Commentary on Ezra Nehemiah Ester Job and Psalms

CHAP. XXVIII. Verse 1. Surely there is a vein for the silver.]

FOr there is a vein, &c. so Tremellius readeth it. But here is no reason rendered of God's heavy judgments on the wicked, last discoursed of: but the unsearchableness of God's wisdom, and the righteousness of his proceedings asserted, whilst some bad men prosper, and some good men suffer. The reason whereof lieth hid (as a River that runneth under ground) from the natural man (and in part, from the spiritual also) be he never so perspicacious or industrious in prying into Natures secrets. The silver vein lieth very low, and far out of sight; yet is found out and known: as also is the art of fining it. This art was soon learned in the world: and mortals were quickly become metallaries. Effodiuntur opes, &c. A great part of this their skill they might have from Adam, according to that of the Divine Chronologer, Ex Adami sapientissimi Doctoris ore promanavit, tanquam ex foul, quicquid in mundo est utilium doctrinarum, disciplinarum, scientiae & sapientiae. He that knew so much before his Fall (far more than ever Solomon did) of natures hiddenest Mysteries, who can doubt but that afterwards also he retained and imparted to his Nephews a great deal of abstruse and rich skill? such as was this here instanced, and afterwards by Cicero (amongst others) celebrated in his second Book, De nat. deor. where discoursing of men's witty inventions, he saith among other things, Nos aeris, argenti, auri venas penitus abdit as invenimus, &c. We have found out the veins of Brass Silver, Gold, and other Metals, though deep hid in the bowels of the Earth. Some of the Ancients have wished that we had never found out these Metals, because of the great abuse of them. Josephus saith, that Cain heaped up great store of them. Strabo saith, that Phaletius feared, lest in digging for Gold and Silver, men would dig themselves a new way to Hell; Et Plutonem brevi ad superos adducturos, and bring up the Devil amongst them. Some say that he haunteth the richest Mines, and will not suffer them to be searched. Sure it is, that by the inordinate love of these metals, he drowneth many a foul in perdition and destruction, 1 Tim. 6. So subject they are to sin, as that God made a Law to have them purified before he would have them used by his people, Numb. 31.22, 23, &c. who should herein have the mind of those Persians, Isa. 13.12.17. which regarded not silver, nor were desirous of gold. If Satan offer them these outward things in a temptation, they should answer him as Abraham did the King of Sodom, with a God forbid that I should, &c. Gen. 14.23. and send them away from whence they came; as Pelican sent back the silver Boul sent him by the Bishop for a token, with this answer, Astricti sunt quotquot Tiguricives, &c. All the inhabitants of our City are sworn not to take any Gift from a foreign Prince. Or, as that noble Marquess Caracciolus answered the Jesuit, who tempted him with money to revolt from the reformed Religion, and to return to Italy. Let their money perish with them, who esteem all the gold in the world worth one days society with Jesus Christ, &c. Let it be remembered, that gold is that which the basest element yields, the most savage Indians get, servile apprentices work, Midianitish Camels carry, miserable muck-worms admire, covetous Jews swallow, unthrifty Ruffians spend. Gold makes many men run quick to the Devil on an errand, yea, sell their souls to him, as Pope Sixtus the fifth did, for seven years enjoyment of the Popedom. But thou, O man of God, fly these things, &c. 1 Tim. 6.11. and while others lay fast hold on these base and boot-less businesses, lay thou hold an eternal life, verse. 12. But this obiter only.

And a place for the Gold where they fine it ] Or From whence they fine it; Or, Which they fine. The Spaniards are said to have found in the Mines of America more Gold then earth. It is accounted of Metals the most precious: but it is Opinion that sets the price upon it. The only material of money amongst us, is Gold and Silver; but among the Roman Provinces, it was most times brass, sometimes leather. The like is said to have been used here in England in the time of the Barons wars: And why not? since Anno 1574. the Hollanders then being in their extremities, made money of Paste-board. Who the first man was that made money of Gold, Pliny saith is uncertain. But Herodotus writeth, that the Lydians were the first Coyners of Gold and Silver for that use. And Pliny, that Caamus the Phoenician was the first that found Gold; viz. at the Hill Pangaeus in Thracia; a place that aboundeth with Gold and Silver, as Herodotus testifieth. But so did Havilah (afterwards called Susiana, in East-India) long before Cadmus was born, Gen. 2.11 Near unto this Land of Havilah, Solinus saith, were two Islands called, Chryse and Argyre, that is, the golden and silver Islands, because they were so full of those richest Metals, Ut plerique ease auria sola prodiderint & argentea habere; that many have affirmed the soil thereof to be of gold, and silver. Junius thinketh that Solinus and Pliny called this Land of Havilah, (by mistake of Letters) Babypace, the Inhabitants whereof, saith Solinus (through hatred of gold, for the hurt it doth mankind) buy up and bury very deep in the earth all the gold they can get. Like as Crates the Theban Philosopher, is said to have cast his gold into the sea for like reason (as he pretended when he said, at the same time, Abite malae cupiditates: ego vos mergam, ne ipse mergar à vobis ) but indeed, for a name, as Jerome rightly judgeth: calling him therefore, Gloriae animal, popularis aurae vile mancipium, a vain glorious fool. There is no hurt in having these Metals, so we love them not; so they do not get within us, as Luke 11.41. so we make not our gold our God, nor say to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence, Job 31.24.

Verse 2. Iron is taken out of the earth; ] that is, out of the Irony vein, which is said to be a drossy kind of earth, not sufficiently digested and hardened to make a stone. Of the generation of these inferior Metals, see Pliny and the Chymicks; who yet are not to be hearkened unto, when they tell us; that by their Art they can turn these meaner Metals into gold, since they are here distinguished by their place, matter, form, &c. Neither is gold the end of other Metals (every of which is perfect in its kind;) and besides, the essence of everything is indivisible, and the use diverse. Iron can do that which gold and silver cannot. Historians tell us, that Alexanders old soldiers, armed with Shields of Iron, conquered a great part of the world: But when as growing rich, they made them shields of Silver, and were therehence called Argyraspides, they were basely beaten by those whom they had formerly subdued. The first Inventers of iron and brass, Pliny will have to be the Chalybes or Cyclopes. Diodorus, the Idaei, Dactyli, or Vulcan. Vulcanum, inquit, ferri, aris, argenti, auri, omniumque quae igne fabricantur, artem invenisse, ferunt. And surely if Vulcan were the same with Tubal-Cain (as sundry Commentators will have it) Diodorus was not far from the Truth: for he taught men to work in brass and iron, Gen. 4.22. Iron they had before, and the Art of using it, how else could they have plowed the accursed earth? But this man added to their skil by his invention, he sharply and wittily taught Smiths-craft, and is therefore by the heathens feigned to be the God of Smiths.

And brass is molten out of the stone. ] That is, out of the oar, which is like a stone, and is called Cadmia, (as Junius here noteth) perhaps from Cadmus, whom Pliny maketh the first that invented the use of these Metals, which Aristotle ascribeth to Lydus the Scythian, Theophrastus to Delas the Phrygian. It is probable that these were the first that shown their Country-men the use of these Metals, and so were by them accounted the first Authors of what was elsewhere found out long before. Some render the Text thus, And the stone is melted into brass; that is, by melting is turned into brass. Many are of opinion that there was anciently an Art of melting stones, which is now lost. Brasse is as it were incorporated into stone or harder matter; but forced forth by the heat of fire. Hence the Vulgar Latin thus rendereth this Hemistich, Lapis solutus calore, in as vertitur, The stone dissolved by heat, is turned into brass. So excellently doth Job here set forth the nature of these chief metals, as Mercer would have us to take notice.

Verse 3. He setteth an end to darkness ] i.e. He ( viz. the Miner ) brings light down into the dark entrails of the earth, and fetches out those metals that had long lain hid there, and that else would never have been beheld. Though Nature hath taken pleasure (as One speaketh) to hide all these Metals, yet industry provideth man of certain marks for to discover them, and infallible conjectures to know the time when they must be drawn out of their darkness. Habent Metallici suas virgas metallicas, Metallaries have their Metal-rods, whereby they search into and distinguish of metals and minerals.

And searcheth out all perfections ] scil. That is to be found in those subterraneous Cells, in that bosom and bottom of the earth: the utmost that is there to be had he thoroughly eviscerateth, digging many fathomes under ground, where nothing is to be seen, but a deadly shade; Ex cujus horrore mori quis posset; enough to fright one to death; beside the deadly damps, which suddenly breaking out of the veins of the earth, do sometimes choke the workmen.

The stones of darkness, &c.] That is, the darkest stones that lie lowest of all in the earths bowels, whither one would wonder how any man should ever come; and especially how the Sun and Stars should come by their influences to make those Metals, and the precious Stones, that are engendered and bred in the darksom and deadly vaults of the earth.

Verse 4 The flood breaketh out from the Inhabitant ] Broughton rendereth it, from the spring. Others, Erumpit fluvius juxta accolam; A River breaketh out near to the Inhabitant; that is, to the Miner, who is forced to leave the place, till by buckets, wheels, and other fit devices the pits be cleared, so that they may fall to work again.

Even the waters forgotten of the foot ] Broughton, Unkenned of any foot: Brenz, Quas nemo pedibus vadare possit. Unfordable waters, deep and dangerous. To which purpose also the Tigurines translate the following words; [They are dried up, &c.] thus, Superant etiam hominis staturam, & quì poterant vadari? They are above the height of a man, and how could they be waded through? But better

They are dried up, &c.] Heb. They are drawn up, or diminished.

They are gone away from men ] Mortalis operâ; by such means as men use, and are unweariable. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith a Greek Father, What pains will not men take for gain and emolument?

Verse 5. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; ] That is, Bread-corn: Alma Tellus, plentifully yieldeth those precious fruits of hers, as they are called, James 5.11. These fruits lie hid in the seed for a season; and so doth likewise fire in the flint (whereof some understand the following words) yet are they brought at length into the light.

And under it is turned up, as it were fire ] That is, materials of fire, as coals of &c. or brimstone which hath fire in it, and doth sometimes take fire in the Mines. Or gold, which is to be tried in the furnace, and diverse sparkling stones created of a sulphureous matter, such as is that which Pliny and Isidore call Pyrites Persicus, and tell us, that if it be held hard in a man's hand, it burneth. As also that which Hiarchas in Philostratus calleth Pantarbe, which burneth with a kind of sweet brightness (saith that Author) that dazleth the eyes of the Beholder, and hath a strange attractive virtue. Thus it sometimes falleth out, that the upper part of a ground is fruitful, and brings forth grain and grass, and underneath are precious stones and metals. But commonly where there is gold below, there is the barrennest soil above. God and Nature thereby teaching us, that where the love of money (that root of all evil) groweth, there is no good to be found. A harvest may as well be looked for in an hedge, as true grace in a gold thirsty-heart.

Verse 6. The Stones of it are the place of Sapphires ] Which are excellent Stones, and therefore here joined with Gold; Quod punctis aureis colluceant, because they shine with golden sparklings, Exod. 24.10. The Sanhedrin saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were, a paved work of a Sapphire stone, &c. To show, saith One, that God had now changed their condition, their Bricks made in their Bondage to Sapphire. So Isai. 54.11. God graciously promiseth unto his afflicted Church, that had been tossed with tempests, and not comforted, to lay her stones with fair colors, and her foundation with Sapphires; to make her windows of Agates, and her gates of Carbuncles, and all her border of pleasant stones: To render her all glorious within, by the curious Enamel and Embroidery of holy graces, and to beautify also and bespangle her with outward plenty and prosperity, that she might glitter in the eyes of God and men.

And it hath dust of Gold] Or, Oar of gold; better then that which our Forbisher in his Voyage to discover the Strait, brought back with him, from which, when there could be drawn neither Gold nor Silver, nor any other Metal, we have seen it cast forth to mend the high-ways, saith Mr. Cambden.

Verse 7. There is a path which no fowl knoweth ] That is, say some, those places where this Gold lieth are so barren, as they bring forth nothing else but gold, nothing for fowls to feed upon, no not discernible by the eye of the Vulture, which ex • celleth in seeing afar off, and smelleth out his prey at a very great distance. But men make their ways even here, to dig and find out gold, being herein more perspicacious and sagacious, then the very Vultures. The covetous would do well to consider (saith a good Author) that for the most part those Countries that are furnished with gold, are destitute of better provision, both temporal and spiritual; that it lieth furthest from heaven, and the best of it in India, furthest from the Church; that though Adam had it in the first Paradise, Gen. 2. yet in the second we shall not need it; but God shall be our Gold, and we shall have plenty of that which is better then silver, Job 22.25. That wise men have esteemed it as the stones of the streets, 1 Chron. 1.15. And that the children of wisdom might not possess it in their girdles. Matth. 10.19. That wicked men have the most of it as their portion, Psalm 17.14. and that the devil danceth in rich and pleasant palaces, Isai. 13.21, 22. &c.

And which the Vultures eye hath not seen ] Or, the Kites eye, or the Pies, or the Choughs, which yet is said to be sitiens aur • , desirous of gold, and to hide it when she hath gotten it, though she can make no use of it. Some good Interpreters by this path in the Text, understand the Mines themselves, those under-ground places, as far under ground as the fowls fly above ground; and that are by them and the most prey-seeking beasts unkend and untrod; yet thither goeth the Metallary by his Skil and industry, letting in both light and vital Air, Quem follibus art mirificâ; e sublims deducit, ut respirent artifices, & alantur lucern • : which with wonderful Art he by bellows bringeth from above into those low holes, that the workmen may breath, and the lights may be kept burning.

Verse 8. The Lions Whelps have not trodden it ] Heb. The children of pride (see chap 41.34) that is, saith Vatablus, belluae truces & immanes; fierce and cruel creatures, which yet pass through Mountains and Valleys and vast forests, but come not under ground where these Metals are; that's no part of their walk. Where the Vulgar had his filii institorum here, Sons of the hucksters, Mercer cannot imagine, and his best patrons are hard put to it to defend him.

Not the fierce Lion passed by it ] Heb. The huge Lion. There are seven names of Lions observed in Scripture, whereof here are two in this verse, of like sound the one to the other. The Tigurines render it here, the Leopard; the Vulgar Latin, the Lioness: And his Paraphrast hath the whole verse thus, Those wild beasts, whose savage humor searcheth out the most solitary places, could never yet find them; and the Lionesses, which run everywhere when they have lost their little ones, have never approached them.

Verse 9. He putteth forth his hand upon the Rock ] He, that is, Mortal man, the Miner, ver. 4. (not God, as Mercer would have it) putteth forth his hand: scil. to dig down these rocks, that he may come at that Treasure, and make himself Master of that spoil, that is hidden in their entrails.

Alexander the Great being asked, How he so soon over-ran the Universe? Answered, I never held anything impossible to be achieved. When he had heard of anything dangerous to be done, or unlikely, he would the rather set upon it, and say, Jam periculum par animo Alexandri, This is an Enterprise fit for an Alexander. So of Julius Caesar, (who had in his time taken a thousand Towns, conquered three hundred Nations, taken prisoner a million of men, and slain as many) sings the poet

Difficulty doth but whet on Heroic spirits; it wakeneth, but not any way weakeneth the courageous and industrious. Hannibal made his way through the Alps, by breaking down a huge Rock putrefied with fire, and vinegar poured thereon. Hence Juvenal,

He overturneth the Mountains by the roots ] Or, He turneth it up at the roots of the mountains; scil. which he mineth, by the obstinacy of his labor.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Isidore, the love of money is daring and desperate.

