vve have used them both for our owne good and the good of others I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe thus saith the Lord Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised Jer. 31.18 Ephraims outward moanes were as musick in the eares of God Ephraim did not murmure against God but he bemoaned himselfe Ephraim was not angry at his chastisement but Ephraim mourned being chastised God heard this fully in hearing hee heard it or it pleased him to heare it It is our duty to testifie our sorrow by the saddest notes of a troubled spirit and it is a delight to God when vve doe so not that hee delights in our sorrows but he delights in the witnesse vvhich vve beare to his wisedome righteousnesse and faithfulnesse in sending those sorrowes I heard Ephraim bemoane himselfe Will an offendor that lookes for mercy come before the Judge in rich apparrell or in some affected dresse Comes he not rather in his Prison clothes puts he not on the garments of heavinesse The Messengers of Benhadad put dust on their heads and ropes about their necks and sack-cloth on their loynes when they came to mediate for the life of their Master And thus the Lord speakes to the Israelites Exod. 33.5 when they had sinned and he was wroth Put off your Ornaments that I may know what to doe with you Ornaments are uncomly when God is threatning judgements It is time for us to lay by our bravery when God is about to make us naked Sack-cloth sowed upon the skin and our horne in the dust are the best ensignes of an afflicted state The Prophets counsell indeed is Joel 2.13 Rend your hearts and not your garments Rending the garments may be taken not onely strictly for that act but largely for all outward actings of sorrow Yet when he saith Rent not this is not a prohibition of but a caution about the outward acting of their sorrow Not in Scripture is not alwayes totally negative it is often directive and comparative So in this place Rend your hearts and not your garments is your hearts rather then your garments or be sure to rend your hearts as well as your garments The one must be done the other ought not to be left undone See more of this Chap. 1. Vers 20. upon those word Then Job rent his Mantle Thirdly Observe Great sorrow produceth great effects and leaveth such impressions as testifie where it is The Apostle saith of the sorrow of the World That it worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 The sorrow of the World may be taken two wayes First For the sorrow of carnall worldly men whose sorrow for sin is only a vexing of their hearts not a breaking or humbling of their hearts which being separate both from true faith for the pardon of sin and from any reall purpose of leaving their sin worketh death both temporall death often wearing out their naturall life lingringly and sometime destroying their naturall life violently as in Judas as also hastning them on to eternall death of which it selfe is a foretast or beginning Secondly This sorrow of the World is a sorrow for the losse of or disappoyntments about worldly things This also worketh both those deaths in meere worldly men and when it is excessive as under a temptation it may be in a godly man it may be sayd to worke the death of the body in him yea great and continued sorrow though it be not excessive worketh towards this death in a godly man drying his bones and drawing out his spirits as is cleare in Job on whose eye-lids the very shadow of death sate while hee wept and sorrowed 'T is hard to dissemble a little griefe but a great deale cannot be hid As godly sorrow manifests it selfe in excellent effects upon the soule of which the Apostle numbers up seven at the eleventh Verse of that Chapter For this selfe same thing that yee sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulnesse it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves c. Now I say as godly sorrow manifests it selfe in manifold effects upon the soule so doth the sorrow of the World set its marks upon the body As a good mans heart is made cleane by weeping the teares of godly sorrow so every mans face is made foule by weeping the teares of worldly sorrow and as godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation and life eternall so the sorrow of the World vvorketh an entrance to temporall death yea we may say that godly sorrow doth sometimes worke temporall death Paul was afrayd lest the incestuous person while he was repenting might be Swallowed up with over much sorrow 2 Cor. 2.7 vvhich as vvee are to understand cheifely of a swallowing up in the gulfe of despaire so we may take in that also as a consequent of the other a swallowing of him up in the Grave of death as if hee had sayd The poore man may both despayre and dye under this burden if you let it lye too long upon him As soone as Heman had sayd in his desertion My soule is full of troubles he presently adds And my life draweth nigh unto the Grave I am counted with them that goe downe to the pit free among the dead Psal 88.3 4 5. To which he subjoyns Ver. 9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction and then expostulates Vers 10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead Shall the dead arise and praise thee As if he had sayd These sorrows will bring me to my grave or in the language of Job On my eye-lids is the shadow of death Till wee enjoy a life beyond the reach of all sorrows wee shall not be beyond the reach of death Hence that promise Revel 21.4 God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neyther sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine And as that life which hath no death in it shall have no sorrow in it so that life which is a continuall death the life of the damned is nothing else but sorrow There shall be weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth for evermore Mat. 13.42 Their eyes shall ever weep their faces shall ever be foule with weeping and on their eye-lids the shadow of death shall dwell for ever Fourthly The hand of God being heavy upon Job he defiled his horne in the dust and fouled his face with weeping he regarded neyther the beauty of his face nor the dignity of his condition all was nothing to him Learne from it Great afflictions take off our respect to the World and all worldly things What is honour What is Gold or Silver What is a goodly House What is a beautifull Wife and pleasant Children What are fine cloathes or a faire face in a day of sorrow or in the approaches of death Spirituals are highest prized when we are lowest Grace shines clearest in worldly darknesse but the light of worldly enjoyments is darknesse to us and that vvhich some esteeme as a Sun is but a
governe himselfe by presidents no man can tell certainely which way he vvill goe by looking into the way vvhich he hath gone for though he useth no liberty in the issue of his dealings but rewardeth every man according to his works yet hee useth much liberty in the meanes which lead unto it Secondly This ariseth from the narrownesse of mans heart who measuring God by his owne line and comparing what God hath done by what he would do cannot as the Apostle speakes in another case attaine unto the righteousnesse of God in vvhat he doth 'T is excellent wisedome to know how to interpret and improve the dealings of God vvith our selves or others The grossest mis-interpretation of his dealings is to conclude the guilt or innocency of man the love or hatred of God from them Jobs Freinds upon such mistakes incurred this censure I have not found one wise man among you Job having by way of introduction spoken to the men or to the persons of his Freinds proceeds to speake his owne case Vers 11. My dayes are past my purposes are broken off even the thoughts of my heart What doe you tell me of comfortable dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transierum My dayes are past they are gone by as wee say The Shew is gone by or the Company is gone by so saith Job My dayes are gone by There 's no looking after them any more they are out of sight why would you bring them into my minde againe Dayes may be taken here in a twofold sense First For the terme of his life Secondly For the state of his life As taken for the terme of his life My dayes are past is Morti vicinus sum I am a neere neighbour to death death and I am ready to meet and imbrace the life of man is measured by daye◠when our dayes are past there 's nothing left to measure nothing to measure by My dayes are past But how could Job affirme The terme or dayes of my life are past when as he was alive that day to say this so he lived many a faire day after he had sayd it Can we call that past which is still present with us or which is yet to come He affirmes this First because he conceived that the greatest part of his dayes were actually past and that it was not worth while to reckon upon the few dayes behinde he did not thinke that remnant so considerable as to measure it but threw it by as a peice of uselesse nothing Our dayes are so passing that with a little Rhetorick we may say they are past as soone as they begin how much more may wee say so when we are sure they must shortly end and are really almost yea onely not past Secondly Job might say My dayes are past because doubtlesse it had seized on his spirit that his Glasse was run that hee should dye presently hee never looked to outlive that storme So that his dayes were past in his account though not in Gods account Job could say of himselfe as we use to say of those Women who have gone out their full time of Child-bearing that He had not a day more to reckon As Job had a full assurance that he should live eternally so he had a kinde of assurance that hee should dye very shortly And therefore as to his owne apprehensions and the calculation which he had made of his dayes their date was out and hee might say My dayes are past Againe As taken for the state of his life so My dayes are past is My good dayes my prosperous dayes are past you tell me of a day of deliverance what a morning I shall have but I looke on all my dayes here as dayes of darknesse wee say of a man who is not only in an evill but in a desperate or irrecoverably evill condition He hath seene all his best dayes or all his good dayes are gone Job was full of trust for a good eternity but he had no hope of good days The terme of a mans dayes may continue long when the comfort of his dayes is or when his comfortable dayes are quite past Though Jobs dayes continued as to the terme of his life yet his dayes as hee judged were past as to any comfortable state of life in which sense he might also say My dayes are past Nor did Job speake this complainingly or with a low spirit My dayes are past he did not whine it out as they doe who are loath to dye and would faine live still in the delights of life but he spake boldly and cheerfully he spake of his Dying day as of his Marriage day My dayes are past As a young man saith My marriage day is at hand I shall be marryed shortly with such a holy allacrity Job spake I shall dye shortly my dayes are past He looked upon his comfortable dayes in the World as past and yet he was comforted Job was full of paine yet usually in the close of his speeches he gathered up himselfe and spake in a height and heat of spirit As the Cock towards morning flutters his Wings before he Crowes and gives warning of the approaching day or as the Lyon strikes his sides with his Tayle to rouze up his spirits before he attempts his prey so Job stirr'd up himselfe towards the close of his answers and resumed new spirits acting That dying man to the life who having nothing in this World eyther to feare or hope dyes without feare yet with abundance yea in assurance of hope My dayes are past Hence Observe First As the words are taken in the former sense A gracious heart hath peace in the approaches of death His contentments are not done when the terme of his life is done He can say My dayes are past as cheerfully as Agag sayd Surely the bitternesse of death is past Some godly men have dyed farr more pleasantly then ever any wicked man lived Secondly From the latter sense Observe A gracious heart can take present comfort and rejoyce in this World while he knowes that all his worldly comforts and joyes are past Faith overlookes or lookes thorow and beyond all the evills of this life to a good which shall never dye yea Faith sees and enjoyes a present good while sense sees nothing and indeed hath nothing else to see but evill A carnall man parts with his good dayes or with the good of his dayes as Phaltiel went to deliver up Michal Sauls Daughter and Davids Wife by right weeping all along as he went 2 Sam. 3.16 There 's a sad parting betweene a worldly heart and worldly things but he that is spiritually minded though he doth not despise the meanest of worldly good things as made by God for the use and comfort of man so when God cals him from them or them from him he can part with he use of them and yet not be dispossessed of comfort he knowes that hee hath a present good and that he hath greater good
