him in their Office and carrying of Ambassages unto men It is said these came to present themselves before the Lord not that they are any time absent or out of his presence Matth. 18.10 Luke 1.19 but to express their ready willingness to receive or execute any of his Commands as Ministers of great Princes do come dayly to receive their Instructions Where it is said Satan came also among them by Satan or that Adversary we are to understand that Prince of Devils together with all these evil spirits that fall with him His coming among them or in the midst of them doth not import that he hath any communion with these blessed Spirits nor that he is in the presence of God by way of approbation as they are nor yet that he voluntarily cometh before God as they do But the borrowed expression doth only import That as on great Court days not only Princes and their Guards and Attendants do appear there but Delinquents also So Satan is made to appear before God to whom he is subject and accomptable as the sequel cleareth And as in great Conventions some naughty persons are ready to thrust in among the croud to do some ill turn So Satan is ready to catch at all opportunities to tempt or accuse as the sequel here doth also make manifest In this we may learn 1. Sâ—â—h is the greatness of God that not only all the Angels are obedient but even the very Devils are subject to him as here we see 〈◊〉 this was necessary to be premitted to this dispensation wherein so much oâ— Greatness and Soveraignty was to appear To show that mâ—n maâ— learn to cure many of then distempâ—rs of spirit occasioned by the cross dispensations of Proviâ—â—nce by taking a right view of God the Author 〈◊〉 2. Here we have also a comprehensive view of the Administration and Government of the World Wâ—â—â—â—e 〈◊〉 still to be seen and acknowledged as supreme 〈…〉 â—hings beneath instanced here in the pâ—rson and injoyments of Job are a part of the object about which his Providence is exercised So that it cannot without blasphemy be said that he hath forsaken the earth Ezek. 9.9 oâ— that he doth not take notice of the meanest things therein were it even the hairs of our head Matth. 1â— 39 The Ministers to be imployed for executing of his pleasure are not only Angels whom he imployeth both to good to his people and for evil of punishment also But Devils also whom he imployeth sometime as his Executioners against the wicked and sometime as here to be a scourge to his owne children Nâ—t out of any necessity having sufficient besiâ—e to imploy but because he seeth it best 3. This name Satan or that Adversary As it doth point out a Character of a wicked disposition and of one who is of the Devil to be an adversary to all gâ—â—d As here Satan after his own fall proves to mankind So it reaches us further that the emnity betwixt the seed of the Woman and the Sâ—rpent and hâ—s seed was known by the godly from the beginning and consequently they were taught to resolve on a 〈…〉 conflict in their course of holiness Therefore 〈…〉 he here designed by the name of Satan 〈◊〉 Lesson needful yet to be inculcated after all the â—â—â—ments of his opposition in former ages Eph. 6.10 c The forgetting whereof is the cause why we are â—o often 〈◊〉 prized while we live and walk as if we were 〈…〉 Enemies Thirdly As to the Lords calling of Satan to an account and his answer thereunto ver 7. We are not to conceive that God makes any enquity as needing Information but only that he is supreme to call Satan to an account Nor are we to dream of any speech properly so called betwixt God and Satan the terms here being only figuâ—ative and borrowed to point out some other thing Nor yet are we to understand Satans speech of his going to and fâ—â—iâ— the earth and then of his walking up and down in it as a câ—mplaint that however he used diligence in going to and fro tempting yet was he so â—emaâ—d in that he had no success not could get a desired â—eâ—â— but was still forced to walk up and doâ—n compare Matth. 12 43. It is true indeed Satan is unsatiable in his malice notwithstanding aâ—â—his success yet this form of speech is used where desired success is Zech. 1 10 11. 6.7 And here both the expressions â—o only point out his restless and assiduous activity Withal it is to be considered that Satan is said thus to go to and fro in the earth because however Devils since their fall are thrust down to Hell yet till the Judgment of the great Day till which they are reserved then to get their 〈◊〉 and sin sentence and complâ—â—â— punishment Jude ver 6. they have their chains â—â—gthened to come and tempt and afflict in this 〈…〉 world and so have also power in the 〈◊〉 to raise Tempeâ—ts c. Ephâ—s 2.2 This doth 〈◊〉 out 1. That Satan is restless â—nd assiduously diligent in obstructing mens happiness as being vexed that they should fill that room in Heaven from whâ—ch he fell For this 〈◊〉 doth he go to and fro in the earth and walk up and down in it by temptations calamities and persecutions 〈◊〉 much as he is permitted hindering men from embracing Piety or retarding their progress or weakning their hands therein See 1 Pet. 5. â— Luk 22.31 Rev. 12.12 We should remember that we sojourn in a world where Devils are and do haunt among us He is such a waâ—ker in the Earth as doth diligently mark and observe all particulars that he may apply his tentations sutably to his purpose He doth so go to and from it that no place how remote soever from other distractions can secure us from his tentations if God do not hide us And he is so incessant and restless Going to and fro and walking up and down that he will not be put away by never so many repulses but will again and again assault and tempt 2. Whatever be the malice power or restlesness of Satan Yet it as to be still fixed that he is subject and accountable to God in all he is permitted to do and that God hath an eye upon all his proceedings in the world For this Question Whence comest thou doth import Gods over-ruling Providence over him no less then if a Judicial enquiry were made into his Actions and he called dayly to give an account of them 3. Aâ—bâ—â—t God notwithstanding his over-ruling Providence do not altogether bind up Satan but do suffer him to act many strange parts in the woâ—ld by himself immediately or by his Instruments Yet it is firmly to be believed that God doth not approve of or take pleasure in these hâ—s violences For this Question doth also import Gods indignation and dislike of him and his proceedings as Questions are made use of in Scripture to testifie dislike 1 King
matter and such a fervent inclination to speak that he could not without grief and trouble forbear And while he saith his belly is ready to burst like new bottles he means not new bottles for these are not so ready to burst Mat. 9.17 but bottles filled with new wine which by its working is ready to burst the bottles wherein it is put if they be not very strong From this we may not only gather that this Doctrine of Elihu slowed from the Spirit of God but further Learn 1. It must be the Spirit of God in men furnishing them with light and accompanying what they say that will clear Controversies and bring them to an happy close For the Spirit is given him here for that end 2. As men may certainly know that it is the Spirit of God and not a delusion that acts them So they have need to make it sure that it is so especially in debates wherein it is not easie for men to know of what Spirit they are In both these respects he confidently asserts That it is the Spirit of God and not the fury of a rash young man which moveth him to speak I will answer v. 17. For I am full of matter the Spirit within me constraineth me 3. Such as have the Spirit of God may without vanity assert that it is so in the maintenance of truth and of what is right For so doth Elihu assert of himself though a young man when he is to deal on Gods behalf with so eminent parties See 1 Cor. 7.40 4. Albeit the Spirit of God where he dwells keeps men humble and empty in themselves yet he doth not make an empty sound and noise only but supplyeth men with furniture for the work he calls them unto For saith he I am full of matter or of words that is of words pertinent to the purpose and not empty words only And he expresseth his furniture by being full of words to shew that the Spirit of God did not only furnish him with pertinent matter but with fit words whereby to express it As he must do to all those whom he assists 5. Though the Spirit of God do not lead men to be rash and furious yet he fills them in whom he dwelleth with an holy fervour in the cause of God and with an earnest desire and zeal to appear for it especially when others have wronged it For this is the Spirit within him or the Spirit of his belly that is the Spirit which hath taken his seat in and hath wakened up his zeal and affections which in Scripture-phrase are said frequently to be seated in the belly or bowels in behalf of God and his truth so much wronged by them And so this Spirit constrained him that he must appear and speak as wine in a bottle seeketh a vent See Psa 45.1 6. The Spirit of God leads men to look upon the want of an opportunity to serve God as their greatest burden and on his service as their greatest delight and refreshment For so much doth this similitude import Behold my belly or affections moved and excited by the Spirit of God is as wine that hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed or may breath as the bottle gets air when it is opened See Jer. 20.9 7. Whatever fervour men have yet it must not be their own case only farr less the setting out of their gifts in a way of ostentation but edification they should mind Therefore unto his own being refreshed he adds I will open my lips and answer or speak to the cause and on Gods behalf so as ye may be edified Verse 21. Let me not I pray you accept any mans person neither let me give flattering titles unto man 22. For I know not to give flattering titles in so doing my Maker would soon take me away These Verses contain the third branch of this general Preface relating chiefly to Job wherein he gives an account of the way he resolves to follow in managing this cause Some do take up the words as Elihu's wish and prayer to God that he may be helped to manage that cause well and impartially But it seems rather that he expresseth his resolution in a desire to Job and to the whole Auditory that he may have liberty and allowance to deal freely as in a cause of God and a cause concerning mans salvation And that it be not expected that he should yield to any mans humours and affections or authority in this matter but that he will faithfully and freely speak what he thinks of the whole cause or of any man concerned Which course he resolves to take not only because it is not his custome to flatter nor doth he approve of it but because he was restrained from such courses by the fear and awe of God As for the two expressions to accept mans person or face and to give flattering titles to men they may be taken for one and the same thing for the one is repeated for both v. 22. Yet it may be gathered from the same repetition that the giving of flattering titles is the evil he would avoid and the accepting of mans person is the cause or tentation which might drive him to commit that evil And so for clearing and applying this purpose I shall consider four Particulars in the words First Consider the evil which he declines and is careful to avoid he will not give flattering titles to men The word is only used in these Verses and Isa 44.5 and 45.4 and it signifies to give Titles Epithetes a By-name or Sir-name to things And so it is translated a Sir-name in the fore-cited places of Isaiah where it is taken in a good sense But here it is taken in a bad sense for flattering titles or designations which he declines not only in reference to their persons that he will use no Rhetorical or flattering compellations or insinuations to them by way of Preface to conciliate their attention to what he is to say but will fall roundly to his work But in reference to the matter it self he will not goe about the bush as we speak nor mince the truth but speak it out plainly and freely and give things their right names without flattery or circumlocution And in this respect also they are said not to be given to man because regard to their persons did not cause him flatter them in their sin And if he had done otherwise he had spoken rather to their persons to please them than to their condition as it was in it self Of which more will be spoken on the next word Some Learned men do take the word to signifie the naming of a thing obscurely as by some Enigmatical By-name or Epithete and not by its usual proper and known name And this notion suits well to this purpose That as he would not flatter them so he would not give a By-name to things nor change their names either by
AN EXPOSITION Of the BOOK of JOB Being the Sum of CCCXVI Lectures Preached in the CITY of EDENBURGH BY George Hutcheson Minister of the Gospel JAMES V. 11. Behold we count them happy which endure Ye have heard of the Patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy LONDON Printed for Ralph Smith at the Bible in the first Court entering into Gresham-Colledge out of Bishopsgate-street 1669. TO THE READER Christian Reader IN this Essay I do offer unto thee a further proof of my willingness to contribute my Mite toward the Opening up of the Sense of Scripture so briefly as I could and the pointing at the Principal Doctrines contained therein for the benefit of those who delight in the Law of the Lord and who desire to converse with God speaking thereby unto his Church That this Book of Sacred Scripture which treats of a Subject the study whereof is very necessary in all the times that pass over the People of God doth need in a special manner the assistance of a Guide and Interpreter for the right understanding thereof will be denyed by none who do peruse the Scriptures with any measure of attention and is evidenced by the endeavours of many Learned men who upon the account of difficulties occurring in this Book as well as of the excellency of the Subject-matter have taken great pains to open it up After whose elaborate Writings it might seem altogether needless that I who do acknowledge my self fitter to sit at the feet of many of those eminent Worthies should attempt any thing toward the Explication of it were it not that the most of their Writings are wrapped up in a Language not understood by them whose Edification I chiefly design by this Piece and those I have seen in English are either so very brief that ordinary capacities will not be able to deduce and enlarge what they have compared in a succinct Paraphrase or so large and copious far beyond the bulk of this which yet I could not contract in so little bounds as I desired that I know not if many at least among us have been at the expense to purchase or can have so much spare time as to peruse those Helps Having also had occasion for full eleven years from 1649. to 1660. to search into this Scripture in order to my Lecturing upon it at some special times in the ordinary course of my Ministry I found somewhat to be adverted unto in the Explication of the greatest part thereof namely Job's complaint Chap. 3. and the Debate betwixt him and his Friends which needs not at all be regarded in explaining any other Dogmatical Book of Scripture unless it be some infirmities and tentations of Saints recorded in the Book of Psalms and elsewhere For beside the pointing at the Literal Sense of the Sentences here recorded and the Observation of the Scope of those who spake them it is necessary that the Interpreter act the part of a President in the Dispute by examining every Argument adduced by either Party and passing judgment thereupon according to the tenour of the Scripture Which if he neglect to do as some have altogether neglected it and others have but rarely touched it he will put himself to much needless pains in forcing an Orthodox sense of contradictory Assertions and of Assertions which God himself condemns in the close of the Dispute and he may well gather together many sound General Truths worthy to be made use of whether by Ministers in Preaching or by People in their private Meditation but he will not prove an exact Interpreter of this Book nor will he point out what God principally intends thereby which is to instruct us concerning the infirmities of eminent Saints renowned for Patience as well as concerning their graces and concerning their mistakes about Providential dispensations toward Good and Evil men and other the like escapes which being cleared and refuted as they are by Elihu and by God Himself they do afford most useful Instructions to Believers in all ages Therefore following the example of Merlin and of Mercer who broke the ice to him I have made it my great business in those Debates after the Resolution of the Context and the Explication of particular Sentences so far as I judged needful to take notice of what is Orthodox or Censurable in their Argumentations and from their very mistakes as well as from the General Truths hinted by them have deduced Instructions and Cautions for our admonition In which undertaking how successful I have been I leave to the consideration of the candid and judicious Reader I need insist the less here upon this or the like purposes that in the Introductory Discourses to Chap 4. Chap. 32. and in explicating Chap. 38.4 I have given a brief view of the scope of the several parts of this Book of the Dispute betwixt Job and his Friends and of the Censure passed upon it first by Elihu and afterward by God Himself where the judicious Reader will find some directions for regulating of his thoughts concerning the Discourses of all those several Parties He will find the Question stated betwixt Job and his Friends with a brief account of the mistakes on either hand He will find it determined what Principles Elihu makes use of in his censure of Job and whether he did erre as the other Friends did And the scope of Gods censure passed upon Job's discourses and carriage will be laid briefly before him What I have said elsewhere concerning the method of my writing upon Scripture with which the method here is the same so far as the Subject-matter would permit may save me the trouble of repeating it here And my former Apologies concerning the frequent repetition of Doctrines must have place here also upon this special account That the Subject-matter of the Debate betwixt Job and his Friends not to say that Elihu insists much upon the same things and that Gods Censure consists but of one Argument confirmed by an Induction of many Instances being but one principal Thesis which is managed especially by his Friends with very few Arguments often repeated and set off with many Rhetorications I could neither explain them nor deduce Instructions from them without falling upon the same things again and again And therefore I have often judged it convenient to omit those Cautions to be gathered from their mistakes which I had frequently marked before I did not judge it necessary to insist upon every sentence in Job's passionate complaint Chap. 3. especially toward the beginning thereof as judging that whatever a pregnant spirit may collect from his great artifice in contriving of his bitter imprecations yet the scope of the Spirit of God in recording thereof is only to point out his weakness and transport through passion the evidences whereof I made it my work to collect and observe Likewise when Job speaks of Minerals and Jewels Chap. 28. I did not
ready to contend and that they will want them when they have greatest need of comfort by them if they could do any good For so doth Job argue Naked shall I return thither not to his Mothers womb of which he hath been speaking but to the Earth our common Mother which it seems he pointed to in his speaking being now living upon it This truth the Apostle points at as certain that he may press moderation and contentment 1 Tim. 6 6 7 8. And indeed right reason will teach that we ought not to take it ill when we lose that at any time of which we are certain within a short time to be stript for ever Nor should Saints quarrel if God put it to a tryal whether that forgoing of all worldly injoyments which is an unavoidable necessity upon all men will be done by them as an act of voluntary subjection and submission 5. God is the dispenser of all outward lots the giver continuer and blesser of all lawful enjoyments the withdrawer of Mercies and inflicter of Rods For so is here asserted The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away This being well studied may teach the rich neither to be proud nor to despise others and the poor not to be discontented or envy others 6. It is a necessary study under affliction to eye God more then instruments as being that which will both humble us and yet comfort us that we are still in his hand For thus Job in his tryal looks to God and not to the Sabeans or Caldeans The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away 7. The study of Gods Soveraignty and Providence and that nothing we enjoy is our own but his gift may perswade us to stoop to want when it is made our lot For thus doth Job perswade himself to submit If the Lord give and take away at his pleasure he ought not to set limits to him and if the Lord gave all that he enjoyed why may he not take away and dispose of his own as he will Thus also do Saints keep themselves humble when they are inabled to lay forth much of their wealth in Gods service 1 Chron. 29.14 8. What ever be Satans designs in procuring afflictions to come on Saints Yet through mercy he will be disappointed So much appeals in the conclusion of Jobs discourse where in stead of cursing he blesseth the name of the Lord. And albeit other Saints may come short of this and Job himself afterward came not up this height Yet Satan will always be disappointed in his last and final design against Saints 9. It is an act of holy prudence in Saints under trouble to strain themselves to the quite contrary of what tentations and corruptions would drive them unto As here when the tentation is laid to make him curse and his heart might be ready to rise and swell at these strange lots He on the contrary blesseth Hence it is that the Psalmist so frequently sings praises in saddest conditions 10. It is a commendable duty and a clear proof of Patience and submission when we study matter of praise and accordingly do set about the duty in a time of trouble For here Jobs practice and the result of his arguments for Patience is blessed be the name of the Lord. Hereby testifying that God was to be blessed for continuing so long these mercies he had now taken away That God was praise-worthy in himself and for choiceâ— mercies yet continued notwithstanding all he had done And that God ought to be praised that though he was afflicted Yet his tryals were cleanly that he was inabled to bear them that they were such as God could bring good out of them Rom. 8.28 And that he did not leave him with out hope of a blessed issue Vers 22. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly This verse gives an account of Gods testimony concerning this carriage of Job That in all this Job sinned not not that he was perfect without sin but that in this particular he charged not God foolishly or laid not folly to Gods charge The word in the Original rendred foolishly or folly signifieth that which is unsavory or indigested And so in sum this testimony imports That Job kept his feet in that wherein Satan alleged he would slide in that he did not accuse God or his Providence for what came upon him which as it had been unsavoury so to speak of God and reflect upon his Wisdom So it had argued great folly and an indigested frame of Spirit in him Doct. 1. They are indeed Conquerours under trouble who are keeped free from sin and provocation in their hour of Tryal For this was Jobs Victory that in all this Job sinned not 2. Albeit troubles do suggest tentations to many sins Yet the great sin to be avoided by the Godly under trouble is misconstructing of God and his dealing The godly who study to avoid this evil are reputed as not sinning under trouble and Misconstructers of him and his dealing do sin heinously did they seem otherwise never so sensible or tender under trouble For thus is that General explained He sinned not in that he charged not God foolishly 3. Misconstructers of God do both reflect upon the Infinite Wisdom and deep Counsels of God in ordering the lots of his people And they also do proclaim their own folly in their want of skill to judge aright of Gods proceeding and in following a course which may well vex themselves but cannot profit them at all In both which respects they bewray a disordered and indâ—gested frame of spirit which should be unsavoury to the godly and will be so when they are in a right frame All this is imported in the emphasis of the Original word that Job by not misconstructing not murmuring did not charge God with folly which had been foolishness and an unsavoury indigested course on his part See Psal 73.21 22. 4. Whatever advantage Saints do give to Satan over themselves in an hour of tryal Yet by the power of grace they may be enabâ—ed so to walk as may refute all his calumnies of them and make him a liar even as God in the issue will once for all wipe off all the aspersions which Satan casts upon his followers For whereas Satan had said ver 11 that Job would curse God to his face here Jobs carriage gives him the lie who charged not God foolishly 5. As God doth always take notice of his peoples carriage so especially under trouble And who so keep their feet in a time of tryal they are observed and commended by God For here the Lord records it as a thing he noticed and to Jobs commendation that in all this he sinned not 6. Saints ought not to measure Gods approbation of their way under trouble by any present comfortable issue seeing the Lord may take notice of and commend the integrity of those whom yet he seeth it not fit to deliver For Job is here commended while
much doated upon For notwithstanding all he saith here of death yet not only is death contrary to nature and as in the grave our bodies feel not the troubles of this life so as little do they feel or are sensible of the quiet in the grave But whatever rest be in death yet it is not a compleat out-gate but in Christ nor is it a common rest to all without any difference as to their states who rest there 4. He is so much out of conceit with his present case that he would be content of any were it even to be an Abortive rather then the present Thus doth our folly judge any condition better then our own whereof we would soon repent us if we were essayed with a change 5. It will be found upon tryal that his wishes came far short of what good the Lord was doing to him For albeit somewhat like that ver 16. may be true of a wicked man that an untimely birth is better then he Eccl. 6.3 Yet who in his right wits would consider Job in the whole of his life and think an Abortive comparable to him who had so eminently honoured God and was blessed of him in his former dayes and who was now imployed to give so eminent a proof of his integrity in the furnace So far short may the desires of godly men fall even of that good which they presently enjoy if they had eyes to see it And so infinitely wise is God who knoweth better how to guide us then our selves do and so gracious that he doth not ask our consent to deal better with us then we could carve to our selves Vers 20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul From this to the end of the Chapter we have Jobs third wish with the reasons whereby he presseth it The wish is propounded in this verse by way of Expostulation as the former was and is only repeated from thence in the Translation ver 23. to make the sense the clearer The sum of the wish is That since none of the former desires weâ—e now possible but that he was now come that length of his time he desires that now at length the Lord would put an end to his toil and expostulates that light i. e. the light of the Sun Eccl. 11.7 8. or life as is afterward added is continued with him Unto this he subjoyns the first reason of his Expostulation taken from his great trouble being in so much trouble as might denominate him a miserable man and so disconsolate and anxious by reason of trouble as made him bitter in soul As to the Expostulation his expressions do indeed flow from that great misery and bitterness which himself afterward resents Yet it is to be remarked that albeit this Expostulation reflect on God who had given and continued his life yet reverence to God doth lead him to forbear to name him in his complaint Hereby pointing out That grace even when it is most overpowered with weakness and passion will yet one way or other be letting forth some Evidences of it self and of its respect toward God if it could be discerned But further in this Expostulation we may observe 1. He continueth still in the strain and heat of his passion his Feaver is not yet calmed notwithstanding all his former ravings To teach us That distempers of mind and passions let loose under tentation and trouble are not soon and easily calmed and quieted again but they will lead men from one extravagant desire and complaint to another 2. He not only insists still to have his will satisfied which is mans great Idol albeit it be true that it were his misery to get his will in many things But still he pursues that particular desire of death as the only comfortable issue in his apprehension whereas there were many better nearer at hand as strength to bear his tryal faith in Gods love notwithstanding all his afflictions and even a comfortable issue within time after his tryal was perfected as the sequel cleared But it is our folly and weakness so to doat upon one imagined way of relief as we cannot observe any beside 3. He propounds his desire by way of Expostulation questioning Wherefore is light given which flows not so much from a desire of Information as from a bitter proud Passion full of conceit of its own skill This is a distemper incident to men especially under trouble that they dare quarrel God as if they could guide better then he and that they judge every thing unreasonable of the reasons whereof they are not capable Not considering that we ought to adore Infinite Wisdom and stoop to Soveraignty when we are in the dark 4. Albeit it was his sin to despise the good gift of life Yet his distemper teacheth That the Lord by leaving us to our selves can make our best things even our selves and our lives a burden instead of a comfort As here his experience doth teach So also Chap. 7.15 16.20 Which may teach us to acknowledge Gods goodness that any thing is made comfortable to us within time In the first reason we may observe 1. It is no strange thing to see Saints put in that pitiful plight by trouble as may even render their life a burden to them as they are men compassed with infirmities For that is the pitiful reason why he wisheth to be dead He is in misery and bitter in soul 2. Outward troubles are but a small part of Saints complaints but that which makes afflictions grievous to them is the inward exercise of mind which usually accompanieth the same For that is subjoyned to his misery that he is bitter in soul This is sharper then any outward trouble For without this trouble will be very easie and a sound mind will bear much 3. Among other sad distempers of soul accompanying trouble this is not the least when soul-serenity and tranquillity is disturbed and men are imbittered thereby insomuch that although they do not question their state of Reconciliation yet they can read no love in what they suffer nor walk under it with meekness but are taken up with hard constructions of God and his dealing For this is his case in particular He is bitter in soul 4. When Saints narrowly examine their sad lots they will find that whatever is intolerable in them cometh of themselves when either their apprehensions represent them as sadder then indeed they are or when their broken spirits do render their case more insupportable then otherwayes it would be For so must we judge of Jobs complaint It is true he was under great affliction yet it flowed from his own apprehension that he looks on himself as miserable or in misery And whereas he complains of a bitter soul much of that flowed from his own giving way to that distemper of spirit For albeit God may be said to fill us with bitterness Job 9.18 Lam. 3.15 in so far as he
