evill good to us and all good better unbeleife makes all good evill to us and all evill worse Faith like the Horse Job 39.19 laughs at the shaking of the Speare unbeleife trembles at the shaking of a leafe Faith findes food in Famine and a Table in the Wildernesse In greatest dangers faith answers I have a great God when outward strength is broken and all lyes a bleeding faith answers The promises are strong still they have not lost a drop of blood nor have they a skarre upon them When God himselfe apreares angry faith answers I know how to please him and I can goe to one in whom he is and will be wel-pleased for ever Thus faith pulls out the sting of trouble draws out the gall and wormwood of every affliction But where faith is wanting every affliction is full of gall and wormwood and every trouble vexeth with a double sting It stings such as it is a trouble and it stings them more as they see no comfort in nor way out of trouble The darknesse of darknesse is this Not to beleeve that we shall returne out of darknesse And he is waited for of the Sword This clause is neer in sense to the latter part of the former Verse and yet in this variety of expression there is some variety of intention For the clearing of it two things are to be enquired First What is meant by the Sword Secondly What is meant by waited for of the Sword The Sword is taken two wayes in Scripture First litterally for That weapon of Warr and by a Synechdoche the Sword is put for all weapons of Warr as also by a Metonymie for Warr it selfe When the Sword is threatned in Scripture Warr is threatned Secondly The Sword is taken for the power of the Magistrate who beares not the Sword in vaine Christ is described as a King armed with his Sword Isa 11.4 By the Sword that is with the Word of his mouth he will slay the wicked Nempe sua sententia tradens eum justitiae ministro Christ will pronounce a sentence of condemnation and deliver them up to execution Thus the Judge slayes the Malefactor by the sword of his mouth Further by a Synechdoche the Sword is taken for all manner of evill and trouble Quicquid pungit percutit torquet cruciat in scripturis sanctis gladius appellaturs Hieron in cap. ult Isa whatsoever hurts or afflicts is comprehended under the notion of a Sword Luke 1.35 Old Simeon tells the holy Virgin in his song Also a Sword shall passe through thy soule his meaning is not that she should be cut off in Warr by the hand of the Souldier or in peace by the sentence of the Judge but that sore troubles and afflictions like a sharpe Sword should pierce her soule Here the Sword may be taken either for the Sword of War or of Peace or for any evill that befalls the Wicked Man But how is he waited for of the Sword the Originall word is rendered two wayes First Actively Secondly Passively Some render actively Hee is waiting for of the Sword He stands expecting the Sword and that in a double sense Circumspectans undique gladium Vulg. Sc. vel quo pereat vel quo se defendat Tanquam exspecula expectat Tigur Hebraizantes tenent esse participium passinum hinc Rab. Levi. exponit Conspicitur a gladio Aspectus gladio Vatabl. Est Hebraismus ut videeri a gladio sit ab hostibus observari per insidias Decretus in manu ferri Sept. Conspectus ipse ad gladium Mont. Nempe a Deo conspectus destinatus ad gladium Praevisus enim est ad gladium Sym. he waits for the Sword which he feares will destroy him or he waits for a Sword which he desires to defend him Mr. Broughton gives this sense Having watch hee thinketh upon the Sword Againe others render it passively He is waited for of the Sword when he thinkes not of it The Sword lies in ambush to surprize him A man is sayd to be waited for by an Enemy when he intends to assault him unawares To be thus waited for by the sword is to be waited for by sword-men And it is as great a disadvantage to be seen of the Sword before we see the Sword as it is according to the old Proverb to be seen of the Wolf or of the Crocodile before we see either The wicked is waited for of the Sword not for any service but for the revenge it owes him the Sword lyes behind the doore or under a bush to snap him as he passeth The Septuagint in stead of he is waited or watched or looked for by the Sword render thus He is decreed into the hand of the Sword leading us to the appointment and destination of God who hath set him out and marked him for judgement Hee is appointed to the Sword Such a decree the Prophet seems to poynt at Jer. 15.2 where he brings in the Lord as resolved to proceed in judgement against all prayers and intreaties though made by his greatest Favorites Though Moses and Samuâ—l stood before me yet my minde could not be into this people but such as are for death to death and such as are for the Sword to the Sword That is such as are decreed into the hand of the Sword let the Sword take them the decree shall stand the sentence is irrevocable Taking the Text actively Observe That a wicked man thinks every one his enemy He dreames of danger when he sleeps and where ever he comes he waites for the Sword He that hath a minde to hurt others feares it is in the minde of every one to hurt him He that is harmelesse is fearelesse Nunquam non divinâ—m ultionem expectat vel metuit Merc. Ex omni parte inimicos sibi imminere videns Aquin. Qui de nullo confidit de omnibus timet id and while we goe about doing good we are free from the suspicion of evill Cain having murthered his Brother complaines of the Lords sentence against him Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a fugitive and a Vagabond on the earth and it shall come to passe that every man that finds me shall slay me Gen. 4.14 Cains complaint is the Comment of this Text Every one that findes me shall slay me is I wait for or I expect the Sword Cain speaks as if an Army were continually pursuing him or as if the avenger of blood were alwayes ready at his heels And that which aggravates the wonder of this jealousie is that we can give account but of one man alive in the World besides himselfe at that time and that was his owne Father Adam we read not of any Son that Abel left behind him nor had Cain any Son upon record at that time and yet he cries out as if the World had been full of Inhabitants and every
