thus furnished with his Quiver of arrowes and his bowe Psal 7. 13. He ordaineth his arrowes against the persecutors God â—ath an arow for the wounding of his enemies and an arrow for the wounding of his friends He hath arrowes for both and both are wounded and both are wounded with poyson'd fierie arrowes yet with a vast difference these are wounded and poyson'd that they may be healed and they are wounded and poyson'd that they may be destroyed Arrowes are 1. Swift instruments 2 Secret 3. Sharpe 4. Killing I will make mine arrowes drunke without bloud Deut. 32. 42. They are instruments drawing bloud and drinking bloud even unto drunkenesse afflictions are like arrowes in all these properties 1 Afflictions often come very speedily with a glance as an arrow quick as a thought 2. Afflictions come suddenly unexpectedly an arrow is upon a man afore he is aware so are afflictions Though Job saith The thing he feared came upon him he looked for this arrow before it came yet usually afflictions are unlooked for guests they thrust in upon us when we dreame nâ—t of them 3. They come with little noise an arrow is felt before or as soon as it is heard an arrow flies silently and secretly stealing upon and wounding a man unobserved and unseen Lastly all afflictions are sharpe and in their owne nature killing and deadly That any have good from them is from the grace of God not from their nature The poyson whereof drinketh up my spirits There 's the effect of his afflictions Some reade it The furie Quarum indignatio Vulg. Furor Sept. Fervor Tâ—gur pluâ—iâ—â— VenenuÌ„ or anger whereof drinkes up my spirit It may be called the fury and anger of an arrow because the arrow is often sent in fury and in anger We reade also of the fire of an arrow or of a fiery arrow Ps 76. 4. There brakest thou the arrows of the bow Arrows even firing themselves by the swiftnesse of their motion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagitta ignita incalescens motu The word of the Text is derived from a roote signifying to waxe very hot and in the Nowne heate Hence by a Metaphor it signifies anger because angry men waxe hot Anger is breathed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caluit incaluit ira sic dicta quod iraâ—â— inca â—escunt fire Isai 42. 25. Therefore he hath powred upon them the furie of his anger and the strength of battell and it hath set him on fire round about Fire and fury are neare in name and in nature When fury burns within fire quickly burns without and so by a Metonymie the same word signifies poison the reason is because poisons heat and inflame poysons inflame the flesh and as it were set the body on fire or because an angry man like an angry Serpent seemes to breath out fire or spet poyson Paul before his conversion breathed threatnings fire and sword against the Church Act. 9. 1. And therefore either way the word is well rendred The anger whereof or the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit And in the Greek the same word signifies anger and Psal 58. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. poyson because of that inflammation which is about the heart of a man throughly angry In these words Job seemes to allude to the custome of cruell savage men who when they pursued their enemies with deadly Venenatis gâ—avida sagitâ—is pharetra Hor. Qui mortis saevo gem nent ut vulnera causas Omnia vipereo spicula Felle linunt Ovid. l. 1. de ponto Mos erat persarum ut ponant venenum serpentis in sagittis suis R. Solo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hatred and would wound them to death used to dip the head of their arrows the top of their speares or the point of their swords or whatsoever weapon they fought with in poison that so every wound might be a death The poison of such an arrow speare or sword drinks up the spirit and corrupts the bloud presently Some poison strikes the heart almost as soon as the weapon strikes the arme Job compares the arrowes which God shot into him not to ordinary arrowes which kill only by piercing but to poison'd arrowes which kill by insecting As if God had set himselfe to the utmost to powre out the fiercenesse of his indignation upon him not only shooting an arrow but an arrow dipt in poison such an arrow as the most barbarous and cruell men shoot at their most professed and mortall enemies Drinketh up my spirit Poison gets quickly to the spirit and there drinks poison is subtle and spiritfull and therefore if I may so speake incorporates with that which is most subtle in man his spirit Flat pal'd grosse or dreggish liquor will not quench the fiery thirst of poison it drinkes nothing but pure spirits yet some reade It drinketh up my blood but this amounts to the same sencâ— for the spirit of a living creature is in the blood the spirits swim in the blood There are different opinions about this spirit or what we are to understand by it First Some take spirit here for the breath or for the act of Toâ— confossus vulneâ—ibus â—ix respiâ—are valeo Aquin. breathing As if he had said I have received so many wounds by these poisoned arrowes that I begin to faint and cannot draw my breath These arrowes sup up my spirit and by wounding stop my breath Secondly Others understand it more generally taking spirit for his strength and vigour spirits are so strong that they are put for strength The Aegyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit Isa 31. 