Exposition of Job 22-26

JOb having given many particular Instances of the wicked practices of evil men, seems in this 13 ^th verse to give us a general Character of them; They are of those that rebel against the light; As if he had said, Would you know what these men are who commit such horrid wickednesses, who oppress the poor, the fatherless, the widow; who detain the hire of the laborer, and send them away hungry and thirsty when they have done their work? would you know what sort or kind of men these are? I will tell you, They are of those that rebel against the light; that's their genius, or their strain. This general sense of the words doth very well agree with, and carry on the discourse which Job was upon.

Yet others conceive, that in this 13 ^th verse, and so forward, Job is describing another sort of wicked persons then those formerly mentioned. As if he had said, I have before spoken of those open sinners and sons of violence, such as sinned and cared not who saw them, impudent sinners; but now I will speak of a sort of close sinners, or sons of deceit, who do their work no whit more honestly, yet more modestly then the former; They are of those who rebel against the light, they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof; The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, &c. In which sense soever we take the context, the difference is not much, though I rather adhere unto the former.

He doth not say, they are of those who have not the light, or they are of those to whom the light hath not shined, he saith not they are of those who sit in darkness, and in the valley of the shadow of death, but they are of those that rebel against the light, as implying the presence of the light with them, and their contempt of it.

This word is often used in Scripture for rebellion against any lawful authority or power set over others to rule and govern them, and that's the Importance of it here, they rebel: and from this word Nimrod had his name, who was the first noted rebel that ever was in the world; Nimrod was a great Prince among men, but he became so by rebellion against God. Here Job discovers Nimrods or rebels against the light. But what was the light, against which they rebelled?

Light may be considered two ways; Either properly, or figuratively; we may understand the text of light in a proper sense, and some insist chiefly upon that. They rebel against the light; that is, against the very light of he Sun, or the ordinary daylight; as if he had said, If it were in the power of these men they would even pull the Sun out of the firmament of heaven, that they might sin unseen. I will not, as some Interpreters do, fix the Exposition here, though I grant, this sense may be taken in, wicked men love natural darkness, and hate even natural light, the light of the Sun, because it seldom serves but often hinders their occasions.

Secondly, Take light figuratively for the light of knowledge, so it is more true, that wicked men rebel against it: and that light in this notion should be here meant, the words plainly imply; For though some wicked men would be willing to be shut of the day light, yet it is hard to say they rebel against it: and those other passages, not to know the ways of it, and not to abide in the paths of it, are not so proper and significant to set forth their desire and endeavor of avoiding natural light. So that the light rebelled against is rather an Internal light, that light which shines into the soul, then that which shines to the eye; and There is a twofold internal light, against which wicked men may be said to rebel.

First, The light of nature, or natural internal light; There is a light of nature, or as some call it, a light of the natural conscience, which every man carrieth about him, concerning good and evil, or what is to be done, and what is to be left undone. The Apostle is direct for this ( Rom. 2.14.) The Gentiles having not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, these having not the Law (that is, the law of God formally published to and pressed upon them) are a law unto themselves (that is, they have the law of nature in common principles and notions of righteousness in themselves) and (therefore) show the work of the law written in their hearts. Against this internal light the wicked rebel.

Secondly, There is a light of divine Revelation, which shines into the soul from the Scriptures, or written word of God. The word of God is so often called light in Scripture, that I need not give particular Instances. Divine truths inspired and directed by the Spirit of God are there written as with the beams of the Sun. Yet the wicked man rebels, as against the light of nature, so against the light of Scripture, against the clearest and fullest discoveryes of the mind of God.

Further; Some by the light against which they rebelled, understand God himself, who is light (as the Apostle John calls him, (1 Ep: 1.5.) and in him is no darkness at all. All that rebel against God, must needs rebel against light, seeing God is light. And the very reason why the light of nature, and the light of Scripture are rebelled against, is, because the former hath somewhat of God in it, and the latter much of God in it; For as God is light, so all light is of God. And that light which is of God must needs be rebelled against by wicked men, seeing they most of all rebel against God, who is light and the fountain of it; for as the Apostle John argues about love, 1 Ep: 5.1.) Everyone (saith he) that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. So we may argue about hatred and the effect of it, rebellion; He that hateth and rebelleth against him that begetteth light (so God doth, whence also he is called the Father of lights, (Jam: 1.17.) he, I say, that rebelleth against him that begetteth light) hateth and rebelleth against that light, which is begotten of him. They are of those that rebel against the light.

Hence observe.

As the Sun gives light to the eye, or outward man, so the Spirit of truth gives light by the word to the inner man. When God sends his word to a people, he sends light to a people: Christ is light, and the word is light; Christ in person, is the light of the world; the word in doctrine, is the light of the world: The truth of Divine Revelation is many ways answerable to the light.

First, Light is pure, and beautiful, and the light is so pure, that you cannot impure, or defile it; so is truth: Though many have attempted to corrupt the truth and word of God, and shall at last be dealt with and judged, as they who have corrupted it; yet the truth remains incorruptible, and ever shall. The beauty of it fades not, nor is the purity of it stained, by all the filth of false doctrine which hath been cast into the face of it, from the beginning of the world unto this day.

Secondly, Light is pleasant and delightful; Light is sweet (saith Solomon, Eccl. 11.7.) and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun: So truth is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to behold and receive the Sun-light of Divine Revelations, where truth is taken in, it doth even ravish the soul and fill it with unspeakable delights. Truth is as suitable and pleasant to the understanding, as good is or can be to the will and affections. David found not only delight, this or that single delight, but all sorts and degrees of delight in the Law of God; And therefore he speaks plurally ( Psal. 119.92.) Unless my delights had been in thy law, I had perished in my trouble. And again ( ver. 143.) Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me; yet thy commandments are my delights. All his troubles were over-balanced and conquered by his delights in the law, and all his delights and contentments were Center'd in the Law. That light was so much his delight, that it overcame all worldly darkness, and did even extinguish all his worldly lights.

Thirdly, Light hath heat in it, and light is accompanied with influences, or conveighes them with it. All living creatures here below are cherished and refreshed, yea and things without life, as Gemms and mineralls are concocted and refined with the warmth and virtue of it. And so hath truth; The light of the word carrieth heat and Influences with it, to warm the heart and comfort it, to concoct the grossenes of man's mind and sublimate it into an heavenly purity. Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way? and while he opened to us the Scriptures, said the Disciples of Christ's discourse with them, Luk. 24.31.

Fourthly, Light discovers and makes manifest; so doth truth, ( Joh 3.20, 21.) Everyone that doth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, or (as we put in the Margin) discovered. Light makes manifest; the word of God (as the Apostle speaks, Heb. 4.12.) is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, it discovers that to us, not only in others but in ourselves, which we saw not before; we are much, if not altogether, unknown to ourselves, till we see ourselves in the Glass of the Word.

Hence observe.

We cannot be said to rebel against anything but that which hath power and authority over us; a man may oppose and contend with his equal, but he cannot be said to rebel against his equal; we rebel only against those that are above us. If a child opposeth his father, it is rebellion; if a servant opposeth his Master, it is rebellion, because fathers and masters have authority over their children and servants. All rebellion is the breaking of the bands of subjection. And all the bands of subjection are broken when the light is rebelled against, because the light of heavenly truth, is invested with all power and authority over us; it hath a power to lift up and a power to humble or cast down; It hath a power to convince, and a power to comfort; It hath a power to kill, and it hath a power to make alive; all these powers the light of the word hath. But it hath two powers more especially and eminently.

First, It hath the power of a rule, or power to rule and govern both the hearts and lives of men; the light of the word doth not only offer advice, and give Council, but it gives out a Command, what the word speaketh we are not upon point of Indifferencies whether we Will receive it or no, but upon point of duty. Therefore not to receive it, especially to resist it is rebellion; the light of the word is as a King, and where the light of that word comes, there is power, and no man may say, What doth it?

Secondly, It hath the power of a Judge; It gives both Law and Judgment. He that rejecteth me (saith Christ, Joh, 12.48.) and receiveth not my words (The not receiving of the word of Christ, is the rejecting of Christ himself, and he that rejecteth Christ) hath one that Judgeth him, the word that I have spoken, the same shall Judge him in the last day. The word is now the rule of living, and it shall be hereafter the rule of Judging; Now it is the rule by which we must live to Christ, and then it shall be the rule by which Christ will Judge us.

Thirdly, Where it is said, They are of those who rebel against the light; Observe.

They would neither see their wicked practices, nor be seen in them. They are darkness, and they walk in darkness. As they walk in the darkness of sin, so they would walk in the darkness of secrecy, that others should not see what evil they do, and in the darkness of ignorance, that they might not see that what they do is evil. They are like those uncouth Creatures, Batts, and Owls, that come abroad only in the night, knowing that if they do but stir out in the day, all the birds in the air will gather about them, and hoote at them, because of their strangeness and deformity. And doubtless if wicked men did but see the misshapen and ugly visage of their own ways in the light of the word, they would abhor and run from themselves as the most abhorred monsters in the world, and so would all men (who see the uglynes of sin in the glass of the word) abhor them and point at them as monsters, did they but see them in their sinful works. And hence the Apostle (hinting the general disposition of sinners) saith (1 Thes. 5.7.) They that are drunken are drunken in the night. And again ( Ephes. 5.12.) For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, that is, when they are out of the sight of men, and, possibly, had it not been that they were out of sight, or in secret, themselves would not have done those things for shame; For though some wicked men, as they have cast off their honesty, so their modesty too, and act not only wickedly, but impudently, the show of their faces testifying against them, they declaring their sin as Sodom; yet as the most of sinners presume God doth not see them when they do evil, so they are unwilling that men should; for though their Conscience puts no bar to their sinning openly, yet their credit doth. So that as every wicked man would be glad he did not know that what he doth is evil, and doth what he can to hinder or extinguish the light of that knowledge in him, so most wicked men would be glad that no man knew of the evil which they do, and they do what they can to hinder others from knowing it; as hypocrites love to be seen in all the good they do, and would do no good, were it not (as Christ assures us, Math. 6.5.) to be seen of men; They fast, and pray, and give Alms, and all to be seen of men, that is, that men may applaud them, and point at them with a Behold (of admiration) There go the men, The charitable men, The humble men, The devout men; and if men see them not, or applaud them not, they are as in the shadow of death, they are dead-hearted to every good word and work. Now (I say) as all gross hypocrites love the light, or to be seen while they are doing good, so the most profane and wicked usually avoid the light, and love not to be seen when they are doing evil. For though they are not troubled at the dishonor they do to God by sinning, yet to be dishonored among men is a trouble to them. They can easily venture their souls as to the life to come, but they are afraid to do wickedly in the sight of men, lest they endanger their ease and safety in this present life. That God seeth them not is their hope, that men may not see them is their care, and that they may not see themselves is their desire. They are unwilling to know their duty, lest their consciences should check them for not doing, or for doing that which is not their duty. Thus in every sense, They are of those who rebel against the light.

Fourthly, As rebelling against the light, is an argument (as hath been shown) that wicked men desire not to know what they ought to do, so it teacheth us Further,

Men will have fellowship with the works of darkness, while their eyes are dazzled with light, if their hearts have not been changed by it. They would be glad if they might never be troubled with the light, but suppose the light do come (as many times it doth come whether they will or no) suppose the light darted upon them so clearly and convincingly, that they cannot but see and know what they ought, and what they ought not to do, yet they rebel against it; either they will not do what they know, or they will do contrary to their knowledge. When some of the Pharisees were offended at those words ( Joh. 9.39.) For Judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind: What, say they, are we also blind? Jesus said unto them, if ye were blind ye should have no sin, but now ye say we see, therefore your sin remaineth; that is, it remaineth in the guilt and aggravations of it. For as they eonfessed that they saw, so Christ would convince them that they acted against what they saw, or that though they had the light, and so knew their duty, yet they had done contrary to duty. Man breaks through all the light that stands in his way, he breaks through the light both of nature and Conscience, both of the Spirit and Scripture, till himself be made light. The Apostle demonstrates the former in the example of the old Gentiles, who though they were under a conviction of the power and presence of God by the works of Creation, and so were said to know God, yet they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, nor did they glorify him as God, (ver. 21.28.) but rebelled against that light which shone into their understandings from the creature. And in the second Chapter of the same Epistle to the Romans the Apostle demonstrates the latter in the example of the old Jews, who though they were under a conviction not only of the power and and presence of God, but of the mind and will of God also, by a divine Revelation, or by the light of the word, yet they rebelled against that word which they boasted of; and while they judged themselves only in the light, and all the rest of the world in darkness, they walked in darkness. Behold (saith he, v. 17, 18.) thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, &c. But how did the Jew answer this knowledge and this boast, read that ( v. 21, 22, 23, 24.) Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, doest thou steal: Thou who makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. So that wicked men do not only rebel against the light to hinder the coming of it, or to keep it off as long as they can, that so they may not know what to do, but they rebel against it when it is come, and will do against what they know.

Fifthly, When 'tis said, They rebel against the light.

Observe.

They are in open actual hostility, they take up arms and maintain a war against it; not that all wicked men do expressly send forth their defiance against God and his word, but all wicked men carry this defiance in their hearts, and it is to God as an openly professed defiance, though it be not so to man; God hears the language of their hearts, and he knows that the wisdom (or best) of the flesh is Enmity against himself, that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom. 8.7.) That is, while a man continues (as to his spiritual state) under the power & teachings of the wisdom of the flesh, and is unregenerate, as he is not so it is impossible he should (continuing in that state) be subject to the law of God. The law of God will ever continue as holy as it is, and if the heart of man continue as unholy as it is, how shall they agree? A wicked man stands not upon terms of neutrality with the law and light of God, but he is a direct opposite or enemy, he rebels against the light.

Sixthly, Seeing Job when he had described all those wickednesses which he saw done, adds this description of the wicked who did them, they are of those that rebel against the light. This may be Considered two ways (as I intimated before) first, as the discovery of a new and a greater sin then any of those particular sins already instanced in; or as a reason why they did break out into those enormous sins; the former consideration yields this Note.

As God sometimes brings Judgments upon men in perfection, so men sin against God sometimes in perfection. And if any do so, surely they do so, who rebel against the light: That special sin against the Holy Ghost, of which Christ saith, It shall never be forgiven; what is it? but rebellion against the light, the highest and clearest light? and the more clear and high the light is, the more danger there is of falling into that sin. And hence some conceive that before Christ came in the flesh, though there were very high and presumptuous sins committed, that yet none of them did amount to that which the Gospel calls, The sin against the Holy Ghost. There was Gospel-light in those times, but it was under types and shadows, there was not that clear light, that clearest light which was shed abroad at the coming of Christ, and therefore there was not light enough to sin against, for the production of that sin against the holy Ghost, which is not only the greatest rebellion against light, but is also a rebellion against the greatest light. And here consider by what degrees, sinning against light riseth unto its full height of rebellion.

First, It is very sinful and extremely dangerous, not to love the light. See how Christ thunders against such as do not ( Joh. 3.19.) This is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather then light: He doth not say, men rebelled against the light, he only charges them with this crime, that they did not love it, but loved darkness rather. This, saith he, is the Condemnation; that is, this will certainly be matter of condemnation against sinners, that when light came to them, their hearts did not close with it, and embrace it. Now if it be so sinful not to love the light, what is it to rebel against it? It is very possible for a man not to love that thing or person against which yet he doth not rebel.

Secondly, Not to obey, not to submit to the light, is exceedding sinful. Jesus Christ shall at last be revealed from heaven (personally) in flaming fire to take vengeance on them, that obey him not as revealed (doctrinally) that is, who obey not the Gospel (2 Thes. 1.7, 8.) yet it is possible not to obey the Gospel, that is, to forbear an active obedience to that which is Commanded in it, and not to rebel against it actively, these are distinct in themselves, though seldom, if at all, distinct in those that do them. Now then if there be abundance of wickedness in not obeying the light, in not doing everything that the light directs us to; then it must needs be a more abounding wickedness, when the heart rises up and rebels against it. For though (as was even now intimated) we can hardly divide these in their existences, yet we may distinguish them in their natures, or at least in their degrees; for barely not to obey the light in doing the will of God, is a sin of a lower stature, then a professed rebelling against it; though in every not doing according to light, there is somewhat of rebelling, yet in that which is properly rebelling, there is more then not doing.

