometh destruction upon them Utmost destruction irresistible ruine that comes on in manner of a black cloud or fierce storme undoing calamity overflowing scourge a tempest from which there is no covert The Vulgar renders it thus How oft is there an inundation upon the wicked God distributeth sorrowes in his anger Gives them their lot of greatest sorrowes as by a line Luke 12.46 such sorrowes as a travelling woman suffereth Spec. bell sac or such as were those of Monsieur Mylius an ancient Minister at Heidelberg when taken by the Spaniard first they abused his daughter before his eyes and then they tyed a small cord about his head which with truncheons they wreathed about till they squeezed out his braines The Text implyeth that though in this world many sorrowes are to the wicked yet these are no supersedias to their sufferings in hell Psal 32.10 but now they receive only a small portion or part of their punishments there they shall be paid to the full here they sip of the top only of Gods cup there they shall suck up the dregs thereof though they have eternity to the bottom This shall be the portion of their cup and but a portion Psal 11.6 Verse 18. They are as stubble before the wind Lest any man should say How can these things befal those that are so strongly set firmly built Well enough saith Job sith when they are best bottomed or underlaid they are but as stubble before the wind c. Haec consideranda saith Mercer these things would be laid to heart for hereby it appeareth that the wicked shall be destroyed suddenly and certainly certò citò penitus Isai 17.13 That they can no more stand before a punishing God then thistle-down before a whirle-wind or a glasse-bottle before a Cannon-shot Verse 19. God layeth up his iniquity for his children that is the punishment of his iniquity whilst he visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him Exod. 20.5 Neither doth this contradict that of the Prophet Ezekiel The son shall not dye for the iniquity of his farher chap. 18.17 Nor that of the Apostle Every man shall bear his own burden Gal. 5.6 for the meaning of those worlds is that no man be damned for the sin of his father nor one man for the sin of another unlesse by commission or approbation or some way or other he make it his own But for temporal punishments there is none but by occasion of others sins may have their portion in them and wicked parents leave Jobs Legacy to their children see 2 Sam. 3.29 yea though they prove to be good children 1 King 14.12 13. for whom God layeth up their parents iniquity in the treasures of his justice to be produced in due time He rewardeth him For every transgression and disobedience that is every Commission and Omission receiveth a just recompence of reward Heb 2.2 God will abate him nothing And he shall know it Know it to his cost Vexation shall give understanding he that before this judgement came would know nothing of the bitter effect of sin upon him and his now hath his eyes forced open as the blind Mole is said to have by the pangs of death and cryes out with the Lyon in the snare Si prascivissem Oh! if I had foreknown the mischief c. The wicked are wise too late the fool passeth on and is punished he knows not the evil of sin till he feels it Verse 20. His eyes shall see his destruction His slaughter saith the Greek his breaking to pieces saith the Chaldee this he shall see with his eyes the destruction of his person and ruine of his Family The sight of evil is a grief to see as well as the feeling of it is a pain and that 's complete destruction which is not only felt but seen Zedekiah first saw all his children slain and then had his eyes put out Mauricâ—us had the like woful sight and then was stewed in his own broth by the Traytor Phâ—â—as And he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty Heb. The scalding hot wrath worse than that Cup of boyling Lead turned down the throat of a certain drunken man by the command of the Turkish Bashaw Jerusalem drank wrath to drunkenness and had none to guide her as a drunken man had need to have Isa 51.17 The Nations were to drink it to madness Jer. 25.10 Babylons brats shall drink of the wine of God's wrath Rev. 14.10 Poyson in wine works more furiously than in water their irreparable ruine is set forth to the eye as it were when Rev. 18.21 an Angel a mighty Angel taketh a stone a great stone even a milstone which he casteth and with impetuous force thrusteth into the bottom of the sea whence it cannot be buoyed up Now what is a mighty Angel to the Almighty God who hath his Name Shaddai from destroying as some are of opinion Verse 21. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him Hoc est Omnia impiorum etiam post mortem eorum maledicta erunt saith Brentius All that belongs to the wicked shall be accursed even after their death though some are so desperately set upon wickeness that they will have their swinge whatsoever come of it either to themselves or their children after them Sic fere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt improbi so unnatural they are many of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sueton de Tâ—berio that so they may satisfie their own sinful and sensual desires let their posterity sink or swim let them shift as they can they care not Dives in Hell seemed somewhat careful of his brethren but self-love moved him to it for he knew well that if they were damned he should be double damned because they had sinned by his example and encouragement When the number of his months shall be cut off in the midst Mortis periphrasis that is when he shall die saith one But that 's not all Impius moritur importunè The wicked dieth in an ill time for himself then when it were better for him to do any thing then to die Many of them live not out half their dayes Psal 55.25 Eccles 7.17 God cut off Elies two sons in one day and further threatned their father that there should not be an old man left in his house for ever 1 Sam. 2.32 Hezekiah when he thought he should die complained that he had cut off his life like a Weaver Esa 38.12 who cuts off the Web from the Thrum But the Saints such as he was die not till the best time not till that time when if they were rightly informed they would even desire to die Verse 22. Shall any teach God knowledge None but a presumptuous Fool will take upon him to do that such
any it is meerly because it stands in the light of their wicked wayes as the Angel did in Balaams way to his sin Nor abide in the paths thereof They have no stability Hos 6.3 nor settledness in well-doing They follow not on to know but soon give over the pursuit and practise of holiness not caring to adde to Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge c. 2 Pet. 1.3 Verse 14. The murderer rising with the light Betimes whiles it is yet darkish for here Job sheweth how those that do evil hate the light and take the fittest opportunities for a dispatch of the deeds of darkness daily digging descents down to Hell and hastening thereto as if they feared it would be full before they come thither They spend therefore the whole day in wicked pranks and practises proùt videtur commodum as shall seem best for their purposes interdin latrones nocte fures agunt By day they do what mischief they may in woods and desarts at night they return into the City and there play the theeves hoping to do it un-observed Bernard Thus every such one may better say then that Ancient did Totum tempus perdidi quia perdite vixi I have lost all my time by spending it loosely and basely I have been too faithful a drudge to the Devil whom Christ calleth a murthâ—rer Joh. 8. and Tertullian calleth Furem Veritatis a thief of the Truth Two notable Theeves of Naples Rain de Idol Rom. prafat whereof one was called Pater-noster and the other Ave-Maria had murthered an hundred and sixteen several persons at several times and in divers places These were worthily put to a cruel death by the Magistrate who possibly might by his connivence and slackness in doing his office be himself guilty of some of those murders sith to restrain justice is to support sin and not to correct is to consent to the Crime Hemingius maketh mention of a Felon who was indicted of seven murders while the Judge was studying what grievous punishment should be inflicted upon such a bloody villain an Advocate steps to the Bar and pleading for him proved That the Judge was guilty of six of the murders for thâ—â— the Felon was not put to death for the first offence Killeth the poor and needy Without Authority such as Magistrates have to kill Malefactors and Souldiers in a lawful Battel to kill their Enemies Sum Talbotti pro occidere inimicâ—s meos Speed this blunt boisterous sentence was written upon the renowned L. Talbots Sword whilest he warred in France and without any present necessity for his own lawful defence as Exod. 2.22 when he must either kill or be killed provided that he endeavour first to save himself by flight if possibly he can For that Tenet of Soto a Popish Casuist is the most false Quia fugs est ignominiosa That it is lawful for a man in his own defence to kill another because it is a shame to flie And that also of Navarrus that for a box on the ear it is not unlawful to kill another Ad bonor em recuper 〈◊〉 for the recovering of his honour And in the night is as a thief That is very thief for this as is magis expreâ—◠〈◊〉 veritatis as Mercer speaketh he would not seem to be but yet is an arrant thief ending the day with theft which he began with murder How these two sins go commonly coupled see Hos 4.2 and Isai 13.16 Verse 15. The eye also of the Adulterer waâ—teth Observeth expecteth and longeth till it cometh Vt videas illâ—m non precare infirmitate sed malitiâ saith Vatablus This sheweth that he sinneth not of infirmity but of forethought malice and wickednesse which he plotteth and ploweth as the Scripture phraseth it purveying for the flesh Quotidie perire me sentio Suer Rom 13. ult putrifying alive under a â—abe of impure lusts and daily perishing therein as Tiberius at Caprea by his own confession This beast was not ashamed of his detestable filthinesse as being a most impure and impudent defiler of other mens beds But the Adulterer here spoken of seeks the covert of the twilight and another of a disguise He putteth hu face in a secret place so the Hebrew hath it wrapping it in his cloak or getting on a Vizzard which saith he shall render me unknown and none eye shall see me For as for Gods eye either he conceits him blind or presumes him indulgent not doubting or an easie and speedy pardon This is charged upon David 2 Sam. 12.10 Because thou hast despised me c. viz. in thinking to sin secretly not considering mine All-seeing eye not caring though I looked on c. therefore shall all come to light verse 12. Sin secretly committed shall bee strangely discovered yea perhaps the sinner himselfe shall confesse his sinnes as Judas So sooner on later God wil bring every work into judgement with every secret thing Ecclesiasâ—es 12.14 See also Ecclesiasticus 23. Verse 16. In the dark they dig through the earth c. Heb. He digs through houses i.e. the Adulterer doth to come at his Strumpet with whom he had agreed upon a place of meeting for that evil purpose and in whose bosome by night the dark and black night as Solomon calleth it Prov. 7.9 he spareth not to bury his name substance soul and carcasse whilst they glut their unclean desires by the favour of the darknesse This is a bitternesse beyond that of death Eccles 7.26 But the divel presenteth his Butter in so Lordly a dish that the soul spies not the hammer and nail in his hand till he have driven it into the Temples Roger Mortimer who digged that hole at Notingham Castle and was afterwards hanged at Tiburn a just reward of his Ambition and Uncleannesse had the experience of this They know not the light i.e. They brook it not but run full butt against it because it discovereth and disquieteth them See on ver 13. Verse 17 For the morning is unto them as the shadow of death i.e. They are in deadly fear lest the light should bewray them and expose them to condigne punishment How fearful was Judah of being shamed after he had thus sinned Gen. 38.23 And how forward to save his credit by sending his Kid by the hand of that hang by Hiram Ter. in Eun. That young man in Terence was sore ashamed to be seen in the Eunuchs garment a token of his Uncleannesse whereas to have done the deed did nothing so much trouble him But the children of light hate and shun sin more for the filth that is in it then for the fire that is in it the blacknesse of that coal offendeth them more then the heat of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato condemneth the Poets for setting forth Jupiters Adulteries whereby the people were drawn to the like wantonnesse and for saying it were no matter though men did commit sin so they could hide it
goodnesse Surely all the good that is in the Creature is but a spark of his flame a drop of his Ocean Verse 4 How then can man be justified with God Homo frivolus so the Tygurines translate How can frivolous man sorry man Morbis mortique obnoxius Man subject to diseases and death how can such a man so mortal and miserable a masse of Mortalities a Map of miseries a very mixture and compound of dirt and sin be justified with God How can he be perfect of himself without the gift of grace without an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Just One who alone is the propitiation for our sins 1 John 2.2 Rom. 3.25 who is made unto us of God wisdome righteousnesse c. 1 Cor. 1.30 Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman And therefore born in sin and under a curse the sign whereof appeares in the womans bearing and bringing forth Gen. 3.6 Our whole Nativity is impure Hence in the Law it is commanded that the woman should be unclean seven dayes that the child should be circumcised on the eighth day and that the mother should remain three and thirty dayes in the blood of her Purification Levit. 13. for by Nature we are all children of wrath and That which is born of the flesh is flesh Neither can any one bring a clean thing out of an unclean Chap. 14.4 See the Note there Surely as a slave begetteth a slave so doth a sinner beget a sinner Hence we are loathsome to God as a toad is to us because poison is in the nature of it Infantes ergo non sunt insonâ—es Infants are not Innocents though we commonly call them so because free from actual sin they having not yet sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression as the Apostle expresseth it Rom. 5.14 But the first sheet or blanket wherein they are covered is woven of sin shame blood and filth as may be seen Ezek. 16.4 6 This should teach us modesty and lowly-mindednesse Vnde superbit homo cujus conceptiâ— turpis Verse 5. Behold even to the Moon and it shineth not i.e. Either descend in thy thoughts from the highest Orbs as low as the Moon Or else ascend from Gold Gems Jewels and other Orient resplendent Creatures as high as the Moon and Stars and comparing them with the surpassing Majesty of God thou shalt find no more beauty or brightnesse in them then is in a lump of earth or clod of clay those heavenly Lights will appear to be as so many snuffs Or if thou canst discover no spots and blemishes in them yet God can without the help of any such Perspective Glasses as Galiâ—â—aeus gat him to discry mountains in the Moon Some think it was by Moon light that this speech was uttered and therefore the Moon is mentioned But as the Moon is confounded so the Sun also is ashamed when the Lord of hostes wil display the beams of his glory Mr. Abbot Isai 24.23 and 60.19 There is a Learned Interpreter who thus paraphraseth the Text Consider that by reason of the Fal of man the very creatures that in themselves are sinlesse yea the very Moon and Stars that are so far from earth and so neer to heaven have contracted defilement and are blemished so that with God for mans sake and by mans sin even they are not accounted free from pollution in his sight Thus he The visible heavens are defiled by our sins and must therefore be purged by the fire of the last day as of old the Vessel that held the Sinne-Offering was to be broken if earthen or to passe the fire if of better Metal Yea the Stars are not pure in his sight What ever they are in ours A thing that I see in the night may shine and that shining proceed from nothing but rottennesse There is a comparative imperfection and impurity in the Stars and Angels chap. 4.18 Verse 6. How much lesse man that is a worm He saith not as a worm but a worm it self So Psal 22. I am a worm and no man nullificumen hominis as Tertullian somewhere phraseth it Vermis parvus in carnc out caseo nascent Exod 16.24 David in the Arabick signifieth a worm saith One to which he may seem in that Psalm to allude The word here rendred a worm signifieth a small worm bred in cheese or flesh a Mite a Maggot Others say it signifieth rottennesse which hath no strength Hereby man convinced of his infirmity vanity and impurity should learne Virium suarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agnoscere to give glory to God and to take shame to himself And the Son of man which is a worm Lumbricus quo vix quidquam contemptius nominari potest So vile and abject a creature is man The greater is Gods mercy to look upon such a walking dunghil Learn hereby to know God and thy self which is the highest point of heavenly wisdom CHAP. XXVI Verse 1. But Job answered and said BIldad had vexed him with his impertinencies and superfluous discourses of Gods Attributes as if Job had denied them or doubted of them which was far from him witness this Chapter He therefore rippleth up Bildad with a continued smart irony in the three next following verses letting loose the reines to his justly conceived grief and indignation and invading his adversary with these sharp questions by way of wonderment Verse 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power q.d. Full well hast thou done it surely See a like irony Mark 7.9 and 1 Cor. 4.8 10 Thou art a very goodly comforter and with a great deal of Wisdome thou hast framed thy discourse to my present necessity Thou lookest upon me as a poor forlorn strengthlesse fruitlesse creature Thou shouldst therefore have set thy self to support me and shore me up by uttering not only commoda sed accommoda things true and profitable but things fit and sutable to my distressed condition Thou hast spoken much of the Majesty and purity of Almighty God wherein I well accord thee but these are words of terror such as I can hardly bear Of strong Physick we say Quòd nec puero nec seni nec imbecillo sed robusto â—conveniat That it is not for children or old folks or weak ones but for the stronger sort it is not for every complexion and state So neither is every discourse for all sort of people It is a singular skill to be able to time a word Isai 50.4 and to set it upon its wheels Prov. 25.11 to declare unto a man his righteousness which not one of a thousand can tell how to do it like him Job 33.23 to seek to find out pleasant words such as have both goads and nailes in them Eccles 12.10 11. to prick them on to duty and to fasten them to the right as pales are to their railes to divide the Word of God aright 2 Tim. 2.25 and to give every one his portion in the due season
hath done them good Josh 24.20 their preservation proveth but a reservation Verse 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty viz. When trouble cometh upon him as in the former verse No this is Christianorum propria virtus a practise that none can skill of but Gods people saith Hierâ—me to rejoyce in tribulation and then to continue instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 for deliverance with some confidence grounded upon former experience Crâ—â— cuiâ—â— is inuncta est saith Bernard Together with the Crosse they have an unction from the Father annointed they are with that Oyle of gladnesse 1 Pet. 2.14 the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon â—heâ— and refresheth them amidst all their sorrowes and sufferings and hence their delight in the Almighty yea though he frown and lay upon them as he did upon Jâ—â— with his own bare hand Not so the hypocrite for why he hateth God an his heart as doth every evil-doer Bernard John 3.20 Est 〈◊〉 talium pâ—na Deus utpot◠〈◊〉 est â—t quid talibus am invisuâ— God is light and therefore hated as a punishment to such inanspicate night-birds He is holinesse but the hypocrite filthinesse as his name also importeth How thâ—n can be delight himself in the Almighty What complacency can there be where is such an â—tter contrariety They that love the Lord haâ—e evil Psal 81 2◠〈◊〉 so doth not any hypocrite leave it he may but not loath it Paâ—t with it he may as Jacob did with Benjamin lest otherwise he should starve or as 〈◊〉 with Michael lest he should lose his head but his heart is glued to it still he hath a months mind to be doing if he durst Finally He is without faith and therefore without joy and peace of conscience And as for his Spider-web of hope a little wind bloweth it down The world hath his heart and so the love of the Father cannot be in him 1 John 2.15 He leaneth upon the Lord and saith Is not the Lord amongst us Mic. 3.11 yet is he rootedin the delights of life Like as the Apricock tree leaneth against the wall but is fast rooted in the earth Will he alwayes â—all upon God Heb. Iâ— every time No nor scarce at any time Indeed as beggâ—rs have learned to 〈◊〉 so have some hypocrites to pray Isai 26.16 They have powred forth charm when thy chastening was upon them When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired after God Psal 78.34 But this was only a prayer of the flesh for â—ase and not of the Spirit for grace They spoke God fair as the Divel did Christ only to be rid of him Thus 〈◊〉 when on the rack roâ—â—ed out a consession and called for a Prayer Joaâ— in danger of death hangs on the hornes of the Altar The Captivated Jews fasted and prayed for seventy years to get off their thaines rather then their sins Zech. 7.5 which Daniel therefore reckoned lost labour chap â— 13. But many wiâ—â—â—d men though in prosperity they have some short-wishes such as was that of â—â—laâ—â—s Numb 23.10 wherewith compare that of David Psal 26.9 and see a difference or perhaps are able by strength of wit and one money to pray handsomely yet in adversity they set their mouthes against heaven 〈…〉 Wolves and howle upward they curse their King and their God and look upward saith Isaiah chap. 8.21 they murmure and mutiny as the Israelites in the wilderness they banne and blaspheme as did that Israelitish womans son Lev. 14.11 and Micahs mother Judg. 17.2 A Parrot may be taught to talk like a man Histories tell us of one at Rome that could repeat the whole Creed but let him be but beaten and he returnes to his own natural harsh voice So an hypocrite while all goes well with him may seem very devout at his Orisons but lay thy hand upon him saith Satan to God concerning Job presuming thereby to prove him an hypocrite and he will curse thee to thy face chap. 2.5 But say he be somewhat better conditioned as they call it and for a while pray to God for ease and help yet he will not pray alwayes he will not persevere in prayer follow on to pray wait upon God for an answer and be content to want it if God see good to deny it He cannot draw nigh to God with a true heart such a heart as is well satisfied if God may be glorified though himself be not gratified in full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Which is saith Brentius Orationis medulla the marrow of prayer Hence Saint James calleth it the prayer of faith chap. 5.15 Afflictions cause a Saint to seek out Gods Promise the Promise to seek Faith Faith to seek Prayer and prayer to find God to find him at length For he is a God that hideth himself Isai. 45.15 But what saith faith I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Isai 8.17 See this exemplified in the woman of Canaan who fetcht Christ out of his retiring room by the force of her faith Mark 7.24 and prayed on though denied She would not be said nay or set down either with silence or sad answers but shewed her self a woman of a well knit resolution such as could credere invisibilia sperare dilaia amare Deum se ostendentem contrarium as Luther speaketh Believe things invisible hope for things deferred and love God when he shewes himself most angry and opposite Now this the hypocrite who is an Infidel cannot skil of He is short spirited and cannot hold out in prayer cannot as our Saviour taught by that Parable Luke 18.1 alwayes pray and not faint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shrink back as sluggards do in work or Cowards in War Oratio est res ardua magni laboris saith Luther Prayer is a hard work and a man must tug at it and stick to it as Jacob did who wrestled and raised dust as the Hebrew word signifieth he held fast and hung on yea he held with his hands when his thigh was lamed Let me go saith God bespeaking his own liberty No thou shalt not saith Jacob until thou blesse me Lo such is the generation of them that seek God in sincerity of them that seek thy face this is Jacob Psal 24.6 One thing have 〈◊〉 desired of the Lord and that I will seâ—k after saith David Psal 27.4 If his suit had not been honest he would never have begun it But being so he will never give it over till he hath prevailed he will pray till he faint and then to it again Psal 119.81 82. Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 So doth not the hypocrite for want of an inward principle If God come not at a call he is out patience and ready to say with that profane Prince 2 Kings 6.33 Behold this evil is of the Lord and what should I wait