Verse 10. He cutteth out Rivers among the Rocks ] i.e. By cleaving hardest Rocks he draws in store of water to wash the inward parts of the earth, that he may see what Gold lieth hid there: as also, to wash and purge his metals, which require much washing This is the work of his hands. And then for his eye, and as a reward of his labor (for the diligent hand maketh rick, Prov. 10.4. and in all labor there is profit, Prov. 14.23.)

His eye seeth every precious thing ] Heb. Every price; or, All preciousness: Whatsoever is rare. so Tremellius rendereth it. His house is filled with all precious and pleasant riches, Prov. 24.4. Dii • aboribus omnia vendunt, said the Heathens. God sells all good things to men for their pains taking.

Verse 1 • . He bindeth the floods from overflowing ] Heb. From weeping; that is, (by an elegant Metaphor) from distilling and dropping, as those under-ground waters use to do: but the Miner bindeth them; that is, he dammeth them up, and diverteth them, that they may not fall into his pit and mar his work. Thus he removes all lets, and devours all difficulties, and all for a little pelf which perisheth in the use, and will rather hinder from, then help men to heaven. How much more should we labor for the true Treasure, the Pearl of price, the one thing necessary, &c? Si tanti vitreum, quanti veram margaritum? All those outward things are nec vera, nec vestra, as Austin elegantly: They are neither true riches, nor ours, but another's, as our Savior telleth us, Luke 16.12. Aristotle also teacheth us, That wise men may get riches, but not make it their business. Brenz reads this Text, Perplexa fluminum gyrat; He turneth about the crooked Rivers, putting them into a new channel, that he may get the gold and precious Stones that lie in the bottom; for there are some gold-flowing Rivers: such as are Ganges in India, Pactolus in Asia, Tagu • in Spain, the Rhine in Germany, &c.

And 〈◊〉 that is hid he bringeth to light ] Contrary to the Design of Nature, he revealeth her secrets, and discovereth all that she hideth by this raking out of her riches, and making those things that lie couchant in her bowels as common as if they grew above-ground.

Verse 12. But where shall wisdom be found? ] Here is now the other part of the Antithesis, and the second part of the Chapter; which is nothing so hard as the former was. Wisdom is either natural or spiritual, 1 Cor. 2. earthly, or heavenly; Jam. 3 the wisdom here inquired after is supernal and supernatural: such as can neither be found upon the earth, or dig'd out of it: such as cannot be fathomed or found out by human abilities, or by natural reason. But God revealeth it unto his by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, 1 Cor. 2.10. And with this Heifer must all those plow, that will find out his riddles. Luciosi & qui hebeti sunt visu. saith Vives, Those that are weak-sighted and sand-blind, if at any time they look wishly upon anything with desire to see it the better, they see it so much the worse, and nothing so well as they did before. Think the same of the most accute and perspicacious Naturalist: when he comes to look into the things of God, he is not only sand-blind, but stark-blind, 1 Cor. 2.14. he will not see (and therefore who so blind?) he hath an Antipathy to divine truths: he loveth the Law better than the Gospel, and any Truth better than the Law. And as for this high point of heavenly wisdom (called here illa sapientia, with an emphasis ) whereby is understood, that God's judgments are all just, even then when he afflicteth the godly, and prospereth the wicked, he cannot comprehend it, or yield to it; but is ready to turn flat Atheist upon it, as Averrces did: denying the divine Providence, and conceiting that all things were carried on by Fate and Fortune. Jobs enemy-friends herein were no wiser than they should be, when they thus rashly censured him for wicked, because afflicted: and presumptuously took upon them to give a reason of God's proceedings in his various dispensations with as much confidence as if they had been of God's privy counsel, whereas they should have considered, that God's judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out: and that he who herein is scholar to his own reason, is sure to have a Fool to his Master.

And where is the place of understanding? ] As there is no vein to be found of the divine wisdom, so neither any known place (as there is for gold, silver, precious stones) where it ought to be sought, save only of God by Prayer, Jan. 1.5 Man, whatsoever good success he hath in the forementioned searches, he is nothing so happy nor dextrous in that of divine understanding. Epiphanius resembleth him to the Mole, which doth all his work under ground: but if once he be brought above ground, as he is stark-blind, so is he every way a weak and contemptible creature. The best that are, see but in part, and are sometimes at a loss, about the reason of God's most righteous proceedings, which men must mirari, & non rimari, silently adore, and not over-curiously search into: There is a learned ignorance, saith Calvi • , of those things, quae scire nec datur, nec fas est, which it is neither granted us, nor fit for us to know: and in this, the very desire of knowledge is a kind of madness. Let that saying of Xenophanes be remembered; There is no great difference whether a man set his feet or his eyes in another man's house without his leave. Arca • Dei sunt arca Dei, God's secrets are God's Ark; pry not, lest ye come halting home, for so doing.

Verse 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof ] Or, the order thereof, in what manner and method God proceedeth: no, though in other things he knew as much as Homer did, of whom one saith that he, was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a man that knew all human affairs: Or as Aristotle did, whom some have called an Eagle fallen from the clouds: or as Jerome, quem nullum scibile lat • it, who knew all that was knowable: or as Bishop Andrew, whom one calleth (but how truly I inquire not) a gulf of learning. Sure it is, that man (sorry man) knoweth neither the price of divine wisdom, for it is invaluable: nor the place of it, for it is investigable: nor the order of it, for that is unattainable till we come to heaven: there being a wheel within a wheel, Ezek. 1. and Providence shall one day be unriddled.

Neither is it found in the land of the living ] That is, here upon earth, by any human wit or industry: In other texts of Scripture, the time while we live in this world, is called, the day, Joh. 9.4. and the light of the living, Psal. 56.13. in opposition to death, which is called, a land of darkness, as darkness itself, Job 10.22. where they that inhahite are said to be free among the dead, Psal. 88.5 free of that company, see Isaiah 38.11. None but those that live spiritually, and have senses habitually exercised to discern good and evil, Heb. 5. ult. can see anything of the worth of this wisdom, so as to seek after it as silver, and prize it above gold: for ignoti nulla cupido, men covet not what they value not. Now the Cock on the dunghill knows not the price or place of this inestimable jewel, and therefore slights it. Those Epicures especially, qui snaviter vivunt, (as the vulgar here translateth) who live in pleasure upon earth, and are wanton, Jam. 5.5.

Verse 14. The depth saith, It is not in me ] It is not to be had above ground, may some say; but what, under-ground? Not there neither, faith Job: for the Abyss saith, that is, if it could speak it would surely say, It is not in me; and the Sea gives us in the same verdict: dig to the center of the earth, dive to the bottom of the sea, you shall hear no tale or tidings of her: she neither groweth with gold and precious stones in the earth, nor with Pearls and Coral in the sea: we must be taught of God; and the holy Spirit must join himself to our chariot (as Philip did to the Eunuchs, Act. 8.29.) he must teach us this wisdom from above, or we can never learn it, Isa. 54.13. A man may read the figure on the Dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes, unless the Sun shine upon the Dial: We may read over the book of the Creature, and the book of the Scripture, but we cannot learn to purpose, till the Spirit of God shine into our hearts, 2 Cor. 4.6. The Gospel is full of jewels; but they are locked up from sense and reason, 1 Cor. 2.10. The Angels in heaven are searching into these sacred depths, 1 Pet. 1.12. and know not so much, but they would fain know more of this manifold wisdom of God, that hath such an abundance of curious variety in it, (as the word there signifieth) even such as is seen in the best pictures or textures.

Verse 15. It cannot be gotten for gold ] Non emitur, nec aestimatur, it is not purchased or procured with money, as other learning may, ( en precium & praestantiam sapientiae ) with a great sum obtained I this freedom, said that Colonel, Act. 22.28. So may many say of their learning, they have sufficiently paid for it. Cleanthes parted with all he had for learning. Plato gave thirty thousand Florins for three Books. Reuchlin gave the Jew that taught him Hebrew, a Crown for every hours pains. Jerome got his skill in that language with the hazard of his life, and held it a good bargain. But here's no such trading; see Act. 8.18, 19, 20. Fie (quoth that rich and wretched Cardinal, when he saw he must die) will money do nothing? will not death be hired? may not heaven be purchased? No, no, God is no Money-merchant: his Kingdom is not partum, but paratum. Mat. 25.34. his grace is gratuitous, Mat. 13.11. To you it is given (and what more free than gift?) to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. And to you it is given (freely given) on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, &c. Phil. 1.29. That proud merit-monger, that said, Gratis non accipiam; I will not have Grace or Grace or Glory of free-cost, could not but go without both.

Verse 16. It cannot be valued ] Heb. Thrown on the ground, as Wares were wont to be, and are yet, when they are set to sale, and to be prized or valued.

With the gold of Ophir ] The word here rendered gold, is not the same with that in the former, or those in the following verses. Five several times gold is here mentioned (because so highly prized among men) and in four several words. Jerome on Jer. 10. observeth, that the Hebrew have seven several words for gold; and five several sorts are here instanced. That here mentioned, is a special name for the most splendent and glistering gold, Psal 45.10. Dan. 10.5. Cant. 5.11. Of it comes Michtam of David, or David's golden Psalm, Psal. 16.1. his ingot of gold: Broughton thinks it to be no Hebrew word, but the name of gold in Ophir; Obrizium dictum volunt, quasi Ophirizium: Ophir is Peru, say some: Others, an Island in the Indies, where the most precious gold was to be had, called also gold of Parvaim, 2 Chron. 3.6. This is supposed to be in Havilah, Gen. 2.11. It is called perfections of gold, 2. Chron. 4.21.

With the precious Onyx, or the Sapphire ] The Onyx is a stone said to be found in the River Ganges, and to be of a white color, like the white of a man's nail, whence it hath its name. See of it, Plin. lib. 37. cap. 6. Boet. Hist. Gem. lib. 2. cap. 90. The Sapphire is a stone of a sky-coloured blue, or of a light-coloured purple.

Verse 17. The gold, and the crystal cannot equal it ] For Crystal some read Diamond; others, Adamant. It hath its name from its purity and transparency. Junius rendereth it therefore nitidissima gemma. It seems to be, saith One, the last attempt of nature, and makes us find heaven on earth.

And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels (or vessels) or fine gold ] Of Phez-gold, so Broughton renders it; and would have it come from Fesse in Barbary. The Arabians now call gold Phes. Of this solid fast gold were made many precious Jewels or Vessels, like that French coin in the Historian, in qua plus f • rmae quam ponderis, in which was not so much weight as workmanship; Prov. 25.11. Apples of Gold, in Lattices of Silver; or put in a Case of Silver cutwork.

Verse 18. No mention shall be made of Coral ] No talk of Coral or Carbuncle, of Pearl, or any other the rarest and richest Jewels in all the world. We read of Cleopatra, that vying with Antony in luxury, she drunk up a Pearl of incredible price dissolved in vinegar; and of Charles Duke of Burgundy, that in the Fight at Nansey, he lost a Diamond of that worth, ut eo tota aliqua regio emi posset, that therewith a man might have bought a whole country. It was afterwards set in the Popes triple-Crown; but no way worthy to be mentioned in the same day with wisdom.

For the price of Wisdom is above Rubies ] Which are so called from their lovely redness; see Lam. 4.7. Pearls some render it: of which Pliny saith, Principium culmenque rerum omnium pretii margaritae tenent; Pearls are the principal of all precious things. They were so of old; but they are not so now-adays. What huge sums were once given for Saints Relics (as they called them) and Popes-Pardons? but now the world is grown wiser. England is no more a babe: there is no man here, but now he knows that they do foolishly, that give gold for lead, more weight of that, then they receive of this. This and much more to the same purpose, speaketh Henry 8. (in his protestation against the Pope) who yet, as a faint Chapman, went not to the price of this true wisdom; as appeareth by that public speech of his in Parliament, There are many that are too busy with their new Sumpsimus, and others that dote too much upon their old Mumpsimus, the new Religion, though true, he envied: the old, though his own, he despised, being as a speckled bird, or a cake half baked &c.

Verse 19 The Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it ] Of the Topaz, see Plin. lib. 36. cap 8. It seemeth to have the luster of Gold, and purity of Crystal, and those agreeable mixtures of colors, which make the purple of Kings. The operations of this Stone are many and rare, as Rueus sets them forth.

Neither shall it be valued with pure gold ] Plato saith as much of moral wisdom, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , No Gold or Gem so glistereth. And elsewhere he saith, that if moral virtue could be beheld with mortal eyes, mirificos sui amores excitaret, it would wonderfully enamour men. Aurelius the Emperor would say, That he would not leave the knowledge he might learn in one hour, for all the gold that he possessed. Alphonsus King of Aragon professed, That he would rather choose to lose his Jewels then his Books, his Kingdoms (whereof he had many,) quam literas, quas permodicas scire dicebat, then that little Learning he had attained unto. Many have been so taken with the study of the Mathematics, that they could have lived and died in it. Vae igitur stupari nostro, Woe then to the world because of wisdom: This incomparable Wisdom of God in a mystery, as the Apostle calleth it.

Money is most men's study, not without an horrible neglect of piety, which yet is the principal thing, Prov. 3. and profitable to all things, 1 Tim. 4.8. as that which hath the promise of both lives, ibid. Now the Promises are exceeding great and precious things, 2 Pet. 1.4. even the unsearchable riches of Christ, Ephes. 3.8. Such gold as cannot be too deer bought, Matth. 13.44.46. nor too far fet, no, though so far as the Queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and could have been content to have changed her throne for his footstool. Sure it is, she was no niggard, but parted with abundance of precious things and sweet odors for that wisdom which she held (and worthily) far more sweet and precious then all her annual entradoes. Sure it is, that if the mountains were Pearl, the huge Rocks Rubies, and the whole Globe a shining Chrysolite, yet all this were nothing to the worth of the wisdom here commended. How greatly bound then are God's people to bless his Name for communicating unto us this invaluable treasure by his Word and Spirit, 1 Cor. 2. Hath he not written for us excellent things in counsels and knowledge, Prov. 22.20? hath he not made his Son, that essential wisdom of his, to become unto us, Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption, 1 Cor. 1.30? Should some earthly Prince give us a rich Ring off his finger wherein there were a Chrysolite, a Sapphire, a Topaz, or some other precious Stone, how highly would we honor him, and what would we not be ready to do or suffer for him? And shall we not much more do so for God, rich in mercy plenteous in goodness, abundant in kindness and in truth, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy? O pray for that blessed sight, Ephes. 1.18. and 3.18. and reckon one grain of grace more worth then all the gold of Ophir; one remnant of faith beyond all the gorgeous and gay attire in the world.

Verse 20. Whence then cometh wisdom, &c?] See the Note on verse 12. q. d. No where surely is she to be found but with God the fountain of wisdom, verse. 23. To seek her elsewhere is but laborious loss of time; witness the Philosophers anxious, but bootless disquisitions after the Summum Bonum, the true blessedness of chief good; about which there were eight several opinions, and yet all out.

Verse 21. Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living ] As hath been before set forth verse 13. They that see most into it, see but in part, and must needs say, that the greatest part of their knowledge, is the least part of their ignorance. Something they know of his revealed will, but nothing at all of his secret. Whereunto we may add, that there are many occult qualities in nature, the reason whereof the wisest men undertand not.

