vve have used them both for our owne good and the good of others I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe thus saith the Lord Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised Jer. 31.18 Ephraims outward moanes were as musick in the eares of God Ephraim did not murmure against God but he bemoaned himselfe Ephraim was not angry at his chastisement but Ephraim mourned being chastised God heard this fully in hearing hee heard it or it pleased him to heare it It is our duty to testifie our sorrow by the saddest notes of a troubled spirit and it is a delight to God when vve doe so not that hee delights in our sorrows but he delights in the witnesse vvhich vve beare to his wisedome righteousnesse and faithfulnesse in sending those sorrowes I heard Ephraim bemoane himselfe Will an offendor that lookes for mercy come before the Judge in rich apparrell or in some affected dresse Comes he not rather in his Prison clothes puts he not on the garments of heavinesse The Messengers of Benhadad put dust on their heads and ropes about their necks and sack-cloth on their loynes when they came to mediate for the life of their Master And thus the Lord speakes to the Israelites Exod. 33.5 when they had sinned and he was wroth Put off your Ornaments that I may know what to doe with you Ornaments are uncomly when God is threatning judgements It is time for us to lay by our bravery when God is about to make us naked Sack-cloth sowed upon the skin and our horne in the dust are the best ensignes of an afflicted state The Prophets counsell indeed is Joel 2.13 Rend your hearts and not your garments Rending the garments may be taken not onely strictly for that act but largely for all outward actings of sorrow Yet when he saith Rent not this is not a prohibition of but a caution about the outward acting of their sorrow Not in Scripture is not alwayes totally negative it is often directive and comparative So in this place Rend your hearts and not your garments is your hearts rather then your garments or be sure to rend your hearts as well as your garments The one must be done the other ought not to be left undone See more of this Chap. 1. Vers 20. upon those word Then Job rent his Mantle Thirdly Observe Great sorrow produceth great effects and leaveth such impressions as testifie where it is The Apostle saith of the sorrow of the World That it worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 The sorrow of the World may be taken two wayes First For the sorrow of carnall worldly men whose sorrow for sin is only a vexing of their hearts not a breaking or humbling of their hearts which being separate both from true faith for the pardon of sin and from any reall purpose of leaving their sin worketh death both temporall death often wearing out their naturall life lingringly and sometime destroying their naturall life violently as in Judas as also hastning them on to eternall death of which it selfe is a foretast or beginning Secondly This sorrow of the World is a sorrow for the losse of or disappoyntments about worldly things This also worketh both those deaths in meere worldly men and when it is excessive as under a temptation it may be in a godly man it may be sayd to worke the death of the body in him yea great and continued sorrow though it be not excessive worketh towards this death in a godly man drying his bones and drawing out his spirits as is cleare in Job on whose eye-lids the very shadow of death sate while hee wept and sorrowed 'T is hard to dissemble a little griefe but a great deale cannot be hid As godly sorrow manifests it selfe in excellent effects upon the soule of which the Apostle numbers up seven at the eleventh Verse of that Chapter For this selfe same thing that yee sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulnesse it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves c. Now I say as godly sorrow manifests it selfe in manifold effects upon the soule so doth the sorrow of the World set its marks upon the body As a good mans heart is made cleane by weeping the teares of godly sorrow so every mans face is made foule by weeping the teares of worldly sorrow and as godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation and life eternall so the sorrow of the World vvorketh an entrance to temporall death yea we may say that godly sorrow doth sometimes worke temporall death Paul was afrayd lest the incestuous person while he was repenting might be Swallowed up with over much sorrow 2 Cor. 2.7 vvhich as vvee are to understand cheifely of a swallowing up in the gulfe of despaire so we may take in that also as a consequent of the other a swallowing of him up in the Grave of death as if hee had sayd The poore man may both despayre and dye under this burden if you let it lye too long upon him As soone as Heman had sayd in his desertion My soule is full of troubles he presently adds And my life draweth nigh unto the Grave I am counted with them that goe downe to the pit free among the dead Psal 88.3 4 5. To which he subjoyns Ver. 9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction and then expostulates Vers 10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead Shall the dead arise and praise thee As if he had sayd These sorrows will bring me to my grave or in the language of Job On my eye-lids is the shadow of death Till wee enjoy a life beyond the reach of all sorrows wee shall not be beyond the reach of death Hence that promise Revel 21.4 God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neyther sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine And as that life which hath no death in it shall have no sorrow in it so that life which is a continuall death the life of the damned is nothing else but sorrow There shall be weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth for evermore Mat. 13.42 Their eyes shall ever weep their faces shall ever be foule with weeping and on their eye-lids the shadow of death shall dwell for ever Fourthly The hand of God being heavy upon Job he defiled his horne in the dust and fouled his face with weeping he regarded neyther the beauty of his face nor the dignity of his condition all was nothing to him Learne from it Great afflictions take off our respect to the World and all worldly things What is honour What is Gold or Silver What is a goodly House What is a beautifull Wife and pleasant Children What are fine cloathes or a faire face in a day of sorrow or in the approaches of death Spirituals are highest prized when we are lowest Grace shines clearest in worldly darknesse but the light of worldly enjoyments is darknesse to us and that vvhich some esteeme as a Sun is but a
revolt from him will not feare to runne upon his necke even upon the thicke Bosses of his Buckler Thus Eliphaz hath given us an account why the Lord afflicts a wicked man all his dayes he fights against God all his dayes We have a reason of this reason in the next words why it is that this wicked man is such a valiant Champion against God why he commits wickednesse with so much greedinesse it is Because he covers his face with his fatnesse c. The fatter and fuller he grows in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh the more hungry and sharpe set he is to fulfill them Full-feeding in sin doth not satisfie but increase a sinfull appetite JOB Chap. 15. Vers 27 28 29 30. Because he covereth his face with his fatnesse and maketh collops of fat on his flankes And he dwelleth in desolate Cities and in Houses which no man inhabiteth whiâ—h are ready to become heaps He shall not be rich neither shall his substance continue neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof vpon the earth He shall not depart out of darknesse the flame shall dry up his branches and by the breath of his mouth shall he goe away AS the two former Verses shewed sin the cause of those evills which befall a wicked man so here Eliphaz shewes us two causes of their sin First Their riches Secondly Their power The first is here described tropically by Fatnesse Vers 27. He covereth his face with fatnesse and maketh collops of flesh on his flanks Both parts of the Verse meane the same thing shewing the wicked mans worldly prosperity by the usuall visible effects of it a fat face and fleshy flanks He covereth his face with fatnesse 〈◊〉 prae aâ—pe oculus eorum i. e. exisse videntur prae genarum tumore pinguedine Bold That is he is exceeding fat a phrase like that Psal 73.7 Their eyes stand out with fatnesse The Hebrew is Their eyes are gone out of their heads through fatnesse that is They seem as gone or going out of their heads 'T is usuall in the language of the Holy Ghost to describe wicked men by fatnesse Psal 78.31 He slew the fattest of them that is the worst of them those who were most rebellious longing after dainties Singulaâ—i quodam infamiae titulo impii iniqui in scriptura vocantur pingues when God had given them bread from Heaven David sets forth his Enemies and so the Enemies of Christ of whom that Psalme is a Prophesie under this notion Psal 22.12 Strong bulls or fat bulls came about me By the fat Bulls he meanes the Scribes and Pharisees the high Priest and Rulers who as it were beset Christ with continuall conspiracies More plainely Psal 17.9 10. Keepe me from mine Enemies that oppresse me They are inclosed in their owne fat with their mouth they speake proudly Againe Psal 119.70 Their heart is as fat as grease but I delight in thy Law The Scripture speakes thus not as if fatnesse had any morall evill in it or as if leanenesse had any morall good in it Fatnesse doth not discommend us nor doth leannesse commend us to God yea a man leane in body may have the worst fatnesse he may be proud swolne and puft up in spirit and â— man fat in body may have the best leannesse much selfe-emptinesse and poverty of spirit But because they who have abundance and grow fat with the Creature are tempted to forgetfulnesse of and rebellion against God and because a body overburdened with flesh and fat renders the minde more indisposed to holy and spirituall activity and usually they who bestow most care and cost in pampering their bodies goe with pined starved and leane soules therefore fatnesse heares ill in Scripture Hoc Aegyptii inuere videbantur dum sâ—cerdotes Isiaci solerent dare Api Bovi quem colebant potum ex quodam puteo non autem ex Nilo quia ejus aqua pota creditur pinguedinem carnisque magnum facere incrementum Plutarch Tract de Iside c. Iberi etiam Galli antiqui zonae mensuram habebant quam si mulier quae gravida non esset capere non posset probro magno afficiebatur Alex. ab Alex. l. 2. c. 25. It is observed by Plutarch that the Aegyptian Priests gave their Apis a Deity which they worshipped in the forme of an Oxe the water of a Pit or Well not the water of Nilus to drinke the reason was not as some assigne it because they thought those waters were prophaned by the Crocodile for the Aegyptians had that River in high veneration but because the waters of Nilus were fatning nourishing waters therefore their Apis whom they adored as a God and from whom they expected continuall helpe must not drinke of it least the grosnesse of his flesh should disable him for their assistance Fat corpulent men are in common experience unweildy sleepy and comparatively unfit for action It was a custome as my Author reports among the ancient Spaniards and Gaules to keep a constant measure which if a Woman shee not being with Childe did exceed in the compasse of her waste she fell under disgrace and lost much of her reputation by having got so much of fat and flesh about her And doubtlesse it had somewhat of disrepute in it in Jobs time else Eliphaz a man of experience had not given this as a peice of a wicked mans description He covereth his face with fatnesse And maketh collops of flesh upon his flanks Which Master Broughton renders thus And maketh plaites upon the panch Master Calvin Translates it thus He hath larded his guts Est descriptio summae abunddamiae Jun. This latter clause of the Verse is of the same intendment with the former And that which both reprove as sinfull is the intentnesse of mans Spirit about the pampering of his Flesh He covereth his face with fatnesse he makes collops c. He doth not say Because he is fat but because he covers his face with fatnesse c. That is he sets his heart upon his belly and makes it his businesse to pamper his body He is active yea full of activity in getting this cover or mask of fatnesse upon his face and this mask discovers the naughtinesse of his heart Hence Observe That it is a signe of an evill heart or a leane soule to intend the flesh or to study the satisfying of the bodily appetite A carnall man gives himselfe to deliciousnesse his greatest labour is about that for which Christ forbids our labour The meat that perisheth John 6.27 This covering of our selves with fatnesse and makings collops of fat the Apostle reproves in those Whose God was their belly Phil. 3.19 and in those who served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their owne belly Rom. 16.18 They who serve their belly as they should serve God make a god of it and they who serve their belly at all doe not serve Christ at all We may provide for the belly but
we must not serve it and they who doe so deserve rather to be called Epicures then Christians That 's sinfull fatnesse which is got upon termes of slavery or service to the belly yea a man that is intentive upon that question What shall I eate and carefull how to feed his flesh though he doe not grow fat by it yet he shewes himselfe full of sin by it The designe of such is for the flesh though their flesh doe not thrive under that designe As a man may be very covetous though he continue poor and leane in purse so a man may be very luxurious and a great servant to Bacchus and Belly-cheare though he continue leane and poore in body The blessing of God fattens some and such fat ones blesse God David Prophesies that when The Kingdome shall be the Lords and he the Governour among the Nations which is very paralell with what those great voyces sayd after the seventh Angel had sounded Revel 11.15 The Kingdomes of this World are become the Kingdomes of the Lord and of his Christ and hee shall reigne for ever and ever and when this shall be saith David Psal 22.30 Then all they that be fat upon the Earth shall eate and worship that is the great ones shall submit to Christ his Kingdome shall be inlarged and not onely the poore who are described in the latter part of that Verse in the Psalme under the name and notion of such as goe downe to the dust but the rich shall receive the Gospell Kings and Queens persons of Authority and wealth shall come to the participation of the grace of Christ Isa 60.3.10 They who have their bellye 's full of the meat that perisheth shall have their soules full of that meat which endures to everlasting life Psal 45.12 The rich among the people What people The first words of the Verse tell us he meanes the Tyrians who were a wonderfull rich people Isa 23.8 Ezek. 27. and the Tyrians are here put by a Synechdoche for all other Heathens for though Tyre were a City in the Tribe of Aser Josh 19.29 yet it was at that time possessed by Heathens Now saith the Psalmist The rich among these people shall intreat thy favour That is the Churches favour God will work their hearts to an earnest desire of admission into the society of the Saints and to live under a professed subjection to the Gospel of Jesus Christ who have abounded in worldly possessions and hold the World in subjection to their power These rich and fat ones among the people shall intreat thy favour This Prophesie was in part fulfilled Mark 3.8 where we read of great multitudes from Tyre and Sidon flocking after Christ So that it is not riches and fatnesse precisely considered but the intending of our skin or our studiousnesse to fill our selves with earthly delicates which shewes we have weak appetites to or rather a loathing of the things of Heaven Secondly This covering the face with fat is here presented by Eliphaz as a cause or occasion at least of the wicked mans arming himselfe against God Bonorum abundantia vitiorum omnium materiam subministrat Hence Observe That an evill heart turnes the blessings of God into rebellion against him The Jewes were thus charged Deut. 32.15 Jesurun waxed fat and kicked The Lord complaines of this as of a sin which he scarse knew how to pardon Jer. 5.7 How shall I pardon thee for this Thy Children have forsaken me c. When I had fed them to the full they then committed Adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the Harlots houses Those are great sins indeed which put the Lord whose title is The God pardoning sin and ready to forgive into a querie about their pardon and forgivenesse Such kind of sinning made Jerusalem a Sister to Sodom that is as like Sodom yea and Samaria too as if they had been one Mothers Daughters or as if they had been of one and the selfe-same blood and stock Ezek. 16.49 Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse was in her and in her Daughters Plenty of the Creature and plenty of sin went together and whereas Jerusalem should have served God shee served her lusts in the abundance of all things We have a saying when men are lifted up upon the enjoyment of outward good things in allusion to Beasts Provender pricks them They act more like Beasts then Men who kick against God who feeds them and turne his bread of blessings into the stones of disobedience What outward good thing will not an evill heart abuse and wax wanton with when it is so apt to abuse spirituall things and to turn the grace of God into laciviousnesse that is to grow wanton and lacivious because God is gracious Thirdly Observe They take little care for their soules who take over-much for their bodies They who desire to please appetite cannot endeavour to please God When the Apostle exhorts to put on the Lord Jesus he dehorts from providing for the flesh Rom. 13.14 Put yee on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof As if he had sayd Unlesse you forbeare providing for lusts you will have little leasure and lesse desire to put on Christ Ephes 5.18 Be not drunke with Wine wherein is excesse that is be not inordinate in the use of the creature but be filled with the spirit as if he had sayd You will never be filled with the spirit if over-filled with Wine if you give up your selves to satsifie carnall appetite you wil not have any appetite at all to spirituals There is an inward gluttony and drunkennesse when the thoughts run upon dainty Dishes and full Cups or when men chew their meat and Wine in their thoughts before they eate or drinke Now as well they or rather they more who are inwardly drunken with excessive desires of Wine as they who are visibly drunken with the excessive taking downe of Wine are farr enough either from the desire or attainement of a filling with the Spirit The spirit of the Buttery and the spirit of God have no more agreement then the flesh and the spirit yea that spirit is the grossest part of sinfull flesh and therefore can neither take care for nor beare with the things of the spirit So farr of the first cause of the wicked mans excessive sinning his excesse in the use of the Creature set forth by the ordinary effect of it Fatnesse He covereth his face with fatnesse The second follows Vers 28. He dwelleth in desolate Cities and in houses wherein no man inhabiteth which are ready to become heaps This Verse shews a second cause of the wicked mans fiercenesse against God His power over men which is described as the former by the effect of it He hath made Cities desolate It requires much power to overthrow whole Cities that which is strong cannot be destroyed without