3. that is they are not strength but weaknesse So here it drinketh up my spirit that is the strength that is in me all the powers and abilities of body and Dolores mei â—â—c penitus enervant atque exhausto robore deâ—iciunt Pined soule are wasted and consumed These calamities spend upon my spirit where the stock of my strength is laid up or which is the lock wherein my strength lies A third apprehends that by spirit he meanes his judgement reason and understanding as if he had said showers of arrowes and troubles come so thick upon me that they even darken my mind and drink up the strength of my understanding Hence I may seeme to speake distractedly unadvisedly weakly I have not that spirit to quicken that strength of reason to judge which formerly I had the paines of my body disable and distemper my mind And therefore if I have spoken any thing below what I ought it is because I am cast below what I was The terrours of God doe set themselves in array against me Arrowes and terrors are the same thing in a different cloathing of words Or the arrow is the affliction it selfe and the terrour is the effect or consequent of it The word here used for
hath every affliction all sorrowes in him and the justice of God may forme the most dreadfull shapt afflictions out of his sins And as the sparke lyes closely in the fire or the flint till you smite or blow them up so sin lyes secretly in our hearts till some temptation or occasion smites and brings it out Againe we may observe That Man can sin without a teacher You need not instruct him or teach him to doe evill He doth that by a naturall instinct since his nature was corrupted He sins as the sparks fly upwards or as a bird flyes in the ayre whom no man directs how to use her wings Nature is her rute There needs much teaching against sin and it is the businesse of all the Ordinances to bridle us from acting our corruptions But man walkes in the ways of wickedness without guide or precept It was the ancient error of the Pelagians that the sin of man came only by imitation they denied that man had a stock of corruption in his nature or that his nature was corrupted but seeing others sin he sinned an opinion which carries its condemnation in its own face as wel as in our hearts And though similitudes are no proofs yet the reason of a similitude is mans sinning is therefore compared to a sparks flying to shew how naturally he sins A spark flyes upward without any to lead it the way and a bird would flye though she should never see another bird flye And if a man could live so as never to see any one example of sin all his dayes yet that man out of his own heart might bring forth every sin every day Example quickens and encourages the principles of sin within us but we can sin without any extrinsick motion or provocation without pattern or president from without Lastly observe To sin is no burden or labour to a natural man For it is his nature It is no paines to the sparke to flye upwards what we doe naturally we doe easily Holy duties are no burdens to a godly man because through grace he doth them naturally he hath an inward principle which dictates the law of holines to him though he should want outward teaching He hath an unction from the holy Ghost and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. Not that a godly man becomes like God Omniscient or knowing all for at most we know here but in part but he knows all things necessary and so farre as necessary his new birth teaches him He lives not meerely upon the outward teaching he hath both light liberty in himself and so hath a tendency to these things in his own spirit as there is a tendency in fire to ascend We should wonder and rejoyce to see how grace conquers the course of sinful nature The new man is born to mercy and holinesse to grace and glory as the sparks fly upward Hence it is said He that is born of God cannot commit sin for the seed of God remaineth in him As the sparke cannot flye downward because the heate of fire remaines in it The Apostle affirmes it of himselfe and his Fellow-labourers in the Gospell we can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor 13. 8. The possibilities and impossibilities of a regenerate man are directly opposite to those of a naturall man The one cannot sin the other cannot but sin the one can doe nothing against the truth the other can doe nothing for the truth gracious acts become as naturall as sinfull when nature is changed from sin to grace What a blessed change is this that man should doe good as readily as once he did evill that he who was borne free to iniquity should be re-borne free to righteousness as the sparke flye upward A godly man is a heavenly sparke He hath a fire in his nature which carries him upward for ever Thus having opened these two verses being the grounds of the following exhortation let us now examine the matter of the exhortation it selfe contained in the 8th verse Verse 8. I would seeke unto God and unto God would I commit my cause Our