Woe to those who put off their beginnings in grace till they are readdy to finish in nature A dying man is unfit for any businesse how much more for this He is extreamely indisposed for worldly purposes much more for heavenly and therefore as soone as a man that hath any Estate begins to be sick Freinds will move him Pray Sir settle your Estate make your Will you know not how God may deale with you if your disease should encrease a little more you may be totally disabled to doe it therefore pray hasten Yea we finde that most men of valuable Estates in the World make their Wills in their health when they are free from sicknesse and furthest from death when they have the greatest activity of minde and body They wisely remember how some who had a full purpose to make their Wills in sicknesse have been suddenly overpowred by the malignity of a disease and could never doe it but have left all at six and sevens If so shall any man leave his soule undisposed of or at six and sevens till such a time A sick man being minded of any worldly businesse unlesse he have a great minde to it thinkes it excuse enough to wave it because he is sick I pray doe not trouble me with it saith he I cannot thinke of it now you and I will speak about it hereafter when I am recovered Doe sick men thinke it reason they should be excused from worldly businesse because they are sick and shall any man resolve that it is best to deale about spirituall businesses when he is sick If Job who had a holy and a sound minde under a diseased body sayd My purposes are broken off and the thoughts or possessions of my heart how much more will they feele these breaches whose minds are sick and more diseased then their bodyes Further Observe The difference betweene God and man what a vaine creature man is and how excellent God is God never had one of his purposes broken whatever hee purposed he hath carryed to perfection hee never lost a thought nor any of the possessions of his heart The counsell of the Lord stanâ—eth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all Generations Psal 33.11 'T is the glory of God that his purposes stand he is able to make them stand though all the World should combine as one man to cast them downe 'T is the dishonour of man that hee so often falls from his owne purposes and eates up his owne resolves and 't is the punishment of some men that their purposes receive a fall that their most solemne debates and setled resolves are scattered and confounded The Lord in judgement bringeth the counsell of the Heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the people of none effect Psal 33.10 All the thoughts of man are loseable and most men lose their thoughts It is the comfort of Beleevers that they are not bottom'd upon their owne purposes or thoughts but upon the thoughts and purposes of God that 's their basis and that shall never be broken God is unchangeable and therefore his purposes cannot break When mans purposes are broken hee eyther changeth or suffers a change of which Job complaines in the next Verse Vers 12. They change the night into day and the light is short because of darknesse Here are two things to be opened First What is meant by changing the night into day Secondly Who it is that changeth the night into day They change the night into day Hath not the Lord made a promise yea a Covenant which is more then a promise and annexed a signe to it which is the ratification of a Covenant Gen. 8.22 that to the end of the World while the earth remaineth Seed time and harvest and Summer and Winter and cold and heate and day and night shall not cease that is they shall not cease in their turnes and seasons How is it here sayd They change the night into day as if the night and day were out of course when as the Lord hath covenanted that they shall continue in their course I answer There is a twofold change of times of day and night First A naturall Change Secondly A metaphoricall Change The united power of all creatures in Heaven and Earth cannot make a naturall change of day into night and God the Creator hath promised that he will not make that change he will not breake the succession of night and day while the Earth remaineth But a metaphoricall change of night into day and of day into night hath been often made for when the night is so full of trouble to us that we cannot sleep the night is changed into day and when the day is so full of trouble to us that wee can neyther doe our worke Hoc tormentum cordis nec nox interrumpebat quae est tempus deputatum humanae quieti graviuâ— est pati somni defectum in nocte quam in die Aquin. Meae cogitationes molestae animum rodentes noctem mihi convertunt in diem efficiunt ut noctes ducam in somnes Merc nor take our comforts then the day is changed into night The night is the time appointed for naturall rest therefore the night may be sayd to be changed into day when we cannot rest and this is a great affliction for though in some sense and in Scripture sense too to have the night changed into day is a mercy and notes a change from a troubled estate into a comfortable estate yet to have the night changed by our restlesnesse or want of sleep is both an affliction it selfe and an argument that we are burdned and over-pressed with other manifold afflictions In this sense Job complaines of the change of his night into day and thus God often changeth times and seasons both to particular persons and whole Nations Dan. 2.21 Daniel answered and sayd Blessed be the Name of God for ever and ever for wisedome and might are his and hee changeth the times and the seasons hee removeth Kings and hee sets up Kings He changeth the times and seasons that is He makes seasons comfortable or troublesome peaceable or unquiet hee changeth the night into day or the day into night as himselfe pleaseth And the light is short because of darknesse Propter calamitates Jun. That is The day is to me as no day because of my calamity and misery my day is short because darknesse suddenly overtakes it Artificiall dayes are long or short according to the distance which the darknesse of the night keepes from them Our metaphoricall dayes are long or short according to the distance which the darknesse of trouble keepes from them Thus the change of day into night and of night into day is to be reckoned by the condition we are in When we cannot sleep in the night our night is changed into day and when sorrow seazeth on us in the day our day is changed into night or The light is short to us by