us either as possessed or used but as adored and trusted Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity Thirdly Observe Man must and will have somewhat to trust to or leane upon And therefore rather then fayle he will trust that which cannot but fayle Vanity Like one that 's ready to drowne he catcheth at any thing a rotten stick or a straw and would support his whole body by that which is not able to beare the weight of his little finger Man is a weak creature sense and nature are enough to make him sensible of his naturall weaknesse and these also are enough to prompt and provoke him to seek helpe without himselfe though they are utterly insufficient to direct him whither to goe for the surest helpe It is the priviledge of God alone to have nothing to trust to or to be above trust He who is all strength needs not trust As he doth not put trust in his Saints Vers 15. because he knows they are frayle and mutable so he hath no need to trust them because he knows himselfe not onely strong but immutable God is all that he is from himselfe and therefore he ever continues to be what he is by himselfe But man who is not a spring to himselfe of Being cannot be a support to himselfe for the continuance of his Being much lesse for the continuance of his well-being And as mans necessity calls him to trust so his duty calls him to trust God Man fell at first by his desire to stand alone he would be independent and men fall every day because they desire to stand by that which cannot stand alone It is a speciall part of that worship which we owe to God to trust him and whatsoever we trust besides God we make a God of it He that trusts not in the God that made him makes many Gods such as they are by trusting them While Job puts that negative supposition as to his owne case Chap. 31.24 If I have made Gold my hop◠or have sayd to the fine Gold thou art my confidence He more then implyeth that many had Man ought to trust God but few will many will trust in Creatures but none ought Man will be trusting in somewhat and he is so forward to trust in vanity which indeed is nothing that it is the hardest thing in the World to take him off We cannot presse either our selves or others too much to trust God and we cannot represse them enough from trusting vanity Man is very ready to exercise and put forth an act of trust and he is as ready to mistake the object of trust Lastly Observe Man is apt to trust that which hath deceived him or man being once deceived trusts that which will deceive him againe Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity We say Such a man hath deceived me once but he shall not deceive me the second time But carnall hearts being deceived once by sin and vanity are willing to be deceived a thousand times being once deceived they care not how often they are deceived That of the Prophet is an eminent Testimony to this too much experimented truth Isa 44.20 He feedeth on ashes that is he is as much deluded as a man is who eates ashes thinking it to be bread or other good cheare or his Idoll which promised him great matters and much joy hath given nothing but ashes sorrow and misery of which ashes and especially feeding upon ashes was an embleme Now though it were thus with him yet saith the Prophet A deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soule nor say is there not a lye in my right hand that is Though he sees himselfe deceived yet he hath no power to withdraw from the deceiver nor to question the deceit he is so bewitched with the sorcery of sin that he cannot deliver his soule from the snares of it but being deceived he is willingly deceived and looks upon his deceiver as his trusty Friend God never deceived no nor fayled any man that trusted in him Ps 9.10 yet the hearts of the most will not be perswaded to trust God sin and the creature deceive all that trust in them yet we can hardly call or beat the heart off from trusting them Sin seldome looses its credit sin hath broken and undone thousands yea all who have trusted it yet still it hath credit among thousands and can be trusted with more then this World is worth the precious soule of man for the asking But let not him that is deceived trust any longer in vanity if he doe he shall never be a gainer no nor a saver by it For vanity shall be his recompence Vanity fills both parts of the Verse and meets us at every turne yet with a difference In the former part by vanity was signified either sin or the creature in this latter part vanity notes misery Vanitatis nomen variè hic sumitur quam ob rem sorsan varie scribitur priore loco sig vanas res quibus fidebant scopes gloriam posteriori loco vanitatem in quam haec omnia redigenda sint dum ex his decidens miser siet Merc. or the effect and fruit of sin Hence Observe The vanity of misery overtakes all those who are deceived by the vanity of sin Vanity is their recompence There are two sorts of recompence First Of wrath Secondly Of favour Evill deeds have their recompence as well as good To me saith the Lord Deut. 32.35 belongeth vengeance and recompence that is the recompence of vengeance as the Apostle expounds it Heb. 10.30 For we know him that sayd Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord God will not live long in any mans debt As holy Gospell-confidence hath a great recompence of reward Heb. 10.35 So every disobedience of the Law received a just recompence of reward Heb. 2.2 And God is so exact in giving the recompences of punishment that he will not spare his owne when they are so foolish as to trust in vanity Prov. 11.31 Behold the righteous shall be recompenced in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner that is A righteous man shall be corrected though he sin of infirmity how then shall the wicked be punished who sin with presumption and delight As a wicked man hath all his recompences of good on the earth Matth. 6.2 They have their reward so a righteous man hath all his recompences of evill or affliction in the earth he hath none beyond But we may strongly argue that the wicked who trust in vanity shall be recompenced with sorrow for ever seeing the righteous if they doe but a little turne aside to vanity shall be recompenced with sorrow here That 's the Apostle Peters way of reasoning 1 Epist 4.18 If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appeare Surely as the Prophet concludes Isa 59.18 According to their deeds accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries recompence
stops as they will in his way let his first and second and third conceptions of mischeife conclude in the bringing forth of vanity yet he is not concluded by it he will try a fourth and a fifth time too His belly againe prepareth deceit Thirdly His hope to speed at last put him forward to new experiments when former ones have fayled he perswades himselfe he shall obtaine if he continue As the Saints having prayed and wayted long without an answer from God yet goe on praying their belly prepareth new prayers because they have a good ground to hope that God will heare at last So ungodly men persevere in plotting mischeife because they have strong hopes though but the shadow of a ground to hope that they shall one day accomplish their desires As the heart would breake for sorrow so both heart and hand would breake off from labour were it not for hope But where hope of attaineing lives especially where it is lively there such will labour as long as they live Though they have hitherto been deceived in their expectation yet their belly prepareth deceit Thus Eliphaz prosecutes his dehortation and though he saith not to Job as Nathan did to David Thou art the man yet Job was the man he meant the man who in his opinion had conceived mischiefe and brought forth vanity yea the man whose belly was even then preparing deceit How much Eliphaz was deceived appeares upon the whole matter what Jobs belly his minde his inward man was preparing will appeare by his owne answer in the two Chapters following JOB Chap. 16. Vers 1 2 3 4 5. Then Job answered and sayd I have heard many such things Miserable comforters are yee all Shall vaine words have an end Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest I also could speak as yee doe if your soules were in my soules stead I could heap up words against you and shake mine head at you But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your griefe THIS Chapter and that which followes conteine Jobs second answer to the second charge of Eliphaz Hee calls it an answer but in strictnesse of speech it is a rejoynder and he rejoynes with some accrimonie and sharpnesse of speech The longer contention is maintained the hotter are the spirits of the contenders and the more we are put to answer the more angry are our answers Vers 1. Then Job answered and sayd And what sayd he His answer consists of three generall parts In the first he confutes what Eliphaz had asserted which he doth to the eighteenth Verse of this sixteenth Chapter Secondly He proceeds to corroborate and confirme his owne Tenet or Opinion which he doth to the eleventh Verse of the seventeenth Chapter Thirdly He renewes his former complaints and desires which he doth from that eleventh Verse to the end of the Chapter The first part of his answer is confutation and he begins his confutation with an accusation with an accusation of those who had disputed with him and that 's the subject of these five Verses in all which he taxeth or checks his freinds for their unfreindly uncomly dealing with him and he checks them as Eliphaz had done him at the beginning of the former Chapter upon five points of errour and unfreindlinesse First For speaking unprofitably or for telling him no more then he knew before at the entrance of the second Verse I have heard many such things Secondly He chargeth them for speaking such things as did rather increase and boyle up then mittigate and allay his sorrow Miserable comforters are yee in the close of the second Verse Thirdly He accuseth them for speaking so much or for endlesse speaking their discourse was tedious they would not give over Thus he takes them up at the third Verse Shall vaine words have an end What will you be endlesse Will you never have done Fourthly He accuseth them for their causelesse speaking in the same third Verse What emboldeneth thee or what provoketh thee that thou answerest As if he had sayd Have I given thee any cause Fifthly and lastly He reproveth his and their whole carriage towards him by a serious profession of his contrary carriage or that he was purposed to deale better with them upon supposition that they were in his case and this he doth two wayes First Telling them what he could doe if they were in his case Vers 4. I also could speake as you doe if your soule were in my soules stead I could heap up words against you c. Secondly Telling them what he would doe But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your griefe Vers 5. That 's the course which I would take I could deale as harshly with you as you doe with me but I would not you should finde me in another straine and temper Then Job answered and sayd Vers 2. I have heard many such things miserable comforters are yee all We finde this point tossed both wayes Jobs Freinds telling him that he spake but ordinary matter and he telling them that they spake so too Bildad chargeth Job with it Chap. 8.2 How long wilt thou speake these things And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong winde as if he had sayd Thou speakest impertinently or what thou speakest doth not much concerne the point in hand it comes not up to the matter yea it is quite besides the marke And so Zophar Chap. 11.2.3 Should not the multitude of words be answered And should a man full of talke be justified Thou doest but Verba dare thou speakest to little purpose or little to the purpose though thou speakest much Eliphaz puts the same language upon him Chap. 15.2 3. Should a wise man utter vaine knowledge and fill his belly with the East winde Should he reason with unprofitable talke Or with speeches wherewith he can doe no good Thus his Freinds accused him of that for which he now accuseth them and he himselfe had accused them once and againe of this before So Chap. 12.2 3. Who knoweth not such things as these They are but vulgar truths which you have told me and Chap. 13.1 2. Loe mine eye hath seen all this mine eare hath heard and understood it what yee know the same doe I know also I am not inferiour to you You produce nothing all this while but what I am well acquainted with which is fully the sense of this Verse I have heard many such things that is Rhetorico modo principium sumit ab extenuatione vice quippe defensoris agit Pined Defensor causam fuisse negabit si potest aut eam vehementur extenuabit Cic. l. 2. ad Heren Every man can speak as much as this Here Job playes the Oratour or Rhetorician whose businesse and designe as the great Orator tells us is as much as he can to extenuate and lay low the arguments or reasons of him that
undertake the office of comforting others should consider these three things especially First The nature of the affliction whether internall or externall that which will comfort a man in bodily afflictions will not doe it in soule afflictions Secondly The degree or measure of the affliction If the Playster be too narrow for the Soare how can it heale Thirdly They should consider the temper of the Person afflicted if he be pressed in conscience for sin they should not presse his conscience with sin much lesse should they thunder out judgement and terrour against him for sin if he be very weak they should use few words if he be passionate they should use gentle words lest in stead of perswading they provoke his spirit Many a soule is cast downe and swallowed up in despaire by the ignorance or unfaithfulnesse of those who would bee called Comforters and Supporters Ezek. 13.19 They slay the soules that should not dye and save them alive that should not live Unskilfull Physitians of the body kill more then bodily diseases And though the unskilfulnesse of soule-physitians doth not indeed kill soules that should dye for 't is their owne sin that kils them nor can kill the soules that should not dye for the medicine of Christs most precious blood will heale and save such from their sins yet unskilfull soule-physitians shall be judged and dealt with as having done all this because they have done their utmost to doe it which is also the meaning of that Text 1 Cor. 8.11 And through thy knowledge shall the weake brother perish for whom Christ dyed that is an indiscreet use of that liberty which thy knowledge teacheth thee doth that which may be accounted a destroying of thy weake Brother As that knowledge so the ignorance before spoken of slayes the soules that should not dye As it requires the power so the wisedome and teachings of God to comfort and extricate poore sâ—ules in and from the Labyrinth of their sorrows The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned What to doe That I should know how to speake a word in season to him that is weary Isa 50.4 It is a great peice of learning to speak aright to a weary soule to deale with them so as neither to flatter them in their sins nor oppresse them under their sins to deale with them so in th ir affliction as that we neither cause them to sleight the hand of God nor yet to sink under it He that can guid and steer the course of a soule that is afflicted and tossed with the tempest of sin and sorrow between this rock and gulfe the Scylla of presumption and the Charybdis of despaire he is a learned Pilot indeed This learning is the speciall gift of God Christ himselfe acknowledgeth that the Lord his Father had given him the tongue of the learned for this end This learning is not taught in the Schooles of men Philosophers and Oratours never taught such an art of consolation nor can it be attained by the bare teaching of the holyest Doctors and Preachers of Divine truths Wee may have a rich furniture of materials for this worke and yet make no worke of it nor be able to put truths and consciences rightly together unlesse the annoynting teach us As the Prophet brings in our great Master and Tutor in this heavenly science againe confessing of himselfe Isa 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath annoynted me to preach good tydings to the meek he hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted to proclaime liberty to the Captives Till we are annoynted by God we cannot speake effectually to man without the spirit who is the comforter wee prove but miserable comforters we bungle at the work and rather undoe soules then doe them any good Wee may Preach good tydings good newes from Heaven the Gospel is nothing else but good newes yet no good comes of it till the good spirit comes with it both instructing the hearts of those that heare and the tongues of those that speake duely to apply the word Master Calvin upon this place saith Some Comforters have but one song to sing and they have no regard to whom they sing it All persons all estates and all conditions are alike to them The wisedome of a comforter consists in discerning and making these differences As the Apostle Jude hints unto us Ver. 22 23. And of some have compassion making a difference and others save with feare As faith saves all so in a sense feare saves some that is they must be terrifyed and made afraid that they may be saved Jobs Freinds would needs save him with feare whereas they should have had compassion of him and have spoken kindly to him Because they could not make this difference therefore they tooke a wrong course with him and were justly taxed without distinction Miserable comforters are yee all Vers 3. Shall vaine words have an end As if he had sayd I have got no comfort I would faine get some rest your words have not refreshed me I desire you would not trouble me you have done me no good will you have done Shall vaine words have an end The Hebrew is Shall words of winde have an end That expression hath ben opened twice before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verba vervi i e. ventosa parum solidas rationes habentia How long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong East winde saith Bildad Chap. 8.2 Should a wise man utter vaine knowledge and fill his belly with the East winde saith Eliphaz Chap. 15.2 Job retorts it upon them Shall words of winde have an end You tell mee that my words are windy yours are so indeed I must hide my selfe from these blasts and stormes of your tongues unlesse you grow calmer Shall windy words have an end Words are windy First When they have no solid reason no substance in them reason is the substance of words and so is truth these two goe alwayes together and where these are not nothing goes out of the mouth but winde Projicit ampullas c. we say of all words which are not followed with action Words are but winde we may say so also of all words which are not accompanyed with reason Verba plena spiritu superbiae Secondly Words are windy when they have much pride and swelling conceitednesse in them The Scripture cals such words Swelling words of vanity That which swels our hearts will quickly swell our lips pride doth both Pride is a winde within us vaine words are a winde without us the proud man knowes not how to ease himselfe of this winde within but by breaking it out in words Thirdly Words are windy when they have much passion in them when they are angry and furious an angry man blusters rather then speakes and makes a noise rather then a discourse While David Psal 39.2 3. was dumb with silence while he held his peace from good his sorrow