Translation omits one word in the beginning of this sentence which though it may be understood in our reading yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expression of it betters the sense Surely or truly I would seeke c. There are two opinions about the meaning of these words Some conceive that Eliphaz speaks in high contempt of Job and I may give you their sense by that proud schooling which the Pharisee gave the poor Publican Luke 18. As that Pharisee insulted over the publican thus I thank God I am not such a one as thou art c. but I fast and I pray c. So they represent Eliphaz here insulting over Job I thank God I am not such an impatient person as thou art no such rude curser of my day or complainer of my trouble I am not I thank God so distracted and so distempered as thou art and if I had been in thy case I should have shewed more wit and grace too then to do as thou hast done I should never have been so vaine and foolish so forgetfull of my own duty or the Lords Soveraignty as to cry out against and accuse his providence and dealings with me to lay about me like a mad man as thou hast done no I would have songht unto God and committed my cause unto him this should have been my course such and such the frame and temper of my spirit But I rather take these words in a good sense implying much sweetnesse and meeknesse of spirit in Eliphaz And so this verse is as an application of the Doctrine contained in the former two As if Eliphaz had said Seeing matters stand thus in themselves and these are undoubted truths that afflictions come from our selves and that our sinnes are our own and seeing thy case stands thus that now thou art under great afflictions and troubles I doe assure thee my loving friend Job were I in thy condition I will give thee faithfull counsell and tell thee my heart what I would doe I would no longer stay complaining against my day cursing creatures distempering my head and disquieting my heart with these passions but I would even goe and addresse my selfe unto God I would apply my selfe to Heaven I would seeke for remedy there earth affords it not I have ever found this the way to ease my heart when burdened to asswage my sorrowes when encreased to compose my spirit when distracted to strengthen my resolutions when unsetled I can give thee this rule with A Probatum est an assurance from mine own experience in the use of it and with clearnesse of conscience that it is my purpose in such cases to use it ever I would seeke unto God The word signifies a very diligent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat quaerere diligenter cuâ— curâ— sed interregatione veâ—biâ— ut plurimum search I would
my people and thy people That is those Armies of flies which invade thy people shall not meddle with my people To see one perish with and our selves saved from the sword is redemption in war To see others hunger-starved and our selves still fed is redemption from famine though our selves were never in the hands or between the teeth of famine A people devided from the troubles of others are redeemed from those troubles Such redemption our Saviour speaks of Mat. 24. 40 41. Two shall be in the field the one shall be taken the other left two women shall be grinding in the Mill the one taken the other left In Famine Famine is the want of bread and bread is the stay and staffe of life Lev. 26. 26. Isa 3. 1. Psal 105. 16. when this stay is gone our lives fall quickly or slip away When this staffe is broken the thread of life breaks too Man goes by the bread in his belly more than by the staffe in his hand Except bread hold us by the arme and stay us up down we fall Famine is so like or so near or so certaine a harbinger of death that the text puts them together In famine he shall redeem thee from death Famine is numbred among the sore judgements of God if it be not the sorest judgement Ezek. 6. 11. Jer. 24. 10. And therefore redemption from it is one of his choicest outward mercies We may collect how sore a judgement famine is by the effects of it First It causeth faintnesse and madnesse Gen. 47. 13. Secondly Hunger burneth Deut. 32. 24. That word is not used in the Hebrew except here Famine kindles a fire in the bowels When the naturall heat hath no fewell put to it to feed upon it feeds upon nature Sutable to this is the description of lamenting Jeremiah in the famine of Jerusalem Their faces are blacker then a cole Lam. 4. 8. and Chap. 5. 10. Our skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible famine Both the coal and the oven contract their blacknesse from burning heat Thirdly It causeth pining and languishment Lam. 4. 9. Fourthly Shame and howling Joel 1. 11. Fifthly Rage and cursing Isa 8. 21. Lastly It breaks all the bonds of nature and eats up all relations Read that dreâ—dfull threatning Deut. 25. 53 54. and that dreadfull example Lam. 4. 10. Tender mothers eating their children Famine eats up our bowells of compassion and then it eats our bowells by relation And which comes yet nearer Famine is such a devourer that it causeth man to devoure himself The Prophet describes a man in a fit of Famine snatching on the right hand and yet hungry eating on the left and yet unsatisfied when he cannot fill his belly abroad he comes home to himself and makes bold with his own flesh for food Every man eating the flesh of his own arme Isa 9. 