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
shed bloud when Satan would have God to afflict us doe it presently saith he when Satan would have us sinne against God doe it presently saith he now sinne now provoke God doe not stay till the next day but when we are called to give up our selves to God then to morrow will serve the turne and next yeare will serve to repent yea when you are old 't is time enough to repent when he tempteh to doe any mischiefe any sinne then now now sin but 't is time enough to doe good hereafter to morrow will serve for that Put forth now thine hand and touch all that he hath It is a truth which Satan here speakes concerning the hand of God That if God doe but touch the highest and greatest estate in the world it will fall to peeces quickly There is a truth in it take it in the easiest sense that can be if God doe but lightly touch the estate of a man it will soone fall in peeces God is not put to any stresse to afflict and punish as Psal 81.14 I should soone have subdued their enemies and have turned my hand against their adversaries God expresseth the utter over-throw of the enemies of his people but by the turning of a hand if God doe but turne his hand they are all gone presently soone subdued If he doe but touch the might the pompe the greatnesse the riches and the power of all those in the world that are opposers of his Church presently they fall to the ground A touch from the hand of God will end our warres If he touch the Mountaines they smoake as it is in the Psalme and consume to ashes they that are the mighty and great ones of the world the Mountaines by one touch of his hand fall as it were to nothing So if God doe but touch our estates they moulder away no creature can uphold them Then againe observe here the cunning imposture of Satan that puts such sore such heavy afflictions into such light and easie expressions he cloatheth his malice his utmost malice here in very faire words doe but touch him saith this enimie but you see what Satans touches are touch all that he hath Why Satan would nothing have made a tryall but only a touching of all For Job to have lost somewhat had been a tryall a touch for Job to have lost halfe his flockes of Sheepe or his Oxen had been a tryall and no very light one neither for Job to have lost a sonne to have found one of his children suddenly strucke dead had been an affliction and a heavy one too such a touch as that might well have touched the fathers heart Would it not serve Satan that a sonne should die or that some of his cattell should be destroyed but he must have all touched all that he hath The malice of Satan is unsatiable there is nothing will serve him unlesse he may devoure all This touch of Satan which he desireth might be laid upon Job is like the touch that many have given to those who have come into their hands amongst us they would but touch them but they would touch them in all when they put forth their hands as they pretended in wayes of justice in their Courts they would touch men in all touch them in their liberties by imprisonment and touch them in their estates by extreame vast fines and touch them in their names by disgrace touch them in their bodies by whipping and cutting and touch them in their relations by keeping all friends from sight of them No moderation no bounds but touch them in all that they had And O exactnesse of Justice when God came to touch that power he gave them a touch just after the rate and proportion of their owne touches for when those Courts and persons came to have their power and actions scanned it was not moderating or regulating or restraining or abating or limiting their power that satisfied they must quite downe and be taken away God gave them a touch just as they touched others before So that a man may say certainly there is a God that judgeth the earth These are the touches of Satan and the touches of mercilesse men are as like his as themselves are they thinke there is nothing done unlesse men be undone they never give over touching till they come to ruining Touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face Some render it thus Touch all that he hath if hee curse thee not to thy face So it is word for word out of the Originall nisi unlesse or Si non touch all that he hath and see if he doe not curse thee to thy face We give the sense of it in a direct affirmation touch all that he hath and he will c. Others put the force of an imprecation to it Touch all that he hath and see if he doe not curse thee to thy face that is as if he had said let me never be beleeved and never be trusted Indeed Satan is so farre disgraced and damned already that he hath nothing to loose he cannot damne himselfe further he cannot wish any thing to himselfe worse than he already is but yet here is a kind of execration or imprecation upon himselfe in it Doe this and if he doe not curse thee to thy face let me never be accounted of or as many use to say let me never be trusted or as some wretched hellish ones Let me be damned if such or such a thing be not There is such an emphasis in that manner of speaking used in the Text. But we translate it by a direct affirmation and that is a good sense too touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face that 's certaine so saith Satan he will doe it it is as sure as done already Curse thee It is the same word which is used before ver 5. It may