Commentary on Ezra Nehemiah Ester Job and Psalms

CHAP. XVII. Verse 1. My breath is corrupt.]

WHich argueth that my inwards are Imposthumated, and rotten, so that I cannot in likelihood have long to live; Oh therefore that I might have a day of hearing and clearing, before I die. But Job should have remembered, that there will be at the last day a resurrection of names, as well as of bodies; which he that believeth maketh not haste. Howsoever it was not amiss for Job so grievously diseased, and now well in years, to bethink himself of death, and to discourse of these three particulars, that speak him a dying man. In the old, the Palm tree is full of blooms, the map of age is figured on his forehead, the Calendars of death appear in the furrows of his face, the mourners are ready to go about the streets, and he is going to his long home, according to that elegant description, Eccles. 12. He should therefore say with Varro, Annus octogesimus wie admonet, ut sarcinas colligam, &c. It is high time for me to pack up, and to be gone out of this life: Or rather, as Simeon, Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace, &c.

My days are extinct] As a candle, Prov. 13.9. Or, Cut off (as a web) so some read it. The Original word is found only here.

The graves are ready for me.] Heb. The graves for me; q.d. I bid adieu to all things else, and as the grave gapes for me, so do I gape for the grave, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . I would it were even so, as Basil said, when Valens the Arian Emperor threatened him with death. But why doth Job speak of graves in the plural? Surely, to show that he was besieged with many deaths: or else, because the dead are buried (as it were) first in their grave-clothes, and then in the coffin, and then in the Beir or Hearse, and lastly in the Sepulcher, which every place did, as it were, proffer to Job, and threaten him with death, in regard of his many pains and pressures, by the scoffs and taunts of his friends. For,

Verse 2. Are there not mockers with me?] Heb. If there be not mockers with me, q.d. despeream, Let me be punished, or let me be blarned for wishing to argue it out with God: so some Jew-Doctors sense it. job had before complained of his friends jeering and girding at him, chap. 16.20. To be mocked in misery is no small aggravation thereof. See what is threatened. Prov. 1.26. The Proverb is, Oculus, fides. & fa • a non patiuntur jocot. There's no jesting with a man's eye, faith, and fame. Junius readreth the Text thus, For as much as there are no mockings with me, I mean honestly, and deal plainly, and yet mine eye continueth in their provocations, neither can I be set right in their opinions, so prejudiced they are against me.

And doth not mine eye continue in their prevoc •• miums?] Heb. Lodg or tarry all night in their provocations, or bitternesses? Broughton readeth, In those man's vexing lodgeth mine eye; that is, I lodge not so much in roy bed as in the thoughts of my friends un •••• nesse. And indeed (saith one) a man may sleep better upon bare boards, then upon hard words. Some refer it to the eye of his mind lifted up to God in prayer: but yet no sweetness coming from him either internally or externally. The former is rather to be followed.

Verse 3. Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee] This Job speaketh not to El ••• (as K. Moses. Beza. and some others would have it) but to God himself, as chap. 16.7. whom he desireth to lay down or appoint (as Exod. 1.11.) and put in Christ as a Surety to plead for him. See Heb. 7.22. and so Brenz expoundeth it; There is one only surety (saith he) one only Intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ, who if he appear not in the eyes of our faith, we have none else that can undertake for us to God; neither is there any creature which can stand in the judgment of God, though he would never so fain be Surety for us: Thus he. And accordingly our late learned Annotatours reading the words thus: Appoint I pray thee my Surety with thee; who is he then that will st •• ke upon my hand? that is, Appoint Christ, who is with thee in heaven, and hath undertaken to be my Surety: appoint him (I say) to plead my cause and to stand up for me, and then no man will dare to contend with me. And so it is futable to the Notes on chap. 16.21. and to Rom. 8.33. The Vulgar Latin, (not altogether from the purpose, saith Brenz, ) translates the whole verse thus, Put me near thyself, and then let whose will contend with me.

Verse 4. Thou hast hid their heart from understanding.] that is, Thou hast hidden understanding from their heart, thou hast left them in the dark, destitute of a right judgment, whilst they condemn me for wicked, because grievously afflicted; and thence it is that I do so confidently appeal to thee in Jesus Christ, since my friends are so far mistaken in this controversy. If God give not both light and sight, if he vouchsafe not to irradiate both Organ and Object, the best will be bemisted. Every good gift and perfect cometh from above, even from the Father of lights, Jam. 1.17. It was he that made Reverend Doctor Sibbs (as one saith of him) Spiritually rational, and rationally Spiritual; One that seemed to see the insides of Nature and Grace, and the world and heaven, by those perfect Anatomies he had made of them all.

Therefore shalt thou not exalt them] Therefore thou shalt not give them honor: so Broughton rendereth it. But that's not all, Liptoti est, saith Mercer; it is a figure, wherein less is said, and more is meant: Thou shalt not only not exalt them, but thou shalt also abase and humble them: this contestation shall be nothing at all to their commendation in the end. It is the found knowledge of the truth according to godliness, that exalteth a man, and makes him to be accounted of; and the contrary. Howbeit many great and good men have been greatly mistaken in very great controversies and transactions, as was Luther, Doctor Resolutus, sed non in omnibus Illuminatus. And yet how many Learned able men hath his name misled in the point of Consubstantiation? Ursin was carried away with it a while, till he read his Arguments which he found to be little better then Paralogismes. Holy Greenham. when pressed to conformity to the Ceremonies by the Bishop of Eli. who urged Luther's approbation of them; and are you wiser then Luther? His sober and gracious answer was, I reverence more the revealed will of God in teaching Luther so many necessary things to salvation, then I search into his secret will, why he hid his heart from understanding in things less necessary.

Verse 5. He that speaketh flattery to his friends.] As you my friends do to, and for God, in seeming to assert his justice in punishing me for my wickedness, so soothing and smoothing up the Almighty ( quod ipsum nibil aliud est quam falso Deo blaudiri, saith Merlin ) and seeking to make the world believe by your great words, that you are his great Champions, whilst you go about to clear up his righteousness, by concluding me unrighteous, See chap. 13.7, 8. with the Notes.

The eyes of his children shall fail.] Not himself only shall smart (while the Lord curteth off flattering lips, and the deceitful tongue, Psal. 12.3.) but his poor children shall rue for it. They shall lie languishing at Hopes Hospital, and after all be disappointed, or their eyes shall fail with long looking after good, but nothing comes. They shall look for peace, and there is no good; and for a time of healing, but behold trouble, Jer. 14.19. God will destroy flatterers, head and tail, branch and rush, like as the Thessalians, once utterly destroyed the City called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Flattery.

Verse 6. He hath made me also a by-word of the people.] Here Job returns to his old task of setting forth his own misery; for what men are most sensible of, that their tongues do most of all run upon. Job is a by word or a Proverb to this day, for we say, As poor as Job; as of old they said, Iro panperior, &c. He was become a common proverb, a public mocking-stock, yea he was pro cantione and tympanum trita; as some sense the next words. And aforetime (or, to men's faces ) I was (or I am ) • tabret: They sing my miseries to the Tabret, as a matter of mirth; they compose Comedies out of my Tragedies, and this greatneth my grief. I am openly a T • bret: so Broughton reads it. The Vulgar hath it, I am an example before them. The Chaldee Paraphrast, I am at hell before them. The Hebrew word in Tophet, taken afterwards indeed for hell, but not so in Jobs t • me. The Septuagint, I became a sport to them; David met with the like measure, Psal. 69.19, 11. and the Church, Lam. 2.15. And Christ on the Cross was matter of mirth to the malicious Jews. God had made Job all this. He (that is, God ) hath made me, &c. his name he spares in reverence: but everywhere he acknowledgeth God the Author of his troubles, as Mercer here noteth. The whole verse may be read thus: He hath made me also a by-word of the people, where as aforetime, I was as a Tabret; that is, I am now a scorn to them who delighted in me in my prosperity.

Verse 7. Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow] Not only is my good name blasted, but my body also is wasted: the nerves of mine eyes are contracted, the visive faculty decayed, Psal. 6.7. Mine eye is consumed because of grief, yea my soul and my belly, Psal. 1.10. Not the visive only, but the vital powers • re wasted (see chap. 16.16.) yea the intellective part, as well as the sensitive, understood by the formations in the next clause, that is, the cogitations, say they according to Gen. 6.5. But I rather take it according to our Translation, for the members of the body.

And all my members are as a shadow] My membra are but umbra, they look more like a Skeleton, an Anatomy, an Apparition, then a true body, nothing being left but skin and bone so much meager'd are all my members. This is hyperbolica ma • orum suorum amplificatio, saith Merlin.

Verse 8. Upright men shall be a stonied at this] They shall silently admire and adore the fathomlesse depth of the divine administration, when they see a man so upright to suffer such heavy pressures: yet shall they not censure me as you do, not condemn me for complaining, since there is a cause. They cannot indeed see far into God's secret intentions, they do therefore mirari rather then rimari, like as the old Romans dedicated unto Victory a certain Lake, the depth whereof they could not fathom.

And the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite] He shall learn of me, not to be baffled out of his sincerity; to be mocked out of his integrity, but to maintain and take comfort therein against all his false Accusers. Opposition doth not weaken, but waken Heroic Spirits, 2 Sam. 6.21, 22. They proceed so much the more vigorously in the ways of Holiness; like as Lime burns the more for the cold water cast upon it, and as the Palm-tree, which although it have many weights at the top, and many snakes at the bottom, yet it stirreth up it self, and flourisheth, taking for its Posy, Nee premor, nec perimor. Nothing hurteth or hindereth me.

Verse 9. The righteous also shall hold on his way] Stumble he may for a time at his own calamity, and worse men's felicity; but as he that stumbleth, and yet falleth not, gets ground; so fareth it with the righteous in this case. Once David said, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence: For all the day long have I been plagued, when had men have been prospered. Hence he began to repent of his repentance, and to miscensure the generation of God's children as thrice miserable, Psal. 73.13, 14, 15. but after a while, and upon better consideration, he said, This is mine infirmity; yea, he befooled and be beasted himself, ver. 22. for so saying. And the like will all those at length do, that belong to God, though for the present offended at God's proceedings, and by their passions miscarried to their cost; yet they return to their right minds: forwards they may fall sometimes, but not backwards, for that were far more dangerous. Lord, to whom should we go, saith Peter? since thou alone hast the words of eternal life, John 6.68. Neither know we where to mend ourselves, by gadding about to change our way, Jer. 2.36. The righteous shall hold on his way, merdicùs tenebit, he shall hold it toughly, hold it as with tooth and nail, not going aside a nails breadth; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he shall stick to it, as the Greek hath it.

And he that hath clean hands] Upright Innocent. Righteous, clean handed, these all are the good man's adjuncts and Titles of honor, far beyond those of the worlds greatest Magnifico.

Shall wax stronger and stronger] Heb. Shall add strength, Not only shall he hold his own, but get more grace; not only persevere, but proceed and make progress. He shall take boldness, say the Septuagint, and (by an holy Antipenstasis) get heart of grace, as they call it, from the evil attempts of others against him; the more outrageous they, the more courageous he; like as by Saint Paul's bonds many waxed confident, Phil. 1.14. and as the Primitive Christians, the more they were killed up, the more numerous they became. True zeal is of a most masculine, and courageous nature: it is enkindled, by quench-coals, quickened by rubs and remora's. Ba • uc repaired earnestly, bursting out into heat, nehem. 3.20. Shall such a man as I fly? said that heavenly Spark, chap. 6.11. Shall I change my opinion, because hoc Ithacus velit? Remit of my diligence, because of a frown or a frump? because such a Persecutour threateneth me? Oh that I might enjoy those wild beasts prepared for my death, said Ignatius! Oh that I might have the maidenhead of that kind of suffering for Christ, said that Martyr to Bonner, threatening to whip him, &c.

Verse 10. But as for you all, do ye return, &c.] Change your minds, as Mal. 3. 18. and close with me, lay aside your prejudicate opinions, deliver up you selves to my discipline, who am ready to teach you things both weighty and necessary, Siquis culturae patientem accommodet aurem.

For I cannot find one wise man amongst you.] Nihil hic ex odio dicit. saith an Interpreter. This Job speaketh not out of hatred to their persons, but freely uttereth that which he was persuaded to be the truth, and wisheth them a better understanding of the thing controverted betwixt himself and them at this time. Now it is no fault to speak of men as we find them. See 1 Cor. 6.5. I speak to your shame. is it so that there is not a wise man among you? and yet chap. 10.15. I speak as to wise men, judge you what I say.

Verse 11. My days are past] q.d. Its past time of day for me to hope for a return of a prosperous condition, since I am irrecoverably diseased, and cannot be long of life.

My purposes are broken off.] Or, My thoughts are plucked up by the roots. even the Possessions of mine heart. that is, those thoughts that should wholly possess me, and take me up entirely, seizing upon my spirit; q.d. I am not now in case to think settledly and seriously of any good, my sorrows are so many, and my sores so grievous. The Chaldee hath it, The Tables of my heart are broken. How foolish then are they who put off their repentance till they are cast upon their sick-beds, when they may soon find enough to do to attend the pain and infirmity of their bodies? To suffer and be sick, (saith One) is work enough for any man at one time: he had not need to have his greatest work to do, when he hath such work to do.

Verse 12. They change the night into day.] i.e. My troubled thoughts render my nights restless, filling me with confusion, when the mind is unsettled the man cannot rest.

The light is short because of darkness] i.e. Comfort is long ere it cometh, and soon it expireth: Rara hora. brevis mora. The Vulgar, Post tenebras spero • ucem, here, After darkness I hope for light (the ancient Motto of the Town of Geneva ) is far fetched.

Verse 13. If I wait, the grave is mine house.] In that congregation house of all living, (as it is called chap. 30.23) both I and my hopes must be suddenly lodged. Some render it thus, If I build, the grave is my house. Solomon calleth it, T •• house of eternity, Eccles. 12.5. And the Egyptians accordingly call graves, everlasting houses, as 〈◊〉 saith Lib. 1.

I have made my bed in darkness] The grave was Jobs house, and therein he had made his bed to rest from his labors. There men follow their works no more, because followed by their works, Rev. 14.14.

Verse 14. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father] See how he bespeaks corruption and the worms, Ac sijam juris illorum, & Domesticus esset as if he were of family with them, and nearest of kin to them; so doth he court them, as it were, that they might be willing to receive him: showing withal how willing himself was to die; for whether do men in a strange Country, and in misery, desire rather to go, then to the house of their parents? Here also Job declareth what will be the end of all men, and what shall be their kindred in the grave. Of corruption we came (for what else is the seed and blood of generation?) to corruption also we go, as sons thereof; and Pulvu & Putredo we salute for sisters, that shall be most tender of us, and attendant upon us. Why then should any boast of high kindred? To the pit I cry, O father. O sister; O mother to the worm, so Broughton rendereth it Why should any boast of bodily beauty, since corruption will shortly seize upon the fairest face, which is now but putrefaction and worms, once removed, and to the same must suddenly move back again. Mihi experto credit, saith Austin, Believe me who have made trial of it? Open a grave, and upon the dead man's head you shall find toads leaping begotten of his brains; upon his loins Serpents crawling, begotten of his rains; in his belly worms abounding, arising out of his entrails. Behold what now we are, and what we shortly shall be; Behold the Original and filthiness of sin, &c.

Verse 15. And where is now my hope, &c?] Heb. And where is my hope? scil. of restauration to my pristine prosperity, which you have so often promised me, who am now ready set upon the confines of death? Job was past the Cape of good hope, in his own apprehension; but God turned again his captivity, chap. 42. Qui nil sperare potest desperet nihil. Job did well to propound death to himself, and prepare for it by such aforementioned familiarity: but yet he should have better bethought him of the infinite power and goodness of God, who raiseth the dead, and delighteth to help such as are forsaken of their hopes. Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust, that he will yet deliver, 2 Cor 1.10. The Hebrew word that signifieth hope, signifieth also a line, because by hope the heart should be stretched out as a line to the thing it hopeth for; And because it signifieth also a Congregation, therefore some render this verse thus, And where now is my congregation? And as for my congregation, who shall see it? q.d. I have no other family or familiars, but what are to be found in the grave.

Verse 16. They shall go down to the bars of the pit.] That is, I and my things, or I and my hopes of prosperity, verse 15. and they that will see the good I hope for, most pass through the gates of death to behold it, and lie down in the grave with me, and then it shall appear. Cajetan thinks that this is spoken ironically to his friends, and by way of irrision; q.d. Belike you think I shall be rich in the grave (who promise so much to me, and make me such overtures of an happiness here) for I have no hope to be rich in this world. And the Septuagint seem to favor this sense, rendering it, Shall my goods go into the grave with me? See 1 Tim. 6.7. with the Note.

When our rest together is in the dust] Or, When I shall rest alone in the dust, (as chap. 34.29.) and then

CHAP. XVIII. Verse 1. Then answered Bild ad the Shuhite, and said.]

