Commentary on Ezra Nehemiah Ester Job and Psalms

CHAP. XIII.

Verse 1. LO mine eye hath seen all this ] sc. All those effects of God's providence, declared in the former chapter. I have not discoursed of God's powerful and wise dispensations by rote, or without book; I have not blurted out what I believe not, or am not able to prove, as you have accused me; but I have spoken both that which I have seen (and what more sure then sight?) and that which I have heard and received from our Ancestors and Doctors (to whom you have frequently referred me, for better information) mine ear that sense of discipline, by which, not learning only, but life also entereth, Isai. 55.3.) hath heard it, and understood it too; which he addeth for further assurance. Job was a Weighing Hearer, as Mr. Bradshaw was called the Weighing Divine: let us learn by his example heedfully to observe God's works, laying up experiences, and diligently to listen and learn the things that are taught us, or written for us by others, that we may grow to a right and ripe understanding of divine truths, and be able confidently to commend the same to others, as being upon sure grounds. See Matth. 13.51, 52.

Verse 2. What y • know, the same do I know also ] Heb. According to your knowledge I also know: this may seem an unbeseeming boast; which if his friends had taxed him for, he might have answered, as Paul did in a like case, Ye have compelled me, 2 Cor. 11.5. The Rule is, let nothing be done through strife, or vain-glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better then themselves, Philip. 2.3. Non est tamen prodenda Dei veritas, aut integritas nostra &c. Nevertheless, no man ought to betray the truth, or his own integrity, lest he should he counted contentious. See chap. 12.3. where we have the same in effect as here, whence some do gather, that Jobs friends had a very high opinion of their own knowledge, and a very low one of Jobs. He that is thus proud of his knowledge, the devil careth not how much he knoweth.

Verse 3. Surely I would speak to the Almighty ] It were far better for me to speak to God, then to you, and much fairer dealing from him I might expect; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he, Deut. 32.4. But ye are Jorgers of lies, and ye load me with false accusations, depraving my speeches, as thou Zophar especially hast done, wishing withal that God himself would speak with me face to face; which, if it should come to pass, thou saidst my misery and affliction would be redoubled. But oh that I might commune with the Almighty! surely and seriously I would rather do it, then with you my friends, and should hope so to defend mine innocence against your slanderous accusations; yea, to maintain God's justice against you, in the presence and judgment of God himself. O the confidence of a good conscience! see it in Abimelech, Gen. 20.5. but much more in David, Psal. 7.3, 4. And Psalm 139.23, 24. In Jeremiah, chap. 12.1. in every strong believer, 1 Pet. 3.21. Those that walk uprightly, and speak uprightly, Isai. 33.15. Not so every 〈◊〉 Christian, or profligate professor, verse 14. The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness surpriseth the hypocrites, &c. but good Job was none such; and God knew it to be so: what if to the wicked he be a devouring fire? yet to those that fear his name he is a reviving Sun, Mal. 4.1, 2. And upright Job feareth not to reason with him: upon the same ground John Hus, and other Martyrs cited their persecutors to answer them by such a time before God's tribunal.

And I desire to reason with God ] If he please; So the Septuagint add, and make out Jobs meaning: as if he had used the like modesty and humility, as Nehemiah, and after him Esther did in their suits unto the King of Persia, when they said, if it seem good to the King, and if I have found favor in his sight. Others think that Job here desireth to plead with God as with a party that had dealt too hardly with him &c. that he challengeth God into the schools, as it were, there ro crack an argument with him, and by reason to reduce him to milder dealing. And indeed, the Hebrew word here used, signifieth to dispute 〈◊〉 , and from it the Rabbin's call Logic the Art of arguing. This boldness is that, say our large Annotations, which both Elihu and God blame Job for in the end of the book, though neither of them condemn him for an hypocrite: and that shows that Job did speak amiss of God in his passion, and is not altogether to be excused; much less in everything to be commended.

Verse 4. But ye are forgers of lies ] i. e. Ye create false maxims to judge me by; ye gather up without any order, and to no purpose whatsoever cometh in your way to strengthen and maintain your false accusation against me. You are not only concinnatores, forgers, but compactores, botchers, such as by sowing one lie to another, do patch up a false and frivolous discourse. So David, Psalm 119.69. The proud have forged (or pieced together, made it up as of many shreds ) a lie against me. David saith of hypocrites, that their tongue frameth deceit, Psal. 50.19 and of Doeg, that his tongue devised mischief, like a sharp razor, doing deceit, Psalm 52.2. Jeremiah saith of his country-men, that they had taught their tongues to speak lies, and were grown Artists at it, chap. 9.5. yea, that they had taken fast-hold of deceit, and could not be got off without striving, chap. 8.5. But these country-men of Job were none such, for God said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie, Isai. 63.8. And although every man be a liar, either by imposture, or by impotency; yet it must be understood that these good men aimed at truth, and intended not to deceive Job, but to undeceive him rather. They maintained errors, but unwittingly: they charged him also (but unjustly) with hypocrisy. Hence this so severe a high charge, ye are forgers of lies, such as our Ruffians would revenge with a stab. But we must know, saith one, that in those better times it was not so harsh a business in a serious disputation to call that a lie, which was falsely alleged by an adversary, as now-a-days it is in this corrupt age of ours, wherein the greatest liars, though taken in the manner, yet take it extreme ill to be told of their fault. Besides, in the defense of God's cause, and the laboring truth, plain-dealing, even with our best friends is best: so that the Apostles rule Eph. 4.31. be observed, Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

Ye are all Physicians of no value ] Because you go to work upon wrong principles, and minister mistaken physic. Physicians he acknowledgeth them, and that they came with a good intent to comfort him: but for want of skill, instead of curing, they had well-nigh killed him, because they judged amiss of his disease, and used corrosives instead of cordials. By the way observe, that God's word is not only the food, but the physic of the soul, and may far more fitly be so called, then the library of Alexandria was of old: for as the diseases of the body are healed by physic seasonably and rightly used: so are the distempers of the soul by Scripture-consolations; neither shall we ever have cause to complain of them, as Cicero did of Philosophical-comforts, nescio quomodo &c. I know not how it cometh to pass, but this I find, that the disease is too hard for the Physic: or as the Romans did of Sylla 's bloody government, that the Remedy was worse then the Malady: how forcible are right words, said Job, chap. 6.25? And fair words, as physicians, cure the mind distempered with passion, saith the Poet. Once. when Luther was in a great heat about something that had crossed him, Melancthon pacified him by repeating this verse,

But Jobs friends, as they were botchers of lies, so they were bunglers at healing him: they did, saith Laevater, as a Surgeon, who applieth a plaster to the hand of him whose grief is in his foot: or as that Country-Mountebank in France, who was wont to give in writing to his patients for curing all diseases,

These verses are by one thus Englished,

Such 〈◊〉 Si ••• s, •• lli • ies in the world, such no physicians, such idols, such extreme nothingnesses, good for nothing (as that rotten girdle in Jeremiah; those vinebranches in Ezekiel, chap. 15.3. That idol in Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 8.4.) were Jobs friends to him, miserable comforters, chap. 16.2. adding to his affliction, instead of easing it, and pushing at him, as the whole herd of Deer, doth at that one that is wounded.

Verse 5. O that you would altogether hold your peace ] Heb. In being silent, would be silent; q. d. I thought much at your seven-days-silence, chap. 2.13. and now I am no less troubled at your speeches. O that you had either continued your silence, or else would frame to say something better then silence: for hitherto ye have spoken much, but said little. I could heartily wish therefore that you would now stop your mouths, and open your ears, as verse 6. that you would be as mute as fishes, since I can hear nothing from you but what speaks you to be mere mutes, ciphers, nullities, as verse 4.

And it should be your wisdom ] For even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding, Prov. 17.28.

As when the door is shut, it cannot be seen, what is within the house: so the mouth being shut by silence, the folly that is within lieth undiscovered: and as in glasses and vessels, so in men, the sound which they make, showeth whether they be cracked or sound. An asse is known by his ears (saith the Dutch proverb) and so is a fool by his talk. As a bird is known by his note, and a bell by his clapper, so is a man by his discourse. Plutarch tells us, that Megabysus a Noble man of Persia, coming into Apelles the Painters work-house, took upon him to speak something there concerning the art of painting and limning, but he did it so absurdly, that the prentices jeered him, and the master could not bear with him.

Verse 6. Hear now my reasoning &c. ] Or, hear, I pray you. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: suffer the words of exhortation, and of reprehension: sharp though it be, and to the flesh irksome, yet suffer it, since it is for your good. Quintilian testifieth of Vespasian, that he was patientissimus veri, one that could well endure to be told the truth: but there are few Vespasians. Many people are like the nettle, touch it never so gently, it will sting you.

And hearken to the pleadings of my lips ] Heb. The contention of my lips, see that you not only hear, but hearken to it with attention of body, intention of mind, and retention of memory: neither God nor man can bear it, to speak, and not be heard. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh &c. Heb. 12.25. See that ye slight not, shift not off Christ speaking to you in his Ministers and messengers: for if they escaped not who refused him that speak on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.

Verse 7. Will ye speak wickedly for God? ] Ought ye to defend God's justice by unjustly accusing me? Or must ye needs so free him from injustice, that ye must charge me with hypocrisy? Job had before called them, Physicians of no value; here he compareth them to Lawyers of no conscience, that care not what they plead, so they may carry the cause for their client. But the Lord needeth no such advocates; he so loveth truth, that he will not borrow patronage to his cause from falsehood: he so hateth flattery (though it be of himself) that he hath threatened to cut off all flattering lips, Psalm 12.3. and would one day say as much to Jobs friends, notwithstanding their pretended zeal for his glory, as once Alexander the great did to Aristobulus the Historian, who presented him with a flattering piece concerning his own worthy acts, which he extolled above measure: he cast the book into the river Hydaspes, and told the Author he could find in his heart to cast him after it.

And talk deceitfully for him ] To talk for God is our duty: it is to make our tongue our glory: but to talk deceitfully for him, to seek to help his truth by our lie, (the Vulgar here hath it, Needeth God your lie?) that's altogether unlawful: for shall we do evil that good may come thereof? God forbid, Rom. 3.8. And yet the Papists do so familiarly, and think they therein do God good service: as when they deny his provident hand in ordering the disorders of the world to his own glory, lest they should make him the Author of sin: so they think to defend his justice by teaching predestination according to foreseen works, by ascribing to man free-will, righteousness of works, merit &c. So their doctrine of Equivocation for the relief of persecuted Catholics, their piae frauds (as they call them) their holy hypocrisy to draw infidels to the embracing of the faith, and to the love of virtue; their lying legends, made, say they, for good intention, that the common people might with greater zeal serve God and his Saints; and especially, to draw the women to good order, being by nature facile and credulous, addicted to novelties and miracles.

Verse 8. Will ye accept his person? ] Whilst you think to gratify him, and to ingratiate with him by oppressing me? Can you find no other way of justifying God's proceedings, then by condemning me for wicked, because by him so afflicted? The truth is, these friends of Job out of a perverse zeal of advancing God's righteousness, unrighteously suspected poor Job of wickedness, and so rejected his person, to accept God's. See the like done Isa. 66.5. Jer. 50.7. John 16.2. O sancta simplicitas! said John Hus, when at the stake, he observed a plain country-fellow busier then the rest in fetching fagots to burn the heretics.

Will ye contend for God? ] Why not? Good blood will not belie itself: the love of God constraineth his people to stand to him, and to stickle for him: Non amat, qui non zelat, saith a Father. But then it must be a zeal according to knowledge: for else it will appear to be but base and reprobate metal, such as though it seemeth to be all for God, yet it never received the image and impress of God's holy spirit, and therefore is not currant in heaven. But that I believe and know (said that fiery Frier Brusierd in a conference with Bilney ) that God and all his Saints whom thou hast so greatly dishonored, will take revengement everlasting on thee; I would surely with these nails of mine be thy death. Another Frier preaching at Antwerp, wished that Luther were there, that he might bite out his throat with his teeth, and with the same teeth receive the Eucharist by Luther so dishonored.

Verse 9. Is it good thas he should search you out &c? ] q. d. Could you have any joy of such a search? Will not all your warpings and partialities, your colloguing and sinisterity be laid open to your loss and shame? Will not God reprove instead of approving you in that which ye have said for him, but all against me? The time will come, when God will surely search out all controversies, that they all may be ashamed who under a pretent of religion and right, have spoken false things, and subverted the faith of some. See 1 Cor. 3.17.

Or as one man mocketh another, will ye so mock him? ] Be not deceived: God is not mocked, deluded, beguiled, as clients are by their corrupt lawyers: as patients are by their cogging quack-salvers. Sorry man may be mocked, and made to believe lies, as 2 Sam. 15.11. Acts 8.9, 10. and Rev. 13.3. all the world wondered after the Beast. Judges, and other wise men, are shamefully out other-whiles, deceiving, and being deceived: Not so the All-wise God. They that would mock him, imposturam faciunt & patiuntur, as the Emperor said of him that sold glass for pearls; they deceive not God, but themselves. Neither may they conceit that their good intentions will bear them out (as Merlin here noteth) anymore then it did these contenders for God, who little thought of mocking him. A bad aim maketh a good action had, as we see in Jehu; but a good aim maketh not a bad action good, as we see in Uzzah, and here.

Verse 10. He will surely reprove you ] That's all the thank you are like to have from God; your work in pleading for him so stoutly, though it be materially good, yet it will never prove so formally and eventually, because you so confidently determine of things you understand not, but only by a light conjecture. You do secretly, that is, cunningly and deceitfully accept persons, that is, God's own person, whilst ye wrong me for his sake, and under a pretence of doing him right, condemn me for a wicked hypocrite, whom till thus afflicted, you ever counted honest and upright. This the righteous Judge, who loveth judgment, and hateth robbery for a burnt-offering, Isai. 61.8. will at no hand endure. No, but he will certainly reprove you▪ argu • ndo arguet, he will surely and severely blame and punish you. Carry it never so cleanly, cover in never so closely; God who seeth in secret will reprove you openly; that is, he will chide you, smite you, curse you for it (if Repentance interpose not to take up the matter). he will so set it on, as no creature shall be able to take it off. Men reprove offenders sometimes slighty and overtly, deest ignis, as Latimer said, whereby they do more harm then good; for their reproofs are rather soothings then reprovings. Personatae reprehensiones frigent: such was that of Eli to his sons, 1 Sam. 2.23. Such also was that of Jehoshaphat to wicked Ahab, Let not the King say so. But when God took those same men to do, he handled them after another manner: he gives it them both by words and blows, till both their ears tingled, till their hearts aked, and quaked within them: so fearful a thing it is to fall into the punishing hands of the living God. Let all those look to it, especially that are in place of judicature, Psalm 82.1, 2, 3. Let them hear causes without prejudicate impiety, judiciously examine them without sinister obliquity, and sincerely judge them without unjust partiality, remembering that Acceptatio personarum est judiciorum pestis, accepting of persons is the pest of judgments.