Thirdly, It is a great sin not to set a great price upon the light, or not to value it according to its worth; that is, not to value it highly, not to have a high esteem of it, not to have a higher esteem of it then of all the Enjoyments and Comforts of this world, is a high provocation. What is it then to rebel against it? it is sinful not to let all go, not to suffer the loss of all for the light, not to suffer even the loss of life it self for the light, this is extremely sinful. Therefore saith Christ ( Luk. 14.26.) He that will be my Disciple must forsake father and mother, &c. yea and his life too; that is, he must be ready to let all these go if called to it, rather then let go the light or truth of the Gospel. Now if it be so great a sin not to be willing to suffer any loss, or to endure any torment in standing up for the light; what is it for any soul to rise up against the light, or knowingly to withstand it?

Fourthly, The Apostle saith, that our neglect of the light of the Gospel subjects us to outer darkness ( Heb. 2.3.) How shall we Escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, &c. As if he had said, the wisest man in the whole world, cannot tell how a man should escape eternal darkness or damnation (there is no possible way, no door of hope to escape by) if he neglect that great salvation. But what's neglect? it is a light passing by of a thing, when offered; non-acceptance, is a neglect. Suppose you do no more, when light is offered to you, but only pass it by, because you have no mind to it, you are not taken with the beauty and worth of it; If you do nothing against it, only you do not embrace it, you cannot escape. And when the Apostle saith, you cannot escape, without saying from what; you may say the worst you can or can imagine, and that's it which he means you cannot escape, even the wrath of God and death eternal. Now if but to neglect salvation or the light, which is indeed, only not to elect it, or not to make it our choice, be so damnable a sin, what is it to rebel against the light? to do which is the worst that we can do, even the perfection of wickedness. Surely they who thus rebel against the light, shall (as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. 49.19.) Go to the generation of their fathers, where they shall never see light. They who rebel against the light of knowledge, shall not enjoy the light of comfort. As they have desired the absence of the former light, so they shall be punished with the absence of the latter.

Lastly, As in these words Job shows who they were that acted those gross wickednesses, even they who rebelled against the light; We may observe.

They who rebel against this beautiful thing light, are forward to embrace the foulest monster; Those things which 'tis a shame to speak of, or so much as to name, these rebels against light are ready to do. The Psalmist moves God in prayer to look to his Covenant by this argument ( Psal. 74.20.) For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty; that is, of cruel men, or of men so full of cruelty, that they deserve rather to be called cruelty, then cruel, this sort of men inhabit and fill up all those places where the light of holy truth doth not shine. Now if they who want the light, or have no true knowledge of God among them, are hereby (as it were) prepared for and put on to the acting of all manner of wickedness, how much more are they prepared for the acting of any wickedness who have thrust the light from them, and are in dark places of their own making. The Prophet Hosea shows ( Chap. 4.1.) that where there is no knowledge of God in a land (for want of means) there is no truth nor mercy, (that is, there is none exercised) in that land, but oppression, deceit, and falsehood, bear down all; how much more must it be so where there is no knowledge of God in a land, because of the contempt of means, and rebellion against the light. What wickedness will not they do in the dark, who put out the Candle that they may not see what they do? These are they who rebel against the light, and as it followeth,

These latter words are an illustration of the former.

This not knowing may be taken either for a simple ignorance, when we know not, either because we have not an ability to know, or because we have wanted all opportunities and helps to get knowledge; or, secondly, not knowing may be expounded of a willful affected ignorance; they know not, that is, they desire not to know: and so I conceive the meaning of they know not, is not that they were simply ignorant, or invincibly ignorant, as they are who sit in a land of darkness, and in the valley of the shadow of death, but that these rejected the land of light, and so were under an affected ignorance; They knew not the truth, because they would not.

Again, We may be said not to know that, which we do not delight in, approve and practice. We know no more to purpose, then we presently do, or have a purpose to do when the season or opportunity calls us to it. How much light soever a wicked man hath, yet he knows not the ways of light, because he doth not rejoice or delight in the ways of light, as also because he doth not so much as approve the ways of light; and if he neither delight in nor approve of those ways, no marvel if he walk not in those ways, nor (as 'tis in the last clause of the verse) abide in the paths thereof.

As if he had said; Suppose they come sometimes into the ways of light and truth, suppose they sometimes do that which the light directs them to, yet they abide not in it. This is a further Character of the disposition and temper of wicked men, who though possibly for a fit, or for a turn or two they walk in the ways of light, yet they abide not in the paths thereof. And this latter piece of their sinfulness ariseth from the former; why do they not abide in the paths of light? even because they know not the ways thereof; that is, because they do not approve or delight in the ways thereof. Whence note.

If a man doth not know, that is, love and affect the ways of light, he will never abide in the paths of light; what we love, with that we close, what we affect, in that we stick. The reason why the wicked abide in the paths of sin, is because they love and delight in them. All the paths of wickedness, are paths of pleasantness to the wicked, and therefore they abide in them. No man would be at all, much less would he be long in a way that he doth not like. And that's the reason why wicked men if ever they do this or that particular act of righteousness and holiness, yet they cannot persevere in such actings. A wicked man doth Good as a godly man doth evil, upon a temptation, not upon approbation; some carnal aim or interest of profit or credit tempts him to do good, but he doth not approve the good which he doth. And hence it is that as a good man abides not in the paths of darkness, so a wicked man abides not in the paths of light. True holiness doth not begin at action, but at affection. They begin at the wrong end with Religion, who begin with doing rather then with liking. Many do this, and they do that, whereas they should strive to approve, and pray for a love to the truths and ways of God which they practice; for want of this they often apostati • e and fall back, even from the practice of them. No bonds can hold us always to the duties of obedience, but those of love to God, and to the things wherein duty calls us to obey. And as want of this love is the reason why man is so apt to backslide, and is (so far as a Negative may be) the very seed and principle of backsliding, so it is the reason why God gives such up to the power and spirit of backsliding. (2 Thes. 2.10, 11.) Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. What is not begun in our affections, will not abide long in our actions.

Secondly, Observe.

They who are not what they appear in goodness, will not always so much as appear good. They that are (as Jacob spake of his eldest Son Reuben (Gen. 49.4.) unstable as water, shall not excel, nor are they to be numbered among the excellent ones. The Apostle exhorts Saints (1 Cor. 15.58.) To be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Saints move in the work of the Lord, but they must not move out of the work of the Lord, Be ye steadfast and immovable; but in what? in the work of the Lord; That is the sphere in which Saints move, the sphere of their activity and use; and out of that they dare not move. The Sun in the firmament is moving continually, but it is in his proper line, called by Astronomers, The Eclipticke line; So a godly man is always moving in the way of godliness, that's his proper line, and he never moves out of it wholly; He may have (through the power of corruption and temptation) his wanderings and goings astray, but then he hath his repentings and returnings into the way again; he cannot abide long much less always in the paths of darkness; He comes to himself with the prodigal, and then he comes to his father, he bethinks himself where he is, and comes backs into the path where he ought to be; if at any time he walk in the counsel of the ungodly (the gradation is made in the first Psalm) which thing he ought not to do, yet surely he will not (as it follows) stand in the way of sinners, or if he stand a while in that way, yet, he will not sit down in the seat of the scornful; he will not rest nor stay there. Now as it is an argument and a mark of Godlines, when a man finds, that though he hath many failings and wanderings, yet he abideth not in the paths of darkness; so it is an argument of the noughtines of a man's heart and state, when though he now and then hits upon the doing of a good thing, yet he abides not in the paths of light. Vain thoughts (as the Prophet Reproves the Jews ) lodge in the wicked so long, that the Lord complains, How long shall vain thoughts lodge in you? But as good thoughts seldom come to an ungodly man, so they lodge not at all with him; they are great strangers to him, and he useth them as the worst of strangers, yea as enemies, he quickly turns them off, yea he thrusts them away from him, he abideth not in the paths of light.

Job having thus set forth the Spirit of a wicked man, by his rebellion against the light, by his unaffectednes with and unstayednes in the ways and paths of it, proceeds to give us a further account of his wicked courses and works of darkness.

The murderer is he that killeth a man without warrant and authority; every slaying of a man is not murder, but to slay a man, or to take away the life of a man without warrant, that's murder: And that's the gross sin forbidden in the sixth Commandment, Thou shalt not kill, or thou shalt do no murder. And this is usually committed either in malice to the person, or in Covetousness after the spoil. Some take away the life of a man in malice to his person, they hate him deliberately, as Cain did Abel, and therefore they kill him. Others have no quarrel to the man, possibly they never saw him before, but they covet his goods, and that they may rob him of his goods, they rob him of his life. They are such as live upon the spoil, and they will spoil, though they cause the innocent to die for it, and themselves too in the end. In either of these ways, we may understand the murderer here. The former, because 'tis said in the next words, He slays the poor and needy, and there is little gain in their blood when they go down into the pit. The latter, because 'tis said in the latter part of the verse, That in the night he is as a thief. But Job first shows us that this murderer is a diligent man.

That is, rising as early, or as soon as the light riseth. The murderer is no sluggard, the light doth not find him in bed; he takes the prime of the morning, he will loose no time. Men who love hunting rise early; So do these hunters of men. When the morning is light they practice it, saith the Prophet ( Mich. 2.1.) Honest men rise early to go about the works of their Calling, and wicked men rise early to fulfill the lusts of their hearts. David saith, ( Psal. 101.7.) I will early destroy all the wicked of the Earth; As if David had said, I will rise with the light to destroy the wicked; and here you see how the wicked are described rising Early to destroy the righteous, to murder the Innocent. So the next words express the design of his early rising; He riseth with the light; what to do? no good I warrant you, 'tis

To kill the poor and needy. That's his busienes; He begins his mornings work with a work of cruelty; you hear of killing presently. The murderers heart is full of blood, and it will not be long ere his hand be full too, for their feet are swift to shed blood (Rom. 3.15.) and they are skillful to destroy. But it may seem that they are not very wise for themselves, though they are very bloody against others; For Job doth not say, they slay the fat and full ones, but

There are some who distinguish between these two, and tell us that in these two words, two yea all sorts of poor are Included.

The first word, they say, intends those poor who heretofore were rich, but now empoverished or fallen into poverty; and that by the second word are meant those who have been born and always bred up in a low condition; But we need not stand upon such nicities in distinguishing between the poor and needy. But it may be inquired, why doth the murderer kill the poor? what doth he get by that? where are the spoils which he brings home? There's nothing to be had from them who have nothing, The poor and needy. And it hath been anciently said, The empty traveler will sing before the Thief; why then should the Thief or the murderer meddle with, especially why should he kill the poor and needy? What have they? or what have they done?

Two things may be said in answer to these queries; first, it is thus expressed to show the extreme wickedness of the murderer, who doth not care so much for booty as for blood. 'It is for that he thirsts, his delight is in cruelty, therefore he kills the very poor and needy, the next man he meets with, let him be what he will. 'It is the sin it self, or to do wickedly, which some men delight in, they care not whether any advantage or profit come in by it; when they have their will, when they have don what they would, that's reward enough for them.

Hence Note.

All the true servants of God love the work which he sets them, better then the reward which he gives them, and so do some servants of the Devil. Even the Devil hath servants who scorn to be mercenary. The act of sin is sweeter to them then any profit that sin can bring in; They are exact and perfect sinners, who sin out of love to the very act of sinning: As the highest acting in holiness is to be pleased with pure acts of holiness; To do them though we should get nothing by doing them, though we make no earnings, though we see no present fruit in doing them. Thus (I say) to go on in ways of holiness when the ways of holiness appear barren and unprofitable to us, yea when they are unsafe and dangerous to us, here's the perfection of holiness. So the perfection of wickedness is to be wicked when nothing is got by it; it shows a sincere love to sin (as I may say) to love sin for sins sake; as it shows a sincere love to Grace and goodness, to love them for their own or God's sake. Hypocrites love the ways of God for the spoil which they find there, for the carnal advantages which they meet with there; were those ways poor and needy, lean and empty, they should not at all be filled with their company. The profane will rise up in Judgment against these professors, for they kill the poor and needy; They do evil, where they cannot have any hopes of receiving good by it.

Secondly, For answer; By The poor and needy, we may here understand the Innocent and honest, not as if all who are poor and needy, were also Innocent (for there are many wicked poor) nor as if all who are innocent, were also poor and needy (for there are many godly rich) but because usually they are so: men that are rich and great may be Innocent and holy, but these are rare conjunctions; usually the Innocent are poor and needy. Again, we are not to take the poor and needy for them who (as we say) have not a penny to buy them bread, but by the poor we understand those of the middle or rather Inferior rank, such poor and needy they kill.

But what's their quarrel at them?

First, Because such poor honest men stand in the light of wicked men, that is the wicked cannot be so wicked as they would, because some good men are near them, and therefore they must be removed out of the world, that they may be out of their way. Or, secondly, because such poor honest men either have given, or are ready to give evidence, or be witnesses against them before the Magistrate: now, either to prevent or revenge this, they rise with the light and kill the poor and needy.

Hence Observe.

He will kill some that he may vex others; that's his aim here, the poor and needy are not his utmost aim; but the poor and needy stand in his way, they hinder him in his other projects. And whatsoever interposeth between him and the enjoyment of his lust, he will remove it if he can. And as he will kill some that he may vex others, so he will much rather kill those who vex him. Holy David being left under the power of a strong Temptation, slew Uriah an innocent man, only because he could not persuade him to do that which might have been some covering of his sin from the eyes of men. How much more will the profane do so, when honest men do either professedly oppose them in their sinful works, or discover the sinfulness of them.

Further, In that Job upon the fresh account which he gives of the wickednesses of men, brings in the murderer in the first place, rising with the light and killing the poor and needy. We may here take notice, a little, of the greatness of this sin of murder, and demonstrate how great a sinner the murderer is. The murderer is a sinner of the highest form, and there are two Scripture Considerations in general, upon which we may make this out.

First, How sinful is it for a man to murder a man, when as the Scripture tells us that if a beast kill a man he must suffer for it: ( Exod. 21.28.) If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be Eaten. A beast is not capable of subjection to a moral rule or law, as not being capable of reason, yet a beast who is not properly under any Law must die for transgressing this Law, Thou shalt not kill; And this surely, First, to convince man of the greatness of this sin; secondly, to admonish him lest he commit this sin; thirdly, to assure him, that if he do he must die; For if a beast must die for killing a man, then much more must man, seeing that Law, against the killing of a man, was given to men, not to beasts.

Secondly, The Lord gave a rule to the Jews, what to do for the removing of the guilt of blood, in case a man were found slain and no man could tell who was the Author of that murder, read this at large ( Deut. 21.) from the beginning of the Chapter to the end of the 9 ^th verse; If one be found slain in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and it be not known (after diligent enquiry, or hue and cry) who hath slain him; Then the Elders of thy Judges shall come forth, and they shall measure (in case there be a doubt which City was nearest to the place where the slain was found) unto the Cities which are round about him that is slain. And it shall come to pass, that the City which is next unto the slain man (for from thence it was most probable that the murderer came, or that thither he was fled to hide and conceal himself, therefore) even the Elders of that City shall take an heifer which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke (therein fitly shadowing the murderer, in whose stead the heifer was to be slain; for such are sons of Belial, men who will not bear the yoke of obedience) And the Elders of the City shall bring down the heifer into a rough valley (the very place was to carry a resemblance of a murderous spirit, and of the act of murder, both being rough and uncouth) and shall strike off the heifers neck there in the valley (implying that if they could have got the murderer into their hands, he must have died under their hand.) Then the Priest must come to decide the controversy ( ver. 5.) and (at the 6 ^th verse) The Elders of the City that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley (washing of the hands, was, first, an argument that blood defileth; secondly, it was a ceremony which implied innocence and clearenes from blood, as appears by a like action of Pilate (Math. 27.24.) But these Elders must not only use this speaking ceremony, to show their innocence, but they must explicitly profess it ( ver. 7.) And they shall answer and say, our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. And then the Priest must pray ( ver. 8, 9.) Be merciful O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge, and the blood shall be forgiven, so shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. This solemn Law and the manner of proceeding upon it, shows three things, as to the point in hand. First, that the Lord is very tender of shedding man's blood; secondly, that the shedding of man's blood in any murderous way is extremely displeasing to him. Thirdly, That God will certainly bring vengeance one time or other first or last, upon the murderer, seeing a whole City should be charged, in some degree, with the blood of a man slain near them, if they did not publicly and solemnly declare and testify their clearenes from it.

