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
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
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
how old he was answered that he was in health and to another that asked how rich he was answered that he was not in debt q. d. He is young enough that is in health and rich enough that is not in debt Now all this Job was yet and therefore Satan ill apaid and unsatisfied And all that he hath will a man give for his life Life is sweet we say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aesop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist and man is a life-loving creature saith the Heathen fond of life and afraid of death which is Natures slaughterman and therefore the most Terrible of Terribles as Aristotle stileth it The Gibeonites refused not to be perpetuall slaves so they might but live Those that are overcome in battle are content to be stript of all so they may have quarter for their lives Marriners in a tempest cast their lading into the sea though never so precious in hope of life If Job may escape with the skin of his teeth it is some favour he may not think much to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life his conscience only excepted Some good people have strained that too for love of life as when Abraham denyed his wife David changed his behaviour Camd. Elis fol. 325. Peter denyed his Master Qu. Elizabeth though afterwards she could say When I call to mind things past behold things present and expect things to come I hold them happiest that go hence soonest yet in Queen Maries time shee sometimes heard divine service after the Romish religion and was often confessed yea at the rigorous sollicitation of Cardinall Pool shee professed her self a Romish Catholick yet did not Queen Mary believe her saith mine Author remembring that shee her self for feare of death had by Letters written with her own hand to her father both renounced for ever the Bishop of Romes authority Ibid. Introd and withall acknowledged her father to be supreme head of the Church of England under Christ and her Mothers marriage to have been incestuous and unjust Those good soules did better that loved not their lives unto death Rev. 12.11 that by losing their lives saved them Matth. 10.39 that held with that Martyr Julius Palmer that life is sweet only to such as have their souls linked to their bodies as a thiefs foot is in a pair of fetters Verse 5. But put forth thy hand now See notes on chap. 1.11 This God did at Satans motion yet non ad exitium Jobi sed ad exercitium Jobs temptation is of Satan but his triall and invincible constancy is of god God in a sense tempted Job Satan also even as the dog may be said to bait the beast and the owner of the beast too that suffered him to be baited And touch his bone and his flesh pinch him to the quick that not his flesh onely may feel it but the marrow also in his bones Psal 6.2 and 32.3 and 51.8 The bone and flesh are the chief materials of mans body which is fitly compared to a fabrick wherein the bones are the timber-work the head the upper-lodging the eyes as windowes the eye-lids as casements the browes as pent-houses the ears as watch-towers the mouth as a door to take in that which shall uphold the building and keep it in reparations the stomack as a kitchin to dresse that which is conveyed into it the guts and baser parts as sinks belonging to the house c. as one maketh the comparison Now in all these and the rest of his parts of body Satan would have Job to be smitten and then he made no question of a conquest Paine is a piercing shaft in Satans quiver of temptations hence he stirred up his agents to tympanize and torment the Martyrs with as much cruelty as the wit of malice could devise but all in vain Heb. 11.35 36. Apollonia had all her teeth pulled out of her head hence Papists make her the Saint for tooth-ach Blandina tired those that tortured her Theodorus was cruelly whipped racked Scerat Theodor. and scraped with sharp shells by the command of Julian but yeilded not Rose Allen had her hand-wrist burnt by Justice Tyrrell who held a candle under it till the sinews brake that all the house heard them and then thrusting her from him violently said ah strong whore wilt thou not cry thou shamelesse whore thou beastly whore c. But she quietly suffering his rage for the time at the last said Sir Acts Mon. 1820. have you done what you will doe and he said yea and if thou think it not well then mend it Mend it said she nay the Lord mend you and give you repentance if it be his will And now if you think it fit begin at the feet and burn the head also for he that set you a work shall pay your wages one day I warrant you As little got the divel by these worthies as he did by Jobs biles and carbuncles We are ashamed said one of Julians Nobles to him we are Ashamed O Emperour the Christians laugh at your cruelty and grow the more resolute And he will curse thee to thy face Heb. If he curse thee not to thy fade q. d. then damne me send me to hell presently This Satan holds in by an Aposiopesis being therein more modest then our desperate and detestable God-damn-mee's let them see how they gratifie the divel who curse and blaspheme or protest openly what they know to be false This the divel did not Verse 6. And the Lord said unto Satan who hath his request it is not alwayes a mercy to have what we wish Deus saepè dat iratus quod negat propitius Be sure we bring lawful petitions and true hearts Heb. 10.22 and then we shall have good things and for our greatest good Behold he is in thine hand Here God puts his child into his slaves hand to correct but not to destroy And surely if we give reverence to the fathers of our flesh who correct us for their own pleasure shall we not much more be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits Heb. 12 9 10. Busbeq chastning us for our profit and live The Turks though cruelly lasht are yet compelled to return to him that commanded it to kisse his hand and to give him thanks and to pay the officer that whipt them This last we need not do but the former we ought taking Gods part against our selves and resting contented though as Paul delivered up some to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme so God deliver us up to him and his agents such as Satanically hate us and are divellishly bent against us Psal 32.21 causing us to suffer more then any ever did out of hell that we may learn not to be proud secure sensuall and may preach forth the vertues of him who hath brought us out of darknesse into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 Let us not say if God would take
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
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
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
up or take away for sin was Jobâ— greatest burden which therefore he prayeth to God to pardon and that not in heaven only but in his own conscience and then no darkness can be so desolate no cross so cutting no burden so importable but he shall by Gods grace be able to deal with it Hence this vehement expostulation of his for remission and removal of sin first and then of its evil consequents for pardon of sinne is a voluminous mercy and being justified by faith we can glory in tribulation Rom. 5.1 3. For now shall I sleep in the dust In the dust of death Psal 22.15 and therefore must have help presently or not at all sith a man once departed is no more to be found in this world though never so diligently sought for See verse 7 8. One paraphraseth these words thus For now I shall die and then when thou lookest to receive thy morning sacrifice of praise as aforetime I shall not be found to give it thee CHAP. VIII Verse 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said BIldad who was of the posterity of Shuah Abrahams son by Keturah Gen. 25.1 2. interrupteth Job and indeavours to maintain what Eliphaz had spoken Nevertheless it appeareth by this chapter verse 5 6 20 21. that his opinion was not so rigid as that of Eliphaz for he grants that a righteous man may be afflicted but yet so that if God restore him not speedily he may be censured cast and condemned as unrighteous He passeth as they do all some hard censures upon Job and is paid in his own coyn by him who saith that he was according to his name a wicked kinsman for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is naught and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Uncle With what judgment men judg they shall be judged Mat. 7 2. Vers 2. How long wilt thou speak these things Quonsque effaberis ista q. d. Tremel Hast thou nothing better then this to utter Be silent for shame or forbear at least to vent thy spleen against God of whose proceedings with shee thou hast heavily complained thy words have been stout against the Lord and thou hast taken too much liberty of language in this tempest of talk And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind Mercer Big and boisterous rude and â—robustuous as if thou wouldst Dominum impetere evertere dejicere blow down God and his proceedings at a breath The Tigurine translation is Quanaiu verba oris â—ui soâ—abuâ—t pertinaciaâ— How long shall the words of thy mouth sound out thine obstinacy If evil thoughts be majoris reatus of greater guilt as the Schools speak yet evil words and works are majoris infamia of greater scandal and do more corrupt others This Bildad was sensible of and conceiving that Job complained of God as dealing hardly with him and unjustly afflicting him he addeth Verse 3. Doth God pervert judgment By not punishing the wicked or doth the Almighty pervert justice by not rewarding the righteous so the Hebrews expound it Why no neither did Job ever say such a thing only he had pathetically set forth the greatness of his pain and the unkindness of his friends and wished to die rather then to endure it Now this was construed for blasphemy or little less and Bildad is very hot in his invective against Job as good reason he had if he had not been so mistaken Here he wresteth in a most true proposition commondam sanè sed non accâ—mmodam but yet such a one as very little concerned this present disputation and he doth it with as small wisedom and discretion saith Beza as with great pride and confidence For doth it either argue Job and hypocrite and wicked man or charge God with injustice if it be said that Job for his sins was not so afflicted by God whereas he in the mean time denieth not himself to be a sinner and to have deserved Gods heavy hand upon him but rather proved and tryed by him according to his good pleasure yet Bildad goeth on as if he had done very well and in the next verse in plain words boldly avoucheth that Jobs children were by Gods judgment destroyed with the fall of the house whatever betid their souls Vers 4. If thy children have sinned against him As what man is he that liveth and sinneth not But Bildad meant that Jobs children had hainously sinned had been grievous sinners against their own souls as afterwards were Core and his complices had not sinned common sins and therefore died not common deaths indeed they died early and suddenly and eating and drinking wherein there might be some excess and before sacrifice offered for them as formerly all this was sad and moved Job more then any thing else But did it therefore follow that God hast cast them away c. And he have cast them away for their transgression Or And he have expelled or abandoned them into the hand so the Hebrew hath it elegantly of their transgressions or rebellions Pagnin as so may executioners Some render it thus He hath driven them out of the world for their transgression The Chaldee Paraphrast goeth further interpreting hand here for place If God have sent them saith he into the place of their wickedness that is into hell prepared for the wicked Now surely saith Lavater Inhumanissimus fuit Bildad qui ista calamitosissimo objicere non dubitabat Bildad was a most unmerciful man who doubted not to lay these things in the dish of him that was before so heavily afflicted and to heap more load upon him who was ready to sink under his burden but he did it say some of a good intent to bring Job to a sense of his sin and to put him in hope of appeasing Gods wrath who had yet spared his life that he might make his peace and not suddenly slay him as he had done them and therefore he assureth him in the following verses as Eliphaz had done before that all things shall go well with him if he repent Albeit thy children have sinned c. yet Verse 5. If thou wouldst seek unto God betimes If warned by the evil end that befell thine unhappy children thou wouldst early and earnestly seek unto God for mercy for which purpose it may seem that thy life hath been graciously spared when thy children have been destroyed that thou mightst be made wise at their expence Such counsel as this is Eliphaz had given Job before chap. 5.8 And make thy supplication to the Almighty Pray for mercy out of free-grace alone so the Hebrew word signifieth plead for pity speak supplications as the poor man doth Prov 18.23 Be poor in spirit a stark beggar and bankrupt lesse then the least of all Gods mercies Gen. 32.10 and in this mind addresse thy self to the All-sufficient the Cornucopia the God rich in mercy to all that call upon him for pardon of thy great sin in standing out in contention with
themselves that will needs go to God in their own righteousnesse as the proud Pharisee Luke 18. The calamity of these merit-mongers shall rise suddenly Behold a whirle-wind or a tempest of the Lord goeth forth in fury even a grievous whirle-wind it shall fall grievously upon the head of these wicked ones Jer. 23.19 This Saint Paul knew and therefore did his utmost that he might be found in Christ sc when sought for by the justice of God not having his own righteousnesse which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Philip. 3 9. And multiplieth my wounds without cause i. e. Without any other cause then to try me and prove my patience which now Job began to perceive as Philip gathereth or without any manifest cause and perceivable by an afflicted man so Aquinas senseth it God hath not told me the reason of his chastenings but to increase my grief he concealeth from me the cause of them and yet he multiplieth still my sores and my sorrows Or without cause that is without any such cause as his friends alledged against him viz. that he was a rank hypocrite Verse 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath I am so far from a period that I have no pause of my troubles I cannot get any interspiria's or free breathing-whiles See chap. 7.19 And in the former verse he had complained that God had stormed him Interim per Pathos saith Mercer here he returns to his old practice of expostulating about the greatnesse of his grief and spares not to hyperbolize Beda and others understand this text of a bodily distemper upon Job which had made him short-winded And Lavater hath this good note here Hoc cogitandum nobis est c. Let this text be thought upon when our spirits begin to sink as also when by reason of the Ptisick or any other like disease we feel a difficulty of breathing and a straitening of our pectorals or be otherwise compassed about with great sorrows But filleth me with bitternesse Heb. He satiateth me with bitternesses i. e. with sore and sharp afflictions which are no way joyous but grievous to the flesh Heb. 12.11 Job had his belly-full of gall and worm-wood he had not only a draught or two but a diet-drink made him of most bitter ingredients Of this he complaineth heavily what then will the wicked do that must suck up the dregs of Gods cup Psalm 78.8 which hath eternity to the bottom Verse 19. If I speak of strength lo he is strong Neither by might nor right can I deal with him Broughton renders it As for force he is valiant the Lord is a man of warre saith Moses Exod. 15.3 Yea he is the Lord of arms saith David Psal 84. Yea He alone is a whole army of men Van Rere both saith Isaiah cap. 52.12 there is no doubt then but he will carry the day sith no creature is able to grapple with him The weaknesse of God if any such thing there were is stronger then men 1 Cor. 1.25 and by weakest means he can effect greatest matters as once he did in Egypt And if of judgment who shall set me a time to plead Who shall appoint the time and place of our meeting If I shall go about to sue him at law I shall have but a cold suit an ill pull of it for who shall make him appear or bring him to his answer and where shall I find an advocate a patron to plead my cause yea where shall I get a witnesse for so the vulgar reades it Nemo audet pro me restimonium dicere No man will be so bold as to give an evidence for me or be a witnesse on my side Verse 20. If I justifie my self If in default of other pleaders I should undertake to manage my cause my self I should be never the neer Mine own mouth shall condemn me i. e. God out of mine own mouth as finding mine arguments weak and worthlesse He knowes us better then we know our selves and when he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards as once Josephs steward did theirs all our secret thefts will out and those will appear to be faults that we little thought of A Dutch Divine when to die was full of fears and doubts said some to him you have been so employed and so faithful why should you fear Oh said he the judgment of man and the judgment of God are different Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili si remotâ misericordiâ judicetur Wo to the most praise-worthy man alive if he meet with judgment without mercy The best lamb should abide the slaughter except the ramme were sacrificed that Isaak might be saved If I say I am perfect What if God had said so chap. 1.1 yet Job might not Prov. 27.2 2 Cor. 10.18 Or if he do at any time justifie himself as chap. 29. 30 he doth it is in his own necessary and just defence against the charge of his friends Real apologies we must ever make for our selves when wronged verbal if any must be managed with meeknesse of wisedome Verse 21. Though I were perfect That is of an unblameable conversation yet could not I know mine own soul that is those secret sins Psalm 19.12 those litters of lusts that lurk therein therefore I despise my life I have no joy at all of it but could wish to be out of the world to be rid of these evil inmates that will not out of doors till the house fall upon the heads of them till the earthly Tabernacle that harboureth them be once dissolved Others read and sense the words thus I am perfect or upright neither do I know mine own soul i. e. quicquam perversi in anima mea any allowed sin in my soul yet I am so afflicted that I despise my life as being but a continued death Aben-Ezra reads the verse with an admiration thus Perfect I am and think you that I know not mine own soul that I am so great a stranger to my self or that I have so little care of mine own good as that I despise my life and walk at all adventures Tremellius thus I am upright whatever you my friends would make of me neither value I my life or soul in comparison of mine integrity my life is but a trifle to my conscience c. Verse 22. This is one thing therefore I say it And will stand to it though I stand alone this being the one thing wherein I differ in opinion from you and because it is the hinge upon which the whole dispute betwixt us is turned therefore I will abide by it and be Doctor resolutus resolute in the maintenance of it viz. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked A harsh doctrine yet a good one saith an Interpreter Grace is no target against the greatest affliction See Eccles 9.1 2 3. Mal. 3.14 Ezek. 21.3 Heb. 11. shewes that
forth that he will not once offer to contend with God he here humbly begs of God no further to contend with him but to grant a truce at least-wise during the treaty and either to take away or howsoever to mitigate his sorrows and sores See the like chap. 15.20 21. And let not his fear terrifie me i. e. His formidablenesse see chap. 7.14 let it not scare me or put me as it were beside my wits Psalm 88.15 Ne me transversum agaâ— Sept. Verse 35. Then would I speak and not fear him I would come boldly to the throne of grace and freely pour out my soul into his bosome If he meant that he would maintain his own cause against Gods proceedings as some understand it grounding upon chap. 33.6 7. he was questionless in a very great error and the flesh had got the hill of the Spirit But it is not so with me So how so as you imagine Vatab. Non sum talis qualem me esse putatis I am no such one as you take me for viz. an hypocrite I am not so self-guilty say the Septuagint or thus It is not so with me that is I do not find God answering my suit for I am still scourged and frighted so that I scarce know what I say CHAP. X. Verse 1. My soul is weary of my life BEcause it is a lifelesse life Mortis habet vires a death more like Life is sweet and every creature maketh much of it from the highest Angel in heaven to the lowest worm on earth The Scripture setteth it forth as a sweet mercy Gen. 45.28 Lam. 3.39 Esth. 7.3 Jer. 39.18 and 45.5 But God can so imbitter it with outward and inward troubles that it shall become a burthen I am weary of my life saith good Rebecca Gen. 27.46 and what good shall my life do me David forced to be in bad company cryes Oh that I had the wings of a dove c. Wo is me that I sojourn in Meshech c. Elias fleeing from Jezabel requested for himself that he might dye saying It is enough Lord take away my life for I am not better then my fathers 1 Kings 19.4 No Heb. 1â— but God had provided some better thing for him as the Apostle speaketh in another case for he was shortly after translated and taken out of the reach both of Jezabel whom he feared and of death which he desired Sed multi magni viri sub Eliae junipero sedent saith one Many good men sit under Eliâ—s his juniper wishing to be out of the world if God were so pleased that they might rest from their labours and be rid of their many burdens and bondages as in the mean while they rather endure life then desire it as holding it little better then hell were it not for the hopes they have of heaven hereafter I will leave my complaint upon my self Liberty I will take to complain whatever come of it I will lay the reins in the neck and let my passions have their full swinge at my peril See the like chap. 13.3 Verùm Job hac in re nimius saith Mercer but Job was too blame in doing and saying thus and it is to be attributed to the infirmity of his flesh wherewith although the spirit do notably combat yet the flesh seemeth sometimes and in some sort to get the better Nimis augusta res est â—â—spaim errare saith one Barclai Euphorm Triste mortalitatis privilegium est licere aliquando peccare saith another The snow-like swan hath black legs and in many things we offend all Gold is not to be refused because it wanteth some grains and hath a crack c. I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul And so seek to ease my grief by giving a vent unto it But it is evident that such out-bursts and overflowings of the gall and spleen come from a fulnesse of bad humours Verse 2. I will say unto God Do not condemn me You may say so as an humble suppliant but not as holding your self innocent and therefore harshly dealt with The Hebrew is Do not make me wicked rather do good ô Lord to those that be good and to them that are upright in their hearts but lead me not forthwith the workers of iniquity as a melefactor is led forth to execution Psal 125.5 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me i. e. Quare sic me affligas saith Vatablus why thou thus afflictest me whether for sin or for triall and this Job desired to know not to satisfie his curiosity but his conscience as one well observeth and that the world might be satisfied the rash judgment of his friends confuted and answered by a determination from heaven Verse 3. 〈◊〉 it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppresse It is the guise of wicked judges to take this counsel to follow this course whom thou being a most just and righteous judge Beza canst not confirm or encourage by thine own example as it were by a light shining from above Thus Job rhetoricateth his complaints are high yet ever with an allay or mixture of modesty That thou shouldst despise the work of thine hands i. e. Me thy poor creature wilt thou do and undo make a man and unmake him again for thy minds sake Builders use not to ruin what they have built Artificers love and plead for their own handy-work Fathers foster their children with all tendernesse Some Authors dote upon their own doings as Laurentius Valla did upon his Logick as if there had been none such calling it in a bravado Logâ—câ—m Laurentinam and as Caâ—pian the Jesuite did upon his ten leaden reasons which he deemed and boasted to be unanswerable Heliodâ—rus would rather be unbishopped then yeild that his Ethiopick history a toilesome toy but the brat of his brain should be abolished The Saints are Gods building 1 Cor. 3.9 Handy-work Ephes 2.18 Children Job 1.12 Epistle known and read of all men 2 Cor. 3.2 3. This if we plead when sorely afflicted as the Church did Isa 64.8 And David Psalm 138.8 and Job here we may have any thing See that notable text Isaiah 45.11 And that other Isai 59.16 And shine upon the counsel of the wicked That is favour and further their designs God makes his Sun to shine upon such but himself never shineth upon them he may be angry enough with men though they outwardly prosper yea to prosper in sin is a most heavy judgment See Zacâ— 1.15 with the note there Verse 4. Hast thou eyes of flesh Which see but the surface of things and not that neither in the dark Hast thou not fiery eyes Rev. 1.14 that need no outward light but see by sending out a ray and pierce the inward parts also Hast thou not made the eye yea the optick vertue in the eye which seeth all and is seen of none If the Sun be the eye of the world God is much more the Greeks give him his name from seeing 〈◊〉