Verse 19 The Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it Of the Topaz see Plin. lib. 36. cap 8. It seemeth to have the lustre of Gold and purity of Chrystal and those agreeable mixtures of colours which make the purple of Kings The operations of this Stone are many and rare as Rueus sets them forth Lib. 2. cap. 9 Neither shall it be valued with pure gold Plato saith as much of moral wisdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Gold or Gem so glistereth And elsewhere he saith that if moral vertue could be beheld with mortal eyes mirificos sui amores excitaret it would wonderfully enamour men Aurelius the Emperour would say That he would not leave the knowledg he might learn in one houre for all the gold that he possessed Alphonsus King of Arragon professed That he would rather chuse to lose his Jewels then his Books his Kingdomes whereof he had many quam literas quas permodicas scire dicebat Val. Max. Christian 118 237 then that little Learning he had attained unto Many have been so taken with the study of the Mathematicks that they could have lived and dyed in it Vae igitur stupari nostro Leo Digges Wo then to the world because of wisdome This incomparable Wisdome of God in a mystery as the Apostle calleth it Haec quia prâ— vili sub pedibusque jacet Ovid Money is most mens study not without an horrible neglect of pietie which yet is the principal thing Prov. 3. and profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4.8 as that which hath the promise of both lives ibid. Now the Promises are exceeding great and precious things 2 Pet. 1.4 even the unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes 3.8 Such gold as cannot be too deer bought Matth. 13.44.46 nor too far fet no though so far as the Queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdome of Solomon and could have been content to have changed her throne for his footstool Sure it is she was no niggard but parted with abundance of precious things and sweet odours for that wisdome which she held and worthily far more sweet and precious then all her annual entradoes Sure it is that if the mountaines were Pearle the huge Rocks Rubies and the whole Globe a shining Chrysolite yet all this were nothing to the worth of the wisdome here commended How greatly bound then are Gods people to blesse his Name for communicating unto us this unvaluable treasure by his Word and Spirit 1 Cor. 2. Hath he not written for us excellent things in counsels and knowledge Prov. 22.20 hath he not made his Son that essential wisdome of his to become unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Should some earthly Prince give us a rich Ring off his finger wherein there were a Chrysolite a Saphire a Topaz or some other precious Stone how highly would we honour him and what would we not be ready to do or suffer for him And shall we not much more do so for God rich in mercy plenteous in goodnesse abundant in kindnesse and in truth who giveth us all things richly to enjoy O pray for that blessed sight Ephes 1.18 and 3.18 and reckon one grain of grace more worth then all the gold of Ophir one remnant of faith beyond all the gorgeous and gay attire in the world Verse 20. Whence then cometh wisdome c See the Note on verse 12. q. d. No where surely is she to be found but with God the fountain of wisdome vers 23. To seek her elsewhere is but laborious losse of time witnesse the Philosophers anxious but bootlesse disquisitions after the Summum Bonum the true blessedness of chief good about which there were eight several opinions and yet all out Verse 21. Maxima pars eorum quaescimus est 〈◊〉 pars corâ—m quae nescimus Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living As hath beene before set forth verse 13. They that see most into it see but in part and must needs say that the greatest part of their knowledg is the least part of their ignorance Something they know of his revealed will but nothing at all of his secret Whereunto we may add that there are many occult qualities in nature the reason whereof the wisest men undertand not And kept close from the fowles of the Aire Which yet fly very high and seem to touch the clouds of heaven as the Eagle which delighteth in high-flying Some wil have the Angels elsewhere set forth as winged creatures to be here meant who although they stand alwayes in Gods presence and see much of his Majesty yet not at all nothing neer Isai 6. they cover their faces with their wings as with a double scarf as not not able to behold his glory and make their addresses unto him with greatest self-abasements Verse 22. Destruction and death say c That is the dead in the grave and damned in hell Junius as some glosse it Others man in his corrupt estate though a child of death yet capable of salvation and the wisedome of God hath found out a way to save him by his Son letting in life by the car according to that Hear and your souls shall live The dead in sins and trespasses shall hear the voice of the Son of God in the preaching of the Word and shal live Vatabl. Isaiah 55.3 the life of grace here and of glory hereafter John 5.25 These have heard of Gods wisdome in his various dealings with the sons of men and that with their ears both with the gristles that grow on their heads and with the inward ears of their minds so that one sound hath pierced both but yet the one half hath not been told them they can truly say as the Queen of Shâ—ba said to Solomon Thou hast added Wisdome and goodnesse to the fame 1 Kings 10.7 And as David in the person of Christ Psal 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life whereby is hinted that Christ himself as man did not so fully understand in the daies of his flesh the unconceivable joies of heaven as he did afterwards when his whole person was glorified with the glory which as God he had with the Father before the world was John 17.5 Verse 23 God understandeth the way thereof The only wise God who alone knowes her price knowes her retreat Haec sunt inferni mortis verba saith Brentius These are the words of hell and of death But we may better take them as spoken by Job himself which yet are to be understood not as if Job thought that there was any place out of God where his wisdome might be sought or any way out of himself to go to it But these things are spoken after the manner of men saith Merlin for wisedome is in God yea God is wisdome it self For the wisdome of God is nothing else but the most wise God sith whatsoever is in God is God Therefore seeing he is well known to
and from above and from on high By all these expressions Job affecteth himself with the due apprehension of the divine Majesty that he may be wise and beware how he fall into the punishing hands of this living God The Lord your God saith Moses to the people is God of gods and Lord of lords a great God a mighty and a terrible Deut. 10.16 19. c. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts cut off and cast away that filthy foreskin shave your eye-brows as the Leper was to do pull out your right eyes c. So Joshua God saith he is an holy God he is a jealous God be will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins sc unless you will part with them though never so dear or delicious chap. 24.19 Verse 3. Is not destruction to the wicked yes that 's their portion their inheritance and so Job makes answer to his own question proposed in the verse aforegoing The ruine of impure souls is infallible unsupportable unavoidable if God hath aversion from all other sinners he hath hatred and horrour for the unchast such stinking goates shall be set on the left hand and sent to hell where they shall have so much the more of punishment as they had here of sensual and sinful pleasure as sowre sawce to their sweet meats Rev. 18.7 Not to speak of the miseries they meet with here which are not a sew in their souls hardness of heart or horrour of conscience in their bodies soul and lothsome diseases such as will stick to them when their best friends forsake them in their names indeleble reproach and infamy like an iron-mole which nothing can fetch out like the Leprosie which could never be scraped out of the walls in their estates poverty even to a piece of bread Prov. 6.26 Harlots are Poscinummia Crumenimulge suck-purses Luk. 15.14 In their posterity as Jericho was built so is uncleanness plagued bath in the oldest and youngest It goes through the race till it have wasted all Corpus â—pes animâ—n faman vim lumina Scortum Debilitat perdit necat anfert eripit what And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity Even such as is unusual and extraordinary as upon the Sodomites who going after strange flesh were thrown forth for an example as Juda hath it Verse 7. So those Benjamites Judg. 20. the Trojans the Lacedemonians at Lenctra Zimri and Cozbi Zedekiah and Ahab Jer. 29.22 Elies two sons Heraclius the Emperour Muleasses King of Tunes in Barbary bereft by his own son Amida another Absolom not of his Kingdom only but of his eyes too put out with a burning hoâ—iron those eyes of his that had been full of adultery and could not cease to sin In Hebrew the same word signifieth both an eye and a fountain to shew saith One that from the eye at a fountain floweth both sin and misery Verse 4. Doth he not see my wayes and count c yea sure he doth so and the conscience of Gods Omniscience who would soon take him tripping kept him from this great wickedness So it did Joseph but so it did not David who is therefore said to despise God and his commandement 2 Sam. 12.9 10. to do evil in his sight and this was no smal aggravation of his offence Ne peccar Dum ipsi vider I have seen the lewdness of thy whoredome Jer. 13.27 Even I know and am a witness saith the Lord Jer. 29.23 That should be a powerful retentive from 〈◊〉 Prov. 5.21 And count all my steps Doth not he cipher them up Hebeus 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 rate not my wayes only my counsels and cogitations but my steps also that is all mine outward attempts and actions A most needful and useful consideration 〈◊〉 to keep men within the compass of obedience See this doctrine of Gods singular providence plainly and plentifully set forth Psal 139.1 2 3 4. Verse 5. If I have walked with vanity As they do who disquiet themselves in vain in heaping up riches by evil arts by deceits and covin in bargaining by getting other mens means fraudmently c. The getting of treasures by an evil tongue or any the like indirect course is a vanity tossed so and fro of them that seek death Prov. 21.6 Eventually such do seek death though not intentionally they spin a fair thred to strangle themselves both temporally and eternally Such vain and vile wayes therefore Job carefully declined Furtum á Virg. vocatur inane Aencid 6. for he knew them to be both base and bootless Ephraim fed upon the wind the balances of deceit were in his hand if thereby he filled his purse with coyn yet he had emptiness in his soul Lucrum in arca damnum in conscientia filled he was with aire and that aire was pestilential too his breath and death he drew in together Job would none of that Or if my foot hath hasted to deceit If I have been nimble and active to go beyond and defraud another in any matter 1 Thess 4.6 which what is it else but crimen stellionatus the very sin of cozenage and this not only acted but arted after long trading in it as the words of walking and hasting seem to import Verse 6. Let me be weighed in an even balance Heb. Let him weigh me Examinet me saith Tremellius David with the like confidence Search me O God saith he Psa 139.23 24 and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me any course of sin that is grievous to God or man wherein I have walked or my foot hath hasted Job would not rest in his own hearts applause neither would he be borne down by his friends false charges but puts himself into Gods hands to be weighed and then makes no question but his present sufferings will be found heavier than his former miscarriages in his inter-dealings with men for matter of gain and that there is some other cause though what he knoweth not for which God doth so grievously afflict him See David doing the like Psal 7.4 26.2 That God may know mine integrity i.e. That he may make known mine innocency and upright-heartedness in this particular of commerce with others that I have not dealt deceitfully Otherwise if God should weigh the best that are in a balance they would be found too light if he mark iniquities no man living can be justified Psal 139.3 143.2 If he turn up the Bottom of the Bag all our secret thefts will out and come to reckoning It is an idle conceit of some ignorant folk That God will weigh their good deeds against their bad and they shall well enough set off with him by the one for the other This they have drawn as they have not a few other fopperies from that practise of Popish Priests to perswade people that when men are at point of death St. Michael the Archangel bringeth a pair of balances and putteth in one scale their good works
Ministers are said to be in Christs stead 2 Cor. 5.20 A great mercy that he will treat with us by men like our selves I also am formed out â—f the clay Et non ex meliore Intoâ—ffictus of the same make and matter with thy self cut out of the same lump dig'd out of the same pit He alludeth to Gen. 2.7 the wonderful formation of those Protoplast as a Potter moldeth his Pots cutting them out of the lump And the like God doth for men still by that viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the seed making it prolifical and generative Verse 7. Behold my terrour shall not make thee afraid This Job had earnestly desired of God chap 9 24. 13.21 and Elihu as a cunning Disputant presseth him with his own words I am not saith he neither is it fit any mortal man should by his terrour and power ravish another of his right Religion Giants are called Emim Formidable and Nephilim because men fell before them through fear as some Zanzummims do the meaner sort of people by their belluine greatness as the Pope and his Janizaries do the Hereticks as they call those of the reformed Religion that will not reneague it not once hearing what they can say for themselves Either you must turn or burn say they This is monstrous immanity Neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee Brentius rendreth this verse thus Ecce frons mea non terreat te inclinatio mea super te non gravet Behold my forehead cannot fright thee neither can my bowing down upon thee surcharge thee I shall neither brow-beat thee nor quell thee with my weight that thou shouldest refuse to reason the case with me Periculosum est contra cum scribere qui porest proscribere illi contradicere qui pâ—â—â—st aqua igni interdicere It s ill meddling with those that are armed with great power and can as easily undo a man as bid it be done I must needs acknowledge you the better scholer said Phavorinus the Philosopher to Adrian the Emperour qui triginta habâ—s legiones Aelius Spart who hast thirty Legions at command But here was no such disparity or cause of fear in Job from his compere Elihu Verse 8. Surely thou hast spoken in my hearing Here beginneth the Charge Pro Plancis and it is for words Quae levitèr volant non levitèr violant Nihil tà m volucre quà m maledictum nihil faciliùs emittitur saith Cicero Nothing is so swift as an evil word nothing is more easily uttered But should a man set his mouth against heaven and utter errour against the Lord Isa 32.6 Should he toss that reverend Name of God to and fro with such impiety and prophaneness as if his speech could have no grace but in his disgrace as if Augustus Caesar were dealing with some god Neptune Lonicer theatr historic or the three sons trying their Archery at their fathers heart to see who can shoot nighest Surely as God is the avenger of all such so an Elihu cannot hear it and not be kindled Good blood will not bely it self Psal 139.20 21. They speak against thee wickedly and thine enemies take thy name in vain Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee I hate them with a perfect hatred c. The very Turks have the Christians blaspheming of Christ in execration and punish it in their Prisoners when through impatiency or desperateness they break out in this kind What a shame is it then that our Kanters that last brood of Beelzebub should till alate be suffered to affirm That Christ is a carnal or fleshly thing and to contemne him by the notion of The man dying as Jerusalem c Can we hear these hellish blasphemies without ears tingling hearts trembling c When Servetus condemned Zuinglius for his harshness he answereth In aliis mansuetus ero in blasphemiis in Christum non ita In other things I can bear as much as another but when I hear Christ blasphemed I am altogether impatient for why in this case patience would be blockishness moderation mopishness toleration cowardise Madness here is better than meekness c. Verse 9. I am clean without transgression Clear as the picked glass without defection Nitidus ego 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à Syriaca voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pectere I am innocent Heb. Neat and compt not a hair out of order as it was objected to Pompey the great Neither is there iniquity in me Nothing crooked or obtort But had Elihu ever heard Job saying thus Or did not he rather misinterpret his words Some proud Monk hath been heard to say Non haheo Domine quod mihi ignoscas I have not done any thing Lord that needeth thy pardon The reporter of Bellarmines life and death telleth us that when the Priest came to absolve him he could not remember any particular sin he had to confess till he went back in his thoughts as far as his youth But good Job had no such conceit of himself as may appear by many passages of his as chap. 9.2 and verse 20 21. chap. 14.4 c. Only out of the greatness of his grief and the unkind usuage of his friends who spared not without all reason to revile him as a most wicked and ungodly liver he did estsoones cast out some rash and harsh words against God see chap. 10.7 16.17 23.10 11. 27.5 and hence this Accusation here laid against him as a Perfectist or self-justitiary Verse 10. Behold he findeth occasions against me Or Breaches he picks quarrels with me and would fain find out somewhat in my carriage wherefore to break friendship with me and to break me in pieces But did Job ever say in this sort Not expresly so but by consequence and to the same purpose chap. 9.17 13.24 14.17 16.9 19.11 He counteth me for his enemy This indeed he had said and somewhat more chap. 13.24 16.9 30.21 as if God of his meer pleasure had made cruel wars upon him and exercised all kind of hostility against him as a vanquished enemy See the Note on chap. 13.24 19.11 Verse 11. He putteth my feet in the stocks c. See chap. 13.27 14.16 with the Notes Verse 12. Behold in this thou art not just In this thy Expostulation with God as if he had dealt unjustly with thee think the same of thy postulation or unreasonable request that God should give thee a reason why he so grievously afflicteth thee verse 13. thou art nothing less then what thou holdest thy self to be viz. just pure innocent Sorex suo perit indicio the Mole betrayes himself by casting up the mould and so dost thou good Job by throwing forth words without wisdom as God himself will once tell thee chap. 38.2 Canst thou be just whose words are thus unjust Never think it Thus Elihu is as nimble with Job but far more ingenuous as that Jesuite