pro corde cor pro intellectu mente accipitur in Scriptura A wise man should desire that his heart may be filled with the sweet gales and holy breathings of the spirit of God by heavenly inspirations And shall hee fill his heart with the East-wind of earthly passions The word which we translate East wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rab. Mardoch Observat hunc ventum a Graecis appellari Apeâ—â—oren quod a sole spiret atque eadem ratione appellatur a Latinis subsolanum signifies onely the East Should he fill his belly with the East we rightly add the East wind he compares Jobs passions unto the winde and unto the East wind to the wind because of the vanity of them to the East wind because of the hurtfulnesse of them For as by wind in the former clause he meanes worthlesse things so by East wind in this he meanes dangerous things There are two reasons why he expresses such inwaâ—d motions by the East wind First The East wind is a vehement and strong wind wee read Exod. 14.21 Portae Eurum Appellans truculemum rapidum animosum tumidum indomitum that when God divided the Red Sea to make a passage for his people he caused an East wind to blow all night and divided the Sea with the force of it Poets describe the East winde to be feirce heady turbulent and impetuous that 's one ground of it Secondly The East winde is observed by Naturalists to be a hot and fiery winde Ardore Hence the Vulgar translates Thou fillest thy belly with heate The East winde parcheth and blasteth Corne and Fruits Pharoah beheld in his Dreame seven eares withered Sub calidi aestuantis aeris similitudine sermones ejus exspaeratos excandescentia plenos describit thin and blasted with the East wind Gen. 41.23 So then under this notion of the East winde Eliphaz closely censures Job First that his thoughts were violent and impetuous Secondly that they were angry fiery furious as if coales were kindled in his bosome and a flame ready to blaze at his lips As if like Paul while Saul Acts 9.1 he breathed out threatnings and slaughter or was inwardly heated with resolutions of revenge The Prophet Jeremie saith The Word of God was as a fire in his bosome and he could not refraine Jobo attribuit vanitatem in sententia tempestatem in affectu imbecillitatem in argumento superfluitatem in verbis Coc. Many a mans breast is like a heated Oven he is ready to consume all with the breath of it But why doth Eliphaz charge Job with such unruly perturbations Some assigne the reason from those words Chap. 14. v. 14. where he desires that God would even hide him in the grave he was so vext and troubled at the state wherein he lived that he preferred death before it and thought a not being in the World better then a being in his condition But we may rather leave the reason more at large to all that vehemency of spirit with which Job had prosecuted and pleaded his sorrowfull case From the scope of Eliphaz in this part of his reproofe we may observe First That violent passions are the disguise of a wise man We cannot see who he is while he acts unlike himselfe anger lodgeth in the bosome of fooles and when it doth but intrude into the bosome of a wise man he for the time looks like a foole Secondly Passions in the minde are like a tempest in the ayre they disturbe others much but our selves more Many a man like a Ship at Sea hath been overset and sunke with the violent gusts and whirle-whinds of his owne Spirit Observe thirdly He that fills his owne minde with passionate thoughts will soone fill the eares of others with unprofitable words this is cleare from that which goeth before He utters vaine knowledge and it is clearer from that which followes after when a mans thoughts are like a winde his words which are the first borne of his thoughts must needs be windy A passionate man speakes all in passion and sometimes cannot speake at all for passion his extreame desire to say much stops him from saying any thing But whatsoever he saith is the copy of his present selfe fierce and boysterous The image and superscription of our hearts is stamped upon our words Some can speake better then they are but usually men speak according to what they are and then especially when they are which passionate men alwayes are not themselves Thus it followes in the next Verse Vers 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talke Eliphaz speakes all Interrogatories and these speak him in anger if not in some distemper Should he doe this and should he doe that doe shew that either another hath very much done what he should not or that he who reproves him hath not such a spirit of meeknesse as a reprover should Gal. 6.1 The words shew the effect of what he taxed him with before as if he had sayd Cum interrogatione stomacho legenda sunt haec Merc. Would you know what to expect from a passionate man from a man whose belly is filled with the East-wind You shall have him shortly filling your eares with an East wind even reasoning with unprofitable words And as the next clause gives it which is onely an exposition of this with speeches wherewith he can doe no good Some words are great doers they doe much hurt or they doe much good and those words usually doe some hurt which can do no good yea that which is weake and unable to doe good may be strong and powerfull to doe evill However not to doe good is to doe evill because it is every mans duty whatsoever he doth to be doing good Here Eliphaz reproves Jobs words as evill while he onely saith they doe no good And yet he saith somewhat more then that for he saith They can doe no good It is ill not to doe good actually but not to have a possibility of doing good is farre worse When the Apostle would say his worst of the best of mans sinfull flesh he doth not onely say It is not subject to the Law of God but adds Neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 So here Words wherewith a man can doe no good how bad are they Hence observe First That which can doe no good should not be spoken Before we speake a word we should aske this question to what purpose Cui bono to what profit is it shall he that heares it be made more knowing or more holy by it Observe secondly Vnprofitable talke is sinfull and speeches which doe no good are evill Every idle word that men shall speake they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgement Matth. 12.37 and though a man be very busie and take much paines in speaking yet if his words be unprofitable and his speeches such as can doe no good they will come under
word All that ever was done in the World hath been done by the breath of Gods mouth that is by the word or decree of God So some understand that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.8 And then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit or breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightnesse of his comming Antichrist hath stood long and he hath been for some time declining his downfall hastens the breath of God will leave him breathlesse As he hath stood by the flattering breath of men so he shall fall by the consuming breath of God This consuming with breath notes either as before the easinesse of that consumption 't is done with a breath or the way and manner of doing it 't is done by the command and decree of God or by the Preaching of the Gospell which indeed gives Antichrist his fatall blow and shakes all the Towres of mysticall Babylon and is called by the Prophet The rod of his mouth Spiritu oris sc ipsius impii credo potius referrendum esse ad impium quasi ille sibi ipsi fuerit mortis causa dum contra Deum loquitur confidenter libere Sanct. and the breath of his lips Isa 11.4 He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked Life and death sit upon the lips of Christ he hath a reviving breath and a killing breath he quickens the deadest heart and deads the quickest the proudest heart with a word speaking By the breath of his mouth the wicked goe away Further The breath of his mouth say some is the breath of the wicked mans owne mouth By the breath of his mouth shall he goe away That is by the words which breath out of his mouth His passionate distempered speeches shall undoe him while he speaks either outragiously and blasphemously against God or falsely and seditiously towards man his ruine enters at the opening of his lips The motion of the breath is the preserver of life Spiritu oris sui i. e. suis verbis quae spiritu halitu in ore ormantur and while breath lasts life lasts yet many a mans life had lasted longer had it not been for his breath The wicked mans breath proves his death and his tongue which hath been a scourge to others becomes a Sword to himselfe His words possibly have wounded and his breath hath been the death of many But now he is wounded by his owne words and crusht to death by the weight of his owne breath or by the fall of his owne tongue upon him So the Psalmist gives it Psal 64.8 They shall make their owne tongues to fall upon themselves that is Their owne words shall be brought as a Testimony against them and condemne them The tongue is a little member saith the Apostle James Chap. 3.5 and therefore a light member yet it falls heavy as heavy as lead A man were better have his House fall upon him then that in this sense his tongue should fall upon him Some have been pressed to death because they would not speak but stood mute before the Judge but more have been pressed to death by their sinfull freedome or rather licentiousnesse in speaking this hath brought them to judgement and cast them in judgement Their tongue hath fallen upon them and by the breath of their mouth they have gone away Lastly but I will not stay upon it because the Originall doth not well beare it these words are cast into the forme of a similitude describing the manner how the wicked man and all his glory shall goe away even as a breath or as his breath As the breath of his mouth he shall goe away that is he shall go speedily he shall goe suddenly A breath is soon fetcht it is both come and gone in a moment A breathing time is a Proverbiall for a little time much like that In the twinckling of an eye Thus man comes and goes is come and gone especially a wicked man who is driven by the wrath of God as soon as seen by others as soon as he hath breathed himselfe It will not be long ere he goes and he will not be long a going For as the breath of his mouth he shall goe away The breath of man goes continually and so doth the life of man while man sleeps his breath goes and so doth his life while man stands still his breath goes and so doth his life The breath indeed is sometimes in a hurry and goes faster then it doth at other times but though the life of man doth not goe faster at one time then at another yet it alwayes goes Or if at any time our life may be sayd to goe faster then at another it is when our breath is by some stop in its passage at a stand and when ever our breath comes to a full stop our life is not onely going but quite gone The life of man hath so much dependence upon his breath that it is called Breath and the breath of life When God formed man out of the dust of the ground he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soule Gen. 2.7 And as soon as God calls back this breath of life man becomes a dead body or a carkasse The life of man must needs goe as his breath for it goes with his breath and when the life of a wicked man is gone all that he called his his worldly glory goes with him In that day all his thoughts perish For As the breath of his mouth he shall goe away Eliphaz having layd downe the wicked mans sad condition and the causes of it concludes with a use or application of the whole Doctrine at the 31. Verse Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity c. JOB CHAP. 15. Vers 31 32 33 34 35. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity for vanity shall be his recompence It shall be accomplished before his time and his branch shall not be greene He shall shake off his unripe Grape as the Vine and shall cast off his flower as the Olive For the Congregation of Hypocrites shall be desolate and fire shall consume the Tabernacles of bribery They conceive mischiefe and bring forth vanity and their belly prepareth deceit ELiphaz layd downe his Doctrine at the 20. Verse of this Chapter That a wicked mans life is a miserable life he travells in paine all his dayes and having insisted long upon the proofe he now gives us the application of it in a use of dehortation Vers 31. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity He inforceth this dehortation by a summary repetition of the Doctrine before delivered which he doth First Plainly in the close of the 31. and in the beginning of the 32. Verses For vanity shall he his recompence it shall be accomplished before its time Secondly He doth it allegorically in the
