that prayer For sitting we have 2 Sam. 2.18 When Nathan brought that message unto David concerning the building of the house of God that it should be deferred till his sonnes time the Text saith That David went in and sate before the Lord and said who am I O Lord And in the end he saith Therefore have I found in my heart to pray this prayer unto thee We also find walking in prayer Gen. 24.63 Isaac went out into the field to pray He walked and pray'd we translate it to meditate but in the margin of your bookes you find it to pray as being nearer the Hebrew So that walking and sitting and standing are likewise praying gestures or postures of holy worship But chiefly that posture of bowing downe the body or bending the knee is the worship posture so it followes in the Text. He fell upon the ground and worshipped And worshipped To vvorship is to give to any one the honour due unto him So the rendering unto God that love that feare that service that honour vvhich is due unto him is the worshipping of God that 's the Scripture definition Psal 29.2 Give unto the Lord the honour due unto his name then followes by vvay of exposition Worship the Lord in the beauty of holinesse that is in his holy Temple in his beautifull Sanctuary or in the comely honour of his Sanctuary So that worship is the tendering of honour to the Lord in a vvay honourable to him namely according to his own vvill and Lawes of vvorship vvhich is intimated by comming to worship him in his beautifull Sanctuary where all things about the service of God vvere exactly prescribed by God And then there was beauty or comely honour in the Sanctuary vvhen all things vvere ordered there by the rule of his prescription varying and departing from vvhich vvould have filled that holy place vvith darknesse and deformity notwithstanding all the outward lustre and beauty had bin preserved The worship of God is two-fold there is internall worship and there is externall worship Internall worship is to love God to feare God and to trust upon him these are acts of inward worship these are the summe of our duty and Gods honour contained in the first Commandement And so you may understand vvorship in the Text. Iob fell downe and worshipped that is presently upon those reports hee put forth an act of love and holy feare acts of dependance and holy trust upon God in his Spirit saying to this effect within himselfe Lord though all this be come upon me yet I will not depart from thee or deale falsly in thy Covenant I know thou art still the same Jehovah true holy gracious faithfull All-sufficient and therefore behold me prostrate before thee and resolving still to love thee still to feare thee still to trust thee thou art my God still and my portion for ever Though I had nothing left in the world that I could call mine yet thou Lord alone art enough yet thou alone art All. Such doubtlesse vvas the language of Iobs heart and these were mighty actings of inward worship Then likewise there is externall worship which is the summe of the second Commandement and it is nothing else but the serving of the Lord according to his owne Ordinances and institution in those severall wayes wherein God will be honoured and served this is outward vvorship and as we apply our selves unto them so we are reckon'd to worship God Job worshipped God outwardly by falling to the ground by powring out supplications and by speaking good words of God as we reade afterward words tending to his owne abasement and the honour of God clearely and fully acquitting and justifying the Lord in all those works of his providence and dispensations towards him This is worship both internall and externall Internall worship is the chiefe but God requireth both and there is a necessity of joyning both together that God may have honour in the world Internall worship is compleat in it selfe and pleasing unto God without the externall The externall may be compleat in it selfe but is never pleasing to God without the internall Internall worship pleases God most but externall honours God most for by this God is knowne and his glory held forth in the world Externall worship is Gods name Hence the Temple was called the place where God put his Name sc his worship by which God is knowne as a man by his name They that worship God must worship him in Sprit and in Truth In Spirit that is with inward love and feare reverence and sincerity In Truth that is according to the true rule prescribed in his word Spirit respects the inward power Truth the outward forme The former strikes at hypocrisie the latter strikes at Idolatry The one opposes the inventions of our heads the other the loosenesse of our hearts in worship Observe further that it is only said Job fell downe and worshipped nothing is said of the object to whom he did direct his worship or whom he did worship The object is not exprest but understood or presupposed And indeed worship is a thing so proper and peculiar to God that when we name worship we must needs understand God For nothing but God or that which we make a god is or can be worshipped Either he is God whom we worship or as much as in us lies we make him one What creature so ever shares in this honour this honour ipso facto sets it up above and makes it more then a creature The very Heathens thought every thing below a God below worship therefore there needed not an expression of the object when the Text saith Job worshipped that implyes his worship was directed unto God yet there is a kind of worship which is due to creatures There is a civill worship mentioned in Scripture as well as divine worship Civill worship may be given to men And there is a two-fold civill