as was noted before on verse 5. But he is said to remember us when he relieveth us Psalm 136.23 and 9.18 1 Sam. 1.19 That thou hast made me c. viz. in those Protoplasts my first parents formed out of the ground Gen. 2.7 whence the Heathen Philosopher could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arian in Epict. that man is nothing else but a piece of clay weakly made up or thou hast wrought me like clay sc in the womb where thou hast framed and formed my body as the potter worketh his clay well-tempered into an earthen vessel Here then Job in-minds the Lord by the matter whereof he was made of the frailty vility and impurity of his nature Lutum enim conspurcat omnia sic caro to move him to a mitigation of his misery See Psal 103.14 and 78.39 Wilt thou bring me into the dust again viz. By those grievous torments Or And that thou wilt bring me into dust againe for so thou hast said to dust shalt thou return Gen. 3.19 And it is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 Oh therefore that I might have some small rest and respite before I go hence and be no more seen Psal 39.12 13. Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk Or melted me that is made me of some such thing as liquid and white milke Generationem hominis describit Man is a very mean thing in his first conception modestly here set forth by the making of cheeses Vatab. Vnde superbit homo cujus conceptâ—o turpis Nasci poena labor vitâ— necesse morâ— Concerning mans formation in the womb see the Naturallists and Lactantius de Opificio Dei cap. 12. but especially Psalm 139. where and in this text there is enough spoken to satisfie us about this great natural mystery saith Mercer that is a good Moral that one maketh of it God strains out the motes of corruption from a godly-man while his heart is poured out like milk with grief and fear whereby the iniquity of Jacob is purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sinne Isa 27.9 And crudled me like cheese Siccastissimo ore elegantibus metaphoris saith an Interpreter Bodin theat natur 434. Arist de gen anim cap. 20. i. e. Thus in a most modest manner and with elegant metaphors doth Job as a great Philosopher set out mans conception in the womb Aristotle whose manner is obscurioribus obscura implicare as Bodin observeth hath some such expression as this but nothing so clear and full Verse 11. Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh Out of that soft and liquid substance the slime of my parents loins grossed first into a rude fleshy masse and consolidated Thou hast made not only a thin skin and firm flesh but also hard bones and knitting nerves and all this for a garment or guardment to those more noble inward parts the brain heart liver c. which Job here accounts to be the man when he saith Thou hast clothed me that is my vital parts with the upper garment of skin and with the under-garment of flesh all which and the rest of the parts both similar and organical are in their original but the same matter which God hath thus diversified and all by the book Psalm 139.16 Had he left out any member in his common-place-book thou hadst wanted it saith one And hast fenced me with bones and sinews Bones are the pillars of the body giving it stability straightnesse and forme The Rabbines say there are as many of them in mans body as there are affirmative precepts in the law that all his bones may say Lord who is like unto thee c Psal 35.10 By the sinews are the bones knit together that upon them man may move from place to place as he pleaseth Sense also and Motion is by these in their wonderful and inexplicable conjugations conveyed to the rest of the parts It is God alone that knoweth how the bones think the same of the sinews arteries veins gristles flesh and blood c. do grow in the wombe of her that is with child Eccles 11.5 The Anatomists find out every day almost new wonders and an Ancient stileth Man the miracle of miracles Besides what is seen Mr. Caryl God hath pack many rarieties mysteries yea miracles together in mans chest And surely saith one if all the Angels in heaven had studied to this day they could not have cast man into a more curious mould or have given a fairer or more 〈◊〉 edition of him Verse 12. Thou hast granted me life i. e. Into my body thus formed and organized thou hast infused a soul Vatab. that principle of life quickned me in the womb and brought me alive out of it which because it is a miracle of mercy therefore 〈◊〉 addeth favour thou hast granted me Heb. thou hast wrought with me life and favâ—â—â— Thou hast dealt life and goodnesse unto me that is thou hast given me life accompanied with thy goodnesse and blessings so Beza senseth it Some understand it of the reasonable soul others of the beauty of the body according to Isa 40 6. And thy visitation hath preserved my Spirit i. e. Thy good providence hath safe guarded me from innumerable deaths and dangers Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus children are apt to run into mischief and those of riper years are subject to a thousand disasters and evil-occurrences Gods special care is exercised over his as is sweetly expressed Psalm 121. and Psalm 23. Davids pastoral and Psalm 3. where David doubteth not of safety though asleep and in the midst of enemies because God sustained him when as Samson and Ishbosheth a sleep in the midst of friends were circumvented because deserted by him oh pray pray that the Lord Jesus Christ would be ever with our spirits visit him in duty that he may visit us in mercy Verse 13. And those things hast thou hid in thine heart Legendum hoc cum stomachâ— saith Mercer And hast thou indeed hid these things in thine heart What things meaneth Job his afflictions which God was long before preparing for him and now took his time to lay load upon him to be revenged on him at unawares and at greatest advantage If this be the fense of Jobs words as some would conclude from the next verses he was mightily mistaken and this was atrox querimonia a grievous complaint and unworthy of God who lieth not at the catch nor pretendeth fair when he intendeth otherwise A Cain may do so to Abel Esau to Jacob Absolom to Amnâ—n Joab to Amasa c. The Creator needs not daub or prevaricate thus with his creatures if Job thought he did with him Job was utterly out though for confirmation he adde I know that this is with thee I am sure that thou hast dealt thus closely and covertly with me and that thy plagues have surprized me O these still revenges Merlin and others understand by those thing hid
of so great vertue This Zophar promiseth Job upon his true repentance with a daily increase thereof as the Sun shineth more and more unto the perfect day Fame followeth vertue as the shadow doth the body at the very heels If there be any vertue if any praise saith the Apostle Philip. 4.8 Where the one is the other will be Abel for his faith and righteousnesse is yet spoken of as some render Hebr. 11.4 though dead long agoe The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Psalm 112.6 Thou shalt shine forth thou shalt be as the morning Isai 58.8 Or If thou dost wax obscure yet thou shalt match the morning which disperseth darknesse and conquers it by the approaching light Look how the Moon wadeth out of a cloud so shall thine over-cast righteousnesse break forth as the light and thy judgment as the noon-day Psalm 37.6 Verse 18. And thou shalt be secure because there is hope It 's a spiritual security that 's here promised which is a fruit of faith quelling and killing distracting and distrustful fears faith I say unfaigned 1 Tim. 1.5 which produceth hope unfailable Rom. 5.5 Hope is the daughter of faith but such as is a staffe to her aged mother Yea thou shalt dig about thee That is saith one Interpreter by searching to find out how to do all things for the best thou shalt prosper in all Others sense it thus Eugub Tigur thou shalt be secure as they that lye in trenches Rabbi David Thou shalt dig only about thy city and not need to make any walls about it for thy security Others Lavater thou shalt labour hard and sleep soundly thereupon Or thus God shall so encompasse thee with his safe protection as if thou dost but dig a place to pitch thy tent in thou shalt enjoy thy self safelier therein then otherwise thou wouldst do in a walled city And thou shalt take thy rest God will keep off those gnats of cares and fears that might disquiet thee We read of some great Princes that could not sleep as Ahasuerus Esth. 6.1 Daniel Thulin Richard the third of England and Charls the ninth of Franc after that barbarous Massacre at Paris but David could Psalm 3. and 4. because God was his keeper No marvel that Philip sleepeth soundly when Antipater his fast friend watched by him the while Job and all Gods beloved ones shall sleep on both ears Psalm 127.2 rest securely and comfortably What should hinder In utramvis aurem when the keeper of Israel who neither slumbreth nor sleepeth shall watch over them for good Verse 19. Thou shalt lie down and none shall make thee afraid Thou shalt walk about the world like a conquerour being ever under a double guard the Peace of God within thee Philip. 4.7 and the Power of God without thee 1 Pet. 1.5 neither shall any enemy come upon thee in the night to fright and to disturb thee which is a great mercy It is not long since we of this Nation did eat the bread of our souls in peril of our lives neither could we rest in our beds for the sound of the trumpet the alarm of warre Destruction upon destruction was cryed c. Jer. 4.19 20. Should this ever be forgotten Yea many shall make suit unto thee Heb. Shall intreat thy face yea they shall tire thee out with their intreaties Many seek the Rulers favour Prov. 29.26 he is even thronged with suitors so that he cannot be without a Master of Requests Hence the Poet Orpheus faineth that Litae or Supplications and Petitions are Joves daughters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orph. in Arg. and that they are ever attending at his throne Here then Zophar promiseth Job that upon his return to God he shall be as great a man as ever and that many yea that his very enemies shall not only not molest him but fear his power Jer. 30.17 and beg his favour And whereas once it was this is Job whom no man feeketh after then the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour Psalm 45.12 and all that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the foals of thy seet Isai 60.14 See Isai 45.14 Rev. 3.9 Prov. 19.6 Lo this is the honour God putteth upon holinesse Holy and reverend is his name and therefore reverend because holy so also is ours Psalm 111.9 Isai 43.4 Howbeit we have cause to complain that in these last and worst times Omnes quodammodo mali esse coguntur ne viles habeantur Sal. lib 4. as the Turks count all fools to be Saints so men with us account all Saints to be fools and not a few turn to unholinesse lest they should be despised Verse 20. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail Contraries illustrate one another and Zophar willing his words should stick and work thinks to leave a sting in Jobs mind by telling him what he must trust to if he persist in his sin And first his eyes shall saile Vt vehementiùs vellicet fodiat inopinatum ut putabat Job◠animum Merl. Speed The eye is a principal part of the body and the failing of the eyes followeth either upon some sudden fright or upon much weeping Damen 2. Psalm 88. and 38. we read of one Faustus son of Vortiger King of Britain who wept out his eyes or too long looking after the same thing or on the same object The wicked saith Zophar shall never want frights and griefs they shall also look many a long look after help but none shall appear Lam. 4.17 their hopes shall be fruitlesse their projects successelesse And they shall not escape Heb. refuge or flight shall perish from them◠miseries and mischiefs they shall never be able to avert or avoid many sorrows shall be to the wicked Psalm 32.10 and although they may think to get off of out-run them yet it will not be Amos 2.14 Psalm 142.4 Saul for instance God hath forsaken me saith he and the Philistims are upon me 1 Sam. 28.15 Their hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost Broughton rendreth it Their hope is nought but pangs of the soul Of that which yeildeth but cold comfort we use to say It comforteth a man like the pangs of death the Vulgar hath it Their hope shall be the abomination of their soul the Tigurine Their hope shall be most vain even as a puffe of breath which presently passeth away and cometh to nothing Some Rabbines make this the sense Their hope shall be as the snuffing of the breath that is they shall be so angry at their disappointments that they shall vex and snuffe at it According to our translation the wicked mans hope is set forth as utterly forlorn and at an end for any good ever to befall him The godly mans hope is lively 1 Pet. 1.3 and the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Cum expiro spero is his motto whereas the wickeds word when he dieth is or may
here to trees which are said to turn themselves and their roots after a sort to take in the smel of the water and thereby refreshed to bud and bring forth boughs like a plant This is check to those that live under the droppings of the ordinances and yet are like the Cypress-treâ— which the more it is watered proves the lesse fruitful and being once out down it never springs again whence the Romans who believed not a resurrection were wont to place a Cypresse-tree at the threshold of the house of death as Pliny and Serâ—iâ—s tell us Serv. in Virg. l. 4. Plin. lib. 16. cap. 32. Verse 10. But man dieth and wasteth away Heb. strong and lusty man Homo quantumvis rooustus Vat. dieth and wasteth away or is cut off sc worse then a tree for he growes no more or is discomfited vanquished as Exod. 17.13 and 32.18 sc by death and so carried clean out of this world Yea man giveth up the ghost Homo vulgaris plebeius All of all sorts must die whether noble or ignoble as Rabbi Abraham here observeth Job is very much in this discourse about death and surely as Nazianzen wisheth of hell so could I of death Vtinam ubique de morte dissereretur oh that it were more in mens minds and mouths then it is And where is he q. d. No where above ground or if he be putrefit teterrimè olet he putrifies and stinks filthily and as his life is taken away so is his glory yea being once out of sight he growes by little and little out of mind too little thought of less spoken of many times not so much as his name mentioned or remembred in the next generation Eccles 1.11 There is no remembrance of former things or men neither shall there be any remembrance c. So Eccles 2.16 and 8.10 and 9.5 Hence the state of the dead is called the land of forgetfulnesse Psalm 88.12 And Psalm 31.12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind Heathens also say the same Hor. lib. 4. Carm. 7. Cum somel occideris de te splendida Minos Fecerit arbitria Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Restituet pietas Verse 11. As the water fall from the sea He sets forth the same truth by an elegant similitude drawn from the drying up of waters Look how these after some exundation of the sea or some great river are separated and left upon the reflux thereof behind the rest upon the land which cannot return for then they must ascend which is impossible to nature nor continue but do utterly dry up Sanctius Abbot and evaporate So c. verse 12. Others read it thus As when the waters from the feafail the flood decaieth and dryeth up so when mans life is taken away it returns no more while this world lasteth God hath made in the bowels of the earth certain secret wayes passages and veins through which water conveigheth it self from the sea to all parts and hath its saltnesse taken away in the passage Thence are our springs and from them our rivers but in hot countryes and dry seasons springs are dry and rivers want water exceedingly as at this time they do March 7. 1653. So when natural moisture decayeth in man he faileth and dieth the radical humor that supplement and oyl of life is dried up and can be no more renewed till the last day when yet it shall not be restored to the same state and moisture but instead of natural rise spiritual 1 Cor. 15. Verse 12. So man lieth down sc in the dust of death or in the bed of the grave his dormitory till the last day Vt somnus mortis sic lectus imago sepulchri And riseth not scil To live again among men so Psalm 78. Man is compared to a wind which when it is past returneth not again If it be objected that we read of three in the old Testament and five in the new raised from death to life besides those many that arose and came out of the graves after Christs resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many Matth. 27.52 53. It is answered 1. These few raised by Gods extraordinary power do not infringe the truth of what the Scripture here and elsewhere affirmeth of all mankind according to the ordinary course of nature 2. Even those men also afterwards died again and vanished no more to return or appear again in this world Till the heavens be no more i. e. Never say some interpreters to wit vi suâ by his own strength and to a better condition in the land of the living so the word until is used 2 Sam. 6.13 Matth. 5.26 and 1.25 ut piè credimus How sound and clear Job was in the point of the Resurrection we shall see chap. 19. and because he falls upon it in the words next following here some understand these words thus They shall not rise till the general resurrections when these heavens shall be changed and renewed Psalm 102.25 26. Isaiah 65.17 2 Peter 3.7.10 11. Rev. 21.1 They shall not awake Out of the sleep of death nor be raised viz. by the sound of the last trump till the last day But raised they shall be and sleep no more viz. when the heavens shall be no more And till that time the bodies of the Saints are laid in the grave as in a bed of down or of spices to mellow and ripen this is matter of joy and triumph Isa 26.19 Dan. 12.2 when they were to lose all so Heb. 11.35 The wicked also sleep in the grave Dan. 12.2 but shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt ib. their sick sleep shall have a woful waking for they shall be raised by vertue of Christs judiciary power and by the curse of the law to look upon him whom they have pierced and to hear from him that dreadful discedite Depart ye cursed c. Verse 13. O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave As in a sweet and safe repository sanctuary Sepulchrum est quasi scrinium vel capsa in quam reponitur corpus my soul mean-while living and raigning with thee in heaven expecting a glorious Resurrection and saying How long Lord Holy and True The fable or fancy of Psychopannychia hath been long since hissed out though lately revived by some Libertines that last brood of Beelzebub our Mortalists especially who say that the body and soul die together But what saith the Apostle Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sinne but the spirit is life because of righteousnesse Now that Job thus woos death and petitions for the grave it is manifest that he saw some good in it and that he promised himself by it Malorum ademptionem bonorum adeptionem freedom from evil and fulnesse of good we should learn to familiarize death to our selves and put the grave under the fairest and easiest apprehensions think we hear God
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
and their money perish together Act. 8.20 Yea he shall be chased away By the displeasure of Almighty God he shall be driven or rather kickt out of the world As a vision of the night Phasma five Phantasma which passes sooner out of memory and is more transient then a day vision Verse 9. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more He shall be utterly out of sight out of mind Vnkent unkist as the Northern Proverb hath it See chap. 7.8 10. Where Job speaketh as much of himself and Zopher here twits him with it as if Sorex suo periisset indicio Job were an hypoctite by his own confession so ingenious is evil will Verse 10. His children shall seek to please the poor Tenniâ—res sunt ipsit tenuibus saith Junius shall be poorer then the poorest and full glad to comply with them and humour them to beg with them if not to beg of them A just hand of God upon Oppressors whose work it hath been to make many poor and now their posterity are brought to extreme poverty Such shame consult these men to their houses besides their sin against their own souls Hob 2.10 See the Note there Some read it thus The poor shall oppresse his children and how grievous that is see Prov. 28.3 with the Note A Heathen Historian observed that Dionysius Val. lib. 1. cap. 2 after his death paid deare for his Sacriledge in the disasters that befell his children And his hands shall restore their goods Or For his hands shall c. They should indeed restore their ill-gotten goods though to the impoverishing of their posterity though they left their children no more but a wallet to beg from door to door But such are rare birds most men will rather venture it then be drawne Zacheus-like to make restitution God must give them a Vomit as vers 20. or they will lay up nothing part they will not with those murthering morsels that riches of iniquity Luke 16.9 they have devoured but what they can neither will nor chuse as being compelled to do it either by Law or force either by justice or violence The right owners do not alwayes receive what was by wrench or wile gotten from them but these oppressors or their imps are many times rooked or robbed by others as bad as themselves as the usutious Jewes are at this day by the injurious Papists who use them as Spunges which they may squeeze at their pleasure God so disposing and ordering the disorders of men to his owne glory Verse 11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth Fowl practises have so grown up together with some sinful people that they may say of them as the Strumpet Quartilla did of her Virginity that she could not remember that ever she had been a maid This hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou obeyedst not my voice Junonom meam iâ— atam habeam si unquam me meminerim Virgincâ—s Petron. Jer. 22.21 Then thou hadst no mind to it but now thou hast lesse thy heart being hardned by the deceitfulnesse of sin Heb. 3.17 Now in the froth of these youthful vanities unrepented of breedeth that worm of an evil conscience that never dyeth In the best they procure much ruth though not utter ruine The sweet wayes of my youth saith a man afterwards eminent for holinesse did breed such wormes in my soul as that my heavenly Father will have me yet a little while continue my bitter Wormseed because they cannot otherwise be killed Thus he Holy David prayeth hard Psal 25.7 Remember not against me the sins of my youth Austin was much in the same suit That age of mans life is very subject to and usually very full of sin yea reproachful evils jer 31.19 Fleshly lusts that war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.12 and like so many noisom diseases soak into the bones and suck out the marrow to the consumption and destruction of the whole man Which shall lye down with him in the dust that is saith Vatablus God will so forsake him that he shall never repent but shall dye in his sins which is worse then to dye in prison or to dye in a ditch for they that dye n sin shall rise in sin and stand before Christ in sin and how shall they be able to stand before him Verse 12. Though wickednesse be sweet in his mouth As poison swallowed in some pleasing meat or drink Agrippine in poisoning her husband Claudius the Emperor tempered it in meat he most delighted in Poison given in Wine works more furiously as did that Wassail the Monk drank to King John of England That wickednesse with a witnesse here meant is oppression and is said to be held in the mouth and hid under the tongue as some think because it is oft covered with godly speeches whereby he seeketh to circumvent and deceive his neighbour Others by these expressions will have understood continuance in sin and complacency therein rolling it under his tongue as a child doth a piece of sugar which he is loath to part with Arist Ethic. l. 3 Aelian var. bist l. 10. and retaining it a long thime in his mouth that he may taste it with more pleasure Philoâ—enus wished his neck were as long as a Cranes that he might the longer keep the taste of his sweet-meats and dainty morsels Such is the wicked mans wish and his practise is answerable for and his tongue is mischief and vanity Psal 1.7 He licks his lips with the remembrance of his former sins and so recommitteth them in his desires at least whilst he recalleth former acts with delight Thus the rebellious Israelites called to mind the Flesh-pots of Egypt and were moved and thus afterwards they multiplyed their whoredomes by calling to remembrance the dayes of their youth wherein they had gone a whoring in the Land of Egypt Ezek. 23.21 Verse 13. Though he spaâ—â— it and forsake it not This is the same in sense with the former verse and the second time repeated that Job might know that he was the man here meant Vt qui in malis artibus siti placaisset saith Merlin as one who took pleasure in raising himself upon anothers ruines And another good Note the same Author giveth here viz. That as any thing is more sweet and delectable to the sensual appetite so much the more should we suspect it as fearing a snare laid for us therein by that old man-slayer Vipera latet in veprecula Diabolus capite blanditur ventre oblictat 〈◊〉 light Divorce the flesh from the divel and then there is no no great danger But keeps is still within his mouth And will not be drawn to spet it out by confession and to carry it through the dung-port of his mouth into the brook Kedroâ— which was the Town-ditch Satan knowes there is no way to purge the sick soul but upwards He therefore laboureth to hold his lips close that the soul may not disburden it self