Martyrologue it is reported that having with infinite paines finished that elaborate Work of his the Acts and Monuments of the Church in eleven years space never using the help of any other man Mr Clark in his Life he grew thereupon so leane and withered that his friends know him not Now if sorrow and hard study will so macerate a man what marvel if long and sharp sicknesse and thereby extreme stomacklesnesse cause leanness and deformity And his bones that were not seen But could hardly be felt for flesh and fat now they stick out as in an Anatomy so that you may count them as also the veines and sinewes his body is become a very bag of bones a skin-bottle in the smoak as David hath it Verse 22 Yea his soul draweth neer unto the grave His soul that is His body as ver 18. for Elihu was no Mortallist neither dreamt he of a Psychopannychia He is in the very confines of death and no wayes likely to recover he is free among the dead as the Psalmist hath it And his life to the destroyers Lethalibus malis to deadly evils saith Trâ—mellius Mortiferis i.e. Morbis to those messengers of death deadly Diseases saith Vatablus To those that kill viz. Gentiles multa de Parcis fabulati sunt to the Angels by whom God sometimes destroyeth men as 2 Sam. 24.16 17. saith Piscator To enemies say other Pollinctoribus to the Bier-carryers say the Tigurines and so Beza paraphraseth so that hee stands not in need of any remedy or help of any thing more then of those who should carry his carcass unto the grave Verse 23. If there be a messenger with him An Angel say some but one man may be an Angel to another as Bradford was to Dr. Taylor Martyr who usually called him That Angel of God John Bradford If some Prophet or Teacher sent of God See Judg. 2.1 Mal. 3.1 Rev. 1.20 to the sick man who seeth his face as the face of an Angel and receiveth him as an Angel yea as Christ himself Gal. 4. in whose stead he is 2 Cor. 5.20 bringing the Embassage of reconciliation ibid. then which what can be more acceptable An Interpreter scil Of Gods holy Will who may assure the sick party that it is God who visiteth him in very faithfulnesse that he may be true to his soul that he doth it in mercy and in measure not to ruine him but to reduce him by repentance from dead works and by faith in Christ Jesus c. who may also set him in a course and pray for him as James 5.16 Dr. Vsher tells us that even in the times of Popery amongst our forefathers the ordinary instruction appointed to be given to men upon their death-beds was that they should look to come to glory not by their own merits but by the vertue and merit of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ that they should place their whole confidence in his death only and in no other thing and that they should interpose his death betwixt God and their sinnes betwixt them and Gods anger Serm. on Eph. 4.13 This was right and considering the times admirable This was better then that blasphemous direction they give elsewhere to dying men to say Conjunge Dâ—mine c Conjoyn O Lord mine obedience to all those things which Christ suffered for me c. One among a thousand Vnus è millibus not Vnus è similibus as the Vulgar Latine hath it by a gross mistake such as that Translation hath many One among a thousand he is said to be for the scarcity of such as can time a word comfort the afflicted conscience and speak to the heart of a poor distressed Creature who laboureth under the sense of sin and fear of wrath O quam hoc non est omnium This very few can skill of Luther who was excellent at it himself telleth us That it is a work every whit as hard as to raise the dead to life again Go ye rather to them that sell said the wise to the foolish Virgins and those are rare scil such faithful and wise distributers of Gods grace Isaiah 50.4 as having the tongue of the Learned and being instructed for that purpose to the Kingdome of heaven can comfort the feeble minded shore up and support the weak c. such a choice man is worth his weight in gold and O how beautiful are his feet Angelicall his face To declare â—n o man his uprightnesse Or His Righteousnesse that is Either the righteousnesse of Christ who is his peace or His that is the righteousnesse of his own experience how he hath been raised and received to mercy Or His to clear up to him his spiritual estate and shew his evangelical righteousness consisting more in purpose then in practice in confession of our imperfection then in any perfection we can attain unto It is not so much our inherent righteousnesse in regard of the worth dignity and excellency of it much lesse purity and perfection in it but as it is a fruit of Gods love and token of his favour a signe of our Adoption and Justification and a pledge of our glorification that yeeldeth comfort And this it will do when skilfully made out to a poor soul by a godly Minister and set on by the hand of that holy Spirit whereby the Saints are sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 and 1.13 Verse 24. Then is he gracious unto him and saith If the sick man thus counselled and comforted repent and believe the Gospel delivering himself up to God and to that his Messenger by the will of God Mercy and Truth shall be with him he shall be cured on both sides as that Palsie man was Matth. 9.2 the Lord shall raise him up if it may stand with his eternal welfare But howsoever if he have committed sinnes it shall be forgiven him James 5.15 Both the guilt and filth of them shall be taken away so that he shall be able to look death in the face with everlasting comfort as being made to him â—anua vitae porta coeli a postern to let out temporal but a street door to let in eternal life Deliver him from going down to the pit Tel him from me that he shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord as Psal 118.17 Nay say to this righteous man tell him so from me that it shall be well with him and very well Isai 3.10 Redeem him from going down to the infernal pit that is declare that Redemption to him wrought for him by Christ and apply it to his conscience powre the oyle of grace into his broken vessel and assure him in mine name and by mine Authority that I am his salvation Whose sinnes soever ye my faithful Ministers remit they are remitted unto them and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 18. â—8 Joh. 20.23 But all this ministerially and declaratively not absolutely and out
execution And it profited me not Sin is an ill Pay-master and sends home all her servants by weeping crosse The best that can come of it is shame Rom. 6.21 and godly sorrow working repentance 2 Cor. 7.10 but usually the end of these things is death this is the just hire of the least sin Rom. 6.23 It not only profiteth not what ever it promiseth but prejudiceth and proves pernicious This penitent man thanks his sin for his late sicknesse and yet thinks he hath escaped fair too for so some render the Text Non aquale fuit Nec poenas condiguas dedi My punishment hath been lesse then men offence See Ezra 9.13 with the Note there Ver. 28. He wil deliver his soul from going c. God wil heal him and lengthen out his life Or the sick man will by his unfained repentance procure his own reprieve and deliverance from deadly danger Some make these words to be the sick mans thankful confession He hath redeemed my soul c. not unlike that of David Psal 116.8 and that of Hezekiah Isai 38.17 And his life shall see the light He shall not only live but live happily and comfortably a joylesse life is no life Verse 29. Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes Heb. Twice thrice such is his patience that he tryeth all conclusions as it were and beateth long with mens evil manners one while casting them down and making them believe he will pitch them into hell and another while raising them up again and restoring them that if nothing will do he may pay them all at once for the new and the old as he did haâ— and Pharaoh and Nineveh because they despised the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing or not weighing that the goodness of God should have led them to repentance Rom. 2.4 5. Wo be to him that will not be warned at the first second or third time See Am. 1.3 and 2.1 c. with the Notes R. Solomon would thence infer That God pardoneth a man only thrice and then if he take not warning to hell he must and this he thinketh to be Elihu's meaning â—here But this is to limit the Holy One of Israel who â—â—ltiplyeth pardoâ— as we multiply sinne Isai 55.7 and further addeth for our comfort vers 8. That his thoughts are not our thoughts nor his wayes our wayes but as the heavens are higher then the earth c. We are apt to measure God by our models to cast him into a dishonourable â—â—ould and to think him like our selves in Mercy Power and other of his Attriâ—â—tes Xenâ—phanes was wont to say that if the creatures were put to paint the Creator they would surely conceit him to be like themselves because a creature cannot think of any thing higher then a creature So dealâ— we for the most part with Almighty God But he is God and not man he is Jehovah that changeth not neither is there any God like unto him for pardoning iniquity not once but often Micah 7.8 9. See the Note there He who commandeth us to forgive an offending brother seventy times seven times in a day if he say It repenteth me What will not himself do in such a case Verse 30 To bring back his soul from the pit i. e. That he may save him from temporal and eternal destruction which is the most excellent fruit of affliction sanctified We are judged of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world So that a Saint may say Periissem nisi periissem I had been undone had I not been undone Ferre minora volo ne graviora ferans To be inlightned with the light of the living To live comfortably Consâ—icuâ—s sit inter homines Mercer and to be famous among the Saints who had they not been reduced by affliction would have perished infamous and obscure wrapt up in the sheet of shame and going out in a snuff Verse 31. Mark well O Job hearken unto me For I speak from God and for God It was a good speech of Austin to Manicheus contesting with him for audience Hear me hear me said Manicheus Nay saith Austin Nec ego te nec tu me sed ambo audiamus Apostolum dicentem Peccatum non cognovi c. Neither will I hear thee nor do thou hear me but let us both hear the Apostle saying I had not known lust c. Verse 32. If thou hast any thing to say answer me Heb. If thou hast words yet not empty words but such as may bear weight and make for thy defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verba habet 〈◊〉 rebus Erasmus Some mens discourses are nothing else but words Hermodorus of old was said to â—ell words for want of better Commodities Erasmus was noted for a very wordy man Turrian for a great Trifler Corniculas citius in Africa quam res rationâ—sque solidas in ejus scriptis reperias saith one Elihu would have no such words nor any wise man else for they are very irksome yea vexatious Speak for I desire to justifie thee Not to condemne thee as these three have done but to hear thee and clear thee as much as may be This was fair dealing Some are so eristical and teasty that they will not hear the adverse party or bear with any that dissent as the Jesuits many fierce Lutherans yea Luther himselfe as appeareth by his bitter invectives against Carolostaeaius Zuinglius all the Helvetian Churches that would not receive the Doctrine of Consubstantiation Tantane animis coelestibus irae He would not once hear the contrary party nor read their Books but called them Arch Divels and all that ever was naught as he doth in his Epistle to the Senate of Frankford Verse 33. If not hearken unto me Elihu is much in calling for attention so are all the Prophets and Christ the Arch Prophet as Matth. 13.9 where although it might seem superfluous to stir up such to hear as had come from all parts for that purpose and now hung upon his holy lips as the babe doth on the brest Luke 12. ult yet he well knowing our heedlesnesse and ficklenesse doth it once and again leaving all Ministers an example to do likewise Hold thy peace Viz. Whiles I am speaking interrupt me not but have patience Some men as they have fel in aure gall in their eares as some Creatures are said to have so they have fire in their tongues which they presently spit at all that offend them in the least And I shall teach thee wisdom A good inducement to thee to hear I will not trouble thee with trifles nor detain thee with endless and needless discourses but set before thee Gods wise procedings and bring thee to such a sight of thine own folly as shall render thee restless till set right for heaven CHAP. XXXIV Verse 1. Furthermore Elihu answered and said i. e. HE prosecuted his former Discourse Pronunciâ—ns itaque Eliu Elihu going on
him It is said to Trajan that he neither feared nor hated any man living What then shall we think of him Mercer who is Moderator Dominator supremus ac solus Or who hath disposed the whole world The habitable world and especially that habitable part of Gods earth as man is called Prov. 8.31 Verse 14. If he set his heart upon man Viz. For evil and not for good and have a purpose to unmake him again which he can as easily do as will it to be done If he gather unto himself his Spirit and his breath If he take away his life which what is it else but a puffe of wind a vapour c. who can say he is unjust May not the Potter do with his pot as he pleaseth We subsist meerly by his Manutension and if he but pull back his hand only we are gone immediately This is to be seen in those that swoon suddenly away See Psal 104.29 and consider how little this is considered by the most Elihu thought that Job was wanting herein for he had heard him chap. 12. disputing concerning the soveraigne and absolute power of God almost in the very same words which himself here useth from ver 13. to 31. Verse 15. All flesh shall perish together i. e. All men called here All flesh as Mark 16.16 they are called every creature a little world If God command it to be so they shall all breath out together And man shall turn to his dust again The body to the dust whence it was taken but the Spirit to God who gave it Eccles 12. Verse 16. If now thou hast understanding hear this Hear it and know it for thy good as chap. 4.27 if at least thou hast any wit for thy selfe or care of thine own well doing This is a stinging Apostrophe to Job Si vel â—ica est in te bonae mentis unlesse thou hast buried thy braines and lost thy â—enses listen as for life Verse 17. Shall even he that hateth right govern Heb. Bind sc Malefactors whom Magistrates use to hamper Others take it of binding up the wounded after the manner of Chirurgeons An qui odit judicium Chirurgos imitaretur so the Tigurines translate Would he who hateth right do as Chirurgeons use to do Would God if he were unrighteous bind up the broken hearted or receive into favour as he doth a sinner that repenteth doing him good again as if there never had been a breach betwixt them It hath been noted That a King hath his name in the Greek tongue from healing and that Isai 3.7 a Governor is called a Healer or Binder up the same word there as here in the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medela But how unfit for such an Office must he needs be who not only doth not right but hateth it as did Nero Caligula Commodus c And wilt thou condemn him that is most just Or That is strong and just illúmne impietatis sugillabis None in his right wits would ever do so for what else were this Tigur but to exalt a mans self above the divine Majesty And yet what do they lesse then this who grudge at Gods proceedings and are ready to think that if they had the ordering of things in their hands they could dispose of them a fair deal better How absurd and unseemely this is in any one is aptly set forth in the next verse Is it fit c Verse 18. Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked Heb. Belial that is Thou yoaklesse Qui dicit regi Apostata Vulg. lawlesse masterlesse Monster Kings are not wont to be so accoasted and aviled nor is it lawful Exod 22.28 It is blasphemy in the second Table to speak evil of dignities Jude 8. It was some disadvantage to Saint Paul that although provoked and unjustly smitten he called the High Priest whited wall Act. 23.3 he was glad to excuse it by his ignorance And Luther cryed our Henry 8 mercy for his uncivil language to him such as was that Audi Domine Rex edocebo ie in a jeer Dan. Hist Hâ—nry 6. indeed was coursely handled in a tumult and wounded but then he was at an under and being restored he freely pardoned the Offendor saying Alass poor soul he struck me more to win favour with others then of any ill will he bare me But this was a rare example of patience in a King Alexander the Great dealt more harshly with his friends Clitus and Callisthenes for their plain-dealing Seâ— Tiberius put to death a Poet for uttering some free words against him though under the person of Agamemnon quem in iragoedia probris lacessisset Savanarola suffered deeply for telling the Pope his own And Bajazet the second took great revenge upon his Janizaries Turk hist fol. 444. who for his casting Achmetes Bassa into prison they in an uproar insolently cryed out that they would by and by teach him as a drunkard a beast and a Rascal to use his great Place and Calling with more sobriety and discretion Plut. Kings must be spoken to with soft and silken words as she said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Elias or Elisha or Isaiah or the Baptist do otherwise that is not a copy for every man to write after Is it safe to take a Lion by the beard or a Bear by the tooth Naboth suffered though falsly accused to curse the King and Shimei had at length his payment for reviling David If Ezekiel called the King of Judah Thou wicked and profane Prince chap. 21.25 that was by an extraordinary spirit and by a special command of God And to Princes ye are ungodly Ingenuis These as they must not be flattered so neither may they be unmannerly advertized of their duty or danger It is probable that Joseph used some kind of preface to Pharaohs chief Baker in reading him that hard destiny Gen 40.19 such haply as was that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar chap 4.19 My Lord the dream be to them that hate thee c. Or ad Philo brings him in with a Vâ—inam tale somnium non videsses I would I had no such dream to interpret unto you But for the matter he giveth him a sound though a sharp interpretation Verse 19 How much lesse to him that accepteth not the person of Princes How much more both dangerous and undecent must it needs be wrongfully to accuse God of injustice and partiality which is far below him sith he neither doth nor needeth prefer great ones before meaner men in judgement See on chap. 13.7 and 52.21 Nâ—â— regardeth the rich more then the poor The word rendred rich opulent or potent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes either from a root that signifieth to save because it is in the power of such to save others from hurt and damage or else from another root that signifieth to cry aloud because such men use to speak their minds more freely and boldly as having that which can
bear them out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But God acknowledgeth them not as such only of them to whom much is given much shall be required For they are all the work of his hands Both for their persons for they are all equally his creatures and for their conditions which God also hath cut them out and apportioned Thus he is said to have made Moses and Aaron that is to have advanced them 1 Sam. 12.6 and Christ is said to have made the twelve when he ordained them to the Apostleship Mar. 3.14 Verse 20. In a moment shall they die Be they mean or mighty they are when God pleaseth suddenly swept away by the hand of death as Chesse-men are into the bag without distinction of Kings Dukes Bishops or Common people And the people shall be troubled at midnight as were the Egyptians when their first-born were slain in their dead sleep Exod. 12.29 not without much terrour and tumult and as were the Army of Sennacherib 2 King 19.35 and Belshazzar with his Babylon Dan. 5.30 31. The people shall be troubled they shall be shaken as leaves in a great wind or be carried away as by a mighty torent when they were most secure and dreamt of no such danger Neither in all these alterations and various occurrences is God unrighteous sith he is debtour to none neither doth he any thing without reason and right And passe away Praeteribunt id est peribunt they shall passe into the grave as Eccles 1.4 One generation passeth and another cometh or they shall perish as when it is said Heaven and earth shall pass away The Vulgar hath it Pertransibunt It is not transibunt they shall passe saith Gregory but pertransibunt they shall pass thorow because the wicked are alwayes passing on to perdition throughout all their lives And the mighty shall be taken away without hand That is without seeing the hand that smiteth them which is saith One a divine force invisibly cutting asunder the thred of their lives in a moment Psal 76.12 The Lord cutteth off the spirit of Princes The Hebrew importeth that he slips them off as one should slip of a flower betwixt his finger or as one should slip of a bunch of grapes c. The Original here is They shall take away the mighty that is the Angels shall as Luk. 12.20 hurry them out of the world without hand that is without mans help without humane violence Verse 21. For his eyes are upon the wayes of man Gods Providence like a well-drawn picture that eyeth each one in the room observeth all things he seeth cause enough thus to proceed in judgement against a person or people though we see it not And although one man knoweth not another nor doth any man well know himself yet God following as it were all men hard at the heels doth with his eyes narrowly observe and mark what way every one walketh in he seeth all his goings Let not men therefore please themselves in their sinful practises as if God saw them not because for a time they scape unpunished Saculi laetitia est impunita nequitia but sin and punishment are tyed together with chains of Adamant and cannot long be asunder Verse 22. There is no darkness nor shadow of death c. Sinners would fain shroud and secret themselves from Gods all-seeing eye for which end they search all corners with Adam and hope that their evil pranks and practises shall never come to light but that cannot be for not only darkness and the shadow of death but Hell also is naked before him and destruction hath no covering Job 26.6 See the Note there See also Psal 139.12 and Amos 9.2 3. Heb. 4.13 with the Notes Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Either from Gods all-seeing eye or punishing hand Adam is pulled out of the thicket Manasseth from among the thorns Zedekiah and his family from between the two walls many Jews out of the privies and other lurking-holes where they lay hid at the last destruction of Jerusalem Verse 23. For he will not lay upon man more then right Plus quà m par est Nam non sâ— virum poncâ— trà He cannot over-do likely no though he should inflict upon him all the torments here and tortures in hell sith death in the utmost eâ—tent of it is the just hire of the least sin Romans 6.23 See Ezr. 9.13 with the Note That he should enter into judgement with God Commence a suit against him or challenge him into the schools to argue it out with him as thou Job hast offered to do but unadvisedly sith God hath justice on his side as the very Heathens also saw when they set Themis their goddesse of Justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 next of all to Jupiter their chief god Verse 24. He shall break in pieces mighty men c. Infinitè conterit validos so Tremellius rendreth it He infinitely mawleth the mighty and breaketh them in pieces like a potters vessel Psal 2.9 Without number Or Without inquisition as knowing all things afore-hand and not needing any evidences or examination of witnesses Or without end because their ruine is endlesse Ruina majorum sit cantela minorum And set others in their stead As is to be seen in the rise reign and ruine of the four mighty Monarchies and others not a few that had their times and their turns as the Kingdom of the ten Tribes which in a few years fell into nine several Families and few of those Kings died a natural death No more did the Emperours of Rome till Constantine See Dan. 2.21 Psal 113.7 8. Verse 25. Therefore he knoweth their works It appeareth by their punishment that God took notice of their wicked works though they thought otherwise yea when they know not or are not aware of it he overthroweth them therefore This he doth in the night i. e. suddenly and unexpectedly Others render it Assoon as he hath changed the night they are crushed that is as soon as he hath brought forth the light which revealeth all things Ephes 5.13 and layeth them open to publick view who before were taken for better men they are destroyed as publick Pests Verse 26. He striketh them as wicked men c. Complodit eos saith Junius scilicet ut inflatas vesical in sun ipsorum sede he striketh upon them as blown bladders in their own seat This is an elegant similitude setting forth the sudden overthrow of graceless great Ones as with a kind of noise and not without publick notice for it followeth In the open sight of others Heb. In the place of beholders in proscenio as upon a Stage or Scaffold Discant justitiam moniti non temnere â—imen others may hear and fear and do no more so God is pleased for this purpose to hang up some notorious offendors as it were in gibbets as Pharaoh Sennacherib Antiochus Herod Julian c. See those Writs of Execution 1 Cor. 10.5 6 7