Verse 11. Shall not his excellency make you afraid? ] Heb. His highness, his Majesty, his surpassing sublimity and transcendent glory; shall not this affright you, and rein you in from wrong-dealing and warping? Who would not fear thee ô King of Nations? for to thee doth it appertain, Jer. 10.7. And Fear ye not me, saith the Lord? will ye not tremble at my presence, Jer. 5.22. If an earthly King be so dread a Sovereign: if the glory of Angels hath so terrified the best Saints on earth, that they could hardly out-live such an apparition; what shall we think of the great and terrible God, as he is called, Nehem. 1.5. the first motion of whose anger shall put men into disorder, and the brightness of his offended Majesty strike their spirits with astonishment? It is reported of Augustus the Emperor, and likewise of Tamberlane that war-like Scythian, that in their eyes sat such a rare Majesty, as a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing of his own; and many in talking with them, and often beholding of them, have become dumb. Now the Lord of glory as far outshineth any mortal wight, as the Sun in his strength doth a clod of clay: and this made Job cry out, chap. 9.34. Let not his fear terrify me: Be not thou a terror to me, ô Lord, saith holy Jeremiah: and the Lord most high is terrible, saith David, Psal. 47.2. Most high he is, and therefore terrible.

And his dread fall upon you ] Some read the whole verse thus, Shall not this acceptation of him make you afraid, seeing his dread will fall upon you? q. d. Let the sense of your sin, and the fear of his wrath ready to seize upon you, deter you from passing an unrighteous sentence, and from harbouring such low conceits of God.

Verse 12. Your remembrances are like unto ashes, &c ] Mr. Beza readeth the whole verse thus, Your speeches are the words of ashes, and your stately bulwarks are but bulwark of clay: And thus he paraphraseth, For these things which you allege as matters gathered by long observation, and which you thunder out against me as if they were most certain and grounded axioms, are indeed no more sound and substantial then ashes; and those your high forts, as it were, and turrets, out of which you assail me, are made but of dirt and mire. Others, by Your remembrances, understand with Mercer, quicquid in vobis memorabile est, whatsoever it is, for the which you are so often remembered and mentioned by others, as your wealth, dignity, power, splendor, name, and fame, yea, your very life is nothing else but ashes, and all shall return to ashes, and come to naught, according to that of Abraham, I am but dust and ashes, Genes. 18.29. such an infinite distance there is betwixt God's inconceivable Highness, and your extreme meanness, or rather, utter nothingness.

Your bodies to bodies of clay ] i. e. To images made of clay, or earth: Or that which is highest in you, even your best enjoyments, your chiefest eminencies, or greatest elevations are like to a lump of clay, terrae quam terimus, terrae quam gerimus. See Job 4.19. with the Note.

Verse 13. Hold your peace, let me alone &c. ] This he had requested of them before, verse 5. and now having nipped them on the crown by these rebating arguments, he calls upon them again for silence and audience; which he now requesteth not, but requireth; and the rather haply, because they began to take him off, as fearing lest by his unadvised expressions he should provoke the Lord to lay yet more load upon him. Wherefore he addeth,

And let come on me what will ] That is, At my peril be it, take you no thought: let all the trouble that may ensue be on my score, I will be accountable for it to God, who, I hope, will be more favorable to me, then you: Interim non sine stomacho hoc dicit, saith Mercer. This Job speaketh not without some heat, yet not as one desperate, but rather resolute; for he feared no hurt from God.

Verse 14. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth? ] q. d. Do ye think, ô my friends, that I am in a fit of spiritual frenzy, and so far out of my wits, that tearing as it were, my flesh with mine own hands; I mean, to use any cruelty towards myself, and willingly to betray mine own life? Non sum ita crudelis, ut totus perdi velier, I am not yet so cruel to myself (whatever you may gather by my complaints and out-cries) as utterly to cast away my confidence, and all care of my life and soul. See 1 Sam. 19.5. To despair in part, and for a time, may befall a godly man. See Mr. Perkins his discourse of spiritual desertion, where he remembereth that Luther lay (after his conversion) three days in desperation. And the like is recorded of Mr. Rob. Bolton. But of any good man that destroyed himself, we read not. David's life was in his hand continually (and he in daily danger of losing it) yet have I not forgotten thy law (saith he) which flatly forbiddeth all the degrees of self-murder, as the worst sort. That Satan tempted Job to this sin, some do probably collect from this text. A man is to expect, if he live but his days (saith a Reverend Casuist) to be urged to all sins, to the breach of every branch of the ten Commandments, and to be put to it in respect of every Article of our Creed.

Verse 15. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him ] Though he should multiply my miseries, and lay stroke after stroke upon me till he had dashed the very breath out of my body, yet he shall not be so rid of me; for I will hang on still; and if I must needs die, I will die at his feet, and in the midst of death expect a better life from him. Dum expiro spero, shall be my motto: The righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 14.32. yea, his hope is most lively, when himself lieth a dying, superest sperare salutem, my flesh, and my heart faileth, saith he; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever, Psalm 73.26. True faith in a danger (as the blood) gets to the heart, John 14.1. and if itself be in good heart, it will believe in an angry God, as Isai. 63.15, 16. (the Church there thought she should know him amidst all his austerities) yea, in a killing God, as here: yea, (as a man may say with reverence) whether God will or no, as that woman of Canaan Matth. 15. who would not be damped or discouraged with Christ's either silence, or sad answers; and therefore had what she came for, besides an high commendation of her heroical faith.

But (or nevertheless ) I will maintain mine own ways before him ] We have had the Triumph of Jobs trust: here we have the ground of it, viz. his uprightness, the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity he had his conversation in the world, 2 Cor. 2.12. This was his cordial, without which, grief would have broke his heart, Psalm 69.20. this was his confidence, even the clearness of his conscience, 1 John 3.21. Uprightness hath boldness; and that man who walks uprightly before God, may trust perfectly in God. Job was either innocent or penitent: He would therefore either maintain his ways before God, and come to the light, that his deeds might be manifest, that they were wrought in God, John 3.21. Or else he would reprove and correct his ways (so the Hebrew word signifieth also) that is, he would confess and forsake his sins, and so be sure to have mercy, according to that soul-satisfying promise, Prov. 28.13.

Verse 16. He also shall be my salvation ] So long as I judge myself, God will not judge me, 1 Cor. 11.33. Nay, he will surely save me; for God will save the humble person, Job 22.29. what is humiliation, but humility exercised? Non est igitur inanis electorum fides res evanida nec infirma. saith an Interpreter here: therefore the faith of God's elect is no empty or vain thing, but a light shining from the spirit of God, and such as overcometh the very darkness of death. It is a sure testimony of God's good will toward us, and an infallible persuasion of our salvation, such as slighteth the worlds false censures, overcometh temptations of all sorts, laugheth at death, and through the thickest darkness of affliction beholdeth the pleased face of God in Christ, through whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him, Eph. 2.12.

For an hypocrite shall not come before him ] No, that's a privilege proper to the Communion of Saints: therefore I am no hypocrite (as you have charged me to be, chap. 4.6. and 8.13.) for I dare both offer to maintain my ways before him to be upright for the main, and I doubt not but he will be my salvation, and that I shall appear before him in heaven; this no hypocrite shall ever do. How should he (say) when as he is an unclean caytiffe, as the Hebrew word signifieth, flagitiosus (so Vatablus rendereth it) a flagitious, impious person, a very juggle (so the Septuagint) a fair professor indeed, but a foul sinner, moiled all over, and even buried in a bog of wickedness: he is a wicked man in a godly man's clothes, saith one. He doth but assume religion, saith another, as the devils do dead bodies without a soul to animate them. He is like the painted grapes that deceived the living birds; or the golden apples with this motto, No further then colors; touch them, and they vanish. He knows that he is naught▪ and that God knows it too: how then should he approach him, or appear before his throne? No, he dare not, for the very show of his face doth testify against him, as the Prophet speaks in another case: or if he do, he shall not be able to subsist there, Psalm 5.5. he shall not stand in judgment, Psalm 1.5. but shall run away with these or the like words in his mouth, Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings, Isai. 33.14? Woe unto us, who shall deliver us out of the hands of this mighty God, 1 Sam. 4.8? None, for he shall surely assign you a part with the devil and hypocrites; when as the righteous shall give thanks unto God's Name, and the upright only shall dwell in his presence, Psal. 140.13.

Verse 17. Hear diligently my speech ] Heb. Hearing heart, that is, incline your ears and hear, as Isai. 55.3. Mark and attend; hear me not only, but heed me too: interrupt me not, neither give me the slip, as it may seem they were ready to do, when they heard him profess such a deal of faith and hope under so many and heavy afflictions; wherein they thought that either he was besides himself, or at least besides the cushion, as we say, and utterly out. See verse 6. and observe, that it is but needful often to stir up our auditors to attention. Job makes more prefaces then one to be heard; so do the Prophets often, Hear the word of the Lord, Hear and give ear, be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken it. So doth the Arch-prophet more then once, Revel. 2. & 3. And Matth. 13.19. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. All Christ's hearers had not ears, or if they had, yet they were stopped; or if open, yet the bore was not big enough. O pray that God would say unto us Epphata, be opened, for a heavy ear is a singular judgment.

Verse 18. Behold, now I have ordered my cause ] Heb. my judgment: He had spoken before of his Declaration, which is conceived to be a Law-term; for in lawsuits, the Plaintiffe putteth in a declaration of his grievance. Job had his declaration ready drawn, and craved audience: he asketh afterwards, Who will plead with me? and here in the like language he telleth us, that he had ordered his cause, he had marshalled and methodized his arguments, he had set and stated the controversy. Lo, here I stand ready prepared to plead, and am confident I shall prevail.

I know that I shall be justified ] That is, I am persuaded, or I am sure (as Rom. 8.38.) I believe and I know, as John 6.59. sc. with a fiducial knowledge, that I shall be justified, sc. from my sins, by Christ's righteousness imputed (yea, that I am so already; and that forever: for Peccata non redeunt, discharges in justification are not repealed or called in again) and that I shall depart from God's bar acquitted in this particular controversy. And so he did; for God justified Job, and reproved his three friends, chap. 42.

Verse 19. Who is he that will plead with me? ] Of my justification in both respects I am so confident, that I dare encounter any that shall deny it: Who is he? and where is he that shall lay anything to my charge, since it is God that justifieth, Rom. 8.33? Having ordered my cause, and cleared my conscience by confession, and self-judging, and now being justified by faith, I can cast down the gauntlet to all comers, and Goliath -like, call for an opposite to grapple with: in the name of the Lord of hosts I will undertake him, and am sure to come more off then a conqueror, even a Triumpher, 2 Cor. 2.14. there being not any one condemnation (neither from God, nor the devil, from the law, sin, or death) to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit, as Job did, Rom. 8.1.33. Here he challengeth all the world, saith Gregory, if they could, to accuse him for anything outwardly done amiss by him. And herein if none could tax him; there was nothing but evil cogitations in his heart, of which he could be guilty: but for these, from which none can be free, he held not his peace, but spake and complained internally hereof to God by reproving his own ways: and if he should have been silent, and not speak hereof, and bewail them, he should die and perish: for so he readeth the following words, according to the Vulgar translation.

For now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost ] Vulg. Wherefore being silent I am consumed. Broughton, If now I speak not, I should starve. The Hebrew is, for now I shall-be silent and die, q. d. My passion must have a vent, or else it will make an end of me (as chap. 7.11.) so tormented I am with these aspersions of my friends, that I know not how to live, unless I may wipe them off; or at least, unless I pour out my soul into God's blessed bosom.

Verse 20. Only do not two things unto me ] Accord me only two conditions, and then I will not fly the combat: he knew he might have anything of God that was fit and lawful to be asked. When poor men make requests to Princes, they usually answer them as the Echo doth the voice, the answer cuts off half the petition, and if they beg two boons at once, they may be glad that they get one. But God dealeth by his servants and suppliants not only as the Prophet did by the Shunamite (when he bad her ask what she needed, and promised her a son, which she most desired, and yet through modesty asked not, 1 King. 4.16.) but also as Naaman did by Gehazi, when asking one talent, he forced him to take two. This Job well knew, and therefore he beggeth two things at once; but better he had begged that one thing necessary, Patience; or if two, that best use of his present sufferings. As we read of one good man, that lying under great torments of the Stone, he would often cry out while his friends melted with compassion towards him, The use, Lord, the use: And of Mr. William Perkins, that when he lay in his last and killing torment of the stone, hearing the by-standers pray for a mitigation of his pain, he willed them not to pray for an case of his complaint, but for an increase of his patience: Thus if Job had done, he had done better: but by what he doth here, we may easily gather, that he expected no freedom from his misery, but from God alone: and that he was wont familiarly to impart to God all the thoughts and actings of his heart: and lastly, that he acknowledged him to be a most righteous Judge, who would not deal with his people upon unequal conditions, but give them a fair trial.

Then will I not hide myself from thee] i. e. I shall have no cause, either through fear or shame to hide myself. It is not safe for a man to indent with God, and make a bargain with him: for so one may have the thing he would have, but better be without it; as those workmen Matth. 20. who bargained for a penny a day, and yet when they had it, were no whit contented. Socrates thought it was not fit to ask of God anymore then this, that he would bestow good things upon us; but what, and how much, to leave that to him, not being over-earnest, or presuming to prescribe ought. Sir Thomas Moors wife was mightily desirous of a boy (that was her word) and she had one that proved a fool; and saith her husband, you were never quiet till you had a Boy, and now you have one that will be all his life a Boy. But what were those two things that Job was so earnest for?