the rod and whereas we had thosâ— mercie before and provoked God to take them away it is an happiness to have them restored and our selves taught by the rod to improve them better Vers 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee 20. In famine he shall redeem thee from death and in war from the power of the sword 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it commeth 22. At destruction and famin thou shalt laugh neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth 23. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee The former general promise and encouragement ver 18 is to ver 27. branched out with particular application to Jobs case in many particular promises of temporal mercies Concerning which it is to be adverted in the general that we understand them aright otherwise we will be ready to doubt of Gods presence with us if they be not fully performed to our mind as Judg. 6.13 But we ought to understand those and the like temporal promises such as these Psal 91. 112. according to those general rules and caveats Rom. 8.28 1 Tim. 4.8 Psal 34.10 and the like And it was Eliphaz's errour if he dreamed of an absolute promise of these to every godly man Those particular Encouragements may be reduced to two Heads whereof the first in these verses may be thus summed up That if Job will stoop to God and be patient he shall have deliverance preservation prevention and security in and from troubles however circumstantiated for number variety singularity or being common This is generally propounded ver 19. and inlarged and instanced ver 20 21 22 23. Where by the various sorts of tryals mentioned and the various promises concerning them we may conceive that he points not only at troubles already come upon Job from which he should be delivered and in the mean time be hid from the evil thereof but at further troubles which he might procure by his impenitencie and impatience and which if he did his duty should be prevented and at those general calamities which might fall out in his time and the common hazards to which all men are obnoxious in the midst of all which he should possess an holy security In unfolding this encouragement we may consider First That concerning which he hath the promise and that is in general troubles Which are particularly circumstantiated 1. From their number six and seven ver 19. Not that we should curiously seek out the number of seven here Famine War Calumnies Destruction hazards from the Wild Beasts of the Earth from the stones and from the tame Beasts of the Field But indefinitely by six are meant many troubles and by seven yet more troubles even to a number of perfection usually expressed by seven See Lev. 26.28 Prov. 6.16 2. In this number there is a variety of troubles which are enumerated to be Famine and Sword ver 20. Calumnies or other injuries of the tongue and some great havock and destruction flowing from some other cause then War or Famine formerly mentioned ver 21. 3. Not only is there a variety of single tryals coming alone but divers of them coming together and at once as Famine and Destruction by some other mean ver 22. 4. Beside extrordinary calamities there are ordinary and common hazards whether from stones of the field of which See Psal 91.11 12. or Beasts wild or tame ver 22 23. Not to insist on every one of those particular tryals Learn 1. It is neither tryal nor want of tryal that is the mark of the godly man There is no blessing in being spared nor evil in being corrected but it is the life of tryal that makes the difference As these suppositions of many troubles do teach us 2. From the multitude of troubles here mentioned we may learn Partly That man hath many doors and inlets to admit trouble and is obnoxious to to trouble by many means whether it be Sword Famine Calumnies of the tongue or other destruction it is enough to afflict frail man and partly That the people of God may need many troubles whether to discover themselvs or to fit them for multitudes of proofs of his love which requires so many open doors to let it in sensibly and comfortably They are to look for many troubles Psal 34.19 and these it may be very frequent six and seven like so many waves and billows coming so thick upon the back one of another till they want leisure to draw their breath Job 9.18 And it may be also a complete number of tryals as the number of seven imports as if none could be added Lam. 2.22 All this may be necessary for the ends mentioned and to hold us in exercise And it teacheth every child of God in looking for troubles to lay his account upon the utmost that may befal him 3. For this variety of sundry kinds of trouble It is necessary partly To keep us in exercise when one tryal becomes blunt through long custome another let loose upon us will have an edge to make us feel Partly to prepare us for variety of experiences of Gods kindness shining one way in War and another way in Famine c. and partly to seek out variety of weaknesses and corruptions in us some tryal working upon one lust some on another Hence it is that the scourge of the tongue is ranked up with sharpest judgments because it will work more on some spirits then a greater tryal 4. For this conjunction of divers tryals together it affords a necessary caution That our being under one tryal doth not exempt us from another if God please to send it on at the same time For where Famine is God may send also other destruction Captivity will not hide from the Sword Amos 9.4 though men under some trouble are ready to become secure as if they should meet with no more and to quarrel if it be otherwise 5. The instances of common hazards do teach That albeit the Lord should keep off extraordinary judgments he can teach man by very common means As all things are enemies to man since the fall So the very Stones of the Field and the Beasts not only these which are wild but the tame which converse with us and serve us are sufficient to bread us a tryal and exercise Angels are appointed to guard Saints in these common hazards Psal 91.11.12 and we ought to observe much special care and providence in our preservation from them Secondly The promise made in reference to these tryals which is branched out in several expressions relating to every one of those cases Not that we are to restrict every particular branch of the promise only to that particular tryal with which it is mentioned though there may be some weight laid on some particular promise
smother whole Armies and yet when it is much augmented by its continuance and renewed provocations from his Friends he is made to subsist under all of it The third evidence of the greatness of his trouble is taken from an effect of its weight that it swallowed up his words or it put him to silence and he wanted words when he spake to express the greatness of his grief This must not be understood so as if Job could justifie himself that he complained too little For how little soever he spake he complained too much But in this respect it is true that his trouble went above his expression though he ought not to have reflected on God because of that And the truth of this evidence may appear not only from his seven days silence with his Friends before he spake Chap. 2.13 with 3.1 But that when he spake his speech was interrupted with sighs and groans and what he said was far short of his case It is true his own distemper and bitterness had no small hand in this yet it is no less true that his real afflictions were so vast and great that it was nothing to be wondered at if he could nor express them fully Doct. 7. It is a great ease to an afflicted person to get liberty to express and pour out his grievances whether in the bosom of a confident tender friend or especially to God For so much doth this regret import Such as get their heart poured forth with Hannah 1. Sam. 1.15 have reason to be thankful 2. It is the great aggravation of some afflictions that they are above all complaints and expressions of sorrow that silence is the best oratory that can express them and that they who are under them do sadly feel them but cannot utter them For so was it with Job my words are swallowed up They who are in this case ought to look much unto God who not only hears what we lay but observes what we need Hos 14.8 and ought to believe that when they are full of confusion he will see and ponder their affliction Job 10.15 Vers 4. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in aray against me The fourth evidence of his great trouble clearing and confirming all the rest is taken from the cause and kind of his trouble That it was the Almighty God with whom he had to do and that in apparent severity Whose dealing with him he expresseth in two Metaphors 1. Of poisoned arrows made use of by some Nations which had not only given him a piercing wound but the poyson of them had proceeded further even to the inflaming of his vital spirits to the hazard of his life By which poysoned Arrows we must understand not only his boils the heat and inflammation whereof had dried up his moisture vigour and strength but all his other outward troubles also which stuck fast in him and his inward tentations and sense of Gods wrath flowing there-from which like the inward deep wound of the arrow had by the furious poyson thereof so exhausted him that he was ready to faint and give it over See Psal 38.1 2. 2. Of an Army set in Battel-aray By which he understands the terrours of God shewing that he had not only present tentations but future fears mustered up before him and that not in a tumultuary way but as in Battel-aray so that he could not think to escape In this sad description of his case there want not some weaknesses and mistakes For he doth apprehend God more terrible then he was or intended to be in his dealing toward him Nor wanted he special proofs of Gods love if it were but that he had grace given still to cleave to God which he ought to have observed and ackowledged amidst all his resentments And albeit his case had been really no less terrible then he apprehended Yet it had been no argument to justifie his bitter complaint Chap. 3. which is his scope in this Narration But on the other hand we ought to avoid the errour of Eliphaz in censuring too rigidly the complaint of this deserted Saint who doth here represent his case truly as his present sense and deserted condition represented it to be For as he did well in not noticing of Satan but eying of God in all that befel him So the multiplicity of his strokes on every hand and his inward desertion could not but make him apprehend that his case was thus deadly Hence Learn 1. Though to quarrel and complain of God in any case be a great fault Yet it pleads for much compassion to Saints when they do not make a stir about their lot except when their trouble is extream For so doth Job prove the former general evidences of his great trouble by producing real instances thereof For the Arrows of the Almighty are within me c. 2. It is the duty of those in trouble to turn their eyes off all Instruments that they may look to God For Job hath not a word of Sabeans Caldeans or of Satan but of the Almighty God They who see and eye him little in trouble their trouble will do them the less good or rather no good at all 3. As it is our duty always to entertain high and reverent thoughts of God Gen. 14.19 20 22. So trouble will cause men to know his Almighty power Therefore is Job in this particular made to see him the Almighty 4. A sight of God as a party and of his great power put forth in trouble will make it very formidable and this may be represented to the truly godly for their tryal and exercise For this affects Job that he hath seen God as the Almighty in his trouble 5. It is an humbling sight of Gods Almighty power in trouble when his strokes are like Arrows and do not only pierce deep and come suddenly and swiftly upon men as an arrow doth But especially do speak God angry at them in that he makes them his Butt at which he shoots and God at a distance from them in smiting of them as Arrows are shot by an Enemy at a distance And all this may a Child of God apprehend in his trouble As Job here doth while he compareth his trouble to the Arrows of the Almighty 6. In this case the number of troubles doth contribute much to afflict the Child of God every particular stroke adding to the weight So Job resents that there was not one Arrow only but Arrows of the Almighty shot at him 7. When God in his power and displeasure appears to be the godlies party his strokes cannot but pierce deep and wound even the soul For saith he the Arrows of the Almighty do not only touch or hurt and wound me but are within me As an Arrow shot by a strong hand makes a deep piercing wound so do strokes coming thus from Gods Almighty hand For if it be a fearful
thing to fall unto the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 it is no wonder if it affect the godly much when they see that it is not man but the great God with whom they have to do 8. Albeit sharp troubles inflicted by the hand of God be very sad to the people of God Yet all that is easie in comparison of the apprehension of Gods anger in the trouble and perplexities of spirit and tentations arising upon those troubles For this is the deep wound of the Arrow and the venom of the poysoned Arrow which inflames the wound and makes it deadly 9. Tentations and sense of divine displeasure under trouble will soon exhaust created strength and make the spirits of men succumb For saith he the venom thereof drinketh up my spirit See Prov. 18.14 And this is an argument whereby we may plead with God for moderation Isa 57.16 10 It is a great addition to the present troubles and tentations of Saints when terrours and fears for the future do assault and perplex them especially when they apprehend that God is pursuing them by those terrours Therefore doth Job add that the terrours of God were against him See Psal 88.15 Jer. 17.17 And albeit in these cases we may safely repel them with this Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof Matth. 6.34 and many of those fears prove in the issue to be but mere apprehensions and not real Yet broken crushed spirits can hardly get them avoided 11. When once a broken mind is haunted with terrours and fears their wit and fancy may multiply and aggravate them far beyond what they are or will be in reality For Job here doth apprehend the terrours of God acting against him in an hostile manner yea so set in aray against him that he seeth no way to escape and yet in all this he was mistaken Vers 5. Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass or loweth the oxe over his fodder 6. Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt or is there any taste in the white of an egge 7. The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat These verses may be taken up as the same in substance with the former thus It being natural for Beasts to complain when they are afflicted with the want of food why might not he also complain of his affliction and his Friends having enough like Beasts well provided for could not be sensible of his desolate condition ver 5. For he could be content to bear his affliction if it were sweetned with any thing But could not force his mind more then a man can force his appetite to think that savoury and seasonable which was nothing so ver 6. For now he was made to feed upon these torments the thoughts whereof would formerly have affrighted him ver 7. This interpretation cannot well be admitted for albeit Job took but too much liberty to complain yet we cannot justly charge upon him that he did so utterly abhor afflictions as this interpretation would bear Therefore comparing it with ver 24 25. I take the verses to contain a second Argument justifying his complaint That he could not but complain of his great trouble seeing Eliphaz by his Discourse had ministred nothing which might have mitigated his sorrow but rather contributed to increase it For saith he to give a brief sum of the words I were worse then the wild Ass or Ox yea and cruel to my self if in this straight I should not accept any counsel that would prove wholesom food to my mind ver 5. But your doctrine which ye offer as food and medicine to my afflicted soul wanting the Salt of Prudence and Charity in application and being like the white of an Egge but frivolous and not substantial cannot but be unsavory and tastless unto me ver 6. Especially considering that those things ye now suggest to me to feed upon in my adversity are such aâ— he very thought of them in my greatest prosperity made me abhor and tremble at them ver 7. Or as some read it and it agreeth as well with the Original My soul refuseth to touch them they are my sorrowful food That is I cannot now digest those things they being so sad and sorrowful food for a man in my case This censure passed by Job upon Eliphaz's doctrine cannot well be contradicted For albeit he spake sound Doctrine in some and but in some particulars yet it was very impertinently applied to Job and upon an unsound Principle that he had been a wicked man and so behoved to begin of new to seek God Hence Learn 1. This Metaphor taken from the Beasts ver 5. shews That even nature it self teacheth men that they ought to be content when they have what may supply nature For Doth the wild Ass bray out of discontent when he hath grass or loweth the Ox over his fodder The question imports a Negative that they will not And so men who are not thus content do offer violence to Nature See 1 Tim. 6.8 As mens anxieties are also thus refuted Matth. 6.26 28. 2. As an afflicted soul ought to be sober so it ought to be very hungry after sound doctrine and a seasonable word to it ought to be as food which refresheth and strengthneth it For so the comparison imports that sound doctrine would be to him as grass to the wild Ass and fodder to the Ox over which if he had it he would not complain It is an evidence of an unsanctified trouble when it makes not the word precious Psal 119.71 3. Every one is not fit to deal with a troubled spirit For not only unsound doctrine but even misapplied truth will be unsavoury to such Therefore doth be account his doctrine unsavoury and without salt See Isa 50.4 Prov. 15.23 4. These who would speak a right to souls in trouble ought to propound substantial doctrine for whites of Egges and Moon-shine or empty airy notions will not then bear them up as Job here asserts Is there any taste in the white of an Egge 5. Though men speak truth and substantial truth yet that is not enough especially if the doctrine in it self be sharp to flesh and bloud unless they prudently take up the afflicteds case that they may speak to the point and unless there be much discretion and tenderness much warmness and charity in applying it For through the want of these the best of Eliphaz's doctrine was but unsavoury and could not be eaten without that Salt 6. Such may be the Revolutions of Divine Providence that what men have greatest antipathie against may yet be made their sad exercise and so ordinary as their daily food For so were those things charged on Job to him his soul refused to touch them and yet they were set before him as his sorrowful food This may befal the godly both in their inward and outward condition Which may teach them to stoop to a Soveraign Lord and to labour for
this was a root of their failing Ye see my casting down and are afraid 5. God may so support an afflicted Saint as an on-looker on his tryal may be more affrighted therewith then himself For Job here quarrels them that they were afraid and endeavours to infuse courage in those who ought to have sympathized with him Vers 22. Did I say Bring unto me or give a reward for me of your substance 23. Or deliver me from the enemies hand or redeem me from the hand of the mighty Job having thus reprehended his Friends for their inhumanity and unfaithfulness He proceeds to aggravate those faults and to charge them home upon them from several considerations The first aggravation of their fault in those verses is That he expected but a small favour of them and yet had not obtained it Whereas he being poor and oppressed by his Enemies might have called to them for supply of his necessities and might by the laws of friendship have desired that they would bestow of their means or interpose their power for recovering of his lost substance out of the hands of his mighty Enemies who had spoiled him and they were bound to have done for him Now when as would appear he did not so much as expect their coming and when they came did not desire any thing of them and the most he expected was only their good and comfortable counsel they were much more bound to have been tender and not so cruel toward him In this challenge and aggravation of their fault there may be this mistake That wholesome counsel tendered in a prudent and fit way which is the favour Job misseth among his Friend is more difficult to give then to expend either our goods or our life for our friend a request wherewith Job had not charged them Yet these things are considerable in it 1. That godly and true friends owe much to one another in their troubles Not only to supply their necessities For he might have said Bring unto me and to lay forth of their wealth to allay the fury of their Enemies For he might also have said give a reward or bribe or gift to the Enemy for me of your substance But even to imploy their power also in a lawful way for their relief as Abraham did for Lot Gen. 14. For he might also have said Deliver me from the Enemies hand or redeem me from the hand of the mighty Love is a large debt Rom. 13.8 9 10. See 1 Joh 3 16. 2. It is the property of godly and sober spirits to stoop and acquiesce in a mean condition when God calls them to it without burdening any so far as may be For whatever was the duty of Jobs Friends and whatever was their practice afterward Chap. 42.11 yet for his part he did not say Bring unto me or give a reward for me c. he would not burden them to uphold him in his former pomp and grandeur 3. Unto a right discerner no outward trouble is any thing so sad as inward exercise and disquiet of mind For Job could bear the one without troubling his Friends but he misseth comfort to his troubled spirit We ought not to carp too much at outward troubles lest we meet with that which we will find sorer 4. It is very great inhumanity in men not to endeavour to be comfortable by their counsel to the godly in affliction when no more but that is called for at their hands For this was the great fault of Jobs Friends Jonathan dealt otherwise with David 1 Sam. 23.16 And herein even the poor who can contribute nothing else to the afflicted may be very useful Vers 24. Teach me and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred 25. How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove Secondly He aggravates their fault in dealing so cruelly with him from his readiness to take with wholesom counsel It cometh in by way of prevention of an objection that might be moved against his former challenge They might say we have not been wanting in giving wholesom counsel as they alledge they did Chap. 5.27 and therefore he complains unjustly Job replies that it was nothing so For ver 24. if they would solidly teach him and convince him of any errour he should soon take with it For ver 25. true and pertinent discourses are very forcible But as for their discourse it was nothing such being full of untruths or unseasonably and impertinently applied truths and so nothing to the purpose but missing the scope and therefore could not convince him For however they should endeavor to cry him down with arguing yet what doth it reprove what solid ground doth it proceed upon or how is it to the purpose or how could it take with him Hence the aggravation of their fault is That had they to do with a stiffe man they might have pretended some excuse for their way of dealing But having to do with a man who would easily be bound by truth their neglect was the more culpable Not to insist how far Job might mistake his own disposition and tractableness in this hour of tentation We may from the General Doctrine Learn 1. True Piety disposeth men to receive Instruction and humbly to submit to it For saith he Teach me and I will hold my tongue and thus was he easily convinced by Elihu and by God Whereas men wanting Piety even when their Consciences are convinced and put to silence their wit may be talkative and studious to invent somewhat to justifie their way See Prov. 30.32 2. Grace leads a man to be docile by convincing him that he is obnoxious to Errour through Ignorance Passion Self-love or the like distempers For cause me to understand wherein I have erred saith he Which though it doth not imply that he did take with any Errour in this Debate yet it supposeth that he thought not himself above the reach of Errour and imports his aversion from Errour and his love to Truth and his willingness to take with any Information that might draw him out of an Errour And who so in the sense of their own proness to err do make use of means for prevention or recovery out of such a snare they are in a fair way to be led in the paths of truth 3. Challenges or reproofs ought not to be nakedly and pro impeâ—io only charged upon any but they ought to be pressed and put home upon solid and convincing grounds otherwise they will not readily take For Job will not be convinced because they say he was wrong unless they cause him to understand wherein he hath â—râ—ed It is true some do shelter themselves here when they are challenged upon many suspicions which cannot demonstratively be made appear to be true But that is their own great unhappiness that they walk in the dark with their wicked courses and so are deprived of the mercy of being discovered and convinced Others also see