worship spoken of in Scripture There is a civill worship of duty and there is a civill worship of courtesie That of duty is from inferiours to their superiours from children to their Parents from servants to their Masters from Subjects to Kings and Magistrates These gods must have civill worship As Gen. 48.11 vvhen Joseph came into the presence of Jacob his father he bowed downe to the ground this vvas a civill vvorship and a vvorship of duty from an inferiour to a superiour And it is said of the brethren of Judah Gen. 49.8 when Jacob on his death-bed blessed the 12. Tribes Thy brethren shall worship thee or bow downe to thee It is the same vvord used here in this Text. Judahs honour vvas to vvield the Scepter the government was laid upon his shoulders now he being the chiefe Magistrate all the rest of the Tribes all his brethren must vvorship him or give civill honour unto him Secondly There is likewise a worship of courtesie vvhich is from equals when one equall vvill bow to another or vvhen a
three-fold hedge made about Job and they are all exprest here in this Text. Here was a hedge first about his Person that was the inmost hedge or the inmost wall in these words Hast thou not made an hedge about him That is an hedge about the very person of Job an hedge about his body least any sicknesse diseases or dangers should invade it and an hedge about his soule least snares and temptations should take hold of or prevaile against that thou hast made an hedge about him so that I cannot come at the person of Job to hurt him Againe Besides this inmost wall and the nearest about his person there is a second wall or hedge and that is exprest to be about his Family Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house By house we are not to understand the materiall house of stone or timber the edifice in which Job dwelt but by the house we are to understand the houshold Job and his family as oftentimes in Scripture the house is put for the family This day saith Christ to Zacheus is salvation come to thy house and it is said of the Jaylor that he beleeved and all his house that is all his household so here thou hast made an hedge about him and about his house that is about his Family about his children especially hence the Hebrew word for a child for a sonne doth signifie an house because children build up the house or keep up the name of their Fathers So that the house hedg'd about is the children the family and the followers and servants of Job as if Satan should say thou hast made an hedge not only about his person but about all that belong unto him about his children and servants I may not meddle with them neither There is the second hedge Lastly There is a third hedge or wall Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath That is about his goods about his cattell and about his lands so farre as ever any thing of Jobs doth extend so farre the hedge goeth if Job have but the least thing abroad God doth make an hedge about it he hath not the meanest thing belonging unto him but is under guard and protection That is the meaning of it There is yet another thing to be observed in the words to make it more full Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side It is not only said thou hast made an hedge about him but thou hast made an hedge about him on every side which is a pleonasme or redundancy of speech It was a signe of Gods care of Job when he made an hedge about him but to say he made an hedge about him on every side here is exprest an extraordinary care that God had not left the least gappe for Satan or for any annoyance to come in unto Job There is not the least breach the least hole thou hast hedged him round about on every side whereby the wonderfull safety of Job his family and estate is set out under the protection of God That for the opening of those words First We may observe from the manner of this speech Hast thou not made an hedge about him Satan speakes very angerly Questions as they ever expresse quicknesse of spirit so they many times expresse much passion and trouble of spirit Here. Satan in questioning speakes as if he were vext Hast thou not made an hedge about him Hence note That the protection which God gives to his people and servants is the vexation of Satan and of all his Instruments It troubleth them extreamely that God doth so guard and hedge up his people that they cannot come at them No man can endure to see that defended which he wisheth were destroyed Then againe if we consider the matter of Satans speech it is a truth and a most comfortable truth a truth full of consolation to the people of God Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side We may note hence That Satan the father of lyes sometimes speakes truth for his owne advantage For as it is said concerning Judas about his care for the poore when he would have had the oyntment sold and given to the poore This he said saith the Text not that he cared for the poore but because he was a theefe and had the bagge and bare what was put therein So we may say here Satan sets forth the care of God over his people in most exact termes And why doth he doe this Not that he cares to speake well of God or to advance God in the eyes of his people by telling his people and servants how watchfull he is over them but he doth this only for his owne advantage that hereby he may lessen the service and blemish the obedience of Job because he received so much care and love from God As it is many times with ungodly men they will doe good not that they care to doe good but only for some bie-end So Satan will sometimes speake that which is true not that he regards the truth or