be my children have cursed God The word signifies properly to blesse It was shewed that probably in that place it might be translated Curse but in this Text there is a necessity of translating it so seeing a cleare sence cannot be made out taking the word properly In cursing another these three things concurre First an ill opinion or conceit of that person 2. Hatred or malice against him 3. A desire that some evill may befall him This Satan meanes when he undertakes that Job being afflicted will curse God So then to curse God is to blaspheme God in our thoughts and words to think or speake unworthily of God and the wayes of God see if he curse thee not to thy face that is see if his heart be not imbittered against thee see if his tongue be not sharpened to wound thy honour to reproach thy goodnesse to accuse thy providence As it is said of those Isa 8.21 They shall be hungry and hard bestead And what then They shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God and looke
Hebrew is the face of the Lord hath divided them that is the Lord hath done such things as have the character of anger upon them that doe represent and hold forth nothing but the anger of the Lord unto a people and that anger of the Lord is called the face of the Lord unto a people Thirdly by the face of the Lord in Scripture we may understand the ordinances and the worship of God because in them and by them God is revealed manifested and knowne to his people as a man is knowne by his face So in the old Testament comming to God in those institutions was called appearing before God because in them God had promised to manifest himselfe unto his people Lastly the face of God is put for the common and generall presence of God in the world by which he filleth Heaven and Earth Psal 139.7 Whether shall I go from thy presence Now when it is said that Satan went forth from the face of God or from the presence of God it cannot be understood in the first or in the second sense for he cannot so come into the presence of God or before the face of God before his face of glory or before his face of favour Satan never came nor ever shall And as the presence of God is taken for his worship so Satan cares not to come into his presence Lastly as the face of God signifies his common and generall presence in the world so Satan cannot possibly goe out from his face Whether shall I goe from thy presence nor men nor devils are able to go out of the presence of the Lord in that sence for he filleth Heaven and Earth Then these words He went out from the presence of the Lord are spoken after the manner of men When a servant commeth to his Master to receive Commission to doe some businesse and hath his errand given him then he goeth out from the presence of his Master about his businesse So Satan comes here upon a businesse unto God he makes a motion and desireth to have such power put into his hand to doe such and such things the Lord grants it and so soone as ever he had his dispatch he goeth out of the presence of the Lord. So that the meaning is only this that Satan left off speaking with God left off moving God any further at that time and went out to execute that which he got commission to doe as servants goe out from the presence of their Masters when they have received warrant or direction what to doe While a servant is in expectation of his message or errand so long his eyes are upon his Master Our eyes wait upon thee O God as the eyes of servants looke unto the hands of their Masters Psal 123.3 The eyes of servants wait upon the face of the Master till they have received their message and then they goe out from their presence It notes the speed that Satan makes when he receives power from God to afflict or to chasten and try any of his children he makes no stay presently he goeth out from the presence of the Lord. Satan is speedy and active in executing any power that is committed unto him against the people of God against any particular member or against the Church in generall As soone as ever he hath but his Commission to afflict he is gone about it instantly As the good Angels in Heaven are described to have wings because as soone as ever they have received a command from God they are upon the wing they fly as it were to fulfill the will of God and in that sense goe out of his presence So Satan and the wicked Angels are upon the wing too in that sense as soon as ever they have received power they presently put it in execution And we may in this make Satan himselfe our patterne As we pray that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven in heaven by the good Angels So in this sense I say we may desire that we may doe the will of God with as much speed as the evill Angels It is not unwarrantable to learne from Satan speedily to be doing about the will of God JOB 1.13 14 c. And there was a day when his sonnes and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brothers house And there came a messenger unto Job and said The Oxen were plowing and the asses feeding besides them And the Sabeans fell upon them c. IN the former context we shewed you the affliction of Job mooved by Satan and permitted by God Touch all that he hath is Satans motion All that he hath is in thine hand is Gods permission From this 13th verse to the end of the 19th the afflictions of Job are particularly described and we may observe 6 particulars in the Context concerning his afflictions 1. The time or season of his afflictions And there was a day when his sonnes and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brothers house ver 13. 