to lay his siedge nearer and closer to Iob presuming that though he had not prevailed at the first yet he shall at the second charge let me charge him but once more and then see his fall He will curse thee to thy face JOB 2.1 2 3 4 5 6. Verse 1. Againe there was a day when the sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himselfe before the Lord. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan from whence commest thou And Satan answered the Lord and said from going too and fro in the earth and from walking up and downe in it 3. And the Lord said unto Satan Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evill and still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause 4. And Satan answered the Lord and said skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life 5. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face 6. And the Lord said unto Satan Behold he is in thine hand but save his life AS the Prophet Ezekiel when in vision he had beene shewed one abomination was led forward to a second and a third and a fourth with Come see a greater abomination than this or these Or as the Angell proclaimeth in the Revelation One woe is past and another woe is at hand The same may we say concerning this History of Jobs sorrowes Having shewed you his first affliction in the former Chapter I must now leade on your attentions with Come behold a second a greater then that and having shewed you one woefull day I must now shew you a second Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves This whole Chapter presents us in the generall with Jobs second tryall About which wee may observe these particulars 1. The occasion of it 2. The causes of it 3. The manner of it 4. The consequents of it 1. The occasion of it was Satans appearing at that heavenly Session and being there questioned about that former affliction of Job he answers with slander and desireth that Job may be brought about to a second tryall 2. The causes of this affliction as of the first are two 1. God And 2. Satan 1. God permitting and limiting it 2. Satan provoking and then inflicting it Both are laid downe in the words of the context now read to the end of the sixth verse 3. The manner of this affliction was the striking and smiting of Jobs body with a sore and noysome disease which you have contained in ver 7 8. 4. The Consequents of this affliction or what followed upon it and those are three 1. His wives sinfull councell ver 9. As soone as she saw him thus smitten What saith shee doest thou still retaine thine integrity Curse God and die There 's her counsell 2. His wise and holy reply ver 10. 3. His friends loving visit vers 11 12 13. They hearing of the affliction of Job came from a farre country to see him and to comfort him These are the distinct parts of the whole Chapter These six verses descipher the occasion and the causes of Jobs affliction Satan inciting and provoking the Lord and the Lord permitting and limitting Satan The three first containe the same matter which we have opened and explained in the former Chapter and they are almost word for word the same therefore I shall not need to stay long upon them Only I shall enquire a little further about two things First about the day of this great appearance And secondly about the persons appearing who are said to be the sons of God To the former of these the Jewish Doctors contend much That this was the first day in the recourse or returne of the yeare intimating if not contending that the first day of every yeare was as Gods day of generall Audit in which he conveen'd or called together his Angels to give him an account of all the passages and dispatches of the yeare past and to give them instructions what to doe the yeare comming which opinion I leave under the censure of a learned Interpreter as grosse and groundlesse Others fixe it upon the last day of the weeke affirming that this was the Sabbath day And that this was a convention or Assembly of the Church on Earth for the solemne worship of God upon that day which is here called A presenting themselves before the Lord in concurrence with which opinion the sonnes of God must needs be interpreted holy men I find some affirming that men are not called the sons of God in all the old Testament but the Angels only And so they take that Text Gen 6.2 The sons of God saw the daughters of men c. for the Angels either good or bad who being taken with the beauty of those daughters assuming bodies came into them of whom came the Giants A conceit as monstrous as those Giants and fitter for a fabulist then a Divine On the other extreame Chrysostome denyes that the Angels are at all called the sonnes of God We may walke safely in a middle way betweene these two For both Angels and men are called the sonnes of God Why Angels are called the sons of God hath been shewed Chap. 1. v. 6. Men are called the sons of God for two reasons either for their power or greatnesse so they Gen. 6.2 might be called the sonnes of God because great and powerfull on the earth Or rather secondly for their piety and holinesse by which they resemble God and in which they serve God as a sonne doth the Father Indeed the Apostle affirmes that the priviledge of sonship was brought-in by the Incarnation of Christ who is said In the fullnesse of time to be made of a woman c. That we might receive the adoption of sonnes Gal. 4.5 But in Scripture a thing is spoken of as newly done when it is more fully done Joh. 7.39 The Holy Ghost is said not to be given at that time because he had not been so plentifully given And the Apostle to the Hebrewes speakes as if the way into Heaven had been but then opened because it was then more clearly opened Heb. 9.8 So we are said to receive the adoption of sons when Christ came in the flesh because then our son-ship was more apparant though before it was as reall So then according to this Interpretation the sence of the words is That upon the Sabbath day when the servants of God the faithfull of that age and place were met together to celebrate the publick worship of God Satan the evill spirit who is ever ready to oppose and resist us to interrupt and hinder us when we appeare before the Lord in holy duties came also among them to
AN EXPOSITION WITH PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS Vpon the three first CHAPTERS of the Booke of IOB Delivered in XXI Lectures at MAGNUS neare the Bridge London By JOSEPH CARYL Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolnes-Inne JAMES 5. ver 10 11. Take my bretheren the Prophets who have spoken in the Name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience Behold we count them happy which endure Yee have heard of the patience of Job and have seene the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitifull and of tender mercy LONDON Printed by G. Miller for Henry Overton in Popes-head-Alley and Luke Fawne and Iohn Rothwell in Pauls Church-yard M.DC.XLIII IT is this eleventh Day of May 1643. Ordered by the Committee of the House of Commons in Parliament concerning Printing that this Book intituled An Exposition upon the three first Chapters of IOB be printed for Henry Overton Luke Fawne Iohn Rothwell IOHN WHITE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER To those especially of this City who have bin the Movers and Promoters of this work THis Book of JOB beares the Image of these times and presents us with a resemblance of the past present and much hoped for future condition of this Nation As the personall prosperity of Job so his troubles looke like our Nationall troubles and why may not the parallel be made up by a likenesse in our Restauration Job was the most flourishing the greatest man of all the men of the East We are the greatest and lately were the most flourishing Nation of all the Nations of the North. Our Oxen like his were strong to labour our Sheep brought forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets our garners were full affording all manner of store our sonnes like his as plants growne up in their youth our daughters as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace There was no breaking-in nor going out no complaining in reference to outward wants in our streets We washed our steps with butter and the rock powred us out rivers of oyl The Candle of God shined upon our Heads and the secret of God was upon our Tabernacles Our roots were spread out by the waters and the dew of blessings lay all night upon our branches Unto us the Nations gave ear and waited kept silence at our counsel After our words they spake not again and our speech dropped upon them If we laughed on them they believed it not our glory was fresh in us and the light of our countenance they cast not down we chose out their way and sate chief and dwelt as a King in the army as one that comforteth the Mourners Surely a happy people were we being in such a case yea most happy were we having the Lord many ways declaring himselfe for our God And had we as these mercies did oblige us fill'd up or labour'd to fill up th' other part the better part of Jobs character Had we beene a People perfect and upright fearing God and eschewing evill We might according to the promis'd and often experienc'd tenour of Gods dealing with his people have continued and encreased in all that happinesse unto this day But We herein unlike to Job and like a foolish Nation and unwise have ill-requited the Lord yea we have requited the Lord with evill for and in the midst of all this Goodnesse Our Provocations have bin many and our Backe-slidings have bin multiplied Our sinnes have put a Sword into the Hand of God And God in Justice hath put a Sword into the Hands of unjust men men skilfull to destroy He hath made Babylonians the rod of his anger and the staffe of his Indignation against us He hath given Commission to Caldeans and Sabeans who rob and spoyle us Our young men are slaine by the edge of the Sword and the stinke of our Campes comes up into our Nostrils How many sad Messengers have hastened unto us as unto Job with the Reports of Cities surrendered and plundered of Townes fired and pillaged of Villages and Countries laid waste and almost desolate Now seeing all this is come upon us is it not time for us with Job to rent our Garments yea our hearts with godly sorrow and falling upon the ground worship God and say The Lord hath freely given and the Lord hath justly taken Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Our sinnes have brought these sorrowes let not our sorrowes bring in more sin by causing us to murmur against or charge God foolishly God never sends such troubles upon a Nation he doth sometimes upon a Person and did upon Job without cause that is without respecting sinne as a cause Job might say in one sense My Uprightnesse and my Integritie have procured these things unto me But wee must say our way and our doings have procured these things unto us This is our wickednes Yet though all this evill hath been done by us though all these evils are come upon us yet there is hope in our Israel concerning this thing yea I beleeve there is mercie in and from all these evils to us and all the Israel of our God Onely what Integrity we have let us still hold it stedfastly what evils are and what evils almost are not amongst us let us reforme them speedily Without this at least without hearty desires and faithfull endeavours after this wee may presume but we cannot beleeve or hope our Deliverance I grant that whensoever God restores us he must restore us freely and must both make us good and doe us good for his owne Name sake in Jesus Christ For as he hath punished us lesse then our sinnes deserve so whensoever or in what degree soever he restores us it will bee more then any or all our repentings and reformings can deserve yet he commands us to repent and reforme that we may be restored God never delivered any people for their Repentance and rarely any if any without Repentance Yea I may say it plainely that he never delivered any in Mercie without Repentance for either he gave them Repentance before they were delivered or Repentance which is farre the greater blessing of the two with the Deliverance Better have our troubles continue then our sinnes continue To have Peace returne and our hearts unturn'd were infinitely worse then warre And as Repentance is better then Peace so it will be an argument that we shall have Peace May wee not well conclude that God is upon the giving-hand when he gives a new heart And that hee hath somewhat else to give when he hath given a love unto and a longing after his Truth When God feeds us with and we have a right taste of this Manna in our Wildernesse wee may rest assured that God hath humbled us all this while and all the while his Wisdome shall see fit to humble us yet will be only to proove us that he may doe us good at our latter end and make this Nation at least like Job in the end which he will
note That It is lawfull to use feasting The children of Job here went and feasted at their houses every one his day The Christians in the Primitive Churches had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love-feasts In a Feast there are two things extraordinary provision and extraordinary company both are lawfull God hath given us the creature not only for necessity but for delight and it is a cleare argument that such using of the creatures in feasting is lawfull because God hath made more creatures serving for the delight of man than he hath made for the necessity of man If God had meant that men should doe nothing but serve their owne necessity and maintaine their lives so as they might goe on in their places and callings one halfe of the creatures might have been spared But God made nothing in vaine Therefore he is willing we should use the creatures for moderate delight Abraham made a great feast at the weaning of Isaac and Isaac makes a feast for Abimelech and Phicol the chiefe Captaine of his Army Gen. 26. 30. And the like examples we have in divers other places And our Saviour Christ himselfe was at a feast in Cana of Galilee where when wine fail'd he supply'd it by miracle Joh. 2. But because feasting is so often abused and many turne this liberty into wantonnesse being then most wicked when they should be most thankfull and grieving God most when he gives them meanes or occasion of rejoycing I shall therefore briefly discover the abuses of feasting which will also hint rules for the right ordering of it That we may as the Apostle speaks eat and drinke and do all to the glory of God 1. Then feasting is sinfull when any over-charge their estates and lavish out what will but serve their necessities or conveniencies upon delights and superfluities to such Feasting is a sinne 2. When the rich feast the rich and never thinke upon the poor Luk. 14.12 13. When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy friends nor thy brethren neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbours Observe here this is not an absolute denyall of calling brethren and kinsfolkes and friends or rich for brethren may yea ought to be called but saith he when thou makest a feast call the poore the maimed the lame the blind that is when thou makest a feast be sure to remember these doe not bid thy brethren or the rich alone let the poore have a portion with thee and be refreshed at or from thy Table When the rich feast one another and let the poore starve or pine this is very sinfull 3. When there is a studied curiosity and exactnesse in feasting When all things that can be thought on must be fetched in strange meats and forraigne sauces when there is a lusting after Quailes when men must have meat for their lusts Though we may have feasting for our delight yet we must not have feasting for our lusts Such make their belly their god as the Apostle speakes when there is so much art used as destroyes the nature of the meat this is a sinne and an errour I remember Bernard speaks of his times That a man might be at a fish feast and yet should not know whether he had eaten any fish or no all things were prepared with so much art that the very nature of the creature was lost This is a sinfull vanity 4. When there is intemperance in feasting whatsoever the provision be when there is excesse an over-charging of nature which is surfetting and drunkennesse As by the former man overthrowes the nature of meats or drinkes So by this meat and drinke overthrowe the nature of man A man may feast himselfe into a beast and we usually say of such persons They are disguised For such feasting the land mournes 5. When feastings are frequent Feasts are not for every day that was the thing taxed in the glutton Luk. 16. that he fared deliciously every day 6. When we spend too much of the day at any time or too much time any day in feasting when we dine till night and sup all or a great part of the night this is chambering and wantonnesse this is a woefull expence and waste of time and the expence of time is worse by farre then the expence of mony you may regaine the expence of your mony but you can never call backe the expence of your time you may be at greater charges in your feasting for the waste of time then for the waste of estate All the world cannot give you backe againe the expence of an houre Indeed we often heare men complaine they have spent too much mony in feasting and entertainments but 't is very rare that any complaine they have spent too much time which is as if a man having received a wound in his body should onely be troubled for the hole which the Sword made in his doublet Prodigality of time is the worst and most dangerous prodigality 7. Feasting is sinfull when unseasonable I speake in regard of occasions and opportunities there are speciall times wherein it is unlawfull to feast though we should spend but very little time in feasting Isa 22.12 13. In that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sack-cloth and behold ioy and gladnesse slaying Oxen and killing Sheepe eating flesh and drinking wine in the next verse it is said It was revealed in mine eares by the Lord of hosts surely this inquity shall not be purged from you till you die To feast in that day was sinfull and a sin that left such a staine as could not be got out it shall not be purged from you What time was this wherein their feasting was so sinfull what made this sin so deepe grained You shall find a resolution in the beginning of the Chapter It was a day of trouble and perplexity and of treading downe by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision breaking downe the walls and crying to the mountaines It is a day of trouble and perplexity and will you now be feasting saith God Is this a time for you to feast in when my wrath is breaking forth amongst you This feasting with men is a daring of God a sending as it were defiance unto Heaven And such feastings Amos reproves Chap. 6.4 5. They did eat the Lambes out of the flocke and the Calves out of the midst of the Stall they chaunt to the sound of the Violl and invent to themselves instruments of musicke like David they drinke wine in bowles and annoint themselves with the chiefe oyntments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Then at this time feasting is unseasonable for Ioseph the people and Churches of God are in affliction And this is such a day as the Prophet describes a day of trouble and a day of perplexity from the Lord the Kingdome is full of trouble and we are full of feares therefore
now fasting is in season not feasting now humbling is in season not rejoycing Or if any feast now let them feast as if they feasted not and rejoyce as if they rejoyced not let them feast as remembring the affliction and bonds the hunger and wants of our distressed bretheren Therefore in those feastings which have a kind of necessity in them you should labour to have your hearts exceedingly above your feasting not to ye so low as the creature it is ever very sinfull to have your hearts drowned in the creature but now especially when you heare the voyce of the Sword threatning to take the creature from us and see God clashing them together as if he meant to staine the beauty and sowre the pleasures of them all Verse 5. And it was so when the dayes of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them c. This verse containes the holy practise of Job You saw before that he had grace in his heart now you may see grace in his life Holy practise makes grace visible There it lay in the habit here it comes forth in the act Concerning this holy practise of Iob we may note these three things for the division of the verse 1. The Actions about which this holy care of Iob was exercised They are two 1. He sent and sanctified them And 2. Offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all 2. The ground of this holy practice of his what moved Iob after their feasting thus to send and sanctifie them The ground was this For Job said it may be that my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts 3. The constancy of Iob in this his holy practice he did not this by fits now and then but thus did Job continually And it was so that when the dayes of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them That is the first thing that we are to explaine and open unto you Job sent and sanctified them How could Iob sanctifie his sonnes or his daughters A Parent indeed may provide riches for his children but can he provide grace also A parent may put Money in their purses but can he put holinesse in their hearts too that it is said here that Iob sent and sanctified them Is not sanctification the proper worke of the Spirit of God doth not the Holy Ghost alone sanctifie For the clearing of this Whereas it is said that Job sent and sanctified them First Some expound the meaning thus that Job sent up prayers to God to sanctifie them And indeed prayer is a sanctifying ordinance As prayer requireth a holy heart so prayer will make a holy heart make the heart that prayes holy yea many times get holinesse into anothers heart Secondly Others say he sent and sanctified them that is he sent them to the place that was appointed for sacrifice where he intended to sanctifie them or where in the holy duty of calling upon the Name of God and of offering sacrifice they were to be sanctified He sent and sanctified them he sent them to the place where the Sacrifice should be offered that so they might be sanctified But thirdly I rather take it thus he sent and sanctified them that is he sent a message to them to command them to prepare and to fit themselves for the holy duty of offering the burnt offering or sacrificing For to sanctifie in Scripture notes two things 1. The infusion of a holy habit the infusion of a new principle into the soule 2. A preparation of the soule to holy duties Now when it is said that Job sent and sanctified them it is not meant as if Iob did infuse holy habits into his children as if it were in his power to make them gracious Indeed that is impossible it is only the worke of the Spirit of God no man can come at the spirit of another but the Spirit of God But this is it hee sent to them to prepare themselves to advise and warne them to prepare themselves that they might be ready for that holy duty for the duty of sacrificing And this preparation to holy duties is often called sanctifying as Gen. 35. When Iacob was called to Bethel to offer sacrifice and to build an Altar he said to his houshold verse 2. Put away the strange gods that are among you and be cleane that is sanctifie you or be you sanctified and let us arise and goe up to Bethel and I will make there an Altar unto God c The preparation to the sacrifice was a cleansing or a sanctifying of them So Exod 19.20 when the people were to be prepared to receive the Law the Lord saith unto Moses Goe unto the people and sanctifie them to day and to morrow that is prepare the people or warne the people that they prepare themselves for the receiving of the Law And likewise in the 1 Sam. 16.5 it is said that Samuel did that which the Lord spake and came to Bethlem and the Elders of the Towne trembled at his comming and said Commest thou peaceably And he said Peaceably I am come to Sacrifice unto the Lord sanctifie your selves and come with me to the Sacrifice that is prepare your selves to come to the sacrifice So sanctification is preparation And Ioh. 11.55 to name no more The Jewes Passeover was nigh at hand and many went out of the Countrey up to Hierusalem before the Passeover to purifie themselves or to sanctifie themselves that they might be fit and ready for the sacrifice So then this sanctifying of them was a preparing of them for the sacrifice There were solemne rules given afterward when the forme of the Church Order and Discipline was established by Moses but even now before that the Law and light of nature taught this besides the teaching of God that they must be sanctified before they came to sacrifice Iob sent and sanctified them then they came to that holy service This is the first act of Iob. We may here observe first the time when Iob sent to sanctifie them it was when the dayes of their feasting were gone about Iob did not take them off from their feasting or deny them the liberty of their feasting But when the dayes of their feasting were gone about then he sent and sanctified them The point we may note from hence is this That It doth well become godly Parents to give their Children leave to take moderate refreshing and recreation one with another Iob did not severely and austerely forbid them and say what doe you feasting and spending your time idly one with another why doe you spend so many dayes in feasting He never interrupted them till the dayes of their feasting were gone about It becommeth Parents to loose the reines of governement so farre as to give them leave for their refreshing to let themselves out in honest wayes of recreation by their mutuall society Iob did not call them to this holy service from their feasting but when the