that he would speake a word of truth for he hath nothing but lyes in his heart there is a lye in his heart when there is truth in his mouth He never speakes truth but to deceive and doe hurt by it Thirdly Wee may observe this which lyeth plaine in the words That the people and servants of God dwell in the middest of enemies in the middest of dangers Why else need there be an hedge a wall about them What need there be a guard about them unlesse there were dangers about them There are none in the world so envyed and spighted so aimed at and persecuted as the people and servants of God you may see it by the wall that is made about them God will not bestow cost and care in preserving and guarding where there is no danger of invading If you should come to a City and see it mightily fortified and see men make wall after wall about it and bulwarke after bulwarke you will presently conjecture that City stands in great danger and is in the middest of enemies So when we reade that God was faine to make wall after wall to make hedge after hedge about the person the family the estate of Job it sheweth that the devill had an ill eye upon Job and upon all that was Jobs Satan and his instruments had it not bin for this hedge would quickly have fallen upon him No godly man should live a quiet moment did not the Lord stretch forth his hand to save and protect him Fourthly We may observe That God himselfe doth undertake the guarding and protecting of his people Thou hast made an hedge about him and about all that he hath God himselfe either doth it immediately or he doth put
Under which name he with all spirituall wickednesses the opposers of Christ and of his Church are comprehended by the Prophet Isa 27.1 In that day the Lord with his sore great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan the crooked serpent and he shall slay the Dragon in the sea Now they that raise up this misticall Leviathan the Devill are surely the vilest men But who doe thus or how can this be done They are said to raise up Leviathan who seeke occasions of sinning such as doe not stay till Satan tempts them but they as it were tempt Satan They are so hasty so forward to doe evill that they think the Devill comes not fast enough and therefore they doe even goe out to meete provoke and raise up the Devill they invite temptation There is a truth in this All sins are not from the temptations of Satan our own hearts are not only the soyle and have in them the seed of all sin but they are sunne and raine to warme and water those seedes that they may grow And as a godly man from the new principle at first planted in him by the holy Ghost doth often stirre up the holy Ghost to come and helpe him he doth not alwayes stay till the holy Ghost sensibly comes but finding his own weakenesse and wants and deadnesse to and in duty he goeth and stirreth up the Spirit of God and prayeth that the holy Ghost would breath upon him quicken and enliven him in prayer and other holy duties So many ungodly wretches doe not stay for Satan or waite till he comes to tempt them but they such is their desperate wickednesse and delight in sin wish that he would tempt them oftner They doe not only keepe open house and open heart for him ready to entertaine and welcome him when he comes but they goe forth to solicit his company and his coming This is to stirre up Leviathan So that the whole sense according to this exposition may be given to you thus as if Iob had said Let this night be cursed with a grievous curse even with as black and foule a curse as can be moulded and fashioned in the hearts or spit out of the mouthes of the vilest miscreants even of such as are so set upon sin that they hate the light and curse the day which either the Sun makes in the aire or which knowledge makes in their hearts lest that should stop and hinder them in the acting of sin yea let such a curse be upon it is they use to vomit out who are so set upon mischiefe and engaged to their lusts that they pray in aide from the Devill to assist and quicken them in their wickednesse that so their naturall corruptions being oyled and smoothed with his temptations their motions to sin and indeed to Hell may be swifter and more violent These are they that give diligence to make their damnation sure These are they from whom the kingdome of Hell suffers violence and these violent ones rather then not have it will take it by force Surely their damnation sleepes not who least they should not sin enough awaken the Devill to shew them sinning opportunities To such as these according to the interpretation now suggested Iob commits his night to cursing Let them curse it who curse the day c. Now though there be a truth in the things which are asserted in this opinion taken abstractedly though it be a truth that wicked men are such as curse the day of ayre-light and the day of knowledge-light though they are often so madde to be sinning that they provoke and tempt the Devill yet I will not give this for the sense and meaning of the words rather you may take it and make use of it as an Allegory upon then an Exposition of the Text. The last opinion with which I shall conclude the opening of the words is this That Iob in this verse doth allude to the custome of his own Countrey and of other Easterne Countries who had certaine persons amongst them both men and women whom upon solemne occasions either of joy or sorrow they were wont to hire or call in for reward to come and helpe them out either in rejoycing or in mourning We find mention of such in Scripture divers times who were thus called and invited or hired to mourne and lament in times of sad and sorrowfull accidents whether personall or publick These had Lachrimas venales teares to sell or sale-teares making both a profession and a profit of mourning Such the Prophet speakes of Ier. 9.17 18. Thus saith the Lord Consider ye and call for the mourning women he speakes of them as of a society or sister-hood well knowne and as well custom'd and cunning women that they may come that is women cunning in mourning And let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may runne downe with teares and our eye-lidds gush out with waters for a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion How are we spoiled And ver 20. Teach your daughters wailing and every one her neighbour lamentation you see it was an art taught amongst them for death is come up into our windowes c. In 2 Chron. 