2. The instruments or the meanes of his afflictions Satan who undertooke the afflicting of Job stands as it were behind the doore he doth not appeare in it but sets on others His instruments were first cruell and bloody minded men the Sabeans verse 15. The Chaldeans verse 17. Secondly those active creatures devouring fire and stormy windes the fire verse 16. the winde verse 19. 3. The matter of his affliction or in what he was afflicted it was in his outward estate 4. The variety of his afflictions he was not smitten in some one thing in some one part of his outward estate but he was afflicted in all his Oxen his Asses and his Camels violently taken away his Sheep burnt up by the fire his sons and his daughters over-whelmed and crushed by the fall of an house all his servants attending upon these slaine consumed destroyed excepting only one from every stroke to be the sad relator or messenger of these calamities 5. The suddennesse of his afflictions they came all upon him in one day 6. The uncessantnesse of the report of these afflictions the sound of them all was in his eares at once as they were all brought upon him in one day so they are all told him in one houre yea by the story it doth appeare there were but very few moments betweene the first and the last For the Text saith that no sooner had one messenger ended his dolefull news but another begins nay they did not stay so long as to let one another make an end but the Text saith While the former was yet speaking there came another and said and so while the next was yet speaking there came another and said while he was yet speaking another c. So that Satan did not give Job so much as the least minute of intermission to breath a while or recollect himselfe His troubles both in the acting and in the reporting were close
cloathed with strength proportionable Satan is a mighty Prince commanding in the spirits of wicked men ther 's his Throne he can kindle their lusts and â—â—flame their spirits set them on fire from hell and then cause them to goe on with a rage in doing mischiefe as high as Heaven He can leade men captive at his will though not against their owne will Yet to shew the efficacy of his actings he is said to lead them captive at his will to doe his will and execute his devillships designes It is admirable what Satan can doe upon wicked men who are his willing vassals and bond-slaves if he speake the word they goe if he suggest they submit if he move they obey And likewise we see what a mighty Prince he is in the aire all the elements and the meteors stoope to his direction He cannot onely command men who have reason but he can command the fire the water the winds the thunders therefore he is called the Prince of the power of the ayre those powers that are in the aire he can command For though it be a truth that Satan of himselfe cannot make one sparke of fire or so much as one breath of wind yet if hee be let loose and unchain'd hee can goe to Gods Store-house of wind and fire hee can goe to Gods Magazin of thunder stormes and tempests he can fetch out such store of all these and so enrage them that no man is able to withstand their violence The Apostle taxes all naturall men that they live without God in the world that is they live without a sensible apprehension of the Majesty of the power and holinesse of God they are not affected with God in the world I may say in a sense unto many godly men and it may be a reproofe unto them that they live without the devill in the world that is they have not such apprehensions of the power and policy and sleights of Satan as they ought to have We doe not know or apprehend as we ought and as we might who the devill is or what his power is I doe not speake this as if I would have any meditate and pore upon the power of Satan so as to be afraid of him that 's no part of my intent but it is for this end that our hearts might be raised up to blesse God who doth binde up such an enemy and bound such a power who if hee were let alone would doe us mischiefe an hundred times in a day Nay he would unquiet and unsettle the whole world This is the reason why we should consider the power and policy of Satan to blesse God who stops the mouth of this Lyon so that he cannot stirre to doe that mischiefe unto which his nature doth at once encline and inable him Verse 20. Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell downe upon the ground and worshipped Verse 21. And said Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Verse 22. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly These three verses containe the third Division of the Chapter as we shewed in the Analysis of it We have seene in the first the character of Job in his prosperous estate and the description of his prosperity We have seen his afflictions in the causes in the time in the instruments in the matter and in the manner of inflicting them In this third part we have the carriage of Job how Job tooke it how he behaved himselfe in this sad condition And likewise how God tooke it that Job did so behave himself So then We may note two things in the generall out of these 3 verses 1. We have the carriage of Job his behaviour 2. We have the testimony of God concerning his carriage and behaviour The carriage and behaviour of Job is laid downe verse 20 21. And concerning his carriage the Text gives us to consider 1. What Job did 2. What Job said 1. What he did and that is in the 20th verse and there we find mentioned five distinct actions of Job upon the receiving of the relation of his affliction 1. He arose 2. He rent his mantle 3. He shaved his head 4. He fell downe upon the ground 5. He worshipped 2. What he said and that is in the 21. verse And he said Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked c. His sayings containe two strong and undeniable argumentall Propositions and one cleare Conclusion flowing naturally from them both or from either of them by which he doth acquit the Lord in his afflicting of him and also support and strengthen his own soule under those afflictions The testimony of God concerning Jobs carriage is in the 22. ver The Lord comes in as it were like an umpire to determine who got the day which is resolved when he saith In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly These words expressely set the Laurell of victory upon the head of Job Satan undertooke that Job if touched would curse God now saith God looke upon him touch'd see what he hath done examine all his actions that are past observe what he hath spoken weigh every word that hath come out of his mouth in the ballance of truth and reason and when thou hast done both tell me whether he hath yet cursed me I pronounce that in all he hath done in all he hath said Job hath not charged God foolishly That in the generall for the sum of the Context and for the parts of it To begin first with what Job did his actions Then Job arose and rent his mantle c. Then Job stood out the three former assaults unmoveably but when he had received the fourth then his bowels were moved And then c. Job arose This was his first action to arise is properly an act of one that sitteth he is said to arise that before did sit or lie But yet in Scripture to arise is not alwayes taken so strictly neither is it in this place To arise in the Scripture language notes two things First the speedinesse of doing a thing when a man doth a thing instantly or presently he is said to arise to doe it to arise and doe it though he were standing or walking before This is an Hebraisme He arose and rent his mantle that is He presently rent his mantle upon the hearing of these messages especially the last And so you have the word in divers places as Judg. 20.18 The children of Israel arose and went to the house of the Lord that is they went presently up to the house of the Lord 2 Sam. 14.31 Then Joab arose and went to Absolom the meaning is only this that upon the receiving of that message he went with speed he made no delayes And Nehem. 2.18 when Nehemiah exhorted them to the great worke of building
from the seat of life to save the skin of that member which is so neare the seat of life Secondly by skin in the former place some understand all the outward estate that Iob had It was usuall in those times to expresse all riches by the word Skin and the reason of it was this because as was observed before their substance was cattell and so from the skin of their cattell they did denominate their estates Or as others because their mony was made of skins and so they did expresse their wealth and riches under the word skin Answerable to which custome the Latin word for houshold-stuffe or household goods is derived from that word which properly signifies a skin because either they were wont to wrap up their goods in skins or because they did put a great value upon skins and so their whole outward personall estate was comprehended under that notion Hence that common Proverbe amongst the Ancients Thou spendest out of another mans skinne To be liberall out of another mans estate was called a being lavish upon another mans skinne And then skin in the second place doth signifie the man himselfe or the person of a man the thing containing or that which covereth being put for the whole by a Synecdoche the skin for the whole man And it is usuall in good Authours to put the skin for the whole man as to looke to the skin is to looke to the whole body Take it thus that skin in the first place is all outward things and skin in the second is taken for the skin that covereth the body and so the sense runs thus Skin for skin c. that is a man will give all his outward estate to save the flesh upon his backe that is to save his life As if Satan had said this act of Iob which is so cryed up and made a matter so considerable being examined will be found as ordinary as the High-way It being common to a Proverbe for a man to part with all that hee may preserve himself There is a third exposition much labour'd by a learned Interpreter who by skin in the first place understands not generally all his estate but more especially his apparrell his cloathing which at the first were made of skins and were used long after for cloathings by Princes and great men in divers Countries from which the sense of the Proverbe is thus given skin for skin c. A man will part with his cloathes cast them off willingly easily that he may save the skin of his body save his life And so he expounds it by that act of Iob in the former Chapter vers 20 where it is said that Job rent his mantle and cast it off as if Satan had alluded unto that and said no marvell if Iob humbled himselfe to the dust and renting his garment