open a way to his hard heart by his glistering sword which accordingly befel him Terrors are upon him Heb. the terrible upon him which some interpret of Divels hell-hags The Vulgar rendreth it Then horrible outs shall come upon him The word is used for Gyants Deut. 2.10 The Emins shall fall upon him that is men of fierce and cruel spirits But better take it for terrors as we render it and so the sense is That the wicked when he sees he must needsly dye is surprized with greatest anxieties and perplexities of spirit as beholding that threefold dreadful spectacle Death Judgement Hell and all to be passed through by his poor soul Verse 26. All darknesse shall be bid in his secret place That is saith Diodate wheresoever he shall think to find a place of safeguard there shall he meet with some horrible mischance Men that are proscribed and sought for to death usually hide themselves as divers Jewes did in Privies at the last destruction of Jerusalem and were thence drawn out to the slaughter The Duke of Buckingham in Richard 3 his time was betrayed by his servant Bannister Appianus telleth of a Roman hid by his wife De Bell. Civ Rom. and then discovered by his wise to the Murtherer to whom she soon after also was married Others render and sense the words thus The wicked shall come into darknesse propter abscondita for his secret sins And others thus R. Sel. All darknesse is laid up for his hid treasures that is God or men have taken order that hee shall lose his riches as well as his life though he hide them never so secretly A fire not blowne shal consume him i. e. say some calamities whose causes shall be unknowne and shall proceed immediately from God See Isai 30.33 Many of the Greeks interpret this Text of Hell with its unquenchable fire Matth. 3.12 which being created by God and kindled by its breath that is by his Word it burneth everlastingly Albeit God many times punisheth wicked men here with fire from heaven as he did Sodom Nadab and Abihu those Captiances of fifties with their companies 2 King 1. Tremellius rendreth it thus A fire consumeth him non accensum flatu I say Him not kindled by blowing but burning of his own accord Vt stipule aut stupae Ut cremium aut arefactum liguum as stubble fully dryed or hurds or sear wood See Nab 1.10 with the Note It shall go ill with him that is left His posterity shall never prosper but be rooted out Eliphaz and Bildad had said the same thing and all to pay poor Job whose family was now ruined It shall surely go ill with him or He shall be wringed saith Broughton alluding belike to the sound as well as the sense of the Hebrew word Verse 27. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity Job had called heaven and earth to record of his innocency chap 16.17 18. This is not to do now saith Zophar for all creatures have conspired thy ruine and contributed thereunto Wind Fire Sabeans c. so that he that hath but half an eye may see thee to be a wicked person Such as are wicked indeed not only secundum dici as Job but secundum esse as Ahab cannot look to heaven above or to earth beneath without horrour to think even these if other witnesses faile shall bring to light their secret sinnes and come to give testimony against them before the great Iudge at the last day And the earth shall arise up against him Night will convert it self into Noon against the evil-doers and silence prove a speaking evidence Earth cryed Cain guilty the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera as a Traytor and Rebel to the highest Majesty Yea Servi ut taceant jumenta loquentur the Asse hath a verdict to passe upon Balaam A Bird of the Aire shall carry the voice that but whispereth Treason Eccles 10.20 Yea if nothing else will reveal iniquity it will reveal it selfe It will prove like the Oyntment of the right hand of which Salomon saith that it wrayeth it self Prov. 27.16 Verse 28. The increase of his house shall depart All his posterity shall be destroyed and so shall his prosperity too even all at once with a sudden ebb in the day that God visiteth him with his wrath and righteous judgements All the wicked mans wealth and revenue shall be wretchedly wasted and embezelled by one meanes or other And his goods shall flow away As waters The Apostle saith The fashion of the world passeth away viz. as a hasty headlong torrent or as a Picture drawn upon the ice Thou carriest them away both persons and things as with a flood Psal 90.5 Verse 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God A portion God alloweth the wicked in this life Psal 17.14 As a King when he reprieveth a Traytor alloweth him a subsistence prisoners pitance at least Yes the worst of men divide the wealth and honors of the world between them for a time Nebuchadnezzar had Tyrâ—s as pay for his paines in Egypt And the whole Turkish Empire is nothing else but a crust cast to his dogs by the great house keeper of the world saith Luther But besides this God hath provided a far other portion for them saith One and that by way of inheritance never to be parted from them viz. all the forementioned miseries and many more all torments here and tortures in hell This is the inheritance Quam nunquam deserere non magis quam seipsos pottrunt which will stick to them as close as the skin to the flesh or the flesh to the bones it falls to them as the inheritance doth to the heir chap. 27.13 and 31.2 or as the mess of meat doth to the invited Guest Misery is the heritage of the wicked as they are children of disobedience and their wages as they are workers of iniquity their present prosperity also is a piece of their punishment Isai 1.5 Prov. 1.32 The words of Zophar are ended Let others reply as they please but he hath done Prastat herbam dare quam turpiter pugnare No surer sign of an evil cause then a powerlesse pertinacy CHAP. XXI Verse 1. But Job answered and said Disproving and refuting that Proposition of theirs concerning the infelicity of the ungodly by Reason by Experience and by Divine Authority All which evince and evidence that neither is prosperity a proof of mens innocence nor adversity a mark of their wickednesse as Zophar and his fellowes would have it And that they might not any more interrupt him nor think him too rough he useth a gentle Preface craving attention and pressing them thereunto by many Arguments in the six first verses Verse 2. Hear diligently my speech Heb. In hearing hear The Greek hath it Hear hear that is hear me out have so much patience with me as not to interrupt me any more yea hear with understanding Let your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
as was Alphonso the wise the Fool rather who feared not to say openly Roderic sanct Hâ—st Hispan p. 4. ch 5. That if he had been of Gods Council at the Creation some things should have been better made and marshalled The wisest men are benighted in many things and what light soever they have it is from the Father of Lights whose judgements are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out what a madness were it therefore for any mortal to prescribe to the Almighty or to define whom when by what means and in what measure he must punish offendors Herein Jobs friends took too much upon them and he gives them the telling of it wishing them to be wise to Sobriety and not to give Laws to God who well knoweth what he hath to do and how to order his earthly kingdom To disallow of his dealings is to reach him knowledge which is greatest sawciness Seeing he judgeth those that are high Excelsos in excâ—lsis the Angels who are so far above us in all manner of excellencies and yet are ignorant of the wisdom of Gods wayes which they know but in part for how little a portion is heard of him Job 26.14 His judgements therefore are rather to be adored than pryed into Mirarioportet non rimari let us rest contented with a learned ignorance Verse 23. One dieth in his full strength Iste moritur There 's one dieth in his very perfections or in the strength of his perfection when he is in the Zenith in the highest degree of earthly felicity And he seemeth to point at some one eminent wicked person well known to them all Confer Eccles 9.2 God is pleased to do wonderful contradictory things in mans reason so that we must needs confess an unsearchableness in his wayes In hoc opere ratio humana talpâ magis caecâ—est saith Brentius In this work of his humane reason is blinder then a Mole Averroes turned Atheist upon it and Aristotle was little better as being accused at Athens and banished into Chaelcis quod de divinitate malè sentiret Being wholly at ease and quiet At ease in body and quiet in minde The common sort ask What should ayle such a man The Irish What such an one meaneth to die Verse 24. His Brests are full of milk and his Bones c. He is well lined within as we say having abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body fat and plump and well liking He is enclosed in his own fat Psal 17.10 His back is well larded and his bones are moistened with marrow which Plato saith Plat. in Timâ—â— is not only the sourse and seminary of generation but the very seat of life Now such a state of body as is here described is no defence at all against death saith Job Nay it is a presage and a forerunner of it many times For ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus say Physicians the highest degree of health is nearest to sickness We many times chop into the earth before we are aware like a man walking in a field covered with Snow who falleth into a pit suddenly Verse 25. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul Heb. And this dieth with a bitter soul in a sad and sorrowful condition having suffered many a little death all his life long as godly men especially use to do being destitute afflicted Heb. 11. tormented seldom without a cross on their backs and then dieth not only in the sorrows of death but in the sorrows of life which to him hath been a liveless life because a joyless life And never eateth with pleasure Either because he hath but Prisoners pittance which will neither keep him alive nor suffer him to die Or if he sit at a full table yet his body is so ill affected by sickness or his mind with sorrow that he finds no good relish in what he eateth That it is better with any of us see a mercy and be thankful Verse 26 They shall lye down alike in the dust and worms c. Death and Afflictions are common to them both as Eccles 9. How then do ye pronounce me wicked because afflicted and free among the dead free of that company c And the worms shall cover them Who haply were once covered with costliest cloathing The best are but worms-meat why then should we pamper and trick up these Carcasses câ— Verse 27. Behold I know your thoughts sc By your words as it is no hard matter for a wise man to do Prov. 20.5 for otherwise God only knoweth the heart 1 Pet. 1.24 Psal 139.3 it is his royalty But when men discover their thoughts by their discourses looks gestures c. we may say as Job doth here I know your thoughts and that by the wicked wretch described by you my self is intended this I am well aware of though you hover in generals and speak in a third person Lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oblig Bartolus writeth of Dr. Gabriel Nelâ— â—hat by the only motion of the Lippes without any utterance he understood any mans thoughts The like some say they can do by looks The Italians have a proverb That a man with his words close and his countenance loose may travel undiscovered all the world over And the devices which you wonderfully imagine against me viz. To take away as it were by violence my Credit and Comfort this is the foulest theft avoid it Verse 28. For ye say Where is the house of the Prince Ye say though not in so many words yet upon the matter Where is this mans Jobs princely pomp and port that but even now was so splendidous A Prince they called Job in a jear Per ironiâ—m antiphrafin Vaâ—ab and by contraries saith Vatablus because he had been rich and should have been liberal and munificent but had not been so The Apostle calleth the Pharisees and Philosophers in like sort Princes of this world 1 Cor. 2.8 And where are the dwelling places The Palaces large and lofty Junius ut sunt pratoria et principum aedes as the houses of Princes use to be Lavater rendreth it Taberâ—â—cillum babitaculâ—t 〈◊〉 The Tabernacle of Tabernacles as Gentlemens houses amongst us are called Places Halls Courts c. Of the Wicked viz. Of Job and his Children the eldest sons especially which was blown down chap. 1.18 As if it might not befal a good man also to have his house plundered burnt his children brained c. They had often in their discourses jerked at Jobs children Verse 29. Have ye not asked them that go by the way The cause of that their rash judgement Job sheweth here to be their ignorance of things known to every ordinary passenger and such as whereof there are many pregnant proofes and Examples every where Some by them that go by the way understand men by experience such as have gone many voyages c. made many observations in their Travels of things
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
Si non castè saltem cautè say the Popish Shavelings who are sometimes taken in the manner as was that carnal Cardinal Cremonensis Acts Mon. fol. 1065. Ibid. 1905. Barns Funccius Luth. Coloq the Popes Legat here in Hen. 8. dayes and Dr. Wâ—ston Dean of Windsor in the Raign of Queen Mary apprehended in Adultery and for the same deprived of all his Spiritual Livings by Cardinal Pool Pope John the twelfth being taken a bed with another mans wife was killed immediately by her husband In Germany a Gentleman of note and his Harlot were served in like sort as Luther relateth So was Reâ—â—â—ldus the Eighth King of Lombardy and Sergui a King of Scotland Of all these P.Mel. Chron. Lang. Chron. and many more esusdem furfuris it may well be said as here that being noted and notified they were in the terrors of the shadow of death Which death to escape Verse 18. He is swift as the waters He stayes not long in a place but flies away swiftly like the River Tigris swift as an arrow out of a bow to avoid punishment Heb. He is light upon the face of the waters The meaningâ—s saith One they are as a light thing upon the streams of water running swiftly and carrying it away with speed Some that it is spoken in respect of their swift passing on from one wickednesse to another or their never being settled after such wickednesse committed but alwayes ready to be overturned as a ship that is unballasted and so to be drowned in the sea Their portion is cursed on the earth Cain-like they wander up and down à corde suo facti fugitivi but their sin will surely find them out neither can they run out of the reach of Gods rod c. This Job saith lest any should gather from what he had said before that it should be alwayes well with the wicked and ill with the godly Some take it curse-wise thus Let their portion on earth be accursed neither let them turn themselves to the Vineyards scil either to dresse them or to taste of the fruits of them He beholdeth not the way of the Vineyards That is say some to run away by them which were common wayes to Cities but by some other obscure by-way that he may not be found In Vineyards something is to be done at all times that way therefore they take not lest they should be discovered and punished Beza rendreth it He turneth not into the way that is the nature of the Vines which by cutting and pruning sprouteth out and becometh more profitable Others sense it far otherwise The concise brevity and ambiguity of the words together with the change of number hath caused a cloud upon them Verse 19. Drought and heat consume the snow waters Here also brevity hath bred obscurity Snow waters as they are more subtile so they sooner sink into the dry earth so dye the wickeds quickly and easily See chap. 21.13 31. There are that read the whole verse thus In the drought and heat they rob and in the snow waters they sin to the grave that is they rob and run into other flagitious practises in all weather Summer and Winter and never give over till they dye They persist in their sins saith Calvin wherein they have been nuzzelled up even to their grave This is a good sense Luther tells of one filthy Adulterer so set upon that sin that he was heard to utter these abominable words If I were sure to live here for ever and that I might still be carried from one Brothel-house to another I would never desire any other heaven then that Vae dementiae impietati Theat Hist pag. 568. This beastly man breathed out his wretched soul betwixt two harlots Once I knew a most odious Adulterer of seventy years old saith another great Divine who having wasted his flesh and state with harlots and lying neer death was requested thus Potter call upon God M. Dan. Rog. he replyed with his ordinary oathes Pox and Wounds is this a time to pray I knew saith a third Reverend man a great swearer who coming to his death-bed Satan so filled his heart with a madded and enraged greedinesse after sin Mr. Bolton that though himself swore as fast and as furiously as he could yet as though he had been already among the bannings and blasphemies of hell he desperately desired the standers by to help him with Oathes and to swear for him Athenaeus reporteth of one covetous Mammonist that at the hour of his death he devoured many pieces of Gold and sewed the rest in his coat commanding that they should be all buried with him And our Chroniclers write of King Edward 1. that he adjured his son and Nobles Dan. Hist 202. that if he dyed in his Expedition against Bruce King of Stots they should not interre his Corps but carrie it about Scotland till they had avenged him on that Usurper Verse 20. The Womb shall forget him Some read it The merciful man forgetteth him scil because himself was mercilesse Or because he was a trouble to the world and a common Pest therefore good men are glad to be so rid of him and in stead of sighing over him say Let the worm feed sweetly on him 't is well he is gone as he lived wickedly so he dyed wickedly let him be no more remembred or honourably mentioned but moulder away and fall as a rotten tree Others interpret the words of the sudden and easie death of the wicked thus The womb shall forget him that is saith Beza being once dead neither his mother nor his wife do bewail and lament his death because without that pain and torment that many suffer when they depart the world The wormes shall feed sweetly on him Moritar impunitus he maketh the worms a feast with his fat Corps as Dr. Taylor Martyr made account to have done if buried in Hadley Church-yard and feels no pain He shall be no more remembred And this is reckoned up as a piece of his happiness See Eccles 8.10 with the Note there And wickednesse that is the wicked person that crooked piece that can hardly ever be set straight again Shall be broken as a tree As a rotten tree blown down by the wind Verse 21. He evil intreateth the barren that beareth not Who had more need to be comforted then further afflicted But Homo homini Daemon Jacob and Elkanab loved and comforted their wives under this crosse The Vulgar rendreth it He hath fed the barren whereupon some expound it of wicked mens feeding Whores and maintaining them for their pleasure keeping them barren that they may keep their beauty And doth not good to the widow i.e. Doth her much hurt for not to do good is to do evil Mark 3.4 He hath afflicted his barren wife and evil intreated the poor desolate widow his mother What marvel then if the womb forget him c. if his wife bewail not so unkind an husband
and such measures of grace Learn to distinguish between imbecility and nullity shew your selves faithful in weaknesse though but weak in faith There is an allowance to gold with which it may passe neither is it to be cast aside because it wanteth some graines and hath a crack Nec vinum rejicimus eâ—si facem habeat saith Spinâ—us Spin. de instit Christ God seeth nothing amisse in that man whose heart is upright 2 Chron. 15.17 He layes the finger of mercy on the sears of his peoples sins as that Limner in the Story He will not crush but cherish that worm Jacob. Nor my tongue utter deceit No for that were to speak wickednesse yea to speak your self wicked For the remnant of Isratl shall not by betraying the truth do iniquity nor speak lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth Zeph. 3.13 For he said Surely they are my people children that will not lye so he was their Saviour Isai 63.8 Verse 5 God forbid that I should justifie you scil By saying as you say viz. that I am an hypocrite and secretly guilty of some soule practises for which I that grievously suffer I know nothing of this Nature by my self God forbid Absit res profana sit mihi The Hebrew word signifies a profanation or profane thing It was the same they used when they rent their cloathes at blasphemy Till I die I wil not remove my integrity My perfection some render it and so God accounteth it when the bent frame and tendencies of the heart are for him though the mans wants be many and great This Job knew and would hold to Let not the Divel baffle us out of our integrity Verse 6. Mordicùs tenâ—bâ— My righteousnesse I hold fast As with tooth and nail yea though it be to the losse of my teeth as it befel that valiant Sir Thou as Challoner who served Cambd. Eliz. 66 when he was young under Charles 5 in the Expedition of Algier where being shipwrack't after he had swum till his strength and his armes failed him at the length catching hold of a Cable with his teeth he escaped not without the loss of some of his teeth And will not let it go scil Upon your perswasions or suspitions so long as the bird in my bosom continueth singing My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live His heart must needs reproach him who habitually doth evil what good shew soever he doth make before men and though he hide his wickednesse with no lesse subtle sleights then once Rachel did the Idols Rahab the Spies Conscience is Gods Spye and mans Overseer It is Inâ—â—â— Judex Vindex neither is a body so torn with stripes as a mind with remembrance of evil actions This Job knew and would therefore keep his conscience cleare This was also Saint Pauls greatest both care Acts 24.16 and comfort 2 Cor. 1.12 Verse 7 Let mine enemy be as the wicked q d. I need wish my greatest enemy no greater hurt then to be as the wicked for then he is sure to be wretched So far am I from saying that God favoureth the wicked or that he alwayes suffereth them to escape unpunished And he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous Or froward and perverse This is the same again in other words and it is well noted to be a popular manner of speaking wherein when men expresse an abomination of a thing they wish it so their enemies taking it for granted that the power of malice is so great that no man can expresse it in the wish of any particular evil See the like phrase 2 Sam. 8 32 1 Sam 25.26 Dan. 4.29 Verse 8. For what is the hope of the hypocrite c. Here Job proveth himself to be no hypocrite by his and their different character and carriage especially under affliction Though God kill Job yet he will trust in him but what is the hope of the hypocrite c He that maketh a bridge of his own shadow must needs fall into the brook The common hope thinks it takes hold of God but it is but as a child that catcheth at the shadow on the wall which he thinks he holdeth fast in his hand but soon finds it otherwise so shall the hypocrite at death his hope shall be then as the giving up of the Christ and that is but cold comfort Whiles he was in health and had all well about him he nourished strong hopes of Gods favour and the rather because he gained and gathered wealth apace So bladder like is the soul that is filled with earthly vanities though but wind it growes great and swells in high conceitednesse but if pickt with the least pin of piercing grief how much more when struck with deaths dart it shriveleth to nothing and is ready to say as one rich wâ—â—ch did on this death-bed Spes fortuna valeta Life and hope adien to you both at once Though he hath gained Or When he hath been covetous raking together 〈◊〉 â—em quâ—cunque modo rem See this notably exemplified in that rich fool Luke 12. whose life and hopes ended together When God taketh away his soul Extrabet Shall pull it out by violence as a sword out of its â—eath when God shall make a breach upon their Cittadel come upon them by forcible entry turn them out of their cottages of day by 〈…〉 cut them in twain as he did that evil servant Matth 4. tear their bodies and souls asunder as a man teareth the bark from the tree or the shell from the fâ—sh leaving it naked Where then shall be the high hopes of the Hypocrite And O what a dreadful skreek giveth his guilty soul then to see it selfe lanching into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead and to consider that it must swim naked in it for ever Verse 9. Will God hear his cry Here 's another distinctive Note between a hypocrite and an honest man As many are said in Daniel to cleave to the better side by flattery so many false signes will come in and flatter a man when he is in health and prosperity and give their testimony speak the same thing that true evidences do but this will not alwayes hold When trouble cometh upon him Then the hypocrite will cry and make pitiful moans as a prisoner at the Bar begs for his life Then Joab and Adoniah will run to the hornes of the Altar who till then little cared to come there But with as ill successe they cry to God as Saul did 1 Sam. 28.15 and as other of Davids enemies did Psal 18.41 For either God answereth them not at all Ezek. 21.2 3. Or else he answereth them according to the Idols of their hearts Ezek. 14. gives them bitter answers as Judge 10.13 14. Or if better it is for the good of others and for a further mischief to themselves that he may snatch away his owne and he gone Hâ—l 2.9 and that he may consume them after he