Verse 21. With-draw thy hand far from me, and let not &c. ] Neither afflict me, nor affright me. See the same request chap. 9.34. and granted by God, chap. 38.3. and 40.7. They must be very sorry prayers indeed that God will not hear, if they come from honest hearts, Psalm 31.22. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. For the sense of this whole verse, see the Notes on chap. 9.34.

And let not thy dread make me afraid ] Appear not unto me in thy Majesty, but in thy mercy: come not upon me in such a terrifical manner, as through astonishment at thy surpassing glory to kill me, for who can see thy face and live? Surely as the sight of the eye is dazzled with the Sun, or a crystal glass broken with the fire; so there is so much dread in the face of God, that the best cannot behold it. Destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure, Job 31.23.

Verse 22. Then call thou, and I will answer &c. ] Here Job gives God his choice, offering to be either Defendant or Plaintiffe; Respondent or Opponent: Hoc multum erat, saith Lavater, this was much, and indeed too much: for if God should enter into judgment with his best servants, no man living should be justified in his sight; Psalm 143.2. The best may bear a part in that song of mercy, Asperge me Domine, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, &c. Psalm 51.7. Job is confident of his innocence, and he might be for that particular wherewith his friends charged him ( viz. that he was an hypocrite) but yet in defending himself, and charging God so highly, as he doth in this and the next Chapter, he cannot be excused; what though he knew himself justified by Christ's righteousness, imputed according to the Covenant of Grace; Omnino tamen semper est Job immodicus, saith Merce • here, yet surely, he passeth the bounds of moderation, and is over-bold in this offer of his, laying the reins in the neck of his passions, Fertur equis auriga &c. Cajetan saith, these words are arrogant and scandalous; and Eliphaz is supposed for this passage to tax Job as he did, chap. 15.4. yea, thou castest off fear.

Or, let me speak and answer thou me] i. e. I will be plaintiff or Opponent, I will be bold to say, it is not seemly to handle him as an enemy, who knows nothing by himself. If there be anything more then involuntary and unavoidable infirmity in me; Shew me what, and how many my sins are, that require so many and great punishments.

Verse 23. How many are men's iniquities and sins ] How many? too many to be reckoned: Sin imputed to thee, sins inherent in thee, sins issuing from thee; commissions, omissions, failings in the manner of performance (for a good work may be mar'd in the doing, as many a garment is in the making, and many a tale in the telling) thy life is fuller of sins, then the firmament is of stars, or the furnace of sparks, besides thy birth-blot and inward evils which might justly cause thy destruction, as a man may die of inward bleeding. When the house is well swept, and all rooms seem very clean, if the Sun do but shine into it through the windows, the beams thereof discover an infinite number of motes in all places: so will it be with the best, if narrowly examined. Lesser sins, secret faults, are of daily, and almost hourly incursion; yet we must be cleansed from them, Psalm 19.12. or else vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudibili, saith one, Woe to the life of men, though praise-worthy, as the world judgeth. A pardon there is of course for such sins, and they do not usually distract and plunge the conscience: but yet that pardon must be sued out, and those sins must be disliked and bewailed.

Make me to know my transgression and my sin ] That particular sin that thou chiefly strikest at: for every affliction hath a voice in it, Mic. 6.9. and saith to the sufferer, as those mariners did to Jonas, chap. 1.8. what evil hast thou committed or admitted? what good hast thou omitted, or intermitted? Up and search; Israel hath sinned: why liest thou upon thy face, as the Lord once said to Joshua, chap. 7.10, 11? something surely there is amiss that God would have amended: It is therefore meet to be said unto him, Make me to know my transgression and my sin, yea, the iniquity of my sin, the filthiness of my lewdness, all my transgressions in all my sins (as the phrase is Lev. 16.21.) that is, how many transgressions are wrapped up in my several sins, and their circumstances. This either Job meant here, or else he was afterwards by Elihu tutored to it, chap. 34.31, 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have born chastisement, I will not offend anymore. That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.

Verse 24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face? ] Who wast wont to shine upon me, chap. 29.2, 3. He that hideth his face, showeth, that he neither pitieth, nor purposeth to relieve. God seemed to look upon Job no otherwise then as under Satan's cloak, said that Martyr. But he hideth his love sometimes out of increasement of love, as Joseph did to his brethren; and is never so near us, as when with Mary Magdalene, we are so bleared with tears for his absence, that we cannot see him, though at hand. A child of light may walk in darkness, Isai. 50.10. which when he doth, he must resolve, as Isai. 8.17. I will wait upon the Lord who hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him: he must also in that dark condition cast anchor, as they did in the shipwreck, Acts 2.7. and pray still for day, waiting till the day star arise in their hearts, and all clear up.

And holdest me for thine enemy? ] Which if God should have done indeed, it would have been wide with Job, and far worse then ever yet it had been; for if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away, 1 Sam. 24.19? I trow not, unless it be for a greater mischief at another time. But Job was out when he judged himself hated of God, because afflicted, since he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, Heb. 12.5. See my Love-tokens, pag. 23. and 54.

Verse 25. Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro &c?] q. d. egregiam vero laudem; Thinkest thou to get any honor by encountering and overturning me, who was at my best but as a leaf, or as stubble, weak, and worthless; and am now, by reason of mine afflictions, but as a leaf blown off, and whirled up and down; or as stubble fully dried, which is soon scattered by the wind, Psalm 1.4. or quickly burnt by the fire, Nah. 1.10. David reasoneth in this manner with Saul, 1 Sam. 24.14. After whom is the King of Israel come forth? after whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog? after a flea? A great purchase surely! a great victory!

The truth is, God doth not afflict any man (whom he knows to be a thing of nothing) on purpose to try his strength, or to show his power; but either to exercise his justice upon the wicked, or to prove the faith of his people, and to promote their salvation.

Verse 26. For thou writest bitter things against me ] As it were by a judicial rescript thou decreest my doom; and accordingly thou inflictest hard and heavy things upon me, as is most elegantly described in the following verses by metaphors fetched from the course of Courts. Sin is an evil, and a bitter thing, Jer. 2.19. Heb. 12.15. Acts 8.23, and hath bitter effects, Ruth. 1.20. Exod. 1.14. This made that holy man Mr. Paul Baine, say: the sweet ways of my youth did breed such worms in my soul, as that my heavenly Father will have me yet a little while continue my bitter worm-seed, because they cannot otherwise be thoroughly killed. I thank God (saith he in another place) sustentation I have, but suavities spiritual I taste not any. It is reported of this good man, that when he came first to Cambridge, his conversation was so irregular, that his father being grieved at it, before his death left with a friend forty pounds by the year, desiring that his son might have it if he amended his manners, else not: he afterwards had it, as he well deserved, as proving a notable instrument of much good to many, and particularly to that Reverend Dr. Sibbs whom he converted; Howbeit in his last sickness he had many fears and doubts, and God letting Satan loose upon him, he went out of this world with far less comfort then many weaker Christians enjoy; his case being not unlike his, who saith in the next words,

And makest me to possess (or to inherit ) the iniquities of my youth ] Which I took for pard oned long since (and so no doubt but they were); but Jobs affliction renewed the remembrance of them to his conscience (as it is the best art of memory.) Satan also made him believe, that now he was punished for the new and the old, as we say, and that God meant to make him answer for all the sins of his life at once, having watched a time to be revenged on him for all together. Youth is a slippery age, and soon slips into sin. There is great cause that a young man should cleanse his ways, Psalm 119.9. where the word Nagnar (signifying a lad, or stripling) comes from a root signifying to shake off, or to be tossed to and free. And the other word rendered cleanse, signifieth to be clean as glass, which will soon gather a new dustinesse. Such must cleanse their ways by cleaving to the word: or otherwise, they may one day groan as much under the sins then committed, as many do under the blows and bruises then received. See the former Note.

Verse 27. Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks] Mercer here observeth an elegant gradation in God's proceeding with Job, as himself describeth it, rising higher and higher in his discourse. 1. God hid his face, and denied him his favor. 2. He counted him as his enemy. 3. He broke him like a leaf or stubble. 4. He wrote bitter things against him. 5. He made him possess the sins of his youth. 6. For his young sins he claps him up close prisoner now in his old age, and there keeps him as with a strict guard following him close at heels, if he but stir a foot; was there ever sorrow like unto Jobs sorrow? was ever greater severity and rigor shown upon any godly person? Where then shall the ungodly and the sinner appear &c? God's wrath is like Elijah 's cloud, little at first, as a man's hand, but soon after very dismal and dreadful; or as thunder, of which we hear at first a little noise afar off, but soon after a terrible crack. Well might Moses say, Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Cavebis auteus, si pavebis.

And lookest narrowly into all my paths ] He saith not ways, but paths. Gregory maketh this difference; Ways are larger, Paths narrower; God then is said to look into all men's paths, when he looketh not only at the evil done by them, but at the intention of their mind, which is not so easily discerned but by him the searcher of all hearts. And for that which followeth,

Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.] Gregory here observeth, that God looketh at the hurt done to others by examples given by men's evil doings unto them, leaving a print upon the ground, as it were, whereby others follow them, and so their sin is in this regard made the greater: to which purpose some sense those words Psalm 49.5. when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about. Others make Jobs meaning here to be, Thou followest me with continual pursuit, as a prisoner that is dog'd at heels by his keeper from place, to place lest he should escape. Thou followest me close, and upon the track like a hunter, Job 10.16. The foot-steps of thy wrath (saith an Interpreter) are seen upon the soles of my feet (so that from top to toe I have no free part) like as prisoners feet are oft swelled with the weight of their fetters.

Verse 28. And he as a rotten thing consumeth ] Heb. waxeth old. He, that is, this poor man, this silly wretch, as David speaketh of himself, Psal. 34.6. Or, This body of mine, as chap. 19.26. Job pointing to it, as 'tis like he did there. And Paul, 1 Cor. 15.53, 54. As a rotten thing (Heb. as rottenness ) consumeth. When a thing once rotteth, as an apple, flesh, &c. it soon perisheth: such is man under pressing afflictions especially.

And as a garment that is moth-eaten ] The beauty whereof is defaced, and the usefulness departed.

CHAP. XIIII. Verse 1. Man that is born of a woman &c.]

Or, THat is born about by a woman in her womb. Jobs design is here to set forth the misery of man (whom in the last verse of the former chapter he had compared 1. To a rotten thing. 2. To a moth-eaten garment) ab exordio ad exodium, from his conception to his dissolution. Man, Earthly man, that is born of a woman, or mannesse that weaker vessel, who both breedeth, beareth, and bringeth forth in partu dolorosa, post partum laboriosa, every way calamitous: neither is her babe in a better condition, but born with a cross on his back (as it is storied of Frederick the Elector of Saxony ) and having his whole life over-spread with sins and miseries, as with a filthy morphew.

Is of few days ] Heb. short of days. Short indeed, everything reckoned: For 1. Child-hood and youth are vanity. 2. Sleep, as a publican, takes off a third part of our time. 3. All the days of the afflicted are evil, and M •••• • abet vicer quae trabitur vit • gemitibus; it is not a life, but a death rather that is spent in sorrow: in which regard Plotinus the Philosopher held mortality a mercy, that we may not always be held under the miseries of this life present. 4. Scarce one of a thousand live that little time that they are here, but woefully waste the flower of their age, the strength of their bodies, the vigor of their spirits in sinful pleasures, and sensual delights; and then either sit and sing all too late and in vain,

Or else complain with old Themistocles, that now they must die when they do but begin only to be wise: the life of a wicked man runneth out, as the sand in an hourglasse that doth little good: He considereth not that upon this little point of time hangs the crown of eternity; and that the very next moment, he may be cut off from all possibility of repentance, acceptation and grace forever. Hence his many troubles here: all which are but typical of those hereafter; besides the fear of death, which maketh him all his life time subject to bondage, Heb. 2.15. It were much to be wished that men would consider their time is short, their task long, and that therefore they should use all speed and diligence; lest (so as children have usually torn their books) they have ended their lives before they have learned their lessons.

And full of trouble ] Or, of indignation, commotion, perturbation. Those three vultures, Fear, Anger, Griefe, are frequently feeding upon his heart whiles he is in this world; and like a ship in a storm, he is tossed much, but saileth little or nothing. Few and evil are the days of my pilgrimage, saith good old Jacob, Gen. 47.9. And she in the Poet could say as much of her son Achilles.

Verse 2. He cometh forth like a flower ] What he had asserted concerning the shortness of man's life is here illustrated by two elegant similitudes frequently used, not in Scripture only, but in Heathen Authors, as were easy to instance. A flower hath a spring and a fall: so have men their times and their turns; their rise, and their ruin. Why, and how man in his flourish is like to a flower, See Psal. 103.15, 16. where he is compared to a flower of the field (which lies open to all inconveniencies) not of the garden, which is much sheltered from sharp winds, fenced from the teeth and feet of beasts, from the hands of children, strangers, &c.

And is cut down ] Heb. cut round, or circumcised, sc, by some nipping or blasting wind, such as that East-wind, Gen. 41.23. or some cropping hand, or its own fading nature, and then it is not, saith David, Psalm 103.16. that is, it neither continues any longer in being, nor returns anymore into being: no more doth man, though in his time never so flourishing.

He fleeth also ] With post-baste, as one that fleeth for life; so doth he from life, every moment yielding somewhat unto death: Orimur, morimur, finisque ab origire pendet; Life, as fast as it increaseth, decreaseth. It is improper, saith one, to ask when we shall die, but rather when we shall make an end of dying?

As a shadow ] As the shadow of a dial: our lives are continually hasting to their period, and never make stop. By these, and many the like comparisons (common in this book, and other Scriptures) we see how much God desireth that we should mind our mortality: too blame then are those who have one leg in the grave, and the other in hell, and yet do put far away thoughts of death, and under gray hairs nourish green hopes and desires: neither may young men be excused who bind upon long life, and boast of tomorrow, Prov. 27.1. since they know not what a great-bellied day may bringforth. The Jews have a proverb, that many times old camels carry young camels skins to the market. And how often see we elder folk carry young men's and children's bodies to the graves?