NOT so much disputing, as inveying against Job in a sharp and angry Oration, wherein he elegantly describeth the woe of a wicked man, but wrongfully wresteth the same against good Job. who might well say with him in Tacitus; Tu linguae, ego aurium dominus. If I cannot command thy tongue, yet I can command mine own ears: Or with Another, Didicit ill maledicere, & ego contemnere; This man hath learned to reproach, and I to slight his contempts and contumelies; unless I should yield that wicked men only are grievously afflicted in this life present, that they are not to be reckoned wicked, who prosper in their way; but those only who sufer extremely.

Verse 2. How long will it be are you make an end of words?] First he taxeth Job of talkativenesse, when himself talked much, but spake little, save only what he had spoken before, chap. 8. Though Job had sufficiently refuted him But as nothing in the world is more unreasonable then an ignorant person, who thinketh nothing well done, but that which he doth himself; so those that bear themselves over-bold upon their own knowledge, and over ween their own abilities account it a great injury if any dissent from them in opinion and judgment. And such a one here Bildad showeth himself to be by his exordium ex ab •• pto. as Junius phraseth it, his abrupt beginning, as if he could bear no longer with Jobs prittle prattle; who if he were more prolix then his friends, he had greater reason, as being heavily afflicted, and falsely accused, Among the Romans the Plaintiff was allowed but three hours, the Defendant six. But why doth Bilànd bespeak • ob here in the Plural Number? Was it for Honors sake (as Cajetan holdeth?) I scarce think it. Was it because he thought Job to be possessed by an evil spirit (as Philip after Bode? ) No neither. But this he seemeth to do, either as bending his speech to the by-standers, who seemed to favor Job, and sometimes to put in a word for him; whom therefore Bildad looked upon as his fellow hypocrites: or else, by an irony he speaks unto Job as unto many, because he seemed to set up his opinion above all theirs, and would needs have his counter to stand for a thousand pounds.

mark and afterwards we will speak] Let thy words be henceforth dipped and died in thy heart before they be uttered: let our words also be duly weighed, that some end may be put to these altercations and disputes.

Verse 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, &c?] Here he taxeth Job of pride and arrogancy; grounding upon those words of his taken at the worst, chap. 12.7. and 17.4, 10. and not considering his case, that he was full of pain, which maketh wise men tetchy (as oppression maketh them mad, Eccles. 7.7.) and that they had sorely provoked him by their bitter taunts, and scurrilous invectives, which called for so sharp a curry-comb. Pessime antem habes by po • risin. si contemnatur; Hypocrisy loves not to be sighted, faith Brenz here. And Gregory upon this Text faith. Thus in Bildad Heretics are set forth, who stomach it much that the faithful take upon them to reprove them, as carried away by error; as if the knowledge of the truth resided in themselves only, and all others had no more understanding then beasts. This people which know not the Law are cursed, say those Pharisees, John. 7.49. Ye know nothing at all, saith Caiaphas to his Assessors. The Gnostics and Illuminates gave out themselves, to be the only knowing men, &c. But if Bildad had been right set, he would neither have so far misconstrued Jobs words, nor yet have been behind to befool and be beast himself as Asaph in like case did, Psal. 73.22. Where he useth the Plural of the word here used in the Singular, calling himself, Behemoth, id est, magna • & crassam bestiam, a great and a gross beast.

And reputed vile in your sight] Heb. Polluted or unclean; that is, as beasts unfit for food, much less fit for sacrifice. The same Hebrew word signifieth, polluted and vile. Every wicked man is a vile man, be he never so high and honorable in the worlds account, as Antiochus, Dan. 11.21. is called a vile person, and yet he was the great King of Syria, firnamed Epiphanes, or Illustrious, and by the flattering Samaritans, he was styled, Antiochus the mighty God. See Psal. 15.4.

Verse 4. He teareth himself in anger.] Here he chargeth Job with desperate madness, as if through extreme impatience he fell soul upon his own flesh, as did that Demoniac in the Gospel, Bajazet the great Turk in his iron Cage, Pope Boniface the eighth, when clapt up close Prisoner in Saint Angelo: and as they say the Tiger doth, when he heareth a dram struck up, he teareth his own flesh with his teeth: or at all ravenous Deasts tear in pleces the prey which they have taken. Many read the Text thus, O the man which teareth his soul in his anger. Or. O thou which tearest thyself. &c. The Moralist describeth an angry man forcibly held by his friends, biting his own lips, rending his clothes, and dashing himself against the pillars, &c. Such a one Bildad maketh Job to be, 〈◊〉 or Mankind, as we say: and he takes occasion likely, from those word of his, chap. 13.14. But love would have thought no evil. Bildad herein sinned against the Law of love, las likewise he doth much more in the following vehement interrogation, charging Job with insolent boldness against God.

Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?] Shall God cast off the care of his earthly Kingdom to gratify thee, and to make good thine Assertion, That good men may suffer, and bad men go unpunished? Never think it: thou mayest sooner expect him to overturn the whole world for thy sake, and put everything out of that order he hath decreed and made it in, then cease to be just in punishing the wicked. The course of Justice is as firmly settled as the course of Nature is. Fias justitia, periac mand •• . Of Fabricim it was said, That the Sun might as easily be turned out of his track, as he out of his path of Justice; much more they it be so said of Almighty God, the Rock that cannot be removed, though he varieth the manner, the means, the times and seasons of executing Justice, as seemeth best unto his heavenly wisdom.

Verse 5. Tea the light of the wicked shall be put out.] The ensuing description of a wicked man's unhappiness in life; at death, and after death, is very true, and daintily set forth, but falsely and wrongfully wrested against Job, You, or, of a surety, the light of the wicked shall be put out: though thou wilt not hear of it, but the truth shall be spoken, however it be taken, and thou shalt hereby see thyself to be a wicked man, because thy light is extinct, that is, thy outward prosperity fitly compared to light; because 1. It cheereth our minds. 2. Directeth our hands to every business. 3. Lesseneth our frights. 4. Rendreth us conspicuous. The light of the wicked shall put out itself, (so some render it:) he is commonly the cause of his own ruin.

And the spark of his fire shall not shine] He is quenched as the fire of the thorns, Psalm 118.12. Whereof after a while, neither spark nor spunk remaineth.

Vers. 6. The light shall be dark in his Tabernacle] The glory of his family shall be obscured: he and his shall come to utter and unexpected ruin, as Haman's did.

And his candle shalt be put out with him] He and his prosperity shall die together: he shall go out in a snuff, and leave nothing behind him but a detestable name. Sicat fetis fugrens vedit, sit ill moritas hone erepitium cecenit, saith Melancthon concerning Echius his last piece, De conjugio ficet duum, Or, his candle shall be put out above him, so the Vulgar Interpreter: the Lamps which glistered over head, during the pride and pomp of his Feasts, shall give us more light: or if they give any, it shall be but to shine upon his Tomb.

Verse 7. The steps of his strength shall be str ••• ed] that is, saith Vatablus, he shall not do what he would and was wont. He shall lost his courage in the midst of his enterprises, and not be able to effect his attempts.

And his own counsel shall cast him down] His cunning shall fail him, his counsel, whereby once he rose, shall serve but to advance his overthrow, and to precipitate him into misery. We use to say of a cunning-pated fellow, that he never wanteth a trick wherewith to help himself; but there is neither power not policy against the Lord and his judgments. Of the Athenians it is said, that Minerva turned all their evil counsel into good unto them. God's enemies have no such friend to help them at a dead lift. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands, shall bring down the golden Image with a powder, and make it like the chasse of the Summerfloor, Dan. 2.35.

Verse 8. For he is cast into a net by his own feet.] Wicked men are even ambitious of destruction: judgments need not go to find them out: they run to meet their bane. Divine Justice and their own indiscretion undo them. He hath sent his feet into the net. so the Vulgar rendereth it. He is sent into a net by his own feet, so Mr. Broughton. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins, Prov. 5.22. these shall cast him into inextricable straits.

And he walketh upon a suare. ] Upon a platted grin, saith Broughton; whereout the more he strives to get, the more he entangleth himself. Sic laqueas fera dum jactat astringit. Sic aves viscum dum trepidantes excutiunt, plumis omnibus illinunt. So the beast whilst he tosseth the snares wherein he is taken, straitneth them: So the birds, while they think to shake off the birdlime, besmeare all their feathers with it.

Verse 9. The grin shall take him by the heel] Or, He shall lay hold on the grin with his heel. so Mercer readeth it: that is, he foolishly runs upon his own ruin, he perisheth by his own oversight.

And the Robber shall prevail against him ] Horridi sitibundi, the shaghaired Ruffians that have wasted their own estates, and now thirst after other men's. Broughton readeth it, The savage shall lay hold on him. So that either by secret contrivance, or open violence he shall be undone.

Verse 10 The snare is laid for him in the way, &c.] This heap of words, net, snare, grin, trap, cords, showeth that God hath many ways to catch the wicked with; and that nusquam & nunquam non eis impendeat exitium, destruction is ready to meet them at every turning. God cannot want a weapon to beat a Rebel.

And a trap for him in the way] He walks as it were upon a Mine of Gun-powder. The Hebrew hath it, His trap; such as most of the Caesars. till Constantine the great met with; and among the rest Maximinus (that Mastive Tyrant eight foot high) who daily devoured forty pounds of flesh, and drank thereto six gallons of Wine. This soul beast after he had raised the sixth Persecution against the Christians, especially against the Pastors of the Church, and exercised many other great cruelties, was told to his teeth,

And it befell him accordingly; for at the siege of Aquileia in Italy, he was slain as he slept at noon in his Tent by his own soldiers. Ezekiel foretelleth the degenerate sons of Josiah. that they shall be taken by the King of Babylon as beasts in a toil. So Pharaoh, that natural brute beast, was made to be taken and destroyed. 2 Pet. 2.12. with Exod. 9.16. So Saul complaineth that God had forsaken him, and the Philistines those savage creatures, were upon him, 2 Sam. 28. Behold I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them, &c. Jer. 16.16.

Verse 11. Terrors shall make him afraid on every side.] These terrors are, as it were, the cruel Sergeants and merciless Officers of that King of terrors, verse 14 arresting him as it were in the Devils name, and bringing him to justice. How can it be but a terrible time with him; when death comes with a Writ of Habeas Corpus, and the Devil with a Writ of Habeas animam? when the cold earth must have his body, and hot hell hold his soul, according to that of the Psalmist, Let death seize • upon them, and let them go down quick into hell; for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them, Psal. 55.17. The sad forethought hereof causeth many unutterable griefs and gripings, perplexities of spirit, and convulsions of soul, a very hell above ground, and a foretaste of eternal torments. The word here rendered terror, signifieth utmost affrightments, such as put a man well nigh out of his wits and distract him. R. Solomon understandeth it of devils; others of furies, such as the Poets fain. Most certain it is, that a body is not so tormented with stings, or torn with stripes, as a mind with remembrance of wicked actions, and fear of future evils.

And shall drive him to his feet.] As they did Cain that Caitiff, Qui factus est à cord s •• fugitivus, who would fain have fled from his own conscience (if he could have known whither) and became a Fugitive and a Vagabond upon the earth, Gen. 4.12. seeking to outrun his terrors, which yet dogged him hard at the heels. They shall press him at his feet, so Broughton readeth this Text.

Verse 12. His strength shall be hunger-bitten] Heb. His strength (or wealth ) shall be famine. Or, Famine shall be his strength. He, who whilom having health and wealth at will, fared deliciously and gathered strength, shall be hunger-starved, and hardly have prisoners pittance; so much only as will neither keep him alive, nor suffer him to die. See 1 Sam. 2.5.36. 'It is as much, faith Brenz, as we use to say of an extreme poor or feeble person, his wealth is poverty, his strength weakness.

And destruction shall be ready at his side] i.e. Shall suddenly and inevitably seize upon him, there will be no running away from it, for can a man run from his side? The word signifieth not an ordinary calamity, but a dreadful and direful destruction. Some understand it of the Plurisie, or Ulcers in the side of a man: Others of ribrost, as they call it, tortures inflicted on condemned persons (as Heb. 11.34) who are beaten with bats.

Verse 13. It shall devour the strength of his skin] i.e. his bones which support his skin; these destruction shall devour or swallow up at a bit, as an hungry Monster.

The first born of death shall devour his strength] i.e. The Devil. say some, that Destroyer, Rev. 9.11. that old Man-slayer, John 8.44. Prince of death, Heb. 2.14 (as Christ is called Prince of Life, Act. 3.15) and first born of death, as Christ is the first born of the Resurrection, Col. 1.18. Others understand it, De cruentissima at funestissima morte, of the most tragick and cruel kind of death. See Isai. 14.30. Broughton readeth it, A strange death shall cat the branches of his body, judgments shall come upon thee in their perfection, saith God to Babylon, Isai. 47.9.

Verse 14. And his confidence shall be rooted out of his Tabernacle] Whatsoever he trusteth in about his house shall be pulled up by the roots, or grub'd up. Thus it befell Doeg, Psal. 52.7. And this disappointment, this broken confidence of his, shall bring him (or make him go) to the King of terrors; i.e. to death that most terrible of terribles, as the Philosopher calleth it. Or the Devil (as R. Solomon interpreteth it) that black Prince, Eph. 6.12. to whom wicked men are brought by death, which to them is not only Natures Slaughterman, but God's curse, and hells Purveyour. hence Rev. 6 8. death haleth hell at the heels of it.

Verse 15. It shall dwell in his Tabernacles, because it is none of his] Heb. Not his: for why? the King of terrors hath turned him out of it, and taken it up for an habitation for himself. Some render it thus, nothing or have nothing. (that is want) shall dwell in his Tabernacle, his house shall be replenished with emptiness, scarcity shall be the furniture of his habitation.

Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation] As is also threatened, Psal. 11.6. And as was executed upon Sodom and her sifters: as also upon Dioclesian the Tyrant; who giving over his Empire, decreed to lead the rest of his life quietly. But he escaped not so, for after that his house was wholly consumed with lightening, and a flame of fire that fell from heaven (not without a sulphurous smell) he hiding himself for fear of the lightning, died within a little after.

Verse 16. His roots shall be dried up beneath, &c.] The meaning is, saith D • odate, he shall be deprived of God's grace, which is the root of all happiness, and of his blessing, which is the top of it.

Verse 17. His remembrance shall perish from the earth] As a tree when root and branch is gone is clean forgotten, and no man remembereth where it grew; so shall it be with the wicked, Non celebrabitur ejus nomon & fama, nise in malum, Eccles. 8. 10. It is reckoned as a great benefit to a wicked man, to have his memory die with him, which if it be preserved, stinks in keeping, and remains as a curse and perpetual disgrace.

And he shall have no name] i.e. no honorable Name, no renown. A good name only is a name, Eccles. 7.1. as a good wife only is a wife, Prov. 18.22. Every married woman is not a wife. Zillah Lamechs wife, was but the shadow of a wife, as her name also signifieth. In like sort, those only have a name in the streets or public places, who are talked of for good; as the Martyrs, who have left their names for a blessing. Isai. 65.15. when as their wretched Persecutors have left a vile snuff behind, their Lamps being put out in obscurity.

Verse 18. He shall be driven out of light into darkness] Heb. They shall drive him: scil the devils shall drive him out of the light of life into outer darkness, as they did that rich wretch. Luke 12.20. confer Mat. 8.12. and 25.30. The Dutch Translation readeth it, Men shall drive him. Others understand it of his troubles and sorrows.

And chased out of the world] As Tarquin was by Collatine, as Ph •• as was by Heraclius, kicked off the stage of the world as one phraseth it; or as Job saith of some wicked, buried before half dead, chap. 27.15. Men shall chap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place, verse 23.

Verse 19. he shall neither have son nor Nephew, &c.] A sore affliction to be written childless, which yet is the portion of some good people, as Abel; many Prophets and Apostles, for whose comfort that is written, Isai. 56.4.5. God, as he will be to his childless children better then ten sons; so he will give them in his house, and within his walls, a place and a name, better then of sons and of daughters the will give them an everlasting name that shall never be cut off. Not so the ungodly, those men of God's hand; for though full of children, they leave the rest of their substance to their babes, Psal. 17.14. yet it will prove to be but luctnosa foecunditas, as Jerome speaketh, they shall weep for their lost children, and not be comforted, because they are not. Or if they survive, they prove singular cuts and crosses to their wretched Parents, who have cause enough to cry out as Moses sometimes did, let me die out of hand, and not see my wretchedness, Num. 11.15. They are filled with •• medicinal sorrows, in the loss either of their children or of their estates by their wasteful children, so that they praise the dead above the living, and wish they had never been born, Eccles. 4.2, 3.

Nor any remaining in his dwellings] When the soldiers slew the Tyrant Maximinius and his son, at the siege of Aquil • ia, they cried out, Ex pessima geneve ne catulum quidem habendum, Of so ill a kind, let not a whelp be kept alive.

Verse 20 Ther that come after him shall be ast •• ied at his day] Future Ages hearing the relation of his dismal destruction, shall stand agast, as if they beheld the dirty ruins of some once beautiful City. Happy they, if in good earnest they could make that good use of it, which Herodotus the Historian saith, men should make of the overthrow of Troy; viz. to take notice thereby, that great sinners must look for great punishments from God. But Ham and his Posterity were little the better for the Deluge in their days: not the adjacent Countries for Sodom's downfall.

As they that went before were affrighted,] scil. His contemporaries and eye-witnesses of his calamity apprehended horror, so the Hebrew hath it, they took a fright: which yet was little to the purpose without faith and repentance; and unless their hearts fell down, when their hairs stood upright.