them O what provoketh such to such wayes of answering There is yet a third reading of this clause which I will but touch Quid tibi molestum est si loquaris Vulg. When shall vaine words have an end But what trouble is it to thee if thou speakest Or Is it any trouble to thee if thou speakest As if he had sayd I cannot much wonder though thou doest not end these vaine ruffling discourses for I am perswaded they are no great trouble to thee how much soever they are to others such words cost thee little study thou needest not beat thy braines or byte thy nayles for such matter as this That which comes next and lyes uppermost is all that some men have to say when they have sayd all They that speake most to the paine of others take least paines themselves We say Good words are cheape it costs little to speake fayre but ill words are cheaper Foule language costs little in the preparation though it may prove costly enough in the event There is a profitable sense in this translation though I will not give it for the meaning of the Text. It is our duty to consider before we speake as well as before we act and to put our selves to some trouble in preparing what we have to say before we give others the trouble of hearing it When God cals us to speake either in our owne defence or for the edification of others on a sudden we may expect according to the promise Matth. 10.19 That it shall be given us in that houre what we shall speake If the providence of God straiten us the spirit of God will enlarge us that promise will helpe us when wee have no time to prepare our selves but it will not if wee neglect the time in which vve should prepare our selves For when Christ saith in that place Take no thought how or what yee shall speake we must expound it like that Matth. 6.25 Take no thought for your life what yee shall eate or what yee shall drinke Which is not a prohibition of all thought about those things but onely of those thoughts which are distracting and distrustfull Job having reproved his Freinds these three wayes for the manner of their dealing with him Now reproves them by a serious profession of his better dealing with them in case as we commonly say The Tables were turned they comming in his place and he in theirs This he doth in the two Verses following Vers 4. I also could speake as yee doe if your soule were in my soules stead I could heap up words against you and shake mine head at you 5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your griefe Job in this context tels his Freinds two things First What he could doe And secondly What he would doe The former of these is layd downe expressely in the fourth Verse Vers 4. I also could speak as you doe if your soule were in my soules stead c. The Soule is here put as often elsewhere in Scripture for the vvhole man then his meaning is and so Master Broughton translates If you were in my place or in my condition If God should transcribe my vvounds and sorrows upon your backs and consciences or if my greife dwelt in your bowels I could speake as you doe c. The sufferings of the soule hold out the sufferings of the vvhole man upon a twofold consideration First Because the soule is the principall part of man When that vvhich is cheife suffers all may be sayd to suffer Secondly Because afflictions vvhich lye upon the soule are most afflictive The sensitive power of the body is called the soule and vve are most sensible of those afflictions vvhich fall immediately upon the rationall soule That man forgets the sorrowes of his body whose soule is sorrowfull The more inward any suffering is the more greivous it is I also could speake as you doe if your soule were in my soules stead c. Some read the vvords Interrogatively Could I speake as you doe If your soule were in my soules stead could I heap up words against you and shake my head at you Master Broughton gives that sense fully Would I speake as you if you were in my place would I compose bare words against you and nod upon you with my head The meaning is Negative If you were in my soules stead I could doe none of these things Could I doe them No as we say I could as soone eate my owne flesh as doe them If I were at ease and you in paine could I deale thus with you I would dye rather then deale so with you This reading is good and hath a greater emphasis in it then our bare affirmative reading though the sense and scope of both be the same If your soule were in my soules stead Some read this Optatively or as a wish O that your soule were in my soules stead and then the latter vvords are taken as a promise or profession of offices of love First I would heap up words for you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concinnare apte disponere The Hebrew word vvhich vve translate to heap signifies properly to prepare and fit a thing to fashion and put it into a good frame it is not a rude inartificiall heaping of things together vvithout forme or fashion as the first Chaos was but a beautifull elegant digestion or composure of them in the exactest forme and fashion like that of the severall peices of the World conjoyned in that vvorke of the six dayes creation As if he had sayd O that your soule were a while in my soules stead see how I would use you how I would deale with you truely all the hurt I would doe to you should be this I would prepare the softest and the sweetest words I could with all my skill and rhetorick to ease your sorrows I would speake musicke to your eares and joy to your hearts I would study and compose a speech on purpose to revive and raise your drooping desponding spirits So also the second branch may be interpreted And shake mine head at you or over you For to shake the head notes pitty and compassion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et movissem super vos caput condolenter Chrysost to shake the head is the posture of those vvho mourne vvith or for their Freinds Hence the word is translated to bemoane Nah. 3.7 Who will bemoane him Chap. 42.11 Jobs Freinds came to bemoane him 't is this vvord They came to shake their heads over him because of all the evill which the Lord had brought upon him One of the Ancients makes this exposition the Text I would have shaken my head over you bemoaningly or with compassion The same vvord may vvell signifie to shake the head and to pity seeing they who pity others use to shake their heads over them and say Ah my Freind or Ah my Brother So then if vve read
it and have made that his businesse but hee had not a minde to doe it The bent of his spirit did not lye that way hee was all for Christ and the Gospell he was a Giant for the truth but an Infant a weakling as weake as water against it hee had neither an understanding to conceive nor a tongue to speake to the disservice of Jesus Christ It is a good observation of one of the Ancients upon this place Narrat justus quid facere potuit sed ne justitiam deserat quod facere potuit declinat Greg. A just man declares what he can doe but that hee may not desert Justice he forbeares to doe what he can The providence of God sets bounds to the power of a carnall man but the spirit of God sets bounds to the power of a holy man if a carnall man keep within compasse at any time it is because he is restrained but a godly man keeps within compasse because he is renewed Laban tels Jacob Gen. 31.29 It is in the power of my hand to doe thee hurt And vvhy did not Laban hurt Jacob Was it from any principle of love or righteousnesse in Labans breast The Text is silent in that and Laban himselfe seems to tell us whence it was in the same Verse The God of your Fathers spake unto me yesternight saying Take thou heede that thou speake not to Jacob c. And this his speaking to Laban Jacob cals Gods rebuking of Laban Vers 42. implying that if God had not stopt him he would have done him hurt It was more then once in the power of Davids hand to hurt yea to slay Saul and he was strongly moved by some of his great Officers to doe it yet he strongly refused to doe it or to suffer it to be done because it would have been sin in him to doe it himselfe being a private person and the way in which he had any opportunity to doe it being onely a private way when Saul was in the Cave covering his feet 1 Sam. 24.3 or in a Trench fast asleepe 1 Sam. 26.7 and therefore though he had strengthened himselfe against Saul with an Army and was ready upon his provocation to stretch forth his hand against him in Battell yet he saith Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords annoynted and be guiltlesse David was not stopt from hurting Saul by a rebuke from God but by the rule and dictate of his owne conscience The thing might have been easily done but because it could not be innocently done therefore David could not doe it Secondly Observe more specially to the matter of this Text. A godly man when himselfe cannot be harsh and greivous to others though he have never so much advantage to be so His cannings are not for such uses What the Apostle saith of his Ministeriall power a gracious heart saith of all his power It is for edification not for destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 He designes his power for the helpe and comfort of all not for the hurt or greife of any A good man is mercifull to his Beast how then can he be unmercifull to his Brethren He pitieth a Beast fallen under a burthen how then can he be cruell to his Brother when he is under burthens Nature or common humanity abhorrs such actings much more doth Grace Paul gives this charge to Beleevers Beare yee one anothers burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 This Law of Christ is written in the heart of every man who is Christs and therefore he is farr from adding to another mans burden He that hath a fellow-feeling of his Brethrens sorrows will not encrease their sorrows no man will purposely encrease or add to that burden which himselfe must beare Could I speake as you doe Thus for the Negative what Job would not have done if their soule had been in his soules stead But What would he have done He tels us in the next Verse this is the course that I would take Vers 5. I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your griefe This is my designe and all the hurt I intend you These words in the substance of them have been opened Chap. 4.4 vvhere Eliphaz tels Job that he had done vvhat here he promised he would doe Thy words have upholden him that was falling and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees Thou hast instructed many and thou hast strengthened the weake hands Eliphaz had given testimony for Job that he had done what Job now professeth he vvas resolved to doe and vvould doe in case he vvere put into their condition and they into his I would strengthen you with my mouth that is With the vvords of my mouth and vvhich is the same the moving of my lips should asswage your griefe Here are the two parts of consolation and the two great duties of a comforter The first is to strengthen sorrowfull man The second is to abate the strength of his sorrows Job vvas resolved upon both Were they weake in faith and hope he vvould strengthen them were their feares and doubtings strong hee would endeavour to weaken them I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your greife The word Greife is not expressed in the Hebrew there it is onely thus Motio labiorum meorum prohiberet Heb. sc dolorem vestrum The moving of my lips should asswage be it what it will that greives you I would labour to asswage it I vvould asswage your feares your sorrowes your impatience your unbeleife vvhatever spirituall evill vvere upon you the moving of my lips should be for the removing of it Or as others render For the turning of it away For the word signifies First To abate in degree Secondly To turne away or to stop altogether My designe should be upon both I vvould study to the utmost of my power and parts not onely to mitigate but quite to remove whatsoever I should finde an affliction to you It hath been shewed Chap. 4.4 what power vvords have both to strengthen vveake faith and to asswage the strongest greife thither I referr the Reader onely take two breife notes from it First A good man doth not onely abstaine from the hurt that he might doe another but he labours to helpe him and to doe him good Not to heap words in anger upon them that are in misery not to shake the head at them in contempt is onely a Negative peice of charity and kindnesse 'T is our duty to use our utmost endeavour to refresh and comfort them Negative acts of kindnesse are not the fulfilling of the law of love it is not charity to the poor to say I will not make them poorer I will take nothing from them it is our duty to give them of what we have When a man is sorrowfull it is not enough to say I will not increase his griefe it is our duty to lessen it yea to
they lookt for and sayd Thy Brother Benhadad If thou ownest him as a Brother surely thou wilt not use him as an Enemy There is to the point in hand a holy cunning in catching up words which drop from the lips of men in affliction and 't is our wisedome to make improvement of them As for instance There was an ancient Professor as I have been informed in much distresse of conscience even to despaire he complaining bitterly of his miserable condition to a Freind let this word fall That which troubles me most is that God will be dishonoured by my fall This word was hastily catcht at and turned upon him to the asswaging of his griefe Art thou carefull of the honour of God and doest thou thinke God hath no care of thee and of thy salvation A soule for saken of God regards not what becomes of the honour of God Therefore be of good cheere if Gods heart were not towards thee thine could not be towards God or towards the remembrance of his name Thus words should be watcht yea and silence should be watcht for advantages to ease a distressed soule Lastly These words may referr to God as if Job had said Whether I speake or whether I forbeare God doth not come in to my helpe I finde no comfort from him he puts no stop to my paine nor doth he asswage the floods of griefe which are ready to swallow me up He gives me no ease at my complaining cryes nor doth he give me any at my patient silence The next Verse seemes most sutable to this exposition where Job applyes himselfe to God shewing what hee did to him both while he spake and while he held his peace he wearyed him still and left him in a wearyed condition Vers 7. But now he hath made me weary thou hast made desolate all my company We may see in this context that the spirit of Job vvas much troubled by the troublednesse of his speech At this seventh Verse he speakes in the third Person He hath made me weary and before he gets to the end of it he speakes in the second Person Thou hast made desolate In the eighth Verse Thou hast filled me with wrinkles In the ninth Verse He teareth me in his wrath The tenth Verse is Plurall They have gaped upon me Strange kinde of Grammar sometimes in the third Person sometimes in the second sometimes in the Singular sometimes in the Plurall number His minde was uneven or unsetled and so was his discourse We must not play the Criticks with the words of men in paine nor submit their sentences to a Deske of Grammarians Broken language and incongruities of speech doe well enough become broken hearts and wounded spirits God will not call his Schollers in the Schoole of affliction to the Ferula for such faults or false Latine falling from their mouthes either in prayer or conferences while their hearts are true and the language of their spirits pure But now he hath made me weary But Now Now is not here a Particle of time onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a specification of the season noting that then God eyther began or still continued to make him weary but it carryes also a strong asseveration or the certainety of the thing as in that promissory exhortation Hag. 2.4 Yet now be strong O Zerubbabell saith the Lord and be strong O Joshua Though you see things yet below expectation though this be a day of small things yet take heart and encourage your selves to carry on this reforming worke Yet now be strong even now when so many things might weaken both your hearts and hands and be yee assured that I will not reject your confidence but vvill cause you to prosper in it Nunc in principio dictionis quandam cordis dulcedinem connotare solet Bold And in promises besides the certainety of the thing promised and the speedy fulfilling of them it intimates much sweetnesse of affection in him that makes the promise On the contrary in threatnings and comminations besides the certainety and speed of them it notes the sharpnesse and severity of his spirit who gives those threats So Isa 5.5 And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard Now goe too is chiding cheare As if the Lord had thus rated them What Have you served mee thus as sure as I formerly planted and hedged this Vineyard so surely will I now pull downe the hedge and root it up In this fulnesse of sense take it here But now he hath made me weary certainly or of a truth he hath I was once sweetly and strongly hedged about with mercy But now hee hath made mee weary and desolate He hath made me weary He is not expressed in the Hebrew and therefore there is a doubt who is meant by this He. Nunc autem oppressit me dolor meus Vulg. Some understand it of his griefe and sorrow and read it thus But now it hath made me weary my paine hath tyred me Secondly Others understand it of vvhat had been spoken by his Freinds your tedious discourses and severer censures have quite spent my spirits and made me weary Our translation leads us to a person and our Interpretation leads us to God He that is God hath made mee weary Job every where acknowledgeth that God vvas the Author and Orderer of all his sorrows Now he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non solum fatigationem denotat sed fastidium molestissimum tum animi tum corporis Hath made me weary Or He hath wearyed me it is but one word and it signifies not an ordinary wearinesse not such a wearinesse as comes upon us after a turne or two in the Feilds A man who walkes into the ayre to refresh himselfe may come home weary but it notes such wearinesse as vvee feele after long and tedious travell or after a hard journey yea it notes not onely wearinesse of body but the wearinesse of the minde It is possible for a man to weary his body and yet his minde remaine unmoved bare outward action stirres not the minde To ride to run to digg or thresh weary the body not the minde but those workes which with action have contention in them as to argue and dispute doe at once exercise and weary both minde and body The vvearinesse of the minde is the most painefull wearinesse Jobs wearinesse takes in both thou hast vvearied my body and vvearied my minde too I am full of soares vvithout and of sorrow within And such was that wearinesse spoken of by the Prophet Isa 47.13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels that is In going long journeys to aske counsell of thy adored wise men or Wizzards rather of Southsayers and Diviners In this pursuit thou hast laboured thy body and vexed thy soule but profited neither After all thy travels vvhat hast thou brought home but wearinesse Tyred flesh and a tyred spirit is all the fruit of our