but to change their cloathes you have the expression in that place concerning Jacob be cleane saith he and change your garments It might be a changing by washing but I rather conceive that it was a change by putting on of other cloathes There was also another externall requisâ—te to the preparing and sanctifying of themselves and that was by abstaining for a time from the lawfull use of the marriage bed you have the command expresly in that 19th Exod. 15. Be ready against the third day come not at your wives and there are other the like places 1 Sam. 21.4 The Priest said There is no common bread under mine hand but there is hallowed bread if the young men have kept themselves at least from women if they have but that outward preparation the meaning is if they had kept themselves from their Wives David affirmes it was so in the words following The Apostle giveth the same rule in 1 Cor. 7.5 speaking of that point Defraud not one another saith he except it be with consent for a time that you may give your selves to fasting and prayer So that the Holy Ghost therein intimates such an abstaining as was preparatory to solemne duties that you may give your selves to fasting and prayer extraordinary duties call for extraordinary preparations These outward preparations were so necessary that when the people failed in them Hezekiah prayed for pardon 2 Chron. 30.18 19. The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seeke God the Lord God of his Fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary though their hearts were upright though they had hearts rightly prepared yet he prayeth that God would pardon the want of those outward preparations The principall preparation is of the heart and the washing of our wayes therefore we find how the Lord contendeth with them in Isa 1.10 11 c. where he speakes of those oblations and great services of the Jewes I hate your solemne feasts bring no more vaine oblations c. Why your hands sc your lives are full of blood wash yee make you cleane put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evill learne to doe well c. As if he should say What doe you come to me in these holy duties except you prepare and fit your selves accordingly I cannot abide that unholy persons should come about holy things The very Heathen had this Notion they would not admit any to come to their religious services unlesse they were prepared That saying of Aeneas in the Poet to his Father when he came from the Warre is a cleare proofe Tu genitor c. Father doe you meddle with the sacrifices but as for me it is a sinnefull thing to touch them till I have washed my selfe in the fountaine This was an outward externall right amongst them for cleansing themselves The very Heathen saw they must not meddle with their holy things till they were cleansed therefore they had one that cryed out to the people when they came to sacrifice All you that are uncleane and prophane goe farre away from these sacrifices Not only the word of God but the very light of nature taught them not to meddle with holy things till they were sanctified Therefore specially looke to this when you have any sacrifice any duty to performe be prepared and sanctified within and without before you come to the duty It is true that the duty sanctifies but it is seldome that the duty sanctifies us unlesse we be sanctified for the duty They get most holinesse from the duty who are most holy before they come to the duty besides the great danger of comming unprepared Take heed how you heare not only heare but take heed to prepare your selves for hearing So looke to thy feete it hath the same sence when thou comest into the house of God prepare thy selfe be not hasty least thine be counted but the sacrifice of fooles So much of the first act of Jobs holy care He sent and sanctified them JOB 1. part of verse 5. and verse 6. And rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all For Job said It may be that my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Thus did Job continually Now there was a day when the sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them NOw followes the second Act of Jobs holy care He rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all It is ill to performe a holy duty with neglect of preparation It is as bad to make preparation and then neglect the duty We see both joyned in Job he is carefull to prepare and he is as diligent to performe He rose up early This notes the extraordinary diligence and zeale of Job toward God in this duty He was so zealous that he riseth not only in the morning but early in the morning In Scripture to doe a thing in the morning and to doe a thing diligently are the same Psal 101.8 I will early destroy the wicked of the Land the word is I will destroy the wicked of the Land in the morning and the meaning is only this I will with all diligence and all care roote out of the Land all wicked persons So there is an expression Prov. 7.15 which illustrates this where the wicked woman the harlot tells the young man that shee came forth to meete him and diligently to seek his face the originall word there is to seek thy face in the morning and yet we know that in verse 9. it was in the twi-light in the evening that she met him But the Hebrew phrase is I came forth in the morning to seeke thy face that is as it is rendred I came forth diligently to seeke thy face So this comming forth of Job in the morning be-besides the time that it was at such an houre the beginning of the day notes the great diligence and exceeding care of Job about this worke Yet more exactly it is not only said he rose in the morning for there is a great latitude in the morning there are divers houres which all are called morning but it is said he rose early in the morning in the very beginning or first of the morning As it is commanded Exod 23 19· The first of the first fruits of the Land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord. God would not only have the first fruits but the first of the first fruits if there were any ripe sooner then others God would have them some fruits that ripen'd after were first fruits but God would have the very first of them So here Job gave God not only the first fruits of the day but the earliest time in the morning which is the first of the first fruits of the day Early in the morning Then Observe 1. That
it is Gods due and our duty to dedicate the morning the first and best of every day unto God Psal 5.3 My voice shalt thou heare in the morning in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will looke up We have a saying among us that the morning is a friend to the Muses that is the morning is a good studying time I am sure it is as true that the morning it is a great friend to the Graces the morning is the best praying time Againe In that Job did rise so early in the morning to offer sacrifice and did this because he was afraid that his sonnes had sinned as we shall see afterward Hence Observe 2. That it is not safe to let sinne lye a moment unrepented of or unpardon'd upon our own consciences or the consciences of others If a mans house be on fire he will not only rise in the morning or early in the morning but he will rise at mid-night to quench it certainly when you have guilt on your soules you have a fire in your soules your soules are on a flame therefore you had need rise and rise early and get up as soon in the morning as you can to get it quenched and put out And offered burnt-offerings There were divers sorts of Sacrifices among the Jewes when the law or rules of sacrificing were established There were first Whole burnt-offerings 2. Trespasse-offerings 3. Sinne-offerings 4. Peace-offerings That which Job is here said to offer was a burnt-offering an Holacost or whole burnt-offering so called because it was altogether consumed there was no part of it reserved for the Priest or for the people but all was offered up unto God Of other Sacrifices as the sinne-offering and trespasse-offering there were parts and portions reserved for the Priest and part of the Peace-offerings for the people as you may see by that expression of the Harlot Prov. 7.14 I have at my house Shelamim Peace-offerings now they did feast upon the Peace-offering for she invited him to a feast But the burnt-offering was wholly consumed the word in the Hebrew doth signifie an ascension or a thing lifted up He offered burnt-offerings word for word out of the Hebrew it is He lifted-up an elevation he caused an Ascension to ascend elevabat elevationem or ascendere fecit ascensionem And it was so called because the Sacrifice which was a whole burnt-offering was all consumed upon the altar And did as it were evaporate or ascend up unto God It was called a lifting-up or a thing lifted-up for three Reasons 1. Because when the Sacrifice was offered the smoake of it did ascend and besides there were sweet odours put upon the Altar which did fume up also with the Sacrifice towards heaven and so the Sacrifice took it's denomination from ascending and going upwards 2. Because the Priest when hee offered the Sacrifice did lift it up upon the Altar and hold it toward Heaven to God 3. Because at that time when the Sacrifice was a burning all the people that were present did lift-up their hands and their eyes but especially their soules and their spirits heaven-wards and powred themselves forth in prayer unto God That of David in Psal 141.2 will give some light to this Let saith he my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening Sacrifice David at that time as Interpreters note upon the Psalme was barred the enjoyment of the publike ordinances he could not come to sacrificing as formerly he had done now he seekes unto the Lord that he would accept of the lifting up of his hands and heart in stead of Sacrifice as if he should say Lord I have not a Sacrifice now to offer unto thee I am hindered from that worke I cannot lift that up but I will lift up what I have and what will please thee better then a Bullocke that hath hornes and hoofes I will lift-up my hands and my heart unto thee and let these be accepted for sacrifice and all Prayer which is a Sacrifice of the Gospell it is nothing else but A lifting up of the soule an elevation of the spirit unto God So some of the Ancients call prayer an Ascending of the soule unto God And in allusion unto this Hezekiah when he sent to Isaiah the Prophet to pray for him in that time of distresse and day of trouble saith Goe and desire the Prophet to lift-up his prayer for the remnant that are left alluding to the sacrifices which were wont to be lifted up The like expression of prayer you have Psal 25.1 Lord saith David I lift-up my soule unto thee Hence Prayers not answered not accepted are said to be stopt from ascending Lam. 3.44 Thou hast covered thy selfe with a cloud that our prayer should not passe through When you meet with such expressions in the old Testament concerning prayer you must still understand them to be allusions to the Sacrifices because the Sacrifices were lifted up and did ascend That for the Act. For the person It is said that Job offered these Sacrifices Job rose early and offered c. Was not this to usurpe upon the Priests office Was it not this for which King Vzziah was reprehended and told by the Priests It appertaineth not to thee to burne Incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the sonnes of Aaron and was he not smitten with leprosie for doing of it I answer in a word by that rule of the Ancients Distinguish the times and Scriptures will agree It was Job that offered and Job had right to offer The time wherein Job offered Sacrifice doth reconcile this it was before the giving of the Law as we have shewed in the opening of the former points about the time when Job lived now in those times the Father or the elder of the Family was as a Priest to the whole Family and he had the power and the right to performe all holy family duties as the duty of sacrificing and the like this you may see carried along in all the times before the Law was given in the holy Stories of the Patriarks they still offered up the Sacrifice But it may here be further inquired If it were before the Law was given who taught Job to offer Sacrifice Where had he the rule for it I answer this was not will-worship though it was not written worship For howsoever Job did offer Sacrifice before the Law of sacrificing was written yet he did not offer a Sacrifice before the Law of sacrificing was given for the Law of sacrificing was given from the beginning as all the other parts of worship used from the beginning were God could never beare it that men should contrive him a service therefore Job did not offer up an offering unto God according to his owne will a thing that he had invented to pacifie and to please God with God had been so farre from accepting that he could not have
hearts when you are praying and when you are hearing and when you are in holy duties but remember to keepe your hearts when you are feasting and refreshing your selves when you are in your callings when you are buying and selling c. Secondly Note That sinnes of the heart sinnefull thoughts are very dangerous sinnes Job could not accuse his sonnes of load blasphemies he only suspected the silent sinnes of the heart yet he offereth sacrifice for them Againe When Iob hath nothing to charge his sonnes with but onely sinnes of the heart you see it is with an It may be my sonnes have cursed God in their hearts he doth not speake directly or positively that they have done so Whence note That no man can positively conclude what is wrought in the heart of another The heart is Gods peculiar as he only hath the lock and key of the heart to shut or open it so he only hath a window to looke into it we may guesse at the heart we may say it may be further we cannot goe The hearts of men often come forth at their mouthes and appeare in their actions and then indeed we may conclude their hearts are naught For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and the hand worketh but unlesse we have that testimony unlesse the heart give that witnesse against it selfe we can only suspect it It may be thus or thus God alone can tell when we curse him in our hearts and if we goe on impenitently in them irreverent thoughts will be interpreted a cursing of God Thus did Job continually This is the third thing to be opened in this verse to wit the constancy of Job We have seene the Acts of his spirituall care and the ground of it his feare least his sonnes had sinned Now we have the constancy of this duty Thus did Job continually Continually The Originall is all the days thus did Job Cunctis diebus all dayes that is all the dayes that this occasion did offer it selfe When his sonnes went to feasting then ever Job went to praying and to sacrificing Continually or all the dayes doth not import that Job did offer sacrifice every day This continually is to be understood in the renewed seasons All the dayes are those dayes wherein occasion was given We are then said to doe a thing continually when we doe it seasonably so those places of Scripture are to be understood Pray without ceasing not that a man should doe nothing else but pray but that he should labour to have his heart in a praying frame alwayes and should actually pray as often as duty requires such an one prayes alwayes So here Iobs offering sacrifice continually noteth only the constancy and perseverance of Iob in the duty that so often as there was an occasion renewed Iob renewed this service and holy care concerning his sonnes for reconciling them unto God Iob had many other things to doe in the world he had a calling yet he offered sacrifice continually It is an excellent point of spirituall wisedome to drive the two trades for Heaven and Earth so as that one shall not intrench upon another for a man to pray so as that it may be said he prayes continually and for a man to follow his calling so as that it may be said he followes his calling continually In that he offered sacrifice as oft as his sonnes did feast Observe this That the heart of man is continually evill Doe not thinke that one sacrifice will serve the heart of man when it hath failed once in a duty and thou hast humbled thy soule for that thinke not thus now my heart will forbeare when I come to such a duty or to such a businesse again now I have taken order with my heart I need not feare any more no the heart will sinne over the same sinne a thousand times it will sinne continually You see here Iob sacrificing every time his sonnes feasted he knew their hearts were apt to conceive those sinnes at any time therefore he seekes God for them at all times Further Observe That renewed sinnes must have renewed repentance Thus did Job continually Till you have done sinning you must never give over repenting If there be a leake in the Ship that lets in the water continually the Pumpe must worke continually to carry it out We are leaking vessels all of us sinne commeth in sin is renewed there must be the pump of repentance to cary it out againe Lastly We may note this Iob did it continually Job was not good by fits That which a man doth out of conscience he will doe with perseverance Nature will have good moods but grace is steady Thus did Job continually whatsoever his affaires or businesses were whatsoever was laid by he would not lay by this duty of sacrificing Let this suffice for the 5th verse containing the care of Job over the soules of his children And so in these five verses already opened we have First Seene the dignity and sincerity of Jobs person Secondly The fullnesse and prosperity of his condition Thirdly The holinesse and piety of his life Certainely a man thus raised thus glorious set up thus in temporalls and in spiritualls thus furnished with substantialls and adorn'd with circumstantials abounding in whatsoever could make a man great and happy both in the eye of God and man surely such a man as this a man thus compleate wanted nothing but some want to try his sincerity in this fulnesse And now behold this hastening upon him God having thus fitted and qualified him will now try him try him like gold in the fornace of affliction You may see matter gathering for this and the fire kindling in the next part of the Chapter Verse 6. Now there was a day when the sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord c. Take this in the generall from the connection of the two parts Vsually where God gives much grace he tryes grace much To whom God hath given strong shoulders on him for the most part he layeth heavy burthens As soon as Job is spoken of thus prepared the next thing that follows is an affliction Now there was a day c. And so we are come to the second maine division of the Chapter which is the affliction of Job and that is set forth from this 6th verse to the end of the 19th And least we should conceive it to have come upon him by chance it is punctually described foure wayes 1. By the causes of it ver 6 7 c 2. By the instruments of it ver 15 16. c. 3. By the manner of it ver 14 15 16 c. 4. By the time of it ver 13. First his afflictions are set forth in their causes and that is done from the sixth verse to the end of the twelfth And the causes are three-fold First The efficient causes and they were two 1. The supreame and principall efficient cause and that was God ordering