Verse 21. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked] As sure as death 'tis so; and this is oft inculcated, because hardly believed. Bildad hints at Job in all this, and therefore speaks of the wicked here in the singular number; as who should say, Thou art the man. But Jobs innocence served him for an Heptab • ean Buckler.

And this is the place] that is, the state.

Of him that knoweth not God] Periphrasis impii, saith Drusius: this is the character of a graceless man. have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? No none, that they were a button the better for.

CHAP. XIX. Verse 1. Then Job answered and said.]

HE replied as followeth, to Bildads bitter, and tanting invective. His miseries he here setteth forth graphically and tragically, grating to Bildad that he was dealt with no otherwise then if he were that wicked man described in the foregoing chapter: and yet denying himself to be any such one, by his lively hope of a joyful Resurrection, such as would make a plentiful amends for all, ver. 26, 27, 28. For though Mercer make question of it, yet I am out of doubt, saith Beza, that this is the true meaning of this place. And surely the whole Scripture doth not yield us a more notable, or a more clear and manifest testimony, to confirm unto us the Resurrection of our bodies, then this. This confession of his faith, saith Lavater, is the chief thing in this Chapter, and therefore challengeth our best attention.

Verse 2. How long will ye vex my soul?] viz. with your furious and reproachful charges & criminations? Have I not misery enough already, but you must lay more load of scorn and contempt upon me; and so go on to trouble me, by adding to my saddest sorrows, such as pierce to the very soul? Call you this comforting an afflicted friend?

How long will ye break me in pieces with words? ] Words also have their weight, and if hard and harsh, Leniter volant, non leniter violant. Like maules they break the heart in pieces, like a rack they torment it, Psal. 42.10. As with a Murdering weapon in my bones, mine enemies reproached me. You shall find some (saith Erasmus ) that of death be threatened can despise it; but to be belied, reproached, slandered, they cannot brook, nor from revenge contain themselves. Job was a strong man both in faith and patience, yet put hard to it by the hard words given him by Bildad and the rest, who did rather hurt his ear by the loudness of their voices, then helped his heart, by the force of their reproofs. God's servants must not strive, but be gentle, 2 Tim. 2.23, 24. showing all meekness to all men, Tit. 3.2 Jam. 3.17. Gentle showers comfort the earth, when dashing storms drown the seed. There is a twofold inconvenience followeth upon bitter and boisterous proceedings with a supposed offender. First, the party looketh not so much to his own failing as to their passion, Secondly, As he is unconvinced, so they are not esteemed: but though they have the right on their side, yet they lose the due regard of their cause, and reverence of their persons.

Verse 3. These ten times have ye reproached me ] i.e. oftentimes. Herein Job endured a great fight of affliction, as the Apostle styleth it, Heb. 10.32, 33. a manifold fight, (as the word there signifieth.) Cate was two and thirty times accused publicly, and as oft cleared and absolved. Basil was counted and called an Heretic, even by those who, as it appeared afterwards, were of the same judgment with him, and whom he honored as brethren. Dogs in a chase bark sometimes at their best friends, &c.

You are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange to me. ] Or, Are you not ashamed that ye harden yourselves against me? Or, That ye • ter and jest at my misery? Or, That ye make Merchandise of me, and take your penny worths out of me? Beze (agreeable to our Translation) paraphraseth it thus, Ye take me up so short, as if ye dealt with a stranger and forrainer, and not with a friend. And so the word is taken, Gen. 42.7.

Verse. 4. And be it indeed that I have erred ] Of human frailty; for that there is any way of wickedness in me (as you would have it) I shall never yield. But nimis angustares est, nuspiam errare. Involuntary failings I am not free from: who knoweth the errors of his life? Psal. 19.12. What man is he that liveth and sinneth not? It is the sad privilege of mortality, saith one, Licere aliquando peccare, to have license sometimes to sin.

Mine error remaineth with myself. ] q d. 'It is little that you have done toward the convincing me of any error in all this time, and talk, which until ye have done, I must still remain of the same mind. Or thus, You shall neither answer nor suffer for mine error: what need then all this hear and harshness? Not that every man must be left to himself, and let alone to live as he lifteth. Admonition is a Christian duty, and the word of exhortation, must be suffered, sharp though it be, and to the flesh irksome: better it is that the Vine should bleed then die. Had Job been guilty, he would or should have been as Vespasian is reported, Pati • utissimus veri, patient of a reproof. But his friends falsely accused him for an hypocrite, and fell foul upon another man's servant, whom they had nothing to do to condemn, Rom. 14. And hence this expression of his discontent.

Verse 5. If indeed yen will wagnifie yourselves against me ] Or, will you indeed magnify yourselves against me? scil. because of mine error, as verse 4. which yet ye have not convinced me of? Will ye insult over me therefore, and throw dirt upon me? Of Bonassus, a certain beast as big as an On, Aristotle reporteth, that having horns bending inward and unfit for fight, after that he is wounded by the hunters, he flieth for his life, and often letteth fly his dung for four yards or more, upon the dogs or men that pursue him, to their great annoyance. In like fort deal many disputers of this world; when they cannot make good their matter by strength of Argument, they cast upon their adversaries the dung of calumnies, so seeking to magnify themselves against him, and pleading against him his reproach.

And plead against me my reproach ] Affliction exposeth a man to reproach. Where the hedge is low, the beast will be breaking over. See Zeph. 3.12. with the Note there.

Verse 6. Know, that God hath overthrown me. ] Do not you therefore add affliction to the afflicted, which is so odious a thing to God, Psal. 41.2. and 69.26. but regard the greatness of mine evils, which draw these complaints from me that seem so immoderate to you. See Job 6.2.

And hath compassed me with his net. ] Hath encompassed me round with affliction, that I can get out no way. An hunting term, Job 10.16. La •• 1.23, Ezek. 12.13. Hos. 7.12. Bildad had made much mention of nets and grins, where in God ensnareth and ensnarleth the wicked. Job granteth, that God's not had encompassed him; but withal denieth himself to be wicked, or that his friends should therefore reproach him, but rather pity him.

Verse 7. Behold I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard ] Nothing is more natural and usual then for men in misery to cry out for help. Jobs great grief was, that neither God nor man would regard his moans or deliver him out of the Net. God did not rescue him, men did not right him or relieve him. His outcry seemeth to be the same in effect with that of Habakkuk the Prophet, chap. 1.2, 3. O Lord, how long shall I cry and then wilt not hear? even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou show not iniquity, and cause we to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, &c. verse 13. Thus Job, but without an answer: as the Lion letteth his Whelps four themselves hourse for hunger, yea, till they are almost dead, ere he supplieth them. Sure it is, that God always heareth his Jobs, though he doth not always answer in our time, and in our way. Yea it is an hearing and an answer of prayer (saith one) that we can pray, though unheard and unanswered.

I cry aloud ] Heb. I set up my Note; cum gemitu & ululatu, with groaning and howling Men never pray so earnestly, as in greatest afflictions, Heb. 5.7. Hos. 12.4 then their prayers, like strong streams in narrow straits, bear down all that stands before them.

Verse 8. He hath fenced up my way, &c. ] Here Job carried away, as it were, with a torrent of grief, amp • sieth his miseries by many other comparisons. And first of a Traveler, whom nothing so much troubleth in his journey as hedges and darkness. God, saith Job. hath every way hedged me out of content and comfort, so that though I seek it never so, I cannot find it. God's people are oft brought into greatest straits, as David, Psal. 31. and 142. Israel at the red sea, Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 20. that they may learn to depend upon the divine providence, &c.

And he hath set darkness in my paths ] I am benighted, and know nor wither to go, or how to get out. Darkness is full of error and terror. A child of light may walk in darkness, Isai. 50.10. Yea, in the valley of the shadow of death, Psal. 23.4. yet is he never without some spark of faith, which guideth him in the deepest darkness, until he behold the Sun of righteousness, Light is sown for the righteous, &c. heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, Psal. 30. ver. 6 And as before the day breaks, the darkness is greatest: so here.

Verse 9. He hath stripped me of my glory ] This is the second comparison, ab externo corporis cultu & habitu, saith Merlin. From the outward habiliments and habits of the body. Our King Richard the 2 ^d , when he was to be deposed, was brought forth gorgeously attired in his Robes royal, with a crown upon his head, a Scepter in his hand, &c but soon after despoiled of all, and unkinged, So it fared with poor Job, stripped and bereft of all that he formerly gloried in, and was respected for, as a man robbed hath all his clothes taken off, and is lest naked. In him it appeated that mortality was but the stage of mutability, as one saith of our H •• y 6. who of a most potent Monarch, was, when deposed, not the Master of a Molehil, nor owner of his own liberty.

And hath taken the Crown from off my head ] Hence some infer, that Job was a King, the same with Jobab, King of Edom, mentioned Gen, 36.34. But this is uncertain, since Crown is often in Scripture taken allegorically, for Riches, Authority, Dignity, and other Ornaments. These were taken from Job, yea, from off his head, See Lam. 5.16. But he had a better Crown, quae nec eripi, nec surripi potuit, which could not be taken away; viz. that crown of twelve Stars, or celestial graces, Rev. 12.1. together with that Crown of glory (the fruit of the former) that is incorruptible and fadeth not away, 1 Pet, 1.4. Happy Job in such a Crown; and that he was in the number of those few heads destined to such a Diadem. David had (whatever Job had) a Crown of pure gold set upon his head, Psal. 21. this was a great mercy to so mean a man, since beyond a Crown the wishes of mortal men extend not. But David blesseth God for a better Crown, Psal. 103.4. Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. And how was this set on his head? Who for giveth all thy iniquities, &c. verse 3. Neither can any take away this Crown, because We are kept (Gr. guarded or garrison'd as in a Tower of brass, or Town of War, that is well fenced with walls and works and so its made impregnable) by the power of God through faith unto salvation, 1 Pet. 1.4.

Verse 10 He hath destroyed me on every side ] Heb. He hath demolished, me, he hath pulled me down piece-meal, as an old house is taken down part by part. See Levite. 14.45. Judge. 8.17. God had made and fashioned Jobs body together round about, chap. 10.8. and now he destroyeth it round about. The body of a man is a wonderful fabric, wherein the bones are the timber-work, the head the upper-lodging, the eyes as windows, the eye-lids as casements, the brows as pent-houses, the ears as watch-towers, the mouth as a door to take in that which shall uphold the building, and keep it in reparation; the stomach as a Kitchen to dress that which is conveyed into it, the guts and baser parts as sinks belonging to the house, &c. All these were decaying apace in Job. to his thinking.

And I am gone ] That is, I am as good as gone already; every day I yield somewhat unto death, I am free among the dead, free of that Company.

And my hope hath he removed like a tree ] He hath not left me so much as hope (which is the last comfort of the afflicted) of ever recovering here my health, wealth, and former enjoyments: but hath lest me as a tree, that is plucked up by the roots, and so can never grow again, A Saint may be at that pass here in regard of his outward estate, that there may be to him neither hope of better, nor place of worse, This was Cranmer's Case.

Verse 11. He hath also kindled his wrath against me. ] Now if his wrath be kindled, yea but a little, woe be to all those against whom it is bent. He will surely help mischiefs upon them, he will spend his arrows upon them, Deut. 32.22, 23. with Psal. 2.12. Job felt them striking in the sides of his soul, even the envenomed arrows of the Almighty; and yet this was only a Refiners fire, Mal. 3.2. or, if a consuming fire, as Heb. 12.29. yet it was to waste his corruptions only, to sever the sin which he hated from the Son whom he loved; to try and exercise his patience, &c. all which notwithstanding, he complaineth heavily of these spunks and sparks of divine displeasure.

And counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. ] Heb. As his enemies: not as a single enemy, but a rabble of rebels, an Army of enemies, such as shall one day meet at Armageddon, their Rendevouz. See chap. 13.24.

Verse 12. His troops come together ] i. e. Troops of tribulations and temptations, of Pirates and Robbers, (as the Seventy have it) sickness and other sorrows are God's Soldiers, Matt. 8.8, 9. and they seldom come single, James 1.2. but trooping and treading on the heels of one another, Concatenat a piorum crux, a company comes.

And raise up their way against me. ] As Soldiers besieging a place cast up their Trenches and Fortifications. Vatablus rendereth it, And have beaten their way upon me; that is, saith he, tribulations have so often passed over me, that they have made a path way upon me, more trausenntium, as passengers use to do.

And encamp round about my tabernacle, ] Afflictions hem me in on every side, the troops of troubles besiege me so straitly, that I can no way in all the world find relief or comfort; which now as by a strong hand, yea, as by a strong host, are with-holen from my soul, and so are like to be for a long season, as Sieges are many times. Heman was afflicted and ready to die from their youth up, suffering those terrors, Psal. 88.15. Job was a man of sorrows.

Verse 13. He hath put my brethren far from me ] In their affections at least: some stuck to him but for a mischief, for they proved miserable Comforters: as did likewise Peter to our Savior, who fled not with the rest of the Disciples, but better he had, for any good he did him, A brother is born for adversity, saith Solomon Proverb. 17.17 and although at other times there may be some unkindness, fratum concordia rara est, yet in affliction and extremity good nature will work, and good blood will not bely itself: But Jobs brethren proved unkind, and grew out of kind, they got farthest from him, when his enemies had besieged him. And all this befell him, not without the Lord: He hath put my brethren far from us; this was no small aggravation of the affliction, that God with-drew or withheld that assistance and influence that should have enlarged and united the hearts of his brethren unto him. See Psal. 105.25.

And mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me ] Those that formerly knew me thoroughly, and were as well known of me, mine intimate friends, who knew all my heart, are now truly as strange to me, as if there had never been any such matter of Acquaintance. R. Solomon readeth it, They are cruel to me. All the brethren of the poor man hate him (saith Solomon, Prov. 19.7) how much mere do his friends go far from him? He pursueth them with words: yet they are wanting to him. This the Heathen, (as Ovid and others) heavily complain of. In the River Araris there is reported to be a fish called Scolopidus, which at the waxing of the Moon is as white as the driven snow, and at the wayning thereof, is as black as a burnt coal. A fit emblem of a false friend. Wealth maketh many friends, but the poor is separeted from his neighour, Prov. 19.4. who therefore turneth from him as a stranger, if not against him as an enemy.

Verse 14 My kinsfolk have failed ] scil. in courtesy, as Ruths Kinsman did, Job had many kinsfolk, but few friends, and this was a great grief to him, as it was afterwards also to David, Psal. 31.11. and 38.11. and 69.8. to Heman, Psal. 88.8. and to Paul. 2 Tim. 4.14.

And my familiar friends ] They whom I favored, saith Broughton, according to Psal. 11.6.

Have forgotten me ] Out of sight, out of mind. A thing forgotten is as if it had never been. All Jobs courtesies were cast away upon these Summon birds, who had well nigh forgotten that there was ever such a man in the world as Job.

Ver. 15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, &c. ] My Tenants, or my Guests, or my Sojourners, those widows and Orphans haply, whom he kept at his own charge chap. 31. More then this, my Maidens, these house keepere, entrushed with the keys of the family, and that are no drudges to wash the feet of other servants, as 1. Sam. 25.41. And for his servants of the other sex, he was as coarsely used by them too.

Verse 16. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer. ] Though I lay noder greatest sores and sorrows, and called them to help me, yet such was their impudency and inhumanity, that they would not vouchsafe an answer, Considera hic quanta crux sit, saith Brenz, à sua propria familia a • spici & rideri; Consider with me here, what an affliction it is, for a man to be despised and derided by his own family. A servants eye should look to the hands of his Master, and the eye of a maiden to the hand of her Mistress, to observe the motion thereof, and to pick out the meaning, Psal. 12.2. Accounting their Governors worthy of all honor, 1 Tim. 6.1. as the Centurions obsequious servants did, Matth. 8.9. Sed sic fere sunt server rum ingenia, saith Merlin here: But such is the condition of many servants now a days, that they will do no more then needs must, Jobs would neither say nor do.

I entreated him with any mouth. ] As a suppliant to my servant, who lived upon me, but would do nothing for me, though I humbly besought him. Here we may soe, saith Vatablus that when God is angry with a man, all goeth cross with him: It is good for us in this case, to reflect and see whether we have not served God in this sort. Alphonsus that renowned King, in a speech to the Popes Ambassador, professed that he did not so much wonder at his servants unthankfulness and undutifulness to him, as at his own to God.

Verse 17. My breath is strange to my wife ] The corruption of his inwands (besides the •• fommesse of his out ward Ulcers) made his breath strong and unwholesome. This his wife (as did that Roman Lady, who said she thought all men's breath as unsavory as her husbands was) should have born with in a time of sickness especially; when she should have show •• herself an help, and not an heart-break to her hus • and Famous in our Chronicles is the Lady Eloner, wife to Prince Edward (afterwards Edward the First ) who extracted the poison out of her husbands wounds with her tongue, •• cking daily (whilst he slept) his ra •• kling wounds, wheneby they perfectly closed. And no less famous is the wife of Valdaumus, celebrated by Ludon. Vi • es Lib. 2 de Christiana femina, p. 360. A young and beautiful Maid (saith he) was marched to a man stricken in years, whom after she found to have a very fulsome breath, and a diseased body, yet (out of conscience, being by God's providence become his wife) she most worthily digested, with incredible patience and contentment, the languishing and loathsomeness of an husband, continually visited with variety of most i •• some and infectious diseases: and though friends and Physicians advised her by no means to come near his, for fear of danger and infection, yet she passing by with a loving disdain and contempt these unkind dissuasions, plied him night and day with extraordinary tenderness and care, and services of all sorts above her strength and ability: she was to him friends, Physician, Wife, Nurse; yea she was Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Daughter, everything, and thing, to do him good any manner of way, &c.

