examples must not teach us to sinne but they teach us how unable we alone are to keep our selves from sinne they teach us also what need we have to depend upon and look up to Christ that we may be kept from sin if he leave us but a little unto our selves the flesh will discover much of it self and we shall quickly shew what our natures are though we are renewed by grace We must trust to the supplies not to the receipts of grace Secondly When Job saith My soul is weary of my life We learn That Soul and life in man are two distinct things For howsoever as was toucht in explication the soul is often put for the whole man and so the sense of my soul is weary may be but this I am weary of my life yet the holy Ghost would never denominate all man by that which is 〈◊〉 not a part of man That 's a brutish opinion which makes the soul nothing or nothing else but life and this life no more in entity then the life of a beast which vanisheth when it dieth That these opinionists tell us they believe the body shall rise again by the power of God cannot satisfie for this fall which their opinion gives the soul neither doth the immortality of the soul at all contradict which was threatned for and is the wages of sin the death of the whole man For death consists not if we may say a privation doth consist in the annihilation but in the separation of those parts of man soul and body which by life are united and kept close together Thirdly When Job saith My soul is weary of my life we learn That the life of man may grow to be a burthen to him In the third Chapter Job wished for death his wish was examined there about the lawfulnesse of it I shall now only examine a touch about which was given lately whence this wearinesse of life causing wishes to be rid of life doth arise There is a wearinesse of life incident only and proper to wicked men And there is a wearinesse of life which may grow upon the best of men Take a brief account of the usuall grounds of both First Carnall men are often sick with discontent and die of a humour If the Lord will not give them their lusts they bid him take their lives Necessaries and competencies will not satisfie them they must have superfluities they languish if they have not quails to their Manna as Israel once desired and had Was it any thing but this which made Ahab goe home sullen and sad Sullen sadnesse is a degree of this wearinesse Ahab had a Kingdom and yet he could not live without a vineyard He that takes away another mans life to obtain what he desires thinkes his own life searee desirable unlesse he may obtain it There was a spice of this distemper in Jonah though a good man and a Prophet Jonah 4.8 because the Lord did but kill his gourd kill me too saith Ionah He wished himself to die and said his gourd being dead It is better for me to die then to live It is an excesse of desire when we desire any outward thing much more when we desire things unnecessary things not to supply our wants but to serve our lusts As Rachel did children who are the best and noblest of outward things Give me them or else I die Gen. 30.1 Secondly Some wicked men are wearied of their lives by the horrour of their consciences A hell within makes the world without a hell too They who have a sight of eternall death as the wages of sin without the sight of a remedy may soon be weary of a temporall life As much peace of conscience and soul joy in believing makes some of the Saints wish themselves out of the body so also doth trouble of conscience and grief of soul make many of the wicked A man who is not at all weary of committing sin may be weary of his life because he hath committed it And he who was never troubled that his wickednesse is as an offence against God may feel his wickednesse extremely offensive against himself To such a soul the evil of sinne is so great an evil of punishment that he is ready to cry out with Cain My punishment is greater then I can bear Yea what his guilty conscience feared comes to be the desire of many under the same guilt That every one that findeth them would slay them And some are so weary of their lives at the sight of sinne that they make away their lives themselves hoping to get out of the sight of sin There are sins which cry to God for vengeance and some cry to the sinner himself for vengeance This cry was so loud and forcible in the ears of Judas that it caused him to go away and hang himself And what made Ahithophel weary of his life but his wickednesse The rejecting of his counsel was not so much the reason of it as the sinfulnesse of his counsel A good man may be troubled at others when his good counsel is not accepted but he grows not unacceptable to himself nay he is well-pleased that he hath given honest counsel though none will take it though all are displeased at it But they who aim not at the pleasing of God in what they doe thinke themselves undone and die they will if they please not men Thirdly Inordinate cares for the things of this life make others weary of their lives He that cannot cast his care upon God may soon be cast down himself Christ Luk. 21.34 cautions his Disciples Take heed lest your hearts be over-charged with the cares of this life That which Christ would prevent in the Saints fals often upon carnall men their hearts are over-charged with cares cares are compared to a burden and they are compared to thorns they doe not only presse but vex and wound Their weight presses some to death their sharpnesse wounds others to death And not a few would go out of the world because they cannot get so much of it as they would These things among others make wicked men weary of their lives There are other things which make godly men weary of their lives such are these First The violence of Satans and the worlds temptations The soul would gladly be rid of the body that it might be beyond the reach and assaults of the devil and his assistants There 's a serpent every where but in the heavenly paradise Only they complain not of temptation who are willing slaves to the tempter The Apostle 1 Cor. 10.13 assures the Corinthians There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it as if he had said Temptations are sore burdens and although yours hitherto have been but ordinary temptations such
thought a good man might be afflicted for the triall and exercise of his graces yet he was very confident that God never suffered a righteous man to be overwhelmed with affliction but after fome short though sharp assaults restored him again And therefore Bildad numbred them also with the wicked who were destroied as well as afflicted This Job refutes and argues against all along constantly holding the contrary principle that a godly man maybe so afflicted as to be destroied that he may be utterly and for ever stript of worldly comforts Hence observe Good and bad righteous and wicked are often involved in the same outward evils The spiritual estate of a righteous man is so strong and ordered in all things that he can neither totally nor finally fall from it or lose it Grace is above these hazards But the temporall estate of a righteous man may be lost both totally and finally Riches and health and honour are like themselves whosoever is their master fading and perishing A righteous man hath a higher tenure of things below and holds them upon better terms then a wicked man doth yet he holds them but for a terme they are not enduring substance to him as not to others A little that a righteous man hath is better then the riches of many wicked Psal 37.16 But the righteous may be deprived of what he hath as soon as any of the wicked Eccles 9.1 No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Externals distinguish not internals No mans spirituall estate is knowable by the view of his temporall Say to the land of Israel Thus saith the Lord Behold I am against thee and I will draw forth my sword out of his sheath Ezek. 21.3 And what will the Lord doe with it Will he not bath it in the bloud of his enemies and sheath it in the bowels of wicked men he will but shall it be bathed in the bloud of none else The next words resolve the doubt And I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked It is a terrible sentence sword famine pestilence make no difference of men or manners they know neither faces nor hearts The best in a Nation may taste the bloudy cup and feel the cold iron in their bowels together with the worst The green tree and the dry tree may be devoured by the same fire as the Prophet shadows good and bad or as some thinke good and better falling into the same calamity Ezek. 20.47 with which that of Christ Luk. 23.31 seems more agreeable The basket of good figs goes into captivity with the basket of evil figs under which the good and bad among the Jews were typed Jer. 24.1 2 3. But though they fall under the same destruction yet their case under it is as different as the persons are Faith and holy reason distinguish where sense cannot Judgements upon 〈◊〉 wicked men Poena satisfactoria medicinalis are for fatisfaction to the justice of God They who are heirs of eternall death receive part of their inheritance in this life All their punishments are paiments The fore-tastes and beginnings of further sorrows These judgements upon the Saints are only corrective or purgative Their hopes are not destroied when their bodies or estates are Their afflictions are medicinable and heal while they kill We must not wrap up the dispensation of God to different persons in the same apprehensions though his act be the same to both yet his meaning is not How the afflictions of the wicked and righteous differ the Reader shall finde more distinctly opened Chap. 5.17 Job goes on to confirme his opinion by a further argument in the 23th verse For if any should deny his minor proposition That the Lord destroies the righteous and the wicked he proves it thus If the scourge slay suddenly he laugheth at the triall of the innocent that is he carries himself so farre as the eye can judge toward the innocent in their trials as he doth toward the wicked under greatest judgements He laugheth at the one and he laugheth at the other which words are at once a confirmation and an aggravation of what he spake before Verse 23. If the scourge slay suddenly he laugheth at the triall of the innocent The former words gave offence to some mindes conceiving them inconsistent with grace and holinesse Others are more offended with these And in the letter it is strange language to say Nullum est ver bum hac sententia illa elegit anima mea suspendiū durius atque asperius in hoc libro Philip. The Lord laughs at the triall of the innocent This verse with the fifteenth of the 7th Chapter So that my soul chooseth strangling are concluded by a learned Writer the sharpest and most questionable passages in the whole book Hence his conceit that in the 40th Chapter vers 5. Iob aims at these two speeches Once have I spoken but I will not answer that is I will never speak such a word again that I chuse strangling yea twice but I will proceed no further I said also That thou laughest at the triall of the innocent but I will never say so any more I am asham'd that ever I opened my lips so unadvisedly t is too too much that I have spoken twice so sinfully I will not speak so thrice The conceit is witty but the charg lies too heavy The sense of the former hath been made out fair for Iob and I doubt not but his meaning may be so cleared in this later that he will need neither reproof nor apology for saying If the scourge slay suddenly c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plagedum à circumeundo vel circumdando dicitur quod videatur circumcingere hominem The verb signifies to encompasse or incircle a thing to twine round about it And so it alludes to the fashion of a scourge which begirts the offender at every blow winds about his body The scourge in Scripture is put for any affliction plague sword or famine are called scourges Isa 10.26 The Lord of hosts shall stirre up a scourge for him what scourge the next words expound it a scourge not of cords or wiers but of swords and spears a scourge according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock Oreb that is the Lord will send a sword upon him So Gideon slew the Midianites Judg. 7. commanding his souldiers to make that terrible shout when they fell on upon their Camp The sword of the Lord and of Gideon That great warriour Attila king of the Hunnes who harassed a great part of Christendom with fire and sword was called Flagellum Dei Flagellum inundans i. e. omnes sine delectu involvens proculcans The scourge of God The unbelieving Jews having
Man is apt to say there is no reason for that of which he seeth not the reason When we are at our wits end and at our reasons end we think there is an end of all wisdom and reason as if neither God nor man could give an account beyond ours or answer when we are non-plust Yet we may conceive Iob had a further sense which yeelds a more mollifying meaning of these words for though he as all the Saints in the old Testament was much in the dark about the benefit of sufferings which the Gospel hath now more clearly revealed to us and called us unto yet he might have some other intendment in these expostulations We may charitably suppose him troubled that he was in a condition of life which as he conceived hindered the main end of his life the glorifying of God Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb As if he had said Lord I am in a state wherein I know not how to honour thee and then what is my life worth unto me Thy justice is greatly obscured towards me many are ready to say for my sake that surely thou art a hard Master leaving them to reap evil who have sowed good and paying thy faithfull and most active servants their wages in sufferings And as for mercy I taste little of that Nunc in me justitia tua obscuratur ego non sentio fructum gratiae tuae quâ in re ergo gloriae tuae inservire potest vita mea Coc. comforts are dainties with me my cup is bitter my sorrows are multiplied Now when neither justice nor mercy move visibly towards me how shall I glorifie thee And wherein can my life be usefull or advantagious to thee Am I not like a broken vessel a vessel wherein there is no pleasure Wherefore then was I brought forth out of the womb This exposition teaches us That A godly man thinks he liveth to no purpose if he do not live to the praise and glory of God God hath made all things for himself and it is the design of the Saints to be for him While that end is attained they can easily part with all their own and where that is crossed they cannot be pleased in the attainment of any of their own The interest of Christ is not only their greatest but all their interest Any stop of much more a disservice to this causeth an honest heart to cry out with Iob and 't is easie to conceive it caused Iob to cry out Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the wombe O that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me O that I had given up the ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Facilem sine dolore mortem innuit The originall signifies usually a gentle and an easie kinde of death Giving up the ghost is not a pulling or a violent rending of life away from us but our laying it down our surrender or willing resignation of it Some read this clause not as we optatively O that I had given up the ghost but declaratively Wherefore hast thou brought me out of the womb for then I had quickly given up the ghost But rather take it as a wish O that I had given up the ghost And no eye had seen me That is say some I would I had died before I had been born for then no eye had seen me Or more generally thus O that I had died speedily so speedily that I might have gone out of the world before I was observed to have been there Who delights to see the dead especially a childe dead-born or dying as soon as born Sarah was the delight of Abrahams eyes whiles she lived and yet assoon as she was dead he gives any money for a sepulchre to bury her out of his sight Or again Job that he might shew how little he regarded life disregards that which is most desirable in life Innatum est omnibus ut cognosci se velint studio teneantur res alias cognoscendi Man naturally desires To see and to be seen to know and to be known That which carries a great part of the world is an affectation to be pointed at and taken notice of as Some-bodies in the world He that liveth unseen in the world is as a man out of the world or as one buried alive To be in prison is a great punishment because a prisoner liveth out of view he cannot freely see or be seen Job wishes no eye had seen him rather then his eyes should have seen so much evil or that others should have seen him in the midst of so many evils Hence note First That undue and unreasonable questions are usually followed and fruited with undue and unreasonable wishes Having put the question Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb See what a wish comes upon it O that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me He that takes undue liberty to speak or do knows not where he shall restrain himself They who alwaies act as farre as they may shall often act beyond what they ought And they who act at all beyond what they are directed are often carried beyond what themselves intended Secondly Observe Man had rather not be seen at all then to be seen miserable To be seen is a great part of the comfort of this life but who would not gladly exchange it for ease in obscurity It is an honour to be seen but who would be seen cloathed with dishonour When Christ is prophecied of as the great patern of patience and self-deniall it is said He hid not his face from shame and spitting Isa 50.6 To be a spectacle of misery is to some worse then their being miserable They would count it a piece of their happinesse to be unhappy in a corner and their troubles half removed if they might steal their troubles As to be in a good estate and to know that we are so makes our estate better to us So to be in an ill estate and to be known that we are so makes it to some tempers a great deal worse As the hypocrite hopes when he sins that no eye sees him so many wish when they suffer O that no eye had seen me Verse 19. I should have been as though I had not been I should have been carried from the womb to the grave Some read this verse also as a wish O that I had been as though I had never been O that I had been carried from the womb to the grave He confirms what he had said by a further declaration of his condition in case he had not been brought forth out of the womb or had died before he had been seen in the throng of the world Why what then Job Then I should have been as though I had not been and my afflictions should never have had any being so speedy a death had quitted me of all the evils of my life I