shall perish As the Relative lookes to the wicked man himselfe Observe An untimely death is the portion of a wicked man He shall be accomplished in a day that is not his or before his proper day In opposition to which Eliphaz had promised Chap. 5. That a godly man shall come like â—sheafe of Corne into the Barne fully rype Now saith he This wicked man shall be like untimely fruit accomplished cut off and perishing before his time We have such an Expression Eccl. 7.17 Be not righteous over much neither make thy selfe over-wise why shouldest thou destroy thy selfe Be not over much wicked not that there is any mediocrity in wickednesse or that a man can be wicked in due proportion but saith he take heed of high actings in wickednesse why shouldest thou dye before thy time Some wickednesses lye close men live and continue in them long unseen others are so open and abominable that their actors are abnoxious to the hand of Justice He that is wicked overmuch that is extreamely wicked shall be cut off some way or other before his time Quarrellers dye by the Sword Drunkards dye by surfet Adulterers decay into filthy diseases Sorcerers are killed by the Devill Malefactors of all sorts are cut off by the sentence of the Magistrate Most desire to live long and yet they take a course to make their lives short they forget that short way to long life Psal 34.12 That promise Isa 65.20 stands opposite to this threatning There shall be no more there an infant of dayes Implere dies ad longam faelicemque senectam pertinet vel denotat illam aetatis maturitatem quae non annorum numero sed pietatis perfectione definitur nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes A good man fills his dayes a wicked man shall be accomplished or there shall be an end of him before his day both before that day which he would live to according to the course of his desire and before that day which he might live unto according to the course of nature Besides a wicked man never fills his dayes though he be full of dayes he that is not prepared for death how old soever he is dyes before he is rype he is rype for destruction but he is neither rype nor fit for death The youngest Saint that dyes dyes rype though he dye before he come to that estate Pii licet aetate juvenes senes sunt moribus wherein nature useth to crop men off yet he as the Apostle speaks Ephes 4.13 is come to the fulnesse of the stature of Christ Secondly Referring these words unto the estate of a wicked man it shall be accomplished or cut off before the time that is his pomp and greatnesse all that he hath gotten together of which he spake in the precedent part of the Chapter shall be scattered suddenly Hence Note Wicked men often outlive all their worldly enjoyments Some live to be their owne Executors they dispose or rather dissipate all they leave nothing when they dye for others The pride of wicked men shall have a fall their present possessions and future hopes shall come to nought Prov. 3.16 Solomon tells us that Wisedome hath length of dayes in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour We may say of sin Shortnesse of dayes is in its right hand and in its left hand poverty and disgrace The former point saith that a wicked mans dayes are short he shall be cut off before his time death cuts him off The latter saith his pomp his riches and honour all these shall be cut off before the time We have seen some who have raised great estates by sin and they have seen an end of all in misery Thirdly Taking the Antecedent to be the designes and contrivements of the wicked man Hence Note The counsells designes and contrivements of wickedmen doe often prove abortive They are accomplished before their time Their plots break out before they are ripe and then all 's spoyled So it was with the Powder Plot it was accomplished before the time it was discovered before it could be acted we have often seen grand designes layd in the dust crusht in the shell and nipt in the very bud As the Prophet reproves some for staying too long in the place of breaking forth of Children Hos 13.13 That is they have let their purposes dye under tedious consultations or irresolutions for acting So we may deride others for staying too little in the place of breaking forth of Children God in judgement hastens them to action before their designes are fully matured by consultation It is accomplished before his time And his branch shall not be greene In the close of this Verse and in the next Eliphaz in severall metaphors prosecutes the declining condition of wicked men His branch shall not be green 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sig. manum ramum rami sunt veluti brachia manus arboris His branch Or his hand shall not be green so the word signifies properly And that some understand in a figure his hand shall not be green that is himselfe shall be unapt and unfit for work When an arme is dryed up or a hand palsied it is unserviceable The hand of a godly man is green he is laborious and fit for labour the hand of the wicked man as it is alwayes sinfully dried up in reference to the doing of any good so it is often judicially dryed up lest it should do hurt his hand shall not be green that is he shall not have power to do that evill which he would When Jeroboam put forth his hand from the Altar c. his arme dryed up so that he could not pull it in againe to him 1 Kings 13.4 His hand his arme was not green he could not use it to hurt the Prophet Zech. 11.17 The wicked Idoll Shepheard is threatned His arme shall cleane be dryed up and his right eye shall be utterly darkned that is He shall neither have counsell nor strength he shall neither be able to advise nor to act his eye shall be darkned so that he shall not be able to see his way his arme shall be dryed up he shall not be able to attaine his end Psal 75.5 None of the men of might have found their hands as we say of a man that goes lamely or lazily He cannot finde his feet so of a man that acts lamely and lazily or of a Souldier that fights faintly and cowardly He cannot finde his hands or in the language of the Text His arme or hand is not green We translate metaphorically so the word signifies not a hand but a branch because a branch or bough of a Tree puts forth from the body of it as the hand or arme is stretcht from the body of a man by this branch we may understand either of those two things noted before First The estate of the wicked man for that is as a branch shooting
Justice Fire is prepared for both their Tabernacles that is for their whole estates or for all that belongs unto them Yet Eliphaz may seem rather to ayme at bribe-takers or unjust Judges among whom he secretly numbers Job who suffer themselves to be corrupted with gifts and to have their eyes put out by rewards The Septuagint is expresse in that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 munera accipientum 70. Fire shall consume say they the Tabernacles of bribe-takers And indeed if there were no bribe-takers there would be no bribe-givers as we say There would be no Theeves if there were no Receivers The Receiver makes the Theife and corrupt Judges who take bribes make so many bribe-givers Further The word which we translate Bribery signifies properly a gift and the Text may be rendred thus Fire shall consume the Tabernacles of gifts There are many gifts which are farr from bribes There are five sorts of gifts First Gifts of charity to the poore Secondly Gifts of freindship between equals Thirdly Gifts of duty from inferiours to those above them to testifie either thankfulnesse or obedience Fourthly Gifts of bounty and grace from Superiours to those who are below them to testifie their favour to them and that they are wel-pleased in them or in their services There is no hurt either in giving or receiving these gifts These are onely testimonies of respect from man to man and tend onely to maintaine humane society But there is a fifth sort of Gifts which we may call gifts of injury or in the language of the Text Gifts of Bribery These are given either to pervert or delay Justice and to overthrow a man and his cause The Hebrew expresseth a gift in generall and a bribe by the same word Quid est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quâ—d facit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unum dantem scilicet accipientem quam primum accipit munus ab ipso tunc accedit anima ejus ad ipsum fit si cut ille ipse Rab. Becei c. Buxtorf Lex because as all bribes are gifts so very many gifts are bribes Gifts of charity of freindship of duty of favour are but few in comparison of bribing gifts And 't is exceeding hard for any man that is interessed in affaires of Judgement between man and man to receive a gift from either of them and not be brib'd by it to transgresse the rules of equity and righteousnesse A gift transformes the Judge into a party or makes as the Hebrew criticks tell us upon that word the Judge and party to be but one person Lastly The tabernacles of bribery may be taken not onely in generall for the estates of those who have given or taken Bribes but particularly for the very Houses which have been built by giving or taking Bribes Some have built houses with what they have gotten by giving Bribes and many by taking Bribes have got enough to build houses While such look on their houses and dwellings they may say if they will say the truth Injustice hath built us these houses these are the Tabernacles of bribery A Traveller comming to Rome and viewing many famous structures Haec sunt peccara Germanorum and goodly houses there asked who built them It was answered These are the sins of Germany the meaning was that the Money brought for Pardons out of Germany built those Houses So we may say of many faire places and goodly dwellings These are Bribes and Oppressions such a man built these by iniquity Bribes may build houses but bribe-takers cannot protect them The Tabernacles of bribery shall be consumed Hence Observe First Bribery is an odious sin That sin which is put to expresse all sins against our neighbours must needs be a very odious as well as a very comprehensive sin God loves judgement bribery opposeth what God loves God commands charity as well as judgement and delights to see men bountifull as well as righteous Yet charity without judgement and bounty without righteousnesse are an abomination to God God is a God of judgement they that are against judgement act not onely against the rule which God makes but against the example which God gives It is