Though I entreated for the Children's sake, &c. ] i.e. By the holy right of wedlock, and the fruit thereof, those dear pledges of our matrimonial good affection: Children, as they are dear to their Parents, ( Charos, Plautus somewhere calleth them) so they are an endearing to their parents, whose seed they are called, as if there were nothing left to the parents but the h •• ks. This therefore was a melting argument, but it 〈◊〉 not Job 's wife. Men may speak persuasively, but God only persuadeth.

Verse 18. Yea, young children despised me. ] Fools, saith the vulgar, who are never more pleasant than when they play the Buffoons at my expense. Ungodly men some render it, 〈◊〉 16.11. Others, the baser sort of people. And surely none so base as they that deride virtue, especially because forsaken of fortune, as one phraseth it. What a l • tter je • r was that of To bi •• the servant, (or, stave ) the Ammonite, Neh. 4.3? The basest can mock, as the Abjects did David, Psal. 45.15. and the Alestake • also, Psal. 69.13. But it is an happi ••• to do well, and yet hear ill. All God's people must •• ready to pass through good repo •• , and evil report, 2 Cor. 6.2. And every Job must •• ck •• , that as the reproacher in 〈…〉 , not so much as a man (saith chrysostome; ] So the reproached that bears it well, is Angels par, equal to the Angels.

I arose, and they spake against me. ] I arose, sc. to rebuke them, or to pacify them, or to pass away from them, and my back is no Tooner turned, but they reviled me. Some render it, Sto coram illis, I stand before them; that is, they stay not till I am gone past, but reproached me to my face, such is their boldness and baseness: see Esa. 3.5.

Verse 19. All my in ward friends abhorred me. ] Heb. All the Mortals of my Counsel. q.d. My most intimate acquaintance and associates, my highest confidents to whom I was wont to open my bosom, and with whom I maintained closest correspondency: Loe, these now abhor me, and keep a loof off from me; yea, they appostatize from their professed friendship; and renouncing the laws of love, they deal despitefully with me, and are turned against me. Such an one was Abitophel to David, Psal. 55.14, 15. Judas to Christ, Matth. 26, 23, and Bildad to Job (as some conceive that he conceited by the latter clause of this verse) And they whom I loved &c. ] Heb. and this man whom I loved, this bitter Bildad, that in his last speech hath so grievously galled me, who have hitherto so highly prized him. What? thou my son Bildad? This went to the very heart of him, as afterwards it did of David, when for his love they were his adversaries, when they rewarded him evil for good, and hatred for his good will, Psal. 109.4, 5. Precious therefore and worthy of all acceptation is that advice of the Prophet Micah, chap. 7.5.6, 7. Trust not in a friend put not confidence in a guide keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoreth the father, — A man's enemies are the men of his own house. Look therefore unto the Lord, &c. all that trust in him, shall triumph: but for others, we may be compelled to complain with Q. Elizabeth, In Trust, I have found Treason, &c.

Verse 20. My bone cleaveth to my skin. ] My skin is a bag of bones. I am become a mere Skeleton. and may well cry out, O my leanness, my leanness! So bare I am grown, that little appeareth in me but skin and bones. My bones cleaveth to my skin at to my flesh. (so it may be read) that is, as once it did in my flesh, when I was well lined within. Now, alas, I lie under a miserable Marasmus; and should therefore be pitied, as being a just object of your commiseration.

And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. ] Escaped I am, and come off (as out of an hot skirmish) with my life, and very little else. All I have lest me whole is the skin of my teeth; that is, of my gums, into which my teeth are engraffed: the rest of my body is all over of a scab. The vulgar rendereth it, My lips only about my teeth are lest me untouched. And Junius gives this gloss, Job had nothing lest him but the instrument of speech. These, say some, the Devil purposely meddled not with, as hoping that therewith he would curse God. Cruse him he might with his heart only; but this would have pleased the Devil nothing so well as to hear him do it with his tongue. this is the conceit of some of the Jew-Doctors. But it is better to ascribe this escape to the good providence of God, than to the mailce of the Devil.

Verse 21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, &c. ] To him that is afflicted pity should he shown from his friend: and to do otherwise, is to forsake the fear of the Almighty chap. 6.14. See the Note there. There was little, either fear of God, or mercy to men, in that barbarous Bishop of Spire, who denied to Hen. 4. Emperor of Germany, (deposed after ten years reign, and hardly bestead) a poor Clerkship there in a Monastery of his own foundation; which caused the miserable Emperor to break out into these words of Job, Have pity upon me, have pity upon me ô my friend: for the hand of God hath touched me. The Papists tell us, That the souls in Purgatory cry out to their friends on earth for help on this manner, and in these terms. But this is as very a Fiction, as purgatory itself is the Popes invention: who must needs be extreme pitilesse, to suffer so many souls to lie m so great torments, when as he hath power to fetch them out at his pleasure,

Verse 23, Why do ye persecute • e as God? ] Is this that pitying of me, thus to press me with reproaches, and therein to think you gratify God, and do him good service? Know ye not, that to persecute him, whom he hath smitten, is greatest cruelty? and to talk to the grief of those whom he hath wounded, is to heap up guilt. and thereby wrath, Psal, 69.26, 27. When a Dear is shot, the rest of the Herd push him out of the company. When a tree falleth, every passenger is ready to be pulling at it. But God's people should love as Brethren, be pitiful be courteous, 1 Pet 3.8. and of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Jude 22, 23. Thus it should be: but as of old, in Egypt, one Hebrew smote another; blows enough were not dea • by the common adversary, but their own must add to the violence: Still Satan is thus busy, and Christians are thus malicious; that, as if they wanted Persecutours, they persecute one another; and if (as here) they can but do as God, that is, for God, as they misperswade themselves (to vindicate his Justice, and to promote his glory) then they rage and are confident. as these friends of Job; in whom nevertheless it was rather error amoris, then amor erroris, an error of love, then any love of error.

And art not satisfied with my flesh ] Which is pined a way with pain and grief: This contents you not, but you must break my bones also, and suck my blood by your contumelies and calumnies. Br • ntius and others apply this Tert to slanderers, and back-biters, whom they compare to Cannibals. It is reported of Wolves, that when they have once fed upon man's flesh, they desist not, but desire mort of it. Job looketh upon his friends as such man-eaters, wherein his sorrow transported him too far; and whiles he was moving them to compassion, he shows himself over passionate.

Verse 23. Oh that my words were now written ] This reiterated wish Job setteth as a Preamble to that ensuing memorable testimony of the Resurrection, as a matter most weighty and worthy the consideration of all ages, which therefore he wisheth recorded in some public Instrument no alseternity: And god said, Amen, to it. For not only this precious passage, but the whole Book of Job. so full of divine instruction preparatory to the lost day was committed to waiting (either by Meses, or some other Prophets of that age, or else by Job himself after his restauration) and put among the Canonical Books of Scripture; concerning which David saith, For ever, O Lord; thy Word is settled in heavean, Psal. 219, 89. And Christ, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle, &c. Matth. 5. Not one hair of that sacred head can fall to the earth. Thus God hath answered Job, ad cardin ••• desiderii, as a Father speaketh, leating it be to him, even as he would.

Oh that they were printed ] Or drawn out, that is, written (saith One) in great and Capital Letters, that every man might read them, Hab. 22. for there was no Printing in those days that we know of. The Chino • s indeed tell us, that they had the Art of Printing long before. But in Europe it was not heard of till the year, One thousand four hundred and forty. It begun to be practiced at Harlem in the Low. Countries (by Lawrence Jans, say some, by John Gertude •• erg say others) and was perfected at Meniz. where Tulliet Offices, the first Book that ever was printed, is still kept for a Monument.

In a Book ] that it might be preserved and laid up for the use of posterity, in some Kiriah-sepher, or City of Books. Let them that are able, be apt and active in setting forth Books for the benefit of others, since. Paulum sepultae dist at inertiae Celata virtu. — He that buried his talent gave an heavy account to the Master, and was therefore called evil, because idle servant. Matth. 25.

Verse 24. That they were graven with an iron pen, &c. ] That my words were not only Soriptased sculota, written, but graven in a Rock as the Laws of divers Nations were cut in Brasse or Marble; and as Monuments and Epitaphs are graven on Tombs for remembrance of those that are dead.

And Lead ] Plumbo per sulces infuso, saith Junius, the curs of the Letters in Marble being filled with Lead, that they might be the more legible and durable.

In the Rock ] In Marble cut out of the Rock. Golden words they are indeed that here follow, and well worthy to be written in Lotten of God. In the Life of Ziscn (that Warlike Babe •• ian, ) it is recorded, that in the famous Monastery called, the Kings Court, a mile from Pragus, in the walls there of the whole Bible was most exquisitely engraven in Lette • s of Gold.

For ever ] To last longer then the would lasteth. Those bloody Tyrants of the Primitive times made account they had made sure work in rooting out true Religion, when they sounded the triumph before hand, and engraved the victory upon Pillars of Marble in these bubbles of words; Nomine Christianorum delo • o qui R •• s. ov • rebant, &c But Christ shall reign, and the Church shall stand upon his right hand as a Queen in gold of Ophir, Psal. 45 9 When all earthly greatness shall lie in the dust, Thy throne O God, is forever and ever. Psal. 45.6. and there shall be a new succession of Saints to all perpetuity, Psal. 72, 17. His name shall endure forever: His name shall be continued (Heb. childed) as long as the Son, as long as the world, as long as the Word of our, God, which according to Jobs wish here, shall stand forever, Isai, 40.8. But what meaneth the Vulgar translation here by this insignificant word Celte? And why should Hugo feek to salve the matter, by reiling us, that Celtes is a Tool wherewith Letters or Pictures are cut in the flint Whereupon Vide quaeso, mi Lector, saith Brenz, See, I pray thee, good Reader, how only they interpres Scripture that want Learning; for neither is Celte such a Tool, nor can it be Celte for centa, since the Hebrew word L • guad doth not signify Surely. but For ever.

Verse 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth. ] Clarissima fidei confessio, saith Brenz, A most famous Confession of his faith. Breves & longe, •• taque aurea, est hac Apologia, saith Another, This is Jobs short and yet long Apology, bat golden all oven, and such as hath fullness of matter in fewness of words. Calvin and Mercar (viri alioqui judioiosissimi) are mistaken here, when, following the Ra • hins, they interpret this text of a temporal restauration of Job to such an estate of honor and riches, as he had enjoyed in the former part of his life: this they call Jobs Resurrection and Redemption, &c. But his thoughes soared higher then so, I know, faith he; it is as if he should say, you take yourselves to he the only knowing men, and as for me, Bilded hath set me among such as know not God, Chop. 18.21. But hereby I know that I know him, 1 John 2.3. Because I know him whom he hath sent Jesus Christ, John 17.3. Net only as a Redeemer, but as my Rodeemer by a particular application of him to myself, which is the very pith and form of faith. This great Mystery of godliness I know, what ever else I am ignorant of; and I know it savingly, because I am secure of my interest in Christ, my Kinsman and Redeemer; and therefore I am no hypocrite or wicked man, as you would make me. Were it not for this word of possession, (Mine) the worst man alive • ay the devil, might say at Job here doth; yea, repeat all the Articles of the Creed, to as good purpose as he but that which tormenteth the devil is, he can say, My, to never a one of them, I know saith Job, when condemned for an hypocrite, that Christ is my Redeemes, and that this my Redeemer liveth for over, and is forever mine. So Doctor Taylor Martyr, when condemned for an Heretic, subsribed his last Will and Testament, in these words, Row hand Taylor, departing hence in a sare hope, without all 〈◊〉 of a glorious Resurrection, I thank God my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ my certains Savior.

And that he shall stand ] As keeping the field when all his foes shall be his footstool, Psal. 1 10.1. So he standeth, Rev. 10.2. setting his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, (maugre all Heretics and Anti-christs that therehence arise) as Lord Paramount of both.

At the latter day ] Or last of all. Theodesius rendereth it, Novissime, a general judgment of quick and dead at the last day; was in Jobs time, and after wards by Zoroaster, and other Heathens (as Lucretius, Theopompus, Plato, Cicero, Ovid, &c ) believed and foretold. But in process of time, this true and pure Doctrine was darkened amongst them, and when once it was extinct; Superstitions, and other vain fopperies over grew the greatest part of the world. The ancient tradition was, that the latter age of the world should be so filthy all over, that as it could not be washed with water, as once, so it should he wasted with fire, 2 Pet. 3.10.

Upon the earth ] Or, Over the earth; to wit, in the air. For there it is probable Christ will sit in the clouds of the air near unto the earth, whether the Elect shall be caught up to meet the Lord, and so shall they ever be with the Lord, 1 The. 4.17. There the devils shall be subdued and sentenced, where they have ruled and plaid Rex, Eph. 2.2, see Mat. 24.30. some read it, And this (pointing to his body) shall stand, up at the last day upon the earth.

Verse 26. And thought after my skin, worms destroy this body. ] Here he pointeth again, as doth likewise David. when Psal. 34.6. he saith, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him &c. So the ancient Believers, when they came to that Article in the Creed, I believe the Resurrection of the flesh, were wont to add, Etiam bujus carnis, even of this flesh, pointing to some naked part of their body; or else alluding to that of the Apostle, This mortal must put on, &c.

Wormes destroy this body ] Heb. They destroy this; he saith not this body, quod oh deformitatem summam, non licerit corpus dicere, faith Vatablus, So worn it was, and wasted with sores and sicknesses, that it could scarce be called a body. And yet it was not at the worst neither, for in the grave it should be worm-eaten, and something more. Mihi exper to credit, saith Austin, Believe me who have tried it, open dead men's Sepulchers, and upon their heads ye shall find toads crawling, begotten of their brains, on their loins serpents, begotten of their Rains, in their bellies worms begotten of their bowels, &c.

Yet in my flesh. ] Hebr. Out of my flesh, as out of a casement.

I shall see God ] I shall see Christ, Christum in corpore, ( Austin's wish) the human and glorified body of Christ, who is god blessed forever, as also the mystical body of his Church perfectly united unto him 1 John 3.2. To this sense some render the Text thus, I shall see God in my flesh, that is, I shall see Christ sitting in glory, clothed with flesh, or in the likeness of man. And here do but think with thyself, (though it far pass the reach of any mortal thought, faith One) what an infinite inexplicable happiness it will be, to look forever upon the glorious body of Jesus Christ, shining with incomprehensible beauty, and to consider that even every vein of that blessed body bled to bring thee to heaven: And that it being with such excess of glory hypostatically united to the second Person in Trinity, hath honored and advanced thy Nature, in that respect far above the brightest Cherub. The whole verse may be read thus, And after I shall awake, though this body shall be destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I see God. And being thus read, it is a plainer and fuller confession of the Resurrection, saith an Interpreter. It is common is Scripture to compare death to sleep and Resurrection to awaking, Dan. 12.2. Psal. 17.15. The bodies of the Saints are laid in the grave, as in a bed of Roses, to ripen and mellow against the Resurrection, and they write upon their graves, as One did once, Resurgam, I shall surely rise again. Moses his body hid in the valley of Moab, appeared afterwaths glorious in Mount Tabor. This is matter of joy and triumph, as it was here to Job and to those good souls who were to lose all, Dan, 12.2. and those Heb. 11.35. considering that God by rotting would refine their bodies, and in due time raise them conformabley to Christ's most glorious body, the standard. The forethought of this cheered up David's good heart, Psalm 16 9. and those in Isaiah, chap. 26.19. and the good people in our Savior's time, John 11.24. I know (saith Martha, concerning her brother Lazarus ) that be shall rise again at the Resurrection, at the Consolation; saith the Syriac Interpreter. Resurrection and Consolation then were terms equivalent. Hence that great Apostle, 2 Cor. 4.17. For this cause we faint not, saith he; For what cause? Because we believe, that be which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. And the same Apostle maketh this Doctrine of the Resurrection, the Canon of Consolation, 1 Thes. 4.13, 14. &c. to the end.

Verse 27. Whom I shall see for myself. ] He speaketh confidently, as one full assured of a Resurrection; which if it should not be, how should there be a remuneration of the body? Say not, We cannot see how tis possible. See we not a yearly Resurrection of grass, grain, herbs, flowers, fruits every Spring tide? Know we not that men can of ashes make glasses? that a Chymist can of several metals mixed to get her, extract the one from the other, and reduce every metal to its own species or king? Etiam animalula quaedam typi Resurrectiones sunt, saith Lavater. Some little living creatures are Types of the Resurrection. He instanceth in Dormise, which sleep all wintes, and revive in the spring; in Silk worms, which dying, leave nothing behind them but a certain excrement, which being born about in the bosoms of women, takes heat and reviveth. Wherefore if Nature do such things, shall it be held havd for the God of Nature to raise the dead? The keeping green of Noah Olive tree in the time of the flood, the blossoming of Aaron's dry Rod, the flesh and sinews coming to Ezekiel's dry bones, what were these, but lively emblems of the Resurrection?