be hungry c. Phil. 4.12 though this be an hard lesson Perquam durum est sed it a lex scriâ—ta est saith the Civilian Hard or not hard Ex praeteritavum voluptatum recòrdatione Cicer. de finib l. 2. Sen. de benef l. 4 c. 22. Olim hac meminisse juvahit Virg. Miserum est suisse faelicem Sen. we must frame to it and hope for better The Epicures held that a man might be cheerful amidst the most exquisite torments 1. In consideration of his honesty and integrity this indeed was Job great comfort as we see chap. 31. And 2. In consideration of those pleasures and delights that formerly he had enjoyed and now cheared up himself with the remembrance of But how slight and slender a comfort this was Job setteth forth in this Chapter And who knoweth not that as it is a sweet thing in prosperity to relate what hazards and hardship we have passed through so in adversity it is grievous to call to minde what better dayes we have had And yet it is but reason that we should eate the crust and crum together receive I mean evil at the hand of God as well as good Job 2.10 See the Note on chap. 27.1 Verse 2. Secundum menses antiquitatiâ— vel antiaetatis Oh that I were as in months pust O mihi praeteritos c. Though Job desireth not so much to be young again which to be Chiron and Cato are said seriously to have refused as to prosper again for this is that we all covet but we shrink in the shoulder when called to carry the cross To shew his earnest desire he redoubleth his wish as in the dayes c. and God answered him to the full by redoubling upon him his former prosperity not for dayes and months but for divers years together and by giving him again all things richly to enjoy So liberal is the Lord to his that he many times giveth them more then heart can wish When God preserved me That he acknowledged God to be the author of his earthly felicity was well done but not so well to think that God preserved him not because he prospered him not see the like verse 5. God oft wraps himself up in a cloud and will not be seen till afterwards but his hand is ever upon all them for good that seek him Ezek. 8.22 he knoweth their souls in adversity Psal 31.7 Verse 3. When his candle shined upon my head When I was apparently blessed by him and all went haile well with me The Sun smot me not by day nor the Moon by night Psal 121.6 but both seemed to be made and to make for me Nay more the sweet sunshine of Gods loving countenance was displayed upon me which is not like the winter-sun that casts a goodly countenance when it shines but gives little comfort and heat Job had both counsel and comfort from God and that when other men were to seek of both for By his light I walked through darkness Without the least fear of those evils and miseries that put others into very great distemper So Noah was Mediis tranquillus in undis Abraham stands upon the Hill and seeth the Cities of the Plain burning David can walk not step through not cross the valley not a dark entry of the shadow of death the darkest side of death and not fear though he should go back again the same way And why for thou art with me saith he thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me Psal 23.4 Verse 4. As I was in the dayes of my youth Hybernorum meorum so Junius As I was in the dayes of my winter-quarters when I lay and did little more then gather up mine assignations Others render it As I was in the dayes of mine Autumue that is when being a great man I refreshed the poor as Autumne doth the passenger and others with its fruits But they do best that render it dayes of my youth which hath the same name in Hebrew with winter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with reproach because say some young people are prone to reproachful practises and that age is commonly frozen in vice no vertue then springing or shewing it self So Eccles 11.10 the word used to signifie youth signifieth darkness or blackness to note that youth is the dark age many times sooted with sin and therefore young men should cleanse their wayes by cleaving to the word Psal 119.9 When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle i.e. Annotat. Diod When God did so friendly and familiarly intermedle with mine affairs making them to prosper When his most wise conduct did govern my house and did provide for it stopping those secret leaks and that hole in the bottom of the Bag by which other mens Estates do usually run out and supplying me and mine tanquam virgulâ divinâ with all things necessary for life and godliness The Greek hath it when God gave my house a visit And some taking the secret of God here for his law and covenant say that Job was good betime and when but a young house-keeper had a Church in his house and much resort thither of godly people Verse 5. When the Almighty was yet with me To prosper me and give me all that heart could wish or need require But if that be not done Exod. 17.7 Gods people are apt to think him absent Is the Lord amongst us say they in the wilderness as if that could not be and they athirst So Gideon in the invasion of the Midianites The Lord. saith the Angel is with thee thou valiant man But Gideon said unto him Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befaln us If it be so Judg. 6.12 13. Aug. why am I thus as she said Gen. 25.22 Si amatur quomodo infirmatur If Lazarus be Christs friend why is he sick But these two may very well stand together and God is never nearer to his Children then when they for crying cannot see him Moses speaks of the goodwil of him that dwelt in the bush the burning bush Deut. 33. but not consumed God is with his in the fiery tryal Isa 43.2 as he was with the three Children and with the Martyrs When my children were about me Round about my table Psalm 128.3 Morigerous and obsequious unto me When my children and servants for the word signifieth both were about me as Circles about a Point or Center all looking at and observing me to do as I directed them Verse 6 When I washed my steps with butter When I had of every thing Gods plenty as they can it Butter enough to have washed my feet in had I been so proud and profuse And Oyle great store insomuch as that Rivers thereof seemed to flow for me from those Rocks and craggy Mountaines in Arabia Petraea where some say Job dwelt Lavater upon the Text tells us of Rocks that yeeld Oyle and of Petrolium or Petrelaeum a Soveraign Oyntment
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
the clearing of Christs innocency and as Theophylact holdeth for the salvation of this womans soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the several sorts of dreams natural divine and diabolical see the Annotations on Gen. 20.3 Verse 16. Then he openeâ—h the ears of men He maketh the bore bigger as it were that good counsel may enter he calleth up the eares of the soul to the eares of the body that one sound may peirce both he saith as to him in the Gospel Epphata and together with his word there goeth forth a power as Luke 4.32 See chap. 36.10 15. And sealeth their instruction Or Their correction for they go together Psal 94.12 Prov. 3.12 13. 6.23 and God seâ—leth or setteth on the one by the other as when a School-master would have a lesson learned indeed he sets it on with a whipping Luther saith that many of St Pauls Epistles could not be understood but by the crosse Vexatio dat intellectum Another grave Divine giveth this good advice To find out the sin that God afflicteth for consider what truths have been pressed upon your hearts before the affliction for afflictions use to come as seals to instruction before they did not come with power to your hearts now God seals them Thus he Bernard saith concerning his brother when he gave him many good instructions and he being a souldier minded them not he put his finger to his sides and said One day a spear shall make way to this heart of thine for instructions and admonitions to enter The Tigurine translation is full and elegant Tunc aurem hominibus velliâ— disciplinam corum velut impresso sigillo consignat Then he pulleth men by the eare and consigneth their instruction as with a seal set unto it Verse 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose Or rather practise Heb. Work that is evil work called a mans own work Heb 4.10 for when we do evil we work de nostro secundum hominem 1 Cor. 3.3 as when the Devil speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own Joh. 8.44 Now from such bad work God taketh men off by dreams sometimes as he did Abimelech Gen. 20.3 and Laban Gen. 31.24 but more frequently by corrections of instruction which are the way of life Prov. 6.23 Christianorum Theologia as Luther calleth it Virtutum officina as 〈◊〉 Bonorum omnium thesâ—â—rus as Breâ—â—ius upon this text And hide pride from 〈◊〉 Which else as a Master-pock will break out in his forehead and testifie to his face By Pride we may understand all other sins which God both covereth and 〈◊〉 in his penitent people but pride iâ— fitly instanced because it was one of the first sins and is still the root and source of all other sins God therefore humbleth all his under his mighty hand and preserveth them from the perilous pinacle of self exaltation as he dealt with Paul both when he met him on the way to Damascus and unhorst him as also when by that thorn in the flesh he let out the imposthumated matter of pride out of his heart which might else have broken forth into odious and lothsome practices Verse 18. He keepeth back his soul from the pit Or That he may keep back his soul that is his body as Psal 16.10 Lev. 21.1 from the pit i.e. from the grave or from the pit-fals made for him by his enemies A penitent person redeemeth his own sorrows and provideth for his own safety Psal 91. and accordingly some read it He shall keep back his own soul c. And his life from perishing by the sword Whether by the sword of God or man he shall be extra jactum out of the gunshot or danger of any death whether corporal or eternal The universal Antidote for all the judgements of God is our humble repentance Aaron escaped by it when Miriam was smitten with Leprosie Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei This is the Rain-bow which if God see shining in our hearts he will never drowne our souls Jehosaphat by this escaped the edge of the sword David and his poor sheep the stroak of the punishing Angel all the crowned Saints now in heaven the damnation of hell c. Verse 19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed He is chastened or chidden for all diseases are vocal they are real reprehensions Coarguitur dolore As God is said to hold his peace when he punisheth not Psal 50.21 Isai 42.14 so to preach and reprove when he doth Isai 26.9 and 28.19 Thus God by chastening David instructed him every morning Psal 73.14 His reines also taught him in the night season Sicknesse saith one is the shop of vertue It is morum disciplina felicit at is meditatorium voluntatis Dei Schola saith another King Alfred found it so and therefore besought God to send him ever and anon some fit of sicknesse for that saith he I ever find my self best when worst best in soul when worst in body the sickness of this is a medicine to that And the multitude of his bones with strong pain Some read it Et lis est â—ssium ejus vehemens his bones rattle in his skin as we say Confer Psal 38.4 He is all over so ill at ease that live he would not dye he cannot his pain piercing even to his very bones and drinking up his marrow as Jobs did all this Discouse being exemplified in him save that we finde not that he kept his bed Verse 20. So that his life abhorreth bread Which is the staffe of mans life and by the Latines called Panis of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were all in all This the sick man vâ—lut sordidum abominatur abhorreth as some filthy thing so the Original word here signifieth he nauseateth and cannot away with it though made of the Kidneyes of wheat as Mòses phraseth it he brooks it no better then if it were made of saw dust or mixt with gravel or made with mans dung as that in Ezekiel And his soul dainty meats Heb. Meats of desire Those Dainties which he once sought so passionately and fed upon so eagerly he finds no more relish in then in the white of an egge or a dry chip yea they are no lesse horrid to him then rank poison See a like description of a sick person Psal 107.18 which seemeth to be taken from hence Verse 21. His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen He that was habilior paulo corpulent and well lined within as we say is so pined with long sickness that you can hardly know him for the same man and he may well cry out with the Prophet My leannessé my leannesse Of Christ it is said though not through sickness that he had no form nor comlinesse and yet he was the fairest amongst men Psal 45.2 through grief and sufferances neither was there any beauty left that we should desire him for his outside Isai 53.2 And of Mr. Fox the
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
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
followeth My Glory Or my Victory Quia victor semper babet gloriam faith Aben-Ezra here because a Conquerour is never without glory such as was Caesar with his Veni vidi vici and Cimon the Athenian who twice in one day triumphed over the Persian Navie and Hunniades who fought five times in one day with the Turks and five times foyled them and put them to flight Whereupon he was entertained 〈◊〉 Hist 69. and welcomed home with most glorious acclamations of the people some calling him the Father some the Defender of his Country the Souldiers their invincible General the Captives their Deliverer the Women their Protector the Young-men and Children their most loving Father c. And the lifter up of my head Giving me matter of mirth and making me who was very sad and thrown down with grief joyful and cheerful See Gen. 40.13 20. Luk. 21.28 Jer. 52.31 Psal 110.7 Vers 4. I cried unto the Lord with my voyce I prayed aloud and lustily I roused up my self and wrastled with God and this was the ground of his courage and confidence So Ester when she had fasted and prayed put her life in her hands and was fearless So Christ when being in an Agony hee had prayed more earnestly went and met his enemies in the face though before his Soul was heavie to the death and he began to be out of the world as the word signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 26.37 And he heard me out of his holy hill i. e. è suo sacrario caelesti terrestri Jun. out of his heavenly and earthly Sanctuary Zion signifieth a Sure-hold a goodly Prospect for that from the top of that Hil a man might have seen all the Country over And it was a type of Heaven whence God seeth all and heareth his Lucian the Atheist feigneth or fancieth that there are certain chinks in Heaven through which Jupiter at certain times only heareth his Suters which times they who take not pray to no purpose Vers 5.1 I laid me down and slept My faith was above my fear I knew whom I had trusted No marvel I slept so soundly seeing Antipater was by and watched Plutarch said Philip of Macedon We may better say so of Antipater our gracious Father O the safety of Saint He ever goes guarded with the peace of God within him and the power of God without him Phil. 4.7 1 Pet. 1.5 and hence his Spiritual security David will never break his sleep for any danger or doubt of success Peter was found fast asleep the night before he should have been executed Acts 12.6 So was our Proto-Martyr in Queen Maries days Mr. Rogers in so much as that scarce with much shogging could he be awaked when he was called for to be burned Some few years since Mr. White of Dorchester being a Member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster was appointed Minister of Lambeth but for the present could get no convenient house to dwell in but one that was possessed by the Devil This he took and not long after his Maid sitting up late Mirrour for Saints by Mr. Clark 460. the Devil appeared to her whereupon in a great fright she ran up to tell her Master he bad her get to bed saying she was well served for sitting up so late Presently after the Devil appeared to Mr. White himself standing at his beds feet To whom Master White said If thou hast nothing else to do thou maist stand there still and I will betake my self to my rest And accordingly composing himself to sleep the Devil vanished I awaked A Proverbial speech as Mar. 4.27 Turk Hist 218. Tamerlan could not sleep at all through care though he indeavoured it the night before the mortal battel between him and Bajazet For the Lord sustained me Heb. Will sustaine me He hath done it and I doubt not but he will do it again Experience breedeth confidence He hath he will is an ordinary Scripture medium Vers 6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people c. Quomodo timeret hominem homo in sinn Dei posit us saith an Ancient See here in David the triumph of trust in God David looketh not downward on the rushing and roaring streams of troubles that ran so swiftly under him for that would have made him giddy Gloriâ—tio fidei eleganuffima Jun. but stedfastly fastneth on the power and promise of God All-sufficient and is confident This the world wondreth at but little do they know the force of faith nor the privie armour of proof that the Saints have about their hearts Achilles was said to be safe because Stygearmat us A Christian is Deo armatus and therefore hee walketh about the world as a Conquerour Vers 7. Arise O Lord c. If the Lord do but arise only his enemies shall be scattered those also that hate him shall flee before him Psal 68.1 And God will arise and harness when his people put his promises in sute by their faithful prayers This Moses knew and therefore appointed the Priests whensoever the Ark removed to say Rise up Lord. c. Numb 10.35 Commanders must pray before they lead on their forces to battel as did Hunniades and that late brave King of Sweden more addicted to pray than to fight according to that Vincere quisquis aves hostilem exercitum agè antè Invictum vincas per tua vota Dâ—uns Save me O my God David had many good old Souldiers about him 2 Sam. 15.18 Lucan as the Cherethites Pelethites Gittites and others that would stick to him Animasque eapaces mortis mighty men of War and chafed in their mindes as a Bear robbed of her Whelps in the field himself also was a man of Warre from his youth 2 Sam. 17.8 and not used to be worsted yet he flies to God for deliverance and pleads the Covenant Save me O my God which is that Alviarium Divini mellis the Bee-hive of heavenly honey So Psal 119.94 I am thine save me For thou hast smitten all mine enemies on the cheek-bone Thou hast given them a box on the ear Camb. Elizab. 494. as Queen Elizabeth once did the Earl of Essex turning his back upon her uncivilly upon some discontent Or as some great man doth a mean fellow with whom he scorns to fight Thou hast sent them away with smart and shame enough Job 16.10 Thou hast so handled them that now they may go seek their teeth in their throats as the Proverb is Gods hand is a mighty hand saith Peter 1 Epist 5.6 it is a fearful thing to fall into it saith Paul Heb. 10.31 For who knoweth the power of his wrath saith Moses Psal 90.11 His enemies are sure to speed worse than did Dares in Virgil whom when he had been well beaten by old Entellus Ving Aeneid l. 5. his fellows led away Jactantemqueâ—troque caput crassumque cruorem Ore rejectantem mistosque insangume dentes Vers 8. Salvation