But besides these two general Considerations taken from Scripture, and now instanced in; There are many other grounded both upon Scripture Authority, and common reason, which set forth the vileness of this sin of murder.

First, Murder offereth violence to nature in common, there being but one common nature in all men. And hence

Secondly, He that murders another offers violence to himself; for though there be a special sin of self-murder, yet the murder of another is self-murder too, and that not only as it is an offering of violence to common nature, but also as it lays the murderers own person open & obnoxious unto violence, and that, both to the violence of a private revenge, and to the violence of public Justice.

Thirdly, Murder destroys society, men will never live together where they find themselves continually in danger of their lives: Man is a sociable creature by nature, how sinful then is murder, which breaks the very first fundamental laws of Nature?

Fourthly, Murder doth not only defile the person that commits it, but the land also in which it is committed. ( Numb. 35.31.33.) Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death, and he shall surely be put to death; so ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Murder as acted defileth the person only that acts it, but murder (when known) defileth a whole land, if it go unpunished. In which case there may be defilement upon a land by many other sins, but this is especially expressed of murder, as if that among and above all sins were the land-defiling sin.

Fifthly, Murder is not only an injury to man, but an impiety against God; and that's the reason given in the first Law which God made against it, ( Gen. 9.6.) Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the Image of God made he man. For though the body of a man slain be not in the Image of God, yet the person slain is, even the person of a wicked man hath somewhat of the Image of God remaining in him. And therefore that law is to be expounded universally; whosoever the man is, whether good or bad, righteous or wicked, whose blood is unrighteously shed; by man (that is, by man who hath a call to it as being a Magistrate) shall his blood be shed, that is, he by his authority shall (upon proof) condemn him to die, and shall give him up to execution. A contempt of the Image of God in man, is a contempt of God. And he takes it as a high affront to his Majesty, that any should presume to deface or spoil his Image, And this doth more aggravate their sin, who oppose, vex, and destroy godly men, because they oppose that more excellent Image of God, the new Creature, or the Image of God renewed in righteousness and true holiness. As there is an image or likeness of God in every man, so much more in a godly man, for Godliness is true God-likeness. Therefore to shed the blood of a Godly man is a higher affront to the Majesty of God. As the new wine is in the cluster, and one saith destroy it not for a blessing is in it (Isa. 65.8.) So we may say, destroy not a Godly man, for a blessing is in him, (first, from God, and, secondly, for men) but we may say much more, Destroy him not for the Image of God is in him.

Sixthly, Murder deprives us of that which is most precious in the whole compass of nature; And according to the value of that wherein the damage is received, is the greatness of the sin committed. Satan represented life better then all other things ( Job 2.4.) Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life; Gold and silver, houses and lands are but toys and trifles to life. There is nothing of man except his soul (which cannot die) better then his life. And this the murderer takes away. A murderer is the greatest thief, and the vainest one, he steals away that from another which is to him of highest value, yet that which himself cannot carry away, nor make any use of.

Seventhly, The sinfulness of murder appears in this; That it is not only a wrong to that particular person who is murdered, but a wrong to all that have dependence upon him. The life of one man may have an Influence upon many; wife and children, the whole family, and kindred, all relations, and employments, whether more private, or public, are wronged and suffer in his death. Though that which cuts off a man's life, cannot cut off his own hope (if he have a well-grounded one) for things to come, yet it cuts off the hopes of all others depending upon him (as an instrument in the hand of God) for good things present.

Eighthly, The murderer takes away that from a man which no man can restore to him, or repair him in; he takes away that which is Impossible for him to give again. He that took away a man's goods was bound by the law of God to restore it fourfold, or fivefold, or sevenfold, (according to the case) and possibly he might restore it an hundredfold, but he that takes away a man's life, hath taken that which (though he would) he cannot restore so much as single. The law of nature will not suffer the murderer to restore life, for 'tis like water which being spilled cannot (by any human power) be gathered up again; and the law of God saith concerning the sin of murder, that no satisfaction shall be taken for it, and indeed none can. For though some would commute and have (by the sinful indulgence and cruel pity of unjust Magistrates) commuted for it, yet none could ever satisfy for it. And when Magistrates either through foul corruption, or foolish compassion, have not taken vengeance upon the murderer in kind, but have suffered him to commute, or compound for that sin, either by paying a pecuniary penalty, or by undergoing some punishment less then death, God hath taken vengeance upon them for it, and hath said to them in his providences as he said to Ahab by his Prophet for the sparing of Benhadad (1 Kings 20.42.) Because ye have let go out of your hand a man whom I had appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people shall be cut off by the sword, because your sword did not cut off the murderer. Whole nations have been filled with blood by this kind of keeping back the hand from blood.

Lastly, The murderer hurts others, but he chiefly hurts himself. Some expound Lamech confessing this with sorrow ( Gen. 4.23.) while he said unto his wives, Hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. There are divers other Interpretations and readings of those words, and we put in the Margin, I would slay a man in my wound, and a young man in my hurt, As if he had boasted of his strength to his wives, that though he were weak with wounds and hurts, yet he would venture to fight with any man, and doubted not to get victory over him & kill him: and so the words carry a sense like that speech of the Prophet ( Jer. 37.10.) telling the Jews that theirs were vain confidences while they hoped to be delivered from the Chaldeans who besieged them; for, saith he, Though there remained but wounded men among them, yet they should rise up every man in his tent, and burn this City with fire. But as to our reading, I have slain a man to my wounding. Some expound it only of a bodily wounding, I have got a wound myself, or I have hurt myself while I slew a man; much more is this true of a spiritual wounding, and hurt to the soul and Conscience; for though a murderer slay a man, and come off with a whole skin, yet he slayeth a man to his wounding, and killeth him to his hurt. The Rabbins have a tradition upon that place; that Lamech having been a great hunter in his younger days being then grown old was led forth by his young man to take his pleasure in hunting, and shooting at Deere, and that while he was in this disport or exercise in the field, Cain passed by, and the young man pointed him to Cain, Lamech (being dim-sighted) shot at Cain and killed him instead of a wild beast; but soon after discovering that he had killed Cain, turned to the young man his guide in a passionate anger and killed him also. This relation they give as the reason why Lamech said, I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt: but I shall not stay upon that tradition of the Jews; and shall only make so much use of Lamechs confession, as at least to illustrate, if not to prove, the point in hand, that he who slayeth a man doth it to his own hurt and wounding, often to the wounding of his body, estate, and honor, always to the wounding of his own soul and conscience. Every sin in some degree or other wounds the soul; But the wounding of others to death is the chief sin (of all sins against the body and outward concernments of man) which woundeth a man's soul. The murderer at one blow strikes through the body of his neighbor and his own soul.

Further, we might observe from those words in the text, rising with the light:

But I noted this at the 5 ^th verse upon those words, Rising betimes for a prey, I shall not stay upon it here. I only add this; Let not us be slothful in doing good, seeing the murderer is so diligent and early up for the doing of mischief.

These words may be taken two ways; For

First, The Particle, as, is by some conceived not to be a note of similitude, but to carry on a direct predication, He is as a thief, that is, He is a very thief. We find elsewhere in Scripture, that a particle of likeness doth not only note the likeness of one thing to another, but the samenes of one thing with another. Taking it thus here; The meaning of the words is as if Job had said, He riseth betimes in the morning to play the murderer, and in the night he play's the thief. I have noted the same sense of the particle heretofore, first, from those words of the Evangelist concerning Christ ( Joh. 1.14.) We saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God; for Christ was not only like the only begotten Son of God, but he was really so: as also from that of the Prophet ( Hosea 5.10.) The Princes of Judah were as or like them that remove the bound, that is, they did remove the bound.

Secondly, Others keep to the similitude, and say the meaning of Job is not, that the murderer doth turn thief, or that he proceeds from killing in the day to stealing in the night; But say they, this verse is quite through a description of the murderer, as the next is of the Adulterer. So that to say, In the night he is as a Thief, imports only this; That in the night he doth carry himself very closely, and very secretly, or that as a thief in the night is close and sudden in stealing, so is he the murderer in killing. We have this similitude often used (1 Thess. 5.2.) The Coming of Christ shall be as a Thief in the night. Read also (2 Pet. 3.10. Revel. 16.15.) in which the same similitude of a Thief in the night is applied to Christ's coming, not as if we could hence conclude, that Christ will come in the night time, but that, whensoever he comes it shall be as in the night, that is, suddenly, and (as to any antecedent appearances) secretly upon the world, it shall be unexpected to them, they shall not know the time of it, nor shall they be aware of it, though, when he is once come, his coming shall be accompanied with so much light and luster, with so much splendor and power, as shall not only awaken, but astonish all the world. Thus it may be said of the murderer, In the night he is as a Thief. And

Hence, it may be noted.

First, That wicked men give themse • ves wholly to watch opportunities of doing mischief.

The murderer riseth early in the morning, and in the night is as a Thief: he takes his advantages in the day, and he will not forbear them in the night. As it shows the great assiduity of Saints in prayer when it is said, They cry to God day and night (Luk. 18.7.) day and night reach the whole compass of time. So while Job tells us that the wicked are doing mischief betimes in the morning, and that they are at it again in the night, if not all the night, What can be said more for their watchfullnes and assiduity in doing mischief? The Apostle ( Eph. 5.16.) exhorteth Saints to redeem the time because the days are evil; but we see in the present example, alleged by Job, that wicked men will redeem the time, that they may do evil. We cannot possibly redeem the time, by recalling or bringing back the time which is past, but we may redeem the time by our more diligent actings in the time present; Now, who can act more diligently in improving the time present, then they who are at work both day and night, which two distinctions of time include and carry all time. Let not the Godly be found Idling away the day, while the wicked are found laboring (at their work, such as it is) in the very night.

Again, We may note.

He doth it as a thief in the night. The murderer, who is at all times fierce and cruel, will sometimes be subtle and cunning; and this is the guise of other sinners too, especially of the Adulterer, whose secret conveyances and close contrivances for the attaining of his filthy delights, are elegantly described in the words which follow.

Before I come to open the particular terms of this clause, or to raise any observations from it, I shall give in somewhat about Adultery in general, which is the special subject of the whole verse. Adultery is the breach of the 7 ^th Commandment. And in that Commandment a twofold Adultery is forbidden. First, Mental, or the adultery of the mind; secondly, Corporal, or the adultery of the body. It was the former which Christ intended, when he corrected the false gloss or exposition of the Pharisees about the 7 ^th Commandment, ( Math. 5.27, 28.) Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. By which it appears, that the Pharisees, who were the chief interpreters of the Law in those times, limited the commandment against Adultery to the outward act; but Christ the Law-giver who best knew the mind of the Law, enlarged it to the prohibition of the internal act, & told them that there is a heart-adultery, an adultery in thought, occasioned by a vain or wanton glance and cast of the eye, as well as there's an Adultery of the body, or in the outward act.

The text in hand speaks only of corporal Adultery, though the other be not excluded as being the root of it. And This corporal adultery is taken in Scripture sometimes strictly, when either man or woman to satisfy their lust with others break their conjugal Bond; and is either that act of uncleanness which is committed by persons who are both engaged by marriage-covenant to mutual faithfulness, or when at least one of them is under that engagement. This latter is properly called single adultery; the former is double Adultery, or corporal Adultery in the highest and strictest sense of it. Secondly, Corporal Adultery is taken more largely, or in a lower sense for fornication or bodily uncleanness of any kind between man and woman. And so it is intended in the Commandment given against it; Thou shalt not commit Adultery.

The foulness and greatness of this sin of adultery (take it in either sense) appears many ways. The Apostle puts it in the front of the works of the flesh ( Gal. 5.19.) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, there is adultery with all its retinue; and ( Col. 3.5.) it is set as the first of our earthly members, which are to be mortified; mortify therefore your members which are upon earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection. Whereas in other Scriptures fornication is included under adultery, in this adultery is included under fornication.

Adultery strictly taken, hath a special sinfulness in it. First, as it is the breach of a Covenant; every sin hath in it a breach of Covenant in general, but there is a superadded breach of a special Covenant in this sin. Hence Solomon saith of the Adulteress ( Pro. 2.17.) that she forsaketh the guide of her youth. One of the Rabbin's expounds this woman mystically for the sensitive appetite, and that she is said to forsake the guide of her youth, because in youth appetite commonly forsakes reason, which is appointed to be the guide of it. But we may expound this guide either for her father, who had the government of her in her younger years, or else for her husband whom she married in her youth, and whom by marriage she received as the guide of her youth, under God, who is indeed the guide both of our youth and old age: and what guide soever the wife forsaketh, she chiefly forsaketh God who is her chief guide, and forgetteth the covenant of her God, that is, the covenant which God gave her in reference to that particular estate of marriage. Every believer is in covenant with God, in reference to his spiritual estate, but a married person hath a covenant with God in reference to that civil state; And Adultery is the breach of this covenant.

Secondly, This shows the sinfulness of Adultery, that it is a sin which cannot be committed alone, there is always a double sin, in this sin of adultery, two are defiled with it at once. In which sense it is worse then murder, and theft; For these may be committed, and but one defiled with the sinfulness of them. He that robs is guilty of stealing, not he that is robbed; He that murders is guilty of blood, not he that is murdered; But in Adultery, the Agent and patient are both alike guilty of uncleanenes; The defilement reacheth both.

Thirdly, The evil of this sin appears, by the many and manifold evils which it brings with it. Solomon hath set them forth very particularly and fully ( Pro. 6.26, 27, 28, 29, 30.) Lust not after her (that is, after the strange woman) in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids, (why not? First, thou mayest be undone in thy outward estate) by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread, (that is, he is ruined in all he hath by it, and brought to so low an ebb of poverty, that he hath scarce the worth of a piece of bread left) And (which is both a second and a worse evil) the adulteress will hunt for the precious life, which may either be understood of the natural life, (sometimes the adulterer is murtherd by the adulteress) or of that which is a more precious life then the natural, even the life of the soul, or the eternal good and happiness of the soul, she cares not to destroy body, and soul forever (so her lust may be satisfied) that's the gain which the adulteress pursues; she hunts for the precious life, the life of the soul. Thirdly, Solomon describes the evil of this sin in the 27 and 28 verses, by the guilt which it inevitably brings with it; Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burnt? can a man go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt? So he that goeth into his neighbors wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent, that is, he shall surely be very guilty. As if he had said, You can no more retain your innocence, while you commit this folly, then you can avoid being burnt when you carry fire in your bosom, or tread upon burning coals. Fourthly, the sinfulness of this sin appears, by the comparison which the Scripture makes between it and theft, ( Pro. 6.30, 31.) Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; it is a sin to steal, though it be to satisfy hunger; no necessity can excuse iniquity; and we should rather choose to starve then steal, if at least that may be called stealing, which is done merely to avoid starving; Therefore (saith Solomon) if he be found, he shall restore seavenfold, he shall give all the substance of his house; yet this sin of stealing which is to satisfy hunger is but a small sin compared with Adultery, which is only to satisfy a man's lust and bestial sensualnes. This Solomon affirms to us in the next words; But who so committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding, he that doth it destroyeth his own soul. He that stealeth, upon those terms doth it for want, but he that commits adultery upon any terms, doth it for wantonness. He that stealeth doth it for lack of bread, but he that commits adultery doth it for lack of understanding. He that stealeth when he is hungry doth it to satisfy his soul, but he that committeth Adultery, (though he doth it not with an intent to destroy his soul, yet in the issue he) destroyeth his own soul. But is not stealing a soul-destroying sin too? I answer, it is; and so is every sin in its own nature, but there are some sins (and among these Adultery is a chief one) which in the event prove usually more destructive to the soul, and have oftener destroyed it. And as this sin doth very often destroy the soul as to its happiness hereafter; so it destroyeth it as to its abiding here. Thus the soul may be said to be destroyed when the life is destroyed; and this destruction of the soul, Solomon seems directly to aim at, as the next words lead us to Judge ( ver. 33.) A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away, for jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