as much the honour of God that he is a God of judgement giving all their due as that he is a God of mercy giving to all his what they have not at all deserved Secondly Observe That which is sinfully gotten shall be miserably lost Fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery There is nothing gained though much be gotten by injustice Many give bribes to undoe others and all who receive bribes undoe themselves what is the advantage of any sinfull gaine when the fire of Gods wrath consumes the gainer What shall a man give in exchange for his soule And as the losse is infinite that comes by sin in reference to the next life so at best the gaine is little in reference to this present life Either the actor of injustice or his Heire shall finde a fire in the foundation a fire in the Stones and Timber of his House and downe 't will come Bribery never bought any lasting materialls to build with Woe be to him saith the Prophet Hab. 2.9 10 11 12. that coveteth an evill covetousnesse or according to the Hebrew that gaineth an evill gaine to his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of evill Thou hast consulted shame to thy house c. For the Stone shall cry out of the wall and the beame out of the Timber shall answer it What shall the stones cry Or what shall the beame answer The stones shall cry that the morter in which they were layd was tempered with the blood of innocents and the beame shall answer that it was set up by pulling downe the poor Those are crying sins indeed which cause stones that cannot speak to cry And what answer can be given for those iniquities which provoke Timber beames to answer Such is the iniquity of oppression and injustice which are the fruits of bribery See a paralell place Jer. 22.13 14 15 16 17. the summ of which may be drawne up into this conclusion given by Eliphaz Fire shall consume the Tabernacles of Bribery Eliphaz having thus described the perishing estate of wicked men as an argument to deterr and stave them off from wickednesse concludes his whole discourse with an Allegoricall recapitulation both of their sin and misery in the last words of this Chapter Vers 35. They conceive mischiefe and bring forth vanity and their belly prepareth deceit They conceive mischeife The Scripture is frequent in this metaphor we have it Psal 7.14 almost word for word Behold he travelleth with iniquity and hath conceived mischeife and hath brought forth falshood Isa 59.4 They conceive mischeife and bring forth iniquity The Apostle James Chap. 1.15 speaks the same language When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death All
that second sense of the word They have filled or satiated themselves with me Note It is a kinde of pleasure to some to see others in paine We should be pained with the paine of others fellow-feeling is a duty how farr are they departed from this duty who are so farr from feeling the sufferings of others that they take pleasure in their sufferings There are two sorts of pleasure which every good man should abhorr First Pleasure in sin our owne or others The worst that was sayd of the wicked Gentiles was this They not onely doe such things but take pleasure in them that doe them Rom. 1.32 Secondly Pleasure in the sufferings and sorrows of others some doe not onely put others to the suffering of sorrow but take pleasure in the sorrow which they suffer they make their teares as Wine their ashes as Bread and untill they see them weeping and feeding on ashes their owne Wine is as teares and their Bread as ashes to them Haman came full from the Queenes Banquet and he was invited by her to a second Banquet the next day yet still he was hungry and sayd Hest 5.13 All this avayleth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate 'T is like Haman had eaten and drunke freely yet the Banquet had not filled his belly All this availeth me nothing More then forty of the Jewes bound themselves under a curse that they would neyther eate nor drink till they had killed Paul Acts 23.12 13. It would have been better to Haman then meate and drinke to have killed Mordecai and all the Jewes Some have been heard to say O how sweet is revenge What a pleasant draught is a draught of blood Spightfull spirits hunger and thirst for the downefall and misery of those who stand in their way nor will any thing satisfie hatred but the ruine of those who are hated and when once they see them ruined they are satisfied as envy is troubled at the good which another enjoyes more then at all the evils which it selfe feeles so malice is more satisfied with the evils which befall others then with all the good which it selfe enjoyes Ex. 15.9 The enemy sayd I wil pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoyle my lust shall be satisfied upon them Pharoah and his Courtiers yea all the Aegyptians hungred and thirsted for the flesh and blood of Israel They had a lust or a longing rather as women with Childe have sometimes inordinate appetites after strange meates to eate mans flesh and drink the blood of the slain Revenge is as craving a lust as covetousnesse but it is a lust more easily satisfied then covetousnesse This encreases by receiving what it desires but that if it may have it is satisfied That which covetousnesse receives is onely as fewell to a fire but that which revenge receives Appetitus finis est infinitus is as food to the stomack the desire of the end is infinite but the end being once attained desire is at an end Yee are filled with mee Job having thus described the instruments and manner of his affliction turnes his thoughts from them to the supreame efficient and orderer of his afflictions Vers 11. God hath delivered me to the vngodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked The words seemeth to bâ—are an allusion to the proceeding of an earthly Judge who having tryed a Malefactor and found him guilty pronounceth sentence of death upon him and then delivers or turnes him over to those whoâ—e office it is to see execution done accordingly The word which we render to deliver signifies also to shut up which suites well with the former notion for a condemned Person is more closely shut up and more narrowly watcht then before But who were the ungodly to whom he was delivered and the wicked into whose hands or power he was turned These were not onely the Chaldeans and Sabeans but also all such as shewed any malice against him or willingly afflicted him in his afflictions The words carry in them a correction of his former complaint as if he had sayd Why doe I trouble my selfe with men why doe I complaine of their unkindnesse or cruelty against me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A via divertit deflexit declinavit God hath done it he hath delivered and turned mee over as a Magistrate doth a Malefactor whom he hath condemned into the hands of these tormenters he hath sealed a writ for my execution Thus Job ascribes all to God hee sometimes wrangles with men but as often before so now againe he lookes beyond them at once seeing and adoring the hand of God putting him and his estate into the hands of men Hence Note First Wicked men are ordered by Providence They cannot take till God puts into their hands a Sparrow fals not to the ground without God much lesse doth a godly man fall into the hands of the wicked without God They doe but execute what God decrees though they doe it without any respect to his decrees and quite crosse to his commands Many will be found at once executing the decrees and disobeying the commands of God Secondly God delivers his dearest Children into the hands of wicked men for tryall and correction Their graces and goodnesse appeare most when they are under the handling of evill and gracelesse men Many of their corruptions are purged out while they are in their power who are not at all purged from their corruption Foule hands may serve to wash that cleane which is foule and they who are but drosse may fetch off the rust which cleaves to the purest mettall Thirdly Note It is an aggravation of affliction to be given up to wicked men It is an affliction to be in their company what is it then to be under their power Woe is me saith David Est hoc in judicio Domini gravissimum quod adversariis videatur Favere a parte eorum stare consilia conatusque ipsorum contra nos prosperando Brent that I dwell in Meshec how wofull then is it to be a Prisoner in Meshec While God keeps the Rod in his owne hands the smart is not so greivous We learne this in Davids choise 2 Sam. 24.14 when three evils were offered him he resolves Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man A good man can easier dye by the hand of God then receive a slight wound by the hand of an Enemy As those comforts are sweeter so those sufferings are not so bitter which Beleevers receive immediately from God It is hard to suffer from equals much more from inferiours but most of all when we suffer the fatherly displeasure of God from those who are the objects of his displeasure as a Judge Let the righteous smite me saith David Psal 141. a reproofe from them is oyle but a reproofe from the wicked is Gall and Viniger
and he wept plentifully much eye-water doth not cleanse but foule the face My face is foule with weeping Facies mea inturnuit a fletu Vulg. or my face is swolne and my cheekes blubbered with weeping saith the Latine Translator Note here three sorts of teares spoken of in Scripture First There are teares of worldly sorrow Secondly Teares of godly sorrow Thirdly Teares of Hypocrisie The last sort is applyable to both the former it respects sometimes worldly sorrow and sometimes godly sorrow for both may be feyned Such were those teares Jer. 41. when Ishmael had killed Gedaliah the Text saith Ishmael went to Mizpeh and met the men weeping all along as he went as if he had been greatly troubled for the afflictions of the Land but they were Crokadiles teares Ishmael wept onely till hee had gotten those men as a prey in his power and then he destroyed them Ishmael was a State-hypocrite and seemed full of compassion that he might get an opportunity to vent his malice There are many Church-hypocrites who can foule and disfigure their faces with weeping as Christ reproves the Pharisees Matth. 6.16 while they have no thought of washing or reforming either their hearts or lives Jobs face was foule with weeping but his heart and life were cleane he needed not straine for teares or weep by art how could hee restraine teares whose troubles were enlarged The word which we render foule is doubled in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Facies mea faedata est a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lutum hic duplicatur ut ante ad augendam fignisicationem which speakes thus much that his face double-dirtyed or double-dyed in his owne teares Neither yet was this all the argument of his reall sorrowes for he had not onely quite wept away his beauty but he had almost wept away his life too and was even dead with griefe as it followes in the next words And on my eye lids is the shadow of death That is Mine eyes are darkned and I looke like one that 's ready to give up the Ghost As if he had sayd My sorrow may be seen upon my eyes and eye lids which with extremity of griefe and multitude of teares are even wasted away and sunke in my head as when a man is dead or dying Much weeping weakens the eye-sight yea some are sayd to weepe out their eyes David gives us that effect of weeping Psal 6.7 I water my couch with teares that is I weep abundantly then it followes Mine eyes are consumed because of my griefe And Psal 38.10 My heart panteth my strength faileth as for the light of mine eyes it is also gone from me I am even growne blinde with sorrow or as the Church bemoanes her sad estate Lament 2.11 Mine eyes doe faile with teares Abundance of teares bring fayling of eyes and hee that useth his eyes to much weeping shall have little use of them for seeing Hos gestus in humiliationibus Orientales etiam Graecos usurpasse testatur videt Plutarchus in libello de superstitione Densissima caligo est oculis meis offusa Merc. wee may assigne the reason of it