better of us but as there were many Marii in one Caesar so are there many Doegs and Absoloms in the best of us all As in water face answereth to face so doth the heart of a man to a man They flatter with their tongue The Apostle Rom. 3.13 rendreth it With their tongues they have used deceit And it is remarkable that in the Anatomy of a Natural man there he stands more on the Organs of Speech Tongue Lips Mouth Throat than on all the rest of the Members Vers 10. Destroy thou them O God Heb. Condemn them as guilty They were Gods enemies no less than Davids Tom. 8. in Enarr â—ujus precationis and implacable incorrigible and hence hee so prayeth against them Est Prophetia non malediction saith Austin Let them fall by their own counsel As it befel Ahitophel Haman the Powder-Traitors Or let them fall from their own counsels i.e. not be able to effect their evil designs but defeated frustrated Cast them out c. Let those who were once a terrour now be a scorn for they are even ripe for ruine as having added rebellion to their sin Job 34.37 For they have rebelled against thee And so are more thine enemies than mine which maketh me so earnest against them being swallowed up with a zeal of thy glory Vers 11. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoyce Joy is the just mans portion contra Hos 9.1 Isa 65.13 14. and according to the measure of his faith so is his joy 1 Pet. 1.8 Let them ever shout or shrill out set up their Note as a Peacock doth which hath his name in Hebrew from this root Because thou defendest them Heb. Velut pie tabernaculum R. David Thou over-coverest them with thy sure defence for upon all the glory shall be a defence And there shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain Isa 4.5 6. The Ram-skins covering the Ark from the violence of wind and weather figured out Christs protecting his people Let them also that love thy name As all the Virgins do who have smelt Christs name as an Oyntment poured out Cant. 1.3 See the Note there Be joyful in thee Heb. exult and leap for joy as if they were dancing Levalto's Thus Dr. Taylor the Martyr fetcht a frisk and danced when he was near unto the place where he should be burnt Rabbi Zabdi Ben Levi repeated this verse when he was at point of death Mid. Tillin in Psal 5 Another that in Psal 32. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee A Third that in Psal 84. One day in thy Courts is better c. A Fourth that in Psal 31. O how great is thy goodness c. Vers 12. For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous yea the righteous man shall abound with blessings Prov. 28. 20. yea God will bless all them that bless him Gen. 12.3 or that but give him a cup of cold water Mat. 10. With favour Or goodwill Qua praecedit nostram bonam voluntatèm saith Augustin Wilt thou compass him Or encircle him as with a Crown and so make them higher than the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 whose Crowns cannot keep their heads from aking but fill them with cares which made one King cry out Val. Max O vilis pannus c. and another spake this to his Crown Nobilis es fateor rutilisque onerata lapillis Innumeris curis sed comitata venis Quod benè si nossent omnes expendere neme Nemo foret qui te tollere wellet humo As with a shield A piked-shield such as doth circuire tres partes hominis compass about three parts of a man saith R. Salomon on this Text. Shields and Bucklers ' besides other Bosses for ornament had one great Boss in the middle with a sharp pike in it for use to pierce and wound the adversary See Job 15.26 God will be all in all to his People Crown Shield c. they may therefore well enough rejoyce shout leap as in the former verse PSAL. VI. TO the chief Musician on Neginoth See Psal 4. Title Upon Sheminith or upon the eight i.e. Intentissimo sono clarissimo voce Vatab. to be sung aloud An Eight is the highest Note in Musick See 1 Chron. 15.21 Others say that hereby is meant the Base and Tenor as fittest for a Mourner Vers 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger In this and some other Psalms David begins so heavenly ends so merrily that one might think they had been composed by two men of a contrary humour as Moulin observeth De L' amont Divin Every new man is two men Rom. 7. The Shulamite hath in her as it were the company of two Armies Cant. 6.13 The Lord also chequereth his Providences white and black hee speckleth his work represented by those speckled Horses Zach. 1.8 Mercies and Crosses are inter-woven Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure Chastened David desires to be as Jer. 10.24 1 Cor. 11.32 Heb. 12.7 8. But in Mercy and in measure 1 Cor. 10.13 Fury is not in me saith God however it may sometimes seem to be Isa 27.4 Of furious people the Philosopher giveth this Character that they are angry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against those whom they should not 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for matters they should not 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more than they should be But none of all these can be affirmed of God Anger is not in him secundum affectum but seemeth so to be secundum effectum when he chideth and smiteth as angry people use to do when there is no other remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 his anger is in Scripture put 1 For his threatnings Hos 11.9 Jon. 3.10 2. For his punishments Mat. 3.7 Rom. 2.8 But as God therefore threatneth that he may not punish Amo. 4.12 so in the midst of Judgement he remembreth Mercy and it soon repenteth him concerning his people Vers 2. Have mercy upon me O Lord As the woman in story appealed from Philip to Philip so doth David fly from Gods anger to Gods grace for he had none else in Heaven or Earth to repair to Psal 73.25 he seekes here to escape him by closing with God and to get off by getting within him For I am weak or crushed gnashed extreamly dejected with sickness of body and trouble of mind Basil expounds it of his soul sins into which he fell of infirmity and for which hee was threatned with Judgements by the Prophet Nathan O Lord heal me On both sides heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Psal 41.4 heal my body which is full of dolours and diseases Psal 107.18.20 for thou art Jehovah the Phisician Exod. 15.26 Heal mine estate which is very calamitous by reason of mine enemies who wish my death and would gladly revel in my ruines See Hos
or as a ship tossed in the Sea without an Anchor which presently dasheth on the Rocks or falleth upon the Quick-sands Saul for instance who being in distress and forsaken of God ran first to the Witch and then to the Swords point Save me from all them that persecute me Where the Prince is a Persecutor as in the Primitive times and here in the Marian days many will be very active against Gods people O sancta simplicitas said John Husse Martyr when at the stake he observed a plain Country-fellow busier than the rest in fetching Faggots Vers 2. Lest he tear my Soul like a Lion i. e. put me to a cruel and tormentful death exercising against me both cruelty and also craft by taking me at such a time as there is none to deliver me Vers 3. O Lord my God See on Vers 1. If I have done this i.e. This treachery and treason whereof Saul doth causelesly suspect me and wherewith his pick-thank Partisans unjustly charge me As for Sedition saith Latimer for ought that I know methinks I should not need Christ if I might so say But where malice beareth mastery Serm. 3. before K. Ed. 6. the doing of any thing or of nothing is alike dangerous If there be iniquity in my hands Heb. in the palms of my hands where it may bee concealed If I have secretly acted against my Soveraign Vers 4. If I have rewarded evil c. If I have broke the conditions of our reconciliation or betrayed my trust Yea I have delivered him that c. This was true Christianity to overcome evil with good Matth. 5.44 c. Rom. 12.17 c. O quam hoc non est emnium O how few can skill of this Elisha made the Syrians a Feast who came to make him a Grave David spared Saul and delivered him not without the hazard of his own life Bradford conducted Bourn from the Pulpit at Pauls Cross where hee had cried up Popery at the coming in of Queen Mary safe to his Lodging A certain Gentleman said unto him Ah Bradford Bradford thou savest him that will help to burn thee I give thee his life if it were not for thee I would run him thorow with my sword And it proved as the Gentleman had Prophesied There he sits I mean my Lord of Bath Mr. Bourn said Bradford in his third Examination before Stephen Gardiner which desired me himself for the Passion of Christ I would speak to the people Upon whose words I coming into the Pulpit I had like to have been slain with a Dagger which was hurled at him I think for it touched my sleeve He then prayed me I would not leave him and I promised that as long as I lived I would take hurt before him that day And so went I out of the Pulpit and intreated with the people and at length brought him my self into an house Besides this in the afternoon I preached in Bow Church and there going up into the Pulpit one willed me not to reprove the people For quoth hee you shall never come down alive if you do it And yet in that Sermon I did reprove their Fact and called it Sedition at least twenty times For all which my doing I have received this recompence Prison for a year and half and more and Death now which you my Lord of Bath among the rest go about Acts and Mon. fol. 146◠Let all men bee judge where Conscience is Thus Master Bradford like another David in his own defence Vers 5. Let the enemy persecute my Soul and take it Thus he cleareth himself by an holy imprecation The Spanish Bible hath for Shiggaion Davidis in the Title Purgatio Davidis as the same Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both Sin and Purification from sin Psal 51. taking God to witness of his innocency and good Conscience and wishing evil to himself if it were otherwise This he did from a good cause in a good manner and for a good end And not as many prophane ones do now adays who taxed though never so truly with some evil they have done seek to justifie themselves by appealing to God and calling for his Curse upon them if guilty who therefore striketh such impudent imprecatours immediately as Anne Averies and others See Mr. Clarks Mirrour And tread down my life Heb. My lives so usually called saith an Interpreter for the many faculties and operations that are in life the many years degrees estates thereof And lay mine honour in the dust Selah Let him brand me for a most treacherous ignominious wretch and let me lye buried in a bog of indeleble infamy Vers 6. Arise O Lord in thine anger Here David repeateth and re-inforceth his Suit filling his mouth with Arguments for that purpose such as he well knew would be of avail Lift up thy self c. Wherein they deal proudly be thou above them to controle and over-top them And awake for me Sometimes God seemeth to be asleep we must awake him to forget we must in-mind him to have lost his mercy we must finde it for him Where is thy zeal and thy strength c. Isa 53. To the Judgment that thou hast commanded That is promised viz. that thou wilt command deliverances out of Zion Or which thou hast commanded to men in case of wrong done to releeve the oppressed and wilt no◠thou for me great Judge much more do it Vers 7. So shall the Congregation of the people compass thee about As people love to flock to Assizes or such places of Judicature where Sentence is passed upon Great ones that have offended Or thus then shall the publick sincere Service of God be set up and people shall fly to it as the Doves do to their windows For their sakes therefore return thou on high Seat thy self upon thy Tribunal and do justice q. d. Thou hast seemed to come down from the Bench as it were and to have no care of Judgement but go up once again and declare thy power Reverteid est ostende manum tuam esse altam return that is shew that thou hast an high hand saith R. Solomon Vers 8. The Lord shall judge the people The Aethiopian Judges leave the chief Seat ever empty as acknowledging that God is the chief Judge According to my righteousness viz. In this particular Crime whereof I am accused great is the confidence of a good Conscience toward God Such only can abide by the everlasting burnings Vers 9. O let the wickedness c. Put a stop to their rage and rancour But establish the just The overthrow of the one will be a strengthening to the other as it was betwixt the House of Saul and David 2 Sam. 3.1 But who are just The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins i. e. The thoughts and affections or lusts of people Gogitarlonum cupiditatum Junius and accordingly esteemeth of them for Mens cujusque is est quisque and God judgeth of a man according
side to shew their numbers and their insolencies all places are full of them such dust-heaps are found in every corner when as the godly are as the salt of the earth sprinkled here and there as Salt useth to be to keep the rest from putrifying When the vilest men are exalted Heb. Vilities the abstract for the concrete quisquiliae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oft empty Vessels swim aloft rotten Posts are gilt with adulterate Gold the worst weeds spring up bravest Chaff will get to the top of the Fan when good Corn as it lieth at the bottom of the heap so it falls low at the feet of the Fanner The reason why wicked men walk on every side are so brisk so busie and who but they is given in to be this because Losels and Rioters were exalted See Prov. 28.12.18 29.2 As Rhewms and Catarrhes fall from the Head to the Lungs and cause a Consumption of the whole body so it is in the Body Politick As a Fish putrifies first in the head and then in all the parts So here Some render the Text thus When they that is the wicked are exalted it is a shame for the Sons of men that other men who better deserve preferment are not only slighted but vilely handled by such worthless Ambitionists who yet the higher they climbe as Apes the more they discover their deformities PSAL. XIII VErs 1. How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever It appeareth that when David penned this Psalm which some think was about the end of Sauls Persecution when he was forced to fly into the Land of the Philistines 1 Sam. 27.1 he was under a dreadful desertion and that for a long while together Hence his many How-longs and for ever Christ saith Greenham was forsaken for a few hours David for a few months and Job for a few years Luther confesseth of himself that after his conversion he lay three days in desperation and the like is reported of Mr. Robert Bolâ—on who felt himself for the time in the Suburbs of Hell as it were So did Heman Psal 88.5 so did David here and elsewhere The final absence of God is Hell it self Depart from me yee cursed is worse than into everlasting fire To be punished from the presence of the Lord is the Hell of Hells 2 Thess 1.9 God seemeth to forget his dearest Children sometimes for a season to the end that they may remember themselves and become every way better as the Lion leaves her Whelps till they have almost killed themselves with roaring that they may become the more courageous But to speak properly God cannot forget his people Isa 44.16 49.14 15 16. Non deserit Deus etiamsi deserere videatur non deserit etiamsi deserat saith Austin If he leave us for a time yet he forsaketh us not at all If he hide his face as in the next words which is a further trial and a greater misery for it importeth indignation contempt and hatred yet it is but for a moment though it should be during life and he therefore taketh liberty to do it saith one because he hath an eternity of time to reveal his kindness in time enough for kisses and embraces mean while as when the Sun is ecclipsed though the earth wants the light thereof yet not the influence thereof so Gods supporting Grace is ever with his deserted Vers 2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul i.e. conceal my grief saith Aben-Ezra which is no small aggravation of it or how long shall I toss and tumble in my mind sundry counsels and purposes but allto no purpose This is no small affliction when we try all courses to get out of durance and nothing will do Such must needs have much sorrow in their hearts Having sorrow in my heart daily Heb. by day sc when others are full of business and forget their sorrows saith R. David But the Greek rendreth it day and night David was a cheerfull man and a great Musician but at this time heavinesse had possest his heart and his harp would not relieve him Sadnesse of Spirit had dryed up his bones Prov. 17.22 and made him a very bag of bones a bottle in the smoak shrinking away to nothing almost See Prov. 12.25 15.13 and the Notes Vers 3. Consider and hear mee O Lord my God Hee turns him to God in this peck of troubles for they seldome come single and pleads the Covenant My God beseeching him to see and hear both at once how it fared with him and to send him feasonable and suitable succour It were wide with the faithfull if they had not their God to repair unto in distresse pouring out their souls into his blessed bosome This they must do most earnestly when under a cloud of desertion as our Saviour being in an agony prayed more fervently Luk. 22.44 and as Micah having lost his Gods set up his Note Judg. 18. Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep death i. e. Comfort my conscience clear up my condition and chear up my drooping spirit lest I faint away as a dying man whose eyes through weaknesse wax dimme lest I fall into that somnus ferreus as the Poets call death that longest sleep Surge ne longus tibi somnus unde Non times detur Mor. lib.3 â— 11. Vers 4. Lest mine enemy say I have prevailed against him This David frequently deprecateth as a great evill because Gods honour was concerned in it and would suffer by it As unskilfull hunters shooting at wild Beasts do sometimes kill a man so Persecutors shooting at Saints hit Christ reproach him and this the Saints are very sensible of And those that trouble me rejoyce when I am moved Compose Comedies out of my Tragedies iram Dei ad calumniam rapiant The wicked are vindictive and implacable sick of the Devills disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoycing at other mens harms revelling in other mens ruins But this is to inrage God and hasten wrath Prov. 24.17 18. Vers 5. But I have trusted in thy mercy Notwithstanding all the endeavours of Earth and of Hell to cast down this castle of my confidence I will not quit it but be still as a green Olive tree in the house of God I le trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever Psal 52.8 Vers 6. I will sing unto the Lord How farre different is the end of this Psalm from the beginning See the like Psalm 6.1 with the Note there Because hee hath dealt bountifully with mee Qui retribuit mihi so Popish merit-mongers read it and would there-hence collect something in favour of their absurd Tenent But their own Vulgar Translation hath it bona tribuit Aynsworth hath givenmee good things And it is well observed that though the Hebrew word be sometimes taken for rewarding evill for good Psal 7.5 or evill for evill Psal 137.8 yet from God to his people it commonly signifieth a bountifull rewarding of good things instead of evill which
but forsaketh them never as in an eclipse the earth wanteth the light of the Sun but not the influence thereof David could at the same time call God his God thrice over which are words of faith and do plainly evince that this desertion under which hee groaned was neither absolute nor reall but only that hee was in a great distresse and perplexity Plat. in Phaed so that hee did beleeve and yet not beleeve Plato though a Heathen could say that a man may do so See the like Psal 31.22 Jon. 2.4 See the Note there Our Saviour in his deepest distresse on the Crosse when coping and conflicting with the wrath of his heavenly Father who beside the wrath of men and rage of Devills in that three houres darknesse especially fought against him with his own bare hand hee suffered more than can bee imagined took up this patheticall exclamation and as some think repeated this whole Psalm Then it was that hee felt in soul and body the horrour of Gods displeasure against sin for which he had undertaken Then it was that the Deity though never separated from his Humanity no not in death when soul and body were sundred for a season did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Father speaketh suspend for time the influence of its power and lye hid as it were neque vires suas exserebat not putting forth its force as formerly Hilary hath a good Note upon this part of Christs passion Habes conquerentem relictum se esse c. Here thou hast him complaining as forsaken of God this sheweth him to have been a man but withall thou hast him promising paradise to the penitent theef this speaketh him God Why art thou so farre from c. I roar and am not relieved as to ease God will have his people feel what an evill and bitter thing sin is Jer. 2.19 and therefore he holdeth them eftsoones long upon the rack Christ also under the deep sense of our sins for which hee suffered offered up prayers with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death Heb. 5.7 Vers 2. O my God I cry in the day time c. This was a sore temptation that his heartiest prayers were not heard This might have made him jealous of God to have had hard conceits of him and heavy conceits of himself But saith hee in the following verses Thou art holy and thy Name is to bee sanctified though I bee not gratified And moreover Others have called upon thee and have been heard vers 4 5. though I now for mine unworthinesse am denyed For I am a worm and no man Vers 6. Thus it puts him not off that hee is not heard as others but humbles him It drives him not as is usuall with carnall people in like case to shifting courses as a dogg that hath lost his Master will follow after any one for relief A Christian never prevaileth so little by his prayers but that hee will take heart of grace to come again to God Silence or sad answers do not utterly dishearten him Hee ceaseth not wrestling till hee hath wrested the blessing out of Gods hand with Jacob and gotten matter of praise for his prayers granted as David here doth ere he had done the Psalm vers 24 25. Vers 3. But thou art holy And therefore to bee sanctified in righteousnesse Isa 5.16 whatever betide mee or my prayers I also will trust and try thee to the uttermost for thou waitest to bee gracious and being a God of Judgement thou best understandest when and how to dispense and deal forth thy favours to thy suppliants Isa 30.18 And if I ask good things of thee and misse it is because I ask amisse Jam. 4.3 If I bee straitned it is not in thee but in mine own bowels They that have Conduit-water come into their houses if no water come they conclude not the spring to bee dry but the pipes to bee stopped or broken If prayer speed not wee must bee sure the fault is not in God but in our selves were we but ripe for mercy hee is ready to extend it to us and even waits for the purpose O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel i.e. The Sanctuary where thou art continually praised by thine Israel who have the happinesse to receive thine answer to their sutes though I cannot Some render it O sancte sempiterne laudatissime Vers 4. Our Fathers trusted in thee They trusted and trusted and trusted they lengthened out their trust The Hebrew word for Hope or Trust signifieth also a line because thereby the heart is stretcht out as a line to the thing hoped for and hee that beleeveth maketh not haste And thou didst deliver them Never could any instance bee given to the contrary Let the successe of our forefathers confidence and hope unfailable flowing from faith unfeigned confirm our fiduciall dependance upon Gospel-promises Vers 5. They cryed unto thee Having first trusted It is the prayer of faith that does the deed And were not confounded Deo confisi nunquam confusi Vers 6. But I am a worm and no man David saith a learned man in the Arabick tongue signifieth a worm to which hee may here seem to allude I am a worm saith Hee I am dust and ashes saith Abraham less than the lest of thy loving kindnesses saith Jacob. Nos autem quid sumus saith Moses Thus the Saints expresse themselves in a low language as so many broken men Contrarily the wicked speak big words bubbles of words as Peter hath it ampullantur as Pharaoh who said Who is the Lord Nebuchadnezzar Who is that God that can deliver you Dan. 3. who is Lord over us c. Psal 12. Our Lord Christ of whom the greatest part of this Psalm must bee understood emptied and humbled himself to the utmost Phil. 2.7 8. that wee might bee exalted this San of Righteousness went ten degrees back in the Diall of his Father that hee might come unto us with health in his wings c. A Reproach of men Rejectamentum hominis nullificamen populi as Tertullian phraseth it So was Christ Isa 53. so were his Apostle 1. Cor. 4.13 wee are made the sweepings of the World the off-scourings of all things the very dung-cart into which every man casteth his filth to bee carried thorough the dung-port Why then should we think much to be slighted Vers 7. All they that see mee laugh mee to scorn Contemptus populi ludibriis opprebriis declaratur Luk. 22.63 The Apostle speaketh of cruel mockings Heb. 11.36 The Pharisees who were covetous derided him Luk. 16.14 and set his people on the stage as it were for mocking-stocks Heb. 10.23 Now post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit saith the Historian If Christ David and other precious men were so disgraced and abused by the World what matter is it for us They shoot out the lip they shake the head God is sensible of any the least affront or offence done