And continueth not ] Heb. standeth not, as a pillar, but vanisheth as a shadow, yea, as a dream of a shadow, as the Greek Poet hath it. The Vulgar translateth, He continueth not in the same state. To have no shadow of turning, noteth the perfection of God, Jam. 1.17.

Verse 3. And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one?] sc. to observe his faults strictly, and to punish him for the same severely? doth this become so great a Majesty? This Job speaketh non citra stomachum, not without stomach, as forgetting himself through impatiency, saith Mercer, and seeking to ease himself any way of the pains and colors he sustained, being carried out of himself by his unruly passions. By this question Job doth nontam admirari quum arguere, saith Brentiús; not so much wonder, as warble with God, that he should care for so poor a creature, whom it might beseem him rather to contemn. But Job should have remembered, that God openeth his eyes upon man, not to punish him only, but to help and relieve him, Psalm 31.15. And at another time Job could set it upon the score of God's favors to man that he visiteth him every morning ( viz. by his fatherly chastisements) and trieth him every moment, chap. 7.17, 18.

And bringest me into judgment with thee] Poor me. who am 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , thrice a man: that is, most miserable, even me thou questionest in the rigor of thy righteous judgment. See a like expostulation, Psalm 89. and all to move God to compassion. Our frailty is a good pleadable argument to this purpose.

Verse 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.] q. d. I confess I am unclean: but what can I do withal? or how can I do otherwise, since I do but my kind? But was this a sufficient plea? David was of another mind, when he alleged this as a great aggravation of his blood-guiltiness, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, Psalm 51.5. q. d. I have not only fallen into these foul sins, but I have done it out of the venemousnesse and vitiosity of my nature, commonly called original, and by the Apostle inhabiting sin, Rom. 7.17. as by the Schools peccatum peccans, the sinning sin, as that which is the source and seminary of all actual disobediences. And because this uncleanness is natural to us, therefore it maketh us as loathsome to God, as a toad is to us, because poison is in the nature of it. Papists say, (but not truly) that Original sin is the smallest of all sins, not deserving anymore of God's wrath then only a want of his beatifical presence; and that too without any pain or sorrow of mind from the apprehension of so great a loss. They hold also those motions of the heart not consented to, to be no sins, but necessary conditions, arising from our constitution, and such as Adam had in his innocence. Contrary-wise, Job here grants a birth-blot upon all, and lays his hand upon it as the cause of the length of men's troubles, and shortness of their lives: only he forgetteth himself (saith Mercer here) when he pleadeth that he should rather be pitied, then thus sharply punished, because he was naturally inclined to sin, and cannot avoid it. For as Aristotle saith of drunkards, that they deserve double punishments; first, for their drunkenness, and then for the sin committed in and by their drunkenness: so do all men deserve double damnation; first, for the corruption of Nature (signified by those legal pollutions, by bodily issues) and then for the cursed effects of it, Gen. 6.5. Rom. 7.8. But it may be Job here had an eye to that promise made to Noah after the flood, Gen. 8.21. where the Lord moveth himself to mercy by consideration of man's native corruption, even from his child-hood, for he knoweth our frame &c. Psalm 103.14. that is (as the Chaldee Paraphrast explaineth it) he knoweth our evil figment or thought which impelleth to sin: he knoweth it, and weigheth it. See the like Isa. 48.8, 9. We may beseech the Lord to spare us when we act sin, because our natures are sinful: but let not any go about either to palliate or extenuate their acts of sin by the sinfulness of their natures; as those do, who being told of their evil pranks and practices, plead for them, saying, We are flesh and blood, &c.

Not one] Fortes creantur fortibus & bonis; but no mere man can bring forth a clean child out of unclean seed. Adam begat a son after his own image ( Gen. 5.3.) Corruptus corruptum, That which is of the flesh is flesh, John 3. Sin is propagated, and proceedeth from the union of body and soul into one man. That phrase Warmedin sin, Psalm 51.5. is meant of the preparation of the body, as an instrument of evil, which is not so actually till the soul come. But we should not be so inquisitive how sin came in, as how to be rid of it; like as when a fire is kindled in a city, all men are more careful to quench it, then to question where, and how it began. Now there is one only way of ridding our hearts of sin, viz. to run to Christ, and to believe in him: For if the Son make you free, ye shall 〈◊〉 indeed: and hereunto, both the Chaldee Paraphrast had respect (likely) when he rendered this text, Cannot One? that is, Cannot God? As also the Vulgar Latin, Nonne tu qui solus es? Canst not thou alone? sc. by thy merit and Spirit, according to that of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 6.11.

Verse 5. Seeing his days are determined &c. ] God hath set every man both his time (whether shorter, called here his days, or longer, the number of his months, they have both their bounds which none can pass) and also his task, Acts 13.25. John fulfilled his course, & in brevi vitae spatia tempora virtutum multa replevit, and he lived long in a little space; he wrought hard, as not willing to be taken with his task undone. So verse 36. David, after he had served his own generation, and had done all the will of God, fell on sleep. See more of this on chap. 7.1.

Thou hast appointed his bounds ] Heb. His statutes; It is appointed for all men once to die, Heb. 9.27. once for all, and forever it is appointed, and this statute is irrepealable. Here then we see the cause why some, likely to live long, die soon, and others more infirm live longer. God hath set the bounds of each ones life to a very day. The bounds may be passed which our natural complexion setteth; the bounds cannot be passed which the providence and will of God setteth. Stat sua cuique dies. —

Verse 6. Turn from him that he may rest ] Heb. Look away from him, i. e. from me; look not so narrowly, and with such a critical eye upon mine out-strayes, thus to hold me still on the rack; look not so angerly, afflict me not so heavily, but let me rest or cease from my present pressures, and doleful complaints, and spend the span of this transitory life with some comfort, and then let the time of my departure come when thou pleasest.

Till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his days. ] That is, saith the Gloss, till I am as willing to die, as a laboring man is to go to supper, and to bed. The word rendered accomplish, signifieth properly to acquiesce, and rest in a thing, and vehemently to desire it. The Saints, when they die, shall rest in their beds, Is • i. 57.2. they rest from their labors, Rev. 14.13. and that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 presently, straight upon the stroke of death; no sooner have they passed under the flaming sword of that punishing Angel, but they are forthwith in Paradise. Here they are seldom quiet, but tossed up and down as the ball upon the racket, or ship upon the waves: and hence it is that they sometimes fret or faint, as Job, and speak unadvisedly with their lips; these firm mountains are moved with earth-quakes, these calm seas are stirred with tempests; and truly, whosoever hath set himself to do every days work with Christian diligence, to bear every days crosses with Christian patience, and is sensible of his failings in both; libenter ex vita, & qunsi pleno passu egredietur, saith one, he will be full glad to be gone hence, and be as weary of his life, as ever any hireling was of his work. See the Notes on chap. 7.1, 2.

Verse 7. For there is hope of a tree &c. ] Here Job setteth on his request, verse 6. with a reason: God loveth a reasonable service, and liketh well that we reverently reason it out with him. And for the literal sense, all things, saith Gregory, are so plain, that there is no need to say anything to that, it being no more then this; either I shall have comfort in this world before I die, or never here: therefore grant me rest now. This argument Job illustrateth 1. By a dissimilitude here. 2. By a similitude, verse 11, 12. The dissimilitude betwixt a tree and a man, is this; a tree may be hewed and felled, yet feel no pain. Again, succisa repullulat, imbribus irrigata, a tree cut down, if well watered, will spring and sprout up again. But now man, as he is very sensible of every stroke of God's hand, neither can he suffer sickness or other affliction without smart, so when once cut down by death, he can by no means be recovered; he cannot revive without a miracle.

Verse 8. Though the roots thereof wax old in the earth ] And so the more unlikely to shoot forth again. Trees also have their old age wherein they decay.

And the stock thereof die in the ground ] Heb. in the dust, as it needs must, when cut off from the root, it lieth along on the earth. It was by a miracle that Aaro • s rod flourished: not only all the plants of God's setting, but the very boughs cut off from the body of them, shall 〈◊〉 and be fruitful.

Verse 9. Yet through the sent of water it will bud ] Heb. from the smell of waters; a sweet Metaphor, saith Merlin, sense being attributed to things senseless, as smelling to the fire, Judge. 16.9. and here to trees, which are said to turn themselves and their roots after a sort, to take in the smell of the water, and thereby refreshed to bud and bring forth boughs, like a plant. This is check to those that live under the droppings of the ordinances, and yet are like the Cypress-tree • , which the more it is watered, proves the less fruitful, and being once out down, it never springs again: whence the Romans, who believed not a resurrection, were wont to place a Cypress-tree at the threshold of the house of death, as Pliny and Ser • i • s tell us.

Verse 10. But man dieth and wasteth away ] Heb. strong and lusty man, dieth and wasteth away, or is cut off, sc. worse then a tree, for he grows no more, or is discomfited, vanquished, (as Exod. 17.13. and 32.18.) sc. by death, and so carried clean out of this world.

Yea, man giveth up the ghost] Homo vulgaris & plebeius; All of all sorts must die, whether noble, or ignoble, as Rabbi Abraham here observeth. Job is very much in this discourse about death: and surely, as Nazianzen wisheth of hell, so could I of death, Utinam ubique de morte dissereretur! oh that it were more in men's minds and mouths then it is!

And where is he?] q. d. No where above ground; or if he be, putrefit & teterrime olet, he putrifies and stinks filthily: and as his life is taken away, so is his glory: yea, being once out of sight, he grows by little and little out of mind too, little thought of, less spoken of, many times not so much as his name mentioned or remembered in the next generation, Eccles. 1.11. There is no remembrance of former things (or men) neither shall there be any remembrance &c. So Eccles. 2.16. and 8.10. and 9.5. Hence the state of the dead is called the land of forgetfulness, Psalm 88.12. And Psalm 31.12. I am forgotten, as a dead man out of mind: Heathens also say the same.

Verse 11. As the water fall from the sea ] He sets forth the same truth by an elegant similitude drawn from the drying up of waters. Look how these after some exundation of the sea, or some great river, are separated and left (upon the reflux thereof) behind the rest upon the land, which cannot return (for then they must ascend, which is impossible to nature) nor continue, but do utterly dry up, and evaporate: So &c. verse 12. Others read it thus, As when the waters from the feafail, the flood decayeth, and drieth up: so when man's life is taken away, it returns no more while this world lasteth. God hath made in the bowels of the earth certain secret ways, passages, and veins through which water conveyeth itself from the sea to all parts, and hath its saltness taken away in the passage. Thence are our springs, and from them our rivers: but in hot countries, and dry seasons, springs are dry, and rivers want water exceedingly; as at this time they do, March 7. 1653. So when natural moisture decayeth in man, he faileth, and dieth: the radical humor, that supplement and oil of life, is dried up, and can be no more renewed till the last day, when yet it shall not be restored to the same state and moisture, but instead of natural, rise spiritual, 1 Cor. 15.

Verse 12. So man lieth down] sc. in the dust of death, or in the bed of the grave; his dormitory, till the last day.

And riseth not] scil. To live again among men: so Psalm 78. Man is compared to a wind, which when it is past, returneth not again. If it be objected, that we read of three in the Old Testament, and five in the new raised from death to life: besides, those many that arose and came out of the graves after Christ's resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many, Matth. 27.52, 53. It is answered, 1. These few raised by God's extraordinary power, do not infringe the truth of what the Scripture here and elsewhere affirmeth of all mankind according to the ordinary course of nature. 2. Even those men also afterwards died again, and vanished; no more to return or appear again in this world.

Till the heavens be no more] i. e. Never (say some interpreters) to wit, vi suâ by his own strength, and to a better condition in the land of the living: so the word until is used, 2 Sam. 6.13. Matth. 5.26. and 1.25. ut pie credimus. How sound and clear Job was in the point of the Resurrection, we shall see, chap. 19. and because he falls upon it in the words next following here, some understand these words thus, They shall not rise till the general resurrections, when these heavens shall be changed, and renewed, Psalm 102.25, 26. Isaiah 65.17. 2 Peter 3.7.10, 11. Rev. 21.1.

They shall not awake ] Out of the sleep of death: nor be raised] viz. by the sound of the last trump, till the last day. But raised they shall be, and sleep no more, viz. when the heavens shall be no more. And till that time the bodies of the Saints are laid in the grave, as in a bed of down; or of spices, to mellow and ripen: this is matter of joy and triumph, Isa. 26.19. Dan. 12.2. when they were to lose all: so Heb. 11.35. The wicked also sleep in the grave, Dan. 12.2. but shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt, ib. their sick sleep shall have a woeful waking, for they shall be raised by virtue of Christ's judiciary power, and by the curse of the law, to look upon him whom they have pierced, and to hear from him that dreadful discedite, Depart ye cursed &c.

Verse 13. O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave ] As in a sweet and safe repository, sanctuary! my soul mean-while living and reigning with thee in heaven, expecting a glorious Resurrection, and saying, How long, Lord, Holy, and True? The fable or fancy of Psychopannychia hath been long since hissed out, though lately revived by some Libertines, that last brood of Beelzebub; our Mortalists especially, who say, that the body and soul die together. But what saith the Apostle, Rom. 8.10? If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now that Job thus woos death, and petitions for the grave, it is manifest that he saw some good in it, and that he promised himself by it Malorum ademptionem, bonorum adeptionem, freedom from evil, and fullness of good: we should learn to familiarize death to ourselves, and put the grave under the fairest and easiest apprehensions, think we hear God bespeaking us as once he did Jacob, Fear not to go down to Egypt (so down to the grave) for I will go with thee, and will surely bring thee up again, Gen. 46.4. Or as he did his laboring Church, Isa. 26.20. Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself, as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

That thou wouldst keep me secret] In limbo Patrum, say the Papists, in parabola ovis capras suas quaerentes.

Until thy wrath be passed ] For it is such, as I can of myself neither avoid nor abide. Turn it away therefore, or turn it into gentleness and kindness, Psal 6.4. and be friends again, Jer. 2.35. Or, secret and secure me til the resurrection, when all thy wrath will be gone from me.