from nature because continuall powring forth of teares spends the spirits and so weakneth the viâ—ive power Now as death is a totall privation of sight so they whose sight is much impayred looke somewhat like the dead Hence Jobs complaint On my eye-lids is the shadow of death Shaddow of death notes the cleerest appearance the strongest signes of death Or this shadow of death upon his eye-lids together with the fouling of his face in the former clause may be an allusion to some fashions or customes of mourners in those times or places This phrase which also often occurrs in other Scriptures was opened Chap. 3.5 thither I referr the Reader Thus we have Jobs behaviour in his affliction by a twofold act and a twofold effect of it The first act was Sowing sack-cloth on his flesh The second was Defiling his horne in the dust The first effect was Foulenesse upon his face The second was Death upon his eyes Hence Observe First They are most sensible of the hand of God who are most submissive to it As Jobs afflictions were great so was his sorrowe and so was his submission Sorrow is not contrary to patience Job was the most patiâ—nt and the most sorrowfull man in the World There is an immoderate sorrow inconsistent with patience but great sorrow is not onely consistent with patience but an argument of it and unlesse we have some sorrow we are not patient at all how can he be called patient who either feeles not or slights his affliction It is as ill a symptome of a diseased soule to be unsensible of judgements as to be unsensible of mercies Unlesse wee feele the rod wee cannot heare the voice of the rod nor receive instruction by it To be as a Trunk or a Stone under correction is not to be patient under it but to despise it Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God is the advice of the spirit by the Apostle 1 Pet. 5.6 As God humbles us for sin or for the tryall of grace so they who have grace receive power to humble themselves and to humble our selves is not onely an act but an high act of grace both the grace of God toward us and the graces of God in us are exalted when wee are low in our owne eyes Secondly From the manner of this sorrowful humiliation He sowed sack-cloth upon his skin and defiled his horne in the dust Observe That as God letteth out visible tokens of his afflicting hand upon us so we should let out visible tokens of our humiliation under his hand As we are visibly afflicted so we should be visibly affected We may make our humblings seene though we must not doe it to be seene As the light of our active obedience should so shine before men that they may see our good workes and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5.16 So also should the light of our passive obedience shine before men that they may see our holy sufferings and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven It is as great a sin to boast of our poverty as it is to boast of our riches and as great a vanity to be proud of a crosse as to be proud of a Crowne yet it is an honour to God when men see that we are not ashamed either of poverty or of a crosse The crosse should be carryed upon our shoulders not put up in our pockets God loves to see us owne our troubles as well as our comforts and as hee will condemne those who wrap the Talent of their gifts and abilities in a Napkin and hide it from the use of others so he doth not approve those who wrap up their crosses and afflictions in a Napkin and hide them from the sight of others especially considering that even these also are Talents for which we stand accountable how
metaphor taken from fire from a Torch or Candle which is the sense of the Tygurine translation My dayes faile as a Candle or as a Lamp which when the oyle is consumed goes out Mr. Broughton keeps to the metaphor of fire Deus mei ritu lucernae deficiunt Tygur My dayes are quenched There is a flame of life in the body the naturall heat is preserved by the naturall moysture these two Radicall heat and Radicall moysture worke upon each other and as long as Radicall moysture holds out to feed the Radicall heat life holds out but when the heat hath once sucked and drunk up all the moysture in some acute diseases it drinks all at a draught as the flame drinkes up the Oyle of the Lampe Vita extinguitur quando humor nativus in quo vita consistit extinguitur then wee goe out or as Job speakes here Our dayes are extinct Excessive moysture puts out the fire and for want of moysture it goeth out Hence Note First Mans life as a Fire or Lampe consumes it self continually There is a speciall disease called a Consumption of which many dye but the truth is every man who dyes dyes of a Consumption he that dyes of a Surfet may be sayd in this sense to dye of a Consumption The fewell and food of mans life is wasted sometimes more sparingly and gradually but 't is alwayes consumed except in those deaths which are meerely occasionall or violent before man dyes Againe Job speaks peremptorily My dayes are extinct He was not then dead but because hee saw all things in a tendency to death and was himselfe in a dying posture therefore he concludes My dayes are extinct Hence note Secondly What we see in regard of all preparatorie meanes and wayes ready to be done we may speake of as already done The Scripture speakes often of those things which are shortly and certainly to come to passe as come to passe and as the Apostle argues in spirituals We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the Brethren and he that believeth hath eternall lif So we may argue about naturals he that is sick beyond the help of meanes and the skill of the Phisitian is translated from life to death and we may conclude of a man in this case he hath tempoall death or he may say of himselfe as Job doth in the next words The graves are ready for me The Originall is very concise it is only there The graves for me we supplie those words Are ready And because of that shortnes of the Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sepulchra mâ—hi Cum mutila sit oratio indifferens est ut variis modis porfici possit there have been many conjectures for the supplie or filling up of the sence Some thus The graves for me that is there is nothing for me to thnke of now but only a grave I may lay aside all other businesse and attend that alone how I may lye downe in the dust with peace I am not a man for this world it is best for me to retire or withdraw my soule quite from the earth seeing I have no hope to keepe my body long out of it or if I doe let out my soule to the earth it shall be only to so much of it as will hold my body or serve to make me a grave The graves for me Secondly The graves for me that is I desire or wish for nothing but a grave A grave for my money as wee say of a thing that we greatly desire so saith Job A grave for me As if he had more largely spoken thus As I perceive I am going to the grave so I desire to goe thither I have as to this sence made a covenant with death Sepulchra mihi supple opto quaero cogito aut quid simile Sepulchra mihi inhiant ego sepulchris q. d. Aliis omnibus rebus valedico atque renuncio Jun. and an agreement with the grave The grave and I shall not fall out now that I am ready to fall into it For if I had my vote or might put downe in writing what I would have I would write A Grave A Grave for me as I am declining and decaying in my body so my spirit and my minde are as willing that my body should decay I am as ready for the grave as that is for me A grave for me So the words carry a reciprocation of readinesse betweene Job and the Grave The grave gapes for me and I gape for the grave Wee may parallell this kinde of speaking with that in the Booke of Canticles Chap. 2.16 where the Spouse saith My beloved is mine and I am his The Originall is My beloved to me and I to him There are no more words then needs must be The largenesse of their affection bred this concisenesse in language My beloved to me and I to him We are to one another as if we were but one The expression notes two things First Propriety My beloved to me or my beloved is mine that is I have a propriety in him Secondly It notes possession I have him I have not onely a right to him but I enjoy him I have not onely a title but a tenure God hath given me Liverie and Seisin as our Law speakes he hath put me into possession of Jesus Christ and I have given Jesus Christ full possession of me I am no longer my owne but his and at his dispose So here The grave for me and I for the grave The grave is my right yea the grave is my possession The grave is a house that every one hath right to and some are so neere it that they seeme possessed of it The grave is mine saith Job or I am as a dead man ready to be carryed to my grave The grave is not made ready till man is undressed by death and so made ready for the grave We say of very old men though in health and we may say of very sick men though young They have one foot in the grave Job speakes as having both his feet in the grave Yea wee may say that Job speakes as if he had not onely his feet in the grave but which is farr more his heart in the grave There are many who have their feet in the grave whose hearts are at furthest distance from it Job had both Heman Psal 88.4 5. describes his condition in such a language My soule is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh to the grave I am accounted with them that goe down into the pit I am as a man of no strength free among the dead like the slaine that lye in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and that are cut off from thy sight That Scripture may be a Comment on this My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Further Job speakes in the Plurall number he saith not the grave is ready for me but The graves
are ready for me Why how many graves must Job have Would not one grave hold him Or was Job covetous to have many graves Many houses will not serve some men when they live but one house will serve any man when he dyeth A little roome will hold those dead for whose covetous and ambitious minds the whole World was not room thy enough while they lived Ordinary men will have here their Winter-houses and their Summer houses their Citty houses and their Country house their houses on the Plaine and their houses on the Hill men have variety of houses while they live but one is all when dead Why then doth Job say The graves are ready for me He saith it to shew that death abounded to his apprehension or that he could not escape death As if he had sayd Wheresoever I set my foot I step upon a grave Plurima mortis imago The Poet describing a tragicall state saith There was much of death to be seene or many appearances of death Job saw deaths and bâ—held graves every where gaping for him Paul was in deaths often and Job was in many deaths at once The graves are ready there are many Pits making I am sure to fall into one there 's no avoyding it Learne from it First That In times of sicknesse and affliction discourses of the grave are the most seasonable discourses Death should be much in our thoughts and much in our speech at all times but most of all in times of sicknesse or of danger Some when they are sick cannot abide to heare a word spoken of the grave others will forbid such as come to visite the sick to speak a word of death Comâ—naeus lib. 10. Lewis the eleventh King of France was so excessively afrayd of death that hee had given command to his Attendants not to give him any warning of the approach of this his last Enemy by Name It was worse then death to him to heare of death and yet before he dyed he was told of it not onely plainely but rudely The French Historian reports that his very Barber with some other inferiour Servants as if they had rather come as Judges to pronounce the sentence of death upon him then as freinds to be his remembrancers of death told him bluntly and abruptly without preface or preamble or the least word of comfort to sweeten such a bitter potion That his fatall houre was come that neither his Hermit nor his Physitian could keep him alive a day longer They who are unwilling to heare or speake of death