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
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
he opposeth Job stands as Defendant here his Freinds as Plaintifs therefore he endeavours to render their Charge weak and what they sayd sinnewlesse I have heard many such things as these Job doth not accuse his Freinds as giving out false and erroneous Doctrine for himselfe had heard and learned those things before but he accuseth them for bringing proofes which were not to the purpose or which were in sufficient to prove their purpose As if he sayd I expected when you would produce some stronger arguments to maintaine your opinion or clearer answers unto mine I waited for some new matter and to have heard somewhat that I had not heard before but you have deceived my expectation For I have heard many such things as these Hence Note First Some truths are of very common observation Who knoweth not such things as these Every Childe that hath been Catechised knowes them 'T is no disparagement to any truth that it hath been often heard and is commonly knowne The more common a truth is the more weighty it may be Yet Which gives us a second Observation Ordinary truths will not serve in extraordinary cases and that which every man knows and heares will not resolve us in those points which few men know or heare As Jobs Person was a Phaenix in the World his age afforded not his second There is none like him in the earth saith God himselfe to Satan Chap. 1.8 So Jobs condition was a Phaenix it had no second there was no man tryed like him in the whole earth and therefore his case eould not be measured by the common Standard or rule of Providence He had need heare that which was never heard before who beares and feeles that which was never borne nor felt before There are some temptations on afflictions as the Apostle speakes 1 Cor. 10.13 Which are common to man Common truths may comfort and satisfie the consciences of such But there are temptations such were Jobs which are not common to man we can hardly finde their paralell or a president of them in the Records of any Age Common truths will not comfort nor satisfie the consciences of such Every dispensation hath a doctrine suitable to it dispensations which are seldome seen call up doctrines which are seldome heard Secondly Job complaines that he heares onely those things which he had often heard Hence Observe It troubles a man in trouble to be often pressed with the same thing A man at ease is pained with unnecessary repetitions much more a man in paine and though they who like and love the things which they have heard doe both love and like to heare them often yet in some cases they may heare them too often Some indeed speak very prophanely what Job spake justly who when they would not put off submission to and attendance upon holy Doctrine say we know before we goe what he will say We know such things as the Preacher usually speaks what can he tell us that we have not heard before That 's the language of the prophane We know as much as he can teach us Though it be granted that a man knowes as much as the Preacher can tell him yet he ought to heare it againe Though the matter be knowne before yet to heare it often may work a better knowledge and leave a stronger impression upon the heart then ever 'T is profitable to write the same things therefore it cannot be unprofitable to heare them Phil. 3.1 Brethren to write the same things to me it is not greivous and to you it is profitable If to write then to speake the same things is profitable In the Story of the Acts of the Apostles when Paul had preached in the Synagogue the Jewes being gone the Gentiles besought him That those words might be preached the next Sabbath Acts 13.42 The repeating and inculcating the same thing is not alwayes blameable and it is sometimes desireable but when a man is under sore afflictions and temptations when he is burthened with many sorrows it is very greivous to have those things that have been often answered or assented to againe objected or asserted A weake stomack must have variety and change to entice the appetite and so must a troubled and distempered spirit I have heard many such things And hereupon he infers Miserable comforters are yee As if he had sayd This is a miserable way of comforting alway to be beating upon and inculcating the same thing Job calls his Freinds Physitians of no value Chap. 13.4 Here he expounds himselfe while he calls them Miserable comforters He is a Physitian of no value who in stead of curing increaseth the disease and he is a miserable comforter who in stead of abating our sorrow adds to it and heightens it Miserable comforters are yee It seems the Freinds of Job at least to his sense had forgotten the designe they proposed to themselves when they first undertook this visit Chap. 2.11 They made an appointment together to come and mourne with him and to comfort him That was the intendment of Jobs Freinds