the same mind might bee in us that was in Christ Jesus c. Vers 16. For dogs have compassed mee That is men of mean rank opposed to Bulls and Lions i. e. great ones and interpreted in the next words the assemblie of the wicked the rude rabble and of rancorous disposition Job 30.1 Prov. 26.11 Mat. 7.6 Phil. 3.2 Psal 59.7.15 Anno Dom. 1556. at Wessensten in Germany a Jew for theft was in this cruel manner to bee executed Hee was hanged by the feet with his head downward Melch. Ad. in vit Jac. And. betwixt two doggs which constantly snatcht and bit at him They peirced my hands and my feet fc When they nailed Christ to the Crosse Mat. 27.35 Joh. 20.25 Where let mee similate saith a learned man the Oratours gradation Facinus vincire civens Romanum c. It was much for the Son of God to bee bound more to bee beaten most of all to bee slain Quid dicam in crucem tolli but what shall I say to this that hee was crucified that was the most vile and ignominious of all punishments it was also a cruel and cursed kind of death which yet hee refused not and here wee have a clear testimony for his Cross which the Devill would fain wring from us by his agents the Jews with their Keri and Chetib See Galatin lib. 8. cap. 17. lib. 1. c. 8. Mercer in Job 7.20 Vers 17. I may tell all my bones Now especially when stretcht out upon the Crosse Quando pendens extentus erat in lignâ— saith Austin Derident maciem meam saith Kimchi They look and stare upon mee Aspiciunt id est despiciunt ut Cant. 1.6 saith Kimchi they feed their eyes and passions with my misery as Luk. 23.35 This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Devils disease and declareth a devilish disposition sc for a man to make himself merry in other mens miserie Vers 18. They part my garments among them and cast lots A very clear Testimony to us that our crucified God as they scornfully term him was the true Messiah so long since fore-prophecied of and accordingly accomplished Luk. 23.34 Joh. 20.24 Such Texts as this wee should make much of as the best and iurest evidences of our Christian faith 2 Pet. 1.19 Vers 19. But bee net thou farre from mee O Lord Here hee resumeth and reinforceth his former prayer after a most patheticall description of his so dolefull condition Faith wadeth out of trouble as the Moon doth out of a cloud by hearty and affectionate prayer O my strength God is so to a Beleever then especially when hee feeleth himself weak as water Hafte thee to help mee Who am now in anâ—â—igent and am therefore bold without limitation to request thee to haste away to me Vers 20. Deliver my soul from the sword i. e. From desperate and deadly danger from the wicked which is thy sword Psa 17.13 My darling from the power of the dog Heb. Mine only one from the hand c. as Gen. 9.5 Sic est anima in corpore ut in domo lâ—â—ea nec habet sâ—cium saith R. David here The soul is alone in its cottage of clay and hath no companion That was a mad fellow who gave out that hee had two soules one for God and another for whomsoever would have it If the dog that is the Devill as some interpret this Text lay hands on this darling it will bee found to bee all that a man hath his alonely-alonely-soul the losse whereof our Saviour sheweth to bee both incomparable and irreparable Mat. 16.26 Vers 21. Save mee from the Lions mouth 2 Tim. 4.17 David was oft snatcht out of deaths mouth and so was Christ for although hee had his life taken away upon the Cross yet was it as Calvin here well observeth more miraculously and by greater power restored after death than if hee had been delivered from the Cross and it is a greater miracle to raise the dead than to heal the most dangerously sick and to stay the life when it is departing For thou hast heard me from the Horns of the Vnicorns See Heb. 5.7 It is ordinary with David to call his enemies by the names of the fiercest Creatures This here mentioned whether the Vnicorn or Rhinoceros or some other wild Beast See Job 39.9 c. Cornua habet fortiera aliorum cornibus Asperrimath feram appella Plinius saith Aben-Ezra Et audivi qued deâ—icâ—t seipsum ab alto monte super cornie ejus irrupto illo permanente Vers 22. I will declare thy Name c. Here beginneth the second part of this Psalm which is gratulatory and declaratory of the fruit of Christs Passion and Resurrection who is not here ashamed to call us Brethren but doth communicate the Kingdom to us as coheirs with himself In the middest of the Congregation c. viz. That I may not sing alone but in consort with others and be their praecentor Vers 23. Yee that fear the Lord praise him viz. For your redemption by Christs Death and Resurrection Neither are any fit for such a purpose but such as fear the Lord. Excellent words become not a fools mouth saith Solomon Christ would not suffer the Devil to confess him To be praised by a praiseless person is no praise saith Seneca All yee the seed of Jacob i. e. Illi qui diligunt eum All yee the seed of Israel Qui timent sed adhuc non diligunt saith R. David but I like not his distinction for none do truly fear God but those that love him Hos 3.5 Vers 24. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction Vel responsionem id est orationem qua est responsio linguae Prov. 16.1 R. David With men a poor mans tale cannot be heard and the answer given to such cuts off half the Petition as the Eccho doth the voyce but here it is otherwise I know thy poverty saith Christ to one of the Seven Churches but that is nothing thou art rich God thinks not the worse of his Suppliants for their meaneness but the better rather Vers 25. My praise shall be of thee in the great Congregation where it may bee most publick and exemplary They that neglect publick service for private do but read their own Inditement pray their own punishment I will pay my vows c. My Peace-offerings vowed in my distress these are heavily payed by most people according to that Italian Proverb The danger once escaped the Saint is defrauded See Davids care Psal 116. and elsewhere Vers 26. The mâ—â—k shall eat and be satisfied They shall be well filled at my Peace-offering Feast saith David at my holy Supper saith Christ and in meshall have the full fruition of all good things as at a feast of fat things full of Marrow of Wines refined on the lees Isa 25. Nec copiam hujus saeculi concupiscent nec timebunt inopiam saith Austin here they shall neither covet the wealth of this World nor
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comliness The Protestants at Lions in France called their publick meeting-place Paradise And the place where thine honour dwelleth i.e. Where thou thy self dwellest or thine Ark which is called Gods glory 1 Sam. 4.21 Psal 78.61 yea Gods self Psal 132.5 and Gods face Psal 105.4 Vers 9. Gather not my soul with sinners I have loved thy House which sinners never delighted in therefore gather not my soul with sinners so the Syriack senseth it Let me not dye the death of Sinners for I never cared for their company so the Rabbines See the Note on vers 5. Let me not share with them in punishment for I could never abide their practice Balaam would dye the death of the righteous but he liked not of their life Euchrites would be Craesus vivens Socrates mortuus Sir Walter Rawleigh would live a Papist there being no Religion like that for Licentious liberty and lasciviousness but dye a Protestant We have some that would gladly dance with the Devil all day and then sup with Christ at night live all their lives long in Dalilaes lap and then go to Abrahams bosome when they dye But this cannot be as David well understood and therefore both eschewed the life of a wicked person and deprecated his death Gather not or take not away c. The righteous is taken away Heb. gathered Isa 57.1 as men gather Flowers and candy them preserve them with such to be gathered David would hold it an happiness but not with sinners with sanguinaries for such are gathered but as house-dust to be cast out of doors Vers 10. In whose hands is mischief Wicked contrivance Here we have the true portracture of a corrupt Courtier such as Sauls were Vers 11. But as for me I will walk Whatever others do their example shall be no rule to me to deviate See my Righteous mans recompence D. 1. Redeem me c. For I am likely to suffer deeply for my singularity Vers 12. My foot standeth in an even place i.e. Mine affections are in an equal tenour A good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the scales of his minde neither rise up toward the beam through their own lightness or their over-weening opinion of prosperity nor are too much depressed with any load of sorrow but hanging equal and unmoved between both give him liberty in all occurrences to enjoy himself I will bless the Lord For performance of promises chiefly in that great Panegyris Heb. 12. PSAL. XXVII Vers 1. The Lord is my light That is my comfort and direction he that dissolveth all my clouds of serrours within and troubles without To these all hee opposeth Gods All-sufficiency as making for him and as being All in all unto him Light Salvation Strength of Life what not and there-hence his full assurance and such a masculine magnanimity as feareth not the power of men and Devils be they who they will and do what they can Animo magno nihil est magnum When a man can out of this consideration God is my light inthings of the minde and my Salvation in things of the body as Aben-Ezra expoundeth it contemn and reckon all things else as matters of small moment it shews he hath in truth apprehended God and this is true holy magnanimity The Lord is the strength of my life He that keeps life and soul together saith Aben-Ezra as the Spirits do soul and body and therefore Quis potest me interimere saith Kimchi who can do me to death Of whom shall I be afraid Faith fortifieth the heart against distrustful fears which it quelleth and killeth In a fright it runneth to the heart as the bloud doth and releeveth it setting it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Gunshot of Creature-annoyances Expertus loquor for Vers 2. When the wicked even mine enemies came upon me Made impression upon me with utmost violence and open mouth as if they would have devoured me Cannibal-like or as a Lion doth a sheep inhumanissimè ferarumque more saith Junius barbarously and beastly They stumbled and fell Irritis conaitibus corruerunt they utterly lost their design as did those Amalekites who had sacked Ziglah 1 Sam. 30. and Saul often If a man stumble and fall not he gets ground but if after much blundering hee kiss the ground hefalleth with a force Davids enemies did so Corruerunt conciderunt they were irreparably ruined Vers 3. Though an Host should encamp against me See Psal 3.6 with the Note We should propound the worst to our selves the best will bring with it as wee say especially if we finde our faith to be in heart and vigour as here Davids was Though War shouldrise against me War is a complexive evil and is therefore called so by a specialty Isa 45.7 I make peace and create evil that is War Sin Satan and War have all one name saith a learned Divine evil is the best of them the best of sin is deformity of Satan enmity of war misery In this will I be confident In this In what In this one ensuing Petition saith Aben-Ezra or in this that I have said before The Lord is my light and my Salvation in this confident gloriation of mine which is such as an unbeleever is a perfect stranger unto Vers 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord One thing above the rest Every of Gods suppliants hath some one special request that he mainly insisteth on Ut cultu Del libeto legitimouti possit Jun. and King Davids was the liberty of Gods Sanctuary and enjoyment of his publick Ordinances Hoc primus petit hoc postremus omittit This was dearer to him than Wife Children Goods all This Sute he knew to be honest and therefore he began it and being so he is resolved never to give it over but to prosecute it to the utmost and to persevere in prayer which is a great vertue Rom. 12.12 till he had prevailed That will I seek after As Gods constant Remembrancer who loveth to be importuned and as it were jogged by his praying people Herein David shewed himself a true Israelite a Prince of God and as Nazianzen stileth Basil the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of desires flowing from the Spirit He knew well that a faint Suter doth but beg a denial That I may dwell in the House of the Lord i.e. In the place where was the Ark with the Prophets Priests Levites Asaph and his brethren c. with whom David desired to be taken up in the service of God free from Secular cares and delights at times convenient Pyrrhus told Cyneas that when he had finished his Wars once he would then sit still and be merry The Roman Generals when they had once triumphed over their enemies might take their ease and pleasure for ever after But good David resolves to improve his rest when ever God shall grant it him to perpetual piety That I may dwell saith he or sit in the house of Jehovah
acclamation yea my bones shall say c. that is whatsoever strength and vigour is in mee it shall be spent in celebrating thy praises Or although I have nothing left mee but skin and bones so poor am I grown yet I will not be wanting to the work Vers 11. False witnesses did rise up So they did afterward against the Lord Christ and sundry of his faithfull servants as St. Paul Athanasius Enstathius Bishop of Antioch Alsted Chronol Act. Mon. falsely accused of Adultery and deposed about the end of Constantine the great 's reign Cranmer charged with Adultery heresy and treason Philpot with paricide Latimer with sedition whereof he was so innocent that he feared not to say in a Sermon before the King as for sedition for ought that I know methinks I should not need Christ if I may so say They laid to my charge things that I knew not Such as whereof I was not only innocent but ignorant also The Hebrew is They asked mee and so would have by cunningly contrived questions made mee mine own accuser Vers 12. They rewarded mee evill for good To render good for evill is divine good for good is humane evill for evill is brutish but evill for good is devilish To the spoyling of my soul i.e. Intentant caedem Kimchi To the depriving mee of that life which I have so often hazarded to save theirs Or this their devilish dealing with mee erat mihi quasi mors amarum was as bitter as death to mee Vers 13. But as for mee when they were sick i.e. Any way afflicted when they ayled any thing My cloathing was sackcloath I put my self in mourners habit Incedebam atratus to testifie my good affection to ward them I humbled my soul with fasting In die designato in a solemn day set apart for the purpose Kimchi De Elia jejunio cap. 8. as the a with a pathach sheweth Jejunium est humilit as mentis miserationis expensa charit at is illecebra allevamentum infirmitatis alimentum salut is saith Ambrose Fasting is the affliction of the soul the cost of compassion c. And my prayer returned into mine own bosome i. e. Though they had no benefit by it yet my self had 2 Sam. 1.22 for no faithfull prayer is ineffectuall like Jonathans bow it never returneth empty I received the fruit of my prayers for them upon my bosome Vers 14. I behaved my self as though he had been c. My Brother a thousand times This was much to do to an enemy but possibly all this might be before they fell out I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth c. The Mother is usually most dearly-beloved and not without cause as having been ante partum onerosa in partâ— dolorosa post partum laboriosa Kimchi Or as a suckling cryeth in the losse of his Nurse Vers 15. Morbus est sic dictus quia incedere nequit nisi cum dolore quasi claudicando Aben-Ezra Dum illum rideâ— pene factus sum ille Epist 9. lib. 2. But in mine adversity Heb. In my halting when through weaknesse I could not but halt before my best friends as we say Yea the abjects gathered themselves together Claudi congregati sunt secundum claudicationem meam claudicabant ut me deriderent So the Syriack senseth it They halted as I did by way of derision but they should have known first that mocking is catching as we say Tully confesseth that whiles he laughed at one Hircus a very ridiculous man he became as bad almost himself Secondly That such cruell mockings are grievous sins and such as God severely punisheth Some render it the Smiters that is the tongue-smiters as Jer. 18.18 Others the smitten that is the abjects the vile persons the basest can mock as did Tobiah the Servant Neh. 2.19 and those Pests Psal 1.1 And I knew it not Or Such as I knew not took no notice of they were so base See the like Job 30.8 They did tear mee sc With their tongues as doggs tosse and tear carrion with their teeth Scindunt illud quod reparare nequeunt non per poenitentiam saith Kimchi They tear that which they cannot make good again no not by repentance viz. my good name Or. they rent sc their garments as if they had been very sorry for mee as Gen. 37.34 Job 2.12 This they did as Austin speaketh simulatione miseriae non compassione misericordiae out of deep dissimulation Vers 16. With Hypocriticall mockers in feasts Cum sannionibus placentae vâ—lcibi with hypocriticall mockers for a cake or dainties there is an elegancy in the origiginall which sheweth it to be proverbiall and cannot be englished R. Solomon telleth us here that they who delighted in flatteries gave their flatterers cakes baked with honey to make them the more to flatter them Solomon telleth of some that will transgresse for a peece or bread Prov. 28.21 So those parasiticall Prophets Mensarii scurâ—â—â— Ezek. 13.19 Or I am made their table-talk as Hos 7.8 scornfully deriding mee at their feasts and in their cups Vers 17. Lord how long wilt thou look on i.e. carry thy self as a Spectator of my miseries and a tolerator of mine enemies those architects of mine afflictions Rescue my soul from their destructions i. e. Their snares and ambushes whereby they seek to destroy me My darling from the Lions See the Note on Psal 22.20 Vers 18. I will give thee thanks in the great Congregation For examples sake to others for Magnates magnetes Acts 18.8 when Crispus the chief Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved many of the Corinthians beleeved also Great men are the Looking-glasses of the Country according to which most men dress themselves many eyes are upon them they had need therefore to be exact for they are sure to be exemplary Vers 19. Neither let them wink with the eye Which is the gesture of a malicious Scoffer Prov. 6.13 10.10 Ne amarulenter Ludificentur me Trem Vers 20. For they speak not peace Which yet God doth to his people Psa 85.9 and that is their comfort I am for peace saith David elsewhere but when I speak of it they are for war Psal 120.7 Against the quiet of the Land i.e. Against my self and such as I am who study to be quiet and to do our own business 1 Thes 4.11 affecting rather quietness from the World than acquaintance with it Vers 21. They opened their mouth As if the very banks of blasphemy had been broken down Our eye bath seen Eye for eyes unless we would say that all the wicked are so conjoyned that they may seem to have but one Eye Heart Head c. and then they say as Hannibal did when he saw a ditch full of mans bloud O formosum spectaculum O gallant fight O rem regiam as Valesus said when he had slain three hundred Protestants Vers 22. This thou hast seen O Lord This answereth to that before vers 21. Our
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
finde them out as cunning as they are and sith they are so fool-hardy as to walk upon iniquities Fire-works let them look to bee blown up and they shall have my prayers to that purpose In thine anger cast down c. It is Prophetical as well as Optative Vers 8. Thou tellest my wanderings Or thou cipherest up my stittings and hast them in numerato ready told up my vagaries whilst hunted up and down like a Partridge and hushed out of every bush so that I have not where to settle Saint Paul was at the same pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he we have no certain abode 1 Corin. 4.11 and so were sundry of the holy Martyrs and Confessors who wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins c. driven from post to pillar from one Country to another God all the while noting and numbring all their flittings yea all their footings Bottleing up their tears booking down their sighs as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mal. 3.16 See Mat. 10.30 The Septuagint for my wandrings or flittings have my life to teach us saith one that our life is but a flitting Put thou my tears into thy Bottle Heb. My tear that is every tear of mine let not one of them be lost but kept safe with thee as so much sweet water It is a witty observation of one That God is said in Scripture to have a Bag and a Bottle a Bag for our sins a Bottle for our tears and that wee should help to fill this as we have that There is an allusion here in the Original that cannot bee Englished Are they not in thy Book sc Of Providence where they cannot be blotted out by any time or tyrants Vers 9. When I cry unto thee then shall mine enemies turn back For how should they stand before so mighty a God Of the power of Prayer for the beating back of enemies besides the Scripture Histories are full that famous Victoria Halleâ—â—iatica for instance Vers 10. In God will I praise his word The Jew-Doctours observe that Elohim God is a Name importing Justice and that Jehovah Lord holdeth out mercy according to that Exod 34.6 Jehovah Jehovah Merciful Gracâ—us c. But if God should foem neither to show his Mercy upon us nor his Justice upon our enemies we must nevertheless adhere to his Word or Promise and patiently wait his performance which will be as sure as he is God and Lord. See the Note on vers 4. Vers 11. In God have I put my trust I will not be afraid c. When news came to Luther that both the Emperour and Pope had threatned his ruine he bravely answered Contemptus est à me Romanus favor furor I care for neither of them I know whom I have trusted See vers 4. Vers 12. Sunt tua post quam Vori. Arabâ— Thy Vows are upon me O God I am a Votary ever since I was at Gath there and then I vowed that if the Lord would vouchsafe to bring me out of that brake I would do as became a thankful man every way And now I am Damnatus votorum as the Latine expression is Vow I must and pay to the Lord my God Ecce ego Domine Lord I am ready do thou but set me up an Altar and I will offer a Sacrifice restore me to thy Sanctuary and I will do it exactly in the Ceremonies and Formalities thereof Mean while mine heart and lips shall not be wanting to give thee praise in spirit and truth I will render praises unto thee Vers 13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death Which was the very thing I begged of thee when I was at worst viz. that thou wouldest save my life which then lay at stake I also then solemnly took upon me such and such ingagements which lye upon me as so many debts and I am in pain till I have paid them This if I shall do effectually Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling Yea I know thou wilt Lord for every former favour of thine is a pledge of a future That I may walk before God in the light of the living Called else-where the Land of the living that is in this present life spending the span of it in thy fear and labouring to be every whit as good as I vowed to be when I was in great distress and danger Pliny in an Epistle of his to one that desired rules from him how to order his life aright I will saith he give you one rule that shall be instead of a thousand Ut tales esse perseveremus sani quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi i. e. That you hold out to bee such when well as you promised to bee when weak and sick c. PSAL. LVII ALtaschith i. e. Destroy not David being in an imminent danger of destruction in the Cave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. might send up this short request as it were in a fright before he uttered this insuing prayer Altaschith in such an exigent might well be an effectual prayer as was the Woman of Canaans Lord help me and the sick mans Ah Father or these might now be his words to Abishai or some other of his Servants whose fingers even itched to bee doing with Saul as afterwards they were upon a like occasion 1 Sam. 26.9 Destroy not Saul See thou do it not Michtam of David See Psal 16. title When he fled from Saul in the Cave 1 Sam. 24.1 Or into the Cave for shelter and where when he might have cut Sauls throat he cut his Coat only and was inwardly checked for it nevertheless the Spirit came upon him which was no small comfort as Aben-Ezra here observeth and he said Vers 1. Be merciful unto me O God be merciful q. d. Now or never help at a dead lift Bis pro more rogantium ad corrober andum saith Kimchi Other Jew-Doctors give this reason of the repetition of his petition Be merciful c. lest either I fall into Sauls hands Midr. Tilli or Saul into mine lest desire of revenge prick me on to kill him Or Have mercy on me that I sin not or if I do sin that I may repent For my soul trusteth in thee An excellent argument so it comes from the soul so it be heart-sprung Yea in the shadow of thy wings c. As the little Chicken in danger of the Kite hovereth and covereth under the Hen. Vntil these calamities be over-past For long they will not continue Nubecula est site transibit said Athanasins of the Arrian Persecutions which for present were very sharp So Master Jewel about the beginning of Queen Maries reign perswading many to patience said often Hac non durabunt aetatem this sharp shower will soon over Vers 2. I will cry unto God most high Who can easily over-top Saul as high as he is and all his complices against whom I have this comfort that in the thing wherein they deal proudly
