despised by others This instance is deduced in a large complaint and may be taken up in five Branches The first whereof in these verses is That all his Friends Kindred and Acquaintance had deserted him These here mentioned under the names of Brethren Acquaintance Kinsfolk and familiar Friends must be distinguished from those most intimate bosom Friends of whom he complains v. 19. and are the same with those who returned to him when God smiled upon him Chap. 42.11 And under those various names are comprehended his Relations in the flesh and his Neighbours and Acquaintance who took notice of him before and with whom he entertained familiarity and neighbourly intercourse These he declares were far and estranged from him did fail and had forgotten him That is they withdrew from him and failed him in his strait and took no more notice of him than if he had been a stranger or one forgotten among them It seems from Chap. 42.11 that they had not come at him in his distress or if they did they carried strangely toward him forgetting his former condition and what familiarity had been among them And to add to all this he declares they were verily or only thus estranged from him v. 13. that is they were altogether so and really so and not in his apprehension only From all this Learn 1. Piety doth allow men to make use of and entertain familiarity and converse with natural Relations and other Neighbours and Acquaintances For Job entertained such Piety doth not teach men to be without natural affections Rom. 1.31 with 2 Tim. 3.2 3 c. nor yet to be selfish insociable and wild creatures For grace doth sanctifie and not destroy Nature And gracious men should labour to commend and insinuate Piety to others by taking notice of them and conversing with them 2. Those Relations among men do import obligations unto duties according as any need them For Job by his complaint insinuates that Brethren and Acquaintance c. should not be far off not fail or be forgetful and strange when any they have relation unto are in trouble and need their help A friend ought to love at all times and a Brother is born for adversity Prov. 17.17 And men are to look how they acquit themselves of their bonds of Relation and friendship in such cases lest it be said to them as Absolom said to Hushai Is this thy kindness to thy friend 2 Sam. 16.17 3. It oft-times falls but that men and especially Saints are deserted of their Friends Relations and Acquaintance when they come to be in trouble For so Job found in his experience and David Psal 31.11 12. 38.11 and elsewhere see Prov 14.20 If men try upon what they ground their friendship it will be found that few are real freinds to the men or their vertues whom they pretend to affect but only to their prosperity and that there are few such friends as Jonathan was to David And though men may pretend otherwise yet adversity which is the Touchstone of friendship will discover the truth Therefore we should lean upon our Kindred Friends and Acquaintance as a very uncertain prop. And when we are deserted by them we should consider that this hath been the lot of Saints before us and should learn to trust in God who is a friend that never fails fail us who will Psal 27.10 4. To be deserted of friends under trouble is a great addition to the tryal For Job here complains of it as a part of his exercise And no wonder for this deprives afflicted men of that help and comfort countenance and counsel which might be expected from friends and which will be much needed in tryal This shews how great their guilt is who are wanting in that duty to the afflicted 5. While he saith they are verily or only estranged it imports 1. That the reality of this their unkindness made it sad Apprehensions of such a thing are sad enough yet it is an case when we consider that they are or may be but apprehensions But when we find we do not mistake but our condition is such as we apprehend it is cannot but sink the deeper upon our spirits 2. That afflicted men by reason of their distempers are ready to mistake their friends and therefore they should try if things be verily and really so as they judge as Job imports he had done so that he can certainly conclude they were verily estranged 3. That this aptitude in afflicted men to mistake should put others upon their guard that they do not so much if it be possible as seem to grieve them much more should they be careful that they do not verily so as Job complains of those 4. That a fit of unfriendliness is nothing so sad as when men constantly persist therein and do only and altogether so as Job complains they did Doct. 6. The best sight of such a tryal and the best way to get the right use of it is to see God doing all this For so doth Job here He hath put my Brethren far from me For 1. This quickens the tryal and helps it to work when we see a Supreme hand in it 2. Saints seeing God in such a tryal will see also that his end in it is but to try them and that therefore they should look well how they bear it when God puts them in the furnace and on the stage to give proof of what is within them 3. They will also see that a compendious way to get an issue in such a tryal is to wait on God that he may shew mercy and then the bowels of all others as it may be needful will be loosed upon them as Job found Chap. 42.7 10. with 11. See Jer. 42.12 4. They may also see in some cases that God turns off false friends from the godly not only for their tryal but for bringing about the ruine of these friends Thus was it with Egypt after they degenerated from their wonted kindness to Israel Psal 105.25 26 27 28 c. and with many other false friends to that people Vers 15. They that dwell in my house and my maids count me for a stranger I am an an aliant in their sight 16. I called my servant and he gave me no answer I intreated him with my mouth The Second Branch of this complaint and instance is That he was sleighted in his own house by his domesticks maids and servants who took no more notice of him than if he had been a stranger and alien v. 15. nor would so much as answer him when he called for their help even though he laid aside his authority and did not command but used intreaties v. 16. As for those who dwell in his house whom he mentions with his maids and servants it is not needful to understand by those any Widows and Orphans whom he entertained and it seems some of them in his own family Chap. 31.16 17 18. nor yet any of them who made ordinary
duty he expected should have been performed to him Namely that he who was afflicted should have met with pity and kindness from a friend and a godly friend Especially when his affliction was not ordinary but a melting down as the word is or a wasting of his courage and strength 2. He chargeth him with the neglect of this duty pointing at the cause of this neglect which was the abandoning of the fear of God which would have restrained him from this cruel and rigid way of proceeding and withal he insinuates how dangerous it was to forsake this fear of God who being the Almighty could easily punish contemners of his Majesty And so whereas Eliphaz chargeth on him that his carriage spake him to be destitute of the fear of God Chap. 4.4 5 6. he retorts the charge asserting that his inhumanity did much rather prove that to be his own case From this verse Learn 1. Afflictions especially if they be great and sharp will soon exhaust created strength and cause it melt like wax before the fire For Job insinuates that he was melted See Psal 22.14 2. In a condition of sad affliction albeit none can give complete case or deliverance but God alone Yet sympathie and compassion from men will contribute somewhat to sweeten and allay the bitterness of that cup For pity from a friend would have afforded some ease to Job 3. True friendship ought to shew it self in times of affliction were it but in sympathie and pity when men can do no more and they ought so to compassionate as they may be stirred up to do all that they can for the afflicteds relief And especially it is required when the greatness of the affliction calls aloud for it that not only men forbear to be cruel but that they be kind also For to him that is afflicted or melted pity should be shewed from his friend A brother is born for adversity Prov. 17.17 and tryals are let forth not only to try those who are touched with them but to try the tenderness and sympathie of others also See Obad. ver 11 12. 4 Though sympathie with those in trouble be the duty of friends yet godly men may expect to be deprived of this for the perfecting of their tryal For Job may well assert that this is their duty but he finds no such thing among them 5. The fear of God in the hearts of men is so effectual to make them charitable in judging of the state of others Iam 4.11.12 and compassionate and tender toward these in troubles Gen. 42.18 That where these are wanting men cannot sufficiently evidence that they have the fear of God by their Professions Prayers or other common practices For Job interpreteth this want to be a forsaking of the fear of the Almighty See Iam. 1.27 Col. 3.12 13. 1 Joh. 4.20 For true Piety and Humanity flowing there from do require that men do not deny sympathie and what help they can afford to the afflicted were it but a room in their heart and a wise consideration of their case Psal 41.1 And therefore it cannot be Piety that prompts men to discourage the godly under their afflictions far less to be active in inflicting their troubles 6. As it is said to be altogether void of the fear of God so it is a very heinous sin when men who pretend to the fear of God do make apostasie and relinquish that course Or when they who really fear God do abandon it in part especially in these practices and duties which are their present work and exercise to which God calls them For this he chargeth upon Eliphaz that he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty Not that he peremptorily asserteth him to be an hypocrite or a total Apostate but that he did abandon his present duty of sympathie whereby God called him now to evidence his Piety 7. It is a very dangerous thing to evidence the want of the fear of God or to give any proof of our forsaking thereof in particular exigents and trying duties he being the Almighty God with whom men have to do in that case Therefore doth he point out this sin to be a forsaking of the fear of the Almighty See Jer. 5.20 Vers 15. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook and as the stream of brooks they pass away 16. Which are blackish by reason of the ice and wherein the snow is hid 17. What time they wax warm they vanish when it is hot they are consumed out of their place 18. The paths of their way are turned aside they go to nothing and perish 19. The troops of Tema looked the companies of Sheba waited for them 20. They were confounded because they had hoped they came thither and were ashamed 21. For now ye are nothing ye see my casting down and are afraid In these verses Job chargeth all his three Friends with deceitful and unfaithful disappointing of his expectation This charge is propounded in proper terms ver 15. that his Brethren had dealt far otherwise with him then he expected And it is illustrated by a comparison in the rest of the verses Wherein we are to consider 1. The Proposition of the comparison ver 15 20. It is taken from Winter-brooks in those dry and hot Countries ver 15. which being full of water and locked up with black Ice and Snow do seem to promise that they will keep that store for another season ver 16. But in Summer when the heat cometh the Earth drinketh and the Sun drieth up these Brooks so that they vanish and come to nothing and their current is not to be found like a passenger that is gone out of the way ver 17 18. Whence it came to pass that those Travellers of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah and Ishmael Gen. 25.1 2 3 13 14 15. who with other Easterlings marched together in troops with their Beasts for carriage Gen. 37.25 Isai 21.13 and so needed much water were pitifully disappointed For seeing those Brooks so full in Winter when they travelled that way they laid their account to lodge by them in Summer ver 19. But not only did they miss of their expectation but were confounded and ashamed that ever they should have expected such a benefit by them ver 20. 2. The Application of the comparison Which is not only summarily hinted in the entry ver 15. but more clearly put home ver 21. Wherein 1. He asserts they are nothing or which is the same ye are like to it nothing as they are Before they seemed to be his great Friends such as he might have expected much kindness from in his affliction and their unexpected visit might have heightned his expectation But now in his strait he finds that they are nothing or as good as nothing in respect of what they should have been and he expected from them being unfit to play the friends in his strait as he asserteth Chap. 13.4 2. He gives an evidence and proof of this assertion
each other with an eye to this that they may be infirm and that they are appointed to be helpers in such cases 5. Where God hath his own Children to try and especially when in such a case they are joyned to those who either are without grace or have strong corruptions no ties or Bonds and no Arguments they can use with Relations will hold off a cross from them For albeit she was his wife and he intreated her by the strongest Argument he could use yet she perseveres in her ill temper If persons be either graceless or entertain strong corruptions they are not to be leaned to in a day of tryal and especially if they live under good means as she did in his family and are not bettered And before a man want a needful tryal the very wife of his bosom will be a tryal Mic. 7.5 6. 6. Whatever be the undutifulness of Relations particularly in marriage Society Yet it is the duty of the godly to keep within their bounds For though he handled her more roughly in what concerned God Chap. 2.10 Yet in his complaint of her miscarriage toward him he declares he only intreated and dealt lovingly with her as became a husband to do to his wife 7. Albeit Gods institution of marriage and his command do tie man and wife to the mutual duties of love and tenderness yet Issue and Children are notable pledges and bonds of matrimonial affection and should be improved as such For he pressed a strong Argument to reclaim her to her duty when he entreated her for the Childrens sake of his own body This implyeth that love betwixt married persons should be growing daily for he supposeth it should be heightened by those means and cherished by every proof of love they get in their marriage society particularly by Gods giving them Children For which end they should be devoted to God that they may be blessed to them for that as for other ends And where married persons want Children they should seek after the more of God which will not only make up that want but will keep fast the bonds of marriage affection without them Vers 18. Yea young children despised me I arose and they spake against me The Fourth Branch of this complaint and instance is That very young ones who before respected him did now follow the croud in despising him And albeit he stood up to reprove and dash them yet to his face they persisted to speak disdainfully to him Doct. 1. It is the duty of younger persons to reverence the aged especially if they be also honourable for dignity For the want of this is complained of as a grievance young Children despised me See Lev. 19.32 2. As honour and respect among men is empty in it self so it is very inconstant and little to be leaned to For so Job sound it when very young Children withdrew their respect from him who had been reverenced by all Chap. 29.7 8 9 c. Greatness is but a lie Psal 62.9 And if men either hunt sinfully after respect or lean much to it they are in a dangerous Errour For it is but one of the passing shews of the world 3. Young ones are very apt to follow the ill example they see For when elder persons within and without doors had sleighted Job it is added Yea young Children despised me For this cause young Children were torn by Bears for mocking the Prophet as they had learned to do from their Parents and others in Bethel that nest of Idolatry 2 King 2.23 24. Therefore Parents had need to see to their Children what example they give or suffer to be given them 4. The looking to Instruments imployed in a tryal adds oft-times to the bitterness of it For so Job resents here that yea or even young Children despised him So Chap. 30.12 c. Psal 35.15 16. 69.12 But we must stoop and consider that the imploying of such Instruments is a part of our tryal wherein we should look to God and that those irritations of our corruptions are the touchstone of our humility Neither is it enough to have somewhat to say against the Instruments of our trouble if we mind not the Soveraign hand of God in it nor learn the lessons he teacheth thereby 5. Our endeavours or exercise of any power or authority we have will not ease but rather add to our tryal till God come and interpose For his arising and engaging to compesce them did not hinder them to speak against him but made their persisting to speak more bitter than if he had altogether sleighted them I arose saith he adding to the former that they despised him and yet they spake against me It is safe to sleight many such irritations and when ever we are called to use means for our own relief and they succeed not we ought to silence our own hearts with this that our tryal is not yet ended Vers 19. All my inward friends abhorred me and they whom I loved are turned against me The Fifth and last Branch of this complaint and instance is That his dearly beloved and bosom friends did abhor him as an hypocrite and not a godly man and did turn against him to weaken his hands and shake his confidence This part of his complaint is chiefly to be understood of his three Friends and in the last part of the verse he speaks of the person in the singular number This man whom I loved though the Verb be in the plural number they are turned against me An usual change of number in this language to be understood distributively that every one even to the least one whom he loved was so changed or thereby he would reflect particularly on Bildad who spake last that he among the rest was thus estranged Doct. 1. Though godly prudent men be friendly and civil to all with whom they converse yet they make distinction of friends and do admit but some only upon their secrets and counsels As here Job beside those v 13 14. had his inward friends or men of his secret as it is in the Original There is no small need of Gods guiding in our choice of friends whom we may trust from among all our familiars 2. Intimate and bosom friendship must be entertertained by love For his inward friends were they whom he loved to whom he expressed much affection at all times for entertaining of his friendship and whom he constructed well of so long as he could See Prov. 18.24 Where friendship is ill entertained it justly ends in division and alienation 3. Dearest and most intimate friends may forsake a godly man when God hath him to try and though some friend stick closer then a brother Prov. 18. 24. Yet even such a friend may fail in a time of tryal as Job here found Some of the godlies bosom-bosom-friends may be but gilded Hypocrites who will discover what they are in a tryal Psal 41.9 55.12 13 14. Others though godly may be alienated upon
a man which together with what followeth clears that this is not a Fiction And the word here rendred Man signifieth not an ordinary man but an eminent and excellent man such as Job was both for endowments and authority As for his Countrey the Land of Uz the name hath certainly been given it from some ancient possessour thereof Now we find in Scripture mention made of several bearing that name One the Grandchild of Shem Gen. 10.23 who is recorded by Historians to have given the name to the Countrey about Damascus toward the North border of the Land of Canaan Anonother the son of Nahor Gen. 22.20 21. where the name Huz is the same with Uz in the Original who gave the name to a part of Arabia the Desert And a third of the Posterity of Esau Gen. 36.28 whence a part at least of Edom in Arabia Petrea or the Stony seems to have taken the name of Uz Lam. 4.21 And because these two Arabia's bordered one upon another and possibly also these two Lands of Uz this may be conceived as a reason why the Land of Uz is sometime spoken of as a large Countrey comprehending several Nations and Kings Jer. 25.20 In one of these two last Countreys did Job live for it is expresly said ver 3. that he dwelt in the East which it seems must be understood according to the usual reckoning of Scripture with relation to the Land of Canaan as these Countries also lay And it seems most probable also that he lived in Arabia the Desert being either of the Posterity of Nahor or of the sons of Abraham by Keturah who settled also there Gen. 25 9. For in this Countrey or the Regions about did his Friends live It was here where Travellers were straitened with want of water from which he draws the comparison Ch. 6.15 20. It did border upon the Sabeans a people in Arabia Foelix or the Happy and stretched also toward the Caldeans from both which Countries Robbers came upon him Ch. 1.15 17. And not to insist any longer we find by the History it self that he lived in a Countrey so near the Sea namely the Red Sea as he was acquainted with the Sea-monsters there Ch. 41.1 And so near Canaan that he is not a stranger to the River Jordan Chap. 40.23 As for his Name Job or the signification thereof there is no necessity to insist on it We find one Job among the Sons of Issachar Gen. 46.13 But neither was he this man nor are the names written one way in the Original They walk upon as great uncertainty who take Job to be that Jobab Gen. 10.29 of the Posterity of Shem or rather another of the Posterity of Esau who reigned over Edom Gen. 36.33 whose name Jobab they say was contracted in and after his calamity into that of Job His name is indeed derived from a root which signifieth to be at enmity which being taken actively may point out what an enemy or opposite he was to all injustice and unjust persons in the exercise of his Office while he was in prosperity Chap. 29.14 15 16 17. And if we take it passively it may point out how much he was maligned for his Piety and Justice by Satan and his Instruments And if â—ithal we assert that he had not this name so contracted till his calamities came upon him for which notwithstanding there is no ground it may intimate what great opposition he sustained after that God once gave him up to be tryed But leaving these uncertainties that which is further remarkable in this verse Is The second branch of this description taken from his piety and fruits of his faith where albeit either of these expressions perfectness and uprightness when put alone in Scripture doth comprehend all that is here signified by both Yet being here both expressed they may be thus distinguished His perfectness points at his inward integrity sincerity and streightness of heart and his uprightness expresseth his streightness in outward conversation and in his dealing with men Unto this is added his fearing of God to shew that his honesty was not a meer moral uprightness but was accompanied with and flowed from true Piety and a Filial awe of God From whence also flowed his eschewing of evil or a guarding against sin with the occasions thereof and the insinuations and tentations whereby it assaulted and pursued him and an avoiding and turning from it by repentance when he was at any time overtaken with it And this also is added as a further qualification of his perfectness and uprightness that it was no sinlesness but a sincere wrastling against sin From this Verse Learn 1. Such is the freedom and efficacy of the grace of God that he can when he will raise up eminent servants to himself in very corrupt places and societies As here he hath a godly Job in the Land of Uz who was not of the blessed seed of Abraham So was there some awe of God in Gerar where Abraham did not look for it Gen. 20.8 11. a Melchisedeck among the cursed Canaanites and a Rahab in Jericho as well as a Job and his godly Friends in Arabia And albeit it be conceived that the Lord did not reject and wholly give up the body of all other Nations before the time that he entered into an express Covenant with Israel upon Mount Sinai And therefore it was nothing strange that there were then such eminent Saints in diverse parts of the world Yet these instances in that time may teach us to leave a latitude to free grace in all ages of the world and in all places how corrupt soever where any spark of the knowledge of God in Christ may be had And as it did much condemn and aggravate the Apostasie of the Nations that beside the knowledge of God to be gathered from the works of Creation Rom. 1.19 20. they had such eminent Saints who did contribute to keep in the light of the knowledg of the true God among them So their eminency in grace may condemn them who come far short under more plentiful means 2. As true godliness is a mans chiefest advantage and therefore it is named in the first place in this description of Job before his Children and Wealth So an approven religious man is he who hath inward simplicity and godly sincerity in his heart free from hypocrisie or any wicked byass For herein was Job commendable that he was a perfect man or single hearted and sincere And this is premitted to the rest as chiefly taken notice of by God next unto faith in the promised Messiah whereof this and the rest are fruits and effects 3. No man can prove his sincerity before God nor hath warrant to pretend to any such thing who doth not make Conscience of streightness and uprightness in his outward conversation whereby mens profession is adorned before the World Therefore it is added That man was perfect and upright 4. Moral honesty and uprightness in conversation