great affliction and now a little comfort would go a great way with him When the people of Israel were in bondage under Pharaoh and his task-masters and had heavier burdens laid upon them they do not so much as move for a totall release from their task but modestly complain There is no straw given unto thy servants and they say to us Make brick As if they had said Let us have straw and we are willing to make brick A poor man cries out for a half-peny for a farthing not for hundreds or thousands He that is ready to starve will not ask good chear or a plentifull feast but let me have a crust of bread or a little water When Dives was in hell what did he desire of Abraham Did he beg to come into his bosome Doth he say Lazarus is in a good place let me come too No he desired but a drop of water and what was a drop of water to flames of fire O how would it delight the damned in hell to think of a cessation but for one hour from their pain What a joy would it be unto them if it should be told them that a thousand or ten thousand years hence they should have one good day or that they might be let alone to take comfort a little They who are low make low demands Think of this ye that enjoy much comfort and swim in rivers of pleasure Let not the great consolations of God be small to you when you hear Job thus instant and importunate for the smallest Let me alone that I may take comfort a little But why is he in such haste for a little comfort One ground is in the former words My daies are few and he backs it with a second in the next If it come not quickly it will come too late I am ready to take my last journey Therefore let me take a little comfort Verse 21. Before I go whence I shall not return even to the land of darknesse and the shadow of death Before I go That is before I die Death is a going out of the world Periphrasis moriendi qui m ritur dicitur abire unde abitionem pro morte veteres usurparunt Drus Christ intimates his death under this notion Joh. 16.7 If I goe the Comforter will come And I go from you c. Dying is a journeying from one region to another Death is a changing of our place though not of our company Before I go Whether Whence I shall not return That 's a strange journey indeed That which pleaseth us in our longest journeys while we live is a hope of returning to our own homes again But when we die we take a journey from whence there is no returning Not return Shall not man return when he dieth Is death an everlasting departure an eternall night No Man shall return but he shall not return to such a life or state as he had before Fidem resurrectionis non laedit Pin. He is gone for ever out of this world and out of all worldly interests Job believed a resurrection or a returning from the grave by the power of God and he knew there was no returning by the power of nature or by the help of any creature In that reference we go whence we shall not return So David speaks of his dead Infant I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Indicat nullam esse vim in natura cui pareat mors cui receptacula animarum obediaÌ„t reddereque cogaÌ„tur quem semel receperunt Pin. 2 Sam. 12.25 When once we are shut up in those chambers of death and made prisoners in the grave though all the Princes in the world send warrants for our release we cannot get released The pertinacy and stiffnesse of the grave is such as yeelds to none We are fast shut up when we are shut up there Love and the grave will hardly part with that which they have closed with and are possessed of The grave is one of those three things which are never satisfied or say it is enough Prov. 30.15 And as it is unsatiable in receiving so it is as close in keeping it will part with nothing A grave is the Parable of a covetous man he is greedy to get and watchfull to hold when his money goes into his purse he saith it shall not return The grave hath a strong appetite to take down and as strong a stomack to digest Till God as I may so speak by his mighty power gives the grave a vomit and makes the earth stomack-sick with eating mans flesh Veteres Romani dicere solebant abâ—it reversurus est resurrectionem carnis haud obscurè innuentes Ter. Salve aeternum mihi maxime Palla Aeternumque vale Virg. Aenead it will not return one morsel At the resurrection this great Eater shall cast up all again And as they who take strong vomits are put into a kinde of trembling convulsion all the powers of the body being shaken such will the prognosticks be of the resurrection there was an earth-quake when Christ arose God made the earth shake and commanded it to give back the prisoner because it was not possible that he should be holden of it And when God speaks the word it will not be possible for the grave to hold us prisoners till then it will It was usuall among the Ancients to say of a dead friend He is gone and he will come again intimating a resurrection Heathens not knowing nor believing it call earth Valeant qui inter nos dissidiuÌ„ volunt Terent. An eternall leave-taking or farewell never to meet again Observe from this description of the grave That the statutes of death are unrepealable Death is an everlasting banishment from the world I shall goâ— whence I shall not return This may lie very sad upon their spirits Animula vagula blandula c. quae nunc abibis in loca Aâ—r. who have not a better place then the world to go to when they go from the world To go whence we shall never return and yet where we cannot endure to be a moment is deepest misery Such a man cannot chuse but set out with a sad heart And that 's the reason why wicked men whose consciences are awakened go so unwillingly to this sleep they know whither they are going only they know they cannot return Make ye friends 't is Christs counsel of the Mammon of unrighteousnesse that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luk. 10.9 Mammon of unrighteousnesse that is say most Interpreters Mammon gotten unrighteously but surely Christ would not teach any to make men our friends by that which makes God our enemy Quod est falsum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab Hellenistis usu HebraeoruÌ„ dicitur Hens exercit Sacr. They translate better who render it Make ye friends of the false or unfaithfull Mammon that is of that Mammon which will deceive and leave you shortly
store of water they are sensuall they must please their appetites and delight their palates The Apostle describes them so They serve not the Lord Jesus but their own bellies they must be supported with the affluence of outward things else they cannot hold out in profession Whereas the godly and true believers can live when the water is drain'd or dry'd away when outward things fail and are gone So the Prophet Habakkuk professes Chap. 3. ult Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines though the fields shall yeeld no meat and there be no herds in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and will joy in the God of my salvation A godly man will grow when all the world decaies to him he will rejoyce in God when all outward comforts fail him hypocrites must have sensuall supplies or they are lost A feigned love of spirituall things is ever joyned with a true love of worldly things Christ speaks of some who followed him more for the loaves then for the word And Judas followed his Masters bag more then his Master Fifthly Bulrushes or flags yeeld no fruit at all they only make a fair shew hypocrites how green so ever they are what shew or profession soever they make yeeld no fruit of holinesse Sixtly A bulrush or a flag withers sooner then any other herb that is then other herbs that are not seated so near the water And this agrees well with the hypocrite for when the hypocrite begins once to wither he withers quickly He never had any true life and he will not long appear to have any When one that hath made a fair profession begins to decay he decaies sooner than a meer civil man a civil man will hold out in honesty and justice a great while but a hypocrite gives over holinesse and godlinesse presently Besides God blasts and withers an hypocrite sooner than any other man because he hath abused and wronged God more then any other man When judgements come they fall first upon hypocrites The hypocrites in Zion tremble Isa 33. Trembling will take hold upon the prophane and openly wicked but trembling takes hold foonest upon hypocrites they have most cause to tremble who were confident without a cause False hope is the parent of reall fear and they who believe without repenting shall repent without believing Verse 13. So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall perish So are the paths So that is thus it comes to passe Sic sane illis accidit usu venit talis est eorum conditio Drus this is the way and the end of all those who forget God The path of a man is taken two vvaies First For his state and condition Psal 1. The way of the wicked shall perish that is the vvhole state of a wicked man shall perish Secondly For his course and conversation Job 33.11 He putteth my feet in the stocks he marketh all my paths that is he takes notice of the vvhole course of my life all my conversation all my tradings and dealings are before God This path of mans course and conversation is two-fold There is an internall and there is an externall path The internall is that of the minde the minde hath it's course the heart hath a vvay Isa 57.17 He went on frowardly in the way of his heart The external path is that of outward actions That which we usually doe is our path Thus the actions and works of God are called the paths of God Job 40.19 Behemeth is the chief of the waies of God Prov. 8.22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old Psal 77.13 Thy way O God is in the sanctuary that is thy actings and doings are seen there Our actions are compared to a path in two respects 1. Because we are frequent in them that which is a mans course he treads every day 2. They are called our paths because they lead us to same end every path leads us to some place or other Some actions lead to life and some to death some lead to heaven some to hell some to Christ and some to Satan to one of these ends we are travelling and journeying all the daies of our lives Of those that forget God To forget God imports these four things 1. Not to think of God we forget that which we minde not The first act of remembring is thinking The thief on the crosse prayed Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdom that is think of me for good God is not in all the thoughts of a wicked man â—o obey or honour him and a wicked man is not in all the thought of God in this sense to blesse or pardon him 2. To forget God is to disobey God or not to doe the will of God Deut. 8.11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments As to remember God is to do the will of God Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth that is do the will of thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth so to forget God is to disobey God not to doe his will God is said to forget us when he doth not our will that is when we in prayer propose â—uâ—dâ—â—fe to God to doe them for us the not doing of those things for us into forget us David expostulates Psal 77.9 Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious He had praied much at the beginning of the Psalm with successe I cried unto God with my mouth even unto God with my voice and he gave ear unto me He puts up other requests which finding no present answer or sensible acceptance he cries out Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious Now as when the Lord doth not our will he is said in Scripture to forget us so when we do not the will of God we indeed forget him 3. To forget is lightly to esteem to sleight the Lord. That which a man highly esteems he keeps in his memory and treasure it up there and when a man forgets a thing Oblivio affert contemptum especially when he wilfully forgets it he disrespects it he sleights and contemns it Jer. 30.14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee that is thy lovers care not for thee they sleight and esteem lightly of thee When a man comes not at one whom he loves he is said to forget him Jer. 2.32 Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire A maid hath a great esteem of her ornaments especially of her wedding ornaments and therefore she is often thinking of them it may be she can hardly sleep the night before for thinking of the rich garments yea the bracelets and bables she is to wear upon the wedding day Can a bride forget her attire Will she throw these by the walls as we speak or cast them at her heels Yet saith the Lord My people have forgotten me daies without number