shall heare it spoken of whether they will or no. Death should be much upon the tongue and more in the thoughts of good men when they are in health but when they are in their naturall preparation for death sicknesse is a naturall preparative for death they should be very often in their spirituall preparations by thinking and discoursing of it Secondly From this manner of speaking The grave for mee Observe That A godly man is sometimes as ready for the grave as the grave can be for him Let it come as soone as it will it cannot come too soone as the grave gapes for him so doth he for the grave as the grave hungers for him so doth he for it and nothing can satisfie him but a grave I desire saith Paul to be dissolved He was ready for the grave And ready he was not in a vaine wish O I would dye and I desire to dye but from a grounded hope that he should be well in death Saul 2 Sam. 1.9 was sorely wounded the graves were ready for him and he was ready for the grave too But whence was it It was not from his preparednesse to dye but from his impatience to live as appeares both by the true History of his death and by the false report of it made by the Amalekite The former saith 1 Sam. 31.4 Then sayd Saul unto his Armour-bearer Draw thy sword and thrust me through therwith lest these uncircumcised come thrust me through abuse me Saul upon this account was so ready for the grave that he begg'd to be thrust into it and when he could not obtaine that miserable favour he thrust himselfe into it so the latter part of the Verse informs us But his Armour-bearer would not for he was sore afrayd therefore Saul took a Sword and fell upon it The Amalekite reports Saul thus bespeaking him 2 Sam. 1.9 Stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish is upon me because my life is yet whole in me Man dyes not by peece-meale now a little and then a little nor is life divisible when it departs it departs together but when Saul had no minde to live it troubled him that he was no neerer death A dishonour was fallen upon him the day was lost and he was wounded Saul could easier dye then out live this disgrace Such a readinesse to dye many have had it vexeth them to live dye they will because they cannot live as they would this is a readinesse of desperation not of preparation Job was much troubled paine and smart afflicted him and they had some influence upon his desire of death but his chiefe motive was above what old Simeon desired to depart in peace because his eyes had seen his salvation Job desired because he knew by Faith that God was his salvation Thirdly Job speakes chearefully of the grave Hence learne A Beleever in the greatest afflictions of this life sees ease and refreshing in death He knowes that he shall bury all his sorrows when himselfe goes to the grave yea that then his sins as well as his afflictions goe to their grave too and shall never rise againe Fourthly Job speakes confidently he shall dye presently the grave was ready for him But it was not so Jobs grave was nor ready and he outlived this black day many a fayre yeare Hence Observe A good man may mistake the times and seasons of Gods dispensations to him He thinks yea concludes he shall dye when he shall not dye Wicked worldly men doe not beleeve they shall dye when they must they cannot be perswaded that they shall dye when they are ready to dropp into their graves Job seemed to have an assurance that he should dye yet he did not God reprived him from death and restored him from trouble We are never the neerer the grave because we prepare for it speak and meditate on it or resolve to goe into it It is not our holding back from the grave that wil keep us out of it nor our willingnesse to goe to the grave that will put us into it It is good to mistake upon the best side God usually recalls those from death who are most ready at his call to dye Fifthly In that he speaks of Graves in the Plurall number Learne this There are many wayes of going out of the World though there be bilt one way of comming in Whither soever we are going wee are
going to the grave and when we have stept over or scrambled out of one grave wee may quickly slip into another and be locked in fast enough Lastly Take this from the whole by way of Correllary It is our wisedome to stand alwayes ready for death and the grave for they stand ready for us Ours is a dying life a decaying strength ours are consuming dayes our dayes cannot be many possibly they will be but very few for ought wee know the grave is now ready for us and wee are sure it is a digging and preparing for us Therefore let us be digging in the Word of life that we may be ready to meet and welcome death and the grave which are so ready for us The graves are ready for me Job proceeds to re-inforce the cause of his appeale Vers 2. Are there not mockers with me And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a illusit derisit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Formula jurisjurandi huic linguae familiaris Merc. Dispeream nisi amici mei studeant mihi imponere Vatabl. Master Broughton translates by way of affirmation Surely mockers are bestowed on me We by way of Question Are there not mockers with me Yes there are mockers with me Some read it as the forme of an Oath It is familiar in the Hebrew to use such formes of swearing and imprecating so the words are rendred by a learned Interpreter Let me perish if my freinds are not mockers if they goe not about to delude me Job spake this a little before My freinds scorne me Chap. 16.20 Here he is at it againe Are there not mockers with me I finde three words applyed by Job to his Freinds while he reproves this their unfreindly usage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Chap. 12.4 there he useth a word which signifieth to mock with derision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word Chap. 16.19 notes them such as mocked with wit and jesting The word here used signifies to mock by deceiving or deluding as if his Freinds had carryed matters with him more like Sophisters then Comforters So the word is applyed Gen. 31.7 Jacob tels Leah and Rachell You know that with all my power I have served your Father Laban and your Father hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times that is He thought by changing my wages to deceive me and get all the stronger Cattell to himselfe When Moses went out upon the request of Pharaoh to sue unto the Lord for the removing of a present plague Moses sayd Behold I goe out from thee and I will intreat the Lord that the swarmes of flies may depart from Pharaoh from his Servants and from his people to morrow but let not Pharaoh deale deceitfully any more Exod. 8.29 as if he had sayd You have mocked me two or three times and said you would let the people goe doe not so any more lest your deceiving of my expectation prove the greatest deceit of your owne The deluding Doctors which some delighted in are exprest by this word Isa 30.9 This is a rebellious people lying children children that will not heare the Law of the Lord They did not love the Law of the Lord What then which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things speake unto us smooth things prophesie deceits The wickednesse of that people lay in two things eyther they would have the Prophets silent and not speak at all or if they did speak they must Prophesie deceits They loved to be cozoned truth made them smart and they could not abide it A guilty conscience cannot endure plaine words but it loves smooth words as many as you will of these words say they or else not a word eyther prophesie deceit or cease prophecying Here Job complaines Are there not deceivers with me As if he had sayd You tell me you bring the minde of God but you bring false Doctrine you preach deceit Though we cannot say they preached smooth things to Job they spake hardly enough of him and harshly enough to him yet we may say they preached deceitfull things to him for though they did not speake with an intention to deceive him yet they were deceived in speaking and he had been deceived if he had yeelded to what they spake In which sense Job cals them which one would think he had little reason to doe considering how roughly they dealt with him he I say cals them Flatterers at the sixth Verse of this Chapter And what 's the businesse or chiefe designe of Flatterers but to catch others with words or to deceive them into a complyance with their owne ends And this is often and was in this case the end Finis operis finis operantis distinguuntur or tendency of the action when it is not the end or intention of the Agent From this notion of the word Observe First To be among Deceivers is a great misery Secondly To be a Deceiver is a great sin Thirdly To publish that which is false though there be no intendment to deceive is to be a Deceiver As most are ignorantly deceived so there are some ignorant Deceivers and as some thinke what they doe to be very just and that it is their duty to doe it when indeed it is very sinfull so there are some who thinke what they teach to be very true and that it is their duty to teach it when indeed it is very erroneous There are but few who know they are Deceivers when they are now as that Servant which knew his Lords will but did not according to his will shall be beaten with may stripes and yet he who knew it not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall not escape a beating he shall be beaten with few stripes Luke 12.47 48. So he that knowes the truth of God and yet deceives others with false Doctrine shall be beaten with many stripes and he who not knowing the truth deceives others shall not escape unbeaten or unblamed as Jobs Freinds did not Non peccavi Vulg. q. d. innocens heu morior Quandoquidem non sunt ludificationes apud me Jun. There is another reading of this first clause differing from ours Are there not mockers with me The Vulgar thus I have not sinned A second to the same sense thus For as much as there are no mockings or deceivings with me I am a man who deals plainely and simply The word which we translate Mockers as noting a Person is rendered by the act and that negatively There are no mockings with me that is I use no mockings or no false play as I am accused I have spoken my heart nakedly and clearly And yet mine eye continueth in their provocation therefore lay downe now put mee in a surety with thee c. Vers 3. This is a good reading but I will not stay upon it onely take two briefe Notes from it A good man is upright hearted