cast that away when he heard all was taken from him Iob parted with the skin his garment that he might move thee to compassion and so save his other skin the garment which cloathes his flesh which he feared thou wouldest rent by wounding and so let out his trembling soule his beloved life A fourth gives this interpretation of the words Skin for skin c. The Originall Preposition which we translate for is often in Scripture likewise translated upon as in 2 Kingâ— 5 The widdow went from Elisha and shut the doore upon her and upon her sonne So in other places then the sence is made out thus Skin upon skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life that is if a man had never so many skins if it could be supposed he had an hundred skins one upon another he would let all be taken oft to save his life That place is expounded as a paralell Iob. 1.16 where it is said That of Christs fullnesse we receive grace for grace that is grace upon grace or abundance of grace all the grace we have this grace and that grace faith and love and patience and humility every grace all grace you receive from Christ Thus some illustrate these two places one by another So Satan saith of Iob here Skin for skin that is skin upon skin a man will give all his skins suppose he had many he would part with all or take skin for never so much of his outward estate he will let all goe to save his life There is yet another interpretation given of this Skin for skin ye all that a man hath wil he give for his life take the words comparatively we translate it yea all he hath That copulative particle in the Hebrew is rendered sometime and sometime yea sometime so according to which last exception the sense standeth thus as a man will give skin for skin so a man will part with all he hath for his life We finde some Scriptures wherein this particle is taken in the very same sense To give you instance Prov. 25.3 there the Hebrew reades it thus The heavens for height the earth for depth and the heart of Kings is unsearchable Now this is cleare that the sense is comparative and it is thus to be given as the Heaven is unsearchable for height and the earth for depth so the heart of the King is unsearchable So verse 25. of the same Chapter it is thus read out of the Originall word for word Cold water to a thirsty soule and good newes from a farre country now we translate it according to the sense and make it a comparison thus As cold water to a thirsty soule so is good newes from a farre country Thus also we may interpret this place and it carries a good sense Skin for skin and all c. As a man would give skin for skin one outward thing for another for they take skin in both places for outward things for the goods of this life as a man would give or barter away one commodity for another So a man will give all outward things for his life life is more valuable to all outward things than any one particular thing is to another It is ordinary to a Proverbe among men in danger to say spare my life and take my goods How willingly doth the Mariner in a storme unlade his Ship and cast all his rich wares over-board that he may preserve that precious jewell his life As a godly man will give life upon life a thousand lives if he had them rather then loose his soule So a natural man will give skin upon skin gold upon gold treasure upon treasure that he may save his life Let life lie at the stake and a man will give all things he hath in the world for it and thinke he hath a good bargaine Here are 5. expositions you see offered The two latter to me seeme the most cleare howsoever every one of them hath a faire sense in it and so we are agreed upon the generall which is onely to set forth the excellency and preciousnesse
of sleepe sleepe is a short death and death is a long sleepe Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth saith Christ to his Disciples Jâ—h 11.11 but I goe that I may awake him out of sleepe In the 14th verse Jesus said unto them plainely Lazarus is dead Then had I beene at rest We usually say when a man goes to sleepe he goes to rest Yet rest is more then sleepe for sometimes a man sleepes when he doth not rest his very sleepe being troubled and he troubled in his sleepe But when rest is joyned with sleepe it is perfect sleepe The word here used signifies a very quiet setled and peaceable condition Hence Noah had his name And he called his name Noah saying this sonne shall comfort us concerning our worke and toile of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed Gen. 5.29 He was rest and comfort to the old world by preaching righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is by faith which alone gives rest unto the soule and is able to refresh us in the midst of all those toyles and labours which that first curse brought upon the world both new and old Such rest and sweet repose had I found saith Job from all my toile in the house of death and bed of the grave Having thus foure words concurring in the same sense we may here not unprofitably take notice of that elegant multiplication of words in the holy Scriptures There store is no soare and variety is no superfluity yea there Tautologie is no superfluity It is the usuall rhetorick of the Holy Ghost to speake the same thing in divers words yea sometime in the same words We find such a congeries or heaping up of words used for the most part in some heate of passion or vehemency of