That thou wouldst appoint me a set time ] Heb. set me a statute: set down even what time thou pleasest, either to send me to bed, or to call me up again, so that thou wilt but be sure at last to remember me.

And remember me] Job is willing to die out of the world, but to die out of God's memory; to be out of sight, but not out of mind; that God should bury him in the grave, but not bury his thoughts of him: he could be content to be free among the dead, free of that company, but not as the slain that lie in the grave, whom God remembereth no more, Psal. 88.5. Job would be remembered for good, as Nehemiah prayeth, and be dealt with as Moses was, whose body once hid in the valley of Moab, did afterwards appear glorious in Mount Tabor at the transfiguration.

Verse 14. If a man die, shall he li • e again? ] This he speaketh in way of admiration at that glorious work of the Resurrection. See the like question chap. 15.11. Gen. 3.1. and 17.17. So the Apostle Rom. 8.30, 31. having spoken of those glorious things, predestination, vocation, justification, glorification, concludeth in these words, What shall we say then? We cannot tell what to say to these things, so much we are amazed at the greatness of God's goodness in them. Surely, as they have a lovely scarlet blush of Christ's blood upon them, so they are rayed upon with a beam of divine love, to them that are in Christ. We read of that godly and learned Scotch-Divine Mr. John Knox, that a little before his death, he gat up out of his bed, and being asked by his friends, why being so sick, he would offer to rise, and not rather take his rest? he answered, that he had all the last night been taken up in the meditation of the Resurrection, and that he would now go up into the pulpit, that he might im part to others the comforts which thereby himself had received. And surely if he had been able to have done as he desired, I know not what text fitter for his purpose he could have taken, then these words of Job, If a man die, shall he live again? He shall without question; and those that deny it or doubt of it (as the Sadducees of old, and some brain-sick people of late) they err, not knowing the Scriptures (this among the rest) which are express for it, and the power of God. Mat. 22.29. being herein worse then devils which believe it and tremble; worse then some heathens, who held there would be a resurrection, as Zoroastres, Theopompus, Plato, &c. worse then Turks, who at this day confess and wait for a resurrection of the body at such a time as the fearful trumpet (which they call Soor shall be sounded by Mahomet, say they, at the commandment of the great God of the judgment.

All the days of mine appointed time (or warfare ) will I wait till my change come] i. e. till my death ( Prov. 31.8. men appointed to die, are called in the original children of change ) or till the resurrection come, when we shall all be changed, 1 Cor. 15.51. our vile bodies shall be changed and conformed to Christ's most glorious body (the standard) Philip. 3.23. in beauty, agility, impassibility, and other Angelical perfections. When I awake, saith David, sc. at that general Resurrection, I shall be full of thine image; Psalm 17.15. I shall be brought from the jaws of death, to the joys of eternal life, where are riches without rust, pleasures without pain &c. Three glimpses of this glorious change were seen. 1. In Moses his face. 2. In Christ's transfiguration. 3. In Stevens countenance when he stood before the council. Such a change as this is well worth waiting for: what would not a man do? what would he not suffer with those noble professors, Heb. 11. to obtain a better resurrection? I would swim through a sea of brimstone, saith one, that I might come to heaven at last. The stone will fall down to come to its own place, though it break itself in twenty pieces: so we, that we may get to our center which is upwards &c. Sursum cursum nostrum dirigamus; & manantem, imminentem & exterminantem mortem attendamus: ne simul, cum corporis fractura, animae jacturam faciamus. Let us wait and wish everyone for himself, as he once did.

Verse 15. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee ] At the Resurrection of the just thou shalt call me out of the grave by thine All-powerful voice, uttered by that Archangel, with the trump of God, 1 Thes. 4.16. 1 Cor. 15.52. Psalm 50.3, 4. and thou shalt not need to call twice: for as I shall not need then to fear (as the hypocrites will) to show my face: so I will readily answer, Here I am; yea (as that dying Saint did so) I will say, I come, I come, I come, I will even leap out of the grave to obey thine orders: and I doubt not but to draw me out of that dark prison, thou wilt lend me that hand of thine, whereof I have the honor to be the workmanship.

Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands ] I know that thou thyself (for the love thou bearest me, of thy goodness, who am thy creature, and on whom thou hast shewn favor, and reprinted thine image) wilt long after the consummation of my happiness; for then I shall be like unto thee (more like then ever) for I shall see thee as thou art, and appear with thee in glory, Col. 3.4. being next unto thee, Luke 22.30. Yea, one with thee, John 17.21. and so above the most glorious Angels, Heb. 1.14. The King shall greatly desire my beauty, Psal. 45.11. and rejoice over me, as the bridegrom doth over his bride, Isa. 62.5. See chap. 10.3. The word here rendered Thou wilt have a desire, signifieth, Thou wilt desire as men do after silver: The Lord seemed to deal by Job, as men do by dross, to put him away as wicked, Psalm 119.119. nevertheless, he believed that he would look upon him as silver: and although he now crushed him together, and brake him to pieces, as the silver-smith doth an old piece of plate which he means to melt; yet that he would in the grave, as in a furnace refine him, and at the Resurrection bring him out of a new fashion. Lo this is the right Logic of faith, to make conclusions of life in death, and of light in darkness, to gather one contrary out of another.

Verse 16. For now thou numbrest my steps ] Or, But now thou numbrest &c. thou keepest an exact account of every sin of mine, of every step that I have trod awry; yea, though it be but some wry motion of my mind (as the Septuagint here translate) so curious art thou and critical in thine observations of mine out-strayes, See chap. 10.14. But is this Job that speaketh, or some other? How confident was he 〈◊〉 -while, and comfortable in the hope of a glorious resurrection! but now, down again upon all four, as we say; and like an aguish man in a great fit of impatiency, which holdeth him to the end of the chapter? But for this; who knoweth not that every new man, is two men? that in the Saints, the flesh is ever lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh? that in the Shulamite, is as it were, the company of two armies maintaining a continual contest, Cant. 0.13? • said, I am cast out of they sight: yet I will look again toward thine holy Temple, Jon. 2.4. See the Note there.

Dost thou not watch over my sin? ] This is the same with the former, but without a figure. The Rabbin's have a saying, that there is not any doubt in the law, but may be resolved by the context: the Scripture is its own best Interpreter.

Verse 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag ] As the writings or informations of a process which is ready to be sentenced, Deut. 32.34. Hos. 13.12. Thou hast, as it were, sealed up, and made sure work with all my sins, saith Job, to have them forth-coming for the increase of my punishment. Look how the Clark of Assizes (saith one) seals up the indictments of men, and at the Assizes brings his bag, and takes them out to read the same against them: so God dealt with Job, in his conceit at least. The truth is, God had not sealed his transgressions in a bag, but had cast them behind his back: a bag God hath for men's sins, and a bottle he hath for their tears, Psalm 56.8. Now Job was one of those penitents that helped to fill God's bottle, and therefore he saw at length (though now he were benighted) all his sins, bag, and all thrown into the sea, and sinking as a weighty millstone in those mighty waters of free grace, and undeserved mercy.

And thou sowest up mine iniquity] Adsuesne aliquid iniquitati meae? so the Tigurines translate, i. e. Wilt thou sew or add anything to mine iniquity? wilt thou tie to it that tag (as a Martyr phraseth it) of the Laws malediction, conjoining the punishment to the sin? Some make this an explication of the former, q. d. the bag is not only sealed, but for more surety, sewed too, and that purposely for a purchase of punishment, as some sense it.

Verse 18. And surely the mountain falling cometh to naught] q. d. If thou, Lord, proceed to deal thus rigidly with me, viz. to number or cipher up my steps, to watch over my sins, to seal them up in a bag &c. and all this in fierce wrath, that thou mayest lay load upon me; what mountain, what rock, what other creature is ever able to abide it? Job had said before, Is my strength the strength of stones? Am I a sea, or a whale? Were I these, or any the like robustuous creatures, yet could not I expect to stand before the displeased Omnipotency, who takest the hills like tennis-balls, and crackest the rocks like a Nut-shell. See Hab. 1.4, 5, 6. with the Notes.

And the rock is removed out of his place ] As in earth-quakes it sometimes falleth out. See on chap. 9.5. or by reason of the sea underlaking, it decayeth in time, and waxeth old, as the Hebrew word signifieth.

Verse 19. The waters wear the stones] Gutta cavat lapidem &c. the weakest things wear out the hardest by often falling upon them, or continual running over them: so doth God's wrath though let out in minnums, secretly, but surely consume, Hos. 5.12. I will be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness, or that little worm ( teredo ) that eats into the heart of wood, and rots it. Thus he plagued the Egyptians by lice and flies. There may be much poison in little drops.

Thou washest away the things that grow out of the earth ] Or, Thou ever-flowest, as once in the general deluge (when the face of the earth was grown so foul, that God was forced to wash it with a flood) and frequently since, we see that after great rains there are huge floods that mar whole meadows and corn fields, not only discolouring, but drowning all their beauty and plenty. This is the fourth comparison used in this and the former verse; where a man would wonder, saith an Interpreter, audire Jobum in medus • rumuis philosophantem to hear Job in the midst of his miseries, making use of his philosophy, and travelling thus in his thoughts, for illustrations of his own case, over mountains, and rocks, &c.

Thou destroyest the hope of man] viz. In destroying the things above-mentioned: or, so thou destroyest &c. though some reserve the raddition to the next ver •• , so Thou prevailest against him, &c. i.e. So thou never ceasest with thy might to cast down sorry men, till such time as they changing countenance, and departing with an heavy and sorrowful heart, thou violently throwest them out, their lives and hope ending together, if they have been wicked: as if godly, yet their vain and groundless hopes of prosperity and plenty, &c. come to nothing; though over the red sea, yet God's people may be made to tack about two and forty times in the wilderness.

Verse 20. Thou prevailest forever against him. ] This and the rest of the words to the end of the Chapter, some make to be the Application of the Similitudes; Others an Amplification only of what he had said, Thou destroyest the hope of man. Thou must needs, when thou overmatchest and over-masterest him, and art never worsted. Exod. 15.3. the Lord is called, A Man of War; the Chaldee there hath it, The Lord and Victor of Wars. And the word here rendered, Ever, cometh from a root that signifieth to finish, conquer, and triumph.

And he passeth.] scil. Out of the world by a violent or untimely death, with as ill a will many times as the unjust Steward did out of his Office, as the Jebusites did out of the Fort of Zion, or as the Devil out of the Demoniac. S • d voluntas Dei, necessit • s rei; he passeth, because he can neither will nor choose, as they say.

Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.] Eleganter vero mors notatur, immutandi verbo, saith one, Elegant is death set forth by changing the countenance: for death taketh away the fair and fresh color of a man, and makes him look wan and withered, pale and ghastly. It is ease • e to see death many times (before it come) in the sick man • face, in his sharp nostrils, thin cheeks, hollow eyes, &c. those Harbingers of death, whereby God sendeth for him, and so sendeth him away, ( extrudit & amandet, as once he did Adam out of Paradise. Lavaters Note here, is, Propone tihi semper horribileus speciem mortis, ut eo minus pecces, Set before thyself always the horrid face of death, to restrain thee from sin.

Verse 21. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not. ] Whilst he lieth sick, he regardeth no earthly thing, no not what becometh of his children (formerly his greatest care) whether they be advanced or impaired in their outward condition. As when he is dead he can take no knowledge of anything done in this world, Isai. 63.16 Eccles. 2.19. and 96. be his children or friends rich or poor, high or low, he is both ignorant and insensible. It was a base slander published by a Jesuit, some years after Queen Elizabeth's death, That as she died without sense or feeling of God's mercies, so that she wished she might after her death hang a while in the Air, to see what striving would be for her Kingdom. As for that opinion of some Papists, That the dead do sometimes return into the Land of the living, that they know how things go here, and make report thereof to those in heaven, it is contrary to the whole Scripture.

Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain. ] That is, (say some) But as long as he is living, his body is afflicted with a thousand evils; and though his soul, by the condition of her creation, be exempt from them, yet she bears a part in them and becomes miserable with it. A dying man hath sorrow without, and sorrow within; the whole man is in misery, as Job here felt himself. Others hold, that this Poetical representation hath no other meaning, but that the dead have no manner of communication with the living. Broughtou rendereth it, His flesh is grieved for itself, and his soul will mourn for itself; q.d. he takes no thought or care for his children or nearest relations.

CHAP. XV. Verse 1. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanice, and said.]

LApides, locutus est: In this second encounter, Eliphaz falls upon Job, not so much with stronger Arguments, as with harder words; reproving him sharply, or rather reproaching him bitterly, Facundiâ quadam caninâ, with more Eloquence then charity. So hard a thing is it (saith Beza ) espetially in disputing and reasoning, to avoid self-love, as even in these times experience daily teacheth us. He hinteth (I suppose) at the public Conference betwixt himself and Jacobus Andreas at Mompelgard, whereby the strife was rather stirred then stinted, as Thuanus complaineth. Or else at the Disputation at Possiacum, wherein Beza, Speaker for the Protestant party, (before the Queen Mother of France, the young King Charles and many Princes of the Blood) entering into the matter of the Eucharist, spake with such heat (unless the Historian wrongs him); that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own side, so that he was commanded to conclude. Such meetings are seldom successful (saith Luther ); because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather then verity. In this reply of Eliphaz to Job. we may see what an evil thing it is to be carried away with prejudice and pertinency, which make a man forget all modesty, and fall foul upon his best friends. Here's enough said to have driven this sorrowful man into utter despair, had not God upheld his spirit whiles, he is fiercely charged for a wicked man, and hated of God: neither doth any of his friends henceforth afford him one exhortation to repentance, or one comfortable promise; as Lavater well observeth.

Verse 2. Should a wise man utter vain knowledge. ] Heb. Knowledge of the wind; light, frothy, empty discourses, that have no tack or substance in them, but only words that are no better then wind, a mere flash or Aiery nothing. Solomon thinks, a wise man should beware of falling into this fault, lest he forfeit his reputation, Eccles. 10.1. Dead flies cause the Oyntments of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savor. so doth a little folly, him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor; as spots are soonest observed in the whitest and finest garments; and envy, like worms and moths, doth usually feed on the purest cloth. Neh. 6.11. A great many dead flies may be found in a Tar-box, and no hurt done, but one of them fallen into a pot of sweet Odours, or precious Perfumes, may soon taint and corrupt them.