And mine eyes shall behold, and not another's. ] Here he maintaineth the identity of his flesh and body in the Resurrection; an identity, I say, not specifical only, but numerical or individual. The self sa •• particular body which fell, shall rise. This was denied of old by the Marcionists, Basilidians and Valentinians (those Simi-Sadducees, as Tertullian termeth them;) and after them Entuchius Bishop of Constantinople, who (as Gregory saith) taught, that men rising again, should have ayery bodies, and not fleshly, yea more subtle then the Air, abusing that place of the Apostle, It is •• wen a natural body, it is raised again a spiritual body, &c. but his book was burnt as Heretical. A spiritual body it is called, for its great strength and activity wherewith it shalt be endowed, and where by it is enabled to bear a weight of glory; as also, for that it shall have no need of food, sleep, or other natural helps, but we shall be as the Angels of God, Matth. 22 30. yet still the same men that now we are. Let no man say with Nicodemus, How can this be? There is no difficulty to Omnipotency. Phil. 3. 〈◊〉 . Besides, there is a substance still preserved, even when the body is turned to dust, and this shall be raised, 〈◊〉 and reunited to the soul. He that made man at first of nothing, can easily remake him of something. And what though his dust be scattered hither and thither, and mixed with that of others? The skillful Gardener having sundry sorst of seeds mixed together▪ can soon sever them: and shall not he who hath the whole earth in his fist discern the dust of his Saints one from another? Little balls or pickles or Quick-silver being scattered on the ground mix not themselves with any of another kind: But if any man gather them, they run together into one of their own accord; So it is here, saith a Father.

Though my rains be consumed within me ] Though from my skin outward to my rains inward, all be wasted, yet all shall be raised and restored. The Vulgar rendereth these words thus, This hope is laid up in my bosom; and is by Burgensis expoundod thus, This is the only thing that I do most earnestly wish and wait for, viz. to see Christ in the flesh at the last day, the reins are the sent of strong desires.

Verse 28. But ye should say, Why persecute we him? ] This ye shall one day surely say, Then shall ye return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked, &c. Mal. 3.18. Then shall it repent you (it should do so now) that ye have rated and reviled me for an by poerite; viz. when God hath cleared mine integrity, (as he did chap. 42.) or at the last day howsoever, what time there shall be a Resurtection of names as well as of bodies. Would ye but say so now, it would be some satisfaction. Que • panites precasse poene est inn • cons. You have heard by the confession I have made, I am no miscreant, no misbeliever; but that I do hold fast the faithful Word.

The root of the mentor is in me. ] Or, the root of the Word, the engrafied word of God that is able to save my soul, hath taken deep root in me, J • n. 1.21. I hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, 1 Tim. 3.9. this, is the Cabinet, that, the Jewel hept therein. And with what face can ye censure such an one for a castaway, who am sorely afflicted indeed, so that my very rains are consumed within me, my graces also haply are somewhat deflourished, and it is little better with me then with a tree in winter; and as a Tyle tree, whose say is in the root, Isai. 6.13. But so long as the root of the matter is in me, that radical grace of faith; and since I do utter, as ye have heard, the words of truth and soberness (as some fruits of a sound faith) sure you should handle me with more tenderness, as one that hath some sap and substance in him.

Verse 29 Be ye afraid of the sword. ] Heb. Be ye afraid for yourselves, form the fact of the sword; God's sore, and great, and strong sword, Isai. 27.1. that hangeth over your heads as it were by a twined thread. O tremble at God's judgments, whilst they hang in the threat • ings. He that trembleth not in hearing, shall be cut to pieces in feeling, in that Mar • y • said, God's sword 〈◊〉 the re •• , Ezek. 21.13. If Job be under his rod, they that persecute him, under what pretence soever, shall feel the dint of his Sword, of his deep displeasure. Now it is a fearful thing to fall into the punishing hands of the living God. And cruelty toward others, (toward his own especially) he will be sure to punish, for he is gracious, Exod. 22.27. Fugite ergo à facie gladii, flee therefore from the face of the sword, (so the vulgar rendereth this text.) The sword is an instrument of death; it hath its name in Hebrew from laying waste; and the face or faces of the sword show that divine vengeance is near at hand. It is a mercy to men that God whets his Sword before he smites, and first takes hold on judgment, before his judgments take hold on us, Deut. 32. 41.

For wrath bringeth the punishment of the sword. ] It is from displeased love, that God chastizeth his children; but from fierce wrath, that he plagueth his enemies: Some of these God punisheth here, lest his providence, but not all lest his patience and promise of judgment should be called into question.

That we may know that there is judgment. ] Wherein they that rashly judge others shall be judged by God, Math. 7.1. And this Jobs friends knew well enough, but well weighed not, to fright themselves from rash censurings. He minds them therefore of their, danger, and labors to prevent their sorrow, who had so much caused his. See the like in Jeremy chap. 26.15. in our Savior, in St. Stephen, &c. and learn to be like charitable; though your success be no better than Jobs was, upon whom, in lieu of this love they fell more foul than before, as will appear by their following discurses.

CHAP. XX. Verse 1. Then answered Zophat the Naamathite and said.]

IF a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest, Prov. 29.9. Christ piped to that crooked generation, Jobs mourned to them, but all to no purpose; absurd and unreasonable people will never be satisfied, or set down say what you can to them, such is their pertinency and peevishness. Job had utterred himself in such passionate expressions as might have moved stony hearts. Sed surdo fabulam. He had set forth his own misery, begged their pity, made an excellent confession of his Faith, every word where of had its weight, each sylable its substance: He had lastly terrified them with the threats of God's Sword: but nothing would do. Zophar here (though he had little to say more, then what he had said chap. 11. yet he) takes occasion from Jobs last words, though full of love, to rough hew him again, and makes as if he were necessitated thereunto for his own and his fellows necessary defense. Vatablus thinks that Zophar here maketh answer, not to the preceding words, but to those in the 12 Chapter, where Job had complained, that wicked Oppressors live commonly in greatest peace and prosperity. Whatever it is, Zophar henceforth will say no more: either he had said what he could, or was satisfied with Jobs Reply in the next Chapter: or lastly. quia lusurum se operans credebat, as Mercer observeth; because he thought he should lose his labor, which no wise man would do.

Verse 2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer. ] q. d. Whereas I had thought, O Job, to have spoke no more to thee, (for I see I do but lose my sweet words) thy last, Comminatory expressions have altered my resolution. So nettled I am, that I must needsly interrupt thee. And yet think not that I shall speak whatsoever lieth uppermost: for I have dipped and died my words in my thought, which do now prompt me what to answer and bid me make haste.

And for this I make haste. ] Lest I should forget the particulars of thy speech, whereto I am to answer. Munster rendereth it thus, Et ob is promptitudo mea est intra me, as if Zophar had boasted of his ready elocution, as in the next verse of his ripe understanding. Some render it, E •• this I delight in inspiring.

Verse 3. I have heard the check of my reproach. ] Zophar conceived himself disgraced as well as menaced by Job; and this kindled him: Some are of so testy a nature, saith one, so skittish and unquiet humor, that a little offensive breath, a disgraceful word, blows them up into rage that will not be laid down, without revenge, or reparation of their credits. Jobs reproofs were by this man construed for reproaches: and what was spoken to them all, he applieth to himself. It appeareth that he was sick of a Noli me tangere; when being touched so gently, nettle-like, he stingeth him who handled him.

And the Spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. ] This I shall do with reason and understanding, not with passion and recrimination, Spiritus Dei nec mendax, nec mordax; meekness of wisdom is a fruit of God's Spirit; by the which, and not by his reasonable soul only, Zophar seemeth to himself to be carried on. And surely they are holy Truths all along that he uttereth, but wrested and misapplied as to Job, whom he will needs have to be wicked, because wretched; Interim observemus, saith Lavater, mean-while let us observe, that these things, sc. the state and portion of the wicked, the greatness and suddenness of their punishments is therefore by God's appointment so oft propounded and pressed in this whole Book (whereof this is almost the sole Argument) that we might be right in that point; fear to offend, and not fret at the wicked man's prosperity, which is but momentary. The Tigurin • s translate this clause thus, Tametsi me conscientia hîc consolabitur Albeit herein my conscience shall comfort me.

Verse 4. Knowest thou not this of old? ] Whether Zophar intended his own Conscience or not, before, he here appeareth to Jobs; and secretly taxeth him of going against it, or, at least of gross ignorance: Knowest thou not this, which everyone knoweth, that is not a mere Novice, and which is proved by the examples and experience of all ages? To wit, Malis male esse; that it shall be ill with the wicked: This is a generally received maxim, and the Histories of all ages do plainly and plentifully confirm it. Hinc collige, diligenter observanda esse, &c. Hence we may well gather, that God's Judgments against wicked persons are to be diligently observed out of the Histories of all ages, both divine, and human.

Since man was placed upon the earth ] Heb. Since he placed man upon the earth. viz. in that earthly Paradise the Garden of Eden. planted on purpose for man's pleasure; where nevertheless he stayed not one night. as some gather from Psal. 49.12. but soon by his sin became like the beasts that perish, that die of the murrain saith Junius, and so are good for nothing. Cain for like cause was cast out, the old world drowned, Sodom and her sisters consumed with fire, &c. There cannot be one instance given to the contrary of that which is here affirmed, viz.

Verse 5. That the triumphing of the wicked is short. ] Heb. That the shouting of the wicked is from near. it is of no long standing, but like a blaze of thorns that is quickly extinct, or as a bubble in the water that is soon down: The pleasure of sin is but for a season, Hujus sententiae exemplum habes in Goliath, saith Brenz here, An example of this sentence we have in Goliath, 1 Sam. 17. And another in his Countrymen the Philistines, who had twice beaten the Israelites, and taken the Ark, 1 Sam. 4. but this triumph was soon at an end: and so was that of the Jews when they had crucified Christ, and now danced upon his grave, as the Proverb is; but he arose in despite of them, and set up his Trophies. Say that the triumph of the wicked should last as long as life, what's that to the infinite? Punctum est quod vivimus, & puncto minus. But wicked men commonly die before their time, as Solomon phraseth it, Eccles. 7.17. that is, by an untimely death, they live not half their days, Psal. 55.25. God cuts them off, that others may live more quietly: and whiles they live, their comforts are not sincere, but mixed with many molestations: Little knoweth the world where their new shoes pinch them, as that roman said. One little drop of an evil conscience can trouble a whole sea of the wicked man's triumphs.

The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. ] Zophar had a strong conceit that Job was but an hypocrite, one that was wicked before God in heart, notwithstanding his fair pretences and prosessions of piety, and should therefore be led forth with the workers of iniquity, Psal. 175.5. as cattle led to the slaughter, or as Bulls led to the Altar, with Garlands on their horns, and Music by their sides, Act. 14.13. but suddenly they feel and fall under the murthering Axe. Such is the hypocrites joy, and Zophar would he should know so much, being sensible of this, that himself was the party in speech; since his prosperity had ended in misery, and God had dashed all his comforts.

Verse 6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens. ] Though he conceit himself, and would have others hold him to be more then a man, and to accord him divine honor. If his pride ascend even up to heaven, so the Vulgar rendereth it. If his gifts ascend up to heaven, so the Septuagint, and indeed hypocrites are ever lifted up with their gifts, as some Corinthians were with their waxen wings, 1 Cor. 8.1. being enriched in all utterance and knowledge, and coming behind others in no gift, 1 Cor. 1.7. yet were they babes at best, and carnal, walking as men, chap. 3 2, 3. their Religion was more in notion then in motion: They had the spiritual Rickets, grew big in the head, &c. as the Moon, they increased in light, but not in heat. In which respect also, and for her external privileges, Capernaum is said to be lifted up to heaven, Matth. 11.23. And the Temporary to taste of the heavenly gift, to partake of the powers of the world to come, Hebr. 6.4, 5.

And his head reach unto the clouds ] Aequalis astris gradior, faith He in the Poet: and Bibulus in Coele est, saith the Orator. The Heathen Rhetoric is but dull stuff to that in this Book; and indeed in this one Chapter. An hypocrites head is oft above the clouds of heaven, when his heart is beneath the clods of the earth: Like the Eagle, which when he soareth highest of all, even out of sight almost. hath his eye all the while upon his prey below. Or like the Apricock tree, which shoots up and leans upon the wall, but is fast rooted in the earth. This whole Allusion may be unto a tree, like that of Nebuchadnezzar, whose height was great, and reached unto heaven, Dan. 4.10, 11. with 22. Or that of the Amorite, whose height was like the heighth of the Cedars, and he was strong as the Oaks, Amos 3.9.

Verse 7. Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. ] Then the which nothing is more filthy an detestable. See this exemplified in Herod, Haman, Boniface the Eight, bloody Bonner buried in a muck-hill, &c. The word rendered dung, hath its denomination from rolling, because it is rolled out of doors, and swept out of sight: Many instances hereof might be given in the pristine and moderne Persecutors, punished with ignominious and disgraceful ends. Sisera and Jabin perished at Endor, and became as dung for the earth, Psal. 83.10. Jehorans died undesired. Julian the Apostate abhorred. God hath for such, a Beesome of Destruction.

They which have seen him Where is he? ] They which have seen him with wonder, shall now see him with horror, when they see him at such an under, such an ebb, such a dead low water. See this exemplified in that proud Chaldean, Isai. 14.4, 12, 16.

Verse 8. He shall flee away as a dream, &c. ] As a delightful dream is soon forgotten; so shall it he with the hypocrite. His felicity is merely imaginary, his joy is but as the commotion of the affections in a dream, which comes to nothing, Isai. 20.7, 8. A man that is to be hanged next day, may dream over night he shall be a King. A man that sleepeth upon a steep Rock, may dream of great possessions befallen him, and starting for joy, may fall to the bottom, and mischieve himself, Psal. 73.20. As a dream when one awaketh, so. O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image; that is, their painted pageant of outward pomp. Surely such, of all men, walk in a vain show, or in an image, Psal. 39, 6. their seeming prosperity hath no tack consistence in it, themselves and their money perish together, Act. 8.20.

Yea, he shall be chased away. ] By the displeasure of Almighty God, he shall be driven or rather kicked out of the world.

As a vision of the night. ] Phasma five Phantasma, which passes sooner out of memory, and is more transient then a day vision.

Verse 9. The eye also which saw him, shall see him no more. ] He shall be utterly out of sight, out of mind; Unkent, unkist, as the Northern Proverb hath it. See chap. 7.8, 10. Where Job speaketh as much of himself, and Zopher here twits him with it: as if Sorex suo periisset indicio, Job were an hypoctite by his own confession: so ingenious is evil will.

Verse 10. His children shall seek to please the poor. ] Tenni • res sunt ipsit tenuibus, saith Junius; shall be poorer then the poorest, and full glad to comply with them, and humor them, to beg with them, if not to beg of them. A just hand of God upon Oppressors, whose work it hath been to make many poor, and now their posterity are brought to extreme poverty. Such shame consult these men to their houses, besides their sin against their own souls, Hob 2.10. See the Note there. Some read it thus, The poor shall oppress his children; and how grievous that is, see Prov. 28.3. with the Note. A Heathen Historian observed, that Dionysius, after his death, paid dear for his Sacrilege, in the disasters that befell his children.

And his hands shall restore their goods. ] Or, For his hands shall, &c. They should indeed restore their ill-gotten goods, though to the impoverishing of their posterity, though they left their children no more but a wallet to beg from door to door. But such are rare birds: most men will rather venture it, then be drawn, Zacchaeus -like, to make restitution. God must give them a Vomit, as verse. 20. or they will lay up nothing: part they will not with those murthering morsels, that riches of iniquity ( Luke 16.9) they have devoured, but what they can neither will nor choose, as being compelled to do it either by Law or force, either by justice or violence. The right owners do not always receive what was by wrench or wile gotten from them: but these oppressors, or their imps are many times rooked or robbed by others as bad as themselves (as the usutious Jews are at this day by the injurious Papists, who use them as Spunges, which they may squeeze at their pleasure:) God so disposing and ordering the disorders of men to his own glory.

Verse 11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth ] Fowl practices have so grown up together with some sinful people, that they may say of them as the Strumpet Quartilla did of her Virginity, that she could not remember that ever she had been a maid. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice, Jer. 22.21. Then thou hadst no mind to it, but now thou hast less, thy heart being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, Heb. 3.17. Now in the froth of these youthful vanities unrepented of, breedeth that worm of an evil conscience that never dieth. In the best, they procure much ruth, though not utter ruin. The sweet ways of my youth (saith a man afterwards eminent for holiness) did breed such worms in my soul, as that my heavenly Father will have me yet a little while continue my bitter Wormseed, because they cannot otherwise be killed. Thus he Holy David prayeth hard, Psal. 25.7. Remember not against me the sins of my youth. Austin was much in the same suit. That age of man's life is very subject to, and usually very full of sin, yea reproachful evils, jer. 31.19. Fleshly lusts that war against the soul, 1 Pet. 2.12. and like so many noisome diseases soak into the bones, and suck out the marrow, to the consumption and destruction of the whole man.