Another Scripture to be much minded in this point is that of S ^t Paul (1 Cor. 6.13, 14.) where writing to the Church of Corinth, (among which people that sin was very common before they were called to the knowledge of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel) he urgeth many arguments upon their consciences, to prevent their relapse into it. And we may discover six arguments which the Apostle useth in that place; I shall only touch them, and so return to the text in hand. The first appears at the close of the 13 ^th verse, Now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body; As if he had said, you put the body to a use for which it was never intended, the body is not for fornication, but, for the Lord, that is, for the Lord's use and service; and the Lord is for the body, that is, for the good and salvation of the body. Such is the wonderful goodness of God, that look in whatsoever we are for him, he is for us; As our bodies are for the Lord's service as well as our souls, so the Lord is for the good of our bodies, as well as for the good of our souls. And therefore our bodies ought to be employed for his Glory in everything. The second argument is taken from the resurrection; God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power, (ver. 14.) As if he had said, your bodies shall be raised again; if they were to be lost in the dust, then it were no great matter how you did defile, and abuse them, but as God hath raised up the Lord, so he will raise you up. Seeing then God hath promised, and you are such as profess faith in that promise, that your bodies shall be raised up out of the dust, to put on glory as a Garment in the last day, therefore in the mean time (while your bodies are in your keeping) do ye keep your bodies pure. Thirdly, He argues thus with the believing Corinthians, (v. 15th) Know ye not that your bodyos are the members of Christ; not only is the soul of a believer a member of Christ, but his body too, yet it is not properly either the body or the soul that is a member of Christ, but the person; for the union is made between Christ and the person of a believer, consisting of soul and body. But thus the Apostle argues, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ, shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of an harlot, God forbid. What! will ye dispose the members of Christ to so base a use? will ye who prefesse, yourselves joined to Christ, condescend to such a base conjunction? And hence he expostulates at the 16 ^th and 17 ^th verses, What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body for two, saith he, shall be one flesh, (They who abuse marriage, are as the married, The Adulterer and the harlot are one flesh as well as the husband and the wife) but he that is joined to the Lord (by faith and love) is one spirit; He hath a nearer and a more noble union then that of flesh, and therefore he ought to maintame the hight of honor and purity, both in mind and body; and as he is one Spirit with the Lord, so to make it good that he is guided and governed by one Spirit, and that The holy One. We have a fourth argument at the 18 ^•h verse, Flee fornication, why so? The reason is added, every sin that a man doth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body. But are all other sins without the body? I answer; first, other sins have the body as an instrument for the committing of them; if a man steal, the body is an instrument, if a man commit murder, the body is an instrument, but in this sin the body is more instrumental then in other sins, the body is chiefly instrumental, in this sin; so that comparatively to this, every sin that a man doth is without the body. And therefore this sin is more against the body then other sins are. Again secondly, when the Apostle saith, every sin is without the body, he is to be understood of those sins which are external, otherwise every sin that a man commits is not without the body, there are a thousand acts of sin that are done within the body, or in the soul, envy, wrath, malice, are sins within the body, being bred and acted in the Spirit. But we may say of every sin which is external, (about which the discourse there is) that comparatively to this sin of adultery & fornication, it is without the body. I answer, thirdly, The body is not only the instrument of this sin, but the object of it also; for the unclean person doth not only sin with his body, but he sins against his body; Adultery leaves that blot and brand of ignominy and baseness upon the body, which no other sin doth, making it the member of a harlot, as was touched before, and degrading it from that excellent honor whereunto God advanced it, even in a Natural consideration, much more degrading it from that honor, whereuntor God hath advanced it in a spiritual consideration. And as that was the Apostles third Argument, so, upon another relation of the bodies of believers, he makes his 5 ^th argument, which is laid down at the 19 ^th verse; What? know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy-Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own; As if he had said, A Temple is a holy and sacred thing, and will ye defile the Temple of the Holy-Ghost? The Jews, how angry were they? what an uproar did they make, when they thought Paul had brought Greeks into the Temple, who by the law were looked upon as profane persons, and so not to be admitted to come there; they cry out, This is the man that hath polluted this holy place (Acts 21.28.) Much more may it be urged upon Gospel-professors, what! commit such a sin as this? what! pollute the Temple of God? Know ye not (which every believer is bound to know) that your body is the Temple of the Holy-Ghost as well as the soul. The last argument concludes the 19 ^th verse, and is prosecuted in the 20 h; Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's. Redemption is a strong engagement, ye are bought, and dearly paid for, ye are bought with a price, ye are not your own. Some (who take liberty in this sin) would excuse themselves by the contrary argument. Our bodies (say they) are our own, and we may do what we will with our own. No, saith the Apostle, ye are bought with a price, ye are not your own; ye have your bodies of God, in their natural constitution, It is he who hath made us (in that capacity) and not we ourselves (Psal. 100.3.) and ye are not your own; for ye are redeemed or bought with a price, both body and soul. Ye are bought out of your own hands, as well as out of the hand of divine justice and displeasure. The Apostle speaks especially to believers; For though it be a truth concerning all, whether believers, or unbelievers, that they are not their own, none of the sons of men are their own, God hath a right to them by creation, as also by his continual providence, provision, and preservation, yet believers or the redeemed in a special manner, are not their own, and therefore they ought above others to glorify God in their body and in their spirit which are God's. Having thus opened several Scripture grounds and arguments to demonstrate the soulenes and filthiness of this sin of Adultery, which is the general subject of this verse; I shall now proceed in the exposition of particulars in it.

The word, also, refers to the murderer spoken of in the former verse; implying, that the Adulterer and he, though their sins are very different, yet agree much in taking their opportunities of sinning. How contrary soever sinners are in their particular practice, yet they have all one common principle and Spirit. The Murderer and the Adulterer are alike desierous of privacy. They both love darkness rather then light, or that which is neither, Twilight. Jeb seems to speak of a man, that is no novice, but of one long verst and practiced in this way of wickedness. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth, that is, the adulterer himself waiteth. Job doth not say, the Adulterer waiteth, but the eye of the Adulterer waiteth, because the eye is much in adultery; The eye hath so great a share in that sin, that the whole sin is here charged upon the eye. The Apostle Peter (2 Pet. 2.14.) speaks of a generation of evil men, having their eyes full of adultery, or (as the Greek Original hath it with much Emphasis) full of an Adultenesse. As if he had said; they are persons so given up to uncleanenes, that they have no desire to see anybody with their eyes but an Adulteress, nor is anything else to be seen in their eyes but Adultery. They are as impudent as they are unclean, letting out the Adultery which is in their hearts at their eyes, not caring who sees it. Adultery is seated in the heart, there's the fountain of it ( Math. 15.19.) Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy; Adultery comes out of the heart, but 'tis first seen in the eye, yea the eye often gives the first occasion of it to the heart. ( Math. 5.28.) Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Wanton love usually ascends by these five steps: First, the eye sees; secondly, the heart desires; thirdly, the thoughts are plotting and contriving how to attain what is desired; fourthly, there is hope to attain what is plotted, and, fifthly, there is joy and delight in the attainment of what was hoped. Thus usually the eye gives the occasion and leads the dance in all the meetings of vanity. The Ancient Moralist (in his book of the long-coming revenges of God ) makes report that one Apollidorus being in a dream saw his own skin pulled off by a barbarous Scythian, who then presently threw him into a chaldron of boileing water, where being tormented his heart whispered to him, I am the cause of all this. The heart is the cause of punishment and misery, remotely, because nextly it is the cause of sin, especially of this sin of Adultery, yet as the heart doth sometimes set the eye a work to find out objects, so the eye meeting with objects sets the heart awork, yea it sets the heart a fire, or all in a flame with vain desires and adulterous lustings. The eyes of some look out continually for the fuel of those secret fires, and the eyes of others meet with it unlooked for. A good man's eye may meet with a vain object, but his eye doth not go out to seek or wait for it. Against such active wickedness Job professed while he said ( Chap. 31.1.) I have made a covenant with mine eyes, &c. A godly man's eye hath somewhat else to wait upon, then such ensnaring objects. And the Psalmist tells us upon what the Godly man's eye waits ( Psal. 123.2.) Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their Masters, &c. so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us. The eye of a Godly man waiteth to receive Good, and the eye of a wicked man waiteth to do evil. The Adulterer hath a waiteing eye, and this waiteing notes three things.

First, That the Adulterer is very diligent, and intentive to attain his purpose; he that waits is more then awake; He is not only awake but watchful; both these are put together ( Pro. 8.34.) where the diligence of the Saints is spoken of in their waiteing upon Christ in his appointments; Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiteing at the posts of my doors; they who wait at the posts of wisdom, that is, of Christ, watch also at his gates; they watch there, and they wait there. It is possible for a man to watch, as watching is only opposed to sleeping, & yet not to wait, that is, not to be diligent or attentive upon any busienes, but he that watcheth, as watching is opposed to Idling, he is always waiting as long as watching, and he cannot but be watching, who is indeed waiting. Thus the Adulterer takes much pains to obtain his forbidden pleasures, his eye waiteth and watcheth, he is a diligent servant or slave rather to his lust; every man that commits sin, is a servant to sin, and every servant must wait; it is the duty of a servant to wait for his Lord, the adulterer waits upon his lust as upon his Lord, every lust would be waited upon as a Lord. Saints watch at wisdoms gates, and wait like servants at her posts to know her pleasure. Adulterers watch at whoredoms gates, and at her posts they wait for sinful pleasures.

Secondly, To wait, implieth the exercise of much patience; he that waiteth, expects long, he must expect and stay till the opportunity comes, Even the wicked have patience, upon hopes of enjoyment; And shall not the Godly? It may shame the Godly out of their impatience and loathnes to wait for an answer of prayer from God, when they hear that The husband-man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain (Jam: 5.7.) But it may shame them much more out of all their impatience in waiting for good things from God, when they hear that the Adulterer waiteth for the whorish woman, and hath long patience, till he receive his longing.

Thirdly, Waiteing implieth the Adulterers fixedness in and resolvedness to sin, his eye waiteth; he doth not sin by a sudden glance of his eye, or upon a vehement gust of temptation, or upon an unthought of hurry of wanton passions, but he sins deliberately, and (as it were) in cool blood. He waiteth for and watcheth his season, he is serious and studious about his wickedness.

Hence note.

He that waiteth to do anything, hath a resolution to do it. A Godly man sins, but he doth not wait to sin; or if at any time he do so, he at that time acts the wicked man's part in the godly man's state, and so upon a strong temptation Godly men have done. But usually he is a wicked man (as to his state) that waits for a temptation. Afflictions wait everywhere for a godly man (as Paul spake of himself, Acts 20.23.) and so also do Temptations. But the ungodly are everywhere waiteing for temptations. They are not surprised, or taken unawares, by a sin, but they are resolved to take their first opportunity of sinning. What a godly man saith (when he is in a right frame) in reference to the ways of holiness ( Psal. 108.1.) O God my heart is prepared or fixed; A godly man doth not good upon a sudden, or by chance (as we say) but he sets himself to it, his heart is fixed or prepared, and his face is set heavenward, or for heavenly duties. So Daniel spake of himself ( Dan. 9.3.) I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications, and as a godly man is in the ways of God, so the ways of God are in him. Thus David describes him ( Psal. 84.5.) Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them, that is, the ways which Godly men walk in, and they are the ways of God. Now as this is the true state of godliness when the heart is in it and prepared for it, so the true state of wickedness is, when a man's heart is in it and prepared for it. This is the proper character of a wicked man. The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight.

Every word hath weight in it, the twilight is the Adulterers season; It is not said, he waits for the night, or for the day, but he waiteth for the twilight, which is neither day nor night, but between both. We have such a description of time in reference to the mixed and uncertain state of things ( Zach. 14.6, 7.) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark; But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night. Such a thing is Twilight, it is neither clear nor dark, neither day nor night, but between both. There is a twofold twilight; first, the morning twilight; and, secondly, the evening twilight; the morning twilight begins when the night ends, the evening twilight begins when the day ends. The Latins have two distinct words to express these distinct twilights by, but our language is not so well stored, and therefore we must distinguish them by the matter spoken of, or the scope of the speaker. Thus here, when 'tis said in the text, he waiteth for the twilight, we are to understand it of the evening twilight, not for the morning twilight, and the reason is, because the morning twilight is not for the adulterers turn or purpose, for then the light prevails upon the darkness, but it is the evening twilight, for then darkness prevails upon the light. And that this is the Adulterers twilight is clear ( Prov. 7. v. 6, 7, 8, 9. ) At the window of my house (saith Solomon) I looked through the casement, and behold among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a man void of understanding, passing by the way to her house, and he went near her corner, in the twilight in the evening (or) in the evening of the day, in the black and dark night. And behold there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, &c. His eye waited for the twilight, and in the twilight he was taken.

Hence note.

Though sin be never in season, yet it hath sometimes which are more seasonable for it; to sin is never in season, as to the lawfulness of committing it, but sin hath its seasons as to the conveniency of committing it. The Adulterer takes his season, he waiteth for the twilight. Whence note secondly.

It were desirable that the godly were as careful to hit their seasons, and take their times, as the ungodly are. To everything (saith the Preacher, Eccl: 3.1.) there is a season and a time for every purpose under the Sun. And because it is so (saith the same Preacher, Eccl: 8.6.) The misery of man is great upon him. But why doth this make the misery of man great upon him? I answer, The reason of this misery upon man, is not because there is a season, but because either of his ignorance or negligence to find it. There are a thousand ways to miss a season, and but one to hit it; And were there as many ways to hit as to miss, it were a thousand to one but man would miss rather then hit; and therefore the misery of man is great upon him, Because if once he miss his season, it cannot be recovered, and then he must needs be miserable. Good men are miserable (as to some cases) because they are often so careless to hit their season of doing good, and do so often miss it, notwithstanding all their care. Wicked men are forever miserable, because they are so careful not to miss their season of doing evil, and do so often hit it. The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight, and he seldom (as to his own end) waits in vain. But why is he so greedy for the twilight? The next words say why, where he brought in

Where saith he this? he saith it in his heart, this is his discourse in his own breast; and to whom saith he this? he saith it to himself, there is a dialogue between the Adulterer and his own heart, and thus he concludes, I will wait for the twilight, and then no eye shall see me. And when he saith, no eye shall see me, his meaning is, There is not any eye that shall see me. Thus he plays the fool at All's hid.

Yet further, this no eye may have a threefold reference.

First, No eye of common men shall see me, I will do this in secret, I will have such a cover of darkness over me, that my neighbors and friends shall not be able to take any notice of me.

Secondly, No eye, may refer to men in chief, that is, no eye of the Magistrate, nor of any Minister of Justice shall see me. Magistrates are the eyes of a Nation, they should overlook all places, either by themselves or their Officers, to observe what is done. As the adulterers eye watcheth, so there should be an eye of Justice watching to catch Adulterers. Some interpret this Text, especially of the adulterers hope, or self-persuasion that he shall escape the eye or knowledge of the Magistrate, who is appointed to oversee the manners of that people over whom he is placed, and to be a terror, yea a Minister of vengeance to them that do evil; for he beareth not the sword in vain (Rom. 13.3, 4.) Magistrates should so much mark and eye the state of a people, that they are called eyes in Scripture ( Isa. 29.10.) For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes (what or who are those eyes? the next words inform us) the Prophets and Rulers, the seers hath he covered. The Hebrew word which we render rulers is heads; Rulers are the heads of a people, and what is a head without eyes, or having its eyes covered. God did not cover the eyes which were in the people's personal heads, but he covered the eyes which were in their public heads. He hath closed your eyes, that is, those that should be as heads and eyes to you, your Prophets and your rulers. Thus also say some, Government is expressed by an eye ( Deut. 33.28.) Israel then shall dwell in safety alone, the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine, also his heaven shall drop dew. That which we translate the fountain of Jacob, others render as well, and as truly from the Original, the eye of Jacob, that is, (say they) the Magistracy, the ruling power, as if he had said, as the people of Israel in general shall dwell in safety, so their eye, their government or their Governors in special shall be blessed with plenty, they shall be upon a land of corn and wine. It hath been observed also in antiquity, that great Princes had certain men in office whom they called their eyes. Princes have their eyes and ears in every place, that is, their Officers. Thus we may expound this Text, the Adulterer saith, No eye shall see me. The ruling or Magistratical eye shall not see me and if what I do be not seen by that eye (let others see what they will, and say what they please) I shall not suffer at all for what I do; and then all's well, that's as much as I care for. And here we may note, That, As some Adulterers have their eyes abroad, that is, agents to espy out Beauties for them. So most of them (if not all) are afraid of the eyes of others.