but he who is fitted thereby to bear adversity more submissively That no godly man ought to repine at any mean how bitter soever which may contribute to purge out his corruptions and promote his Communion with God and That when God freely conferreth good things upon us we should not take it ill if sometime he make us taste the bitter fruits of our own ill deserving Nor should we decline to undergo any toyl and service in our Generation when God hath by many proofs of love prevented us and so to say put an hire and encouragement in our hand 11. Men ought not to suspend their submission to trying dispensations till they find them pleasing to their sense But it is the touch-stone of their submission if when they find their condition bitter yet they do acquiesce For Job acknowledged his lot to be in it self evil of which see on Amos 3.6 and yet he pleads for submission Should we not receive evil In the end of the verse there is subjoyned a testimony concerning this behaviour of Job Nothing is further expressed concerning his wife who probably was convinced and put to silence by this reproof But to refute Satans calumny God passeth his sentence of approbation upon what Job had done That in all this Job sinned not with his lips It is somewhat different from that testimony Chap. 1.22 which is more ample Here it is imported That albeit there were somewhat boyling in his breast which afterward burst forth Chap. 3. yet not only did he forbear to express it when the stroke came upon him ver 8. and when his wife tempted him v. 9. But when he spake he spake contrary to any suggestions that were in his heart Doct. 1. In all conflicts and tryals the eye of God is upon his people to observe and pass sentence according to their behaviour For this sentence presupposeth Gods observing of Job 2. Albeit it be very bitter to the people of God to be frequently tossed with renewed tentations and assaults Yet this may encourage them that every renewed conflict and their standing out in it draws out a new commendation from God For here a new sentence is passed in Jobs favours 3. It should be seriously remembered by Saints that the thing which God chiefly observes under tryal is how they study to avoid sin and that he will commend accordingly For that is the thing God did eye and commend in Job that in all this did not Job sin 4. As Saints may expect that their sincere carriage especially under long and renewed afflictions will be attended with some humbling discoveries of themselves So God will not deny his testimony to their sincerity notwithstanding these discoveries For Job is still commended notwithstanding it be implyed that there was some disorder in his spirit which he endeavoured to suppress 5. When Saints find tentations boyling in their hearts ready to break forth it is acceptable service as to mourn for them before God so to endeavour to suppress them by silence and as they have occasion to speak contrary to the suggestions of their own hearts as being a mean to honour God to prevent the scandal of the weak even to cure their own distempers For this is a part of Jobs commendation that he did not sin with his lips but suppressed his thoughts and spake on Gods behalf against the suggestions of his wife See Psal 39.1 9. 106.33 Vers 11. Now when Jobs three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him they came every one from his own place Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him 12. And when they lift up their eyes afar off and knew him not they lifted up their voyce and wept and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him for they saw that his grief was very great In the third part of the Chapter is recorded how Job was visited by three of his Friends which occasioned much exercise and trouble to him though not intended by them In it we have to consider 1. The persons who performed this office of love to Job His three Friends came every one from his own place who are further described by their Names and Original Eliphaz being descended of Teman the grandchild of Esau Gen. 36 11. Bildad being of the posterity of Shuah the son of Abraham by Keturah Gen. 25.1 2. Zophar is called the Naamathite being either descended of that Timuah the son Esau Gen. 36.40 who is called Naamath by transposition of letters usual in Scripture names or dwelling in the City Naamath afterward possessed by Judah toward the coast of Edom Joshuah 15.21 41. These were the three chief persons who came to visit him of whom there is most mention and who probably came first Though we find Elihu was with him also Chap. 32. and it seems others likewise Chap. 35.4 And this account of his friends and their descent gives some light to the knowledge of the time wherein Job lived 2. The occasion and rise of this visit when they heard of all this evil that was come upon him they came every one from his own place Job had now so small a family and those so froward Chap. 19.15.16 that he could not send any to acquaint his friends with his condition But they hearing of what had befallen him which considering Jobs dignity was divulged farr and near and gave occasion to every man to speak and judg of it as he thought fit do appoint to come together and visit him So that this visit was not made till some time after the stroke when the report of it was now spread in the Countries about though it cannot certainly be determined how long time intervened betwixt the one and the other 3. Their resolution and scope in this visit They made an appointment together that it might have more weight and they might be helpful one to another to come to mourn with him and comfort him or to testifie by their sympathie how much they were affected with his condition that so they might be in a nearer capacity to minister comfort to him and he might be better prepared to receive it from their hands 4. Their putting of this resolution in practice at least the first part of it or their sympathizing with him ver 12 13. which is witnessed by their weeping aloud and other Ceremonial expressions of sorrow Such as renting of their Mantles of which Chap. 1.20 and casting up dust toward Heaven that it might fall down upon their heads in sign of grief and humility Josh 7 6. Neh. 9.1 Lam. 2.10 And by their sitting so much of seven days and nights as was fit for visiting of him for no doubt they withdrew and slept
By all which it should be stained or its beauty hid and taken away as a Room without light and the blackness of the day should terrifie it or make it terrible to others 2. He wisheth that God may not regard it from above That it may not only want light but all other evidences of his favour and noticing of it such as dew rain c. or its being happy by any good event upon it By all which expressions so appositely chosen though he pour forth his own passion Yet withal he insinuates these truths 1. That it is a great though ordinary mercy that we enjoy the light of the day seeing it would be a curse to the day or rather to men to want it And that it is a mercy God hath so contrived the vicissitudes of light and darkness as may be most comfortable and not terrible 2. That Gods Providence doth so particularly notice every day as the blessing and comfort thereof depends on him If he do not regard it from above it will prove but a sad day Thirdly Against the night ver 6 7 8 9. Unto which he wisheth 1. That darkness may seise upon it ver 6. which though it be natural to the night to be dark he wisheth to it in a singular manner v. 9. That it may not have the very light of Stars which are comfortable in the night as small mercies are in sad times and that no light or dawning of the day may succeed to it and so it should be denyed all hope of comfort which rendereth hard conditions intolerable 2. That Nature should disclaim it from coming in the account of the course of the Sun or Moon ver 6. or that it should not be reckoned among joyful nights Which is indeed a great curse when any creature stands useless 3. Whereas it was an usual custom to have Festival Assemblies and mirth in the night 1 Thes 5.6 7. the abuse whereof is not here approved but only the custome alluded unto it is wished that this might be honoured with none such but that it be a mournful solitary night wherein men are deprived of the society of friends which is one of the great comforts of time v. 7. 4. That it may be execrated by all as well as it was by him as grieved persons would have all to be displeased with that which vexeth themselves and that with as great vehemency as those hired mourning women who have signs of sorrow and tears at their command and who in imitation of real mourners are ready to raise up and renew their mourning after they have mourned much before do use to execrate the day of their Benefactors death ver 8. The expressions allude to that custom 2 Chron. 35.25 Jer. 9.17 Amos 5.16 And this I take to be the right translation and sense of this verse rather then with some to understand it of Mariners who being tossed with a Tempest do curse the day in which they went to Sea and are ready by their wishes to raise up Leviathan which is here rendered their mourning or the Sea-monsters to swallow them up For though Jobs resentments in this Chapter be no less unreasonable then if one should wish to be violently swallowed to avoid a present tempest yet that is not the usual practice of Mariners in a Tempest Jonah 1.5 6. Neither do they hit upon the true sense who taking Leviathan also for a proper Name do understand it here figuratively of the Devil that great Dragon whom some wicked men are ready to raise up in great trouble that they may consult him about an issue as Saul did 1 Sam. 28. and all of them are ready to raise him up by their cursed invocating of him that either they may be delivered or cut off For though Job be passionate enough in this Discourse yet he was very far from this height of impiety The reason of all this Imprecation v. 10. is because that day fell out to be his birth-day upon which so much sorrow followed reckoning that if he had not been born he had not met withal that vexation If we consider this whole Imprecation against the day of his birth with the ground of it As we may not ascend so high as to tax Job of blasphemy or of condemning the order of Nature and consequently of condemning God who established it So we cannot but discern great passion and impatience evidenced by its fruits and effects in these particulars 1. His inconsiderateness That trouble being so natural to Adams posterity Chap. 5.7 as is acknowledged by himself Chap. 14.1 and submitted unto Chap. 1.21 2.10 Yet he doth now free at it They had need of much wisdome considerately to ponder all things who would be patient in trouble Iam. 1.5 with 4. 2. His rash stubbornness in fretting at trouble For albeit it be lawful to desire to be rid of trouble with submission to the will of God Yet when we see it is the Lords will that we should be under trouble it is not our duty peremptorily to stand out and refuse but to stoop and submit For by this submission we take the sting out of our own crosses Jer. 10.19 Whereas want of resolution and stooping doubleth the bitterness thereof 3. His selfishness Had this complaint been because of common troubles upon the people of God it had been more tolerable But being only for his own ease and that albeit he disputed afterward that Saints might be in the like case sorrow was not hid from his eyes ver 10. as if he had been a priviledged person was very selfish Impatience is ordinarily a great ponderer of greifs because they are ours little weighing the troubles of others 4. His absurd and unreasonable blaming of a wrong cause of his trouble For what influence had his birth-day on his trouble or on his birth either it being but a naked circumstance Impatience is still unreasonable and when a man is thereby imbittered he madly breaks forth on what comes nearest him whether it be too blame or not 5. His poor shift which he takes to help himself For beside that he wisheth a thing impossible as the expunging of a day he wisheth also that which was unprofitable for his help For suppose the day were either so expunged or marked as he wisheth what could that help him now would it recall all his sufferings But it is always found that impatience taketh the longest way and falls not upon the most speedy remedy and mean of help 6. His ingratitude and under-valuing of all the mercies he had received as not able to counter-balance his present grief contrary to his own Principle formerly Chap. 2.10 But now his birth and all the mercies he had received are his burden Ingratitude will soon bury in oblivion many favours if we be cast in any trouble But it is our duty to remember former kindnesses or present continued mercies even in the midst of trouble and to reckon that new proofs of love
here a Job is provided for those about him Gods faithfulness is engaged that his people under tentation shall find such a way to escape that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 And this is one special mean of support among others to have a faithful and useful friend to encourage and direct them So that Saints in distress may certainly expect in Gods due time and way consolation and comforters were it even in Arabia where Job lived 5. In dealing with crushed and tender minds Jobs practice affords two Rules necessary to be observed 1. That the afflicted be well instructed and their judgments informed in divine truth which will cure much anxiety disquiet and diffidence which flow from ignorance Psal 9.10 For Job made it his work to instruct many 2. That whatever Instructions or reproofs and admonitions be found necessary to give them as afflicted souls may need such yet care must be had that they be not thereby weakened but strengthened to keep their grips For Jobs scope in all his Instructions was still to strengthen and uphold See 1 Sam. 12.20 21. Doct. 6. God not only can but when he seeth it fit doth add an effectual blessing to the weak endeavours of his servants and children for strengthning and encouraging of fainting souls and other gracious effects As here his words upheld him that was falling c. which may encourage men as they have a calling to go forth in the strength of the Lord to deal with souls according to their various cases which otherwise doth appear to be an insuperable task as Exod. 6.9 Jer. 22.21 See 1 Cor. 1.22 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Secondly Jobs present behaviour under his own trouble ver 5. He who had been stout enough so long as trouble kept off himself now when it cometh and but toucheth himself becometh so faint in spirit and troubled and perplexed in mind that he knoweth not what to do In this he reflects upon Jobs former complaint Chap 3. wherein there was distemper of spirit more then enough discovered And it doth hold out these Truths 1. Greatness of trouble may drive a man from the comfortable use of what light he may have in his judgment ready to minister to others in cold bloud For Job who comforted others now faints and is troubled This needs not seem strange if we consider Partly That comforting of souls is the work of God and therefore had men never so much clear light yet if God withdraw they will want the use of it when they have most need Yea Ministers who dispense Consolation to others may yet be disconsolate enough themselves till God interpose Not that men are warranted to lie by from making use of what light they have for their own encouragement 1 Sam. 30 6. But that their activity without dependence upon God will not effectuate any thing Partly That there is a great difference betwixt a tryal apprehended in our judgment and felt by sense In the one case a mans judgment may be clear enough and his spirit resolute But in the other his spirit and judgement being over-charged he cannot so easily recollect and fix himself Hence it was that even our Lord was troubled in soul when the real sense of trouble came upon him Joh. 12.27 2. Faintness and discouragement of spirit when way it given thereunto doth soon perplex men that had they never so much light they will want the comfortable use of it for when once fainteth then he is easily troubled confounded and perplexed So that humble fortitude of mind being endeavoured and studied after it keeps a man in a near capacity to receive influences and direction from God for expeding him out of his perplexities Psal 27.14 Yet in this challenge we may observe a double injury done to Job 1. That Eliphaz doth so much aggravate his weakness and frailty For neither did he so faint as to quit his grips of an interest in Gods love and favour Nor is it solidly argued That because in his tentations his weakness did appear in his fainting and perplexities Therefore he is a wicked man as he would infer in the following verses It is our mercy that God doth otherwise judge of the ravings and swoundings of his afflicted Children For if this were sound Divinity that every able comforter of others when he is not able to comfort himself and every one that faints and is perplexed when God is emptying and humbling him under trouble is a wicked man or hypocrite Who of all the Lords tryed Worthies should ever dare to claim to integrity These things do indeed proclaim our frailty and oft-times we our selves have a sinful hand therein Yet the experience of Saints recorded in Scripture doth witness that they are incident to the best of Saints 2. Eliphaz doth also too much extenuate Jobs tryal and tentation drawing forth this weakness calling it but a touch contrary to their thoughts thereof Chap. 2.12 It is true a touch may import a sharp stroke which a man is made to feel as Chap. 2.5 Yet it is but a very slender word to express all Jobs great afflictions And it teacheth That many are apt to pry into and aggravaâ—e the failings of Saints who do little ponder the strong tentations they have to drive them so to slip But God though he be angry with those who raise a clamour above their strait doth ponder our tentations when he judgeth of our failings and consequently pitieth as Elisha did the Shunamite 2 King 4.27 The third head of his Argument is an Inference and conclusion drawn from his comparing the former two together ver 6. Wherein he thinks himself so clear that he dare appeal to Job himself whether this his way did not prove his Religion unsound and hypocriticall and that by his fainting who had comforted others he had given a poor proof of that Piety to which he had so much pretended Some take up those Questions thus Hath not thy fear been thy confidence and the uprightness of thy ways been thy hope That is Doth it not now appear that thy pretending to Piety to fear God and walk uprightly of which Chap. 1.1 was only mercenary because thou trusted and hoped to continue in prosperity thereby seeing now when thou art stripped of what thou enjoyedst thou faintest and discoverest that thou wast not sincere This was Satans very calumny against Job Chap. 1.9 10. now cast in his teeth by a godly friend As oft-times also the child of God may meet with his own very bosom tentations cast up to him by way of reproach for his further tryal and that he may be roused up to resist these tentations which otherwise he doth but too much cherish Psal 22.1 7 8 with 9. And whatever wrong they did to Job in this of which we heard somewhat on the former verse and somewhat will be added hereafter yet there is a general truth in this That time-servers can take up a form of godliness when it
moment of the day Or being but short-lived like that creature which is said to live but one day See Psal 39.5 Or being cut off in a short time when God begins to deal with him Isa 38.12 Psal 90.5 6. Or his whole life and every day of it from morning to evening being but a daily dying and travelling from the womb to the grave All these do well enough sute the scope and may teach us 1. That death in it self is a destroying or breaking and braying in pieces as making havock of the poor man crushing his imagined excellencies and irreparably ruining him in his being though without prejudice to the power of God to be exerted in his future Resurrection Therefore it is said They are destroyed or broken in pieces 2. As death is terrible in it self so man lieth under so great hazard of it as may keep him low before God being a creature that is dying daily though he consider it not being uncertain what moment it may arrest him being unable to hinder the stroke of death to do its work in a short time and having but a short while of life if well considered how long soever it be forborn All these humbling considerations are imported in their being destroyed from morning to evening 2. That in regard the death of man is ordinary it is but little regarded ver 20. That they perish for ever is not to be understood here of eternal destruction for this sentence is true of all men even godly men But that men are continually dying and perishing in all times and ages and that though this be a great stroke and a perishing for ever without any hope of restitution to this life again Yet it is but little noticed or emproved Neither do they who are left behind make the use of that which they so ordinarily see nor do they who die ever return to give any proof of their proficiency by that stroke This teacheth 1. Death is in this respect a great stroke that it cuts off a man irrecoverably from all his enjoyments and from all opportunity of emproving any condition in this life So that if a man do not emprove time while he hath it and have no hope of somewhat beyond time he is in a poor condition In this respect all men at death perish for ever without hope of returning to this life 2. It is the constant course of divine Providence that as one generation is coming so another is going And that at all times death is still snatching some from there idols liberating others from their toil separating dearest friends and preaching the doctrine of Mortality to all For thus also they perish for ever in all ages and times 3. Albeit it be the duty of the sons of men to emprove every document of mortality which is laid before them in the experience of others Eccl. 7.2 Yet such is the stupidity of most that they profit nothing thereby nor are made to study the uncertainty of mans life or the vanity of many of mens projects on earth Luk. 12.19 20. For thus they perish without any regarding See Psal 49.13 14. 4. Such is the stupidity and corruption of men that even remarkable dispensations becoming ordinary are sleighted and do not affect them For albeit death be a singular stroke yet being ordinary for ever in all times there is no regarding or emproving of it As wonders will nor profit them who do not emprove the ordinary means Luk. 16.31 So the more ordinary and frequent wonders be our corrupt hearts will regard them the less 3. That by death men are stript of all their excellency which is in them ver 21 Which is not so much to be understood of the souls leaving the body as of their parting with all their external pomp and glory at death For both in sickness before death the memory judgment and other endowments of the mind do perish in some beauty and strength of body do languish in all and at death there is nothing left but a loathsome carcass and all worldly pomp and splendour is cut off from them It is here to be remembred that the Spirit of God doth not hear speak of men as to their eternal state but as to their externall condition which they enjoyed in the world And it teacheth 1. God is very bountiful to the sons of men in conferring many excellencies upon them both in their bodies minds and outward estate For there is supposed an excellency in them And albeit it be mans fault to value these too highly as their chief and only excellency yet their own true worth and Gods bounty in conferring of them ought not to be forgotten 2. God is also so kind as to continue all or many of these excellencies with men even to the grave For so is here supposed that their excellency doth not go away till then 3. Whatever forbearance the sons of men get in this life yet death will strip them of all their outward splendour and pomp For then all their excellency doth go away See Psal 49.17 Isa 14.9 10. c. 4. It is a very great fault and a gross neglect in men that this ordinary plain lesson of the vanity of outward excellencies is so little studied For this Question Doth not their excellency which is in them go away doth import that it is a clear case and yet withal that many do so walk as if they did not believe nor heed it and therefore must be posed if they do not believe and consider it 4. That they die without wisdom ver 21. or they die and there is no wisdom This may be true generally of all men that though some have profited much better in their life then others yet all may confess that they die before they be so wise as to understand as they ought what it is to live well or to emprove the examples of mortality which they have seen in their time It may also be understood only of the wicked who die without the knowledge of God and without that wisdom which floweth from right numbering of their days Psal 49.20 90.12 But it is more safe to understand it generally in this sense That they die without having any skill or wisdom how to avoid death And it teacheth however wicked men play many pranks with their wit in their lives and do nimbly extricate themselves imminent hazards though a prudent man foreseeing the storm may be able to avoid it Prov. 22.3 27.12 Yet death will triumph over all their skill and parts their wit cannot deliver them from death nor afford them any way to escape it Thus they die even without wisdom See 2 Sam. 3.33 Eccl. 2.16 CHAP. V. In this Chapter Eliphaz yet continueth his Discourse to Job consisting as was marked on Chap. 4. of a reprehension wherein he labours to convince Job of wickedness or hypocrisie and of some Exhortations to amend his life and turn to God considering the hand of
things may concurr to corrupt the senses of men in particular exigents Prosperity may blunt their tenderness and bribe their light to allow them ease Desertion as befel David in the matter of Bathsheba and Hezekiah in the matter of the Ambassadours of the King of Babylon may draw forth proofs of weakness and good men may miscarry under it especially when they are not sensible that they are deserted but the refreshments of prosperity do supply the the room of spiritual life And troubles do readily produce a feverish distemper of senses especially when false Christs appears in time of trouble Matth. 24 22 23 24. This may teach us to walk in a continual jealousie of our selves and not to lean to our own understanding Prov. 3.5 CHAP. VII Job having in the preceeding Chapter excused his own complaints renewed his desire of Death and sharply rebuked his Friends for their inhumane cruelty and for their being deficient in that duty he might have expected from them in his need and withal having exhorted them that laying aside prejudices they would take a second look of his condition He now in this Chapter for their further Information falls on a new Discourse concerning his case wherein he labours to justifie his desire of death desires pity and commiseration and complains he can find it at no hand So in this Chapter 1. He studies to justifie his desire of death For seeing mans life was not perpetual but had a prefixed period ver 1. and it being lawful for all oppressed creatures to seek a lawful and attainable out-gate ver 2. Why might not he seek that lawful out-gate of death who was afflicted beyond others ver 3 4. and so neer unto death that he expected not ease but by it ver 5 6. 2. He pleads for pity in regard of his frailty and his miserable and hopeless condition ver 7 8 9 10. 3. He complains sadly of Gods dealing toward him and having resolved to ease himself that way ver 11. regrets that his trouble was greater then he needed to tame him ver 12. that it was uncessant ver 13 14. and put him to hard shifts ver 15 16. And that God needed not deal so severely with him either for tryal ver 17 18 19. or for punishment of his sin ver 20 21. Vers 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his days also like the days of an hireling IN this Discourse concerning Job's desire of death I need not debate whether the discourse be directed to God to move him to grant him that desired out-gate or to his Friends to convince them of their errour in the matter as he judged it For both may be intended in the Discourse as spoken in their audience to God His conclusion or particular desire of death is no further expressed here then in that general Proposition v. 2. and as it may be gathered from the Arguments and the account he gives of the causes pressing him to seek after it Only it is more expressly afterward poured out in the complaint His Arguments justifying this desire may be taken up in that one sum set down in the Analysis of the Chapter But for more clear unfolding of the Text I shall take up three Arguments in it Whereof the first in this verse is taken from the condition of mans life which is not to be perpetual but limited by God to such a period at which it shall end as a Souldier hath a set time of his warfare and watching and an hireling of working And therefore he thinks he may safely desire that end of his task and service on which all men ought to be resolving This argument he holds forth in a general Proposition and appeals to God or his Friends Consciences to which soever of them we take the speech to be directed if this were not a truth That there is an appointed time for man upon earth it being prefixed by God and mans frailty as his name here in the Original imports holding out that he cannot be perpetual within time The word rendered an appointed time signifieth also a warfare which is very opposite to the purpose in hand as not only pointing at the condition of mans life being a perpetual toil and a condition of many tentations and hazards such as a souldier is exposed to in wars See Chap. 10.17 But serving also illustrate the matter of prefixing a period to mans life man being like a Souldier who hath a prefixed age for his coming on service and for going off as Miles emeritus Or a certain time for which he is conduced for such a service in war and afterward disbanded and dismissed Or a prefixed time for standing on his Watch as Centinel after which he is relieved And to this purpose also serveth that other similitude of an hirelings days both pointing at their hard service and toil and the prefixed time for which they are hired This General Proposition holds forth these truths 1. The time of our life is prefixed to us by God There is an appointed time to man upon earth See Job 14.5 Which as it gives us no latitude for unwarrantable hazarding of our life for we ought to live according to his appointment who hath appointed our time So it may teach us not to live as those who are Masters of their own time Isa 56.12 Luk. 12.19 20. To be willing to die when God declares we shall live no longer for many are so far from Job's temper here that they come not the length of duty in this and not to fear them who threaten our life for his sake for they will not get our life till his time come Psal 31 13 14 15. 2. Mans life will end his glass will run and his course draw at last to a period For there is but an appointed time for man upon earth Let men think to make themselves never so perpetual yet they cannot avoid death Psal 49.6 c. Which men ought seriously to think upon Gal. 11.9 and not to be excessively eager in seeking great things seeing they must die and leave them all 3. Our life till we come to the period of it is like unto a warfare wherein as good Souldiers we are not to serve or please our selves 2 Tim. 2.4 nor to dispute our Generals Orders and should resolve to be in perpetual motion and travail and watching to â—un many hazards and look for no issue but either absolute victory or death or to be led captives by Satan And it is also like the dayes of an hireling who is bound to many hard services and much toil So much doth the Text hold forth and they who look otherwise on their life will be deceived Yet in all this we have this encouragement That we are doing our Captain and Master service that we are working our own work as well as his for a Souldier earns pay and an hireling wages by his work and that the worst of it will