And kept close from the fowls of the Air ] Which yet fly very high, and seem to touch the clouds of heaven; as the Eagle which delighteth in high-flying. Some will have the Angels (elsewhere set forth as winged creatures) to be here meant: who although they stand always in God's presence, and see much of his Majesty, yet not at all, nothing near, Isai. 6. they cover their faces with their wings, as with a double scarf, (as not not able to behold his glory) and make their addresses unto him with greatest self-abasements.

Verse 22. Destruction and death say, &c ] That is, the dead in the grave, and damned in hell, as some gloss it. Others, man in his corrupt estate, though a child of death yet capable of salvation; and the wisdom of God hath found out a way to save him by his Son, letting in life by the car, according to that, Hear and your souls shall live. The dead (in sins and trespasses) shall hear the voice of the Son of God (in the preaching of the Word) and shall live, the life of grace here, and of glory hereafter, John 5.25. These have heard of God's wisdom in his various dealings with the sons of men, and that with their ears: both with the gristles that grow on their heads, and with the inward ears of their minds, so that one sound hath pierced both; but yet the one half hath not been told them, they can truly say, as the Queen of Sh • ba said to Solomon, Thou hast added Wisdom and goodness to the fame, 1 Kings 10.7. And as David in the person of Christ, Psal. 16.11. Thou wilt show me the path of life: whereby is hinted, that Christ himself as man did not so fully understand in the days of his flesh, the inconceivable joys of heaven, as he did afterwards, when his whole person was glorified with the glory which (as God) he had with the Father before the world was, John 17.5.

Verse 23 God understandeth the way thereof ] The only wise God, who alone knows her price, knows her retreat. Haec sunt inferni & mortis verba, saith Brenz; These are the words of hell and of death. But we may better take them, as spoken by Job himself; which yet are to be understood, not as if Job thought that there was any place, out of God, where his wisdom might be sought; or any way, out of himself to go to it. But these things are spoken after the manner of men, saith Merlin: for wisdom is in God, yea God is wisdom itself. For the wisdom of God is nothing else, but the most wise God: since whatsoever is in God, is God. Therefore seeing he is well known to himself, how can his wisdom be but as well known unto him? His infinite knowledge and understanding is in some sort shadowed out unto us in the words following.

Verse 24. For he looketh to the ends of the earth ] He is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all eye: so that together and at once he beholdeth all things in the whole course of Nature, and under the whole cope of heaven. His eyes behold, his eye-lids try the children of men, Psal. 11.4. Where the former pointeth out God's knowledge, the latter his judgment, his critical descant, saith One. And surely this All-seeing eye of God, saith another Interpreter) should keep us within the compass of obedience, as much as anything; since he who is our Judge, is a constant eye-witness of our cogitatious, communication and whole conversation. Cave, spectat Cato: Take heed. Cato seeth you, was an old watch-word among the Romans, and a retentive from vice. How much more should this be among Christians? Ne pecces, Deus ipse videt; Be advised, God beholdeth you. Think not that he who is invisible cannot see, or that because he is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity; therefore he cannot see so far as earth; for he looketh to the ends and extremities of the earth, his eyes run to and fro, they are in every place beholding the evil and the good, Pro. 15.3. The world is to him as a sea of glass, Rev. 4.6. He seeth through it, and every man before him is all window: he seeth the very entrails of the soul, the heart of the heart, All things are naked and open before him, saith the Apostle, Heb. 4.13. Naked for the outside, and open for the inside of them: the word signifieth, dissected, quartered, and as it were, cleft through the back-bone: He searcheth the Raines, those seats of Lust and most abstruse parts of the body, so wrapped up in fat and flesh, as if no eye should come at them.

And seeth under the whole heaven ] His providence like a well drawn picture, looketh every way, and extendeth to every the least and lightest occurrence; governing all things wisely and powerfully, and ordering the disorders of the world to his own glory. Epicures and Atheists would shut him up in heaven, as hath been before noted, as if he did neither know nor do anything here below; but they will find it otherwise.

Verse 25 To make the weights for the wind. ] He ordereth wind and water, rain and thunder, Pondere, mensura, numero facit omnia, — therefore wisdom is with him. The winds he weigheth in a balance, then when they seem to blow where they list, piercing through the air with their violent blasts, God sets them their bounds, and appoints them their proportion: He sends them out as his Postes, and makes them pace orderly.

And he weigheth the waters by measure ] Both the rain, (not a drop falls in vain in a wrong place, or at random, but by a divine Decree, as a witness of his Wisdom and Goodness, Acts 17.14) and the sea and Rivers: neither do the winds blow, nor the waters flow without the Lord, who is the great Moderator, that measureth the waters in the hollow of his hand, &c. Isai. 40.12.

Verse 26. When he made a Decree for the rain ] And hence it is, that it raineth upon one City, and not upon another, Am. 4.7. See the Note there. The rise of rain out of vapors drawn up from the earth by the heat of the Sun, and the generation of it in the clouds, is no less wonderful, then the use of it is necessary for the refreshing and fattening of the earth; allaying the heat, and nourishing the herb and tree, &c. These showers may seem to arise, and be carried up and down at random, and without a Law; but Job assureth us, that God maketh a decree, a Statute, or a bound for them, and that he gives, or with holds rain at his pleasure.

And a way for the lightning of the thunder ] Or, for the lightning and the thunder: In both which there is much of God to be seen and heard; these being the Harbingers, as it were, and Officers to make room for him, and to manifest his power, which the greatest must acknowledge, Psal. 29 1, 2. and the Saints must take comfort in verse 11. As for those impious wretches, that slight these wonderful works of Almighty God, & speak basely of them (as he of whom Mr. Perkins somewhere writeth, that hearing it thunder, said it was nothing but Tom Tumbrel a hooping his tubs, & was thereupon killed with a thunder-bolt: and those old Italians that used in time of thunder, to ring their greatest bells, and shoot off their greatest Ordnance, &c. on purpose to drown the noise of the heavens:) As they are worse then Pharaoh and Caligula, and other heathens, who styled their chief god, Altitonans, the high-Thunderer: so they shall one day see the Lord Christ suddenly coming upon them as lightning, and dreadfully thundering out that dismal Discedite, Go ye cursed.

Verse 27 Then did he see it, and declare it, &c. ] Or, Then doth he see it, and number it, &c. scil. When he ordereth winds, waters, and other creatures, he hath wisdom ready & in numerat • , as we say; as well known, and as familiar as men have those things they daily deal in. Illa vero verborum congeries, faith an Expositor, This heap of words, God saw it, numbered it, prepared it, searched it out, serveth but to show how intimate wisdom is with God, and how proper to him. And lest any should say, Hath God then communicated no heavenly wisdom to his creature? Yes, saith Job, but such as is thus circumscribed;

Verse 28 But unto man he said &c. ] q.d. Let him not curiously pry into God's secrets, nor rashly censure others (as you have done me) but out of a reverential fear of God, eschew evil and do good, for this shall be his wisdom, Deut. 4.6. and the contrary, Jer. 8.9. See like exts, Deut. 29.29. Eccles. 12.13. Psal. 111.10. Prov. 1.7. and 9.10. with the Notes.

CHAP. XXIX. Verse 1. Moreover Job continued his Parable.]

OR, his sentence, as Tremellius rendereth it, his sententious and elegant oration, his aur • um flumen orationis, golden flood of grave discourse, as we may better call it, then Tully did Aristotle's •• l •• cks. Here Job describeth graphically his former felicity as in the next Chapter his present misery. The promise of Prosperity to God's people is to be understood with exception of the cross, wherewith, if need be, (1 Pet. 1.6.) they are sure to be exercised (and they shall take it for a favor too, Heb. 12.6.) by the armor of righteousness on the right hand, and on the left; By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, &c. 2 Cor. 6.7, 8. they must learn to be abased, and to abound, to be full and to be hungry, &c. Phil. 4.12. though this be an hard lesson, Perquam durum est? sed it a lex scri • ta est, saith the Civilian: Hard or not hard, we must frame to it, and hope for better. The Epicures held, that a man might be cheerful amidst the most exquisite torments: 1. In consideration of his honesty and integrity: this indeed was Job great comfort, as we see chap. 31. And, 2. In consideration of those pleasures and delights that formerly he had enjoyed, and now cheered up himself with the remembrance of. But how slight and slender a comfort this was, Job setteth forth in this Chapter. And who knoweth not that as it is a sweet thing in prosperity to relate what hazards and hardship we have passed through: so in adversity it is grievous to call to mind what better days we have had? And yet it is but reason, that we should eat the crust and crumb together; receive, I mean, evil at the hand of God as well as good, Job 2.10. See the Note on chap. 27.1.

Verse 2. Oh that I were as in months pust] O mihi praeteritos, &c. Though Job desireth not so much to be young again, (which to be, Chiron and Cato are said seriously to have refused) as to prosper again; for this is that we all covet: but we shrink in the shoulder, when called to carry the cross. To show his earnest desire, he redoubleth his wish, as in the days, &c. and God answered him to the full, by redoubling upon him his former prosperity; not for days and months, but for divers years together: and by giving him again all things richly to enjoy: So liberal is the Lord to his, that he many times giveth them more then heart can wish.

When God preserved me ] That he acknowledged God to be the author of his earthly felicity, was well done: but not so well to think that God preserved him not, because he prospered him not: see the like verse 5. God oft wraps himself up in a cloud, and will not be seen till afterwards; but his hand is ever upon all them for good, that seek him, Ezek. 8.22. he knoweth their souls in adversity, Psal 31.7.

Verse 3. When his candle shined upon my head ] When I was apparently blessed by him, and all went hail well with me. The Sun smote me not by day, nor the Moon by night, Psal. 121.6. but both seemed to be made, and to make for me. Nay, more; the sweet sunshine of God's loving countenance was displayed upon me, which is not like the winter-sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little comfort and heat. Job had both counsel and comfort from God; and that when other men were to seek of both: for,

By his light I walked through darkness ] Without the least fear of those evils and miseries, that put others into very great distemper. So Noah was— Mediis tranquillus in undis. Abraham stands upon the Hill, and seeth the Cities of the Plain burning. David can walk (not step,) through (not cross,) the valley (not a dark entry.) of the shadow of death (the darkest side of death,) and not fear (though he should go back again the same way.) And why? for thou art with me, saith he, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, Psal. 23.4.

Verse. 4. As I was in the days of my youth ] Hybernorum meorum, so Junius; As I was in the days of my winter-quarters, when I lay and did little more then gather up mine assignations. Others render it, As I was in the days of mine Autumue: that is, when, being a great man, I refreshed the poor, as Autumn doth the passenger and others with its fruits. But they do best that render it days of my youth, which hath the same name in Hebrew with winter, and with reproach; because (say some) young people are prone to reproachful practices, and that age is commonly frozen in vice, no virtue then springing or showing itself. So Eccles. 11.10. the word used to signify youth, signifieth darkness or blackness: to note that youth is the dark age, many times sooted with sin: and therefore young men should cleanse their ways by cleaving to the word, Psal. 119.9.

When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle] i.e. When God did so friendly and familiarly intermeddle with mine affairs: making them to prosper. When his most wise conduct did govern my house, and did provide for it; stopping those secret leaks, and that hole in the bottom of the Bag, by which other men's Estates do usually run out: and supplying me and mine, tanquam virgulâ divinâ, with all things necessary for life and godliness. The Greek hath it, when God gave my house a visit. And some taking the secret of God here, for his law and covenant, say, that Job was good betime: and when but a young house-keeper, had a Church in his house, and much resort thither of godly people.

Verse 5. When the Almighty was yet with me ] To prosper me, and give me all that heart could wish, or need require. But if that be not done, God's people are apt to think him absent. Is the Lord amongst us? say they in the wilderness: as if that could not be, and they athirst. So Gideon in the invasion of the Midianites; The Lord. saith the Angel, is with thee, thou valiant man. But Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? If it be so, why am I thus? as she said, Gen. 25.22. Si amatur, quomodo infirmatur? If Lazarus be Christ's friend. why is he sick? But these two may very well stand together: and God is never nearer to his Children then when they for crying cannot see him. Moses speaks of the goodwil of him that dwelt in the bush, the burning bush, Deut. 33. but not consumed. God is with his in the fiery trial, Isa. 43.2. as he was with the three Children, and with the Martyrs.

When my children were about me ] Round about my table, Psalm 128.3. Morigerous and obsequious unto me: When my children and servants (for the word signifieth both) were about me; as Circles about a Point or Center, all looking at, and observing me, to do as I directed them.

Verse 6 When I washed my steps with butter ] When I had of everything God's plenty, as they can it. Butter enough to have washed my feet in, had I been so proud and profuse. And Oil great store, insomuch as that Rivers thereof seemed to flow for me from those Rocks and craggy Mountains in Arabia Petraea, where some say Job dwelt. Lavater upon the Text, tells us of Rocks that yield Oil, and of Petrolium or Petrelaeum, a Sovereign Ointment (very good against diverse Diseases) that issueth out of Rocks, whence also it hath its name (not unlike that berry which the French call, Uva de Spine, the Grape of a thorn:) But this whole verse seemeth to be an Hyperbole, (not unlike that of Zophar, chap. 20.17. and that of Moses, Deut. 32.13. Confer Gen. 49.11. and Psal. 80.16.) importing the very great abundance of all outward comforts and contentments, that Job once enjoyed. He had the reward of humility, and the fear of the Lord, even Riches, and Honor, and Life, Prov. 22.4. Riches he had quantas optare nullus auderet, (as Austin saith of Constantine the Great) more then heart could wish. What Honor he had with his Wealth, (and that is to be chosen before Riches, Proverbs 22.1.) he setteth forth at large in the following verses. And what long life he promised himself, not without the continuance of both the former, see verse 18, 19, 20, with chap. 42.12, 16, 17.

Verse 7 When I went out to the gate] i.e. To the place of Judicature, called by Solomon, the holy place, Eccles. 8.11. Because God sitteth in the midst of thoss God's, Psal. 82.1. The Ethiopian Judges were wont to keep the chief Seat empty for him. It appeareth by this Text, that Job was a Judge or chief Magistrate, not like those whom Isaiah calleth Scabs or Wounds; but those whom the same Prophet calleth Healers, or Binders up of Wounds; and Hosea, Shields, as Junius translateth, Hos. 4.8. and another Prophet, Heirs or Possessours of restraint, Judge. 18.7. It appeareth also that he did Justice in his own person: so did David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat Augustus, Caesar, more vigorously then any young man, and more prudent then any old man, as the Historian saith of him: Which whilst Aurelian the Emperor neglected to do, he was even bought and sold by his Deputies.

When I prepared my Seat in the street ] i.e. My Judgment-seat, where he sat Sub dio, non attollens inane supercilium, sed exhibens utile ministerium: Not priding himself, but profiting others, whilst Justice, Justice, as Moses speaketh, that is pure Justice, was duly administered. Over this Tribunal might well have been set that Distich at Zant.

Verse 8. The young men saw me, and hid themselves ] As awed with my presence, and fearing the censure of my gravity. Valer. Maximus reporteth the like of Marcus Cato among the Romans; as being Vr irigidae innocentiae, saith Livy; Et virtuti quam similimus, as Velleius hath it; that is, a most strict and very virtuous Magistrate. Hence at their Floratia, those wanton sports, the youth could not play their pranks till he departed; they all crying unto him, Aut vulium deponas, aut discedas, either lay down your grave looks, or leave the place.