35.25 We have a record to the same effect concerning the lamentation for Josiah And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing-men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day So that there were both men and women prepared and usually called forth to lament such occasions of sorrow Againe Amos 5.16 Therefore the Lord the God of Hosts the Lord saith thus wailing shall be in all streets and they shall say in all the high-wayes Alas Alas And they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skillfull of lamentation to wailing Observe here different mourners they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skillfull of lamentation to wailing You see he speakes of two sorts of persons they shall call the husbandman to mourning Husbandmen are such as mourne when they mourne when they mourne they mourne indeed they mourne down-right but besides these who mourned Ex animo really there was another sort who did but personate sorrow and act a part in griefe So saith the Prophet Call in some who are skilfull of lamentation men or women who have studied the point and know how to move a passion and to heighten an affection beyond that which the plaine husbandman can doe Let the husbandman mourne but besides that let there be art and solemnity in the mourning call in those that are skilfull of lamentation There was a kind of profession trade or art of mourning Which is further evidenced 2 Sam. 14.2 Joab sent to Tekoah to fetch thence a wise woman which is interpreted in the words following to be a woman skilfull in lamentation and said unto her I pray thee faine thy selfe to be a mourner Thou art a cunning
benefit profit and honour But often to put or to give into the hand is for evill to doe what you will with persons or things to punish or to afflict them Judg. 6.1 God delivered the Israelites into the hand of Midian that is he left them to the power of the Midianites to tyrannize over and vexe them And verse 7. God delivered Midian into the hand of Israel that is hee gave Israel power over them to destroy or afflict them So here he gave all into the hand of Satan that is he gave Satan leave to dispose of Jobs estate as he pleased As if God had said to Satan Thou hast leave to doe what thou wilt with Jobs outward estate spoile it plunder it destroy it consume it fire it thou hast free leave all that he hath is in thy hand We shall note a point or two from that You see as soone as ever Satan had made his motion God presently answereth all that he hath is in thy hand It is not alwayes an argument of Gods goodwill and love to have our motions granted Many are heard and answered out of anger not out of love The children of Israel required meat for their lusts and God gave it them he did not withhold from them their desire they were not shortned of their lusts they had it presently many times his owne servants call and call againe move and move againe and obtaine no grant For this thing I besought the Lord thrice saith Paul yet Paul could not have what he sought Satan did but move once and presently all that Job had was in his hand But further that which is chiefely here to be observed is That untill God gives commission Satan hath no power over the estates or persons of Gods people or over any thing that belongs unto them Neither our persons nor our estates are subject to the will either of men or Devills Christ must say All that he hath is in thy hand before Satan can touch a shoe-latchet As Christ said Joh. 19.11 unto Pilat when he spake so stoutly knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee and power to release thee He thought that he had all power in his hand but Christ tells him Thou couldest have no power at all against me unlesse it were given thee from above If the Devills could not goe into the swine much lesse can they meddle with a man made after Gods Image till God gives them leave Every soule that hath interest in Christ may suck comfort and consolation in the saddest in the sorrowfullest day from the breast of this truth If Satan and wicked men cannot move till Christ saith goe nor wound till Christ saith strike nor spoile nor kill till Christ saith their estates their lives are in your power surely Christ will not speake a word to their hurt whom he loâ—â— nor will he ever suffer his enemies to doe a reall dammage to his friends Besides it may fill the soule with unspeakeable joy to remember that while a man is suffering the will of Christ is a doing Thirdly Satan doth very wickedly according to his nature in moving that Job may be afflicted He moveth in malice and in spight God knew what his heart and intent was and yet grants it We may note from hence That which Satan and evill men desire sinnefully the Lord grants holily The will of God and the will of Satan joyned both in the same thing yet they were as different as light and darkenesse