man should be emptied when he is full that a man should be nothing when he hath all sufficiency about him yet thus it shall be In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits As a godly man hath a sufficiency in his wants yea a fulnesse of sufficiency in his wants So on the other side an hypocrite whose heart is false with God hath want in his sufficiency yea want in the fulnesse of his sufficiency Which may be understood two waies either that his fulnesse in the greatest sufficiency of it is unsatisfying or that his fulnesse in the greatest sufficiency of it is upon decaying and abating Psal 78.13 Whilest the meat was in their mouths the wrath of God fell upon them while meat is in the mouth rich clothes upon the back while store of money is in the purse while the land brings forth abundance of encrease even in all these sufficiencies a man may be in straits As it was with Agag 1 Sam. 15. Surely saith he the bitternesse of death is past he thought himself safe and that the storm was quite blown over but then in that nick of time comes Samuel and cutteth him in peeces The Apostle Paul saith 2 Cor. 1.9 I had the sentence of death in my self that is I concluded I could not survive those sufferings I thought my self a lost man yet the Lord delivered him and fetched him from the grave But when hypocrites like Agag have the sentence yea the sweetnesse of life in themselves When they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes as pain upon a woman in travell and they shall not escape God cuts them off It follows If he destroy him from his place what then It shall deny him saying I have not seen thee Here is a further aggravation of his misery when he is destroyed It shall deny him What shall deny him Some read it thus his place shall deny him Can a place speak affirm or deny No it cannot but it is usuall in Scripture by a Prosopopeia a fiction of a person to ascribe speech to beasts to trees and places too things not only without reason but without life Such an elegancy is here It shall deny him that is when he is destroyed if any man shall ask the question where is this man Where is this goodly tree that stood here before The place shall answer He is not here now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ontietur ei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. er prosopope aÌ„ tribuit sermoneÌ„ mendacium rei inanimae quod insolens non est in his libris Ita è loco suo excidetur interibit ut nullus jam agnoscat eum ibi unquam fuisse Merc The Hebrew is The place shall lie the place shall feign and say we have not seen him we know not what is become of him So men use to answer when they are either afraid or ashamed to own one that is asked for Some understand it of a person Then one may deny him I see then no more so M. Broughton Suppose a traveller who oftentimes past by and saw this goodly tree when he commeth to the place again sees it no more the tree is down So he who hath past by such a mans house and beheld his goodly seat when he comes another time there is no such man there the man is gone It or he shall deny him saying I have not seen thee I have not seen thee We have neer the same words Psal 37.35 36. where the flourishing estate of a wicked man is shadowed under the notion of a tree I have seen the wicked flourish like a green bay-tree c. yet he past away and he was not as much as to say if it be asked what 's become of him A man shall answer he hath not seen him yea I sought him but he could not be found Such a sense hath been shewed Job 7.18 upon those words The place thereof shall know him no more A clear riddance shall be made of all men out of the world especially of wicked men In that description Dan. 2.35 of the four Monarchies under the similitude of a great Image whose head was of gold his brest and arms of silver his belly and thighs of brasse his legs of iron and his feet of iron and clay the text saith Then was the iron the clay the brasse the silver and the gold broken to peeces together and became like the chaff of the Summer threshing floors and the winde carried them away that no place was found for them or as the Chaldee They were found in no place A time will come when all Monarchies and worldly Kingdoms which have stood up in so much lustre which have dazled the eyes of all beholders with their splendour and kept all their neighbour nations under by their power a time shall come when this clay and iron and brasse and silver and gold shall be all beaten to peeces so that if a man ask where are the four Monarchies What 's become of the pomp and state of those great Empires The places of them shall know them no more no man can tell where they are There is such a meaning here this green tree This hypocrite shall have his branches so pull'd off his roots so stubbed up that it will be hard to give an account what 's become of him We finde the happy and flourishing estate of the Church and people of God described as if no place were large enough for them to dwell in Zech. 10.10 I will bring them again out of the land of Aegypt and gather them out of Assyria c. that is I will gather my Saints my Church together from all the parts of the world where they have lived while they could not live but sculking in corners I will bring them together so conspicuously that there shall be no place found for them that is no place capacious enough to receive them and their families We have the same promise of enlargement Isa 49. They shall say The place is too strait for me give place to me that I may dwell Now as the Saints shall be gathered together so eminently and abundantly that no place shall be found big enough to hold them so the hypocrite with all his greennesse and verdure shall be so blasted and rooted up that the place where he was shall not be visible as his he shall be so farre from filling all places that he shall fill none The place where he dwelt shall spue him out and by any remaining symptome it shall not be known where that man was So then the summe of all may be given thus taking the comparison from the tree to this wicked man That as a tree highly grown and deeply rooted may be so cut down and stubbed up that it shall not be known whether ever it grew upon that place or no so a wicked man though for a while he flourisheth and overcommeth all impediments that hinder him
exalt our thrones above the stars of God We will ascend above the heights of the clouds we will be like the most high yet how are ye brought down to hell to the sides of the pit All that look upon you say Are these the men that made the earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms Thus the Lord hath taken away the thrones of Princes and none could hinder he hath also removed the Candlesticks of Churches and none could hinder Christ threatned the seven Churches in Asia that he would come and take away their Candlesticks which of these hindered him Both Crowns and Candlesticks must down if he speak the word It is said when David kept his fathers Sheep there came a Lion and a Bear and took a Lamb and a Sheep out of the flock but he arose and went out after them and rescued both Lamb and Sheep taking the prey out of their teeth When the Lord Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will come and tear and take away no David can rescue out of his hand The five Kings that came against Sodome took away Lot Abraham went with his army and made them restore made them bring back again it is ordinary with man when one hath robbed another for a stronger to make him restore and vomit up the sweet morsels which he hath swallowed It is not thus with God First Power cannot doe it though the instruments which he useth to take away from us be weak yet the strong shall not be able to make the weak restore A weak Nation may destroy a strong Nation and the stronger shall not be able to make the weaker restore if the Lord send them When the Babylonians encamped about Jerusalem he warns them by his Prophet doe not thinke you shall deliver your selves by your great strength I have sent them to take your City and your State And though they were all wounded meâ— yet they shall rise up and take your City Isa 43.13 I will work saith the Lord and who shall let it Who shall let it Why they might say We will have some that shall let it No saith the Lord none shall let it Behold I have sent to Babylon and destroyed all their Princes those that fought to hinder me in my work by their power and counsell are broken though they seemed as strong as iron bars so the word is These bars of iron cannot keep me from entring I will break all opposition raised against my work Secondly As power cannot hinder him so policy cannot no counsell shall stop him They Isa 7.6 took counsell and resolved strongly We will go up against Judah and destroy it and set a King in the middest of it even the sonne of Tabeal The Lord answereth in the next words It shall not stand neither shall it come to passe You resolve to doe it you make it out in your counsels how to hinder mine but it shall not be it shall not come to passe As no counsell against us shall stand if the Lord be with us Isa 8.10 So no counsell for us shall stand if the Lord be against us Thirdly When the Lord is resolved to take away the peace and glory of a Nation or of a Church he will doe it and no spirituall means shall hinder him praier it self shall not hinder him If any thing in the world can move the Lord to restore when he taketh away the peace of a people it is praier and the cry of his people Praier hath often met the Lord as Abigail did David 1 Sam. 25. and prevailed with him to put up his sword which was ready to destroy At the voice of praier the Lord hath restored that which he took away and hath staied from doing that which he seemed fully resolved to doe Psal 106.23 The Lord would have destroyed them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach Did Moses out-power the Lord did he out-wit or out-policy the Lord No but Moses praied and praied so strongly that the Lord was hindered that is he as if he had been hindered did not effect the thing he restored their comforts again when he had arested but some of them and seemed to come armed with resolution to take all away Yet sometimes we finde the Lord will come and take away and praier it self praier and fasting cries and tears shall not hinder God will trample upon all these God was resolved to take away the glory of Israel and to assure them that he would he takes away that wherein their chief assurance lay that he would not Jer. 15.1 Thus saith the Lord Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my minde could not be toward this people c. As if he had said Ye think to hinder me now ye will stop me ye will send out praier your old friend which hath helped you heretofore at many a dead lift And if you cannot pray enough your selves you will procure praiers and pray in the aid of praier from all the favourites that I have in the world ye will get Moseses and Samuels such as they to pray for you ye may doe so if ye will but it shall not profit you they and ye shall lose your labour even these labours will not quit cost or be worth the while to the end ye aim at for Though Moses and Samuel stood before me and intreated for this people yet my minde could not be toward them cast them out of my sight and let them goe forth such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for death to death and such as are for captivity to captivity Thus I say sometimes the Lord is so resolved to take away life riches glory peace the all both of persons and Nations that nothing shall help us or hinder him no not the praiers and cries not the supplications and tears of his own people which are the strongest stops of all in the way of provoked justice If praier cannot stay destruction and obtain a reprieve from death if the praiers of a Moses and a Samuel cannot nothing can it is as if God had said The best means shall fail you therefore all means shall fail you if when praier cannot hinder God we resort to other meanes it is as if we should thinke to fasten an Anchor with a twined threed which hath broken a cable or to conquer an enemy with a pot-gun and a bull-rush whom we could not with sword and Cannon And as God will not sometimes be entreated so he ought not at any time time to be questioned which is the next point Who shall say unto him What doest thou That 's further considerable man is not only not able to stop the Lord from what he would do Supremus ju lex est a quo non potest esse provocatio but he hath no right to put in a plea against what he hath done no nor to ask him what he hath been doing or why he did it
thus in the excesses of spirituall joy and consolation so sometâ—mes in the excesses of anguish and sorrow a man scarce knows vvhether he be alive or dead vvhat his state is vvhether in the body or out of the body he regards neither hot nor cold friend or foe wife or children he forgets to eat his bread A third expounds the words as an admiration I am perfect and doe ye thinke I know not my own soul Do ye think I am not acquainted with my self Am I a stranger at home Have I so despised my life think ye that I take no notice of it and am either carelesse or insensible how things go with me As if he had said I am perfect and this is the work of a man whose waies are perfect before the Lord he knows and considers his own soul and grows assured how matters are with him Ye my friends charge me with these and these failings and will force them upon me whether I will or no though I deny your charge yet ye re-joyn and re-affirm it upon me as though I knew not my own soul or as if ye knew me better then me self But I am perfect in heart and I know my own soul I doe not so despise my lifâ— as if it were not worth the looking after or as if I were not worth the ground I goe upon Lastly Integer sum rec s cio animam meam i. e. quicquam perversi in anima mea Others understand it thus which appears the fairest and most sutable interpretation of these later ones I am perfect neither do I know my own soul that is I am not conscious of any evil in my soul I know of no secret guilt or corruption hidden there and so science is put for conscience I know not is I am not privy to any evil that my soul delights in and keeps close either against God or man yet such evils are upon me that I despise my life The spirit of a man saith Solomon will bear his infirmity Then what a load of infirmity presses that man whose life is a burthen to him though no sin burthen his spirit Troubles of conscience doe often make the most peaceable outward estate of this life troublesome And troubles in the outward estate may make those who have great peace of conscience weary of their lives What it is to despise life and that afflictions make this life burdensome hath been shewed in the third and sixth Chapters and will come more fully to be considered at the first verse of the tenth Chapter whither I referre the Reader and forbear to insist upon it here I shall only adde that Job makes these words as a transition to the second part of his answer to the charge of Bildad Ingreditur in alteram suae respoâ—sionis parteÌ„ qua justitiam suam defendit à gravi libera integritatis suae animi beâ—e conscij assertione Merl. For having before given glory to God by acknowledging his justice wisdome power and soveraignty in all his actings he passes to an apology for himself or a defence of his own integrity against the insultations suspitions and accusations of his friends As if he had said I have desired to save the honour of God from the least touch of an uncomely thought much more then doe I abhorre proud and rude contendings with him But as for you my friends ye must give me leave to be plain with you I am not the man ye take me for I have none of that basenesse of spirit with which ye charge me I am no hypocrite I am perfect in heart with God and upright in my dealings with men And yet I cannot but complain of my sad afflictions and renew my desires that the Lord would give me ease by death and acquit me from the bands of these calamities by cutting the threed of my life I know ye judge these outward evils as the brand of a wicked man of a man hated by God But I 'll maintain a proposition contradictory to that your opinion ye shall never prove me wicked because afflicted for thus I hold and I will hold it against you all as long as I am able to speak that the Lord destroieth the perfect and the wicked The argument may be formed up thus That cannot be made a clear proof of mans impiety which falleth alike upon the good and bad But great and destroying outward afflictions fall equally upon good and bad Therefore great and destroying afflictions cannot be made a clear proof of mans impiety The proof of the minor proposition or assumption is contained in the three verses immediately following The discussion and opening of which will give both light and strength to this argument JOB Chap. 9. Vers 22 23 24. This is one thing therefore I said it he destroieth the perfect and the wicked If the scourge slay suddenly he will laugh at the triall of the innocent The earth is given into the hand of the wicked he covereth the faces of the Iudges thereof if not where and who is he Videtur hic locâ— impictatem inâ—ludere quasi apud Iob unum idem sit piorum improboruâ— judiciuÌ„ quoâ—que Deus haec inferiora non curet Isid Claâ— THis speech of Iob caused a learned interpreter to tremble when he read it conceiving that it savoured strongly of impiety and blasphemy as if Iob had mingled the state of the wicked and of the righteous in one or as if his minde were that the Lord did not distinctively order the affairs of the world by the dictates of his wife providence but left them to be hudled together by inexorable fate or blinde fortune therefore he concludes that Iob rather personates a man void of the true knowledge and fear of God than speaks his own opinion Thus he censures but let Job be well weighed and his discourse will appear full of truth and holinesse This is one thing therefore I said it This is one thing As if he had said You have spoken many things to me about the power greatnesse justice and wisdome of God in all which I agree with you ye and I have no difference about those points I have alwaies thought highly of God and I desire to think humbly of my self but here is one thing wherein I must for ever disagree from you here we must part So that this verse is as the limit-stone between Iobs opinion Hoc unaÌ„ est meae assertionis caput and that of his friends Here he speaks out the speciall tenet which he holds in opposition to them As if he had said I yeeld and subscribe to your judgement in all but this one and in this one thing I must be your adversary though I will not be your enemy I say it and say it again He destroieth both the righteous and the wicked This is one thing This is uniform So Mr Broughton reads it and in this thing I am uniform or of