said our Hen. 7. should delight in War or take every occasion that is offered the World should never bee quiet but wearied with continual Wars Vers 31. Princes shall come out of Aegypt The Gentiles shall one day be called and caused Drum veruns cognoscere colere even Aegypt that Arch-enemy of the Church and Aethiopia the Off-spring of cursed Cham. And Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God Heb. Shall make her hands to run whereby is noted her speediness in giving or in receiving the Gospel Manibus pedibusque 〈◊〉 omnia faciat It is likely that that good Eunuch Acts 8. Terent. preached the Christian verity which himself had imbraced for goodness is diffusive and Birds when they come to a full heap of Corn will chirp Hist Aethiâ— cap. 137. and call in for their fellow The Habassines are still a kinde of Christians the Nubians have forsaken the Furtherance delivered and embraced instead of it partly Mahumetanism and partly Idolatry through lack of Ministers as Alvarro reporteth Vers 32. Sing unto God ye Kingdoms No such joy as that of the converted Isa 35.10 the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with Song and everlasting joy upon their heads c. Bernard for a certain time after his Conversion remained as it were deprived of his senses by the excessive consolations hee had from God The like befell Cyprian Austin and others Vers 33. To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens i.e. the highest heaven Deut. 10.14 Which were of old And do still remain in the same state Lo he doth send out his voyce i.e. Thundreth as Psal 29. whensoever therefore we hear it thunder Sciamus Deum ipsum laqui hoc est sensibilem reddi Vers 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Altitonans Ascribe ye strength unto God The High thunderer acknowledge your own nothingness submit to his government His excellency is over Israel and his strength c. i.e. His glory shineth no less in Israel than the Thunder roareth in the Clouds Vers 35. O God thou art terrible out of thine holy places So the Sanctuary is called because divided into three parts and here hence God was terrible in his manifestations to his people and in his operations to his enemies See Psalm 67 2 3. Blessed be God Hereupon saith one God was called in Israel Baruc-hu the Blessed as Mark 14.61 with Mat. 26.63 See Luke 1.68 PSAL. LXIX A Psalm of David Quando rebellabat Sheba saith the Syriack made upon occasion of Sheba's rebellion presently after Absoloms Hence he cries out as one almost over-whelmed Vers 1. Save mee O God Thou who delightest to save such as are forsaken of their hopes The Fathers generally take this Psalm to be prophetical touching the passions of Christ and his praying then to the Father David had his troubles which gave occasion to the penning of this Psalm but those were all but as a picture and prelude of Christs farre greater sorrows Spiritus autem sanctus manifestè se prodit in hoc Psalmo For the waters are come in unto my soul Ever after Noahs flood that dismal destruction great and grievous afflictions were set forth by the rushing in of waters and overwhelming therewith Gods wrath was poured upon Christ as a mighty torrent of waters and therefore this expression applied to him hath a special Emphasis his soul was heavy even to the death Fluctus fluctum trudebat One deep called upon another c. O the soul of sufferings which his soul then suffered Vers 2. I sink in deep mire Heb. In the mire of depth or gulf as Babylon was afterwards called Isa 44.27 Here he stuck and under water and so must perish if he had not present help Vers 3. I am weary of my crying As a drowning man whiles he can be heard cryeth for help My throat is dryed Or parched raucitate laborant fancâ—â— Mine eyes fail With much weeping and long looking This is a peece of the curse Levit. 26.16 Christ became a curse for us Gal. 3.13 Vers 4. They that hate mee without a cause c. Christ besides his inward fears and griefs caused by the sense of his Fathers wrath for our sins was set against and assaulted both by men and Devils in that three hours darkness especially with utmost might and malice Then I restered that which I took not away Quod non rapâ—i reddebam Dâ—â—â—â— was dealt with as a felon or false-dealer Christ also was crucified for saying that he was the Son of God Job 19.7 though he held it no robbery to be equall with God Phil. 2.6 The Martyrs likewise were loaden with many 〈◊〉 and false criminations that they might seem to suffer not as Martyrs but as Malefactours Vers 5. O God thou knowest my foolishnese 〈…〉 Thou knowest mine innocency and how true I am of 〈◊〉 fâ—â—ly and those foul faults wherewith they falsely 〈◊〉 Vers 6. Let not them be ashamed for my sake Give mee not up to passions of dishonour to opprobrious practices whereby religion might be reproached or good people reviled and abused much lesse staggered and set at a stand by my sufferings Vers 7. Because for thy sake I have born repreach Whatever mine enemies pretend they strike at thee Lord through my sides and for thy sake alone it is that I am so bespattled that I am even ashamed to look any one in the face The most innocent may upon the fulnesse of an aspersion be put out of countenance Vers 8. I am become a stranger to my Brethren No otherwise than as if I were a Maâ—zer so the Hebrews call a Bastard that is a strange blet to the family Christ came to his own but they received him not yea his own brethren beleeved not on him Job 7. This when the Turks read in our Gospel they wonder and the Jews therefore slander his miracles for not so manifest as we conceive Vers 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten mee up Non amat qui non zelat Davids love to God much lesse the Lord Christs would not suffer him to bear with Gods dishonour and the contempt of his ordinances And this was it that procured him so much ill will and such a generall alienation from nearest friends and allyes And the reproaches of them that reproached thee Wicked men eftsoons set their mouths against Heaven and fall soul upon God himself This David and the son of David could not endure nec aliter amare didicit as Basit once answered those that blamed him for appearing so farre for his friend Chrysoft libâ— 2. d sacerdotâ— to his own great danger Vers 10. When I went and chastened my soul with fasting That I might thereby beat down my body and tame that rebel flesh of mine That was to my reproach They said I did it in hypocrisie and design So they dealt by the Baptist that crucifix of mortification Luk. 7.33 Vers 11. I made sack-cloath also
my garment A fashion at solemn fasts among the Easterlings as if they thought the coursest cloathing too good for them and but for shame would have gone stark naked I became a proverb to them Dicterium They would say with mocking Michal How glorious was the King of Israel to day as one of the vain fellows 2 Sam. 6.20 Vers 12. They that sit in the gate Men of Authority and Dignity who should have shewed more grace and gravity The Saints are sure of enemies of all sorts David was traduced at publick and private meetings seriis ludicris sobriis ebriis And I was the Song of the Drunkards Heb. Of the drinkers of strong drink the Ale-stakes made Ballads on their Ale-bench de maeie mea miseria These Varlets tear and toss my Name as Curs do Carrion Vers 13. But as for me my prayer is unto thee O Lord So Saint Paul Being defamed saith he we pray Christ in like case committed himself to God in well-doing 1 Pet. 2. In an acceptable time Or there will be an acceptable time Fâ—ebile principiums melior fortuna sequeter Vers 14. Deliver me out of the mixe i. e. De civitate Gehennae saith the Hebrew Scholiast out of that deadly danger whereof he had complained Val. Max. Christ 41. vers 2. Alphonsus King of Arcagâ—â—â— by a gracious condescension helped a laden Asse out of the mire with his own hand and is renowned for it in History God helpeth his out full oft and little notice is taken of it Vers 15. Let not the water-floud over-flow me See vers 1. 〈…〉 Leave me not helpless and hopeless Viâ—ere 〈◊〉 facias qui moriturus eram Vers 16. Hear me O Lord for thy loving kindness is good It is not like the 〈…〉 that lighteth but hearteth not it is like the Summer-Sun that doth both Vers 17. And â—ids not thy face from thy Servant Who am devoted to thy fear and do therefore implore and expect thy favour For I am in trouble And so a fit object of thy pity Vers 18. Draw nigh unto my soul Who seemest to be afarre off so the flesh suggesteth when help is any whit deferred Because of mine enemies Who else will excessively insult Vers 19. Thou hast known my reproach That is enough for David that God taketh Cognizance of the injuries and indignities cast upon him for he will surely right him Vers 20. Reproach hath broken mine heart c. He knew his own innocency and yet it much grieved him to be so defamed for he knew that a good man should be as much as might be not only without fault but without suspicion of a fault as August us Caesar was wont to say of his house Howsoever it is happy that a true Christian hath always his cordial by him 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience c. And I looked for some to take pity Heb. To lament with me or to shake the head over me as Mourners use to do to run to my comfort and to condole with me Davids friends failed him in this office also But that was not all Vers 21. They gave me also gall for my meat Venenum vel sicutam and so shewed themselves miserable comforters And in my thirst they gave me vineger to drink This befel David in Figure but Christ in the Letter Mat. 27.34 It were happy if the Vineger given him might melt our adamantine hearts into godly sorrow Vers 22. Let their table become a snare before them Let them care their bane and drink their poyson whiles all their cates are sauced with the Wrath of God Quoniam hoc modâ— cibarunt me saith Kimchi because they have served me on this sort By table saith another Interpreter we are to understand all means of comfort and refreshing both of body and soul which turn to the ruine of the wicked even an odour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2.15 16. And that which should have been c. Tremellius rendreth it Pro retributionibuâ—â— pro tendicula ipsis for recompenses for a trap to them Rom. 11.9 Others Pacifica in rete Others again Et ubi pacem sperant illic impingunt Where they hope for peace let them fall Vers 23. Let their eyes be darkned Let them be infatuated and besotted that they may go hoodwinkt to Hell And make their loyns continually to shake Ne fugiant saith R. Obadiah Gaon that they may not be able to fly or otherwise to help themselves for in the loyns and reins of a man lieth his strength Deut. 33.11 The Syriack hath it Lumbi eorum sint curvi viz. under their enemies burdens See Rom. 11.10 bow down their backs Vers 24. Pour out thine indignation upon them By Indignation saith Basil we are to understand speedy vengeance by Wrath durable This is befaln the Nation of the Jews to the utmos t 1 Thess 2. or to the end as some render it Vers 25. Let their habitation be desolate Heb. Their Palaces or Castles so named of being fair and high built in row and order It is here put not only for their Habitation but for their Function See Acts 1.20 And let none dwell in their Tents Lege 〈◊〉 saith one speaking of the mine of Jerusalem by the Romans Dio in Adrian 〈◊〉 Enquir under Velpasian and again 〈…〉 all Judea was left almost 〈…〉 upon pain of death to look toward their own Country At the day 〈…〉 be found in Jerusalem it self an hundred housholds of Jews Behold 〈…〉 of God of the contempt of Christ and his people Vers 26. For they perscute 〈◊〉 whom 〈…〉 Christ 〈…〉 of God and afflicted Isa 53.4 Him they persecuted to the death and abused when he was at the greatest under with bitter taunts and Satan 〈…〉 â—â—casmes so the Pagans and the Papist dealt 〈◊〉 the dying Martyrs and profane persons and 〈…〉 Dogge that worried and as when a Deer is shot the 〈◊〉 of the 〈…〉 their company so here Now if it could be said of Mishridates that 〈…〉 such as maliciously persecuted vertue forsaken of Fortune much more may we think doth God abhor such cruel Carâ—iâ—â—s spoken of See Isa 47.6 Obad 1. Zeeh. 1.15 And they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded Narrâ—â—â—â—â—â—exuâ—â— they frame discourses to the grief of thy wounded ones pouring into their woundâ— not Oyl or Balsome but vineger or salt-water Heb. Thâ—â— number or cipâ—â— up the grief that is saith one they study and devise new waye of torturing them so that hee who would speak of them all must keep a remembrance of their number Vers 27. Adde iniquity unto their iniquity Punish one sin with another by giving them up to a reprobate sense to an incureable hardness and plague them soundly for their fin The same Hebrew word signifieth both sin and punishment these two are tied together with chains of Adamant And let them not come into thy righteousness i. e. Hold them not righteous
inane Other Kingdoms have their times and their turns their rise and their ruines not so Christs and this is great comfort His name shall be continued Filâ—â—â—â— nomini 〈◊〉 it shall be begotten as one Generation is begotten of another Heb. His name shall be childed that is so continued as Families are continued there shall bee a constant succession of Christs Name to the end of the World there will still be Christians who are his Children Heb. 2.13 14. The old Hebrews tell us that Jâ—nnâ—n the Hebrew word â—ere used is one of Christs Names And men shall be blessed in him Or they shall bless themselves in him viz. in Salomon but especially in Christ of whom Salomon was but a shadow All Nations shall call him blessed If all Generations shall call the Mother of Christ blessed Luke 3.48 how much were Christ himself Vers Sunt verba leribae ut hodit Aben-Ezra ex R. Jehudah 18. Blessed be the Lord God 〈…〉 these are the words of the Psalmist say the Rabines blessing God who had given Leâ—â—gneph church strength to him fainting to finish the Second Book of the Psalms as he had done the Firsst or rather praising God for all the 〈…〉 the Lord Christ Vers 19. And blessed 〈…〉 so unsatisfiable and unweareable are the 〈…〉 a Christ And 〈◊〉 God expecteth that 〈…〉 by all his at all 〈…〉 Vers 20. The Prayer 〈…〉 PSAL. LXXIII A Psalm of Asaph Who was not only an excellent Musician but a Prophet also an Oratour and a Poet not unlike for his stile to Horace or Persius This and the ten next Psalms that bear this name in the front consist of complaints for most part and sad matters Vers 1. Truly God is good to Israel Or Yet God is c. Thus the Psalmist beginneth abruptly after a sore Conflict throwing off the Devil and his fiery Darts where-with his heart for a while had been wounded It is best to break off temptations of corrupt and carnal reasonings and to silence doubts and disputes lest wee be foyled Hee shoots saith Greenham with Satan in his own bow who thinks by disputing and reasoning to put him off To such as are of a clean heart Such as are Israelites indeed and not Hypocrites and dissemblers For as for such as turn a side unto their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity as malefactours are led forth to execution but Peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125.5 upon the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 Vers 2. But as for mee my feet were almost gone i. e. I was wel-night brought to beleeve that there was no divine providence as the Athenians did when their good General Nicias was worsted and slain in Sicily as Pompey did Thucid. when having the better cause he was overcome by Cesar as Brutus did that last of the Romans as he was called for his courage when beaten out of the field by Anthony he cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now I see that vertue is nothing but all things are moderated by Fortun whom he charged his children therefore to worship as a goddesse of greatest power My steps had welâ—nigh slipt Quasi nihil effusi sunt gressus mei that is as Kimchi interpreteth it Status meus crat tantillus quasi nullus esset pre figendo peds locus I had scarce any fastening for my feet my heels were gone almost What wonder then that Heathens have been stounded and staggered Cum rapiaent mala fata bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos. Saith Ovid. And to the fame purpose another Poet. Marmoreo Licinies tumulo jacet Cato parve Pompeius nullo quis putet esse Deos Vers 3. For I was envious at the foolish Heb. At the Bragadochies the vain-glorious the mad-boasters I aemulated and stomached their prosperity Jact abundis compared with mine own far-worse condition Godly men though cured of their spirituall phrenzy yet play oft many mad tricks one while fretting at the prosperity of their adversaries and another while murmuring at their own afflictions or plotting courses how to conform themselves to the World c. When I saw the prosperity of the Wicked This hath ever been a pearl in the eyes not of the Heathens only but of better meu See Jer. 12.1 2 Habbak 1.3 Psal 37. c. Yet Seneca writeth a treatise of it and sheweth the reasons if at least he beleeved himself therein Erasmus passeth this censure of him Read him as a Pagan and he writeth Christian-like read him as 2 Christian and he writeth Pagan-like Vers 4. For there are no bands in their death Or No knots and knorles they dye without long sicknesse or much pain or trouble of mind If a man dye â—ike a Lamb and pass out of the World like a bird in a shel he is certainly saved think some The wicked are here said to dye quietly as if there were no loosening of the band that is betwixt soul and body Julian the Apostate dyed with these words in his mouth Vitam reposcents natura tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurum exulto Anomian that is I owe a death to Nature and now that she calleth for it as a faithfull debtour câ—â—t lib. 7. 〈◊〉 Diodor. I gladly pay it The Princes of the Sogdians when they were drawn forth to death by Alexander the great carmen more latumtium etcinerut tripuâ—isque gaudium animi ostentare caperunt They sang and danced to the place of execution But their strength is firm They are lively and lusty they are pingues praevalidi fat and fair-liking fat is their fortitude so some render it Others strong is their porch or Palace Vers 5. They are not in trouble as other men But live in a serene clime under a perpetuall calm as he did of whom it is storied that he never had any crosse but at last was nailed to a cross Polycrates I mean King of Egypt Marullâ—â— telleth us that Ambrose comming once to a great mans house who boasted that he had never suffered any adversity Marul l. 5. c. 3. he hasted away thence and said he did so we una cum â—omine perpetuis prosperitatibus uso periret lest he should perish with the man that bad been so extraordinarily prosperous And no sooner was he and his company departed but the earth opened and swallowed up that mans house with all that were in it Vers 6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain The pride of their hearts breaketh forth in their costly habits whiles they are torquati auro ac gemmis amicti setting up their plumes as Peacocks which have their names in Hebrew from the joy they take in their fair feathers so do these glory in their pride and are puffed up with a foolish perswasion of their own prudence Vermis divitiarum est superbia Charge the rich that they be not high-minded 1 Tim. 6.17 He is a great rich man saith
old Man-slayer and a misgiving heart of his own Homines vero securi voluptatibus ebrii nihil horum intelligunt This is little understood by profane Sensualists who therefore reap no great benefit by the reading of these Psalms Vers 10. And I said this is my infirmity My frailty and folly Here he begins to recollect and recall himself as every good soul will after its extravagancies and out-bursts Vatablus rendreth it Mors mea est This is my death Beza Caedeo mea haec This is my Deaths-wound sc whereof I should surely dye were it not for the change of Gods hand upon me But I will remember c. This is supplied out of the following verse Some make no such supply but render the text thus The right hand of the most High can change these things Others This is the change of the right hand of the most High and is therefore to be taken patiently Shall we receive good at Gods hands and not evil Job 2.10 I am not utterly deserted but only the case is a little altered the right hand of the most High alternated Vers 11. I will remember the works c. Remember and commemorate as the Hebrew by a double reading importeth I will remember thy Wonders God is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isa 28. ult and as we behold the Sun in the waters so God in his works Saculum speculum the World is a glass or theater but especially the Church wherein God setteth forth his wonders to the view of all Vers 12. I will mediate also of all thy works and â—alk c. See the Note on Psal 45. â— Vers 13. Thy way O God is in the Sanctuary There it is only that I can get satisfaction about thy proceedings Psal 73.17 There I am â—â—ught that thou 〈…〉 and holy in all thy works 〈…〉 this text Thy way O God is 〈…〉 q. d. Thy way is in Heaven farre above mans reach Who is so great a God us our God And therefore no wonder his wayes are so incomprehensible Vers 14 Thou art the God that doest wonders In the daily defence and government of thy Church Thou art the great Thaumaturgus or wonder-worker Thou hast declared thy strength among the peoples As among the Egyptians Canaanites Philâ—stines c. Vere 〈◊〉 est Deus Chistianorum said one Calocerius an Heathen Vers 15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people viz. Out of the bondage of Egypt that memorable mercy but nothing to that of ours and theirs from sins thraldome The sons of Jacob and Joseph Joseph is instanced quia nobilis inter fratres vel in malis quae pendit vel in bonâ— quae rependit as Austin hath it De Doct. Christ l. 4. c. â— Vers 16. The waters saw thee O God they were afraid This is check to such as will not see to fear so mighty a God Lord saith the Prophet when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shalâ— see and be ashamed for their envy at the people yea the fire of thine enemies shall devour them Isa 26.11 Vers 17. The clouds poured out water the skies c. Calvin taketh this to be a description of that hideous tempest Exod. 9. the seventh Plague of Egypt But others with more probability hold that the Prophet here hath respect to that very time mentioned in the former verse when the Lord looked unto the hoast of the Egyptians out of the fiery and cloudy pillar and so troubled and turmoiled them with stormy tempests that their Charret wheels fell off and themselves sank as lead in the mighty waters Exod. 14.24 25. 15.10 Of these terrible tempests mention is made also by Justin Vers 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the Heaven Heb. In the Sphere or round-orb of the air Of the thunder in the air see Job 37 2-5 Psal 29. This made the Egyptians say Let us fly for God fighteth for Israel against us The lightenings lightened the World Such flakes of fire there were with flashes of lightening as darkened the Sun and made the whole Heavens seem to be on a light fire Vers 19. Thy way is in the Sea c. A way of thine own miraculous making God usually goeth a way by himself And thy footsteps are not known Not so much as is the way of an Eagle in the air the way of a Serpent upon a rock or the way of a ship in the midst of the Sea Prov. 30.19 Let God alone with his own work commit we our selves to him in wel-doing and it shall go well with us no question of it Pii viam desperatae salutis impiâ— foveam insperatae mortis intrant Oros Vers 20. Thou leddest thy people like a flock And so he still leadeth his Church with much love and care by good Magistrates and Ministers who are as his under-shepheards PSAL. LXXVIII MAschil of Asaph Ode didascalica Asaphi The six first verses are procemial wooing attention from the dignity difficulty antiquity certainty c. of the matter in this Psalm discoursed on containing an abstract of the whole Pentateuch and acquainting us with the ancient way of preaching which was an historicall narration of the miraculous mercies that God had from time to time conferred upon his people their hatefull abuse of his benefits and their punishments thereupon This is to be seen in sundry Psalmes in St. Stephens Sermon Act 7. and St. Pauls Act. 13. est sane valde venerandum istâ—d sancta antiquitatis 〈◊〉 This is a very venerable momment of holy antiquity and teacheth us the right use of history quae dicta est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato Vers 1. Give ear O my people to my Law i. e. To my Doctin which hath its name in Hebrew from darting it into the soul and these are the Psalmists words in Gods name calling for utmost attention Incline your ears c. Lay them close to my lips that no parcel of this sacred language fall to the ground by your default 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—rizate auribus hâ—â—rite Receive it into your ears yea draw up the ears of your mind to the ears of your bodies that one sound may peirce both Act. 2.14 Isa 55.3 Hear and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken it Jer. 13.15 Vers 2. I will open my mouth in a parable I will speak freely and plainly I will open my mouth Mat. 5.2 Act. 10.34 and yet acutely and accurately See Psal 49.4 with the Note I will utter dark sayings of old Heb. I will wel-out as from a spring or fountain dark or sharp sayings transacted and recorded of old but of good use for ever Difficulty doth not discourage but rather whet on heroick spirits to a more diligent inquiry Aben-Ezra noteth here that verse 9. The children of Ephraim c. is a parable and verse 25. Man did eat Angels food is a riddle or dark saying Vers 3. Which we have heard