their ends were as different as their natures Though it were the same thing they both willed yet there was an infinite distance betweene them in willing it The will of Satan was sinfull but the power given Satan was just Why Because his will was from himselfe but his power was from the will of God Satan had no power to doe mischiefe but what God gave him but his will to doe mischiefe was from himselfe Therefore we find that the same spirit is said to be an evill spirit and to be a spirit from the Lord and yet the Lord doth not partake at all in the evill of the spirit as 1 Sam. 16.14 The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evill spirit from the Lord troubled him An evill spirit from the Lord how was it an evill spirit if it were from the Lord can the Lord send forth any evill from himselfe who is only good In that he was evill that was from his own will but that he had power to trouble Saul that was from the Lord So here Satans will and intent were most wicked these were from himselfe his power to afflict Job was from God and that was good Satan willeth Job should be afflicted for his destruction God willeth it only for his tryall and probation Satan desireth it that God may be blasphemed but God willeth it that himselfe might be glorified Satan willeth it that so others in his example might be scandalized and disheartned from entring into the service of God seeing how ill he sped But God willeth it that others might be strengthned and incouraged to enter into his service beholding a man under such heavy pressures and yet not speaking ill of God or of his wayes Satan willeth it hoping thereby Job would discover his hypocrisie but God willeth it knowing that he would therein discover his integrity So then though the same thing was willed yet there was a vast disproportion in their ends and intentions and though the power by which Satan did afflict Job was from God yet the evill intent with which he afflicted him was from himselfe Thus we see how God without any staine or touch of evill grants this which Satan did most wickedly desire It followeth Onely upon himselfe thou shalt not put forth thy hand God gives a commission but it is with a limitation there is a restriction in it Onely upon himselfe c. that is not upon his person not his body thou shalt not afflict that with diseases not his soule thou shalt not afflict that with temptations Hence note That God himselfe sets bounds to the afflictions of his people he limits out how farre every affliction shall goe and how farre every instrument shall prevaile as he doth with the Sea Hitherto saith he thou shalt come and no further here thou shalt stop thy proud waves so he saith to all the afflictions of single persons or whole Nations hither you shall come and no further Onely upon himselfe thou shalt not put forth thine hand This limitation respects First The degree or measure thus farre you shall afflict that is in such a degree to such a height and no higher Secondly It respects the time thus farre that is thus long so many yeares or so many dayes you shall have power and no longer God leaves not either the measure or the time the degree or the continuance of any affliction in the hand of Satan or his adherents Wee reade Rev. 6.10 That
was forced to goe out as a Leper concerning whom the Law was afterwards you know that they should be put out of the Campe or City and it was a Law grounded upon reason and the common light of nature though it had a spirituall signification as given to the Jewes The Septuagint say expresly he sate upon the dung-hill without the City as Lepers were wont to be according to the Law of Moses and as we see executed in that case of Vzziah the King being a Leper he dwelt in a house by himselfe alone and was cut off from the house of the Lord 2 Chro. 26.21 But that Job sate either without the City or upon a dung-hill is only a conjecture and besides the Text. Which way soever we take it it is a great aggravation of Jobs sorrowes Take it for a necessitated sitting in the ashes abroad it inferres that either he was so poore as that he had not a house to be in or that his disease was so contagious that he could not be endured in the house Or take it for a voluntary act that he did choose to sit in ashes it was an aggravation of his affliction for then it notes that he was in the lowest in the saddest condition that can be imagined sitting in ashes being an embleme of extreame sorrow and never used but in times of greatest calamity publick or personall So that here every circumstance is an aggravation of Jobs affliction He was smitten by Satan and he smote hard enough he smote him and he smote him with boyles he smote him with the most malignant kind of boyles he smote him with such boyles all over from the sole of his feet to his crowne and when he was in this condition he had no Nurse no Chirurgion no Physitian to helpe him he was forced to take a pot-sheard to scrape himselfe he had no soft bed prepared to lye on nor as many have thought house to be in but out of the City or out of his house he must and among the ashes upon the dung-hill Lo there he sits What one said of an exact History of a great Prince That surely it was written rather in theory as a pattern or picture of a Prince then according to the truth of a history So we may say of this description of Jobs troubles That surely it was written rather as a studied pattern of mans sufferings then as an accomplisht History of the sufferings of any man yea who almost can goe so farre in imagination as Job went in reall passion But we will passe from the description of his sorrow to some Observations upon them First Here