Which shall lie down with him in the dust; that is, saith Vatablus, God will so forsake him, that he shall never repent, but shall die in his sins, which is worse then to die in prison, or to die in a ditch; for they that die n sin, shall rise in sin, and stand before Christ in sin, and how shall they be able to stand before him?

Verse 12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth. ] As poison swallowed in some pleasing meat or drink. Agrippine, in poisoning her husband Claudius the Emperor, tempered it in meat he most delighted in. Poison given in Wine, works more furiously, as did that Wassail the Monk drank to King John of England. That wickedness with a witness here meant, is oppression, and is said to be held in the mouth, and hid under the tongue, as some think, because it is oft covered with godly speeches, whereby he seeketh to circumvent and deceive his neighbor. Others by these expressions will have understood continuance in sin and complacency therein, rolling it under his tongue, as a child doth a piece of sugar, which he is loath to part with, and retaining it a long thime in his mouth that he may taste it with more pleasure. Philo • enus wished his neck were as long as a Cranes, that he might the longer keep the taste of his sweet-meats and dainty morsels. Such is the wicked man's wish, and his practice is answerable: for and his tongue is mischief and vanity, Psal. 1.7. He licks his lips with the remembrance of his former sins, and so recommitteth them in his desires, at least, whilst he recalleth former acts with delight. Thus the rebellious Israelites called to mind the Flesh-pots of Egypt, and were moved: and thus afterwards they multiplied their whoredoms by calling to remembrance the days of their youth, wherein they had gone a whoring in the Land of Egypt, Ezek. 23.21.

Verse 13. Though he spa •• it, and forsake it not. ] This is the same in sense with the former verse, and the second time repeated, that Job might know, that he was the man here meant; Ut qui in malis artibus siti placaisset, saith Merlin, as one who took pleasure in raising himself upon another's ruins. And another good Note the same Author giveth here, viz. That as anything is more sweet and delectable to the sensual appetite, so much the more should we suspect it, as fearing a snare laid for us therein, by that old man-slayer. Vipera latet in veprecula. Diabolus capite blanditur, ventre oblictat, 〈◊〉 light. Divorce the flesh from the devil, and then there is no no great danger.

But keeps is still within his mouth ] And will not be drawn to spet it out by confession, and to carry it through the dung-port of his mouth into the brook Kedro • , which was the Town-ditch. Satan knows there is no way to purge the sick soul but upwards. He therefore laboreth to hold his lips close, that the soul may not disburden itself, and God come in with his Cordi • ls of comfort. See the Note on the former verse.

Verse 14. Yet his meat in his bo • else is turned ] Soure •• uce he hath at length to his sweet meats; viz. Gripes and throbs of conscience, terrors and tortures inexpro •• ble; a greedy Vulture feeding upon his entrails (as the Poets feigned of Prometheus ) those Furies or hell-hags, (so much mentioned by them) as hanting evil-doers. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, Prov. 29.6. There is a cord to strangle his joys with, to ma • his mirth. Did not Josephs brethren experiment this? and Ahab in his house of ivory? and Belshazzar amidst his sensualities?

The sinners cup of honey ends in the dregs of gall, even the gall of Asps. Volupi • and Angorom went y • aled together among the Romans. Did men but forecast the said issues of sin, they durst not but be innocent.

It is the gall of Asps within him. ] Gall of any sort is bitter, but that of Asps is most poisonful and mortal. Pliny saith, that the poison of Asps is nothing else but their gall. An Asp is a kind of serpent, not know in these parts of the world. Ea ••• titeth, That the biting of an Asp is uncurable; and others say, that it killeth without remedy with in four hours space. Unto this kind of poison is sin fitly compared; for when an Asp stingeth a man, it doth first tickle him so as it maketh him laugh, then it casteth him into a sleep, till the poison by little and little gets to the heart after which it paineth him more then ever before it delighted him: So doth wickedness. It is a bitter-sweet. Bernard compareth it to the itch, which first yielded pleasure, and afterwards smart. Austin saith, Many devour that on earth which they must digest in hell, where they shall have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without succor, mischief without measure, torments without end, and past imagination. When therefore thou art making a covenant with sin, say to thy soul, as Boaz said to his kinsman, Ruth 4.4. What time thou buyest it, thou must 〈◊〉 Ruth with it. So, if thou wilt have the sweet of sin, thou must have the 〈◊〉 with it, and let thy soul answer, as he there doth, No, I may not do it, I shall 〈…〉 .

Verse 15. 〈…〉 down riches.] As wild beasts do their prey, as the greater fishes do the lesser, greedily, easily, suddenly, recoverably as the fire swalloweth up the fuel, as the lean Kine devoured the far and as the Pamphagus glutton doth his tid bits, his sweet morsels. This word, Hath swollowed. showeth his infinite and unsatiate desire of getting and gathering riches; and that by continual gaping after more, he loseth the pleasure of what he hath already. Like as a dog at his Masters table swalloweth the whole meat he casteth him without any pleasure, gaping still for the next morsel. He knoweth no other language but that of the Horte Leethes daughter, Give, give; or that of greedy Ese • , returning from the field, as hungry as an Hunter, Gen. 25.30. Feed me I pray thee, or, 〈◊〉 me swallow at •• er (like as Camels are fed by casting gobbets into cheir mouth) 〈◊〉 red, red, &c. Gold is no better then red earth, and cannot terminate man's Eccles 5.10.

And he shall vomit them up again ] Either by remorse and restitution in the mean time, or by despair and impenitent horror hereafter; He shall vomit them up, and together with them his vital blood and spirits: he shall bring up his very heart withal, as Judas did, together with those thirty pieces of silver, Mat. 27.4. all his bowels gushing out, Act. 1.18. He thought to have digested his ill g •• ten goods, as the Estrich doth iron: but Pelican -like, he is forced to cast them up again. The Whale that swallowed Jonah found him hard meat, and for his own ease was forced to regurgitate. Think the same of this wretched Mammonist. The Septuagint interpret the Text, when they thus render it, Wealth unjustly gathered soal be vomited up again, and an Angel shall bale it out of his mouth. An evil Angel, say their Interpreters: But the Hebrew verity referreth it to God, as an act of his divine justice.

God shall cast them out of his belly ] As by a Writ of Ejectment, or rather, as by a violent purgation that shall work both ways, Jer. • 1.44. I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth what he hath swallowed up; viz. the wealth of the Nations round about him. This God will take out of his belly, so that a piece of his heart shall go with it. In the last destruction of Jerusalem, some of the Jews had swallowed their gold, that the roman soldiers might not have it; this was found out, and thereupon thousands of them were killed and ripped up, for the gold that might be found in their stomachs and bowels. In like sort shall God deal with those covetous Gaitives, that have devoured the riches of iniquity; that have sucked in pestilential Air, as hos. 8.7. See the Note there.

Verse 16. He shall suck the poison of Asps ] That lieth in his head, whence also it hath its name in the Original. See the Note on verse. 14. Caput aspidis suget, saith the Vulgar. It is said of the Toad that he hath in his head a stone of great virtue called Buf • nites. But the Asp hath nothing in his head but strong poison. This the rich wretch shall suck. Like as he was went to suck the blood of the poor oppressed, to eat their flesh, Psal. 14.4. and to eviscerate them.

The Vipers tongue shall slay him ] Perinde cade • timale ficium, saith Junius: His wickedness shall prove his bane, unless he presently take the Antidotes of Repentance where by to expel the poison • re it get to the vitals. Repentance is the souls best vomit, the hardest, but wholesomest Physic. It is Repentance unto life, whereas the sins of the impenitent are mortal, saith Saint John 1 ep. 5.17. or rather Immortal as saith Saint Paul, 〈◊〉 The hand that is here and elsewhere lifted up in threatening. Isai. 26 11. will fall down in punishing. The wages of sin is death When the Barbarians saw the Viper hanging on Saint Paul's hand, they looked when he would fall down dead, Acts 28 46. The devils design want here to have slain Paul, but he was defeated. And Brenz holdeth that the Metaphor here used is taken not so much from Serpents, whose venom lieth in their tongues, as from Satan, who by the Serpent in Paradise, cast our first parents into all kind of evils. Another there is, who thus descanteth upon this Text, Caput Viperis suget. When Vipers engender, the female sucketh the head of the male, and biteth it off with great delight; then she conceiveth her young ones, which eat out her belly: So the Oppressor, getting the poor man's goods, they seem sweet unto him, but at the last his sin findeth him out, for it biteth like a Serpent, and stingeth like an Adder, as Sermon saith of drunkenness (which Austin calleth, dulce vemenum, a sweet poison) Prov. 23.32.

Verse 17. He shall not see the Rivers, the floods, &c. ] that is, that plenty and abundance of all good things that cometh in to the righteous, Velut confertim, certatim, & affati •• , a confluence of all manner of comforts and contentments. These the Oppressor shall have none of; for being insatiable and vexed with the furies of an evil conscience, they enjoy not anything, though they abound with all things, being worse then Tantalized: and if after his fall he seek to recruit himself, he shall never be able to effect it. He shall not see the Rivers, &c. The Seventy, and others after them render it by an elegant Apostrophe, Ne spectes rivos, Let him never look after the Rivers, &c. for it will never be. He may please himself in hope and expectation of a better condition, but God will surely cross him. For his hoped for riches he shall have poverty, for pleasure pain, for health sickness, for nourishment poison, for dignity disgrace, for the favor of God, his wrath and hatred, for life destruction. A further account of the wicked man's non-enjoyment of what he had wrongfully wrested from others, Zophar giveth us in the next verse.

Verse 18. That which he labored for shall he restore. ] (Great pains he hath taken to small purpose) in hope to make himself happy, the result whereof is, Reddet laborem, he shall restore his labor, either by regret and remorse of conscience, or by Law, or by force, he shall be made to restore his ill-gotten goods, which he had labored for even to lassitude; for wicked men are sore work-men, and oppressors are great pains-takers; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in getting wealth unweariable.

And shall not swallow it down ] Or if he do, as verse. 15. it shall be but as the fish swalloweth the hook, or as the Whale swallowed Jonah, ill at ease till he had laid up again.

According to his substance Ball the restitution be. ] hebr. According to the substance fo his exchange. Opes compensationis, the riches of his recompense, so the word is rendered, chap. 15.31. The Oppressor is so infatuated, that he looks upon his cursed hoards as the reward of his labor, and rejoiceth in that where of he hath more reason to repent, as Leah said at the birth of her son Issachar, (but not well) God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, Gen. 30. 18. Felix scelus virtus vocatur: Dionysius gloried, that the God's disliked not his Sacrilege, because they punished him not presently. But what faith Zophar here?

He shall not rejoice therein ] Or if he do for a while, yet the triumphing of the wicked is but short, ver. 5. as a blaze of thorns under a pot, or as a flash of lightning, which is followed by rending and roaring; he shall be filled with unmedicinable sorrows, when his Gold (his God) is taken from him, when he parteth with that whereon he had set his heart, and built his felicity.

Verse 19. Because he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor. ] Hebr. Because he hath crushed or broken in pieces. The Original word importeth (as One well observeth) Tyrannical Oppression without mercy or moderation, without ho or hold: some give full scope to their rage and wrath, they put neither bond nor bridle upon their covetousness and cruelty: such are characterized by this word.

And forsaken the poor. ] Or, Left men poor; viz. by letting them without a livelihood, and so as good as without life. A poor man in his house, is like a snail in his shell, crush that, and you kill him They which read it, And forsaken the poor, give us this good Note, That as it is sinful to forsake the poor, though we have never oppressed them, Matth. 25.35, 36. (Not to do Justice is Injustice, not to show mercy is cruelty, Mark 3.4) so to oppress, and then forsake them, is far more sinful.

Because he hath violently taken away. ] Violently and in open view, in an impudent manner, He pulleth down men's houses, but never thinketh of repairing them; so some read this Text. Let our Depopulators look to it, who build themselves desolate places, and desire to live alone in the earth. This hath been noted as a great fault in our Nation. And therefore Goropius thinketh the English were called Augli, because they were so good Anglers, having skil to lay diverse baits when they fished for other men's livings.

Verse 20. Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly. ] i. e. Peace in his conscience, satisfaction in his soul; but as he is still coveting more, being sick of a Dropsy or Bulimy, as it were; so he hath many inward gripings and grabbings, worse then any belly ache or sickness of the stomach: he never eateth to the satisfying of his soul as the righteous man doth, but the belly of the wicked shall want, Prov, 13.25. His meat is so sawced, and his drink so spiced with the wrath of God, that he hath no joy of it: His belly is pained, his mind is in perpetual turmoile, whiles, like a Ship laden, but not filled up, he hath enough to sink him, but not enough to satisfy him.

He shall not save of that which he desired. ] Which he coveted with strong desire, and had as lief have been knocked on the head as parted with, as his Plate, Wardrobe Jewels, &c. neither can he save them, nor they him. Broughton rendereth, By that which he desired, he shall not be safe: and to like purpose, the Septuagint,

Verse 21. There shall none of his meat be left. ] Zophar still pursueth the Allegory of the belly; and in all, striketh at poor Job, who had scarce a bit of bread to eat, but yet was not without the hidden Manna, the feast of a good conscience, which made him say with Luther, Mendecato pant hic vivamus, &c. Let us take up with course fare here, since we have better within, and better yet we shall have in heaven: in our Fathers house is bread enough, &c.

Therefore no man shall look for his goods. ] Heb. His goods, or goodness, It was well said, That he that first called riches, Bona, Goods, was a better husband then Divine: But it may be thought that the most are such husbands. The common cry is, Who will show us any good? The Lord answereth, Exod. 33.19. I will make all my good pass before thee, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before thee. The Prophet answereth, Mic. 6.8. He hath shown thee, O man, what is good. viz. to do justly: and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. But most men are of his mind who said. He that will not venture his body, will never be valiant, and he that will not venture his soul, will never be rich. But what saith the Prophet? He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall die a poor fool, Jer. 17.11. And what saith Zophar here? He shall die a plain beggar, and leave no estate worth the looking after, or suing for: this falleth not out always, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 many times it doth, as is easily to be observed.

Verse 22. In the fullness of his sufficiency be shall be in straits ] The covetous man never hath a sufficiency (but is as greedily gasping still after more, as if he were not worth an half-penny) much less a fullness of sufficiency, a superfluity, a superabundance. What soever Esan pretended in his, I have enough my brother, Gen. 33.9. Jacob could indeed say truly, I have enough. ver. 11. for godliness only hath an autarkie, 1 Tim. 6.6. True piety hath true plenty, and is never without a well-contenting sufficiency, wherein the good man is, when is the fullness of straits. See it in David, 1 Sam. 30.6. in Habakkuk. chap. 3.16, 17. in Paul, 2 Cor. 6.10. Phil. 4-11. he had nothing, and yet possessed all things. But that which Zophar here drives at, is to show that the Oppressor shall be ruinated when at highest, and when he least looketh for it; as was Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Belshazzar, Babylon the great, Rev. 18.7, 8. How was Alexander the Great surprised at a Feast? Caesar in the Senate house? many of the Emperors in their own Palaces, &c?

Every hand of the wicked shall come upon him ] Or, Of the Labourer, whose wages he hath detained. Or, of the poor oppressed, whom he hath forced to labor hard for a poor living. Broughton rendereth it, Each hand of the injured and grieved shall come upon him; and so he shall have many fists about his ears, many ready to rifle him and to pull a fleece from him.

Verse 23, When he is about to fill his belly ] It appeareth by this expression, that it was belly timber wherein the wicked man placed his sufficiency, ver. 22. his felicity Si ventri bone sit si lateri. saith the Epicure in Horace. If the belly may be filled, the body fitted, that's all that these Lurcones, these Losels look after. Pelyphemus knew no other God but his belly. There were belly-gods in Saint Paul's time, such as of whom be could not speak with dry eyes, Phil 3.18-19. Such are compared by Clemens Alexandrinus to the Sea-castle, that hath his heart in his belly: By others to the Locust, the belly whereof is said to be joined to his mouth, and to end at his tail: to the fish called Blax, that is altogether unprofitable: and to Rats and Mice, good for nothing but to devour victuals. When therefore such a Pamphagus is about to fill his belly and to pamper his panch, or otherwise to gorge himself with the full messes of sins Dainties (as the Viper lives on venomous things, the Spider on Aconite, the Sow on swill, as Tartarians on Carrion, holding them as dainty as other men do Venison) then, saith Zophar,

God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him ] Heb. He shall send forth, &c. He will no longer keep in his judgments in the chains of mercy, but give them their full forth upon this wicked Oppressor; and that even very then, when he bids his heart make merry, and assures himself of unchangeable happiness. For,

He shall rain it upon him (that is, reveal it from heaven against him, Rom. 1.) while he is eating ] As it befell chose Cormorants, Numb. 11.33. and the old world, Luke 17. Sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travel upon a woman with child; Vel ut pluvia quae sereno coelo inopinantes opprimit; Or as foul weather that comes unsent for, and oft unlook'd for. The Vulgar rendereth it, And he shall rain his war upon him. But this Zophar setteth forth in the next verse, where he denounceth war and weapons.