Palace his Rags into fine linnen c. yea as Jeremy's rags helped to draw him out of the dungeon so do afflictions work out to Gods people an exceeding exceeding eternal weight of glory Here perhaps they may be held under but to him that overcometh wil the Lord Christ grant to sit with him in his throne Rev. 3.21 The deluge of calamities may assault them but it shall certainly exalt them They shall have Crownes on their heads and Palmes in their hands and walk arm in arm with Angels Some of the Hebrewes by Kings here understand Angels as if it were written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Melachim but Maleachim Yea he doth establish them for ever and they are exalted Or When they are exalted This no earthly Prince can promise himself Dionysius who thought his Kingdom had been tyed to him with cords of Adamant was at length driven out of it But Christs Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and he will not raign alone if we suffer with him we shall also raign together Rom. 8. Verse 8. And if they be bound in fetters If it so fall out that through abuse of their prosperity and preferment they wander as they are men out of the right way and God sends out afflictions as his Pursuivants to attach them and say them in cold irons for their correction and to prevent judgement Psal 107.10 And be holden in cords of affliction Or Poverty so that irretiti funibus miserè vixerint as the Tigurines here translate they have onely prisoners pittances which will neither keep them alive nor suffer them to dye Verse 9. Then he sheweth them their work By these sharp waters he cleareth up their eye-sight and gives them to see their sin the mother of their misery Vexatio dat intellectum Smart makes wit Manasseh for instance and the Prodigal Herodot lib. 1. Liv. decad 1. l. 5. and King Croesus with his Nocumenta documenta and Tullus Hostilius with his excess of devotion when once he had paid for his learning And their transgressions that they have exceeded Heb When they prevail that before they grow too potent they may cast them away Ne illis victi in Gehennam descendant lest they hale them into hell Mercer Verse 10. Hee openeth also their eare to Discipline See on chap. 33.16 And commandeth that they return from iniquity Unlesse they will have it to be their ruine whereof obstinate sinners who refuse to return seem to be ambitious Affliction sanctified is Lex practica a practical Law saith One it is Verus Scripturae commentarius an excellent Comment upon the Scripture saith Another David could not learn Gods Statutes till taught by this Free-School-master curst enough and crabbed but such as whereby God openeth mens eares to Discipline and speaketh to them to return from iniquity which is a piece of learning that people cannot pay too dear for Verse 11 If they obey and serve him they shall c. Heb. They shall finish they shall spend and end their dayes in prosperity and their yeares in pleasure as Joseph Job and some others have done who lived and dyed with glory Howbeit this Promise is to be understood with exception of the Crosse which yet God both can and to his will make profitable and pleasant as he did to that godly Prince who being asked How he could so well endure so long and hard imprisonment answered That he had therein felt the divine Consolations of the Martyrs But Haud facilè invenies multis è millibus unum Virtutem pretium qui putet esse sui Verse 12. But if they obey not they shall perish by the sword In gladium transibunt they shall passe away by the sword that is some evil end shall befal them and worthily because they would not be warned which is both a presage and desert of utter ruine Lesser and lighter judgements where they work not are foretokens of greater and heavier at the heels of them as the black horse in the Revelation followeth the red And as clouds cluster against a storm one following in the neck of the other unlesse the Sun break forth and scatter them so do Gods judgements usher in one another and every lesse a greater unless Repentance and better obedience take up the matter And they shall dye without knowledge Heb. Because they were without knowledge and wilfully so It was not a bare â—escience but an affected ignorance that undid them Some render it Non praesentientes they shall dye suddenly and before they have bethought themselves It should be our care that death do not suddenly surprize us No guest comes unawares to him who keeps a constant Table Every sharp affliction is a warning piece and let us so conceive of it Stillicidia praecedunt ruinam Verse 13. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath Or Yet Or Howbeit q.d. These fowle sinners that have turned repentance into a form and converted conversion it self into sin though they see bad men made good and good men made better by their afflictions and incorrigible persons destroyed before their eyes yet they amend not by Gods hand upon them but are the worse for it as Iron grows more cold after a heat and as naughty boyes are more stupid and more stubborn after a whipping Hypocritis nihil stupidius These hollow hearted ones heap up wrath against the day of wrath as St. Paul makes up this saying Rom. 2.5 which shall fall upon the Jew first because of his pretence to Religion and then upon the Gentile Nemo enim magis iram meretur quam amicum simulans iniÌ„micus saith Bernard No man more deserveth wrath upon wrath then a feigned friend but true enemy Such are all hypocrites whether gross or close And hence our Saviours severity against such in the Gospel but especially Mat. 23. Neither let any such Goat in sheep-skin think to steal on Christs right hand at the last day He shall uncase such and cashiere them yea cast them into the hottest fire of hell whereof hypocrites are as the Free-holders and other sinners but as Tenants to them for they shall have their portion with the Devil and hypocrites Some render it Ponunt irâ—m and expound it incandescunt in Deum When they are afflicted they wax hot against God they gather wrath as a toad swelleth when handled as a Serpent gathereth poison to spue out at those who meddle with him They cry not when God binds them Cry they do after a sort as Hogs do when to be stuck or dogs when tyed up from their meat Murmure they do and expostulate a wrong with God as those Isa 58.2 3. Non ita Deos coluimuâ— as that heathen hypocrite said We have not served God so well that he should serve us no better but pray they do not unlesse it be as those hypocrites in Zachary chap. 7. who fasted to themselves and prayed for their own ends more to get off their chaines then their sinnes They bear fruit
to themselves as Ephraim and see what comes of it Verse 14 They dye in youth They dye before their time as Solomon expresseth it then when it were better for them to do any thing then to dye for they are killed with death as Jezebels children were Rev. 2. Their soul dyeth as the Hebrew here hath it Their soul perisheth among the boyes their life among that buggerers as Beza translateth this Text and thus Paraphraseth Therefore as accursed before God they dye and are reckoned amongst those impure young men whose youth being spent in all filthinesse and uncleannesse was subject to that most abominable lust which is not to be named The sum of all is saith Brentius Hypocrita peribit turpiter The Hypocrite shall once come to a shameful end And when the fowle sinner shall be damned what shall become of the faire Professour God will lead such forth with the workers of iniquity yea with the worst kind of sinners Sodomites for instance shall he punish them Verse 15. He delivereth the poor in his affliction Oft in this life as he did David signally Psal 34.6 2 Tim. 4. This poor man meaning himself cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles So he pulled Paul out of the mouth of the Lion yea and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdome where the Saints shall be sure of full deliverance and shall say of their afflictions as that Adulteress said of her accusers John 8. They are all gone He openeth their ears in oppression Or By oppression as by a key he openeth the eares of their hearts to holy and wholsome counsel This Elihu had said before but he saith it again for that end and purpose that Job might rowse up and raise up himselfe to the hope of a comfortable restauration for as much as God afflicteth not his to destroy them but to make them partakers of his holinesse and that once done to deliver them Verse 16. Even so would he have removed thee c. The sin revocat ad hypothesin Here Elihu applyeth to Job that which he had more generally discoursed concerning godly mens afflictions turned to their greatest good if they be careful to improve the same Heb. He would have perswaded or gently removed thee Out of the strait c. Heb. Out of the mouth of the strait A Metaphor from wild beasts that hold some prey in the mouth saith Piscator Or from a pit narrow at the top and wide at the bottom as R. Solomon and some others who understand it of hell Brentius to the same sense rendreth the Text thus Eripiet te ab ore angustiae lato sub quo nullum est fundamentum He shall deliver thee from the broad mouth of straitness under which there is no bottom And that which should be set on the table c. Thou shouldst eat of the fat and drink of the sweet thou shouldst have knowne no want of any thing if thou hadst not been wanting to thy selfe in making the best use of thy troubles See Psal 23.5 Verse 17. But thou hast fulfilled the judgement of the wicked But thou contrarily blusterest against God and blurtest out such words that thou seemest to be as bad as the worst and to have little or no goodnesse in thee See chap. 34 8. It is a shame to Gods people to symbolize with the wicked to be carnal in their speeches or carriages and to walk as men 2 Cor. 3.3 They should so speak and so do as those that shall be judged by the Law of liberty Jam. 2.12 Judgement and justice take hold of thee Thou art worthily attached by the divine justice which thou hast quarrelled Verse 18. Because there is wrath beware lest he take thee away with his stroak Beza readeth it thus Surely it is wrath take heed lest with stroakes it take thee away i.e. Certainely the wrath of God doth in this thy calamitie most manifestly shew it self Oh beware lest he double his stroakes and beat thee to pieces for thy disobedience and stubbornesse With the froward God will wrestle Psal 18.26 and adde to their miseries seven times more and seven times and seven to that Levit. 26.18 21 24 28. Then a great ransome cannot deliver thee Heb. Turn thee aside or help thee to decline that is to escape no though thou shouldst offer thousands of Rams or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl as Mie 6.7 Verse 19. Will he esteem thy riches Tremellius rendreth it Thy Nobility Others read it thus Will be regard thy crying in thine adversity Or That thou shouldst not abide in adversity See Proverb 10.2 and 11.4 with the Notes No not gold Which yet can do much with men The Hebrew word signifieth finest gold Job 22.24 and hath its name from defending because gold is a mans defence With men it may be so but not with God Zeph. 1.18 See the Note there Others read it No not in affliction Nor all the forces of strength Which are poor things in comparison of God whose weaknesse is stronger then men Conantia frangere fraâ—gunt 1 Corinth 1.25 He need but to arise and his enemies shall be scattered yea all that hate him shall flye before him Psal 68.1 As the Rocks repel the greatest waves so doth God his enemies Verse 20. Desire not the night c That is as some sense it do not thou peevishly desire death see chap. 7.15 lest it comes too soon and it do by thee as it doth by many an one whom it cuts off in judgement For surely in the state thou art now in thou oughtest to fear an extraordinary kind of death an inlet to eternal destruction as in the Deluge Sodom and Egypt Others render it thus Neither let it disquiet thee in the night how people are destroyed out of their place that is in the night season Vatabl. when thy mind is void of cares puzzle not thy self how and why some Nations perish and not others but rather rest thy selfe upon Gods providence and unsearchable wisdome Beza and trouble not thy head in searching out the cause of this so sudden misfortune Brentius makes this the sense Noli impiè agere Desire not the night that is Deal not wickedly by complaining against God and impatiently bearing his hand as Theeves and Adulterers desire the night for dispatch of their deeds of darkness Think not thou to hide thy self in the dark from the dint of Gods displeasure When people are cut off in their place Heb. Ascend under them i.e. Rise that they may fall Psal 102.10 as the light of a candle when it is ready to go out flieth up and then vanisheth away Or as the corn is first taken up by the hand of the Reaper and then cut off and laid flat on the ground Verse 21. Take heed regard not iniquity This especially of blaming Gods judgements as if they were unequal No more of that saith
As a dutiful and docible Scholar who should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will ask thee questions and hang upon thy holy lips for an answer Verse 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear God hath ordained that as death entred into the world at first by the ear poisoned by that old Man-slayer Genes 3. so life shall enter into the soul by the same door for it is Hear and your soul shall live Isai 55.3 And The dead in sins and trespasses shall hear the voice of the Son of God sounding in his Ordinances and shall live the life of grace here and of glory hereafter John 5.25 This great mercy Job had received and he thankfully acknowledgeth it But behold a greater But now mine eyes hath seen thee Not only in the temple and whirl-wind those clear testimonies of thy presence but by some other special glorious apparition so some think and by a Spirit of Prophecy as the Hebrewes would have it by the inward teaching of thy Spirit howsoever as Vatablus senseth it Et quando Christus Magister quà m citò discitur quod docetur saith Austin When God by his Spirit taketh in hand to teach a man he soon becometh a skilful Scholer Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia saith Ambrose The Spirit is not long in teaching those that commit themselves to his tuition The hypocrite knowes God but by hear-say as a blind man knoweth colours such may say as those in the Psalm Audivimus famam something we have heard and some confused notions we have got concerning God and his will but they are meerly disciplinary but not intuitive id est Per speciem Propriam c. Such as transformes the soul into the same Image it is not that claritas in intellectu quae parit ardorem in affectu That light in the understanding that kindleth the affections Job was such witnesse his next words Verse 6. Wherefore I abhor my self Aspernor illa so Tremellius I utterly dislike those my former base and bald conceits of thee my hard and unsauoury speeches mine impatient and imprudent carriages Horreo quicquid de meo est ut meus sins as Bernard expresseth it Reprobo meipsum so Brentius I do utterly reject my selfe I condemn mine own folly I eat those words of discontent at thy righteous proceedings Dignasanè quae per jugulum redeant Abiicio vitam meam so Mercer and Lavater render it Displiceo mihimetipsi ac pervelim ut aliter dixissem ac fecissem Lavat Jerem. 6.26 and 25.34 Virg. Aeneid lib. 12. I cast away my life and look upon it as lost if thou shouldst take the forfeiture I humbly put my self into the hands of justice yet in hope of mercy I repent in dust and ashes As in an expresse and publick pennance I throw my self here upon the ground I put my mouth in the dust Lam. 3.24 Canitiem iâ—â—mundo perfusam pulvere turpo I sprinkle dust and ashes upon mine head in token that I have deserved to be as far under ground as now I am above ground I repent my presumptuous misbehaviour with as lowly a spirit as ever I sinned with an high Lo this was paenitentiam agere quod est pro malo bonum reponere saith Brentius This was true repentance to change evil for good as piety for blasphemy chastity for fornication charity for envy humility for pride Christ for Satan And Reformation is the best Repentance saith Luther Such as so repent are sure of comfort The word here rendred I repent signifieth also to take comfort as Ezek 32.31 It is repentance unto life Acts 11.18 and such as accompanieth salvation Hebr. 6.9 Neither is it wrought in any man but by a saving sight of Almighty God in his Greatness and Goodness such as may make him at once to tremble and trust as Job did here and Isaiah chap. 6.1 5. Verse 7. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job And Job those other again to God it soon repented the Lord concerning his servant Pro magno delicto parum supplicii sat is est patri A little punishment is enough to a loving father for a great fault Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord for alass they have received of my hand double for all their sins Terent. Isai 40.1 2. So it seemed to him who is all bowels and who in all their afflictions is equally afflicted God weeps on his peoples necks tears of compassion they weep at Gods feet tears of compunction Oh beautiful contention The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite Because he was the ancienter man of greatest Authority and he that passed the heaviest censures upon Job doing enough to have driven him into desperation My wrath is kindled against thee Thus God passeth not sentence on Jobs side till he had first angerly repressed and reprehended those three friends of his who had assailed him without all right and reason Let Gods servants hold out faith and patience sooner or later they shall be righted And against thy two friends Bildad and Zophar Who stuck so close to thee and chimed in with thee against a better man then any of you all As for Elihu he is neither commended here nor condemned He spake well for the main but many times took Job at the worst and misconstrued his speeches He is therefore punished as Ambassadors are used to be when they commit undecencies with silence which is the way royal to correct a wrong The other three had great cause to be much troubled and terrified at that short but sharpest speech of God My wrath is kindled against you for Who knoweth the power of Gods wrath saith David It is as the Messenger of death Psalm 90.11 and Harbinger of hell God never said so much to Job in all those long and large speeches he made unto him for he knew that milder words would do and he loveth not to over-do Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox By the way observe That although these three had offended more then Job yet he was afflicted and they escaped free Judgement beginneth at Gods house neither have any out of hell ever suffered more then those Worthies of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11. For ye have not spoken the thing that was right And yet they seemed to be all for God and to plead his Cause against Job throughout But as in some things they were much mistaken so they had their self-respects and were much byassed in their discourses Hypocrites and Heretikes saith Gregory here seem unto men more righteous but God accepteth them not for all their plausible pleas and specious pretences Luke 16.15 Ye are they said our Saviour to the Pharisees who justifie your selves before men but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God As my servant Job hath They also were Gods servants but because they had lent