but so to destroy as workes the beholders into amazement and wonder This word signifes both to wonder and to destroy because great destructions cause wonder Thou hast made desolate all my company Thou hast made such a desolation among them that all who are about me lift up their hands as we say and blesse themselves admiring to see this day God brought such a desolation upon Jerusalem as set the World a wondering Lam. 4.12 The Kings of the Earth and all the Inhabitants of the World would not have beleeved that the Adversary and the Enemy should not have entered into the Gates of Jerusalem Christ will come at last with such mercies to be glorified in his Saints as will cause him to be admired in all them that beleeve 2 Thes 1.10 He now comes sometimes with such afflictions to his Saints as easily cause them who beleeve much more those who beleeve not to admire Thou hast wonderfully desolated or wasted All my company Et in nihilum redacti sunt omnes auctus mei Vulg. All my company The word which we translate Company is rendred The joynts or members of the body by the Vulgar Latine Thou hast reduced all my members to nothing As if hee had sayd Thou hast loosened the whole compages or structure of my bones and body thou hast untyed or cut asunder all the ligaments that held me together This translation is but an allusion because the members of the naturall body are like a company of men joyned together in a civill or spirituall body which is therefore commonly called a Corporation Some contend much for this sense Thou hast made desolate all the members of my body Especially because the scattering of his Family doth not so well agree or comply say they with the wearinesse before complained of nor with the leanenesse and wrinkles which are spoken of afterward both which belong properly to the body Yet I passe that and take the word as we read it to expresse a distinct affliction thou hast wearyed me in my person and hast made desolate all my company What company First q. d. desolasti omnem Synagogam meam Bold Some understand it of the company which used to flock to his Synagogue in holy duties and excercises As if he had answered the words of Eliphaz Chap. 15.34 The Congregation or Company of Hypocrites shall be desolate Here saith Job I grant it God hath made desolate all my company The Synagogues and places of publick meeting were wont to be filled but now that resort is stayed they are all scattered or diverted and those publick places are filled with howlings and lamentations Thus he grants Eliphaz what he had objected and yet denyes what hee thnnce inferred that he was an Hypocrite Secondly Rather interpret it of the company he had in his owne House or for his particular Family So it is a renewed complaint of the losse of his Children and Servants of his Freinds and Familiars who used to resort to him and stay about him Thou hast made desolate all my company Some of Jobs company were made desolate that is they were destroyed most of his Servants were slaine by the Chaldeans and Sabeans and all his Children were slaine by the fall of a House Chap. 1. This company was made desolate indeed Yet when he saith Thou hast made desolate all my company his meaning is as Master Broughton translates Thou hast made me desolate of all my company that is I am left alone Hence Observe The company of Children and Freinds is a very great mercy Heman complaines much when he wanted this mercy Lover and Freind hast thou put farr from me and mine acquaintance into darknesse Job makes as a more particular so a more patheticall enumeration of this losse Chap. 19.13 14. To be desolate in so great an affliction that it is often put for all afflictions and to be desolate of company is the worst desolatenesse When David had sayd I am desolate and afflicted he presently adds The sorrowes of my heart are enlarged Psal 25.16 17. A man may be much afflicted and yet not desolate but a man cannot beat all desolate but he must be extreamely afflicted When the Prophet would put all the miseries of the Jewes into one word he puts it into this Isa 1.7 Your Countrey is desolate your Land strangers shall devoure it in your presence And when a Land is devoured of strangers either it is made desolate of its owne company or its owne company is made desolate Babylon boasts Revel 18.7 I sit a Queene and am no widdow that is as I have power so I have resort and company enough I am not desolate The Apostle puts these two together Widdow-hood and Desolatenesse 1 Tim. 5.5 Now shee that is a widdow and desolate c. So that when Babylon saith I am no widdow her meaning is I am not desolate and hence the punishment of Babylon is threatned in this language Revel 17.16 The ten hornes which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and make her desolate c. Those ten hornes are ten Kings who sometime doted upon the painted beauty of that Whore and then made frequent addresses to her and did throng about her from all parts of the World but when once their eyes shall be opened their hearts will soone be alienated They shall hate the Whore And then as they withdraw affection so visits and messages Babylons Courts shall be crouded with Suiters no longer Thus they shall make her desolate of the company of her old freinds before they make her desolate by bringing in new enemies who shall strip her not onely of her company but of her cloathes yea of her skin they shall make her naked and eate her flesh and burne her with fire Revel 17.16 Thus as the misery which came upon Jerusalem so the misery which shall come upon Babylon meet in this The making of their company desolate yet in this they differ the desolations of Jerusalem shall be at least mystically repaired but the desolations of mysticall Babylon when they are fully come upon her shall be irreparable Man is naturally as the Philosopher calls him a sociable creature he loves company they who are for a solitary life Monkes and Anchorets seeme to have put off the nature of man There is an elective alonenesse or retyrednesse at some times very usefull for contemplation and prayer And we are never lesse alone then when we are so alone for then God is more specially with us and we with him It is sayd of Jacob Gen. 32.24 Then Jacob was left alone not that Jacobs company had left and forsaken him but that Jacob for a time had left his company So some render the Text actively Hee stayed or remained alone Jacob stayed alone pueposely that hee might have freer communion with God in that recesse and retirement from the creature It is good for man to be alone from the company of man that he may