addresses for comfort to any but God or in the way of God The Septuagint translate yet higher Sept. Exponunt de defectu rationis q. d. vix prae dolore sum mei compos Thou hast made me mad or besides my selfe The Hebrew word signifies to distract or to put one out of his wits As if Job had sayd I am scarse my owne man being over-burdened with those sorrowes God hath layd upon me Hence Observe First A state of affliction is a wearisome estate A man may be vvearyed who never stirrs foot from the place where he stands or sits O the vvearinesse of a sick bed Suffering vvearies more then doing and none are so vveary as they who are vvearied with doing nothing Observe Secondly Some afflictions are a wearinesse both to soule and body There are afflictions which strike quite through and there are afflictions which are onely skin-deep As there is a filthinesse of the flesh and a filthinesse of the spirit properly so called for though every sin of the flesh or outward man defile the spirit yet there are many filthinesses of the spirit which are never acted by the flesh or outward man Thus the Apostle distinguisheth 2 Cor. 7.1 There are also some filthinesses which strike quite through flesh and spirit body and soule Thus there are some afflictions which are meerly upon the flesh there are other afflictions vvhich are purely upon the spirit the skin is whole the body is in health but the soule is vvounded an Arrow sticks vvithin And there are a sort of afflictions vvhich strike quite through body and soule as old Simeon tells the Virgin Mary a Sword shall peirce through thy soule Luke 2.35 or as the Psalmist speakes of Joseph Psal 105.18 according to the letter of the Hebrew Whose feet they hurt with fetters his soule came into Iron or the iron entred into his soule Such afflictions are like the Roll spoken of by the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 2. Written with lamentations mourning and woe within and without Some woes are vvritten onely vvithout some vvoes are writen onely vvithin others are written without and within Their Characters are legible upon the flesh and their effects descend and sinke into the spirit Jobs afflictions were of this extension he was smitten all over and vvritten quite through with woes and lamentations Thirdly As the word reacheth the distemper of the braine Observe Some afflictions doe not onely afflict but unsettle the minde They unsettle not onely the comforts but the powers and faculties of it a man under some afflictions can scarse speak sense vvhile he acts faith or doe rationally while hee lives graciously A soule that hath grace yea much grace may appeare much scanted in the use of reason As oppression from men makes a wise man madd Eccles 7.7 And the more wise a man is the more madd it makes him Fooles can beare oppression and not be troubled much because they doe not understand vvhat justice and right meanes and that 's the reason why in those parts of the World vvhere Tyrants reigne they love to keep the people ignorant poore and low for such are not much sensible of their oppressions but oppression is very grievous to an ingenious vvise and understanding man and therefore 't is sayd to make him madd The purest intellectualls have the quickest sense of injuries Thus also some afflictions from the hand of God may in a degree make a godly wise man madd and put him for a present plunge beyond the command of his understanding It is the confession of holy David Psal 73.22 I was even as a beast beefore thee so foolish was I and ignorant If David a godly man acted below reason when he saw the prosperity of the wicked how much more may a godly man act below reason under the feelings of his owne adversity Heman is expresse in this Psal 88.15 While I suffer thy terrours I am distracted Yet the word in the Psalme doth not signifie properly the distraction of a man that is madd but the distraction of a man that is in doubt or the distraction of a man who knowes not what to doe not of a man who knows not what he doth yet that distraction doth often lead to a degree of this for a man who is much troubled to know what to doe and cannot know it grows at last to doe he knows not what We may also take in that about distraction arising from affliction which was toucht about distraction caused by oppression Those Christians who are highest in spirituals and have the quickest sense of Gods dispensations towards them doe soonest fall into it whereas a soule upright in the maine yet being of weake and low parts and of small experience in the things of God will goe yea groane under a heavy burden of affliction all his dayes and not be much moved with it Fourthly Observe A godly man may grow extreame weary of his afflictions Affliction is the burthen which God layes upon us and it is our duty not onely to beare it but to beare it with contentednesse yea we should labour to beare it with joyfulnesse My brethren saith the Apostle James Chap. 1. Account it all joy when yee fall into diverse temptations that is Into diverse afflictions But yet the best cannot alwayes rejoyce in temptations nor tryumph under a crosse when affliction according to that description of the word Heb 4.12 comes quick and powerfull as a two edged Sword and peirceth to divide betweene the soule and the spirit the joynts and the marrow when affliction I say cuts to the quick a Beleever is put hard to it he may be so farr for a time from tryumphing and rejoycing that he can scarsely finde himselfe contented or patient his burden may cause him to cry out O the wearinesse Carnall men cry out at every burden of duty in the service of God O what a wearinesse is it They are tyred with an houres attendance in holy things O the burthen Much more doe they cry out under the lighter burdens of affliction How tedious is a day or an houre of affliction two or three fits of an ague an aking tooth a soare finger O what a wearinesse is this They sinke presently True Beleevers as they have more patience in doing so in suffering yet even their patience doth not alwayes hold out they as Job speak sometimes mournfully and complainingly But now he hath made us weary Thou hast made desolate all my company Quod loquitur nunc in secunda nunc in tertia persona nihil in sententia mâ—tat id quod admodum frequens est in Scriptura Pined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vastari seu desolari ita ut videntes obstupescant horreant It was Hee in the first clause Thou in the second hee and thou are the same person in Jobs Grammar as was toucht before Thou hast made desolate The word Shamam signifies to waste and destroy and that not by an ordinary destruction
God as he hath done by the Preaching of the Gospel turnes men from Idols to serve and worship him the living God then he famisheth those Gods When Idols lose their esteeme their leannesse riseth up and they goe downe Thus also it is with man his leannesse may be said to rise when his credit fals Further There is a twofold leannesse First Of the soule or inward man Secondly Of the body or outward man When the Jewes lusted in the Wildernesse and called for flesh to satisfie the flesh God saith the Text Psal 106.15 gave them their request but sent leannesse into their soule The soule in a proper sense is neither fat nor leane and therefore the soule in this place of the Psalme must be taken improperly or else the leannesse of it must The soule is put improperly for the body or for the whole man and so he sent leannesse into their soules is the curse of God caused them to pine secretly or he slew the fattest of them openly and smote downe the chosen men in Israel So this leannesse is expounded Psal 78.31 as if he had sayd God made them a thin and a leane company before he had done with them Yet besides this I conceive the Text doth intend some spirituall judgement and then the soule is taken in a proper sense but leannesse in an improper sense and so he sent leannesse into their soules is while they inordinately desired meat for their bodies God withheld the ordinary food of their soules He did not administer his grace and holy spirit which are the fatners of the soule while they were thus hungry after dainties for the flesh Jobs Freinds thought him a leane soule but he here confesses the leannesse of his body and in that his continuall sorrow the cause of it So the Prophet cryes out My leannesse my leannesse woe unto me Isa 24.16 My leannesse rising up Fatnesse riseth up and not leannesse when a man growes leane his flesh fals and abates skin and bone stick together Why then doth hee say My leannesse riseth up Though when a man is leane his flesh falls yet his bones rise A fat mans bones are as it were buried in flesh you can scase feele his ribs but when he growes leane his bones stick out and rise up That is the meaning here my leannesse rising up Maciei videtur dare personam ut paulo ante rugis Job ascribes a rationall act both to his wrinkles and to his leannesse as if both did speak and which is more give evidence concerning him he brings them forth as witnesses at the barr this speakes and that speakes he doubles it My wrinkles witnesse against me and my leannesse rising up witnesseth to my face When a witnesse is to give in his evidence in any cause before a Judge he riseth up or standeth forth that all may see him Job presents his leannesse in the proper posture of a witnesse rising up The Originall varies somewhat in the latter clause from the former we render both by vvitnessing but vve may read it thus Thou hast filled me with wrinkles that hath been or is a witnesse or as Master Broughton reads a proofe my leannesse rising up or vvhich riseth up against me answers or speaketh to my face The meaning is These outward evils are evidence enough to my Freinds that God is angry with me and that I am wicked against God Job grants that those wrinkles and this leannesse vvere witnesses of his afflictions he never questioned their testimony as to that point neither indeed could he Jonadab sayd to Amnon Why art thou being the Kings Son leane or thin from day to day wilt thou not tell me 2 Sam. 13.4 His leannesse told his Freind plaine enough that all was not vvell he read that in his face onely hee could not read the particular illnesse there Magnum certè peccatum quod tantum in florente illa aetate deformitatem senilem speciem induxit Putant tantas afflictiones testes esse magnae culpae irae Dei. Coc. If vve see a young man especially the Son of a Great man or of a King who is waited upon with all worldly delights vvrinkled and leane is it not a witnesse that he hath been sick or is overwhelmed vvith sorrow these testifie to his face he cannot conceale it But Jobs Freinds said these were vvitnesses of his sin they produced the wrinkles of his body as a vvitnesse of his vvrinkled soule and the leannesse of his outward man as an argument of his inward leannesse they sayd these testified plainely that he was not onely a great sinner but an Hypocrite And thus they argued all along this vvas their constant plea Job must needs be according to this opinion a man of an evill life because his life was filled with evills Thou hast filled mee with wrinkles which is a witnesse against me c. Hence Observe First Great afflictions leave their marks behinde them Little afflictions leave no wrinkles no leannesse behinde them vve recover out of them and nothing appeares of them as it is in sinning some sins leave no mark such are our daily infirmities and common failings but there are other sins which leave a mark behinde them you cannot get them off suddenly it may be you cannot claw off the marks of some sins as long as you live though the sin be fully pardoned yet the mark the vvrinkle the leannesse of it may remaine to your dying day David being defiled with adultery and murder prayes Cause the bones which thou hast broken to rejoyce Those two vvere such sins as broke his very bones they vvere to his soule as the breaking of a bone is to the body If a man break a bone though it be vvell Set yet it leaves a mark David carryed the skarr of those sins to his Grave Though God had forgiven those sins and did not remember them to impute them to David yet when God had occasion to speake of David to his highest commendation he could not forbeare the mention of those sins 1 Kings 15.5 David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the dayes of his life save onely in the matter of Vriah The vvrinkle or staine of that sin stuck upon Davids reputation when the guilt of it vvas quite removed and vvashed off from his person 'T is so with afflictions some afflictions leave no mark others goe deep Though all afflictions are light comparatively to the weight of glory as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 4.17 For our light affliction which is but for a moment workes for us a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Yet afflictions being compared among themselves some are light and some are heavy As a Cart that is heavy laden cuts deep into the earth and tells you where it hath gone so doth the vvheele of a heavy affliction drawne over body soule or state Secondly
many because every one hath many Arrows Men carry but one Sword and one Speare but they carry many Arrows therefore the word signifies many His Archers or many compasse me round about Hence note in prosecution of the same point That God hath variety of meanes to afflict He can make any creature his Archer and he hath many Quivers full of Arrows Old Jacob sayd of Joseph Gen. 49.23 The Archers shot sore at him and grieved him Joseph was a mark of envy because God had put so many markes of honour upon him His owne Brethren were the Archers Job had many Archers shooting at him I can name you seven eminent Archers that shot at Job First Heaven was an Archer the heavens shot fire which burnt up his flocks of sheep Secondly The Ayre was an Archer that shot winde and downe fell the House upon his Children Thirdly The Chaldeans and Sabeans were Archers and they shot spoyling and plundering they tooke away all his Cattell and slew his Servants with the edge of the Sword Fourthly The Devill was an Archer he shot diseases and wounded his body all over with soares Fifthly The earth was an Archer and that shot Wormes he was cloathed with Worms and clods of Earth Sixthly His Wife was an Archer or an Archeresse she shot terrible Arrows evill and bitter words Seventhly His Freinds were Archers they shot reproofes and uncomfortable comforts they peirced him with their salyes and the very meanes that they used to heal him grieved him more All these shot at him hee must needs have many hurts who was compassed about with so many Archers David felt the anguish of these Arrows Psal 38 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten mee in thy hot displeasure For thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore David was full of Arrows what those Arrows were is not determined in the Text. One of the Ancients saith They were the threatnings of God with which his conscience was wounded for sin as for his body and outward estate they were in a whole skin 't is true judgements or wrath threatned wound the spirit deeper then judgements or wrath executed wound the outward man and as the whole word of God so that part of it especially which consists of threatnings is as the Apostle speakes Heb. 4.12 Quick and powerfull and sharper then any two-edged Sword peircing even to the dividing asunder of the soule and spirit c. Yet I rather conceive that Davids Arrows were bodily troubles or diseases already inflicted the immediate cause of which was the anger of God and the cause of that vvas his owne sinne both vvhich are expressed at the third Verse There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin When sin stirrs up the anger of God the anger of God can quickly send his Arrowes abroad nor is there any thing in this World so neere unto us but hee can make an Arrow or an Archer of it His Archers compasse me round And see what kind of Archers his were they were no bunglers they were good marks men like the left handed Benjamites Judg. 20.16 They could shoot at a haires breadth and not misse For it follows He cleaveth my reines asunder They are expert Archers who can cleave the reines The reines are in the middle of the back he that shoots at a Butt and hits the middle of it shoots exactly the whole Butt is not the mark but the White vvhich is set according to a Geometricall proportion in the middle of it He that hits the mark hits the middle of the Butt but he that cleaves the Pin that 's the Archers Dialect which fastens the mark to the Butt That 's the Archer or That 's He as they also use to speake at their sport he wins the prize Renes sedes sunt affectus libidinis vehementissimi Renum nomen in Hebraeo a desiderando dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulnerare renes est tenuiores affectus configere An Archer may hit the man and not his reynes but to hit his reynes is skilfull archery Jobs Archers were thus cunning in their art They compasse mee about and cleave my reynes asunder That 's the first Further We may understand it by a metaphor and so two wayes First The reynes being the seat of desire as Naturalists speake some interpret he cleaveth my reines asunder thus He smites me in that which is to me most pleasant and desireable and then the seat of affection is put for the thing which we affect This holds out a profitable truth God can wound us in that upon which wee most entirely set our affections He knowes how to cleave our very reines asunder and he often doth it that which vve inordinately love is usually the mark at vvhich he aymes his Arrow The readyest vvay to lose any comfort is to over-love it I add that by vvay of caution not of direction And indeed though it be a great deal of smart to us yet it may prove a great deal of ease to us to be vvounded in that which vve over-love God in much mercy to those he loves takes that from them vvhich they love too much that so they may love him the more to whom all their love and more if they had it is but due He cleaves their reines that their reines may cleave to him Secondly The reines in a metaphor Renes occultissima denotant cor intelligit renes consulunt signifie that which is most secret and hidden Psal 16.7 My reines also instruct me in the night season that is my most inward thoughts instruct me I have secret communion with my selfe and my heart reads me a curtaine Lecture every night My reines instruct mee in the night season This metaphoricall interpretation gives us this plaine Note God peirceth into our most retired thoughts and can punish our most secret sins Those sins which lye as much out of sight as the reines doe he seeth and he seeth them as plainely as an Archer doth the White or marke which stands open to the eye for all things are naked and manifest anatomiz'd or cut open to the reines of the back so much the word beares and so manifest are we before his eyes with whom we have to doe Take it literally and then to cleave the reines is an expression of putting a man to the greatest sorrow or paine imaginable if the back vvere chyned as we speake and cut quite downe through the reynes this would be an exquisite torment the reynes are a very tender part A deep vvound in some other parts of the body is but a scratch and such vvounding were a kinde of embracing in comparison of that Secondly To cleave the reynes is to weaken because the reynes or the loynes are the strength of a man or of any creature Loe his strength is in his loynes saith God of Behemoth