at their fiâ—st addresses Yet after so long a conference he makes this report Miserable comforters are yee yee rather vex then heale any soare you my Freinds have troubled me more then my wounds you have wounded my spirit more then Satan did my flesh Consolatores malorum i. e. malos potestâ—s consolari August Miserable comforters are yee One of the Ancients renders the words thus Yee are comforters of evill men or possibly you may comfort evill men but you cannot comfort me As that which is one mans meat is another mans poyson so that which is one mans comfort is another mans sorrow All good men cannot take in their comforts the same way but the way of comforting good and evill men differ as much as good and evill The words of flattery and falsehood will serve to comfort the one no words will comfort the other but those of sincerity and truth I dare not conceive Jobs Freinds such as would sow Pillows under the elbowes of evill men yet surely they put hard Stones under the sore and aking armes of this good man Consolatores Onerosi Vulg. The Vulgar translation speakes thus Yee are burden some comforters A comforter should take off burdens sorrow is a burden As the judgements that God threatned upon the Jewes and other Nations are represented in the Prophets under the name of burthens The burthen of Judah the burthen of Israel the burthen of Moab the burthen of Babylon the burthen of Idumea So any affliction upon a person is his burthen and the businesse of those who come to comfort a soule in affliction should be to take off his burthen at least to lighten it Jobs Freinds did indeed binde the burthen faster upon his spirit and therefore he might well call them Burthensome comforters False hearts count all truth a burthen The Land saith Amaziah is not able to beare his words Amos 7.10 yet his were
mourn and he who saith as Job here that he hath done it saith That he hath mourned though he hath not done it Job did not sow sack-cloth upon his skin when he spake thus but his sorrows did truely speak sack-cloth Such also is his sense of the next clause where he professeth And I defiled my horne in the dust Hornes are proper to a beast but they are often by a figure or improperly ascribed to man The horne imports two things in figure First Strength and power Secondly Dignity and ornament It is often put for strength and power for the strength and power of good men 1 Sam. 2.10 Hannah sings Thou shalt exalt the horne that is the strength and power of thine annoynted Psal 132.17 There shall he make the horne of David to flourish David was a type of Christ and of him this Psalme is expounded Luke 1.69 God hath raysed up a horne of salvation for us in the house of his servant David A horne of salvation is strong salvation or strength of salvation God layd helpe for us upon one that is mighty when he layd help for us upon his Son The hornâ— notes also the strength and power of wicked men Psal 75.5 Lift not your hornes on high speake not with a stiffe neck At the tenth Verse of that Psalme we have both All the hornes of the wicked also will I cut off but the hornes of the righteous shall be exalted Those ten Kings who gave their power and strength to the Antichristian Beast Metaphora ab animalibus ducta quorum vires fere in cornibus existant are shadowed under the title of Ten hornes Revel 17.12 Strength and power are expressed by a horne in allusion to Beasts whose strength to defend themselves and to hurt others is in their hornes and hence it is that the word by which the Greeks expresse harmelesse signifies properly hornelesse Phil. 2.15 That yee may be blamelesse and harmelesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est careus cornu the Sons of God without rebuke c. Secondly As the horne is put for strength so for splendour and dignity The Texts before alleadged may be so expounded And again Hab. 3.4 His brightnesse was as the light and he had horns comming out of his hâ—â—d and there was the hiding of his power We in the Margin put Bright beames out of his side For the Hebrew word which signifies a horn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Radiavit splenduit signifies to radiate and shine forth Exod. 34.29 30. When Moses came downe from the Mount the Text saith He wist not that his face did shine And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses hehold his face shone The Vulgar translates The face of Moses was horned Quod cornuta esset facies ejus Vulg. Inde Moses cornutus pingitur or had hornes upon it that is Beames and rayes of light like hornes appeared or darted from his countenance so that the eyes of the beholders were dazled And the reason why Moses is commonly pictured with hornes is because this word signifies both beames and hornes So here I have defiled my horne in the dust that is My dignity and excellency thus the Chaldee expresseth it as if he had sayd I have taken off Splendorem meum Chald. or layd by all ornaments to put my selfe into the posture of an humble suppliant I have defiled my horne in the dust Dust also is taken properly or improperly properly dust is light small crumbled earth Christ chargeth his Disciples Matth. 