it is not so with me Some read it as a reason of his offer Because I am not so with my self as if he had said I would debate my cause with God upon the terms propounded because I am nothing such in my own Conscience as your misapprehensions and aâ—â—ersions would represent me which yet do not move me sâ—â—ce I have a witness in my self to the contrary But the best reading according to the Original is But or because not so I with my self And so it contains both a regret and a resolution As if he had said seeing I am not so as I desire to be that I might plead my cause I have not that advantage to be delivered from Gods rod and terrour that I might get such an heaâ—ing of my cause Therefore I will give over to propound or make the offer and will do the best I can to digest all my grievances with my self in my own bosom A further account of which resolution is subjoyned in the next Chapter Whence Learn 1. Saints may be under disadvantages which God will not remove when they please and yet may remove them when they look upon them as past remedy For saith he But not so I. He obtained not now his desired liberty to plead his cause though afterward he did both with Elihu and God himself albeit the issue was not altogether such as he expected 2. Silent submission under hard dispensations is better then any disputation and quarrelling For so doth he resolve Because not so I with my self CHAP. X. Job having hitherto answered to what Bildad had said Partly concerning Gods Righteousness by acknowledging and magnifying of it Partly concerning his own righteousness by asserting and proving that without any prejudice to the Righteousness of God who had afflicted him he was a righteous man He cometh now to obviate what was insinuated in Bildad's discourse Namely That Job considering Gods Righteousness who had afflicted him and his own unrighteousness should seek to God and give over his complaints To this Job answers by his practice falling upon and renewing his wonted complaints Yet so as he indirectly labours to justifie his practice before his Friends in that he was so hard put to it before he began ver 1. And he more directly labours to justifie it in that he quits them as unfit Judges and dare go to God with his complaints and in that he presseth them home in his own judgment upon so strong and convincings grounds Some of which grounds are indeed sound Truths and clearly and positively asserted by him yet not sufficient to bottom his Conclusions or his Inferences from them proceed upon a mistake Others of them discover him to be brought to a great conflict betwixt faith and his tentation and present sense wherein he owns Truth but with a great debate And others of them declare him to be overpowred with his passion though he calm a little toward close of his discourse The Chapter may be taken up in two Parts In the first whereof to v. 20. we have his complaint or his endeavour to ease his sorrows by complaining This might be taken up in the rise of his complaint v. 1. The Proposition of it v. 2. and the prosecution of it v. 3 c. But I shall sum it up thus There is a complaint carried on in this Discourse which may be summed up in an expostulation with God that he did so sharply afflict him breaking him with present trouble and threatning him with more trouble yea even to cut him off with trouble This sum of his Expostulation may be gathered from ver 2 3 8 9 16 17. And his expostulating about this doth imply a request that God would not deal so with him This being scope of Job's Discourse the whole of it may be taken up in so many Arguments tending not only to justifie his complaints before his Friends as hath been said but chiefly to enforce his complaint and press his desire before God For as he judgeth there was no reason why his Friends should censure his complaint and much reason why God should regard it and change his dealing toward him Considering that he was put hard to it before he did complain ver 1. That it is hard measure if he be condemned before he be convinced of the cause and crime ver 2. That it doth not beseem God by dealing so hardly with him to oppress and sleight his own creature and servant and to seem to favour the wicked ver 3. That Good needs not this way of torturing him to find out what he is ver 4 5 6. That God knew he was not wicked and yet that would not avail him unless himself withdrew his hand ver 7. That God had made and preserved him and therefore he cannot but regret that he should so violently destroy his own workmanship ver 8.9 10 11 12 13. That he can see no cause of Gods dealing thus nor what God meant or intended by all this severity ver 14 15. That his trouble had put him in great confusion and therefore he thinks God should look to the greatness of his trouble which so confounded him ver 15 16 17. And that his trouble was so great it made him repent his being born and wish he had died from the womb ver 18 19. In the second part of â—he Chapter Job calming a little doth suâ—joyn to his former Expostulation a short Petition for respite and leave to breath a while before he died ver 20 21 22. Vers 1. My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitterness of my soul THis verse contains an account of the rise of Job's Expostulation and complaint which is the first Argument pressing his Friends not to misconstruct him and pleading with God that he would regard it and not deal so sharply with him For when he had resolved to smother his griefs Chap. 9.35 yet he could not but they made his life a burden to him And when again he laboured to suppress his complaints because of such a case yet he could not prevail But at last after many resolutions to the contrary his bitterness by reason of much affliction burst forth in a complaint and made him â—ry if he could find ease by so eloquent a way of pouring out his sorrows before God From which he leaveth it to be inferred That it beseemed God to respect such a complaint and the afflictions which pressed it out of him which were so great that he could not refrain from that way of it which was so contrary to his frequent resolutions and desires And That it was his Friends duty not to judge hardly of him though he complained when he was so pressed and put to it In general Obs 1. Gods Children while they are within time are made up of Flesh and Spirit Nature and Grace which under trouble will have strong wrestlings one with another taking resolutions time about
weakness which he is to discover or security to any enjoyment whereof he is to strip them Thus doth he threaten the wicked that he will overtake and reach them notwithstanding all their vain subterfugies Isa 30.16 17. Amos 9 1 2 3 4. See Jer. 16.16 7. As marvellous and extraordinary afflictions are sad Lam. 1.12 So even those who have been looking and preparing for trouble as Job was Chap. 3.25 26. may yet be surprized and astonished at so much trouble as they may meet with For he laments Thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me by singular and wonderful afflictions Only it is to be remembered that these are sent upon Saints to make way for marvellous loving kindness Psal 17.7 and singular proofs of God love 8. Gods renewing of singular afflictions again and again upon broken and half dead men will readily affect and astonish them For he regrets that God did again by renewed tryals shew himself marvellous upon him who was already undone But God deals thus That he may refute discouragement and let Saints see they may bear yet more though they be discouraged under lesser burdens and may make it another wonder and marvel that they are supported That he may prevent security wherein we might fall even under trouble if we were not still held going with renewed tryals when those we are under become any way blunt And That by sending afflictions thus thick and threefold he may post us through our tryal that we may come the sooner to a desired issue of them 9. Saints faith in Gods favour and the testimony of their integrity will not want sense and other witnesses to plead against them and tell them that God is angry at them For there are renewed witnesses against him seeming to side with his Friends and to speak Gods increased indignation We are not to expect that our confidence in a time of trouble shall be without debate 10. Rods are very strong proofs for sense against faith as being very sharp and pressing and seeming to speak from God For those were the witnesses renewed by God against him And yet faith must stand out even against those as Job doth v. 7. nor ought dispensations to shake it 11. Gods indignation is sad to bear in it self and Saints do look upon it when they apprehend it to be in their lot as the saddest ingredient in the cup For saith he Thou increasest thine indignation upon me as a sad matter of his regret Such as are really under that lash are to be pitied and who so groan under it as a sad burden and are afflicted with it and with every degree and increase of it which is Job's practice here it is an evidence they are free of it as he was whatever their apprehensions be 12. Saints in their tryals may be environed on all hands and in every condition with opposition and difficulties For saith he changes aâ—d war or an Army are against me He was assaulted with a multitude of tryals his Friends his outward afflictions and inward tryals c. like a numerous Army and those not a Rout but an ordered Army which assaulted him fiercely and could not be overcome but by fighting And till his tryal was perfected all his changes were but from one war to another his troubles coming on sometime in one kind sometime in another sometime as it were in parties sometime in a full body And thus will it also be with other Saints in their tryals till they be perfected they may change one tryal for another and whereever they turn them may look for a fresh assault Vers 18. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb Oh that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me 19. I should have been as though I had not been I should have been carried from the womb to the grave The last Argument pressing his Expostulation and desire is but a new aggravation and the result of all the former aggravations of his troubles That they put him so to it that through the violence of tentation he was displeased at his birth and wished he had died from the womb v. 18. Which last he insists upon and thinks it had been a notable advantage for then there had been no more of him then if he had never been born but he had slipped from the womb into his grave v. 19 From all which his conclusion may be inferred which is to expostulate with God who did so hardly press him as made him to break forth into these wishes This is nothing else but his old fit Chap 3.11 12. recurring upon him And albeit somewhat like this that he wisheth may be said of the wicked Eccles 6.3 4 5. yet the complaint and wish is very faulty in him who was a godly man Only though it prove him to be in a distemper yet it doth not alter his state and he is to be pitied though not justified in so far as his great extremity of trouble and inward tentations drave him upon it Doct. 1. Oppression will make wise men mad and we need to pray that we be not led into tentation For as the strongest have weakness so they may stagger and seldom do they in tryals come off the Stage without some blot or some halt to humble them As Jacob found his in wrestling and Job here experienced in his tryals which drave him so far out of course 2. The people of Gods ill humours in trouble are not easily driven away but they will recurre again and again upon them For albeit he was often calmed of his fits and do speak highly and reverently of God and his dealing yet now again he breaks out as Jonah did after his correction and repentance Much evil in us may be quieted that is not mortified and calmed with diversion that is not cured and much may be mortified which unless we be watchful will revive again 3. Much poring upon trouble and upon it only doth ordinarily breed much ill bloud For his dwelling so much upon thoughts of his trouble v. 15.16 17. doth give the immediate rise to this complaint We should beware of dwelling still only upon thoughts of our distresses or of looking upon them through a multiplying glass 4. In this we may more particularly observe some distempers that flow from passion As 1. When men do weary and take ill with their being and life because of troubles only how much service soever God get by their being alive or that they should impatiently desire to die For in this Job failed here Trouble should indeed loose our hearts from time but not make us impatient or weary to be in it And more sense of sin and subjection to God will ease us of much toil about our troubles and foolish desires 2. When all the mercies men have enjoyed and sometime esteemed of are under-valued and bitter to sense because they have not what they would For he sometime esteemed of Gods forming and preserving of him
life which is the practice of prophane men Jsai 22.12 13. 1. Cor. 15.32 But we should study a right use of it such as Moses prayed for Psal 90.12 Now the right use of this is when it excites us to seek after and ensure another life To be sober and moderate 1 Cor 7.29 30. And not to be too sparing of our life in times of tryal For let us have never so much care to preserve it it will not continue long and God can take it away as soon as any Persecuter can reach it And if Mans short life be a misery we need not stumble at the Prosperity of Gods Enemies in this world Psal 73 17-20 146.3 4. Jsai 51.12 13. Nor ought men meet with what they will look for any complete happiness in time for it will be misery still Doct. 2. It addeth to the misery of mans life that in a short time he hath many troubles to endure and goe through For Man is of few days and full of trouble His lot is trouble or commotion as the word will read such trouble as doth toss and commove him even in his outward condition and imbitter and vex his spirit And there is a fill of this trouble even to satiety as the word signifies There are many of them and these either ordinary or extraordinary as some distinguish those two expressions Psal 73.5 either inward troubles on the mind occasioned by the terrours of God the tentations of Satan a spirit of bondage and the impetuousness of lusts and corruptions James 4.1 Or outward troubles common to us with others or personal and peculiar on our Body Goods Name or Friends and Relations where our compassion and sympathy makes their affliction become ours 2 Cor. 11.28 29. Heb. 10.33 And all these various troubles as they are sometime divided and come severally so at other times they may come all or many of them together Lam. 2.22 This should teach us to be versed in this study that not only we may acknowledge the truth of this in our judgments but may not be surprized nor startle at it when it comes to be our Lot And if we study this as we ought we will rather be thankful for any moderation in our lot then complain for what we suffer And as we will not stumble that we are afflicted so neither will we quarrel that trouble doth toss and shake us every way Vers 2. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not In this verse Job illustrates his Proposition by two similitudes which point out the transitory condition of Man and his enjoyments by reason of his short and troublesome life First He resembles Man to a Flower which buds fair but is soon cut down or cropped and circumcised either men pluck it or its leaves fall off of themselves So Man is a fair nothing who either decays of himself or is violently cut off by others Next He resembles Man to a shadow either to a shadow upon a Dyal which posteth on in its course and the Sun being over-clouded or set it appears no more See Psal 102.11 or to some flying shadows which pass quickly over in fair days wherein are some clouds which for a little hide the Sun and make a shadow on earth but do quickly pass and continue not Thus Man is an empty thing in a perpetual unsettledness and either violently as when the Sun is over-clouded or by the course of nature as when the Sun being set the shadow on the Dyal ceaseth is quickly gone Hence Learn 1. Nothing is so empty and obnoxious to ruine but it may be a fit Embleme of Man who in his best estate is altogether vanity Psal 39 5. so much do those similitudes and Man's being compared with thosâ— things in general teach 2. Man in his best estate is but a fair nothing obnoxious to speedy ruine and born to die For He cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down See Psal 103 15 16. 3. Mans best outward estate is but a shew without substance like a shadow which is caused only by privation of light See Psal 39.6 4. Mans conditions is in a perpetual motion like a fleeing shadow and still moveth even when he seems to be in his Ascendant toward corruption till he cease to be For he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not We should judge thus of our selves and of our enjoyments according to the Scriptures verdict that we be not deceived with false shews and appearances Vers 3. And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one and bringâ—st me into judgment with thee In this verse we have Job's Inference upon his Proposition wherein he concludes and presseth his Argument And as he supposeth that himself was sensible of his own large shâ—e in that misery of Man whereof he had spoken in general So be propoundedâ— to God whether he thought it fit to deal so severely with so miserable and weak a creature whether he needed to open his eyes upon such a worm or take notice of him as a considerable party and narrowly mark all his failings And thought it fit to bring him into judgment with him or strictly punish him for all his infirmities and deal with him in such rigour not granting those cautions and conditions he had propounded Chap. 13.20 21. In this plea whatever sound truth there be yet Job doth fail both in his apprehensions of Gods proceeding as if he were dealing like a severe Judge and in his reasoning against his proceedâ—ng whatever it was to which he ought patiently to have submitted So the sound Truths together with his mistakes in this Argument may Teach us 1. Though man be a frail wretched creature yet ordinary misery must not exempt him from extraordinary tryals For notwithstanding what Job hath said of Mans common misery yet he supposeth also that God did open his eyes and enter in judgment even with such a one And albeit he mistook Gods scope in it as if he were marking and strictly censuring all his faults yet his exercise was an extraordinary tryal added to his common misery Man for as miserable as he is is ready to forget what he is And albeit he know that Man is miserable yet he is not sensible of all that he knows And albeit he have ordinary evidences of his misery yet those are oft-times not much noticed even bâ—cause ordinary till God send some singular documents to tell him what he is 2. Gods end in the singular tryals whâ—rewith he exerciseth men is among other things to teach them to know God to be great and themselves to be base and wretched For such is the use Job gets of his trouble that he is become a Student of Mans misery and seeth the vast distance betwixt God and himself and that he is an unmeet party to grapple with God And this he propounds before God to witness how he had profited and that if God meant to
wind and prejudicial to himself so long as he would not grant that he was a wicked hypocrite and that God was pursuing him in anger as is clear from the following part of the Chapter Having premitted this caution for clearing the words I come to observe somewhat upon these verses And First This Reply considered in General may Teach 1. Controversies once started are not soon quieted and composed again For after all the three have assaulted him they again fall to it afresh Gods quarrel for which he sends Debates and Controversies is not soon seen nor laid to heart and the discovery thereof made use of as it ought Mens lusts interest and credit which do engage and being engaged entangle them in debates are not soon compesced and mortified and right use is not soon made of these debates nor are men fully tried and truth cleared by them and therefore it is no wonder they continue to be an exercise to men Hence times of contention and debate are very humbling times and will produce growing and if mercy prevent not endless toil 2. Their order in dealing with him is also remarkable For though they were in passion and it may be did sometime interrupt him yet they do not fall upon him all at once but one by one See 1 Cor. 14 31. This may condemn the confusions and disorders practiced by those who pretend to defend Truth For though these men be eager enough to defend what they account Truth yet they will do it in an orderly way 3. Mistakes of good men may be started and heightened in debate even by good men For he doth mistake Job here And here we are to consider these particulars 1. Good men who have a just cause may yet give too much occasion to others to mistake them when they are sharply tryed and exercised As Job said much that was not justifiable though Eliphaz and the rest drew wrong conclusions from it 2. Debates among sinful mortal men cannot but raise passions and breed alienations which are a false Perspective misrepresenting them and their cause one to another 3. Personal reflections resented will blind mens judgments that they cannot see things as they are As they cannot let pass his undervaluing of their knowledge Chap. 12.2 3. without a taunt retorted that his knowledge was but vain and wind Mens Credit and Reputation is a great Idol and apt to blind-fold them when it is touched upon 4. Ignorance and want of experience of the case of others may cause us construct hardly of their carriage As Eliphaz judged thus of Job because he considered not his distress which drave him to speak as he did See Chap. 16.4 5. It is dangerous when we look upon the distempers of others in tentation from thence to conclude concerning their state For Job's Friends judged him wicked because of his failings in trouble All these considerations may warn men to look well about them and to be a fraid and wary in judging of others in times of contention wherein mistakes are so apt to be predominant More particularly This challenge considered abstractly and without his misapplications to Job may Teach 1. Albeit passion and reflections be never lawful Yet when men are indeed wrong they who have a calling to it ought to be very full and free in reproving of them as Eliphas here was supposing Job to be wrong Real faults are but cherished by bâ—unt reproofs See Tit. 1.13 1 Sam. 2.22 23. with 3.13 2. The best way to get reproofs made effectual is to put the Conscience of the guilty person to it and study to have that on the reprovers side For so doth he here as those many questions posing the Conscience do teach There is much need that Conscience be put to it to do its office in debates For that alone will bind and silence men whereas otherwise their will and parts may stand it out long enough 3. There is a vanity in knowledge wherewith men oft-times are much taken up as Eliphaz here supposeth that there is vain knowledge or knowledge of wind Thus imaginations or reasonings are said to become vain Rom. 1.21 and some use of Philosophy is explained to be a vain deceit Col. 2.8 This vanity omitting many other tryals may be discovered if we press a little the metaphor of wind here made use of It is but vain knowledge which is unprofitable and doth not feed or edifie the man that hath it but is empty and notional like wind That is also vain knowledge which like wind makes a great noise but doth not produce any solid effect And which puffs up and swells the man that hath it as with wind making him unsober in mind or in expressions Such knowledge is but vain even albeit the subject matter which the man knoweth were good 1. Cor. 8.2 4. As vain knowledge is ill in any so especially it is unbeseeming a wise man or him that would be accounted wise For saith he Should a wise man utter vain knowledge and so of all the rest See Eccl. 10.1 A mans conceit of himself doth agreage his fault and folly and prove him to be nothing Gal. 6.3 5. Men notwithstanding all their wit are ready to run on unprofitable hurtful and pernicious courses in trouble For he supposeth that not only there is wind but the East wind in this knowledge breaking forth boysterously against God and them who were his Friends and tending to undo himself And albeit he did mistake Job yet the General Doctrine serveth for caution to all 6. A special mean to drive men on hurtful courses and ways in trouble is the suffering of violent passions to arise and harbour in their hearts For saith he he fills his belly with the East wind or pesters his affections with it and then it breaks forth 7. As much evil cometh by the tongue James 3. So in particular it is an evil when men do not propound this end in discourse that it may be profitable to themselves or others For he supposeth it a fault for a man to utter vain knowledge to reason with unprofitable talk or with speeches wherewith he can do no good Even idle speeches are censurable Math. 12.36 37. as being an evidence of the heart and disposition Math. 12.33 34. Psal 37.30 31. and multitude of words are also condemned Eccl. 5.3 Jam. 1.19 Prov. 10.19 Which teacheth us that care should be had to observe Scripture-cautions in our speeches Eph. 4.29 Col. 2.6 and elsewhere 8. In particular It is an addition to mens fault in trouble when to their vain knowledge and tentations and passions within they add the venting and uttering thereof to others As here he chargeth upon Job that having vain knowledge and the East-wind he did utter it and had such a conceit of it as to presume to reason and argue therewith Thus to speak and utter tentations addeth to the guilt of entertaining them Isai 40.27 Vers 4. Yea thou castest off fear and restrainest prayer