the souls under the Altar cry How long Lord how long They cry to God how long they knew that he only had the time in his hand he only could tell how long and it should be as long as he pleased How long Lord They cryed not to cruell tyrants how long will ye persecute but Lord how long will it be before thou come to revenge And so David Psal 31.15 My time it is in thy hand speaking of his afflictions There is no affliction but it is in the hand of God for the continuance of it as well as for the manner of it and as no enemie man or devill can make thy crosse greater or longer or heavier so no friend man or Angell can make thy crosse lighter or lesser or shorter then God himselfe hath appointed Onely upon himselfe shalt thou not put forth thine hand thou shalt not move an inch further not a haires bredth further As our afflictions for the matter of them are by the will of God as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 4.19 While you suffer saith he according to the will of God those words according to the will of God note not only the righteousnesse of suffering that it must be in a good cause but also the spring from whence those sufferings come they are Ex voluntate Dei so Mr. Beza translates it they are out of the will of God Now I say as they are out of the will of God or from the will of God springing from his will and flowing from his dispensation of things in the matter of them so also in every circumstance God himself gives thy crosse length and bredth and thicknesse he fills thy cup of sorrow he directeth how many drops to a drop shall be put into it thou shalt not have a drop more then God prescribes and which is more comfortable knowes will be for thy good Secondly Observe That Satan is boundlesse in his malice toward the people of God If God did not set him bounds he would set himselfe no bounds therefore saith God unto him Onely upon himselfe c. He had a mind to have gone further he would have been upon Job himselfe as well as upon his estate if God had not stop'd and curb'd him Therefore the Apostle gives that assurance for the comfort of the people of God 1 Cor. 10.13 God saith he is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able As if he should say Satan would with all his heart lay more upon you than you are able to beare Satan would breake your backs if he were let alone but God will not suffer it Satan hath a boundlesse malice against the people of God Some observe this from his name Leviathan Isa 27.1 In that day the Lord with his great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent Leviathan is put there for Satan and for all the instruments of Satan now Leviathan signifieth in the Hebrew an augmentation an addition or an increase And Satan is so called because say they he ever desires to lay more burdens upon to increase the afflictions troubles and temptations of Gods people he never thinkes he hath done enough against them His thirst to worke mischiefe is never quenched but still he desires to doe more he would faine have his Commission inlarged to doe more mischiefe in the world Therefore God is said not to strike after their stroake in the 7th verse of that 27. of Isa Hath hee smitten him as he smit those that smote him In the Hebrew it is Hee hath not smitten him according to the stroake of those that smote him according to their stroake noting that the stroake of Leviathan and the stroake of his instruments is an unmeasurable stroake a boundlesse stroake they would never give over striking They thinke the wound is never deepe enough nor blood shed enough but saith the Prophet verse 8. God doth it in measure so that he opposeth their striking to Gods afflicting by the measure of it God keepeth his afflictions in such a bound and compasse he afflicts in measure but Satans stroake and the stroakes of wicked men are without all measure that is without all moderation unlesse God stop them they would never make an end Lastly Observe how Satan is by this proved a deceiver he intended more than he spake you may see it plainly in this because God put a restraint upon him Touch all that he hath saith Satan that referred to his possessions outward estate as if that had bin the mind of Satan in the motion do but afflict him in his outward estate I desire no more to make this tryal now when the Lord saith All that he hath is in thy hand there he grants him the motion in the letter of it but the Lord God saw that Satan had a further reach when he said Touch all that he hath which words seeme to extend no further then his estate but had not God limited and restrain'd him he by an indefinite grant to his motion had likewise fallen upon his person that was the great morsell he gaped after all this while he would have been doing with Job himselfe else there was no need of this limitation Onely upon himselfe put not forth thy hand Satans fingers itcht to be medling with Job though his words called for what he had not for himselfe And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. As soone as he hath leave and his Commission he is gone presently He went out from the presence of the Lord. The word is he went out from the face of the Lord Now the face of the Lord in Scripture it is taken sometimes for the essentiall glory of God that inaccessible Majesty of God Exod. 33. ult Thou canst not behold my face Sometimes the face of God is put for the favour and love of God Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate Dan. 9.17 and cause thy face to shine upon thy servant So in many other places the face of God is put for the favour of God because as the favour and love of a man is seene and discovered in his face so there is somewhat in those dealings of God which discover God he is said to make his face to shine upon his people when he doth discover by any act of his that he loves and favours them that is the shining of his face upon them The face interprets the heart and shewes the meaning of the spirit so in those things which interpret somewhat of the love of God to us God is said to make his face shine upon us On the other side the face of God is put sometimes for the anger and wrath of God because anger is seene in the face too so in those things by which God discovereth his anger he is said to set his face against men there is an expresse place for it in this sense Lam. 4.16 The anger of the Lord the
bruise and breake the heart of their tender Father Afflictions presse most when they are least expected Let us observe then this mixture of malice and cunning in Satan in choosing his time To carry a man from one extremity to another puts him upon the greatest extremity To make the day of a mans greatest rejoycing to be the day of his deepest sorrowes this is cutting if not killing sorrow To be brought from extreame sorrow to extreame joy suddenly doth rather amaze then comfort the spirit of a man It is said that when the Lord turned againe the captivity of Zion the people were like them that dreame the change was so great so sudden that they were rather astonished and amazed then comforted with it for a while So much more to be hurried from extreame joy to extreame sorrow from the borders of comfort to the brinke of death on a sudden is not so much to afflict a man as to confound and distract him This course Satan takes with Job It were well if we could be wise in this respect to imitate Satan to choose out our day to do good when there is greatest probability of successe as he chose out his day to do mischief It is the Apostles rule as you have opportunity doe good if wee could be wise to lay hold upon opportunities it would be a wonderfull advantage to us as a word fitly spoken is word upon the wheele so a worke fitly done is a worke upon the wheele it goeth on takes upon the heart both of God and man Let us consider whether now we have not a season whether this be not a day that holds forth to us a glorious opportunity Surely we may present this day unto you as a day to be doing in Let us therefore be as quick in this our day to doe good as Satan was in that day to doe hurt This is a day wherein great things are a doing and grievous things are a suffering by many of our bretheren therefore you should be working this day make a day on 't This is a day in which sonnes of Belial men that will not beare Christs yoke are combining to breake it and to cast his coards from them Then joyne this day to helpe Christ else as Mordecai said to Esther If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time this was a day for Esther to worke in then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jewes from another place but thou and thy fathers house shall be destroyed So I may say to you in reference to the present opportunity if you altogether hold your peace hold your purses and hold your hands at this time at such a day as this enlargement will come to the Church some other way but you may be destroyed who thinke to hold and keepe your peace either by saying or doing nothing If ever you will appeare this is a day to appeare in to doe good Let us be wise to manage and improve our day That it may never be said of us as our Lord Christ did of Jerusalem If yee had knowne even ye in this your day the things which belong unto your peace Luk. 19.42 It is a sadder thing to have had a season and not to know it sc not to use it then not to have had it Solomon tells us Eccles 8.6 That Because to every purpose there is a time and judgement therefore the misery of man is great upon him Misery cannot be great to a man because there is a time for every purpose but because men are either so blind that they cannot see or so sluggish that they will not make use of the proper time for every purpose Thus the preacher himselfe expounds it Chap. 9.12 For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evill not and as the birds are taken in a snare so are the sonnes of men snared in an evill time when it falleth suddenly upon them Consider what Solomons experience taught him Let not your inadvertency of these times make you a new experiment of that ancient truth And leave men that should be wise especially that pretend to wisedome to be numbred among and compared with a silly bird a silent fish Then again Forasmuch as it was the day of their great feast of their feast with wine upon which this great affliction assaulted Job Observe That the fairest and clearest day of our outward comfort may be clouded and overcast before the evening It was as faire a day as ever began in Jobs family a feast and a feast with wine and that in the eldest Brothers house and yet all was darkenesse before night This is true in reference to ungodly men great and terrible judgements fall suddainly upon them their light is turned into darknesse in a moment as Christ compares it to the dayes of Noah and the dayes of Lot As it was saith he in the dayes of Noah they did eate they dranke they married wives they were given in marriage untill the day that Noah entred into the Arke and the flood came and destroyed them all and as it was in the dayes of Lot c. both which are in two words set out by the Apostle when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction commeth Thus it is with ungodly men their Sunne often sets at noone when they say yea when they conclude all 's well then judgement mixt with wrath is at the doore This is a truth also in reference unto godly men and the Churches of God all their outward comforts may be clouded in a day while they are eating and drinking not sinfully but in a holy manner suppose as the Apostle adviseth to the glory of God yet even at that time all may presently be taken away And therefore as the Apostle saith rejoyce as if you rejoyced not in the creature and eate as if you did not eate and buy as if you possessed not Why For the fashion of this world the Scheme of this world passeth away You see it did with Job in what a goodly fashion was his worldly estate in the morning how was it drest and adorned in perfect beauty in all its excellencies as we heard it before described yet before night all the fashion of it past away and the beauty of it was quite blasted Therefore you that have great estates and good estates estates well gotten and well govern'd be not high-minded trust not in uncertaine riches If riches increase and if they increase in a right way yet set not your hearts upon them for the fashion of worldly things quickly passeth away Riches make themselves wings to fly away when thou art making doores and locks bolts and barres to keepe them in That for the time in the 13th verse But what did Satan upon this day That is set forth in the 14th v. and so on And there came a messenger unto Job and said The Oxen were plowing and
the Asses feeding beside them There came a messenger The Jewish Rabbins and some of the Fathers tell us that these messengers were Devils evill spirits in the likenesse of men But surely the opinion hath little likenesse with the truth therefore with Beza I lay it by and reject it amongst the tales of the Rabbins These messengers were really the escaped servants of Job as we shall see afterward Now the messenger bespeakes Job thus The Oxen were plowing they were hard at their worke and the Asses were feeding besides them The word in the Hebrew is this the Asses were feeding at their hand or at hand to be at hand doth note neerenesse in our language we say such a thing is at hand or such a man is at hand the day of our feare is at hand when we meane they are neare The Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 sc nigh unto us for our helpe So 2 Thes 2.2 It is applied also to neerenesse of place as well as of time Neh. 3.2 where the building of the wall of Jerusalem is described it is said Next unto him built the men of Jericho the Hebrew is at the hand of him built the men of Jericho that is next to him in place Now the messenger describeth all in such a posture The Oxen were plowing and the Asses feeding by this to assure Job of the care and diligence of his servants about his businesse for the securing of his Cattell and improving of his ground as if he should have said This sad affliction which is come upon thee did not come through our negligence or improvidence we were about our businesse according to our severall places The Oxen were plowing and the Asses were feeding by them they were not carelesly left to danger but our eye was upon them yet notwithstanding they were all surprized and taken away From this relation of the posture of Jobs servants and Cattell at the time when this affliction fell upon them we may observe thus much That all our care and diligence cannot secure outward thing unto us Afflictions may take us in the middest of our best and most honest endeavours A man may be looking to and ordering his estate and yet at the very time while his eye is upon it he may see it take its flight like an Eagle towards Heaven while he is ordering of it he may see disorder and confusion comming upon it while he is setling of it by honest care he may quickly see it unsetled removed and all broken to peeces as it was here with Job he was in a very good way his servants were honestly employed but suddenly all is gone The Oxen were taken away and the Asses that fed by them But who made this attempt The messenger informes that in the next words And the Sabeans fell upon them The Sabeans The Hebrew is Saba fell upon them the Countrey put for the people Saba for the Sabeans As we use to say Spaine made warre and France made warre that is the Spaniards made warre or the French made warre so it is such an expression Saba fell upon them that is the people inhabiting Saba Fell upon them The word noteth a mighty violence they came upon them as from above they came powring downe upon them like a storme There is such a phrase in warre when they goe violently upon a place they are said to storme the place to storme the gates of a Castle or of a City so here they fell upon them that is they came violently upon them like a storme In Prov. 1.27 destruction is described to come upon wicked men like a whirle-wind The Sabeans were a people as it is concluded by most interpreters inhabiting Arabia felix neare the Countrey where Job dwelt And for the manners of this people it is observed by Historians that they were a people famous onely for robberies a people that lived by pillage and by plundering of their neighbours Such a people they were These Sabeans fell upon them they tooke away thy Cattell and have slaine thy servants with the edge of the Sword Here it may be questioned How or why these Sabeans at such a time should fall upon the estate of Job what hurt had Job done them Job lived in a faire way with all his neighbours and kept good quarter and correspondence with them he was not a man of warre or contention how then commeth it to passe that these fell upon Jobs estate and tooke it away and upon that day too in this nick of time As when the Widdow of Tekoah had told a faire tale to David about the bringing backe of Absolom the King asked her Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this So when you see such men Sabeans and Chaldeans falling upon the estate of Job you may demand Is not the hand of Satan in all this Yes no doubt These Sabeans fall upon Jobs estate but Satan first fell upon the Sabeans and by strong temptations provoked them to doe this service But how could he prevaile upon the Sabeans that they should come and doe his businesse now at this time The Apostle telleth us that wicked men are led captive by Satan at his will Satan doth lead men captive at his will while they are as they conceive conquerours riding in triumph doing their owne will These Sabeans came to execute their own designes but Satan had a designe upon them he brought them thus to spoile the estate of Job But what could Satan doe How could Satan prevaile with these Can he force men to be his instruments to execute his designes upon the people of God Or hath he Sabeans and Caldeans Nations and people at his beck or under his command No Satan cannot force or compell them against their wills but as that Scripture saith he leads them captive at his will and as another Scripture he is a Prince of the power of the ayre and he workes in the children of disobedience yea hee workes like a Prince mightily and powerfully in the children of disobedience Though he cannot constraine them yet he can worke mightily in them to effect what he hath to doe But how doth he bring them about thus readily and suddenly to act what he projects Thus First He finds out the temper and disposition of the persons That Satan can doe he is a great Naturalist and hath a great deale of helpe to his skill long experience by both he can goe very farre in discovering the dispositions of men which way their spirits tend and he found out that these Sabeans were a people given to robbery and spoile and so fit ministers for him to worke by in his designe of spoiling the estate of Job Secondly When he hath found out the naturall temper or state of a mans heart he can lay a baite of temptation sutable to that inclination and desire finding out a people given to spoile he presently sets before them rich spoiles these are a taking
unto the father When they told Christ of some whose bloud Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices Thinke not saith he that either these or those upon whom the Tower of Shiloe fell and slew them were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish As there is no judging of the sinnes of men by such kind of exigents and events so neither of the wrath of God yet how many by such appearances judge unrighteous judgements being as barbarous as those Barbarians of Malta who seeing a Viper comming out of the heat and fastning on Pauls hand they concluding he must die presently censured him to be a murtherer whom though he had escaped the Sea yet vengeance followed on shore and would not suffer to live Wee must not ground our judgement upon the workes of God but upon his word In externals there is the same event to all Eccles 9. Men cannot be distinguish'd for eternity by what they suffer but by what they doe not by the manner of their death but by the tenour of their lives This is a certaine truth That man can never die an evill death who hath led a good life There is nothing makes death evill but the evill which followeth death or the evill that goes before death Thirdly Here was death a strange and sudden death surpriz'd the children of Job and this when they were feasting when they were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brothers house Wee may observe from that also by way of admonition Christians had need to take heed and be holy in feasting While we are eating and drinking we may be dying therefore eating and drinking we had need be holy Take heed to your selves saith Christ lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkennesse take heed lest at any time because at any time the day may come upon you unawares That day whether it be a day of generall calamity or personall may come upon you unawares It becomes us to be holy in all manner of conversation though we had an Assurance of our lives But seeing in what manner of conversing so ever we be death may surprize us and we have no assurance of our lives in our greatest joyes how holy should we be Whether you eate or drinke saith the Apostle or whatsoever you doe doe all to the glory of God Have God in your eye let him be your aime It is prophecied concerning the latter times That every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holinesse unto the Lord. The very pots in Jerusalem shall be holy that is men at their pots shall be holy to note that they should be holy in their eatings in their drinkings not holy onely when they were praying and holy when they were hearing but holy in those ordinary naturall actions of eating and drinking holy at their Tables and in all their refreshings with the creature Then indeed there is holinesse in the heart when there is holinesse in the pot and 't is but need there should be holinesse in the pot when there my bedeath in the pot We may observe somewhat more generally from all these foure sore afflictions considered together As first We see how quickly the beauty of all worldly blessings may be blasted Job in the morning had an estate as great and as good as his heart could desire in worldly things there was luster and strength in and upon all he had but before night he had nothing but sorrow to sup upon He had no retinue of servants left but foure reserved only to report his losses In one day all 's gone It is added as an aggravation of Babylons down-fall that her judgements shall come upon her in one day Revel 18.8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her In one day all the beauty of Babylon shall be blasted We need not now trouble our selves to thinke Babylon is in a great deale of strength and beauty and glory surely there must be a long time spent in contriving and acting the destruction of Babylon no the Lord can blast her beauty and destroy her power in a day and the Text saith he will doe so in one day all her plagues shall come upon her That which Babylon hath beene gathering many yeares shall be scattered in a moment She thinkes that by her wisdome and policy she hath laid such a foundation of her owne greatnesse as shall never be shaken And therefore concludes I sit a Queene and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Yet all her strength shall not hold out one day when God in his displeasure shall lay siege against her walls So when yee looke upon other great and mighty prosperous and flourishing enemies such as flourish like greene bay trees remember the Lord in one day can wither their branches and kill their roots yee root them up Certainly the strength of the Lord is as mighty for the destroying of his enemies as it is for the afflicting of his owne people If he sometimes gives commission to take away all their comforts in a day when their estates are highest and strongest built Surely he will at last give Commissions for as speedy a dispatch against the estates of his greatest enemies And this may be unto us all matter of Admonition to prepare for changes to esteeme creatures as they are perishing substance Who ever had an estate better gotten better bottom'd or better managed then Job yet all was overthrowne and swept away in a moment We can never expect too much from God nor too little from the creature Lastly We may learne from the fore-going story of these afflictions considering that Satan was the contriver and engeneere who set all a worke That Satan is mighty both in power and policy for the effecting of his designes if God give him liberty and leave You see he doth not faile or misse in the least he brings every affliction upon Job in the perfection of it and he doth not bungle at it or doe his worke by halves but he is quicke and speedy both in laying the plot and executing it There is nothing in this inferiour world able to stand before him no creature no man if God let him alone The good Angels can match yea and master devils there is no doubt of that but if God stop his Angels and with-draw his hand the devill would quickly over-runne all the world We wrestle not with flesh and bloud but with principalities and powers Evill spirits are called powers in the abstract they have not onely a power they are not only powerfull hence called principalities such as have great authority and soveraignty as it were over others but they are called Powers It is not an empty title or a naked name that is given them but they are filled and