see He saith formeth because there are many formes or species in the eye continually and as the optick vertue in thy eye seeth all and is seen of none so doth God much more All Davids wayes were in Gods sight all Gods lawes in Davids sight Psal 119.168 Vers 10. He that chastiseth the Heathen shall not he correct Qui totis gentibus non parcit vos non redarguet He that punisheth prophane Nations that know him not shall he spare you Amos 3.2 Shall not tribulation and anguish be upon the Jew first Rom. 2.9 The Chaldee thus paraphraseth He that gave a law to his people shall he not punish them when they transgresse it He that teacheth man knowledge Shall not be know is to be supplied to make sense The Psalmist seemeth so displeased at mens doubting or denying of this that he could not perfect his sentence through passion of mind Some causes indeed do give that which themselves have not as the lifelesse heaven inliveneth the dull whetstone sharpeneth But here it is far otherwise and woe be to such as act not accordingly Isa 29.15 Vers 11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity Or worse that they are ever weaving spiders webs or else hatching Cockatrice eggs Isa 59.5 This sentence St. Paul allegeth against the Worlds wizzards 1 Cor. 3.20 who the wiser they were the vainer they were Rom. 1.21 As Austin writing to a man of great paris saith Ornari abste Diabolus quarit the Devill would fain bee tricked up by thee Vers 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest c. And thereby effectest that his vain thoughts lodge not within him Jer. 4.14 but that the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to thee c. Isa 55.7 Feri Domine feri said Luther strike whiles thou pleasest Lord only to thy correction adde instruction Vt quod noceat doceat See my Love-tokens And teachest him out of thy law Lashing him but withall lessoning him ut resipiscat serviat tibi corde perfecto saith Kimchi here that he may repent and serve thee with an upright heart for which purpose affliction sanctified is of singular use Crux voluntat is Dei schola morum disciplina felicitatis meditatorium gau dii Spiritus sancti officina breviter bonorum omnium thesaurus saith Brentius on Job 33.16 Vers 13. That thou mayest give him rest Here usually but hereafter certainly Mors arumnarum requies was Chaucers Motto those that dye in the Lord shall rest from their labours Mean-while they are chastened of the Lord that they may not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 Vntill the pit be digged for the wicked Untill the cold grave hold his body and hot Hell hold his soul Vers 14. For the Lord will not cast off his people Though he cast them into the furnace of affliction The wicked he bringeth into misery and there leaveth them to come off as they can Ezek. 22.20 29.5 Not so the Saints Zach. 13.9 Isa 43.2 Heb. 13.5 Nor for sake his inheritance Because His. Senecai Patriam quivis ama 〈◊〉 quia pulchram sed quia suam All love their own Vers 15. But judgement shall return unto Righteousness All shall be set to rights and every one have his due according to Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10. if not sooner yet at the day of judgement without fail Some give this sense severity shall be changed into mercy the rigour of the law to the clemency of the Gospel Others thus judgement shall return to Righteousness that is to its own place licet defertur judicium non aufertur And all the upright in heart shall follow it viz. In their affections they are carried out after it earnestly desiring that dear day when God will unriddle his providences and clear up his proceedings with the sons of men Some read shall follow him that is God being brought home to him by their afflictions they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Not so every loose ungirt Christian or profligate professor Vers 16. Who will rise up for mee q.d. But a very few fast friends find I at Court Jonathan excepted Some there are that will sprinkle mee with Court-holy-water as they say give glozing speeches but 't is little that they will do and yet lesse that they will suffer for mee Faithfull friends saith One are gone on pilgrimage and their return is uncertain Vers 17. Except the Lord had been my help He loveth to help at a pinch he usually reserveth his hand for a dead lift See 2 Tim. 4.16 17. My soul had almost dwelt in silence i.e. In the dark cloisters of death The Greek and Latin Translators render it In Hell Vers 18. when I said my foot slippeth I stand on a precipice and shall be down Hypotyposis est Thy mercy O Lord held mee I have subsisted meerly by a miracle of thy mercy by a prop of thine extraordinary pitty and patience Vers 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within mee My perplexed intricated insnarled intertwined as the branches of a tree cogitations and ploddings upon my daily sufferings when I know not what to think or which way to take to Thy comforts delight my soul The Beleever is never without his cordiall he hath comforts that the World wots not of The good Lantgrave of Hessen being held prisoner for a long time together by Charles the fift Emperour said that he could never have held it out so but that he felt the divine consolations of the Martyrs August Martyr etiam in catena gaudet c. saith Austin Crux inunct a est saith Bernard Godlinesse hath many crosses and as many comforts like as Egypt hath many venemous Creatures but withall many Antidotes against them Vers 20. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee Shall Tyrants and Oppressours who do exercise regiment without righteousness intitle thee to their wicked proceedings and go unpunished See Isa 36.10 with 37.36 the Throne or Tribunal is called The holy place Eccles 8.10 wo then to those that pollute it Which frameth mischief by a Law As did the Primitive Persecutors with their bloudy Edicts against Christians and the Popish Bishops or whose Laws that of Politian was verified Inventum Actiae dicuntur jura Draconis Vers est fama nimis nil nisivir us habent Some render it Praeter vel contra legem beside or against Law Vers 21. They gather together Heb. Run by troops as Theeves do Against the soul Which they would gladly destroy if it lay in their power This the Popish persecutors oft attempted but God hath better provided Mat. 10.28 Vers 22. But the Lord is my defence Heb. My high place where I am set out of their reach Vers 23. And he shall bring upon them c. See Psal 7.15 16. PSAL. XCV VErs 1. O come let us sing unto the Lord It is thought by this beginning that this Psalm was not
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
though an heathen could say Inter caetera providentiae uivina opera boc quoque dignum est admiratione c. Among other works of the Divine providence this is admirable that the winds lye upon the Sea for the furtherance of Navigation c. Vers 26. They mount up to heaven they go down c. An elegant hypolyposis or description of a storm at Sea like whereunto is that in Virgil. Tollimur in coelum curvate gurgite iidem Subducta admanes imos descendimus undâ Tollimur in câ—â—â—um nanc 〈◊〉 tadimus undas Their soul is melted because of trouble They are ready to dye through sear of death Junius understandeth it of extreme vomiting as if they were casting up their very nâ—â—â—ts Anocbarses for this cause doubted whether he should reckon Marriners amongst the living or the dead And another said that any man will go to Sea at first I wonder not but to go a second time thither is little better than madness Vers 27. They reel to and fro c. Nutart nautae vacillant cerebro pedibus And are at their wits end All their skill and strength faileth them at once they can do no more for their lives Heb. All their wisdome is swallowed up that is the art of Navigation is now to no use with them Vers 28. Then they cry unto the Lord Then if ever Hence that speech of One Qui nescit oraâ—e discat navigate He that cannot pray let him go to Sea and there he will learn See vers 6. Vers 29. He maketh the storm a calm He that is God Almighty whose the Sea it and he made it Psal 100. not the Pagans Neptune or the Papagans St. Nicholas So that the waves thereof are still If therefore the voluptuous humors in our body which is but as a cup made of the husk of an Acorn in respect of the Sea will not be pacified when the Lord saith unto us Be still every drop of water in the Sea will be a witness of our monstrous rebellion and disobedience Vers 30. Then are they glad because they be quiet All is husht on the sudden as Mat. 8.26 both their fears and the Seas outrages being quickly reduced to a peaceable period So he bringeth them to their desired haven This is more than they then wished for God is many ties better to men than their prayers Vers 31. Oh that men would c. See vers 8. Vers 32. Let them exalt him also in the Congregation c. i.e. In all publick meetings Ecclesiastical and Civil Vers 33. He turneth vivers into a wilderness Hitherto the Psalmist hath set forth Gods good providence in delivering men from divers deaths and dangers now hee declareth the same in his just and powerful transmutations in nature whilst according to the good pleasure of his will he changeth mens condition either from good to evil or from evil to good beyond all expectation It is even He that doth it whatsoever a company of dizzy-headed men dream to the contrary as One phraseth it It is God who dryeth up those Rivers whereby the land was made fat and fertile Isa 41.17 Vers 34. fruitful land into barrenness Heb. Salâ—â—ess See Luke 14.34 35. Deut. 29.23 Jud. 9.45 Sals beendeth barrenness by eating up the lat and moisture of the earth Some think the Psalmist here alludeth to Sodâ—me and her sisters turned into the dead Sea For the wickedness of them that dwell therein Hereof Judea is at this day a noble instance besides many parts of Asia and Africa once very fruitful now since they became Mabemetan dry and desert Judea saith One hath now onely some few parcels of rich ground found in it that men may guess the goodness of the cloath by the fineness of the shreds Greece which was once Sol sal gentium saith Another terrarum flos fons lite rarum nunc vel Priams miserands manus nunc in Graecia desideremus Graeciam 't is nothing like the place it was once Vers 35. He turneth the wilderness c. Some place a again God to shew his power and providence of steril maketh to become fertil Polâ—â—ia for instance and other Northern Countries Germany and France were of old full of Woods and Lakes as Cesar and Tacitus testifie now 't is otherwise So in America at this day So divers desert places of Egypt and Ethiopia when once they became Christian became fruitfull Vers 36. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell As our English and other Plantations in America where sundry poor people get fair estates That they may prepare a City The building of Cities is of God and so is their conservation Vers 37. And sow the fields and plant vineyards These are noble imployments such is the ancient Patriarchs we re much in and the most honorable among the Romons as Coriolanus M. Curius Cate Major c. Our forefathers if they could call any one Bonum colonum a good husbandman they thought it praise enough saith Cicero Which may yield The thankful earth yeelding by Gods blessing her gratum onus full burden to the laborious tiller Vers 38. He blesseth them also c. See Prov. 10.12 Psal 127.1 Jam. 4 15. They are out that rest in natural causes Vers 39. Again they are minished Minorati sunt This also is of the lord who hath treasuries of plagues and cannot be exhausted Vers 40. He poureth contempt c. See Job 12.21 24. with the Notes Poena tyrannoram est contemptus exilium nex saith Genebrard All their policy or King craft cannot save them Vers 41. Yet setteth be abe poor The godly poor as he did David And maketh him families like a flock of sheep which multiply exceedingly in a short space Vers 42. The righteous shall see it and rejoyce It shall cheer them up to see that the reigns of Government are in Gods hand and to behold such love in such providence And all iniquiry shall stop her mouth Shall be down in the mouth as we use to fay See Job 5.16 and have her tongue chambered Vers 43. Whose is wise Heb. who is wise q d. not many Rari quippe boni Exclamatio querulatoriâ— Piscat None but those that observe providences and lay up experiences which if men would do they might have a Divinity of their own were they but well read in the story of their own lives Even they shall understand c. And as for those providences that for present he understandeth not rejicit in Dei abyssâ—s he beleeveth there is a reason for them and that they shall one day be unridled PSAL. CVIII VErs 1. O God my heart is fixed For the five first verses of this Psalm see the Notes on Psal 57.7 8 9 10 11. And for the eight last see the Notes on Psal 60. vers 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. PSAL. CIX A Psalm of David Written by him usque adâ—â— terribili bâ—rrifica eratiom saith Beâ—â—â— in such terrible terms as
to provoke him to wrath A heavy curse indeed Vers 16. Because that he remembred not to show mercy Here the Prophet beginneth to shew why he useth such doleful imprecations against his enemies viz. not out of a spirit of revenge or a false zeal but as truly seeking Gods glory and his Churches safety which could not other wise be procured unless these merciless men were devoted to destruction He remembred not that is de industria oblitus est omisit he forgot and neglected it for the nonce Vers 17. At he loved cursing c. The back-slider in heart shall he filled with his own Wayes Prov. 14.14 Cursing men are cursed men as were easie to instance in sundry as Hacket hanged in Q. Elizabeths Reign and Sir Jervase Ellowaies Lieutenant of the Tower in K. James his dayes according to their own wishes See Mr. Clarks Mirror p. 210 c. The Jews are still great cursers of Christians they shut up their daily prayers with Maledic Domine Nazaraek and how it cometh home to them who knoweth not even wrath to the utmost I Thess 2.16 Vers 18. As he cloathed himself with cursing as with his garment Ut vestis commensâ—rata corpori as the inner garment that sticks closest to the body and is not done off but with much ado as he hath wrapped and trussed up himself in cursing So let in come into his bowels like water Let him have his belly full of it and his bones full too And like ey Which easily soaketh through See Nam 5.22 Vers 19. Let it be unto him as a garment Not as an inner but outer garment also Actio merces that men may see and say This it an accursed person the visible vengeance of God pursueth him Vers 20. Let this be the reward Opus vel Oper a precium The same Hebrew word signifieth Work and Wages Job 7.2 Isa 49.4 persecutors shall be sure of their payment Vers 21. But do thou for me Fas mecum sis mibi à latere stick to me act on my behalf and for my behoof Vers 22. For I am poor and needy As a Lazar sheweth his ulcers to move pity so doth David his indigency and aylements And my heart is wounden I have mine inward troubles also or I am cordicisus vulneratus almost dead animam age Vers 23. I am gone like the shadow Abii perii evenui I vanish as the long shadows do so soon as the Sun setteth As the Locust Leapeth from hedge to hedge so do I from place to place being tossed from post to pillar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Cor. 4. Vers 24. My knees are weak through fasting Either for lack of meat or stomach to it genua laâ—am my knees buckle under me the strong men bow themselves Eccles 12.3 My flesh faileth of fatness I am lean and low brought Christ might well cry out My â—â—aâ—â—ess my leanness so busie he was for his Father and so worn out that they judged him well nigh fifty when he was not much above thirty Job 8.57 Vers 25. I become also a reproach In respect of my leanness They shaked their beads This is threatned as a curse Deut. 28. but may befall the best as it did our Saviour Psal 22. Mat. 27. Vers 26. Help me O Lord Prayer like those arrows of deliverance must be multiplied as out trouble is lengthned and lyeth on Vers 27. That they may know That I am delivered meerly by thy presence and power It is the ingenuity of the Saints in all their desired or expected mercies to study Gods ends more than their own Vers 28. Let them curse but bless thou Yea the rather as a Sam. 16.12 and I wot well that those whom thou blessest shall be blessed as Isaac once said of his son Jacob Gen. 27.33 When they arise To plead their own cause cousa extidant Vers 29. As with a mantle Sicut diploide saith the Vulgar as with a doublet q.d. Let them be double ashamed for which purpose also he here doubleth his prayer Vers 30. I will greatly praise the Lord Diligenter impense Gods blessings are binders and great deliverances call for suitable praises the neglect hereof is crimen stellionatus cousenage Vers 31. For he shall stand at the right hand As a saithful and powerful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Champion and not as Satan standeth at the persecutors right hand vers 6. From those that condemn him Heb. From the judges of his soul sc Saul and his Courtiers who judged him worthy of death PSAL. CX A Psalm of David Concerning Christ saith R. Obadiah and so say Christ himself Mat. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost and his Apostles I Cor. 15. Heb. 7. 10. though some Rabbines maliciously say otherwise as R. Joseph caâ—us qui bic caeâ—liâ— to say the best of him and other Jew Doctors who stagger here in their expositions as drunkards Vers 1. The Lord said unto my Lord In this one verse we have a description of Christs person his ware and his victory so that we may say of it and so indeed of the whole Psalm which is an Epitome of the Gospel as Tully did of Bruâ—as his Laconical Epistle Quà m multa quà m pancis How much in a little See the Note on Mat. 22.44 Sit thou at my right hand Sit thou with me in my Thronâ— having power over all things in heaven and earth Matth. 28. Christ as man received what as God hee had before Vntil I make thine enemies thy footseel Foes Christ hath ever had and shall have to the worlds end but then they shall be all in a place fittest for them viz. under Christs feet even those who now seâ— up their Crests face the heavens and say unto the King Aposâ—â—â—t◠〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 with him Vers 2. The Lord shall send the Roâ—of thy strength That is the Gospel that Scepter of Christs Kingdome that power of God to salvation unto as many as beleeve mighty through God to work 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 10.5 Act. 20.31 even the preaching of Christs cross Out of Sin For salvation in of the 〈◊〉 Job 4. 〈◊〉 lem till c. Act. 1. Rule thou it the midst of thinâ— enemies Among Jews Pagans Turks Papagaâ—s those that will not bend let them break those that will not stoop to thy Government let them feel thy power Psal 45.5 Vers 3. Thy people shall be willing All Christs subjects are Volunteers free-hearted In Psal 1. like those Isles that wait for Gods Law Isa 42.8 Zech. 8.11 They love to be his servants Isa 56.6 Lex voluntaries quaerit saith Ambrose In the day of thy power Copiarum tuarum of thine Army or of thy Militia when thou shalt lead on thy Church Militant and be in the head of them conquering and to conquer Rev. 6.2 Some understand it of the Christian Sabbath day In the beauties of holiness i.e. In Church assemblies in the beauty of holy Ordinances at the
very cold and for the other four it was Winter Vers 8 Neither do they which go by say c. As they use to do to harvest men Ruth 2. 3 Joh. Christianity is no enemy to curtesie yet in some cases saith not God speed PSAL. CXXX VErs 1 Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee i. e. Ex portis ipsis desperationis from the very bosom and bottom of despair caused through deepest sense of sin and fear of wrath One deep calleth to another the depth of misery to the depth of mercy Basill and Beza interpret it Ex intimis cordis penetralibus from the bottom of my heart with all earnestness and humility Hee that is in the low pits and caves of the earth seeth the stars in the firmament so hee who is most low and lowly seeth most of God and is in best case to call upon him As spices smell best when beaten and as frankincense maximè fragrat cum flagrat is most odoriferous when cast into the fire so do Gods afflicted pray best when at the greatest under Isa 19.22 26.16 27.6 Luther when hee was buffeted by the Devill at Coburgh and in great affliction Joh. Manâ— loc com 43. said to those about him Venite in contemptum diaboli Psalmum de profundis quatuor vocibus cantemus come let us sing that Psalm Out of the depths c. in derision of the Devill And surely this Psalm is a treasury of great comfort to all in distress reckoned therefore of old amongst the seven Penitentiâ—â— and is therefore sacrilegiously by the Papists taken away from the living and applyed only to the dead for no other reason I think saith Beza but because it beginneth with Out of the Depths have I cryed a poor ground for Purgatory or for praying for the souls that are there as Bellarmine makes it Vers 2 Lord hear my voice Precum exauditie identidem est precanda Audience must be begged again and again and if hee once prepare our heart t is sure that hee will cause his ear to hear Psal 10.17 as when wee bid our Children ask this or that of us it is because wee mean to give it them Vers 3 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities This and the next verse contains saith one the summe of all the Scriptures Twice hee here nameth the Lord as desirous to take hold of him with both his hands Extremity of Justice hee depreâ—â—â—h hee would not bee dealt with in rigour and rage Extrema fateor commeritus sum Deus Quid enim aliud dixers It is confessed I have deserved the extremity of thy fury but yet let mee talk with thee as Jer. 12.1 or reason the case O Lord who shall stand Stand in Judgement as Psal 1.5 and not fall under the weight of thy just wrath which burneth as low as Hell it self How can any one escape the damnation of Hell which is the just hire of the least sin Rom. 6.23 and the best mans life is fuller of sins than the Firmament is oâ— stars or the furnace of sparks Hence that of an Ancient Vâ— homiuâ—â— vitâ— quantumvis laudabili si reâ—â— miscericordiâ— judicetur Woe to the best man alive should hee bee strictly dealt withall Surely if his faults were but written in his forehead it would make him pull 〈◊〉 hat over his eyes Vers 4 But there is forgiveness with thee This holds head above water that we have to do with a forgiving God Neb. 9.31 none like him for that Mic. 7.18 For hee doth it naturally Exod. 34.6 abundantly Isa 55.7 constantly as here there is still is forgiveness and propitiation with God so Job 1.27 the Lamb of God doth take away the sins of the World t is a perpetuall act and should be as a perpetuall picture in our hearts That thou mayest bee feared i. e. Sought unto and served It is a speech like that Psal 65.2 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come If there were not forgiveness with God no man would worship him from his heart but flye from his as from a Tyrant But a promise of pardon from a faithfull God maketh men to put themselves into the hands of justice in hope of mercy Mr. Perkins expoundeth the words thus In mercy thou pardonest the sins of some that thou mightest have some on earth to worship thee Vers 5 I wait for the Lord I wait and wait viz. for deliverance out of misery vers 1. being assured of pardoning mercy Feri Domine feri à peccatis enim absolutâ—◠〈◊〉 said Luther strike Lord while thou wilt so long as my sins are forgiveâ— I can bee of good comfort I can wait or want for a need And 〈…〉 viz. Of promise that ground of hope unfailable Rom. 5.5 of 〈◊〉 unfeigâ—â—ed 1 Tim. 1.5 Vers 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord Or Watcheth for the Lord Heb My soul to the Lord an eclipticall concise speech importing strong affection as doth also the following reduplication Prae custodibus ad mane prae custodibus ad manâ— I say more than they Or More than they that watch for the morning wait for the morning wherein they may sleep which by night they might not do Vers 7 Let Israel hope in the Lord Hope and yet fear as vers 4. with a filiall fear fear and yet hope Plenteous Redemption Are our sins great with God there is mercy matchless mercy Are our sins many with God is plenteous redemption multa redemptiâ— hee will multiply pardons as wee multiply sins Isa 55.7 Vers 8 And hee shall redeem Israel By the value and vertue of Christs death by his merit and spirit 1 Cor. 6.11 PSAL. CXXXI VErs 1 Lord my heart is not haughty Though anointed and appointed by thee to the Kingdome yet I have not ambitiously aspired unto it by seeking Souls death as his pick thanks perswaded him nor do I now being possessed of it proudly domineer as is the manner of most Potentates and tyrannize over my poor subjects but with all modesty and humility not minding high things I do condescend to them of low estate Rom. 12.16 Now Bucholc in alto positum non altum sapere difficile est omnino inusitatum sed quanto inusitatius tanto gloriosius It is both hard and happy not to bee puffed up with prosperity and preferment Vespasian is said to have been the only one that was made better by being made Emperour Nor mine eyes lofty Pride sitteth and sheweth it self in the eyes as soon as in any part Ut speculum oculus est artis ita oculus est naturae speculum Neither do I exercise my self in great matters Heb. I walk not manes intra metas I keep within my circle within the compass of my calling not troubling my self and others by my ambitious projects and practices as Cleâ—n did Alchibiades Cesar Borgia and others Ambitionists Or in things too high for mee Heb. Wonderfull high and hidden things that pass nay