Thirdly, No eye shall see me, that is, not the eye of God; God himself shall not see me. Thus the adulterer hopes to hide his sin from his eye who is indeed all eye, and whose eye is over all. Thus the adulterer supposeth himself under such a vayl of darkness, that he is free not only from the eye of men on earth, and from the eye of those who are gods upon earth, but even from the eye of the God of heaven.

Hence observe.

He presumes that the sin which he commits against the light of his own conscience, shall never come to light; he presumes that the sin which he commits in his own eye, shall not come to the eye of others. I have elsewhere noted this ignorant confidence of carnal men, and only name it here.

Secondly, Note.

He cares not what wickedness he doth, so he may go unseen; a godly man is afraid of doing evil, though he could do it with greatest secrecy, or under the darkest cover: he is afraid to do evil, because of the evil and unrighteousness of it, because of the pollution, and unanswerablenesse of it, both to his own duty, and the goodness of God to him; but it is the discovery not the iniquity of his work, which the hypocrite feareth.

Thirdly, As the eye is taken for the eye of the Magistrate.

Observe.

'It is the consequence of sin, not the nature of it, the smart of sin, and not the filth of it, which the wicked would avoid.

Lastly, As no eye is exclusive also to the eye of God.

Note.

They think, sure, God can see no further, nor no better then man; And so they have hopes to hide themselves, not only from the eyes of men, but from the eyes of God, as we may see plainly ( Jere. 23.23.) Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord; This question, can any? shows that some had flattered themselves into such a conclusion, that they could so hide themselves in secret places, that God could not see them. The holy Psalmist said ( Psal. 139.12.) The darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light to thee are both alike. But a wicked man saith, the darkness hideth from thee, the night is night to thee. O what beggarly apprehensions have men of God! As if he whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter then the Sun, could not see without Sunlight, or as if he could not see but in the light, who made the light. Naturalists say of those living creatures which have fiery eyes, that they can see as well in the dark as in the light, the reason is, because they see not by taking in the species of the object into the eye, but by sending out a light from their own eye upon the object. God hath fiery eyes indeed; he needs no outward light to see by who is nothing else but light. Vain sinner, what can be darkness to him, who is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all? There is nothing doth more argue the blindness of a sinner, then this simple saying of his, No eye seeth me, unless it be that simple practice of his which he useth to the same purpose, and which is discovered (as his last shift) in the last words of this verse.

The Hebrew is, He setteth his face into a secret; he muffles himself, he changeth his habit, he puts on a visard; harlots were wont to disguise themselves ( Gen. 39.14.) when Tamar took upon her the habit of an harlot, the Text saith, She put on a disguise; so here the Adulterer puts on a disguise, he puts a cozzening face upon his face, and then thinks, that though he be seen, yet he cannot be discerned, and that, though some may see where he is, yet none shall see who he is, He disguiseth his face. One would have thought that being in the twilight, and the darkness of the night ready to compass him about, that no eye could see him, he should not need to have put on a visard or a muffler, yet he doth so, he puts a disguise upon his face.

Which may teach us▪

When a man's conscience tells him he sins, he would not have any other tell him so too. The Adulterer fears twilight is too light for him, and therefore while the natural darkness is so imperfect, he puts his face into perfect artificial darkness. Job yet proceeds to show this cowardly temper of sinners in their fear to be seen, either by a further discovery of the same sort of sinners, or of another sort, in the same frame.

We have all along the words, and the works of darkness; In the dark, they dig through houses; The question is, who are here meant by these diggers; some understand the verse of the adulterer; And whereas he speaks here in the plural number, and before in the singular; 'tis frequent in Scripture (say they) to vary the number while the same subject is continued. And that while he saith, They, the meaning is One and All of them are bent and apt enough to do thus. But is digging through houses the work of an Adulterer? In answer to this, it hath been storyed and remembered, that Adulterers have used such boisterous practices to come at their unlawful pleasures; they have digged through houses to make private passages that they might not be discovered when they came to, or when they departed from their lovers. It hath been commonly said that hunger will break through stone walls, and 'tis a truth that wantonness will do so too. Some have been so mad upon their lusts, that if they could not find a way, they would make one to meet with their paramours. Upon this consideration we may fayrely enterpret this verse (as the former) concerning the Adulterer.

But I rather conceive that this 16 ^th verse contains a description of another sort of sinners, Thieves or Robbers. Because, though it be true, that Adulterers do sometimes dignity through houses, yet this is both more frequently and more properly the busienes of Thieves. Another reason to persuade this understanding of the present Text may be, because so we have a fuller and more particular enumeration of several sorts of sin and sinners.

To dig through houses, is the work of a thief. And thus Christ speaks of the thief ( Luk. 12.39.) And this know that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would have come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to have been broken through. Jacob saith of Simeon and Levi (Gen. 49.6.) In their anger they digged thorough a wall. Some break thorough walls for want, or in covetousness to rob and steal, others for anger and in wrath to kill and destroy. They dig thorough houses,

See the method and cunning of these robbers; here are three points of their sinful skill. First; they mark houses; the word signifies, to mark with a seal; as if they did put their seal upon other men's houses for their own use. Thieves go abroad in the day time to espy where they may commit a robbery with best advantage, and they set their mark upon such houses as they resolve to rob; or, which I rather take to be the meaning, they diligently observe the strength of the house, the ways to the house, what company is in the house, where they may with most ease and advantage break into the house. All this they do in the day by way of preparation, and in the dark they put their purposes into execution; In the dark they dignity through houses which they had marked in the day.

Hence note.

And therefore they either set their mark upon a house, or exactly mark it. O how witty, and how cunning men are to do mischief!

Secondly, Whereas they went from Town to Town, and any house they saw and liked, they marked it for themselves.

Learn.

He saith of another man's house, this is mine, I will fill my own house with the spoil and plunder of this.

Thirdly, The thief marked houses

He digged through them in the night, but he made use of the day; he would not break open a house in the day, but had somewhat to do towards the breaking open of a house in the day, he marked it in the day.

Hence note.

The thief makes use of all times, he makes use of the day to mark houses, and of the night to dignity them through. He is careful to take his time; to do the work of the day upon the day, and the work of the night, in the night.

But why doth Job add this? said he not before, that they marked houses for themselves in the day? How then doth he say,

Knowing is not meant of a bare act of knowledge, as if they knew not when it was light, and when it was dark, or as if they knew not the nature of light, what kind of creature it is. But, not to know, is not to affect; They know not the light, that is, they care not, they love not the light. In which sense words of knowledge are often used in Scripture. ( Nah. 1.7.) The Lord knoweth the soul that trusteth in him. The Lord knows those that do not trust in him, he knows those that are unbeleiveing as well as those that believe in a way of discerning who they are; but he knows the soul that trusteth in him, in a way of loving and approveing him; so here, They know not the light, that is, they have no love to the light, no delight in the light, they care not for the light. But it may be objected; It should seem these men cared for the light, and liked it well, for they made much use of it; In the day they marked houses. I answer, When Job saith, They know not the light, we may restrain it to one part of their busienes, and that the main, Their digging through houses; for this purpose (which was their principal purpose) they knew not the light, that is, they neither loved nor liked the light, darkness was more welcome to them. I shall not give any notes from these words here, having before (especially at the 12 ^th verse, where it is said, They are such as rebel against the light, they know not the ways of it, &c.) been somewhat large upon the same subject; As also because the next verse is but a further illustration and enforcement of these words.

This verse gives a reason, why these thieves took the night for their work; or it is an exposition of what was last said, They know not the light.

The text may be read thus out of the Original, As soon as it is morning the shadow of death comes upon them. This Hebraism the shadow of death, hath been opened at the 5 ^th verse of the third Chapter, whether I refer the reader. In this place, it only imports thus much in General, That these wicked men did equally fear the morning as death it self; they were surprised with fear, as soon as surprised with light. What is the reason of it, why doth the adulterer fear the morning, and why doth the thief fear the morning? they do so upon these three considerations.

First, Lest they should be hindered in their wicked works; secondly, lest their wicked works should be discerned; thirdly, lest their wicked works should be punished, for these reasons they hate the light, and the morning is to them as the shadow of death.

Hence observe.

Sin makes good things evil to us, and pleasant things troublesome to us. What a pleasant thing is the light? How beautiful are the eyelids of the morning? yet light is a trouble, and the morning a burden to wicked men. And if natural light be a trouble to them, much more is moral and spiritual light. How do they hate the morning of truth, the dawnings of divine knowledge? These lights to life, these enlivening lights are to them as the shadow of death. In how deplorable a condition are they to whom Good becomes evil, and that which good men rejoice in, is to them an occasion of sorrow. The whole course of nature is out of frame to us, till we are set into a right frame by grace. We put light for darkness and darkness for light, till we ourselves are brought out of darkness into light. Nothing is good to us till we are made good, nor doth anything please us, except sin or that which we use sinfully, till we please God. The very morning (which gives a new life to all) is to some as the shadow of death.

These words are but a further explication of the same thing, if one, that is, if any one, man, woman, or child, as we say, know them, that is, take notice of them, in their wickedness, or take notice of their wickedness, they are (as we say) dead in the nest.

Others render the words thus, if they know one another, that is, if only so much of the light of the morning breaks forth, as serves them to see one another's faces, they are afraid. So this phrase is used ( Ruth 3.14.) And she lay at his feet until the morning, and she rose up before one could know another, that is, before there was light enough to discern each other. So these two readings, if one know them, or if they know one another, meet in the same General sense, their unwillingness to be discovered at their work; if once there be light enough for these evil-workers to see themselves by, they then know they may also be seen by others; And if one (any one) know them:

That is, they are troubled like them, who being ready to die, are yet unwilling to die; when death stands at a man's bed-side, when death stands at his back ready to attach and apprehend him, ready to carry him away, while yet he is altogether unwilling and unready to die, O in what a terror is he? Just thus it is (saith Job ) with those wicked men, they are not only afraid to die, but the terrors of the shadow of death are upon them, their terror is such as men have when death over-shadows them; That's the meaning of, They are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

A shadow in Scripture is taken two ways. First, properly, for that darkness which is caused by the interposition of a thick body, between us and the Sun. Secondly, improperly or metaphorically, and so that is a shadow which keeps off the heat of the Sun, or the violence of the rain and wind; and so by a trope anything of defense is called a shadow. ( Judge. 9.9.15.) Come trust under my shadow (said the bramble) that is, put yourselves under my protection. And again ( Isa. 30.2, 3.) Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow (or protection) of Egypt your confusion. So ( Isa. 49.2.) In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me. And ( Isa. 51.16.) I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, as birds cover or shelter their young ones with their wings and feathers. Thus the Scripture speaks of a shadow. But what is the shadow of death? It is first, the appearance of death; secondly, the power of death. So the the meaning is (as was touched before) they are as much terrified, as if death appeared to them, as if the image of death passed before them in vision, or as if the power of it had taken hold of them to bring them prisoners to the grave.

I have from the former words of this context, as also at the 12 ^th verse taken occasion to observe, how troublesome both the light of the Sun and the light of the mind are to evil men, and therefore I shall not stay upon any Instructions of that kind here.

Yet forasmuch as not only the Murderer and Adulterer, spoken of before, but the Thief spoken of here, are all for darkness and concealment.

Observe.

They draw up their own indictment, and condemn themselves before God doth. They would rock conscience asleep, but they cannot, they would blind it, but they cannot. This their delight in darkness, both outward and inward, is a plain demonstration that they know their deeds are evil. Christ saith as much ( Joh. 3.20, 21.) Everyone that doth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. No man fears his deeds will be reproved, but he that suspects at least, that his deeds are his faults, and his actings his transgressings; for as it follows, He that doth truth (that is, who acts according to the truth) cometh to the light. He that doth good, or truth indeed, yea he who is but persuaded that he doth so, cares not who sees him; some are ambitious to be seen while they do so, and though any should be so modest that they do not desire to be seen while they do so, yet no man that doth so is afraid to be seen; and usually such come to the light, to the light of other men's knowledge, and they would come further into the light of their own knowledge; such are free to come to light of all sorts, that their deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God; when a man comes to the light, he gives a fair evidence that his works are wrought in God, how ever it argues both that he desires they should be such as are wrought in God, as also that he is willing they should come to the trial, whether they are wrought in God or no, that is, whether they be so wrought, as if God did work in him, or whether there be any appearance in them that he hath wrought them in the light and love, in the strength and help of God. Now as when a man comes willingly to the light, it shows that he hath an honest persuasion in his breast, that his works are good. So when we see any seeking corners and shunning the light by which others may see them, or that light by which they may see themselves, this shows that they have a troublesome conviction upon their consciences, that their works are so far from being wrought in God, that they are wrought against God, that is, against his mind and will. This, the Apostle teacheth in the example of the old Gentiles ( Rom. 2.15.) They show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing them witness, and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or excusing one another. Were there not an unextinguishable light in nature, by which even a natural man may have some glimmerings of and discernings between good and evil, he would no more avoid the sight of others when he doth evil, then when he doth good. And seeing he thus naturally avoydes the view and sight of all men when he doth evil; This doth more then intimate that there is a Judge above nature, who, without respect of persons, will reward every man according to his works. Conscience is God's Deputy in man, and what that (being rightly informed) doth in man, God will do too. We are so assured by the Apostle John (1 Joh. 3.21.) If our heart condemn us, God is greater then our heart, and knoweth all things; As if he had said, this is an argument that there is a God to condemn, because the heart condemns; For God is greater then the heart. God is the supreme Judge, the infallible Judge, the heart is but an under-officer unto him. Why should the heart of a man smite him? why should he be troubled when he hath done evil? why should he be so troubled to be seen in doing evil? were it not that there is a God, who judgeth both the hearts and ways of men; While the fool saith in his heart there is no God, (Psal. 14.1.) the heart of a fool saith there is a God: while he saith in his heart there is no God to see my sin, his heart saith to him, cover thy sin, that it may not be seen; and what English can we make of this saying of his heart, but this, There is a God. For though Job spake here of such gross sinners as have reason enough to hide themselves and their doings from the eyes of men, lest they should bring them both to shame and punishment, yet even those sinners are fearful to have their sins discovered, who need not fear any punishment but from the hand of God.

Secondly, Observe.

They are glad if they can escape the eye of man, when as their sins are always under the eye of God. What is the eye from which darkness can hide us, to that eye which seeth through darkness? If one see them (saith the text) they are in the terrors of the shadow of death, and yet they are not terrified that One seeth them. That One seeth them always who is more then all men, and yet they are satisfied if they are not seen of men. That which they would not do if a little child did see them, they dare do though the Great God of heaven and earth see them. What the Prophet speaks of fear in reference to suffering, we may say much more of fear in reference to sinning, ( Isa. 51.12, 13.) Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, and forgettest the Lord thy Creator? Who art thou? surely thou art so far from being a Godly man, that thou art less then a man, in this thing, even a fool, and a beast. What? doest thou fear to sin in the presence of a man, or when a man, who shall die seeth thee, and forgettest that the Lord thy maker seeth thee? that he seeth thee who hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. Well might the Apostle (2 Thes. 3.2.) join these two together, unreasonable and wicked men, and give the reason of both in the words which follow, for all men have not faith. Where there is no faith, there is much wickedness, and he who is much in wickedness, is nothing in reason. Faith is above reason, but not against it; wickedness is not only below reason, but quite against it. They who act against that rule which is given by God to man, act also against that reasō which is given by God to man. No man acts so much against faith, as he who doth not believe that God seeth him in all his actings, nor doth any man act more against reason, then he who believeth that God seeth him, and yet is more afraid to be seen of men, then he is to be seen of God.

THere are four Apprehensions concerning the general scope of these words.