Oracles of God like little Children who must have the same precepts and lines often and often inculcated upon them he gives it us in the forme of this Text Isa 28.10 For precept must be upon precept line upon line that is they must be continually followed with precepts they must have many and yet they scarse learne one or as others expound that place the Prophet describes the scornefulnesse of that people who jeered the Messengers of God for their frequency in Preaching with a riming scoffe Precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little which single tearms the Prophets had often used in their Sermons Now which way soever we take the proper sense of that place yet the common sense of the words reaches this in Job for precept upon precept speakes there a multitude of precepts even as here breach upon breach speakes a multitude of breaches or breaches all over And the Apostle Paul expresseth himselfe in this straine while he gives the reason of the recovery of Epaphroditus from a dangerous sicknesse Phil. 2.27 He was sick saith Paul nigh unto death but God had mercy on him and not onely on him but on mee also least I should have sorrow upon sorrow that is many sorrows heaped up together So then when Job complaines of his breaking with breach upon breach the plaine meaning is that he had many very many breaches His very wounds were wounded there was nothing in him Vulnera ipsa vulnerat Non habet in nobis jam nova plag◠locum or about him to be smitten but what had been smitten already As if he had said I am so full of breaches and afflictions that there is no whole space or roome left for a new breach for another affliction As he that lyes upon the ground can fall no lower so he that is all broken cannot be broken any more Job had breach upon breach in his estate his Cattle and goods were taken away Job had breach upon breach in his Family most of his Servants and all his Children were destroyed Job had breach upon breach in his body that was sick and soare Job had breach upon breach in his credit hee was called Hypocrite againe and againe Job had breach upon breach in his soule that was filled with feare and terrour from the Lord. Hence Note The best Saints on earth are subject not onely to great but various troubles to breach upon breach God is pleased to smite them sundry times and he smites them sundry wayes 'T is no argument that a man shall be no more afflicted because he is afflicted or that God will not smite againe because he hath smitten already God doth not stay his hand by looking upon the number but upon the effect and fruite of our afflictions Every Childe of his whom he corrects must looke for more corrections till repentance hath had its perfect worke and every Champion of his whom he tryes must looke for more tryalls till faith and patience have had their perfect worke God would not give his Children so much as one blow or one breach not so much as a little finger of theirs should ake were it not for one of these ends and untill these ends be attained they shall have many blowes and breaches even till the whole head be sick and the whole heart faint till from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundnesse in them but wounds and bruises and putrifying soares As the Vine-dresser cuts and cuts Vt in vineis labor labori cura curae semper additur c. Sanct. prunes and prunes the Vine this day and the next day because once cutting or pruning will not serve to make it fruitfull So the Lord prunes and cuts and pares and breaks and breaks not to destroy his people but to make them as pleasant Vines bring forth abundantly eyther the fruits of godly sorrow for their sins committed against him or the proofes and experiments of the graces which they have received from him This latter was Jobs case and the cheife cause why he was broken with breach upon breach And no sooner had the Lord by his roaring Cannon made breaches in him fayre and assaultable but he presently takes his advantage as Job shewes elegantly pursuing the Allegory in the last clause He runs vpon me as a Giant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sicut fortis potens idem valet Gigas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When a breach is made in the wall the beseigers run up to assault and storme the place Job keepes to the Souldiers language the Lord hath made breach upon breach and now He runs upon me as a Giant There are three things in this expression First The speed which God made to assault him He runs Secondly The strength that God puts forth in assaulting him he runs not as a Childe not as a weak man no nor as the ordinary sort of strong men but as a Giant or mighty man who exceeds other men as Goliah did David both in strength and stature Quando aliquis dicitur aut currere aut aliquid agere sicut Gigas nihil aliud denotat quam magno animo strenuè rem aliquam aggredi Bold Thirdly Running as a Giant notes courage as well as strength A Giant runs fiercely and fearelesly David compares the Sun at his rising to a Bridegroome comming out of his Chamber and to a Giant or strong man it is the word of this Text who rejoyceth to run a race Psal 19.5 Giants are swift and Giants are strong Some men are strong but not swift of foot but no man can be swift of foot unlesse he be competently strong Giants are both in excesse And therefore Job puts both together He runs upon me as a Giant And yet I conceive this running doth rather imply the fiercenesse of the Giant then his swiftnesse Giants are dreadfull and terrible to behold they are called Nephilim in the Hebrew of diverse Texts which comming from the root Naphal to fall signifies fallers and that in a twofold sense First Because they Apostatiz'd or fell from God his truth and worship which Moses seemes to intimate while he describes the first great personall defection of the World Gen. 6.4 There were Giants in the earth in those dayes these he opposeth to the Sons of God in the same Verse who had also greatly corrupted themselves so that Vers 5. God saw the wickednesse of man was great upon the earth For the Sons of God they who owned a profession of Religion being the Posterity of Seth they mingled themselves with the wicked of the World as for the Giants they disowned God and were totally departed or fallen from his obedience and were therefore as some apprehend called Nephilim or Fallers Secondly They were so called because either through the vastnesse of their strength and stature or through the feircenesse of their mindes and spirits they were men of violence great oppressors