that he cannot but cry out Who can understand c. O cleanse c. The most perfect Saints are the most sensible of their imperfections as the more delicate the Senses are the more sharply are they affected with what offends them Rom. 7.14 1 Cor. 15.9 10. Alas for us saith one good man Ipsa lachrymae sunt lachrymabiles we had need to weep over our tears sigh over our sobs mourn over our griefs c. Look how when we have swept a room never so clean saith Spinaeus if the Sun do but come into it at the windows De instit Christian we soon espy abundance of filthy motes mingled with the beams thereof so is it with our hearts when once illightned What a blinde buzzard then was he that said Non habeo Domine quod mihi ignoscas Lord I have nothing for thee to pardon And no wiser was Bellarmine that great Scholar but ill read in his own heart if that be true that is reported of him viz. that when the Priest came to absolve him he could not remember any particular sin to confess till he went back in his thoughts as far as his youth Of Philip the Third King of Spain Val. Max. Christ 263. it is said that he lived so strictly that he never committed any gross Crime or wilful wickedness yet coming to dye he cried out O that I had never reigned O that I had lived a private life in the Wilderness that I might not have now to answer for not doing the good or hindering the evil that I might have done in my government Cleanse thou me from secret faults Secret from my self many of them sins of ignorance and of inadvertency secret from the world more of them heart sins but not secret from the Lord Psal 90.8 Heb. 4.13 These are of daily and hourly incursion involuntary and unavoydable infirmities yet are they sins properly so called and we must be cleansed from them by the Merit and Spirit of Christ they must be repented of in general at least and then there is a pardon of course for them and they do not usually distract and plunge the Conscience Vers 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins Heb. With-draw inhibit for we are naturally prone to the worst of sins even the best of us and to lye buried with the World in a bog of wickedness adding rebellion to sin and doing wickedly with both hands earnestly unless God reign us in and restrain us from such enormities Midrash Tillin in Psal 191. Pray we therefore as here Etiam â superbiis contine servum tuum Davids Murthering Vriah was a sin of this sort The Rabbins here observe how the Propher riseth in his request first for pardon of lesser sins and then for power against greater like as a Begger say they first craves a little water and then a Morsel of bread We should do so Let them not have dominion over me Sin will rebel but it must not reign in our mortal bodies it must not play Rex and bear sway in the soul Pray hard against that in chief Ne iniquit as victrix dominetur that our lusts be not our Lords that vice vanquish us not Then shall I be upright Then when I have gotten both pardoning and prevailing-grace to bee cleansed from infirmities and kept from presumptions and arrogancies which cum temerario ausu fastu fiunt contumaciter I shall bee upright in Gods account and entire in his obedience And I shall bee innocent from the great transgression That sin unto death 1 John 5. 16. that wickednesse with a witnesse for which there remaineth no more sacrifice Heb. 10.26 and unto which a way is paved by sins of presumption with an high hand committed against knowledge and conscience Vers 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations c. Sint ad beneplacitum verba c. Let both my words and thoughts as well as my life and actions bee to favourable acceptation let them be such as may suit with thy law and will Midrash 〈◊〉 lin O Lord my strength Heb. My Rock In Mare velin Marah velin hoc mundo say the Rabbines In the Sea of sorrow and all along the Wildernesse of this World And my Redeemer Or My near-kinsman who is Jesus Christ in whom we may look for all good from God by vertue of the Covenant This David well understood and therefore hee layeth all the weight on this O Lord my strength and my Redeemer PSAL. XX. A Psalm of David Or Concerning David so Kimchi Or for and on the behalf of David so Aben-Ezra David as a Prophet dictated this form of prayer to bee made by the people for himself their King when hee went forth to fight their battels probably against the Ammonites and Syrians or when hee fled from Absolom and was to help them from the City by his prayers 2 Sam. 18.3 as Aben-Ezra thinketh Vers 1. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble Great men though gracious as David have their distresses and must pray for themselves then not trusting to the prayers of others for them as did that prophane Earl of Westmorland Camden who said that hee had no need to pray sith hee had Tenants enough to pray for him The name of the God of Jacob defend thee Heb. set thee in an high place such as Gods name is Prov. 18.10 the righteous run thereto and are safe as in a Tower of brasse or Town of war By the name of God is meant Deus nominatissimus the most renowned God saith Junius and worthy to bee praised as Psal 18.3 And hee is called the God of Jacob here saith Another first because Jacob was once in the like distresse Gen. 32.6 7. secondly because hee prayed to the like purpose Gen. 35.3 thirdly because hee prevailed with God as a Prince and there God spake with us Hos 12.5 fourthly because God of Jacob is the same with God of Israel and so the Covenant is pleaded Vers 2. Send thee help from the Sanctuarie Or From his holy heaven saith Tremellius without which vain is the help of man God is all the Dooer in battels and whencesoever the sword comes it is bathed in Heaven Isa 34.5 whatsoever Ajax Timotheus Atheniensis and other Atheists think to the contrary God will send from Heaven and save mee saith holy David And strengthen thee out of Sion i. e. Out of the Assemblies of the Saints where they are praying hard for thy well-fare See Psal 76.2 3. with the Note Vers 3. Remember all thine offerines Before they went to war they were wont to offer sacrifices as did Saul though by his over-haste therein hee lost his Kingdome 1 Sam. 13.9 From the people of God the Heathens also had learned this course and custome Io Paean is in force Jehovah Peneh that is Lord look upon us The Devil Gods ape had taught the Athenians when they began the battel to use these words
wasted the Fig-tree Christ cursed so forcible is his curse Vers 37. Mark the perfect mâ—n c. As we must treasure up experiences our selves so we must stir up others to do the like There is a wo â—o such as consider not the operation of Gods hands Isa 5.12 For the end of that man is peace Though his beginning and middle may bee troublesome yet his end his after-and at least shall be peace He shall by death enter into peace rest in his bed Isa 57.2 Vers 38. But the transgressours c. Here the end is worse than the beginning Sin ever ends tragically The end of the wicked shall be cut off Their end is not death but destruction they are killed with death Rev. 2.23 life and hope end together Vers 39. But the salvation of the righteous c. 〈◊〉 ut paâ—oâ—i◠〈◊〉 coâ—â—lectar their salvation temporal and eternal is of the Lord so is also the destruction of the wicked as is here necessarily implied He is their strength c. That they faint not sink not under the heaviest burden of their light afflictions which are but for a moment Vers 40. And the Lord shall help them c. He shall He shall He shall Oh the Rhetorick of God! the safety of the Saints the certainty of the Promises PSAL. XXXVIII A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Made purposely for a memorial both of what he had suffered and from what he had been delivered See 1 Chron. 16.4 Exod. 30.16 Lev. 2.2 6.15 Recordatâ—â—â— autem intelligitur miserie ex misericordia Psal 132. Isa 62.6 63.7 It is probable that David had so laid to heart the Rape of his Daughter Tamar the Murther of his eldest Son Amnon the flight of his next Son Absolom and other troubles that befell him Basil thinks Absoloms conspiracy Ahitophels perfidy Shimeies insolency c. that it cost him a great fit of sickness out of which hardly recovering he penned this and some other Psalms as the 35.39 40. but this especially for a Momento to imminde him of his own late misery and Gods never-failing mercy to him Both these we are wondrous apt to forget and so both to lose the fruit of our afflictions by falling afresh to our evil practices as Children soon forget a whipping and to rob God our Deliverer of his due praises like as with Children eaten bread is soon forgotten Both these mischiefs to prevent both in himself and others for we are bound not only to observe Gods Law but also to preserve it as much as may be from being broken David composed this Psalm for to record or to cause remembrance See the like title Psal 70. and for a form for a sick man to pray by as Kimchi noteth not to be sung for those in Purgatory as some Papists have dreamed Vers 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath He beginneth and endeth the Psalm with Petitions filleth it up with sad complaints wherein we shall finde him groaning but not grumbling mourning but not murmuring for that is not the guise of Gods people He beginneth with Eheu Jehova non recuso coargui castigari Correct me O Lord but with Judgement not in anger lest thou bring me to nothing Jer. 10.24 See Psal 6.1 with the Notes Vers 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me i. e. Sicknesses of body R. Obadiah Deus amatquod sagittat Aug. and troubles of minde Job 6.4 Psal 18.14 the Jew-Doctors say that he had a Leprosie for fix Months and that the Divine presence was taken away from him so that he complained not without cause But these were sagitta salut is saith Chrysostom Arrows of Salvation Love-tokens from the Lord not unlike Jonathans arrows 1 Sam. 20.36 and he had been fore-warned of them by Nathan the Prophet 1 Sam. 12 and so bore them the better Praevisa jacula minus forinnt Darts fore-seen are in a manner dintless And thine band presseth me sore Heb. Thou lettest down thy hand upâ—s me Now Gods hand is a mighty band 1 Pet. 5.6 and the weight of it is importable but that Vna eademque manus c. Vers 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of 〈…〉 This was the immediate cause of Davids misery it came from â—ove displeased and 〈…〉 sins seldom â—â—â—pe better But blessed be our Almighty 〈…〉 who 〈◊〉 health out of sickness by bringing thereby the body of death into a Consumption Neither is there any rest in my bones â—is repetit mere lâ—gentium He saith the same thing twice as Mourners use to do but with an aggravation of his pain reaching to his very bones Because of my sin This was the remote cause of his present sufferings and is the true Mother of all mans miserie Now when these two Gods wrath and mans sin meet in the soul as physick and sickness in the stomack there must needs be much unrest till they be vomited up by confession T is as naturall for guilt to brâ—â—d disquiet as for putrid matter to brâ—â—d vermin Let God therefore be justified and every mouth stopped Vers 4. Sicut aquae praevalentes in quibus erat absorptus Kimchi For mine iniquities are gone over my head So that I am even overwhelmed by them and almost drowned in perdition and destruction The Gospel is post naeufragium tabula and assureth us that God hath cast all our sins into the bottom of the Sea and this keepeth the head of a sinking soul above water As an heavy burden How light soever sin seemeth in the committing it will lye full heavy even as a Talent of lead Zach. 5.7 or as an huge Mountain Heb. 12.1 A facie irae tuae A facie peccati mei A facie stulritiae meae when once we come to a sight and sense of it when Gods wrath and mans sin shall face one another as the former verse hath it according to the originall Vers 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt What his grief or disease was we read not some say the Leprosy some take all this allegorically the word rendred wounds Livores vibices turnices signifieth stripes scarres wailes mattery soares running ulcers the effects of the envenomed arrowes of the Almighty Could we but foresee what sin will cost us we durst not but be innocent That we do not is extream foolishnesse as David here acknowledgeth Because of my foolishnesse In not considering aforehand the hainousnesse of my sinâ—nor the heavinesse of the divine displeasure The word signifieth unadvised rashnesse Prov. 14.17 and t is probable he meaneth his great sin with Bathsheba wherein he was miscarried by his lusts to his cost See Psal 107.17 18. Because of my foolishnesse i.e. Quia non praveni Nathanons confessione saith R. Obadiah because I prevented not Nathans comming by a voluntary confession of my sin unto the Lord. Vers 6. I am troubled Heb. wryed I am bowed down c. Incurvus et prorsuâ— obstipus arroque vulâ—u squallidus
both described and set forth for an absolute pattern to us of performing our duty toward God for this inexplicable mercy Confer Heb. 10.5 6. c. Here wee have in Christ for our instruction and in David also his Type for our example 1. A firm purpose of obedience in a bored ear and a yeelding heart 2. A ready performance thereof Lo I come 3. A careful observance of the Word written In the volume of thy Book it is written of me vers 7. 4. D. 〈◊〉 An hearty delight in that observance vers 8.5 A publick profession and communication of Gods goodness to others vers 9 10. Nowâ— we should labour to express Christ to the world to walk as he walked 1 Feb. 2.6 our lives should be in some sense parallel with his life as the transcript with the original He left us a Copy to write by saith Saint Peter 1 Epist 2.21 Mine ears hast them opened Heb. digged bored an hearing eaâ— hast thou bestowed upon me which is a fingular favour for life entreth by the ear Isa 55.3 as did death at first Gen. 3. O pray that God would make the bore wide enough that the inward ears being drawn up to the outward one sound may peirce both at once Vers 7. Then said I Lo I come Christ became obedient even to the death yea that of the Cross Phil. 2.8 Christs people also are a willing people Psal 110.3 their obedience is prompt and present ready and speedy without delays and consults Psal 119.60 without capitulation and security Isa 56.6 In the volume of thy book In libre plicatili in thy Law which was anciently and is till this day amongst the Jews written in Paper or Parchment rolled up because it will last longer rolled than folded It is written of me Of Christ in many places for He is both Author Object Matter and Mark of both Testaments Of David also and all Gods people doth the Law speak with fruit and efficacy and they do use to read their own names written as it were in every precept promise threatning Look how men read the Statute-book of the Land as holding themselves highly concerned therein So here Vers 8. I delight to do thy will O my God To Christ it was his meat and drink Fob 4. he set his face to do it and to suffer it Luke 9.51 yea he was straightned pained till it was done Luk 12.50 And the same minde is also in the Saints that was in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 They delight in the Law of God after the inward man Rom. 7.22 they prefer it before their necessary food Job 23.12 Tea thy Law is within my heart Heb In the midst of my bowels there is the counterpane the duplicate of the Law written yea printed Jer. 31.33 2 Cor. 3.3 Rip up my heart said Queen Mary when I am dead and there shall you finde Gallice the loss whereof t is thought killed her Rip up the most mens hearts and there you shall finde written The god of this present world But Gods Law is in good mens hearts to live and to dye with it O beata Apocalypsis said that Martyr catching up the Revelation caâ—t into the same fire with him to be burnt O blessed Revelation how happy ans I to be burned with thee in my hands Vers 9. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation David did this but Christ much more by the everlasting Gospel sent the whole world throughout great was the company of Preachers and large was their commission See a draught of it Acts 26.18 I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation Righteousness of Christ imputed faithfulness of God in fulfilling his Promises Salvation the end of faith loving kindness and truth the ground of all the former Gods loving kindness or mercy moving him to promise and his truth binding him to perform these are those Pearls that Christ by his Preachers casteth before people if they bee but as forward to take them as he is to tender them How beautiful should the feet be of those that bring such glad tidings and how heavie will the dust of such feet bee shaken off against despisers O Lord them knowest sc That I have herein done mine utmost and with an upright heart Vers 10. I have not bid thy righteousness within my heart Or if he did as Psal 119.11 it was that having wrought it first on his own affections he might afterwards utter it a corde ad cor from the heart to the heart and so be able to save himself and these that heard him I have declared to faith 〈◊〉 c. See vers 9. Vers 11. Nune in luto adhuc baerens cum residuo 〈◊〉 precatur Deum With hold not 〈◊〉 thy tender mercies c. Whereas while the Samts are on earth there will be a perpetual interchange of comforts and crosses prayers must be joyned with praises and care taken that confirmed by former experiences they 〈◊〉 depend upon God Let thy loving kindness and thy â—â—â—th continâ—ally preserve 〈…〉 â—â—â— those two Attributes of thine be mine Angel 〈◊〉 at all times See the Note on Psal 25.10 Vers 12. For innumerable evils have compassed me Heb. Have mustered upon me Many or Millions are the troubles of the righteous none our of Hell over suffered more than they an elegant exaggeration of their afflictions we have in this verse and such as cannot well be understood by any but those that have been well beaten Porters to the Cross of Christ Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me i.e. The punishment of mine iniquities Gen. 4.13 my sin hath found me out If this be taken of Christ he is Maximus patcatornus the greatest of sinners by imputation 2 Cor. 5.20 Isa 53. 6. for our sins which here he calleth his he suffered and here his bitter Agony in the Garden is Graphically described neither is it absurd to say that as he bore our sins in his own Body upon the Tree he was first redeemed by himself and afterwards we Therefore my heart faileth me i.e. my wit courage counsel is wasted by earnest thinking upon them Scientia mea eis numerandis defica as Kimchi glosseth Vers 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be pleased O Lord to deliver me Do it of thy free grace and meer mercy of thy good will and gracious liking as the word signifieth beside the consideration of my woful misery laid forth vers 12. as an object of thy mercy Vers 14. Let them be ashamed and confounded together c. These and the like imprecations must be looked upon as Prophecies Besides David looked upon them not as his enemies only but Gods as well and such also as were desperate and irrecoverable So Paul prayed against the Copper-smith the Church against Jutian c. Let them be driven backward c. A Christian may without sin be sensible of indignities only it must bee the mourning of Doves and not the roaring of Bears Vers 15. Let them
be desolate for a reward a poor reward but such as sin payeth to her servants the wages of sin is death Sin payeth all her servants in black mony See Psal 35.21 The ward here rendred reward signifieth an heel It is as if the Prophet should say Let one desolation tread upon the heels of another â—ill they be utterly undone Vers 16. Let all those that seek thee rejoyce viz. When they hear of my deliverance The Saints have both their joyes and griefs in common with their fellow-members as being in the body Heb. 13.3 both in the body of Christ and in the body of sleth and frailty Vers 17. But I am poor and needy A stark begger neither will I hide from my Lord as once Josephs Brethren said to him when they came for com mine extream indigency my necessitous condition I am one that gets my living by begging Yee the Lord thinketh upon met Hee is the poor mans King as hath been said and Christ is 〈…〉 as Augustine hath it that is he gives with the Father and at same time prayes with the suter who must therefore needs speed Thou art my help and my deliverer make no tarrying Deliver mee speedily lest I perish utterly God saith One is sometimes troubled with too much help but never with too little we are sometimes too soon but he is never too late PSAL. XLI A Psalm of David Of the same sense with the four former Psalmes saith Kimchi Vers 1. Blessed is his that considereth the poor Heb. That wise by 〈◊〉 concerning the poor The poor weakling whose health is impaired whose wealth is wasted Austin rendreth it Qui praeoccupat vocem 〈◊〉 He that prevenreth the request of the poor begger wisely considering his case and not staying till he â—â—ave which possibly out of modesty hee may hee Ioth to do The most interpret it of a charitable Judgement passed upon the poor afflicted not holding him therefore hated of God because heavily afflicted as Jobs friends did At vobis 〈◊〉 sit qui de me quantumvis calamitoso rectius judicatis so Beza here paraphraseth Well may you fare my friends who censiâ—â—e better of mee though full of misery and deal more kindly with mee The word Masâ—hil signifieth both a prudent Judgement and a desire to do all good offices Faith One. It signifieth to give comfort and instruction to the weak faith Another wisely weighing his case and ready to draw out not his sheaâ— only but his soul to the hungry Isa 58.10 This is a blessed man presupposing him to be a Beleever and so to do it from a right Principle viz. Charity out of a pure heart of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 The Lord will deliver him i.e. The poor weakling and the other also that dealeth so mercifully with him both shall be delivere according to that of our Saviour Matth. 10.41 Delivered I say he shall be in due time supported in the mean while a good use and a good Issue he shall be sure of Kimchi Some make it Davids prayer The Lord deliver him c. Others the mercifull mans prayer for the poor-afflicted Vers 2. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive Life in any sense is a singular mercy Why is a living man sorrow full Lam. 3.39 if he be alive though afflicted he hath cause to be thankfull how much more if alive to Righteousness The Arabick here interpreteth it dabit 〈◊〉 filios in quibus post mortems vivat he will give him Children in whom he may live after his death And he shall be blessed upon the earth With wealth and other accommodations so that the World shall look upon him as every way blessed And thou wilt not deliver him into the hands of his enemies Heb. Do not thou deliver him This maketh Kimchi conclude that all this is but oratio visitantis consolatoria the prayer of him that visiteth the sick man for his comfort Vers 3. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing Whether through sicknesse of body as Isa 38.2 or sorrow of heart for in such case also men cast themselves upon their beds 1 Kin. 21.4 This God and not the Physicians will do for the sick man die septimo on the seventh day saith R. Solomon when he is at sickest Thou wilt make all his bed Heb. Thou wilt turn thou wilt stirre up Poâ—hers under him that he may lye at ease and this by the hand of those poor whom he had considered Or Thou wilt turn all his bed That is his whole body from sicknesse to health as Kabvenaki senseth it Vers 4. I said Lord be mercifull unto mee heal Heal mee in mercy and begin at the inside first Heal my soul of sin and then my body of sicknesse Heal me every whit These to the end are the sick mans words saith Kimchi And this is the Character of the Lords poor man to whom the foresaid comforts do belong saith Another For I have sinned against thee He cryeth peccavi not perit Sanat ionom in capite orditur he beginneth at the right end Vers 5. Mine enemies speak evill of mee Notwithstanding my pitty and devotion that 's no target against persecution Davids integrity and the severity of his discipline displeased these yokelesse Balialists they were sick of his strict government and longed for a new King who would favour their wicked practices such as was absolom whom they shortly after set up David they could not name because be did Justice and Judgement to all the people These â—bertines were of the Eâ—â—◠〈◊〉 loquaces ingeniesi in prafect 〈…〉 eulpam infamiam non effugiat such as loved to speak evill of dignities and could not give their governours how blamelesse soever a good word When shall be dye and his name perish Nothing lesse would satisfie their malice than utter extermination But David recovereth and his name surviveth when they lie wrapt up in the sheet of shame Vers 6. And if he come to see mee That is Achitaphel or some such hollow-hearted Holophanta Plaut Ore pro mea sinitate orant sed cordequaerunt malum Midrash Tillin He speaketh vanity Pretending that he is very sorry to see mee so ill at ease and letting fall some Crocodiles tears perhaps Has heart gathereth iniquity to it self As Toads and Serpents gather venom to vomit at you When be goeth abroad be telleth it Boasting to his treacherous Brotherhood of his base behaviour Vers 7. All thas hate mee whisper together against mee Heb. Mussitant they mutter as Charmers use to do These whisperers are dangerous fellows Rom. 1.29 like the wind that creepeth in by chinks in a wall or cracks in a window A vente percolato inimice reconciliato libera nos Demine saith the Italian Against mee do they devise Cogitant quasi coagitant Vers 8. An evill disease say they â—leaveth fast unto him Heb. A thing of Belial Omnes impietates quas perpetravit R.