First, Job is conceived here describing a fourth sort of wicked men, or the same men acting a fourth sort of wickedness; for having (as hath been shown from the former words) first drawn out the doings of the murderer, and secondly, of the Adulterer, and thirdly, of the thief at land digging through houses, he in the fourth place (as some Interpret the text) proceeds to discover the Pirate, who is a thief upon the water, a Sea-thief; He is swift as the waters, or, he is swift upon the waters: The letter of the Hebrew, is, He is swift upon the faces of the waters, he moves in, and upon all waters. It is usual in Scripture to call the outward part of anything, the face of it, as the face of the heavens, is that part of the heavens which doth outwardly appear to us, or is next to our eye. O ye hypocrites (saith Christ, Math. 16.3.) ye can discern the face of the sky. So the face of the earth is the superficies, or upper part of the earth, and the face of the waters, is the upper part of the waters. The word in the text is plural, faces, he is swift upon the faces of the water; that is, when he hath murtherd, committed Adultery, and robbed at land, when the Earth is weary of him, then he betakes himself to the Sea, and turns Pirate. There is a truth in this, some men make such a progress in wickedness; they try all trades of sin upon the earth, and then trade sinfully upon the water, defileing both earth and water, both sea and shore, polluting all the Elements with their abominations. And in pursuance of this exposition the two other Clauses of the verse are thus expounded, Their portion is Cursed in the earth, that is, they who live at land Curse them when they are gone to Sea, fearing lest they should take their ships, & spoil them of their goods by pyracy. And then, he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards, that is, he will come no more on shore, he will not live at land: vineyards by a synecdoche of the part for the whole being put for any kind of home or land possession, of which vineyards (in many places) are the chief; he who lived by dressing and planting the earth, now takes another course of life, he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards; he will labor no more in a Country life, he will not get his living by the sweat of his face, but by the face of the waters. What cares he to get wine by dressing of vineyards, when he can get whole Shiploads of wine upon the waters. And having got a smatch of the sweetness of robbing at Sea, he will work no more aland. We have too much experience of it, that when a man hath once given himself up to stealing, he cannot abide laboring. He is better pleased with an easy life that is sinful, then with an honest life that is painful; and because ease pleaseth him more then honesty, therefore he will not behold the way of the vineyards, nor the way of the Corn fields, nor of the pasture grounds, for all these are ways of labor. But I shall not Insist upon this Interpretation, it may suffice only to name it. And though, as to the thing it self, as also to the practice of many, this be a truth, yet it is scarcely probable, that Job had that practice in his eye.

Secondly, We may here conceive, that Job is describing the miserable and unsettled Condition of the murderer, of the Adulterer, and of the Thief; he is swift upon the waters, or, swift as the waters (say we) M ^r Broughton renders, He is lighter then the face of the waters. The Hebrew particle serves either reading, as, or upon; He is swift, or light upon the face of the waters, that is, he is as a light thing that swimmeth upon the face of the waters; light things swim there, things which are of no worth, of no price, as staws, or chips, or feathers, or the foam (which is light and hoven) swim upon the face of the water. M ^r Broughton translates thus; He is lighter then the face of the waters. The sense is the same, for as those things which swim upon the face of the waters are light, so also is the face of the waters. Every blast or puff of wind moves and tosseth up the face of the waters.

The Hebrew word which we render, swift, in our translation signifieth also light; because those things that are swift in motion, are light; we say of one that is slow paced, he is heavy heel'd, and that he is a heavy man or that a heavy beast which is slow of foot; all swift things are light. The meaning of this Interpretation is, that a wicked man is a Contemptible Creature; what is he when he hath done all those mischiefs before specifyed and walked to weariness in all those sinful ways? The best account which we can give of him is this; He is light, or as a light thing, upon the face of the water; which is a Proverbiall speech to Express that which is nothing worth. Thus the destruction of the King of Samaria is expressed ( Hos: 10.7.) As for Samaria, her King is cut off as the foam upon the water, or (as the Margin hath it) upon the face of the water, that is, though he be a great King, yet he shall perish as a very light, and contemptible thing, even as a little foam and froth, or as a buble upon the water.

Hence observe.

In the 21 ^th of this book ( v. 18.) the wicked are said to be as stubble before the fire, and as Chaff before the whirl-wind. So ( David, Psal. 1.4.) speaking of the wicked in general, saith, They are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Stubble and chaff are light things, and they are also worthless things; what's the stubble worth, or what the chaff? What is the chaff to the wheat? such are wicked men in comparison of the Godly. The Scripture doth even strive for Expressions (as I may say) to set forth the lightness, the vanity, Indeed, the nullity, the non-entity, the nothingnes of men given up to their lusts. David (Psal. 62.9.) speaking of them who trust in oppression, and become vain in robbery, saith, they are vanity and a lie, and that to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter then vanity. And Solomon putting the tongue of a Godly man, and the heart of a wicked man together into the balance, gives this determination between them ( Pro. 10.20.) The tongue of the just is as choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is little worth. The heart is there taken in the highest sense, for the best thing that the wicked man hath; for though where the heart is naught, it is the worst thing that a man hath, yet the sense of the proverb is to show that the best thing that a wicked man hath is of little worth, and therefore the instance is made in that which he accounts his chiefest treasure, his heart; for by the heart, all that man hath within him, all the powers and faculties of the soul, with their best and richest furniture are understood; all these saith Solomon in a wicked man are little worth; so that take him at his best, and in his best, he is but trash, or as a trifle. Sin is a reproach both to persons and nations, as honor is a man's weight in the esteem of others, so reproach abates his weight, & makes him light upon the balance. Since thou wast precious in mine eyes, thou wast honorable, saith God ( Isa. 43.4.) holiness adds honor and weight to our persons; sin makes us light, and then we are lightest, when we make light of sin; sin is a weight that presseth us down, yet they who sin most, weigh least in the esteem of God and of all good men. Sin will quickly sink the soul like lead under water, even to the bottom of the water, yet the sinner is as a light thing that swims upon the top or face of the water. This is a profitable sense of the words.

Thirdly, Others expound these words, as a description of the wicked man's shifting and running from place to place for fear of pursuers; or that being conscious to himself; or self-condemned in his own conscience, he is as the Lord threatened Cain (Gen. 4.14.) a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth: swift as the waters of a stream, which glide along and never stay in one place; or he is upon the earth as a light thing upon the waters, continually moved and tossed up and down. But I pass from this. And conclude

Fourthly, That we may rather understand these words as a description of the spirit and temper of a wicked man in reference to his sinful actings, or the fulfilling of his lusts; He is swift or light as the water, or, as the light things upon the water, that is, he is a man very unsettled, he is hurried to and fro, there is no stability either in his ways, or in his spirit; He abides not in one place, nor doth he abide in one mind. He is full of Inconstancy, he is constant in nothing but in his inconstancy: and it must needs be so if we Consider,

First, his lusts within. How can he but be swift as the water, who hath such winds blowing and striving in him. A carnal man is hurried with storms and tempests rising in his own mind: as the wind tosseth and rolleth the waters of the Sea or light things upon the water, so the lusts of evil men toss and tumble them up and down. Pride tosseth some, and Covetousness tosseth others, luxury and wantonness toss thousands into a thousand vanities, and sinful ways, as the winds toss the waves of the Sea; Lusts are strong and boisterous, lusts are many and numerous, he that serveth any one of them is a slave to them all, and must go upon their errand whithersoever they will send or rather hurry him.

Secondly, Carnal men must needs be swift as the water, or light upon the water, very inconstant and unsettled if we Consider the temptations that blow upon them from without. For though our own lusts are temptations, and every man (as the Apostle James saith, Chapter 1.14.) is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed, yet our lusts also are tempted, or our lusts are drawn away and enticed by temptation. Man is apt enough to sin of himself alone, if once God leave him, but he is seldom left to himself alone to sin by the Devil; and most usually he is tempted with a kind of violence unto sin; his lusts (which are a fire) are blown and kindled by Satan's breath, and he is driven to do evil by vehement blasts of temptation. Temptations blow upon Saints, they blow strongly upon them; Satan breathes out a mighty wind to make them swift as the water unto sin; but they have received a power to resist and stand fast. They are founded upon the rock Jesus Christ; Though the wind moves the water, yet it cannot move the rock: they that are founded upon Christ, are (in their proporion) firm as Christ himself is firm. 'It is true, Saints are many times grievously shaken with temptations; but the wicked are tossed and overwhelmed by them. They are swift as the water, or as the lightest thing upon the face of the waters, when strongly moved by temptation. Dying Jacob called Reuben, his first-borne, unstable as water (Gen. 49.4.) though we will not number him among the wicked, yet he did a very wicked act, and in reference to that, though he was a great man, and a Patriarke, the head of the Tribe, yet (in reference to that act) he received this Character, unstable as water. And if he was so unstable when hurried by passion and temptation, how much more are mere wicked men so, when they meet with such temptations. For as they are not fixed in anything that is good, as was touched at the 13 ^•h verse, They know not the ways of light, nor do they abide in the paths of it (if at any time they stumble upon the doing of that which is right, yet they abide not in the doing of it; they are light as the water, unstable and unsettled in all good ways) So though they are fixed (as to the subject) in doing that which is evil, yet they are extremely tossed and swiftly moved, both to and in and after the doing of it.

Again, As this similitude implies The easines of evil men to be moved by temptation unto sin, even as easily as water, or the lightest things upon the face of the water are moved by the wind. So it implieth also their speedyness and activity in sinning. The water moves swiftly, sinners are like swift ships upon the water, they make speed to do evil, or to trade upon any forbidden coast, but they are very sluggs to anything that is good, or to trade upon any coast where they are bidden. A learned Interpreter insists much upon the emphasis of this Expression, to show not only the swiftness, but the feircenes of a wicked man's spirit in sinning, he is swift upon the face of those waters, and is carried on with full sails in sinning; he runs so swiftly and treads so lightly, that he might run even upon the surface of the water and not sink. Those creatures which are very swift, leave little Impression behind them; they that go slowly, tread heavy, and unless they be upon firm land, fall in. It is said in the 8 ^th of Daniel (v. 5 ^th ) Concerning the he-goat (who represented Alexander the Great) That he touched not the ground. Alexander was extreme swift in his Conquests, he Conquered the world in as little time as another could have traveled over it. His motto was, Without delay; or, I do all by making no delay; He was swift upon the face of the earth. Thus wicked men are light upon the face of the water, that is, they are swift and fierce for the attaining of their sinful ends, they run as nimbly at it, as if they could run upon the top of a corn field, and never press a straw, or as if they could run upon the water, and never wet their feet. By which hyperbolies the ancient Poets used to express the greatest celerity of motion. We have a proverbial saying among us, which reacheth this swiftness of a wicked man in sin; He (say we) must needs run whom the Devil drives. There is no doubt but evil men are Devil-driven, yea Devil-ridden, he rides them with whip and spurr to the doing of his black work, and therefore no wonder, if they are so swift and make such hast about it. That they make hast to do it is too visible, and that they make more hast then good speed is as visible. For while they make hast to sin, they make hast also to the curse. As it follows in the next words.

Job spake in the singular number before, but here in the plural, He is swift &c. Their portion &c. His meaning (I conceive) may be this; That, look how many soever they be of them that are thus swift to sin, there's not one of them shall be able to outrun the curse. They are swift as the water to do evil, but the curse will be as swift as the wind to make them miserable.

The word signifieth anything which falls to a man of right, or is bestowed upon him for his lot or share.

First, that part or portion, which comes by way of Inheritance, is so expressed ( Gen. 31.14. Deut. 12.12.) The Inheritance that a father gives his son is his portion.

Secondly, It signifies that part, share, or lot of food, which is given out to any man for his daily provision. ( Deut. 18.8.)

Thirdly, It notes that which is given to the poor by way of alms ( Eccl: 11.2.) Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; (that is, give to many) for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. It is used also for a share, or distribution of the spoil to each Soldier after a victory ( Gen. 14.24.) Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, let them take their portion, said Abram to the King of Sodom, after he had rescued his Brother Lot and the captivated Kings. In this place the word is taken in the largest sense, as comprehending whatsoever they could call theirs, or was any way belonging to them; So that when Job saith, their portion is Cursed, his meaning is, all that they have is cursed. As they have sinned in all they did, so they are cursed in all they have. The Grace of God in the Gospel is compared to leaven ( Math. 13.33.) which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal, till the whole was leavened. As the Grace of God both in regenerating and comforting runs through the whole man, so the curse of God like leaven sours the whole lump of man, it runs through all that a man is or hath.

There is an Elegant paranomasia in the Hebrew between these two words in the text, swift or light, and Cursed; They being both represented by one radical word, and the reason of it is, because those things that are light, or contemptible, are Cursed, or in a Cursed Condition. They that honor me (saith the Lord, 1 Sam. 2.30.) I will honor, but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed, or, they shall be cursed. There the same word is used in the Original, which in the present text, we translate cursed. To curse a man is to slight him to the utmost, and we never esteem so lightly or basely of anything or person, as when we curse either the one or the other.

But by whom are they cursed? or who curseth them? I may answer, They are cursed both by God and man. As if Job had said, their doeings have been such upon the earth, that, first, all men curse them, and secondly, God curseth them. Some are cursed by men, and yet God blesseth them, others are blessed or highly esteemed by men, yet God curseth them. But these men are such who as they please not God, so they are contrary to all men (as the Apostle spake of some, 1 Thes. 2.15.) and therefore God and man join in their curse. Their portion is cursed

That is, in all their earthly concernments, or they are cursed even here while they are upon the earth, where they think themselves, and where, possibly, some others think them also, most blessed. For though they have gotten much in the earth, or of earthly things, yet all they have gotten is cursed, and therefore all that they have is cursed, for they have got nothing beyond the earth.

Again, These words may be read by way of Imprecation (we read them by way of assertion) let their portion be cursed in the earth; Like that ( Psal. 109.8, 9, 10, 11.) Let his days be few, and let another take his office, let his children be fatherless, &c. Some of the Ancients make the Paraphrase thus; Let the roots of what they sow or plant appear bare in the earth; when the root of a tree, or the roots of corn appear above ground, both tree and corn must needs wither, for want of moisture. For as the earth feeds the root, so the root feeds the stock, and the stock the branches. That is a cursed tree which bears no fruit according to its kind, and that tree whose root is not suckled by the earth can bear no fruit. Every wicked man is either cursed in not bringing forth fruit, or else the fruit which he brings forth is cursed. And therefore Their portion is (every way) cursed in the earth.

There is yet another Interpretation of these words, which I shall but briefly touch and pass on. Their portion is Cursed in the Earth, that is, the Region, or place where they dwell is Cursed; They dwell in desolate places, or they skulke up and down in deserts and wildernesses, having done so much mischief among men that they dare not show their faces where they are known. Now, deserts and desolate places may justly be called Cursed places, because of their barrenness, for barrenness is the Curse which God laid upon the earth for the sin of man ( Gen. 4.17.) As a fruitful Land may be called a blessed Land, because the blessing of God maketh a Land fruitful ( Isaac said to his Son Jacob (Gen. 27.27.) The smell of my Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed; that is, as the smell of a fruitful field) So it may be said that the earth or land where a man lives, and his portion in it is cursed while he lives in a barren desolate land, which looks as if it were under the perpetual curse of God. And according to this interpretation, the later part of the verse (and he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards) may be thus understood; He comes not into any fruitful fields; Vineyards are planted in a fruitful soil, and fruitful vines are full of the blessing of God. Thus as the portion of the wicked in the earth is always cursed, by a decree from God, so it may be said that their portion is sometimes cursed by their own Election, because for the better secreting and hiding of themselves from the eye of Justice, they spend their days in such places as by reason of their wastnes, and barrenness seem to confess themselves under a curse. Their portion is cursed in the earth.

Hence note.

First, Sin brings a Curse with it.

When J • b had described the wickedness of these men, their murders, their adulteries, and their thefts, he concludes, Their portion is Cursed. Sin calleth for a Curse from men, and it calleth for a Curse from God. Solomon saith ( Pro. 12.26.) He that withholdeth Corn (that is, who hoards it up and will not sel it at a reasonable rate, resolving to make a dearth when God hath made none, he who thus withholdeth Corn) the people will curse him. Now if the people curse him that will not let them have corn for money, then much more him that stealeth or taketh away their corn without money. He that destroyeth other men's goods, gets a Curse instead of good. Eliphaz saith ( Chap. 5.3.) I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I Cursed his habitation, that is, I saw his habitation was Cursed, or under a curse, I knew what would become of him shortly. In some Cases it may be lawful for man to wish a Curse upon man, and the Curse of man may be the Curse of God too; and usually it is so, when any man is generally cursed by men. The voice of the people is the voice of God. When a man is followed with a Curse from the most of men good and bad, it is an argument that there is a Curse gone out from God against him; and that his portion is Cursed in the earth. Sin is the deserving or procuring Cause, and the wrath of God is the inflicting or productive Cause of the Curse. Balak hired Balaam to Curse the people of God, but the Curse could not take, the train was laid, but he could not make the powder take fire, the Curse came not, why? the reason is given, yea Balaam himself gives it ( Numb. 23.21.) He (that is, God) hath not beheld Iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. If there had been iniquity, that is, any national iniquity or public iniquity, persisted in and not repented of among them, that had brought the Curse inevitably; but though Balaam labored to Curse them, though he went from hill to hill, and tried all means to get an opportunity to Curse them, yet he could not, for (saith he) God hath blessed them, and I cannot reverse it. There is no Iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel, therefore their portion was blessed in the Earth. Sin in whomsoever it is hath a Curse in the belly or bowels of it. Even Christ himself taking our sin upon him, was necessitated to take the Curse upon him which was due to our sin; Christ taking our sin upon him, was (as the Apostle saith, 2 Cor. 5.21.) made sin for us, that is, an offering or a sacrifice for our sin, yea as the same Apostle saith ( Gal. 3.13.) He was therefore made a Curse for us. And if Christ who (having no sin in him) did only take our sin upon him, could not avoid the curse, how shall they avoid it, who (having no part in Christ) have all manner of sin in them?