perished Fourthly There are teares of love unfeigned and strong affection Thus David and Jonathan kissed one another and wept one with another untill David exceeded 1 Sam. 20.41 When Jesus Christ wept at the Sepulcher of Lazarus The Jewes sayd Behold how he loved him John 11.35 36. They saw his heart at his eyes These teares spake mutuall and reall endearements Fifthly There are the teares of holy prayers and fervent desires Jacob wept and made supplication Hos 12.4 He cryed and prayed The voyce of his teares was lowder then the voyce of his supplication and his prayers were in this sense even drowned in teares Jacobs teares spake the fervency of his spirit and his faith in prayer The Angell understood them so and he prevayled Sixthly There are teares of compassion for the miseries of others Weep with them that weeP is the Apostles rule Rom. 12.15 When Nehemiah heard the report of Jerusalems ruine and of the sad condition of his Brethren there He sate downe and wept Nehem. 1.4 His teares spake pitty to his Country-men and zeale for God Seventhly There are the teares of passion in reference to our owne afflictions Such teares speak humane frailty or the common infirmity of the flesh Eighthly There are the teares of damnation Hypocrites and their associates in Hell are described Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore Their teares speak despayre or misery without hope of remedy The tears which Job powred forth were of the seventh sort teares of passion or sorrow caused by the afflicting hand of God but especially by the unkindnesses of his Freinds My freinds scorne me but mine eye powreth out teares unto God Job knew that as God had a Book for his prayers so a Bottle for his teares yea he knew teares should be heard as well as prayers Teares are powerfull Oratours God reads our hearts in those lines which teares draw on our faces One of the Ancient Phylosophers hath adjudged weeping unworthy a man Lachrymae a viris claris auferendae sunt mulieribus autem relinquendae Plat. de rep Dial. 3. and tells us it is onely for Women and Children to weepe But as there are teares of effeminate and childish pusillanimity so there are teares of heroicall and holy importunity To weep for feare of sufferings from man is indeed below man but to weep to God when we suffer eyther under the hand of God or man doth well become the best of men not to weep to God when we eyther suffer or have sinned proceeds not from courage but from sullennesse and is not the argument of a noble spirit but of a hard heart Who so couragious as David who feared not a Lyon nor a Beare who would not be afrayd though an Hoast of men encamped against him and though he walked in the valley of the shadow of death yet how often do we read him weeping and crying to God Psal 39.12 Hold not thy peace saith he at my teares David in that case could not hold his peace from crying to God and he was perswaded that God would not hold his peace at his cry he expected to have his teares answered He did not say Hold not thy peace at my words or at my prayer but as importing that his very teares had a voyce and language in them he desired that they might be answered David did not weep for feare of men but in faith to God And so did Job Mine eye powreth out teares vnto God God was the object of his teares as much as of his prayers God is above and yet our teares fall into his bosome these waters ascend this raine doth not fall but rise these showres doe not come from the Clouds but they peirce the Clouds As the heate of the Sun drawes the water upward so doth the heate of Gods love Some of the Ancients use strange Hyperbolies about the power and motion of teares I will not stay upon them we may say too much of them but thus much we may safely say that from a heart rightly affected and touched with the sense eyther of sin or suffering they have much weight in them and are pressing upon God Mine eye powreth out teares unto God From the conexion of this latter part of the Verse with the former Observe When wee are scorned by men it is good for us to mourne to God My Freinds scorne me now I weep and pray It is best for us to apply our selves to God when we live in the embraces of men when all men speake well of us and applaud us what is all this if we have not the good word and the good will of God unlesse we have an applause in Heaven it will doe us no good to have the true applause much lesse the flatteries of men on earth Suppose they speake right and give us but our due yet we must not rest in that but goe to God The good word of God is better to us infinitely then the best vvord of the best men to him let us have recourse when we have the greatest favour and fairest Quarter in the World but when the World scornes and rejects us then is a speciall season for us to hasten into the presence of God wee should live neerest and closest to God when men cast us off or throw us out of their societies and affections There is a twofold recourse to God whereof the first is from choice the second from necessity It is best to make our recourse to God upon choise but he will not refuse us if necessity drive us to him God is most worthy to be our choyce but he is willing to be our refuge yet he is indeed a refuge to those onely in evill times who have made him their choyce in the best times When all goes well with us in the World we should not thinke our selves well till we enjoy God It is good for me to draw neere to God saith David Psal 73.28 It is good for me to doe it in good times in the best times this I make my election And when David saith It is good he meanes it is best that positive beares the sense of a Superlative and therefore he had sayd a little before Vers 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee But in an evill time God is both the choyce and the refuge of his people He is our refuge properly to whom we come when others cast us off and hee is our choyce to whom we come when others call for us and seeme ambitious to be kinde unto us It is not thank-worthy to make God barely a refuge to come to him because wee can goe no where else we should thinke our selves no where till we are in his presence wheresoever we are and that we have nothing till we have him whatsoever we have Not to preferr the least of God before all the World is not onely un-ingenuous in us but sinfull against and