10.14 Whosoever shall not receive you nor heare your word when yee depart out of that City shake off the dust of your feet That action was emblematicall and noted one of or all these three things First That the earth was polluted where such refusers of the precious Gospell did inhabite and was therefore to be shaken off as a filthy thing Secondly That they were base and vile as dust such as God would shake off Thirdly That the dust of the Apostles feet there left might be as a witnesse so the other Gospels expresse it against them that the Gospell had been Preached there Dust also in a proper sense was used in times of humiliation and sorrow among the Jewes for then they eyther sprinkled dust on their heads or lay downe in the dust Joshua and the Elders of Israel put dust on their heads Josh 7.6 and Job professeth Chap. 42.6 Therefore I abhorr my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Which wee may understand either strictly that he sate downe in the dust testifying his repentance or largely that his was a great and a deep repentance even like theirs who are humbled in dust and ashes That carnall worldly sorrow of the Merchants and Freinds of Babylon is thus expressed Revel 18.18 19. And they cast dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wayling saying Alas alas that great City Improperly dust signifies any very low condition Psal 113.7 1 Sam. 2.8 He raiseth the poore out of the dust And againe 1 Kings 16.2 For as much as I exalted thee out of the dust and made thee a Prince over my people Israel c. To be exalted from the dust is to be exalted from among the common people to a princely state as that parallell place tels us 1 Kings 14.7 All men are but levell with the dust in their naturall constitution but all Magistrates are above the dust that is the common people by their civill constitution When Job saith I have defiled my horne in the dust it may be understood either properly that he did sit downe in dust and ashes as he speakes Chap. 2. or improperly that as God had brought him into a low condition so he was willing to submit himselfe to a low condition and to be not onely as man who is dust in his nature and must returne to dust but as becomes that man whose power and honour whose excellency and greatnesse is layd in the dust David imprecates Psal 7.5 If I have done this if as some charge and suspect me there be iniquity in my hands c. Let the enemy persecute my soule and take it yea let him tread my life downe to the earth and lay mine honour in the dust that is Let him totally ruine me or lay me as low as low can be The Church is thus excited to rise from her Captivity Isa 52.1 3. Awake and shake thy selfe from the dust arise and sit downe O Jerusalem loose thy selfe from the bands of thy neck O Captive daughter of Zion To lye in Captivity is to lye in the dust and as to shake off the dust is to returne from Captivity so to defile the horne in the dust is to lay aside our dignity Job gives yet a further description of his selfe-humiliation Vers 16. My face is foule with weeping and on my eye lids is the shadow of death As Job put on his mourning Garments so he was indeed a mourner he wept
or condemnes He that is righteous knowes that all his sins are covered by the freegrace of God in the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ and he knowes that he hath not covered his sin as Adam by excuses nor sewed the Fig-leaves of carnall reasonings together to hide his nakednesse he knowes also that he lives not in any knowne sin nor hath wickedly departed from the Lord. Now because in all these respects he knowes nothing by himselfe therefore he cares not who knows him he cals not for Masks or Visors for Curtaines or coverings to obscure or disguise himselfe or his actions under eyther from the sight of God or man but is willing to stand forth in the open light For though the best of men may have done some act which is not fit for the open light yet considering the whole frame of their hearts and lives towards God together with what hath past betweene God and their soules about that act they are not afrayd that the worst act which ever they have done should stand forth in the open light and as for those crimes which men uncharitably charge upon them every honest heart speakes boldly the sense of this first part of Jobs imprecation O earth cover not thou my blood From the second branch of Jobs imprecation Let my cry have no place Observe Not to have prayer heard and accepted by God is the greatest misery that can befall man God is the last refuge of a distressed soule and the meanes by which we make God our refuge or flye to him for refuge is beleeving and servent prayer Prayer is a duty and yet it is a priviledge it