measure to trust in it that is to think our selves simply the better and the safer for it as our Saviour sheweth and this Disciples after some wonderment at length understood him so Mark 10.23 24. Hence that strict charge 1 Tim. 6.17 And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches Contrary to Jer. 9.23 This Psalm sets forth the better gloriation of a Beleever in the grace of God and in his blessed condition wherein he is lifted up above the greatest Worldings Vers 7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother And therefore all Mony that hath been given for Masses Diriges Trentals c. hath been cast away seeing Christ is the only Redeemer and in the other World Mony beareth no Mastery neither can a man buy off death though hee would give never so much Death will not regard any Ransome neither will he rest content though thou givest many gifts as Solomon saith in another case Prov. 6.35 Fye quoth that great Cardinal Beanford will not Death be hired Act. Mon. in H. 6. Will Mony do nothing Wherefore should I dye being so rich If the whole Realm would save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it c. Lewis the Eleventh would not hear of death all the time of his last Sickness but when he saw there was no remedy he sent for the Holy Water from Rhemes together with Aarons rod as they called it and other holy Reliques Epit. Hist Gall. Balth. Exner. Val. Max. Christ p. 391. thinking therewith to stop Deaths mouth and to stave him off but it would not be O Miser saith one thereupon hoc assidue times quod semel faciendum est Hoc times quod in tua mann est ne timeas Pietatem assume superstitionem omitte mors tua vita erit quidem beata atque eterna Vers 8. For the redemption of their soul is precious i.e. the price of life is greater than that any man how wealthy soever can compass it Mony is the Monarch of this World but not of the next And it ceaseth for ever i.e. The purchase of a longer life ceaseth there is no such thing beleeve it Job 36.18 19. Deut. 23.22 Zech. 11.12 To blame then were the Agrigentines who did eat build plant c. as though they should live for ever Vers 9. That be should still live for ever As every wicked man would if it might be had for mony for he knoweth no happiness but to Have and to Hold on the tother side the Grave he looketh for no good whereas a godly manholdeth mortality a Mercy as Phil. 1.23 he hath Mortem in desiderio vitam in patientin as Fulgentius saith he desireth to dye and yet is content to live accepting of life rather than affecting it enduring it rather than desiring it And not see corruption Heb. The pit of corruption The Chaldee understandeth it of Hell to the which the wicked mans death is as a trap-door Vers 10. For he seeth that wise men dye likewise the fool This to be a truth etiam muta clamant cadavera the dead Corpses of both do preach and proclaim by a dumb kinde of eloquence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death maketh no difference Pallida mors equo c. It is appointed for all men once to dye It lieth as a mans Lot as the word signifieth Heb. 9.27 and all men can say We are all mortal but alas we say it for most part Magis us◠quam sensu more of custom than feeling for we live as if our lives were rivetted upon Eternity and we should never come to a reckoning Heu vivunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur Ant velut infernus fabula vana foret And the bruitish person perish His life and his hopes ending together But it would be considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wise men dye as well as fools good men dye as well as bad yea good men oft before the bad Isa 57.1 Jeroboams best Son dyed before the rest because there was some good found in him And leave their wealth to others Nec aliis solùm sed alienis to meer strangers this Solomon sets forth as a great vanity It was therefore a good speech of a holy man once to a great Lord who had shewed him his stately House and pleasant Gardens You had need make sure of Heaven or else when you dye you will be a very great loser Vers 11. Their inward thought is that their houses c. Some joyn this verse to the former and read the words thus Where as each of them seeth that wise men dye likewise the fool c. yet their inward thought is c. they have a secret fond conceit of their own immortality they would fain beleeve that they shall dwell here for ever The Hebrew runneth thus Their inwards are their houses for ever as if their houses were got within them as the Pharisees goods were Luke 11.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So here Internum vel interiora not the thoughts only but the very inmost of the thoughts of wicked Worldlings the most retired thoughts and recesses of their souls are about these earthly things these lye nearest to their hearts as Queen Mary said when she dyed Open me and you shall find Calice at my heart It was a pittiful case that a rotten town lay where Christ should and yet it is ordinary They call their Lands after their own names So to make them famous and to immortalize them at once Thus Cain called his new-built City Enoch after the name of his Son whom he would thereby have to be called Lord Enoch of Enoch This is the ambition still of many that take little care to know that their names are written in Heaven but strive to propagate them as they are able upon Earth Nimrod by his Tower Absolom by his Pillar Alexander by his Alexandria Adrian by his Adrianople c. But the name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 10.7 and those that depart from God shall be written in the earth Jer. 17.13 c. Vers 12. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not Howsoever he think to eternalize himself and be grown never so great dye he must whether Lord or Losel and dye like a beast a carrion beast unless he be the better man but only for his pillow and bolster At one end of the Library at Dublin was a Globe at the other a Skeliton to shew that though a man was Lord of all the World yet hee must dye his honour must be laid in the dust The mortal Sythe saith one is master of the royal Scepter and it moweth down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the Grass of the field Perperam accommodatur bic versiculus saith another this verse is not well interpreted of the first man Adam to prove that he sinned the same day wherein he was Created and lodged not one night in Paradise He
is like the beasts that perish Fecoribus morticiuis saith Junius the Beasts that dye of the Murren and so become Carrion and are good for nothing Vers 13. This their way is their folly This their fond conceit of an immortality is an egregious folly fully confuted by every days experience for the longest liver dieds at last as did beside the Antediluvian Patriarches Jounnes de Temporibus Armour-bearer to Charls the Great who dyed Anno Dom. Asteds Chronol 475. Naucler Purchas Pilâ—â— p. 481. 1139 aged three hundred sixty one years So the old man of Bengala in the East-Indies who was three hundred thirty five years old when he came to the Portugals from whom for his miraculous age he received a yearly stipend till he dyed He that lived in our days till one hundred and fifty years or thereabouts yeelded at length to Nature and yet men doat and dream still of an immortality The first doom that ever was denounced was Death Thou shalt surely dye and the first doubt that ever was made was concerning Death ye shall not surely dye ever since which time there is something of the spawn of that old Serpent left in our natures prompting us to doubt of that whereof there is the greatest certainty and although every man granteth that he shall dye yet there is scarse any man that futureth not his death and thinketh that he may live yet and yet and so long this is folly in an high degree and we should be sensible of it labouring to become neither fond of Life nor afraid of Death Yet their posterity approve their sayings Selah Heb. Delight in their mouth are as wise as their Ancestors tread in their tract take up their inward thoughts ver 11. observe the same lying vanities and so forsake their own Mercies Jon. 2.8 Selah q.d. O wonderful for see the issue of their folly Vers 14. Like sheep they are laid in the Grave These fatlings of the World these brainless yonkers that will not be warned by other mens harms but walk on in the same dark and dangerous ways whatever cometh of it these chop into the grave as a man that walketh in the Snow may do suddenly into a Marl-pit and there be smothered or rather are there pent up as Sheep are thrust up in a stall or stable to be slaughtered there and in Hell their souls they lye as Grapes in a Wine-press pickled Herring in a Barrel Stones in a Lime-furnace Tiles in a Brick-kiln c. Tanquam pecudes like sheep saith the Psalmist here and Junius his Note is Morticinas puta in cloacis exquiliis vel puticulis project as 3 like sheep that dying of the Murrain are thereupon cast into Ditches Jakes Boggs Death shall feed on them They shall be meat for Worms yea they shall be killed with death Rev. 2.23 which is worse than all the rest sin as an heavy grave-stone presseth them to death c. And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning i.e. at the Resurrection when the Saints shall share with Christ in his Kingdom when the wicked shall be his foot-stool and shall judge the World yea the Angels Others by morning understand suddenly or seasonably as Psal 46.5 And their beauty shall consume in the Grave All their pomp and bravery wherein they came abroad whiles alive as Agrippa and Bernice came to the Tribunal with a great deal of phancy Acts 25.23 and with which they affect to be buried in state Sic transit gloria mundi 1 Cor. 7.31 From their dwelling Whence they are carried to the Grave that dark house of all living Job 30.23 Some render the text thus Infernus habitaculum ipsis Hell shall be their habitation Tremellius thus Et formam corum consumat infernus receptam exhabit aculo ejus and Hell consume their shape that is their bodies now re-united to their souls received out of its House that is out of the Grave Vers 15. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave Heb. From the hand of Hell q.d. I am and shall be in far better condition both in life at death Spe bona Doâ—ab indoctis diâ—forunt disisâ— Chilo and after death than any of the Worlds darlings why then should I fear as vers 51. why should I envie their seeming happiness which will have so sad a Catastrophe as vers 14 I shall have heaven and that is more worth than all For he shall receive me Selah A notable Text indeed and well worthy of a Selah a clear testimony for the immortality of the soul and for a better life after this as is well observed He sunt parabola hac sunt anigmasa saith a good Interpreter These are those Parables and these are those dark sayings mentioned vers 4. riddles to the wicked but cordials to the faithful Vers 16. Be not thou afraid David was comforted and so he would have others to be for as it was said of a certain Bishop of Lincoln that he held nothing his own but what he had bestowed upon others Hoc babeo quodcunque dedi so the Saints think their comforts nothing so comfortable unless others may share in them and fare the better by them When the glory of his house is increased viz. By a numerous Off-spring stately building gay furniture great rents and revenues for as they say of the metal they make glass of it is nearest melting when it shineth brightest so are the wicked nearest destruction when at greatest lustre Vers 17. For when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away Nothing but a Shrowd as that great Emperour caused to be proclamed at his Funeral He was a fool that on his Death-bed clapt a peece of Gold into his mouth and said Some wiser than some I will take this with me See Job 1.21 1 Tim. 6.7 with the Notes there His glory shall not descend after him No nor be able to breath one cold blast up-on him when he is burning in Hell O that wicked rich men would think of this before the cold Grave hold their bodies and hot Hell hold their souls Vers 18. Though whilst be lived he blessed his soul As that rich fool did Luk. 12. and that King of France who puffed up with the Marriage of his Sister to the King of Spain called himself by a new title Tres-bureuse Roy the thrice happy King but was soon after accidentally slain by the Captain of his Guard running at Tilt with him at the solemnizing of that same Marriage in the very beginning of his supposed happiness And men will praise thee when thou doest well to thy self Feathering thine own Nest and pampering thine own Carcass thou shalt bee sure of Parasites and Trencher-flies who will highly commend thee though against their own Consciences Rom. 1. ult The world generally admireth the happiness of such as live at full and ask what should such a one ayl The Irish ask what they meant to dye Vers 19. He
of man commendeth the righteousness of God Rom. 3.4 5. To thee O Lord God belongeth righteousness but unto us confusion of face saith Daniel chap. 9. Vers 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity This he alledgeth viz. his original pravity not as an excuse but as an aggravation of his actual abominations which he saith were committed out of the vile viciousness of his nature See Psal 58 3 4. The Masorites here observe that the word rendred iniquity is full written with a double Vau to signifie the fulness of his sin whole evil being in every man by nature and whole evil in man which when the Saints confess they are full in the mouth as I may so say they begin with the root of sin not at the fingers ends as Adenibezek did stabbing the old man at the heart first and laying the main weight upon original corruption that in-dwelling sin as the Apostle calleth it Rom. 7.14 that sin of evil concupiscence as the Chaldee here that peccatum peccans as the Schools Tully belike had heard somewhat of this when he said Cum primum nascimur in omni continuo pravitate versamur Assoon as ever we are born we are forth-with in all wickedness Augustine saith Damnatus homo antequam natus Man is condemned as soon as conceived And in sin did my mother conceive me Heb. Warm me This Aben-Ezra interpreteth to be our great Grand-mother Eve Qua non parturiebat antequam peccabat David meant it doubtless of his immediate mother and spake of that poyson where-with she had warmed him in her wombe before the soul was infused Corruption is conveyed by the impurity of the seed Job 14.4 Job 3.6 31. Sin may be said to be in the seed incoative dispositive as fire is in the Flint Let us therefore go with Elisha to the Fountain and cast salt into those rotten and stinking waters And for our Children let us labour to mend that by education which we have marred by propagation Vers 6. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts Quam tamen mihi defuisse res ipsa demonstrat but this truth hath not been found in me when I acted my sin in that sort and did mine utmost to hide it from the world I have shewed little truth in the inward parts but have grosly dissembled in my dealings with Vriab especially whom I so plied at first with counterfeit kindness and then basely betrayed him to the sword of the enemy Sinisterity is fully opposite to sincerity trcachery to truth And in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom Thus by faith saith one he riseth out of his sin being taught wisdom of God Others read it Thou hast made me to know c. And yet have I sinned against the light of mine own knowledge and Conscience although thou hast taught me wisdom privately E◠eheu quam familiaritèr as one of thine own Domesticks or Disciples Some make it a prayer Cause me to knew wisdom c. Vers 7. Purge me with Hysop and I shall be clean Sprinkle me with the bloud of Christ by the Hyssop-bunch of faith not only taking away thereby the sting and stink of sin but conferring upon me the sweet savour of Christs righteousness imputed unto me See Heb. 9.13 14 19. where he calleth it Hyssop of which see Dioscorides lib. 3. chap. 26.28 David multiplieth his sute for pardon not only in plain terms but by many metaphors Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow So we cannot be by any washings of our own though with Snow-water Isa 6.46 The Brides Garments are made white in the Lambs bloud Rev. 1.14 the foulest sinners washed in this Fountain become white as the snow in Salmon Isa 1.18 1 Cor. 6.11 Eph. 5.27 Peccata non redeunt Vers 8. Make me hear joy and gladness God will speak peace unto his people he createth the fruit of the lips to be peace Isa 57.19 c. No such joyful tidings to a condemned person as that of a Pardon Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee Feri feri Domine nam à peccatis absolutus sum said Luther Davids Adultery and Murther had weakned his Spiritual condition and wiped off all his comfortables but now he begs to be restored by some good Sermon or sweet promise set home to his poor soul That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce By leaping over Gods pale he had broke his bones and fain he would be set right again by a renewed righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by his former feelings of Gods favour Vers 4. Hide thy face from my sins We are not able to indure Gods presence much less his Justice for our sins nor can there be any sound peace of Conscience whiles he frowneth His favour is better than life but his displeasure more bitter than death it self See 2 Sam. 14.32 And blot out all mine iniquities See how one sin calleth to mind many thousands which though they lye a sleep a long time like a sleeping debt yet wee know not how soon they may be reckoned for Make sure of a generall pardon and take heed of adding new sins to the old Vers 10. Create in mee a clean heart O God His heart was woefully soiled with the filth of sin and the work of grace interrupted he therefore prayeth God to interpose and begin it again to set him up once more to re-inkindle those sparks of the spirit that lay almost quite smothered to put forth his almighty power for that purpose to farm that Augean stable of his heart to sanctify him throughout in spirit soul and body and to keep him blamelesse unto the comming of his son 1 Thes 5.23 Andrenew a right spirit within mee Or a firm spirit firm for God able to resist the Devill stedfast in the faith and to abide constant in the way that is called holy Vers 11. Cast mee not away from thy presence Deprive mee not of communion with thee and comfort from thee for that 's a peece of Hell torments 2 Thes 1.9 Cains punishment which possibly David might here mind as being guilty of murther And Sauls losse of the Kingly Spirit 1 Sam. 15.15 might make him pray on And take not thine holy Spirit from mee David knew that he had done enough to make the holy Spirit loath his lodging he might also think that the Spirit had urterly withdrawn himself and others might think as much beholding his Crosses Jer. 30.17 But the gifts and callings of God are without repentance and where the Spirit once inhabiteth there he abideth for ever Joh. 14.16 an interruption there may bee of his work but not an intercision and a Saint falling into a grosse sin may lose his jus aptitudinale ad calum but not his jus heredit arium his fitnesse but not his right to Heaven that holy place Vers 12. Restore unto mee the joy of thy salvation He had grieved that holy thing that Spirit of