And the aged arose and stood up ] Performing that respect to me which was due to them, Lev. 19.32, and saluting me as the Athenians did their Phocion, by the Title of Bonus; Or as the Romans did their Trajan, by the style of Optimus, the best Ruler that ever they had: and all both young and old crying out, as once they did at Rome to Severus the Emperor, All men do the better in all respects for thy good Government. These Acclamations and public honors, though Job sought not, yet it could not but be a comfort to him, as it was to David, that whatsoever he did pleased the people.

Verse 9 The Princes refrained talking ] Not only as acknowledging his Authority, but as admiring his great Eloquence, and hanging upon his lips, as the babe doth upon the breast, the Be upon the flower, or the little bird upon her Dams bill.

And laid their hand on their mouth ] Kissing their hands and adoring me ( adorare est applicare manuns ad os) Or rather, as stopping their mouths, being ashamed to speak in his presence, whom they knew to be far beyond them in wisdom and elocution. Now of this honor done Job by all sorts of people, Brenz hath this Note, Parùm est ingentes camelos possidere, &c. It is a small matter, that Job had many Camels and Flocks of sheep: this was a greater blessing of God upon him, that he was honored and observed by all sorts. This followeth virtue (as the shadow doth the body) at the heels. To do worthily in Ephratah, is the way to be famous in Bethlehem, Ruth 4.11.

Verse 10. The Nobles held their peace ] The Hebrew word for Nobles, signifieth such as stand in the presence of great Princes; or, such as the people eyeth and referreth all things to them. These (after the example of those forementioned Princes, verse 9 ) Held their peace ] Heb. Hid their voice, as ashamed to hear themselves speak before such a Master of speech, as Job was; of whom it might well be said, as once of Dr. Whitaker, That never any man saw him without reverence, nor heard him without wonder.

And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth ] Ex metu loquendi, as being afraid before me, though themselves were Antecessores vocis (as some render the former words) eloquent men and able Speakers. Demosthenes that great Orator, being to speak before King Philip, three several times stood speechless, and thirty several times forgot what he had prepared to speak unto him. An awful respect to Jobs dignity and worth, caused this extreme silence in these Grandees. And besides, it may be they were of Plinyes mind, who said, Non minus interdum Oratoris est tacere quam dicere. There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, Eccles. 3.7.

Verse 11. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me. ] That is, it praised me, and praised God for me, as for a common blessing: so weighty were my words, and so just my sentence, not unlike that of the Areopagites in Athens, which was so upright, that none could ever say, That he was unjustly condemned by them; but both parties, as well those that were cast, as they that cast them, were alike contented.

And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me ] Job (though he neither sought it, nor was puffed up with it) had that Pulchrum monstrari, & dicier Hic est. The like happiness befell Demosthenes at Athens, and Pliny at Rome.

Verse 12. Because I delivered the poor that cried ] Here are set forth the true causes of that great respect that was generally given Job: he was a good Justicer, such as Jethro describeth, Exod. 18.21. He hated, much more then did Mithridates, such as maliciously persecuted Virtue forsaken of fortune. And as James 5 of Scotland was called, The poor man's King, so might Job well have been: for no sooner could a poor body cry to him for help, but he relieved him, and rescued him out of the hands of his oppressor. Theodorick of old, and Gustavus King of Swedes of late, are famous for so doing.

And the fatherless, and him that had none, &c. ] The fatherless, and friendless, from whom he could not expect any reward. He was not of those who follow the administration of Justice as a trade only, with an unquenchable and unconscionable desire of gain, but held out a constant course of integrity, and righted those whom others would have slighted.

Verse 13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me ] Such poor creatures as were destined to destruction, and seasonably delivered by my means, gave me their good words and wishes; yea, they cried me up for their gracious Deliverer, with a Courage, as the Grecians did Flaminius the Roman General, as the Christian Captives did Hunniades, who had set them at liberty from Turkish slavery: as the drowning man pulled out of the water by King Alphonsus, cried, Aragon, Aragon: and as the Italian prisoners in 88, released and sent home by Queen Elizabeth, Sainted her, and said, That although they were Papists, yet they would worship no Saint but her.

And I caused the widows heart to sing for joy ] scil. By ready righting her upon her Adversary; and this out of conscience of duty, and not for her importunity, as that unjust Judge, Luke 18.5. or because she conjured him to it, as that widow did Adrian the Emperor, to whom, when he had answered, That he was not at leisure to hear her Cause, she boldly replied, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Then lay down the Empire. Whereupon he turned again, and did her right, and sent her away a joyful woman.

Verse 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me ] It was not ambition, popularity or self-interest, that put Job upon these and the following good practices and proceedings, but the care he had of discharging his trust, and the pure love he bare to Justice and upright dealing. For although he desired more to be loved then honored (as it is said of Trajan the Emperor,) yet he would not do anything of popularity or partiality, by writhing or warping, but retained the gravity of the Law; which is a heart without affection, an eye without Lust, a mind without passion, a Treasurer which keepeth for every man what he hath, and distributeth to every man what he ought to have. Job did put on righteousness, and it put on him; so the Hebrew hath it. By which similitude he declareth, that he could as little be drawn from doing Justice, as he could go abroad without his clothes, or suffer them to be pulled off him.

My judgment was as a robe and a Diadem ] Righteousness is that whereby the innocent is delivered, Judgment is that whereby the guilty person is punished, saith Brenz. With these was Job arrayed and adorned, far better then was Alcist henes the Sybarite with his cloak, sold by Dionysius to the Carthaginians for an hundred and twenty talents; or Hanun with his massy Diadem, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones, 2 Sam. 12.30. Some Judges have nothing more to commend them then their Robes, which are oft lined with rapine and robbery: So were not Jobs: He made the like use of them that old Eleazar did of his hoarinesse, he would not do anything that might seem to be evil, because he would not spot his white head: No more would Job, lest he should stain his purple, disgrace his Diadem. He knew that dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto, Ruledom without righteousness is but eminent dishonor.

Verse 15 I was eyes to the blind ] Here he saith the same in effect as before, verse. 12, 13. only he setteth it forth Pulcherrimis allegoriis per synathroismum velut conglobatis, by a heap of most elegant allegories. He meaneth here, I gave advice to the simple, and support to the weak and impotent. But how many great men are there, qui etiam videntes, circumveniunt & fallunt, who put out the eyes of men, as Korah falsely accused Moses, Numb. 16.14. And cut off their legs (as that Tyrant in the Story served his Guests that were too long for his bed) by disabling or discouraging them to follow their just causes, so that they are ready to say with Themistecles, that if two ways were shown him, whereof the one led to hell, and the other to those corrupt courses of Justice, he would seriously choose the former rather then the latter.

Verse 16. I was a father to the poor ] Ab lacbionim, an elegant agnomination, as Mercer here noteth. Job was not only a friend to the poor as aforesaid, but a father providing for their necessitites, and protecting them from injuries. So Augustus. Caesar delighted to be called, Pater Patriae, the Father of his Country. And our Queen Elizabeth would many times say that she could believe nothing of her people, that parents would not believe of their children.

And the cause which I knew not I sought out ] Sifting it to the bran, and not pronouncing sentence till I had fully understood each circumstance of the controversy. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge a righteous judgment, John 7.24. Thucydides well saith, That there are two things most opposite to right proceedings, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Haste and Anger; A Justicer must do nothing rashly, but with greatest deliberation and industry, to come to a right understanding of matters, in capital causes especially, lest he repent it too late: as that Sir James Pawlet did, who out of humor and for revenge, laid by the heels Thomas Wolsey, then a Country Minister (afterwards a Cardinal, and Lord Chancellor of England, ) for the which he suffered long imprisonment. And as that Judge mentioned by Fortescue, who having condemned a Gentlewoman to death for the murder of her husband, upon the bare accusation of her man, which afterwards was found false, saepius ipse mihi falsus est. He afterwards confessed unto me, saith the Author, that he should never during his life be able to clear his conscience of that Fact. We know what pains Solomon took in the case of the two harlots that strove before him. And we have read of a Judge, who to find out a Murder, caused those that were accused to open their bosoms, and felt the beating of their hearts. And when he found one of their hearts to beat extraordinarily, Tu, inquit, fecisti; Thou art the Murderer certainly, said he. The man presently confessed the fact, and was executed for it.

Verse 17. And I brake the jaws of the wicked ] It is a mercy to have Judges, saith One, Modo audeant quaesentiunt, as the Orator hath it: so they dare do as their consciences tell them they should do. Job was such a Judge, he feared not to encounter and keep under those unruly Beasts and Belialists, who oppressed the poor, and then doubted not to oppose with crest and breast whatsoever stood in the way of their humors and lusts, Hîc forti magnoque animo opus fuit, saith One: Here Jobs courage was put to the proof, if ever. Is it nothing to break the Jaw-bones of the wicked, to take the prey out of the Lions mouth, and to rescue the oppressed from the man that is too mighty for him? Is it nothing to encounter the Hydra of sin, to oppose the current of times and torrent of vice, to turn the wheel over the wicked, and to leave them as powerless as old Entellus in Virgil did Dares; whom his fellows led away well beaten, and well nigh broken,

And plucked the spoil out of his teeth.] i.e. I made him make restitution of his ill gotten goods, whether by fraud or force. So that Jobs Court, we see, was not vitiorum sentina, sed virtutum Officina; his course was, Parcere subjectis, & debellare superbos, to fuccour the afflicted, and to punish the proud. Augustus the Emperor was wont to say, That such an one only was fit to be a Magistrate, that was free from foul offense himself, and could withstand the corruptions of the times, keep a constant countermotion to the evil manners of the multitude: as Cato was ever inveying against covetousness and riot in the Roman State. Here also we have in Job the lively picture of a good Magistrate, much better then that of Caesar Borgia, that Villain, whom Machiavel proposeth as the only pattern for Princes to imitate.

Verse 18. Then I said, I shall die in my nest ] Heb. I shall expire and breath out my last, by a natural death in my house, and amidst my people; as a bird dieth in his nest when he hath lived his utmost. Pollicebar mihi securitatem; I promised myself a prosperous and long life, all health and happiness. This some make to be a fault in Job, as it was likewise in David, when in his prosperity he said, I shall never be moved. Psal. 30.6. And indeed the holiest hearts are apt in such a strait to grow proud and secure: like as worms and wasps eat the sweetest apples and fruits. But others are of judgment, That this was a commendable confidence in Job. grounded upon God's Promises, and the conscience of his own uprightness; an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a spiritual security, a blessed calm and composedness, a Sabbath of Spirit, flowing from faith, and causing joy. This was all well, only that of Bernard must be carefully heeded and held to, Laeti simus non securi, gaudentes in Spiritu sancto, sed tamen caventes à recidivo. Be merry we may, but not carnally secure; rejoicing in the Holy Ghost, but yet beware that we backslide not. David by misreckoning of a point missed the Haven, and ran upon the Rocks, Psal. 30. And Job here seemeth to have been mistaken, by taking the promises of outward happiness without exception of the cross; for the which he is afterwards reproved by Elihu, and also by God himself.

And Shall multiply my days as the sand] i.e. Very long, by a Scripture hyperbole, Gen. 22.17. and 32.12. and 41.49. The Septuagint read, As the Phoenix: The Vulgar Latin, as the Palm-tree, which is reckoned among the long lived trees, as is likewise the Phoenix among the longest lived creatures. R. Solomon saith he liveth a thousand years, others five hundred, and then dieth in his nest, made of Frankinsence and Myrrh, and other sweet Odours, which being kindled by the heat of the Sun, he is burnt to ashes, they say: out of which ashes, a long time after, cometh another Phoenix. How true all this of the Phoenix is, I have not to say. Let them that will, read more in Gesners History of Birds: or let them look upon Lactantius his Poem called the Phoenix, with Betuleius his Comment.

Verse 19. My root was spread out by the waters ] Heb. Opened to the waters; which therefore had free recourse to it, and much refreshed it. Hereby he describeth his flourishing condition when time was, through the perpetual inflowings of God's free Grace and favor.

And the dew lay all night upon my branch ] Pernectabat; because in the night the dew falleth. Beza thus Paraphraseth this whole verse: For, downward the root of my good and upright conscience was spread out by the everflowing waters of God's bountifulness, with which it was daily watered: and upward, the boughs growing out of this root, to wit, my children, my servants, my flocks of sheep, and in a word, my substance, were washed with the coelestial dew which from heaven fell down upon them: so that by this blessing of God they were marvelously increased.

Verse 20. My glory was fresh in me] i.e. I had daily new accessions to mine honors: and I was herein like a Bay-tree that is always green. This was also Josephs happiness in Egypt; David in the Court of Saul; Mordecai's and Daniel's in the Court of Persia; and Queen Elizabeth's; concerning whom (besides that famous Epitaph set upon her Tomb by command of King James ) Thuanus a French Historian testifieth, that the Lady Anna Atestina (Mother to the Guises and Nemours) pronounced her to be Glorio •• ssimam & omnium quae unquam sceptrum gestarunt felicissimam 〈◊〉 , The most glorious and happiest Woman that ever swayed Scepter. Among her Subjects the got a continual increase of honor and respects, by coupling mildness with Majesty, and stooping yet in a stately manner, to the meanest sort: but especially by setting up God and his sincere Service, wherever she had to do, trusting God with her precious life, (so much sought for by Popish Assassinates; ) which whiles her Contemporary Henry 4. of France durst not do, he loft his life, and much of his honor: witness that known Anagram, Borbonius, once Bonus orbi, now Orous boni.

And my bow was renewed in my hand ] That is, I had fresh and new supplies of strength, by friends and otherwise outwardly and inwardly, according to that above, Chap. 17.9. The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. See Gen. 49.24. 1 Sam. 2.4.

Verse 21. Unto me men gave ear, and waited ] i.e. Such a gift I had in flexanimous Oratory, that my Auditors were held as it were by the ears in great attention to my speeches: as Lucian saith of Alcibiades, and Cicero of Crassus: and as the Poets fable of their Hercules, that he had the ears of his hearers chained to his tongue, as being,

And kept silence at my counsel ] Received it as an Oracle from Heaven with all humble submission. and plenary satisfaction: so great was the force of his wisdom, the weight of his counsel, and the authority of his person. In some men's discourses a man shall have sat • el quentiae, sapientiae parùm, much eloquence little enough wisdom. But where there is a concurrence of these two, as was in Job, much may be done. This, great men are not ignorant of, and do therefore greatly covet eloquence, Non phaleraram illam sed fortem; non effoeminatam sed vi • ilem, non a Pedantike style or phrase, but majestic: such as was that of Phocion a great Orator, but one that could speak much in few, as Plutarch reporteth: or that of Julius Caesar, who wrote as he fought; and whom a man might know to be a Soldier by his words, had he never heard of his noble achievements.

Verse 22. After my words they spake not again ] They replied not, but rested in my words, as if I had been some Doctor Resolutus, or rather Irrifragubilis. The vulgar rendereth it, Verbis meis addere nihil audebant; they durst not add anything to my words as holding them currant and sufficient.

And my speech dropped upon them] Viz. As dew-drops, Deut. 32.2. or as some Prophesy, saith R. Levi here. Confer, Mic 2.6. Am. 6.17. Surely as the dew refresheth and cherisheth the dry and fady fields; so do fit words the hearts of the hearers. And as the dew allayeth great heats, and moisteneth the earth, that it may fructify; so it is here. Ille regit dictis animos, & pectora 〈◊〉 . And lastly, as the dew lies in a little compass; so in fewness of words there is oft a fullness of matter, &c.