to extricate Saints out of deadly difficulties and to give glorious issues from deadly extremities when he seeth it good for them so to do See Isai 26.19 Ezek. 37.11 12. Vers 2. Are there not mockers with me and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation The Second Ground of his pressing desire to plead with God is That being thus afflicted and near unto death his Friends spared not to mistake censure and mock his condition and his discourses and carriage thereupon which did so imbitter him that it deprived him of nights rest This both added to his affliction that when he was a dying he was thus dealt with and it helped on his bodily weakness portending his death And therefore he desires to betake himself to debate his cause with God having such cruel Friends to deal with upon Earth Of this see further Chap. 16.20 Here Learn 1. It is great cruelty to add affliction to the afflicted as here they did to Job when they mocked him who was so low See Psal 69.25 26. Job 19.21 22. 2. Saints in their troubles may expect to meet with this measure of having tryal heaped upon tryal upon them as here Job found One tryal will not be a shelter from another when there is need of it their tryal must be complete to search them throughly others also must be tryed in their compassion and sympathy by the greatness of their tryal and God delights to give proof under how much tryal he will support his people 3. Afflicted men have oft-times cause to ascribe much of their death to the cruelty of their Friends under their affliction as to an instrumental cause For Job subjoyns their cruelty as no small cause of his weakness v. 1. portending his death Vnfaithful friends in a sad time are guilty of many degrees of murder 4. Friends prove very cruel in trouble by their want of tenderness and mocking of the afflicted See Chap. 21.3 When they look lightly upon their afflictions Lam. 1.12 When they read them wrong as if they were evidences of wickedness and do weaken the hands of the godly afflicted man under them For Job finds provocations or imbitterings in their mocking which deprived him of rest 5. He asserts this by way of Question Are there not mockers with me c or by way of grave Asseveration and Oath If there be not mockers c. whereby he purgeth himself of prejudice and calumny in asserting this and expresses his regret that his case was so little considered that he must so strongly assert it and excite others to notice it It teacheth That Saints may get that to bear which is really very sad and yet get little credit or pity under it It will not easily be believed how deep some troubles will draw upon them and how much they will wound and imbitter them They who are cruel to them may be so little sensible what hurt they do that they will rather be ready to justifie themselves And others may be laid by and the afflicted left alone without pity for their tryal 6. Saints may be so afflicted that nights rest would be a great mercy and yet even that be denied unto them For saith he Mine eye continueth or lodgeth in their provocations Not only was this injury not done behind his back but to his face and in his very sight and eye a tryal which Saints may look for but he was kept waking in the night thereby noâ— could he get off his eye from poring on it 7. Whatever injury was here done to Job yet his own weakness bred his distemper in that he was first imbitttered by these provocations and then being so he could not rest for it which was contrary to that Precept Ephes 4.26 It Teacheth 1. How sad soever our condition be yet our own distempers thereby give the immediate rise to our vexations 2. To be at some times distempered and imbittered even to the want of rest though it be a gross fault and a fit of impatience for the time yet it will not conclude one be an impatient man who approves not of those sits and wrestles against them For Job who is so commended for his patience in this tryal James 5.11 fell in such a fit here Vers 3. Lay down now put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me In the Second Branch of this part of the Chapter contained in this verse Job subjoyns to his former pressing grievances his renewed desire to plead his cause with God which he propounds to God himself Those words of striking hands with him are borrowed from their way of closing and engaging in bargains particularly in Suretyship Prov 6.1 And as it was their practice that Parties should strike hands in other Covenants So it seems it was their practice also when they engaged to answer in Law which is the business here in hand As for the first part of the verse where he speaks of laying down and of a surety with God some read it thus Appoint I pray thee my surety with thee that is Appoint Christ to be my Surety and then Who is he that will strike hands with me that is upon these terms I decline no man who will engage to enter the lists to debate against me in the matter of my integrity It is indeed certain that Job durst not boast of his integrity but in a Mediator And I would very willingly put this favourable construction upon his wish if I found not God and Elihu pass a more severe censure upon it Others understand it as a desire that God would appoint a common Surety or Umpire to himself and Job who might dispute against his Friends for that cause which was common to them both seeing both God and he were wronged by their doctrine This interpretation hath a truth in it That they who are imbaâ—qued in a common cause with God may expect that he will see it pleaded for both But it agrees not with the latter part of the verse where Job desires that some might strike hands with him as a party in the debate and not as one whose cause was to be pleaded by a common Umpire Therefore I understand it to import his renewed desire that he might have access to plead his cause with God or at least with some who would appear on Gods behalf in this quarrel And the form of speech is taken from the practice of those times where Parties did give in surety or pledges that they would stand to the determination of the Judge and perform what was judged And so the words will run thus lay down now a pledge and if thou do not that for it must be read disjunctively then appoint me a surety not for me or on my behalf to be forthâ—coming for me but for my behoof and security in this debate with thee The meaning is in sum as if Job had said Give me some assurance that thou wilt not judge me according to
a man to so much both within and without as may teach us not to look upon Piety and a profession thereof as an easie task to be learned without difficulty but as a serious undertaking which may take up the whole man and may reprove them who place all their Religion in some one particular duty or other not having a respect to all â—he Commandments Psal 119.6 Obs 2. In Particular not to insist upon the Epithets and Designations given elsewhere in Scripture to godly men This one place affords us these Characters of them and Duties incumbent to them 1. They ought to be single straight and downright in their way without a crooked byass or design in their scope and aim or subtle and nimble conveyances in their deportment and way For so much doth uprightness import in the Original 2. They ought to be Innocent that is both blameless and harmless as it is Phil. 2.15 Men of innocent harmless tempers and carriage not boisterous outragious violent and injurious and men who have innocency to support them and to refute all calumnies 3. They ought also to be Righteous by imputation without which all their moral vertues will not avail them and to evidence their Communion with Christ by a righteous behaviour 4. Whatever failings they have daily to mourn for and to make use of the open Fountain to wash them yet they should beware of gross practices to blot their Profession For they must have clean bands See Chap. 16.17 Thirdly We have to consider the use which the godly will make of Job's exercise and experience when it shall be cleared hy God This is held out in four Branches 1. Upright men shall be astonished at this not only at his afflictions of which he hath been speaking in the preceeding verses but at the whole complex bussiness When godly men shall look at his afflictions and ill usage from his Friends it will surprize confound and astonish them for a time But when they shall look again to his carriage under all this and to Gods determining in his favours as he desires and expects they will be as much astonished and made to admire at the support of a good Conscience and the issue of his trouble Both those may be included here without any violence to the Text. And it teacheth 1. The dispensations wherewith the godly are exercised may for a time even astonish themselves and other godly men as bere is imported And no wonder Considering 1. That oft-times godly men are not upon their watch and guard and therefore are ready to be surprized with what is strange and unexpected 2. Though godly men lay their account to meet with much trouble yet their real exercise may be more then any thing they apprehended For though Job was not at ease Chap. 3.26 Yet it seems his great affliction and the cruelty of his Friends under it went beyond any thing he expected 3. Though godly men may sometime be more vexed with trouble when they do but apprehend it then when they feel it because they look for more then is inflicted and do not mind the strength to be given with the tentation Yet there is no tryal which they are thinking upon before hand but they will find it in it self more searching when it is their present exercise then when they did only contemplate and meditate upon it And therefore it may astonish them though they were thinking upon it before-hand 4. A right sight and a right way of reading Gods dispensations when they are sad is not soon attained nor can be had till it be gifted from above and therefore till God interpose they will be ready to be confounded 5. Sad and strange dispensations toward the godly may put themselves and others to strange thoughts of heart concerning the purity and holiness of God his purposes in his dispensations c. beyond what at other times they had which may be ready for a time to over-charge them See Jer. 12.1 Hab. 1.12 13 c. 6. God useth to discover his peoples weakness and humble them before he let them see what grace can do in them and for them in such strange conditions This may guard mens hearts from being discouraged when they find themselves thus for a time laid by with their own or others troubles For so we find in the Lamentations and elsewhere the people of God very often astonished in trouble as appears from these many questions Lam. 1.1 4 1 c. Doct. 2. It is the duty and will be the practice of godly men when they are right not to stumble or be scandalized at Gods dealing however they be astonished or overwhelmed for a time For they are but astonished and the following words clear that they betake themselves to their feet again See Jer. 12.1 And though godly men may even stumble for a time Yet it is good they bear down such tentations and do not let them break forth 3. The afflictions of the godly are no more admirable than their support and the proofs of Gods love toward them are And admirable proofs of Gods favour in their present support and future issues are to be expected upon the back of their admirable tryals For they shall be astonished at the one as well as the other 2. The godly man shall stir up himself against the hypocrite that is he shall rowze up himself to maintain his integrity against all the calumnies of hypocrites who question his Piety because of his afflictions Or he shall not be tempted by his own afflictions to joyn issue with prospering hypocrites but shall abhor their way so much the moâ—e as he finds the worth of a good Conscience in trouble and the testimony of God pronouncing in his favours Here Observe 1. The godly mans party is the Hypocrite It is not to be concluded that by this designation Job in his passion reflects upon his Friends who condemned him as judging them to be hypocrites For they were indeâ—d godly men and Job would not readily fall rashly to judge of their estate whatever he might think of their cause and their hypocritical way of managing it when he is reproving them for the same fault in their dealing toward himself And beside there were others who reproached him v. 6. of whom and such as they this may be understood Neither is hypocrisie to be taken in a strict sense here as it is opposed not only to true grace but to open profâ—nity and neglect of all religious performances but more largely for all sorts of wicked men who are polluted as the word also signifieth And this designation of an Hypocrite is made use of in this place where he is speaking of all the opposers of his integrity and such as harden themselves in their evil way by reason of his afflictions 1. Because frequently in Scripture Hypocrites are taken for impious and polluted men as the word will bear and so the name is comprehensive of all or generally of the
their own mistakes as those Friends were This may put godly mens friends in mind that in times of tryal they are tryed no less than their afflicted friends And it may also warn godly men that let them choose or entertain their friends never so well yet they will not get them kept when God hath them to try but they will be left on God alone 1 Sam. 30. 6. Psal 142.4 5. And when this is the lot of any godly man he should remember that it hath been already tryed in Job's experience 4. It is the greatest outward cruelty that Saints can meet with to be deserted and much more to be opposed by intimate friends in a strait as not only leaving them helpless but discouraging them Therefore Job complains of this last as the most sharp of that kind that those did abhor and turn against him Men should take heed of inflicting such a cruel stroke and of unjust prejudices and mistakes whence this cruelty will flow 5. As for their carriage toward him abhorring and turning against him Had Job been an Hypocrite as they supposed this had been but their duty As it is the duty of godly men to abhor hypocrisie no less if not more than other evils and to set themselves against Hypocrites to convince them of the evil of their way But Job being a godly man this their carriage may point out a threefold cruelty in friends to their friends in affliction 1. When they deny them so much as a room in their affection and pity as abhorring them 2. When they misconstruct the afflicteds case as abominable when it is nothing so and so discourage them under the sadness of it This is also imported in their abhorring of him 3. When they not only think thus of their condition but turn opposites and do avowedly set themselves to discourage them and weaken their hands as they turned against him in their discourses Vers 20. My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth The Eighth last proof and instance of his misery is The wasting of his body and strength with out ward pains and sores and inward anxieties His miseries hitherto mentioned are not all that which grieves him Had he but a whole skin and body under all the former pressures it had been somewhat But not so much as that is left him His bone cleaveth to his skin and flesh or as to his flesh that is as of old his bones clave to his flesh so now his flesh being gone they cleave immediately to his skin or they appeared now through flesh and skin both And how universal this decay and distemper of his body was is apparent from what he subjoyns that he was escaped with the skin of his teeth or nothing was left him of his body free of pains and sores but his gums and lips which were left him to complain of his miseries and as Satan thought that he might blaspheme God In expectation whereof he touched not his mouth and lips with those boils that he might not lisp it out Doct. 1. It is a sad and trying lot when outward tryals are joyned with affliction upon mens own persons For Job doth complain of this conjunction that he was both tryed by crosses from without and from his own body A weak body is a great burden to a mans spirit hindering it to exercise its functions in reference to that or any other tryal 2. Saints may expect such a conjunction of tryals as this For so was it with Job who beside all his other tryals had scarce any part of his body free God will not have his people promise themselves exemption from any tryals or complication of tryals which are common to men nor will he have them excepting any thing in themselves as if it must be freed from a tryal or beholden to any thing in themselves for their support 3. This condition of Job's body and his complaint about it may teach That bodily health is a mercy which whoso do not prize nor are thankful for but rather abuse it are exceedingly guilty And that our vigour and bodily strength are but little worth that we should do at upon them seeing they may be soon blasted as Job here found See Psal 39.11 102.3 c. 4. Albeit Satan intend our sliding by the conveyance of our tryals yet God can over-rule all to a blessed end For whereas Satan left him the skin of his lips for an ill end God over-ruled it that thereby he might be able to utter his precious and profitable exercise And whatever success Satan have in his designs about Saints as sometime Job's tongue spake rashly yet in end he will miss of all designs that he hath upon them Vers 21. Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me In this and the following verse is contained Job's Conclusion of his Second Argument wherein from all that he hath spoken by way of complaint he inferrs that it was not their part to be so cruel to him who was thus afflicted and so he chargeth home upon them what he had complained of them v. 19. This conclusion is propounded Partly by way of Petition and Request v. 21. that they would do the duty of friends in pitying him who was so afflicted by God Partly by way of reprehension and challenge v. 22. that they should pursue him so severely whom God was pursuing and had brought very low and that they were not content that God had thus afflicted him unless they added more to it In this verse we have his Petition and request for pity which he doubleth to testifie his great distress and urgeth it from the consideration of the hand of God upon him and from their professed relation of friendship to him whereby he insinuates that since his case pleaded for pity at their hands they were exceeding cruel who not only neglected that duty but violently opposed him Whence Learn 1. God may deal sharply with his dearest Children and his hand may be upon them for tryal and correction and for the exercise of his Soveraignty and they must not expect always to find sensible love-imbracements For Job is put to complain of the hand of God upon him 2. It is God only who hath Supreme hand in the tryals of his people as in all other Providences Am. 3.6 And it is their safety in all that befalls them to see the hand of God and not Satan or other Instruments carving out their lot that so they may be comforted as well as humbled when they consider in whose hand they are Therefore though Satan and other Instruments had an hand in Job's tryal Chap. 1. 2. yet he looks only to the hand of God 3. He calls it a touch which expression though elsewhere it be made use of to extenuate a stroke See Chap. 4.5 And so the expression would speak Job not
excessive but sober in his complaints as we ought to be while we are living men Lam. 3.39 and yet sensible that the least touch of God makes him cry But this Interpretation sutes not with Job's case who doth not extenuate his troubles but rather exceeds in his complaint And therefore I take this expression to point mainly at the event of Gods stroke that it was such a one as had touched him home and made him feel it and smart under it And it teacheth That as a touch of Gods hand is enough to undo man So where he is pleased to assault he will reach and touch So that men will not get it shifted Obad. v 4. nor will they be able to find ease under it 4. Whatever comfort it afford yet to a Child of God it is very sad to lie under Gods afflicting hand For as seeing of the hand of God as hath been marked affords some ground of comfort in trouble so it also represents such a case as humbling And therefore Job sums up all his affliction in this The hand of God hath touched me It is very sad to a Child of God and will affect him that God should deal so with him especially if his strokes be also sharp and Saints may try their Piety by considering how they stand affected with a sight of Gods hand in their Rods. And if this be sad to the godly much more will it be sad to the wicked when they fall in the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 5. When Gods hand is sadly lying upon any of his Children dearest friends cannot help they may well pity them and it is well if they do not worse For whatever supply friends may afford in some outward necessities yet in such a condition as his was all that can be expected and craved of them is pity It is only Gods coming and appearing that will heal such strokes of his own hand And Saints should not mistake though among all their friends hands and notwithstanding all their pity their afflictions continue till God come 6. It is much to an afflicted man if he find simpathy and pity among friends For Job craves have pity upon me as a favour and kindness They who meet with that in trouble should prize it as a favour which is not afforded to every one in the like case Psal 69.20 And they are not idle nor uselesly imployed who are busie at simpathizing with the afflicted though they can do no more 7. Friendship and professed love obligeth men to the duty of sympathy with their friends in trouble For Job claimeth it upon this account Have pity upon me O ye my friends 8. Though they had grieved him and proved unfriendly yet here he calls them Friends at first and pleads and entreats that they would do duty for time to come This he doth not only to check them who were friends and neglected duty but being abased with the sense of all his miseries before enumerated he at first speaks thus calmly and pitifully to them as not willing to resent injuries if they would return to their duty though in the next verse knowing their disposition he speaks more sharply This teacheth That when Saints are themselves they are very calm in their passions they do not easily break bonds of friendship nor cast oft relations and are willing to digest injuries if they could see them any way refrained from for the future 9. The doubling of his sute from his great and pressing necessity teacheth 1. That as we should not make too great noise of our troubles nor let our clamours be above our real necessities So we should also come up to our need with our earnestness For so doth Job double his request in distress 2. That whatever be the judgment of on-lookers or unconcerned persons yet distressed Saints stand in great need of sympathy Therefore doth he so earnestly call for it Doct. 10. Saints may miss and earnestly seek and yet not find sympathy even from their godly friends As Job found here His Friends Principles led them necessarily to endeavour to humble him rather than pity him and God had him yet to humble further though not upon the account they went upon and therefore all expressions of pity are withheld from him Vers 22. Why do ye persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh In this verse Job inferrs his Conclusion by way of Expostulation and Challenge that they should deal so cruelly with him whom God had not only touched but brought very low For clearing of the words Consider 1. To persecute here whether it be applyed to God or them is not to be taken in a strict sense as it imports an afflicting for righteousness But more generally as it signifieth to pursue or prosecute with troubles or other vexing carriage though in some sense it be true that they did trouble him for righteousness or for maintaining a righteous cause 2. Their persecuting him as God is not to be strictly urged or taken up in any exact parallel as if he would challenge them that they afflicted him causelesly as God did and would put them in mind that they might not deal with him as they pleased though God might do so nor might they censure him as an Hypocrite seeing it is Gods Prerogative to judge of mens state But the meaning is more simply this that they ought not thus to fall upon him when God was so severely prosecuting him 3. While he complains that they are not satisfied with his flesh it may be understood either 1. That they were not satisfied with the outward afflictions inflicted by the hand of God which wasted his body unless they also crushed his spirit with their carriage and doctrine As indeed however his spirit was exercised by the immediate hand of God deserting him in his affliction for his tryal Yet it seems they had a great hand in the breach of the peace of his mind by their uncomfortable visit and silence at first and their doctrine afterward As may be gathered from Chap. 2.12 13. with Chap. 3. Or 2. Which may be joyned with the former That though his body or flesh was wasted both with pain and with the inward tentations of his spirit yet it seemed all this would not satisfie them unless they had him quite overthrown and cast in the ditch In sum here he aggravates their cruelty from this That though God was his party and though his stroke from God was not ordinary but such as the effects thereof might be seen on his flesh and carcase yet they would put on for their part to make him utterly miserable if they could From the words thus cleared Learn 1. The Lord by afflictions upon his people especially when they are sharp and of long continuance doth prosecute and pursue them and somewhat in them Therefore trouble gets the name of persecuting or pursuing here And whatever was Job's sense in uttering this word yet it may have a sound
to be transmitted to all Posterity and were all written to be presented before their Judge as Job's desire doth import 5. Ordinarily after ages or others less concerned will judge better in Controversies then those who are imbarqued in them and transported with heats of debate Therefore Job would have all this written as supposing that others in other parts of the world or who were to come after would judge better of his defences then his Friends did Truth will at last triumph and will make the graves of its maintainers smell well though they should not only live but be buried with ignominy And therefore in times of Debate and Controversie men should guard lest their passions and interests drive them to maintain a cause whereof they may repent afterward or which may render their memory unsavoury when they are gone 6. The exercises of Saints and the fruits of their integrity under trouble are worthy monuments and such as it were a pity they should be lost For so much also is implyed in Job's desire to have his exercise kept upon record for ever The Scriptures insist rather upon these than upon the valorous acts of martial men in the world Saints should improve those experiences of the Saints before them as rich treasures and when themselves are essayed with such exercises and conflicts they should look upon them as tending to their own and others great advantages 7. God may strangely and wonderfully fulfil the desires of his people For Job could only wish and desire that his words were written and graven but now we find they are written in Scripture and better kept upon Record than if they had been graven upon a Rock This may assure Saints that their lawful desires will not be always frustrated however they may look upon them as hopeless Vers 25. For I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth In this and the two following Verses we have the second and more particular Evidence of Job's Integrity taken from his saving knowledge of and faith in a Redeemer and his expectation of a blessed Resurrection through him To understand all this as some do only of his hope of a temporal restitution of the health of his body and outward prosperity is not only to wrest the clear words but to make Job contradict his own Assertion that he is certainly expecting death Chap. 17.14 15 16. which is here also supposed by him in this encouragement v. 26 27. In this verse he asserts that he was not ignorant nor wicked as Bildad had insinuated Chap. 18.21 But had sound knowledge of a Redeemer and was assured of an interest in him He knows there is a Redeemer who is God and was to become Man that he might be a kinsman as the word signifieth having right to Redeem his people that he liveth eternally and that having conquered all his Enemies he would stand at last upon the Earth as Judge of the world Here are precious Truths which it were well if they were as well studied and improved now in the clear Sunshine of the Gospel as they were in those days by him And that we may make some use of the words Observe 1. The Connexion of this with the former Evidence intimated by the particle for or and may teach 1. Men who boast of their integrity before men had need to be sure of the grounds upon which they go and that they will hold before God For Job confirms the former evidence of his integrity wherein he desires his cause were made known to all ages by this other other evidence that he is sure his Redeemer liveth It is easie to delude men but God will not be mocked and it is full of danger to be deluded as to his approbation 2. Men who are sure of an Interest in Christ and have a sure hope of a sentence of Absolution from him in the last day need not fear any partial Judge on earth nor be troubled with misconstructions and prejudices from men For Job bottoms his desire and confidence as to men on this For I know my Redeemer liveth Obs 2. While Job bottoms the testimony of his Integrity and good Conscience upon his sure Interest in a Redeemer and his knowledge thereof I know my Redeemer c. It teacheth 1. Man is faln into a condition of sin and misery and it was known by the godly of old that it was so For then there was word of a Redeemer of men which presupposeth their bondage 2. There is a Redeemer appointed and but only one to deliver man from this bondage by whom God doth recover and set free his own Elect who had sold and alienated themselves as of old the Jews did sell and mortgage their Inheritances This great truth wherein the Wisdom and Mercy of God shine to admiration was known also by Job long before the days of the Gospel who speaks of the Redeemer here or of him who by vertue of some Title had right to redeem the people of God as the Name in the Original doth signifie one that by being a Kinsman hath right to redeem and therefore it is given afterward to the Kinsmen of the impoverished Jews who had right to redeem their Lands and Houses 3. It is a Truth of eternal Verity that none of Adam's faln Posterity can prove their own integrity before God but in a Redeemer So that only that man is righteous and sincere before God who being humbled under the sense of his misery and bondage doth flee to a Redeemer for pardon and reconciliation and for grace to enable him to walk uprightly For thus doth Job prove his integrity and cleareth in what sense he maintains his own righteousness in this debate by shewing that he laid claim to a Redeemer 4. Albeit when a man is convinced of his own sinfulness his fleeing unto and recumbency upon Christ upon all hazards be sufficient to clear his good condition Yet the full comfort of it depends upon a particular assurance of his interest which is attainable and should be studied after For Job here attains to call him My Redeemer Obs 3. Job here professeth not only an interest in this Redeemer but his knowledge of him what he is and instanceth it in several particulars Which teacheth That to know our Redeemer well in his Godhead his humanity and likeness to us in all things except sin his offices his successes against his and out Enemies c. is a special mean to clear our interest in him by loosing all doubts about it and to draw out the comforts that flow from this interest See Psal 9.10 Hos 11.8 9. 2 Tim 1.12 Obs 4. The Name Redeemer in the Original signifieth as hath been hinted a Kinsman or one who upon a Title of Kindred hath a right to redeem his Brother or Friend or any thing that pertained to him Hence it is the Name frequently given to such a one in the Judicial Laws