post they flee away they see no good They are passed away as the swift ships as the Eagle that hasteth to the prey THese two verses are a confirmation of Jobs former argument As he had shewed in generall that the wicked are exalted and the innocent afflicted so now he shews the later branch from his own experience or example Verse 25. My daies are swifter then a post they flee away they see no good c. We have here three similitudes by which Job sets forth the uncertainty of his prosperous estate and how soon the time wherein he enjoyed it was blown over 1. The similitude of a Post 2. The similitude of a Ship 3. The similitude of a Eagle As in the seventh Chapter he used three similitudes viz. 1. of A weavers shuttle 2. of The winde 3. of A dissolving cloud So here he bringeth in three more to clear the same point Jobs thoughts travel'd thorow all parts of the world to finde out illustrations of mans frailty In these two verses three of the four elements are enquired into The earth The air and the water A post upon the earth A ship upon the water an Eagle in the air are called in as witnesses to this truth Now my daies are swifter then a post c. Now my daies That is my prosperous daies so Mr Broughton glosses Troublesome times are all night and darknesse yet we may take it of daies in generall They are swifter then a post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levitas velocitas tam ex Graeco quam Hebraeo etiam Latino pro eodem accipiuntur Levis armatuturae milites celeriter subveniunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cursor qui ex una urbe in alteram c. proficiscitur cum literis aut nunciis The word which we translate swifter signifies any thing that is light because light things are quick in motion We call a man that is swift of foot light of foot And here it is joyned with that which among men is most swift and passing a post who rides or runs without any stop or stay without the least considerable stop or stay So that it is grown into a proverb To run post or To ride post is as much as to be in haste To say You are in post haste is to say you are in great haste My daies saith Job are swifter then a post they out-runne those curreers sent out upon the most important messages The post whether sent to carry news good or bad or intelligence for the dispatch of businesse publike or private is engaged to ride hard he must not spare horse-flesh or as we commonly speak suffer the grasse to grow under his horse-heels Hence observe First Time is very swift 't is gone suddenly My daies are swifter then a post We seldome consider or consider as we ought this common truth We live for the most part as if we could not tell how to get rid of our time or as if we were weary of our time and knew not how to spend it out as if time were rather chained to a standing post then were like a running post The Ancients emblem'd Time with wings as if it were not running but flying The next word in the text comes neer that sense They flee away My daies saith Iob flee away The word doth not signifie flying as a fowl with wings but fleeing as a fugitive from hard bondage or as a man from some imminent danger which because 't is done with speed therefore the word imports any speedy motion especially that of a post A post riding or running is an excellent embleme of Time There are many considerations in post-riding which shew how exceeding speedy time must be to which it is here compared First A post rides upon fleet or speedy horses Secondly He rides his horses upon their speed a man may have speedy horses and goe softly but a post spurs on Thirdly A post hath change of horses at every stage that he may keep them upon their speed Fourthly He hath horses standing ready for change they are not to fetch out of the field or to make ready when he comes to his stage it is but leaping into the saddle and away Fifthly He that rides post makes no long meals much lesse feasts he takes a bit and away Sixthly He lies not long a bed he scarce goes to bed till he comes to his waies end Seventhly A post hath extraordinary pay for his service and that will cause him to make speed Eighthly Sometimes he rides upon pain of death with a halter about his neck No man will loiter when his life laies on 't Ninthly If a man rides post all must give him way he picks and chooseth his path and no man must hinder him Tenthly He staies not to salute much lesse like other travellers to gaze and view the Countrey the Towns buildings Gardens c. All these things laid together evince that the Post makes speed Yet saith Job My time out-runneth the post my time goes faster then he The post must stay a little sometimes but time will not stay at all The post must stay for change of horses but the charriot of the Sunne never staieth to change horses the Sun is the measure of time and that makes no stop hath no stages or baiting places Our daies are swifter then a post Further Experiences speak this most true of that speciall time the time of prosperity The best things of the world are in a moveable in a passing posting condition They scarce abide with us long enough to learn what they are If a man ride post we can hardly discern who he is the good things of the world the pleasures and profits the form and fashion of it passe away so fast that none can perfectly report what they are excepting this Transitory and vain As the artificiall fashions of the world the fashions in building and in apparell passe so speedily that few know what the fashion is before 't is gone a new one is abroad before the greatest number are in the old So the naturall fashions of worldly things some in themselves all as to our enjoyment the excellency and dignity the lustre and beauty of the creature are out of sight before we can well say of what colour and shape or what manner of things they were When the Painter takes the perfect feature of a mans face or the lineaments of his body he must sit The world sits not so long with any man as for him to take the picture of it Creatures perish in their using while they are in our hands we know not what they are for even then they are perishing and declining from what they were One said when a creature-comfort was taken from him If I had it again me thinks I could enjoy it we seldom enjoy what we have And what we have is alwaies in transitu passing from us while we have it it is in motion while in possession We can scarce be acquainted
in our flesh was afraid of his sorrows which yet he knew he should overcome how much more may the fear of sorrows overcome us while we are in the flesh Lastly Observe That the fear of afflictions assaults and oppresses some most when they set themselves most to conquer and overcome them I saith Job would comfort myself but I am afraid of all my sorrows I fear they will be doubled and trebled upon me therefore I had rather sit still then by striving to unloose straiten the cords of my affliction faster upon me The next clause seems to hint this as a reason why his sorrows hung so close upon him I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent But how did Job know this As God said to Adam Gen. 3.11 Who told thee that thou wast naked So I may say to Job Who told thee that God would not hold thee innocent Or where hadst thou this assurance of thy condemnation The Saints may know or be assured that God will pardon them but a wicked man cannot know or be assured that God will not This knowledge of Job was but a suspition or at the most a conjecture And the giving out of this conjecture was but the language of his fear his faith could say no such thing for God had no where said it The best men speak sometime from their worser part Their graces may be silent a while and leave corruption to have all the talk When the flesh is under great pain the spirit is hindered from acting its part and then sense gets the mastery over faith Had it not been upon such a disadvantage Job had never offended with his tongue by saying he knew what he could not know I know that thou wilt not hold me înnocent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word which we translate innocent commeth from a root which signifieth pure and clean purus mundus per Metaphorae innocent insous and in the verb to cleanse and make pure And because innocency is the purity or cleannesse of a person therefore the same word signifies to cleanse and to hold or make innocent In which sense it is used frequently Exo. 20.2 Thou wilt not hold him guiltlesse or innocent that taketh thy Name in vain The counsell that David gave upon his death-bed unto Solomon concerning Joab was Therefore hold thou him not innocent or guiltlesse 1 King 2.9 that is let the bloud which he hath shed be upon him let his honour and his name continue stained and blemished in thy thoughts and judgement Hold him not innocent Here the Question is To what antecedent we are to referre the relative Thou I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent Thou who There are two opinions about it Some referre it to God and some to Bilaad to whom Job maketh answer in this place They that refer it unto God make out the sense thus Either first taking the word properly for cleansing and healing the sores and wounds which were upon his body Adversus illud quod amici statuunt probos videlicet etiam castigatos nunquam succidi hoc pro certo statuam ô Deus nunquam esse me ab istis quibus totus scateo foedissimis ulceribus ac vermibu◠repurgandum Bez Novi quod non sis me liberum dimissurus Coc. I know thou wilt not cleanse my body from this filthinesse from these diseases that now anoy me And so it is an answer to the words of Bildad telling Job that in case he sought unto God and humbled himself before him he would awaken for him and remove those judgements No saith Job when I think of ease and deliverance all my fears return upon me and I know God will not yet cleanse ease or deliver me from them Again Taking it tropically as we render it for a judiciall cleansing or purification so Thou wilt not hold me innocent is as much as this Lord such sorrows and troubles are upon me that I fear thou wilt not declare or pronounce or give testimony concerning me to the world that I am an innocent person Because the sores and troubles upon him were as an evidence against him in the judgement of his friends that he was a wicked person therefore saith he Lord I am afraid Thou wilt not hold me that is Thou wilt not declare me to be innocent by taking away these evils Non mundabis i. e. purum justum vel etiam innocentem non declarabis that so this opinion of my friends concerning me may be removed or confuted From this sense note First That even a godly man in deep afflictions may have misgiving thoughts of God The soul misgives sometimes about the pardon of sinne and is even swallowed up with despair concluding I know God will not hold me innocent he will not be reconciled unto me or blot out my transgression But especially which is rather the minde of Job the soul misgives about release from punishment Some being hamper'd in the bands of affliction conclude God will never let them loose or set them at liberty again Such a conclusion Davids unbelief made against himself I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 When Jonah was cast into the deep in the midst of the seas when the flouds compassed him and all the billows and waves passed over him then he said Chap. 2.4 I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes Indeed Jonah began to recover quickly his next words being a breath of faith Yet I will look again toward thy holy Temple Secondly Observe That untill fear of guilt be removed fear of trouble will not remove Job was not very clear about the pardon of his sinnes somewhat stuck upon his spirit while he was under the clouds and darknesse of this temptation therefore saith he I am afraid of all my sorrows Till the soul is setled in the matter of pardon or freedome from guilt it can never be setled about freedome from punishment Hence the Apostle Heb. 2.10 15. speaking of the Saints before the comming of Christ cals Christ the Captain of our salvation and assures us he took flesh that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver those who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The language is very near this of the Text I am afraid of all my sorrows As Job was in bondage under his afflictions through the fear of his returning sorrows So they were all their life time subject unto bondage through the fear of approaching death All the Saints before the comming of Christ were under such a bondage for the Apostle speaks as of a generall state That he might deliver those who through the fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The reason hereof was because they had not so manifest and convincing a light concerning the pardon of sinne the freenesse of grace
heart-burnings among friends and brethren We have a proverbiall speech among us A lean arbitration is better then a fat judgement It is better to the parties they shall get more by it the charge of obtaining right by law many times eating out all and sometimes more then all alwaies a considerable part of that which the law gives us as our right We use to say to dissenters Be friends the Law is costly 'T is very costly to most mens purses and to some mens consciences 'T is rare if a man wrongs not his soul by seeking the rights of his credit or estate Secondly Observe That no creature can umpire the businesse betwixt God and man There is a two-fold reason of it Oportet ut in judice sit altior sapienâ—ia quae sit quaâ— regula ad quam examinantur dicta utriusque partis First He that is our umpire is supposed wiser then our selves They who cannot agree need more wisdom then their own to work their agreement But there is no creature wise as God yea there is no creature wise but God who is therefore called The God only wise God is best able to judge of his own actions No man hath been his Counsellour Rom. 11.34 much lesse shall any man be his Judge Men sometimes abound too much in their own sense but God must abound in his His will is the rule of all much more his wisdom or rather his wisdom is the rule of all because his will is his will and wisdom being the same and of the same extent both infinite Oportet ut in judice sit major potest as quae possit utramque partem comprimere Secondly He that is a Daies-man or Vmpire must according to the rules before spoken of have power to compell the parties to submit or stand to what he shall determine But as we cannot lay any restraint upon God from doing what he will so we cannot lay any constraint upon him to do what we will Who shall force the Lord To whom hath he given an assumpsit or ingaged himself under a penalty to perform what he shall award The Lord doth whatsoever he pleaseth both in heaven and earth and he will do no more then he pleaseth Perswasion cannot move him much lesse can power compell him He that is above all in power cannot be dealt with any way but by perswasion And he who is above all in wisdom cannot be perswaded by any against his own will There is indeed a Daies-man betwixt God and man but God himself hath appointed him God hath referred the differences betwixt himself and man unto Jesus Christ and his own good will and free grace moving him thereunto he stands engaged in the bonds of his everlasting truth and faithfulnes to perform what Jesus Christ as Mediatour should ask for us unto him we may safely commit our cause and our souls with that assurance of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Christ God-man is umpire between God and man what we trust him with shall not miscarry he will make our cause good and our persons acceptable before God at that great day It is infinite mercy when we were neither able to mannage our own cause nor to finde out any in heaven or earth who could that then God himself should finde out one in wisdom and power like himself one who thought it no robbery to be equall with God to be our Daies-man Many of the Ancients interpret this Text either as Jobs desire and praier that Christ would come in the flesh O that there were a days-man betwixt us or as a prophecy of Jesus Christ to come as our Daies-man in the flesh There is no Daies-man yet but a Daies-man shall come The sense is pious but the context will not bear it In