Verse 23. And they waited for me as for the rain ] Which in those hot Countries was highly prized, and dearly longed for.

And they opened their mouth wide] Stupebant, me loquente, & ere blabant; They gaped, as if they would have eaten my words: they listened as for life.

As for the latter rain ] A rain which came very seldom in that Country, saith Diodate; but was much desired for the refreshing and nourishing of the corn and other fruits and benefits of the earth, Prov. 26.1. Zach. 10.1. Merlin collecteth from this text, that Job came not into the public Assemblies there to speak, and g • ve counsel, but upon deliberate premeditation. Demosthenes would not be drawn to speak extempore to an Audience. Aristides being by the Emperor put upon such a task, answered, Propound today, and I will answer tomorrow: for I am not of those that spet or vomit out my conceptions; but of those that weigh things before I utter them, and polish before I publish them. Mr. Bradshaw was called the Weighing Divine: and Melancthon took time to Answer Eckius his cavils; though by him, and his Popish-party, he was jeered for so doing. It must be an elaborate speech that shall persuade or prevail much. Among the Roman, the Prince was not to be treated with, otherwise than by writing. Caesar brought in this custom, that he might have time to consider of that which was demanded, and what Answer to return. Augustus sermons libello habuit; ne plus minusve lequeretur; Augustus had his speeches set down in a book, lest he should say more or less than that he thought of.

Verse 24. If I laughed on them, they believed it not ] They took it for a great favor, and could hardly think that I would grace them so far as to smile upon them, or jest with them: which if I did at any time, they were over-joyed. Ingeni fractus tennissimus est risus, saith Tully. To break a jest is no such witty thing, as men conceit it. Howbeit, an harmless jest (that hath nothing in it which may justly grieve or offend another) may very well consist with Piety and Christian gravity, whatever some sour Anabaptists have held to the contrary. Jocularity indeed and scurrility are flatly forbidden; and reckoned among those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , things that conduce not to the main end of our lives, Ephes. 5 4. But Socrates would be very merry when he liked his company; yet so as that his mirth should be some way profitable, saith Xenophon. And Erasmus did the Papists more prejudice by his jesting, saith a grave Author, than Luther did by his stomaching and storming. Good men's jests should have something in them of seriousness and usefulness. All their speeches should be seasoned with fault of grace: and in the midst of their recreations they should show, that their best affections are upon better things. Great care must be taken, that too much familiarity with those below us, breed not contempt; which some think is meant by the next clause, And the light of my countenance they cast not down; Or, Tet the light, &c. that is, they did not slight me because of this familiar carriage; they did not therefore count me ridiculous and vain: as men did that Rodulphus the 35. Archbishop of Canterbury that succeeded Anselm; whom for his jesting and merry toys, unbeseeming the gravity of his age and place, they surnamed, or rather nick-named, Nugax, the Trister: Sed authoritatem m • am non spernehant, nihilominùs me reverebantur; They despised not mine authority; they reverenced me no whit the less: but rather they took care that nothing might be done whereby of merry I might be made sad: they cherished this sign of complacency in me as a rare thing, and so much the more accepted, as less expected and unusual: neither would they be so bold and so bob with me, as to return me jest for jest, as if I had been their compeer, and hail fellow well met. One Paraphrast senseth the whole verse thus; If I by my smiles gave any intimation of any report or business, it was presently distrusted and dissented from of all the rest. And on the other hand; my least countenance or show of approbation to any cause was observed of others, as a rule to go by. He goes on to give the meaning of the next words thus:

Verse 25. I chose out their way, and sat chief ] In those days I was the only man in all matters, chosen by consent of all to be the Prolocutour, and advanced to the first place in all Assemblies and places of Judicature &c. Tremellius, and others, read it thus, If I chose their way. (that i • , If of mine own accord, I came unto them at any time) I sat chief, and was Chair-man: in a word, I dwelt as a King amidst his Troopers, when he comforteth them being cast down; that is, when after some defeat or disappointment, he cheereth up their spirits by his speeches, and cries, Courage my hearts:

The Tigurines render the former part of the verse thus, Accommodam me illorum moribus cum judicio, I fitted myself to their fashions, yet with discretion. R. Solomon and others thus, They asked me, What way shall we go? What course take? And I chose out their way, and set them down a course; as a Counselor doth to his Clients, a King to his Soldiers, or a Casuist those that resort to him for comfort.

And dwelt as a King in the army ] Where he is continually surrounded by his soldiers, and highly honored. The Bees, in their Common-wealth, have a King, whose Palace they frame as fair in show, as strong in substance: if they find him fall, they stablish him again in his Throne with all duty, with all devotion: they guard him continually for fear he should miscarry, for love he should not. Job had so tempered and mixed gravity and lenity, he had so furbished the sword of Justice with the Oil of Mercy, that he was at once both feared as a King, and loved as a Comforter.

As one that comforteth the mourners ] That mourn for the loss of some dear thing or person, as the word signifieth: and especially, for the loss of God's favor, as Zach. 12.10. groaning under the sense of sin, and fear of wrath. Now to comfort such mourners in Zion, is as difficult a work as to raise the dead, saith Luther; and scarce one of a thousand can skill of it, Job 33.23. Every Christian should have feeding lips. and an healing tongue, to comfort the feeble-minded, to drink to them in a cup of Nepenth • s, that cup of consolation, Jer: 16.7. taking them down into Christ's Wine-cellar, Cant. 2.4. and there stay them with Flagons, and comfort them with Apples, verse 5. those Apples of the garden of Eden, (as the Chaldee there hath it) the sweet and precious Promises, which are pabulum fidei, the food of Faith, and do give the joy of faith; even that peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that have been in a low and lost condition. But this, few can do to purpose; because they are either unskillful in the word of truth, or inexperienced; they dig not their discourses out of their own breasts, they utter them more from their brains, than from their bowels, from their own experience I mean; which made even Christ himself a more compassionate high-Priest, Heb. 5. And that eminent servant of his, St. Paul, had by this means got an excellent faculty in comforting the disconsolate, 2 Cor. 1.4. So had Luther, as having himself from his tender years been much beaten and exercised with spiritual conflicts. Conceive we may the like of Job, who was therefore flocked unto from far and near, as known to be able to time a word, and to speak to the hearts of drooping and dejected persons. But now, &c.

CHAP. XXX. Verse 1 But now they that are younger than I, have me in derision]

ID quod ei morbo suo longe gravius fuerit, sicut & Hebraei testantur, saith Mercer. This troubled him much more than all his sores and sicknesses; that every young shackrag slighted him, and laughed him to scorn. In this case especially,

You shall find some, saith Erasmus, that if death be threatened, can despise it: but to be despised or belied, they cannot brook; but least of all by base persons: Qui • zbet ab aquila quam corvo discerpi mavnl • . Job was now grown ancient, and had been honorable, as he had set forth chap. 29. Old-age and Honor, in the Greek tongue, are near a kin: and, But it is a sign of gasping devotion, and that things are far out of order, when the Child behaveth himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable, Esa. 3.5. as at Bethel, where those ill-bred Children derided the old Prophet, and petulantly cried after him. Go up thou baldhead, go up thou baldhead, 2 King. 2.23. If the like unworthy usuage befall us, let it suffice us that our betters, Job. David. Christ himself have sped no better. Art not thou glad to fare as Phocion? said he to a meaner man, that was to die with him.

Whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my stock] i.e. To have made my dog-keepers, that they might feed with them as the prodigal son did with the swine. Dogs are commonly looked upon as paltery carrion Creatures: only some, for their minds sake, and others for certain necessary uses, as shepherds, and hunters, make some reckoning of them: It was not permitted to a dog to 〈◊〉 into the Acropolis, or tower of Athens, for his libidinousness and ill-favor. At Rome they crucified a dog yearly, in detestation of those dogs in the Capitol that gave not warning of the approach of an Enemy. Job, it seems, had his dog-feeders; men of meanest account. Now these men's sons, a beggarly breed, and very rascals, insulted and trampled opon this precious man, dealt as basely and coarsely with him, haply, as those fictious fellows in Geneva did with reverend Calvin; whom they not only in contempt called Cain (as Athanasius was sometimes by his enemies called Sathanasius: and Cyprian, Cyprian; that is, a dunghill-fellow) but also named their Dogs Calvin, as Beza in his life reporteth.

Verse 2. Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me? ] For, to say the truth, (thus Beza here paraphraseth) the strength of those young striplings could not have stood me in any stead at all: and as for the old-age of their fathers, it were such, that having spent the greatest and best part of their life partly in idleness, and partly in divers wicked & lewd pranks, they might worthily seem to have lived in vain, all that while: Thus he. The Greeks say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and the Latins Juniores ad labores, young men are fit for hard labor, because strong and lusty. But these Sanniones in the text were, through idleness, meat nullities in the world, superfluities in the earth, Jeremiah's rotten girdle, good for nothing but to devour victuals: vermin, apes, monkeys, their whole life was to eat and drink (when they could come by it) and sleep, and sport, and flear, and jear at God's afflicted, with words as full of scorn as profane wit or rancor'd malice can make them. These are excrements in human society Pests, the scripture styleth them, Psal. 1.1.

In whom old age was perished ] Their fathers also were old dottrels, in ipsa senectute senectute carentes, old, but not wise; like the Brabanti, who are said to be the elder the foolisher. Some men live long, but are good for little. Non ill din vixit, sed din fuit, saith Seneca of somebody; He hath not lived long, but only been long: as a ship in a storm, he hath been tossed much, but sailed nothing. Those old men who have not gotten wisdom by long experience, are not worthy of their years, their old age is perished, and their honor forfeited: The vulgar rendereth it, They were reckoned unworthy of life itself: Depontani.

Verse 3. For want and famine, they were solitary ] Miserably poor they were, and nittily needy: scarce having a rag to their backs, and therefore ashamed to show themselves in company of others, propter penuriam, & propter esuriem, they lurked in by-corners, and seldom came abroad, unless it were when hard hunger drove the Wolf out of the wood. Slow-bellies they had ever been, and evil beasts, fitter therefore to live in the Wilderness, in former time desolate and waste, than in a civil society: or if in any place, at Poneropolis, a City built by Philip King of Macedony, for varlets and vagrants, and with such kind of persons peopled; that they might not pester other places. Job would have none such about him: and was therefore, haply, now in his low condition, so much hated and affronted by them.

In former time desolate and waste ] And so perhaps haunted by the Devil, as Isa. 13.20, 21. Brenz rendereth it, Hesternam pressuram & consternationem, yesterdayes pressures, and fright; that is, saith he, The Creditors eagerness to be satisfied, which frighteth these caytiffs, and putteth them to their shifts.

Verse 4. Who cut up Mallows by the bushes ] Pitiful poor fare they are glad of: not so good as that of the Baptist, Locusts and wild Honey. Mat. 3. but Mallows, which, together with Asphodelus, Hesiod mentioneth as poor folks fare. Tremellius rendereth it, Herbas e salsilagine cum stirpibus, salt, and bitter herbs and stalks a Brenz rendereth it, Nettles: Some take it for Samphire, which is a kind of Sea-mallows or Sea-purslain. The Hebrew word comes from another, that signifieth salt; and sounds like the Latin Malva, and the English Mallows. Course and homely Provision the wretches were glad to make use of, to appease the cruel hunger that devoured them. And this hath been sometimes the case of better men; as of those Worthies, who wandered in deserts, and in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, Heb. 11.38. The Duke of Lorraine had proscribed some thousands of his Protestant subjects, who were thereby forced to seed upon leaves of trees and grass of the fields, till the Senate of Strasbrough, overcome by the importunity of their Divines, took them in, and relieved them, till they could be otherwise provided for. In the late Wars of Germany, people were found dead in the high-ways with grass in their mouths, perishing for want of better food.

And Juniper roots for their meat ] These, though they surpass all other in bitterness, were their ordinary food. Our forefathers, as they coloured their bodies with Woad, (and were therefore called Picts) this was their fine clothes: so their food was barks of trees, and roots, say our Chroniclers. Is not the matter well amended with us? and should we not serve the Lord with joyfulness in the abundance of all things, Deut. 28.47. Lavater thinks, That these poor people for a living digged up Juniper-roots, and sold them to others for the use of perfuming.

Verse 5. They were driven forth from amongst men ] E corpore, saith Tremellius, out of the Body; that is, out of the Community, as not fit to live in a Common-wealth. The Jews are, for their inexpiable guilt, banished out of the world, as it were by a common consent of Nations. Out of England they were exiled forever by King Edward the First, anno 1290. Out of France, 1307. Out of Spain, 1492. Portugal, 1597. Naples and Sicily, 1539. In Turkey they pay for the very heads they wear: but in Cyprus if a Jew be taken (though driven thither by tempest) he is put to death immediately. Country they have none, nor Restingplace anywhere. In Jerusalem there are not to be found, at this time, as hundred houshoulds of them: Indeed in Constantinople and Thessalonica, there are esteemed to be about 160000. Jews; who yet are exceedingly contemned and hated there: and at every Easter in danger of being stoned by the Christians, because at that time, they crucified our Savior, derided, and buffeted him. All this, and more they suffer; and yet they continue, by a just judgment of God, upon them, woefully hard-hearted, blood-thirsty, thievish, treacherous, flagitious. Howbeit there is a remnant according to the Election of Grace, Rom. 11.5. Anno Dom. 1536. at Weissensten in Germany, a Jew for theft (they had cried after him with Hue and cry, as after a thief ) was in this cruel manner to be executed: He was hanged by the feet with his head downward, betwixt two dogs, which constantly snatched and bit at him. The strangeness of the torment moved Jacob Andreas (a grave Divine) to go to behold it: Coming thither, he found the poor wretch, as he hung, repeating verses out of the Hebrew psalms, wherein he cried out to God for mercy. Andreas hereupon took occasion to counsel him to trust in Jesus Christ, the true Savior of mankind. The Jew embracing the Christian Faith, requested but this one thing, That he might be taken down, and be baptized, though presently after he were hanged again, (but by the neck, as Christian malefactors suffered) which was accordingly granted him.

They cried after them, as after a thief ] Presuming that, by doing nothing, they had learned to do naughtily: and that having nothing of their own, and not willing to work, they lived by rapin and robbery. Such therefore as these they served as Philip of Macedony did a couple of his idle (and therefore evil) subjects; he made the one of them run out of the Country, and the other drive him. Solon made a law at Athens, that every man once a year should show the Magistrates by what Art or Trade he maintained his Family. This if he could not do to their good liking, he was presently expelled the City. At Corinth also, Periander ordained, That if any man spent freely, and could not make it appear that he got it honestly, he should without further process of law, be trussed up for a thief.

Verse 6. To dwell in the clifts of the valleys ] Like wild beasts and Serpents: which these idle persons will rather choose to do, and suffer any hardship, then labor for their livings, and do good in their places; earning it before they eat, and contributing something to the weal-public, as Bees bring their honey to the common hive: This, those that will not do, are worthily cast-out, and made to dwell in the clifts, &c. In the time of Cato Censorius. when any one would be a Citizen of Rome, they took his hand betwixt theirs; and if it felt smooth and soft, they presently as an idle vagabond, gave him his Mi • timus: but if hard and knotty, they forth with admitted him to dwell in their City. And if a malefactor were apprehended whose hands were laboring hands, his punishment should be mitigated, though his Crime were grievous: as if otherwise, a severe punishment was inflicted for a light offense.