In many cases men may be said to be ignorant of a Providence and Judgment who do not only acknowledge it in General Professions but are really godly For they were godly men and did not deny this truth and yet must be taught to know there is a judgment Men know not their Principles as they ought when they act not according to them as they did not And men may know much in General and by Contemplation who yet in their Passions can but little consider and improve it in particular cases For they considered not their way and whether it tended till God tell them in the close of this debate 4. Afflictions are sent to teach men Lessons and particularly to cause them know and make right use of a just Providence of God For here they are threatned with punishments that they may know there is a judgment Here Consider 1. Men must not only look what they feel but what they are made to know under affliction and must be careful that Rods be not dumb Psal 94.11 2. Though oft times carnal men turn Atheists under and because of great troubles Ezek. 9.9 yet afflictions should lead men to be better acquainted with a Providence in the World which ordinarily is but little minded or studied For that is the lesson here inculcated 3. Such as study the Providence of God in the world will be afraid of doing wrong as knowing that there is a righteous judgement to follow 4. In Particular This study should make men afraid to injure the afflicted especially if they be godly seeing such are left upon Gods hand that he may redress all their wrongs and grievances For that is the particular lesson he would have them taking from this study 5. This study should yet further perswade men to take heed of being incorrigible by the Word seeing there is a Providence and Judgment to inculcate that which men will not learnâ— from the Word Therefore he counsels them to be afraid in time lest to their own cost they be made to know there is a judgment and so have that sad reflection upon their own course that their being untractable made them need the Rod to teach this lesson See Psal 32.9 10. CHAP. XX. In this Chapter Zophar the third of Job's Friends assaults him now the second time It is not the proper place here to enquire how it comes that this is his last speech to Job and that he doth not answer him the third time as the rest did though it be clear that Job did not at all satisfie him by his following discourses and so laid him by but as all of them did at last give him over as a stubborn man Chap. 32.1 So Zophar wearied sooner then the rest as being it may be more passionate then they Here it sufficeth us to know that he takes yet his turn with the rest and falls fiercely upon Job Wherein as hath been marked of the rest also as he brings forth no new matter so he layeth aside all that meekness and all those encouragements whereof he made use in his former Speech Chap. 11. as being now more heated with his own passion and further prejudged in his thoughts of Job The Chapter contains these two First A Preface wherein he declareth that he will answer and gives the reasons of his resolution ver 1 2 3. Secondly The answer it self where in a long Discourse which he confirms from the consent of Antiquity he gives an account of the calamities that befal the wicked that he may perswade Job that his lot is the same with what befals only wicked men and hypocrites And therefore doth prove him to be one of them And having hinted whence he had this Doctrine ver 4. 1. He gives an account of the wickeds ruine in their downfal from their prosperity That it is speedy ver 5. a shameful and utter ruine to the admiration of all from which no grandeur shall secure them ver 6 7. And a ruine which shall discover the emptiness of their former prosperity and which shall not be repaired ver 8 9. 2. He gives an account of the miseries wherewith they are pressed after their fall That their Children shall be miserable ver 10. That their sins and the effects thereof shall accompany them to their grave ver 11. And that all their pleasure in following wickedness shall prove bitter and deadly ver 12 13 14. And particularly they shall have no comfort but much bitterness in their ill purchase ver 15 16. when God shall deprive them of expected sweet ease ver 17. and make them restore what they had unjustly acquired ver 18. as the just fruit of oppression ver 19 20. yea and take away their very meat ver 21. 3. He amplifieth this Narration both concerning the ruine and subsequent miseries of the wicked pointing out That in their greatest prosperity ruine shall come upon them being pursued by wicked men who shall be the instruments of Gods vengeance ver 22. And by God himself pursuing them in anger ver 23. That God shall pursue them with variety of weapons or judgments ver 24 25. From which they shall neither secure themselves nor their families ver 26. And That all creatures shall conspire their ruine thereby as so many witnesses to convince them that they are wicked ver 27. upon which their utter ruine shall follow ver 28. 4. He sums up all this Narration by way of Conclusion that he may press Job to take more notice of it ver 29. Vers 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and said 2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer and for this I make haste 3. I have heard the check of my reproach and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer IN this Preface is not only recorded that Zophar did answer v. 1. but his profession that his thoughts did drive him to be in great haste with it and caused him to answer who it seems otherwise intended to have kept silence together also with the causes moving him to make this reply which are expressed more generally that somewhat in Job's discourse did so fill him with thoughts as he could not forbear nor delay to answer v. 2. and more particularly v. 3. That he had bin reproached in Job's discourse and therefore would answer for himself though yet that only did not move him but his sound knowledg of the Truth in this debate furnished him with matter which he would bring forth deliberately having gravely thought upon it And so however he had met with passion yet he thinks he will not answer in passion That I may further explain and make use of these verses Observe 1. We find here that Zophar doth yet answer Job And albeit he bring forth no new purpose but what hath been often refuted by Job of which afterward yet he will not give over Yea we find not in all this discourse that he doth any thing consider all those miseries of Job which
Conclusion concerning the vanity of all their endeavours about him ver 34. Vers 1. But Job answered and said 2. Hear diligently my speech and let this be your consolations BEfore I enter upon Job's Reply if we consider what is here premitted as also elsewhere by the writer of this Book that Job did answer and so answered distinctly and calmly as is after cleared in his discourse We may Observe 1. Though Errour and Delusion may be talkative more then enough yet Truth is so strong and invincible that it will never leave its Champion without a defence and somewhat to say on its behalf For this is now the sixth time that Job hath an answer in readiness Truth is a sure friend which will never desert them who do not desert it Obs 2. Friends of Truth ought not to be discouraged nor weary were the assaults made upon them never so frequent or sore For Job doth not weary though he be so often put to it We must resolve upon a continual fighting life one way or other and it is good service to God thus to continue stedfast notwithstanding all the indefatigableness of men who are against Truth and when we are toiled still the longer the more we should remember that it is service to God still first and last Obs 3. All his Friends heat and violence doth not cause him forget the cause and question in Controversie but he still handles that solidly and searcheth into the grounds of it accurately Which teacheth That it should he mens great care not to loose Truth by Debates nor to be driven from their point by needless janglings For a small point of Truth is of more worth than much of our wills and humours Obs 4. The more they are in heat he is the calmer and argues now more moderately than ever Which teacheth 1. Calmness is necessary in managing of Debates that we wrong not God and our selves our just Cause and the Truth of God because men by their miscarriages do wrong us or it 2. Though calmness be not an infallible evidence of mens being on Truth 's side yet readily they are most in the right who are most calm as Job here was 3. Continued and renewed assaults should not irritate but rather compose godly men so much the more as here to Job grows the longer the calmer I proceed to Job's Preface the scope whereof is to crave their attention to what he was to say Which he presseth by five Arguments And in this verse after the Exhortation to attention he propounds the first Argument wherein he puts them in mind of their duty and of their errand they came about when they came to visit him And shews them that however they came to comfort him Chap 2.11 and probably that was their ultimate design in all they spake yet they followed that design in so ineffectual a way that it would be better to him than all the Consolations they offered him if they would say nothing and only hear him peaceably and therefore he judgeth they should attend to what he saith seeing he craves no greater proofs of hindness from them Doct. 1. It is no easie task to be right hearers of grave and weighty Truths and particularly when men are prejudged and preoccupied with their own Opinions they will not hearken attentively to what is said against them For Job's Exhortation imports that they had not heard diligently his speech that is however they had heard all he said yet they did not so ponder it as to embrace the Truths he asserted or to be enabled thereby to speak more pertinently to his case 2. It is the duty of friends to endeavour what they can to be comfortable to their godly friends in affliction For consolations were that which he might in reason have expected from them and which they also intended in their way Though God afflict his Children yet he allows Consolation upon them and to be useless this way in sad times and lots will be very grievous to them who lay duty to heart as being not only grievous to the afflicted but prejudicial to themselves and depriving them of these blessings which are promised to the tender-hearted and compassionate Psal 41.1 2. 3. The Consolations which godly afflicted men meet with even from their godly friends may be oft-times little worth For Job implies that their hearing of him speak were better than all of their Consolations Hear saith he my speech and let this be your Consolations or in stead of these comforts which ye offer me Want of skill to deal with afflicted souls which requires one of a thousand Chap. 33.23 may render men very useless to them yea most able and qualified men will not be useful unless they put themselves over upon God for that effect And here by God would humble men as is observed much to this same purpose Chap. 32.13 and fit the afflicted for an immediate proof of his own compassion 4. They can never be useful or comfortable to any in affliction who do not wisely take up their case what it is For this obstructed their intended Consolations that they had not heard him diligently nor taken up his case aright from his own Narration and so could not apply sit remedies See Psal 41.1 Prov. 18.13 And here men cannot but fail in their duty if they judge of men by outward appearance or their own inward prejudices or if they do not give many grains of allowance to the afflicted in their distempers as Elisha did to the Shunamite 2 Kings 4.27 or if they do not put their souls in the afflicteds souls stead as Christ bare all the Sicknesses by Sympathy which he cured Mat. 8 16 17. 5. When afflicted men can find no other comfort they should account it a comfort to get their grievances vented and patiently heard For so Job accounts it Consolations to be diligentgently heard Humility will make afflicted persons stoop to very mean comforts And it is indeed an case and they should complain the less if they get but a friend to whom they may pour out their hearts and not be misconstructed and such should be made use of as a special favour Mal. 3.16 lest otherwise the afflicted meet with the sad tryal of impatient and misconstructing friends And especially they should have a care to pour out their grievances to God not neglecting that as Ezek 24 â—3 which will bring solid ease 1 Sam. 1.15 18. Vers 3. Suffer me that I may speak and after that I have spoken mock on In this verse Job repeats the Exhortation to Attention in other terms desiring that they would suffer him to speak out his mind and not interrupt him as formerly they had done and adds the second Argument which is that if once they would hear him out he could bear their mocking the more patiently He expresseth this in the singular number mock thou on as the Original hath it as pointing at Zophar and his late insolent discourse in particular
and their encouragement in their prosperous condition This last may also import their power and strength to maintain their prosperous condition And so these two verses will contain four Branches of the prosperity of the wicked their vigour and strength of body their peace and quietness v. 23. their plenty or affluence of all things and their power to maintain all this v. 24. any of which if they be wanting will render their prosperous condition defective 2. For Adversity That some of them die in great disquiet and bitterness having had their very meat imbittered to them all their days v. 25. Whence Learn 1. God exerciseth great variety in his dealings with the Children of Men that he may prove he is debtor to none that none may know love or hatred by outward things and that the wit of man may not think to comprehend his way For so are we taught here by these various Instances 2. It is profitable for men to be acquainted with this that God exerciseth such variety in his dispensations especially in their prosperity that so they may not stumble at it in their adversity For Job sheweth he had been acquainted with all this before-hand and therefore did not stumble at his own lot as his Friends did 3. Bodily strength is no fence against death which observeth not the Laws of Nature but the appointment of God For here some die in their full strength or in the strength of their perfection 4. To live plentifully at case and in strength and power till death come is no infallible mark of Gods favour For here the wicked have that being wholly at ease and quiet and their breasts full of milk c. all which will but make the separation by death sadder to them 5. Bitterness of mind is the saddest of troubles as here it is instanced as the sad lot of some of the wicked that they have bitterness of soul 6. Bitterness of soul will make all mens necessary comforts and refreshments of body bitter to them For a man in such a frame even never eateth with pleasure 7. Bitterness of soul justly followeth some wicked men not at some fits only but even to their graves For some die in the bitterness of their soul Only unto all this it would be added That however this be the just lot of the wicked yet the godly may have some tasts of this soul-bitterness as Job's own experience to name no other doth teach Chap. 3.20 24. And therefore 1. We should beware of pride and murmuring which do imbitter us we should beware of feeding or entertaining our bitter humours or of provoking God by our doating upon time to imbitter it unto us 2. We should observe that there are degrees of imbittering our condition As no Saints can say they have all bitterness and no pleasure at all so none have their condition wholly pleasant but some have less pleasure than they have pain and some have little pleasure and much sorrow Therefore we should beware of complaining or to make our lives altogether bitter because we have not all the satisfaction we desire Vers 26. They shall lie down alike in the dust and the wormes shall cover them In the last branch of this Narration in this verse he gives an account of the issue of the wickeds life and their equality in death notwithstanding the various lots they found in their lives Whence Learn 1. Whatever be mens lot within time sweet or sowr yet they must die and leave it as here we are taught 2. Death will bring all men to the dust and to be trampled upon by the worms For they ly down in the dust and the worms shall cover them See Psal 49.14 3. Death it self will not make a visible difference among men by what is visibly in it but leaves them equal and alike till the resurrection For they and others also as well as wicked men lie down alike c. Even those who had an harder lot than others in their lives are but equal with those who lived at ease in the grave Vers 27. Behold I know your thoughts and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me 28. For ye say Where is the house of the prince and where are the dwelling places of the wicked Followeth to v. 34. the third part of the Chapter Wherein Job applieth his general doctrine to the present debate in hand and to refute their thoughts concerning him and his case It may be reduced to three Heads The first whereof in these verses is the stating of the Controversie or a proposition of their thoughts concerning him and his family and the thing which they dâ—ave at in their discourses and which he is to refute He propounds in general v. 27. that he knew their designs and thoughts in all their discourses and their unjust devices to conclude him wicked And v. 28. he layeth out-their thoughs more particularly That in all these generals which they had spoken of the ruine of wicked great Ones their houses and families of which see Chap. 15.34 18.21 20.28.29 he was the Butt they aimed at and that by reason of the ruine of his family who was a prince Chap. 29.25 and the overturning of the house where his children were met Chap. 1.18 19. they would have it concluded that he was a wicked man So that they might as well have named him and his children in their discourses as hold in general as they did This may serve to clear that we have stated the controversie aright betwixt Job and his Friends from the beginning and that the debate runs upon this whether greatest temporal afflictions such as befel Job and his Children do prove men to be wicked So that unless we carry this along as the great Controversie debated betwixt them in contradictory terms we cannot but mistake in expounding this Book Withal Job's way here sheweth That in all debates it is needful the controversie be rightly and clearly stated As he states the case distinctly here when he is to make use of his former doctrine to refute them Where this method is not followed men will easily be bemisted with confusion and errour may be adorned with specious pretences and truth loadned with reproches and odious consequences The only remedy whereof as also in clearing of inward soul exercises and tentations when clouded with confusions is to draw questions to a clear and true state that we may be able to judge of the merits of the cause and not by a mistake draw wrong conclusions from a weak or false ground In particular Obs 1. If we consider that general Doctrine in it self v. 28. which they intend to apply unto him it teacheth That God in his holy Providence may sometime give a strange and sad account of wicked mens lots It may be said of them Where is the house of the Prince c Here if we abstract this from their erroneous principle that this is the lot of all the wicked and
a trade of sin procuring it 5. As the trade of sin is old so also are the instances of Gods judgments pursuing for it And as men make an habitual trade of sin so his judgments are also conspicuous For this is also the old way which wicked men have trodden even the judgments of the Lord which they have suffered for their sin Not that God as frequently plagues as they sin and so makes the one path to be trodden as oft as the other but that there are some instances of Gods judgments no less conspicuous than mens sins are notoure and open So that wicked men sinning after these instances of Gods manifested anger against sin do sin against that witness and do split upon rocks whereupon God hath set very conspicuous Beacons 6. As wicked mens courses do prove them to be men of iniquity and slaves to it so the fruit and issue thereof doth prove that they follow and labour for vanity therein For so the words will also read men of vanity Yea the name here given to men in the Original taken from death or Mortality doth point out That were there no other plague inflicted upon wicked men their very mortality demonstrats the folly of their course seeing all the imagined contentments they expect by sin serve at best but for this natural life and will flee away and serve in no stead to secure against death or comfort them in it 7. God propounds the example of wicked mens ways and the plagues following thereupon to be marked and observed by others for the information of their judgments concerning sinful courses and the fruites thereof and for exciting of them to look well to their own ways For this question Hast thou marked the old way c. Imports that it was Job's duty to mark these instances that thereby as he judged of him he might be helped to correct his opinions and practices See Psal 107.43 Hos 14.9 Luk. 13.1 2. c. God in his great indulgence will not always destroy all sinners by visible judgments For so he should soon destroy the whole world which yet he continues for wise ends particularly that he may gather his elect out of it But yet he seeth it meet to set up some sinners as Beacons to warn all the rest So that they are stupid and mad who do not observe and improve such examples and who looking upon the way of Gods judgments upon men do not reflect upon the way of their sin procuring these judgments that they may avoid it but do persist in sin against all such warnings or think themselves innocent because they are not smitten as others were or do look rather upon mens following of duty then their sins as the cause of their calamities as Jer. 44.16 17 18. 8. Men in the heat of present distempers and debates will readily be in the dark and be misled unless they make use of the light that somtime they have had oâ— the experiences they may find abstract from their present case to clear them Therefore he leads Job from the consideration of his own present case to mark the old way as a more effectual mean to clear his mistakes And it is indeed a General Truth however he erred in the particular 9. Godly men may be much be mistaken by others as if they did not read a right the strokes of God upon themselves oâ— others For this question Hâ—st thou marked c imports also a challenge that he had not observed these things Which yet was most false for had he observed them never so much he could never read Eliphaz's opinion therein nor that it was consumed thereby For 1. Though great calamities ought to daunt stubbornness and deterr men from standing out in rebellion against God Yet they ought not to be so formidable as to affright men from the testimony of a good Conscience For that is a part of Godly mens tryal to cleave to their integrity notwithstanding they be afflicted 2. No rods should make men condemn that in themselves or their cause which is approved by the Word of God as Job's integrity was 3. No judgments upon wicked men should make us think that all the wicked will be so dealt with as Job's Friends did and so make us assoâ—â— all those who are spared 4. Nor should any judgments inflicted upon men for their wickedness make us condemn Godly men because they fall under the same outward lot which was another of his Friends mistakes In a word Afflictions upon godly men ought to make them the more tender but not discourage them noâ— make them cast away the evidences of their integrity Vers 16. Which were cut down out of time whose foundation was overflown with a flood In the second branch of this argument Eliphaz propounds the particular to be observed of the way 〈◊〉 Gods judgments upon these wicked men That they perished suddenly out of time or as the Original hath it they were cut down and no time that is they were cut of in a moment and before they could expect it and that the foundations of their imagined happiness were overthrown as by a deluge and floud This may very well be understood of the general deluge but doth not at all prove Eliphaz hiâ— conclusion as hath been shewed v. 15. In General Learn 1. It is very commendable in godly men and a duty incumbent to them that they be acquainted with and keep in memory the proceedings of God against sinners For here those men are notably versed 〈◊〉 the History of the old world and many other passagâ—s of divine providence in the world See Psal 78.5 â— Here we are to consider 1. If they learned these things only by Tradition without the written word and yet kept them so fresh in memory How much more should we remember them who have them written to us to relieve the infirmity of our memories 2. As they remembered those examples not for contemplation but for use and practice And accordingly Eliphaz produces this instance for directing of Job how to judge of his afflictions and improve them though he erred in the application So we ought likewise to make use of what is recorded in the Word or otherwise comes to our knowledge for the like end and not as theâ—e did Psal 78.19 20. 106.12 13. Prov. 23.35 For all these acts of God are loud preachings to warn and direct sinners Psal 78.22 23 c. 3. If they remembered and studied to improve what was done long before their own time much more ought we to be sensible of and to improve what our selves do see and feel that we be not as these who saw Gods works and yet neither considered nor made use of them Psal 10â— 7 Doct. 2. The instance of Gods severity against the old world is full of documents to sinners in all ages Therefore it is made use of here as a speaking lesson though it do not prove his point as also 2 Pet. 2.5 c.