day upon the earth whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold c. Job believed that he should see this Redeemer with humane eyes and therefore he did believe that his Redeemer should have a humane Nature or be The Son of man Jesus Christ was A Son of man in reference to his participation with us in all things which concerne created nature And he was The Son of man by way of Eminency in reference to his freedome from any participation with us in corrupted nature otherwise then in the paenall effects of that corruption as the Apostle states it Heb. 2.17 chap. 4.15 In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren and he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sinne He that is in all things like man except sinne is rightly called The Sonne of man for sinne is not at all the forme but all the deformity of man Hence Jobs faith prophesied The Sonne of man will plead For his friend The word in the Hebrew comes from a root which signifies to feed either our selves or others because friends use often to feed together and sometimes one friend seeds or provides and offers food to another It is taken sometimes largely for a Neighbour and not seldome strictly for a speciall friend Deut. 13.6 if thy friend who is as thine own soule entice thee c. that is if the nerest and friend that thou hast in the world entice thee c. in this strict sense the word is to be taken here Job was not one of Christs friends at large he was a special a Bosome-friend Job was not according to the known use of that word among us A friend of Christ extraordinary but he was Christs friend in ordinary a man who dayly convers'd with Christ and Christ with him a man who dayly performed Offices of dutifull love to Christ and a man to whom Christ dayly performed the Offices of bountifull and mercifull love Hence his holy assurance that Christ would perform that Office of mercy for him The Son of man will plead for his fiend The vvords thus opened are as I may say An Epitome of the Gospel a little gospel yea I may cal them the whole Gospel what is the Gospel but this good newes that Christ God-man mediates for his people All that Christ was is expressed in this what so-Christ did more then this on earth is implyed in this and this is all Christ now doth for us in Heaven He ever lives to make intercession for us saith Saint Paul Heb. 7.25 which is the same in effect with what holy Job professeth in this Text Hee will plead for a man with God and the Sonne of man for his Friend There is one thing further to be noted for the clearing of this Text For possibly the Reader may scruple how the same words should be rendred by some as a wish O that one might plead for a man with God and by others as a conclusion He will plead with God for a man Againe how the latter branch should be rendred by some in the forme of a similitude As a man for his neighbour and by others as a direct assertion And the Son of man for his Freind I answer to the first That the same word may be thus diversly rendred according to differing Moods of Grammar and so the signe of the Optative Moode which is in the forme of a wish is by some judged most sutable to the scope of this place So that a wish may here be understood and safely supplyed though it be not expressed To the second scruple I answer that the particle Vau in the Hebrew placed at the beginning of a word though it be usually taken as a Conjunction knitting one sentence to another yet according to the exigence and scope of the Scripture it undergoes diverse other significations As first A disjunctive Exod. 12.15 Ye shall take it out from the Sheep or from the Goates The Hebrew is And from the Goates but because the Law did not command both but gave a liberty to chuse eyther of the two therefore we render not And but Or from the Goates So Judg. 11.31 See the Margin of our Bibles which shewes that Jepthtah did not binde himselfe to offer up whatsoever should meet him in Sacrifice but one of the two he did binde himselfe to eyther to dedicate that to the Lord or to offer it up for a burnt Offering Secondly It is often used Adversatively and is rendred But Gen. 42.10 Psal 44.17 c. Thirdly Causally and it is rendred For Psal 60.11 Isa 64.5 c. Fourthly Besides diverse other acceptions of it which I shall omit it is used Comparatively or as a Note of likenesse Prov. 25.25 As cold water to a thirsty soule so is good newes from a farr Countrey The Hebrew is And good newes So Pro. 26.7 and very frequently in that Book Thus in the Text the particle Vau is taken by some as a note of likenesse comparing the two parts of the Verse with each other but by others it is taken onely as a conjunction copulative knitting both parts of the Verse together He will plead for a man with God and the Son of man for his Freind From the words according to this latter readinâ—â— Observe First There is an Advocate between God and Man Sin hath made a breach there needs a Mediator to heale it God and sinfull man are as we speake Two and they cannot be made One but by a Third Man was created in a state of amity with God that state needed no Mediatour man being restored is in a state of reconciliation unto God that state needs a Mediatour both to settle and continue it And hee who is the Mediatour betweene both parties is an Advocate a pleader a Patron for the one partie There was need of a Mediatour even in regard of God himselfe that both his State might be preserved and his Justice satisfied But there was need of an Advocate onely in regard of man that so his wants and miseries might be declared and that mercy together with helpe in the time of need might be obtained The Apostle Gal. 3.20 describing the nature of a Mediatour saith A Mediatour is not of one or as we supply not a Mediatour of one A Mediatour is of two yea and for two But an Advocate though he be betweene two yet he is but for one or of one eyther of one individually taken or of one specifically taken eyther of one man or of one sort or company of men who though they are many in number yet their state or case is one Thus Christ is an Advocate for one or of one all that he is an Advocate for being in one and the same condition for the maine though some particulars in every mans case may vary The Greek word which is rendred Advocate in the New Testament is applyed to the holy Ghost But there is a great difference betweene