the 16th Chapter v. 21. and Chap. 17. v. 3. We shall finde Job speaking clearly of the Mediatour Jesus Christ and of his great work of atonement between God and man But here he seems to keep to the present controversie about the businesse of affliction not of salvation Take two or three consectaries flowing from the whole matter First Job at the lowest speaks highly of God and humbly of himself The greater his afflictions were the purer was his language He was not able to grapple with God and there was none to be found who could umpire the matter betwixt them The will of God is the supreme law What he will do with us we must be content he should The secrets of his providence are beyond our search and his judgements above our reach Secondly The greatnesse and transcendency of God should keep us low in our own thoughts Our knowledge of God is the present cure of our own pride The knowledge of God causeth us to know our selves and that which makes us know our selves cannot but make us low in our selves Though a proud man is commonly said To know himself too much yet the truth is he doth not know himself enough no nor at all as he should know himself Many are proud of and with their knowledge yet pride is the daughter of ignorance Some pride lodges in every mans heart because more then some ignorance doth Job had some of both in his why doth he lay the thought of the infinite glory and soveraignty of God so often to his heart but to keep down or to cure the swellings of his heart Thirdly It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of God He is not a man as we are we are not able to match him and there is among men no Daies-man betwixt us David made it his election 2 Sam. 24. To fall into the hands of God and not into the hands of man And it is best for us to fall into the hands of God as David put himself into his hands with respect to his great mercies But woe unto uâ— if we fall into his hands as contenders with his great power Shall we thus provoke the Lord Are we stronger then he It is our duty when we do and our priviledge that we may cast our selves into the hands of God when the hand of man oppresses us Satis idoneus est patientiae sequester Deus si injuriam deposueris juxta eum ultor est si damnum restitutor si dolorem medicus si mortem rescuscitator est Tertul. l. de Patient for as one of the Ancients speaks sweetly and feelingly If thou doest deposit thy injuries with him he is able to revenge thee if thy losses he is able to repair thee if thy sicknesse he is able to heal thee and if thy death he can raise thee up and estate thee in life again Thus I say it is best to fall into the hands of God in expectation of mercy through the Mediatour but it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the
becomes us to have patience till the harvest though it be a late one Lastly There is an opinion which gives this verse connexion with the first of the next Chapter Quia non ita est sc quia à me terrorem suum non eximit ego mecum sc Loquar mecum ipse querar omnem aserbitatem animi effundam apud me ut facit in sequenti capite As if Job had thus resolved upon the Lords not answering his petition Had the Lord condescended to take away his rod and remove his terrour as I requested then I had somewhat to say and I would have spoken it out unto him but because it is not so or because I am not answered therfore I with my self The word Speak is not in the text but such supplies of a word are frequent not only in the Hebrew but also in other languages Seeing I have not liberty to speak to the Lord I will pour my complaints into mine own bosome and commune with my own heart He pursues this tacite resolution in the tenth Chapter which begins thus My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self JOB Chap. 10. Vers 1. My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul JOB having in the former Chapter justified God in afflicting him and maintained his own integrity notwithstanding those afflictions now returneth to that work about which he had been too busie before yet that Afflicti saepe se exonerari putaÌ„t si laxis habenis de suo dolore querantur suas enumerent calamitates uberrima oratione Merc. wherein it seems he only found as the case stood with him some little ease and refreshing The breathing out of his afflicted spirit in sad complainings He resumes his former lamentation and renews afresh what he had been more then large enough in at the 3d 6th and 7th Chapters of this book Here as there he shews how ill it was with him and what cause he had to be in heavinesse under the pressure of so many evils And here more then there Argumentis utitur à natura Dei ante-acceptis ipsius beneficijs quibus mala haec quae immifit Deus magnopere repugnare videantur Merl. he remonstrates that he conceived himself more hardly dealt with then stood not only with the goodnesse of God in his nature but with that goodnesse which he had formerly acted both towards others and himself This encouraged him about the close of the Chapter vers 20 and 22. to petition again that he might have a little refreshing before he lay down in his grave and that God would after these storms return him some of those fair daies he had enjoyed before he returned to the earth and should be seen no more His complaint is very rhetoricall and high Vehemens quideÌ„ partibus omnibus gravis est querimonia â—ed medesta fi unum â—â—â—ud optatum exceperis ver 18 19. Merl. yet with an allay or mixture of modesty Indeed his spirit brake out and passion got head at the 18 and 19 verses where he expostulates with God in the language of the third Chapter Wherefore host thou brought me forth out of the womb c But abating that excesse of his tongue and spirit his complaints are knit up with solid arguments and his Queries put the point resolutely yet humbly home to God himself that he would be pleased to shew the reason of his present dealings and why he varied so much from what he had done in former times The first verse gives us a generall ground of this and of all his sorrowfull complaints The wearisomenesse of his life My soul is weary of my life I will leave my complaint upon my self The argument may be formed thus He hath reason to complain of his afflictions whose afflictions are so heavy upon him and so bitter that he hath reason to be weary of his very life But thus my case stands my afflictions are so bitter to and heavy upon me that I am weary of my life Therefore I have reason to complain The assumption of this syllogisme is contained in the first words of the verse My soul is weary of my life And the conclusion in the latter Therefore I will leave my complaint upon my self I will speak in the bitternesse of my soul My soul is weary of my life Life and soul are often in Scripture put promiscuously for the same but here they differ The soul may be taken two waies First Strictly as it is opposed to the body Secondly In a more large sense by a Synecdoche of the part for the whole for the whole man consisting of body and soul If so here then the meaning of Job in saying My soul is weary of my life is no more but this I Job am weary of my life that is of the marriage or union of my soul and body O that this band which I though most are grieved at the weaknesse of theirs finde too strong were broken or a bill of divorce granted for their separation Life is the band or tie by which soul and body subsist together And when that band is broken or cut asunder by the stroke of death the body goes to the grave and the soul or spirit returns to God who gave it Again When Job saith My soul is weary of my life Life may be taken either for the act of life and so the sense is I am weary of living or it may be taken for the manner of life and so the sense is I am weary of that course or state of life wherein I am Life is often put not strictly for the act of living but for the state or condition in which a man lives or with which life is cloathed The circumstances and concomitants of life are called life Thus in our common speech when a man is in misery another saith I would not have his life or what a life hath he The Apostles character of all naturall men is that they are alienated from the life of God Ephes 4.18 that is they cannot endure to live such a life as God lives or as he commands them to live they cannot endure to be holy as he is holy or holy as he cals them to be holy in all manner of conversation Thus Job was alienated from his own life I saith he am weary of my life that is of a life thus imbittered thus afflicted My soul is weary The word which we translate weary varies the understanding of this sentence It signifies properly to be weakned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debilitatus languefactus per metapheram taeedio affectus offensus fuit as also to be melted or molten with heat because a man that is extremely heated or melted by heat is weakned his spirits and strength being drawn forth and dissipated But it is most commonly applied to that wearinesse which arises from
the displeasednesse or irksomnesse of our mindes All burdens upon the body are light compared with those which reach the soul Three things weary and load the soul First The filth and guilt of our own sins I will sprinkle you saith the Lord Ezek. 36.31 with clean water c. What 's the effect of this It follows Then shall you remember your own evil waies and loath or be weary of your selves it is this word because of all your abominations As if the Lord had said before I change your hearts ye sinne and are not wearâ—â— of your sins nay ye make a sport of and dally with them But when I shall work that great change upon your hearts your opinion and apprehensions of sin will change too nothing will be so bitter or burdensome so unpleasant or wearisome to your souls as sinne Fools make a mock of sin they who are truly wise mourn and groan under the sense and weight of it Secondly The unsutablenesse and perversenesse of other mens manners or dispositions weary the soul The righteous soul of Lot was vexed from day to day in seeing and hearing the unrighteous deeds of the debauched Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 The soul of God is said to be wearied by such courses of the sons of men Psal 95.10 Fourty years long was I grieved or wearied with that generation The Lord as we may speak with reverence was even weary of his life he had such a troublesome people to deal with they grieved him at the heart as the old world did Gen. 6.6 and were a heavy burden to his Spirit That 's the Apostles language in his description of that peoples frowardnesse and of Gods patience towards them Act. 13.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He suffered their manners fourty years in the wildernesse which some render He bare them as a burthen the continuall murmurings and unbelief of that people were to the Lord who is yet above all passion as a heavy weight is to a man or as the peevishnesse and unquietnesse of a sucking childe is to the nurse as our translatours conceive the Greek word should rather be Thus also he reproves the same people by the Prophet Isa 43.24 Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities And Christ though by another word speaks the same thing of his own Disciples Mark 9.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tolero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 autem dâ—â—untur translatitiè qui volentes onus subeunt sub eo perdurant when the man possest with an unclean spirit being brought to them they could not cast him out How long shall I be with you How long shall I suffer you I am wearied with your unbelief O ye of little faith The Disciples were still so slow of heart and came so short of a Gospel-spirit that Christ professeth He was burthened even with them How long shall I suffer you The il manners of all are a wearinesse to the good but theirs most who are neerest to them Which is also the reason why a godly man is wearied most of all with the corruption of his own heart for that is nearest to him of all Now as our own sins and the il manners of others weary the soul so Thirdly The pains and troubles which are upon the body often cause such grief of minde as is an extream wearinesse to the soul That 's the meaning of this text My soul is weary of my life That is my life is filled with such outward troubles as fill my inward man with trouble and weary my very soul Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exsententia R. David R. Mardoc significat excidere aut succidere Excisa est anima meaâ—n me Pag. Vatao c. Aâ—um est de vita mea en mar or vel perinde ac si mortuâ—s pâ—are sum Secondly The word is translated by divers of the learned Rabbies To cut yea to cut off as with a sword or any other edged instrument These render Jobs minde thus My soul is cut off in me or My soul is cut off from my life As if he had said My daies are at an end I am ready to die the threed of my life is cut I am but a dead man While life continues soul and body are as it were one peece but death divides them or the recourse of night and day runs the threed of time thorow our lives till our web longer or shorter be finished and then the threed is cut To which similitude Hezekiah alludes in his mourning death-bed song as he supposed Isa 38.10 12. I said in the cutting off of my daies c. Mine age is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sicknesse or from the thrum which being woond about the beam the Weaver having finished his work cuts the web off from it The same word in the Hebrew signifies pining sicknesse and a thrum because of the thinnesse and weaknesse of it My life saith Hezekiah is spent I am at the very last cast the yern of time is all wrought off therefore my life is ready to be cut off I am a borderer upon death and to be numbred among the dead rather then among the living Such a sense this reading gives the text of Job My soul is cut off from my life Denotat displicentiam qua homo interius tabescit prae doloru sensu Propriè significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. remputidaÌ„ quae nauseaÌ„ parit aversari Thirdly The word signifies a reluctance or displicency of spirit arising from the sight and sense of that which is very loathsome filthy and of an evil savour It answers the Greek work rendered Abomination Matth. 24.15 The abomination of desolation he means the Romans who being Idolaters their worship was abominable and who being Lords of the world their power was formidable and laid all countries waste and desolate which opposed them or which they had a minde to oppose And so when Job saith My soul is weary of my life his meaning is represented thus My soul refuses to inhabit or to act so filthy a body as mine My soul loaths to dwell or stay any longer in this nasty lodging As David Psal 120.5 speaks of his wearinesse in dwelling amongst wicked men because of their morall filthinesse or the pollution of their mindes and waies Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshec that I dwell in the tâ—nts of Kedar So Job seems to speak in reference to the naturall pollution and filthinesse of his own body Woe is me that I sojourn in such a diseased body and dwell which yet will not die in such a dying carease The noble tenant my soul is wearie of staying in such a stinking and filthy habitation and I perceive for I have moved him hitherto in vain the great land-lord will neither repair it nor as yet let it fall As then a man who lives in an ill or incommodious