Verse 7. Among the bushes they brayed ] Through grief and discontent at their low condition and many miseries; which yet they would rather bootlesly bewail, than take a right course to remedy. They lust and have not, they kill (themselves through idleness,) and desire to have (if it would come without labor) but cannot obtain, Jam. 4.2. And hence they bray like the wild-Ass when empty, and roar as the Lion when hunger-bit.

Under the Nettles were gathered together ] Or they were pricked, whealed, (as we call it) Urti • a ab urendo, they were nettle-stung, whilst they got under those weeds for shelter and warmth. All this Job relateth of those that derided him: not to be even with them, or out of a desire to disparage them, but to aggravate the indignity of his misusage, and to comfort himself, as Seneca in like case did; Male de me loquuntur, sed mate; They speak evil of me: But who are they? base persons, and wicked above measure: and, oh how easy a thing it is to wag a wicked tongue! especially when the devil hath the doing of it, as he hath in this kind of men, qui revera as aperiunt, & atabolum loqui sinunt; whose mouth the Devil borroweth to vent the language of hell by.

Verse 8. They were children of fools, yea, children of base men ] Homines flagitiosissimi, etiam homines ignominiosissimi afflictissimi erant, extorres, so Tremellius translateth; Naught all over they were, and naught esteemed: what wonder therefore if heavily afflicted, and relegated? Their poverty was self-procured, and therefore unpitied; they had brought themselves into the briars, and also in their fathers iniquities they were pining away with them, Levite. 26.39. Evil eggs they were of evil birds, • ihili homuncimes & ingloris, as the Tigurines translate, fellows of no fashion, and as little account, terrae filii, earth-sprung Mushromes, men in whom all true wisdom was faded and decayed, sapless persons Nabal's, Nebulones.

They were viler then the earth ] Terrâ quam ferimus, terrâ etiam quam terimus: Or, they were smitten out of the earth, driven out of the land, sc. by me when I was in power: but now these vile varlets show themselves again, and trample upon me with the feet of pride and petulancy: Leoni mortuo vel mus insultat.

Verse 9. And now I am their song ] They compose Comedies out of my Tragedies, and make themselves merry in my misery; they not only make Balads and Sonnets of my sufferings, but also play them upon their Instruments, as the Hebrew word importeth.

Yea, I am their by-word ] Sermons argumentum, the matter of their Discourse; I am all their talk, neither have they anything else whereof to chat and babble, but only of me, yea to make my disgraces to pass into a Proverb, they call all miserable men by my name. The Ale-stakes served David in like sort; the Drunkards upon their Ale-bench tossed his name as Dogs do carrion, making him their ballad and their by-word, Psal. 69.12. The whole Church complaineth of the like contempt, Psal. 79.4. Lam. 3.14, 63. Ezek. 33.32. Thus when the invincible Armada, as they called it, was coming for England, Don Bernardino Mendoza, the Spanish Ambassador in France, solaced himself with a vain and false Poem or Song of England's miseries: which as a triumph before the victory, he absurdly printed. The Gunpowder-Traitors also did the like in their sevenfold Psalmodie, as they called it; that devilish ditty, which secretly the Papists passed from hand to hand with Tunes set to be sung or plaid. The matter consisted of railing upon King Edward 6, Q. Elizabeth, K. James, and others; of Petition, Imprecation, Prophesy, and praise.

Verse 10. They abhor me, they flee far from me ] As if I were a Leper or a Bugbear, or that my breath were infectious; like that maid spoken of by Avicen, who feeding upon poison, was herself healthy, yet infected others with her venomous breath. Job was wont to be honored; now he is as much abhorred. People were used to hang upon his lips for learned counsel, but they stand aloof off, and keep at a distance. They looked upon that face of his as the face of an Angel, which now with utmost despite and detestation, they spit upon and spare not. At vertutes evertere non possunt, as Demetrius Phalereus said, when the Athenians threw down the many Statues they had once erected in honor of him, But they cannot throw down my virtues and valiant acts, whereby I deserved those Statues. Job was not without his cordial in this sad and sudden change of his condition. For first, the Bird in his own bosom sang sweetly still, as birds in the Spring tune most melodiously, when it rains most sadly. And secondly, What if these miscreants prate against Job with malicious words, as Diotrephes did against Demetrius, 3 John 10. Yet it is enough for Job or Demetrius that they have a good report of all men; that is, of all good men, who indeed are the only men (as a good name only is a name, Eccles 7.1. and a good wife only a wife, Prov. 18.22.) to be reckoned on; and of the truth itself, that's more, ver. 12.

And spare not to spit in my face ] In signum videlicet maximi contemptus & indignationes; In token of greatest contempt and indignation, as Numb. 12.14. Isai. 50.6. Deut. 25.9. The face is the table of beauty or comeliness: and when it is spit upon, it is made the seat of shame. Their words were, likely, such as the English Barons here said of the Popes that excommunicated them, Fye on such rascal ribaulds &c. Our Lord Christ also was spit upon in like manner, that he might cleanse our faces from the filth of sin, and make them shine with his beams, 1 Job. 3.2.

Verse 11. Because he hath loosed my cord ] i.e. God hath taken away mine Authority, whereby I heretofore kept them in order, and made them more obsequious, so that now like head-strong horses, having gotten the bit between their teeth, they run whithersoever they list; and rise up against their Rider. It is God who casteth contempt upon Princes, as he did upon Solomon in his old age, upon his son Rehoboam, upon Ephraim, Hos. 13.1. (see the Note there) upon out Edward 2, and Henry 6. Some render it, He hath loosed my Bow string, in reference to chap. 29.20. So that I cannot now shoot at those that slight me. Job was disarmed and disabled to do as he desired, as Philip King of France, was in the battle between him and Edw. 3. King of England, at the instant whereof there fell such a piercing shower of rain, as dissolved the strings of his Archers, and made their Bowe unuseful.

And afflicted me ] When a tree is felled, each man pulleth off a branch, saith the Great Proverb. When a dog is worried, every Curr will fall on him, and have a fling at him. When a Deer is wounded, the whole Herd will set against him, and thrust him out of their company: So when God hath afflicted Job, every base beggarly fellow sat heavy upon his skirts. This was an addition to his affliction.

They have also let loose the Bridle upon me ] Those. Insolents; having pulled their heads out of the halter, lay the rains in the neck, and run riot; yea, they run at tilt against me, as it were, beyond all reason and measure, without fear, shame or manners. For, Upon me, some read, Before me; q.d. Now they dare do anything even in my presence, who formerly stood in awe of me.

Verse 12. Upon the right hand rise the youth ] Brought on readeth, The Springals. The Hebrew hath it, The blossom, or the young birds the youngsters, the boys scoffed and abused Job. The lawless rout, riding without rains, took a licentious boldness to despise and despite him, because he was ever most severe against their unruly practices.

They push away my feet ] They trip up my heels, as we phrase it, and lay me along. Vide admirandam humanae sortis varietatem, faith Brenz here: i.e. See the strange turns of human condition. Job was wont to have the chief Seats in the Temple, and Salutations in the Market-place; now he cannot have a room my where to stand in, but every paltry boy is pushing him down. May it not be said of Job, as it was of that Emperor, that he was fortunae pila & lusus? But he saw God in all.

And they raise up against me the way of their destruction ] Allegoria • astr • nsi, Job borroweth this expression from the Camp, as he doth many more from other things, whensoever he speaketh of his great afflictions, and the contempt that was cast upon him. Upon me they tread the paths of their unhappiness, so Beza; that is, they make a path in which they may practice that their malapert boldness in doing mischief. They beat their paths by running up and down therein, to undo me, so Vatablus: They cast upon me the causes of their wa • ; so Broughton.

Verse 13. They mar my path ] That is, all my studies and endeavors; they obstruct all passages whereby I might hope for help, as if they were resolved upon my ruin.

They set forward my calamity ] See Zach. 1.15. see the Note there. Or they count it profitable to them to vex me: So great is there malice against me. And though it do them no good yet if they may do me hurt, they have enough.

They have no helper ] Neither need they any to animate them, or egg them on to mischief, who of themselves are over forward, though but small and young, as Vajezatha, Haman's youngest son was. See the Note on Esth. 9.9.

Verse 14. They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters ] Quasi irruptione latâ in vedunt me. As Soldiers when they have made a breach in a wall, come tumbling in upon the Town, and sack and ransack it, yea, raze it, and harrasse it; so have these dealt with me.

They rolled themselves upon me ] Labouring wholly to suppress me, Gen. 43.28. Taking occasion by this my downfall, which they ought rather to have lamented and pitied▪ they unmercifully fell upon me, as if themselves had lived out of the reach of God's rod.

Verse 15. Terrors are turned upon me ] I am horribly afraid of thy judgments as David expresseth it; and this was it that pointed and put a sting into all other sufferings, for a wounded conscience who can bear? If the shoulder be galled, the burden will be very tedious and irksome. Be not thou a terror unto me, Lord, saith J ••• and then I care not much what else soever befalleth me. But why were these terrors so troublesome?

They pursue my soul as the wind ] Brenz rendereth 〈…〉 my liberality or, They take away from me all the cheerfulness 〈…〉 of my mind; whereby heretofore I suffered so many calamities, and shrank not; for the joy of the Lord was my strength, and there • nothing 〈◊〉 amiss to me. Thou hath strengthened 〈◊〉 with strength in my soul, Ps;all. 38.3 and uphold me with thy noble spirit, Psal. 5 • .12. The Chaldee hath it, Kingly Spirit, and it is the same word in the Original that is here rendered, My soul: It is, my Princess, or, my Nobility, for so the soul is the more noble part. David calleth it his Glory, Psal. 16.9. and his Darling, Psal. 22.21. Some of the Jew-Doctors make it the same with welfare, in the words following: but that's not likely.

And my welfare passeth away as a cloud ] i.e. Totally, as before; irresistibly like the wind: Job aboundeth with similitudes, which do notably illustrate. He would say, I am utterly deprived of all means of avoiding this misery.

Verse 16. And now my soul is poured out upon me ] Now that I am under these inward terrors, I am become strengthlesse, even weak as water, my soul doth melt away for grief, as Psal. 42.4. and I am as an hollow tree, wherein there is not any heart of Oak: I am utterly dispirited.

The dares of affliction have taken hold upon me ] And so hard hold, that I despair of ever getting loose whiles alive.

Verse 17. My bones are pierced in me in the night season ] Sleep is the Nurse of Natura and the sweet parenthesis of men's griefs and cares. But Job had so many aches and ailements in his body, (over and above the terrors and troubles of his mind) that rest he could take none at all in the night season, when all creatures are wont to be at quiet. For why? the very marrow of his bones raged through intolerable pain: as if it had been run through with a Tuck. Nay ni •• e,

And my sinews (or, My Pulses ) take no rest. ] Heb. Sleep not; My sinews or arteries are racked with the Cramp; and my pulses, by the force of a Feaver, beat excessively, and pant without intermission: Qui tamen minui deberent, qui • cal •• retrabitur in partem interiorem; which yet should move more slowly by night, because then the heat is drawn into the internal parts.

Verse 18. By the great force of my Disease is my garment changed ] soil. sudore, cru • te, sanit, sanguine; By the matter that my Disease forceth outward in Boils and Botches, is my garment (which once was decoru & Magistratus insigne. the Ensign of my Authority) utterly stained and spoiled, loathsome to myself, and noisesome to others. Everyone (say some Chymicks ) hath his own Balsom within him: his own bane it is sure he hath. Physicians hold, that in every two years there is such store of ill humors and excrements engendered in the body, that a vessel of one hundred ounces will scarce contain them. Now if these, by God's appointment (for he is the great Centurion, Matth. 8.9. who hath all diseases at his beck and check) break outward, what an ulcerous Leper and Lazar must that man needs be? This was Jobs case, and Munsters, (who called his sores, Gemmas, & preciosa Dei ornamenta, God's Gems and Jewels, where with he decketh those whom he loveth) and King Philip's of Spain who, besides many other diseases, had ingentem puris ex ulceribus reaundantiam, qua binas indies scutellas diuits paedore impleret; Abundance of filthy matter issuing out of his sores, insomuch as that no change of clothes, or Art of Physicians could keep him from being devoured by Lice and Vermin thereby engendered.

It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat ] It is become so stiff and starky, that it wrings me and hurts me, as an uneasy collar girds and gripes a man's neck: As the edge of my coat in gards me, so Broughton readeth it. Beza rendereth this latter part of the verse thus He (God) comp • sseth me about as the collar of my coat. Piscato • the whole, thus: By the greatness of his (God's) strength, (which he putteth forth in scourging me with diseases) my garment changeth itself, (putteth on, as it were, another 〈◊〉 of scab • and scurf,) As the mouth of my coat he (God) girdeth me; 〈…〉 , he pincheth my body with diseases. But the former ••• ding is better.

Verse 19. He 〈◊〉 cast me into the mire ] My Disease hath so Vatablus senseth it. Others, God hath as it were trampled me to dirt, thrown me into the kernel, and so done me the greatest disgrade that can be.

And I am become like dust and ashes ] Like a dust-heap behind the door, cad • vei •••• 〈…〉 saith Merca • : Being covered all even (saith Beza ) with the 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 that full from my 〈◊〉 ; I am become more unlike unto the unprofitable dust and ashes, then unto a living man. Dust and ashes are not more like, one another, then their names are in the Original: sic 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , cinis, See Gen. 3.19. and 18.17.

Verse 20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me ] This was a sore trial, that God should cast him into straits, and there leave him. His enemies indeed he usually dealeth so by, Ezek. 22.20. and 29.5. but not by his servants, Heb. 13.5. Or if he do leave them, yet he will not forsake them. The mother leaves her child sometimes, but when he setteth up his note and crieth lustily, she hasteneth to help him. So doth God: But now Job cried unto him, and was not heard or answered, to his thinking at least, and that was a great cut to him, as Psalm 22.2.

I stand up ] scil. To make supplication to my Judge, as Haman stood up to make request for his life, Esth. 7.7. as the Publican stood and prayed, Luke. 18.13. and as Moses and Samuel are supposed to stand before God in prayer for their people, Jerem. 15.1. Hence that Proverb amongst the Jews, Absque stationibus, non staret mundus. Did not the Saints stand in prayer, the world could not stand.

And thou regardest me not ] This was but a Mistake in Job, for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. Only God answereth our prayer, non secundum voluntatem, tamen ad utilitatem: Not always or as soon as we would, but doth that which is better for us, and takes it ill to be misconstrued, as he was by Job, witness the next words, bloody words indeed, and not far from Blasphemy.

Verse 21 Thou art become cruel to me ] Mutatus es mihi in tyrannum. thou art turned Tyrant towards me, so Brenz rendereth it: and the like he had said before, chap. 16.13. and 19.8, 9, 10. out of the vehemency of his pain, and he sense of his flesh, which should have been silenced, and faith exalted; the property whereof, is to pick one contrary out of another (as life out of death, assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses, Deut. 32.36.) and to persuade the heart that God concealeth his love, out of increasement of love, and in very faithfulness afflicteth his darlings, that he may be true to their souls, Psal. 1.19.75.

With thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me ] Heb. Thou batest me, Satanically hatest me; Intestinum odium exerces adversum me; and accordingly thou dost practice all thy might upon me. Thus Job in his heat, and that he may not seem to rage without reason, he subjoineth

Verse 22. Thou liftest me up to the wind ] Thou whifflest and wherriest me about as chaff, or thistle-down. Pro libidine tractas me, thou usest me at thy pleasure.