Oracles of God like little Children who must have the same precepts and lines often and often inculcated upon them he gives it us in the forme of this Text Isa 28.10 For precept must be upon precept line upon line that is they must be continually followed with precepts they must have many and yet they scarse learne one or as others expound that place the Prophet describes the scornefulnesse of that people who jeered the Messengers of God for their frequency in Preaching with a riming scoffe Precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little which single tearms the Prophets had often used in their Sermons Now which way soever we take the proper sense of that place yet the common sense of the words reaches this in Job for precept upon precept speakes there a multitude of precepts even as here breach upon breach speakes a multitude of breaches or breaches all over And the Apostle Paul expresseth himselfe in this straine while he gives the reason of the recovery of Epaphroditus from a dangerous sicknesse Phil. 2.27 He was sick saith Paul nigh unto death but God had mercy on him and not onely on him but on mee also least I should have sorrow upon sorrow that is many sorrows heaped up together So then when Job complaines of his breaking with breach upon breach the plaine meaning is that he had many very many breaches His very wounds were wounded there was nothing in him Vulnera ipsa vulnerat Non habet in nobis jam nova plag◠locum or about him to be smitten but what had been smitten already As if he had said I am so full of breaches and afflictions that there is no whole space or roome left for a new breach for another affliction As he that lyes upon the ground can fall no lower so he that is all broken cannot be broken any more Job had breach upon breach in his estate his Cattle and goods were taken away Job had breach upon breach in his Family most of his Servants and all his Children were destroyed Job had breach upon breach in his body that was sick and soare Job had breach upon breach in his credit hee was called Hypocrite againe and againe Job had breach upon breach in his soule that was filled with feare and terrour from the Lord. Hence Note The best Saints on earth are subject not onely to great but various troubles to breach upon breach God is pleased to smite them sundry times and he smites them sundry wayes 'T is no argument that a man shall be no more afflicted because he is afflicted or that God will not smite againe because he hath smitten already God doth not stay his hand by looking upon the number but upon the effect and fruite of our afflictions Every Childe of his whom he corrects must looke for more corrections till repentance hath had its perfect worke and every Champion of his whom he tryes must looke for more tryalls till faith and patience have had their perfect worke God would not give his Children so much as one blow or one breach not so much as a little finger of theirs should ake were it not for one of these ends and untill these ends be attained they shall have many blowes and breaches even till the whole head be sick and the whole heart faint till from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundnesse in them but wounds and bruises and putrifying soares As the Vine-dresser cuts and cuts Vt in vineis labor labori cura curae semper additur c. Sanct. prunes and prunes the Vine this day and the next day because once cutting or pruning will not serve to make it fruitfull So the Lord prunes and cuts and pares and breaks and breaks not to destroy his people but to make them as pleasant Vines bring forth abundantly eyther the fruits of godly sorrow for their sins committed against him or the proofes and experiments of the graces which they have received from him This latter was Jobs case and the cheife cause why he was broken with breach upon breach And no sooner had the Lord by his roaring Cannon made breaches in him fayre and assaultable but he presently takes his advantage as Job shewes elegantly pursuing the Allegory in the last clause He runs vpon me as a Giant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sicut fortis potens idem valet Gigas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When a breach is made in the wall the beseigers run up to assault and storme the place Job keepes to the Souldiers language the Lord hath made breach upon breach and now He runs upon me as a Giant There are three things in this expression First The speed which God made to assault him He runs Secondly The strength that God puts forth in assaulting him he runs not as a Childe not as a weak man no nor as the ordinary sort of strong men but as a Giant or mighty man who exceeds other men as Goliah did David both in strength and stature Quando aliquis dicitur aut currere aut aliquid agere sicut Gigas nihil aliud denotat quam magno animo strenuè rem aliquam aggredi Bold Thirdly Running as a Giant notes courage as well as strength A Giant runs fiercely and fearelesly David compares the Sun at his rising to a Bridegroome comming out of his Chamber and to a Giant or strong man it is the word of this Text who rejoyceth to run a race Psal 19.5 Giants are swift and Giants are strong Some men are strong but not swift of foot but no man can be swift of foot unlesse he be competently strong Giants are both in excesse And therefore Job puts both together He runs upon me as a Giant And yet I conceive this running doth rather imply the fiercenesse of the Giant then his swiftnesse Giants are dreadfull and terrible to behold they are called Nephilim in the Hebrew of diverse Texts which comming from the root Naphal to fall signifies fallers and that in a twofold sense First Because they Apostatiz'd or fell from God his truth and worship which Moses seemes to intimate while he describes the first great personall defection of the World Gen. 6.4 There were Giants in the earth in those dayes these he opposeth to the Sons of God in the same Verse who had also greatly corrupted themselves so that Vers 5. God saw the wickednesse of man was great upon the earth For the Sons of God they who owned a profession of Religion being the Posterity of Seth they mingled themselves with the wicked of the World as for the Giants they disowned God and were totally departed or fallen from his obedience and were therefore as some apprehend called Nephilim or Fallers Secondly They were so called because either through the vastnesse of their strength and stature or through the feircenesse of their mindes and spirits they were men of violence great oppressors
lives in any knowne sinne unrepented of Secondly That which is unquiet and unsetled about the pardon of those sins which we have repented of We should get both these evil consciences but especially the first cured and removed by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ before we draw nigh to God in prayer as also our bodies washed in pure water which is either an allusion to the old Ceremonies among the Jewes who before they came to worship at the Tabernacle purged themselves with diverse outward washings leading them to the consideration of that morall puritie both of heart and life in which God is to be worshipped or it is an allusion to Baptisme in speciall in which there is an externall washing of the body signifying the washing of the soule by the blood of Christ and by the effectuall working of the spirit The sum of all is unlesse the person be pure his prayer is not pure These are the ingredients which constitute pure prayer all these met in Job and therefore he concluded not onely confidently but truely My prayer is pure And as these are the ingredients of prayer so they are all necessary ingredients so necessary that if any one of them be wanting the whole prayer is impure They are necessary by a double necessity First As commanded by God in prayer Secondly As meanes without which man cannot attaine his end in prayer The generall end of prayer is that prayer may be heard accepted and answered God heares accepts answers no one prayer without some concurrence of all these The Incense of the Ceremoniall Law was a shadow of prayer which is so great a duty of the morall Law But if this Incense had not been made exactly according to the will of God both for the matter and the manner of the composition prescribed Exod. 30.34 35 36. If after it had been thus made it had not also been offered according to those rules given Levit. 16.12 13. it had been an abomination to the Lord or as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Chap. 66.3 Such a burning of Incense had been but as the blessing of an Idol We may conclude also That if prayer be either composed or presented in any other way then God himselfe hath directed it is not onely turned away but turned into sin That man hath spoken a great word who can say in Jobs sense My prayer is pure Thus Job justifies the prayer he made to God and mainetaines his justice towards men There is no injustice in my hands also my prayer is pure A high profession yet in the next words he goes higher and makes both an imprecation against himselfe if it were not thus with him and an appeale to God for his testimony that it was thus with him JOB CHAP. 16. Vers 18 19. O Earth cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place Also now behold my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high JOB having with much confidence asserted the integrity of his heart and the righteousnesse of his way both towards God and Man confirmes what he had thus confidently asserted by a double Argument First By a vehement imprecation Vers 18. O earth cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place Secondly By a free appeale an appeale to God himselfe Vers 19. Also now behold my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high He shewes the necessity of this appeale Vers 20. My Freinds scorne me therefore I am constrained to goe to God When men have done us wrong and will not doe us right it is both time and duty to appeale to God Upon this ground Job appeales Est juramenti deprecatorii forma quo asseverat nullius sibi iniquitatis consâ—ium esse Aben. Ezra and he concludes according to our translation his appeale with a passionate yet holy wish Vers 21. O that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his Neighbour The reason both of his appeale and wish is given us further Vers 22. he looked on himselfe as a man standing upon the very confines of death the Grave was ready for him therefore hee beggs that this businesse might be dispatched and his integrity cleared before hee dyed Hee was loath to goe out of the World like a Candle burnt downe to the Socket with an ill savour He that hath lived unstained in his reputation cannot well beare it to dye with a blot and therefore he will be diligent by all due meanes to maintaine the credit which he hath got and to recover what he hath lost This was the reason of Jobs importunity discovered in these two Verses now further to be opened Vers 18. O earth cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place There are two branches of this imprecation or rather these make two distinct imprecations The first in these words O earth cover not thou my blood The second in these Let my cry have no place Job engages all upon the truth of what he had sayd being willing that his worst might be seen and his best not heard if he had not spoken truth O earth cover not thou my blood Poeticum sane patheticum in dolore aut re alia gravissima res mutas mortuasve omni sensu audituque carentes testes auditores compellare Job speaks pathetically or as some render him Poetically while he bespeakes the earth and makes the inanimate creature his hearer The sacred Pen-men doe often turne their speech to the Heavens and to the Earth Thus Moses Deut. 32.2 in the Preface of his Sermon his last Sermon to that people Give eare O yee Heavens and I will speak and hear O earth the words of my mouth So the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 1.2 Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me God speaks to that which hath no eares to heare eyther to reprove those who have eares but heare not or to raise up and provoke their attention in hearing Thus Job O earth c. as if the earth were able to take his complaint and returne an answer as if the earth were able to make inquisition and bring in a verdict about his blood O earth cover not thou my blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 texit operuit abscondit The word signifies not onely common but a twofold metaphoricall covering First Covering by way of dissimulation to dissemble a matter is to cover a matter In that sense Solomon speakes Prov. 12.16 A fooles wraâ—h is presently knowne but a prudent man covereth shame that is He dissembleth his wrath or his anger he will not let it alway break forth for that would be a shame to him Secondly The word signifies to cover by forgetfulnesse That which is not remembred is hid or covered Eccles 6.4 He commeth in with vanity speaking of man and departeth in darknesse and his name shall be covered with darknesse that
or condemnes He that is righteous knowes that all his sins are covered by the freegrace of God in the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ and he knowes that he hath not covered his sin as Adam by excuses nor sewed the Fig-leaves of carnall reasonings together to hide his nakednesse he knowes also that he lives not in any knowne sin nor hath wickedly departed from the Lord. Now because in all these respects he knowes nothing by himselfe therefore he cares not who knows him he cals not for Masks or Visors for Curtaines or coverings to obscure or disguise himselfe or his actions under eyther from the sight of God or man but is willing to stand forth in the open light For though the best of men may have done some act which is not fit for the open light yet considering the whole frame of their hearts and lives towards God together with what hath past betweene God and their soules about that act they are not afrayd that the worst act which ever they have done should stand forth in the open light and as for those crimes which men uncharitably charge upon them every honest heart speakes boldly the sense of this first part of Jobs imprecation O earth cover not thou my blood From the second branch of Jobs imprecation Let my cry have no place Observe Not to have prayer heard and accepted by God is the greatest misery that can befall man God is the last refuge of a distressed soule and the meanes by which we make God our refuge or flye to him for refuge is beleeving and servent prayer Prayer is a duty and yet it is a priviledge it is a priviledge not onely to receive an answer of prayer but to put up our requests in prayer he therefore that askes a stop upon his owne prayers hath at once asked a stop upon all his mercies he cannot looke to be releeved who tells God he doth not looke to be heard and when prayer hath no place of acceptance in Heaven wee can have no place of contentment on the Earth Upon this account we may conclude That Man cannot bespeake any thing worse for himselfe then not to be heard when he speakes to God As it is one of the highest honours done to God that men make prayers to him so it is one of the deepest afflictions of man for God not to heare his prayers Such was Sauls condition 2 Sam. 28. God doth not answer me neither by dreames nor by Vrim nor by Prophets He could get no answer from God his cry had no place This troubled him more then the invasion of the Philistims I am sore distressed saith he the Philistims make Warr upon me and God is departed from me When trouble comes and God goes away man is in a wofull estate We have no promise to receive unlesse we aske and though we doe aske wee cannot receive unlesse our prayer be received God receives the prayer of man before man receives any thing from God in prayer All our treasure lies in Heaven our comfort is in Heaven our protection is in Heaven and prayer is the messenger which we send to Heaven in the name of Christ for all things or for whatsoever else we need on earth Now if prayer cannot get in if God will not heare prayer if hee send back our messenger without audience what can wee receive The sinfulnesse of man appeares in nothing more then in this That he calleth not upon God Psal 14.4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge Who eate up my people as they eate bread and call not upon the Lord Now as the sin of man appeares exceedingly in not calling upon God so the wrath of God appeares exceedingly in not hearing man when he cals Prov. 1.20 Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seeke me early but they shall not finde me God will powre out wrath upon the Families that call not upon his name Jer. 10.25 but hee powres out most wrath upon those Families whom he heares not when they call upon his name All our mercies are shut out at once when prayer is shut out nor shall that person have any place or roome in Gods heart whose cry hath no place in his eare Holy Job was sensible enough of this nor durst hee have imprecated that his cry should have no place but that being conscious of no evill hee was assured that his cry had place and therefore as in the sincerity of his soule he made that imprecation so in the confidence of his soule he proceeds to make his Appeale to God in the next words Vers 19. Also now behold my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high As if he had sayd I feare no evidence that can be brought against me on earth and I rejoyce in the witnesse I have in Heaven though I have none to testifie for me here yet I have one that will testifie for me above My witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high Vtitur testificatione caeli postquam terrae testimonium produxit Eugub Some conceive that as Job had spoken to the earth before so now he speakes to Heaven O earth cover not my blood O Heaven witnesse for me But he saith not my witnesse is Heaven but my witnesse is in Heaven nor doth he call the Heavens to witnesse for him but he cals him who is in Heaven to witnesse and that is God There are two branches of this appeal Idem bis dicit conscientiae suae integrae declarandae causa Lavat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synonymum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieron in Trad. and they both intend the same thing My witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high The words witnesse and record are of the same signification though they differ in the letter The one is properly an Hebrew word and the other Syriack When Jacob and Laban were in that contest Gen. 31.47 Jacob tooke a Stone and set up a Pillar for a witnesse And Jacob sayd to his Brethren Gather stones and they made an heape and they did eate there upon the heap and Laban called it Jegar-sahadatha that is a heap of witnesses as it is in the Margin but Jacob called it Galeed or Gilead Jacob speaking the pure Hebrew and Laban the Syriack language they take in both the words of Jobs appeale My witnesse is in Heaven my record is on high Est forma juramenti quo deum invocat innocentiae suae testem atque conscientiae spectatorem Cajet Job speakes the same thing twice to shew how strongly he beleeved that the Lord would be witnesse for him My witnesse is in Heaven my record is on high Heaven and high are the same as witnesse and record are And when he saith on high or in the high place he useth not the word Bamoth by which those high places are expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In excelsis malimin altissimis quia excelsa