be able to get off in haste There are many who have struck yea wounded their owne hearts incurably by striking hands for their Freinds Goe to the Courts of Justice and there is nothing more frequently heard of then the sighes of Sureties He disassures his owne Estate who assures for others Secondly As Contracts and Suretiship for Money were confirmed by striking hands so it is very probable that those suretiships which were given about Tryals and for appearing to the Action of the Plaintiffe in Judgement were also confirmed by that outward ceremony in which sense we are to understand it here Further The word which we translate to Strike signifies also to Fasten which shewes another part of the ceremony for as striking so joyning and clasping of hands was used Once more the word signifies Clangere tuba Complosis manibus sonus editur and oft is applyed to the sounding of a Trumpet or the giving of any sound This also carries on the same allusion because when two men strike hands they make a sound the interpretation of which is that the bargaine is made or it speâ—kes the parties agreed and hence that knowne expression among us Of striking up a bargaine or a businesse Thus the whole Text is carryed on in termes alluding to the ordinary proceeding eyther in becomming bound with another for Money or in giving assurance to performe and stand to the arbitrement or award of those who shall judge and determine any matter in difference But how are wee to apply this to the present case Lay downe now put me in a surety with thee who is hee that will strike hands with me There are three or foure expositions given about it First That Job in these words desires God to give surety that he would stand to the judgement which should be given or he would have God assure him Da fidejussorem apud te qui in hac contentione quae mihi tecum intercidit spondeat te staturum iis quae judicata fuerint ut te non tanquam judicem geras sed tanquam litigato rem Merc. Familiarius quam par erat cum Deo agit Merc. that hee would not deale with him according to the severity of his Justice or the excellency of his Soveraignty as a Judge but descend to such a course as is usuall among men while they are engaged in any controversie between themselves Job hath spoken the same sense cleerely before in some other passages of this Book especially Chap. 9 33 34. But this sense is not cleere to the scope of the present place And therefore as they who maintaine it confesse that Job was somewhat too bold with God so wee may say that they are somewhat too bold with the Text. For the reason or ground upon which Job desires that God would give him a surety hath no correspondence with this interpretation Vers 4. For thou hast hid their heart from understanding Now what coherence is there betweene these two that Job should say Thou hast hid their heart that is the heart of these men from understanding therefore give mee a surety that thou wilt proceed with me after the manner of men Besides the words of the fifth Verse oppose it yet more He that speaks flattery to his Freind the eyes of his Children shall faile Now for Job to desire God to put him in a surety that hee would deale thus or thus with him because the man who speakes flattery to his Freind his Childrens eyes shall faile hath no argument at all in it yet the abetters of this Interpretation mollifie all by saying that Job spake from a disturbed spirit being much moved with the ill dealing of his Freinds and though there may be some inconsistence with the context yet the Text considered in its owne compasse beares it well enough but I passe from it Secondly That Job desires God to appoint a Surety betweene him and his Freinds who should undertake both Gods cause and his against them three As if hee had sayd Lord my Freinds have wronged me and they have wronged thee too O that thou wouldest provide a man furnished with wisedome and a spirit of discerning both to right thy honour and to cleare up my integrity Such a one was Elihu who appeared shortly after upon the Stage and there acted such a part as this Thirdly say others Job desires that God himselfe would be his Surety and take up the whole matter betweene him and his Freinds which hee also did in the latter end of this Book giving judgement for Job and blaming the miscarriage of his Freinds So the word is used Isa 38.14 when Hezekiah lay sick even unto death he prayed Lord I am oppressed undertake for me It is this word Be Surety for me A learned Translator renders it Weave me through or weave me to the end for the word signifies the Thred in weaving Pertexe me Jun. called the Woofe which being put upon the Shuttle is cast through the Warpe in making Cloath whether Linnen or Woollen thus it is used Lev. 13.52 and so these words of Hezekiah carry on the Allegory of the tenth Verse I sayd in the cutting off of my dayes c. and of the twelfth Verse I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sicknesse In both which Verses Hezekiah compares mans life to a peece of Cloath in the Loome which is made sometimes shorter and sometimes longer and wheresoever it ends the Woofe or running Thred is cut off Hence Hezekiah prayeth Lord these sicknesses like a sharpe Knife threaten to cut the thred of my life yet I beseech thee doe thou weave on weave me to the end of that Warpe which is given to man in the common course of nature and let not this sicknesse cut my thred in the mid-way This is a good sense of the Text. But when our Translators render the word Vndertake for me the meaning is I am sore oppressed with the violence of this sicknesse which like one of the Sergeants of cruell death hath arrested me nor is there any way for me to escape unlesse thou O Lord rescue me out of its hands or as it were give Bayle and become surety for me I am opprest O Lord undertake for me David having done a great peece of Justice which contracted him much envy and had drawne many Enemies upon him thus bespeakes God Psal 119.121 122. I have done judgement and justice leave me not to mine oppressors be surety for thy Servant that is mainetaine mee against those who vvould wrong me because I have done right put thy selfe or interpose betweene mee and mine Enemies as if thou wert my pledge Impartiall justice upon oppressors layes the Judges open to oppression but they who run greatest hazzards in zeale for God shall finde God ready to be their Surety when they pray Be surety for thy servants And thus we may conceive Job entreating the Lord to be his Surety and
Tophet which is the word of the Text is ordeined of old yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deepe and large the pile th reof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it In these words saith my Author there is a cleere description of that kinde of torture called Tympanization or Drumming with which the King of Assyria is eyther threatned in specie particularly and properly or by a Synechdoche to shew that God would lay severe punishments upon him For saith the Prophet Through the voyce of the Lord shall the Assyrian he beaten downe which smote with a Rod He smote with a Rod but he shall be beaten downe with a Staffe for in every place where the grounded staffe shall passe or every passing of the Rod founded that is Of the Rod founded in the Decree of God which so establisheth it that no power nor policy of the Assyrian shall avoyd or remove it For though God will not let the Rod of the wicked rest upon the lot of the righteous Psal 125.3 yet the Rod of God shall rest upon the lot of the wicked There shall be the rest thereof Zech. 9.1 The Rod of God by the lighting down of his arme V. 30. shall strike home to yea into the flesh of his Enemies and there make deep gashes or cuts running like so many rivelets with blood and saith hee The Lord shall lay it upon him or as our Margin hath it Shall cause it to rest upon him when the Lord layes it on let who so will or rather who so can and indeed none can take it off The Lord shall lay it upon him and as it follows it shall he with Tabrets and Harpes which as most Interpret of the joy which the Jewes should have at the downefall of the Assyrian so my Author expounds it suitably to his Notion of the manner of Gods smiting the Assyrian which should be as a Drum or Tabret is smitten with many repeated stroakes which in some exercisings of that Art passe so thick and so uncessantly that the Sticks seeme to rest upon the Drum as also the finger upon the Harpe and not to move at all off from eyther even thus shall God lay his Staffe upon the Assyrian and in battells of shaking will he fight with it or with them that is by the shaking of Battels or by frequent renewed Battels will he fight with and destroy them For as it followes Tophet is prepared of old that is The Engine upon which he shall be tortured the forme and manner of which is in many particulars described out of ancient Writers by the Author of this exposition but I shall not stay upon them This Tophet is prepared of old or from yesterday that is God hath prepared it aforehand and made it ready He hath made it deep and large that is proportionable in all iâ—s dimensions for that use and purpose yea for the King it is prepared the great King of Assyria which is added because this was a punishment for common men yet the King saith he shall be thus tortured he shall no more escape the hand of God then the meanest of his Subjects and hee shall be handled in the same manner as the meanest among them shall The dishonour of such a suffering is a greater punishment to a great King then the paine of it yet he cannot be dispensed with yea for the King it is prepared The pile of it is fire and much wood What 's the meaning of that My Author answers This punishment of drumming was sometims but preparatory another first they were beaten and then they were burned and therefore saith he before the Engine a great fire was made into which when they were tortured by beating offenders were cast and consumed to ashes Jubet amoveri noxialem stipitem plebeia clarum paena me damnet virum Prud. in Rom. Martyr Our Martyrologyes tell us of some who have been first hanged and then burned and ordinarily among us when Traytors are put to death a fire is made at the place of Execution into which their bowells are cast when their bodies are cut up and quartered Thus here The pile thereof is fire and much wood And the breath of the Lord as a streame of brimstone doth kindle it that is The Lord being extreamly angry with and incensed against the King of Assyria will therefore kindle this fire of his wrath totally to consume him But here it may be demanded Did any of the Kings of Assyria who captivated and afflicted the Jewes suffer such a kinde of death as this I suppose none of them did Some tell us that the Army of Senacherib which invaded Judea was overthrowne and destroyed by the Angell in that place called Tophet or in the Valley of Hinnon which is also given as a reason why that word is used in the Prophet but Senacharib himself was slain in the Temple of his Idol 2 K. 19.37 Nor is it as I conceive the minde of our Expositor to conclude from hence that the King of Babylon was put to death by such a torture but onely to shew under the description of that kinde of death that the death and destruction of the King of Babylon should be very terrible and that God would judge him even as notorious offenders are both to a painefull and a shamefull end As this Interpretation of the Prophet gives much light to that of Job so it is an ingenious conjecture upon that place and carries a faire correspondence both to truth and reason Nor is there that I have met with any Interpreter who doth not understand that Text of Isaiah in its first and literall sense of the temporary judgements which God threatned to powre out upon the State and King of Babylon as most in a Tropologicall and Allusive sense Interpret it of eternall judgement in Hell which is indeed a fiery Tophet and is prepared of old yea for the King it is prepared for the great King of Assyria as well as for the meanest person There is a seventh Translation and Exposition of these words which takes the former part of the Verse as was toucht upon the last and reads the whole thus For he will make me a Governour among the people Nam fore ut instituat me ad praesidendum populis quamvis tympanotribarum materia ante fuerim Jun. Restituet me Deus in dignitatem meam altius provehet Jun. though I have thus been made as matter for the Fidlers or Taberers Song So that as the former Exposition renders the Text as a complaint proceeding from Jobs griefe that he who had been a Great Man a Governour of the people should be now punisht as a slave or as a Malefactour so this renders it as a Prophesie proceeding from his Faith That God would restore and raise him againe to be a Governour among the people though now he was the scorne and derision of