cut off before it came 5. Saints do therefore mistake and quarrel their own condition because they are blind and cannot discern all out-gates that God hath in his hand or will not stoop to any of them but such as they please For Job seeth or will be satisfied with no issue but either that he should have been taken away from trouble or it with-held or speedily removed from him And doth not consider that when God doth neither of these he can give strength to uphold which ought to satisfie 1 Cor. 10.13 6. When Saints have carped and quarrelled never so much Gods way is still better than any they can prescribe For albeit self-love and love to ease would judge Jobs overtures to be best yet God was more honoured by the way he took Yea it was better both for Job and others in the issue that God did as he did than if Jobs desires had been granted None of a sound judgement who shall now reflect upon the whole procedure will preferr what Job desired to these manâ—fold advantages Job himself reaped and godly men to the end of the World do reap by the pains God took upon him 7. God will not judge of his own children by the fits of their infirmity which break forth in trouble but will judge them patient and submissive who yet have many sits of passion For Job here proves weak and peevish and yet is commended for his patience Jam. 5.11 They must not be cast away as altogether dross in whom some dross appears while they are in the furnace CHAP. XXIV In the former Chapter Job hath been asserting his own integrity and powring out his complaint that he a godly man found such hard measure Now in this Chapter he proceeds to refute their common Argument whereby they endeavoured to conclude him wicked Namely That experience did testifie that all and only the wicked were remarkably plagued in this life as he was In opposition to which he proves by their own Argument taken from experience that there are many sorts of wicked men who goe out of the World in an ordinary way without any remarkable or singular plagues In the Chapter we have First A general Proposition that the experience and observation of godly men can instruct no such thing as that wicked men are generally plagued in this life v. 1. Secondly To confirm this Proposition he produceth on the contrary many instances of wicked men who are spared and do dye but in an ordinary way And 1. He instanceth Oppressours whether these who still converse with men in civil societies v. 2 3 4. or those who turn open Robbers v. 5 11. who yet are not visibly punished v. 12. 2. He giveth instances of these who follow works of darkness v. 13. such as Murderers Thieves and Adulterers v. 14 15. who shun the light v. 16 17. and of Pyrates by Sea v. 18. All which notwithstanding their wickedness are cut off only in the ordinary way v. 19 20. 3. He gives instances yet again of Oppressours who are cruel both to the poor and afflicted v. 21. and to the mighty v. 22. And sheweth that though God have an eye upon them to call them to an account yet they are brought down only in an ordinary way as others v. 23 24. Thirdly To all these instances Job subjoynes a Conclusion confirming the truth of his discourse and instances asserting that they could not be contradicted by any of his Friends v. 25. Verse 1. Why seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty do they that know him not see his dayes IN this Verse we have Jobs general Proposition Wherein in opposition to Eliphaz his Doctrine that not only the wicked are remarkably punished in this life but the godly do see it Chap. 22.19 he asserts that the experience and observation of the godly cannot instruct any such thing as that the wicked are generally plagued in this life For understanding of the words as they are translated it is to be remarked that Job here repeats a principle of his Friends Namely That times are not hidden from the Almighty or that he had his own times prefixed which were well known to himself for punishing of the wicked in this life Against which assertion and their sense of it Job argues thus If it were true as they asserted that these times were not hid from him How then came it to pass that godly men who knew him did not see these dayes of his nor could discern these times wherein the wicked were visibly plagued And consequently since they did not see them it behoved rather to be inferred that they were hid from the Almighty in his Friends sense or that he had prefixed no such times for punishing of the wicked as they alledged For further clearing of the words Consider 1. By times and dayes of the Almighty we are to understand as the sequele of the Chapter clears the times prefixed by him for remarkable and visible plaguing of the wicked in this life which times in Scripture are frequently called the day of the Lord Isa 2.12 and 13.6 Joel 2.11 the day of his wrath Job 20.28 Prov. 11.4 and a day of vengeance ser 46.10 2 While Job disputes against their assertion that these times are not hidden from the Almighty we are not to understand it as if Job denied Gods simple prescience of things that are to come to pass or his purposes how to dispose of wicked men But he only denyeth that God hath fixed any times for the punishment of all and every one of them visibly in this life He neither denyeth that God hath a prescience and providence about things below nor yet doth he maintain in opposition to them that times are simply hid from the Almighty Only he denyes such a providence and purpose about wicked men as they asserted And that because if there were any such thing it could not but be visible to Saints and Spiritual observers when it were accomplished whereas he is able to give instances which Saints have observed contrary to their assertion v. 2. c. 3. As for the force of his Argument that if there were any such times not hidden from the Almighty Saints who knew him could not but see them it tends not to prove this that Saints must needs see and know every thing that is not hidden from God For who can know all his secret purposes or who may dare to pry into them But his scope is to prove that if times were not hidden from God in their sense but he had his prefixed times wherein Judgements should visibly break forth upon the wicked Then as any body might see these remarkable plagues so especially Saints could not but see these visible executions of his purposes And particularly by this he refutes their Argument taken from experience and their observation of the plagues that had befallen the wicked generally by shewing that the experience of Saints doth not prove their assertion but rather the
contrary 4. From this reasoning of Job that godly men do not see such dayes of God we are not to think that Job would universally conclude that God hath prefixed no times for punishing any of the wicked even visibly in this life or that godly men see no such instances at all of Gods plaguing them exemplarily For God revealed his purpose concerning Sodom to Abraham even before it was executed Gen. 18. And Job himself Chap. 21.17 18 25. grants that there were some such instances to be seen But his meaning is That it holds not universally true of all and only the wicked that they are singularly punished in this life as his Friends asserted But God punisheth some of them so visibly in this life as others may discern it Others and many of them he permits to walk on in their wicked course and yet lets them die an ordinary death reserving their punishment to be inflicted in another World This being the meaning of the words the sense will easily agree with another reading which takes the whole words as spoken by Job according to his own sense of things but with a little difference of Translating thus Why are not the times hidden by instead of from the Almighty or surely they are hidden by him seeing they who know him see not his dayes That is to say the time and way of Gods punishing the Wicked is so various that Saints cannot discern it so as to make a fixed general Rule of it far less can they judge of mens state whether they be godly or wicked by their outward lots But God hides those with himself sometime plaguing some of them visibly and again sparing many of them all their life long so that none can know Love or Hatred by these things From this general Proposition Learn 1. The judgements to come upon the wicked are here designed by the times and days thereof To let them see that whatever be the Lords dealing and indulgence toward them Yet 1. Their Prosperity is changeable if and when he pleaseth as being measured but by time which is still in flux and motion and wherein men are obnoxious to changes and cannot get fixedness 2. The change of their condition may be very sudden and speedy even in a day See Psal 30.5 Prov. 27.1 Is 17.14 Doct. 2. That judgements and miseries will come upon the wicked is most certain though the time thereof be not so determined that men can know it For the Question betwixt Job and his Friends is not about the thing it self Whether wicked men shall be miserable in end but about the times and dayes of it So that though it come not in our way nor when we would fix the time yet it will come 3. The times wherein God will reckon with wicked men are in his hand to fix and determine them as he pleaseth For it is imported here that these times are in Gods hand and hidden by him to plague the wicked when he will though he do not fix the times as his Friends asserted he did and that he is the Almighty to make his purposes effectual So that the wicked are not Masters of their own times but God may surprize them ere they be aware Luke 12.19 20. 4. Times of Gods Judgements upon wicked men are called dayes and his dayes 1. To shew that by these Iudgements as by clear day light the wicked and their wayes will be discovered what they are since they would not see them selves and their courses in the Word but judged partially because of their prosperity See 1 Cor. 3.12 13. Is 10.3 Ezek. 28.9 2. To shew that as the wicked will take their day and time of it wherein they walk after the imaginations of their own hearts and contemn God So then God will take his time of it wherein he will make his Holiness and Iustice to shine and cause the wicked know themselves So Is 2.12 and frequently Doct. 5. It is the Character of truly Godly men that they know God For here they are designed to be they who know him See Joh. 17.3 This imports 1. That godly men consider with whom they have to do in their Religion and walking 2 That they do not take him up by guess or at randome as the wicked do but from sound light so that they know him indeed 3. They entertain this knowledge by keeping up acquaintance and familiarity with him 4 And by studying to observe his hand and take him up in his dispensations and providences in the World as here they would endeavour to see his dayes 5. All this knowledge is not in their head only but sinks in their heart and appears in practice Ps 9.10 Dan. 11.32 Doct. 6. Godly men are most like to know any passages of Providence or purposes of God about men in the World For so doth Job's arguing import that if there were any such thing as his Friends asserted Saints would most readily know it Albeit they must not nor is it required of them to know every thing and particularly all Gods purposes See 2 King 4.27 yet they are most likely to know Gods secrets in so far as it is good for men to know them Gen. 18.17 18. Ps 25.14 and they are most accurate Observers of his Works 7. There is no experience or observation of Saints that can prove the wicked to be alwayes visibly plagued in this World For so much doth Job assert and argue here and confirms it by contrary instances in the rest of the Chapter So that we are not to take the evidences of mens state before God from their outward lots and we must leave the providences of God about men as a Mystery into which we cannot dive and wherein he will not be limited or prescribed unto by us Verse 2. Some remove the land-marks they violently take away flocks and feed thereof 3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless they take the widows ox for a pledge 4. They turn the needy out of the way the poor of the earth hide themselves together In the second part of the Chap. Job proceeds to confirm that the experience of Saints proved no such thing as his Friends asserted But on the contrary that experience will bear witness that many wicked men escape unpunished in this life And first to v. 13. he produceth instances of Oppressors and Robbers v. 2. 11. who yet are not visibly punished v. 12. In these Verses he seems to speak of these Oppressors who converse in Civil Societies as among men and yet oppress their Neighbours And first he sheweth that some of the wicked for though in the Original it be universal or indefinite they remove c. yet the scope leads us to understand it but of some of them do remove their Neighbours Land-marks v. 2 which God expresly forbids Deut. 19.14 Prov. 22 28 and 23.10 and that under pain of a Curse Deut. 27.17 2. He declareth that some of them also take away the Flocks of
confident desire to meet with God that he might plead his Integrity before him Chap. 23. As for the second fault charged upon him that he saved not the arm that hath no strength it may be taken onely as an amplification and enlargement of the former that in his discourse he had not regarded his low and weak condition which was as an arm wanting strength See Psal 10.15 Ezek. 30.21 c. Nor did he endeavour to keep him from being crushed But if we consider further that weak armes or hands import discouragement through unbelief hindering men to act any thing Isa 35.3 4. Heb. 12.12 the challenge may point out more particularly that he had spoken nothing to support his almost exhausted faith that so it might cleave to God but rather had affrighted him from looking to God And indeed faith may be very well called the arm of the soul whereby it exerciseth its strength Not only because it layeth hold on Christ who is the arm of the Lord Isa 53.1 But because the exercise of faith is an evidence of strength how weak so ever we be otherwise and because it must be our arm first to lay hold on God and then to work which is the method we should follow in our undertakings Thus this second challenge serveth to explain the former and sheweth that his want of strength consisted in his discouragement that he may yet more aggravate Bildad's fault who did not deal more tenderly with him From the first fault challenged Learn 1. Much trouble will try and discover mens weakness and make them very weak For Job is without power both in body and mind See Ps 22.14 15. and 109.22 23 24. and elsewhere This 1. Teacheth men not to judge of their strength by what they have in a day of prosperity nor to trust to their own strength when a day of tryal cometh which may shake their resolutions 2. It warns them not to mistake albeit tryal discover their weakness provided they shrink not from God nor weary through impatience 3. Yet those discoveries being made for our humiliation we ought to observe them narrowly for that end 4. Only we should guard lest we be accessary to the weakning of our selves by discouragement Doct. 2. Trouble is sent upon godly men not simply to discover some weakness only but even to empty them and take them clean off their own bottom For Job here is without power or hath no strength This is not to be mistaken for no less will drive us from confidence in our selves 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. and when we are thus it is a fit time for God to appear Deut. 32.36 3. When Saints are thus weak it is the duty of godly friends to put forth their helping hand to relieve them For Job implyeth it was his duty to have helped him that was without power Brethren and friends are born for adversity and a sympathizers task is not little nor easie in such a time And therefore every man should see how he may be steadable in such a time else he is useless and as bad as no man Isa 59.16 that he be not looking on only or careless and especially that he be not rejoycing at or adding to the sorrow of the afflicted 4. A special mean of the weak godly mans help is the right applying of the word and truth of God which is of saving power and efficacy For Job's challenge implyeth that if Bildad had spoken truth to the purpose it would have helped him See Chap. 6.25 Psal 19.7 8. and 119. throughout A godly man so prizeth the truth and authority of the Word that it will comfort him though performance be wanting the rod causeth him have his recourse to the Word that he may receive instruction with his correction Ps 94.12 5. The people of God may expect not only to be even exhausted with trouble but that in such a case they will be disappointed of help from godly friends For so was it with Job here And this may not only encourage after-ages that such a tryal hath been essayed by others before them as by Job here by David Psal 142.4 1 Sam. 30.6 and elsewhere and by Christ in his own person But the thing it self may point out 1. How difficult it is exactly to try and humble us so that even when our power is gone we need more tryal from sleighting friends otherwise some ill root would lurk uncrushed in us 2. How difficult it is to drive us to God in trouble For we are ready to look elsewhere first till we be disappointed every where Ps 142.4 5. 3. How much trouble God can support us under even when our selves are crushed and our friends do fail us Psal 142.4 5. 2 Corinth 12 7 8 9 10. 4 How the Lord layeth aside all these means that his own help may be the more conspicuous Psal 27.10 Doct. 6. Men may preach sound truths who yet do no good to the afflicted thereby through want of their pertinency or due application For what Bildad spake was true in it self whatever were his mistakes and designs in it but nothing to Job's case and therefore did not help him Therefore Ministers ought to pray for prudence that they may speak to the condition of these with whom they have to do Isa 50.4 and 61.3 2 Tim. 2.15 And for this end they should consider 1. That it is a peculiar gift of God to have a word of wisdom distinct from a word of knowlâ—dge 1 Cor. 12.8 2. That wise and able men such as Job's Friends were may miscarry in the application of truths if left to themselves 3. That heat and debates may draw men away from that which should be their scope and from judging of things aright For this contributed to cause Bildad and the rest miscarry 4. That want of experience doth much hurt in mens dealing with afflicted persons For Job's Friends being of whole unbroken minds and unacquainted with such exercises did therefore prove so cruel to him Therefore Priests were compassed with infirmities that they might be compassionate Heb. 5.2 and Christ himself became acquainted with our sinless infirmities for that end Heb. 2.17 18. and 4.15 16. Doct. 7. A good way for men to know what they are doing is to examine their own consciences and commune with their own hearts Therefore Job by these questions puts him to it that he might impartially try how he had failed in his duty Here consider 1. Self-examination that we may know and seriously consider what we are doing is a great stranger among the most of men and it is an exercise from which they are very averse For Bildad must be put to it here See also Psa 4.4 Hag. 1.5 7. 2 Cor. 13.5 Such as walk most untenderly are most averse from this task whereby it comes to pass that their condition is confused and it becomes even as the shadow of death to them to think upon self-examination 2. It is not enough that men
his eminency was as one that comforteth the Mouâ—ners all that had any grievance resorted to him and he resolved their doubts and comforted them chapt 4.3 4 7. God may expose them to trouble without comfort from any whom he hath employed and made tender to comfort others For Job who had been a comforter of Mourners is now left without comfort from others in his distress By this dispensation of providence God leads his People to encourage themselves in him when these Conduits of comforts run dry and he tryes their Faith whether they will believe his approbation of their Services when yet he with-holds a visible reward thereof in this World CHAP. XXX This Chapter contains the second part of Jobs Discourse Wherein he sally regrates the change of his former Prosperity of which he hath spoken Chap. 29. into Contempt and Calamity and gives also some hints of his Integrity The whole Chapter may be taken up as a pathetical enumeration of his present afflicting grievances and pressures which may be reduced to these Heads 1. Reproach and insolent contempt which were cast upon him by the younger sort of People vers 1. who were persons descended of base parentage vers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. and who did very insolently contemn him vers 9 10. now when God had afflicted him vers 11. 2. Violent oppression now when he is brought low vers 12 13 14. 3. Terrours upon his Soul vers 15 16. 4. Pain and filthy disease upon his body vers 17 18 19. 5. His sense of God's anger and heavy hand in and under all these pressures whereof hâ— gives these evidences the ill success of his Prayers vers 20. God's cruelty and hostility as he apprehended in his dispensations towards him vers 21 24. And that he who had been so tender to others in trouble vers 25. was contrary to his expectation plunged in an abysse of evils verses 26 31. Verse 1. But now they that are younger than I have me in derision whose Fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock IN this Verse he propounds the first Branch or Head of his miseries which had now befallen him Namely that he was had in derision or despised scorned laughed at and insulted over in his calamity This he amplifieth and aggravateth in the rest of the purpose till v. 12. And he gives such a character of the instruments of this tryal and of their way in it as doth clearly evince that he is not reflecting upon his three Friends in this Discourse as some have conceived The first aggravation of this tryal in this Verse is taken from the consideration of their youth who did thus insult over him They were younger than he and of that sort who had reverenced him before and ought to have done so still who now have him in derision The second aggravation propounded also in this Verse and insisted upon till v. 9. is taken from their base Original and Parentage who did thus so insolently abuse him Their Parents were so base as he would have disdained to have set them with the very Doggs that kept his flock This Job reflects upon when he speaks of their carriage because not only their base carriage and conditions deserve it should be remembred whatever themselves had attained of respect in the world but themselves also as would appear continued in that same base and low condition being Inheritours of their Parents miseries and their vices too And albeit this harsh expression as it relates to their Parents may be mollified by considering what Job afterward saith that they were more useless and fed worse than his very Doggs And so the expression will point out not so much his disdainful thoughts of them as how vile and wretched they made themselves through sloth and wickedness and that they lived miserably and were not worthy to have that trust which Doggs had of keeping his sheep Yea as some conceive it not worthy to keep the very Doggs that kept his flock And so they understand that Proverbial speech of a Dogg's head 2 Sam. 3.8 of a vile person set to keep Doggs than which these were yet viler Yet the terms wherein Job expresseth this are not to be looked upon as altogether free of some excess of passion upon which his great and generous Spirit was driven when he is so unworthily abused by the base Off-spring of these base and wretched Parents Now as for the time when these base wretches abused him it is probable they did it at all occasions especially when before his Friends came to him he had any intermission of his pains and went abroad or when they sate silent by him Chap. 2. or in the intervals of time betwixt their several discourses If we consider the scope of this whole Chapter which is to point out the sad change of Jobs former condition intimated in the transition and connexion But now c. It may teach 1. As time is still in flux so mens lots in time are very changeable and Saints may be exercised with notable revolutions in it For after all the former sweet dayes Job had enjoyed he is now made to change his note and to subjoyn But now it is otherwise Which may warn all to look for changes and that the wheel will still be rolling so that men ought not to fix upon any temporary enjoyment And it may teach goodly men when in a low condition to look upon a change to the better as possible as Job found For changes are from the right hand of the most High as the Original Text of Ps 77.10 may bear 2. Simple tryals are not so sharp in themselves as when they come upon men after they have formerly enjoyed great prosperity For this heightens Jobs resentment that now after the former dayes all the following miseries had come upon him which rendred his case sadder to his sense though Religion and right reason doth teach otherwise Job 2.10 than if he had never been in another condition See Ps 102.10 This may teach men to be sober in their comfortable conditions lest former mercies contribute to imbitter a change as it will be indeed with the wicked when they come down from their excellencies 3. It may please the Lord to exercise his children with such changes of their condition as deprives them of many mercies together For so much doth Jobs experience teach who complains in this Chapter of so many sad changes that had befallen him in his reputation and authority in his soul and body c. See Lam. 2.22 From all which it appeareth That excepting Christ who is God and King of Saints he hath been more sharply exercised than any one Saint whose exercises are recorded in Scripture For these complaints recorded in the Lamentations give an account of the tryals not of any one person but of the body of a Nation Albeit any one tryal will be sad enough when God hath us to try by it yet