upon and ruining poor Orphans And their disappointing of his expectation in trouble and their pernicious counsel to quit his integrity was no less persidious then if one friend should dig a pit for another to entrap him therein Not to speak any thing here of that crying sin of wronging Orphans which God will judge and avenge Psal 68.5 Or of that faithfulness which ought to be among friends we may from the scope Learn 1. A person afflicted in spirit may compare with any for misery For Job implies that such are fatherless and helpless indeed and therefore such going to God with their trouble may expect pity 2. It is great cruelty to wrong such afflicted ones or to add to their misery Such dealing is to overwhelm the fatherless No cruelty is beyond it See Psal 69.26 3. Such as prove perfidious or are ill counsellers to Saints in trouble ought to consider what snares they do thereby lead them in For such do dig a pit for their friend And this was very sadly verified in Job who by his Friends carriage was driven into many snares and fits of distemper and passion against God and his dealing Vers 28. Now therefore be content look upon me for it is evident unto you if I lie 29. Return I pray you let it not be iniquity yea return again my righteousness is in it 30. Is there iniquity in my tongue cannot my taste discern perverse things Followeth a conclusion by way of preface to what he is to say in the next Chapter Wherein he desireth that since they had so far mistaken him and miscarried in their discourses they would give him audience to speak for himself Here consider First His Exhortation consisting of two branches 1. Which is more principal Now therefore be content look upon me ver 28 As if Job had said Seeing ye are so far wrong I desire ye will lay aside your prejudices and with meekness take a view not only of my countenance but of my case as I shall present it before you or hearken peaceably to my discourse which shall be a true and lively portraiture of my self 2. Which is subservient to the former return again which he presseth very seriously by earnest entreaty return I pray you and by doubling the sute yea return again ver 29 The sum and meaning of which desire is That they might not precepitate in this business nor be blinded and carried on by reason of their being imbarqued in a debate but that they should reflect and in calmness take a review of the business Hence Learn 1. Reproofs when they are given upon just grounds ought to be entertained and to produce some good fruit Therefore after the former sharp reproof Job comes to advise them to that duty which is the necessary fruit of it 2. Such as would judge rightly of the case of others ought to hear them patiently and fully before they give sentence For it is supposed as their duty that before they be concluded as to their judgment concerning him they be content and look on him See Prov. 18.13 3. Men ought to deal candidly and sincerely in giving an account of their condition especially to friends who are apt to mistake them For saith he look on me intending by his discourse to give them a true Character of himself 4. Much soberness and love to truth and much diligence and painfulness are required in them who would find out the truth in dark cases For that they may judge aright in this matter Job requires that they be content or patient to hear and willing to be informed and though they had taken some view of his condition before yet he presseth that yet again they will look on him and that they will return yea return again before they determinately conclude Our light is of great concernment to us and therefore had need to be found It is the Principle of all our motions and actions and as the eye which if it be dark darkneth the whole body And as sound light is necessary so it is difficult to attain our natural darkness lusts negligence interests want of love to the truth and sleighting of it being ready to hide it from us Withal rashness and precipicancy in our closing with light or what seems to be light is very dangerous For even though men in such away fall upon the right yet it doth not commend them because it is not any solid consideration of the truth that perswades them Rashness is a shrewd evidence that men are wrong For it is a principle that needs to be reformed Isa 32.4 and conclusions are readily such as principles are These who are rash do only consider what is presently before them without discerning the future consequents of their way And finally When men once rashly engage in a wrong way they cast themselves upon a snare that their pride will not suffer them to retire as here it needs many Exhortations to look and return again Mans credit is a very dangerous Idol And Herod will not care to sacrifice John the Baptists life to his credit if it be engaged in the quarrel These considerations may teach men and especially such as labour to impose their way upon others in looking toward principles and courses and the snares of the time to which they are exposed to be very serious and deliberate Considering what a rare thing it is to find men examine their own way or suspicious of the inclinations of their heart when once they are engaged 5. What ever prevalency it hath with our hearts to continue in an evil way because we are engaged in it Yet it will not bear any weight before God nor will it serve for a defence or excuse at the day of our accounts Therefore doth Job press it as a necessary though difficult duty return I pray you yea return again And this may sadly rebuke those who resolve to go on in a course which they would never have entered upon had they foreseen ere they embarqued what they now find Secondly Consider the Arguments pressing this Exhortation Which are 1. For it is evident unto you or before your face if it lie ver 28. That is I shall speak nothing but what is plain and distinct as if it were set before your face and so ye will soon discern whether I speak truth or not And if ye will hear me a sober debate will soon clear the matter This Argument presseth the first branch of the Exhortation And doth indeed suppose this truth That not only can God easily manifest the folly of erroneous mâ—n 2 Tim 3 9. But a lie will not long hold â—oot if it be well heâ—d tâ—â—â— but truth may be soon found out through Gods blessing on sober debate and waiting on him if so be Conscience guided men and they were sâ—eking truth for truths sake But the issue shewed both on their part and his that there may be somewhat that will obstruct the discovery of truth
conditions of life are vanity Gal. 1.2 Psal 39.5 and he was made to possess them as his patrimony and right as if no other portion were due to him 2. The hireling though he work sore in the day yet he gets the nights rest Gal. 1.12 But he is troubled by night as well as by day For after he hath toiled all day long which is here supposed his nights were made so wearisome by Gods appointment that when he lay down he longed for day-light that he might arise to see if that would bring him ease and so was made to measure out the evening as it is in the Original or to reckon how long it was to day-light Yea he was full of tossings to and fro or perpetually tossed inwardly in his mind and outwardly in his body through pain and want of rest and that not for a part of the night only but throughout the whole night even to the dawning of the day so that he got not any sound sleep See ver 14 15. Upon all which this inference is to be repeated that he might lawfully wish for ease in death Which though it was his failing and mistake as is before marked especially having to do with God to whom all ought to stoop and to be content if they get strength to bear what he layeth on and it may be justly suspected that his giving way to distemper of spirit added not a little to his disquietness yet his condition may afford us these Instructions 1. The Lord can when he will make our life which we think so sweet a very great burden to us and our time which ordinarily slips away insensibly very wearisome and tedious For Job is weary of his life and his Months and Nights are wearisome Creature-comforts of Bed and Board will not ease us when God hath us to try which should make us thankful when it is otherwise and teach us not to doat on time or our life For it is of God that all our outward mercies prove not crosses 2. The Lord is more absolute and soveraign over his Creatures to exercise afflict and continue troubles then any man is over his servant and hireling For here he made Job's lot more sad then the condition of any hireling is made by man He is astricted to no rule in those things but his own will to which we ought to submit 3. The coming on or continuance of trouble is not a matter at mans arbitrement God can make us to possess them and appoint them to us whether we will or not See Psal 105.17 18 19 20. Jer. 47.6 7. Which may lead us to eye God much when troubles stick on and to look to him alone for ease of them who can deliver without the consent of enemies as well as afflict us whether we consent or not See Job 34.29 Isa 49.24 25 26. 4. Albeit all men in their best outward estate are vanity Psal 39.5 Yet the Lord is pleased sometime to make some men exemplary instances of that truth of the vanity of all men and conditions For so was it with Job his months were months of vanity being empty of all comfort not having any such issue as he waited for and so disappointed his expectation and he reaping no benefit by all his toil as Psal 78.33 All which vanity as it may be read in other conditions that look not so terrible like as Job's did so they who are under such a lot may read this in it that because they see not the vanity and emptiness of every condition therefore it is made so legible to them 5 Singular troubles do very deeply affect men because they are singular For Job regrets that he was tossed beyond all others Yet Saints may read this in it also that they will be singularly regarded by God under their singular tryals 6. Gods Providence is so condescending that the trouble or quiet of every night is appointed by him For so Job holds forth Wearisom nights are appointed to me when I lie down I say When shall I arise c Where he understands God to be this appointer though he do not expresly name him till afterward that his heat grow more warm It is an evidence of our carnal mindedness when we see little of God in ordinary Providences Psal 139. were it but in a nights sleep And our negligence in this brings us to know by the want thereof how much we enjoy when we do but little observe or acknowledge it 7. As trouble makes any time promise more then the present So changes of that kind will not change our condition till God come For though Job longed for the day being full of tossings to and fro yet the day-light did not ease him See Deut. 28.67 It were our wisdom to make the best of our present lot be it never so hard for changes till we be fit for an issue will but add to our affliction Vers 5. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust my skin is broken and become lothsome 6. My days are swifter then a weavers shuttle and are spent without hope The third Argument wherein he yet insists to give an account of his trouble doth more distinctly tend to conclude the lawfulness of his desire of death For whereas it might be objected against his former reasoning That his trouble and disquiet might indeed warrant him to seek some ease but not to press so peremptorily for death He answereth That his trouble being irrecoverable left him no door of hope open but in death and therefore he behoved to press after that only The Argument runs thus as if Job had pleaded I may lawfully desire that warrantable issue which I see in the Providence of God approaching toward me and which hath already irrecoverably seised on me But I see death thus approaching and it hath already taken hold on me Therefore I may desire it Now that death is thus approaching he proves two wayes First From the present condition of his body v. 5. being in his graves-cloaths many worms breeding in his sores his body being covered with scabby clods of dust and ulcerous matter running from his sores and his skin being broken as the earth is in a drought in a loathsome manner From all which it is to be inferred that he could expect nothing but death Here we may Learn 1. Health and soundness of body is a great mercy and doth ease us of much vexation and an heavy burden As here appeareth from Job's resenting the want of it 2. Let men make never so much of their bodies yet they carry a mass of putrefaction and corruption about with them and they will come at length to be loathsom spectacles For here Job's body being touched by God his flesh is cloathed with worms and clods of dust c. 3. Death and life are in the power of the Lord and he can when he pleaseth bring down to the grave and bring up again 1 Sam. 2.6 For so much doth
truth they had delivered I know it is so Which Teacheth That a godly man is not only of a condescending spirit when he is in a right frame but is strongly bound by truth and made to submit to it though coming from an Adversary Truth is the truly godly mans Jewel on any terms and delusion is among his greatest terrours and therefore no prejudice at persons nor love to contention will make him to reject that when he is in such a frame as he ought to be Obs 3. He professeth not only to know but to know it of a truth so firmly as he is not shaken from it by his trouble or any other distemper It Teacheth That notional knowledge of Truths is not sufficient unless men be serious in them and their hearts take such an impression of them that they are ready to live and die with them Many have indeed so loose a grip of Truth that either troubles or new lights from without or tentations from within will shake them because they are not rooted in the Truth But when men have fixed their anchor and have found God in received Truths it will not be so easie to unfix and cause them reel and change As the Apostle argueth Gal. 3 2 4. Obs 4. Albeit Job was free of their imputations of direct and wicked questioning of the righteousness of God as inconsistent with the testimony of his Conscience and doth here justly close with that truth they had asserted Yet it cannot be denyed but his impatient bearing of trouble because he could not reconcile the testimony of his own Conscience with Gods dealing did indirectly reflect upon Gods Righteousness as is challenged by Elihu Chap. 35 2 3. and by God himself Chap. 40.8 It Teacheth That Saints in their weakness and fits of tentation may do things which if they saw whether they tended themselves would abhorr more then any Job cannot endure that he should be thought to challenge Gods Righteousness when yet he is not altogether free of it Few do discern especially in an hour of tentation how deep many things draw which they do act Distrusters of God do not consider how neer their way draws to blasphemy And questioners of Gods dealing and prescribers unto him do not consider that they would make him Man and not God c. This calls for Charity to Saints that they do not design or intend all that evil which judicious observers may sometime see in their way And it teacheth the godly themselves that they be jealous over themselves and do not trust their own hearts for they may be doing those things unawares which yet they abhor In the latter part of the verse Obs 1. While he contents not himself with an assenting to the truth they asserted concerning Gods righteousness but labours to out-strip them in asserting and commending of it It teacheth 1. It is the duty of Saints to come behind with none in commending of God and his Attributes and to be quickened thereunto even by their example who do so for a bad end As Job is excited to commend God by the practice of his Friends who commended Gods Righteousness that they might crush and discourage him thereby We should reckon our selves most obliged to God of any and should prove that it is so by setting him on high in our praise 2. In difficulties and tentations the best way either to refute others who think we have hard thoughts of God or to refute any misconstructing thoughts that arise in our own hearts is not only nakedly to acknowledge but to sing forth the praise and commendation of those Attributes which fall most under debate at such a time As Job here clears that he is not challenging Gods Righteousness and suppresseth any such tentation within his own breast by commending his righteousness See Psal 22.1 2 with 3. Obs 2. The Assertion it self laid down here Teacheth That it is impossible a man can bring out or plead any righteousness of his own before God and it is a very great folly to attempt it For saith he by way of Interrogation How should a man be just with God or before God This is not so to be understood as if there were no righteousness at all by which a man could stand before God But 1. That there is no such righteousness by his own works Rom. 3.20 2. Though men being renewed may attain to be sincere to which Job layeth claim all along yet men have no begun inherent righteousness which is perfect and without defects Rom. 7.18 19 21. And 3. Consequently Man how sincere soever hath no righteousness which may warrant him to plead with God as dealing unjustly in afflicting him an innocent and so contend with God as if he were more righteous then he This is the righteousness that is here denied to Man as is clear from the tenour oâ— the discourse And as this sheweth the mercy of imputed righteousness when there was no other way of righteousnes whereby we could stand before God and for which we are fitted by being brought to see that there is no other safety or shelter for us So it warns us to take heed of reflecting on God upon any account of our righteousness by a câ—nceit of our own worth by complaints jealousies impatient bearing oâ— crosses c. Obs 3. He sets God as mans party in this debate to bring down his pride and conceit How should a man be just with God To Teach That a man will never get a right look of his own righteousness nor stoop to God afflicting him till he look to God and his pure eyes and till by comparing his righteousness with Gods perfect purity he discern the infinite disproportion that is betwixt them Till a man study this he will be proud of his own righteousness 2 Cor. 10.12 1 Cor. â—4 4 And whoever is a proud quarreller he declares himsâ—lf ignoâ—ant of God Obs 4. From his insinuated Argument taken from mans frailty and mortality which presupposeth his sinfulness and which may heaâ— down all thoughts of hâ—s own righteousness or of Gods unrighteousness in afflâ—cting him Learn 1 No faith oâ— assurance of Justification nor Conscience of integrity ought to hide the sight and sense of sin and miseâ—y from a justified man but should rather increase it and make him become more vile in his own eyes For Job though justified and perswaded of his own integrity yet is sensible that man is Enosh a frail mortal creature because of sin And Pauâ— Rom 7 makes more noise about remaining corruptions than the wicked do about raigning lusts 2. That the Lord may bring down mans pride and keep him in mind of his sin dayly he hath made him Enosh and invironed him with many frailties and mortality as this name here given him in this debate imports Man hath in ordinary sufficient Monitors concerning his baseness and sinfulness which his formality should not turn barren and fruitless to him lest he get singular documents
make supplication and implore grace and mercy as the word imports and therefore need not and will not answer 5. The Lords being a Judge whose Tribunal none can shun nor decline whose examination is most accurate and searching whose sentence and the execution thereof are most effectual and whose severity in correcting doth point out his dreadfulness I say the Lord 's being such a Judge should deter men from pleading their righteousness against him as a party and invite them to humble themselves by supplication before him For saith he I would not answer but I would make supplication to my Judge Vers 16. If I had called and he had answered me yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voyce 17. For he â—reaketh me with a tempest and multiplieth my wounds without cause 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath but filleth me with bitterness The words contain a third ground of Job's resolution not to contend with God The scope and meaning whereof are made difficult and obscure by reason of the different acceptions of the words calling and answering ver 16. Which at first veiw seem to be meant of Prayer and Gods answer thereunto And so the sense is given diverse ways As 1. That though God were hearing his Prayers yet he could hardly believe it were so v. 16. seeing he did so afflict him with breaches upon his body mind family and goods and did uncessantly vex his spirit therewith v. 17 18. And it is indeed true That however men may be dear to God and their Prayers heard by him when yet sad afflictions are not removed Psal 10.17 Dan. 10.12 13. Yet great afflictions may so toss and confound them that they cannot discern audience and respect But I see not how this comes up to Job's scope to perswade him to plead for Gods Righteousness and not to contend against him It is true the greatness of his trouble might affright him though innocent from contending as well as hinder him to discern audience and upon that account it may be looked on as a ground of this his resolution But that doth not so fully exhaust the scope nor so clearly reach it Therefore 2. Some leave out the word yet v. 16. which is not in the Original and changing the time a little do read the latter part of the verse by way of question thus If I have called and he have answered would I not believe that he had hearkened to my voyce And so the sense is given to this purpose as if Job had said I dare not complain or quarrel God For if I have prayed to him and have found him answering my Prayers might not I expect he would hear the voyce of worse language in my complaints and quarrellings and answer it accordingly This Interpretation holds out this truth That such as find Communion with God in Prayer will get the clearest sight of his presence and watchful Providence over all their ways and will be most afraid to provoke him or put him to it to give a proof of his Providence against them by their miscarriages But however this be a sound truth and may seem to be grounded on what is said v. 16. yet it cannot be the meaning of this place For it takes not in the rest of the verses which confirm what is said there and therefore are connected with it by the particle For 3. Some understand the words thus as if Job had said Though God should hear my Prayers yet would I not believe that he had hearkened to my voyce that is I would not believe he had hearkned thereunto out of any respect to my voyce or to the worth of my Prayers but meerly of his own goodness as may appear by his smiting of me being innocent and free of gross wickedness And how much less durst I think to be accepted in contending This is also a truth That such as are most real supplicants and speed best at it will be most humble and see most of free grace in the answers they get and this humility will keep them from quarrelling and other sinful attempts Yet neither is this Interpretation so clear or full and it seemeth to place the emphasis and force of the Argument where it is not only upon his voyce as not regarded in the answer Therefore passing that acception of the words calling and answering I conceive it safer to understand them more especially of Job's calling or provoking and challenging of God to enter the lists and debate with him and of Gods answering or undertaking and being ready to abide the challenge Thus calling and answering are frequently taken in this Book and even in this Chapter And so the sense is as if Job had said I will not contend with God about his righteousness nor plead my righteousness to the prejudice of his For if I should call God to debate the matter with me and he declared himself ready to defend against me yet I would not believe that either he would endure my contentious discourse or judge me to be righteous v. 16. For if now when I am not contending but walking in my integrity he hath so violently afflicted me v. 17 18. What would he do if I should wickedly provoke him Thus the sense runs clear Though Job kept not at his resolution not to contend but frequently calls on God to answer him in that dispute and though in his complaints and challenges both in this speech and elsewhere he do reflect upon the Righteousness of God and cry up his own righteousness too much for which he is checked by God yet his general grounds are good that upon the grounds mentioned it is not to be expected that contending will gain any thing at Gods hand And from all this we may Learn 1. Whatever be the endeavours attempts or desires of men or how much soever God seem to condescend to them or homologate their will yet it is not to be thought that he will do or approve any thing but what is right For so much doth Job's assertion v. 16. teach in general That though Job should presume to call and God should condescend to anâ—wer yet he doth still right and will not patiently hearken to his voyce of contention and justifie him 2 Whatever the Lord do with any of his people it is not to be expecteâ— that he will approve of quarrelling or justifie quarrellers For that is it in parâ—â—cular that Job will not believe It is true when Job so often called God at last in so far hearkned to his voice as to puâ— him to answer for himself But in so doing he was â—o far from hearkening to and applauding the voic◠〈◊〉 hâ—s complaints that he put him to humble himself in the dust for them And who so believe or expect any other of him they do but delude themselves and will be disappointed in end 3. In Job's experience and lot we are here taught what Saints may expect to meet with
his hazard of what may ensue upon it as he elsewhere resolves Chap. 13.13 But the meaning is That when his weariness was like to make him complain and cry out grace and submission would as formerly Chap. 9.35 yet have smothered it and rather have sunk under the pressure then utter any thing of his passion to God or against his dealing Whence Learn 1. Much trouble affords occasion and matter of many lamentations and complaints and it is a demonstration of mans frailty that when he is hardly pressed he can do no more for his own relief but complain and lament Psal 102. in the Title For here it is supposed that Job's hard case pressed him to a complaint 2. Men do not a little feed and encrease their complaints under trouble by their own wearying and so making their burden uneasie For it is when he is weary of his life that he hath a complaint But formerly till his spirit wearyed he got it borne down Chap. â— 10 3. Albeit afflicted and grieved Saints may find great ease by pouring out their case to God yet the ill and bitter frame of their spirits is better suppressed than vented For saith he I will leave my complaint upon my self Thus did he labour not to sin with his lips Chap. 2.10 as not knowing but his passion if once it bâ—â—ke loose might utter worse language then simple complaints 4. Albeit men be driven from their good resolutions through the violence of their tentations yet it is their duty to essay them again For after his endeavours to ease himself Chap. 9.27 28. and to smother his grievances are overturned he will yet again essay to leave his complaint upon himself 3. Flesh at last over powers all his good resolutions I will speak in the bitterness of my soul or I am so put to it with grief and bitterness that I must give my self a vent Whence Learn 1. Saints may be put from their resolutions over and over again For here after he hath again resolved to bury his complaint he is put from it and he must speak and his passion for this time carrieth all before it This may teach Saints not to mistake such humblings in the matter of their resolutions and such violent fits in themselves 2. Saints resolutions of submission and patience will not hold when they only smother their sorrows and do not labour to cure that inwardly and at the root which they endeavour to suppress outwardly For therefore comes he at last to this I will speak notwithstanding all his former resolutions because he did not labour to remove the cause of his complaint by reading Gods dealing aright and seeking patience but did only leave it upon himself 3. Resolutions also will not hold when men take their burdens upon themselves and do not roll the grievancâ—s they would suppress over on God For in this also his resolution was defective that he will leave his complaint upon himself or smother it and take all the weight of it upon his own spirit and therefore it came to this issue I will speak 4. Much trouble and perplexity is apt to breed much soul-bitterness especially when nature and corruptions are let loose to read our lots and grapple with our difficulties For Job here confesseth his trouble had produced bitterness of soul 5. Bitterness of soul is not only a fountain of complaints and resentments against Gods dealing but it is very boisterous carrying down all good resolutions and a very bad Oratour before God For saith he I will speak in the bitterness of my soul Which imports that it was his bitterness that furnished those complaints which before he would have suppressed that it was bitterness also that overturned his former resolutions to be silent and drave him to this I will speak and that all the faults in his following Discourse slowed from this Fountain of bitterness which prompts a man to speak not what he ought but whatever it suggests were it such as the Disciples Prayer was Mar. 4.38 Vers 2 I will say unto God Do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me In this verse we have Job's Proposition of his complaint which contains the second Argument justifying and pressing it He not only insinuates that his Friends should not censure those complaints which he dare propound to God leaving them as unfit Judges though this do not conclude strongly seeing men in passion may dare to speak that to God which is not meet But in the very Proposition of his case he insinuates this Argument against Gods present dealing and why he should deal more tenderly with him That it was very hard measure thus to condemn him before he be convinced of his crime The meaning is as if Job had said Lord by this way of Procedure thou seemest to deal with me as with a wicked man whom thou hast condemned to be thus consumed and cut off as such Now in this I request for a just procedure that I may understand the quarrel thou hast against me who am a righteous man before thou give me such hard measure and I expostulate that it is not so that either thou wilt not cease to proceed against me as a guilty and wicked man for so the word to condemn is in the Original to make wicked or to declare one to be such by the sentence and stroke of a Judge or else shâ—w me the cause and quarrel In this reasoning we may observe thâ—se Truths for our Instruction 1. Whatever distemper be in our spirits which we cannot get suppressed and calmed it is better to go to God with it then to mâ—â—â—â—ur and complain of him as it were behind back and albeit there may be much failing and dross in the way of such addressâ—s yet it is faith that goeth God with them and it evidenceth a man to be given to Prayer when even his very complaints run in that channel For albeit this address be full of distemper and passion as we may observe all along yet in so far Job is right that when he must speak v. 1. I will say it unto God saith he 2. To be condemned as a wicked man is sad to a Saint Any dispensation will be tolerable but that seeing therein a sight of mens own wickedness hides a sight of Gods favour and love in their lot Therefore Job deprecates his being condemned as a wicked man as the word imports when it is suggested by sense that it was so with him 3. A justified man whose sin is pardoned and who walks with God may plead against condemnation as a lot he cannot in reason expect seeing there is no condemnation to any that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 Therefore doth Job plead against that when suggested by sense and tentation as a thing that could not be and for which there was no cause according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace Do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me as such a one