are ready for us and we have made our bed in the darknesse it is not for us to looke for life here indeed to live to us is Christ but to dye is gaine A Beleever can willingly part with all his earthly possessions for heavenly hopes much more can he joyfully part with all his earthly hopes for the possession of Heaven Thirdly from these expressions The Grave is my house I have made my bed in the darknesse Note A Beleever looks upon death as a state of rest As the whole house is a place of rest compared with the World abroad so the Bed is the speciall place of rest Revel 14.14 Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth they rest from their labours and their workes follow them They shall follow their worke no more who are followed by their works The Grave is the house and bed of the body to all who dye Heaven is the house and rest of the soule to all those why dye in the Lord. Saints have here a rest in their labours they shall hereafter have a rest from their laboures Lastly Whereas the bed of death is made in darknesse Observe There is nothing desireable in death as considered in it selfe A darke condition is the worst condition Darknesse which in Scripture signifies all evill is a word good enough to expresse the state of death by What desireablenesse there is in death what pleasures in the Grave will appeare further in those arguments which death useth to invite us home to its house the Grave in the next Verse vvhich tels us our most lovely companions yea our sweetest and most endeared relations there are Corruption and Wormes Vers 14. I have sayd to corruption Thou art my Father and to the worme Thou art my Mother and my Sister Hyperbolae sunt quibus significat se omnem jam vitae cogitationem abdicasse Jun. This Verse is of the same sense with the former onely here Job breaks into an elegant variation of new metaphors and hyperbolicall expressions I have sayd That is I have as it were called to and saluted the retinue and attendants of death as my freinds and kindred As I have made my bed in the Grave and as that is my house so now I am finding out my houshold relations I say to this Thou art my Father and to that Thou art my Mother and Sister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est clamare vocare appellare per electionem nominare elegans prosopopeia per quam Job tumulum alloquitur Bold The word which we render I have sayd c. signifies not barely to say but to cry or call out I have called out to corruption so Master Broughton To the pit I cry O Father O Sister O Mother to the Worme not barely I have sayd but I cry and not barely I cry Father to the pit but he adds also a note of exclamation O Father Secondly The word imports not generally a calling or crying out to any one that comes next but to some speciall person by way of election and choice or to such as vve know vvell and are acquainted with as the termes of Father Mother and Sister imply Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat etiem occurrere alicui nam occurrentem solemus salutatione vel interrogatione aliqua proprio nomine appellare Further the word signifies not onely to call aloud and to call with election but to goe forth on purpose to call a Freind or to invite him in As when we see an acquaintance comming towards us or our dwellings we step out to meet and welcome him so the word may beare in this place As if Job seeing death drawing towards him had gone out and said O corruption my Father O wormes my Mother my Sister vvelcome vvelcome such an elegancy the word yeelds us I shall not here stay upon any anxious disquisition about the propriety of these relations how Job cals corruption his Father and the vvorme his Mother and Sister or in drawing out comparisons about them vve are to looke onely to a generall proportion not to an exact propriety in these words there 's no need to make out parallels between corruption and a Father or betweene wormes and a Mother or a Sister Onely thus much may be asserted particularly First He speakes thus to shew that he looked on death not onely not as an enemy but not as a stranger Death and he were well acquainted Secondly He speakes thus to shew that death vvas not only not a stranger to him but as one of his kindred He vvas upon as fayre termes vvith death as vvith Father and Mother Thirdly Job speakes thus to shew Vt ostendat mortem sibi in votis esse cunctis illum amicitiae necessitudinis nomininis compellat Pinet that he did not onely looke upon death as in a neere relation to him but as having a kinde of delight and contentment in death vvhat is more sweet to a man vvho hath been in a long journey and is returning home then to thinke that he is comming to his Father and Mother to his Brethren and Sisters As nature gives us kindred by blood so it is a custome to adopt and stampe to our selves kindred by kindnesse one vve call Father and another vve call Mother one is our Brother a second is our Sister a third our Cozen by the mutuall tyes or by the receits and returnes of curtesie Thus we are to take these compellations as intimating vvith vvhat spirit Job entertained the thoughts of death even with no other then if he had beene to fall into the embraces of Father and Mother and Sister He sayd to corruption as we should say to wisedome Prov. 7.4 Say unto wisedome thou art my Sister and call understanding thy Kinswoman that is Acquaint thy selfe with and be familiar vvith vvisedome so shalt thou keepe thy selfe vvhich is both thy vvisedome and thy happinesse a stranger From the strange Woman Vers 5. Further it may yet be enquired what it is which Job cals Corruption and the worme I have sayd to corruption c. What is this corruption There are two opinions about it First Some interpret him speaking to the corruption and wormes which had already seized upon his body for his diseases and ulcerous sores had bred corruption and wormes As if he had sayd I may well call corruption my Father for I am already full of corruption I may well call the worme my Mother my sister for the wormes creep in and out at my sores continually my body is as if it had layne already in the Grave full of corruption and wormes Secondly Others expound him speaking to and of the corruption and wormes which waited his comming into the Grave The vvord in the Text which wee translate Corruption signifies also the Grave because bodies doe not onely corrupt in the Grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fovea corruptio quod in fovea corpus corrumpitur but
quickly turne to corruption As soone as a body is dead it is a carkasse and after it hath been a while a carkasse 't is nothing but corruption Hence some render it not I have sayd to corruption but to the pit or grave so Master Broughton To the pit I cry O Father to the worme O Mother O Sister The Grave is so proper a place for corruption that 't is proper enough to expresse corruption by the Grave And besides those wormes which are generated out of the putrefaction of mans body there are vvormes ready generated in the Grave to entertaine us wormes are the proper inhabitants of the Grave there they keep house as Father and Mother and Sister to vvelcome and embrace such as descend into it Master Fox reports of Doctor Taylor a famous Martyr of Christ in Queene Maries time who vvas burned at Hadley in Suffolke that when he knew he should suffer death by fire he sayd I have been deceived my selfe and I shall deceive many at Hadley when some hearing this began to hope he would recant and shrink from that profession of the Gospel which hee had made At last he explained himselfe I am a man of a very full fat body which I had hoped should have been buryed in Hadley Church-yard but I see I am deceived and there are a great number of wormes there which might have had good cheere upon my carkasse but I shall deceive them all my body being to be burned The Earth breeds wormes in its owne bowels and our body which at the best and alive are but refined earth being once dead yeeld another race of wormes Job may be supposed speaking unto both or eyther I have sayd to the worme Thou art my Mother and my Sister We may hence Observe That some Beleevers are so farr from fearing that they are familiar with death Other Texts in the former passages of this Book have occasioned like Observations yet as often as this occasion is renewed it will not be unprofitable to renew this Observation To vvrite the same things vvhere wee read the same things yet the Reader will not finde them the same is not unprofitable I say some Beleevers are familiar vvith death I am farre from saying that he vvho is not is no Beleever There are not in all the same degrees of holinesse though holinesse be the same in all but a Beleever may arrive at such a composure of spirit at such a stature of holinesse as not to feare death There are some Beleevers and it is their sin who are but little acquainted vvith death they seldome goe out to the Grave or look into the pit they are going to he that hath often conversed with death in the meditation vvhich is a Beleevers vvay of the death of Christ cannot be affrayd to dye if he know what that death of Christ meanes vvhich he hath meditated upon He that knowes it throughly may as the Prophet speakes in another case Isa 11.8 play upon the hole of this Aspe and put his hand upon the den of this Cockatrice yea such a Beleever may not onely play and put his hand upon the Grave which is the hole of this Aspe and the den of this Cockatrice but he can play with the Aspe it selfe and take up the Cockatrice in his hand with this Aspe or Cockatrice he can sport himselfe as with a Brother or a Sister O how different are the thoughts of carnall men and their vvords of death How dreadfully doe they speake and think of the Grave An Unbeleever saith of the Grave It is a prison not a house he findes no bed in darknesse 't is to him a Dungeon he saith to corruption Thou art my foe and to the wormes yee are to me as Feinds and Furies Hee cannot beare the thought of them much lesse their sight and presence Saints speak courtingly of death there is a kinde of holy courtship in the language of Job Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 came out to Samuel delicately for sayd he Surely the bitternesse of death is past but he was deceived for Samuel hewed him in peices and when he sayd the bitternesse of death is past hee meant death was past Hee did not beleeve but that death would be bitter when ever it should come but he thought death was past for that time how ever and so he came out delicately hee stood as a Courtier yea as a King before Samuel because he had escaped as he supposed that King of terrours Thus the Saints come out delicately indeed and court it in the very face of the King of terrours for they know the bitternesse of death is past though they were assured they must dye presently They doe not say Death is past they know death will come and they must dye but the bitternesse is past the Gall and Worme wood is taken out and upon this account they can say to corruption Thou art my Father and to the Worme Thou art my Mother and Sister Thirdly Note Corruption and wormes are the portion and companions of the dead Onely Jesus Christ was exempt from this portion who though he submitted himselfe to death for sinners yet having no sin himselfe he was not at all subject to death nor was it possible that hee should be holden of it hee was the holy one he had no corruption in his spirit and therefore his flesh saw no corruption Acts 2.31 But as for all flesh they having corrupted all their wayes their flesh shall see corruption in the end Take two Corolaries from this First Let no man glory in bodily beauty in honours or alliances Corruption will shortly seaze upon the most beautifull body wormes will crawle upon the smoothest cheeks upon the fayrest face and into that mouth which now boasteth great things and speakes so proudly this earth must turne to earth and then the greatest kindreds and noblest Pedigrees will be lost or swallowed up in this Corruption is my Father and the worme my Mother and my Sister Man is corruptible while he lives and when hee dyes he is corruption Every man living is but a worme Jesus Christ who abased himselfe to the lowest condition of man saith I am a worme and no man Psal 22 6 When man dyes as he goes to the wormes so he makes wormes who would be proud of his flesh did he know that 't is but corruption and wormes once removed and that it must suddenly move back againe to corruption and wormes Secondly Seeing death hath nothing of its owne but darknesse corruption and wormes which are all unpleasing and a regret to flesh and blood therefore live much in Christ who onely gives a remedy against all these evills If we live in the Grave of Christ that will make the darknesse of our Grave light and the corruption of it sweet unto us He that upon good interest can say to Christ Thou art my Father thou art my Brother thou art my All can say rejoycingly to corruption Thou art my Father