Verse 24. He shall flee from the iron weapons. ] i. e. whiles he seeks to shun one mischief, he shall fall into another: and when he thinks to run from death, he runs to it. God, who can do what he will with his own bare hand, is here brought in after the manner of men with sword and bow, to show, that both at home and afar off he can tame his Rebels. Neither boots it any man to stand out with God, or to seek to save himself by sight or flight: since he is that King against whom there is no rising up. Prov. 30.31. and if he be angry, no other helps can relieve us. Brasse and iron can fence me against an Arrow or a sword, but if I were to be cast into a furnace of fire, it would help to torment me, if into a pit of water to sink me. Now our God is a consuming fire, and his breath a stream of brimstone, Isai. 30.33. Submit yourselves therefore to God, Jam. 4.7. Humble yourselves therefore under his mighty hand, and he shall lift you up in due season, 1 Pet. 5. To run into God, is the way to escape him: as to close and get in with him that would strike you, doth avoid the blow.

And the bow of steel shall strike him through ] Or, shall change him; that is, kill him: Death is our great change, and to the wicked a dismal change, for they shall be killed with death Rev. 2.23. Then Balaam and his bribes, Baltasar and his bowls. Dives and his dishes, Herod and his Harlots, the Usurer and his bills, the Merchant and his measures, &c. shall part asunder forever. But that is not the worst of it: The word here used signifieth excision or cutting off, and hence that of Bathsheba, Prov. 31.8. Bene chaloph. children of destruction, answerable to that of our Savior, John 17.12. A son or child of perdition; that is, a man devoted to utter destruction.

Verse 25. It is drawn and cometh out of the body. ] that is, the Arrow out of the Quiver, or the sword out of the sheath (as the Vulgar translateth it.) By a like Metaphor the body is called the souls sheath, Dan. 7.15. But I rather take it properly: It cometh out of his body; that is, out of the wicked man's body, who is under such a deep and deadly wound as Jehoram was, whom Jehu shot through the heart: and as William Rufus was by Walter-Tirrel, who in hunting mistook him for a Dear.

Yea the glistering sword cometh out of his gall ] And so the wound must needs be mortal, since none can come at the gall to cure it. The wicked shall be double slain, (first with God's bow, and then with his sword) rather then he shall escape. How much better were it, to fall down as Paul did, Rom. 7. slain with the sword of the Spirit? Bernard told his brother, a soldier, that because he would not listen to the word of exhortation, God would shortly open a way to his hard heart by his glistering sword; which accordingly befell him.

Terrors are upon him ] Heb. the terrible upon him; which some interpret of Devils hell-hags. The Vulgar rendereth it, Then horrible outs shall come upon him. The word is used for Giants, Deut. 2.10. The Emins shall fall upon him, that is, men of fierce and cruel spirits. But better take it for terrors, as we render it; and so the sense is, That the wicked when he sees he must needsly die, is surprised with greatest anxieties and perplexities of spirit, as beholding that threefold dreadful spectacle, Death, Judgment, Hell, and all to be passed through by his poor soul.

Verse 26. All darkness shall be bid in his secret place ] That is, saith Diodate, wheresoever he shall think to find a place of safeguard, there shall he meet with some horrible mischance. Men that are proscribed, and sought for to death, usually hide themselves, as divers Jews did in Privies at the last destruction of Jerusalem, and were thence drawn out to the slaughter. The Duke of Buckingham in Richard 3 his time was betrayed by his servant Bannister. Appianus telleth of a Roman hid by his wife, and then discovered by his wise to the Murderer, to whom she soon after also was married. Others render and sense the words thus, The wicked shall come into darkness, propter abscondita. for his secret sins. And others thus, All darkness is laid up for his hid treasures: that is, God, or men have taken order that he shall lose his riches as well as his life, though he hide them never so secretly.

A fire not blown shall consume him ] i. e. say some, calamities whose causes shall be unknown, and shall proceed immediately from God. See Isai. 30.33. Many of the Greeks interpret this Text of Hell, with its unquenchable fire, Matth. 3.12. which being created by God, and kindled by its breath, that is, by his Word, it burneth everlastingly. Albeit God many times punisheth wicked men here with fire from heaven, as he did Sodom. Nadab and Abihu, those Captiances of fifties with their companies, 2 King. 1. Tremellius rendereth it thus, A fire consumeth him, non accensum flatu, I say Him. not kindled by blowing, but burning of his own accord, as stubble fully dried, or hurds, or sear wood. See Nab 1.10. with the Note.

It shall go ill with him that is left. ] His posterity shall never prosper, but be rooted out. Eliphaz and Bildad had said the same thing: and all to pay poor Job, whose family was now ruined. It shall surely go ill with him, or, He shall be wringed, saith Broughton; alluding belike to the sound as well as the sense of the Hebrew word.

Verse 27. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity ] Job had called heaven and earth to record of his innocence. chap 16.17, 18. This is not to do now. saith Zophar. for all creatures have conspired thy ruin, and contributed thereunto, Wind, Fire, Sabaeans, &c. so that he that hath but half an eye, may see thee to be a wicked person. Such as are wicked indeed. not only secundum dici. as Job. but secundum esse, as Ahab, cannot look to heaven above, or to earth beneath, without horror to think even these, if other witnesses fail, shall bring to light their secret sins, and come to give testimony against them before the great Judge at the last day.

And the earth shall arise up against him. ] Night will convert itself into Noon against the evil-doers: and silence prove a speaking evidence. Earth cried Cain guilty, the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera as a Traitor and Rebel to the highest Majesty; Yea, — Servi ut taceant jumenta loquentur. the Ass hath a verdict to pass upon Balaam. A Bird of the Air shall carry the voice that but whispereth Treason, Eccles. 10.20. Yea if nothing else will reveal iniquity, it will reveal it self. It will prove like the Ointment of the right hand, of which Solomon saith, that it wrayeth itself, Prov. 27.16.

Verse 28. The increase of his house shall depart ] All his posterity shall be destroyed, and so shall his prosperity too, even all at once with a sudden ebb, in the day that God visiteth him with his wrath and righteous judgments. All the wicked man's wealth and revenue shall be wretchedly wasted and embezelled by one means or other.

And his goods shall flow away ] As waters. The Apostle saith, The fashion of the world passeth away; viz. as a hasty headlong torrent; or as a Picture drawn upon the ice, Thou carriest them away (both persons and things) as with a flood, Psal. 90.5.

Verse 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God ] A portion God alloweth the wicked in this life, Psal. 17.14. As a King when he reprieveth a Traitor, alloweth him a subsistence, prisoners pitance at least. Yes, the worst of men divide the wealth and honors of the world between them for a time. Nebuchadnezzar had Tyr • s as pay for his pains in Egypt. And the whole Turkish Empire is nothing else but a crust cast to his dogs, by the great house keeper of the world, saith Luther. But besides this, God hath provided a far other portion for them (saith One) and that by way of inheritance, never to be parted from them; viz. all the forementioned miseries, and many more, all torments here, and tortures in hell. This is the inheritance, Quam nunquam deserere, non magis quam seipsos, pottrunt, which will stick to them as close as the skin to the flesh, or the flesh to the bones: it falls to them as the inheritance doth to the heir, chap. 27.13. and 31.2. or as the mess of meat doth to the invited Guest. Misery is the heritage of the wicked, as they are children of disobedience; and their wages as they are workers of iniquity: their present prosperity also is a piece of their punishment, Isai. 1.5. Prov. 1.32. The words of Zophar are ended. Let others reply as they please, but he hath done. Prastat herbam dare, quam turpiter pugnare. No surer sign of an evil cause then a powerless pertinency.

CHAP. XXI. Verse 1. But Job answered and said.]

Disproving and refuting that Proposition of theirs concerning the infelicity of the ungodly by Reason, by Experience, and by Divine Authority: All which evince and evidence, that neither is prosperity a proof of men's innocence, nor adversity a mark of their wickedness, as Zophar and his fellows would have it. And that they might not anymore interrupt him, nor think him too rough, he useth a gentle Preface, craving attention, and pressing them thereunto by many Arguments in the six first verses.

Verse 2. Hear diligently my speech ] Heb. In hearing hear. The Greek hath it, Hear, hear; that is, hear me out, have so much patience with me as not to interrupt me anymore; yea, hear with understanding: Let your 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 meet: draw up your inward ea • es to your outward, that one sound may pierce both. Lay aside passion and prejudice, suffer a word of information, for it is but one word that I have to say, &c. the Hebrew is singular, and promiseth brevity. Only this one word Job would that they should heafe double; scil. by an after deliberate meditation, as David did, Psal. 62.11. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard that &c.

And let this be your consolations ] Comfort me this way at least, that you will give me the hearing. Hither you came as Comforters, but by your galling speeches you have grieved and vexed me above measure. Now make me some amends, and remembering your Office as friends, and your design, which was to condole with me, and to comfort me, hear me hardly, and this I shall take as kindly, as if in tenderest compassion you had drunk to me in a Bowle of Nepenthes, or had given me a oup of consolation, as Jer, 10.7. The Vulgar Latin rendereth it, (but not well) Hear I pray for my speech, and repent. The Hebrew robe signifieth first to repent, and then to comfort, 1 Sam. 15.35. Isas. 40.1. became the penitent only, get sound comfort.

Verse 3. Suffer me that I may speak ] Say that it be suffering to you to hear me (for now I see you have, as they write of some Creatures, feb in •• re; ) yet put yourselves to the pain of hearing me, and beat me though I am burdensome to you, though my speeches cross the grain of your spirits. See 2 Cor. 11.1. I will promise you to speak nothing worthy of a scoff, such as was that of Theophrast •• , Let him shun the •••• tive man who would not be put into a • it of a feavee. Or that of Aristotle, before whom when one having made a long and idle discourse, concluded it thus, I doubt I have been too tedious unto you, Sir Philosopher, with my many words In good sooth, said Aristotle, you have not been tedious to me, for I gave no heed to anything you said.

And after I have spoken, mock on ] Heb. M ••• thou on, thou Zoph • r, (to whom he turned his speech, and very likely his eye also) if thou canst find in thy heart to mock at so much reason, as I shall allege in mine own defense, I gainstand thee not. He wanted no wit that said, If a wise man speak evil of thee, or to thee, endure him; if a fool, slight him. Sile, & funestam dedisti plagam, trouble not thyself at his taunts, and thou punishest him sufficiently.

Verse 4. As for me, is my complaint to man? ] Vult dicere. saith Lavater, Jobs meaning is, that he complained not to man, but to God himself, who well knew his heart and his innocence, though men mis-judged him. And this being so, how could he be otherwise then anxious and solicitous, since if a man be but to speak to an earthly Prince, he will be afraid? It is said of Charles the Fifth, Emperor, that he spake more to God then to men. Job did so, it seemeth: and this he alledgeth to the shame of his hard-hearted friends, who put him to it in this sort.

Verse 5. Mark me, and be astonied ] Heb. Look upon me. He had said before, Hear and hear, now, Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Mark it I say, and stand amazed at it. Did you ever find any on this side hell so sore afflicted as I am? Is it not because you are not duly affected with my miseries, that ye are so regardless of my discourse. Strange, that my sorrows should be great enough to work astonishment, and yet not great enough to deserve attention. O mark first what I suffer, and then what I speak.

And (this once done) lay your hand upon your month ] Be swift to hear but slow to speak: yea, spare to speak at all in this case. The Greek Proverb admonisheth men either to be silent, or to speak something that is better then silence. Harpocrates the heathenish god of silence, was pictured with his finger laid upon his lips.

Verse 6. Even when I remember I am afraid ] Surprized I am with a most formidable amazement, when I call to mind and consider how ill (by the divine Providence) it fareth with me, how well with many wicked; and how little you pity me, or seek by sound reason to settle my mind; I am ready to cry out, Oh the depth of God's stupendous dispensations! Confer Psal. 73. where David delivereth himself to like purpose.

And trembling taketh hold on my flesh ] Heb. My flesh hath taken hold on trembling. Totus horreo, Horrour hath taken hold on me, Psal. 119.53. such as makes my body to shake and shudder. So Habak. 3.16. With chap. 1.3, 13. Job had called upon his friends to mark and be astonished: here he propoundeth himself to them for an example. Quod jussit, & gessit, as Bernard saith of Another. See chap. 18.20.

Verse 7 Wherefore do the wicked live, become old? ] Vivunt, veterascunt, they are lively and long lived, so that they out-last many better then themselves; being as sound as Roches, and as vivacious as the snail, the property whereof is to live a long while even after the head is off, and the heart out. Of some creatures we use to say, that they have nine lives: of some wicked men it may be thought so, they do evil an hundred times, and yet their days are prolonged, Eccles. 9.12. Manasseh reigned longest of any King in Judah. Pope John the 22 (that Monster and Mortallist) lived longest of any Pope, and died richest. God gives wealth, health, and long life to many wicked, Non aliter ac siquis crumenam ingentem auro plenam lutrine injiciat, saith One: No otherwise then as when a man casts a great Purse filled with Gold into a Jakes. Now if any shall ask, with Job, Why all this? The Apostle answereth one Question by another, Rom. 922. What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endure with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? What hath any man to say to that? And again, who knows not that the Lord hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, even that day of the Revelation of the righteous judgment, Acts 17.31. Rom. 2.5. The Judge of the earth keepeth his petty Sessions now, letting the Law pass upon some few, reserving the rest till the great Assizes, 1 Tim. 5.24.

Yea, are mighty in power. ] Or, Prevaile in wealth, which maketh them mighty: for money is the Monarch of this present world, and carrieth all before it.

Verse 8. Their seed is established in their sight with them ] Some understand it of their seed sown in the fields; not blasted or wasted, but timely gathered into their Barns and Granaries; and so by Off spring, Germina, they taking it literally, conceive to be meant their plants, trees, flowers, fruits, all which come kindly, and grow to their minds; But better interpret it of their children and nephews, whom they have many, healthy, lusty and lively, and not unfitly compared to seed; as if the parents were but only the husks: and to branches or sprigs, because they may be, and must be bent betime to the best things, before they be aged and crooked in their evil practices, refusing to be rectified.

And their Off-spring before their eyes ] This is the same with that before, and is repeated, because a singular happiness, to see their children prosper as much as themselves. This is a third time instanced, ver. 11.

Verse 9. Their houses are safe from fear ] Seculi Latitia est impunita nequitia. No domestical scords, no foreign disturbances, but peaceable possession and enjoyment of that they have; as much welfare as David wished to Nabal, 1 Sam. 25.5. Thus shall ye say to him that liveth (that is, that liveth prosperously, for that's the only life) Peace be to thee, and to thine house, and to all that thou hast.

Neither is the rod of God upon them ] So that they seem to themselves and others to be out of the reach of God's rod. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men: Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain, &c. Psa. 73.5, 6. Vermis divitiarum est superbia, It is hard for the rich not be high-minded, 1 Tim. 6.17.

Verse 10. Their Bull gendereth and faileth not, &c. ] All things hit, and nothing misseth to make them happy and wealthy; they have profit and pleasure at will, the world comes tumbling in upon them, as Towns were said to come in to Timothy his toils, whiles he slept; and so they seem to be the only heirs of those Promises ( Exod 23.26. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren in the Land. So Deut. 7.14) whereunto notwithstanding they are perfect strangers; Laban and Nabal for instance.

Verse 11 They send forth their little ones like a flock. ] Sunt quide eorum vitulis intelligent recens natis, saith Mercer, Some understand it of young Calves, but better of young children, which have here their name from a root which signifieth wickedness, naughtiness, to show what little ones are, not Innocents, as we call them, not pueri quasi puri; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is both a fool and a child. The first blanket wherein a child is wrapped, is woven of sin, shame, blood and filth, Ezek. 16.4, 6. Hence Infants were circumcised, and their foreskin cast away, to show, that themselves had deserved to be so served. Parents therefore should strive to mend that by education, which they have marred by propagation. Wicked parents think not on this, though they send out their little ones like a flock, but tend them not, keep them not from the Wolf of hell, who seeketh to devour them.

And their children dance ] Exiliunt, vitulantur, ch • reas ducunt, they skip and leap up and down, as young cattle, and are taught to dance Artificially, which no sober man will do, saith Cicero: And the better Dancer, the worse man, said Diogenes.

Verse 12. They take the Timbr • l and the Harp ] They take them, and are taken with them, being melted in sensual delights, which wise men slight. The Philosopher told the Fiddlers, that he could be merry without Music. Aristotle said, Jupiter is happy, and yet no Musician. One in Plutarch saith of the Scythians, That though they had no Music nor Vines amongst them, yet they had God. It is here alleged as a piece of their lasciviousness and luxury, that they took or touched the Timbrel, &c. Not but that Music is lawful, for it is the gist of God, and a noble Note there) these wicked and their children lived in pleasure upon earth (which is not a place for such a purpose: God did not cast man out of one Paradise; that he might make himself another) James 5.5. and were like the people of T • mbu ••• in Africa, who are said to spend their whole time in singing and dancing. It is not good for men to take pleasure in pleasure, to spend too much time in it, as Solomon did, and afterwards Cleopatra. It was not simply a sin in Esau to go a hunting: but yet the more he used it, the more profane he waxed, and came at length to contemn his birth-right.