v. 10 11 12. which now he wishes had never been Ingratitude is an heinous sin in it self and will produce ill humours 3. When any condition how empty and poor soever seems better to men thâ—n what they have and what God hath sweetned with many proofs of his love For he dwells upon his dying from the womb as a sweet condition v. 19. which yet would have deprived him of many proofs of Gods love which he had found in his life God is better and kinder to his people then they many times wish to themselves 4. When men are so devoted to themselves and their own will that they will quarrel all that God doth if it fit not their mind as if all things were to be foâ— them and subservient to their humour For he complains that he was not carried from the womb to his grave only because it would have prevented his great trouble and kept him at great case Selfishness is an ill toot of much distemper 5. When mens passions having distempered them they lay the blame upon Providence As he urgeth this as an argument against Gods dealing that it made him thus discontent with his life Whereas if he had been more sober and borne his trouble and the testimony of his Conscience with more calmness it would have prevented those distempers See Prov. 19.3 Vers 20. Are not my days few cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little 21. Before I go whence I shall not return even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death 22. A land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darkness In the close which is the second part of the Chapter Job begins to calm a little and in stead of his former expostulating with God and his last great fit of discontent v. 18 19. he tacitly submits to Gods will that he is alive and in what he hath done And seeing death in its own colours he will not rashly hazard upon it but craves this only that he may have some respite and breathing and a little ease in his life For 1. His days were short and he was not like to live long Therefore he would have some speedy help that he might draw his breath a little and have opportunity to shew that he was not the man that his Friends esteemed him or his passion seemed to prove him to be v. 20. 2. Albeit he believed a Resurrection and believed never to go to Hell and knew what it was to die in Christ who is the destroyer of death for he speaks to none of those here nor are his words to be taken in any sense relating to those yet death in it self is ugly being without restitution in this life being a dark and dâ—â—â—ry estate without any order of variety or vicissitude of light and darkness wherein much of this worlds beauty consists but whereas light comes in its turn here it is still darkness there even most dark as darkness it self as it beseems those shadows of death and the grave to be Therefore he would have some change of his condition here before he go to that unchangeable state and some blink of light and comfort before he entered into that dark passage and habitation ver 21 22 with 20. This Doctrine laying aside his mistake of speedy death by this trouble may safely be admitted with little caution as containing only a desire of that which God afterward granted to him though yet it was not necessary he should be peremptory in such a sute It teacheth 1. Saints highest sits of passion will not last but mercy will reclaim them and give them a cool of that Feaver As Job found here 2. As the Feavers and distempers of Saints may come to a very great height So ordinaâ—â—ly that height or excess of them proves the step next to their cool As Job here calms after that â—â—â—â—ly of passion v. 18 19. As God pitieth them in theâ—â—â—xtremities so their very rising to an height and extreâ—â—ty 〈◊〉 â—â—use themselves relent whereaâ— they would have thought less of their passionâ— if they continued moâ—◠〈…〉 3. Humble sober Prayer is a notable 〈…〉 and mean in calming distempered spirits it is as the shower to allay that boisterous wind For Job fâ—lls a praying in stead of quarrelling when he calms See Phil. 4.6 4. As mans life is but uncertain and short so the thoughts of this should make men imploy their time well and to be very needy and pressing after God and proofs of him and where it is thus improved it is an argument of pity and help For so much may be gathered in general from Job's arguing Are not my days few cease then c. though he mistook in his particular case that himself was shortly to die See Psal 39.13 89.47 5. Such as are exercised with much trouble and have their exercises blessed to them will be sober and esteem much of little case to get leave to breath or to comfort and refresh themselves a little with a sight of God or of his grace in them and not their own passions which they ought to abhor For this is his sute when calmed to get comfort a little not only liberty to breath from sore trouble but especially to get his spirit calmed from these passions which he now abhors in himself They who are indeed humble will not despise small things Zech. 4 10. and a victory over their own spirit will be their greatest deliverance 6. The least ease breathing or comfort under trouble cannot be had but of Gods indulgence He must cease and let him alone from vexing of him before he take comfort a little See Joh 34.29 7. It is the duty of men to acquaint themselves with death before-hand and especially in times of trouble they should study it in its true colours For Job in his trouble is so acquainted with it that he can here very pathetically describe it This is Moses study when God is making havock of the Rebels in the Wilderness Psal 90. 8. Death and the Grave in themselves and when Christs victory over them is not studied and men are hurried away to them in a tempest of trouble are very terrible and an ugly sight as bringing an irreparable loss as to any restitution in this life and being so dark and disconsolate an estate that the very common favour of a vicissitude of day and night light and darkness is a mercy when compared with it For so doth Job describe that estate here as it may appear to an afflicted Saint as he was or to one at a distance from God much more may it appear so to men in an unrenewed state or nature And indeed death is in it self a curse and if any find a beauty in it or get a sweeter sight of it it is by the special gift of God And withal it cuts the thread of our life upon which all our
passion that is not afraid of any hazard from God as to his eternal happiness and the language of submission to what the Lord shall be pleased to do otherwise And so it hints at that Argument which is more fully prosecuted in the following verses Hence Learn 1. It is the duty of Saints when any thing grieves them not to smother it within them but to speak it out to God as here Job resolveth See Gen. 25.22 This is the way to ease our spirits by laying our pressures upon him 1 Sam. 1.15 1 Pet. 5 7. And it is sad when our anxieties and pressures do out-grow our diligence Dan 9.13 Ezek. 24.23 2. It is a great sin to be an hinderance and disâ—â—â—â—gemâ—nt to oppressed minds in pouring out their 〈…〉 God Therefore when they who came to câ—â—foâ—t him would have terrified him fâ—om this Hold your pâ—ace let me alone saith he that I may speak Had they advised him to be more sober and meek in his addressâ—s it had been his fault not to have hearkened unto them But when they will not at all 〈◊〉 him come to God as a sincere man they had better 〈◊〉 nothing And hereof not only those are guilty who hinder others by their own example or disswade them by their counsel from going to God in trouble but they also who discourage men in their approaches unto God under trouble by aspersions on themselves or on their way without cause 3. Job's peremptory resolution to speak come on him what will laying aside his passion sheweth That honest hearts will not stay away from God for any hazard For 1. They will not readily suspect any evil at his hand having his Promises to the contrary 2. Be the consequents what they will they will hazard upon them rather then stay away from God and rather then bear what they suffer in staying away under pressures In such a case mens Lot may appear to them to be sad enough whatever they do and therefore they will hazard on God as the Lepers did upon the Camp of the Syrians 2 King 7.3 4. 3. They will have much submission to what befals them in the way of their duty so that if they cannot reckon that they will get no hurt they will study to submit to it and see love in it if it come Vers 14. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in mine hand Job's Arguments further confirming and justifying his resolution may be reduced to two The first whereof which is largely prosecuted to v. 19. may be taken up in this short sum His going to God with his complaint flowed from no despair but from the Conscience of his integrity and his confidence in God and assurance that he could be approved and therefore he might lawfully set about it nor was there any hazard in it as they feared This Argument doth indeed evidently conclude both the principal point in controversie that he was not a wicked man as also that he might lawfully go to God with his case though it justifie none of his imperfections in the way of his address which himself did also condemn when God laid them to his charge In this verse he proves Negatively that it was not despair that drave him upon this course He looks upon such a desperate course no otherwise then as if a man should tear his own flesh with his teeth and expose his life to a manifest danger as a thing in a mans hand which is ready to fall out or which he hath there ready to resign and deliver it up See Psal 119.109 Now saith he as the words should be read Wherefore would I take my flesh in my teeth c. He would not have them think he is so mad as to slay himself or to run upon his own ruine by coming so confidently to God without a ground And so his very hazarding to come to God proves his integrity Hence Learn 1. Men are very ready to add to their own great troubles by miscarriage and distemper under them especially by heartless and wicked despair when by discouragements they break their own spirits and lay them on as a load above their burden when they weary of their life and suspect Gods love and favour to them when they cast away confidence as useless Heb. 10.35 2 King 6.33 or let their spirits fly out against God in passion Rev. 16.9 For this was the evil whereof they suspected Job that he took his flesh in his teeth c. in this his way 2. Such distempers are madness and folly if examined by the Principles of right Reason For Wherefore saith he would I be so mad as take my flesh in my teeth c And indeed such a course helps us nothing it speaks us rather irritated then humbled by our afflictions it hinders better exercise Lam. 3.39 40. it provokes God to add to our trouble and as it is in the Text it eats our flesh and wasts our bodies as if we did eat them with our teeth and hazardeth our life befoâ—e God 3. Faith in a strait may seem to venture so much as to be full of presumption when yet it hath a sure ground For he disclaimeth that his faith was desperate presumption as they judged it to be and reckoned that he was running upon his ruine when he was bold in his addresses to God Faith in a strait must not stand upon misconstruction from on lookers So also in other things Mordecai must not bow to Haman nor Daniel shut his window nor Moses leave a hoof however others look upon them for it 4. Albeit men can give no other convincing grounds of their faith in a strait yet their very confident going to God with their distress proves their honesty and that there is a ground for their faith For so doth Job argue from his own practice He will go to God and if there were not a ground to go upon he would not be so mad Thus ought Saints to refute their tentations and prove they have grounds of confidence though themselves or others cannot see them by their going to God Vers 15. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him In this verse he proves Positively that he went upon grounds of confidence and the testimony of his integrity when he adventured thus to go to God For albeit the Lord should not only afflict him as hitherto he had done but should even slay and cut him off yet he would not quit his adherence to him nor the maintenance of his own integrity For clearing of the words Consider 1. His Assertion I will trust in him may be read by way of question Shall I not trust or hope To intimate his firm resolution that certainly he will trust and hope and That they if they would open their eyes might see it was his duty 2. As for this trust or hope whether we read it affirmatively I will trust or hope
before God The second fault which he reprehends in Job's discourses and way is impiety which with those that follow doth explain that Metaphor v. 2. of the East wind And therefore having in the former challenge explained that of knowledge of wind v. 3. he adds this to it and joyns them together by the copulative particle Yea. In this verse the challenge is propounded That he cast off or made void fear and restrained prayer Concerning which Consider First As for the sense of these words and the meaning of the challenge it may be understood 1. Of Job's practice That without standing in awe of God and casting off all reverence he would not pray in trouble but fell a quarrelling and offered to contend with God as it seems he gathered from his discourse Chap. 13.20 21 22 c. 2. It may be understood of Job's Principles Opinion and Doctrine That while he maintained that the godly and wicked were alike dealt with in this world Chap. 9.22 and that the wicked prospered Chap. 12.6 while he a godly man was afflicted He did by this means open a door to Profanity Atheism and Irreligion For who would fear God or call upon him if things were so ordered and he did but shake loose all fear of God while he maintained those Principles Both those senses do very well consist together that not only in his own practice he thus miscarried and cast off fear but by his practice and discourses did what he could to infect and mislâ—ad others and to make void fear as the words will also read Secondly As for the truth of this challenge and how justly Job was charged with this crime of impiety It would be Considered 1. As for his practice it cannot be denied that he spake in much passion and uttered many irreverent words to God and of him and did quarrel much instead of praying Yet it was an unjust charge to say he cast off fear and restrained Prayer altogether For even in his stoutest expressions Chap. 13.20 c. he declares he stands in aw of God and fears his rod and terrours and his failings did evidence his weakness not his impiety seeing he clâ—aves still to God Chap 13.15 16. And albeit his speeches to God be oft-times ill ordered and full of complaints Yet they are in effect Prayers For the scope of them all is to plead for pity and moderation as hath been shewed in expounding them and so himself explains his own scope in them Chap. 16.20 The consideration of this may teach Partly what great need there is of moderation of spirit in debates without which Saints may be calumniated even by good men not only as failers in duty but as impious Partly what a great fault and cause of mistakes it is to weigh the expressions or carriage of Saints when they are in their Fevers in the sober mans Ballance when as they should have many grains of allowance at such times For Eliphaz will have Job when in the heat of a Fever speaking as a Saint in a calm undisturbed temper and condition otherwise he will judge him to be wicked and impious See 2 King 4.27 2. As for Job's Doctrine It is true Providential Dispensations toward the godly and wicked whereof Job speaks and maintains that God did dispense them do prove stumbling blocks to Hypocrites and wicked men and they take occasion thereby to harden themselves in their impiety Isai 58.3 Eccles 8.11 Mal. 2.17 3.13 14 15. The godly also may sometimes be assaulted with dreadful tentations by looking awry upon those dispensations Psal 73.11 14 Yet as Gods Providence acting these things is free of any such miscarriages so neither must Job's Doctrine concerning this Providence be charged with them Nor doth the asserting of those Truths concerning the Lot of the godly and wicked within time any way contribute toward the advancement of impiety Because 1. Piety will teach men when they are in cold bloud not to quarrel with God because of outward lots 2. Piety will bring a man such advantages by trouble as will discover it to be excellent whatever trouble come 3. Piety hath an advantage when all trouble is over which Job often saw Chap. 13 16. 19.25 26. which may sweeten all toil by the way 4. Whatever be the Lords dispensations toward godly or wicked men yet Piety is advantageous and necessary for the blessing of mens lots For Piety only assures a man that his lot sweet or bitter is blessed which to another is a snare and plague This being his mistake concerning Job's Doctrine It may warn us That as it is the duty of all to commend and keep up the reputation of true piety Psal 73.15 So men who are real friends to it may think they are advancing it by their Principles and way and that their opposites are acting to the prejudice thereof when yet themselves are in the wrong and against Truth and their opposites are in the right Thus was Job sound in his Principles whatever weakness escaped him and his Friends in an Errour in that wherein he is so severely censured Thus the Psalmist when he yielded but a little to their opinion or to the consequences which they drew from Job's Doctrine accounts it an offending of the Generation of Gods Children Psal 73.15 whereas he was never checked for asserting as Job did that true Piety and trouble were consistent We must not judge of Causes by the fair and plausible pretences whereby men would set them off nor think to help and advance Piety by Errours and Untruths Having explained the words and vindicated Job I shall observe somewhat from the words as they are a challenge and censure of a very hainous crime abstracting from his misapplications and mistake of Job And 1. Impiety and Irreligion is an horrid sin far above ordinary failings and transgressions For this charge is added to the former concerning unprofitable discourse v. 3. with a yea or yea more to express that this was a heinous fault above the former As there are degrees of sin Psal 1.1 to be well adverted unto in our examination of our own way So men come to a great height in sin when they hate Piety or profess or practice Irreligion were they otherwise never so blameless in their external conversation 2. Great troubles are a sore tentation to drive men upon Atheism and Impiety For so doth Eliphaz suppose that because Job was so afflicted therefore he had cast off scar c. And men by Nature are indeed so stout-hearted that if God cross them they will cast off his service Mal. 3.13 14 15. 2 King 6.33 Hypocrites will lay aside the mask of a Profession under trouble and the Prophane will turn impious Atheists This should put men upon their guard in times of trouble as knowing that trouble of it self and without Gods blessing will not make them better but rather make them worse then it found them And it should also mind us to lay to
they aim at a mark in shooting so this winking seems to be noticed in Scripture as a sign of a mans driving some pernicious or foolish design Prov. 6.13 10.10 And so he would charge Job that not only he was full of Perturbation but was upon some mischievous or foolish design in the course he took which he wisheth him to consider what it might be This verse thus explained may have some reference to what is spoken v. 11. as if Eliphaz had said If thou knowest not better Consolations nor any secret thing beside these Consolations of God which we tender to theâ— Why suffersâ— thou thy heart thus to rage Why shuttest thou thine eyes upon Truth and scornfully rejectest it through prejudice What design canst thou be driving in all this But it hath more express reference to that which followeth v. 13. as if had said Why sufferest thou thy heart thus to be pestered with rage and passion How great is thy insolent contempt And what can thou mean or design in this that not only thou shouldest thus miscarry toward us but even toward God That thou shouldest not only reject his Consolations but set thy spirit on edge against him and speak so presumptuously and irreverently to him and of him In this Branch of the Accusation as the fault challenged is in it self gross and hainous so it cannot be denyed that Job was much guilty of it his disordered expressions witnessing how much he was distempered in spirit Only it flowed not from any principle of wickedness as his Friends alleaged But from his weakness which drave him upon those sits of passion through the vehemency of tentation And therefore God constructeth more tenderly of this his way then they did accounting those to be though faults but friendly complaints in his distemper which they censured as hostile accusations So hard is it to judge wisely and tenderly of the afflicted and of their failings under trouble that godly men would oft-times be in a sad plight if God were not more favourable to them then even their godly friends are The General Doctrine passing their severe censure doth teach 1. Mens hearts being filled with passion will strangely precipitate them through perturbations and distempers so that they will not be themselves For saith he thy heart carries thee away 2. Where the heart is thus disordered mens carriage will be strange and odd insolency will not be wanting and strange projects will then be set on foot For upon the former it followeth thine eyes do wink at somewhat 3. Men themselves will be the severest censurers of such perturbations if they will soberly reveiw them Therefore he propounds it by way of question Why doth thine heart carry thee away and what do thine eyes wink at Whatever be passions verdict yet those distempers are unjust and unreasonable as the Lord insinuates in his challenge and questions to Jonah Jon. 4.4 9. And our inconsiderateness and not reflecting upon our way doth hold us in many wrong courses which if we seriously examined we would abhor Jer. 8.6 4. When men despise the Consolations of God they will readily fall in an ill frame of spirit against God For upon this that the Consolations of God are small v. 11. it followeth v. 13. thou turnest thy spirit against God c. 5. It is a very sad and lamentable case when mens spirits are against God when they oppose their wit and counsels to his will and when in trouble they are imbittered at his dealing and alienated from him For it is here a sad charge that his spirit is against God See Zech. 11.8 To love and adore God brings sweet ease under saddest dispensations 6. This condition is so much the sadder when men turn their spirits thus against God when they are not so much driven upon this through the strength of tentation as voluntarily they run to this course as their choice and are not careful to entertain a meek frame of spirit For it heightens the challenge here that thou turnest thy spirit against God He reflects upon Job's abandoning that patient way of bearing the Rod wherewith he had begun Chap. 1.21 2.10 in place whereof he had turned him to impatient complaining And albeit Job was not wicked in this and was under more pressing tentations to miscarry then Eliphaz did well consider Yet he was not wholly free of blame in his activity to distemper his own spirit 7. Distemper of spirit is at a great height when it is not smothered within but breaks out in expression For that is added to the former here and lettest such words go out of thy mouth He seems to point at those expressions Chap 7.20 10.2 3 c. 13.27 and others the like of which in their proper places 8. When men are in such a distempered frame they ought to consider well what it is and what is in it For Eliphaz thinks it not enough to charge it upon him v. 13. but premits questions v. 12. Why doth thine heart carry thee away and what do thine eyes wink at that thou turnest thy spirit against God c. which implieth according to the Exposition formerly given 1. Men should consider what reason they can pretend for such a carriage For they will never be able to produce any that is relevant let them muster up never so many 2. They should consider what pride and insolency there is in it especially if they will not be admonished of it We may think our selves crushed with trouble when yet pride is much aloft 3. They should consider what design they can drive by such practices and what they will do next if they behave themselves thus For it will be with men in such a case as with peevish Children who do embrace at last what they have often rejected so must they abandon such ways when they have at last found they are in vain and to no purpose Vers 14. What is man that he should be clean and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous The fourth fault charged upon Job in his Discourse which makes way to the Second part of the Chapter is that he maintained Errour in justifying himself and his cause before God The charge is propounded here and amplified and illustrated v. 15 16. The sum of the Proportion is That however Job laboured to justifie himself yet it was impossible that frail Man as his Name here signifies born of a Woman should be righteous This Charge is sound Doctrine in the Thesis and Job was guilty of contradicting this Truth in some respects and therefore is checked by Elihu Chap 33.8 9. 34.7 of which in its own place Yet as for Eliphaz's Application of it to his purpose it is to be considered 1. In the Truth here asserted Job and he did not controvert For however he asserted his righteousness too much and too violently and by way of indirect reflection on God and is therefore challenged by Elihu
the Ancients true observation of the lot of some wicked men as if it were universally true of all wicked men even in the extremity here recorded For many of the wicked may live in great case as experience verifies and Job often asserts See Chap. 21.13 and frequently 2. In that he reflects upon and misconstructs the exercise of Job's Spirit and Conscience as if it were like unto the wiâ—â—â— lot when yet the difference is very great and wide For though he was under sad tentations and much vexed in spirit yet he still drew near to God and clave to him which wicked men do not This being his great mistake in this matter doth Teach That not only natural men but even such as are truly godly may through want of experience mistake the exercise of mind and the vexations which assault others and may judge of them as unlike the lot of Saints Thus David complains that he was a fear to his acquaintance Psal 31.11 Hence it followeth 1. That men ought wisely to consider the case of the afflicted and poor that they add not to their afflictions by their misconstructions 2. That godly men being exercised in spirit should be armed against such hard measures from their friends not expecting still to be dandled nor stumbling at it when some of their friends who should comfort them do pass by and others do pour Vinegar into their sores and add to their sorrow 3. That since other godly men may mistake such exercises they who are under them should guard lest themselves also stumble at them and for that end should study how useful and necessary they are Having premitted those Generals I shall â—ow explain the parts of this misery as it is branched out in the several verses and draw some general Observations accordâ—ng to those former Rules and Cautions without insisting any more upon Eliphaz his mistakes and reflections in them And first in this verse it is declared that the wicked man hath a miserable life of it being like a woman in travail as the word signifieth throughout his time and that not only through Gods making it to be so with him by afflictions but as the form of the word beaâ—s He makes himself to travel with pain through discontent and anxiety As for that which followeth in the end of the verse Some read it only as an Explication or other expression of all his days thus The wicked man travelleth all his days even the number of years which is â—id or determined by God to the oppressour or wicked man But leaving this and other readings not so apposite as our Translation it contains an Explication and Instance of the wicked mans vexation Wherein 1. Having more generally designed the person he speaks of that he is a wicked man he more particularly restricts what he is to say to the oppressour That so he may reflect upon Job whom he supposeth to have been guilty of that sin when he was in eminency and power 2. He instanceth this as a cause of the oppressours vexation and pain that the number of years is hidden to him Whereby we may understand either That it breeds him great vexation that the time of his death is kept hid by God so that he knows not when it shall arrest him the consideration whereof maâ—â—s all his present mirth or That his vexations are so bitter to him and his mind is so little at ease that he never desires to think on death but hides from himself all thoughts of that subject Both those come to one purpose and may agree in one as shall be marked in the Doctrines From this verse thus explained Learn 1. Whatever wicked men promise to themselves in their way yet if they considered matters well they will find they have but a miserable Dogs-life of it For so much may be gathered in general from this that the wicked man travelleth with pain and from the rest of the Text. Not only doth God make the life of some of them to be visibly miserable but even all of them bear some prints of the truth of this in some measure The best of it is but a drudgery in serving sin and lusts and many times it is seen they do but weary themselves Isai 57.10 Jer. 9.5 Ezek. 24.12 and pierce themselves thorow with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6.10 This may keep us from complaining of Gods service seeing Satan is a most cruel Task-master 2. It adds to the misery of wicked men that their vexations are endless That he travelleth with pain all his days not as women who travel but some days Albeit they have intermissions of visible troubles yet their anxieties and drudgeries continue and whatever they get yet they are far from that sweet issue of trouble which is promised to the godly Psal 30.5 This may warn all to beware of provoking God to imbitter all their moment of time And it teacheth Saints to bless God for any real vicâ—ssitude or change to the better which they find in their condition 3. It adds also to the misery of the wicked that God gives them up to be their own tormenters That he makes himself to travel with pain as the word in the Original bears His own â—theism diffidence love of this present life and the things thereof his fears about them his envy that others speed better than himself c. le ts him never be at quiet And albeit the spirits of godly men may make them very sad exercise which thâ—y should guard against and so this will not always prove a man wicked that he breeds himself vexations yet the point should teach all to try what is real and done by God in their vexations and what is only apprehended and made a vexation by themselves And when men find that they do thus vex themselves they ought to search into the grounds and causes of it whither Idols or unbelief and avoid them lest the increase of their vexations be a just punishment thereof 4. To be an oppressour is a particular evidence of a wicked man whatever he pretend unto otherwise as he may pretend to Piety and an acknowledgment of God Zech. 11.5 There he instanceth that General Assertion concerning a wicked man in the person of an oppressour intending but unjustly to reflect upon Job 5. Albeit Oppressours seem to be the men who should have most quiet since they heap together so many outward delights and think to secure themselves in the enjoyment thereof by the bearing down of others Yet in Gods judgment they are oft times plagued with greatest vexations and sorrows For they in particular are the wicked who travel in pain and of whom the following particulars in this and the rest of the verses are verified And albeit the point hold not fully true in the sense of Eliphaz yet they have their own vexations in purchasing and in keeping their purchase whâ—rewith they dare not trust God And sometimes their Consciences also do vex them Which should keep