day upon the earth whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold c. Job believed that he should see this Redeemer with humane eyes and therefore he did believe that his Redeemer should have a humane Nature or be The Son of man Jesus Christ was A Son of man in reference to his participation with us in all things which concerne created nature And he was The Son of man by way of Eminency in reference to his freedome from any participation with us in corrupted nature otherwise then in the paenall effects of that corruption as the Apostle states it Heb. 2.17 chap. 4.15 In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren and he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sinne He that is in all things like man except sinne is rightly called The Sonne of man for sinne is not at all the forme but all the deformity of man Hence Jobs faith prophesied The Sonne of man will plead For his friend The word in the Hebrew comes from a root which signifies to feed either our selves or others because friends use often to feed together and sometimes one friend seeds or provides and offers food to another It is taken sometimes largely for a Neighbour and not seldome strictly for a speciall friend Deut. 13.6 if thy friend who is as thine own soule entice thee c. that is if the nerest and friend that thou hast in the world entice thee c. in this strict sense the word is to be taken here Job was not one of Christs friends at large he was a special a Bosome-friend Job was not according to the known use of that word among us A friend of Christ extraordinary but he was Christs friend in ordinary a man who dayly convers'd with Christ and Christ with him a man who dayly performed Offices of dutifull love to Christ and a man to whom Christ dayly performed the Offices of bountifull and mercifull love Hence his holy assurance that Christ would perform that Office of mercy for him The Son of man will plead for his fiend The vvords thus opened are as I may say An Epitome of the Gospel a little gospel yea I may cal them the whole Gospel what is the Gospel but this good newes that Christ God-man mediates for his people All that Christ was is expressed in this what so-Christ did more then this on earth is implyed in this and this is all Christ now doth for us in Heaven He ever lives to make intercession for us saith Saint Paul Heb. 7.25 which is the same in effect with what holy Job professeth in this Text Hee will plead for a man with God and the Sonne of man for his Friend There is one thing further to be noted for the clearing of this Text For possibly the Reader may scruple how the same words should be rendred by some as a wish O that one might plead for a man with God and by others as a conclusion He will plead with God for a man Againe how the latter branch should be rendred by some in the forme of a similitude As a man for his neighbour and by others as a direct assertion And the Son of man for his Freind I answer to the first That the same word may be thus diversly rendred according to differing Moods of Grammar and so the signe of the Optative Moode which is in the forme of a wish is by some judged most sutable to the scope of this place So that a wish may here be understood and safely supplyed though it be not expressed To the second scruple I answer that the particle Vau in the Hebrew placed at the beginning of a word though it be usually taken as a Conjunction knitting one sentence to another yet according to the exigence and scope of the Scripture it undergoes diverse other significations As first A disjunctive Exod. 12.15 Ye shall take it out from the Sheep or from the Goates The Hebrew is And from the Goates but because the Law did not command both but gave a liberty to chuse eyther of the two therefore we render not And but Or from the Goates So Judg. 11.31 See the Margin of our Bibles which shewes that Jepthtah did not binde himselfe to offer up whatsoever should meet him in Sacrifice but one of the two he did binde himselfe to eyther to dedicate that to the Lord or to offer it up for a burnt Offering Secondly It is often used Adversatively and is rendred But Gen. 42.10 Psal 44.17 c. Thirdly Causally and it is rendred For Psal 60.11 Isa 64.5 c. Fourthly Besides diverse other acceptions of it which I shall omit it is used Comparatively or as a Note of likenesse Prov. 25.25 As cold water to a thirsty soule so is good newes from a farr Countrey The Hebrew is And good newes So Pro. 26.7 and very frequently in that Book Thus in the Text the particle Vau is taken by some as a note of likenesse comparing the two parts of the Verse with each other but by others it is taken onely as a conjunction copulative knitting both parts of the Verse together He will plead for a man with God and the Son of man for his Freind From the words according to this latter readinâ—â— Observe First There is an Advocate between God and Man Sin hath made a breach there needs a Mediator to heale it God and sinfull man are as we speake Two and they cannot be made One but by a Third Man was created in a state of amity with God that state needed no Mediatour man being restored is in a state of reconciliation unto God that state needs a Mediatour both to settle and continue it And hee who is the Mediatour betweene both parties is an Advocate a pleader a Patron for the one partie There was need of a Mediatour even in regard of God himselfe that both his State might be preserved and his Justice satisfied But there was need of an Advocate onely in regard of man that so his wants and miseries might be declared and that mercy together with helpe in the time of need might be obtained The Apostle Gal. 3.20 describing the nature of a Mediatour saith A Mediatour is not of one or as we supply not a Mediatour of one A Mediatour is of two yea and for two But an Advocate though he be betweene two yet he is but for one or of one eyther of one individually taken or of one specifically taken eyther of one man or of one sort or company of men who though they are many in number yet their state or case is one Thus Christ is an Advocate for one or of one all that he is an Advocate for being in one and the same condition for the maine though some particulars in every mans case may vary The Greek word which is rendred Advocate in the New Testament is applyed to the holy Ghost But there is a great difference betweene
not mine eye continue in their provocation And therefore he renews his appeale to God and beggs to be heard before indifferent Judges or Umpires Lay downe now put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me In the fourth and fifth Verses he further urgeth the reasons of his appeale or he backs his motion that God would doe him right from the insufficiency of his Freinds to doe him right Thou hast hid their heart from understanding As if he should say Who would stand to the judgement of those who want understanding Thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them so To this honour of judging my cause and deciding this controversie yea I finde them so unfit to be eyther my Judges or my Arbitrators that they are indeed but Flatterers and therefore they may rather expect some sudden judgement upon themselves or their Children then that God should doe them this honour to judge for me He that speakes flattery to his Freinds even the eyes of his Children shall faile Vers 5. Thus I have opened Jobs scope in the context of these five Verses which I have put together because the matter runs in a continued dependence And though for the maine it be the same with which he concluded in the sixteenth Chapter yet the variety of reading and expression will yeeld us variety of meditation I descend to particulars Vers 1. My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Here are three things every of which speakes a dying man First Corrupt breath Secondly Extinguished dayes Thirdly A grave made ready Pereo spiritu agitatus Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ligavit constrinxit per antiphrasin significat solutus ruptus corruptus accommodatur etiam ad dolores intensissimos quales sunt parturientium quia cor valde constringunt First My breath is corrupt Ruach There are three interpretations given of that word My breath some understand it of his minde or whole inward man As if he had sayd My thoughts are or my minde is exceedingly troubled and so most of the Greek Interpreters read it and then the word which we translate Corrupt may signifie greived pained or afflicted and it is often applyed to those paines which are most painefull even the paine of a Woman in travell And so the sense is made out thus as if Job had sayd I am extreamely troubled ' or I am pained like a Woman in the houre of travell as shee is in bodily paine so I am pained in minde I hvve felt many inward pangs and throwes and yet I am not delivered But I conceive this exposition unsuitable to the scope of the place Job being about to describe the state of his body or of his outward man and not the affliction and trouble of his minde Secondly The word Ruach signifieth the vitall powers or spirits which support man Spiritus vitales qui animae instrumentum sunt ad vitae functiones Aquin. and serve him in all the functions of life spirits are the promoters of action and when the vitall spirits are corrupted man is unable not onely to act but to live The expence of spirits is the most chargeable expence to the life of man and when a mans spirits are much spent he is like a dead man though he be alive Wee say ordinarily when we are weary Our spirits are spent that is Our vitall spirits which give activity and strength to the whole body Thirdly Rather understand it literally and strictly for the breath which comes forth by respiration My breath is corrupt and then the corrupting here spoken of is not to be taken for any ill savour in his breath they who have corrupt breath are offensive to others in breathing Corruptio non hic denotat spiritum graveolentum sed spiritum qui cum ingenti nisu dolore emittitur Pined Medici Asthma vocant quia Asthmaticus suffocari videtur ideo legitur hic jam quidem Ago animam Tygur The breath is said to be corrupt because it smels of the corruption of those parts from whence it is drawne we must not understand Job so But when he saith My breath is corrupt his meaning is that eyther hee had obstructions and stoppings of breath which distemper Physitians call the Tissicke a man under that infirmity may be sayd to have his breath corrupted because he breathes difficultly And as it is so in some diseases so it is alway so in the approaches of death a little before a man dyes his breath shortens he breathes hardly or he hardly breathes he lyes gasping for life and catching for breath Such a state Job here intends The Tygurine translation takes that sense My life is departing or I am giving up the ghost Hence Note The breath of man is corruptible though his soule be not These two are very distinct Some make the soule and breaâ—h one thing and argue the corruptibility of the soule from such Texts as this But the breath differs not onely from the soule but from the life The soule hath a life of its owne and the life of the body is its union with the soule breathing is the acting of life proceeding from that union and ending when that union is dissolved Breath may be corrupt and life may banish but the soule continues the breath is so vanishing that the Prophet gives caution Isa 2.22 Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills The breath of man is so ready to cease that it is our wisedome to cease from man for when breath goes man is gone and all goes with him in that day his thoughts perish and therefore Job had no sooner sayd My breath is corrupt but he adds My dayes are extinct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox tantum hoc loco reperta significat excidere amputare extinguere My dayes that is The time appointed for my life which is measured by dayes by naturall dayes or by artificial dayes Our dayes come and goe continually and when our tale of dayes is come and gone our dayes are extinct The word which here we translate extinct is found no where else in the Hebrew of the Old Testament It is rendered three wayes First Thus my dayes are cutt off which metaphor is often used in reference to life our dayes are as it were so many threads Excissi sunt Pagn and our life is like a peece of clooth woven together by many dayes when the Webb be it more or lesse longer or shorter is finished the thred is cut My dayes are cut off Secondly The Vulgar reads it my dayes will be shortned they shall be put in a narrow roome into a little compendium I shall soone be able to read over the volume of my dayes Breviabuntur dies mei Vulg they are but short a meer Epitome Thirdly We read my dayes are extinct or put out Which is a
metaphor taken from fire from a Torch or Candle which is the sense of the Tygurine translation My dayes faile as a Candle or as a Lamp which when the oyle is consumed goes out Mr. Broughton keeps to the metaphor of fire Deus mei ritu lucernae deficiunt Tygur My dayes are quenched There is a flame of life in the body the naturall heat is preserved by the naturall moysture these two Radicall heat and Radicall moysture worke upon each other and as long as Radicall moysture holds out to feed the Radicall heat life holds out but when the heat hath once sucked and drunk up all the moysture in some acute diseases it drinks all at a draught as the flame drinkes up the Oyle of the Lampe Vita extinguitur quando humor nativus in quo vita consistit extinguitur then wee goe out or as Job speakes here Our dayes are extinct Excessive moysture puts out the fire and for want of moysture it goeth out Hence Note First Mans life as a Fire or Lampe consumes it self continually There is a speciall disease called a Consumption of which many dye but the truth is every man who dyes dyes of a Consumption he that dyes of a Surfet may be sayd in this sense to dye of a Consumption The fewell and food of mans life is wasted sometimes more sparingly and gradually but 't is alwayes consumed except in those deaths which are meerely occasionall or violent before man dyes Againe Job speaks peremptorily My dayes are extinct He was not then dead but because hee saw all things in a tendency to death and was himselfe in a dying posture therefore he concludes My dayes are extinct Hence note Secondly What we see in regard of all preparatorie meanes and wayes ready to be done we may speake of as already done The Scripture speakes often of those things which are shortly and certainly to come to passe as come to passe and as the Apostle argues in spirituals We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the Brethren and he that believeth hath eternall lif So we may argue about naturals he that is sick beyond the help of meanes and the skill of the Phisitian is translated from life to death and we may conclude of a man in this case he hath tempoall death or he may say of himselfe as Job doth in the next words The graves are ready for me The Originall is very concise it is only there The graves for me we supplie those words Are ready And because of that shortnes of the Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sepulchra mâ—hi Cum mutila sit oratio indifferens est ut variis modis porfici possit there have been many conjectures for the supplie or filling up of the sence Some thus The graves for me that is there is nothing for me to thnke of now but only a grave I may lay aside all other businesse and attend that alone how I may lye downe in the dust with peace I am not a man for this world it is best for me to retire or withdraw my soule quite from the earth seeing I have no hope to keepe my body long out of it or if I doe let out my soule to the earth it shall be only to so much of it as will hold my body or serve to make me a grave The graves for me Secondly The graves for me that is I desire or wish for nothing but a grave A grave for my money as wee say of a thing that we greatly desire so saith Job A grave for me As if he had more largely spoken thus As I perceive I am going to the grave so I desire to goe thither I have as to this sence made a covenant with death Sepulchra mihi supple opto quaero cogito aut quid simile Sepulchra mihi inhiant ego sepulchris q. d. Aliis omnibus rebus valedico atque renuncio Jun. and an agreement with the grave The grave and I shall not fall out now that I am ready to fall into it For if I had my vote or might put downe in writing what I would have I would write A Grave A Grave for me as I am declining and decaying in my body so my spirit and my minde are as willing that my body should decay I am as ready for the grave as that is for me A grave for me So the words carry a reciprocation of readinesse betweene Job and the Grave The grave gapes for me and I gape for the grave Wee may parallell this kinde of speaking with that in the Booke of Canticles Chap. 2.16 where the Spouse saith My beloved is mine and I am his The Originall is My beloved to me and I to him There are no more words then needs must be The largenesse of their affection bred this concisenesse in language My beloved to me and I to him We are to one another as if we were but one The expression notes two things First Propriety My beloved to me or my beloved is mine that is I have a propriety in him Secondly It notes possession I have him I have not onely a right to him but I enjoy him I have not onely a title but a tenure God hath given me Liverie and Seisin as our Law speakes he hath put me into possession of Jesus Christ and I have given Jesus Christ full possession of me I am no longer my owne but his and at his dispose So here The grave for me and I for the grave The grave is my right yea the grave is my possession The grave is a house that every one hath right to and some are so neere it that they seeme possessed of it The grave is mine saith Job or I am as a dead man ready to be carryed to my grave The grave is not made ready till man is undressed by death and so made ready for the grave We say of very old men though in health and we may say of very sick men though young They have one foot in the grave Job speakes as having both his feet in the grave Yea wee may say that Job speakes as if he had not onely his feet in the grave but which is farr more his heart in the grave There are many who have their feet in the grave whose hearts are at furthest distance from it Job had both Heman Psal 88.4 5. describes his condition in such a language My soule is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh to the grave I am accounted with them that goe down into the pit I am as a man of no strength free among the dead like the slaine that lye in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and that are cut off from thy sight That Scripture may be a Comment on this My breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me Further Job speakes in the Plurall number he saith not the grave is ready for me but The graves