their garments neither the King nor any of his servants that heard all those words As if it had beene said this was a time that called them aloud to rend their garments to humble themselves and repent before the Lord when they heard such words as these cloathed with their own sinne and Gods wrath read unto them but they did it not yet they were not afraid neither did they rend their garments So then renting of the garment was used as a ceremony of repentance as a shadow of godly sorrow It had nothing in it selfe to move God only it testified the greatnesse of their griefe that their hearts did rend as their garments were rent Further Renting of the garment was used in case of extreame indignation Indignation is anger sorrow boyl'd up to the height It is as it were the extract and spirit of them both And it is stir'd especially when the eare of a man is filled with a voice of blasphemie or his eye with a spectacle of bold transcendent wickednesse against the Lord. Word being brought to Hezekiah of the blasphemie that Rabshakeh had belched our against God when he heard how he had reproached the living God in saying who is the God of Jerusalem that he should deliver it out of my hand the text saith that Hezekiah rent his cloathes with indignation that report fill'd him with a mixture of griefe and anger he was grieved that the holy name of God was blasphemed he was angry with the blasphemer these caused holy indignation and this the renting of his garments Thus also when Paul and Barnabas had restored the Creeple at Lystra the superstitious Lystrians would have done sacrifice to them as gods which when the Apostles Paul and Barnabas heard of and saw the preparations Oxen and Garlands brought to the gates for that abhominable Idolatry they rent their cloathes and ranne in among the people saying Sirs why doe you these things we also are men of like passions with you They rent their cloathes with indignation being grieved and vext to see men so besotted and God so dishonoured This act of Job in the Text renting his garments may referre to either of these it may referre to all these If it be demanded why did Job rend his garments I answer first He rent his garments for the greatnesse of that sorrow that was upon him in regard of his outward affliction Secondly He rent his garments to testifie his deepe humiliation under the hand of God with repentance for all his sinnes Thirdly He rent his garments being filled with indignation at those blasphemies which Satan suggested to him This latter I cleare thus you know it was the maine designe the very plot of Satan to provoke Job to blaspheme God doe this saith he Touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face He did promise this to himselfe and did undertake with God to bring Job to that height of impatience If so then there is no question but as these messengers of sorrow came to him so Satan came with them and pointed every message with this or the like poysonous suggestion Now see what a master you serve now blaspheme God why shouldest thou make scruple of thinking or of speaking evill of him who hath powred out all these evills upon thee Never stand so much upon his honour who stands so little upon thy comfort It is no question but Satan provok'd Job in some such manner He was not wise to promote his own ends unlesse he did plie him with temptations to blsphemy Now Iob being most sensible of these temptations it being to him as afterwards to holy David Psal 42 10. as a Sword in his bowels while the enemy said unto him where is now thy God he arises with indignation and soule-abhorrence of these injections rending his garments c. That for the second act The third followes And shaved his head Shaving of the head was used sometimes to expresse sorrow sometimes to expresse bondage and I find it used in Scripture in opposition to both these sc in times of joy and liberty First Shaving of the head was used as a note of sorrow Isa 15.2 the Lord speaking by his Prophet of the great affliction that should come upon the Jewes saith On all their heads shall be baldnesse and every beard cut off that is they shall mourne that 's the meaning of it And Isa 22.12 In that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse that is to shaving of themselves or cutting off their haire the meaning of it in joyning baldnesse and mourning was only this to shew that there should be extreame sorrow and mourning in the land The Lord calleth to mourning and baldnesse that is to an exceeding great mourning such as those mournings used to be when they shaved their heads And the Prophet puts in this as an aggravation of their sinne that when the Lord called for such a mourning as was joyned with baldnesse and shaving the head that then there should be joy and gladnesse slaying Oxen and killing Sheepe eating flesh and drinking wine See this more cleare Ier. 7.29 when the Prophet fore-shewes the great affliction of Jerusalem he thus bespeakes them Cut off thine haire O Jerusalem and cast it away and take up a lamentation To adde one instance more Mica 1.16 In case of their sore affliction the Prophet saith Make thee bald and pole thee for thy delicate children enlarge thy baldnesse as the Eagle The meaning of all is mourne bitterly or mourne greatly for thy delicate children thy delicate and sweet children they are destroyed mourne greatly for them enlarge thy baldnesse as the Eagle As the Eagle because the Eagle as naturalists observe casteth her feathers and her head is many times quite bald therefore it is said here enlarge thy baldnesse as the Eagle that is be exceeding bald cut off all thy haire in that great mourning We may illustrate this by a contrary rule given by this Prophet Jeremie and likewise by Ezekiel when mourning was forbidden Jer. 16.6 where he speakes of some that should die and have none to mourne for them he saith they shall not lament for them nor make themselves bald for them Ezek. 24.17 Make no mourning for the dead what followeth Bind the tire of thine head upon thee when they should keepe on their haire their tire that was an argument that there was no mourning Further we find that the cutting off the haire the shaving of the head was a signe of bondage and reproach when David sent messengers to Hanun Samuel records that Hanun tooke the messengers and shaved off the one halfe of their beards and cut off their garments in the middle and the men were exceedingly ashamed now the shame was not only because their beards were halfe cut off for if that had beene all they might quickly have cut off the other halfe and have delivered themselves from the
shame for they were at liberty but it is therefore said that the men were greatly ashamed because amongst them it vvas a marke of shame and slavery to be shaven Hereupon David giveth order that they should tarry at Jericho till their beards were growen it was a dishonour to be shaved And it is noted in Plutarch concerning Demosthenes that when he had a mind to sit close at his study and vvould not goe abroad or be interrupted by visits of friends at home that he would shave himselfe that so he might be ashamed to goe forth or see any body but be constrained to keepe to his booke for tvvo or three moneths together till his haire vvere grovvne againe The bondage and reproach that Nebuchadnezzar brought upon Tyrus is thus described Every head was made bald And Aristotle observes that the haire vvas a token of liberty Thus the shaving of the head in Job might be a signe both of his sorrovv and great reproach that vvas come upon him being one novv that vvas ready to be mocked and made the scorne and by-vvord of the vvorld as vve see afterward he was during this affliction Yet it is considerable from Scripture example that the cutting off the haire and shaving of the head had not alvvayes either of these significations hitherto discuss'd but did vary according to the diversity of places and of times In the Booke of Genesis we reade that cutting and shaving of the haire vvas a token of joy and liberty both together When Joseph vvas delivered out of prison it is said that he shaved himselfe and came to Pharaoh And it is noted concerning Mephibosheth as a matter of his sorrow for Davids absence that he let his haire grovv He trimmed not his beard being much troubled at the Kings absence I confesse neither of these instances come home enough to the point both of these neglecting the care and culture of their bodies in their troubles now being delivered prepare themselves by shaving and trimming the hayre for the presence of those Kings But it is in some Nations shaving hath beene a marke of Honour All the Romane Emperours were shaved till Nero. And it was an ancient Proverbe Thou art a slave for thou wearest lockes or long haire There is an Objection that may be made concerning this act of Job because afterward it is said that in all this Job sinned not whether or not Job might shave his head without sinne for you have an expresse rule to the contrary Levit. 19.27 cap. 21.5 You shall not round the corners of your heads neither shalt thou marre the corners of thy beard and so you have it againe in Deut. 14.1 that they should not cut their haire or make any baldnesse upon their heads for the dead namely by shaving or cutting off the haire How is it therefore here that Job shaved himselfe for the death of his children and in regard of those great troubles that were upon him I answer briefly for that first Job lived as we have cleared when we spake of the booke in generall before that Law was given which did prohibit the cutting of the haire in that manner Secondly It appeares in those places where those Lawes are set downe that the Lord did forbid only conformity to the Heathen they must not shave or cut themselves as the Heathen did who cut their heads round like a halfe globe as it is observed concerning them and were wont to dedicate their lockes to their Idoll-gods That vain fashion and grosse superstition were the things forbidden in that Law of Moses Thirdly Though the Jewes were forbidden to shave their heads as mourning for the death of their friends yet in the judgment of learned Junius the shaving of their heads was not only permitted but commanded in case of mourning for sinne or in times of solemne repentance and humiliation He instanceth in two places before mentioned First the Prophet Isaiah reproving the unseasonable mirth and desperate security of the Jewes in a time of publike trouble and treading downe tells them In that day did the Lord God of Hoasts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sack-cloth Isa 22.12 Secondly There is councell given answerable to that reproofe by the Prophet Micah cap. 1.16 Make thee bald and pole thee for thy delicate children enlarge thy baldnesse as the Eagle for they are gone into captivity from thee We will observe something from these two actions the renting of his garments and the shaving of his head These referre to the expression of his sorrow for those losses in estate and the death of his children As the other two actions his falling upon the ground and worshipping referre to the expression of that homage and honour that he tendered up to God in the middest of these sorrowes From those two acts of sorrow learne we First That when the hand of God is upon us it becommeth us to be sensible of it and to be humbled under it Job hearing these sad relations doth not stand out stoutly as if nothing had touch'd him but to shew that sorrow did even rent his heart he rent his garments to shew that his affliction touch'd his spirit he shav'd his head There are two extreames that we are carefully to avoyd in times of affliction and the Apostle doth caution all the sonnes of God against them both in one verse Heb. 12.5 My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Those are the two extreames despising and fainting when God doth correct He would not have us despise his chastning to say I doe not regard this let God take all if he will If my estate must goe let it goe if my children die let them die this is a despising of the chastening of the Lord and God cannot beare it that we should beare it thus lightly There is another extreame that is fainting If when goods are taken away the heart be taken away and when children die then the spirit of the Parent dies too this is fainting Take heed of these two extreames Job walkes in the middle in the golden meane betweene them both He doth not carelesly despise neither doth he unbeleevingly faint he riseth up and he rents his garments He would have it knowne that he fainted not under the stroake and he would have it knowne that he felt the stroake he was not like a stocke or a stone he would not carry it with a stoicall apathy but with Christian fortitude and magnanimity Sencelesse ones are taxed Jerem. 5.3 Thou hast striken them and they have not grieved Such are compared by Solomon to him that lyes downe in the midst of the Sea or as he that lyeth upon the top of a mast secure and carelesse in the greatest dangers They have stricken me shalt thou say and I was not sicke they have beaten me and I felt it not Prov. 23.34 35. The Prophet
begot a sonne mortall and subject to death he did but look backe to the common condition of man and supported himselfe But now I say this second argument is higher it is not an argument bottomed upon the frailty of nature but upon the soveraignty of God This argument is grounded upon the equity of divine providence and dispensations The Lord saith he hath given and the Lord hath taken away The Lord hath given Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above Jam. 1.17 What gifts doth Job here meane He meanes good and perfect gifts in their kind but not the best and most perfect kind of gifts The Lord once gave me those Oxen those Sheepe all these outward things that now I am stripped of The Lord hath given A gift is any good freely bestowed when we receive a thing which another was not ingaged to bestow that is a gift Now God doth not onely give us those transcendents grace and glory faith in Christ here and full fruition of Christ hereafter not onely are these gifts I say sent in from God and undeserved by us but outward things riches and honour children and servants houses and lands these are the gifts of God likewise we have not the least creature-comfort of our owne we have nothing of our owne but sinne What hast thou that thou hast not received is a truth concerning every thing we have even to a hoofe or a shoe-latchet Wee are indebted unto God for our spiritualls for our temporals for all We must say of all little or much great or small The Lord hath given How did the Lord give Job all his riches and estate The Lord doth give either immediately or mediately When Job saith the Lord hath given we are not to understand it as if the Lord had brought such a present to him and said here take this estate take these cattell these servants but God gave them mediately by blessing the labours of Job So when the Lord prospereth us in our honest endeavours and labours and callings then the Lord giveth us outward things The Lord hath given Job doth not say by my strength and diligence by my policy and pradence I have got this estate as the Assyrian said Isa 10.13 by the strength of my hand have I done this and by my wisdome for I am prudent Iob takes no notice of himself he was not idle yet he speaks as if he had done nothing the Lord hath given This should teach us in the first place to acknowledge the Lord as the fountain and donor of all our outward comforts When you get wealth doe not say this I have gotten such language is barbarous in divinity but say this the Lord hath given Wee find an expresse caution to this purpose given by Moses from God not onely against the former language of the tongue but of the heart When the Jewes should come to Canaan and should grow rich and great there When thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt blesse the Lord. Beware thou forget not the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee and say in thy heart my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is hee that giveth thee power to get wealth It is he that giveth thee power Many who are perswaded that God gives them grace that God gives Heaven and Salvation are hardly perswaded or at least doe not so well consider it that God gives riches c. their their hearts are yet ready to say that they have gotten this wealth they have gotten this honour It is a sweet thing when a man lookes upward for these lower things and can say on good grounds that his earth hath dropt down to him from Heaven The Lord hath given Further when Job saith the Lord hath given it is an argument of his owne justice and equity in getting Job did not enrich himselfe by wrong by grinding the faces of the poore If he had done so he could not have said the Lord hath given So much as we get honestly we may looke upon as a fruit of Gods bounty Looke into your estates and whatsoever you have got by wrong dealing take heed of saying this is of Gods giving for so you make God himselfe a partner in your sinnes God sometime gives when we use no meanes but he never gives when we use unlawfull meanes What God said concerning the setting-up of those Kings Hos 8.4 They have set-up Kings but not by me he saith of all who enrich themselves by wrong they have gotten riches but not by me When men leave the rule of justice God leaves them And though unlawfull acts are under the influence of his blessing Wicked men thrive often but they are never blessed their prosperity is their curse Thirdly it is observable that when Job would support himselfe in the losse of his estate he cals to mind how he came by his estate and finding it all given in by the blessing of God upon his honest labours and endeavours he is satisfied Note That what we get honestly that we can part with contentedly He that hath got his estate by injustice can never leave it with patience Honesty in getting causeth quietnesse of spirit in loosing outward things Keepe a good conscience in getting the world and you shall have peace when you cannot keepe the world Wheras a wrong-doer and a wrong-dealer is in such a day under a double affliction he is afflicted with his present losse and he ought to be afflicted for his former gaine Fourthly These words the Lord hath given being rightly handled will be as a Sword to cut-off foure monsters or monstrous lusts which annoy all the world or as a medicine to cure foure diseases about worldly things Two of these lusts are strongest in the rich and the other paire assault the poore The poore pine either with discontent because they have so little or with envy because others have so much The rich swell with pride because they have aboundance or they are fil'd with contempt of those that are in want Let the rich seriously weigh this speech it will cure them of pride Charge them that are rich saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.17 that they be not high-minded You see how subject rich men are to this inflammation of pride But with what doth he pricke this bladder It is with this thought that God gives all riches Let them trust in the living God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy That argument of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 If thou hast received it why dost thou boast is as strong and as true in regard of temporals as of spirituals Consider seriously that your estates are the gift of God and downe fals pride If you come honestly by them they are the gift of God If you come dishonestly by them they are the gifts of Satan and you ought to be ashamed of them and
restore them not to boast or be proud of them Then secondly it will cure the rich of all contempt of others what the Apostle James observed and censured in the rich of those times is found by too much experience among the rich at this day Yee have despised the poore Chap. 2.6 Consider it is the Lord who gave and he gave as a Lord freely he might have given thine estate to that poore man and have left thee in that condition thou so much despisest in thy brother God gave him as much as his wisdome thought fit and it seemes he hath given thee more then thou art fit for 〈◊〉 despiâ—ing him thou doest asperse the dispensation of God and whilest thou woundest him in his poverty thou woundest God in his providence Consider it is the Lord that gives and then be unconvinc'd if you can that while you contemne man in his wants you question God in his wisdome busie thy selfe hereafter in praising him who gives All and leave despising him who hath received lesse Then likewise let the poore looke upon this Text and it will cure them of two diseases into which they often fall and by which they are much endanger'd even in the vitals of grace discontent and envy It is the Lord that giveth that shapes and cuts out your condition why then should you not be contented with his allowance and be thankfull in your lot If your estates be proportioned from above you ought to be content with your portion Ignorance or in advertency from whom we receive causeth murmuring at what we have Doe not thinke thou hast love from God because thou hast a lesse allowance from God The power of God is as much acted in making a Fly as in making an Elephant and his love may be as much and is often more acted in giving a penny then in giving a talent Know this thou who art a child of God if thy portion be but a penny it hath upon it the Image and Superscription a Fathers love which is better then life This also will cure the poore of envy many times the poore have an evill eye of envy at the rich they cannot beare it that others have so much and they so little Consider it is the Lord that giveth This argument Christ useth Mat. 15.20 to him that was angry that they who came at the latter end of the day had as much as he May not I doe with mine owne what I will Is thine eye evill because mine is good The envious eye is an evill eye envy is the disease of the eyes This Text is one of the best medicines that ever was prescribed Wilt thou be sicke because another is in health and make thy brothers happinesse the ground of thy miserie Doe not thinke that all is lost which is not cast into thy lapp or that thy estate is lesse or worse because thou seest one having a greater or a better Must God aske thee leave or aske thy councell how and in what measure to distribute his favours Were all but well catechised in this one principle that God gives all it would soone dispell this malignant vapour and all would rest satisfied not because they or others have received thus or thus but because God hath thus disposed to all Observe one thing more If the Lord gives us all then we should be willing to give back somewhat unto the Lord againe And this consideration that God gives us will make us willing to give unto God What is the reason that many are so unwilling to give somewhat unto God It is because they will not understand that they are beholding to God for all If they were perswaded of their receipts from him a little Oratory might perswade a gift from them in the cause of God especially when God intreates them who may of right command them when he is content even to take it as a courtesie who may send for it by authority and expect it as a duty God himselfe who fills and enjoyes all things hath sometimes in a sence need of your estates Christ who is Lord of Heaven and Earth is sometimes in want of a penny Christ tels you of his wants and poverty Math. 25. and shewes how and when he is releeved And as Christ wants in a member some particular beleever So he often wants in his whole body which is the Church or whole company of beleevers If you have any spirituall wisdome to discerne times and seasons you may know that now Christ wants mony as I have explain'd Now God in his cause hath need He goes about in those who solicit his cause and askes a reliefe at every one of your doores Now then doe but consider when any thing is asked for the Lords sake that the Lord gave all this will be a key to unlocke your chests this will at once untie your hearts and your purses Will you let Christ want shall the cause of God want while you have it whereas what you have God gave It is expresse concerning Nabal that this was the reason why he would not part with a loafe of bread to relieve David and his Army 1 Sam. 25.11 Shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers and send them to a fellow I know not who You see the man was all in his possessives my bread and my water and my flesh he never thought that God had any share or interest in his estate that God gave it therefore he would not give to a servant of God You shall see on the other hand how Davids munificence and that of the Nobles with him 2 Chr. 29. sprung from this root the acknowledgement that nothing was their owne it came in all from God when they had offered so willingly and bountifully towards the building of the Temple David shewes the mine which yeelded so much treasure even this we have digged in all this while All things come of thee and of thine owne we have given thee vers 15. They confessed that all came of God they were but Stewards he was the Owner and his owne they could not with-hold from him God giveth us the use of the creature but he keepeth the right to them in his owne hand when we have the possession of them he hath the property Wherefore let the consideration that God giveth all make us ready and open handed to give unto God when he calleth and requireth it at our hands And the Lord hath taken away When God gives it is an act of bounty and when he takes it is an act of justice for he is Lord soveraigne Lord in both But why doth Job here charge this upon God The Lord hath taken Was it not told him by the messengers that the Chaldeans and Sabeans came and tooke away his cattell plundered and pillaged his estate They told him that the fire consumed his Sheepe and the wind blew downe the house upon his children Why doth Iob say