which compare vers 9 10 11. of this Psalm For thereupon David put into a great perturbation as vers 4 5. wished for the wings of a Dove not the pinnions of a Dragon that he might flye farro away Vers 1. Give ear to my prayer O God Davids danger was present his prayer therefore is pressing being not the labour of his lips but the travell of his heart The breath that commeth from the lips is cold not that which commeth from the lungs Hide not thy self As men when they are not willing to be sued unto will not be seen Vers 2. Attend unto mee and hear meâ— Heb. Answer mee that is grant mee deliverance from this death which threatneth mee This is his sense as appeareth by the sequel though at present be could not instance but only beggeth audience I 〈◊〉 my complaâ—â— Hâ—b I tassâ— this way and 〈◊〉 I am so much troubled ut meipsum lamentando huc illuc versare mire agitare cogar Prae dolore moveo me nunc huc nuâ— illuc Campeâ—sis And make a noise Plango perstrepo Of our Saviour it is said that being in an agony he prayed more earnestly He bent as it were all his nerves and set up his note Luk. 22.44 Vers 3. Because of the voice of the enemy He may very well intend Shimeies bitter revilings 2 Sam. 16.5 c. For they cast iniquity upon mee They tumble it on mee as men do stones or any thing else upon their besiedgers to endammage them so did these sin shame any thing upon innocent David to make him odious And in wrath they hate mee Heb. They satanically hate mee Vers 4. My heart is sore pained within mee No otherwise than a woman is pained in travel cordicitus doleo And the terrours of death are fallen upon mee Caused doubtlesse by the deep sense and conscience of his late grievous sins Vers 5. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon mee Fearfulness of heart and trembling of body which last falleth out Timor cordâ— tremor corpris when as the Spirits flying back to the heart to relieve it leave the outward parts destitute And horrour hath over-whelmed mee This was Davids infirmity for he should have better fortified his heart against that cowardly passion of fear the Devill also had a finger in it At another time David could better resolve and say What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Vers 6. And I said O that I had wings like a Dove Ut citissime longissime fugerem that I might swiftly fly far off from Absoloms pursuers as the Dove saveth her self by flight and not by fight scoureth away to the Rocks and deserts Jer. 48.28 Many fouls are swifter of flight than Doves but these hold out better R. Jonah saith that whereas other birds when they are wearied with flying do rest them upon rocks or trees and are taken the Dove doth not so but letteth down one wing and flyeth with the other and thereby escapeth the pursuer R. Jonah apâ— Kimchi For then would I flee away But whither he saith not because he knew not The Church in the Revelation fled into the wilderness Rev. 12. God provided a Pella for those primitive Christians Luther being asked where he would be at quiet from his enemies answered Sub caelo some where God would secure him Vers 7. Lo then would I wander farre off Farre from the force and fury of these breathing Devills Jeremy wisheth the like as being tired out by the ungodly practices of his countrymen chap. 9.2 And many a dear Child of God forced to be in bad company cryes O that I had the wings c. Or if that O will not set him at liberty he takes up that Woe to expresse his misery Woe is mee that I sojourn in Meshech c. And remain in the Wildernesse Among wild beasts which were better than to abide with these Lycanthropi men more cruel savage and bloody than any beasts Vers 8. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm c. I would thrust my ship into any creek in the whole World go as farre as my leggs nay wings could carry mee Of the swiftnesse of the Doves flight see Plin. l. 10. c. 37. and how David hastened his flight from Absolom see 2 Sam 15.14 Vers 9. Destroy O Lord and divide their tongues Heb. Swallow them up O Lord and divide their tongues by an allusion as some conceive to those two famous Judgements of God upon Dathan and Abiram first Numb 16. and then secondly upon the Babel-builders Gen. 11. both which were thrown out for examples to all succeeding ages as St. Jude saith of the Sodomites Jud. 7. and are to be considered of by the Saints as here in their prayers against their enemies How God answered this prayer of David see 2 Sam. 17.1 c. For I have seen violence and strife in the City i. e. In Jerusalem something I have seen but more outrages I have heard of since Absolom with his army came into it The rude souldiers plunder the poor Citizens at pleasure and cannot agree among themselves in dividing the spoil Vers 10. Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof The ruffianly souldiers do as in garrisons is usuall Or Violence and Strife do so that in no place are good men in safety from rapines and robberies Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it What work may be thought make the common souldiers among the women especially when Absolom openly defileth his Fathers concubines in the sight of all Israel 2 Sam. 16.22 when Tilly took Magdeburg in the late German wars besides many other outrages the Ladies Gentlewomen and others like beasts and dogs they yoked and coupled together leading them into the woods to ravish them Such as resisted they stripped naked whipt them cropt their ears and so sent them home again Vers 11. Wickednesse is in the midst thereof As if it were no longer as once Theopolis but Poneropolis for all kind of naughtinesse there Deceit and guile depart not from her streets The Vulgar hath it Vsura dolus Usury and guile and Theodorets note here is Not andum est non modo Novi Testamenti perfectionem sed Legis statum faenus damnare that Usury is condemned in both old and new Testament Vers 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not mine enemy that reproached mee Achitophels perfidy and villany troubled David more than all the rest there not being any wound worse as Sophocles saith than the treachery of a friend he being such a kind of enemy quem neque fugere neque fugare possumus as Bernard hath it whom we cannot easily prevent See Psal 41.9 Then I could have born it Though as a burden but nothing so grievous I should not have much mattered it Vers 13. But it was thou a man mine equall Heb. According to my rank my compeer my collegue mine Alter-ego my
his prime and pride Thou hast covered him with shame Selah Thou hast wrapped him up in the winding-sheet of shame Lord this is true Vers 46. How long Lord c. Here faith prevaileth against flesh and falleth a praying and at length a praising God Vers 47. Remember how short See Psal 39.5 Wherefore hast thou c. As thou mayest seem to have done unlesse they may chearfully serve thee and enjoy thee Vers 48. What man is he that liveth c q. d. Sith dye we must let us live while we may to some good purpose Selah q.d. Mark it and meditate well and oft on this savoury subject Vers 49. Lord where are c. q. d. Thou seemest to have lost them and we would fain find them again for thee Vers 50. Remember Lord Thou seemest to have forgotten us and our sufferings and we would fain remind thee Verse 51. The fool steps of thine anointed Heb. The heels or foot-soles that is his doings and sufferings The Chaldee and others render it tarditates mor as Christi tui the delayes of thy Christ in comming whom therefore they twit us with velut tar digradum vel loripedem claudum and say where is the promised Messiah Vers 52. Blessed be the Lord c. sc For a Christ or for adversity as well as for prosperity and this not formally and slightly but earnestly and with utmost affection Amen and amen PSAL. XC A Prayer of Moses Made by him belike when he saw the carkasses of the people fall so fast in the wildernesse committed to writing for the instruction of those that were left alive but sentenced to death Numb 14. and here fitly placed as an illustration of that which was said in the precedent Psalm Vers 48. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Selah Vers 1. Lord thou hast been our dwelling place In all our troubles and travels thorough this wildernesse and before we have not been houselesse and harbourlesse Maon habitaculum tutum for Thou hast been our dwelling-place our habitacle of refuge as some render it We use to say A mans house is his castle The civile-law saith De domo sua nemo extrahi debet aut in jus vocari quia domus tutissimum cuique resugium atque receptaculum No man ought to be drawn out of his house at the sute of another because his house is his safest refuge and receptacle He that dwelleth in God cannot bee unhoused because God is stronger than all neither can any one take another out of his hands Joh. 10. Here then it is best for us to take up as in our mansion-house and to seek a supply of all our wants in God alone It was a witty saying of that learned Picus Mirandula God created the Earth for beasts to inhabit the Sea for fishes the Air for fouls the Heaven for Angels and stars Man therefore hath not place to dwell and abide in but the Lord alone See Ezek. 11.16.2 Cor. 6.8 9 10. Vers 2. Before the Mountains were brought forth And they were made at the creation not cast up by the Flood as some have held Moses first celebrateth Gods eternity Eccles 7.14 and then setteth forth mans mortality that the one being set over against the other as Solomon speaketh in another case God may be glorified and man comforted which is the main end of the holy Scriptures Rom. 15.4 and far beyond those consolatiunculae ◠Philosophicae Vers 3. Thou turnest man to destruction Ad minutissimum quiddam so Beza rendreth it to a very small businesse to dust and powder Others ad contritionem vel contusionem by turning loose upon him diverse diseases and distresses thou turnest him out of the World Eccles 1.13 And generally thou layest of all and singular sons of men Return ye Your bodies to the earth according to the decree Gen. 3.17 18 19. your souls to God that gave them Eccles 12.7 And here the course of mans life is compared saith One to a race in a Tilt or Turney where we soon run to the end of the race as it were and then return back again Intelligit Moses vit am humanam similem osse gyro saith Another Mans life is compared to a ring or round we walk a short round and then God gathers us in to himself One being asked what Life was made an answer answerless for he presently turned his back and went his way We fetch here but a turn and God saith Return yee Children of men This some make to be an irony as if God should say Live again if yee can Some apply it to the Resurrection others to Mortification and Vivification Vers 4. For a thousand years in thy sight c. q. d. Live men a longer or shorter space Serius aut citius thou endest their days and in comparison of thine Eternity Punctum est quod vivimus puncto minus it is a small space of time that the longest liver hath upon earth 2 Pet. 3.8 Psal 39.5 Non multum sane abest à nihilo Some would hence inferre that the Day of Judgement shall last a thousand years sides sit penes authores When it is passed We judge better of the shortness of time when it is past And as a watch in the night Which is but three hours space for Souldiers divide the Night into four Watches and our life is full of the darkness of errour and terrour Vers 5. Thou carryest them away as with a floud Suddenly violently irresistibly by particular Judgements besides that general necessity of dying once Heb. 9.27 This is set forth by a treble comparison of Flouds Sleep and Flowers here and indeed the vanity and misery of mans life is such as cannot sufficiently be set forth by an similitudes See Vers 9 10. They are like a sleep Or dream the dream of a shadow saith Pindarus the shadow of smoke saith another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are as grass An ordinary comparison Isa 40.6 Jam. 1. Vers 6. In the morning it flourisheth So doth man in his prime and vigour his bones full of marrow his brests of milk In the evening it is cut down So is man by Deaths mortal Sythe which moweth down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the Grass of the Field In the evening grass will cut better and the Mowers can better work at it Vers 7. For we are consumed by thine anger Justly conceived for our sins ver 8. this is a cause of death that Philosophy discovereth not as being blinde and not able to see farre off and therefore cannot prescribe any sufficient remedy against the fear of death such as is here set down vers 12. but such as made Tully complain that the Disease was too hard for the Medicine and such as left men either doubtful Socrates for instance or desperate and devoyd of sense as Petronius in Tacitus Qui in ipsis atriis
mortis delicias quaesivit solaced himself with singing such light Sonnets as this Vovamus mea Lesbia atque omemus Rumoresque senum severiorum Omnes unius aestimemus assis And by thy wrath are we troubled Consternati sumus Symmachus Aquila transtulerant acceleravimus Death stings us and sticks us the motion and mention of it is terrible to us through sense of sin and fear of wrath Heb. 2.15 Vers 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee As a Judge doth the misdeeds of a Malefactor together with the proofs and evidences Our secret sins Which we either never took notice of or had utterly forgotten the sins of our youth some render it but not so well those sins which we had hoped to have secreted such was our hypocrisie In the light of thy countenance This light thou hast made use of for the discovery of our inmost evils those that lye most up in the heart of the Country as it were as the murmurings and misbeleef of our hearts c. these thy pure eyes more clear and radiant than the Sun it self have plainly discerned Nature teacheth us that the fiery eye needeth no outward light but seeth extramittendo by sending out a ray c. Vers 9. For all our days are passed away Heb. Do turn away the face See vers 3. We spend our years as a tale that is told The grace whereof is brevity q. d. dicto citins Some render it as a thought that ariseth and passeth To this sence the Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldee hath it Ut flatus oris in Hyeme as the breath of ones mouth in Winter See Jam. 4.14 Vers 10. The days of our years are threescore c. So Solon in Laertius saith the term of mans life is seventy years this few exceed and fewer attain to To the same sense speaketh Macrobius also Lib. 1. Som. cap. 6 saying Septies deni anni à Physicis creditur meta vivendi hoc vitae humanae perfectum spacium terminatur c. The Fathers lived longer but as mens wickedness increased so their days decreased and now their lives are daily shortned the Generations dispatcht away that the World may the sooner come to an end If Moses and Aaron of old and Johannes de temporibus and some few others of latter time live longer even to an hundred or more these are singular examples and it is of the generality that the Psalmist here speaketh And if by reason of strength D. Maior c. One readeth it thus And if by fortitude fourscore years even their latitude is labour and sorrow that is this inlarging of the time bringeth nothing but labour and misery because now the body is diseased c. For it is soon cut off As a Web or as Grass And we flee away As a Bird upon the wing or as an hour of the day Qui nescit quo vita modo volat audiat horas Quam sit vita fugax nos docet iste sonus I am not eternity said Epictetus but a man that is a small part of the whole as the hour is of the day Enchirid. I must therefore come and go away as the hour doth Vers 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger None doth sith it is such as no man can either avoyd or abide and such is mens stupidity that few will beleeve tiâ—l they feel it no though their lives be so short and uncertain Even according to thy fear so is thy wrath Ira tua non est minor timore nostro let a man fear thee never so much he is sure to feel thee much more if once he fall into thy fingers Vers 12. So teach us to number our days The Philosopher affirms that man is therefore the wisest of Creatures Bâ—uâ—a non numerant because he alone can number But in this Divine Arithmetick of numbring our days to the which all other is not to be compared no though we could as Archimedes boasted number the Stars of Heaven or the Sands by the Sea shore God himself must be our Teacher or wee shall never do it to purpose R. Solomon observeth that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred So here if taken as numeral letters maketh Seventy and they yeers of our life are seventy out of which say other Rabbines if we deduct the time of Childe-hood and Youth which is vanity the time of sleep repose repast and recreation which is more than the one half and the time of affliction and grief which we enjoy not what a poor pittance will life be reduced unto That we may apply our hearts Heb. That we may cause them to come for naturally they hang off and make strange Vnto Wisdom To the true fear of God and mortification of sin which is the sling of death and makes it a trap-door to hell This is hard to do but must bee done or men are undone for ever To live with dying thoughts is the way to dye with living comforts Vers 13. Let it repent thee Or comfort thou thy servants Vers 14. O satisfie us early As thou didst our Fathers with Manna Vers 15. Make us glad according Let us have a proportion at least Vers 16. Let thy work appear Thy proper work which is to shew mercy for to do Justice is thy work thy strange work Isa 28.21 And thy glory unto their children That they at least may enter into the Land of Canaan according to Numb 14.31 Vers 17. And let the beauty of the Lord c. i.e. The bounty the Italian rendreth it La Giocondita jucunditas Domini sit innos And establish thou the work c. Thus we had all need to pray for Nullius est felix conatus et utilis unquam Consiliam si non detque juvetque Deus PSAL. XCI VErs 1. He that dwelleth in the secret place c. The safety of a Saint is in this whole Psalm Quo nihil neque solidius neque splendidius dici potest set forth to the life Verbis vivis animatis sententiis spiritus fâ—rvore flagrantissimis Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty Under the pleasant and assured defence of God he shall lodge under the shadow of Shaddai and there sing away care and fear Vers 2. I will say of the Lord I dare say it is so as I have said said the Psalmist whom the Jews make to be Moses and I will presently make proof of it in my self Non verbis solum praedicans sed exemplis Some conceive that the Beleever having heard the former Proposition vers 1. is here brought in professing his faith and saying to the Psalmist Behold I dwell in the secret place of the most High and shall I abide under the shadow of the Almighty The Answer follows Vers 3. surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler i. e. Of the Devil and his Emissaries 2 Tim. 2.26 who by force and fraud seek to
they were first written And the people which shall be created Created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 Isa 51.16 his regenerated people For God planteth the heavens and layeth the foundations of the earth that be may say to Zion Thou art my people Vers 19. For he hath looked down from the height c. This is no small condescention sith he abaseth himself to look upon things in heaven Psal 113.6 From heaven did the Lord behold the earth That is his poor despised servants that are in themselves no better than the earth they tread on Vers 20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner Those prisoners of hope held so long captive in Babylon the cruelty whereof is graphically described Jer. 51.34 Vers 21. To declare the Name of the Lord in Zion This shall bee the business of the converted Gentiles to make up one Catholick Church with the Christian Jews and to bear a part in setting forth Gods worthy prayses See vers 18. Vers 22. When the people are gathered together sc to the Lord Christ For to Shilâ—â— shall be the gathering of the people Gen. 49.10 And the Kingdoms to serve the Lord As they did under Constantine the Great Valentinian Theodosius which three Emperors called themselves Vasalles Christi as Socrates reporteth the Vassals of Christ And the like may be said of other Christian Kings and Princes since who have yeelded professed subjection to the Gospel and cast their Crowns at Christs feet Vers 23. He weaâ—ned my strength in the way This is the complaint of the poor captives yet undelivered In via hoc est in vita quia bic sumus viatores in coelo comprehensores here wee are but on our way to heaven and wee meet with many discouragements He shortned my dayes viz. According to my account For otherwise in respect of God our dayes are numbred Stat sua cuique dies Vers 24. Take me not away in the midst of my dayes Heb. Make me not to ascend Serus in coelum redeam Fain I would live to see those golden dayes of Redemption Abraham desired to see the day of Christ Job 8. Simeon did and then sang out his soul All the Saints after the Captivity looked hard for the consolation of Israel Thy years are throughout all generations And that 's the comfort of thy poor Covenanters who are sure to participate of all thy goods Vers 25. Of old thou hast laid the foundation c. Here is a clear proof of Christs eternity Heb. 1.10 because he was before the creation of the world and shall continue after the consummation thereof vers 26 27. So the Saints a parte pest 1 Job 2.17 The world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Vers 26. They shall perish i.e. They shall change form and state being dissolved by the last fire 2 Pet. 3.7 10. But thou shalt endâ—re Heb. Stand and with thee thy Church Mat. 22.32 Yea all of them shall wax old as a garment Which weareth in the wearing so do the visible heavens and the earth what ever some write de constantia naturae Isaiah saith It rotteth as a book that is vener andae rubiginiâ— and wasteth away as smoak chap. 65.17 and 66.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tucetu Arab. At a vesture shalt thou change them The Greek hath roul them confer Isa 34 4. Vers 27. But thou art the same Therefore immutable because Eternall ut nihil tibi possit accedere vel decidere Vers 28. The children of thy servants shall continue By vertue of the Covenant and that union with thee which is the ground of communion If it could be said of Cesar that he held nothing to he his own that he did not communicate to his friends how much more of Christ Propterea bene semper sperandum etiamsi 〈◊〉 ruant the Church is immortal and immutable PSAL. CIII A Psalm of David Which he wrote when carried out of himself as far as heaven saith Beza and therefore calleth not upon his own soul onely but upon all creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest worm to set forth Gods praises Vers 1. Bless the Lord O my soul Agedum animulâ— mi intima mea visera A good mans work lyeth most within doors he is more taken up with his own heart than with all the world besides neither can he ever be along so long as he hath God and his own soul to converse with Davids Harp was not ofâ—ner out of tune than his heart which here he is setting right that he may the better make melody to the Lord. Musick is sweet but the setting of the strings in tune is unpleasing so is it harsh to set out hearts in order which yet must be done and throughly done as here And all that is within me All my faculties and senses The whole soul and body must be set a work in this service the judgement to set a right estimate upon mercies the memory to recognize and retain them Dent. 6 11 12. and 8.14 the Will which is the proper seat of thankfulness the affections love desire joy confidence all must bee actuated that our praises may be cordial vocal vital In peace-offerings God called for the sat and inwards Vers 2. Bless the Lord O my soul David found some dulness and drowsiness hence he so oft puts the thorn to the breast hence he so impeâ—â—ously instigateth his soul as One shere phraseth it And forget not all his benefits Forgetfulness is a grave look to it Eaten bread is soon forgotten with us as it is with children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pinâ—u neither perisheth any thing so soon with many as a good turn Alphonsus King of Arragon professed that hee wondred not so much at his Courtiers ingratitude to him who had raised many of them from mean to great estates which they little remembred as at his own to God Vers 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities David not only taketh upon him with an holy imperiousness laying Gods charge upon his soul to be thankful but intending to shew himself good cause why to be so he worthily beginneth with remission of fin as a complexive mercy and such as comprehendeth all the rest He had a Crown of pure gold set upon his head Psal 21. But here hee blesseth God for a better Crown vers 4. Who crowneth thee with loving kindness c. And how was this Crown set on his head but by forgiving all his iniquities Who healeth all thy diseases Corporal and spiritual Quod saniâ—as in corpore id sanctitas in corde Jehovah Rophe or the Lord the Physician as he is called Exod. 15.26 cureth His people on both fides maketh them whole every whit See Isa 19.22 Mat. 8.17 He bore out diseases Vers 4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction From hell saith the Chaldee from a thousand deaths and dangers every day All this Christ our kind kinsman doth for us dying