And fil his belly with the East-wind.] Per ventrem, mentem intellige, & per ventum Orientalem, vanam opinionem, saith Vatablus; By belly understand the mind, and by the East wind a vain conceit, or frothy knowledge, blown forth out of a swelling breast, to the hurt of others, for the East wind is destructive to herbs and fruits. Hos. 12.1. Gen. 41.6. But doth not Eliphaz here by these bubble of words, and blustering questions, betraying much choler and confidence, fall into the very same fault which he findeth with Job: Doth not he also fill his belly with heat. (so the Vulgar rendereth this Text) which kindling in his bosom, blazeth out at his lips? Doth not this angry man exalt folly, and show himself none of the wisest, though he were the oldest in all the company.

Verse 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk? ] Why? But if he do, should he therefore be thus rippled up, and rough-hewed? And not rather reduced and rectified with hard Arguments and soft words? Man is a cross crabbed creature: Duci vult, trahi non vult; Perswade him you may, compel him you cannot. A fit time also must be taken to persuade him to better, for else you may loose your sweet words upon him. The Husbandman soweth not in a storm: The Mariner hoyseth not sail in every wind: Good Physicians evacuate not the body in extremity of heat and cold. A brother offend • d is harder to be 〈…〉 a strong City, Prov. 18.19. This Eliphaz should have considered, and not so rashly censured Job for a fool, and his talk for trash, but rather handled him tenderly, considering his condition, and desired him to explain such of his speeches as he thought not so well and wisely uttered.

Or with speeches where with he can do no good? ] This is but the same with the former; and indeed this whole verse is but a saying of that plainly, which in the foregoing verse he had said figuratively.

Varse 4. Yea thou castest off fear. ] Heb. Thou makest void sear; that is, Religion, whereof the fear of God is both the beginning, Prov. 1.7. and the end, Eccles. 12.1. This is an heavy charge indeed; as if Job, by saying, the extreme miseries of this life are common to the godly and the wicked, had by consequence taught men to cast off all Religion as unprofitable, which none but such a shameless man as thyself, saith Eliphaz, would ever have averred. It cannot be denied, but that Job, through the bitterness of his grief, and the unreasonableness of his adversaries, was somewhat carried beyond the bounds of that reverence which is do unto God, and reasoneth the matter somewhat hotly with God; but that thereby he bewrayed his manifest contempt of his Majesty, casting off all awful regard and recourse thereto by Prayer, as the wicked, who call not upon God, Psal. 14.4. This was a meet • avil, or rather an unsufferable injury done to the good man, who gave sufficient testimony of his searing God, and estsoons poured out his prayer in his presence. All which notwithstanding, he heareth in the next words,

And restrainest prayer before God. ] Thou forbearest to pray thyself, and thou discouragest others. If this had been true, it had been a foul fault indeed, for whiles Prayer standeth still, the whole Trade of godliness standeth still likewise, and to cast off Prayer, is to cast off God: Jer. 10.25. We must take heed of falling from the affections of Prayer, though we continue doing the Duty. As vessels of Wine, when first tapped, are very smart and quick, but at last grow exceeding flat: so do many Christians, (through unbelief, and worldly cares an businesses, or domestical discords, or some other distempers, whereby prayers are hindered, 1 Pet. 3.7.) either they pray not frequently, or not fervently, but in a customary formal bedulling way. And this Eliphaz might suspect Job of, and assign it as the cause of all his miscarriages in word and deed. Sure it is, that as sleep composeth drunkenness, so doth prayer the affections: a man may pray himself sober again, as a Reverend man gathereth out of this Text.

Verse 5. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity. ] Heb. Thy crooked, wry disposition that standeth acrosse to God and goodness, Psal. 51.5. Homo est inversus decalogus. Solomon speaketh of perverse lips, as if the upper lip stood where the nether should, Prov. 4.24. And Saint Jude speaketh of hard speeches, uttered by ungodly sinners, Jude 15. such as Job was none, whatever Eliphaz by mis-interpreting, made of him, wresting his words to a wrong sense, as Psal. 56.5. and by a spiritual unmannerlinesse, making the worst of that he spake; there being not anything that may not be taken with the left hand. Now if this befell Job from his friends and those godly persons, what wonder though the like, and worse be done to us by wicked enemies.

And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty ] Then the which, nothing is a greater enemy to piety, saith an Interpreter. Politicians formallize and enervate the power of truth, till at length they leave us a heartless and sapless Religion, saith another. Such an one Eliphaz makes Job to be: q.d. Thou wast wont to speak prayer, but now thou speakest Policy, yea, Thou choosest to do it, thou lovest evil more then good, and lying rather then to speak right. Psal. 523. Thou hast as many turnings and windings in thy mind, as the Serpent hath in his body (so the Hebrew word seemeth to signify, Gen. 3.1.) Thus he heightneth his charge, and layeth on yet more load.

Verse 6. Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I. ] Yes you, and none but you. Jobs heart condemned him not (and thence his confidence toward God, 1 John 3.21) much less his month, had not his words been misconstrued. But as charity maketh a good sense of doubtful speeches and passages; so prejudice and displeasure takes all things (though well meant) at the worst, and as Logicians do, Sequitur partem deteriorem. Eliphaz diggeth up evil, Prov. 16.27. and is like Achilles, of whom Homer saith, that he was a great find-fault.

Yea, thine own lips testify against thee ] Heb. Answer against thee. For Witnesses ordinarily answer to Interrogatories. So the pride of Israel (breaking forth as a great master-pock in his fore-head) testified to his face, Hos. 5.5. and the Heretic is condemned of himself, Tit. 3.11. Virtually he doth so, though not formally. But Job did neither good Eliphaz.

Verse 7. Art thou the first man that was born? ] Or, Wast thou made before Adam? Out of the mouth of Ad • m, as from a fountain, flowed whatsoever profitable Learning, Skill or Wisdom, is found in the world, saith the divine Chronologer. Job had taxed Zophar for a young puny and a Novice, chap 12. This, Eliphaz. kindleth at, and taketh upon him to answer in Zophars behalf. As indeed these three speakers, Eliphaz. Zophar and Bildad stood to one another, as much as any one of them did for himself, as if they had all entered bond, and given security for reciprocal assistance. Here then Eliph • z asketh. Art thou the first man born? that is, Art thou the wisest man alive? and must we all be taught by thee, as Adams Nephews were by him, in things divine and human.

Or wast thou made before the bills? ] i.e. Before the Angels, as some sense it. But take it literally for the Mountains, called for their Antiquity, the everlasting hills Gen. 49.26. Hab. 3.6. because they were from the beginning, and shall continue to the end. These appeared first at the separation of the waters, Gen. 1. And Christ, to set forth his eternity, saith, Prov 8.25. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth. So Psal. 90.21.

Verse 8. Hast thou heard the secret of God? ] Thus he goes on to jear Job, and to accuse him of insolent Arrogancy, as if he had taken himself to be of God's Cabinet-Council, and so to have known more of his mind then any other. Now this never came into Jobs heart: but these hot spirited people, when their choler is once up, will not stick to say anything against another whom they desire to gall, and to make the worst of his words, when as themselves cannot take a reproof, though never so just.

And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? ] Hast thou engrossed all the wisdom in the world? and must it needs live and die with thee? Is every man a fool presently, who is not of thy mind and make? Epicurius indeed had such a conceit; and Palaemon, in Suetonius, and Laurentius Valla, with some others of late: but Job was far from it, as appeareth by his many self-abasing expressions: and it had been well for him, if his three friends, had taken out that lesson in wisdoms school; viz. to judge those certain good things found in another, better then they are, and certain evils, less, doubtful good things, certain, and doubtful evil things, none.

Verse 9. What knowest thou, that we know not? ] Here Eliphaz inveigheth against Jobs pride, sed majori cum fastu, but with greater pride, else what meaneth this arrogant comparison? Did not a deceived heart burn him aside, as the Prophet speaketh in another case? and might it not be said of him, as it was once of Antony, That he hated a Tyrant, but not Tyranny. See the Notes above on chap. 12.3. and 13.2.

Verse 10. With us are the gray-headed, &c.] Job had said, chap. 12.12. With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days is understanding. This, though modestly spoken, yet was very ill taken; and is here replied unto with a great deal of heat; Sed ita solent importuni homines, &c. saith Mercer here: But such is the course and custom of unreasonable men, to take everything in the worst way, and to deal rather by reproaches, then by reasons; as Eccius, Sanderus, Gen • brardus, the whole generation of Jesuits, of whom A • relius the Sorbonist saith, and truly, that they are a sort of men, qui nihil magis habent qu • m arrogantiam T • eologica • ni • il minus possident quàm Theologica • • cienti • m; Arrogant and yet ignorant; for whiles they think they know all things, they know nothing at all as they ought to know, 1 Cor. 8.2. As for Antiquity, (here so s • iffely pleaded) it must have no more Authority then what it can maintain. Papists boast much of it, as once the Gibeonites did of old, shoes and mouldy bread. But antiquity severed from verity is of no value: for as Cyprian saith well, Consuet • do mala, vetustas erroris est. And our Savior saith not, I am custom, but, I am the Way, the Truth, &c. And God saith, by the Prophet Ezekiel, Walk ye not in the statutes of your Fathers, neither observe their judgments, &c. but walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them, chap. 20.18, 19. See the Notes on chap. 8.8, 9, 10. and on 12.12.

Verse 11. Are the consolations of God.] Sic fastu • se suas consolationes appellate & sociorum, saith Mercer: so Eliphaz. with state enough, calleth the comforts that he and his fellows had ministered to Job, promising him mercy from God upon his sound repentance; but telling him withal, that unless he would yield himself an hypocrite, those promises would profit him nothing at all. Had Job slighted the precious promises, those conduits of comfort, he had been much to blame, as he was doubtless, who said, My soul refused comfort, Psal. 77.2. Like some sullen child, that will not eat his milk, because he hath it not in the golden dish. The soul is ready to turn the back of the hand, and not the palm, to the staff of divine consolations, saying, Oh my stubbornness! &c. and rather to shift and shark in every by corner for comfort, then to suck it out of those breasts of consolation, and be satisfied, Isai. 60.11. The Apostle taxeth his Hebrews, that they had forgotten the consolation (so the words may be read) which spake unto them as unto children saying, My son, &c. Heb. 12. • . Wrangling with God by caviling Objections, when they should rather have wrestled with him by earnest supplications, putting the Promises in suit, and drawing waters with joy, out of those wells of consolation, Isai. 12.3. Job was not altogether clear of this fault. He was so poor and sore without, and within so full of horror and terror, that he was ready with Rachel, to refuse to be comforted. Mercies were offered unto him, but he was scarce in case to receive them. The ear which tasteth words as the mouth doth meat, was so filled with choler, that he could hardly relish any comfort. The easiest Medicines or Waters are troublesome to sore eyes. The flesh with her roarings and repinings maketh such a din, that the voice of the Comforter cannot well be heard in the best heart sometimes. The Spirit knocks but there is none to open: Hence he goes away grieving, and that should not be.

Is there any secret thing with thee? ] Hast thou meat to eat that we know not of? Are there with thee consolations of thine own better then those of God, which we have ministered unto thee? Some render it, And lieth there any hidden thing within thee? that is, Either some greater and more profound wisdom then every man knoweth; or else some secret sin which must be cast out ere comforts can fasten. For as the wound cannot close and heal, as long as any part of the iron weapon remaineth in it; so herein the Cordiaca passio, or passion of heart, the heart i • so oppressed and over-covered, that the most refreshing cordials cannot come at it, so that it is even suffocated with sorrow. In allusion whereunto, the Church prays, La • . 3.65. Give them sorrow of heart. This was Spira 's case; and for the time might be Jobs. Possibly some sin or sorrow might lie at the fountain-head, and stop the course of his comforts. This Eliphaz fisheth after, and would have found out, and remedied.

Verse 12. Why doth thine heart carry thee away?] Violently transport thee; scil. beyond all bounds of reason and modesty. There is another charge, and higher then the former, as if he had been emotae mentis, not well in his wits, but wild and wood as they call it; or at least; that his passions were so far too hard for his reason, as they did

We are in no small danger of our naughty hearts: It was no ill prayer of one, Lord, keep me from that naughty man, myself. Nor was it any ill counsel of another, who said, So take heed to thyself, that thou beware of thyself. Though there were no devil, yet our corrupt nature would act Satan's part against itself; it would have a supply of wickedness (as a Serpent hath of poison) from itself, it hath a spring to feed it. Keep thy heart therefore with all custody, Prov. 4.24. it will get away else, and carry thee away with it.

And what do thine eyes wink at?] Nictant, celeriterscilicit, & subtiliter. Possibly Job, through pain and anguish might be made to wink whiles he was speaking to them, or they to him; and this they misconstrue as done in contempt. See Psal 35.19. Or that he was plotting some mischief, Prov. 10.10. and 16.30. or pretending to some extraordinary devotion, and therefore shutting his eyes that he might be the more reserved to God. The Vulgar hath it, Why doth thine heart life thee up? and, as if thou wert thinking of some great things, why are thine eyes so set? It is for no goodness sure.

Verse 13. That thou turnest thy spirit against God. ] A fowl fault surely, but merely for want of a fair Interpretation. It is as if Eliphaz should have said, Thy spirit was right when thou bravely barest up under the afflicting hand of God, chap. 1. but because patience hath not had her perfect work as appeareth by thine angry expostulations, thy contesting with God, and chatting against him and his proceedings, therefore I conclude that thou art not perfect and • utire all is not right. Why doth thy spirit swell against God? (so the Vulgar rendereth it) Behold his soul which is listed up, is not upright in him, that's certain, Hab. 2.4.

And lettest such words go d • t of thy mouth. ] Contumelious and blasphemous words not fit to he named. Bona verba, quaeso Eliphaz. True it is, Job had spoken some things more freely then was fitting, and not without a tincture of bitterness. But charity would have made the best of those speeches which you thus odiously aggravate against him; and have taught you to use the same equity toward others, that you would have others use towards yourself. That faith (and so that love) is easily wrought, which teacheth men to believe and think well of themselves, and worse of others. We will make a good exposition, if we have but a good disposition.