But it may be objected, All men sin, and yet many have no appearance of a Curse upon them, nor is their portion Cursed in the earth?

I answer, First, This assertion is to be limited to unbelievers or ungodly men. Secondly, unbelievers and ungodly men are under a Curse, though the Curse do not break out and appear visibly upon them. As the portion of a godly man may be blessed, though there be no appearance of the blessing; when nothing appears upon him but affliction and the Cross, yet the Godly man is blessed. The Cross of a Godly man is like the prosperity of a wicked man. The former hath an outward Cross, but a Blessing at the bottom; the latter hath outward prosperity, but a curse at the bottom, and bitterness in the end. Again, the peace of the profane, is like the grace of hypocrites, only a show; hypocrites have a show of grace, an appearance of holiness, yet they are but painted Sepulchers, full of rottenness within; So the wicked have a show of peace and prosperity, of benefits and blessings, but a curse is within them, and a curse hangs over them, ready every moment to drop down upon their heads. For

Secondly, His portion is cursed, that is, 'tis under a curse, though the curse be not actually inflicted. As the mercies of God are sure to his people, yet many times very slow, they come not presently, but they will come. So also the wrath and curse of God will surely come upon the wicked, though, as to outward effects & impressions, they are slow and long in coming. Actings of mercy are for an appointed time; Every vision is for an appointed time (as the Lord told his Prophet, Hab. 2.3.) The vision of Judgment and wrath is for an appointed time, as well as the vision of love and mercy; That is, all the love, and all the wrath, the blessing, and the curse, which are revealed, (in any way of vision, are for an appointed time) but at the end the vision will speak and not lie; if it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, and not tarry. As it is (I say) in the visions of mercy and blessing, so in those of wrath, and of the curse; They are for an appointed time, in the end they will speak. Sometimes the Curse is quick, it apprehendeth the sinner in the very act, it takes him in the manner, as Phineas did Zimri and Cozbi. And as ( Psal. 78.30.) While their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them. The sound of the Curse is sometimes at the heels of sin, at other times the sound of the Curse is a great way behind the sin, no sight nor sound of the curse for a long time. As, light is sown for the righteous (Psal. 97.11.) that is, They shall have a crop of good things, though it lie, as seed doth, a great while under the clods, and as dead in the furrows; So darkness is sown for the wicked, they perceive it not yet, but they shall be wrapped up in it forever; yea while they perceive it not, they are in it, and they are by so much the more in it, by how much the less they perceive it. For, this is ever true; The portion of the wicked is Cursed in the Earth, though they seem compassed about with blessings. I will Curse your blessings, saith the Lord, ( Mala. 2.2.) yea I have cursed them already. The wicked may be rich, and yet cursed, honorable, and yet cursed, successful in busienes, and yet cursed, blessed, and yet cursed, God doth curse their blessings. That which is a blessing in the kind and matter of it, is to some a curse in the use and issue of it. So then, as, godliness is profitable for all things, and hath the promise of this life as well as of that which is to come (1 Tim. 4.8.) Godliness is compassed about and clothed with promises of all sorts and seasons. So ungodlynes is unprofitable for all things, & makes him that is so, miserable in all things. For it hath the curse of this life, and of that which is to come; if the promise do not meet a godly man in this life, or in the things of this life, yet it will in the life to come, and in the things of the life to come, yea in all things so far as concerns the life to come, the blessing always meets him. And if the curse do not meet a wicked man in this life, yet it will in the life to come, and in the things of the life to come, yea in all things so far as concerns the life to come, The curse always meets him.

Then see the folly of those, who fear the Curse, and are not afraid of sin; as if a man should fear drowning, and yet cast himself into the water, or fear burning, and yet throw himself into the fire; thus do they who love sin, and fear the curse. If the beauty of holiness doth not take upon the heart, yet the curse that attends sin may deter from meddling with it. And did men know the terror of the Lord, (as the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. 5.11.) they would easily be persuaded to take heed of sin, even of every sin, for though usually great sins bring the curse, yet the least sins may. They who know what the curse of the Lord is, cannot but know what the terror of the Lord is, that is, that the Lord is (to sinners) very terrible. For the curse of the Lord abiding upon a sinner, makes him every way and always miserable. There needs no more to be said to prove a man miserable then this, that his portion is cursed, or that he is under the curse. For as the blessing of God makes us happy with any portion, that's enough, the blessing being it self the best and most abundant portion (Every good thing is virtually in the blessing) so the Curse is virtually every evil thing; therefore that must needs make a man miserable. When the Lord blesseth, it is not an empty word, but a power goes with it to make a man blessed; And when the Lord curseth, it is not an empty word, but a power goes with it, to make a man's portion cursed in the earth. Job having laid down this position, gives a proof of it in the last words of the verse.

Some read these (as the former) words, by way of imprecation; Let his portion be cursed in the earth, and let him not behold the way of the vineyards. We translate assertively, He beholdeth not, &c.

But what is meant here by not beholding? is it only this, he cometh not within the view or sight of them? I conceive there is more in it then so, and that when Job saith, he beholdeth not, his meaning is, he enjoyeth vineyards no more, or he dwelleth no more in a fruitful and pleasant land, such as that land is which aboundeth in vineyards, and so consequently with wine, but he shall live miserably in a barren soil. So that we may now interrogate wicked men, whether murderers, Adulterers, or thieves (as Paul doth every sinner, Rom. 6.21.) What fruit have ye of those things, whereof ye are (or ought to be) ashamed? have ye any fruit of the vine? surely no, For such behold not the way of the vineyards. To behold is to enjoy the pleasantness, to taste the sweetness of the fruit of the vineyards. Wine which is the fruit of the vineyard is pleasant and delightful, it makes glad the heart of man ( Psal. 104.15.) And vineyards are here named to signify all sorts of outward good things, they being the Chief of outward good things: For as sometimes bread signifieth all outward good things, because that strengthens man's heart; so Wine, because that cheereth and comforteth the heart of man. So that when Job saith, He shall not behold the way of the vineyards; It is as if he had said, He shall not taste of or enjoy any good thing. For

Again, Those words, he heholdeth not &c. are not to be understood as if he did voluntarily refuse to behold, or cared not to behold the way of the vineyards, but as implying a force or constraint upon him, by which he was kept or hindered from looking that way.

Whence take this brief note.

It hath been questioned which is greater, the punishment of loss, or the punishment of pain; but without all question, loss is a very great punishment; not to behold the way of the vineyards, not to return to house and land, to wife and children, is a sore affliction. What will it then be never to behold the face of God, but to be under a sentence of eternal banishment from his presence. His portion is cursed in the earth, here in this world, who beholdeth not the way of the vineyards, how then is his portion cursed in the next world, who shall never behold the path or way of life?

There are yet several other readings and expositions of these words.

First, As if the meaning were to show the wicked man's fear of being seen, because of his guilt, and that therefore he would not behold or come near the way of the vineyards, that is, those places which many people have occasion to frequent.

Secondly, As if Job would here show what hast men make to escape who are under guilt; As if he had said, The wicked man will be so set upon the run, That he will not stay so much as to view or behold his own vineyards, formerly so delightful and pleasant to him.

Thirdly, It is conceived to be a proverbial speech, according to which it was ironically said of Malefactors who were led forth to suffer death, They Behold not the way of the vineyards; No they behold only the way to the Gibbet or place of execution.

Fourthly, Others divide the word Cheramim, which we translate, vineyards into two; that is, into Chi, a particle of similitude or likeness, and Ramim which signifies, either pers • ns, or things that are high. Hence Junius translates, He shall not return or flow back again, he shall fall after the manner of things that are high. And he expounds the sense of his own translation; He shall not return to his former state, as waters do which ebb and flow; but as waters which fall from a high place cannot go back, so shall he remain cast down forever. Water being a heavy body must have a descent, it cannot ascend naturally, therefore the water that falls from a high place is gone, and cometh not again. The wicked man perisheth, as waters that flow from a high place and return no more.

Another following that division of the word, renders the clause, thus; He doth not look to (or provide for) his way or his going, as of the High ones; that is, he shall never go in that pomp or equipage, in which they go who are above others in power and dignity. As if he had said, he shall ever live in a low, mean, and miserable condition; He shall no more behold the way of the high while he lives; nor (which the same Author cleaves to as the most genuine interpretation) shall he take care or provide to be buried according to the way, custom, or manner of the high ones when he dieth.

But, I shall not insist upon either of these renderings, though they all fall into one common channel with the former, which is to set forth that the wicked man is under a curse, or that his portion is cursed in the earth, yea, that a curse is his portion. Nor shall I (having often observed from other texts of this book the woeful end of wicked men, for this reason, I say, I shall not) stay to give any further observations from this clause, according to any of the renderings of it: of all which I most embrace that of our own translators, He shall not behold the way of the vineyards, not only because most of the learned Hebricians render it so, but first, because it makes no division of, nor puts any strain at all upon any of the Original words in the text; And secondly, because it carries (to my thoughts) so fair a correspondence with the words which follow in the two next verses.

THere are two different translations of the 19 ^th verse; I shall propose them, and then explicate our own.

First, thus; In the drought and heat they rob, and in the snow water, they sin to the grave.

Secondly, (to the same sense by way of similitude) like as the dry earth and heat drink up the snow water, so they sin even to the grave.

Both these renderings carry in them two things generally remarkable.

First, The obstinacy, and perseverance of wicked men in sin while they live.

Secondly, Their impunity in sin until death.

That is, they rob and spoil at all times, or in all the seasons of the year, in hard times, in the hardest times, in the extremity of drought, and in the extremity of cold, They never give over, they sin to the grave. This reading is much insisted upon by some, and as the sense is useful, so the text may bear it. For the verb signifies to snatch a thing openly, and forcibly, as well as to consume secretly, and so may be rendered by robbing, as well as by consuming.

First, We may consider this drought and heat with the snow water as expressing those seasons which are very troublesome to the wicked man, to do his work in, to rob, and spoil: extreme heat, and extreme cold, are great impediments to action, yet in heat and snow they rob.

Whence observe.

Though he be in danger of melting with heat, or of freezing with cold, yet he will rob, or do any other mischief that his heart is set upon: neither heat, nor cold, neither wett, or dry, shall keep him in, yea though an Angel with a drawn sword in his hand stand in his way (as in the way of Balaam ) yet, when he hath a mind, he will go on. We may say of every bold and presumptuous sinner, that he sins in heat, and cold, he sins in the sight of wrath and death. The threatenings (which are the portion of such) have the extremity of heat and cold in them; The threatenings have sword and fire in them, wrath and death in them, yet the wicked sin in the face of them, and (upon the m •• ter) dare them to do their worst. A godly man, whose heart is bent and set heavenward, will walk on his way, though he must pass through heat, and cold, though he meet with dangers, and difficulties, though he meet many Lions in his way, yet he will not turn out of his way. Paul saith of himself and his fellow-laborers (2 Cor. 6.4.) In all things approving ourselves as the Ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, &c. And a little after ( v. 8.) By honor, and dishonor, by evil report, and good report, &c. Here was working in heat and cold, in fire and frost, in all sorts of providences from God, in all sorts of aspects from men. Paul and his colleagues, never minded what men did to them, but what the mind of God was they should do. And thus every godly man works, or doth the work of God. For though every Godly man attains not to such a degree of zeal and holy courage as Paul had; yet he hath a truth of zeal and holy courage which will (according to his measure) carry him through a world of evils and incumbrances, to the doing of that good, which duty and conscience, or the conscience of his duty calls him to. Now as Godly men labor to approve themselves the Ministers or servants of God, so ungodly men will approve themselves the servants of sin in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, and in distresses; they will run all hazards, and venture through all extremities, rather then leave the law of a lust unfulfilled. The Lord put the Jews to much suffering for their sins, yet sin they would; Why should ye be stricken anymore, (saith he, Isa. 1.5.) Ye will revolt more and more; while I have been striking, ye have been revolting. The same pertinency is complained of ( Isa. 57.17.) I smote him, and was wrath, yet he went on frowardly in the way of his heart; that is, in a sinful way. The heart of man knows no other way, till himself is formed after the heart of God, and in that sinful way he will go, though God make his heart ache as he goes, I smote him, and was wroth, yet he went on, &c.

Again, we may take drought, heat, and snow water, not only as importing their sufferings while they were doing in such times, but also as importing the several seasons of time, as if he had said, they will sin both winter and summer, that is, continually: we say of some, they are never well neither full nor fasting: As full and fasting imply all the conditions of man, so hot and cold, summer and winter, imply all divisions of time.

Hence note.

Sinning time is never out with them, they do not sin by fits or starts, in an ill mood only, or through a stress of temptation, but they sin from a principle within, they have a spring of wickedness within, and that will ever be sending and flowing out. A good man may be overtaken with sin at any time, but he doth not sin at all times, in winter, and summer, in heat, and cold. Corruption will be working where Grace is, but where Grace is not, nothing works but corruption. If wicked men be not doing evil in every moment of time, it is not because they at any time would not do evil, but because at all times they cannot; And therefore the translation now underhand speaks of their whole life as one continued act of sin.

That is, till they die, and so are carried out to the grave. So that this manner of speaking, They sin to the Grave, signifies the utmost perseverance of wicked men in sinning; as if it had not been enough to say, they sin in heat, and cold, winter, and summer, but they sin out the last inch of time, even till they come to the graves mouth.

Whence Note.

The Apostle Peter (2 Pet. 2.14.) saith of that generation, who have eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, sin is their nature, it is not what they have acquired, but what is implanted in them, and borne with them. And because sin is natural to them, therefore they cannot get it off until their nature is changed. And hence it is that conversion or regeneration is the change of our nature as well as of our actions. A man unregenerate sins as naturally as he lives: he sins as naturally as he sees or hears, or exerciseth any of those natural faculties, so naturally doth he sin, and therefore he sins to the grave. And this is a rational demonstration of the Justice of God in awarding eternal punishment for sin committed in time, or in a short time, (the whole time of a man's life, in which sin is committed, is but a short time, a nothing to eternity) wherein sin shall be punished. This, I say, is a demonstration of the Justice of God in punishing wicked men) because if they could have lived to eternity, they would have done evil to eternity, they do evil as they can, and as long as they can. Seeing then, there is a principle in man to sin eternally, it is but just with God if he punish sinners eternally: did not the grave stop him, his heart would never stop him from sin. In heat and cold they rob, they sin to the grave.

Further as these words are put into a similitude, they intimate the easiness, and naturallnesse of their sinning, as well as the continuance of it; Like as the hot earth drinketh up the snow water, so wicked men sin to the grave: they sin to death, and they sin with as much ease and naturalnes as the earth, when dry and thirsty, drinks up the snow water. Sinners are said to drink iniquity as water, (Job 15.16.) They are said to draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with cart ropes, (Isa. 5.18.) The last of these comparisons notes their strength and grossness in sinning; The second notes their wit and cunning in sinning; The third (which suites with the present text) notes their readynes and easynes to sin; They can do it as easyly as drink, as easyly as the hot earth drinketh up the snow water.

So much of that translation; I come now to consider our own.