shakes as he did uphold Job Doct. 3. Such changes in our outward condition may be a tryal even to the mortified Child of God For though Job did not set up his rest upon his prosperity and dignity yet here he complains of the loss of it and that he wants his Crown and Glory Here Consider 1. Saints have sense and flesh which cannot but feel and grieve under trouble and contempt and they are not to mistake though they find somewhat in themselves that â—epineth at the Cross 2. By this God makes it evident that Saints are not Stoicks or wholly insensible of troubles and that it is not themselves but Grace in them that bears them out 3. When the spirits of Saints are otherwise broken as Job's was then any thing will be a burden though otherewise in their judgment they think little of it 4. Our bitterness and peevishness may cause us have too great an esteem of things when we want them which we were but little thankful for when we had them and so we disquiet our selves Vers 10. He hath destroyed me on every side and I am gone and mine hope hath he removed like a tree The Fifth proof and instance of his misery wherein he alludes to the destroying of Houses and plucking up of Trees whereof Bildad had also spoken and whereby he further explains what he had said v. 6 is That his present enjoyments and future hopes were quite overthrown and gone as an House that is quite overturned and a Tree that is plucked up by the roots Whence Learn 1. The sense of grievances being entertained will make men great Oratours in pointing them out As Job's insisting upon his complaint may teach and experience of others recorded in Scripture who have dwelt long upon their lamentations and complaints doth witness This 1. May encourage them who cannot get an end of their complaints nor have soon done with them when they consider that they want not company at that sad Trade 2. It may warrant us to study our grievances well that they may press humility upon us and we may make use of them as Arguments to plead for pity and by the sense thereof may be fitted for proofs of Gods love and withal we may glorifie God by our submission to him and our hope in him notwithstanding all those grievances Yet 3. We should beware to dwell upon this subject only out of bitterness or a desire to complain Upon those terms we should think one word of our distresses too much and the least moment of time too long to spend about them seeing we have better exercises wherein to be imployed And herein Job failed who spent much time and talk on this in his bitterness when he might have been better imployed Doct. 2. God can and sometime will surround his Children with an universal havock and desolation in their Children Goods Body Name Peace of mind c. As here Job was destroyed on every side See Lam. 2.22 Here 1. The repeating of this again from v. 6. serves to confirm Saints that such a condition is not inconsistent with a gracious state and to warn us that we should not make exception of any outward tryal as if it were inconsistent with grace in a person 2. This doth also teach murmurers that it is their duty to look upon their lesser tryals as abounding with mercies when they consider this total overthrow of a godly man as to his outward condition Too much noise about those and little praise to God who moderates his stroke do argue much self-love ingratitude and need of more afflictions 3. Such as are made to drink of this bitter cup should submit to God in it believing that no less is necessary to try them to put them out of themselves and to fit them for the singular proofs of love which God intends for them Doct. 3. When God engageth with the Creature especially in any measure of severity the Creature will soon succumb For saith he He hath destroyed me and I am gone So that stooping is our best when God becometh our party 4. Hope is the last refuge and life of a destroyed and gone Saint For so is here supposed that whe he is destroyed and gone he looks what hope will afford to comfort him Saints should not cast away hope and confidence Psal 42.11 Heb. 10.35 but should wrestle from under the ruines of their destroyed condition by hope 5. Not only the present enjoyments but the future hopes of Saints may be destroyed and gone to their sense For his hope was removed like a Tree that is rooted out of the ground This is to be understood of his hopes about temporal favours and restitution wherein though Job was mistaken in casting off hopes of restitution men ought to be very sober and submit all to the good pleasure of God For to do at upon those things is to feed murmuring evidence insobriety and breed our selves many disappointments But even other and better hopes of Saints may fail much that God may try how we will hope against hope out of our love to him and may take a proof of our delight to give him credit in difficulties and that he may give proof what he will do for his own Children who sometime will not so much as cherish hope in him 6. God can and will do for his people even far above their present sense and hopes For Job thinks he is gone and his hope removed and yet he is carried through See Ephes 3.19 Psal 94.18 19. Vers 11. He hath also kindled his wrath against me and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies 12. His troops come together and raise up their way against me and encamp round about my tabernacle The Sixth proof and instance of his misery wherein he alludes to a mighty Kings making war against his Enemies or rebellious Subjects is That God seemed to deal with him in wrath as with a Rebel and Enemy v. 11. and accordingly had let loose afflictions and Satan the Sabeans Chaldeans the Wind and Fire and other Instruments of his trouble which irresistibly hemmed him in like so many Troops raising up Trenches and drawing â—nes about their besieged Enemies v. 12. While Job speaks here of Gods wrath kindled against him and Gods accounting him an Enemy he doth not hereby absolutely contradict what elsewhere he speaks concerning his own integrity and his faith in Gods favour For by faith he still cleaves to this that he is a righteous man and beloved of God though in his complaint he sometime speak this language of sense that God was wroth and looked upon him as an Enemy From the first part of v. 11. He hath also kindled his wrath against me Learn 1. The dearest of Saints may be under sad apprehensions of Gods anger and wrath For so was Job here and David frequently They may not only be really under fatherly displeasure but â—ad afflictions joyned with tentation weakness and desertion may cause
excessive but sober in his complaints as we ought to be while we are living men Lam. 3.39 and yet sensible that the least touch of God makes him cry But this Interpretation sutes not with Job's case who doth not extenuate his troubles but rather exceeds in his complaint And therefore I take this expression to point mainly at the event of Gods stroke that it was such a one as had touched him home and made him feel it and smart under it And it teacheth That as a touch of Gods hand is enough to undo man So where he is pleased to assault he will reach and touch So that men will not get it shifted Obad. v 4. nor will they be able to find ease under it 4. Whatever comfort it afford yet to a Child of God it is very sad to lie under Gods afflicting hand For as seeing of the hand of God as hath been marked affords some ground of comfort in trouble so it also represents such a case as humbling And therefore Job sums up all his affliction in this The hand of God hath touched me It is very sad to a Child of God and will affect him that God should deal so with him especially if his strokes be also sharp and Saints may try their Piety by considering how they stand affected with a sight of Gods hand in their Rods. And if this be sad to the godly much more will it be sad to the wicked when they fall in the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 5. When Gods hand is sadly lying upon any of his Children dearest friends cannot help they may well pity them and it is well if they do not worse For whatever supply friends may afford in some outward necessities yet in such a condition as his was all that can be expected and craved of them is pity It is only Gods coming and appearing that will heal such strokes of his own hand And Saints should not mistake though among all their friends hands and notwithstanding all their pity their afflictions continue till God come 6. It is much to an afflicted man if he find simpathy and pity among friends For Job craves have pity upon me as a favour and kindness They who meet with that in trouble should prize it as a favour which is not afforded to every one in the like case Psal 69.20 And they are not idle nor uselesly imployed who are busie at simpathizing with the afflicted though they can do no more 7. Friendship and professed love obligeth men to the duty of sympathy with their friends in trouble For Job claimeth it upon this account Have pity upon me O ye my friends 8. Though they had grieved him and proved unfriendly yet here he calls them Friends at first and pleads and entreats that they would do duty for time to come This he doth not only to check them who were friends and neglected duty but being abased with the sense of all his miseries before enumerated he at first speaks thus calmly and pitifully to them as not willing to resent injuries if they would return to their duty though in the next verse knowing their disposition he speaks more sharply This teacheth That when Saints are themselves they are very calm in their passions they do not easily break bonds of friendship nor cast oft relations and are willing to digest injuries if they could see them any way refrained from for the future 9. The doubling of his sute from his great and pressing necessity teacheth 1. That as we should not make too great noise of our troubles nor let our clamours be above our real necessities So we should also come up to our need with our earnestness For so doth Job double his request in distress 2. That whatever be the judgment of on-lookers or unconcerned persons yet distressed Saints stand in great need of sympathy Therefore doth he so earnestly call for it Doct. 10. Saints may miss and earnestly seek and yet not find sympathy even from their godly friends As Job found here His Friends Principles led them necessarily to endeavour to humble him rather than pity him and God had him yet to humble further though not upon the account they went upon and therefore all expressions of pity are withheld from him Vers 22. Why do ye persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh In this verse Job inferrs his Conclusion by way of Expostulation and Challenge that they should deal so cruelly with him whom God had not only touched but brought very low For clearing of the words Consider 1. To persecute here whether it be applyed to God or them is not to be taken in a strict sense as it imports an afflicting for righteousness But more generally as it signifieth to pursue or prosecute with troubles or other vexing carriage though in some sense it be true that they did trouble him for righteousness or for maintaining a righteous cause 2. Their persecuting him as God is not to be strictly urged or taken up in any exact parallel as if he would challenge them that they afflicted him causelesly as God did and would put them in mind that they might not deal with him as they pleased though God might do so nor might they censure him as an Hypocrite seeing it is Gods Prerogative to judge of mens state But the meaning is more simply this that they ought not thus to fall upon him when God was so severely prosecuting him 3. While he complains that they are not satisfied with his flesh it may be understood either 1. That they were not satisfied with the outward afflictions inflicted by the hand of God which wasted his body unless they also crushed his spirit with their carriage and doctrine As indeed however his spirit was exercised by the immediate hand of God deserting him in his affliction for his tryal Yet it seems they had a great hand in the breach of the peace of his mind by their uncomfortable visit and silence at first and their doctrine afterward As may be gathered from Chap. 2.12 13. with Chap. 3. Or 2. Which may be joyned with the former That though his body or flesh was wasted both with pain and with the inward tentations of his spirit yet it seemed all this would not satisfie them unless they had him quite overthrown and cast in the ditch In sum here he aggravates their cruelty from this That though God was his party and though his stroke from God was not ordinary but such as the effects thereof might be seen on his flesh and carcase yet they would put on for their part to make him utterly miserable if they could From the words thus cleared Learn 1. The Lord by afflictions upon his people especially when they are sharp and of long continuance doth prosecute and pursue them and somewhat in them Therefore trouble gets the name of persecuting or pursuing here And whatever was Job's sense in uttering this word yet it may have a sound
In many cases men may be said to be ignorant of a Providence and Judgment who do not only acknowledge it in General Professions but are really godly For they were godly men and did not deny this truth and yet must be taught to know there is a judgment Men know not their Principles as they ought when they act not according to them as they did not And men may know much in General and by Contemplation who yet in their Passions can but little consider and improve it in particular cases For they considered not their way and whether it tended till God tell them in the close of this debate 4. Afflictions are sent to teach men Lessons and particularly to cause them know and make right use of a just Providence of God For here they are threatned with punishments that they may know there is a judgment Here Consider 1. Men must not only look what they feel but what they are made to know under affliction and must be careful that Rods be not dumb Psal 94.11 2. Though oft times carnal men turn Atheists under and because of great troubles Ezek. 9.9 yet afflictions should lead men to be better acquainted with a Providence in the World which ordinarily is but little minded or studied For that is the lesson here inculcated 3. Such as study the Providence of God in the world will be afraid of doing wrong as knowing that there is a righteous judgement to follow 4. In Particular This study should make men afraid to injure the afflicted especially if they be godly seeing such are left upon Gods hand that he may redress all their wrongs and grievances For that is the particular lesson he would have them taking from this study 5. This study should yet further perswade men to take heed of being incorrigible by the Word seeing there is a Providence and Judgment to inculcate that which men will not learnâ— from the Word Therefore he counsels them to be afraid in time lest to their own cost they be made to know there is a judgment and so have that sad reflection upon their own course that their being untractable made them need the Rod to teach this lesson See Psal 32.9 10. CHAP. XX. In this Chapter Zophar the third of Job's Friends assaults him now the second time It is not the proper place here to enquire how it comes that this is his last speech to Job and that he doth not answer him the third time as the rest did though it be clear that Job did not at all satisfie him by his following discourses and so laid him by but as all of them did at last give him over as a stubborn man Chap. 32.1 So Zophar wearied sooner then the rest as being it may be more passionate then they Here it sufficeth us to know that he takes yet his turn with the rest and falls fiercely upon Job Wherein as hath been marked of the rest also as he brings forth no new matter so he layeth aside all that meekness and all those encouragements whereof he made use in his former Speech Chap. 11. as being now more heated with his own passion and further prejudged in his thoughts of Job The Chapter contains these two First A Preface wherein he declareth that he will answer and gives the reasons of his resolution ver 1 2 3. Secondly The answer it self where in a long Discourse which he confirms from the consent of Antiquity he gives an account of the calamities that befal the wicked that he may perswade Job that his lot is the same with what befals only wicked men and hypocrites And therefore doth prove him to be one of them And having hinted whence he had this Doctrine ver 4. 1. He gives an account of the wickeds ruine in their downfal from their prosperity That it is speedy ver 5. a shameful and utter ruine to the admiration of all from which no grandeur shall secure them ver 6 7. And a ruine which shall discover the emptiness of their former prosperity and which shall not be repaired ver 8 9. 2. He gives an account of the miseries wherewith they are pressed after their fall That their Children shall be miserable ver 10. That their sins and the effects thereof shall accompany them to their grave ver 11. And that all their pleasure in following wickedness shall prove bitter and deadly ver 12 13 14. And particularly they shall have no comfort but much bitterness in their ill purchase ver 15 16. when God shall deprive them of expected sweet ease ver 17. and make them restore what they had unjustly acquired ver 18. as the just fruit of oppression ver 19 20. yea and take away their very meat ver 21. 3. He amplifieth this Narration both concerning the ruine and subsequent miseries of the wicked pointing out That in their greatest prosperity ruine shall come upon them being pursued by wicked men who shall be the instruments of Gods vengeance ver 22. And by God himself pursuing them in anger ver 23. That God shall pursue them with variety of weapons or judgments ver 24 25. From which they shall neither secure themselves nor their families ver 26. And That all creatures shall conspire their ruine thereby as so many witnesses to convince them that they are wicked ver 27. upon which their utter ruine shall follow ver 28. 4. He sums up all this Narration by way of Conclusion that he may press Job to take more notice of it ver 29. Vers 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and said 2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer and for this I make haste 3. I have heard the check of my reproach and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer IN this Preface is not only recorded that Zophar did answer v. 1. but his profession that his thoughts did drive him to be in great haste with it and caused him to answer who it seems otherwise intended to have kept silence together also with the causes moving him to make this reply which are expressed more generally that somewhat in Job's discourse did so fill him with thoughts as he could not forbear nor delay to answer v. 2. and more particularly v. 3. That he had bin reproached in Job's discourse and therefore would answer for himself though yet that only did not move him but his sound knowledg of the Truth in this debate furnished him with matter which he would bring forth deliberately having gravely thought upon it And so however he had met with passion yet he thinks he will not answer in passion That I may further explain and make use of these verses Observe 1. We find here that Zophar doth yet answer Job And albeit he bring forth no new purpose but what hath been often refuted by Job of which afterward yet he will not give over Yea we find not in all this discourse that he doth any thing consider all those miseries of Job which
Great may be the differences even betwixt godly men in a time of debate the one thinking it a duty to be silent and the other to speak the one threatening the other with wrath because of what they do and the other thinking themselves obnoxious to wrath if they do it not This is so sad that it calls for much humiliation and for search to find out where it is that the errour and mistake lieth and for dealing with God that he may appear in mercy to decide the Controversie which alone can put a close to this Dispute Observe 4. The first express reason of his resolution to answer is I have heard the check of my reproach v. 3 or thou hast bitterly reflected upon me in thy discourse It is not necessary to restrict this to what Job had said Chap. 19.29 But the meaning is That generally in all his complaints challenges and arguings Job had indirectly rubbed upon them And it seems Zophar had understood somewhat that he had spoken as reflecting particularly on him and his discourses which makes him so earnest to answer Compare Chap. 18 3. It teacheth 1. Men are naturally very tender of their Reputation so that they will soon and sometime but too soon resent any affront put upon them Yea the more free men are of real sufferings and tryals they are ordinarily the more needlesly and causelesly vexed about their Reputation For those men who had little other exercise are much taken up about their Reputation and think themselves rubbed upon and reproached and checked if they be but dissented from or soberly in â—â—med of their mistakes Much real exercise would cause men make less noise about this 2. When a mans self or his Reputation is much in his eye he will not readily do much good in debates For Zophar beginning with the sense of this check of his reproach or reproachful check as he judgeth it makes but a poor reply as the sequel cleareth Men ought to bear down that Idol of their own Reputation who would find out or follow Truth and the mind of God in any particular Observe 5. The second express reason of his resosolution is And or as some read it But the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer That is It is not only the sense of the indignities I have received but the sound judgment and clear light I have in this Controversie and my knowledge how needful it is that thou be humbled and Gods Justice in afflicting thee vindicated that puts me to answer In this sense the two parts of the verse are to be joyned by the copulative and that the sense of his reproach and his knowledge in the cause concurred to cause him answer And this indeed is Truth that Zophar was persuaded that what he had to say was found But there seems to be more in it and somewhat intended that sets the two parts of the verse in opposition one to another I have heard But the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer Hereby is not only meant that however Job reproached their Opinion yet it was found and flowed from a spirit of understanding but further as to the way of answering that however Job had answered them with passion and reproaches yet he would deal otherwise with him and answer him from a spirit of understanding or a sober and sound judgment Both these Interpretations may agree in one the first being included in this last For it supposeth he had sound light in the Controversie and proposeth that he will bring out this and not his passions in his answer whereas Job as he supposed wanting truth and solid matter behoved to take himself to such poor shifts as revilings and reproaches It teacheth 1. As men had need to be sure and well grounded in what they hold out as the Truth of God So disputes for finding out the mind and will of God in any particular should be free of passion and managed with sound judgment and understanding For Zophar pretends to a spirit of understanding declining passion in this answer As God will not be served by our passions Jam. 1.20 Nor have our lies and mistakes fathered on him Chap. 13.4 So it is found light and not passions that will convince rational men Yea where passions it darkens and disturbs mens own light and judgments that they cannot make such use of them as they ought and otherwise might 2. Irritations from those with whom we have to do will not warrant us to serve them in their own coin For though Job as he supposed reproached him yet he will answer him from a spirit of understanding 3. Men may have a strong persuasion that they are sound and right in that wherein yet they are very wrong For he thinks that all this answer flowed from the spirit of his understanding which was but the result of his Ignorance and Errour So blind and iâ— self love and so great need have men to examine and try their persuasions that they be sound and well grounded and for this end to be sober and diffident of themselves and jealous lest their engagement in debates or estimation of their own abilities cause them think they are very clear and sound when yet they are in the dark 4. In particular Men may be very passionate who yet think themselves very rational and sober For Zophar even when in passion he is resenting a supposed check of his reproach doth yet think he is led by a spirit of understanding Passion is in it self a great fault but it is yet greater when it blind-foldeth men that they cannot see themselves as they are Vers 4. Knowest thou not this of old since man was placed upon earth 5. That the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment Followeth the answer it self wherein he labours to persuade Job that his lot being like that of the wicked man or hypocrite it did prove him to be one of them In all this discourse concerning the calamities of the wicked we have no new matter or Arguments to convince Job but only the same consent and testimony of Antiquity so often urged before here again repeated And the same subject matter of the calamity of the wicked is here again set forth with variety of expressions and flowers of eloquence And he insists as others before him had done so particularly to recount the wickeds miseries Partly that he may reflect upon Job's case and shew that those miseries which he suffered and whereof he complained were the same with what the wicked had suffered in all ages And partly that by inculcating this Doctrine with a stream of Eloquence it may be the more taking and more effectually convince Job In the first part of his Narration to v. 10 he gives an account of the way of a wicked man or hypocrites downfal from his height of prosperity and how being in prosperity he is brought low and made miserable And in