from the King of Moab the misery which fell upon the Moabites by that Warr was put into Verse and passed into a Proverbe Numb 21.27 28 29 30. Wherefore they that speake in Proverbs say Come into Heshbon let the City of Sihon be built and prepared For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon a flame from the City of Sihon c. That is A feirce hot Warr is made which hath consumed Ar of Moab and the Lords of the high places of Arnon Holy David met with this measure from men in the day of his sorrowes Psal 69.10 11. When I wept and chastned my soule with fasting that was to my reproach I made sack-cloath my Garment I became a Proverbe or a By-word 't is Jobs language to them In the next Verse he tels us who did this by way of distribution They that sit in the Gate that is Great ones speake against me and I was the song of the Drunkard that is Of the common sort When those false Prophets Ahab and Zedekiah who to put the Jewes into a hope of a speedy returne from their Captivity in Babylon prophesied the speedy ruine of Babylon it selfe when I say those false Prophets should be cruelly put to death by the command of the King of Babylon according to the Prediction of the Prophet Jeremiah then the same Prophet foretels also that this judgement of God upon them for their lyes should be made a By-word and their names a curse Jer. 29.21 22. And of them shall be taken up a curse Plagae Zedikiae tangant te sit frater servus Zedekiae Vatabl. by all the Captivity of Judah which are in Babylon saying The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab whom the King of Babylon rosted in the fire That signall Victory of Gideon over the Midianites became a Proverbe in Israel Isa 9.4 As in the day of Midian And the Lord promises his people that the fall of the King of Babylon shall be so notorious that they shall take up this Proverbe and say How hath the oppressor ceased The golden City ceased Isa 14.4 The Prophet Habakkuk assured them that this should be while he sayd Chap. 2.6 Shall not all these certainely they shall take up a Parable against him and say Woe to him that encreaseth that which is not bis how long And to him that ladeth himselfe with thicke clay Secondly Observe It is a great burden to be made a disgracefull by-word â—hus God threatned his owne people and numbered it among the sorest punishments of their disobedience Deut. 28. 37. The Lord shall bring thee and thy King whom thou hast set over thee to a Nation whom thou nor thy Fathers have knowne and there thou shalt serve other Gods Wood and Stone and thou shalt become an astonishment and a Proverbe and a by-word among all the Nations whither the Lord shall lead thee This threat was renewed 1 Kings 9.7 And the Psalmist bewailes it that God had brought his people into such a condition Thou hast made us a by-word among the Heathen a shaking of the head among the people thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us Psal 44.13 The Prophet Jeremiah speakes terrour from the Lord Jer. 24.9 I will deliver them to be removed to all the Kingdomes of the earth for their hurt to be a reproach and a proverbe and a taunt and a curse in all the places whither I shall drive them The Hypocrite who putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and commeth to a Prophet to enquire of the Lord hath his doome denounced in this tenour Ezek. 14.8 I will set my face against that man and make him a signe and a proverbe and cut him off from amidst my people Againe Ezek. 16.44 They that speake in proverbs shall say Such as the Mother is such is the Daughter The Hittites and the Israelites were both alike in sin and they should not be unlike in punishment Such short sentences are an advantage to memory and serve in stead of larger Histories of eminent providences whether mercies or judgements Thirdly Observe God often turnes that to the honour of his servants which men intended to their disgrace Job was a by-word in disgrace God made him a by-word too but for his honour Job is famous to a Proverbe at this day for as when wee would set forth the greatnesse of any mans suffering we say Hee is as poore as Job so when wee would set forth the greatnesse of any mans patience we say He is as patient as Job or he is another Job All the vertues In proverbium abiit Jobi patientia and graces which the Saints have manifested under sufferings are proverbially exprest under the sufferings and patience of Job Never did Caesar nor Alexander nor any of the great Hero's of the World obtaine such a Name and glory by victories over men as Job did by patient suffering under the hand of God And as hee is proverbially spoken of for his suffering so likewise for his holinesse God made his Piety a Proverbe too though his Freinds suspected him for an Hypocrite When the Lord would shew himselfe so unalterably resolved that nothing should take him off from bringing judgement upon a sinfull people he saith I will not doe it though Noah Daniel and Job stood before me Ezek 14.14 As if he had sayd I will not doe it though the most eminent men in holinesse or the greatest favorites that ever I had in the World should sue that they might be spared if any in the World could obtaine this of God Noah Daniel and Job could but they should not therefore none shall See with what honourable Names he is listed Noah and Daniel men remembred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Interpretatur antea prius i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel ante facies i. e. in conspectu hominum in oculis eorum Exemplum sum coram eis Vulg. Sumitur ver bum Tophet ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portentum prodigium res mira i e. Exemplum quod dam prodigiosum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et nollet eam ignomi iae expâ—nere Bez. Graeci dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitaâ—p oscriptus publicè in cippo yea crowned with honour by God and all good men are but company good enough for Job Thou hast made me a by-word And aforetime I was as a Tabret Aforetime The word may be taken two wayes First As signifying what was or hath been done in former times in which sense we translate Aforetime or formerly I was as a Tabret Secondly As signifying what is or hath been done in the presence of others Before them I was as a Tabret Wee put in the Margin Before their face or in their sight that is They being witnesses of it I was as a Tabret The Vulgar Latine translates the word which wee render
Woe to those who put off their beginnings in grace till they are readdy to finish in nature A dying man is unfit for any businesse how much more for this He is extreamely indisposed for worldly purposes much more for heavenly and therefore as soone as a man that hath any Estate begins to be sick Freinds will move him Pray Sir settle your Estate make your Will you know not how God may deale with you if your disease should encrease a little more you may be totally disabled to doe it therefore pray hasten Yea we finde that most men of valuable Estates in the World make their Wills in their health when they are free from sicknesse and furthest from death when they have the greatest activity of minde and body They wisely remember how some who had a full purpose to make their Wills in sicknesse have been suddenly overpowred by the malignity of a disease and could never doe it but have left all at six and sevens If so shall any man leave his soule undisposed of or at six and sevens till such a time A sick man being minded of any worldly businesse unlesse he have a great minde to it thinkes it excuse enough to wave it because he is sick I pray doe not trouble me with it saith he I cannot thinke of it now you and I will speak about it hereafter when I am recovered Doe sick men thinke it reason they should be excused from worldly businesse because they are sick and shall any man resolve that it is best to deale about spirituall businesses when he is sick If Job who had a holy and a sound minde under a diseased body sayd My purposes are broken off and the thoughts or possessions of my heart how much more will they feele these breaches whose minds are sick and more diseased then their bodyes Further Observe The difference betweene God and man what a vaine creature man is and how excellent God is God never had one of his purposes broken whatever hee purposed he hath carryed to perfection hee never lost a thought nor any of the possessions of his heart The counsell of the Lord stanâ—eth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all Generations Psal 33.11 'T is the glory of God that his purposes stand he is able to make them stand though all the World should combine as one man to cast them downe 'T is the dishonour of man that hee so often falls from his owne purposes and eates up his owne resolves and 't is the punishment of some men that their purposes receive a fall that their most solemne debates and setled resolves are scattered and confounded The Lord in judgement bringeth the counsell of the Heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the people of none effect Psal 33.10 All the thoughts of man are loseable and most men lose their thoughts It is the comfort of Beleevers that they are not bottom'd upon their owne purposes or thoughts but upon the thoughts and purposes of God that 's their basis and that shall never be broken God is unchangeable and therefore his purposes cannot break When mans purposes are broken hee eyther changeth or suffers a change of which Job complaines in the next Verse Vers 12. They change the night into day and the light is short because of darknesse Here are two things to be opened First What is meant by changing the night into day Secondly Who it is that changeth the night into day They change the night into day Hath not the Lord made a promise yea a Covenant which is more then a promise and annexed a signe to it which is the ratification of a Covenant Gen. 8.22 that to the end of the World while the earth remaineth Seed time and harvest and Summer and Winter and cold and heate and day and night shall not cease that is they shall not cease in their turnes and seasons How is it here sayd They change the night into day as if the night and day were out of course when as the Lord hath covenanted that they shall continue in their course I answer There is a twofold change of times of day and night First A naturall Change Secondly A metaphoricall Change The united power of all creatures in Heaven and Earth cannot make a naturall change of day into night and God the Creator hath promised that he will not make that change he will not breake the succession of night and day while the Earth remaineth But a metaphoricall change of night into day and of day into night hath been often made for when the night is so full of trouble to us that we cannot sleep the night is changed into day and when the day is so full of trouble to us that wee can neyther doe our worke Hoc tormentum cordis nec nox interrumpebat quae est tempus deputatum humanae quieti graviuâ— est pati somni defectum in nocte quam in die Aquin. Meae cogitationes molestae animum rodentes noctem mihi convertunt in diem efficiunt ut noctes ducam in somnes Merc nor take our comforts then the day is changed into night The night is the time appointed for naturall rest therefore the night may be sayd to be changed into day when we cannot rest and this is a great affliction for though in some sense and in Scripture sense too to have the night changed into day is a mercy and notes a change from a troubled estate into a comfortable estate yet to have the night changed by our restlesnesse or want of sleep is both an affliction it selfe and an argument that we are burdned and over-pressed with other manifold afflictions In this sense Job complaines of the change of his night into day and thus God often changeth times and seasons both to particular persons and whole Nations Dan. 2.21 Daniel answered and sayd Blessed be the Name of God for ever and ever for wisedome and might are his and hee changeth the times and the seasons hee removeth Kings and hee sets up Kings He changeth the times and seasons that is He makes seasons comfortable or troublesome peaceable or unquiet hee changeth the night into day or the day into night as himselfe pleaseth And the light is short because of darknesse Propter calamitates Jun. That is The day is to me as no day because of my calamity and misery my day is short because darknesse suddenly overtakes it Artificiall dayes are long or short according to the distance which the darknesse of the night keepes from them Our metaphoricall dayes are long or short according to the distance which the darknesse of trouble keepes from them Thus the change of day into night and of night into day is to be reckoned by the condition we are in When we cannot sleep in the night our night is changed into day and when sorrow seazeth on us in the day our day is changed into night or The light is short to us by
are ready for us and we have made our bed in the darknesse it is not for us to looke for life here indeed to live to us is Christ but to dye is gaine A Beleever can willingly part with all his earthly possessions for heavenly hopes much more can he joyfully part with all his earthly hopes for the possession of Heaven Thirdly from these expressions The Grave is my house I have made my bed in the darknesse Note A Beleever looks upon death as a state of rest As the whole house is a place of rest compared with the World abroad so the Bed is the speciall place of rest Revel 14.14 Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth they rest from their labours and their workes follow them They shall follow their worke no more who are followed by their works The Grave is the house and bed of the body to all who dye Heaven is the house and rest of the soule to all those why dye in the Lord. Saints have here a rest in their labours they shall hereafter have a rest from their laboures Lastly Whereas the bed of death is made in darknesse Observe There is nothing desireable in death as considered in it selfe A darke condition is the worst condition Darknesse which in Scripture signifies all evill is a word good enough to expresse the state of death by What desireablenesse there is in death what pleasures in the Grave will appeare further in those arguments which death useth to invite us home to its house the Grave in the next Verse vvhich tels us our most lovely companions yea our sweetest and most endeared relations there are Corruption and Wormes Vers 14. I have sayd to corruption Thou art my Father and to the worme Thou art my Mother and my Sister Hyperbolae sunt quibus significat se omnem jam vitae cogitationem abdicasse Jun. This Verse is of the same sense with the former onely here Job breaks into an elegant variation of new metaphors and hyperbolicall expressions I have sayd That is I have as it were called to and saluted the retinue and attendants of death as my freinds and kindred As I have made my bed in the Grave and as that is my house so now I am finding out my houshold relations I say to this Thou art my Father and to that Thou art my Mother and Sister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est clamare vocare appellare per electionem nominare elegans prosopopeia per quam Job tumulum alloquitur Bold The word which we render I have sayd c. signifies not barely to say but to cry or call out I have called out to corruption so Master Broughton To the pit I cry O Father O Sister O Mother to the Worme not barely I have sayd but I cry and not barely I cry Father to the pit but he adds also a note of exclamation O Father Secondly The word imports not generally a calling or crying out to any one that comes next but to some speciall person by way of election and choice or to such as vve know vvell and are acquainted with as the termes of Father Mother and Sister imply Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat etiem occurrere alicui nam occurrentem solemus salutatione vel interrogatione aliqua proprio nomine appellare Further the word signifies not onely to call aloud and to call with election but to goe forth on purpose to call a Freind or to invite him in As when we see an acquaintance comming towards us or our dwellings we step out to meet and welcome him so the word may beare in this place As if Job seeing death drawing towards him had gone out and said O corruption my Father O wormes my Mother my Sister vvelcome vvelcome such an elegancy the word yeelds us I shall not here stay upon any anxious disquisition about the propriety of these relations how Job cals corruption his Father and the vvorme his Mother and Sister or in drawing out comparisons about them vve are to looke onely to a generall proportion not to an exact propriety in these words there 's no need to make out parallels between corruption and a Father or betweene wormes and a Mother or a Sister Onely thus much may be asserted particularly First He speakes thus to shew that he looked on death not onely not as an enemy but not as a stranger Death and he were well acquainted Secondly He speakes thus to shew that death vvas not only not a stranger to him but as one of his kindred He vvas upon as fayre termes vvith death as vvith Father and Mother Thirdly Job speakes thus to shew Vt ostendat mortem sibi in votis esse cunctis illum amicitiae necessitudinis nomininis compellat Pinet that he did not onely looke upon death as in a neere relation to him but as having a kinde of delight and contentment in death vvhat is more sweet to a man vvho hath been in a long journey and is returning home then to thinke that he is comming to his Father and Mother to his Brethren and Sisters As nature gives us kindred by blood so it is a custome to adopt and stampe to our selves kindred by kindnesse one vve call Father and another vve call Mother one is our Brother a second is our Sister a third our Cozen by the mutuall tyes or by the receits and returnes of curtesie Thus we are to take these compellations as intimating vvith vvhat spirit Job entertained the thoughts of death even with no other then if he had beene to fall into the embraces of Father and Mother and Sister He sayd to corruption as we should say to wisedome Prov. 7.4 Say unto wisedome thou art my Sister and call understanding thy Kinswoman that is Acquaint thy selfe with and be familiar vvith vvisedome so shalt thou keepe thy selfe vvhich is both thy vvisedome and thy happinesse a stranger From the strange Woman Vers 5. Further it may yet be enquired what it is which Job cals Corruption and the worme I have sayd to corruption c. What is this corruption There are two opinions about it First Some interpret him speaking to the corruption and wormes which had already seized upon his body for his diseases and ulcerous sores had bred corruption and wormes As if he had sayd I may well call corruption my Father for I am already full of corruption I may well call the worme my Mother my sister for the wormes creep in and out at my sores continually my body is as if it had layne already in the Grave full of corruption and wormes Secondly Others expound him speaking to and of the corruption and wormes which waited his comming into the Grave The vvord in the Text which wee translate Corruption signifies also the Grave because bodies doe not onely corrupt in the Grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fovea corruptio quod in fovea corpus corrumpitur but