is a priviledge not onely to receive an answer of prayer but to put up our requests in prayer he therefore that askes a stop upon his owne prayers hath at once asked a stop upon all his mercies he cannot looke to be releeved who tells God he doth not looke to be heard and when prayer hath no place of acceptance in Heaven wee can have no place of contentment on the Earth Upon this account we may conclude That Man cannot bespeake any thing worse for himselfe then not to be heard when he speakes to God As it is one of the highest honours done to God that men make prayers to him so it is one of the deepest afflictions of man for God not to heare his prayers Such was Sauls condition 2 Sam. 28. God doth not answer me neither by dreames nor by Vrim nor by Prophets He could get no answer from God his cry had no place This troubled him more then the invasion of the Philistims I am sore distressed saith he the Philistims make Warr upon me and God is departed from me When trouble comes and God goes away man is in a wofull estate We have no promise to receive unlesse we aske and though we doe aske wee cannot receive unlesse our prayer be received God receives the prayer of man before man receives any thing from God in prayer All our treasure lies in Heaven our comfort is in Heaven our protection is in Heaven and prayer is the messenger which we send to Heaven in the name of Christ for all things or for whatsoever else we need on earth Now if prayer cannot get in if God will not heare prayer if hee send back our messenger without audience what can wee receive The sinfulnesse of man appeares in nothing more then in this That he calleth not upon God Psal 14.4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge Who eate up my people as they eate bread and call not upon the Lord Now as the sin of man appeares exceedingly in not calling upon God so the wrath of God appeares exceedingly in not hearing man when he cals Prov. 1.20 Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seeke me early but they shall not finde me God will powre out wrath upon the Families that call not upon his name Jer. 10.25 but hee powres out most wrath upon those Families whom he heares not when they call upon his name All our mercies are shut out at once when prayer is shut out nor shall that person have any place or roome in Gods heart whose cry hath no place in his eare Holy Job was sensible enough of this nor durst hee have imprecated that his cry should have no place but that being conscious of no evill hee was assured that his cry had place and therefore as in the sincerity of his soule he made that imprecation so in the confidence of his soule he proceeds to make his Appeale to God in the next words Vers 19. Also now behold my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high As if he had sayd I feare no evidence that can be brought against me on earth and I rejoyce in the witnesse I have in Heaven though I have none to testifie for me here yet I have one that will testifie for me above My witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high Vtitur testificatione caeli postquam terrae testimonium produxit Eugub Some conceive that as Job had spoken to the earth before so now he speakes to Heaven O earth cover not my blood O Heaven witnesse for me But he saith not my witnesse is Heaven but my witnesse is in Heaven nor doth he call the Heavens to witnesse for him but he cals him who is in Heaven to witnesse and that is God There are two branches of this appeal Idem bis dicit conscientiae suae integrae declarandae causa Lavat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synonymum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieron in Trad. and they both intend the same thing My witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high The words witnesse and record are of the same signification though they differ in the letter The one is properly an Hebrew word and the other Syriack When Jacob and Laban were in that contest Gen. 31.47 Jacob tooke a Stone and set up a Pillar for a witnesse And Jacob sayd to his Brethren Gather stones and they made an heape and they did eate there upon the heap and Laban called it Jegar-sahadatha that is a heap of witnesses as it is in the Margin but Jacob called it Galeed or Gilead Jacob speaking the pure Hebrew and Laban the Syriack language they take in both the words of Jobs appeale My witnesse is in Heaven my record is on high Est forma juramenti quo deum invocat innocentiae suae testem atque conscientiae spectatorem Cajet Job speakes the same thing twice to shew how strongly he beleeved that the Lord would be witnesse for him My witnesse is in Heaven my record is on high Heaven and high are the same as witnesse and record are And when he saith on high or in the high place he useth not the word Bamoth by which those high places are expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In excelsis malimin altissimis quia excelsa