spirit As first when God would expresse a great deale of anger and wrath against a people he speakes thus Isa 14.22 23. I will rise up against them saith the Lord of hostes and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant and sonne and nephew I will also make it a possession for the Bittern and pooles of water and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction Here are a multitude of words and all tending to the same purpose setting forth the fiercenesse of Gods anger and the resolvednesse of his judgement for the ruining of Babylon The towring confused pride of the King of Babylon is presented to us in such a heape of words Isa 14.13 14. heare the pure language of pride from that Kings heart Thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my throne above the Starres of God I will sit also upon the mount of the Congregation I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most High The manifold apostacies and backslidings of Judah are described in many words by the Prophet Zephanie chap. 1.6 And them that are turned bank from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for him Chap. 3.2 She obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not neere to her God When our Lord Christ would shew the extreame ignorance and darknesse of his Disciples in those great Articles of his sufferings death and resurrection having taken the twelve unto him and discoursed of those points he concludes Luk. 18.31 34. And they understood none of these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken As if Christ had said their ignorance in these mysteries was so great that they had not the least glimpse or glimmerings of light about them So here I should have lien still and been quiet I should have slept and been at rest and all to note the interrupted-quiet and tranquility of the grave As if he had said Had I died then not only had not these stormes been upon me nor these waves gone over me but the least breath of wind had never blowne upon me Hence we may observe First That in regard of all outward troubles death is the rest of man Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours And they who die out of the Lord rest from all that labour they have had in this world There is no worke nor device nor knowledge nor wisedome in the grave whither thou goest Eccles 9.10 This life is a day of working and death is a night of resting The Sunne ariseth man goeth forth to his labour untill the evening Psal 104.23 When the Sunne of our life ariseth we goe forth to our labour untill the evening of death This life is a continued motion death is a continued rest This life is but noise and tumult death is silence Our life is a stormy passage a tempestuous sea-voyage death bringeth us to the harbour There is a foure-fold rest which we obtaine in death First A rest from labour and travaile no working there Secondly There is a rest from trouble and oppression no warres no bloody battels there Thirdly There is a rest from passion no sorrow no griefe shall afflict us there In the grave there is a fourth rest better then all these a rest from sin a rest from the drudgerie of Satan a rest from the winnowings and buffetings of Satan a rest from the law of our members warring against the law of our minds When Saul went to the witch of Endor for advise with Samuel that Samuel or the Devill in the appearance of Samuel speakes as one disturb'd being raised from the grave Why saith he hast thou disquieted me to bring me up 1 Sam. 28.15 I was at rest why diddest thou call me up to a land of trouble It is the observation of an ancient Father and the resolution of an ancient Councell concerning Christs weeping over Lazarus Joh. 11. That not his death but his rising drew those teares When Christ came to the grave where Lazarus lay the Text saith that Jesus wept Why did Christ weepe saith Jerome in comforting a mother that had lost her daughter It is cleare that Christ wept over Lazarus that was dead but he did not weepe thy teares Christ did not weepe because Lazarus was dead but he wept rather because Lazarus was to be raised up againe he wept to thinke that his friend Lazarus should be brought back into so troublesome a world And it was the resolution of the third Toletane Councell that Christ did not weepe over Lazarus because he was dead but because he was to be raised up againe to feele the burdens and afflictions of this life that was their apprehension of it And it is a truth that whosoever lives the common life of nature lives in trouble But such is not the life of him who is raised from the dead The lives of such though here