of the whole matter And so here we have his verdict of the whole preceding debate and his thoughts of what was faulty in it whereby as hath been said in the entry we are helped to understand his scope in the following discourses In this Verse we have to consider First A description of this Umpire which is â—aken 1. From his Name Elihu which signifieth My God is He or the same that is My God is that only excellent One to whom that Name is due 2. From his Parentage he was the Son of Barachel which name signifieth One blessed of God And by the imposition of these names it would appear that Elihu was descended of a pious race whose Father had given him a name favouring of piety as the like had been given himself before 3. From his Progeny and Kindred His Father was a Buzite of the Kindred of Ram. As for Buz from whom he is denominated a Buzite we find a Country bearing that name Jer. 25.23 lying amongst those Arabians and Idumeans It seems to have that name from Buz the Son of Nahor Abrahams Brother Gen. 22.20 21. Of whom in all probability Elihu was descended While it is said that his Father and he were of the Kindred of Ram this Ram cannot be that Son of Judah Judg. 4.19 for he lived after Jobs dayes nor suppose he had lived before is it likely that he would have left his own County and Nation to goe dwell he and his Kindred among these Idumeans It can with little shew of probability be alleaged that Ram is to be taken appellatively for Aram or Syria and that he was of that Country For though it be granted that Ram may be the same with Aram of which afterward yet it cannot in propriety of speech be said that a man is of the Kindred or Family of such a Country It is with as little probability asserted that Ram is the same with Abraham who they say was first called Ram signifying High before he got the name of Abram an high Father which afterward was changed into Abraham Therefore it is most probable that this Ram was some Kinsman of Elihu and Barathel who was famous in these times and places and therefore mention is made of him in this description And we find mention of one Aram who may as well be called Ram as Ram the Father of Amminadab 1 Chro 2 9 10. is called Aram Matth. 1.3 4 the Son of Kemâ—el who was Brother to Buz Gen. 22.21 who it may be was the person here mentioned and a person famous in these dayes Though it be more probable and agreeable to the Scripture-way of reckoning Progenitours in the direct line that this was another person of the posterity of Baz though mentâ—oned no where else in Scripture who was a famous man and therefore mentioned in this description of Elihu and his Father who it seems were descended of him However there is no necessity to determine any thing positively in these circumstances if we take up a right the reasons of this so exact a description of Elihus which are partly to assure us that this is a true History and not a Fiction or Parable and a very ancient History and partly because Elihu was younger and more obscure than Job and his three Friends and therefore his descent and pedigree is more fully described than theirs was who were so eminent men in these times and places I shall only in the close of this description pass in a word their groundless conjecture who say this Elihu was that Balaam of whom mention is made in the Book of Numbers and else-where in Scripture who say they was a Prophet of God and had these Revelations here recoâ—ded before he came to Balak where he made so soul Apostacy and was cut off amongst the Midianites Numb 31.8 It is easie to multiply conjectures where the Scriptures are silent which may with the like facility be rejected But this is not to be admitted that a Child of God and a Prophet also may make so total and final a defection as he did for any thing we can find in Scripture Secondly In this Verse we have to consider Elihu's verdict and censure of Jobs part in the debate and of his carriage under his trouble He is angry at Job not that he asserted himself to be a righteous man or that he justâ—fied and vindicated himself in the cause debated betwixt him and his Friends But that he justified himself rather than God or more than God that is He not only pleaded his righteousness and integrity before God which may lawfully be done if it be gone about in a right way Isa 38.3 and else-where but pleaded it even against God expostulating with him that he should deal so severely with a righteous man and so reflected on the righteousness of God in defending his own righteousness As God also telleth him Châ—p 40.8 And he was more careful to defend his own righteousness in his debates with his Friends than to acknowledge and ascribe unto God the glory of his righteousness in afflicting him by submâ—tting to his Soveraign good pleasure stooping under his hand in the sense of his own baseness and sinfulness and by making use of his corrections improving them to his own spiritual advantage From all which Elihu doth justly conclude That however Job never said expresly that he was more just than God or just rather than God neither did Job ever mean or intend any such thing by any thing be uttered in his complaints and defences Yet upon the matter it was imported and by necessary consequence it might be interred from what he said that he â—ustified himself rather than God Thirdly We have to consider Elihu's resentment of this injury that was offered unto God and the measure of his displeasure and zeal against it It is said in the beginning of the Verse that his wrath was kindled which is relative both to Job and his Friends And for Job in particular it is again repeated that his wrath was kindled against Job upon this account Whereby we are not to understand that he was over-powred with any carnal passion but that he was filled with a large measure of zeal and indignaâ—ion against Job because of this his fault From this Verse Learn 1. The grace of God is not confined to persons or places but he can raise up to himself servants in any place or among any people he pleaseth For here beside Job and his Friends we have another godly man amongst these Arabians whose name and his Parents name do intimate that a stamp of the fear of God had been in that family for some Generations Of this see on Chap. 1.1 Only however after the Covenant made with Israel at Sinai salvation was of that people as is said of the Jews when the rest of the Tribâ—s were gone Joh. 4 22. and they were the only people of God and visible Church in communion wherewith salvation was to be expected till
word for word from the Original They found no answer and they condemned Job And so they will contain his censure of a double fault whereof they were guilty One is that already mentioned That they had unjustly condemned Job And the other is That by their finding no answer to Jobs Apologies they had quit Gods cause which he is now about to maintain against Job as overcome And by their silence in what they might and should have spoken in answer to his discourses they had condemned God no less than they had unjustly condemned Job by what they had spoken Though the former reading be most agreeable to the scope here yet both may very well be joyned together For as they were faulty in condemning Job without a reason and without answering his defences for himself So they were no less guilty in finding no answer such as he afterward produceth on Gods behalf against Jobs complaints and quarrellings From this Verse Learn 1. It is an evidence of a truly sober and gracious Spirit so to be taken up with one evil or errour as not to be blind in discerning others also upon another hand For Elihu discerns exactly the errours of both parties and on both hands in this debate and passeth his censure upon both And did not as the three Friends who to avoid the errour upon the one extreme of impeaching the righteousness of God who had afflicted Job do run to an errour on the other extreme and conclude Job to be wicked because afflicted As it is too usual for men while they are eagerly opposing one errour to rush into another on the other hand 2. As mens light should be universally clear in discerning errours and mistakes So their zeal ought to be uniform and against every one of them For against his three Friends was his wrath kindled for their errour as well as against Job for his Not as many who in their heat of opposition to one errour which it may be is their present exercise and in so farr it is commendable that their zeal is most bent against it do look with more indifferency upon another which seems to be opposite unto it as being upon the other extreme 3. It is a very great and yet a very usual fault in many to condemn men and bury them and their opinions and way under imputations and calumnies which neither are nor can be proved and made out For this was their practice and Elihu is angry because of this that they condemned Job when they had found no answer to his discourses proving his integrity as he tells them v. 12. Malice prejudices serving of designes c. as well as ignorance and errour which were the cause of their miscarriage may drive men to take such courses whereby they commit great cruelty and do justly provoke the anger and zeal of godly men against them As Elihu is hereby provoked to anger against Jobs Friends 4. Though it be a fault at any time or in any case to condemn men unjustly yet this fault is much aggravated and true zeal and indignation is provoked thereby when men deal so with afflicted men and so add to their affliction For this was an addition to their fault and helped to kindle Elihu's anger that they had so condemned Job who was now so sadly afflicted as himself states the case in this very particular Chap. 19.5 6 c. It is very sad when men are so cruel as to give a godly man a load above a burden See Psa 69.26 5. Albeit a multitude of words and fine discourses may blind many who think they have the best cause who talk most and who are easily deceived with good words and fair speeches Rom. 16.18 Yet that will not satisfie consciencious and rational men For these Friends spake enough as themselves thought to purpose and seemed to plead much for God and against impiety and yet Elihu discerns that they found no answer even to clear these things they intended to conclude against Job farr less did they hit upon the true answer which should have been returned to Job See Prov. 18.17 Men have need of solid wisdome that they may discern what is truth or errour in well-busked discourses and they who would speak to purpose in a debate ought to beware that unsound principles and heat in dispute do not blind-fold them and so cause them miss their mark as befell these Friends 6. In whatever case silence be lawful in some debates yet it is a great fault in any case to desert a cause of God when it is controverted and opposed For thus according to the other reading it is a fault by it self that they found no answer for God as well as that they condemned Job Verse 4. Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken because they were elder than he 5. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men then his wrath was kindled The third Antecedent and a more near occasion of Elihu's speech which explains and enlargeth that Antecedent v. 1. is That having patiently kept silence so long as they spake however they spake not right as reverencing their age now he must break off his silence with indignation considering that they gave over without any reply to Job which was to purpose and particlarly without speaking a word to his last discourses It is said only He had waited till Job had spoken but it imports also that he had waited and hearkned to what all of them had spoken all the while of the dispute For when a reason is given of this his silence they are all of them spoken of in the plural number They were elder than he to intimate that he had waited on them all Only it is here said that he waited till Job had spoken or expected Job in his words because Job spake last and because this is spoken more particularly with a reference to that last discourse which closed that debate upon which he is now to pass a judgement And so it importeth That he waited patiently in hearing Jobs long discourses and waited also after Job had spoken to see if they would say ought in answer to him And finding them silent his zeal breaks forth in the following discourse This purpose will come to be spoken of afterward when Elihu himself mentions it Here Learn 1. True zeal is not furious but bounded with sobriety and drives not a man without his station For such is Elihu's zeal here who silently waits all the time they spake however he was dis-satisfied and le ts not hâ—s zeal and wrath break forth till they have all given over whereby a call is given him to interpose It is true there are some heroick acts of zeal which fall not under ordinary rules As when Phinchas a Priest slew Zimri and Cazbi Numb 25.7 8 12 13 14. Samuel then only a Prophet slew Agag whom the Magistrate had spared 1 Sam. 15.32 33. And Elijah slew the Prophets of
to the Souls of others which he will severely and speedily pursue as he easily can For he reckons that by giving flattering titles he should not only wrong these whom he flattered but he should also run upon his own ruine in so doing my Maker would take me away or cut me off and he would do it soon both speedily without delaying to execute vengeance and easily without any difficulty Thus we find that Watchmens Souls are laid in pawn to be answerable and smart for it if they deal not faithfully Ezek. 33 7 8 9. The study of this may not only be an antidote against the slavish fear of great men whom men may be called to deal with as Christ speaks in the matter of confessing the truth Mat. 10.28 But may perswade men to be faithful when they consider how much it concerns them to be so for then they will not dare to daily in so important a business And others may see that they have no cause to be offended at men for their freedome and faithfulness when they consider their hazard if they do otherwise 5. Though such as have a calling to speak to others should flatter them and gratifie theirâ— humours yet that would tend nothing to the advantage of those who are so flattered seeing God would not approve of what is said to them and would witness his displeasure by punishing the flatterer For this is not only an argument perswading himself to deal faithfully but perswadâ—ng them also to admit and allow of his freedome As considerâ—ng how little it would avail them that he flattered them since God was ready to witness how ill pleased he was with them and their way by punishing him for flattering them in it 6. While he calls God his Maker in this business 1. He points out that God for whom he and all faithful men do speak freely is on high 〈◊〉 the highest of men against whom they may be called to speak and therefore there is no cause to fear them if men keep his way and bâ— in his service 2. He points out how easily God can â—â—â—â—h unfaithful men who are but his own creatures and have their beeing of him So that stately wiâ—l â—ind no shelter against him even under the wings of the greatest of men 3. He points out this as an Argument why he should not be unfaithful to God were there no more but that he had his beeing of him So his being a Creatour is a motive to piety Eccl. 12.1 And it aggravates mens faults that they sin against their Maker Hos 8.14 Though the word may import more than his giving them a simple beeing even that he made them his people However it is certain that such as are willing and affectionate to do well will not want arguments to presâ— them to it if they do but consider their very beeing which they have from God For God having maâ—e all things for himself Prov. 16.4 Our beeing should not be employed against him but in his service CHAP. XXXIII After the former general Preface Elihu comes now to deal more particularly with Job without medling any more with his Friends This he doth in four speeches in the first three whereof contained in this and the two following Chapters he more particularly reprehends some of Jobs rash expressions And in the last Chap. 36. and 37. he more generally taxeth his complaints powred out against God In all which discourses as he doth not quarrel the state of Jobs person but only his faults especially his impertinent language under trouble so he divides what he hath to say in so many speeches not only that he may draw his breath between them but also because he gives Job leave at the end of every one of them to answer for himself if he had any thing to say as appears expresly from the close of his first speech v. 31 32 33. In this Chapter which contains his first speech his scope is to instruct that Job had unjustly taxed the Dispensations of God toward him a righteous man The Chapter may be taken up in three Heads First A particular Preface to this speech directed to Job wherein he craves his attention v. 1. And that for weighty reasons and considerations v. 2. 7. Secondly The Speech it self wherein we have 1. An Accusation or a rehearsal of those discourses of Job which he is to refute v. 8. 11. 2. A refutation of those his discourses by two Arguments One taken from the Soveraignty of God who is greater than all and accountable to none v. 12 13 The other taken from Gods condescendence to instruct men by various means whereof they make but little use Which is generally propounded v. 14. Instanced on Gods part and as to the means he useth and the end for which he useth them in visions and the like extraordinary wayes of revealing his mind v. 15 16 17 18. In afflictions and particularly sickness v. 19 20 21 22. And in the ministry of men accompanying those afflictions v. 23. 28. And summarily recapitulated v. 29 30. Thirdly The Conclusion of the speech wherein he again craves Jobs attention v. 31. Being willing to hear if he had any thing to say for himself v. 32. And if he had not to instruct him yet more v. 33. Verse 1. Wherefore Job I pray thee hear my speeches and hearken to all my words AFter the general Preface in the former Chapter Elihu being to take Job to task doth yet premit a particular Preface to him craving in this Verse not only simple audience but attention and that not to a part only but to all his speech and till he had ended what he was to say Which request he presseth by several Arguments to v. 8. This course of prefacing Elihu insists upon to prepare Job for what he is to say lest otherwise being a great Prince he should slight him who was but a young man and having to do with an afflicted man who had been already irritated by his Friends he deals thus warily and circumspectly lest otherwise he should be suspicious also of him in the very entry Doct. 1. There is a godly prudence required in managing thorny debates so as may tend most to edification For of this Elihu gave proof here in that albeit the three Friends vented many errours in their condemning Job yet he will rather spend his time in rectifying Jobs mistakes than in debating with them because it was more for edification And therefore he betakes himself to deal with Job here 2. As it is a great mercy when God sends a seasonable word to needy men especially after they have been irritated and unskilfully handled by others as here Elihu is sent to Job so audience is due to such a message For Wherefore Job seeing I am sent to thee to speak as I have promised Chap. 32.14 21. hear my speeches 3. It is not sufficient that men hear only what is said especially if it concern them unless also they be
are most willing to be taught and helped to promove in knowledge Therefore also when he is to teach wisdome Chap. 33.33 he calls unto wise men and them that have knowledge as persons who would most readily hear and give ear 5. Even when men are about most grave and serious matters and among grave and wise men there is such a dulness that they need to be seriously excited to give attention For therefore doth Elihu make use of this Preface exhorting the Auditors to hear and give ear at the beginning of every one of his Speeches and sometime repeats it also in the midst of his discourse as we will hear 6. It is their duty who are called to deal with others to carry respectively toward them that so they may prepare the way for their message Therefore also albeit some of those to whom he speaks had erred yet he doth call them wise men and they that have knowledge that thereby he might conciliate their affections and make them willing to hearken unto him From v. 3. omitting what is marked upon Chap. 12.11 Learn 1. Men receive great benefit particularly in sacred and holy things by the ear For so is here imported that the ear receiveth words or instructions from others particularly concerning the things of God such as he is now treating of As the truths of God depend upon Divine Revelation so our own observation of what he reveals is not sufficient to take it all in without the assistance of information and instruction from others And therefore they who employ not their ears to hear do no less prejudge their own souls than they do wrong their bodies who make not use of their mouths for eating Yea the very constitution of their bodies and the ear which God hath made for that use Prov. 20.12 will bear witness against their negligence 2 As God requireth that we do hear so also that we try and discern of what we hear with a consequent approbation or rejection of it as there is cause For so the ear tryeth words as the mouth or palate tasteth meat and it is swallowed down or cast out again according as the palate relisheth it ill or well 3. Whatever defect there be in others in the matter of discerning Yet men of experience and knowledge should have their senses exercised to discern good and evil Heb. 5.14 For therefore doth he appeal to these wise men seeing their ear could try words c. From v. 4. Learn 1. It is the duty of such as would prosper or do good to others to aim singly at truth For in his disquisition and enquiry about this matter he would be at judgement or an equitable and just determination of this controversie and what is good 2. Men ought not to follow or enquire after truth upon any carnal or crooked design but because it is their delight and they esteem it only good and worth the knowing For because it is judgement and good and so worthy the knowing therefore he would have it chosen affectionately and with delight 3. It is mens duty and will be the practice of sober men as to aim at truth so also to study to bring up others in a calm and friendly way to the acknowledgement thereof without insulting over or derogating from them or affecting emicency to themselves Therefore albeit some of them were wrong yet he is content to goe about this work in a friendly way and as it were with common consent Let us choose c. Let us know c. Verse 5. For Job hath said I am righteous and God hath taken away my judgement 6. Should I lye against my right My wound is incurable without transgression These Verses contain the second part of the Chapter or a Proposition of these expressions of Job which he intends at this time to refute The challenge is the same in substance with what was propounded in the former Chapter Namely That Job had wronged God by his complaints but this is more sharply refuted and spoken to He chargeth him to have said First That though he was righteous yet God had taken away his judgement or he got not a fair hearing and decision of his cause v. 5. As for that part of the Charge That Job said he was righteous he hath had it so frequently in his mouth in his discourses that it is needless to instance any particular place for it See Chap. 13.18 and 23.10 11 12. and 27.6 and 31.5 6 7. And for the second part of the Charge That God had taken away his judgement we find it expresly spoken by Job Chap. 27.2 Secondly He chargeth him with obstinacy in those complaints and that he said That it was no less than a lying against his own right to say any other thing of his condition than that his affliction caused by those arrows of the Almighty Chap. 6.4 as the word here is was mortal and incurable even though he was a man free of transgression v. 6. This Charge seems to be the same in substance with what Job had said Chap. 27. 2 3 4 5 6. though it may be gathered also from his frequent complaints of the fad stroaks which had befallen him an innocent man Chap. 9.17 and 19.7 and 16 13 17. For clearing of this Charge Consider 1. As Job did never assert his sinlessness as may appear from his frequent confessions of sin but only that he was righteous as to the state of his person and the cause debated betwixt him and his Friends and consequently that phrase v. 6. to be without transgression will import no more in Jobs sense but that he was free of gross wickedness So Elihu doth not charge it upon him as a crime that he had simply seen and asserted his righteousness but that he took occasion thereby to aggravate his complaints 2. He doth not charge him that he had directly taxed God as unrighteous but only that in his passion and being put to it by his Friends he spake too much of his own righteousness without a due remembrance of what sinfulness yet remained in him and what it deserved and so complained too bitterly of God that he did not vindicate and clear him when he was not only sore oppressed with trouble but unjustly censured by his Friends Thus albeit Job was sound in the main cause and his expressions upon some accounts pleaded for pity Yet they were not so suitable and reverent as became him And therefore Elihu gathers together what he had spoken at several times and chargeth him therewith that he may be convinced of his rashness and folly in them Those expressions have been spoken to in their proper places and the subjoyned refutation will discover more particularly his failings in them And therefore I shall here only observe a few things 1. The dearest Children of God when they are hard put to it by troubles and tentations may discover more weaknesses and fall into more faults than one As here he finds faulty
Saints never so sad and even desperate as to any hopes of a temporal issue yet that is no just cause to complain or quarrel God and reflect upon his dispensations For suppose it had been as Job thought yet Elihu chargeth it upon him as a crime that he should so bitterly complain My wound is incurable 13. It is the great sin of Saints when because they see no gross transgressions in themselves they see no cause wherefore God may humble and afflict them seeing their other faults may deserve all that and God may put them to give proof of their graces under the cross For this was a fault in Job that he said My wound is incurable without transgression Verse 7. What man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water Followeth the third part of the Chapter or Elihu's Refutation of those expressions which he doth 1. More generally by pointing out the absurdity and gross consequences thereof v. 7 8 9. 2. More particularly by commending and demonstrating the Righteousness and Soveraignty of God which those expressions seemed to contradict And these he both propounds to the consideration of all unbyassed persons v. 10 15. and layeth them before Job in particular so amplifying and enlarging them as might convince him of his miscarriage v. 16 30. So in the first place and before he proceed to the proper Arguments for refuting of Jobs expressions he premits in this and the two following Verses a more general acount of his thoughts of them and how much he detested them as evidencing Job to be an odd man who so greedily followed so ridiculous a course v. 7. and who did strengthen the hands of the wicked too much by what he had spoken v. 8. Particularly by his speaking to the disadvantage of piety v. 9. In this Verse we have to Consider 1. Jobs singularity in this fault What man is like Job The meaning whereof is not that there was none so gross and wicked as he even in this particular miscarriage For wicked hypocrites have reviled Gods providence and dispensations more directly and grosly Is 58.3 Mal. 3.13 14 15. but that there was none like him all things considered in miscarrying so farr being a man so eminently godly 2. A general account of his ill carriage in this that he drinketh up scorning like water See the like phrase Chap. 15.16 Here I do not take scorning actively that Job was turned a scorner though indeed he did sometime taunt his Friends and did speak it reverently of God and his providence and to be such a scorner or any thing like it is a very hainous sin Psal 1.1 Prov. 1.22 But passively and as a due Epithete of the matter which he spake that it was scornful and ridiculous As it was indeed ridiculous to offer to decry the righteousness of God and to ascribe righteousness to himself while he denied it to God in the sense which hath been often cleared This his fault is further aggravated that he drank this like water that is as a thirsty man will drink water which was their ordinary drink in those times and places greedily and abundantly to refresh himself and quench his thirst so Job very greedily earnestly and frequently persisted in this course and the more he was irritated by his Friends the more he went on in it as if it had been a refreshful subject and an ease to him to vent his passion against God and his dispensations From this Verse Learn 1. It is a great kindness to deal freely and fully with Gods people in telling them their faults to prevent their being so blinded as not to see them or their being cheated and deluded with a conceit that they are but small faults when indeed they are gross Therefore doth he deal so roughly with Job that he may drive him from those fits of folly and passion Wherein he doth not evidence any want of charity in putting his expressions upon the rack and putting the hardest construction upon them that any mistaker could fasten upon them which is his scope in these sharp expressions and foul consequences which he draweth from his words in these Verses for he doth not charge Job with all these as if he intended them but doth evidence his love in letting him see what might be made of his expressions that so he might mourn for them It is better that Friends deal thus in time than that God and mens own consciences do it afterward little to their comfort 2. Even sins which seem small when well ripped up by a spiritual discerner or tender conscience may appear very gross and hainous For so doth Elihu construct of Jobs complaints 3. Sins are nothing the less hainous that they are committed by godly men but their falling in sin doth aggravate it and the more eminent they are their sin is the greater For saith he What man is like Job When godly men do that which other Saints or the generation of Gods Children use not to do or when they speak to the prejudice of God or of holiness which they should commend or when they persist in any fault all which were Jobs faults here their being godly persons doth not extenuate but aggravate those miscarriages 4. Albeit sin be but a sad sport yet even the wise and solid children of God may in their fits of tentation be very absurd and ridiculous in their miscarriages As here is charged upon Job that he did drink scorning or did that which was scornful and ridiculous Yea Saints may in such cases prove very beasts Psal 73.22 Which may very much humble them when they consider it 5. It is in particular a very scornful and absurd thing for a man to offer to bear out his own righteousness to the prejudice of the righteousness of God in his dispensations or to contradict our profession by our practice For thus did Job drink scorning by crying up his own righteousness to the prejudice of the righteousness of God by which practice he contradicted what else-where he spake to the commendation of God 6. When men once engage in a sinful course it will easily grow upon their hand and godly men may persist long and be very eager in their miscarriages if their tentation continue For Job drank scorning like water 7. Mens eagerness and obstinacy in an ill course is a great aggravation thereof For thus doth he aggravate Jobs fault that he did not only meddle with scorning but did drink it like water Verse 8. Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity and walketh with wicked men In this Verse Elihu doth yet further point out the evil of Jobs complaints shewing that consequentially and upon the matter he joyned issue with wicked men Not that he will fasten upon him that he is wicked or that he intended wickedness in his complaints But that if his complaints were narrowly examined they could not but be found scandalous and to homologate the principles and opinions of prophane men as