present himselfe before the Lord. I propose this as an opinion to which my owne inclination is not strong These words with the context as was noted in the former Chapter seeming to me rather a representation of Gods providence towards man then a description of mans worship tendered unto God Againe there was a day It may be yet further enquired how much time passed betweene the first and this second day of appearance Some affirme it was the immediate day after others the immediate Sabbath after A third opinion deferrs it to the yeare after Satan cunningly delaying the businesse all that while to the intent he might more fully see how the former affliction wrought what effects it had or would have upon Job before he attempts a second The text resolveth us in neither of these but leaveth it indifferent and undetermined saying onely Againe there was a day It is most probable that there was such a distance of time betweene these two afflictions as was competent to a full discovery of Jobs spirit under the first As when Christ was tempted and had foyled Satan in that temptation it is said the Devill departed from him for a season he left him probably to see what effects might follow upon the former temptation So Satan having tempted Job and tempted him by a temptation though one in the generall yet with a foure-fold assault foure severall messengers making as it were foure charges upon him he leaveth him for a season and againe when there was a day he returnes to renew the assault and battery I shall passe-over the two verses following in all that they containe opened in the former Chapter But in the latter end of the third verse there is somewhat added very materiall where the Lord bespeakes Satan concerning Job Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evill This was the Character which God gave of him before in the former Chapter but now he goeth on And still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause This is superadded to his testimony his commendation is enlarged Job you see hath gained in this conflict he was described before as an holy man now he is described as a tryed man as an approved souldier Job hath obtained this honour in the former combate with Satan a glorious addition to his character As the patience and other graces of Job did increase so did the testimony of God increase concerning him Note from this addition only in the generall thus much That such as honour God God will honour If we doe any new or further service for God God will adde some further honour and respect unto us If we do or say or suffer any thing extraordinary for God God will say or doe somewhat more than ordinary concerning us The old character did not serve when Job had done this new service God will never conceale any of our graces no nor the improvement of any of our graces If we speake but a word for God we shall heare of it againe God takes it and pens it downe as it is said Malac. 3.16 They that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and a booke of remembrance was written God sets it downe presently So he recorded what Job had spoken and gives it him in at the next meeting with Satan We can never loose either by doing or suffering for God All shall be recompenced to the utmost farthing As it is usuall with Kings and great-men of the world for great services done them especially in warres and battels to make additions to the titles of honour to give some new motto's or put some new devices in the Coate-armour of those who serve them Thus doth God here Job having play'd the man as we say or rather the Saint in that former combate he hath a new title of honour put into his stile Now it is not only Job a man that feareth God and escheweth evill but Job a man that holdeth fast his integritie Consider the words themselves And still he holdeth fast his integrity The words And still or to this present time may have a double reference First barely to the time past Job was not only a perfect and a sound man in former times but hee is so still so at present Or rather secondly it referres to the affliction and losses hee had suffered as hee was in former times so hee is at this time as he was in prosperous times so hee is in troublesome times When the day was light and cleare to him Job was a perfect man and now the day hath nothing but darknesse and gloominesse in it Job is a perfect man still though wounded in his estate and broken in his outward comforts yet he is as sound and whole in his spirit as ever he was Though cattell servants children be dead and gone be spoyl'd and lost yet grace is safe and faith tryumphs hee still holdeth fast his integrity Holdeth fast This which we translate by two words is but one word in the Hebrew Our language is not comprehensive enough to expresse the fullnesse of that word in a word Iob doth not only hold his integrity but he holdeth it fast the word implyes a strength in holding to hold a thing firmely And more the word hath a further Emphasis in it it signifieth not only to hold a thing by that degree of strength wherewith formerly we did hold it but it doth import thus much to waxe stronger in the holding of it to prevaile or increase in strength As when David sent Ioab to number the people Ioab was unwilling and said to the King Now the Lord thy God adde unto the people an hundred-fold but why doth my Lord the King delight in this thing Then it followes Notwithstanding the Kings word prevailed against Joab That which is there translated And his word prevailed is the same with this we translate here Holdeth fast the Kings word did take a prevailing hold upon Ioab or held him fast to the doing of the Kings command though he would have got oft from the businesse So we may understand it here still he prevaileth or waxeth stronger in his integrity The same word is used by the Prophet Malachi cap. 3.13 14. where God convinceth those proud spirits that puffed at his service Your words saith he have been stout against me That which we translate have been stout is the same with this in the text of Iob your words have beene stout that is they have growne stronger and stronger against me and my waies you are confirm'd in wickednesse whereas your hearts should have beene brought downe and humbled you are increast and hardned in your obstinacy and rebellion Such is the strength and meaning of the word in this place Iob by this opposition growes more strong and stout in his
it be in regard of personall troubles or nationall troubles to hold fast and keepe close to God in such distresses is admirable To continue good while we suffer evill is the height and crowne of goodnesse As it is that which putteth one of the greatest aggravations upon the sinfulnesse of men that they will hold fast their sinnes in the middest of judgements The Prophet Amos with much elegancy of speech and vehemency of spirit urgeth this against the Jewes Cap. 4. I have given you cleannesse of teeth yet have yee not returned unto me I have with-holden the raine yet have yee not returned unto me I have smitten you with blasting yet have ye not returned unto me I have sent among you the pestilence and the sword yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. The Prophet Ieremy takes up the same argument having before spoken of judgements sent upon them Yet saith he they hold fast deceit and refuse to returne Cap. 8.5 they held fast deceit though they were afflicted that aggravated their sinfulnesse Now I say as it makes sinne out of measure sinfull to hold it fast when God afflicteth so it makes grace out of measure gracious putteth a wonderfull splendour and glory upon it if we hold fast our grace when troubles and afflictions meet us in the holding of it forth and God will put an Emphasis upon such a one for grace as he did upon Ahaz for his sinne 2 Chron. 28.22 In the time of his distresse did he trespasse yet more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz that brand is put upon him So there is an honour stamp'd on Job in this testimony that in the time of his distresse he did yet more good This is that Job to serve beleeve and love God more in distresse this is integrity to a wonder this drawes the heart of God toward such and makes them truly glorious in the eyes of godly men That which followes in the text doth yet more advance the honour of Job in this victory still he holdeth fast c. Though thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause Though thou movedst me The word here used to move signifieth more than a bare motion it carries in it a perswasion and more then a bare perswasion it carries in it a vehement instigation As when a man doth perswade a thing by arguments and strong reasons that is the force of the word as in that place 1 King 21.25 There was none like Ahab which did sell himselfe to worke wickednesse in the sight of the Lord whom Jezabel his wife stirred up stirred up is the word in the text thou movedst me Jezabel moved Ahab incited him never gave him over by arguments and reasons by this consideration and that consideration to doe wickedly in Israel So here Satan did as it were plie God with arguments and reasons to instigate him against Job Thou didst move me against him Satan is a cunning Oratour and knowes how to handle a matter that it may take with greatest advantage Some may question how can this be Will God be mooved by Satan Is not the Lord unchangeable Have Satans words and arguments such power with God to moove him to doe a thing I answer it two wayes We may cleare it first thus As the Saints and people of God in prayer are said to move God and to prevaile with God they are said to carry a businesse with God Now you know what they doe in prayer they doe not only spread a petition barely before God but they strengthen it with all the arguments they can argument upon argument pleading upon pleading yet the Lord himselfe is not stirred he is not changed at all by the prayer of his people it is not to be thought that the Lord upon the prayers of his people takes up any new thoughts or puts on any new resolutions to doe this or that for a mercy that is but a day old in regard of our prayer obtaining it is an eternity old in regard of God purposing it therefore God is not changed at all but he is said to be moved to give or doe as or when we pray because he giveth and doth what he himselfe had purposed to give when we should pray for as God from all eternity did purpose to give to his people such and such mercies so he did purpose and decree to give them when they prayed Now then as it is in regard of his peoples prayer and seeking for mercy they move God but it is onely the bringing forth of that which he had in his heart from all eternity to doe for them So here in this case God had a purpose from all eternity to try Job and likewise he did purpose the way and the meanes of it that it should be done upon the motion and instigation of Satan For although God cannot be moved by any to doe a thing which before he intended not he is unchangeable yet as by his eternall will and counsell he doth produce things in time So likewise from eternity he did order and will the manner of their producing he purposed to do good for his Church upon the supplications of his servants and sometimes to afflict his Church or servants at the instigation of Satan Secondly This place thou movedst me against him is to be understood by a figure very frequent in the Scripture God speaking of himselfe after the manner of men because as men usually when they do a thing are moved by others to do it and by perswasions are sometime prevailed with to doe that which they intended not an houre before So God is said to doe a thing upon motion though he intended it from eternity often descending to expresse himselfe by that which is common to men though his manner of doing it be transcendent infinitely beyond men From the force of this word so explained Thou movedst me against him Observe That Satan is an earnest and importunatè solicitour against the people and Church of God he without ceasing provokes God against them he bends his wits and straines his language to the height in pleading against them to get them delivered up into his hands or into the hands of his instruments And if Satan be thus zealous so importunate a sollicitour against the Saints It may teach us to be as earnest and zealous for the Saints Satan doth not onely move but he moveth by arguments he incites It is not enough to pray by proposing our desires but we must pray enforcing and pressing our desires such a holy unquietnesse of spirit as is expressed by the Prophet Isa 62.1 For Zions sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalems sake will I not rest c. Such was that required of the Watch-men set upon the walls of Jerusalem which should never hold their peace day nor night Yee that make mention of the Lord or yee that are the Lords remembrancers keepe not silence and give him
another and it is an abatement of our troubles to see those whom we love in peace Two are better then one saith Solomon for if one fall the other may helpe him up but if both fall who shall helpe And if every member suffer there is passion in all but compassion in none much lesse support or helpe Thirdly observe Job in this condition was left of all Doe not thinke it strange if you be brought into such straights as to be left alone when you have most need of assistance Job was as a man friendlesse Physitianlesse wifelesse servantlesse all forsooke him It is the comfort of the people of God that they know how to be alone and yet can never be alone though they be left of all visible friends yet they have an invisible friend who will visit them stay with them by day and watch with them by night for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee In the Greeke there are five negatives to affirme this that God will not leave his Heb. 13.5 And he that hath him alone hath infinitely more then all the world in one When friends and Physitians will not come neere when wife and children take their leave or stand afarre off when servants hold their noses being not able to beare the stinch and ill savour that cometh from the body yea when a man comes to be an abhorring to himselfe yet at that time God delights in him Christ at that time imbraceth him and takes him in his armes and kisseth him with the kisses of his lips which are better then wine yea better then life Job was never so neer God so in the bosome of God as when no creature in the world would so much as touch him Job was never so beautifull in the eye of God as when he had nothing but boiles upon him Fourthly I may present you with Job as he was upon his Ashhill in want of all things from thence be admonished That the children of God his dearest servants may come to uttermost outward extremities When a man is among the ashes then he is at the lowest what can a man be lesse then that The Apostles were made as the filth of the world as the off-scouring of all things as sweepings and off all which are cast out upon the dunghill So was Job in the sense of many interpreters They who are of most worth may be used as if they were worth nothing Job was a pearle though upon a dunghill They who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils saith Jeremie in his Lamentation for Jerusalem chap. 4.5 We may say They who are brought up and clothed in better then scarlet even in the robes of righteousnesse and in the Garments of Salvation may yet be brought to embrace a dunghill There is no judging by Appearance No man knowes love or hatred by all that is before him or upon him Eccles 9. Lastly looke upon Job sitting in the ashes as a voluntary act and then observe which is of much concernement and use for us now in regard of the present condition we are in That as the afflicting hand of God doth increase upon a people or upon a person so ought the humiliation and repentance of that person or people to increase When the hand of God was upon Job before he rent his Mantle he shaved his head these were acts of great humiliation but now Job having a neerer and a deeper affliction upon him humbleth himselfe yet more Then he fell upon the ground but now he sitteth among the ashes Greater afflictions call to greater humiliation We ought not only to be humbled when God afflicteth but to be humbled in a proportion to the affliction As it is in regard of sin committed Great sins call for great sorrow And as it is in regard of mercies received Great mercies call for great praises so Great troubles call us to great humiliations and still the greater troubles are the greater our humiliation ought to be This is one way of accepting the punishment of our iniquities and of improving present evils for our everlasting good Consider whether this be not the work of this day We have had the hand of God upon the Nation in lesser judgements heretofore we have had warning-peeces shot of amongst us but now we heare the report of murthering-peeces every day Divers yeeres God made warre upon us with the sword of the Angel by which thousands have fallen in our streets but now God hath put a sword into the hands of men The former sword was a favour compared with this Those wounds a kisse compared with this Both David and experience resolve it thus Many of our dear brethren are slain and fallen by the sword their bloud hath been spilt like water and their bones have been scattered as when one cleaveth or cutteth wood upon the earth The spoyled cry to us for bread the sicke and wounded for helpe and healing Many towns have been plundered many Matrons and Virgins have been ravished many families have been scattered many wives and children deprived of their husbands and parents many parishes bereft of faithfull Pastours some of our dwellings turned to ashes And is it not time for us not only to rent our garments but to sit in ashes do not these things call us to eat ashes like bread and mingle our drink with weeping Is it not time for us not only to write but to act a Lamentation and to say For these things I weepe mine eye mine eye runneth down with water There is one thing yet which may and ought to be a Lamentation to us beyond all our own sufferings namely this God is dishonoured his name is blasphemed his people are reproched The enemies strike this sword in their bones A scornfull enquirie Where is now your God Psal 42.10 Should not teares be our meat day and night as they were Davids while they say continually Where is now your God Psal 42.3 our not sitting in the ashes for such things as these will bring us unto ashes and if we will not sit upon the dunghill of our sins in humiliation our sins will bring us and our land unto a dunghill of desolation In this day as of old by his faithfull Prophet Isai 22.12 doth the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And not only to these but to Jobs posture of sorrow sitting in ashes the voyce of the rod calleth to this the voyce of the trumpet heard daily in our streets cals to this We have cause to cry out as the Prophet Jeremie in his fourth chapter ver 19. My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my soul the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war And because the sound of the trumpet among us like that on mount Sinai Exod. 19.19 doth not only sound long
Sam. 16.15 who came forth and cursed David still as he came That act was alike opposite both to the rule and word of the 5th Commandement which saith honour thy father c. taking-in the civill father as well as the naturall Shimeis cursing David lightly esteemed David he did not looke upon him in or according to the weightinesse and honour of his Kingly person or of his Kingly office a King is a weighty person a Crowne is a weighty thing Shimei despised and so cursed both Sometime the word is translated directly to despise I will give you two texts for that Gen. 16.4 When Hagar saw she had conceived her Mistresse was despised in her eyes it is the same word with that used here for cursing the meaning is she did lightly esteeme her Mistresse Thus she thought now shall I have the honour of raising Abrahams family now I am at least as good a woman as my mistresse thus she despised Sarah Againe 1 Sam. 2.30 where the Lord saith concerning Elies sonnes Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed I will make little account of them that make little account of me and woe be to those though all the world honour them whom God despiseth That man looses more then honour whom God doth not honour And they who deny God his honour deny him all good and offer him all evill such a dispising of God is a cursing of God Further To curse if we consider it in the nature of the thing and not strictly in the literall sense of the word is to wish evill to a thing or person This also is the meaning of the curse in this place for when Iob explaines this curse in the parts of it he doth as it were with wonderfull art and skill gather together whatsoever may be thought the evill of a day or the evill of a night and calls it up to seize upon them A curse or to curse virtually containes in it all evill As a blessing or to blesse containes in it virtually all good Every mercy we enjoy is a blessing specificated And so any evill that falls upon man as Sword Famine Pestilence c. is a curse specificated Howsoever possibly those things which are in their nature evill and in their matter a curse may be qualified in reference unto some persons into a blessing But take a curse properly and it containeth all evill and only evill in it Therefore as when God had given the world an esse a being that he might give it a bene esse a well being he adds to the work of Creation the word of benediction And God blessed them and said unto them be fruitfull c. Gen. 1.22 28. So afterward when man had sinned and the Lord intended to leave the world groaning under part of those evills which sin had brought upon it he wraps up all in the word of a curse Cursed be the ground for thy sake c. Gen. 3.17 So then when Job curseth his day he wisheth all the evill to it that a day is capable of And Job opened his mouth and cursed his day But what was this day that Job was so angry with it and that his passion doth so burne against it The Text speakes indefinitely Job cursed his day Some understand it of the day of his present suffering he cursed the day on which such troubles befell him And we find sometimes in Scripture that a day put thus alone is an evill or a troublesome day As in the 12th verse of the Prophecie of Obadiah the Lord rebukes the children of Edom thus Thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother that is the day of thy brother Jacobs sufferings the day wherein I had him under my rod and afflicted him So the day of the Lord is the day of the Lords anger when he powres wrath and trouble upon the earth Isa 2.12 The day of the Lord of hostes shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty and upon every one that is lifted up and he shall be brought low The day of the Lord or the day of a man undetermin'd often signifies an evill day But here we may rather understand it for that day which was as the occasion or for the occasionall day of all Jobs troubles and that was his birth-day If his birth-day had beene prevented all his troublesome dayes had beene prevented therefore he falls out with that as himselfe explaines it verse 3. Let the day perish saith he there wherein I was borne and the night in which it was said there is a man-child conceived It is usuall to call a mans birth-day his day so the Scripture is conceived to speake Hos 7.5 In the day of our King the Princes have made him sicke with bottles of wine That is on his birth-day which among Princes is commonly solemniz'd with feasting As we reade of Pharaoh and of Herod So then the day is his birth-day the day of his nativity which some take precisely for the day upon which he was borne and others more largely for the annuall returne of that day as if he had laid in a curse for a day whensoever or how often soever it should returne in the yeares of his life A little further to cleare the sense of this curse let us consider the whole matter as we have considered the words There are two or three questions which being debated and resolved will give light to this context Job you see takes upon him to curse First it may be questioned whether a curse be in the power of man or no Can a man curse persons or things Surely blessings and cursings are both in the hand of God whether we respect persons or things There is a ministeriall curse and a ministeriall blessing in the power of man but it is not in the power of any man magisterially to make any thing or person blessed or to make any thing or person accursed It was a great brag which Balack made of Balaam Numb 22.6 I wot saith he that he whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed He thought he had the curse in his command he could curse whom he pleased and what he pleased and when he pleased but he was deceived he reckon'd beyond his strength and beyond the strength of a creature What the Apostle speakes in another case concerning the ministery of the word Paul may plant and Apollos may water but it is God that giveth the increase is as true in this one man may plant a curse and another man may water it with a hearty wish that it may grow but it is God only that giveth the increase of evill and the decrease of good Curses are not in the power of any creature if they were we should have a miserable world quickly How many should we see daily blasted with the breath of malicious execrations Some mens mouthes are full of cursing Psal 10.7