Verse 14. What is man that he should be clean?] Eliphaz hath now done chiding (it is but time he should) and falls to reasoning; wherein nevertheless he showeth himself an empty and troublesome Disputer urging again the same Arguments as before, chap. 14.17, 18, 19. and not resting satisfied in a sufficient answer. Did Job ever assert himself clean? Said he not the clean contrary in many places? see chap. 14.4. Only as washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of his God, 1 Cor. 6.11. he discoursed of his integrity and righteousness; not denying himself otherwise tainted with Original sin, and guilty of actual; which he begged pardon for, according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace. And therefore Eliphaz might have spared these words, and better bestowed his pains in comforting Job, and exhorting him to patience. The Jesuits have at this day a device in handling Texts of Scripture by their nice distinctions to perplex and obscure the clearest places; and for those that are doubtful, not at all to distinguish or illustrate them. Again, in points of controversy they make a great putther about that which we deny not, but say little or nothing to the main business.

Verse 15 Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints ] Here he proceedeth to prove that which Job never denied; and Bildad also hath the same chap. 25. Lege ejus verba, nam non male huc quadrant, saith Lavater; Lay his words to these, and they will lend light to each other. See also the Notes on chap. 4.18. There they are called his servants. here his Saints or holy ones; these were the old Patriarchs, say the Septuagint, with whom God at sometimes was angry; and although he was a God that for gave them, yet took he vengeance of their inventions, Psal. 99.8. Others understand it of the Saints in heaven, or the holy Angels.

And the heavens are not clean in his sight.] Nor they of heaven be clean in his eyes, so Broughton rendereth it. The Angels are called angels of heaven, Marth. 24.36. and Gal. 1.8. Because made with and in the highest heavens, and appointed there to inhabit. Howbeit in the Apostate Angels, and in heaven, God's holy and pure eyes found uncleanness, and delivered them therefore into chains of darkness, 2 Pet. 2.4. Again, to be clean in God's sight is another manner of matter then to be simply clean: like as to be just is one thing, and to be just before God, another, Luke 1.6. Sordat in conspect • judicis quodfulget in conceptu operantis. Some understand the Text of the visible heavens, the purest of all inanimate creatures (and therefore Chrysostom speaking of those praying Saints that prayed Peter out of prison, Act. 12. saith, that they were ipso coelo puri • res afflictione facti, more pure then the heavens, yet are they not pure in the sight of God, but have their spots which we count their beauty spo •• .

Verse 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man? ] And therefore abominable because filthy, or stinking and noisome, as putrefied meat is to the nose and palate. Now this is every man's case by nature, Psal. 14.3. there being never a barrel better herring, but all in a pickle, though few believe it. Circumcision of old taught them, that that which was begotten by that part deserved in like sort, as abominable and accursed, to be cut off and thrown away by God. And what else doth Baptism still teach us? See Col. 2.11, 12, 13. 1 Pet. 3.21. David compareth man to the beasts that perish, pecoribus mortici •• , to beasts that die of the Murrain, and so become carrion, and are good for nothing. He lieth notting in the graves of sin, wrapped up in the winding sheet of hardness of heart, and (as a carcass crawleth with worms) swarming with noisome lusts, such as God's soul abhorreth. This is his nature: and for his life,

He drinketh iniquity like water ] He is as it were altogether steeped and soaked in sin? he sucks it in with delight as an Ox doth water, or a drunkard Wine, who had as liefe you take away his life as his Liquor, and could find in his heart to be drowned in a Butt of Malmsey: as George Duke of Clarence was in the Tower of London, and as some say, by his own Election. Sure it is that a draught of sin is the only Merry-go-down to a carnal man; he drinks it frequently and abundantly, even till he swelleth therewith. One observeth here, that Eliphaz saith not, Man eateth, but, drinketh iniquity: because to eat a man must chew, and this taketh up some time, and leaveth a liberty to spit out what he liketh not: but drink goeth down without delay, and we usually drink oftener then we eat: So here

Verse 17. I will show thee, hear me. ] Here Eliphaz useth a short but a lofty preface, calling hard for attention, and raising in Job an expectation of no mean matters. But

This is his Argument:

That is to be held for true which experience evinceth, and wise men teach us, as themselves have learned of their religious Ancestors.

But, both continued experience, and consent of men teach us, that wicked men have terrors within, and troubles without.

Therefore this is to be taken for a truth. Therefore also by consequence, that is false which thou hast spoken concerning the prosperity of wicked men, chap. 12.6. Neither canst thou avoid the charge of wickedness who dost suffer the punishments of the wicked. Now what is all this more then Eliphaz had said in a former discourse? (so that Job might have cried out, Apage coccysmum ) only there he groundeth his Argument upon a night-vision; here upon the testimony and consent of certain wise men, commended by their power and justice. Some think he meaneth Noah and his pious posterity.

That which I have seen, I will declare ] Wilt thou not believe in eye-witness? What can be more sure then sight? 1 John 1.1. Surely, if we were well read in the Story of our own lives, and had laid up our experiences, we might have a divinity of our own. The 119 Psalm is made up of experiments; and David oft telleth us what he had seen and observed.

Verse 18. Which wise men have told from their fathers, ] Who have carefully and faithfully transmitued it as a doctrinal truth to us their posterity, from hand to hand. For in Jobs time 'tis likely that the Scriptures were not yet written. Which, or, Which things wise men ] who did in their generations, Deum recte cognoscere & c • l • r • , rightly know and worship God, which is the highest wisdom, saith Lactanti •• . Have told ] Have spoken it so plainly and plentifully, as if they had shown us the things acted before our eyes. From their Fathers ] Who were careful to instill good instructions and heavenly truths into the minds of their children, their familiars and families, as did Abraham, Gen. 18. and others according to God's own appointment, Deut. 6.

And have not hid it ] But communicated it for the good of many. Light in diffusive of itself. Knowledge is perfected while it is communicated. The more you teach and impart to others, eo ditior ac doctior fias, saith One, the richer and skilfuller you become. It is not pouring out. but want of pouring out that drieth up the streams of grace, as of that Oil, 2 King. 4.6. See Prov. 11.24, 25. Psal. 78.2, 3, 4.

Verse 19. To whom alone the earth was given] Noah and his pious posterity (as was above noted) whom Methodins and other Ancients call, Misudi chiliarchas, the Lord's of the whole word, given them by the Poss • ssor of heaven and earth, as Melchizedek first calleth God, Gen. 14. and from him Abraham another Prince of God; as those Heathens acknowledged him, and heir of the whole world, Rom. 4. As for Melchizedek (commonly taken to be Sem ) he was King in Salem and no stranger, that is, no enemy molested him; no not those great spoilers. Kedarlaomer and his Complices; these never meddled with Melchiseaec and his subjects (probably out of respect to his wisdom and holiness, for which he was famous) no not when marching against the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, they wasted and smote all the neighbor Countries. So true of his subjects and territories was that which followeth here.

And no stranger passed among them ] viz. in an hostile way, in a warlike manner, Nah. 1.15. Some read, No strangs thing passed among them; As not the devouring sword, so neither the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor the destruction that wasteth at noon day, Psal 91.6. Such as was the reign of Ferdinando the third, King of Spain for five and thirty years space. In quibus nee fames nec pestes fuit in regno saith L • piz, wherein there fell out neither Famine not Pestilence.

Verse 20. The wicked man travelleth with pain all his days. ] He tormenteth himself, or thrusteth himself through (so some read it) 1 Tim. 6.10. He takes no more rest then one upon a Rack; he hath his hands on his loins, as a woman in travel, Jer. 30.6. he smiteth upon his thigh; sicut mulierculae in puerperio facere solent, saith Luther in his Marginal Note on Jea. 31.19. And if he would do so for his sin (as he doth for his misery) pia esset illa tristitia. & (si dici potest) beata miseria, as Austin hath it; his grief would be godly, and his misery a blessing, God would pity him as he did his moan-making Ephraim and earnestly remember him still, ver. 20. But alas, the wicked wight, the hypocrite in heart, as he heaps up wrath, so he crieth not, when God bindeth him, Job 36.16. Or if he do cry, 'tis perii. and not peccavi, I am undone, and not, I have done amiss. Hence God many times turneth loose upon him those three Vultures, Care, Fear and Grief, to feed upon his heart. It is seldom seen that God alloweth unto the greatest darlings of the world a perfect contentment. In the very pursuit of these outward vanities is much anguish, many grievances, fears, jealousies, disgraces, interruptions, di • contentments. In the unsanctified enjoyment of them, something the wicked shall have to complain of, that shall give an unsavory verdure to their sweetest morsels; and make their very felicity miserable; witness Ahab, Human, &c. But then followeth the sting of conscience, that maketh a Cain, a Pashur, a Richard the third, to be a terror to himself. And with this pain some wicked men travel all their days here, but hereafrer it shall infallibly and inexpressibly torment the souls of them all, through all eternity. And this with the following illustrations is that Oracle or divine sentence which Eliphaz received from those famous men above mentioned, and which he not obscurely applieth and wresteth against Job, whom herehence he would prove a wicked man by his own concessions, chap. 3.25, 26. and 7.13; 14. compared with Devit. 26, 36. Deu • . 28.65. for that which Eliphaz had heard from his Ancestors, was but the same Law, for substance, that was afterwards written by Moses.

And the number of years is hidden to the Oppressor ] Heb. to the terrible Tyrans, who as he hath not a more cruel Executioner, then his own conscience, so not a more sensible displeasure, then to know that he is mortal, and yet to be ignorant when his Tyranny must end, The number of the years of his Tyranny is uncertain, saith the Vulgar translation. And from this uncertainty which he knoweth not how to remedy (though he run to light a candle at the devil sometimes, viz. by consulting with Soothsayers and Sorcerers to know of them how long he shall live, and who shall succeed him, as Tiberius and other Tyrants did) followeth suspicion and fear, saith Aquinas upon this Text.

Verse 21. A dreadful sound is in his ears ] Heb. A sound of fear and terrors; Not one but many at once, so that he is a Magor-missabib, factus à cord suo fugitivus, as Cain that Caitiff, and those Hivites with their hornets of a clamorous conscience, worse to them then if their bodies had been tormented with stings, or torn with stripes. What a sound of terror in their ears frighted those Syrians, 2 Kings 7.6? And those Persians and Saracen • overcome by Theodosius? Panice terrore incusso, saith the Historian, afraid of their own shadows, they desperately cast themselves into the River Euphrates, and there perished above an hundred thousand of them, Auno Dom. 394. The wicked flieth when none pursueth. Prov. 28.1. The sound of a shaken leaf chaseth him, Lev. 26.36. when the righteous is bold as a Lion, and not dismayed at evil tidings, Psal. 112.7. His heart is balanced with the fear of God; and thence it is that he floateth steadily, blow what wind it will, he sails to the Port; storms and tempests do but beat him into it.

In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. ] Heb. In peace, when he shall say, Peace and safety. 1 Thes. 5.3. When he is at the highest he shall be destroyed, Dan. 4.30, 31. In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits, Job 20.22. his short Spring shall have an eternal Winter, Psal. 92.7. Ultimus sanitat is gradut est morbo proximus, say Physicians, the utmost degree of health is nearest to sickness; so the wicked when nearest misery, have greatest prosperity.

Verse 22. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness ] He despondeth and despaireth of a better condition, sighing out that doalful ditty, Spes & fortuna valete, he looks for no further light and delight of former comforts; he knows that they that go down into the dark pit, cannot hope for God's truth, Isas. 38.18. There being left them neither hope of better, nor place of worse.

And he is waited for of the sword. ] Or, looked upon by the sword, which waiteth, as it were, an opportunity to slay him. Circumspectans undique gladium, so the Vulgar; He looketh this way and that way as fearing the Murderer; his guilt representing to him on all sides nothing but naked swords; he believeth that they will assassine him in his bed. This was the case of Saul, who suspected his best servants: of Dionysius the Tyrant, who durst not trust his own daughter with his throat: Of Alexander Pheraeus, who would not go to bed to his wife Thebe whom he loved, till he had first searched the room and her pocket for edge-tools. Of Richard the third, who after the death of his two innocent Nephews, had fearful dreams and apprehensions, insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword (which always naked stuck by his side) he did go distractedly about the Chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet, saith the Chronologer. Tiberius felt the remorse of conscience so violent, that he protested to the Senate, that he suffered death daily through fear of death; whereupon the Historian maketh this profitable Observation, Tandem fa • inora & f • agitia in supplicium vertuntur; Heinous sins will at length have heavy punishments.

Verse 23. He wandreth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? ] He is hard put to it for necessaries, and would be glad of a piece of bread, as 1 Sam. 25.36. This was the case of Pythias, once so rich, that he entertained a million of men (even Xerx • s his whole huge Hoste) for three days space, at his own proper charge, but afterwards so poor, that he died through hunger. And the like befell Gillimer, King of Vandals, of whom it is storied, that being overcome and beleagured by Bellisarius, he sent to him for a Sponge to dry his tears, a Cittern to ease his grief, and a piece of bread to save his life. Bellisarius himself was afterwards glad to beg his bread. And Henry the fourth, Emperor of Germany, after ten years Raign, was desposed and driven to the like exigent; whereupon he is said to have made use of those words of Job, chap. 19.21. Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me. And there is no doubt but Eliphaz glanceth at Job in all these expressions as if he were the man whom he here describeth with much Eloquence, but small charity.

He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. ] His conscience telleth him, that he is not yet at worst; he knows in himself, say the Septuagint, that further evil shall be upon him, that his misery is inevitable, and at next door by; and this knowledge, being full of fear, is also full of torment: it is even hell afore hand, and above ground.

Verse 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid] Or, Scare him, not only out of his comforts, but out of his wits and senses too, as it did Charles the great Cardinal of Lorraine. See Deut. 28.34. Tullus Hostilius the third King of Romans deriding the Religion of his Predecessour Numa, as that which did emasculate men's minds, was afterwards so terrified, that he set up and worshipped two new gods; viz Pavorem & Pallorem, Trouble and anguish, which he had perpetually present with him, as Lactantius reporteth. What a pitiful agony Vitellius the Emperor was in, when Vespasians Army marched toward Rome, is notably set forth by Dio in his life. Not long after that at the sack of Jerusalem, some Jews killed themselves, left they should fall into the hands of Vespasians soldiers.