c. Heb. That they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in society This is all the rent that God requireth he is content that we have the comfort of his blessings so he may have the honour of them This was all the fee Christ looked for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee Words seem to be a poor and slight recompence but Christ saith Nazianzen calleth himself the Word Vers 9. For he satisfieth the longing soul c. This is a recaâ—iâ—ulation of the first part vers 5 6 7. and setteth forth the reason why the Redeemed should praise God out of the sweet experience they have had of his wonderful providence and goodness toward them And filleth the hungry soul with good things This flower the blessed Virgin picketh out of Davids garden among many others out of other parts of holy Scripture wherein it appeateth she was singularly well versed and puts it into her Posie Luke 1.53 Vers 10. Such as sit in darkness c. Here come in the second fort of Gods redeemed or rescued Ones viz. captives and prisoners whose dark and doleful condition is in this verse described And in the shadow of death In dark caves and horrid prisons where there is Luctus ubique pavor plurima mortis imago Such was Josephs first prison Jeremies miry dungeon Lollards Tower the Bishop of Londons Cole-house c. Being bound in affliction and irâ—â— Or in poverty and ivâ—n as Manasseb was Many are the miseries that poor prisoners undergo Good 〈◊〉 had the experience of it and Zegedians and the Mattyâ—â— and divers of Gods dear servants in the late waâ—â— hâ—tâ— A certain-pious Prince discoursing of the dangers that were to bâ—e then expected for the profession of Religion said Nibisse magâ—s metuere quâ—m diururnos carceres that he feared nothing so much as perpetual imprisonment Vers 11. Because they rebelled against the words of God Sin is at the bottome of all mens miseries as the procreant cause thereof For God afflicteth not willingly nor grieveth the children of men Lam. 3.35 but they rebel against his words written in the Scriptures or at least in their hearts and so he is concerned in point of honour to subdue them And contemned the counsel A foul fault See Luke 7.30 Verse 12. Therefore he brought down their heart That proud peece of flesh Quod erat elatum verba Dei contempsit saith Kimchi which had stouted it out with God and thought to have carried it away with a strong hand as Manosseh that sturdy Rebel till God had hampered him and laid him in cold irons Vers 13. Then they cryed unto the Lord See vers 6. And be saved them c. This is comfort to the greatest finners if they can but find a praying heart God will find a pitying heart and rebels shall be received with all sweetness if at length they return though brought in by the cross Vers 14. He brought them out of darkness He sent his Mandamus as Psal 44.4 and that did the deed as Act. 5.19 and 12.7 Vers 15. Oh that men c. See vers 8. Vers 16. For he hath broken the gates of brass If Sampson could do so how much more the Almighty whom nothing can withstand Nature may be stopped in her course as when the fire burnt not Men may not be able to do as they would Angels good or bad may be hindred because in them there is an essence and an executive power between which God can step at his pleasure and interpose his Veto But who or what shall hinder the most High Vers 17. Foâ—ls because of their transgression Propter viam defectionis suae by means of their defection their departing away from the living God through an evil heart of unbeleef Heb. 3.12 And because of their iniquities The flood-gates whereof are set open as it were by that their defection from God For now what should hinder Are afflicted Heb. Do afflict themselves procure their own ruthe if not ruine and so prove sinners against their own souls as those Num 16. Vers 18. Their soul abborreth That is theirâ—st mach loatheth it as unsavoury though it be never so dainty An appetite to our meat is an unconceivable mercy and as we say A sign of health And they draw neer to the gates of death Jam ipsum mortis limen pulsant as till then little sense of sin or fear of the wrath to come See Job 33.19 20 21 22 23. with the Notes Vers 19. Then they cry c. Quando medicus medicine non prosunt saith Kimchi when Physicians have done their utmost See vers 6. Vers 20. He sent his word and bealed them He commanded deliverance and it was done unless there be an allusion to the essential Word who was afterwards to take flesh and to heal the diseased And delivered them from their destructions Heb. From their corrupting-pits or graves which do now even gape for them And he calleth them theirs quia per peccatum faderunt eas saith Kimchi because by their sin themselves have digged them Vers 21. Oh that men c. See vers 8. And for his wonderful works Men are misericordiis miraculis obsesse and it were no hard matter to find a miracle in most of our mercies Vers 22. And let them sacrifice c. If they have escaped sickness let them offer a Passeover and if they have recovered a Thank-offering Heathens in this case praised their Esculapius Papists their Sebastian Valentine Apollonia c. Earâ— of wax they offer to the Saint who as they suppose cureth the ears eyes of wax to the Saint that cureth the eyes c. But it is Jehovah only who healeth us And declare his Works c. Memorize and magnifie them Vers 23. They that go down is the Sea in ships Here we have a fourth specimen or instance of Gods gracious and wise dispensations towards men in their trading or traffiquing by Sea These are said to go down to Sea because the banks are above it but the water is naturally higher then the land and therefore Saylers observe that their ships flye faster to the shore than from it But what a bold man saith the Poet was he that fiâ—st put forth to Sea Illi robur et triplex Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci Commisit pelage ralem Primus Hec timuit praetipitem Africum c. Harat. Od lib. â— 3 That do business in great waters Merchants and Matriners who fish and find Almug or Coral saith Kimcht who do export and import commodities of all sorts Vers 24. These see the works of the Lord c. In Sea-monsters as Whales and Whirlepools and sudden change of weather and the like not a few Ebbs and Flows Pearls Islands c. These are just wonders and may fully convince the veriest Atheist that is Vers 25. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind c. Of this Seneca
Sanctuary-men continens pro contento Hearts and hands must both up to Heaven Lam. 3.41 and God bee glorified both with spirits and bodies which are the Lords 1 Cor. 6.20 And bless the Lord Like so many earth'y Angels and as if yee were in Heaven already say Vers 3 The Lord that made Heaven and Earth And therefore hath the blessings of both lives in his hand to bestow See Num. 6.24 Bless thee out of Zion They are blessings indeed that come out of Zion choice peculiar blessings even above any that come out of Heaven and Earth Compare Psal 128.5 and the promise Exod. 20.24 In all places where I put the memory or my name I will come unto thee and bless thee PSAL. CXXXV VErs 1 Praise yee the Lord praise yee Praise praise praise When duties are thus inculcated it noteth the necessity and excellency thereof together with our dulness and backwardness thereunto O yee Servants of the Lord See Psal 134.1 Vers 2 Yee that stand in the house See Psal 134.1 In the Courts Where the people also had a place 2 Chron. 4.9 and are required to bear a part in this heavenly Halleluiah Vers 3 Praise the Lord for the Lord is good scil Originally transcendently effectively hee is good and doth good Psal 119.68 and is therefore to bee praised with mind mouth and practice For it is pleasant An angelicall exercise and to the spirituall-minded man very delicious To others indeed who have no true notion of God but as of an enemy it is but as musick at funerals or as the trumpet before a Judge no comfort to the mourning wife or guilty prisoner Vers 4 For the Lord hath chosen God 's distinguishing grace should make his elect lift up many an humble joyfull and thankfull heart to him And Israel for his peculiar treasure Such as hee maketh more reckoning of than of all the World besides The Hebrew world here rendred peculiar treasure seemeth to signifie a Jewell made up of three precious stones in form of a triangle Segullâ—h 〈◊〉 dici Sâ—gol 〈…〉 The Saints are Gods Jewels Mal. 3.17 his ornament yea the beauty of his ornament and that set in Majesty Ezek. 7.20 his royall Diadem Isa 62.3 Vers 5 For I know that the Lord is great As well as good vers 3. This I beleeve and know Job 6.69 saith the Psalmist and do therefore make it my practice to praise him And that our Lord is above all Gods Whether they bee so deputed as Magistrates or reputed as Idols Vers 6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased This the Heathens did never seriously affirm of any their dunghill deities sure it is that none of them could say I know it to bee so De diis utrum sint non ausim affirmare said one of their wise men Vers 7 Hee causeth the Vapours Not Jupiter but Jehovah See Jer. 10.13 Hee is the right Nubâ—coga Maker of the Metcors whether fiery aiery or watery Job 26.8 9 28.26 27 37.11 15 16. 38.9 See the Notes there Hee maketh lightenings for the Rain Or With the Rain which is very strange viz. that fire and water should mingle and hard stones come cut of the midst of thin vapours Hee bringeth the winde out of his treasuries Or Coffers store-houses where hee holdeth them close prisoners during his pleasure This the Philosopher knew not and thence it is that they are of so diverse opinions about the winds See Job 36.27 28 c. Job 37. throughout Vers 8 Who smote the first-born of Egypt And thereby roused up that sturdy rebell Pharaoh who began now to open his eyes as they say the blind mole doth when the pangs of death are upon him and to stretch out himself as the crooked Serpent doth when deadly wounded Vers 9 Who sent tokens and wonders Vocall wonders Exod. 4.8 to bee as so many warning-peeces Vers 10 Who smote great Nations Who by their great sins had greatly polluted their land and filled it with fiâ—th from one end to another Ezra 9.11 And slow mighty Kings Heb. Bony big mastiff fellows quasi â—ssâ—tâ—s five 〈◊〉 as the word signifieth Vers 11 Sihon King of Amorites A Giant like Cyclops And Og King of Bashan Of whom the Jews fable that being one of the 〈◊〉 Giants hee escaped the flood by riding affride upon the Ark. Vers 12 And gave their lands for an heritage Which hee might well do as being the true Proprietary and Paramount Vers 13 Thy Name O Lord c. Else O nos ingratos Vers 14 For the Lord will judge his people Judicabit id est vindicabit hee will preserve them and provide for their wel-fare And hee will repent himself This is mutatio rei non Dei effectus non affectus Some render it Hee will bee propitious Others hee will take comfort in his Servants See Judges 10.16 Vers 15 16. The Idols of the Heathen See Psal 115.4 5 6 c. Vers 17 Neither is there any breath in their mouths If they uttered Oracles it was the Devil in them and by them As for those statues of Daedalus which are said to have moved Aristot Diod. Sic. Plato spoken and run away if they were not tyed to a place c. it is either a fiction or else to be attributed to causes externall and artificiall as quick-silver c. Vers 18 They that make them c. See Psal 115.8 Vers 19 Bless the Lord And not an Idoll Isa 66.3 as the Philistines did their Dagon and as Papists still do their hee-Saints and shee-Saints Vers 20 Yee that fear the Lord Yee devout Proselytes Vers 21 Blessed bee the Lord out of Sion There-hence hee blesseth Psal 134.3 and there hee is to bee blessed Which dwelleth at Jerusalem That was the seat of his royall resiance per inhabitationis gratiam saith Austin by the presence of his grace who by his essence and power is every where Enter praesenter Deus hic et ubique potenter PSAL. CXXXVI VErs 1 O give thanks unto the Lord This Psalm is by the Jews called Hillel gadel the great Gratulatory See Psal 106.1.107.1.118.1 For his mercy endureth for ever His Covenant-mercy that precious Church-priviledge this is perpetuall to his people and should perpetually shine as a picture in our hearts For which purpose this Psalm was appointed to bee daily sung in the old Church by the Levites 1 Chron. 16.41 Vers 2 For his mercy endureth for ever This is the foot or burthen of the whole song neither is it any idle repetition but a notable expression of the Saints unsatisfiableness in praising God for his never-failing mercy These heavenly birds having got a note record it over and over In the last Psalm there are but six verses yet twelve Hallelujahs Vers 3 O Give thanks to the Lord of Lords That is to God the Son saith Hierâ—â— as by God of Gods saith hee in the former verse is meant God the Father who because they are no more but one God
and in the other their sins and that if those weigh down these they are â—aved as if otherwise they are damned But what saith an Ancient Vae hominum vitae etiamsi landabili c. Woe to the best man alive if God should weigh him in a balance of justice sith his sins would be found heavier than the sands of the Sea Job 9.15 10.15 Verse 7. If my step hath turned out of the way sc Of justice and equity in tâ—â—ding and trâ—ffacking to get the Mammon of unrighteousness No the Sun might sooner be turned out of his course as it was once said of Fabricius than Job out of the track of truth and honesty He had said laws upon his feet his eyes and his hands too binding them all to the good behaviour Witnesse the next words And mine heart walked after mine eyes As it doth too often to the coveting other men Goods which St. John casteth the lust of the eyes 1 Epist 2.16 Alexander the Great called the Persian Maids Dolores oculorum the griefs of the eyes The wedge of Gold and Babylonish Garment proved to be so to covetous Achan Josh 7.21 and Nabotâ— Vineyard to that Non-such Ahab 1 King 21.2 He was even sick of it and could not be cured but by a Sâ—llet out of it Hence the law flatly forbiddeth men to go after the sight of their eyes and the lust of their hearts for these are seldom â—undred Numb 15.39 Eccles 11.9 Unruly eyes like Jacobs sheep too firmly fixed on unlawful objects make the affections bring forth spotted 〈◊〉 Job would therefore set a guard upon them Oculus cor sunt proxeneta peccati Hebr. Proverb .. lest they should prove 〈◊〉 of wickedness to the heart as that hang by Hiram the Adâ—ttamâ—te was to Judah Gen. 38.20 There is an easie passage for evill through the eyes into the heart saith 〈◊〉 And if any blot hath cleaved to my hands If I have been fingering that which was not sit for me to meddle with viz. evil-gotten goods whether by bribery usury deceit or the like the very touching whereof will blot and benumb the hands as Pliny writeth of the fish Torpedo and as scholers know that Demosthenes a great Lawyer by poizing Harpalus his goblet was tempted and swayed to favour his Cause to the great danger of his Countrey and his own indeleble infamy Verse 8. Then let me sow and another eate God loves to retaliate and let him do so to me according to that he hath threatned Deut. 28 30 c. and as he executed upon Laban Nabal Saul Haman others The Greeks have a Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some sow that which others reape This Job wisheth may befal if he had been oppressive and injurious as Eliphaz had wrongfully accused him chap. 22.6 Yea let my off-spring be rooted out Or Let that which I have planted be pluckt up by the roots It is commonly seen that oppressours and unconscionable persons procure their own ruth and ruine and he that gathereth the fruits of another mans tree pulleth his own up by the roots 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who spoyle houses which they builded not Job 20.19 shall when they cease to spoile be made a spoile and when they have made an end of dealing treacherously be treacherously dealt with themselves Isaiah 33.1 Verse 9. If my heart hath been deceived by a woman By a she-sinner as they call such a strange woman as the Scripture whose lips are snares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc 〈◊〉 persuadeo whose hands are bands whose words are cords to draw a man in as an Ox to the slaughter Prov 7.21 whose face is as a glass wherein whiles larks gaze they are taken in a day-net Here Job disavoweth and disclaimeth the sin of Adultery purging himself as it were by Oath as before he had done of fornication and of wrong-dealing These sins he reckoneth up either as they came to minde or else in such order as men are many times tempted to them Young people are prone to fornication Job when young had kept himself clear from that iniquity When men have got some yeares over their heads and are entred into the world as they call it they usually grow greedy and gripple they are set upon 't and will be rich however they come by it Job was none such neither verse 5.7 Afterwards when married they are sick of a Pluâ—isie and as the Devil who sets them a work they long to be sowing another mans ground Matth. 13.25 The temptation to fornication is strong but to adultery stronger God doth often punish fornication unrepented of Adulterium quasi ad alterius torum with strong and vexing honings and hankerings after strange flesh But Job either was never troubled in this kinde or else when the temptation came he was sure to be ever out of the way The Devils fire fell upon wet tinder and if he knockt at Jobs door there was no body at home to look out at the window and let him in for he considered the punishment both humane verse 11. and divine verse 12. due to this great wickedness Or if I have laid wait at my neighbours door Either as waiting the opportunity of his absence as Prov. 7.19 or as insinuating my self into her familiarity whiles she was standing in her door Of the Italian Women one giveth this Character That though witty in speech and modest in outward appearance yet they are magpies at the door Goats in the garden Devils in the house Angels in the streets and Syrens in the windows Jobs heart was not deceived by any such neither sought he to defraud his brother in any such matter 1 Thess 4.5 6. See the Note on Job 8.4 Verse 10. Then let my wise grind unto another i.e. Let her be his slave as Lam. 5.13 Exod. 11.5 Matth. 24.41 Or rather let her be his Where and may my sin Vatab. Alicnas Permolere uxores Horat. Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. molcre apud Theocrit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est coire which hath served her for example serve her also for excuse Not that Job would Hereby license his wise to commit filthiness as those Lituanians who have their Connubii adjutores coadjutors in wedlock and prize them far above all their acquaintance as Maginus relateth and as some wittals amongst us pandars to their own beds who either for gain or for a quiet life wink at their wives disloyalty and as Wood culvers or silly Hedg-sparrows hatch and bring up that which Cuckow 's lay in their nests but to set forth by this horrible imprecation how extreamly he abhorred the sin of Adultery And let others bow down upon her A clean expression of an unclean act Some Borborologi podicentex ore faciunt being like Ducks that ever have their noses pudling in puddles sic hi spurcitias Veneris eliminant delight in ribaldry and obscene language as did Proculus the Emperour and before him that