continue the afflictions of his people so long as he pleaseth as having Soveraign Dominion Their own bitterness under trouble may contribute to lengthen their sorrows and complaints And the discovery and purging of their dross even when trouble hath touched upon their sores may be so long in working as may continue their exercise long upon them 5. Endeavours to comfort and relieve the afflicted may sometimes adde to the bitterness of their tryall For even to day is my complaint bitter imports also that his bitterness was not a little augmented by the cures they applyed to his sores so that every speech of theirs did for that time awake all his sorrows and bitterness upon him As it is not an easie task to deal with troubled and afflicted Saints so they themselves ought to guard against supervenient irritations when they are afflicted 6. Stroaks may so confound the afflicted that they can hardly so much as make distinct complaints of them but only groan or at least when they have vented never so much by complaining there will be much more left to be uttered by inexpressible groans For with his complaint he had groaning As this points out the emptiness of the creature that a man dare not so much as promise to himself to be able to ease himself by dâ—stinct uttering of his case So Saints in such a condition should be comforted by considering how much a groan may speak to God if it be uttered by his own Spirit Rom. 8.26 27. 7. It is a great ease to Saints in trouble to get leave to vent their grievances and complaints were it but even by groans For here Job complains that his stroak is heavier than his groaning or that it could not be uttered even by groans Where the word rendred my stroak in the Original is my hand So also Psal 77.2 Whereby we are to understand his stâ—oak coming from the hand of God and it gets the name of his hand or the hand upon him to shew that this is the right sight of our afflictions when we especially eye the hand of God in them This point may teach them to be thankful who get if it were but the mercy of such an ease And when it is wanting we must look to him who seeth our condition as well as he hears our complaints about it 8. It is an evidence of a sinful distemper when men complain more than they have cause and when their cry is louder than their stroak is smarting For Jobs defending of his complaint by shewing that his stroak is heavier than his groaning doth import that it could not be justified if his groaning were heavier than his stroak It is the duty of Saints to study to be moderate in their resentments and not to aggravate their sorrows and stroaks And for this end they ought to remember how much they deserve above what they feel Ezr. 9.13 to observe any moderation and mercy that is in their lot Lam. 3.18.22 and to be content with whatsoever affliction God will enable them to bear 1 Cor. 10.13 9. Saints in their distempers are unfit Judges of themselves and their way For Job did indeed exceed In his complaints but doth not discern it As men ought not simply to trust their own knowledge of themselves as having to do with God who knoweth them farr better 1 Cor. 4.4 So in particular they ought to be jealous of themselves when they are in any distemper or trouble Verse 3. O that I knew where I might find him That I might come even to his seat 4. I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with Arguments 5. I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me In the second branch of his complaint to v. 10. he regrates that he could not get access to God where he was sure to be absolved though he was condemned by men And in this his scope is not only to ease himself by complaining of his sad condition But withall 1. To assert his own integrity in that he expected to be assoyled by God 2. To insinuate that his Friends had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him which makes him seek to another Judge and complain that he gets not access In all which albeit his honesty and the strength of the grace of God in him do appear Yet it is further to be marked 1. That while he studies to avoid and repell their unjust censures he runs to another extremity in the way of asserting his confidence of his integrity Which sheweth that even a good cause may prove an occasion though not a cause to a man to manage it ill when he is tempted by the injuries of others 2. That being ill used by his Friends and so irritated and put in a distemper he reflects too much upon God who gave him not that satisfaction which he desired Which also warneth us that when passions are aloft they are madd steers-men and will readily drive us upon a rock This branch of his complaint and the grounds of it may be taken up in four particulars First His earnest desire to meet with God to argue his cause with him since he found so little help or comfort among his Friends v. 3. Where if we look upon the matter abstractly it is sound and right that a man desire to draw near unto God in his trouble especially when he is mistaken and ill guided by his Friends But if we look to the way of his desire and his particular scope in it he will be found passionate and faulty and therefore he is checked for his escape in it by Elihu For his scope here is to desire that since he missed of comfort and satisfaction in his addresses to God by faith and prayer therefore God would not so much help him to appear before him in Heaven by taking away his life as speaking after the manner of men set up some visible Tribunal before which he might plead his cause The whole Discourse alludes to such a finding of God as this which was granted to him afterward in the person of Elihu and by Gods own interposing in the debate though not so much to his advantage as he expected The second Particular in this branch of the complaint contained also in these Verses is an account of the use he would make of this liberty and opportunity of finding God Namely That he would boldly approach to God being set upon such a Tribunal v. 3. That he would propound and argue his cause and plead in defence of his integrity v. 4. and would answer all exceptions against it v. 5. and so formally deduce and manage the process Here there are great evidences of his integrity but vented without that modesty and reverence that were requisite and therefore he is afterward reproved for this However it may afford us useful instructions And First From his desire v. 3. Learn 1. A mans good conscience is a sure friend in
others and feed upon them or feed them as their own v. 2. 3. That they oppress these who are already afflicted even the fatherless and widow by taking away under pretence of a pledge what is most necessary for them as an Ass to bear their burdens and the Ox that should plough their ground v. 3. 4. That they not only oppress the poor and afflicted in the matter of their goods but are a terrour to their persons so that they dare not be seen openly or in the way whether their affairs call them but they must hide themselves for tear of these oppressours In general Learn 1. Men given up to errour are pestered with ignorance and will not see clearest light that might refute them For Job produceth clear instances disproving their assertion which yet they had never heeded The power of delusion is very great and love of errour will make men be willingly ignorant as 2 Pet. 3.5 2. Oppression is a sin that lyeth as near a stroak as any For Job instanceth that sin first to shew that if any sin were alwayes punished in this life it would be one And if it went unpunished not onely was their assertion false but it was no wonder if God winked also at other sinnes Naboth's Vineyard cost Ahab dear and none have cause to bless themselves in that sin though they have present immunity 3. Oppression is committed not only by open and notorious Thieves or Robbers but even by these who living in Civil Societies as neighbours do by deceits Law-tricks or boisterous violence undo others For of these Job here speaks first In particular from v. 2. Learn 1. God hath given men a right and propriety in their goods and possessions For if it were not so robbery were no sin the contrary whereof is here supposed nor needed there any Land-marks to distinguish mens possessions nor would there be any breaches of the Eighth Command which prohibiteth stealing Men may be ready to plead against this propriety of goods when themselves are in want who could soon change their opinion if themselves were possessed of what they desired 2. It is mens duty in prudence to prevent contests about interests and possessions For for this end were Land-marks appointed to prevent future debates It is the fruit of a sanctified Spirit to abhor and endeavour to avoid these contests Gen. 13.7 8. 3. It is a great sin to remove these Land-marks or what distinguisheth mens interests or to encroach upon the rights of others especially in the matter of their Inheritances which perpetuates the injury to men and their posterity For therefore it is instanced as a branch of oppression that some remove the land-marks And if it be oppression to remove a land-mark were it but a little how much more if men deprive others of all their inheritance Mic. 2.2 Senacherib boasted that he was good at removing the bounds of the people Isa 10.13 and God suffered his sons to pass over the bounds of duty and kill him Is 37.37 38. And if it be a crime to remove the bounds in Civil interests it must be much more hainous to remove the bounds which God hath set in the matters of Religion See Hos 5.10 And such as proclaim this liberty in Gods matters to secure their own interests may justly be plagued with licentious invasions upon what they think thus to secure 4. Oppression is odious in little things as well as in greater matters Therefore removing of Land-marks were it but a little is ranked in with taking away of flocks 5 Wicked Oppressours do not regard reason or right so they have power to execute their will For they violently take away flocks See Mic. 2.1 It is a rare thing to find men of Joseph's and Nehemiah's Consciences Gen. 42.17 18. Nehem. 5.15 when they have power but they are rather like the Fishes of the Sea Hab. 1.14 where the greater devour the lesser 6. Wicked men have not only their Consciences stupified to engage them in an ill course but they persist impenitently in it For when they have taken these Flocks they feed them in the land which they have taken by oppression or they feed thereof and make use of them for their daily provision See 1 King 21.19 Conscience is very readily deaded after an ill turn were it even in a child of God as David's experience after his Adultery and Murder doth witness 7. Wicked men notwithstanding their oppression and their secure stupidity in it may yet be long spared For these Oppressours get leave to feed or feed upon their ill purchase From v 3. Learn 1. Wicked men are so set upon evil that they will oppress for very little advantage For they will take were it but an Ass or an Ox only Men may vent very much wickedness and corruption in a very small matter as may be seen in the transgression of our first parents Gen. 3.6 And it will not excuse men that they do but little acts of wickedness if they put forth all their power were it but like snail-horns and improve all the opportunities they have to do evil 2. The less mens tentations be to oppress their sin in it is the greater For because an Ass or an Ox is but a poor prey for such Oppressours their sin in taking thereof is the greater Small tentations do aggravate mens sin and bear witness of their perverse dispositions which cause them to run to sin of their own accord when tentations do not effectually draw them 3. Oppression is yet more heinous when it is committed against the poor Eccl. 4.1 and 5.8 and especially the widow and fatherless whom God owneth and when Oppressours are so cruel as to take from them what is necessary for their very being and subsistence As here they take the very Ass and Ox of the fatherless and widow See 2 Sam. 12.3 4. 4. Oppression is nothing the less odious that it is committed under pretext of Law For here it is Oppression though they take things for a pledge It is a great sin to abuse Law which is an Ordinance of God to palliate injustice and solemnities and formalities of Law in committing of iniquity do add to the ugliness thereof as may be seen in the way of Jezebel's purchasing Naboth's Vineyard 1 King 21.7 13 23. From v. 4. Learn 1. Wicked men make no end of sinning nor keep any bounds in it For they proceed from oppressing of men in their Lands and Goodâ— to oppress their persons Men by sinning do but drink themselves dry and committing of a lesser sin breeds them to commit a greater without remorse 2. Violence to mens persons is the height of oppression when poor men are not only deprived of their good and livelyhood but they cannot live nor dare be seen beside oppressours especially if they appear to vindicate themselves As here these oppressours turn the needy out of the way where their affairs calls them to walk and the poor of the earth hide
oppress persons or Churches and whole Societies especially if they oppress these whom God himself hath afflicted in spirit Ps 69.26 And therefore it is our great advantage to be afflicted before God when we are injured by men For then all our wounds will bleed before him 7. Not to be steadable to the afflicted in our stations and as we have power is oppression For that he doth not good to the widow is joyned with his evil entreating the barren Where though Job speak by a Figure and intends more than is spoken yea and saith much by saying little yet that way of speaking is founded upon this truth That who so do not good to the afflicted as they have opportunity and power are very hurtful to them and do oppress them in so far as they relieve them not of their oppressions and do add thereunto and do afflict their spirits by their inhumanity And this may give a check to many who though they do not themselves oppress yet are not useful and comfortable to the afflicted but do look upon their trouble without compassion or laying forth of themselves for their comfort and relief Verse 22. He draweth also the mighty with his power he riseth up and no man is sure of life In this Verse Job subjoyns another instance of these wicked mens oppression That not only they wrong the poor and afflicted but do even draw mighty men within their claws and reach as a Fowler entangleth a bird in his net and that when the Oppressour bestirs himself none are sure of their very life Or the latter part of the Verse may be thus rendred He or the mighty whom he oppresseth riseth up and is not sure or believeth not in life that is he is not only ready to be oppressed in his goods but when ever he riseth or stirreth abroad his very life is in hazard Doct. 1. Oppressours commensurate their actings to their power and look to no other rule For if he hath power he draweth also the mighty by it as well as the poor and afflicted v. 21. See Mic. 2.1 This argues a very beastly disposition and provokes God to deal with such as with beasts 2. Men of might especially if they be wicked and oppressours themselves may meet with their match and with power which will overtop their power For so here the mighty is drawn by his power Thus God hath Northern iron and the steel or mettal of a stronger and better temper such as the Chaldeans were in comparison of the Jewes to break the hard iron Jer. 15.12 3. When Oppressours are aloft it is but folly to think any thing secure so long as life is in One ill turn will readily but ripen them and make them thirsty for another For he riseth up and no man is sure of his life So that the oppressed cannot stir with security This should teach us to acknowledge Gods mercy when he moderates oppression and to be preparing for a harder measure of it Verse 23. Though it be given to him to be in safety whereon he resteth yet his eyes are upon their wayes 24. They are exalted for a little while but are gone and brought low they are taken out of the way as all other and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn For finding out the meaning of v. 23. we need not stand upon the change of numbers he and their in speaking of these wicked men of which see on v. 18. The great difficulty is to know whose eyes those are here spoken of and upon whose wayes they are Some understand it thus Though or since that is not in the Original It it given to him to be in safety whereon he may rest That is inferiours or such as are in hazard and fear of the oppressour do give gifts unto him that they may live in safety by him so that in reason they might rest and expect to be preserved And yet his eyes that is the Oppressours eyes are upon their wayes to see if he can catch any advantage against them to oppress them for all that And this may point out both the insatiableness and persidiousness of such oppressours But the Text seems rather to point at Gods eyes upon the oppressours wayes whether there be one or moe of them as the change of the number intimates Yet the words in this sense may be diversly read Either thus It is given him to be in safety c. and his eyes as the Original will bear are upon their wayes That is God heaps his favours upon them to secure them as if his eyes were only upon them to watch over them as is said of the land of Israel Deut. 11.12 Or thus It is given him to be in safety c. though for the Original may be so rendred also his eyes are upon their wayes that is Though God see and know their wicked wayes yet he puts them in a secure condition This is a truth in it self and agreeable to Job's scope in this Chapter But comparing this with the following Verse which depends upon it the most genuine sense may be gathered from the words read according to our Translation Though it be given or it is given him to be in safety c. yet his eyes are upon their wayes That is though it be permitted to wicked men to prosper yet providence is not asleep and not taking notice of their sinful courses But God observes their wayes to call them to an account for them And so in these two Verses we have a threefold act of providence about wicked oppressours whom yet God suffereth to prosper 1. That Gods eye is upon them to mark all their debordings 2. That after their exaltation for a little while or the short while of their life they are cut off which is pointed out by several expressions they are gone and brought low taken out of the way and cut off 3. That yet this is done but in an ordinary way as befalls all others and as the tops of the ripe ears of corn or the ripe corn on the top of the straw is cut down and gathered in in its season Job 5.26 And this is Job's very conclusion which he is maintaining against his Friends From v. 23. Learn 1. Outward safety is in it self a mercy For so is here supposed that it is a favour to be in safety or confidence and security See Psalm 144.14 15. Deut. 28.66 And therefore men ought to improve this mercy aright and to be sensible of their ill improvement thereof when they are deprived of it Deut. 28.27 28. 2. Safety is from God and gifted by him For it is given him to be in safety See Ps 4.8 No man can secure himself without God Psal 127.2 Job 34.29 3. God in his long-suffering and indulgence may set the wicked in safety for a time for a snare upon them For it is given to him even to the oppressour to be in safety 4. It is a plague upon the
up against him as a prank that would be committed by none but those who were young either in years or in their dispositions and humours 4. When God exposeth a man to trouble very weak Instruments will be able to prevail against him For even the youth rose upon the right hand 5. It is a piece of tryal to a great Spirit to be trod upon by his inferiours As here it was to Job that the youth should rise upon the right hand as better than he and able to prevail against him 6. Insolency and cruelty will pursue men even when they are in a low condition with new indignities and troubles For to push away his feet now when he was afflicted was a great indignity and an evidence of their insolency and cruelty whatever way we understand it 7. It aggravates mens cruelty and violence yet more that they goe about it deliberately and with resolution As here they made as it were a formal siege about Job and raise up against him the wayes of their destruction as resolving to ruine him 8. When Gods people are near-by spoyled and deprived of all they have and are thereby made objects of compassion they may yet resolve to have more tryals so long as any thing is left For so they pursued him with destruction upon the remainders of his estate as hath been explained From v. 13. Learn 1. When God is trying his people and while it is his pleasure that the tryal continue they may expect that all their endeavours to redress and relieve themselves will be in vain For they marred his path and shut him up that he could find no out-gate or means to be free of their violence 2. Disturbance of spirit by irritations provoking to impatience under trouble brings a great loss to the afflicted For thus also they marred his path and he resents it as a great prejudice 3. Crosses upon the back of crosses and cruel usage of the afflicted especially by unworthy persons will readily disturb these who otherwise are very calm For this marred his path and discomposed his spirit that the youth should so violently pursue him with new injuries who had already suffered so much 4. It is great cruelty in the sight of God to be obstructers of the comfort or ease of afflicted godly men For Job complains of it as a great cruelty that they marred his path 5. It is yet greater cruelty to help forward and add unto the calamities of godly men in affliction For he complains that they set forward his calamity It is a great sin to add to the affliction of the afflicted were it but by an insolent and untendâ—r look Ps 22.17 Obad. v. 12. or an insolent word Ps 69.26 But much more to add thereto by cruel deeds Is 47.6 Zech. 1.15 God will reckon with such not only for what they actually inflict themselves but for all the wounds which they cause bleed afresh by their super-added cruelties And it being the usual lot of Gods people to be exercised with such cruelty it may invite them who find any sympathizers in their troubles to esteem of it as a singular mercy 6. When God hides himself and leaves godly men to be tryed Instruments will be very eager and weak Instruments will need but little help to carrry on their tryal For though these were but the youth yet they have no helper in doing all this From v. 14. Learn 1. Wicked men are kept from doing evil by no inward principle but only by some external restraints For they are like waters that must be hemmed in by banks otherwise they will overflow the Country or like Souldiers that are only kept from entring a besieged place till a breach be made 2. God in his holy providence doth sometime minister opportunities to wicked men to discover themselves and bring forth these dispositions which at other times are restrained in them For now a desolation makes a breach upon Job and then they discover their cruelty 3. Gods people may find tryals very sad both in respect of the measure thereof and of their own crushed spirits which are not able to bear much For they came upon him as a wide breâ—king in of waters or at a wide breach numerously unanimously and with impetuous violence And they rolled themselves upon him when he is already desolate or made him feel their weight that they might overwhelm hâ—m both by calumnies and unjust censures of his former carriage and administrations and by violent oppression under pretext of seeking reparation It is not to be thought strange albeit much trouble and little inherent strength tryst together 4. God takes notice and will reckon with cruel persons both for the measure of their violence for their timeing of it and for the affliction it brings to godly men who are already crushed All these are imported in this complaint as aggravations of their cruelty to be noticed by God that they came upon him as at a great breach that they timed it in the desolation and that they rolled themselves upon him and overwhelmed him Verse 15. Terrours are turned upon me they pursue my soul as the wind and my welfare passeth away as a cloud 16. And now my soul is poured out upon me the dayes of affliction have taken hold upon me In these Verses we have the third Head or Branch of Jobs present miseries Namely the Soul-terrours or affrighting fears which pressed him This he propounds v. 15. That terrours are turned upon him or have taken hold of him after his peaceable frame of spirit and do frequently recurr to vex his Soul The sadness of which condition is amplyfied from a four-fold effect of these terrours 1. That they did impetuously drive and tosse his soul as an impetuous wind driveth chaff or stubble or a â—eeling cloud as it is afterward before it 2. That his welfare or his strength health and prosperity is gone not only so swiftly as a cloud is driven before the wind but so totally as a cloud is scattered by an impetuous wind so that there is no more hope of recovering it than there is of fixing a reeling cloud or of getting rain out of a scattered cloud 3. That hereby the remainder of his strength is so melted and exhausted and his soul the fountain of life and courage is so emptied of its strength that there is nothing left to support him but it is rather become a burden and himself ready to succumb and faint 4. That his afflictions and his thoughts of these evils do so gripe and hold him fast that he knows not whither to turn him From. v. 15. Learn 1. The dear children of God and even these who have a good conscience and assurance of reconciliation may yet in a day of trouble be assaulted with many terrours or affrighting fears about Gods dispensations towards them and the issue of them For Job who never quit his integrity hath terrours It is true Terrours are threatned to come upon the
wicked as one of their plagues Lev. 26.16 Deut. 32.25 Job 18.11 Jer. 20 4. and frequently else-where Yet truly godly men may come under this sad lot also As we see in Jobs experience here and Chap. 6.4 and 7.14 In Hemans Ps 88.15 and others This is not to be thought strange if we consider That the dispensations of God toward godly men may be so strange as they cannot reconcile them with the testimony of their own consciences which cannot but affright them That their being crushed with other trouble may make them feaâ—fully apprehensive of everything That while they look out to what is come upon them through the perspective of their present distressed condition they will be ready to multiply fears and terrours for the future And That God may shake a rod of terrour over them as Chap. 7.14 15. to exercise their faith and quicken them to their duty This 1. Warns us to judge wisely and charitably of souls that are under terrours those may speak their weakness or Gods purpose to excite them to their duty and humble them but they do not evidence their being graceless if they run to God and cleave to him under them 2. It warns us not to judge not only of mens grace but even of their present reconciled and good condition by their fits of terrours For Job was not only a converted man but his way and condition were approved of God however terrours did assault him 3. It warâ—s us to be moderate in our apprehensions of what may befall us for the future when for the present we are crushed by trouble lest those contribute to beget and multiply our terrours and fears 4. It teacheth That if this be done in the green tree and if godly men walking tenderly may be thus assaulted with terrours what may be expected in the dry tree and what terrours may they expect who are wicked or being converted yet do wander in sinful courses Doct. 2. Soul-affrightments and terrours are very sad and humbling especially when men are also under other pressures For it is a sad branch of Jobs complaint here that he is under terrours whereof he rehearseth sad effects in the rest of the purpose And though the Noun Terrours be plural yet the Verb To turn as also that which followeth To pursue is singular to intimate how distinctly he felt every one of them in particular Thus they did distract and cut off Heman Ps 88.15 16. And they put Job to choose any death rather than endure them Chap. 7.14 15. And no wonder For terrours are fears in their height and extremity and therefore will confound and surcharge men We are apt to multiply them even as fast as we can imagine and apprehend things and so every thought breeds us a new terrour And if God be our party and our spirits be already crushed before-hand what wonder if terrours carry all before them as will afterward be marked This 1. Shews How great their mercy it who have a sound and quiet Spirit whatever their other troubles or pressures be See Pro. 18.14 2. It warns men to be afraid of exposing themselves to terrours by walking in sinful wayes See Chap. 31.23 Such will find it a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who is a consuming fire Heb. 10.31 and 12.29 3. It serves to excite us to pity those who are under soul-terrours as being under a sharp tryal above any other pressure 4. It warns the people of God to take heed of voluntary crushing of their own Spirits and that they entertain fortitude of minde and endeavour to keep their fears from growing to the height of terrours lest otherwise they breed themselves the saddest of troubles 5. Such as are under these terrours may look upon themselves as special objects of Gods compassion if they will go to him with their grievances Onely they should learn to seek their cure in strengthening of their own crushed Spirits which is the method God prescribes for relieving of themselves Doct 3. Soul-terrours are so much the sadder when they arise after a calm and serenity of minde as it may come to pass For saith he they are turned upon me after my former sweet dayes and do recurre after some intermissions Albeit men be little sensible what a tryal it is when their ill condition is changed into a good condition though it be indeed a tryal yet they are ready to take it ill if a cloud come after a sun-shine and godly-men who have tasted of God's kindness will not easily digest it if afterward he exercise them with terrours However This 1. Warns us that there will be changes in the conditions of the godly within time and albeit they sometime enjoy good daies yet they should not expect to dye in their nest 2. Hence we should not be surprized with such changes lest the surprizal be worse than the tryal it self Nor ought we having formerly tasted of kindnesse become thereby more unfit to endure an hard lot than if we had never enjoyed it 3. Yet it may be expected that the tryal or terrour that cometh after a long calme and tranquility will have so much the sharper edge For God purposeth to sift and search us by these changes of his right hand 4. It is to be looked on as an evidence of our love and desire after Gods favour it terrour from him and our being put to that school after sweeter enjoyments be our burden and affliction as Jeremiah 6.6 Doct. 4. The Soul of man is a precious Jewel in a right discerners account For the word here rendered my Soul signifieth my Princely one or ingenuous Princess So David speaks of it rather than of his animal life onely as his Darling or onely one Ps 22.20 It were a mercy if men would once learn to set a price and due value upon an in mortal Soul for then they would make it their chief care to secure its interests and would not hazard it for trisles 5. It is a sad and humbling fruit of Terrours that as the Soul of man is not able to abide or bear them so they they take away the Souls rest and do so violently tosse it that it knows not what to do For saith he they pursue my Soul which dare not stand but is forced to flee when they assault as the winde even as the winde driveth and tosseth clouds and other light bodies before it Thus Job was tossed throughout the night Job 7.4 The Psalmist was confounded with a multitude of thoughts reeling in his minde Ps 94.19 And Jeremiah was not able to extricate himself from the heart-faintings that came upon him Jer. 8.18 This may speak somewhat to these who would be free of drawing on this sad exercise And 1. As they should guard that they do not crush their own Spirits So they should avoid all sin seeing every sin tends to disturb peace of mind and conscience and especially sleeping in security which justly provokes God
me Behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that mine Adversary had written a book 36. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a Crown to me 37. I would declare unto him the number of my steps as a Prince would I goe near unto him Job having made this fair Profession and Apology wherein he haâ—h produced so many evidences of his integrity so solemnly confirmed and proved and being now about to câ—ose this discourse He breaks out for further confirmation of all he hath said in a solemn wish and desire That One even the Almighty would hear and answer him v. 35. The meaning whereof is not That he would have God appearing as his Party either as Plaintiff or Defendant as Chap. 13.22 For here he speaks of another Adversary or Party But that God would appear as a Judge to give him a fair hearing and to judge of his whole Cause that so he might be vindicated from all calumnies and aspersions that were cast upon him On this condition he professeth 1. That he would contemn the accusations of all forts of Adversaries and would be content they should write a Volume of them and produce all they had to say against him v. 35. 2. That he is sure these accusations would tend to his commendation and should be an ornament and crown and not a reproach to him and he would bring them as such before his Judge v. 36. For he was sure their accusations would prove him a just man seeing he had made himself no enemies but such as opposed him for his justice and for his fortitude in prosecution thereof of which he hath been speaking v. 34. Or his Friends could charge him with no real crime but he might glory that he was innocent and free of it 3. That he would not only defend his integrity against all accusations of Adversaries but he would generally lay open his conscience and give a reason of all his actions to his Judge v. 37. 4. That he would not behave himself as a guilty man but as a Princely confident man in so good a Cause both before his Judge and Accuser v. 37. This his confident desire and profession somewhat like unto that he had desired before Chap. 19.23 24. doth indeed say more to prove his integrity than all the particulars he hath mentioned before For what guilty man being in his right wits and already so sharply afflicted durst wish God to be a Judge and to have a quick Accuser and would not rather seek to decline judgement Yet he carrieth the matter too confidently for which he is afterward reproved and without that submissiveness which is due to such a Judge though the pressure of his miseries and his unjust vexation from his Friends plead some excuse or extenuate somewhat his failing in it From this purpose Learn 1. As sincere men will decline no tryal so it is oft-times their lot to lye buried under mis-constructions without fair hearing and judgement For his general desire O that one would hear me imports both that he declined not but earnestly desired to have his cause heard and his integrity tryed before any Judge whatsoever so he were impartial and indifferent and yet that he could not get a fair hearing that his integrity might be cleared 2. God is the Judge who is most eyed by godly men in the matter of their integrity As being he whose testimony alone can be leaned unto in this matter whose Tribunal when he proceeds according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace a righteous man needs not fear and who is the Patron of those who are unjustly judged by others Therefore doth Job thus instance his general desire My desire is that the Almighty would answer me or It is my sign or evidence of my righteousness and integritry that the Almighty would answer me or that I desire him to answer not to his questions or pleadings but to his sute that he would give him an hearing as a Judge See Ps 26.1 and 43.1 3. The support of a good conscience in a trial is admirable and to be marked by all both to invite others to be sincere and to terrifie accusers Therefore he prefixeth a Behold to this desire that all might remark how confident he was of his integrity and how it supported him 4. Even these who are most righteous and approved of God must expect not to want opposers and calumniators For Job intimateth that he would have an adversary 5. When a man is sincere and upright though he may expect that observers will notice and mark his wayes yet he may sleight all they can say when God sits Judge For he cares not though his adversary had written a book So long as the Book of a Mans conscience is right he needs not care what books others write against him See Acts 23.1 6. Unjust accusations are so far from prejudging the integrity of the righteous that when they have vindicated themselves they clear their righteousness the more and are matter of their gloriation For not onely would he not smother them but take them openly upon his shoulder as no burden but he would binde them as a crown to him or crowns in the plural number even so many Crowns as Accusations This will be the issue of all calumnies cast upon godly men when either they are aspersed with the evil they have not done or when the good they do is called evil and therefore they need not lye drooping under them 7. Such as are truly godly men are exact numberers of their steps that in so far as can be nothing may escape them and they do not huddle up their walk in confusion For he hath the number of his steps to declare at least all the kindes of his steps though he could not overtake every particular 8. God should be ingenuously dealt with by such as would approve themselves as righteous in laying out their way before him For saith he I would declare unto him the number of my steps at least he would not hide any fault whereof he knew he was guilty 9. Whatever pain there be in circumspect walking yet the comfort of it will be as great when men look back to it in a day of tryal For now it affords Job peace that he may declare unto God the number of his steps See Ps 44.17 18 19 20. 10. The godly man may have much confidence in coming to God For saith he as a Prince would I go unto him A godly man who is justified is Israel a Prince with God and may come boldly to the Throne of Grace in full assurance of Faith and when he is calumniated he is a Superiour and Prince over his adversaries as having the better of them in the quarrel and he may come forward to God with an heroical spirit See Rom. 8.33 Heb. 4.16 and 10.22 Prov. 28.1 11. It is hard for godly men when under tentations and afflictions to manage a
blood which makes young men rash and precipitant and their zeal to out-strip their knowledge and light their youthful lusts want of experience c. will easily perceive that youth is not easie to manage aright Whereas to men of age many of these snares are broken Time and experience will let them see many things to be but folly and vanity which youth will not believe that they are such Those strong passions which do oft times master and over-power even true grace in younger persons may be more subdued and cooled in them c. This may let us see that it is a great mercy to be helped well through a time of youth and to be kept from the snares of it and the sad effects of these disadvantages which attend it 2. One great advantage of age above youth is in the matter of wisdome gathered by study and experience and in the cooling of their heat and passions which usually represent things to men through false Perspectives For this is the advantage intimated here On his own part he was afraid and durst not shew his opinion considering that he was young and they old Not only was he afraid lest he should goe without the bounds of his station in offering to speak before them but lest being but a young man he should miscarry in speaking to the matter it self And on their part he reckoned this their advantage That dayes or men of dayes should speak that is Not only is it their priviledge to speak when young men should be silent and hear but it is expected they should be able to speak to purpose on such weighty subjects and that multitude of years should teach wisdome that is their long life should be so improved as they may be taught much experimental knowledge by living long in the world which also they should teach and communicate to others It is true this difference betwixt age and youth doth not universally hold as Elihu afterwards tells them yet many times it proves true that age out-strips youth in these things as Rehoboam found by experience in the matter of his Counsellours 1 King 12. And however it hold eventually yet the characters here assigned of youth and old age do point out that it is a great defect in young men not to be well acquainted with their own precipitancy and want of experience And that it is a great shame for aged persons if as they have place to speak so they be not wise and able to speak to purpose and if the long time they have had hath not so taught them as makes them both able and willing to communicate their light to others who possibly are not so able or sensible of the good and evil of courses as themselves are But they themselves are no less rash and head-strong than if they were still children 3. It is an evidence of grace and a great mercy to young persons when they are made to discern and take notice of the disadvantages they lye under For so is Elihu sensible here of what might rationally be expected from his youth and their age Thus Solomon is sensible of the disadvantages of his youth 1 King 3.7 8 9. When young men are not sensible of their disadvantages they cannot but run headlong on snares while they think themselves wise enough and so prove in effect but mad fools Whereas these who are afraid lâ—st they do miscarry and so are not rash to do or speak any thing they prove themselves to be most able and do seldome miscarry 4. When God gives young men a blessed sight of their own disadvantages it will produce much sobriety As here it doth in Elihu See Tit. 2.6 And if we consider the words we will find these evidences of sobriety in young men 1. They who are sober will have no conceit of themselves For Elihu here is free of that And where conceit is it is an evidence that the weaknesses of youth are not well studied 2. Sober young men will have a good esteem of aged men and their opinions till they find very clear cause to judge otherwise For he judged that such should speak and teach wisdome 3. They will still be modest and respect age even when they are dis-satisfied with their opinion As here he waited till they had spoken out and reckoned that dayes should speak or had place to speak before him 4. They will be farr from presumptuous boldness and full of humble fears in their undertakings especially when they are called to oppose others who are elder than themselves As here he enters with much fear upon this undertaking Verse 8. But there is a Spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding 9. Great men are not alwayes wise neither do the aged understand judgement 10. Therefore I said Hearken to me I also will shew mine opinion Followeth to v. 21. the second branch of this Preface wherein he gives five Reasons why he now interposeth to speak in this cause The first Reason in these Verses is more general containing this in summ That the fountain of wisdome not being in man himself but from God who giveth it to whom he pleaseth v. 8. And who doth not always give it to great men and men of experience v. 9. Therefore though he be a young man yet they having given over he will hazard to speak somewhat in that cause v. 10. Which he might well undertake being indeed inspired by God as he tells them v. 18 19. though here he speak of that inspiration only in general and abstractly v. 8. which might supply his want of years and experience For clearing of this purpose Consider 1. These tearms of Wisdome understanding and Judgement are here to be taken promiscuously for a gift of discerning to judge betwixt right and wrong and truth and errour in matters and opinions together with a gift of prudence or ability to speak rightly and pertinently to a cause For these are the particulars of which Elihu is treating which he expresseth by all these words 2. As for that Spirit which he saith is in man Some understand it of the reasonable Soul of man and take up the purpose thus That all men have a reasonable Soul which by the special inspiration of God may be so elevated that even young men by that assistance may comprehend these things which aged and experienced persons cannot know without it Others understand it of the Soul of man yet they take up the scope of the Verse thus That though there be such a Spirit in man yet it is not that but the inspiâ—ation of the Almighty which makes truly wise But it is clearer to understand it of the Spirit of God and so the latter part of the Verse is exegetâ—ke and explains the former That it is by that Spirit in man even by the inspiration of the Almighty that any attain to this understanding here spoken of 3. As for this Spirit or inspiration as it is not
mercy daily So that Job had no cause to complain of his afflictions seeing God might proceed further against him even to the taking away of his life Doct. 1. Mans breath and life is a borrowed loan which he holds by Gods gift For it is his spirit and breath Man 's indeed by use but Gods as the Author and Giver of it and therefore he gathers it to himsâ—lf when he recalls it as his own gift Both the words Spirit and Breath may signifie one and the same thing or the first may signifie his rational soul and the second his animal life common to him with beasts However this should teach men to make good use of their life and breath and not employ it against God They who look upon their enjoyments as their own will readily abuse them Ps 12.4 2. God may when he will take back his own loan and that easily For he can gather unto himself his spirit and breath See Psal 90.3 and 104.29 And therefore we should not promise unto our selves long tacks of our life See Luk. 12.19 20. 3. Albeit God be not moved with any thing about man as if it were a great business Yet as he doth nothing at randone so we should look upon the taking away of life as a very serious and important business Therefore doth he express this act thus as Gods setting his heart upon man Not that he is so taken up as we are with weighty businesses nor yet only because he doth not proceed to do this at randome but acts in it as a weighty matter however we do not alwayes see that or that he sets his heart in love upon his own people even when he is cutting them off But he speaks thus of God that we may learn to set our hearts and be serious about this change 4. Men by death return to God either to appear before him in judgement to receive the reward of their sin or to be absolved by him and to abide with him for ever For he gathereth the spirit and breath to himself Eccles 12.5 6 7. 5. Gods Dominion over the lives of men is irresistable For if God gather these unto himself man must perish his unwillingness will not help him 6. No person hath any priviledge against a sentence of death when or wheresoever God shall be pleased to pronounce it For All flesh shall perish together if he please 7. Whatever man think of himself in his life yet death will give him an humbling sight of himself For then he is found to be flesh and turns again to dust from whence he was taken Gen. 3.19 8. However men quarrel Gods exercising of his Dominion in some cases yet upon a serious review they may rather find cause to admire his goodness than to quarrel his severity For in answer to Jobs complaints that God had afflicted him Elihu lets him see that God might cut him off and not him only but all flesh together And it should be our work to study such mercies in our saddest grievances Verse 16. If now thou hast understanding hear this hearken to the voice of my words Elihu having propounded these Arguments to the Auditory doth now to v. 31. lay them more distinctly before Job himself And 1. He turns himself to Job and calls for his attention v. 16. 2. He propounds the Argument taken from Gods dominion and justice v. 17. 3. He amplifieth and instanceth it in several particulars wherein the exercise of dominion and justice are conspicuous Namely his dealing with Kings and Rulers v. 18.19 with People and Nations together with their Rulers v. 20 23. and with mighty men v. 24 28. 4. He recapitulates the Argument pointing out the efficacy of Gods administrations v. 29. and his end in some of those acts of his dominion and justice formerly mentioned v. 30. In this Verse Elihu turns himself from the Auditory and expresly and particularly addresseth his speech to Job craving that he would give him an hearing and that he would apply this Doctrine to his case whereby he should give a proof of his wisdome and understanding Doct. 1. General Doctrine is not sufficient to do Souls good without application Therefore doth Elihu tell over again to Job what he had already spoken to the Auditory 2. Mens case may be very plainly spoken unto who yet need to be rouzed up to make application For though he hath been speaking to this very business before yet he must direct his speech to Job end call upon him to hearken to the voice of his words and apply 3. In order to application men should be attentive hearers to which they need frequently to be excited Therefore again after all the former excitations he calls him to hear and hearken that so he might apply and be convinced 4. As men do evidence their wisdome by being willing to be taught For so is here supposed that if he have understanding he will hear of which also before So it is not enough to hear unless we understand For here understanding is required with hearing 5. There is great wisdome required in taking up the mind of God in his dark dispensations toward his people and in the World For this is the particular subject in hearing whereof he requireth understanding 6. Not only are natural men uncapable to perceive the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 and weak Saints unable while they continue such to comprehend many points of truth Joh. 16.12 But even men eminently wise and godly may have their wits to seek in some difficult and trying cases and when they are under the power of affliction and tentation For this Supposition If thou hast understanding imports no denial that Job was wise in an eminent measure but that his understanding had need to be quickened and he had need to rid himself of those mists which involved and darkened his judgement if he would take up this matter well Verse 17. Shall even he that hateth right govern And wilt thou condemn him that is most just In this Verse he summarily propounds the Argument taken from Gods Dominion and Justice for he joyns them both together to which he desires he may hearken As for the first part of the Verse Shall even he that hateth right govern The word govern in the Original is to bind up as a Chyrurgion And so it may point at a particular act of his government that he binds up and heals those whom he hath smitten upon their repentance as it is Chap. 5.18 Which speaks that he cannot be unjust or hate right seeing he is content upon repentance to heal those whom he hath smitten But the word is taken more generally for governing and a Ruler is called an Healer or binder up for it is the same word that is here Is 3.7 because government in the exercise thereof should tend to prevent or to heal and bind up breaches that are made upon or among a people And thus the Argument runs well That God being the
as particular persons and he hath national plagues for national sins so that the multitude of sinners cannot secure themselves in their sin against God For they shall dye that is both rich and poor v. 19. and the people and the mighty as after followeth 4. When God reckons with Nations no particular persons will be able to secure themselves by any personal priviledges and advantages For even the mighty shall smart with the people See Is 3.1 2 3. 5. God may justly pursue his quarrel against a Nation not only to the impoverishing thereof but even to the cutting of many of them off and to sending of them into captivity out of their Land For they shall dye and pass away and be taken away So that an afflicted Nation have reason to acknowledge God in what they suffer less than this 6. Let a people seem to be never so strong and sure rooted Yet a short time may make a great change upon them For in a moment shall they dye Death can soon sweep multitudes of them away 7. Surprizals are sad ingredients in trouble and they are justly the lot of an impenitent people For their sin deserveth that they should be surprized at midnight See 1 Thes 5.3 So that as the people of God are oft-times surprized with unexpected deliverances Is 17.14 So the wicked may meet with plagues which they discern not before they come 8. National stroaks are full of darkness and discomfort farr beyond personal tryals Therefore also do these stroaks come at midnight and are very dark 9. Perplexities which attend such dark stroaks are very bitter to them who smart under them For being at midnight the people are troubled So that we should guard against perplexity of spirit providing we be not stupid at such times lest if that door be once opened we be over-whelmed therewith 10. The Lord needs no help nor probable means to bring about the greatest changes For they shall be taken away or they that is the judgements inflicted by God shall take away even the mighty without hand Verse 21. For his eyes are upon the wayes of man and he seeth all his goings 22. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves 23. For he will not lay upon man more than right that he should enter into judgement with God In these Verses the equity and justice of this proceeding is held out 1. In general from the ground thereof Namely the Omniscience of God who as he is careful to observe mans wayes so he actually seeth all of them v. 21. And that so exactly as nothing can hide mans wickedness from him v. 22. And therefore he cannot do unjustly through ignorance and mistakes as men often do 2. In particular from his inclinations and proceedings upon his seeing mans wayes and therefore it comes in as a reason that he who seeth all will be just and proceed against the workers of iniquity That he will not excessively and unjustly afflict man that so he may prevent mans quarrelling with him which Job had often essayed v. 23. From v. 21. Learn 1. All Gods proceedings in the World are upon sure and just grounds though we do not discern them For here a reason is given of these proceedings v. 20. For his eyes are upon the wayes of men c. 2. Gods perfect knowledge is a proof of his justice in his procedure For that is the reason given here to prove the equity of the former proceedings Which not only teacheth Judges to try well before they come to give sentence and see it executed in imitation of this Soveraign Judge but warns us when we quarrel Gods proceedings to suspect that we see not things so well as he doth 3. Gods knowledge is certain and effectual to reach and take up what he intends to observe For not only are his eyes upon them but he seeth things as they are without mistaking So that we should trust his verdict of things rather than our own 4. Gods knowledge is also universal of all the things of men of all sorts of men and in all times and places For his eyes are upon the wayes of man and he seeth all his goings See Chap. 31.4 and the parallel places marked in the Margin both here and there So that he will not judge of men by their fits and we should remember his eye upon us in all places and should believe that he seeth his people even when he seems not to notice their condition as he saw the affliction of Israel in Egypt before he appeared to deliver them Exod. 3.7 From v. 22. Learn 1. Men and especially wicked men are not easily convinced of Gods Omniscience Therefore it must be here told again and inculcated 2. Men also have their subterfuges whereby they seek to hide their courses from God and whereby they do deceive themselves and others and think to do so with God also For so is here supposed that they seek darkness like the shadow of death where they may hide themselves not so much from punishment for that is not the scope here as from being known or seen Hence it is that they seek to conveigh their designes secretly and make use of fair pretences handsome conveighances c. 3. All mens subterfuges and lurking holes will not avail them at Gods hand But as no shelter can secure them from his pursuing vengeance Amos 9.1 2 3 4. So no darkness nor shadow of death will hide them from his All-seeing eye See Psal 139.7 8 c. 4. As Gods Omniscience is for the comfort of godly men walking in his way 2 Chron. 16.9 So it is matter of terrour to the workers of iniquity As here it is inculcated for their terrour 5. Every worker of iniquity carrieth his own dittay and doom in his bosome however such do seem to carry with a high hand For while they seek to hide themselves they do openly profess that if they be not hid they are undone for they are neither able to defend their cause nor to resist that vengeance which they are convinced they deserve From v. 23. Learn 1. God is the Imposer and layer on of mens lots and exercises as here we are taught So that his people should know that they are in a Friends hand they should stoop to him and not add loads of their own through unbelief mistakes discouragement impatience c. with his burdens 2. God doth exercise and afflict man in great moderation and equity For he will not lay upon man more than right The words than right are a Supplement the Original hath only He will not lay upon yet or still that is he will not inflict and inflict yet still more and so impose excessively or too much either above mens deservings Neh. 9.33 Ezr. 9.13 or above the strength which he is ready to give them or more than he will do them good by or so as there is no moderation to be seen in his