They rejoice at the sound of the Organ ] Their mirth was merely carnal, they did rather revel then rejoice. Their cheerfulness did not end in thankfulness; their Music made them not more heavenly minded, as it did that late Learned and holy Mr. Esty, who when he sat and heard a sweet consort of Music, seemed upon this occasion, carried up for the time before hand to the place of his Rest, saying very passionately, What Music may we think there is in heaven? The Instrument here mentioned, hath its name (as Mercer noteth) Ab amore oblectatione, & lusu; From love, delight and sport. Amabit sapiens, cupient caters, saith S • utea.

Verse 13 They spend their days in wealth. ] Or, in mirth: Hebr. In good. They wallow in wealth, and have the world at will, even more then heart could wish, as David phraseth it in Psalm 73. which may well serve for a Comment upon this Text; And the rich glutton for an instance. He in his life-time received his good things, and in a moment went down to the grave, Luke 16.25. True it is, that this is not every wicked man's case: for some of them live wretchedly, and die lamentably, being held long upon the rack of a torturing Disease (as Jehoram ) all which is to them no other then a Type and foretaste of hell, whither they are hasting.

And in a moment they go down to the grave ] Ad inferna, to hell, saith the Vulgar, they spend their days in wealth, and end their days in woe; their merry dance determineth in a miserable downfall. Thus that rich man died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, &c, Luke 16.22, 23. But though the same Hebrew word signifieth hell and the grave (both which have their names from their unsatiablenesse, Prov. 30.15, 16) yet here, in a suitableness to what went before, the grave is to be understood; and the sense is, Dicto citius mori •• tur, they die easily, suddenly, sweetly, without much pain of body or trouble of mind: there are no bonds in their death, saith David, Psal. 73. They die without much ado, like a lamb, or like a lamp, that goeth out of itself when the oil faileth: they go quickly and quietly to the grave: some wicked persons indeed die piece-meal by a complicate Disease, and a long lingering Death, as did Antiochus, Herod, Philip 2 of Spain, &c. Dionysius the Tyrant is said to have envied a beast, whose throat he saw cut, because he died so soon. Julius Caesar wished he might die speedily, saith Suetonius. Pliny commendeth sudden death as the chief felicity of life. That's a good death to nature which is neither feared nor expected, yet that is the best death which hath been longest expected and prepared for. Happy is he that after due preparation, is passed through the gates of death, ere he be aware. Happy is he that by the holy use of long sickness, is taught to see the gates of death afar off, and addresseth for a resolute passage. The one dieth like Elijah, the other like Elisha, both blessedly.

Verse 14. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us. ] Lest any should think, saith Merlin here, that Job speaks of such wicked as used a moderation in sinning, and (as the Historian said of the Emperor) rather wanted vice, then were virtuous. He describeth their great impiety by a rhetorical imitation, expressing the language of their heart, which is most base and blasphemous. For first they bespeak God as if he were some low-prized scoundrel; Apage, Be packing: thus they reject his acquaintance, and would be rid of his company. Porro rejiciunt Deum quot quot verbum e • us contemnunt, saith Brenz here: Now they reject God, who slight his Word, and cast his commands behind them, Psal. 50.17. Hence it follows by way of explication.

For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. ] Lo, they prosesse themselves to be of the number of those, Qui us liberius peccent, libenter ignorant, who are willfully ignorant, and like not to retain God in their knowledge. Rom. 1.28. or if they profess to know him, yet in works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, Tit. 1.16. Wicked men cannot abide God, such is their evil heart of unbelief, Heb 3.12. they get as far from him as they can, with Cain, and not only desire him to depart out of their coasts with those swinish Gergefires, but churlishly say unto him, as here, Avaunt, Room for us. They will neither have God in their heads, Psal. 10.4. nor hearts, Psal. 14.1. nor words, Psal. 12.4. nor works, Tit. 1.16. See this exemplified in those perverse Jews, lying children, children that would not hear the Law of the Lord; which said to the Seers, see not, —Get ye out of the way, turn aside out of the path; i.e. out of this tract of truth in dealing so plainly, and reproving us so roundly, Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease before us, let us henceforth hear no more of him, Isai. 30.10, 11. Now for such miscreants as these, who can say, it is otherwise then righteous, that God should regest one day upon them, Depart from me, ye wicked? (He loves to retaliate.) And that they who now say unto him, We desire not the knowledge of thy ways, should hear from him, I tell you, I know you not, Luke 13.27?

Verse 15. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? ] Here the rottenesse of their hearts blistereth out at the lips of these rich wretches, these fat Bulls of Basan, such as was Pharaoh that sturdy rebel, who asked this very question in the Text, What, or Who is the Almighty, &c? Exod. 5.2. and had a large Reply made him by one plague upon another, till he was compelled to answer himself, The Lord is righteous. Forced he was to speak fair whiles held upon the Rack, if for nothing else, yet that he might get off. Such Queryings as this carry greatest contempt in them, and would lay the Almighty quite below the required duty: as if Almighty were but an empty title, and that he could do neither good nor evil, Zeph. 1.12. that it was to no purpose or profit to serve him, that the gains would not pay for the pains, &c.

And what profit should we have if we pray unto him? ] Hebr. If we meet him, viz. by our prayers, Jer. 7.16. Am. 4.12. see Mal. 3.14. with the Note. Children will not say their prayers unless they may have their Breakfast; nor hypocrites pray, but for some profit. They pretend sometimes to meet God, but they draw not near with that true heart, mentioned, Heb. 10.22. in seeking God they merely seek themselves, as Spira said he did. In Parabola ovis capras suas quaerunt; No penny, no Pater Noster. And as the Wolfin the Fable, having spelled Pater, and being bid put together, said Agnus: so when these pray, their hearts are upon their half penny Ezek. 33. They follow Christ for the loaves, and serve him no longer, then he serves their turns.

Verse 16. Lo their good is not in their hand ] that is, They are not enriched by their own industry, Prudence, Piety, &c. but God hath exalted them thus, that he may bring them down again with the greater poise: So some sense the Text. Others thus, Their good is not in their hand; that is, they are not Masters of them, but are mastered by them: they are servants to their wealth, as the Persian Kings were to their Wives or Concubines, Captivarum suarum caprivi: And as those stall-fed beasts in the Gospel, the Recusant Guests I mean, that had bought Farms, Oxen, &c or rather were bought of them. — Difficile est opibus non tradere m • res. Others make this the sense, and I concur with them, These wicked rich men, buried in a bog of security, contemn God as if they had their happiness in their own hands, and were petty-gods within themselves. But they are deceived; All is in God's hand, who can take away their wealth when he pleaseth. These men may fall sooner then whey rose, since they subsist merely by God's manutension, and he may do with his own as he listeth.

The counsel of the wicked is far from me ] I am so far from envying their prosperity, that I cannot approve of their course of life, for all their wealth. I am not of their judgment, I like not of their way. Oh my soul come not thou into their secret. Let their money perish with them (said that noble Italian Convert to a Jesuit, who tempted him with a great sum) who esteem all the gold in the world worth one days society with Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit; and cursed be that Religion forever, &c.

Verse 17 How oft is the candle of the wicked put out? ] q.d. I confess that which you say concerning God's judgments upon the wicked to be sometimes true in this world; yet it is not so continually, nor ordinarily, but very oft their lamp is extinguished, their comforts damped, and hopes of better dashed: they are all on the sudden left in the dark, cast into straits inextricable, plunged into sorrows inexplicable, and yet all these are but the beginning of sorrows. For

How oft cometh destruction upon them? ] Utmost destruction, irresistible ruin, that comes on in manner of a black cloud, or fierce storm, undoing calamity, overflowing scourge, a tempest from which there is no covert. The Vulgar renders it thus, How oft is there an inundation upon the wicked!

God distributeth sorrows in his anger ] Gives them their lot of greatest sorrows, as by a line, Luke 12.46. such sorrows as a travelling woman suffereth, or such as were those of Monsieur Mylius, an ancient Minister at Heidelburg, when taken by the Spaniard, first they abused his daughter before his eyes, and then they tied a small cord about his head, which with truncheons they wreathed about till they squeezed out his brains. The Text implieth that though in this world many sorrows are to the wicked, yet these are no supersedias to their sufferings in hell; but now they receive only a small portion or part of their punishments, there they shall be paid to the full: here they sip of the top only of God's cup, there they shall suck up the dregs thereof, though they have eternity to the bottom. This shall be the portion of their cup, and but a portion, Psal. 11.6.

Verse 18. They are as stubble before the wind ] Lest any man should say, How can these things befall those that are so strongly set, & firmly built? Well enough, saith Job, since when they are best bottomed or underlaid, they are but as stubble before the wind, &c. Haec consideranda, saith Mercer, these things would be laid to heart, for hereby it appeareth that the wicked shall be destroyed suddenly, and certainly, certo, cito, penitus, Isai. 17.13. That they can no more stand before a punishing God, then thistle-down before a whirl-wind, or a glass-bottle before a Cannonshot.

Verse 19. God layeth up his iniquity for his children ] that is, the punishment of his iniquity, whilst he visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him, Exod. 20.5. Neither doth this contradict that of the Prophet Ezekiel, The son shall not die for the iniquity of his farher, chap. 18.17. Nor that of the Apostle, Every man shall bear his own burden, Gal. 5.6. for the meaning of those worlds is, that no man be damned for the sin of his father, nor one man for the sin of another, unless by commission or approbation, or some way or other he make it his own. But for temporal punishments there is none but (by occasion of others sins) may have their portion in them: and wicked parents leave Jobs Legacy to their children (see 2 Sam. 3.29.) yea though they prove to be good children, 1 King. 14.12, 13. for whom God layeth up their parents iniquity in the treasures of his justice to be produced in due time.

He rewardeth him. ] For every transgression and disobedience; that is, every Commission and Omission, receiveth a just recompense of reward, Heb 2.2. God will abate him nothing.

And he shall know it. ] Know it to his cost; Vexation shall give understanding: he that before this judgment came, would know nothing of the bitter effect of sin upon him and his, now hath his eyes forced open (as the blind Mole is said to have by the pangs of death) and cries out with the Lyon in the snare, Si prascivissem, Oh! if I had foreknown the mischief, &c. The wicked are wise too late, the fool passeth on, and is punished: he knows not the evil of sin, till he feels it.

Verse 20. His eyes shall see his destruction. ] His slaughter, saith the Greek, his breaking to pieces, saith the Chaldee: this he shall see with his eyes, the destruction of his person, and ruin of his Family. The sight of evil is a grief to see, as well as the feeling of it is a pain: and that's complete destruction which is not only felt but seen. Zedekiah first saw all his children slain, and then had his eyes put out. Mauric • us had the like woeful sight, and then was stewed in his own broth by the Traitor Ph •• as.

And he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. ] Heb. The scalding hot wrath, worse than that Cup of boiling Lead turned down the throat of a certain drunken man, by the command of the Turkish Bashaw. Jerusalem drank wrath to drunkenness, and had none to guide her; as a drunken man had need to have, Isa. 51.17. The Nations were to drink it to madness, Jer. 25.10. Babylon's brats shall drink of the wine of God's wrath, Rev. 14.10. (Poison in wine works more furiously than in water) their irreparable ruin is set forth to the eye as it were, when Rev. 18.21. an Angel, a mighty Angel taketh a stone, a great stone, even a millstone, which he casteth and with impetuous force thrusteth into the bottom of the sea, whence it cannot be buoyed up. Now what is a mighty Angel to the Almighty God, who hath his, Name Shaddai, from destroying, as some are of opinion?

Verse 21. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him? ] Hoc est, Omnia impiorum, etiam post mortem eorum, maledicta erunt, saith Brenz; All that belongs to the wicked shall be accursed, even after their death, though some are so desperately set upon wickeness, that they will have their swinge whatsoever come of it, either to themselves, or their children after them. Sic fere 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sunt improbi, so unnatural they are many of them, that, so they may satisfy their own sinful and sensual desires, let their posterity sink or swim, let them shift as they can, they care not. Dives in Hell seemed somewhat careful of his brethren; but self-love moved him to it: for he knew well, that if they were damned, he should be double damned, because they had sinned by his example and encouragement.

When the number of his months shall be cut off in the midst. ] Mortis periphrasis; that is, when he shall die, saith one. But that's not all. Impius moritur importune, The wicked dieth in an ill time for himself; then when it were better for him to do anything, then to die. Many of them live not out half their days, Psal. 55.25. Eccles. 7.17. God cut off Eli's two sons in one day; and further threatened their father that there should not be an old man left in his house forever, 1 Sam. 2.32. Hezekiah, when he thought he should die, complained that he had cut off his life like a Weaver, Esa. 38.12. who cuts off the Web from the Thrum. But the Saints (such as he was) die not till the best time, not till that time when, if they were rightly informed, they would even desire to die.

Verse 22. Shall any teach God knowledge? ] None but a presumptuous Fool will take upon him to do that: such as was Alphonso the wise (the Fool rather) who feared not to say openly, That if he had been of God's Council at the Creation, some things should have been better made, and marshalled. The wisest men are benighted in many things; and what light soever they have, it is from the Father of Lights, whose judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out: what a madness were it therefore for any mortal to prescribe to the Almighty, or to define whom, when, by what means, and in what measure he must punish offenders? Herein Jobs friends took too much upon them; and he gives them the telling of it, wishing them to be wise to Sobriety, and not to give Laws to God, who well knoweth what he hath to do, and how to order his earthly kingdom. To disallow of his dealings, is to reach him knowledge; which is greatest sawciness.

Seeing he judgeth those that are high. ] Excelsos in exc • lsis, the Angels, who are so far above us in all manner of excellencies, and yet are ignorant of the wisdom of God's ways, which they know but in part; for how little a portion is heard of him? Job 26.14. His judgments therefore are rather to be adored, than pryed into: Mirarioportet, non rimari, let us rest contented with a learned ignorance.

Verse 23. One dieth in his full strength. ] Iste moritur, There's one dieth in his very perfections; or, in the strength of his perfection, when he is in the Zenith, in the highest degree of earthly felicity: And he seemeth to point at someone eminent wicked person, well known to them all. Confer Eccles. 9.2. God is pleased to do wonderful contradictory things in man's reason: so that we must needs confess an unsearchableness in his ways. In hoc opere, ratio humana talpâ magis caec • est, saith Brenz; In this work of his, human reason is blinder then a Mole: Averroes turned Atheist upon it: and Aristotle was little better, as being accused at Athens and banished into Chaelcis, quod de divinitate male sentiret.

Being wholly at ease and quiet. ] At ease in body and quiet in mind. The common sort ask, What should ail such a man? The Irish, What such an one meaneth to die?

Verse 24. His Breasts are full of milk, and his Bones, &c. ] He is well lined within, as we say, having abundance of good blood, and fresh spirits in his body: fat and plump, and well liking. He is enclosed in his own fat, Psal. 17.10. His back is well larded, and his bones are moistened with marrow; which Plato saith, is not only the source and seminary of generation, but the very seat of life. Now such a state of body as is here described, is no defense at all against death, saith Job: Nay, it is a presage, and a forerunner of it many times. For ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus, say Physicians; the highest degree of health is nearest to sickness: We many times chop into the earth before we are aware; like a man walking in a field covered with Snow, who falleth into a pit suddenly.

Verse 25. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul. ] Heb. And this dieth with a bitter soul; in a sad and sorrowful condition: having suffered many a little death all his life long, (as godly men especially use to do, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, seldom without a cross on their backs) and then dieth not only in the sorrows of death, but in the sorrows of life, which to him hath been a lifeless life, because a joyless life.

And never eateth with pleasure. ] Either because he hath but Prisoners pittance, which will neither keep him alive, nor suffer him to die. Or, if he sit at a full table, yet his body is so ill affected by sickness, or his mind with sorrow, that he finds no good relish in what he eateth. That it is better with any of us, see a mercy and be thankful.

Verse 26, They shall lie down alike in the dust; and worms, &c. ] Death and Afflictions are common to them both, as Eccles. 9. How then do ye pronounce me wicked, because afflicted, and free among the dead, free of that company, &c?

And the worms shall cover them. ] Who haply were once covered with costliest clothing. The best are but worms-meat: why then should we pamper and trick up these Carcasses, &c •

Verse 27. Behold I know your thoughts. ] sc. By your words; as it is no hard matter for a wise man to do, Prov. 20.5. for otherwise, God only knoweth the heart, 1 Pet. 1.24. Psal. 139.3. it is his royalty: But when men discover their thoughts by their discourses, looks, gestures, &c. we may say as Job doth here, I know your thoughts; and that by the wicked wretch described by you, myself is intended: this I am well aware of, though you hover in generals, and speak in a third person. Bartolus writeth of Dr. Gabriel Nel • , • hat by the only motion of the Lips, without any utterance, he understood any man's thoughts: The like some say they can do by looks. The Italians have a proverb, That a man with his words close, and his countenance loose, may travel undiscovered all the world over.

And the devices which you wonderfully imagine against me. ] viz. To take away, as it were by violence, my Credit and Comfort: this is the foulest theft; avoid it.

Verse 28. For ye say, Where is the house of the Prince? ] Ye say, though not in so many words, yet upon the matter, Where is this man's