we see That Satan if he be permitted hath a power suddenly to aflict the body with diseases And that is a power farre transcending all the power that is in man Man is able to wound the body of his brother with a materiall instrument but all the Tyrants in the world cannot smite the body with a disease or command a man into sicknesse Though God should say to them as here to Satan I give you leave yet they must leave that to Satan whose helpe is sometime begg'd by envious wretches who would kill their bretheren without a Sword and vex them unseene Man must have a weapon to smite but Satan can smite and kill without a weapon if God say the word Man can spill the blood but Satan can poison the blood He can infect the humours and taint the spirits more subtilly more speedily then the most skilfull poisoner in Rome We shewed before how suddenly Satan can raise commotions in the ayre stormes and tempests there he can doe the like in our bodies for such are diseases in the body as stormes and tempests in the ayre Stormes make as it were a confusion among the Elements and are the distemper of nature diseases make a confusion among the humours and distemper the constitution and spirits of the body It is said of the woman in Luk. 13.16 that Satan had bound her 28 yeares Observe in that the power Satan hath over the body if God give him liberty to exercise it As cruell men can bind in chaines and cast the body into prison for many yeares so Satan can bind the body with a spirit of infirmity as with a chaine Secondly observe this That health and strength of body are a very great blessing You see Satan desires to try Job by taking away this blessing last and he thought this would make Job curse God you may see the value of it by his desire to destroy it Health is the Prince of earthly blessings We say he lives miserably that lives by medicines who to uphold nature is in the continuall use of art How miserably then doth he live whom art and medicines cannot restore to health who is diseased beyond the help of Physick I might mind you likewise from this to remember what fraile bodies we live in even such as have in them the seeds of all diseases Sin indeed is the seed of sicknesse and of death And hence it is that if the humours of the body be a little stirr'd they quickly turne to a disease and this house of clay is ready to dissolve and fall What is the strength of the body that we should trust it or the beauty of the body that we should be proud of it We see in Job how quickly the strength of it is turned into weakenesse and the beauty of it into blacknesse All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field The grasse withereth and the flower fadeth Isa 40.6 And here likewise note this you that enjoy health of body whose strength yet continues and your selves are free from the bonds of any bodily infirmity while you heare of one smitten with a disease from the crowne of the head to the sole of the feet consider what a mercy you have who have no paine from the crowne of the head to the sole of the feete who have not an aking joynt nor paine so much as in a finger It is like that many of you can say you have this blessing you doe not know what paine in any one member meanes looke upon a man that knew nothing but paine upon a man that had not one member free and prize your blessing Such likewise who have paine and infirmities in one or two or more parts of the body may see in this spectacle cause to blesse God that they have any part free To have but one or but a few sores is mercy sparing mercy when we behold another nothing but a sore Indeed when one member suffers whether in the body naturall or mysticall all the members suffer with it But compassion is not so heavy a burden as passion is And as the sound members sympathize in sorrow with those that are smitten so they that are smitten sympathize in joy with those that are sound The ease of one part mitigates the disease of
husband Curse God and die But could Job die when he listed that she biddeth him curse God and die What meanes this language Some interpret her meaning to be this die by thy owne hand destroy thy selfe as sons of Belial use to say goe hang thy selfe murther thy selfe make an end of thy selfe As God by these plagues is thy Judge so be thou to end the matter thy owne executioner Or as others Curse God that so he may be provoked to take thee out of the world quickly Or curse God and die ease thy heart somewhat and give it vent by breaking out against God in blasphemies take this revenge upon him and then let him doe his worst curse God though thou die for it Lastly curse God That so the Magistrate taking notice of it thou mayest be cut off by the Sword of Justice We know blasphemers were sentenc'd to death without mercy by the Law of Moses and it is not improbable that the light of nature might carry those Nations to as high and severe a revenge against that highest sin We know Socrates was adjudged to death by the Athenians as their naturall divinity taught them for an injurious or dishonourable speech concerning their gods I conceive her counsell curse God and dye had some of these intendements in it The best of them is bad enough and so bad that it renders this Objection against them all It is objected That surely any of these carry too high a straine of wickednesse for Jobs wife surely she could not imagine much lesse have the boldnesse to offer such advice to her husband I answer first in generall A good man may have a very bad wife A husband cannot infuse holinesse or make his wife good Marriage doth not change the heart Marriage with Christ doth but not marriage with a Christian or the