20. We read of many great Famines in Scripture and withall of Gods care to redeem his people from them Abraham Gen. 12. who at the call of God denied himself and came out of his own into a strange Land was presently entertained with Famine One would have thought God should have made him good chear and have spread a plentifull table for him causing his cup to over-flow while he was in a strange Land and a meer stranger there yet he met with a famine but the Lord redeemed him from that famine by directing him to Aegypt that famous store house for his people Jacob and his sons were redeemed from famine in the same Egypt afterward their house of Bondage It is a precious comfort to have bread in such a promise as this when there is none upon the Board God takes care for the bodies of his people as well as for their souls he is the father of both and the provider for both And while we remember what sore afflictions have bin upon many Nations and people by famine While we remember Samaria's Famin 2 Kings 6. Jerusalems Famin Lam. 4. and that storied by Josephus in the Roman siege of that City While we remember the late famins in Germany and the present one in many parts of Ireland While we consider that the Sword threatens this Nation with famine Surely we should labour to get under such a promise as this is that we may plead with God in the midst of all scarcity and wants Lord thou hast promised to redeem Thine in famin from death There is no dearth in Heaven And whatsoever dearth is on Earth the plenty that is in Heaven can supply it How sad would it be if your poor children should come about you crying for bread and you have none to give them How much sadder would it be if your poor children should be made your bread and ground to pieces between your teeth as in the famin of Jerusalem In such a time to look up to God in the strength of this promise will be a feast to us though we should perish in the famin But how doth God redeem from famin First The Lord can make the barrell of meal and the oyle that is in the cruze though but little yet to hold out and last while the time of famine lasts Such a miracle redeemed the poor widdow from death in that great famin 1 Kings 17. Secondly He can redeem by lengthning one meal to many days Elijah went forty dayes in the strength of one dinner Man liveth not by bread without God but man may live by God without bread Thirdly Not onely are the stores of the creatures his and the fruitfulnesse of the earth at his command but if he please he can open the windows of Heaven he can bring bread out of the clouds he can make the winds his Caterers to bring in Quails and abundance of provision for his people Thus also he can redeem his from death in the time of famine Or fourthly He can doe it in a way of ordinary providence by making the land yeeld it's naturall increase and by giving strength to the Earth to bring forth plentifully for the use of man Fifthly While the common judgement lasts he can make some speciall provision for his And make a redemption of division as he did in another case for his people Exod. 8. 22. And lastly We may improve this promise not only for redemption from death in famine but for plenty of consolation though we should die in famine When the bread is quite taken away from your Table your hearts may feed upon such a word as this as upon marrow and fatnesse Christ can feast your soules when your bodies are ready to starve he can fill your spirits with joy and sweetnesse when there is nothing but leannesse in your cheeks Thus the Prophet Habakkuk triumphs in God Habak 3. 17. Though the Fig-tree shall not blessom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat The flock shall be cut off from the fold
originall beare such a translation when our sins are put into the ballance with our sufferings all our sufferings the heaviest we can feele or goe under in this life are but as a feather to a talent of lead As all the afflictions of this life are light in comparison of that exceeding weight of glory prepared for us in the next life So all the suffering of this life are light in comparison of the exceeding weight of one sin commited by us Therefore Job makes no such comparison here as if he had bin afflicted more than he deserved That of Ezra concerning the Church of the Jewes Chap. 9. 13. Thou our God hast punished us lesse then our iniquities deserve is true of every punishment put any punishment of this world spiritual or temporall in one scale and the least sin in another that lightest sin out-weighs our heaviest punishment Only in hell sins and sufferings shall be of equall poyse God will then powre and measure our punishments which shall come up to the proportion and demension of our sins and what the creature cannot bear at once in weight shall be weighed to him in eternity But to passe that rendring as unsafe O that my griefe were throughly weighed Our English word scale which is the instrument by which we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Libravit ponderavit olim moneta libraebatur ex pondere habebatur summa pecuniae ut mini ex numero nummoruÌ„ Ulpian weigh is well conceived to come from the Hebrew word here used Shakal signifying to weigh any thing but especially to weigh coyne or mony to weigh gold and silver As Gen. 23. 