Thou causest me to ride upon it ] Upon the wings of the wind, lifting me up aloft that I may fall with the greater poise, as the Eagle is said to do the Tortoise; Ut lapsu graviore ruam. —

Thou dissolvest my substance ] Or, Thou meltest my wisdom: I have neither flesh nor reason remaining. The issue that he expecteth of all these his forementioned miseries, followeth,

Verse 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to death ] Such hard thoughts had Job of God, and such heavy thoughts of himself. Nam experior, mors avocat me. so Tremellius: For I feel it, death calleth me away. Sic ludis mecum, ut facile conjiciam mihi moriendum esse saith Brenz: Thou so dalliest with me. that I plainly perceive I must shortly die, there's no avoiding of it. Thus good Job was pressed out of measure; above strength, insomuch as be despaired even of life, and had the sentence (or denunciation) of death in himself, &c. But God was better to him then his fears, and delivered him from so great a death: this is usual.

And to the house appointed for all living ] That is, the grave, Psal 49.14. and 89.48. that Congregation house of all living, (as heaven is called, the Congregation house of the first born, Heb. 12.23.) the public or common meeting place, as Isai. 14.13. the house of constitution or assignation to all living (as the Hebrew here hath it) that is, to all men, who are by an excellency called, every creature, Mark 16.15 as being the best living creatures upon earth.

Verse 24 Howbeit he will out stretch not his hand to the grave ] He will not dig up the dead (as the Papists dealt by Bucer and others) to afflict them anymore. Quid facere poterunt? Occident? Nunquid, resuscitabunt ut iterum occidant! What can they do? (said Luther concerning his enemies who threatened him) Will they kill me? but what then? Will they raise me up to life again, that they may kill me again? No: Charles the Fifth Emperor, when he might have done that, and was moved to do it, would not. Mors requies aerumnarum. Dead men are at rest, was Chaucers Motto. There, (in the grave) the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest, chap. 3.17. Thus Job speaketh, going no further then the afflictions of the body, as being for his own part fearless of eternal punishment. But as for the wicked, when they die out of bodily misery, it is but as the man's flying from a Lion, and a more savage Bear meeteth him: or going from it into the house (this house mentioned in verse 23.) and that more venomous Serpent, (the Devil, who hath the power of death, Heb. 2.14.) there biteth him, Amos 5.19.

Though they cry in his destruction ] i.e. Whiles God is crushing or killing of them. Or, Is there any cry in his destruction? It was never yet known that dead men made moan; what ever the Popish Legenders tell us of one that cried out, I am dead, I am judged, I am damned; which gave occasion to Bruno to found the Carthusian Order.

Verse 25. Did I not weep for him that was in trouble? ] Rursum, per pathos, excandescit. Here Job wondereth, and is much moved again at his unpitied condition, since himself was so pitiful to the afflicted. He could safely say with Cyprian, Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, moeroris & funeris pendera luctuosa participo, cum plangentibus plango, cum destentibus desteo. He had tears ready for the afflicted, and wept with those that weep: not for a Complement, as the Brazilians, who

Nor out of melch-heartedness, as Gordian the Emperor, who would weep for the beating of a boy at School. But out of hearty compassion and commiseration, as good Nehemiah, chap. 2.2. and those Christian Hebrews, chap. 10.33, 34. Now for as much as the merciful have the promises of mercy made unto them, Matth. 5.7. James. 2.13. And all men say, Ab alio expectes, alteri quod feceris, Job marvelleth at others hard heartedness toward him, and expostulateth the unkindness.

Was not my soul grieved for the poor? ] Into whose case good Job put himself, and so became mendicorum maximus (as Salvian saith of Christ, because he shareth with his Saints in all their necessities) he drew out not only his sheaf, but his soul to the hungry, ( Isai. 58.7, 10) and satisfied the afflicted soul; this was right. Contristata est anima mea super egenum. Some render it, Restagnavis lachrymis anima mea, My soul stood with tears, like a standing pool. Others ustulatur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , My soul burneth; which is agreeable to that of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 11.29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?

Verse 26 When I looked for good ] According to that general rule, and the common course of God's proceedings, With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again, Matth. 7.2. With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful, Psal. 18.16. Middah cenegedh middah, say the Hebrews; Men shall have measure for measure, like for like. Hence Job expected to have all things at will, but it fell out somewhat otherwise; and this puzzled him, he could not unriddle these cross occurrences. He could almost find in his heart to think, that he was therefore so little pitied by others, because he had been so pitiful to others.

When I waited for light, then came darkness ] Things grew every day worse and worse with me, mending like sour Ale in Summer, as we say. Thus it fates many times with God's best servants; these children of light walk in darkness, nevertheless let them trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay upon their God, in the fail of all outward comforts, Isai. • 0.10. Habak 3.17, 18. This is the triumph of faith, which tells the soul, that things must go backward before they can come forward, and when matters are at worst they will mend.

Verse 27 My bowels boiled, and rested not, ] Being tossed and tumbled with continual boiling and bubbling, rumbling and making a rattle (as the word signifieth) whether through passion or compassion. With most compassionate sympathy (saith one learned Paraphrast) did my bowels yearn over the afflicted, so that I could have no quiet in myself, for grieving and taking thought for them: I was seldom or never without sorrow for someone or others affliction.

The days of affliction prevented me ] Prevision should have hindered this prevention: Evils fore seen come no whit the sooner, but far the easier. It is a labor well lost if they befall us not; well spent if they do: whereas coming on the sudden, they find weak minds secure, make them miserable, leave them desperate. Expect them therefore and prepare for them: Darts foreseen are dintless.

Verse 28 I went mourning without the Sun ] Ater ambulo, sed non ob Solem; I am not Sun-burnt, but heart burnt; black and discoloured without, because parched and dried up within by the force of my disease and my grief, wherewith I am pained, pined, and even perished.

I stood up and cried in the Congregation ] Which was not very handsome, but I could not hold. Rise I did, and roar I must amidst the preass of people, whatever they should think of me. So Mordecai went out into the midst of the City, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry, and came even before the Kings gate, &c. Esth. 4.1, 2. In extreme heaviness men care not to keep decorums.

Verse 29. I am a brother to Dragons, &c. ] i.e. I utter a very lamentable voice, or rather noise, like Dragons, which sucking the Elephants blood till he fall down dead upon them, and quell them with his huge bulk, make an horrible howling; so horrible and hideous say some, that they amaze, yea, kill those that hear it.

And a companion to Owls ] I give forth rude and confused cries, as if I howled with Owls, or grunted with Ostriches. We use to say of such, that they roar like Bears, and bellow like Bulls, filling the air with their Out-cries. Young Ostriches cast off by their Dams, Job 39.14. Lam. 4.3. make pitiful moan; so do the young Ravens for like cause, Psal. 147.9. Job cried out more like a beast then a man, in his pain and misery. This the Stoics censured as effeminate, and would not allow a wise or valiant man to sigh, or cry, or show any token of grief whatever befell him. But this was to destroy nature, and to transform men into stocks and stones void of sense. The Patriarchs bewailed their deceased friends. David, likely, was not ignorant of the Gentiles proverb, Weeping becometh not a King; yet he wept abundantly, yea, he out-wept Jonathan: As the better any one is the more inclined to weeping and lamentation, which yet must be duly moderated.

Verse 30 My skin is black upon me ] Through the violence of the Feaver, and adust matter, his skin was as black and mud-coloured as the waters of the River Nile. which hath its name Sihor in the Hebrew, from this root, Jer. 2.18. The Ethiopians skin is black, but that's natural to them, and they think it best so, and therefore paint the devil white, &c.

And my bones are burnt with heat ] In the Feaver they call Epialis, the heat is all inward, and drieth up the radical moisture. Job complaineth of such a distemper, and so doth David, Psal. 32.3, 4. and Solomon telleth us, that a heavy heart drieth up the bones. Beza expoundeth it of the Jaw-bone, dried and pined away for want of moisture.

Verse 31. My harp also is turned to mourning ] All the days of the afflicted are evil, Prov. 15.15. his Harps are hanged up, his Lute no longer 〈◊〉 but for melancholy airs; his Song nothing but Lachrymae, doleful ditties: his Organs, and all those Instruments that were wont to divert him, are condemned either to sigh or to be silent. Gillimer, overcome and besieged by Bellisarius, sent to request of him three things; 1. a loaf to ease his hunger, 2. a harp to ease his grief, 3. a sponge to dry up his tears. Such mournful Music was Jobs, if any at all.

CAAP. XXXI. Verse 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes]

THis Chapter, as it is one of the largest in all the book, so it is elegant, various, and very full of matter: for it shows us, as in a mirror, both what we should do, and what we should not do. Good Melancthon, about the beginning of the Reformation, mournfully complained, Quos fugiamus habemus; quos sequamur non intelligimus: We have whom to fly from, (meaning the Papists,) but whom to follow, we yet understand not, (by reason of the many divisions among Protestants.) But here we may be at a better certainty; by treading in Jobs footsteps, and striving to express him to the world: who against all the cavils and calumnies of his foe-friends, makes it out here, that he is no hypocrite or flagitious person (as they falsely charged him,) but a man fearing God, and eschewing evil, chap. 1.1. Let therefore as many as would be perfect, be thus minded; and thus mannered: propounding to themselves the highest pitch, and the best patterns; resolving to resemble them as much as may be. Here we have Job holy care to fly fornication as a deadly evil; by avoiding the occasion, by taking bonds of his senses, and by doing all he could to be out of they way, when the temptation came. Austin thanks God that the temptation and his heart met not. Job would prevent that mischief, by laying laws upon his eyes, those windows of wickedness, and loop-holes of lust, the very door and bait of all evil concupiscence, Mat. 5.29. 1 Job. 2.16. that flesh-pleasing lust, that nest-egg of the Devil, (as One wittily calleth it) that eldest child of old Adams strength, bearing name of the Mother, which is called in general, Lust, or Concupiscence. Now that Job might not lust, he would not look on a forbidden object: for he knew that wanton glances cause contemplative wickedness; such as will soon break out into soul practices: as ill humors in the body, do into sores and botches.

Why then should I think upon a Maid? ] Contemplarer in virginem; Lustfully consider her beauty, till my heart be hot as an oven with lawless lusts, and my body be moiled with that abominable filth. For unbrideled lust, like the wild fig, will soon mount over the wall: and those base, vain wanton, capering thoughts will break out, if not timely suppressed: if we handle them not roughly at the door (as Elisha said) their masters feet will not be far behind them. Quell them therefore and crush them in the egg: it is not safe being at Satan's mess, though our spoon be never so long: remember, that of looking comes thinking; and of thinking, worse. Look upon the woeful chain of David's lust, and remember how many have died of the wound in the eye. The Basilisk slayeth with his sight. Circe will enchant all that behold her. Irregular glancing, or inordinate gazing, is that which metamorphoseth a man into a beast, and makes him a prey to his own brutish affections. Hence David prayeth, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, Psal. 119.37. Job here steppeth one degree further, from a prayer to a vow; yea, from a vow to an imprecation, verse 7. That his eyes should be eyes of Adamant, that will turn only to one point; that he would not look but where he might lawfully like. Saints have a single eye (and contrariwise the wicked, Hos. 3.1.) like that Persian Lady, who being at the marriage of Cyrus, and afterwards asked how she liked the bridegroom? How? said she: I know not: I saw nobody but my husband. Charles 5 used to clap to his casement: and the young Lord Harrington to pull his Hat over his eyes, when fair Ladies passed along.

Verse 2. For what portion of God is there from above? ] What? but a portion with the Devil, and hypocrites? The unjust are reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished, saith Peter; but chiefly, they that walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness, 2 Pet. 2.9, 10. Such shall have a specialty of punishment, even the hottest fire in hell: And hereby Job frighted his Conscience from this foul sin; and well he might: did men but consider what sin would cost them, they durst not but be innocent: but the hope of impunity hardeneth them, and so hasteneth their destruction. Hac, tanquam lenà, semper usus est antiquus ill serpens, this hope, as a Bawd, that old man-slayer, hath ever made use of, to allure men into wickedness. But set the threats of God's Word (such as are 1 Cor. 6.9. Heb. 13.3. Ephes. 5.3.) against this sin, and the sin is laid. Satan can no more abide by it, than an Owl by the shining of the Sun. A man will be loath to fetch Gold out of a fiery crucible.

Or, What inheritance of the Almighty from on high? ] God, and Almighty. and from above. and from on high. By all these expressions, Job affecteth himself with the due apprehension of the divine Majesty, that he may be wise, and beware how he fall into the punishing hands of this living God. The Lord your God, saith Moses to the people, is God of gods, and Lord of lords; a great God, a mighty and a terrible, &c. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts; cut off and cast away that filthy foreskin, shave your eye-brows, (as the Leper was to do,) pull out your right eyes, &c. So Joshua; God, saith he, is an holy God, he is a jealous God, be will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins; sc. unless you will part with them, though never so dear or delicious, chap. 24.19.

Verse 3. Is not destruction to the wicked? ) yes; that's their portion, their inheritance: and so Job makes answer to his own question proposed in the verse aforegoing. The ruin of impure souls is infallible, unsupportable, unavoidable: if God hath aversion from all other sinners, he hath hatred and horror for the unchaste: such stinking goats shall be set on the left hand, and sent to hell; where they shall have so much the more of punishment, as they had here of sensual and sinful pleasure, as sour sauce to their sweet meats, Rev. 18.7. Not to speak of the miseries they meet with here, which are not a sew: in their souls, hardness of heart, or horror of conscience: in their bodies, soul and loathsome diseases; such as will stick to them, when their best friends forsake them: in their names, indelible reproach and infamy; like an iron-mole which nothing can fetch out; like the Leprosy which could never be scraped out of the walls: in their estates, poverty, even to a piece of bread, Prov. 6.26. Harlots are Poscinummia, Crumenimulge; suck-purses, Luk. 15.14. In their posterity: as Jericho was built, so is uncleanness plagued, bath in the oldest and youngest: It goes through the race, till it have wasted all.

And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? ] Even such as is unusual and extraordinary; as upon the Sodomites, who going after strange flesh, were thrown forth for an example, as Judah hath it, Verse 7. So those Benjamites, Judge. 20. the Trojans, the Lacedemonians at Lenctra; Zimri and Cozbi: Zedekiah and Ahab. Jer. 29.22. Eli's two sons; Heraclius the Emperor, Muleasses King of Tunes in Barbary, bereft by his own son Amida (another Absalom ) not of his Kingdom only, but of his eyes too, put out with a burning ho • iron: those eyes of his that had been full of adultery, and could not cease to sin. In Hebrew, the same word signifieth both an eye and a fountain, to show, saith One, that from the eye, at a fountain, floweth both sin and misery.

Verse 4. Doth he not see my ways, and count, &c? ] yea, sure he doth so: and the conscience of God's Omniscience, who would soon take him tripping kept him from this great wickedness. So it did Joseph, but so it did not David; who is therefore said to despise God and his commandment (2 Sam. 12.9, 10.) to do evil in his sight; and this was no small aggravation of his offense. Ne peccar Dum ipsi vider, I have seen the lewdness of thy whoredom, Jer. 13.27. Even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord, Jer. 29.23. That should be a powerful retentive from 〈◊〉 Prov. 5.21.