holiest man that ever lived Therefore that reason is not cogent Secondly this speech and a holy person are not altogether inconsistent possibly Jobs wife was a good woman though actually she spake thus wickedly Divers of the Jewish doctours have an opinion that it was not Jobs wife that spake but the devill in her likenesse I shall leave that among their other dreames It is conjectured by others though it were not the devil that spake personating his wife yet that it was the devill speaking in or by the person of his wife as he spake in or by the serpent Gen. 3. Or as persons really possest of the devill who speake Satans words and do Satans works not their own Some I say carry it thus that she was for that time not only acted but actually possest by the devill and so spake the devils language One of the Ancients is expresse to this purpose These are the devils words not the womans words which another illustrates by that in the third of Genesis where it is said The serpent said unto the woman but it was the devill that spake unto the woman by the serpent so here it is said His wife spake unto him but the truth is it was the devill spake unto him in and by his wife And if so put the language into the worst exposition given or give a worse if truth will beare it and it will be no wrong to such an Orator I beleeve we cannot expound the words to a higher sense or straine of wickednesse then Satan could speake But we need not make Satan himselfe the speaker and yet cleare the matter too though we neither say as the Jewish doctours that it was the devill personally taking the shape of Jobs wife or as those Christian Fathers that the devill did actually possesse her yet we may say and so salve the difficulty that she was mightily over-powred and acted by the temptation of Satan to be an instrument of temptation in this grosse manner against her husband Though she were not acted as the Serpent was in whom Satan spake to Eve yet we may well say she was acted as Eve by whom Satan spake to Adam Eve spake the devils minde being prevailed upon by his temptation to perswade her husband to eat against the command of God and Jobs wife overcome by a like temptation attempts the perswasion of her husband to curse God For as it is possible for one that is good to fall into the grossest and most blasphemous temptation himself so it is possible for one that is good to be made an instrument of such temptations unto others We may see an instance neere if not fully reaching this assertion in the Apostle Peter who hearing Christ fore-telling his sufferings takes him aside and began to rebuke him saying Be it farre from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Mat. 16.22 23. Peter acted Satans part in this against his Master though unwittingly yet so wittily so to the life that he got his name by it Christ said to Peter get thee behind me Satan It was Peters tongue but Satan tun'd it Isaac said of his sonne Jacob in Esaus dresse The hands are the hands of Esau but the voice is the voice of Jacob Christ perceived here Satans counsell in Peters words he saw the wicked spirit through the cloathing of Peters flesh and therefore rebukes the Organ under the title of the chiefe agent Get thee behind me Satan Now as Peter though a holy man and full of good intentions to his Master yet spake the Devils mind and language so fully that the Devill himselfe as to that purpose could scarce have mended it So likewise Jobs wife might be a godly woman in the maine though abused and misled by Satan she thus excited her husband in the grossest construction those words can beare to curse God and die There is somewhat in the Text which may give us a hint of this that though she spake this yet Job esteemed her a good woman For observe Jobs answer to this advice What doth he say He doth not say Thou wicked woman thou abhominable wretch why doest thou give me such counsell All that he saith is this Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh Observe it he doth not call her foolish or wicked woman but thou speakest as one of the foolish women As if he should say How now wife what words are these that I heare from thee thou dost not speake now like thy selfe I use to heare other language from thee thou and I have had other kind of conference and I have received other kind of counsell from thee then this Whence is it that thou art so unlike thy selfe where are thy words season'd with salt which have so often ministred grace unto the hearers thou art degenerated in manners and corrupted in thy speech thou speakest now as one of the foolish women Intimating that she used to speake wisely and discreetely or as Solomon describes the vertuous woman Pro. 31·26 that heretofore she opened her mouth with wisedome and now she spake only as a foolish or wicked woman He doth not