double oppression First An oppression by our words And secondly An oppression by our actions the oppression of the tongue and the oppression of the hand The tongue is a great tyrant the tongue will lay on load and draw bloud The Vulgar understands it of this tongue-oppression Is it good for thee that thou shouldest calumniate or slander me that is Give others occasion to speak evil of me That is a good sense Slander and censure wound deep hard words bruise the credit and break the heatt as well as hard blows bruise the flesh and break the bones But take it here rather for oppression by outward violence So the word is often used Psal 119.122 I have done judgement and justice give me not â—ver to mine oppressours to those who would wrong me because I have done right And it noteth as an open or violent oppression so a cunning subtil oppression a cheating fraudulent oppression All wrong how close and cunning soever is oppression We have that sense of the word Hos 12.7 He is a merchant the balances of deceit are in his hand he loveth to oppresse How doth a Merchant oppresse He comes not like a thief or a Nimrod with a sword in his hand bidding you Deliver your purse or your life commanding you to give up your right or your liberty but while in buying and selling in trading and dealing he offers you a fair bargain or as we say a penny worth for your penny he smites you secretly and cuts your throat as famine doth without a knife the balances of deceit are in his hand Balances are put for all instruments or means of trading by these he deceives light weights oppresse the State as a heavy weight presses the body The word imports also oppression by with-holding what is due as well as by taking away what we duly hold Deut. 24.14 Thou shalt not oppresse an hired servant that is poor and needy that is thou shalt not detain or keep back any part of his wages The word you see is of a large sense Is it good unto thee to oppresse I know thou wilt not oppresse me either by speaking evil of or over-censuring me either by open violence or by secret fraud either by taking from me what I have or by detaining from me what I ought to have Thou wilt not oppresse either with tongue or hand either as a robber with thy sword or as a merchant with thy balances Thus Iob expostulates upon highest confidence both of the justice and holinesse of God as if he had said Lord I know thou doest not love to oppresse no thou art mercifull and full of compassion Whence is it then that thou seemest to act so unlike thy self Is this thy pity to a poor creature and thy love to the work of thy hands Thou usest to rejoyce in the consolation of thy people and mercy pleaseth thee thou usest to send out rivers of goodnesse for wearied souls to bathe in and streams of comfort for thirsty souls to drinke and be refreshed in How is it then that a bitter cup is put to my lips continually and that I am overwhelmed in a salt sea in a sea of gall and bitternesse Hence observe God is so good and gracious that he loves not to grieve his creature Among men Mica 7.4 The best of them is as a brier the most upright is sharper then a thorn hedge Even they that seem most gentle and compassionate will yet sometimes scratch like briars and tear like thorns but the Lord changeth not neither do his compassions fail The actings of God appear sometimes unsutable to his nature but they are never so When he breaks us to pieces he delights not in our breakings nor doth he ever break his own but with an intent to binde them up again God is so farre from loving to oppresse that one of his most eminent works of providence is to relieve those who are oppressed Ps 12.4 For the oppression of the poor will I arise saith the Lord. And when the Lord arises oppressours shall fall O Lord cries Hezekiah in his sicknesse I am oppressed undertake for me Isa 38.14 As if he had said This disease like a mercilesse tyrant oppresses my spirit death hath even master'd me and got the victory over my house of clay Lord Come to my rescue thou wast wont to deliver poor men as a prey out of the hand yea mouths of their oppressours O deliver me from this cruell sicknesse which is ready to oppresse my life and hale me as a prisoner to the grave Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppresse And That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands This clause hath the same sense in generall with the former It is not good unto thee It is neither pleasing nor profitable nor honourable That thou shouldest despise the worke of thine hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat rejicere cum fastidio tanquam vile comtemptum quid Mer. in Pagâ— Exfastidâ—o contemptu sequi solet rei contemptae oppressio aut abj ctâ—o Huâ—c hominem quem â—uis maâ—i bâ—s fo masti de luto terrae Dru. Some translate this clause by oppression Is it good that thou shouldest oppresse the work of thine hands The word in propriety signifies to dâ—spise we have met with it more then once before it noteth also loathing yea abhorring And it may very well bear that other sense of oppressing for when a man loaths a thing and abhors it he will quickly slight and oppresse it who cares what becomes of that which he abhors These two are joyned together 2 King 17.20 The Lord rejected all the seed of Israel and afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of spoilers untill he had cast them out of his sight When once the Lord rejected or despised the seed of Israel they were presently afflicted and delivered up to spoiling That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands He means himself or any other man all men being the work of Gods hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propriè laboreÌ„ lassitudinem quandam in efficiendo opere denotat ex quo orationis bujus vis amplificatur The word which we translate work strictly taken signifies hard work extream labour labour with wearinesse Here understand it in a large sense for God works not to wearinesse And when after he had finished the whole work of creation it is said by Moses Gen. 2.2 That he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made The meaning is only this he gave over or ceased to work not that his work put him to any pain or need of rest But why is man called The work of Gods hands Hath God who is a Spirit hands or any bodily parts By an ordinary figure in Scripture hands and feet eyes and ears are ascribed unto God He is therefore said to have hands because he works not because he works with hands The hand is the
knowledge of us beyond ours though he know us better then we know our selves yet no man can tell the Lord Thou knowest that I am not wicked but he who knows that he is not The excellency of our condition consists in being godly the comfort of it consists in knowing that we are godly When David offers himself to the triall Psal 139.24 Search me O Lord and see if there be any way of wickednesse in me He speaks not as doubting whether he were wicked or no but as being assured that he was not As if he had said There are many weaknesses in me I know but I know not of any wickednesse He that offers himself to Gods search for his wickednesse gives a strong argument of his own uprightnesse The best of the Saints may be at a losse sometimes for their assurances and not know they are good They may stand sometimes hovering between heaven and earth yea between heaven and hell as uncertain to which they shall be accounted Yet many of the Saints are fully perswaded they are Saints and sit with Christ in heavenly places while they are wâ—ndering here upon on the earth A godly man may know this two vvaies First By the vvorkings of grace in his heart Secondly By the testimony of the Spirit with his heart First By the vvorkings of grace in his heart 1 Joh. 2.3 Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments and chap. 3.14 We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren There may be such workings of grace in the heart as may amount to an evidence of grace What our being is is discernable in our workings The word is as clear as light that our justification may have a light or evidence in our sanctification though no cause or foundation there Grace is the image of Christ stamped upon the soul and they who reflecting upon their souls see the image of Christ there may be sure that Christ is theirs Christ hath given all himself to those to whom he hath given this part of himself Secondly This may be known by the testimony of the Spirit with the heart 2 Cor. 5.5 He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God God sets up a frame of holinesse in every believer He hath wrought us and how are we assured that he hath Who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit The graces of the Spirit are a reall earnest of the Spirit yet they are not alwaies an evidentiall earnest therefore an earnest is often superadded to our graces There is a three-fold work of the Spirit First To conveigh and plant grace in the soul Secondly To act and help us to exercise the graces which are planted there Thirdly To shine upon and enlighten those graces or to give an earnest of those graces This last work the Spirit fullfils two waies First By arguments and inferences which is a mediate work Secondly By presence and influence which is an immediate work This the Apostle cals witnesse-bearing 1 Joh. 5.8 There are three that bear witnesse in earth The Spirit and the water and the bloud The Spirit brings in the witnesse of the water and of the bloud which is his mediate work but besides and above these he gives a distinct witnesse of his own which is his immediate work and is in a way of peculiarity and transcendency called the witnesse of the Spirit Hence that of the Apostle Paul We have not received the spirit of the world but we have received the Spirit which is of Christ that we may know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 The things freely given may be received by us and yet the receit of them not known to us therefore we receive the Spirit that we may know what is given us and what we have received The Spirit doth as it were put his hand to our receits and his seal also whence he is said To seal us up to the day of redemption Ephes 4.30 Sixthly Observe A godly man dares appeal to God himself that he is not wicked He dares stand before God to justifie his sincerity though he dares not stand to justifie himself before God Job had often laid all thoughts of his own righteousnesse in the dust but he alwaies stands up for his own uprightnesse God is my witnesse saith the Apostle Paul Rom 9.1 whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of his Sonne I serve God in my spirit and God knows that I do so I dare appeal unto him that it is so God is my witnesse When Christ put that question and drove it home upon Peter thrice Simon Lovest thou me Lord saith he Thou knowest all things Thou knowest that I love thee Joh. 21. As if he had said I will not give testimony of my self thou shalt not have it upon my word but upon thine own knowledge It were easie for me to say Master I love thee with all my heart with all my soul but I refer my self to thy own bosome Thou knowest I love thee So when Hezekiah lay as he thought upon his death-bed he turned himself to the wall desiring God to look upon the integrity of his life Lord remember how I have walked before thee in truth Isa 38.3 I do not go to the world for their good word of me I rest not in what my Subjects or neighbour Princes say of me Lord it is enough for me that what I have been and what I am is laid up safe in the treasury of thy thoughts This brings strong consolation when we take not up the testimony of men nor rest in the good opinion of our brethren but can have God himself to make affidavit or bear witnesse with us and for us That such a man will say I am an honest man that such a man will give his word for me is cold comfort but when the soul can say God will give his word for me The Lord knows that I am not wicked here 's enough to warm our hearts when the love of the world is waxen so cold and their tongues so frozen with uncharitablenesse that they will not speak a good word of us how much good soever they know by us Seventhly Consider the condition wherein Job was when he spake this he was upon the rack and as it were under an inquisition God laid his hand extream hard upon him yet at that time even then he saith Lord thou knowest that I am not wicked Hence observe A man of an upright heart and good conscience will not be brought to think that God hath ill thoughts of him how much evil so ever God brings upon him The actings of God toward us are often full of changes and turnings but the thoughts of God never change A soul may be afflicted till he is weary of himself yet he knows God is not weary of him Whomsoever he hath once made good he cannot but for ever esteem good
shall be the patern of ours as here upon earth the spirits of believers are of the same fashion with Christs the same minde is in the Saints which was in Christ there is but one draft of grace in the main upon the souls of all holy men and that is a copy of Christs his being the originall So in heaven the bodies of all believers shall be of the same fashion with Christs There shall be but one draft of glory in the main for degrees do not vary the kinde upon the body of Christ and the bodies of all his members In reference to this future change of the body the body in its present state is vile Secondly Hence it follows That as we must not undervalue the frame of mans body in generall as imperfect so we may not despise any for their speciall bodily imperfections It is God who hath made and fashioned them round about It is said 2 Sam. 5.8 that the blinde and the lame were hated of Davids soul Yet to hate any for defects in the body is a very great defect in the soul and to contemn any for naturall blemishes is a spirituall blemish How then could David hate the blinde and the lame and not sin or are we to number this among his sins There are two expositions of those words upon either of which we may clear the difficulty First That when David sent to summon that fort the Iebusites who were the defendants trusting in the strength of the place told David in scorn that he must first conquer the blinde and the lame As implying that blinde and lame souldiers were garison good enough to deal with his great Army upon the advantage of such a fortresse Secondly The blinde and the lame may rather be the Idols and strange Gods which the Iebusites worshipped of whose protection they were not the lesse confident because the Jews counted them but blinde and lame As if they had said even these gods which you call blinde and lame see well enough what ye are doing and will come fast enough and too fast for your ease to our aid and succour These blinde and lame gods were justly hated of Davids soul but he had learned better then to hate men who were made lame or blinde by God Thirdly Seeing all men are fashioned round about by the hands of God then as we must not despise any for their bodily imperfections so not envy any for their bodily perfections Some are as much troubled to see another have a better body or a more beautifull face as many are alike sinfully both to see another have a better purse or a more plentifull estate then themselves Fourthly Let not the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus If thy earthly Tabernacle be not so highly so strongly built if the materials of it be not so pure or not so exactly tempered if thou hast not so good a constitution so elegant a composition if thou art not so adorn'd and polish'd as some others are yet be not discontented the hands of God have made and fashioned thee round about It is a great honour to a vessel that he made it though he have made it in this sense a vessel of dishonour Fiftly If God hath fashioned our bodies then we must not put them out of fashion It is dangerous to deface the work of God to undo that which God hath done to unmake that which God hath made How sad is it that any should pull down a building of Gods own setting up without warrant from God! Self-murder or the murder of another is an high affront to God and should have a severe revenge from man He that sheds his own bloud takes revenge upon himself And who so sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the image of God made he man Gen. 9.6 As what God hath joyned by a civil so by a naturall band Let no man put asunder Lastly If thou art made and fashioned by God then let God have the use of all thou art Let God dwell in the house which he hath set up Let thy body be imploied for God he that made it hath most right to it Every thing in man shews forth the wisdom and goodnesse of God towards man let every thing in man shew forth obedience and submission unto God This was the ground of Davids praier Psal 119.73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments as if he had said Lord I would use this body this soul this all which thou hast made for thy glory therefore give me understanding that I may learn thy will I would not do the will of another while I dwell in thy house and am thy tenant at will I would not imploy those members which thou hast given me to fulfill the Law of sin or the commands of Satan The Apostle is clear upon this argument in reference to redemption 1 Cor. 6.19 Ye are not your own ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your bodies and in your spirits which are Gods Now as in the work of redemption we are of God by grace so in the work of creation we are of God by nature The reason holds in both glorifie God with your bodies which are not your own but Gods It is usuall in letting out of houses to put a clause in the lease that the house shall not be imploied to such and such uses but only to such as are expressed in the indenture Surely the Lord who hath built and furnished these houses hath taught us how to imploy them and what trade to exercise in them even the trade of holines Take heed you do not let out any room or corner of a room in this house for sin to trade in or for the work of iniquity This is to let out a house of Gods making to the devils using Yet thou dost destroy me The word signifies to swallow up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absorbere est morsicatim destruere Coc. Deglutio significat omnimodā exterminationē resumque omnium profundissimum exitium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to swallow up with greedinesse Psal 52.4 Thou lovest all devouring or swallowing words words which swallow down thy neighbours credit and devour his good name as one morsel The holy Ghost expresseth our finall victory over death by a word which reacheth this sense 1 Cor. 15.54 Death is swallowed up or drunk down in victory death is drunk up at a draught Christ called his sufferings by which he got this victory a cup. The Apostle uses the same word again 2 Cor. 5.4 That mortality might be swallowed up of life When this mortall shall have put on immortality death shall be swallowed up in victory that is there shall be a compleat victory over death and not only so but mortality shall be swallowed up of life In heaven there shall be no death nor any thing like