to teach them subjection was not this madnesse what cared the waters for stripes or why should Zerxes take revenge upon the waters And was not Iob as mad what cared his day for the curse or why should Iob take revenge upon his day But as the Prophet saith Hab. 3.8 Was the Lord displeased against the rivers was his wrath against the sea Should the Lord set his anger against irrationall creatures Doubtlesse he doth not Therefore enquire further into the matter So did Iob fall out with his day was he angry with his day This is yet further to be enquired into and answered There are some who on the one hand prosecute the impatience of Iob with much impatience and are over passionate against Iobs passion Most of the Iewish writers tax him at the least as bordering upon blasphemy if not blaspheming Nay they censure him as one taking heed to and much depending upon Astrologicall observations as if mans fate or fortune were guided by the constellations of Heaven by the sight and aspect of the Planets in the day of his nativity as if Iob had observed some malignant conjunction of the Starres upon that day As if like the superstitious Heathen he divided dayes into lucky and unlucky good dayes and bad dayes as if he had denied the providence of God at least the particular providence of God in guiding individuall persons or passages of our lives here below There are others who carry the matter as farre on the other hand altogether excusing and which is more commending yea applauding Iob in this act of cursing his day they make this curse an argument of his holinesse and these expostulations as a part of his patience contending first that these did only expresse which he ought the suffering of his sensitive part as a man and so were opposite to stoicall Apathy not to christian patience to a stone not to a man Secondly That he spake all this not only according to the law of sense but with exact judgement and according to the law of soundest reason And which is farre more that he spake all this not out of impotent anger against his day but out of perfect love unto his God That he spake this curse not in his owne but in the behalfe of God pleading for the providence of God againct the surmises of men For say some he feared least his friends seeing him whom they ever tooke for a godly man thus afflicted should accuse the providence of God As if he had said I would I had never been borne or it had been better for me not to have been borne rather then I should be an occasion for any to take up hard thoughts against God or that his Name through my sufferings should suffer So that the love of God not wearinesse under or unwillingnesse to be under the crosse constrained him thus to speake And if he was besides himselfe as the Apostles word is It was to God 2 Cor. 5.13 I doe not say but that Iob loved God and loved him exceedingly all this while but whether we should so farre acquit Iob I much doubt especially seeing Iob himselfe saith Chap. 42. I have spoken and I will speake no more If Iob had spoken so much from the love of God and to the honour of God in this curse having spoken once he ought to have spoken againe and againe And had it been so surely Job might have spared his repentance as to this point and needed not have said Now I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes If Iob had spoken all this according to exact reason and the exactnesse of holinesse he had no reason to repent especially to repent in dust and ashes for what he had thus spoken No man needs abhorre himselfe for that wherein he both intentionally and actually honours God We must therefore state it in the middle way that Job is neither rigidly to be taxed of blasphemie or prophanenesse nor totally to be excused especially not flatteringly commended for this high complaint I conceive it must be granted that Job discovered much frailty and infirmity some passion and distemper in this complaint and curse yet notwithstanding we must assert him for a patient man yea for a mirrour of patience and there are five things considerable for the clearing and proofe of this assertion As first consider the greatnesse of his suffering his wound was very deepe and deadly his burden was very heavy only not intollerable The sufferings of Christ being exceeding great caused him to complaine that his soule was exceeding sorrowfull even unto death Mat. 27.38 Yet in this complaint there was not the least imaginable touch of impatience When he hung upon the crosse he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me verse 46. yet in this cry no impatience To cry out for every light touch argues indeed a vaine and an impatient spirit But he that sometimes fetches a groane under a weight of sorrow is yet untoucht either in his wisedome or in his patience In such a case to cry out is a discovery of humane frailty but not of sinfull frailty grace doth not take away sence it heightens nature but it doth not abolish it Consider how much Job endured and then you will find little impatience though he complained much Secondly Consider the multiplicity of his troubles They were great and many many little afflictions meeting together make a great one how great then is that which is composed of many great ones Many pebble stones will make a heavy burden how then is he burdened who hath if such a thing may be supposed many mil-stones upon his back Jobs afflictions came upon him as an Army and encompast him round about He had many particular afflictions any one of which might make a very patient man complaine then Job who bare them all was not impatient though he complained Thirdly Consider the long continuance of these great and many troubles they continued long upon him some say they continued divers yeares upon him We use to say a light burden is heavy if the journey be long a man may beare any thing for a brunt or for a spurt but to have a sad load continued upon the shoulders all the day pinches soare Jobs load lay upon him day and night day after day yea moneth after moneth chap. 7.3 I am made saith he to possesse moneths of vanity yea as some have calculated them his troubles continued yeare after yeare for seven yeare Though a man make some yea great complainings under many great long lasting afflictions an easie apologie may acquit him of impatience Fourthly Consider this that his complainings and acts of impatience were but a few but his submissions and acts of meeknesse under the hand of God were very many Now we know that one or a few acts though evill doe not denominate a person especially when they are ballanced by many acts of good in the same person and about the same thing How
often doth Job in this Booke breath forth patience humility faith love and stedfast trust in God whatsoever he should doe with him these ballance his complainings yea indeed they over-ballance them so much for the setling of our judgements about Jobs patience that they leave not so much as an opinion of the contrary Fifthly Take this into consideration that though he did complaine and complaine bitterly yet he recovered out of these complainings he was not overcome by impatience though some impatient speeches came from him he recalls what he had spoken and repents for what he had done See how he submitteth himself Cap. 42. how low he lies before God even in the dust and saith I will speake no more If I have been impatient I will use no more impatient speeches If I have been impatient I repent of it I repent of it in dust and ashes To repent of impatience takes away the imputation of impatience and to say I will doe evill no more gaines through the mercy of God in Christ an acceptance of us as if we had done no evill A man is a conquerour though in the battell he suffers many foiles and receiveth many wounds and looseth much blood though for a great while in the day a man be worsted yea though a whole Army be worsted yet if in the evening in the close of the day he and they keep the field and foile the enemy the day is wonne and victory goes on this side Job was in a great battell in a sore fight of afflictions though it be granted that he received some wounds and had some foyles and sometimes lookes as if he had been beaten and speakes as if he had been overcome yet in the close in the evening in the making up of all he went away a conquerour the conclusion was victory and glory Iob had the victory and God had the glory Therefore as the Apostle Iames Chap. 5.11 when he speakes of enduring with joy referres us to the end of Iobs day of trouble to the end which the Lord made yee have heard saith he of the patience of Job and have seene the end of the Lord. So looke to the end of Iob to the end which through the strength of the Lord Job made and there you shall see patience having a perfect worke or the perfect worke of patience Looke not alone upon all the actings of Iob when he was in the height and heate of the battell looke to the onset he was so very patient in the beginning though vehemently stirred that Satan had not a word to say looke to the end and you cannot say but Iob was a patient man full of patience a mirrour of patience if not a miracle of patience a man whose face shined with the glory of that grace above all the children of men So much for that Question I shall now adde two or three points of Observation The first thing then that we may observe from hence is this If we compare Iob in the two former Chapters with Iob in the third we shall find that the case is altered with him he scarce speakes like the same man Hence observe in the generall That the holiest person in this life doth not alwayes keepe in the same frame of holinesse There is a great deale of difference betweene what he spake in the former chapters when he heard of and felt these things first and what he speakes now The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill This was the language we lately heard but now cursing certainely his spirit had been in a more holy frame more sedate and quiet then now it was At the best in this life we are but imperfect yet at some time we are more imperfect then we are at an other Faith is never very strong yet at some time faith is weaker then at an other Our love to Christ is never very hot but yet at some time it is colder then at another we cannot keepe it in the same degrees of heate A man at one time can both doe and suffer and a while after he can neither doe nor suffer as he could at that time he is out of frame and bungles in both Take the life of a Christian all together it is a progresse it is a continuall growing yet take his life apart consider him in every circumstance and stage of his life then there are many stops and stands in his life yea many declinings As it is with a child Take a child and his life from his birth to his full age is in a growing condition yet consider him at some particular time and the child may abate the child may not only not be stronger but much weaker then he was a yeare or a moneth before So it is with us from the first houre of our spirituall life till we attaine full stature of it in Christ Onely this is our comfort that in Heaven our soules shall be set up in such a frame of holinesse as shall never be moved nor abated in the least degree Looke in what frame the hand of God sets us up in that day we shall continue so to all eternity and that will be the highest and most exquisite frame both of holinesse and of delight But now wee are up and downe one day patient and another day impatient now beleeving and another day distrusting now the heart melts and is very tender anon it is very hard and relentlesse How meeke a man was Moses not such a man for meekenesse upon the face of the whole earth and yet at one time passionate and at another so angry that he spake unadvisedly with his lips How full of faith was Peter at one time how resolv'd to stick close to Christ yet shortly after how full of feare and for feare denying Christ We who receive good gifts and perfect guifts are subject to turnes and variations onely he from whom every good and perfect guift comes is without variablenesse or shadow of turning Secondly observe That great sufferings may fill the mouthes of holiest persons with great complainings Job was not only afflicted but afflicted greatly Job did not only complaine but he complained greatly You see what complainings David made in his great troubles Psal 77.2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soule refused to be comforted So Heman Psal 88.3 My soule is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave and verse 15. I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted Hezekiah under the greatnesse of his affliction Isa 38.14 saith Like a Crane or Swallow so did I chatter I did mourne as a Dove c. Jeremie a holy Prophet speakes if not out-speakes Job in his complaint Chap. 20.14 Cursed be the day wherein I
was borne let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed Cursed be the man who brought tydings to my father saying a man-child is borne unto thee He doth not only curse his birth-day but the messenger of his birth And he curses both with a word of deeper detestation then Job imployed to ease or empty his troubled spirit by Jobs word signified but his disesteeme and himselfe regardlesse of his day but Jeremie imployes that very word through which God powred out his wrath and everlasting displeasure upon the serpent and the Devill Gen. 3.14 in each of these Jeremie went a straine of impatience beyond Job and yet holy Jeremie still The Lord saith the same Prophet Chap 8.14 hath put us to silence and given us waters of gall to drinke because we have sinned against the Lord. When we remember our own sinnes we have reason to be silent though the Lord feed us with waters of gall bitter waters And if we be silent and open not our mouthes because we have sinned he beares with our cry as we are pained He knowes whereof we are made and remembers that we are but dust A little thing troubles our flesh therefore it is no wonder if flesh and blood cry out in great troubles though they be subdued by grace unto the spirit And if God in this case beare with us we ought also to beare with one another and not be scandaliz'd or take offence when we see good men mourning and lamenting under the evills which they endure He that understands man will compassionate the sorrowes not question the sincerity of a complaining groaning brother Thirdly Job complaineth bitterly and he curseth but what doth he curse He curseth his day Observe from thence That Satan with his utmost power and policie with his strongest temptations and assaults can never fully attaine his ends upon the children of God What was it that the Devill undertooke for was it not to make Job curse his God and yet when he had done his worst and spent his malice upon him he could but make Job curse his day This was farre short of what Satan hoped Doubtlesse when the Devell heard the word cursed come out of Jobs mouth he then began to prick up his eares and triumph surely now the day is mine now he will curse his God but at the fall of that word cursed be the day Satans hope falls and downe goes he That word day was darkenesse to the Devill and as the shadow of death he failes of his end and is confounded he goes away ashamed and hath not a word more to say but leaves his friends to say the rest The gates of Hell shall never prevaile against those who are founded on free grace and the rock Jesus Christ Fourthly observe That God doth graciously forget and passe by the distempered speeches and bitter complainings of his servants under great afflictions Job spake this curse but when God comes to question with Job we doe not heare a word or title of this curse charg'd upon him God takes notice that hee had spoken of him the thing that is right Chap. 42.7 God commends him for what he had spoken well but Job doth not heare a word of what he had spoken ill When the iniquity of his speeches was sought for there was none and his failings they could not be found for God had pardoned them as the Prophet speakes of Israel and Judah Chap. 42.20 Our Lord Christ saith that of every idle word you shall give an account at the day of judgement and by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned Math. 12.36 37. We had neede looke to our words God writeth what we speake and keepeth a booke of all we say You will say How then were Jobs distempered complainings forgotten and all taken for well spoken that he had spoken I answer First None of Jobs were idle words though there was errour in his words Secondly His right words were more then his erring words Thirdly His heart was upright when his tongue slipt Fourthly He repented of those slips and errours And lastly God forgiving blotted them out of his booke for ever Further in a sense we may say that God makes allowance to his people for such failings not an allowance of connivence and dispensation God doth not dispense with any to doe the least evill or expresse the least impatience in their speeches but he makes an allowance of favour and compassion considering their weakenesse and the strength of temptation he abates proportionably when in such a condition they speake impatiently though their actions and speeches want some graines of that weight which they ought to have yet weighing them in the scale of favour with his gracious allowance they go for currant and passe in account with God as good and full pay of that duty he expects from us and we owe unto his Majesty JOB 3.4 5 6 7 c. Let that day be darkenesse let not God regard it from above neither let the light shine upon it Let darkenesse and the shadow of death staine it let a cloud dwell upon it let the blacknesse of the day terrifie it As for that night let darkenesse seize upon it let it not be joyned unto the dayes of the yeere let it not come into the number of the moneths Loe let that night be solitary let no joyfull voice come therein WE have already given the Analysis and parts of this Chapter The subject of it is Jobs curse upon his day The first section of it in the nine first verses containes the matter and the method of that curse And he curseth his day First In generall ver 1. After this Job opened his mouth and curseth his day Secondly He curseth it in both the parts of it ver 3. Let the day perish in which I was borne and the night in which it was said there is a man-child conceived In these six verses which remaine appertaining to the first Section he affixes a particular curse to each part of his day taking a day for a naturall day and then dividing it into day and night he gives a speciall curse to each of these parts A curse upon the day and a curse upon the night The curse powred out upon the day lies in the fourth and fift verses of this Chapter Let that day be darknesse let not God regard it from above neither let the light shine upon it let darkenesse and the shadow of death staine it let a cloud dwell upon it let the blacknesse of the day terrifie it Here are six distinct branches of shis curse First Let the day be darkenesse Let the day Here we are to take day not for a naturall day but for the day as it is the continent of light the whole space of time from the rising to the setting of the Sun Now saith he Let the day be darkenesse Be darkenesse There is a great aggravation of misery in that as