made Jeremie enquire Why doth the way of the wicked prosper As if he had said If I could see the reason of it it would satisfie me but while thou keepest me in the darke and I can give no account to my owne soule or those that aske me of this thy dispensation to wicked men this is the burthen of my soule It is usually said They are happy who know the causes of things And in regard of the diseases of the body we say that a disease is halfe cured when the cause of it is discovered But when a Physition is in the darke and cannot find out the cause of a disease he must needs be in the darke for the remedy of it So it is also with a man in regard of any affliction when he cannot find out the cause he knoweth not what to pitch upon as a remedy When Rebekah Gen. 25.22 had twins in her wombe and they strugled together within her she was much troubled and nothing would satisfie her untill she went to God to know the reason of the thing Lord saith she why am I thus And when God had told her that two Nations were in her wombe and that two manner of people should be separated from her bowels she made no more complaints So when there are such strivings such struglings and contrary motions of trouble in us or about us the soule goes to God and enquires why is it thus Lord I am more troubled with the ignorance of my troubles then with the weight or smart of them Thirdly Take the words as respecting the issue or deliverance from trouble and they affoord us this observation That It is a great addition to an affliction not to see or discerne a way to escape or get out of affliction To be in an affliction out of which there appeares no passage unlesse the soule be mightily supported by the hand and power of Christ brings within a step of despaire The Apostle speakes as much when he saith 1 Cor. 10.13 There is no temptation hath taken hold of you but that which is common to man and then it followes but God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to beare it As if he should say If God did not indeed discover or make out to you some way of escaping I must needs say you were never able to beare it but saith he God will make a way for you to escape that ye may be able to beare it Meaning that the opening of this way would revive their spirits and then they would be able through the strength of Christ to beare it If so then how shall the soule beare an affliction when God instead of making a way to escape doth as it were make a hedge to stop all escape Therefore when the Lord would support his people in their troubles he promised that they should have a doore of hope opened to them I will give her the valley of Achor for a doore of hope Hos 2.15 He would give her some appearance some glimpses and openings of deliverance in and from their present dangers It is threatned Deut. 28.25 thou shalt come out one way against thine enemies and flie seven wayes before them they should flie many wayes but they should escape no way Thou shalt come out one one way and flie seven wayes that is thou shalt try this and that and every way to escape but thou shalt find a hedge at every wayes end to stop and hinder thy escape We use to say of a man in a distressed condition He is in a wood or in a wildernesse And when God entangles men in their own devises it is said He powreth contempt upon Princes and causeth them to wander in the wildernesse where there is no way Psalm 107.40 So Pharaoh said of the children of Israel they are entangled in the land the wildernesse hath shut them in Exod. 14.3 And when a people are as the children of Israel were having a a Sea before them an army behind them and Mountaines on either hand Then they may say as Job did their way is hid and God hath hedged them in For my sighing cometh before I eate and my roarings are powred out like water Here Job takes up the former proposition and applies it particularly to his own person Before he said only in the generall why is light given to him that is in misery and why is light given to a man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged in Now he saith in effect it is thus with me I am a man in misery and I am a man whose way God hath hid and hedged in wherefore then is my life continued And he proves that he was in such a condition by the effects of it sighes and roarings So that this verse holds forth two things about Jobs sorrow First The continuance of it in those words My sighing comes before I eate Secondly The extremity of it in those My roarings are powred out c. The argument may be thus framed That man is in extreame and continuall misery who doth not so much breath as sigh who when he would speake is forced to roare But thus it is with me my sighing cometh before I eate and my roarings are powred out like water therefore my misery is extreame and continuall My sighing cometh before I eate In the Hebrew it is word for word thus before the face of my bread my sighings come Which Hebraisme before the face of my bread hath a great emphasis in it It notes the continuance of his sorrowes without any intermission When a thing is said to be before the face of another it notes an equall continuance with that before the face of which it is said to be As in the negative Exod. 20.3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me so we translate it the Hebrew is Thou shalt have no other gods before my face that is so long as I continue to be thy God thou shalt have no other god but I shall be thy God to all eternity therefore thou shalt have no other gods but me for ever So in the affirmative Psalm 72.5 where under the type of Solomons Kingdome the continuance of the Kingdome of Christ is prophecied the Holy Ghost saith It shall continue so long as the Sunne and Moone endureth the Hebrew is it shall continue before the face of the Sunne and of the Moone that is there shall be an equall duration of the Kingdome of Christ and of those lights of Heaven the Sun and the Moone The Kingdome of Christ shall last as long as the world shall last So then according to this sense before the face of my bread my sighings come is as if he had said looke how long I have my bread before me looke how much time I spend in eating so much time I spend in sighing my