Drought or dryness; The word notes the dryness of the earth, and is often put for dry earth, as also for earth undrest, or for a desert place, because in such places the earth is usually parched with heat and over-dry. And hence the word (Tsijm) in the plural number signifies a people that dwell in a wilderness, or in a desert. So the people of Israel were called while they marched slowly throught it to Canaan (Psal. 74.14.) Thou brakest the head of the Leviathan, and gavest him to be meat for the people, who dwelt in the wilderness. And as men, so those wild beasts that dwelt in deserts, or solitary places are called Tsijm; (Isa. 34.14.) The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the land, and the Satire shall cry to his fellow, the Shrich-Owl also shall rest there, and find for her self a place of rest. Tsijm are such uncouth creatures as inhabit Tsijah, dry and desert places. Drought

Cham the original word signifies both to be hot, and to be black; The second son of Noah, (who mocked his father) was named Cham, and it is supposed that the posterity of Cham inhabited Africa, which is also called Ammonia, being a hot Country, and the people of it black. And from this Hebrew word (it is conceived) the Heathens also called the Sun Jupiter Hammon; and they had Sun-Images called Chammamin (Levite. 26.30.) which they worshipped.

The word (as many other in the Hebrew) hath a nearness of sound as well as in sense with our English word gussell, and we say of Great drinkers, They are Guzzlers. The dry earth and heat gussell or drink in the snow water, as the intemperate person gussels and drinks down his liquor. Thus, drought and heat consume the snow water, that is, the snow when melted into water.

There is a wonderful concisenes in the Hebrew, we find there no particle of likeness, nor is there any expression of those that, as appears by the different letter in our translation; yet there is no doubt but the words carry in them the force of a similitude, therefore we may safely supply them, according to our reading;

The same word is used indifferently in the Original both for the grave and hell; both significations are made use of by Interpreters in this place. First, the grave or death; secondly, Hell, which is the second death, and everlasting death consumeth those that have sinned.

But why doth he say, the grave consumeth those that have sinned? Can he mean any special sort of men by this, forasmuch as all men have sinned and sin daily?

I answer, It is a truth, the grave consumeth, and death reigneth over all, for that all have sinned; Wheresoever sin hath to do, death hath to do, the terretories of death are as large as the terretories of sin; And had it not been for sin, death had never had any dominion in the world, nor can the grave consume any but those who have sinned. The Body of man had never come into the graves mouth, and it had been too hard a morsel for the stomach of the grave to digest, had it not been for sin; For though the body of man in its materials and constitution was mortal, that is, was under a possibility of dying before he sinned, yet if sin had not brought him under the threat of death, God had never subjected him under that decree of dying, in pursuance of both which the grave now consumeth (all) those that have sinned. The grave consumes Godly men because they have sinned, and the grave consumes wicked men because they have sinned; yet there is a great difference among these sinners who die, and a greater difference among these sinners when they are dead.

And therefore Job speaks here destinctively; for though it be a truth that all whether Godly or wicked have sinned, and that the grave consumeth all, who have sinned; yet Job doth not here intend all men by Those who have sinned. For by them Job means gross presumptuous and impoenitent sinners; he means it not of those who sin according to common fraylety, but of those who sin with a high hand obstinately. Such he means, even oppressors, adulterers, murderers, of whom he spake by name before; these and such as these are the sinners whom he intends, while he saith, so doth the grave those that have sinned.

And it be said, so doth the grave those that (in this sense) have not sinned.

I answer, The Grave is said in a special manner to consume those who have thus sinned.

First, Because such sinners do more subject and lay themselves open to death, by their wicked courses and intemperate living. Such sinners spoil their bodies, and corrupt their blood, they fill themselves with diseases, which bring them early to the Grave.

Secondly, Because God doth often cut the thread of such men's lives when they are strong and healthy, and tumbles them into the graves mouth to be consumed, before they have lived out half their days.

The words being thus opened, fall under a twofold interpretation.

First, As implying the felicity (such as it is) of wicked men in dying, or the easiness of their death; as they live in pleasure, so they die without pain. That's a point insisted upon at the 13 ^th verse of the 21 ^th Chapter, They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment (or with ease) they go down to the grave. And again ( ver. 32, 33.) He shall be brought to the grave, the clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him. Where Job shows that wicked men have as much ease in death as others, and many times a great deal more. They die in a moment, not tired out with the torture of chronical diseases, but having a quick and speedy passage out of the world, are dissolved even as the snow is by the heat and warmth of the Sun. This sense some of note insist chiefly upon, as most suitable to Jobs scope in describing the corporal, and temporal felicity of wicked men, even in death, which carries the greatest appearance of terror and trouble in it.

But I rather take these words as a description of the miserable end and sad conclusion of a wicked man. For the word which we render, to consume, signifies a forceable swallowing down, a kind of devouring, which doth not consist with that other explication.

Hence observe.

All men sin, but some go away with the name, as if they only were worthy to be called sinners. In which sense the Evangelist saith ( Luke 7.37.) And behold a woman in the City which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat in the Pharisees house brought an albaster box of ointment, &c. But were not all the women in the City sinners? They were so, but this woman had a common fame for a sinner, that is, for an unclean, wanton woman; she was a sinner of sinners, the chief of sinners in that City. So ( Luk. 19.7.) when Christ went to the house of Zacchaeus, the Pharisees were vexed, and murmured, saying, that he was gone to be guest with a man which was a sinner; As if they had said, he is gone to the house of a notorious sinner, a man so sinful, and guilty, that all men seem innocent and sinless in comparison of him. So they accounted That Zacchaeus the Publican; and doubtless he was as noted a man for sin before his conversion, as he was for grace after it. As they who are borne of God do not commit sin, yea, cannot sin because they are borne of God (1 Joh. 3.9.) that is, their sinning is no sinning in God's account, and comparatively to the sinning of others. So they who are borne of the Devil (as Christ saith those contradicting Jews were, Joh. 8.44.) do nothing but commit sin, and sin so as if they (and their like) alone did sin. For as no godly man sins as a wicked man doth, so some • wicked men sin at such a rate, that it may be said they only sin, evē in respect of the generality of wicked men. Thus also some Godly men do so far exceed and out-strip other Godly men in holiness and the acting of their Graces, as if they only were Godly, as if they only had the acting of those graces. Abraham believed as if he only had been a believer; and Job was patient, as if none had patience but he; David was a man so upright, as if only he had been upright, or a man after God's own heart. There are Saints like Abraham and David, none like them, and there are sinners, like Jeroboam and Ahab, none like them.

Observe.

They who sin as if none did sin but they, are so subject to death, as if none were subject to death but they. For if every sin, the least sin doth put us into the hand or under the power of death, then great sins multiplied and continued in, put us into the hand and under the power of death much more. The Psalmist saith of wicked worldly men ( Psal. 49.14.) Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed on them, and their beauty shall consume in the grave, from their dwelling; or (as we put in the Margin) the grave being an habitation to everyone of them shall consume their beauty.

But some may object, Is not this true of Godly men too, are not they thus handled by death, and the grave? doth not death feed on them? and doth not the grave consume their beauty?

I answer, though it doth, yet it doth not so feed upon, nor consume them, as it feeds upon and consumes wicked men. For the Psalmist speaks here of death as it were triumphing over the wicked, whereas the Godly triumph over death. For, first he saith, The wicked are laid in the grave like sheep; They lived like Wolves or Lions, but they are laid in the grave like sheep. If it be asked, why like sheep? I answer, not for the innocence of their lives, but for their impotency in death; as if it had been said, when once death took them in hand to lay them in the grave, they could make no more resistance then a sheep can against a Lyon or a Wolf; And when death hath thus laid them in the grave, then secondly (saith the Psalmist) death shall feed on them, as a Lyon doth upon a sheep, or any wild beast upon his prey, which is a further degree of deaths triumph over the wicked; And thirdly, their beauty shall consume in the grave, that is, all their bodily and natural beauty (and that is all the beauty which they have) shall consume in the Grave, whereas the Godly, have a beauty (and they count it their only beauty) which the grave cannot consume, and that is the beauty of their graces, the beauty of holiness, the spiritual beauty of the inner man, yea and the spiritual beauty of their outward holy actings shall not consume in the Grave; For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for from henceforth, saith the Spirit, they rest from their labors, and their works follow them (Rev. 14.13.) that is, their good works follow them (not to death but into life) and will be both beauty and blessedness to them from the Lord forever. Whereas cursed are the dead that die in their sins, for from henceforth, they shall be denied rest forever, and none of their works, wherein they took pleasure in this world, shall follow them into the next to give them any pleasure. All their beauty and outward blessedness ends in the grave. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, saith the Apostle of believers (1 Cor. 15.19.) we are of all men most miserable; then how miserable are they, who have no hope beyond this life, or if they have, both that, and their present beauty consume together in the grave. Thus it is plain, that though godly men die, yet death hath not such a hand over them, as over the wicked. And as wicked men are more under the hand of death then the Godly when they die, so they are continually more liable unto death. Sin, which unfits men to die comfortably, fits them (as it were) to die naturally: The more sinful any man is, the sooner may death surprise him. Holynes hath not only a promise of eternal life hereafter, but of a long life here ( Psal. 34.12, 13.) And sin is not only under a threat of eternal death hereafter, but of a speedy death here. ( Psal. 55.23.) But thou O Lord shalt bring them (that is, wicked men) down into the pit of destruction, (But when? it may be long first, the next words make answer) Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; That is, not half the days which as others do so they naturally might live; either the Justice of God or of man shall cut such men off in the midst of their days. The grave gapes for those who have thus sinned. So then, though there are many spiritual reasons referring to eternal life, which may move the sons of men to take heed of sin, yet there is a strong motive from the concernments of this present temporal life, and that not only as to the comforts of it, but also as to the very continuance of it. They hasten themselves to the grave who make hast to sin, and so at once endanger the hopes of the next life, and the enjoyment of this.

Lastly, Some, because the Grave (in a general sense) consumes the Godly as well as the sinner (in the sense last expressed) do therefore restrain the word Sheol in this place to hell, as it signifies the place or state of the damned, which is proper only to those who have sinned, and die in their sins. So the whole verse is thus rendered. As dry earth and heat consume the snow waters, so hell consumeth those that have sinned. All that sin and turn not, shall be turned to hell; But shall hell consume them? they shall ever be consuming, but never consumed. Hell shall consume them as to a comfortable being, but it shall not consume them as to a being; they shall be always dying, but never dead. Hell is the portion and all the portion of all wicked men hereafter, what ever portion of worldly profit or pleasure they have had here: hell shall consume them, and they shall be consuming forever.

The 20 ^th verse may carry the sense of this interpretation, but it complyeth more clearly with the former, describing the calamitous condition of a wicked man at his departure out of this world.

The number varyes here again, Job spake in the plural number immediately before, yet here keeping to the same subject, he speaks in the singular.

That is, They who loved him most tenderly and dearly shall forget him. The word which we render the womb, is of a verb which signifies to love, with greatest intensenesse and tenderness: it is applied to the love of man to God, ( Psal. 18.1.) I love the Lord, I love the Lord dearly with bowels of affection; and it is often applied to the love of God unto man. Some translate it here by the Abstract; Love, mercy, or pity shall forget him. Which may be taken two ways; First, that those friends who before were pitiful to him, should forget him; his lovers, and acquaintance, who were dear to him even as his bowels, they shall forget him; or secondly, mercy shall forget him, that is, the mercy of God, or the God of mercy shall forget him, God who is altogether mercy shall forget him; hell shall consume him, and mercy, or the merciful God shall forget him forever. The vulgar reads it by way of imprecation, let mercy forget him; others as a direct denunciation, mercy shall forget him; But I rather apprehend that this phrase, or manner of speaking, The womb shall forget him, doth only import thus much; That when the wicked man dieth, he shall be as much forgotten among men, as if such a man had never come out of his mothers womb, nor been born into the world. But are not wicked men remembered to have been in the world when once they go out of the world? usually they do such things in the world as cannot easily be forgotten; And are not many wicked men, who died some thousands of years ago, remembered unto this day, as if they had died but yesterday? I answer, As to forget, always implieth former knowledge, and acquaintance, so sometimes it implieth only present neglect. When we pass by, or slight a man, then we are said to forget him, though we not only remember who he is, but see him before our eyes. Much more then may we be said to forget those men being dead, whom we slighted while they lived, and never speak of but with contempt and abhorrence both of their persons and actions since they died. The womb shall forget him.

Yet as the former verse is expounded by some, (as was there touched) to show how quiet and easy a passage wicked men usually have out of this world by death, so this clause also of the verse in hand, yea the whole verse is expounded to the same sense; I will only hint it, and pass on.

That is, his mother shall not be troubled or grieved at his death, because he died without grief or trouble.

That is, The grave shall be no seveerer to him then to others. There the worms feed upon all men, and they shall feed sweetly on him; or it shall be a kind of sweetness and pleasure to him, to have the worms feeding on him; which is no more then what Job said upon the same argument ( Chap. 21.33.) The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him.

That is, there shall no hard fate or evil accident befall him when he dies to administer matter of discourse concerning him: for when a man is cut off by some remarkable stroke of Judgment either from the hand of God or man, his death becomes the discourse and Table-talk of all sorts of men, for that generation at least, if not for many more. What hath caused Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, to be remembered to this day, was it not the strangeness of their death? ( Numb. 14.29, 30.) And Moses said, If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, &c. This dreadful hand of God upon them in swallowing them up alive, hath made them to be remembered more then many thousands of honest and good men in Israel, who died in their beds. Upon this account Ananias & Sapphira are remembered, and so is That Herod (Act. 12.23.) Who was eaten of worms & gave up the Ghost, because he gave not glory unto God. But saith Job (according to this exposition) the wicked man's death is commonly so fair, and so much after the common death of all men, that no man reremembers him anymore.

That is, the wicked man shall die like an old rotten tree, he shall molder away and decay by piece-meal, or gradually, as a tree doth which is never hewn down, but is suffered to wast and die alone. Thus the interpretation is carried through the whole verse, as a proof, that bad men may (in this kind) have a good death.

But though this be a truth, and suites well with Jobs scope in some passages of this Chapter, as also in other passages of this book, that wicked men die as to outward appearance as fairly, and sweetly, as the godly, so that as no man knoweth love, or hatred by all that is before him, but all things (in this life) come alike to all; There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked (Eccl: 9.1, 2.) So all things come alike to all in death, so far as it merely concerns the separation of soul and body; yet I rather conceive that this verse declares wrath and judgment to wicked men dying, or their misery and wretchedness in death. And therefore first, the womb, that is, his nearest relations, and friends, even his mother, and wife, shall forget him. They expected no good from him while he lived, and so it was little sorrow to them when he died. Some men live till their friends are weary of them, & everyone thinks the world is well rid of them when they die. Secondly, The worm shall feed sweetly on him, that is, as he fed sweetly upon sin before, so now the worm shall have a sweet morsel of him; Which some interpret also as a circumlocution of an ignominious or at least a vulgar burial; as if he had said, he shall not have the burial of the noble and honorable, who usually are secured from worms by spices and imbalmings (spice and perfume fence the dead body against the worm) But though he lived honourably, death shall overtake him, and he shall be buried ignominiously, or he shall be buried among common men, he shall not have that privilege which appertains to his state, preservation from the worms. And (which is a greater misery then both the former) Thirdly, He shall be no more remembered, that is, he shall be no more spoken of with honor, but his name shall rot, as a man that is not worth the remembering. His name shall not be registerd with honor, nor kept upon the file, with men of credit and renown. So that as the first part of the verse shows how his nearest relations and lovers shall forget him, so this latter part shows that he shall be remembered no more of any others.

The Original word which we translate to remember, taken in other forms, signifies a history, or a monument of record, as also a recorder or register, who writes and sets down things for memory. And hence also a man-child in the Hebrew is called Zachar, because the family is reckoned by the males, they only being named in genallogyes, and registered in the monuments of antiquity: so that these words, He shall be no more remembered, sound thus much, he shall be a man whose name is quite blotted or rased out of all memorials. And This curse of being no more remembered, may be taken as was intimated before, either first absolutely, he shall not be thought of, named, or remembered at all, or secondly, relatively, he shall no more be remembered with honor, his name will smell worse then his rotten carcass when he is dead, and whensoever he is mentioned, it will be like rakeing in a dunghill which raiseth up a filthy stench and vapor. Possibly while he lived he was spoken of with honor, he had many flatterers, who crept to him, bowed to him, adored him, and called him a gracious Lord, but when he dieth his reputation dieth too, he shall be no more remembered with honor; when any man ceaseth to be remembered as he once was, he may be said not to be remembered at all. The worst and wickedest men that ever were in the world may be still remembered, but when they are remembered it is with some mark of infamy, or with a black brand upon their name.

Hence note.