him The third Argument of Refutation or the third fault he finds in Jobs discourses and carriage is his hopelessness under affliction and that he despaired of seeing God under it not simply for he looked to see him in glory but in this life This is the usual result of useless exercises and vain addresses under trouble that when men have wearied themselves in these without success they sit down at last discouraged and hopeless The Challenge relates to that Complaint Chap. 23.8 9. and others the like wherein he regrated that he could not have access unto nor a sight of God It is true he sometime desired an odde way of access unto God as a visible Judge to decide this Controversie But this Challenge doth relate more generally to what was at the bottom of that and his other complaints that he could not see through that cloud of his trouble nor had any hope of temporal relief from God For Elihu would never bid him trust but rather be humbled for his presumption in desiring God to appear in such a way and for his complaining that it was not so This fault Elihu tenderly reproves and refutes his mistake in a direction to trust in God notwithstanding this his hopelessness and diffidence Which he presseth from the consideration of what God is even a God of judgement in this Verse and of the sad effects of the want of this confidence v. 16. In this Verse Consider First The Fault here challenged Thou sayest thou shalt not see him He had not a comfortable sight of God in his trouble nor expected to get it which made him speak it out and complain of it Whence Learn 1. To be bemisted and lose a fight of God under trouble is a very sad and humbling Ingredient in it As here it was to Job not to see God Hence are those complaints of darkness under trouble Lam. 3.2 6. Is 59.9 10. Mic. 7.8 And God being his peoples refuge in trouble it must be sad when they can have no sight of him See Chap. 23.3 4 c. Now not to see him in trouble omitting mens want of hope to see God in glory when their temporal troubles are over and their not seeing his hand and providence in all their troubles For Job was clear enough in both these may import 1. Mens being in the dark about Gods mind in trouble and the causes of their affliction as Chap. 10 2. Yea when godly men see some causes of it as they cannot but see sin which deserves more than all they suffer they may be yet ready to wonder why the Lord suffers his people whom he hath freely chosen and loved to goe to ruine especially if their stroak be inflicted by Instruments more wicked than themselves as Hab. 1.13 And that he should give them up to be destroyed when yet no advantage redounds thereby to him as Psal 44.12 In which case we must learn if we can see no more to submit to his Soveraignty who giveth no account of his matters 2. It may import the want of his sensible and comfortable presence as Chap. 13.24 In which case we are not to think that one tryal will hide us from another or that God is engaged to give us sense because he sends trouble 3. It may impart no probable appearance of any issue o◠of Gods appearing to clear the cause of his people and to rid them out of trouble but their night growing still the darker and all the means of their relief being invisible as Chap 23.8 9. Of this afterward Only it would be remembred that this is made our lot to heighten the tryal of our faith Hab. 3.17 18. 4 It may import want of light in the matter of mens duty and that when they would resolve to follow their duty in most difficult cases whatever God do to them yet they are left in the dark and know not what to do This is imported in these perplexing questions Act. 2.37 and 9.6 From all these it may be inferred that however it be sad to be in such a case yet it is our mercy to feel it a burden upon us and to miss a sight of God most in our saddest exercises Only we should not only feel the smart of this but should search out the causes thereof Such as Desertion from God Chap. 34.29 Security and formality in the dayes of our ease Is 29.13 14. and 59.9 13. The astonishing power of great trouble Psal 60.3 Jer. 13.12 14 Our abuse of and sinning against clear light in known and ordinary cases and duties and our prescribing unto God that he may appear and be seen by us in some odde way as Job did which makes us vilifie and not discern his ordinary way and means wherein he appears to be seen by his people If those causes were laid to heart and the removal of them endeavoured the sad effects thereof would soon cease Doct. 2. Ordinarily Saints do judge of their future condition by what is present and if it be evil they make it worse by their apprehensions and diffidence For as Job did not see God for the present so he concluded his case would continue so for the future Thou sayest thou shalt not see him As in prosperity even Saints are apt to promise to themselves a perpetuity of it Psal 30.6 So in adversity they are no less ready to heighten their trouble by fearful apprehensions of the continuance thereof Psal 77.7 8 9. Saints have still somewhat of a principle of fainting and of a Spirit of bondage of their own making And hence flow their great mistakes either in passing their verdict upon the times that pass over them See Eccles 7.10 Or in making their present condition sadder and worse than indeed it is by their reading it wrong Or in their sad apprehensions for the future This we should be sensible of in our perplexities and should know that a change in the frame of our own hearts and our getting of open eyes to discern things as they are would case us of our greatest pressures And particularly in our apprehensions for the future 〈◊〉 should not judge by our present condition for 〈◊〉 can make a change Psal 77.7 8 9. with 10. not by our fears Is 51.12 13. nor by probabilities Zech. 8.6 nor even by our ill deservings if we be sensible thereof Ezek. 20.8 9. 3. Though it be a great fault to entertain discouraging and fainting thoughts though they should be smothered within mens own bosomes and a much greater fault when they are brought forth and expressed to others Yet they may be dear to God and may get a good issue at last who may be so over-powred with tentations as they must speak out their fears and apprehensions For so was it with Job though it was his fault Thou sayest thou shalt not see him Thus he was made to cry out in the Congregation Chap. 30.28 as Christ did also among the multitude Job 12.27 with 29. Secondly Consider
Deut. 32.20 yet he withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous 5. Albeit we are little comforted especially in the time of our trouble that we have Gods eye upon us yet there is much mercy in it which will be actually manifested in due time As here there followeth no less upon it than high exaltation See Exod. 3.7 8 Zech. 9.8 6. Gods love to his people is so infinitely rich that no mercy will be thought too great for them if it be for their good to have it were it even to be with Kings on the Throne As here that is put in their Charter See 1 Sam. 2.8 Psal 113.7 8. Some proofs of this are given even in this life as the instances formerly mentioned do shew and it is not only the duty but the great advantage of Kings to exalt such who may be Instruments of good to them and their people See Psal 101. But it will be fully cleared hereafter And in the mean time righteous men are no less precious in Gods esteem whatever their lot be than if they were thus exalted Even a Lazarus on a Dunghill is precious as a Joseph in his Grandeur They will also be no less honourable in the eyes of right discerners Eccl. 4.13 And it is no less love which with-holds these advantages from some of them than that which conferreth them upon others 7. Instability is one of the great Moths which attend mens enjoyments within time For it must be added to make it a compleat mercy Yea he establisheth them for ever and they are exalted that is when he exalts them he establisheth them in that state and that doth indeed give it the name of exaltation that being unworthy of the name which is not stable See 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. 8. The godly have a promise of stability when the wicked shall reel and be like a rolling wheel Psal 83.13 which is a judgement upon them And albeit the godly must not think to settle within time yet they have the promise of it to be performed as shall be good for them they will be kept stable in the midst of shakes and reelings Ps 112.7 8. and eternal stability abides them For thus he doth establish them for ever Verse 8. And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction Followeth to v. 16. the third Head of this Vindication or a more particular Vindication of the Righteousness of God in the matter of his afflicting godly men which is the case in hand This consists of four branches In the first whereof in this Verse we have the condition wherein it is supposed righteous men may sometime be that they may be arrested under trouble as a man that is bound and held in cords and fetters Whence Learn 1. It is neither inconsistent with the righteousness of God nor with the piety of men or their priviledges being godly that they be sometimes afflicted as here is supposed Gods Sovereign power to dispose of his creatures at his pleasure is so absolute that mens holiness cannot exempt them from being subject thereunto And seeing he may if he please put even sinless creatures to exercise and impose upon the beeing he hath given them what it is able to bear much more may he exercise Saints who in this life have still some remainders of sin in them And if Saints need rods he will not spare them whomever he spare Amos 3.2 Rev. 3.19 Yea it is their mercy that God makes use even of such a remedy to cure their diseases and distempers And therefore they should not quarrel God nor cast out with him because of afflictions 2. Saints may expect that their afflictions and tryals will be very sharp in their season For they may be bound in fetters as captives which is explained to be that they are holden in cords of affliction Some of them may be made captives and slaves as the letter here bears which is a very sharp tryal and others may have no less tryal though they be free of that See Heb. 12.11 Lesser tryals would neither try our Faith and other graces nor yet reach our corruption to purge it out nor rouze us up from our security and be an exercise unto us And when we pretend that we do not simply dislike tryal but only that tryal which is upon us and do like the rod that is upon any other better than our own we do but reflect upon Gods wisdome who hath thought our own cross fittest for us and would in effect have no tryal but that which would touch none of our corruptions and yet no tryal will ever do us good unless it do humble us and vex our corruptions 3. It is one of Gods special ends in sore afflictions to arrest men and hemm them in with pressures that they may be kept from wandering and made to look over their case and amend it So much doth this binding and holding of men or taking of them as a City is taken import Men are by nature like wild Asses till their Month come Jer. 2.24 And when they turn like wild beasts which need a bridle it is no wonder that many sorrows do follow Psal 32.8 9. And therefore when we are under sharp afflictions we should remember that our neglect of the furnace of self-examination provokes God to set up his furnace of affliction and that it is no wonder that troubles do not only take but hold us considering how long it is before affliction work upon us Dan. 9.13 and how long after it begins to work before it produce kindly fruits Isa 51.20 Jer. 31.18 In which case an issue were no mercy 4. Albeit God be most just and righteous even in afflicting godly men Yet it is not easie to satisfie them who are under the rod that it is so For in this case there is need that Gods righteousness be vindicated And that we may be helped in this case we should learn to suspect our own judgements and to look upon mistaking and quarrelling of God as the scumm of our own Spirits and Satans great Engine and design in our afflictions 2. King 6.33 Ps 73.10 11. Mal. 3.14 15. Verse 9. Then he sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded 10. He openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity In the second branch of this part of the Vindication we have an account of Gods end in afflicting righteous men and of the use they should make of it Namely That God afflicts them that he may give them a sight of sin wherein they have exceeded v 9. and may excite them to repentance and conversion from sin v. 10. This doth clearly vindicate Gods righteousness in afflicting them seeing he doth thereby chasten them for their faults and take pains to reclaim them And it is very applicable to Jobs case in respect of his failings not gross hypocrisie or wickedness especially under trouble Though as to what was mainly
this Description of his strength is briefly summed up in this v. 19 that he is the Chief or first of the ways or works of God to wit among Beasts not that he was created first of all the beasts but that he is chief inexcellency of strength among them Now though this Beast be thus great and strong yet Gods dominion and power over him doth not only appear in this That however his â—nout be terrible to others yet his strength for most part is not in his offensive parts not hath he any horns on his head c. but in his bones and loins whereby he is able to bear those great Towers which men build upon him in time of War that out of these they may fight against their enemies and in the Navel of his Belly about which this Tower is girded on him but further in this That God who made him can reach him with his sword or stroak v. 19. And that either immediately or mediately by Dragons and some lesser Creatures which as Naturalists write do kill or annoy him From these Verses Learn 1. It is not sufficient that men in taking up of God do take up a general view of his works wherein his glory doth shine that they must be distinct and particular in that study therefore after that general Proposition v. 15. he descends to this particular Description 2. Men should follow their study of God in his works with renewed and repeated admiration and exeltation of their own spirits for that effect therefore after that Behold v. 15. the Note of Admiration Lo is here prefixed to this particular Description 3. It hath pleased God to endow some of his Creatures as the Elephant here with very great strength That so we may consider how strong a God we have to deal with may commend his kindness who makes such vast and strong Creatures so useful to men and may learn not to glory in excellencies which are common to us with Beasts such as bodily strength and force are 4. God hath so ordered that as no Creature is perfect in any excellency so none have all excellencies but some are eminent in one kind some in another As here the Elephant is chief of the ways of God in his kind as other Creatures and even other Beasts are excellent in their kind 5. No excellency in the Creatures doth hinder God to dispose of them at his pleasure were it even to cut them off as here he hath a sword for this Beast Which may help to silence Murmurers at herd dispensations as if their excellencies and priviledges did exempt them from Gods Dominion who when he pleaseth can reach the greatest and most excellent Creature as he can make his Sword approach to this Beast 6. That God is the Creator and Maker of his Creatures doth prove his power and right to dispose of them as he will for since he made him he can make his Sword approach unto him Verse 20. Surely the mountains bring him forth food where all the beasts of the field play 21. He lieth under the shady trees in the covert of the Reed and Fens 22. The shady trees cover him with their shadow the willows of the Brook compass him about 23. Behold he drinketh up a River and hasteth not he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth 24. He taketh it with his eyes his nose pierceth through snares In these Verses the Lord proceeds yet in the Description of this Bâ—â—st 1. In his peaceableness though he live wild from among men till he be tamed as to his food and converse with other Beasts v 20. and that he feeds upon grass among other Beasts who play without fear about him The Original may be more emphatically rendered thus Because the mountains bring him forth food therefore all the beasts of the field play there that is because he feeds on grass other Beasts do feed about and beside him not fearing to be devoured by him 2. In the place of his Repose v. 21 22. Though he feed upon the mountains v. 20. yet the hot Climate and his own natural heat make him come to repose himself under the shade of Trees Reeds and Willows As for what is asserted by many that he doth not lye but lean to a tree when he resteth otherwise wanting Joints in his Legs he could not rise again it is refuted by later Writers both from Reason and Experience And as those two branches of the Description speak something of Gods taming of so vast a Creature in that he is peaceable in his repast and repose so 3. The next speaketh his terrible vastness in himself evidenced by his great drinking v. 23. That not only doth he press a River with his bulk as some understand iâ— when he goeth to drink but drinks so much even many hundred pound weight of water at one time as Naturalists write as it he would drink up a River and oppress it by swallowing it up and swallow up Jordan a River known to Job who lived in Arabia as it is swallowed up by the Dead Sea This he doth and hasteth not as being afraid of no interruption as Dogs and other Beasts when they drink of the River Niluâ— are afraid lest the Crocodile should surprize and take them Or he hasteth not to drink the clear water till he foule it first with his feet as Naturalists do write As for that which is added v. 24. Some read it by way of Interrogation Will any take him in his fight or bore his Nose with a Snare or Gin that is he cannot be taken by open force but only by Wiles and Stratagems But our Translation rendereth it better as an amplification of his Drinking that he taketh it or the River v. 23. with his eyes that is by reason of the greatness of his thirst he looks greedily on a River as if he would drink it all and his nose pierceth through Snares that is though in thrusting his Snout or Nose into the water to get drink he pierce through Weeds and other Blocks in the bottom of the River yet he cares not for that so he get Drink From these Verses Learn 1. Very common passages of Gods works do need to be looked upon again and again for after what hath been sâ—id v. 15. his food is here again spoken of Spiritual minds will never find such Subjects barren 2. Whatever our delicate appetites lust after yet Nature is content with what is very common for as this vast Beast is nourished by Grass brought forth on the mountains so might men be satisfied with less than they lust after 3. God provides for the necessities of his Creatures and can help them when he pleaseth without the assistance of man for the mountains bring forth food for him and for many other Beasts See Psal 50.10 Which may help to cure the anxieties of Saints Mat. 6.26 4. That all the Beasts of the field do play about the Elephant doth not only
much mud and such gross tentations and fiery darts be cast in 2. Sense will soon weary under trouble and be ready to subscribe to the worst that tentation can say or suggest For the positive Assertions implied in these Questions were the language of Sense and it is Faith only that can so much as question them See Psal 31.22 Lam. 3.18 19. Isa 38.11 and frequently Saints bewray their weakness in this Sense must still be bribed ere it will speak good of God and hence it proves our greatest enemy in ill times And this may also suggest to us that our first thoughts of our case and of Gods dealing under trouble are not readily the truth they are but our sense faintness and hast taking the first start of us till faith follow after and correct them Psal 31.22 116.11 12. Jonah 2.4 3. In times of greatest tentations and faintings some small sparkles of faith and honesty will still appear in Gods people For here when tentation and sense are uppermost and faith is very far from triumphing over difficulties yet it appears in those questions Thus Saints in the midst of their saddest complaints call God their God Isa 40.27 49.14 This may encourage wrestlers considering that God marks their weak endeavours as the fruits of true faith though themselves judge not so Yea he will esteem more of these wrestlings then when we are fairest before the wind in our believing it being most eminent and cleanly faith when there is least of sense going along with it to help it And albeit the Lord do reprove weak faith and will much more be angry at those mistakes which do so overcharge faith yea albeit weakness of faith may obstruct Believers in their doing of eminent service Matth. 17.19 20. yet God never refused to do the weak Believers business Mar. 4.39 40. 9.22 24 25. and the Psalmist even by such wrestlings under tentation came to prevail at length Psal 77.7 8 9 with 10. 4. It is the duty of the people of God and an evidence of grace and faith in them that they do not willingly admit of an ill report of God and that they are not prone to misbelieve or to set their seal to what Tentation and Sense say and to close with every report that their own hearts would bring up of God For when Job's sense not only thought these things but will needs utter them in a complaint to God that he oppressed and despised him faith makes a question of them when it can do no more As it is our fault that we are slow of heart to believe Luk. 24.45 so also that there is in us a willingness to misbelieve and cast away our confidence which is forbidden Heb. 10.35 and was the fault of that wicked King 2 King 6.33 And albeit whenever we distrust and do not believe there is much of will in it Joh. 5.40 yet then especially are we guilty of wilfulness in that sin when we look not upon faith as a commanded duty and so mourn not for the want of it as for other sins but it may be plead for it â—s Jonah did for his passion Jon. 4.9 When we are not as careful yea more careful to study what may strengthen faith as we are to study what may discourage us when we will not imploy the little faith we have in wrestling and debating with sense and tentations because we have not that faith which might easily carry us over all our tentations and when we will not simply at Gods command cast out the net of believing but will turn judges of the Promises and of the profit of believing 2 King 6.33 and when we find things hard or improbable in our bitterness we cast all our confidence away This is an evil we should be careful to avoid Considering That faith how weak soever is most commendable when we are most unwilling to part with it in great difficulties That the sin of unbelief is heinous enough in disobeying God reproaching him forsaking our own mercy c. even when it flows from our infirmity and weakness albeit we do not make it our wilful iniquity by giving up our selves to it without any appearing of the grace of God to witness against it That zeal for God should cause us not be taken alive as the word will read 2 Tim. 2.26 by his Enemy unbelief far less will it allow us voluntarily to turn to his Enemies party That wilful misbelievers do cast away that shield which should cover them and all their armour Eph. 6.6 And what can be the issue of that but deadly wounds one upon the back of another and what will they do next when they have cast away their confidence or will any condition bring an issue till they return to believe again as the Psalmist found Psal 77.7 8 9 with 10. And That God may be provoked to make unbelief the punishment of the wilful distruster when he would gladly be rid of it as finding how it crusheth and sinketh him but cannot 5. Weak and willing believers may be excited and and notably strengthened to resist tentation and the suggestions of Sense by studying the Nature of God how unsutable that is to him which Sense suggesteth what a wrong is done to him by its conclusions and how absurd it were to judge so of God as it would represent him For so doth Job's faith here militate against the suggestions of his sense Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress c As if he had said Can this be said of thee without a notable injury done to thy holiness goodness c. 6. Those suggestions of sense which faith questioneth as absurd and yet cannot answer nor repel them must be propounded and laid out before God that he may clear them For so doth Job here speak the matter to God Is it good unto thee c Where as the matter questioned which he uttereth is the language of sense for which Job is afterward reprehended So his propounding of it by way of question unto God imports beside his infirmity and weakness in the thing a complaint of it to God and a calling upon him to resolve the difficulty And this is a more profitable way of discussing tentations then to take counsel about them in our own hearts the result whereof will be sorrow Psal 13.2 See also Psal 73.15 16 17. Secondly Having spoken in general to the way of pleading and to faith and senses part in it I come in the next place to consider what is Faith and Graces part in this Argument For all those apprehensions of sense being questioned by faith it imports not only that they are not true of which I shall make further use on the next Head but that they were grievous to his spirit to apprehend such things in Gods dealing Hence we may gather those sound Truths here 1. Though the Lord be Soveraign and Absolute yet he is an holy and righteous God who takes no pleasure
in oppression especially of his own people He will not imploy his great power to crush his own people Job 23.6 37.23 but his strength loveth judgement Psal 99.4 Nor doth he afflict willingly or deny unto men their just claims and defences Lam. 3.33 34 35 36. Therefore Job questions this as not to be yielded that it is good or pleasing unto God to oppress 2. An interest in God whether more general as we are his creatures or more specially as we are renewed and made of new to him as it calls for our reverence and respect to him Psal 100.2 3. So it is a ground of confidence that he will deal favourably and tenderly For Job pleads aganst the evils apprehended by his sense upon this accout that he is the worke or labour of Gods hand And albeit this conclude more strongly upon the account of his being a new creature renewed by God yet even his being one of his creatures hath its own weight in the plea as he afterward distinctly vrgeth it ver 8 9. c. 3. One of the saddest sights a Saint gets of his trouble is when he misseth Gods affection in it and it seemeth to speak wrath For Job cannot digest this that his stroak seemed to be such as if it were good and pleasant to God to oppresse him and as if he despised him See Job 13.24 Others will not much miss this if their lot be otherwise tolerable But Saints will resent this in most easie tryals 4. Zeal to the honour of God when it seems to be reflected upon by his afflicting of Saints will not a little grieve their spirits For this also affects Job that the counsel of the wicked should seem to be shined upon or get a favourable aspect See Josh 7.8 9. Our forgetting of this is the cause why we speed so ill in our particulars before God 5. It is the property of real and lively Saints to love Piety so well that it will exceedingly afflict them when Gods dealing to his people seems to harden men in impiety and to introduce Atheism and open ungodliness For this also was his affliction when he apprehended the counsel of the wicked to be thus shined upon as hath been explained See also Mal. 3 14 15. Eccl. 8.11 This afflicted David and put him to his Prayers Psal 7.6 7. 69 6. Thirdly I come in the last place to consider Job's mistakes his weakness and reckoning by sense which are most predominant in this Argument Wherein as his speech implieth that he was so far over powered as not only to think but even to utter those apprehensions of God though with some reluctancy and opposition made by faith So his questions about them imply that they were false and not to be yielded unto but the contrary maintained Hence from his failing and weakness we may learn these Cautions for our Instruction 1. It is an ill way of pleading our righteousness under trouble to reflect upon the Righteousness of God who afflicts us as Job's sense suggested to him that he being a righteous man Gods afflicting of him could be nothing else but oppression 2. It is a great fault to censure Gods sharp dispensations toward his people as oppression seeing he is Soveraign Lord of our being not accountable to any for what he doth and doth by no affliction deprive them of their righteousness nor of any benefit they can claim by it Therefore Job was in a mistake when he complained of oppression 3. It is injurious to God when his people think he respects any profit whereof he reaps none or pleasure without an eye and respect to their good For Job did mistake when his sense judged that it was good unto God to oppress or ruine him 4. It is also a wrong to judge of Gods affection by our sense of his external dispensations As if because he afflicted his people therefore he thought it good or took pleasure in it and despised and contemned them Whereas when God doth afflict them he proceeds so to say with much aversion if their good could be otherwise promoted Jer. 9 7. Lam. 3.33 he doth affectionately remember them under it Jer. 31.20 yea he honours them by taking so much pains upon them and setting them upon such a stage whence his grace in them may eminently shine and appear 5. It is an act of rash judgment to think that God despiseth his creatures because he tryeth and exerciseth them or despiseth his own work in his people when he giveth it a shake that it may stand more firm and casteth dust upon it that he may scour it better Job 23.10 For Job failed in thinking God despised the work of his hands 6. It is not only weakness but wickedness if persisted in to think That God approves of wickedness as Mal. 2.17 See Eccl. 8.11 12 13. That his favourable and smiling Providences do import any approbation of wicked men and not rather a snare upon them Psal 11.6 Or That God cannot take ways to vindicate his own honour and commend Piety though he do not take our way but let our tryals whereby the wicked may take occasion to stumble and be hardened go on For herein Job failed exceedingly in thinking God shined upon the counsel of the wicked in any of these respects formerly mentioned in the Explication And particularly in thinking there was no way to discountenance the wicked in their impiety but by delivering of him whereas the wicked had some knowledge of Gods will as it was then made known and we have it more clearly in the written Word whereby they might judge of Gods thoughts of their way and God should in due time manifest his mind yet further to them though Job's tryal continued for a while Vers 4. Hast thou eyes of flesh or seest thou as man seeth 5. Are thy days as the days of man are thy years as mans days 6. That thou enquirest after mine iniquity and searchest after my sin The fourth Argument wherein he enlargeth that apprehension of oppression v. 3. is taken from this That there was no necessity why God should thus torture him to find out or pursue his sin but it looked rather like ignorant and passionate man then the Holy and Omniscient God to keep this way of procedure Here eyes and days and years are attributed to God to express his knowledge and eternal duration in terms borrowed from among men because of our incapacity And the meaning of the Argument is as if Job had said Lord thou art not like a man that thou should need thus to put me upon the rack A man might possibly do thus to an innocent man in regard his eyes see but what is outward and he is oft times led with suspicions passions and malice and therefore he may be induced to torture an innocent man that he may draw out a confession of what he suspects he is guilty of v. 4. And man is born to learn somewhat every day in the