the tryal of his faith and other graces but only that his folly and miscarriage under the rod for which also God humbleth him though he employ Elihu first to handle him more sharply did draw on fatherly displeasure From v. 16. Learn 1. General truths will not avail nor prove usefull particularly to persons in affliction till they be applyed Therefore doth he subjoyn this particular Application to the former general Doctrine 2. There is no general promise recorded in Gods Word but it will be forth-coming to every one of his people as they have need Therefore that promise v. 11. is applyed to Job as that he had right unto if he had been in a right frame Yea the promise made to Joshua a great and eminent man Josh 1.5 is repeated Heb. 13.5 as belonging to every particular distressed Hebrew in the general scope of it abstracting from what was personal and relative to his special employment in it 3. The Children of God for their exercise or because of their folly may be brought under great distress As here is supposed in the contrary promises For the promise to remove them out of the mouth of straitness as it is in the Original imports That they may be under pressures which are ready to devour and swallow them up like a beast of prey And the promise of a fat table imports That they may be exercised with penury and want And the conjunction of those two promises imports That their penury and other sad pressures may goe together 4. It may encourage men to stoop to God and to receive instruction under the rod That there is no condition so sad but repentance and turning to God will amend it As here these promises import And albeit he will not take off all our pressures within time nor yet alwayes deliver his penitent people yet our being near to God takes away the bitterness of pressures and affords sweetness in every lot and may assure us that God will care for our table and will have an eye upon our pressures And though godly men before they repent may complain that possibly the promise will never be performed yet let rhem once repent and be near God and that will silence all their complaints 5. It may be matter of sad thoughts to godly men under trouble when they consider how much better their condition might have been were it not for their own folly As here he lets them see Even so would he have removed thee c. if thou had not thus miscarried See Psal 81.13 14. Isa 48.18 19. From v. 17. Learn 1. It is not unusual to see godly men fail in an hour of tryal and so to run away from their own mercy As here he lets him see that his case was farr otherwise than it might have been 2. As it is a kindness to tell Friends their condition freely so they have need to have it told them by others they being ready sometime to take it up too sadly and at other times to look too easily and partially upon it Therefore doth he so freely tell Job his condition here 3. As godly men in their fits of distemper may homologate too much the principles and wayes of the wicked so it is their great fault so to do For here he chargeth him with fulfilling the judgement of the wicked Of many pranks of the godly in trouble it may be said What will they leave to the wicked to do when they do so 4. The longer these courses be persisted in it is the greater sin For it aggravates his fault that he fulfilled this judgement of the wicked or confirmed them in their way by the length that he proceeded in it 5. Sin would appear more formidable if it were looked upon as inseparably attended with judgement As here the wickeds way is called their judgement not only because it is their judgement and determined sentence and fixed principle to follow it but because it is the cause of a sentence of judgement from God 6. Whatever others do find of judgements attending sin the godly may lay their account not to escape For this sinful course is proved to be judgement or sentenced by God because judgement and justice take hold on thee 7. As godly men may come under fatherly displeasure and this will be sad to them when they discern it So it is yet sadder that their own folly should change the nature of their cleanly tryals and mix anger with them As here he lets Job see that his cleanly tryals were turned into judgement and justice though with moderation as Chap. 35.15 8. Whatever Saints may dream of yet Gods fatherly chastisements will not only reach them when they miscarry but will hold them fast till they quit their folly For they take hold on thee The word also signifieth and is else-where rendered to support or sustain but here as also Prov. 5.22 it signifieth to apprehend or hold fast and includeth the person of whom hold is taken as is supplyed in the Translation Verse 18. Because there is wrath beware lest he take thee away with his stroak Then a great ransome cannot deliver thee 19. Will he esteem thy riches No not gold nor all the forces of strength Elihu having stated Jobs case doth now give him his counsel relative to his case as it stands And though the counsel be but one in substance that he would amend his faults yet I shall take it up as it lyeth in the words in three branches which will clear wherein Elihu thought Job had fulfilled the counsel of the wicked The first whereof in these words is That heing now under wrath he should be afraid to provoke God by his miscarriages when he was under his hand to cut him off without remedy For then no ransome or wealth or power could rescue him Whence Learn 1. It is no proof of true friendship only to reprove men for their faults without giving them counsel how to rectifie what is amiss For here Elihu subjoynes advices to his former reprehensions hereby witnessing that he was a Friend indeed who was not seeking nor taking advantage of him in reprehending his faults 2. It is a special part of our duty especially under trouble to examine and try our condition how it stands and it is a proof of real friendship to help us in this tryal As here Elihu points out unto Job how it is with him and tells him there is wrath 3. It is the great and concerning Question of Saints to try how God is pleased with them and to try what wrath or displeasure may be in their cuâ— when they are afflicted Therefore doth he give Job an account of that especially 4. As Saints may be under wrath or fatherly displeasure as he told Job in the former Verse and here again repeats it So when they are in such a case they ought especially to take heed to their walk that they do not rage and free against God For because there is
but cut off but he reasons solidly against hâ—s Friends when they spake of temporal prosperity as the reward of piety and maintains that God may cut off a man who yet is truly godly and approved of him Chap. 9.22 13.15 16. And here we see a man of such a temper restored When men have too high an esteem of worldly enjoyments they do thereby declare that they are their Idols and therefore it were no kindness to bestow them upon them Secondly Consider the time of his Restitution As for the time of the continuance of his Trouble and Trial some of the Jews have limited it to a year Others have made it three others seven years But without any grounds for their Assertions This is certain that at the very beginning of the Dispute there had moneths of Vanity already passed over him Chap. 7.3 But how long time was spent in the subsequent Debates betwixt all parties is not determined in Scripture Here it is certain that his restitution trysted with his praying for his Friends And it teacheth 1. A time of blessed and sanctified deliverance is a praying time as here it was with Job See Zech. 12.9 10. Ezech. 36 37. And when God prevents our prayers with his Mercies we should be he more busie afterward that they may be blessed unto us 2. As even godly Friends may be ready to act unfriendly toward a godly man in his trouble that his trial may be compleat as they did to Job So it is an evidence of Grace especially marked by God to pass over these Injuries as here God marks that Job did so to his Friends who are called his Friends notwithstanding their miscarriages toward him See also Chap. 6.15 19.21 Not only because they were of his Kindred but because he in love thought them Friends and because they minded to express friendship in all they did however they mistook the way 3. It is not enough that men seem to pass over injuries that so they may more closely pursue a revenge but they should pray for them who have injured them as here Job prayed for his Friends See Mat. 5.44 Rom. 12.14 If Conscience wâ—re made of this duty it might be a mean to reclaim those who wrong us from their evil courses and however it would bring much peace to our selves Psal 35.13 4. As our forgiving of others is an evidence that our selves are pardoned by God which malicious vindictive spirits do little mind Mat. 6.14 15. So when men are in a tender frame and ready to pardon Injuries it is a pledge that their deliverance is near and that it is blessed to them when it cometh For the Lord turned the Captivity of Job when he prayed for his Friends So that as those who have done wrong to others should imitate Jobs Friends in taking with their faults so they who are wronged and would evidence that they are approved of God and that their deliverance is blessed to them should imitate Job in their tender passing over of injuries which also was not only the practice of David 2 Sam. 19.21 22 23. but even of Saul before the Lord departed from him 1 Sam. 11.12 13. Thirdly Consider the measure of Jobs prosperity now when he is restored it was twice as much as he had before And albeit this be instanced only in his goods v. 12. where a remark like to this is premitted to the particular account of his substance and there we may speak to it yet the Original hath it God added to all that Job had to the double Where the Universal All may be restricted to all of that kind or to all the particulars of his wealth mentioned v. 12. Or it may also be further extended and taken more absolutely What was verified of this in the matter of his Children will come to be considered on v. 13. Only here it may safely be extended both to his body and mind That the Gifts and Graces of his mind were notably improved by this trial and such Gifts of body and mind as he had before and he was now repossessed of were double mercies in his esteem And so it teacheth 1. Saints restitution after trouble will be with advantage as here Job â—ound So that they shall have no cause to repent or to quarrel that they were in trouble See Psal 1 19.71 Isa 61.7 2. Whatever other advantages men reap by trouble yet they are great gainers if they learn to prize mercies as double mercies when they are restored and if the Gifts and Graces of their minds be thereby improved In which respects Jobs mercies were now double to him Verse 11. Then came there unto him all his Brethren and all his Sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before and did eat bread with him in his house and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him every man also gave him a piece of money and every one an ear-ring of Gold Followeth to the end of the Chapter a more particular account of his prosperous condition after his restitution By which is intimated That the Providence of God toward his people ought not to be superficially viewed but distinctly marked Here this account of his prosperity is branched out in five particulars the first whereof in this v. is his restitution to his Honour and Reputation among his Friends and Kinsmen Where it is declared that all his Kinsfolkes called Brethren and Sisters and his Acquaintance who had formerly forsaken him either because of his poverty or their suspitions of his Hypocrisie do now flock unto him and do eat and drink and sympathize with him and comfort him over all his sorrows They do also give him some money which hath its name from a Lamb which it seems was stamped upon the Coin as we call some pieces of Gold Angels for the like reason and Jewels which they did both in testimony of their Love and Kindness and it is likely also toward the reparation of his ruined estate For albeit we read not that in lost what Gold or Wealth he had in the House yet that could not so soon have purchased so much wealth as he had again v. 12. And if he had many Friends every ones Mite might contribute somewhat to set him up again It is further here to be considered 1. This eating of Bread with him doth not only import that they were familiar with him but hath some hint also of those Feasts of Consolation which of old Friends were wont to give to the afflicted Jer. 16.7 8. 2. If it be enquired what need there was of their sympathy and comfort now when the Lord himself had appeared for him Answ However it was now with Job yet they testified their good will and what they did might help to confirm him and heal any scars that were left especially when they confessed their fault in abandoning him in his trouble Doct. 1. Godly men may expect to
Saints may be much mistaken of their case when God thus exerciseth them notwithstanding their fears and tenderness For albeit trouble may come on such yet upon due examination it will be found far more sweet then what they feared As may be seen in Jobs case His fear was to be shaken out of his prosperity as the punishment of sin Chap. 1.5 But his affliction was only a tryal of faith His fear now is that God hath done all this in wrath without any respect had to his piety as the scope of his reasoning importeth which was his mistake and contrary to Gods own verdict in the midst of the trouble Chap. 2.3 and after it Chap. 42.7 8. 4. Trouble will put men back to try what their former carriage hath been and whether they have had a sinful hand in procuring of it As here Job is put back to look what his exercise hath been before trouble came These who will not examin their ways daily trouble will force them to a back-search and then that will not satisfie nor give quiet which our wit can invent or our Consciences fancy to themselves in a calm day But Conscience will be put to it to speak the truth impartially 5. Albeit sometimes the minds of the people of God may be so feeble and broken under trouble that their Consciences dare not assert their integrity but will be ready to succumb under every challenge how unjust soever restoring what they took not away Psal 69.4 Yet a really good Conscience needs not and in those who know their priviledge and allowance will not alter its testimony in the worst times but what it saith in peace it will speak out in greatest trouble For Job here in the height of his trouble doth assert his integrity and afterward maintains it 6. Albeit it be our duty to bless God and comfort our selves that in our troubles we have a good Conscience to support us yet the corruption of Saints may take advantage of their being sincere and such as have not sinfully procured trouble to bear it the more impatiently For Job makes it an argument of his discontent that he was thus dealt with when he was walking tenderly And this is his fault all along that having a good Conscience and a just quarrel he did manage and maintain it too hotly and bitterly And to silence this unreasonable passion Saints do so frequently get sin and their own guilt mixed in their cup of trouble Otherwise God would not be justified but rather judged by us when he judgeth us Psal 51.4 with Rom. 3.4 7. It is an act of spiritual prudence in Saints to propound to themseves no other events of pious diligence then what are certain lest disappointments make them faint For Job expecting though without any warrant that his solicitude should have prevented trouble and being now disappointed it makes him lose heart of his diligence and of his life and all CHAP. IV. Hitherto in the first part of this Book we had an account of the sad change of Jobs condition and his sharp Tryals by Affliction Suggestion unseasonable Silence of Friends and inward Desertion and Tentation The Second Part of the Book to chap. 32. gives an account of another sharp tryal and exercise of his Faith in maintaining an hot dispute in defence of his Integrity against his three Friends who called his Piety in question because of his afflictions The dispute drew to a great length two of them grappling with him thrice and the last twice and he answering to them all because of the great eagerness of both parties of the Friends to humble Job as a wicked man and of Job to maintain his own integrity And at last the Friends do give over rather out of weariness and judging him desperate chap. 32.1 then any way satisfied with what he had said In all which debate whatever was Satans design or the motives inducing the Friends to enter and insist on this Dispute yet the Lord hath so ordered as it contributes exceedingly to manifest the invincible power of God in Job and the strength of his faith supporting him when his Friends were combined to crush him and to clear many mysteries of Divine Providence in the world which are no where in Scripture more amply discussed then in this Book Before we enter with those Disputants into the heat of the Debate it will be necessary to premit some Generals by way of Introduction which may serve as a Key to open up the Scope and Drift of this Part of the Book And 1. As to the occasion and rise of this Debate It flowed more remotely from Jobs great and extraordinary Afflictions which his Friends conceived could not have come upon him had he been a godly man And while they are musing upon this during their seven days silence chap. 2.13 a more near occasion offers it self of his bitter and impatient like complaint chap. 3. and particularly that ver 25 26. of chap. 3. he had asserted his Integrity and Piety which they judged not only to be false considering how God had plagued him But a justifying of himself and a condemning of God which is the character and property of wicked men and therefore they are set on edge to enter the lists with him 2. As to the Question debated or the state of the Controversie betwixt them There is the greater need to fix it clearly and well that an Errour in this first Concoction cannot but occasion miserable mistakes and wrestings throughout the Dispute as may be perceived by the Judicious in some Interpreters And in clearing thereof I shall not insist upon any singular Principles or ways made use of by the several Friends in prosecution of the Principal Question which some Interpreters labour to cull out of some of their speeches Those if any such there be which yet is very questionable may be seasonable enough pointed at when I come at them Nor yet shall I insist upon what is yielded and taken for granted both by Job and them in this debate Namely That all afflictions fall under the eye and knowledge of God That he is the Principal Author Dispenser and Orderer of all afflictions And That by reason of the holiness greatness and soveraignty of God no imputation can be fastned upon him in afflicting as if he did any wrong Hence we will find so much spoken on all hands in commendation of the Wisdom Power Dominion Holiness c. of God Which they inculcate to drive Job to acknowledge his wickedness being afflicted by so holy a God and Job endeavours to out-strip them on that Subject being assured that the acknowledgment thereof was nothing prejudicial to his cause But the true state of the difference betwixt them was this The Friends upon the one hand laid this for a Principle That it was most agreeable to the Holiness and Justice of God that the godly and wicked do receive a present reward proportionable to their way and that if
the wicked at any time prospered their prosperity was but momentany and ended in visible judgments And if the godly were at any time afflicted their afflictions speedily ended in visible blessings And therefore when they consider Jobs case being so suddenly turned out of his prosperity and so long and so sore afflicted beyond the ordinary tryals of faithful men especially carrying so ill under it as he had done chap. 3. They conclude that he behoved to have been either a grosly wicked man or a close hypocrite Hence they judge it their most seasonable way to prove him wicked and to bear him down and humble him that so they might have ground whereupon to comfort him being penitent That this was the drift of their Discourses will sufficiently appear from their several speeches and we may find Job noticing this as their particular and chief design chap. 21.27 28. chap. 32.1 they give him up as an obstinate man because he would not take with wickedness But Job upon the other hand maintains that neither love nor hatred can be known by outward afflictions but that Saints may be under as great outward trouble as the wicked And therefore he rejects their counsel to take with former wickedness and hypocrisie and begin anew to seek God and adheres to the testimony of his Conscience which bare witness to his Integrity notwithstanding all assaults from within or from without Hence he grants that he is a sinner but not that he is an hypocrite or wicked man That God is righteous who afflicted him and yet he is not unrighteous though afflicted by a righteous God albeit neither he nor they could sufficiently reconcile these two nor sufficiently clear how they were consistent That though he be not sinless nor perfect to seclude free grace Yet he was sincere according to the tenour of the Covenant of grace and perfect before men Those and many the like Principles we will find scattered throughout his speeches while he constantly insists to defend himself in the main cause 3. Having considered the state of the Controversie it is necessary We pass some verdict and censure upon the dispute on either hand whereby our thoughts may be regulated in going through it For albeit all that is here recorded be Sacred Scripture in so far as it contains an infallible account of what each of them said and that they spake so Yet when we consider that both parties are rebuked by God for what they utter in the debate and that they speak of many things in contradictory terms We can no further justifie the purposes uttered by them then we find the general consent of other Scriptures bearing witness thereunto as we cannot either justifie the complaints and tentations of Saints which are recorded in the Book of Psalms and elsewhere as sound Divinity but do look upon them as recorded in Scripture only for this end that their example and experience may serve for Caution and Instruction to the godly in all Ages Hence on the Friends part we may remark 1. They maintain a false principle throughout the Dispute That God afflicted none as he afflicted Job but wicked men which they insist so much upon because otherwise they were not able to reconcile such sharp dealing with the righteousness of God Whereas the Scripture elsewhere assures us that all things come alike to all Eccles 9.2 to which the Principle Job closely adhereth chap. 9.22 and elsewhere throughout the dispute 2. They do also express a rash and uncharitable judgment in their Discourse in that they judged of the godly mans state by his fits of tentation and disordered frame and expressions in the heat of his distemper Judging that to proceed from a wicked disposition and consequently to be the mark of a wicked man which was extorted from him through the violence of tentation and was only an evidence of that common infirmity of Saints which we find recorded in Scripture to have broken forth in David and other godly men as well as him Hence all their reflections upon his complaints do fall short of their conclusion to prove him a wicked man though indeed they reproved what was truly culpable in him 3. In their Doctrine concerning Gods Judgments upon wicked men which is the great Argument whereby they endeavour to prove him wicked we must acknowledge there is much truth if we take in eternal punishment among the rest to be inflicted upon the wicked whether they escape in this life or not and if we understand it of the deserving of all wicked men according to the sentence of the Law and that God useth so to deal with some wicked men whom he makes publick spectacles of his Justice to deterr others In these respects we find some of their speeches cited or at least alluded unto in other Scriptures as Job 5.13 with 1 Cor. 3.19 and several of their expressions will be found to have some parallels in other Books of the Old Testament Yet in their speaking of these outward and visible judgments that come on wicked men there is a double mistake One That they not only pleaded the Law-sentence and the Deserving of such men or that God did execute these threatnings accordingly on some even in this life which Job never denied chap. 27.11 12 13 14 c. But they pleaded also the real and actual execution of all that was threatned and that on every one of the wicked even in this life And so asserted that to be universally true which is only rue of some For Job agreeably to the Scriptures maintained that God exercised a great variety of dispensations toward wicked men in this life chap. 21.23 24 25. And as may be gathered from the scope of most of his speeches that oft-times God seeth it fit to spare wicked men in this life notwithstanding their ill-deserving yea and to heap prosperity upon them until their death That so he may exercise the faith and patience of the godly and may teach all to look out to a Day of Judgment and the eternal reward of Wickedness and Piety Another mistake is That they asserted these calamities to be proper to the wicked which are common also to the godly For albeit temporal calamities inflicted on a wicked man are real curses and fruits of his sin Yet the Scripture elsewhere cleareth that the same lots may also befal the godly either for chastisement or for the tryal of their faith and patience and that the supporting grace of God may he magnified in them as Jobs own experience doth witness Thus as to the external stroke there may be one event to the righteous and to the wicked c. Eccles 9.2 4. Their Doctrine concerning Gods Sovereignty Holiness and Justice whereby they laboured to drive Job from his confidence is true doctrine and therefore Job strives to out-strip them in commending those Attributes of God Yet they did ill apply this doctrine and made a bad use of it to crush a godly man as