death nothing bearing any the least resemblance of it's image or letter of it's superscription nothing of mortality shall be found or felt there There mortality shall be swallowed up of life here Job complains that his life was almost swallowed up of mortality Yet thou dost destroy or swallow me up As thou hast already swallowed up my estate so thou seemest resolved to swallow up my very breath When Joab besieged Abel a wise woman out of the City cried unto him Thou seekest to destroy a City in Israel why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord 2 Sam. 20.19 Job saw a great Army of afflictions encamping about him and he seems to cry out to the Lord of those hoasts why seekest thou to destroy thy servant why wilt thou swallow me who am the vvork of thy hands Distinctio Habraeorum magis postulat ut verba praecedentia simul circumquaque cum his jungantur absorbistime Merc. Gramarians observe from the exactest reading of the Hebrew that the former words Together round about should be joyn'd with these Thou dost destroy me Thine hands have made me and fashioned me and yet thou dost destroy me together round about that is Thou makest an utter end a totall consumption of me Again These vvords are read by some vvith an interrogation Thine hands have made me and fashioned me and dost thou yet destroy me The question doth not alter but quicken the sense and render it more pressing and patheticall Wilt thou destroy me thus exactly Licet sensus non multum diversus sit interrogatio tamen sensum reddit valde acrem incitatum Merc. whom thou hast made so exactly The yet in the text sounds out an admiration As when God Amos 4. had brought many judgements upon Jerusalem and found them still impenitent he conchides the narrative of every one with Yet have they not returned unto me As if he had said What a wonder is here So Job repeating the favours of God to him concludes with a yet thou dost or dost thou yet destroy me As if he had said What a wonder is here How unsearchable are thy judgements O God Quem diligentissimè fecisti diligentissimè destruis and thy waies past finding out Thus he sets what God then did in opposition to what he had done that so the consideration of former mercies might provoke him to remove or mitigate present judgements Dost thou destroy me who hast made me Hence observe First That to minde God of making us is an argument to stay his hand from breaking us See more of this point ver 3 p. 445. It repented the Lord saith Moses Gen. 6.6 that he had made man and it grieved him at the heart This repentance and grief did not arise from his making of man but from that necessity which his own justice and honour laid upon him to destroy man whom he had made as it follows in the next words And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created The words shew the resolution of God not his propension it went to his heart to do it If God repented and grieved understand both by a figure because he had made man whom he must destroy then it cannot but be a grief to him to destroy that which he hath made It is as easie to the power of God to undo as it is to do but it is not so easie to his will to undo as it is to do Secondly Observe Afflictions destructive to the outward man may be the lot of the best men God never destroies that spirituall creature which the hand of his grace hath made and fashioned but he doth sometimes destroy the naturall creature of those who are spirituall Thirdly Observe A good man will make honourable mention of the goodnesse of God to him while he is under greatest evils Job writes the naturall history of Gods power and wisdom in his constitution while destruction was knocking at his doors Though God will destroy what he hath made yet he ought to be glorified for what he hath made The praise of God for fashioning us is never so comely as when he is putting us out of fashion Fourthly Observe God doth that sometimes which is most improbable he should do He acts strangely in waies of mercy and strangely in waies of judgement He saves those whom we expect he should destroy and he destroies those whom we expect he should save The Kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entred into the gates of Jerusalem Lam. 4.12 and who would have believed that the adversary and the enemy sorrow and destruction should have entred into the gates of Job God comes with such afflictions upon his people now as make him to be admired by all the world Christ vvill come vvith such mercies at the last as vvill make him to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe 2 Thess 1.10 Christ vvill exceed not only our unbelief but our faith In the former verse Job pleaded vvith God as his maker he proceeds still in the same argument and re-enforceth it from a speciall intimation of the matter out of which he vvas made clay Verse 9. Remember I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay ' and wilt thou bring me into dust again Remember I beseech thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Recordatus est memor fuit odoratus suit quaÌ„ do de sacrificijs usurpatur Odoretur omnia muneratua Jun. Zachar mas aut à memoria qua magis pollet quam mulier aut quia memoriam nomen familiae conservat Buxtorf Job speaks heartily his spirit was in a heat Remember I beseech thee The originall vvord is applied to a sensitive act as well as to a rationall Psal 20.3 The Lord remember or smell all thy offerings Memory is the savour or sent of things preserved in the minde The Hebrews expresse man or a male childe by a word of that root and they give two reasons of it Either first because man is of a stronger memory then the woman Or secondly because the man-childe preserveth the memory of the family and is a monument of his fathers honour his name being carried on from generation to generation in opposition to which women or females are called Nashim which vvord implieth forgetfulnesse because theâ—r names and titles are swallowed up in their husbands and forgotten when they are married Memory or the act of remembring is improperly applied to God For remembrance is of things past but to God all things are present Memory is the store-house wherein vve lay up severall notions and keep records of vvhat hath been done which by an act of the understanding vve review and fetch out again All things are ever open before God He needs not turn leaves or search registers he needs not so much as strain a thought to recall vvhat is
flower of the field Some read goodnesse for goodlinesse the sense holds if we take it so the naturall the morall goodnes of man is but a flower As no goodlines so no goodnes of man except spiritual lasteth long and that lasteth long and long even for ever Grace is not as the flower of the field that is durable substance that as the Prophet speaks there of the Word of God in v. 8. shall stand for ever The grace of God is as lasting as the Word of God for his Word is the externall seed or principle of grace But all other goodnesse and goodlinesse of man how good how goodly soever his other beauty how beautifull soever his strength how strong his favour how well favoured so ever is but as the flower of the field which is either cut down while it is green or soon fades while it stands Take favour in this sense and the sense of the whole verse is harmonious and sound Thou hast granted me life my body is formed and quickned and more then so Thou hast given me favour my body is full of beauty and comelinesse The comelinesse of the body is a favour received and many receive favour because they are comely From either of which considerations we may call the comelinesse of the body favour and it is no common favour God denies this to many he grants them the life of nature but not favour yea he grants many the life of grace but not favour Beautifull souls are often ill-housed and filthy souls clearly housed 't is admirable when both beauties meet in the same man Moses was a goodly childe Exod. 2.2 and a good man As grace in the inward man is the best favour so favour is gracefull to the outward man Thou hast granted me life and favour And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit Here is the third benefit of this Royall grant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inspectio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. The visitation of God One reads Thy presence A second Thy assistance A third Thy inspection thy over-looking or super intendency hath preserved my spirit The Hebrew word signifies The visitation of a superiour over an inferiour as when masters enquire into their families or governours into their Colledges and Hospitals Visitatio est Dominorum superiorum cum ad Deum refertur denotat providentiam Pined to see whether the statutes and orders appointed by the founders and benefactours be observed There is a three-fold visitation of God held forth in Scripture 1. A visitation of condemnation God visits to take vengeance by destructive punishments when warning is not taken nor repentance shewed after corrective punishments Shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5.9 2. A visitation of correction Psal 89.32 If thy children forsake my law c. then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes Neverthelesse my loving kindenesse will I not utterly take from him c Though they break my laws yet I will not break my Covenant they shall smart for it but they shall not perish for it This is a fatherly visitation 3. A visitation of consolation And this two-fold 1. For deliverance out of an evil estate and that either temporall the Lord is said to visit his people Israel when he delivered them out of Aegypt Exod. 4.31 or spirituall and eternall God hath visited and redeemed his people saith the blessed Virgin Luk. 1.68 that is he hath visited his people to redeem them from sin and Satan death and hell by Jesus Christ Secondly Which is most proper to this Text there is a visitation for protection in a good estate When God having caused our line to fall in a fair place draws his line of providentiall communication round about us So M. Broughton translates Life and loving kindenesse hast thou dealt to me and thy providence preserveth my spirit As if Iob had said Thou didst not only give me life and favour but thou didst protect me for many years in the enjoyment of those favours Providence was the hedge not only of his outward but of his inward estate Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The verb which we translate hath preserved signifieth to preserve Summa solertia atque diligentia prospexit cavit oberravit ut solent custodiae excubiae nocturnae vel gregum custodes both by strength and watchfulnesse The Noun expresseth a Watch-tower in Hebrew because a watch-man standeth upon his Tower and looks round about him to espy and give notice of approaching dangers The Lord preserveth both waies by his watchfulnes and by his strength his eie is wakefull enough and his arm is powerfull enough to preserve us He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep Psal 121.1 the creatour of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary Isa 40.28 He that is thus wakefull can easily visit and he that is thus powerfull can easily preserve those whom he visiteth Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit But how did the visitation of God preserve the spirit of Iob Or what are we to understand by his spirit which was thus preserved The spirit of a man is taken three waies First For life Thus God keepeth us from death while he preserves our spirits Secondly For the soul Thus God preserveth our spirits while he keeps us from falling into or from falling in temptation while he keeps our corruptions from prevailing and our graces from decaying Thirdly The spirit of man is taken for his courage Thus God preserveth our spirits while he keeps us from needlesse fears and cowardly despondencies Doubtlesse Iob had experience of the visitation of God preserving his spirit in all these senses yet here he seems chiefly to intend the preservation of his life which God had granted him with favour or of those comforts which were granted him with his life Hence observe First in generall That what God granteth he preserveth It is a part of his grant that he will preserve Should the Lord bestow the greatest stock of mercy upon us and leave us to the wide world we should quickly loose all God is not like the Carpenter or the Mason who buildeth up a house and then leaveth it to it self or to the care of others The Lord surveys what he builds and keeps up what he sets up all would come down else Providence succeedeth Creation or Providence is a continued Creation Assoon as ever the Lord had made man and a garden He took the man and put him into the Garden which he had made to dresse it and to keep it Gen. 2.15 God putteth the creatures under mans charge yet he keepeth all creatures in his own charge and especially man A Garden without a man to visit it would soon be a wildernesse And man without God to visit him would soon be or be in a wildernesse either