eyther to our future or our present peace Thus the Prophet Isaiah was sent to Preach that people blinde and deafe and ignorant Chap. 6.9 10. Goe tell this people Heare yee indeed but understand not and see yee indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed As if the Lord had sayd This people shall want neither meanes nor Ministers neither word nor light but they shall reape no benefit neither by meanes nor Ministers neither by word nor light yea all these meanes shall produce contrary effects they shall be hardned and not softned blinded and not enlightned their eares shall be deafned not bored by the Word They would not heare therefore they shall not they would not understand therefore they shall not be able to understand They who refuse the offers of mercy shall be destroyed with the offers of mercy And as God doth often take away the Gospell in wrath so he sometimes sends it in wrath It is a great misery to have the Gospell hid from a people for want of revelation but it is lowest misery to have it hid in the revelation Jerusalem signifies The vision or sight of peace and this was the glory of Jerusalem yet at last this glory was taken from Jerusalem though her name continued Jerusalem the sight of peace could not see her peace Luke 19.41 42 43. When Christ came neere to Jerusalem He beheld the City and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace What then Christ suppresses the happinesse which they should have enjoyed by such a sight with a silent admiration and onely tells them weeping But now they are hid from thine eyes How hid Was there no more Preaching in Jerusalem no publique Ministry after that day Yes the whole Colledge of Apostles Preached there and they Preached the things which belonged both to their temporall and to their eternall peace yet as the things which belonged to their eternall peace were hidden from most of their eyes so the things vvhich concerned their temporall peace were hidden from so many of their eyes that their ruine was unavoydable God hid their heart from understanding therefore hee did not exalt them yea therefore hee cast them downe Thus Job describes the sequell of that sad dispensation to his Freinds Thou hast hid their heart from understanding What followes Therefore shalt thou not exalt them Master Broughton renders it Therefore thou shalt not give them Honour And is this all That they shall not be exalted or honoured No the Negative hath this affirmative in it Thou wilt therefore cast them downe or humble them As Prov. 17.21 Solomon speakes of the Father of a Foole Hee that begets a Foole doth it to his sorrow and the Father of a Foole hath no joy Is that all that he hath no joy No the meaning is that the Father of a Foole hath much sorrow yea the denyall of all joy affirmes more then the feeling of much sorrow for it speakes all sorrow So to accept persons in judgement is not good that is It is extreame ill There is nothing worse then that which in this sense is not good Thus here thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them that is Thou shalt humble and abase them and though Non-exaltation in this place doth not carry all kinde or the extremity of abasement yet it carries a very great abasement Why What was this abasement or non-exaltation We may interpret it two vvayes Thou shalt not exalt them that is First Thou shalt not give them this honour to determine my cause thou wilt take the matter out of their hands into thine owne or thou wilt put it into some other hand Secondly Thou shalt not exalt them to the honour of a conquest over me Hinc colligo te nolle ut de reportata super me victoria glorientur Bold or to carry the cause against me yea they shall be overthrowne and the cause shall goe against them Both these wayes answer the event Jobs three Freinds had neyther the honour to end this controversie nor did they at all prevaile in the end they went not away vvith victory nor could they glory that they had got the day of Job Thou shalt not exalt them Note hence First Exaltation is from God Promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South that is It comes not by the power of any creature in any coast or quarter of the earth Whence comes it then The next Verse directs us For God is the Judge he putteth downe one and setteth up another Psal 75.6 7. we can no more make our selves great men then wee can make our selves men Our civill frame is as much from God as our naturall by what hand soever we are exalted it is God that exalts us Secondly Observe God hides understanding from them whom he is about to abase or cast downe The fall of most men is from their owne folly and usually God takes away their wisedome whose honor he takes away They shall not see the way to their own preservation who are intended for destruction All Ages have taught us this Doctrine in the downefall of the greatest Princes who have refused all counsels and overtures for their owne good Quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat till their evils have proved past cure and themselves irrecoverably lost That vvhich a Child might foresee they have had no eyes to see nor hearts to consider because God would eyther not exalt them or not establish them in their exaltations therefore he hid their hearts from understanding the things of their owne peace Fooles are not fit to be exalted to high places and whâ—n once we see those who are in high places acting the foolish man we shall soone see them tumbling down from their high places and acting the miserable man Some who were never very wise have been exalted to and continued in high places but there was scarse ever any man who in this sense lost his wits that hath eyther been exalted to a high place or continued in his exaltation Thirdly Considering those particulars wherein the Non-exaltation here prophesied of did consist Observe It is an honour to heare and judge the cause of another man God is the Judge of all the Earth he will heare nad determine the causes and cases of all mankinde He that hath the hearing but of any one case shares in this honour of God and they who are set apart by office to doe so are called Gods Psal 82. God puts so much of his owne worke into the hand of a judge that he therefore puts his owne name upon him Againe We may looke upon Jobs Freinds not as Judges of his case