Christ speakes Mat. 6.23 If the light that is in thee be darkenesse how great is that darkenesse While Job wisheth that his very day which is light should be darkenesse how great a darkenesse doth he wish unto it And if the day be darkenesse how darke must the night of that day be Then againe Let the day be darkenesse he doth not say let the day be mistie or cloudy or duskie or darke he doth not wish it like that day described Zech. 14.6 It shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be cleare nor darke but he saith Let it be darkenesse Both in Scripture and common language Abstracts are emphatically significant and carry more then an ordinary sense in them When David saith Psal 27.1 The Lord is my light there is more in it then if he had only said the Lord doth enlighten me So to set forth the wofull condition of those who are unregenerate or in the state of nature the Apostle tells them Ephes 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkenesse not only in the darke but darkenesse So here to expresse how great a curse he wishes upon his day Job saith Let the day be darkenesse it selfe Now darkenesse may be taken two wayes Either Properly or Improperly Proper darkenesse is nothing else but a privation of light it is no positive creature it hath no cause in nature but is the consequent of the Sunnes absence When Job wishes let that day be darkenesse we may understand it of this darkenesse as if he had said whensoever that day commeth about in the recourse and revolution of the yeare let it be darkenesse or a very darke and gloomy day This had bin a great evill upon his day This kind of darkenesse was one of the 10 plagues with which God smote Egypt And yet there is darkenesse which is a greatet evill then this I meane darkenesse improperly taken and so frequently in Scripture any sorrowfull troublesome sad condition is express'd by darkenesse A condition of darkenesse is a sad condition a darke day is as much as a sad day So then Let that day be darkenesse that is let it for ever be accounted a sad and sorrowfull day Thus the Prophet Joel Chap. 2.2 calls a day of great trouble a day of darkenesse and gloominesse a day of clouds and of thicke darkenesse When Solomon Eccles 12.2 would shew by way of Antithesis the sad and evill condition of old age comparatively to youth he unfolds it by darkenesse remember now thy creatour in the dayes of thy youth make haste serve God betime But what needs such haste I tell thee why as times change so thy estate will change Evill dayes will come I therefore counsell thee to doe it while the evill dayes come not nor the yeares draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them while the Sunne or the light or the Moone or the Starres be not darkened A day without pleasure is a day without the Sunne take away the joy of a day and you take away the light of a day Young-men have the Sunne and the Moone and the Starres all kind of light and comfortable influences upon them but these will be darkened and ecclipsed when old-age cometh that will put out or at least obscure your light your day will be gone and your night will have neither Moone nor Starre in it therefore worke while you have light that is while you have health and strength of body while you have freedome and activity of spirits fit for that great service remember that is know and serve your Creatour So in the Text we may take darkenesse improperly as darkenesse notes an uncomfortable estate and it is used in Scripture to note a two-fold uncomfortable estate First An estate of sinne Secondly An estate of misery This latter darkenesse is the daughter of the former The Prophet Isay Chap. 9.2 speakes of the people that sate in darkenesse which is repeated Mat. 4.16 that is in the darkenesse of ignorance of sin and guilt They had naturall light enough and they had civill light enough aboundance of outward comforts they had health and strength and riches and peace and plenty but they had not a Christ to take away their sins and cleanse their consciences and therefore they were a people that sate in darkenesse Jobs curse intends not this darkenesse of sin but that other improper darkenesse the darkenesse of sorrow the darkenesse of penall evill As if he had said let sorrow and sadnesse over-shadow let mourning and teares overwhelme let calamity and trouble for ever possesse the day upon which I was borne Let not God regard it from above Here is a second part of the curse and a more grievous curse then the former Let not God We may observe here the Name whereby God is expressed it is Eloah The learned Hebricians observe ten severall Names of God in Scripture three of which note his Being Jehovah Jah Ehejeh Three his Power El Eloah Elohim Three his Governement Adonai Shaddai Jehovah Tsebaoth One his Excellency or Super-excellency Gnelion The Name Eloah here used is derived from El which signifieth Mighty and so by that addition to the word there is an addition made to the sense Eloah is Most Mighty or Almighty This word in the singular number is very rare the Name Elohim which is the plurall is very frequent in holy Scripture Christ upon the crosse cryes out to God by this Name in the singular number Eloi Eloi my God my God as calling for the Almighty power of God to support and carry him through his sufferings David useth it in the 18th Psalm ver 31. Who is a God save the Lord. Who is Eloah save Jehovah that is who is a mighty strong God save the Lord Jehovah so the next words explaine it Who is a rocke save our God So Job being about to impleade and accuse his day calls to the mighty God as it were to judge this day to his everlasting neglect Let not God regard it from above Regard it from above The word signifies sometimes to inquire and search after or to take an account of a thing exactly and judiciously as they that are called to reckoning or to judgement are enquired after and so it hath relation to that Name of God Eloah a powerfull or mighty Judge Let not God regard it is let not God take any account of it or enquire after it let it passe as not worth the looking after Secondly The word signifies to have a care of a thing to have a thing or person in account as well as to call unto account to take care and be watchfull over another for good is our regarding of it In this sense the word is used Deut. 11.12 where Moses speaking concerning the Land of Canaan saith It is a Land which the Lord thy God careth for Careth for is the same word with this and this Text may well be expounded by that which followes as the
meaning of it The eyes of the Lord thy God are alwayes upon it from the beginning of the yeare even unto the end of the yeare So that to have regard to a thing to a day or to a person is to make account of these to take care for these for their good as a part of ones charge or duty or as an act of grace and bounty When Job saith Let not God regard it this may be the sense let not God take any care for it or make any account of it let not his eyes be upon it to doe it any good or to doe any extraordinary good upon it let it not be honoured by God with any speciall worke of providence which might make it recorded and remembred with honour among men The Apostle Rom. 14.6 speakes of mans regarding of a day He that regardeth a day regardeth it unto the Lord The Apostle treats in that Chapter about the observation of dayes finding that many beleevers could not be taken off from solemnizing those feasts which were of Gods owne founding and instituting among the Jewes he advises that they should not be judged or hardly censured for going according to their conscience for he that out of conscience and according to his light regards that is doth solemnize or observe a day he regards it to the Lord that is to the honour of God and with a sincere desire to please him But the thing I aime at in alledging this Text is to give light to the point in hand what it is to regard a day The Apostle is plaine that Mans regarding of a day is to have a day in speciall account as those dayes were which God instituted among the Iewes for speciall ends commanding them to observe them and promising a blessing in their observation Proportionably Gods regarding of a day is the speciall esteeme he hath or care he takes of it and the speciall blessing he powreth downe upon it Some practicall truths are hence observeable First Consider these two parts of the curse as they are placed in succession one after another or in conjuction one with another Let the day be darkenesse and let not God regard it from above This may teach us That there is no day so darke or condition so troublesome but if God regard and take notice of it man may take comfort and rejoyce in it Though the day be darkenesse Gods eye will make it light his regarding is a blessing we never loose all till God leaves us If in the houre and power of darkenesse as Christ calls the time of his passion God doe but lift up the light of his countenance upon us we shall be saved Jobs wish of darkenesse had done his day no great hurt unlesse he had taken the eye of God off from it also All the light that is in the world the light of Sunne Moone and Starres is but darkenesse to us if God hide his face but let Sunne Moone and Starres hide their faces let all creatures withdraw their comfort if God regard us we are well Therefore Iob puts the sting of the curse in Gods not regarding and withdrawing from his day Secondly When he wishes that God would not regard his day he desires God to lay aside or suspend his continuall worke Observe then That God doth observe and take particular notice of every day As all persons shall be accountable to him for their actions so also for their time God will inquire after every inch of time after every moment of our lives Many men regard not a day they value not their pretious time they know not how to spend or be rid of it how to weare it out and passe it away But God observes and regards every moment The Apostle calls to redeeming of time Ephes 5.16 And he subjoynes a motive Because the dayes are evill We may give in this of Iob for a motive God regards time therefore let us redeeme time If a day be within Gods regarding surely it may command ours Thirdly Let not God regard it We may observe That the blessing and comfort of every day depends upon the care and respect of God to it The eyes of all things looke up unto God Why doe all things looke up unto God It is that God may looke downe upon them If God looke downe upon the creature then the creature revives and is refreshed there are influences from the eye and sight of God which are able to quicken the deadest times and make glad the saddest hearts As we pray for and humbly expect every day our daily bread from God so every day doth as it were expect a daily blessing from God which is his regarding of our dayes It is the greatest evill that can befall the creature when God regards it not all the blessings of the creature are bound up like Jacobs life in the life of Benjamin in that respect which God beareth to them and in the care which he hath of them The Apostle Paul disputing with the Philosophers of Athens shewes the state of that time which they accounted such a golden-age Acts 17.30 The time of that ignorance God winked at so we translate it the word properly signifieth God did over-looke that time And there are some translations which expresse it in the very terme of the Text The time of that ignorance God regarded not For we are not to thinke there ever were any times which God winked at in the matter of his Justice so as not to call them to an account I grant that times of ignorance are comparatively winked at in respect of Justice God will not proceed so severely with them as with knowing times but God never winketh at any person or at any times how ignorant soever so as to let them goe unpunished and never call them to an account Such connivence God hates as being inconsistent both with his providence and his justice The Apostle is direct They who sinne without law that is without the knowledge of the law written shall perish without law namely the written law only according to the sentence of that law which the finger of nature hath written in their hearts Rom. 2.12 Ignorance shall not be so winked at as to be altogether excused How then did God winke There is a two-fold winking 1. Of disrespect 2. Of dispensation Gods winking is his direspecting He winked at those times that is he lightly passed them by his eye was not upon them for good he regarded them not in such a manner as to provide for them and send amongst them that great blessing which now saith Paul he sends you by my hands the knowledge of Jesus Christ When the blessed Virgin heard by that message of the Angell that she should be mother to the Saviour of the world she blesseth God in this phrase Thou hast regarded the low estate of thine handmaid When God in a way of favour doth but looke towards us our lowest estate is raised up Thou hast
regarded the low estate of thine handmaid it is but a looke of gracious regard from God and all is well with man On the other side if God take off his eye winke and disregard all is blasted yea accursed our high estate falls our comforts are sowred and turned into a lumpe of sorrow We may say of all outward excellencies as Haman did Esth 5.13 of all his honour and greatnesse and favour at Court All this I have but all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate All his comforts were clouded all the light of his high estate was ecclipsed because there was a new Starre Mordecai shining still at the Kings gate Much more may we sit downe and casting up all that we have and are make the foote of our account nothing without the favour of God what doe riches what doth credit what doth beauty or parts availe us if God regard not all is nothing at all without God What are times what are dayes what is your condition if God withdraw himselfe this aggravates the curse this is mournefull when God regardeth not Job goes on to a third branch of the curse Let not God regard it neither let the light shine upon it That which before he spake against his day by wishing it darkenesse he speakes over againe and more in other words by wishing light might be denied and with-held from it To have no light is not a bare repetition or an explication of what it is to be in darkenesse but it is an addition to or an aggravation of it So the Prophet Isa 50.10 by him that walkes in darkenesse and hath no light sets out the saddest condition of an afflicted soule No light is not only darkenesse but pure darkenesse As when the Apostle John would advance the glory of God he saith God is light and in him there is no darkenesse at all 1 Ep. c. 1. God is pure light so darkenesse without light is pure darkenesse Let not the light As darkenesse so light may be taken either properly for naturall light that which God first created light was the first perfect visible creature light was the first dayes worke and by the worke of the fourth was gathered into those heavenly vessels the Sunne Moone and Starres and there put that it might be dispensed and carried about the world especially by that chariot of the Sunne Let this light this naturall light be with-held let it not shine saith Job upon that day The withdrawing of naturall light is a great affliction to the world Light is the most incorporeall of all corporall things the spiritualnesse of it shewes the goodnesse of it light is the beauty and discovers all the beauty of the world As a goodly adorn'd furnish't roome without a window or a candle such is the world without light Light is not only the light but the life of the world it quickens and comforts the motions of nature it is the instrument by which all the influences of Heaven are communicated to the earth which being stopt the course of nature stops this caused a great Philosopher to cry out when at the passion of Christ the light of the Sunne was totally ecclipsed Either the God of nature suffers or the whole frame of nature dissolves Was it not then a dreadfull curse when Job wishes the light taking it for naturall light might not shine upon his day But further take it improperly then let not the light shine upon it hath this voice in it Let there be no comfort no joy no good thing in the compasse of that day Light in Scripture expresses all good as darkenesse all evill That great blessing which was promised unto the Church in the great restauration of it is shadowed by light and by an increasing light in Isa 30.26 Moreover the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne shall be seven-fold as the light of seven dayes in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound We are not to conceive that there shall be such an increase of the naturall light of the Moone or of the Sun but there shall be an increase of the comfort of the people of God which shall be as if the Moone and the Sun had in one day the light of seven dayes as if the Moone had got the light of the Sun and the Sun had got a seven-fold light more then it had before And he who is the chiefe the choisest and most transcendent blessing of all the joy of all our hearts Jesus Christ is called light he came as light into the world he is the light of the world the Sonne of righteousnesse The creator of all good things found nothing so good to shew his own goodnesse by as light Christ is light God is light and in him there is no darkenesse at all If then we take Jobs speech metaphorically or improperly Let not the light shine upon that day it amounts to a higher losse then the former Truly saith Solomon light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sunne and we may say truly all sweetnesse is light and every pleasant thing is as the Sun Though the Sun shine upon us yet if comfort be removed from us we are in darknesse Such a condition the Prophet speakes of Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkenesse and hath no light No light is no comfort none for the outward man none for the inner man both being benighted both deserted Hence observe That it is a greater judgement to have good things removed from us then to have evill inflicted on us He speakes more against the day when he saith let not the light shine upon it then when he saith let it be darkenesse The punishment of losse is greater then the punishment of sense He that is deprived of all good is by that act invested with all evills The most wofull condition of ungodly men in this life is exprest by the punishment of losse There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa 57.21 That they have trouble is not so bad as that they have no peace And the worst part of that everlasting woe which ungodly men shall suffer is a punishment of losse The heate of the fire shall not trouble them so much as the want of light God hath fully resolv'd that their day shall be darknesse that himselfe will never regard it from above nor let the least beame of the light of his countenance shine upon it Hence the condition of the damned is called outer darknesse Mat. 22.13 By outer darknesse Christ meanes darknesse without any ray of light Outer darknesse is their portion who are without Rev. 22.15 As the greatest blessing we receive by Christ is positive Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his
troubles which fall out upon that day To which sence the Chaldee Paraphrase thus expounds it let such bitternesses of the day afflict it as the Prophet Jeremie was afflicted with for the destruction of the Temple or as Jonas when he was cast into the sea Hard bondage made the lives of the Israelites bitter Exod. 1.14 And when the Lord threatens to turne their feasts into mourning and their songs into lamentation he concludes thus and I will make it as the mourning of an only sonne and the end thereof as a bitter day Amos 8 10. Hence afflictions are called gall and wormewood bitter things And the Chaldeans whom God made so great a scourge to his own people are called a bitter Nation Hab. 1.6 We have opened these words which concerne the curse upon Jobs day Now followes his curse upon the night Verse 6. As for the night let darknesse seize upon it let it not be joyned to the dayes of the yeare let it not come into the number of the months Verse 7. Loe let that night be solitary let no joyfull voice come therein He goeth on in his former passionate Rhetorick to loade the night with as many evills if not more as he had done the day As for that night let darknesse seize upon it We have heard of darknesse before darknesse upon the day What doth Job meane here to call for darkenesse upon the night The night is it selfe full of darknesse yea darknesse is proper to the night Is it any curse to say let wormewood be bitter or to say let leade be heavy the naturall property of a thing cannot be the punishment of a thing How is it then that Job saith Let that night be darknesse or Let darknesse seize upon it Though it be true that darknesse is proper to the night yet there are degrees of darknesse and every darknesse is not proper to the night The word here used for darknesse is observed by Grammarians to signifie an extraordinary thick darknesse yea darknesse joyned with tempest Let thick tempestuous darknesse seize upon or take hold of that night for the word signifies to graspe or take a thing in ones hands let darknesse graspe it Though the night be darke yet it may be darker we call some nights light nights in comparison of others Note from this That there is no estate so ill but it is possible it may be worse The night is darke yet you may super-adde darknesse to it and though the condition of any person or people be as the night darke yet the darknesse may increase more and more to a perfect night You know what God saith concerning the people of the Jewes when he threatned them with troubles I will punish you yet seven times more for your sinnes God can make such a night as that the former night shall seeme a day to it God can adde darknesse to the darknesse of the night God can adde bitternesse to the bitternesse of womewood and make leade more heavy then leade There is no man on earth in so sad a condition but he may be in a worse Art thou poore God can send thee such poverty as that thy former poverty was riches compared with this Art thou weake and sick God can adde more sicknesse and make thee so weake that thy former sicknesse may be accounted health and thy weaknesse strength compared with this In this sense darknesse seizeth upon the night He wishes a second evill upon that night Let it not be joyned to the dayes of the yeare Some reade it thus Let it not be computed in the dayes of the yeare Others Let it not be in the dayes of the yeare This is another evill he calls down upon the night The glory of the night consisteth in its conjunction to the day hence light and darknesse put together come both under the denomination and notion of day Night is called day as being a part of the naturall day Now that which is the chiefe priviledge of the night this curse strikes at Job would have it rent and disjoynted from the day Let it not be joyned to the dayes of the yeare Disunion and division is a great curse when the night is not joyned to the day it is the curse of the night The Rabbins have a conceit why after the worke of the second day was finished God beholding what he had done did not adde any approbation to it when he made the light which was the first dayes worke he approves it God saw the light and said it was good but to the work of the second day God subjoyned no approbation by saying it was good The reason I say which many of the Rabbins give of it was this because then was the first disunion that made the first second that ever was all before was one sub unissimo Deo under the one-most God I shall leave this phancie to the Rabbins But there is somewhat in the notion it selfe namely that division and disunion are the evills of the creature The night hath glory by union with the day the weakest things and the obscurest things havean honour by being joyned with the stronger more excellent And as these naturall disunions are the affliction of naturall things so civill disunions and civill divisions are much more the affliction of people and Nations Christ assures us that the strongest Kingdome divided cannot stand Mark 3.24 Weake things are strong by union and that not only by union with the strong but by union among themselves Weake things united are strengthened joyne weake with weake and they are strong And things obscure united are honourable especially if united with that which is honourable The glory of the wife is in the band of union with her husband she shines with the rayes of her husbands honour whatsoever naturall or civill excellency is in him reflects upon her The woman is the glory of the man as the Apostle speakes 1 Cor. 11.7 in regard of subjection It is mans glory that God hath given him superiority over so excellent a creature But in another sense the man is the glory of the woman she communicates with him in all his dignity how great soever Thus also the day is the glory of the night The night shines by her marriage with the day Job sues out a divorce betweene them Let it it not be joyned to the dayes of the yeare And let it not come into the number of the moneths The Originall may be translated in the number of the Moones The same word among the Hebrewes signifieth the Moone and a moneth as likewise among the Grecians And the reason is because their moneths were counted by their Moones and the Moone is renewed every moneth Every Lunation made a Moneth and thirteene Lunations made a yeare their moneth consisting of 28 dayes which is a Lunary moneth So that when Job saith Let it not come into the number of the moneths he would take away one speciall benefit of the