it or I did fully heare it I saw it with mine eyes that is I am sure I saw it So the Scripture saith We are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 A thing cannot be bought but with a price there must be some price or other either money or money-worth somewhat answering the intrinsick value of every thing that is bought but to shew that we are bought with a full price that Christ did not compound our debt with his Father but paid the uttermost farthing it is said we are bought with a price So the Prophet Malachie tells the sacrilegious Jewes Ye are cursed with a curse c. 3.9 A man cannot be cursed but with a curse but to shew the greatnesse of the curse he saith ye are cursed with a curse So here Job opened his mouth and spake or opened his mouth and cursed that is he cursed his day greatly even with a bitter and grievous curse He cursed it as we say to purpose Thus to shew the excellency of Christs doctrine that his was A Sermon of Sermons And he the Messenger the Interpreter the One of a Thousand yea the One of All the Thousands that ever shewed to man his uprightnesse the Gospell saith Mat. 5.1 When hee saw a great multitude he opened his mouth and spake Hence In the third place To open the mouth and speake is to speake upon mature deliberation to speake considerately prudently punctually to speake elegantly to speake orderly to speake the words of truth and sobernesse A foole is said to speake with an open mouth but a wise man openeth his mouth and speakes A wise godly man hath his tongue at his command but a fooles tongue commands him His tongue runs faster then his wit as we say A fooles mouth as Solomon tells us Prov. 15.2 powreth out foolishnesse Their mouthes are alwayes open and therefore they cannot be said to open their mouthes A foole hath not a doore to his mouth therefore also he cannot be said to open his mouth much lesse hath he a lock and a key a bolt or a barre to his mouth but a wise man hath a doore to his mouth yea his mouth is lockt with wisdomes key and that unlocks it I will open my mouth saith the Psalmist Psal 78.2 in a Parable Parables are the speeches of wise men yea they are the extracts and spirits of wisedome The Hebrew word signifies to rule or have authority because such speeches come upon us with authority and subdue our reason by the weight of theirs Now when he is about to speake Parables he saith I will open my mouth When wisedome calls for audience and obedience Prov 8.6 she saith Heare for I will speake of excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be right things David invokes God to open his mouth when he would shew forth that excellent thing the praise of God Psal 51.15 God opens not the mouth of a foole neither doth a foole open his mouth and speake but his speech opens his mouth But did Job open his mouth in this sense wisely and discreetly did he well to be so angry with his day spake he wisely in cursing his day I answer Though there was much passion in this speech yet Job spake out of much deliberation he considered what to speake before he spake A man may speake with much passion and yet speake out of much deliberation and so did Job here in that long silence he was learning what to speake And as there was much heate of passion so there was much light of wisedome in what he spake Fourthly To open the mouth and speake is to speake boldly and confidently to speake with freedome and liberty of speech as the Greeke word signifies to speake all a mans mind without feate or favour of any man Prov. 31.8 9. Open thy mouth for the dumbe open thy mouth judge righteously c. that is be bold for those that are poore and dare not appeare themselves speake thou aloud for the dumbe and freely for those that cannot plead their own cause or make-out their owne innocence The Apostle begs of the Ephesians Chap. 6.19 that they would pray that utterance might be given him that he might open his mouth boldly to make knowne the mistery of the Gospell and neither feare the faces of men nor conceale the truth of God You see then by the opening of this expression there was more then bare speaking meant when Job opened his mouth and spake When a wise and a holy man opens his mouth you may looke for more then words even the treasures of wisdome and of knowledge Let us now examine what treasure we can make of those words which Job spake when he opened his mouth He opened his mouth and cursed his day But is there any treasure in a curse except that which the Apostle speakes of as the fruit of Gods abused patience Rom. 2.5 A treasure of wrath Or did Job deliberate for a curse was he moulding and fashioning so deform'd an issue as this in his thoughts so long Yes faith the Text he opened his mouth and cursed his day The word here used to Curse is not the word which we have met with so often in the two former Chapters where Satan undertooke that Job would curse his God That word in its native sense signifies to blesse But here when Iob curseth his day a word is used which hath neither name nor shadow of a blessing And it is derived from a roote which signifieth a thing that is light moveable or unsetled And so by a Metaphor it signifies any thing or person which we dispise contemne and slight or the act of despising and cursing and the reason of it is because those things which we despise contemne or curse we looke upon as light things triviall or vaine or hurtfull On the contrary the word in the Hebrew for honour and glory comes from a roote which signifieth heavy or ponderous because that which we honour and respect we looke upon it as a thing that hath weight and substance in it And the Apostle calls that most glorious estate of the Saints in Heaven a weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 The opposite word which we have in the Text is frequently translated to despise or contemne and likewise to curse and blaspheme and doth properly signifie such a cursing as arises from the contempt or light esteeme which we have of a thing or person So we have the word clearely used Levit. 20.9 Every one that curseth his father or his mother Now observe cursing of the father or mother it is directly opposed to the 5th Commandement which saith Thou shalt honour thy Father and thy mother thou shalt looke upon thy father and thy mother as upon persons of weight and honour whom thou art bound to reverence and esteeme so that to curse the father or mother is to account them vile and contemptible The same word expresses that villanous act of Shimei 2