reason of darknesse Hae meae cogitationes noctem mihi in diem convertunt Merc. But who was it that made this change They change the night into day and the day into night Who Some ascribe it to his troubled thoughts of which hee had spoken before his thoughts were so torne and distracted that their confusions turned the night into day and the day into night that is a plaine sense as if he had sayd By reason of my continuall cares and distractions I take no comfort neyther night nor day Others referr it to his Freinds They that is Praesentium malarum cogitationes efficiunt ut dies quamvis lucidus mihi sit nox Jun. my Freinds turne the night into day and the day into night and if his Freinds be the Antecedent it comes much to one for his Freinds did it by filling him with troublesome thoughts and unquiet reasonings his Freinds did it by filling his heart and head as we say with their Proclamations Hence Note When the minde is unsetled the man cannot rest Waking nights and wearisome dayes are the portion of a troubled spirit There is a further elegancy considerable in the latter branch of this Verse The light is short because of darknesse The Originall is The light is neere because of darknesse Propinquum pro brevi exponit Rab. Sol. The word signifies neernesse whether in time or place and it is usually put in Scripture for short for that which is of short continuance Job 20.5 The tryumphing of the wicked is short The Margin is The tryumphing of the wicked is from neere that is It is hard by it began but lately and it will soone be over or at an end In this elegancy the holy Ghost speaks of false gods Deut. 32.17 They sacrificed to Devils and not to God Idola dicuntus dij ex propinquo i. e. qui diu non durant vel qui de novo pro diis haberi ceperint Merc. to Gods whom they knew not to new Gods that were come newly up The Hebrew is to neere Gods it is this word to short Gods Gods that are neere that is Gods short or neer in their originall they have been but a little while they are newly come up as we translate Whom your Fathers knew not nor feared Idols are new Gods neer Gods we need not travell farr to finde out their descent and pedigree the oldest of them are but of a late date or of a new Edition upstart Gods as they are compared with Jehovah the true God who is from everlasting And as they are called neer Gods in regard of their originall and rise so likewise in regard of their continuance they are not for eternity we shall see an end of those Gods shortly they are not long-lived much lesse are they to everlasting The true God is the same for ever false Gods are nothing Idols are nothing in the World and they shall in short time be thrust out of the World and all the neere Gods shall be put farr away What the Lord speakes of these night-Gods the Gods of the darknesse of this World Job speakes of the comforts or light which he once received from God The light is short because of darknesse that is It is ready to end and expire We may say of all the light which wee have in this World that it is short because of darknesse Spirituall light or the light of Gods countenance shining in or upon his people hath a darknesse attending upon it in this World The experiences of most Christians answer that of one of the Ancients about this heavenly light Rara hora brevis mora Bern. It comes but seldome and it is soone gone We have but some glimpses and glaunces of divine favour here not a steady sense of it that except to a very few is reserved for Heaven 'T is so also about temporall light the light of Gods providence towards us hath a darknesse attending upon it yea a darknesse mixed with it When our comforts have scarse saluted us or spoken with us they are interrupted and taken off by approaching sorrows Those creature enjoyments and relations which have most light in them have also much darknesse hanging about them and hovering over them Man at the best estate is altogether vanity And his longest light here is short because of darknesse But Job speakes not this in reference to the generall state of man much lesse to the best estate of man in this life he applyes it specially to an afflicted estate and particularly to his owne How short is the light of an afflicted soule how quickly doe Clouds come over him and Ecclipses shut the shining from him when the light of a man in prosperity is but short and his day in danger of a night every moment All our light on earth dwells upon the borders of darknesse the light of Heaven hath no neighbourhood with it and therefore is not onely long but everlasting Illae tenebrosae cogitationes a mente mea discedentes pro nocte jucundum quietis diem pro tenebris licem matutinam i. e. optatam pacem constituunt Bold Yet I finde a learned Interpreter making this Verse speake the returne of Jobs light The changing of night into day is to be understood saith he in a good sense And the breaking of his thoughts and purposes is according to this Interpretation nothing else but the scattering of his darke and melancholly thoughts and purposes which being removed and gone the night of sorrow was turned into a day of joy and the morning light here called the neere light because it immediately succeeds the darknesse which the Noon-light doth not this morning light saith he came before the face of darknesse To which sense the Vulgar Latine translates the last clause After darknesse I hope for light Et rursum pâ—st tenebras spero lucem Vulg. or though I be now in darknesse I hope for lighâ— As if Job had sayd After this darke night and dreadfull storme God hath spoken to the angry Sea of my tempestuous thoughts and behold there is a great calme But though the Author of this Exposition be so much in love with it that he counts all other spurious yet I rather persist in and stick to the toâ—â—â— â—eeing the whole context runs upon the aggravaâ—â— of Jobs present troubles with which this Interpretation holds no agreement Nor is there any necessity as the Author supposeth to take it up for the avoyding of that imputation of a low weak and sinking spirit which the former exposition in his apprehension subjects Job unto for though we say that Job doth as often elsewhere so here againe make report of his sorrowes in highest straines of holy Rhetorick yet we are so farr from saying that he desponded or sunke under them that we doubt not to say which is all that this Author would say or have others take notice of in his singular Interpretation that he was more