the Lord because I have sinned against him Secondly Observe That the more we see of the indignation of God in any affliction the sorer is the affliction As the love and smiles of God comfort the Saints more then all the outward comforts he heaps upon them a little with much sensible love is to us huge mercy So the disfavour and frowns of God trouble the Saints more then all the troubles which he heaps upon them A little with much sensible disfavour is to us a heavy crosse Let trouble increase yet if displeasure abate the spirit of a man will bear and stand under it though his flesh and outward man fall under it Though the furnace should be heated seven times hotter yet if the Lord do but let down one beam or ray of his love into the soul all that burning fire will be but like a warm Sun But when the scorchings of indignation mingle with affliction this is dreadfull The anger of a fool saith Solomon is very heavy yet that is not so much as a feather to a milstone or a mountain compared with the anger of God And though believers are freed from that anger and indignation which he darts upon his enemies yet they to sense yea to their present opinion may be dealt with as enemies And though the indignation which God pours upon his own people and that upon the wicked be as different as their states are yet the one may be under as much temporary pain and sorrow as the other is For as an hypocrite may for a time taste as much of the goodnesse of God and feel as much joy in his service and sometimes more then a man who is godly and sincere so also may one who is godly and sincere taste more of the displeasure of God for a time and feel as much sorrow in his sufferings and sometimes more then a wicked man Job concludes with the same thing in a different habit of words Changes and war are against me I have variety of afflictions a multitude of afflictions and afflictions in their strength these three things are implied in those two words Poenae militant in me Vulg. Changes and warre He had variety of afflictions for changes were upon him He had many and strong afflictions For warre was upon him One strong man cannot make a war nor many weak ones And it is as strange that this should be called a warre which was but against one weak man The Roman stories cry up the honour of a man who alone upon a narrow passe made a stand against a whole army till supplies came what shall we say then of Job who single and alone maintained his standing against many armies and held out a long war 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Excidere quod exciditur immutatur à statu suo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est tempus quoquis in statione aut militari officio est Citra hos tantos dolores mihi certum tempus est praescriptum intra quod sum moriturus Mer. Changes and warre are upon me The first word which signifies changes signifies also destruction or cutting off Some render it so here excision or cutting off by which he meaneth death is upon me The other word which we translate warre noteth also a set or an appointed time as was shewed at the first verse of the 7th Chapter Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth So some translate it here putting all together thus Excision or death the cause being put for the effect is upon me and a determined time of my life M. Broughton translates Changes and staied army have I. Taking in both interpretations of the word so his sense may be expressed in this tenour Lord have not I a setled and determined time to die Why then are such extream afflictions prepared against and charged upon me as if by those thou wouldest hasten my death and bring me to my grave sooner then thou thy self hast appointed I shall die at the time thou hast determined though thou shouldest not distresse my life and even force out my breath with such pressing extremities Further Taking the later word for a prescribed time some conceive Iob carrying an allusion to those who are surprized with feavers and agues they have changes some well daies Hunc sensum aâ—â—pâ—ctuâ—tur Abâ—â—-Ezra Rab. Sal. and some sick daies yet the fever returns upon a set time or in a constant recourse till the distemper is checked As if he had said My afflictions are like fever fits though I have some intermission yet I finde a regression the fit comes upon me again Changes at set times are upon me But rather according to the letter of our translation Changes and warre are against me that is I am exercised with variety of wars The word imports any kinde of change change of times or change of things it signifies also change of garments Exerceor contrariu interse compugnantibus malis vel potius varijs sibi invicem succedentibus malorum agminibu Merc. Judg. 14.12 That notion of the word hath an elegancy in it in reference to Jobs condition He was a man cloathed with affliction sorrow encompassed him as a long mourning cloak and Iob had changes of this raiment he went not alwaies in one sute though his sutes were still of one colour for he went alwaies in blacks Again We may interpret this change of his change from one estate to another from joy to sorrows from peace to trouble from plenty to want from costly robes to filthy rags Time was when Job went in scarlet and fine linen and if he pleased might have fared deliciously every day but when he spake this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was in another state and habit cloathed with sackcloth and lying in the dust It is said of wicked men Psal 55.9 Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God Every creature is subject to change and hath some changes every day God only is unchangeable Yet some men seem to have no changes though they cannot be free from naturall changes one moment yet they may be free from many years civil changes they maybe so far from such changes as Job felt from good to evil that all the changes they are acquainted with may be only from good to better from strong to stronger from rich to richer that 's the intent of the Psalm They have no changes from joy to sorrow from health to sicknes from riches to poverty from honour to disgrace therefore they fear not God their hearts were hardned because their estates prospered So then these changes import either divers sorts of afflictions or divers returns and charges of the same afflictions The second word carrieth that allusion Agmen quiddaÌ„ malorum ut etiam dicitur lerna vel Ilias malorum Mer. Vexationes turmatim me invadunt Drus Sagittandi militandi verba saepe eleganter in scripturis declarant Dei contra impios
should not have sipt or tasted Est non est Octimestris partus Hippocr much lesse have drunk so deep of this cup of sufferings It is said of Abortives who die in the womb and of such as die immediately after they are born They are and they are not they who live but a moment in nature shall live for ever A life here lesse then a span long Abortivuâ— pro non nato ceâ—setur in jure will be eternity long yet as to the world such a life is no life such a being no being Lawyers say They who die before or as soon as they are born are reckoned as unborn they make no change in states they never had a name or an interest in the world and so they go for nothing in the world The Prophet Obadiah verse 16. threatens Edom That they shall be as though they had not been that is they must perish and their memoriall with them Some are so thrust out of the world that they shall be as if they had never been and some come into the world so that their being was as if they had never been A short life is by common estimation no life As in heaven where we shall live for ever we shall be as if we had ever been So on earth some live so little that they are as if they never were That which hath an eternall duration and shall never end is as if it had ever begun and that which is but of a short duration and ends quickly is as if it had never begun The reason why the fruit of sinne goes for nothing is because the pleasure of sinne is but for a season and that a very little season What fruit have ye of those things whereof ye are now ashamed That is Ye have no fruit or your fruit was nothing we may say of all the pleasures of sin their cradle is their grave or more near Iobs language they are carried from the womb to the grave So he speaks next of himself I should have been carried from the womb to the grave I should have passed without noise or notice There would have been little trouble with me in the world I should have made but one journey and that a short one The speech is proverbiall From the womb to the grave Proverbiale est ab uâ—ero ad sepulchrum cum quis simulac natus est moritur is the motto of Infant-death The Septuagint read it as an expostulation Wherefore was I not carried out from the womb to the grave It would have been a happinesse to me either not to have been at all or to have had a being but equivalent in common account to a not being And thus it had been with me if my first step out of my mothers womb had been into the womb of that grandmother the earth Iob is often upon the same point renewing his desires after death he did so as hath been toucht at the third Chapter and at the sixth and now he is as fierce and fresh upon it as ever A godly man may often discover the same infirmity Whilest the same stock of corruption remains in us it is productive of the same corrupt fruit There is a seminall vertue in the earth look how often it is plowed and sowed so often it sends forth a crop there is a seminall vertue in the earthly part of man which makes him to put forth evil as often as occasion plows and temptation soweth his heart Verse 20. Are not my daies few Cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little Are not my daies few There is a difference in the reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primo adjungunt colo Numquid non paucitas dierum meâ—rum finiatur brevi Vulg. Annon pauci dies mei cessantes sc deficientes â—arg Annon paulisper diebus meis cessabit Juâ— Many translatours joyn the verb Cease with this clause so that whereas we read Are not my daies few Cease then and let me alone they read Will not my few daies cease then let me alone that I may take comfort a little M Broughton and he hath a second varieth yet further Will not he leave off a little in my daies Instead of applying the word few unto daies Are not my daies few they taking in the verb joyn it to the act of God Will not he leave off a little in my daies That is Will not God forbear a little to trouble me Will not he give me a breathing time in my daies which are but few Surely he will he will not be so strict with me I doubt not of a gracious answer to this humble petition But rather follow our sense and let the first clause be a question Are not my daies few And then the next words are an inference or use which he makes from it Cease then and let me alone c. Are not my daies few The question doth affirm Yes my daies are few The sense may be made out one of these three waies and not unprofitably by all three First thus As a justification of his former wishes and desires to die Have I not upon good reason wished that I had never lived Who can be in love with a short life and a long trouble Are not my daies few Or Secondly As an answer to such as objected against him for wishing he had not lived Doe you know said they what you have said Is life such a small matter with you Or doe you understand what you desire when you desire death Is deformed death become a beauty in your eye What ever you think of it life is a precious jewel Yes saith Job I know very well what life is and I know of I had died before I was born I had not lost much life What 's the life of a few daiis The life of eternity is worth the having and esteeming but why should you think I have wished away a matter of moment when I wished away this life For are not my daies few Whence observe The losse of a whole life in this world is no great losse We cannot lose a great deal when all is but a little nor many when we have but a few in all He looseth but a few daies who dieth the first day then what have we got when we have lived according to the calculation of nature many daies Job makes this an argument to satisfie others about his wish that all his days had bin cut off May not we satisfie our selves by it when a piece or a part an end the worst end of our daies is cut off What if we have abated ten or twenty of those years which possibly we might have lived Twenty years are but a few daies for a whole life consisting of three twenties and ten is but a few daies This we are sure of that the few daies we loose on earth shall never be missed in heaven it will be no abatement to our comfort there to
Is there any beauty in darknes in thick darknes where there is no order in darknes where the very light is darknes One of the greatest plagues upon Egypt Nostri theologizantes ad infernum referuÌ„t sed Iob ad sepulchrum respexit Merc. was three daies darknes what then is there in death naturally considered but a plague seeing it is perpetuall darknes If death be such in it self and such to those who die in sin how should our hearts be raised up in thankfulnes to Christ who hath put other terms upon death and the grave by dying for our sins Christ hath made the grave look like a heaven to his Christ hath abolished death not death it self for even believers die but all the trouble and terrour of death the darknes and the disorder of it are taken away Christ hath mortified death kill'd death so that now death is not so much an opening of the door of the grave as it is an opening of the door of heaven Christ who is the Sun of righteousnes lay in the grave and hath left perpetuall beams of light there for his purchased people The way to the grave is very dark but Christ hath set up lights for us or caused light to shine into the way Christ hath put death into a method yea Christ hath put death into a kinde of life or he hath put life into the death of believers All the gastlinesse horrour yea the darknes and death of death is removed The Saints may look upon the grave as a land of light like light it self yea as a land of life like life it self where there is nothing but order and where the darknes is as light Jobs reply to Bildad and complaints to God have carried his discourse as far as death and the grave he gives over in a dark disordered place God still leaving him under much darknes and many disorders of spirit As his great afflictions are yet continued so his weaknesses continue too His graces break forth many times and sometimes his corruption Both are coming to a further discovery while his third friend Zophar takes up the bucklers and renews the battel upon what terms he engages with Job how Job acquits himself and comes off from that engagement is the summe of the four succeeding Chapters FINIS Errata PAg. 18. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 5. for 29. r. 19. p. 69 l. 39. for 7. r. 29. p. 152. l. 21. for need r needs p. 201. in marg fòr Apollo r. Achilles in some copies p. 311 l 17. dele the. p. 331. l. 2. dele in p 430. l 22. for affliction r. afflictions p 361. l. 37. for Apologues r. Apologies ib. l. 38. put in to after arguments p. 366. in mâ—rg for polluerunt r. polluerent p. 401. l. 27. for an idol u r. idols are p 413. l. 22. for wearied r. weary p. 418. l. 27. dele not A TABLE Directing to some speciall Points noted in the precedent EXPOSITIONS A ABib the Jewish moneth why so called p. 73 Adamant why so called 160. Affliction A good heart give â— testimony to the righteousnesse of God in the midst of greatest afflictions p. 14 God laies very sore afflictions upon them that are very dear to him p. 279. Afflictions continued cause â—s to suspect that our praier is not answered p. 280. A godly man may be much opprest with the fears of affliction p. â—54 There was not such a spirit of rejoycing in affliction among the Saints of the old Testament as is under the New p. 358. After purgings God goes on sometimes with afflictions p. 372. It is lawfull to pray against affliction p. 399. Affliction removed three waies p. 400. Great afflictions carry a charge of wickednesse upon the afflicted p. 432. An afflicted person is very solicitous about the reason of his afflictions p. 436. Afflictions are searchers p. 469. Afflictions affect with shame p. 573. Vnder great afflictions our requests are modest p. 579. Age what meant by it taken three waies p. 55. Ancient of daies why God is so called p. 460. Angels falling why their sinne greater then mans and God so irreconcilable to them p. 506. Anger in man what it is p. 180 How God is angry p. 181. The troubles that fall upon the creature are the effects of Gods anger p. 181. It is not in the power of man to turn away the anger of God p. 247. How praier is said to do it 10. The anger of God is more grievous to the Saints then all their other afflictions p. 433. Answering of two kindes p. 250. Antiquity True antiquity gives testimony to the truth p. 58. What true antiquity is p. 59. Appearance we must not judge by it p. 360. Arcturus described p. 209. Assurance that we are in a state of grace possible and how wrought p. 479. Awake In what sense God awakes p. 37 38. His awaking and sleeping note only the changes of providence p. 39. Two things awaken God the praier of his people and the rage of his enemies p. 40. B BItternesse put for sorest affliction p. 285. The Lord sometime mixes a very bitter cup for his own people p. 286. Body of man the excellent frame of it p. 516. Five things shew this p. 517. Body of man an excellent frame p. 494. How called a viâ— body ib. Bones and sinews their use in the body of man p. 516. C CAbits a sect of babling Poets p. 7. Cause Second causes can doe nothing without the first p. 493. Chambers of the South what and why so called p. 210. Chistu the tenth moneth among the Jews why so called p. 209. Christ is the medium by which we see God p. 231 Clay that man was made of clay intimates three things p. 504. Commands God can make every word he speaks a command p. 192. Every creature must submit to his command ib. God hath a negative voice of command to stay the motion of any creature p. 193. Comfort comes only from God p. 348. Yet a man in affliction may help on his own comforts or sorrows p. 351. Comforts put off upon two ground ib. Commendation To commend our selvâ—s very unseemly p. 296 297. Conâ—emnation hath three thing in it which make it very gâ—evous p. 432. It is the adjudging a man to be wicked p. 434. Conscience A good conscience to be kept rather then our lives p. 303. God and conscience keep a record of our lives p. 540. Consent to sinne how proper to the wicked p. 478. Contention Man naturally loves it p. 150. Man is apt to contend with God p. 152. Especially about three things p. 153. Man is unable to contend with God in any thing p. 154. Counsels of wicked men not shined on by God p. 447. Custom in sin what p. 476. D DAies-man who p. 385. why so called p. 386. Five things belonging to a daies-man p. 387. A three-fold posture of the daies-man in laying on his