considered his owne body as dead too much and so attained not to Abrahams strength of Faith Yet we have three things to say for him First there was a great difference between his case and Abrahams Job had no such ground of Faith as Abraham had Abraham received a speciall yea an absolute promise from God that he should have a Son but Job received only a conditionall promise from man grounded upon the generall promises of God that he should be restored This consideration abates much from the objection of his unbeleife though it cannot be denyed but his Faith might and should have risen higher upon the power of God who as he was Al-sufficiently able so he did afterwards actually raise him up Secondly The designe of God being in Jobs example to set forth a patterne of patience as his designe was in Abrahams example to set forth a patterne of Faith he was pleased to let Jobs Faith run it selfe out about spirituals and eternals not minding temporals that so his patience might have a perfect worke in bearing the full weight of his affliction to the end while his Faith did not so much as put under a little finger to ease him with the least beleife that it should as to this life be taken off or have an end Lastly As 't was hinted Job had much Faith to some purposes though none to this hee had a full trust in God though he should kil him but he had no trust that God would not kill him he beleeved God loved him while he did afflict him though hee did not beleeve that God would deliver him from his afflictions As no mans Faith workes alike at all times so 't is rare that any mans Faith workes alike to all things Some who beleeve and hope mightily for the things of Heaven have but little eyther Faith or Hope for earthly things Not because a Faith which serves for Heaven is not enough 't is rather more then enough to serve for Earth But because most of those whose Faith is strong and much enlarged for Heaven take so much satisfaction there and are there so much at home that they account themselves Pilgrims and strangers here and are not much mindfull as the Apostle speakes Heb. 11.15 or desirous of their earthly Countrey and concernments What wee doe not much desire to have wee doe not much beleeve though we beleeve that we shall have it A full soule saith Solomon loatheth the Honey combe Those soules which are full of Heaven though they doe not loath yet they are not hungry after though they can thankfully receive and enjoy any Honey-combe of this World No man having drunk old Wine straightway desireth new for hee saith the old is better Luke 5.39 Doubtlesse Job had drunk the old Wine of Gods favour and love in the Redeemer and so his thirst was much slacked if not totally quenched towards the new Wine of a temporall restauration And hence we may not onely charitably but more then probably conclude That it was not for want of Faith that Job did not beleeve or hope for what his Freinds promised him but because he had employed his Faith upon better and more pleasing pâ—â—â—ises Thus Job hath finisht his answer to the second charge of Eliphaz And through the helpe of Christ somewhat is here tendered for the illustration and exposition of it His other two Freinds Bildad and Zophar stand ready to enter the Lists with him and to renew their charge what they sayd and what answer they received shall if God continue life and strength with these peaceable opportunities in convenient time be presented to publick view A TABLE Directing to some speciall points noted in the precedent EXPOSITIONS A ABominable what that is which is called abominable or an abomination p. 65 66. Sinfull man how abominable to God 66 67. Abundance cannot satisfie 113. Advocate between God and man 389. How the holy Ghost is an Advocatâ— 389 390. In what manner Christ performes the offiâ—e of an Advocate 390. Christ is an effectuall mediatour or Advocate 393. Five things to shew the effectualnesse of Christs pleading for us as an Advocate 394. Affections of men and their opinions of others are very variable 452. Affliction great afflictions hinder the sense of tendred mercies 39. Some afflictions bring a wearinesse boâ—h upon soule and body 247. Some afflictions distract 248. A godly man may grow extreame weary of affliction 249. Great afflictions like great sins leave a mark 261. Great afflictions how made witnesses of sin against a man 262. The witnesse which affliction gives censured two wayes 262 263. God afflicts his owne severely 290. God seemes to take pleasure in afflicting his 294. Affliction comes not by chance but by speciall direction 295. God hath many wayes to afflict 297. He sends breach upon breach 309. Great afflictions have three things in them in reference to others 451. Age old age three degrees of it among the Jewes 31. Amalekites their enmity against the Jewes 126. Angels how imperfect 62. Angels by some called Heavens and why 63. Answering two things alwayes may two things usually doe embolden men to answer 222. Antiochus Epiphanes his painefull life 89 Appetite of the end infinite 207. Appeales to God lawfull 363. It is a daring worke to appeale to Gâ—d 368. Apis the Aegyptian Idol why his Preists did not give him the water of Nilus to drinke 147. Apostacy from profession worse then continued prophanenesse 286. Archers seven Archers shot at Job 297. Arminians why they deny the Intercession of Christ for all 393. Assurance of approaching miseries how great a trouble to the minde 118. A wicked man may have this assurance 118. Arrhabo an earnest whence it comes 420. Astonishment at the dealings of God 468. Augustus Caesar his peircing eye 266. Aygoland a King of the Moores why he refused baptisme 471. B. Barathrum why it signifies Hell 455. Begging or wandring for bread a great affliction 111. Beleeving a wicked man hath neyther a ground nor a heart to beleeve 104. A wicked mans beleeving is presuming 104. Belial whence derived 10. Who is Belial 85. Blood what it signifies in Scripture 347. Bloody sins shal not passe undiscovered 357. Why God is sayd to make inquisition for blood in speciall 358. Body to minde the seeding of it sinfull 148. They take little care for their soules who take overmuch care for their bodies 150. Branch what it signifies in Scripture 189. Bread what it signifies in Scripture 111. Breath of God what it signifies in Scripture 164. Breath of man 167 168. Breath of man taken three wayes 402. The breath of man is corruptible 403. Breath is not the soule ibid. Bribe-takers and Bribe-givers both alike wicked 195. Bribery is an odious sin 197. That which is got by bribery will not hold long 197. By-word to be made a by-word notes two things 447. Great sufferers are usually made a by-word 447 448. It is very burdensome to the spirit of a man
then a Conqueror over them all 'T is not onely granted that Job did hope for a day of joy after his night of sorrow but affirmed that he had a day of joy in his night of sorrow for he could say in a true sense what the Apostle Paul after did as sorrowfull yet alwayes rejoycing yet his night by reason of his outward troubles and many assaults of inward terrour was changed into a laborious toyling day and his outward light of comfort was short and quickly ended when he had it By reason of the faces as the Originall hath it or sudden appearances of darknesse JOB CHAP. 17. Vers 13 14 15 16. If I waite the Grave is mine house I have made my in bed the darknesse I have sayd to corruption Thou art my Father to the worme Thou art my Mother and my Sister And where is now my hope As for my hope who shall see it They shall goe downe to the barrs of the pit when our rest together is in the dust JOB prosecutes the former Argument and shewes yet more fully the vanity of those hopes which his Freinds would nourish in him about a temporall restauration Hee shewes also that though himselfe should nourish them and even strive to hope yet hee could no more keepe such hopes from languishing then himselfe from dying If I waite the Grave is mine house If I waite Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affinitatem habet cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perpemdiculum linea Waiting is an act of the minde in expectation of some future good The Originall word signifies an earnest waiting or waiting joyned with much intention of spirit and strong desires as if the minde did let out a Cord or Line to take hold of the thing for which we waite Waiting is nothing else but patience lengthened out upon a promise There are three acts of the soule upon the promises First Beleeving Secondly Hoping Dicitis amici si me humiliem manere meam expectationem atqui cemitis vires meas vitam meam venisse ad ultimam lineam quippe mala mea curâ—m respuunt Coâ— Thirdly Waiting We beleeve the truth of the promise we hope for the good layd up in the promise we waite till that good be given out unto us If I waite saith Job God waites upon us and we waite upon God God waits in mercy we waite in duty God waites to be gracious Isa 30.18 and man waits to be refreshed with the grace of God Job in this place seemes to make light or little of this duty of waiting If I waite or although I waite or what if I waite what shall I get by it Where 's the profit Or what are my commings in He tells us what If I waite all that I shall get by it will be a Grave or a bed in darknesse And all my preferment will be to call corruption my Father and to say of the Worme Thou art my Mother and my Sister Here 's all I am like to have for all my waiting But was this all he looked for by waiting Yes it was all he looked for and all he thought himselfe in a capacity to receive in this World though in that hee was deceived hee had no expectation but to dye and goe downe to the dust he had no hope to rejoyce in any kindred or alliance but wormes and corruption these were his Mother and his Sisters and Brethren If I wait here 's all I shall have Thus as I intimated before the words carry a strong confutation of those hopes which his Freinds endeavoured to raise up in him that God would raise him up Docet praecisam esse sibi his malis omnem vitae spem vel si eam maximè animo fovere velit Si expectem i. e. si expectare studeam Merl. and make him as a Prince among the people if he repented and turned to God No saith hee what doe you tell mee of a great House and of a great Name of a rising Sun and of the morning light why am I so often told of these things I tell you once for all the Grave is my house darknesse is my bed and the wormes are my kindred and companions let me heare no more of these groundlesse prophecyings and unsavory flatteries for my wound is incurable and I am at the last cast If I waite the Grave is my house Againe The word which we translate to waite comming as was toucht before Si aedificavero infernus domus mea Rab. Dan. from a Root which signifies a Carpenters Line by which he measures his buildings Some render the Text thus If I build the Grave is my house As if hee had sayd I have no other house to build but a Grave or when I have builded my best I shall have no other house but a Grave The Grave The same word signifieth Hell as was shewed Chap. 11.8 and therefore I will not stay here upon it If I waite the Grave Is my house He cals the Grave a house because there wee rest as in a house Man goeth forth of his house to labour and comes home to his house for rest Aegyptij defunctorum sepulchra domos aeternas Appellitant Diodor. lib. 1. Some tell us that Job calls the Grave his house in allusion to those formes of making Graves or Sepulchers used in ancient which are also continued in these times with arches and contrivances like a house And have made my bed in the darknesse Intelligi potest de lecto bene ornato super quem reponi solebant principum cadavera Mausoleis quod juxta Hebraeum in plurail dicitur stravi strata mea magnificum quid sâ—nat Pompaticum Bold He speaks still in prosecution of the allusion In a house there are Dining Roomes and there are sleeping Roomes there is the Bed-Chamber and the Bed in the Chamber The Grave is my house saith Job and there I have a Bed I have made it In the darknesse The Grave is a darke place and the Grave is called Darknesse in a double respect First Because there is no light of the body there Secondly Because there is no light of the Sun there The light of the body is the eye and the light of the ayre is the Sun but in the Grave the Sun shines not or if it did yet there the eye sees not therefore the Grave is darknesse I have made my bed in the darknesse And darknesse is most fit for a bed sleepe loves darknesse A working Roome must be light but 't is no matter how darke a sleeping Roome be when we goe to sleep if it be not darke we make it darke that so we may sleep the better The Apostle gives that as an argument why the Saints should not sleep as doe others because they were once darknesse but now light in the Lord. He that is in aeriall light can hardly get his body to sleep and will you who are in spirituall light compose your
soules to sleep All sorts of sleepers covet the darke and therefore they who sleep in death are elegantly described making their bâ—d in darknesse that so they may have as it were all accommodations for their rest I have made my bed in the darknesse It may be questioned towards the clearing of this Verse Did not Job waite Why doth he say If I waite Was hee upon Iffs or And 's about that great and necessary duty Hee resolved peremptorily Chap. 14.14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my change come And is hee so much changed already into an unresolvednesse about his waiting I answer This supposition about waiting is not a negation nor is it a note of his irresolution to waite for any thing but only for that particular about which his Freinds were so busie to awaken and heighten his expectations Job waited upon God for all things which he desired to have onely he did not waite upon God for that which the visible dispensations of God seemed to tell him aloud that he should not have a temporall deliverance yea when he saith If I waite namely for this thing it is an Argument that he acknowledged it a duty to waite upon God for all those things for the receiving of which he had any rule or ground of hope from God Every exception confirmes the rule Hee that saith he doth not wait upon God about that for which hee hath no warrant saith strongly that he ought to waite upon God where he hath a warrant From which consequence we may Observe this unquestionable truth That it is the duty of man to waite upon God Waiting upon God is a duty of the first Commandement it is a part of naturall worship It is not in mans liberty whether he will waite or no hee is commanded to waite David speaks it double and no doubt he laboured to act it double Psal 40.1 Waiting I waited or I waited patiently upon God The Apostle gives that advice to the Saints Heb. 10.36 Yee have need of patience that after yee have done the will of God yee may receive the promise There is doing the will of God and then there is receiving the promise yet we must doe somewhat after we have done the will of God before we can receive the promise and that is we must waite upon him You have need of patience saith the Apostle What kinde of patience There are three sorts of patience First The patience of labouring that he puts in the former part of the Verse it is our doing the will of God Secondly There is the patience of suffering Thirdly There is the patience of waiting after we have both done and suffered the will of God We have need of this patience the patience of waiting that we may receive the promise that is the mercy promised God hath preventing mercies and they come to us before we wait for them but his rewarding mercies must be waited for he will exercise the grace of patience in us by causing us to wait for our reward as he exerciseth the graces of love and zeale in commanding us to doe his will and usually without waiting after we have done his will there is no receiving of the reward for doing his will And for the promises and Prophesies in generall though God never faile his owne time yet he seldome comes at ours That great promise about the deliverance of the people of Israel out of Aegypt was performed punctually to an houre Exod. 12.41 42. It came to passe at the end of foure hundred and thirty yeares even that very night it came to passe that God brought out all the Host of Israel The time being out in the night God did not stay till morning but brought them out that very night We count it a very veniall sin to breake our word for a day or to let a man waite a day beyond the time promised we commonly say A day breakes no square It is not so with God he keeps his time punctually he will not break his word one day Wee read of the shortning of evill times but not of their lengthening God never makes his people waite for good longer then hee hath promised But though God keep his time exactly and come just at the moment he hath prefixed and foreshewed yet we are apt to antedate the promise of God and to set it a time before Gods time We are short sighted and short breathed that which is but a moment in the Kalendar of Heaven seemes more then an age to us Now in this regard there is much need of patience of waiting patience to tarry not onely our time but Gods time which is the meaning of the Prophet Habakkuk Chap. 2.3 The vision is for an appointed time but at the end it will speake and not lye though it tarry waite for it because it will surely come and will not tarry The Prophet advises Though it tarry waite for it there 's our duty yet hee presently affirmes It will not tarry So then it may tarry and yet it tarryeth not it may tarry beyond our time but it tarryeth not beyond Gods time It will come and will not tarry that is not beyond the time which God hath prefixed though it may soone tarry beyond the time which we have prefixed therefore if it tarry waite there is no remedy but patience The Apostle James gives the rule Chap. 1.4 Let patience have her perfect worke that is Let all manner of patience worke in you to the end and let it worke to all those ends or purposes to which it is appointed Patience hath her perfect worke First When it puts forth perfect acts Secondly When it perseveres in acting Patience ascends by three steps to the perfection of her worke The first is a silent not a sullen submission or resignation of our selves to the dispose of God Psal 39.9 I was dumb saith David and opened not my mouth because thou didst it Secondly A kinde of thankfull acceptation or kissing of the Rod which smites us If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled saith the Lord Levit. 26.41 and they accept the punishment of their iniquity The phrase imports a welcome receiving of it as of a love-token from the hand of a Freind or that the Rod is not onely justly but mercifully and graciously inflicted This a great perfection of patience and to this Jobs patience attained the very first day of his sorrows while he blessed the Name of the Lord not onely for giving him so many good things but also for taking them away Chap. 1.21 The third step is spirituall joy and serious cheerfulnesse under sorrowfull dispensations This the Apostle exhorts the Brethren to Vers 2. Count it all joy when yee fall into diverse temptations And presently adds intimating that the highest perfection of patience consists in this joy Let patience have her perfect worke As if hee had sayd I have told you what the perfect worke of patience is doe not