16. Abraham upon the purchace of that field which he bought of the children of Heth for a burying place weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named It was the custom of those times in stead of telling to weigh their mony and that was the most exact and ready way of paiment And from that word Shakal signifying to weigh money comes the Hebrew word for one speciall sort of mony the Shekel because they weighed by the shekel that being as their standard or a special coyne of such a known weight and value that all their coyne was weighed and valued by it So in Siclus moneta certi ponderis omnium ponderum reguâ—a the Latin and likewise in our English we call one speciall summe of mony A pound which is a weight and by which mony is commonly accounted and paid And hence by a Metaphor this word signifies to judge or to consider of a thing exactly and fully because of all matters that men weigh they will weigh gold and silver most exactly if a man weigh gold he weigheth it to a graine if gold want but the turning of the scale more then due weight or allowance it will not passe Isa 33. 18. Where is the Scribe where Vil begis verba ponderant Sanc. Quaestor praefectus aeratio militari Jun. is the Receiver The Hebrew is Where is the weigher that is either the spirituall weigher He that uses to be so exact in weighing every tittle of the law Or the Civill weigher because they used to weigh all the mony they received So then O that my griefe were throughly weighed is as if he had said O that my grief were weighed as gold and silver is weighed weighed exactly to the least to the utmost that you might fully know what it is The word single by it selfe notes an exact examination by weighing but when as here the word is doubled or by an Hebraisme repeated O that my griefe in weighing were weighed it heightens and increases the sense exceedingly Hence we translate O that my griefe were throughly weighed weighed so as that there might be a cleare discovery how much my sorrows weigh The doubling of a word to this sence is very frequent in Scripture I shall not need to instance Take only that Gen. 2. 17. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof in dying thou shalt die that is thou shalt surely die So here O that in weighing it were weighed that is O that it were throughly and exactly weighed Lay all together and it imports thus much as if Job had said I would not have my sorrows weighed at a vulgar beame or in ordinary ballances I would not have the sound or letter only of what I have spoken considered but I desire that you would take my complaints together the words and the matter and that you would weigh all impartially that you may come to a full understanding what my condition is and then surely you would give up a better judgement and make a fairer interpretation of my words then as yet you have put forth Thus he speaks also Chapter 31 6. Let me be weighed in an even ballance that God may know my integrity Uneven ballances will not make a perfect discovery That which is false cannot give a true report Things and persons act as they are therefore Job desireth to be weighed in an even ballance such a beame will speake the truth of my estate both to God and man God needs no meanes to make him know he knowes all immediately and he weighes by his eye not one thing by another but all things in themselves Job speakes of God after the manner of men And my calamity laid in the ballances together My griefe and my calamity Griefe caused by my calamity and calamity the cause of that griefe My calamity The word signifies any troublesome evil sad event 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or accident vulgularly called a mis-fortune O that this sad à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 estate and condition wherein I am were put into the ballance The Originall for ballances is very observeable As there is fuit eventus malus infortunium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trutina statera quod duas sc habeat lances velvt aures Pagn much elegancy in the word by which the action so in this by which the instrument of weighing is express'd It is found only in the plurall or duall number as many of that nature are The same word in Hebrew signifies also the eares which are the organ of hearing and the reason of it is thus given because as the tongue of the ballance stands like a judge between the two scales inclining to neither till the weight be laid in so should the eare of a Judge by office or of any man by deputation called to heare and determine of things in difference stand indifferent to both parties till he heare the matter debated and the reasons brought forth on either side The Moralists embleme this by the place of that Signe in the Zodiacke which they call the Virgin standing according to the doctrine of Astronomers between the Lion and the Bellances The Lion bids Virgin Justice be stout and fearelesse The Ballances advise her to weigh the matter