And count all my steps? ] Doth not he cipher them up? Hebeus 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 rate: not my ways only, my counsels and cogitations, but my steps also, that is all mine outward attempts and actions. A most needful, and useful consideration 〈◊〉 to keep men within the compass of obedience. See this doctrine of God's singular providence, plainly and plentifully set forth. Psal. 139.1, 2, 3, 4.

Verse 5. If I have walked with vanity ] As they do who disquiet themselves in vain, in heaping up riches by evil arts, by deceits and covin in bargaining; by getting other men's means fraudmently, &c. The getting of treasures by an evil tongue, (or any the like indirect course) is a vanity tossed so and fro of them that seek death, Prov. 21.6. Eventually such do seek death, though not intentionally; they spin a fair thread to strangle themselves, both temporally and eternally. Such vain and vile ways therefore Job carefully declined; for he knew them to be both base and bootless. Ephraim fed upon the wind, the balances of deceit were in his hand: if thereby he filled his purse with coin, yet he had emptiness in his soul: Lucrum in arca, damnum in conscientia: filled he was with air, and that air was pestilential too: his breath and death he drew in together: Job would none of that.

Or if my foot hath hasted to deceit ] If I have been nimble and active to go beyond and defraud another in any matter, 1 Thess. 4.6. which, what is it else, but crimen stellionatus, the very sin of cozenage? and this not only acted, but arted after long trading in it, as the words of walking and hasting seem to import?

Verse 6. Let me be weighed in an even balance ] Heb. Let him weigh me, Examinet me, saith Tremellius. David with the like confidence, Search me, O God, saith he, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, any course of sin (that is grievous to God or man) wherein I have walked, or my foot hath hasted. Job would not rest in his own hearts applause; neither would he be borne down by his friends false charges: but puts himself into God's hands to be weighed, and then makes no question, but his present sufferings will be found heavier than his former miscarriages, in his inter-dealings with men for matter of gain: and that there is some other cause (though what he knoweth not) for which God doth so grievously afflict him. See David doing the like, Psal. 7.4. & 26.2.

That God may know mine integrity ] i.e. That he may make known mine innocence and upright-heartedness in this particular of commerce with others; that I have not dealt deceitfully. Otherwise, if God should weigh the best that are in a balance, they would be found too light. if he mark iniquities, no man living can be justified, Psal. 139.3. & 143.2. If he turn up the Bottom of the Bag, all our secret thefts will out, and come to reckoning. It is an idle conceit of some ignorant folk, That God will weigh their good deeds against their bad: and they shall well enough set off with him by the one for the other. This they have drawn (as they have not a few other fopperies) from that practice of Popish Priests; to persuade people, that when men are at point of death, St. Michael the Archangel bringeth a pair of balances, and putteth in one scale their good works, and in the other their sins; and that if those weigh down these, they are • aved: as if otherwise, they are damned. But what saith an Ancient; Vae hominum vitae etiamsi landabili, &c. Woe to the best man alive, if God should weigh him in a balance of justice: since his sins would be found heavier than the sands of the Sea, Job 9.15. & 10.15.

Verse 7. If my step hath turned out of the way ] sc. Of justice and equity, in t •• ding and tr • ffacking to get the Mammon of unrighteousness. No: the Sun might sooner be turned out of his course, (as it was once said of Fabricius ) than Job out of the track of truth and honesty. He had said laws upon his feet, his eyes, and his hands too: binding them all to the good behavior: Witness the next words.

And mine heart walked after mine eyes ] As it doth too often to the coveting other men Goods; which St. John casteth, the lust of the eyes, 1 Epist. 2.16. Alexander the Great called the Persian Maids, Dolores oculorum, the griefs of the eyes. The wedge of Gold and Babylonish Garment proved to be so to covetous Achan. Josh. 7.21, and Nabot • ? Vineyard to that Non-such Ahab, 1 King. 21.2. He was even sick of it, and could not be cured but by a S • llet out of it. Hence the law flatly forbiddeth men to go after the sight of their eyes, and the lust of their hearts: for these are seldom • undred, Numb. 15.39. Eccles. 11.9. Unruly eyes, like Jacob's sheep, too firmly fixed on unlawful objects, make the affections bring forth spotted 〈◊〉 , Job would therefore set a guard upon them, lest they should prove 〈◊〉 of wickedness to the heart: as that hang by Hiram the Ad • ttam • te was to Judah, Gen. 38.20. There is an easy passage for evil through the eyes into the heart saith 〈◊〉 . And if any blot hath cleaved to my hands ] If I have been fingering that which was not sit for me to meddle with; viz. evil-gotten goods, whether by bribery, usury, deceit, or the like; the very touching whereof will blot and benumb the hands, as Pliny writeth of the fish Torpedo; and as scholars know, that Demosthenes (a great Lawyer) by poizing Harpalus his goblet, was tempted and swayed to favor his Cause, to the great danger of his Country, and his own indelible infamy.

—Verse 8. Then let me sow, and another eat ] God loves to retaliate: and let him do so to me, according to that he hath threatened, Deut. 28, 30, &c. and as he executed upon Laban, Nabal, Saul, Haman, others. The Greeks have a Proverb,

Some sow that which others reap. This Job wisheth may befall, if he had been oppressive and injurious; as Eliphaz had wrongfully accused him, chap. 22.6.

Yea, let my offspring be rooted out ] Or, Let that which I have planted. be plucked up by the roots. It is commonly seen, that oppressors and unconscionable persons procure their own ruth and ruin: and he that gathereth the fruits of another man's tree, pulleth his own up by the roots.

They who spoil houses which they built not, Job 20.19. shall, when they cease to spoil, be made a spoil: and when they have made an end of dealing treacherously, be treacherously dealt with themselves, Isaiah, 33.1.

Verse 9. If my heart hath been deceived by a woman ] By a she-sinner, as they call such, a strange woman, (as the Scripture) whose lips are snares, whose hands are bands, whose words are cords to draw a man in, as an Ox to the slaughter, Prov, 7.21. whose face is as a glass, wherein whiles larks gaze, they are taken in a day-net. Here Job disavoweth and disclaimeth the sin of Adultery, (purging himself as it were by Oath) as before he had done of fornication, and of wrong-dealing. These sins he reckoneth up, either as they came to mind; or else in such order as men are many times tempted to them. Young people are prone to fornication: Job, when young, had kept himself clear from that iniquity. When men have got some years over their heads, and are entered into the world (as they call it) they usually grow greedy and gripple: they are set upon it, and will be rich, however they come by it. Job was none such neither, verse 5.7. Afterwards, when married, they are sick of a Plu • isie: and as the Devil, who sets them a work, they long to be sowing another man's ground, Matth. 13.25. The temptation to fornication is strong, but to adultery stronger: God doth often punish fornication, unrepented of, with strong and vexing honings and hankerings after strange flesh. But Job either was never troubled in this kind: or else when the temptation came, he was sure to be ever out of the way. The Devils fire fell upon wet tinder: and if he knocked at Jobs door, there was nobody at home to look out at the window and let him in: for he considered the punishment both human, verse 11. and divine, verse 12. due to this great wickedness.

Or if I have laid wait at my neighbors door ] Either as waiting the opportunity of his absence, as Prov. 7.19. or as insinuating myself into her familiarity, whiles she was standing in her door. Of the Italian Women, one giveth this Character; That though witty in speech, and modest in outward appearance, yet they are magpies at the door, Goats in the garden, Devils in the house, Angels in the streets, and Sirens in the windows: Jobs heart was not deceived by any such: neither sought he to defraud his brother in any such matter, 1 Thess. 4.5, 6. See the Note on Job. 8.4.

Verse 10. Then let my wise grind unto another ] i.e. Let her be his slave, as Lam. 5.13. Exod. 11.5. Matth. 24.41. Or rather, let her be his Where: and may my sin, which hath served her for example, serve her also for excuse. Not that Job would Hereby license his wise to commit filthiness (as those Lituanians, who have their Connubii adjutores, coadjutors in wedlock, and prize them far above all their acquaintance, as Maginus relateth: and as some wittals amongst us, pandars to their own beds, who either for gain, or for a quiet life, wink at their wives disloyalty; and, as Wood culvers, or silly Hedg-sparrows, hatch and bring up that which Cuckow's lay in their nests) but to set forth by this horrible imprecation, how extremely he abhorred the sin of Adultery.

And let others bow down upon her ] A clean expression of an unclean act. Some Borborologi podicentex ore faciunt, being like Ducks that ever have their noses pudling in puddles: sic hi spurcitias Veneris eliminant; delight in ribaldry, and obscene language; as did Proculus the Emperor, and before him, that beast Tiberius. These are to be avoided as Pests and botches of humance society. So also are Stage-plays for that very cause, as the Brothels of bawdery, the corrupters of youth, the canker of the Common-wealth, as Plato, an heathen, complained; Filthiness and fornication should not be once named among Christians, Ephes. 5.3. Groves were flatly forbidden by God to be planted near the places of his Worship; in detestation of that heathenish custom of Priapus his worshippers, promiscuously satisfying their lusts in a thicket, after they had sacrificed; thereby, as they conceived, best pleasing their god.

Verse II. For this is an heinous crime ] Hoc enim grande flagitium est; so the Tigurines translate: For this is a wickedness with a witness, though counted by some a light offense, a peccadillo. The Popish Priests, deeply guilty of it themselves, seldom cried out against it in their Sermons: this the great ones, and others, observed; and therefore ran into it, as if it had been a venial sin, if any sin at all. But we have not so learned Christ: and there was once found an English Bishop, ( Adelm, Elect Bishop of Sherborn, anno 705.) who boldly and sharply reproved Pope Sergius to his face for this foul sin. Joseph calleth it a great wickedness, Gen. 39.9. because a breach of the bond of loyalty, which cannot but be treachery: as also because it destroys society, and the purity of posterity, stealing sometimes an heir into the estate, &c.

Yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges ] Since it is a thest of that which is most precious and most peculiar to the owner; as Joseph told his Mistress, Gen. 39. the suspicion or jealousy of it, raiseth the rage of a man to such an h •• ght, that it will not be allayed without revenge, Prov. 6.34, 35. Some render it, iniquitas judicata, an iniquity already adjudged capital. The Hebrew hath it, an iniquity of the Judges; that is, That which Judges should severely punish. Before the Law Tamar was to have been burnt for it, Gen. 38.24. as under the Law the High-Priests daughter, Levite. 21.9. Ahab and Zedekiah were roasted in the fire for this offense, by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, Jer. 29.22, 23. Some think that these two were the Elders that assaulted Susanna, The Egyptians cut off the Harlots nose, and the Adulterers members. The Locrians pulled out their eyes. The Julian Law among the Romans, adjudged them to die; and Jerome saith, this Law was yet in force in his time; but the Poet complaineth, that for want of due execution, it lay dormant, as many other good Laws do by the baseness and partiality of the Judges: Such as were those Athenian Judges, who having before them Phryne that notable Strumpet, were about to pass sentence of death upon her; but when her Advocate Hyperides had opened her bosom, and shown them her beautiful breasts to move them to mercy, they acquitted her, and let her go. In like sort, also they dealt with the Dame of Smyrna, whom they appointed to appear some hundred years after. How much better the old Saxons, who whilst they were yet heathens, made a Law (and saw it well executed) that the Adultetess should be first strangled, and then burnt in a bonfire, over which the Adulterer was to be hanged in chains, and burnt to death by degrees? And of another Heathen people we read, that they put the Adulterers and Adulteresses heads into the paunch of a beast, where all the fifth lieth, and so stifled them to death.

Verse 12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction ] Ad Gehennam usque, to the place of destruction. Heb. to Abaddon, that burneth as low as hell itself. In case •• en should be slack to punish this heinous Grime, yet Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge, Heb. 13.3. shutting them out of heaven, Rev. 22.15. (for what should any such dirty dog do trampling on that golden pavement?) and thrusting them into hell, as he did the filthy Sodomites, Jude 7. beside that hell above-ground which he rained from heaven, upon them, hot fire for their burning lusts, and stinking brimstone for their stinking brutishness. How God signally punished this sin in Charles 2 King of Navarre, roasting him to death, See my Note on Gen. 19.24. Joane of Naples also, and Mary of Aragon, wife to the Emperor Otho the third, burnt at a stake, are set upon Record as instances of the divine displeasure against Adultery, a fire which burns hearts, and consumes houses.

And would root out all mine increase ] Leaving me nothing, as a devouring fire burns up men, cattle, houses, corn, trees, &c. So doth this fin all a man's income, baring him to the very bones, and exhausting him to the utmost: So that like Tiberius at Capreae, he doth indies perire, which is a bitterness beyond that of death, Eccles. 7.26. Or like Samson, befooled and bereft of all by Delilah, who had not her name for naught, for it comes from Dalal, to exhaust and impoverish. And indeed such king of creatures do ordinarily drain the strength, exhaust the purses, dry up the credit, waste and consume the all of the mightiest Samsons. Besides, the loss of their immortal souls, and perpetual shame at the last day, (when all their faults shall be written in their foreheads) unless the matter be taken up in the Judges privy Chamber of mercy; and unless, by timely repentance, course be taken to stop his open judicial proceeding in Court.

Verse 13. If I did despise the cause of my man servant, &c. ] Servants of old (among the Heathen especially) were mere slaves to their Masters according to the flesh, who had power to use them at their pleasure, as they did their cattle. A servant (saith Aristotle ) is the Masters Instrument, and wholly his. He might do what he would to them, saith Seneca, even to the taking away of their lives, without danger of Law. But Job held with the same Seneca, That Posse & nolle noble est; and that in some cases, Nimis angusta innocentia est, ad legem bonumesse; That utmost right is utmost wrong; and that there will come an after reckoning, the forethought whereof awed him, and swayed him to do his servants right, when he might have oppressed them, and tyrannized over them; as now the Turks do over their Gally-slaves. Of Archbishop Cranmer it is recorded, that he never raged so far with any of his household-servants, as once to call the meanest of them Varlet or Knave in anger. Tremellius, who was for a time entertained in his house, saith of it, That it was, Schola vel Palaestra pietatis & literarum. A school or Nursery of Piety and Learning. And therefore what wonder that there was so good accord betwixt him and his family, when there was so careful a performance of Domestical duties, and he was not a better man then a Master? Think the same of Job, Discontents might fall out in his house, and complaints might be made, which he heard with patience, and then set all to rights again, taking course that he might be both loved and feared by all about him.

Verse 14. What then shall I do when God riseth up, &c. ] Job considered, That himself had a Master in heaven, Col. 4.1. That there is One higher thou the highest, Eccles. 5 8. with whom there is no respect of persons, but wherein soever any deal proudly, God is above them. Exod. 18.11. These and the like humbling considerations, and not any placability or natural courteousnesse, made him deal thus fairly and kindly with his servants; how much more then with his wife and children, &c?

And when he visiteth, what shall I answer? ] Job looked to be visited, and called to an account of his household Government. It is a good saying of an Heathen, Ita vivamus, &c. Let us so live, as those that must render an account of all we do. And that which the Ruffian in Seneca scoffeth at in the sober young man, is true of the godly in a sense more divine, Ita laborat, ita ludit, it a coenat, ita potat, ita loquitur, ita vivit, ut qui Ephemerides patrs est approbaturus: that is, He so laboreth, so sporteth, so eateth, so drinketh, so speaketh, so liveth, as he that must approve his day-books to his father.