Under which name he with all spirituall wickednesses the opposers of Christ and of his Church are comprehended by the Prophet Isa 27.1 In that day the Lord with his sore great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan the crooked serpent and he shall slay the Dragon in the sea Now they that raise up this misticall Leviathan the Devill are surely the vilest men But who doe thus or how can this be done They are said to raise up Leviathan who seeke occasions of sinning such as doe not stay till Satan tempts them but they as it were tempt Satan They are so hasty so forward to doe evill that they think the Devill comes not fast enough and therefore they doe even goe out to meete provoke and raise up the Devill they invite temptation There is a truth in this All sins are not from the temptations of Satan our own hearts are not only the soyle and have in them the seed of all sin but they are sunne and raine to warme and water those seedes that they may grow And as a godly man from the new principle at first planted in him by the holy Ghost doth often stirre up the holy Ghost to come and helpe him he doth not alwayes stay till the holy Ghost sensibly comes but finding his own weakenesse and wants and deadnesse to and in duty he goeth and stirreth up the Spirit of God and prayeth that the holy Ghost would breath upon him quicken and enliven him in prayer and other holy duties So many ungodly wretches doe not stay for Satan or waite till he comes to tempt them but they such is their desperate wickednesse and delight in sin wish that he would tempt them oftner They doe not only keepe open house and open heart for him ready to entertaine and welcome him when he comes but they goe forth to solicit his company and his coming This is to stirre up Leviathan So that the whole sense according to this exposition may be given to you thus as if Iob had said Let this night be cursed with a grievous curse even with as black and foule a curse as can be moulded and fashioned in the hearts or spit out of the mouthes of the vilest miscreants even of such as are so set upon sin that they hate the light and curse the day which either the Sun makes in the aire or which knowledge makes in their hearts lest that should stop and hinder them in the acting of sin yea let such a curse be upon it is they use to vomit out who are so set upon mischiefe and engaged to their lusts that they pray in aide from the Devill to assist and quicken them in their wickednesse that so their naturall corruptions being oyled and smoothed with his temptations their motions to sin and indeed to Hell may be swifter and more violent These are they that give diligence to make their damnation sure These are they from whom the kingdome of Hell suffers violence and these violent ones rather then not have it will take it by force Surely their damnation sleepes not who least they should not sin enough awaken the Devill to shew them sinning opportunities To such as these according to the interpretation now suggested Iob commits his night to cursing Let them curse it who curse the day c. Now though there be a truth in the things which are asserted in this opinion taken abstractedly though it be a truth that wicked men are such as curse the day of ayre-light and the day of knowledge-light though they are often so madde to be sinning that they provoke and tempt the Devill yet I will not give this for the sense and meaning of the words rather you may take it and make use of it as an Allegory upon then an Exposition of the Text. The last opinion with which I shall conclude the opening of the words is this That Iob in this verse doth allude to the custome of his own Countrey and of other Easterne Countries who had certaine persons amongst them both men and women whom upon solemne occasions either of joy or sorrow they were wont to hire or call in for reward to come and helpe them out either in rejoycing or in mourning We find mention of such in Scripture divers times who were thus called and invited or hired to mourne and lament in times of sad and sorrowfull accidents whether personall or publick These had Lachrimas venales teares to sell or sale-teares making both a profession and a profit of mourning Such the Prophet speakes of Ier. 9.17 18. Thus saith the Lord Consider ye and call for the mourning women he speakes of them as of a society or sister-hood well knowne and as well custom'd and cunning women that they may come that is women cunning in mourning And let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may runne downe with teares and our eye-lidds gush out with waters for a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion How are we spoiled And ver 20. Teach your daughters wailing and every one her neighbour lamentation you see it was an art taught amongst them for death is come up into our windowes c. In 2 Chron. 35.25 We have a record to the same effect concerning the lamentation for Josiah And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing-men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day So that there were both men and women prepared and usually called forth to lament such occasions of sorrow Againe Amos 5.16 Therefore the Lord the God of Hosts the Lord saith thus wailing shall be in all streets and they shall say in all the high-wayes Alas Alas And they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skillfull of lamentation to wailing Observe here different mourners they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skillfull of lamentation to wailing You see he speakes of two sorts of persons they shall call the husbandman to mourning Husbandmen are such as mourne when they mourne when they mourne they mourne indeed they mourne down-right but besides these who mourned Ex animo really there was another sort who did but personate sorrow and act a part in griefe So saith the Prophet Call in some who are skilfull of lamentation men or women who have studied the point and know how to move a passion and to heighten an affection beyond that which the plaine husbandman can doe Let the husbandman mourne but besides that let there be art and solemnity in the mourning call in those that are skilfull of lamentation There was a kind of profession trade or art of mourning Which is further evidenced 2 Sam. 14.2 Joab sent to Tekoah to fetch thence a wise woman which is interpreted in the words following to be a woman skilfull in lamentation and said unto her I pray thee faine thy selfe to be a mourner Thou art a cunning
woman thou knowest how to act the part and postures of a mourner to the life Goe to David and faine thy selfe to be a mourner and as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead And it is observed to this day in many places and as I have been informed frequently in Ireland that not only friends and neighbours are called to lament at the funerall of their friends and neighbours but many others no way related scarce ever known to the person deceased who come professedly to straine for teares and make lamentable out-cryes over the dead To such a custome or profession Job here alluding saith Let them curse it who curse the day If it be objected that this Text speakes of such as curse the day and not of such as mourne upon or bemoane the day That is easily removed because upon those dayes of mourning they were wont to mixe execrations with their lamentations and curses with their teares crying out oh the day alas for the day oh that ever such a day came In the 30th of Ezekiel v. 2. The Lord saith Sonne of man prophecy and say thus saith the Lord God howle ye woe worth the day These did curse the day and such were hired in that sense to curse the day As Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse was hired to curse the people of God Numb 22. So then the cursing here meant was a dolefull wish that the day had not beene or that such things had not hapned upon that day And so these words Let them curse it who curse the day who are ready to raise up their mourning are only a circumlocution describing those mercinary cursers or mourners As if Job had in more words said thus Let this night be cursed in as high a straine and mourned over with as enlarged sorrowes as the art and invention of those whose trade is cursing and who have teares at command ever did or can put forth when hired on purpose to mourne over the saddest spectacles and most calamitous events Now this being taken for a ground-worke that in those times and Countries men and women were hired to mourne and that an art of mourning was then profest the difficulties that are in the Text opposing this are further to be examined For here still it seemeth doubtfull how this word Leviathan can fall in with such an interpretation or be applied to those hired and professed mourners Towards the clearing of which I shall a little open three words The first is Gnatidim who are ready which signifies a prepared and meditated active readinesse as we find in two Texts of the Booke of Hester The copy of the writing for a commandement to be given in every Province was published unto all people that they should be ready against that day chap. 3.14 and againe chap. 8.13 So that in Job to be ready to raise up the mourning notes more then an immediate going about a thing As we say I am ready to doe a thing that is I will or must doe it presently For it notes also a studied readinesse or preparednesse to doe a thing The second word is Gnour to raise up which is properly to raise from sleepe as in that place Psal 44.23 Awake why sleepest thou O Lord Arise cast us not off for ever The third word is Leviathan which hath two other significations both appliable to this interpretation First Divers of the Rabbins translate it by the Hebrew word Ebel which signifies mourning or sorrow and with the pronoune affixed Their sorrow or their mourning And this is asserted by the learned Mercer for the plainest meaning of the word and so found in the writings of the Hebrew Doctors which also directly answers our translation who are ready to raise up their mourning Secondly The word Leviathan is derived according to the opinion of others from Lavah i. e. joyned or associated Hence Leviath i. e. society or fellowship to which the same pronoune being affixed the word Leviathan is made up and according to that extraction and composition is rendred socictatem suam their society or their company And the word in this derivation and construction of it falls in with the sense of the former interpretation who are ready to raise and stirre up their company namely to goe fourth and mourne or their company of mourners And the reason is two-fold why they are or may be said to raise up their company of mourners First Because those solemne mourners were usually a great many they were a company a Chorus or a Quire making a dolefull lamentation and so when they were to mourne they called together or raised up their company of mourners And the word raised is proper for a second reason because in such mournings it was custom'd to rise up very early or early to raise up one another As David speaking of musicall rejoycing Psal 108.2 saith Awake psaltery and harpe I my selfe will awake early The Hebrew is very emphaticall in that place word for word thus I my selfe will awaken the morning as if he should say the morning shall not awaken mee but I will awaken the morning the morning shall not find me sleeping but I will be up first and call up the morning So those mourners used to awake early in the morning or rather to awaken the morning and they had one woman whom they called Praefica the leader the first or the chiefe of the quire and company of mourners plangendi Magistra whose office it was to call up and bring on the rest It appeares in the Gospell of Matthew that the Jewes in those times used to call in musick to their mournings For when Christ came to the Rulers house whose daughter was dead the Text saith He saw the minstrels and the people making a noise Mat. 9.23 And Josephus relating the story of his owne supposed death shewes how all the City of Jerusalem continued a mourning for him thirty dayes And he adds directly to this point That many musicians were hired for reward to leade those songs or direct the solemnity of those lamentations This exposition upon the supposition of alluding to that custome in mourning and the allowance of those significations of the word Leviathan hath a cleare and a faire sense respecting the series of the Text Job having so farre powred out a curse upon and lamented his night he as it were calls for those to finish and conclude it who traded in such kind of curses and who were skill'd in lamentations There is an objection against this taken from the Grammaticall regimen or construction of the Originall The Hebrew word who are ready is of the Masculine gender and the Pronoune relating to it Leviathan their mourning is of the Feminine gender so that here seemes to be a fault in Grammar if we expound it thus their mourning or their company of mourners To this we may give a double answer First That such changes of one
it to enjoy Christ who is life then to live To both these we may referre that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. We that are in this tabernacle groane being burthened they were burthened with sorrowes and burthened with sins while they were in the tabernacle of the body yet saith he it is not that wee would be uncloathed but cloathed upon he did not groane for the grave but for glory not that he might be uncloathed but cloathed with immortality not barely that he might die but that mortality might be swallowed up of life Under these notions we may desire death yet with this caution that for the time of it we referre our selves to the good pleasure of God For what the Apostle James speakes of the inordinate desires and absolute resolves of worldly men about gaining in that or t'other City is by allusion appliable to these spirituall greedy merchants after Heavenly glory chap. 4.13 Goe to now ye that say to day or to morrow we will goe into such a City and continue there a yeere and buy and sell and get gaine c. For that ye ought to say if the Lord will So I may say Goe to now ye that say to day or to morrow we would die for to die to us is gaine Phil. 1.21 and goe to that heavenly City that City having foundations whose builder and maker is God and continue there forever taking in and enriching our selves with that glory which Christ hath bought for that ye ought to say when the Lord will or now if the Lord will On such conditions as these and with this caution we may desire death yea long for death But to long for death only to be ridde of the troubles of this life to desire to lye downe to sleepe in the bed of the grave only to ease our flesh and rest our outward man is sinfull The Apostle saith Acts 20.24 I count not my life deare so I may finish my course with joy But we shall account our lives too cheape if we feare to finish our course with sorrow If we thinke that it is not worth the while to live unlesse we live in outward comforts we exceedingly undervalue our lives when a crosse in our lives makes us weary of our lives This was Jonahs infirmity when he had taken pet about the gourd Chap. 4. he would needs die and he concludeth the matter It is better for me to die then to live and all was because he could not have his will because he was troubled This also was Elijahs infirmity when he was persecuted by and fled for his life from Jezabel 1 King 19.4 He requested for himselfe that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better then my fathers This is an infirmity at the best we ought rather to seeke to God that he would remove the evill from us then remove us from the evill for God hath a thousand doores to let us out of trouble though he doth not open the doore of the grave to let us in there and out of the world He can end our troubles and not end our lives Yet such a wish is much allayed yea in some cases lawfull if we keepe the former caution and say if the Lord will If we referre our selves to the will and good pleasure of God we may desire to be lay'd to rest by death that we may be rid of those paines and evills which we suffer in this life And yet I desire rather to raise the spirits of all above these troubles while they live then satisfie them how they may desire freedome from them by death When Solomon returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the Sunne and beheld the teares of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter Then he praised the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2. that is he pronounced the dead to be in a better condition then the living Yet know that Solomon in this place speakes the words of meere naturall reason not of divine reason For he speakes though with a divine Spirit yet in the person of a naturall man Naturall reason saith it is better to die then live under oppressions but divine reason saith there is more honour to be gained by living under oppressions then there is ease to be attained by dying from under them To beare a burden well is more desireable then to be delivered from a burden Especially if while we are bearing we can be doing doing good I meane and I meane it especially if we can doe publike good A Christian should be content yea he should rejoyce in suffering much evill upon himselfe while he can be doing any especially if he can doe much good to others A graciously publike spirit will triumph over personall troubles and labours so long as he sees himselfe a blessing or a helpe to the publike and though he longs to die for himselfe and to be with Christ which is better yet he is loath to die so long as he can say with blessed Paul Neverthelesse to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you or others Phil. 1.24 When a Heathen Emperour Caesar said he had lived long enough whether he respected Nature or Honour Tully the Orator answered him well But you have not lived long enough for the Common-wealth Much more may we say when we see able and godly men longing for death because they have lived long enough whether they respect common Nature or their own Honour But you have not yet lived long enough for the Church of God and for the common good of his people We should be willing to live so long as God or his people have a stroake of worke to be done which our abilities and opportunities fit us to doe In this sense A living Dogge is better then a dead Lion Eccles 9.4 That is it is better to live though we are the meanest working for God then die or be dead though we have bin the chiefest I inlarge this the rather because of the present troubles and the infirmity of our flesh which sometimes is ready to envy those who die because we live in sorrow and is not satisfied with this that our soules are here shelter'd from death and under the covert of Christ unlesse our bodies also may be sheltred in death and lye under the covert of the grave So much to that question Let us note something from the words themselves Which long for death and it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures Observe first That Many afflictions to our sense are worse then death They long for death because they are in misery It is said and it is a truth O death how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease in his possessions And there is a truth also in
benefit profit and honour But often to put or to give into the hand is for evill to doe what you will with persons or things to punish or to afflict them Judg. 6.1 God delivered the Israelites into the hand of Midian that is he left them to the power of the Midianites to tyrannize over and vexe them And verse 7. God delivered Midian into the hand of Israel that is hee gave Israel power over them to destroy or afflict them So here he gave all into the hand of Satan that is he gave Satan leave to dispose of Jobs estate as he pleased As if God had said to Satan Thou hast leave to doe what thou wilt with Jobs outward estate spoile it plunder it destroy it consume it fire it thou hast free leave all that he hath is in thy hand We shall note a point or two from that You see as soone as ever Satan had made his motion God presently answereth all that he hath is in thy hand It is not alwayes an argument of Gods goodwill and love to have our motions granted Many are heard and answered out of anger not out of love The children of Israel required meat for their lusts and God gave it them he did not withhold from them their desire they were not shortned of their lusts they had it presently many times his owne servants call and call againe move and move againe and obtaine no grant For this thing I besought the Lord thrice saith Paul yet Paul could not have what he sought Satan did but move once and presently all that Job had was in his hand But further that which is chiefely here to be observed is That untill God gives commission Satan hath no power over the estates or persons of Gods people or over any thing that belongs unto them Neither our persons nor our estates are subject to the will either of men or Devills Christ must say All that he hath is in thy hand before Satan can touch a shoe-latchet As Christ said Joh. 19.11 unto Pilat when he spake so stoutly knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee and power to release thee He thought that he had all power in his hand but Christ tells him Thou couldest have no power at all against me unlesse it were given thee from above If the Devills could not goe into the swine much lesse can they meddle with a man made after Gods Image till God gives them leave Every soule that hath interest in Christ may suck comfort and consolation in the saddest in the sorrowfullest day from the breast of this truth If Satan and wicked men cannot move till Christ saith goe nor wound till Christ saith strike nor spoile nor kill till Christ saith their estates their lives are in your power surely Christ will not speake a word to their hurt whom he loâ—â— nor will he ever suffer his enemies to doe a reall dammage to his friends Besides it may fill the soule with unspeakeable joy to remember that while a man is suffering the will of Christ is a doing Thirdly Satan doth very wickedly according to his nature in moving that Job may be afflicted He moveth in malice and in spight God knew what his heart and intent was and yet grants it We may note from hence That which Satan and evill men desire sinnefully the Lord grants holily The will of God and the will of Satan joyned both in the same thing yet they were as different as light and darkenesse their ends were as different as their natures Though it were the same thing they both willed yet there was an infinite distance betweene them in willing it The will of Satan was sinfull but the power given Satan was just Why Because his will was from himselfe but his power was from the will of God Satan had no power to doe mischiefe but what God gave him but his will to doe mischiefe was from himselfe Therefore we find that the same spirit is said to be an evill spirit and to be a spirit from the Lord and yet the Lord doth not partake at all in the evill of the spirit as 1 Sam. 16.14 The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evill spirit from the Lord troubled him An evill spirit from the Lord how was it an evill spirit if it were from the Lord can the Lord send forth any evill from himselfe who is only good In that he was evill that was from his own will but that he had power to trouble Saul that was from the Lord So here Satans will and intent were most wicked these were from himselfe his power to afflict Job was from God and that was good Satan willeth Job should be afflicted for his destruction God willeth it only for his tryall and probation Satan desireth it that God may be blasphemed but God willeth it that himselfe might be glorified Satan willeth it that so others in his example might be scandalized and disheartned from entring into the service of God seeing how ill he sped But God willeth it that others might be strengthned and incouraged to enter into his service beholding a man under such heavy pressures and yet not speaking ill of God or of his wayes Satan willeth it hoping thereby Job would discover his hypocrisie but God willeth it knowing that he would therein discover his integrity So then though the same thing was willed yet there was a vast disproportion in their ends and intentions and though the power by which Satan did afflict Job was from God yet the evill intent with which he afflicted him was from himselfe Thus we see how God without any staine or touch of evill grants this which Satan did most wickedly desire It followeth Onely upon himselfe thou shalt not put forth thy hand God gives a commission but it is with a limitation there is a restriction in it Onely upon himselfe c. that is not upon his person not his body thou shalt not afflict that with diseases not his soule thou shalt not afflict that with temptations Hence note That God himselfe sets bounds to the afflictions of his people he limits out how farre every affliction shall goe and how farre every instrument shall prevaile as he doth with the Sea Hitherto saith he thou shalt come and no further here thou shalt stop thy proud waves so he saith to all the afflictions of single persons or whole Nations hither you shall come and no further Onely upon himselfe thou shalt not put forth thine hand This limitation respects First The degree or measure thus farre you shall afflict that is in such a degree to such a height and no higher Secondly It respects the time thus farre that is thus long so many yeares or so many dayes you shall have power and no longer God leaves not either the measure or the time the degree or the continuance of any affliction in the hand of Satan or his adherents Wee reade Rev. 6.10 That