They shall prevail against him:] Or, begirt him as a King is inviron'd in peace, by his Guard, in War by his Army. Or, They shall destroy him, as a King ready to the battle doth his enemies forces, which he routeth and ruineth. Fear hath a deadly force upon feeble spirits; neither is it nay wonder that they ring their bells backward, when things begin once to be on fire.

Verse 25. For he stretcheth out his hand against God.] Worthy therefore to have a dead Palsy transfused into it, or dried up, as Jeroboams was, when but stretched out against a Prophet: and as Valens the Emperors hand was made unable to hold a pen, when he would have subscribed a Warrant for the banishing of Basit. Such a Giant-like generation there are to this day among men; as face the heavens, cast down the gantlet against God, Erecto collo valido impetu, arrogantiâ incurvi cervicâ, saith Brenz upon the Text, with stiff necks, full force, and insufferable insolence, as it were on purpose to cross the Almighty, and to wrestle a fall with him: they sin with an high hand, Levite. 26.21. Numb. 15.30. and do as wickedly as they can, Jer. 3.5. yea, with both hands earnestly, Mich 7.3. Persecuting his people who are unto him as the apple of his eye, and resisting the Holy Ghost always. Surely, he would even destroy God if he could, for he hateth him, Rom. 1.30. With an hellish hatred (as the word there signifieth) such as striketh at God's very essence, Psal. 10.41. confer 1 Joh. 3.15.

And strengtheneth himself against the Almighty] Sed vana sine viribus ire. To his sinews of iron, he hath added brows of brass, Isai. 48.4. To his natural crosnesse, habitual hardness and hardiness: so that now, like a stout Warrior, he bends all his strength against the Almighty, but with no better success, then to be broken in pieces, Isai. 8.9. with his it on Mace, Psal. 2.9. Sennacherib for instance. See the Note above on chap. 9.4.

Verse 26. He runneth upon him, even on his neck:] Vulgar, He runneth upon him (God) with an erected-neck: such is his audaciousness and impudence, daring to do any heinous wickedness, and not fearing to run against the strongest part of God's Armor, though able to grind him to powder. Sin hath woaded such an impudency in his face, that he dare with a full forehead encounter God, even upon the points of his Justice and righteous Judgments, wherein he is the ablest to give us the shock, &c. Thus some sense the Text. Others (of good note also,) refer the word, runneth, to God, and render it thus, God runneth upon him, even upon the neck, &c. He breaking his shields, how many and how thick soever they be, drags him by the neck as a miserable vanquished wretch, and lays upon him exquisite and high punishments, according to that chap. 31.3. Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

Upon the thick bosses of his buckler.] Wherewith the Belialist, this Champion for hell, thinks himself best armed and secured, against the dint of the divine displeasure. Bucklers, besides other bosses for ornament, had one great bosse in the middle, with a sharp pike in it for use, to pierce and wound the Adversary. Now God runs upon this also, and is no whit hindered thereby from punishing the refractories, these high attempters, these monstrous men of condition, that so fiercely and so fearlessly lift up their hands against heaven, as if they would pull God out of his throne, and throw the house, yea, the world out at the window. Surely, as Pride resisteth God in a special manner, so doth God in a special manner resist it, 1 Pet. 5.5. The reason whereof is given by Boetius. All other vices (saith he) fly from God, only Pride flies at him, stands out, and makes head against him.

Verse 27. Because he covereth his face with his fatness.] This is given in as one chief cause of his insolency; he is a belly-god, he maketh plaits upon the panch, so Broughron rendereth it: He hath larded his guts, so Calvin: He maketh it his business to pamper his body; his heart also is fat as grease. Psal. 119.70. He is waxen fat, that is prosperity-proud, and kicketh, Dent. 32.15. Pride and fullness of bread were Sodom's twin-sins. Ezek. 16.49. When people are Provender-pricked, (as we call it) they easily turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. Jude 4. and that fullness breeds forgetfulness; as the fed Hawk soon forgets his Master, and the Moon at fullest gets furthest off the Sun. Sensuallists who love feast, Judge. 14.10. are void of the Spirit, Jude 19. A full belly maketh a fowl heart. The rankest weeds grow out of the fattest soil: and those that make their gut a gulf, well they may have collops in their flanks, but they have leanness in their souls; indeed they have (as Swine) their souls for salt only, to keep their bodies from putrefying.

And maketh collops of fat on his flanks.] Heb And maketh mouths, that is, wrinkles upon his flanks: He is active about it, and makes it his business to make provision for the flesh, Rom. 13. ult. He labors for the meat that perisheth, Joh 16.27. He lives to eat, and laughs himself fat, till his heart now hardened by the deceit fullness of his sin, becomes as insensible as Dionysius the Heracleot, who felt not when men thrust needles into his fat belly; or those Bears in Pliny, that could not be stirred with the sharpest prickles.

Verse 28. And he dwelleth in desolate Cities] Such as had been before desolated, but are now by him re-edified, to get him a name and renown amongst men, and to make himself formidable, as those do, who build themselves strong holds upon high Rocks, as if they would wage war against heaven. Peradventure (saith Deodate here ) he meaneth those Kings of violent Empires, who repaired or built great Cities after the Deluge, as Nimrod, Ashur and others, Gen. 10.8. Job 3.14. Isai. 23.13. and raised themselves upon other men's ruins. Eliphaz his scope is to show, that a man that hath great power amongst men, begins to think himself strong enough for God also.

And in houses where no man inhabiteth] For he hath driven away the Inhabitants through his oppressions. This is that crying sin of Depopulatours, who build themselves desolate places, Job 3.14. And Enclosers, who betray Towns, as Rome did Carthage, with a distinction, We will save the City, but destroy the Town. This hath been noted as a great fault in our Nation, and therefore Goropius thinks the English were called Angli. because they were good Anglers, and had skill to lay diverse baits when they fished for others men's livings. But that's his mistake (though perhaps willful,) for we were so called from the old Angli who came in with the Saxons, and were subdued by the Normans, whose Duke, William the Conqueror, paid dear for his depopulations at New Forest, wherein six and thirty Parish Churches had been demolished, and the Inhabitants removed, to make room for beasts or dogs game. Diverse of his sons and Nephews came there to untimely ends, so dangerous it is for men to prove Abaddons or Destroyers.

Which are ready to become heaps.] Heaps of stones, the strongest structures in the world are subject to ruin. Make sure of heaven, which the Philosopher fondly dreamt to be made of stone (arch-work) and would one day come to rain. But whatever becometh of the visible heavens, which shall be purged by the fire of the last day, upon the invisible we may well write, as Hyppocrates telleth us it was engraven on the gates of a certain City, Intacta manet, it remaineth untouched: And as the Venetians boast of their City, that she is still a Virgin, because from the first founding thereof (which is 1200 years since, or near upon) it never came into the hands of a foreign enemy.

Verse 29. he shall not be rich, neither shall his substance, &c.] If he be rich, it is for a mischief, neither is it likely long to continue with him, for God will blow upon, and blast his substance, which is the fort and strength, Isai. 10.14. He resolvs he will be rich, 1 Tim. 6.9. and is set upon it: God to cross him, saith here, He shall not be rich, but I will make a poor fool of him, according to that. Jer. 17.11. As the Partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. There is a curse upon unlawful practices, though men be industrious, as in Jehoiachim; Jer. 22. it is God that giveth power to get wealth, Deut. 8.18. Our care can no more add a penny to our estate, then it can a cubit to our stature, Mat. 6.27.

He shall not prolong the perfection thereof.] Vulgar, He shall not send forth his root in the earth, A man shall not be established by wickedness (saith Solomon ) but the root of the righteous shall continue. Prov. 12.3. See the Note there.

Verse 30. he shall not depart out of darkness] But be held under remediless misery, being ever blasted and benighted, till God at last breathe forth upon him his final displeasure. When God hath brought wicked men into straits, there he holdeth them; not so the godly, Psal. 34.19. they are sure of deliverance in due season. And as before the morning light, is the thickest darkness; so before help, hardest trials. Post tenebras lux, is the Christians motto; not so the ungodly; they are ex tenebris in tenebras, infeliciter exclusi, infelicius excludendi, as Austin hath it, to pass out of one darkness into another, till they be cast into utter darkness.

The flame shall dry up his branches] That Ventus urens & exi • cans of God's wrath shall blast and consume, not his Off-spring only, but all his beauty and bravery: he shall be as a tree that is thunder-struck. Zack. 11.16.

and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away] God will blow him to destruction his very breath shall leave him breathless, Isai. 11.4. Psal. 18.15. Job 4.9. See the Note there. Others understand it of the wicked man's mouth, and make this to be the sense, He shall be so choleric and impatient in his trouble, that he shall send out his last breath suddenly in a passionate fit. So did Nerva the Emperor, likewise Valentinian, Wenceslaus King of Bohemia, and our Henry the second.

Verse 31. Let not him that it deceived, trust in vanity.] Let it suffice him that he hath been once already deceived by the uncertainty of riches, which were never true to those which trusted them, nor never will be, 1 Tim. 6.17. As Charendas was wont to say of going to sea, (and another of going to Law) That he wondered not at those that go once, but at those who go a second time. So may we at those that having found the deceitfulness of sin, and the instability of Creature-comforts, that they should again be drawn in and deceived. This folly Eliphaz here forewarneth Job of, and would not have him twice stumble at the same stone, but deliver his soul, (if ever God should restore him again) and say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Why feed I upon ashes? &c. Isai. 44.20.

For vanity shalt be his recompense.] i.e. Poverty and misery shall be his portion, as shame shall be the portion of fools, Prov. 3.35. As he hath sowed the wind, so he shall reap the whirlwind, whereof he is likely to have a great catch, Hos. 8.7. See the Note there.

Verse 32. It shall be accomplished before his time.] Heb. in not his day. That recompense forementioned of calamity and death shall be hastened, so that they shall not live out half their days. Psal. 55.22 but die tempora non suo, Eccles. 7.15. then when it were better for them to do anything rather then to die, since they perish in their corruptions, they are killed with death, Rev. 12.33. See Prov. 10.37. Death ever taketh a wicked man unprovided, Haec enim vena nobis ab Adam agnata est, ut nullam 〈◊〉 ad suspendi • m aptam invenium possimus: neque unquam caro •• urtem eliget, nisi p • essa judicio. We naturally dream of an immortality here, neither yield we to die till there be a necessity. Miserandum est autem, saith one: but it is a pitiful thing that being all so desirous of life, we should so little care for those things that would lengthen out lives (such as are piety, justice, temperance, &c) we forget that short way to long life, Psal. 34.12.

His branch shall not be green] Heb. His crooked or bowed down branch; this is his full estate or numerous issue, those boughs of his, laden and bowed down with fruit, shall not be green, but blasted and dried up: ramificans ejus non virescet: It is a misery to be the branch of a wicked stock, for such, as they leave the rest of their substance to their little ones, Psal. 17.14. So they leave them God's curse, as Joab's Legacy, 2 Sam. 3.29. or as Gehazies Leprosy, 2 King. 5.27. a wretched bequeath.

Vers. 33. He shall shake off his unripe grapes as the vine] Filios intelligit per batra, & pueros per florem, saith Vatablus: i.e. By unripe grapes he meaneth the wicked man's sons grown up; and by flowers of the Olive, his little ones; and so it is the same with the former, only flourished over with two similitudes. He (that is God) will snap off his sour grapes as she vines: so Broughton rendereth it; Luct • osa foecunditas (such as was that of Laetae in Jerome, who buried many children) is a sore affliction. If the bud or flower decay, what hope can there be of fruit? Others understand it of the untimely death, as before, or of the decay of his wealth and possessions.

Verse 34. For the congregation of hypocrites shalt be desolate] Heb. Of the hypocrite; where he seemeth to point at Job. as by the unripe grapes, and blasted flowers of the Olive, he had understood Jobs children and possessions, verse. 33. Now the whole congregation or train and retinue of the hypocrite, God will nunest and ruinate, saith Eliphaz: they shall all be as one desolated, so the Original hath it.

And fire shall consume the Tabernacles of bribery] Heb. The Tabernacles of a bribe. Under these two heads, saith one, we may reduce all sorts of sinners; sinners against God under the notion of Hypocrites; and sinners against men under the notion of Bribe-takers; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , say the Septuagint; that is, Receivers of Gifts; and the Hebrew word signifieth, a Gift in general: it is taken also for a bribe, because very many gifts are bribes. Now houses built by bribes or very many gifts, shall be consumed and come to nothing; Jer. 22.13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Hab. 2.9, 10, 11, 12. See the Note there. This Eliphaz casteth in Jobs teeth, but herein he dealt with him as injuriously as Bonner did with Philpot the Martyr, when he said to him, Also I lay to thy charge, that thou killedst thy father, and wast accursed of thy mother on her death-bed, &c.

Verse 35. They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity] Here Eliphaz for a close, by an elegant and usual Metaphor taken from child bearing, showeth that all such as conceive with guile or wrong to others, by that time they have reckoned their months aright, though they grow never so big, shall bring forth nothing but wind and vanity. Like as a woman that thinks she hath conceived and is deceived pleaseth herself with the thoughts of a child, but brings forth nothing but wind, water, or some dead mass. Brenz exemplifieth this by the Papists devising tot modos & formas confitendi & Missandi, so many ways and forms of Confessing and Massing. Poor souls when stung by the Friars Sermons, or other ways troubled in mind, run to those practices for help, but all in vain: for though stilled for a while, yet conscience recoileth upon them, and making them miserable, leaveh them desperate, as Popery is a Doctrine of desperation Mean while, till they are consuted by the event, wicked men please themselves not a little in their sinful conceptions; they have a kind of a sense •• veneris (which Scaliger will have to be the sixth sense, besides those five commonly counted of) a sensual delight in the • sinful projects. As one speaking of the Council of Trent, saith, That it was carried on by the Pope with such infinite guile and craft, as that themselves will even smile in the triumphs of their own wits, (when they hear it but mentioned) as at a master stratagem. these heathens (so they are called, Re •• 11.2.) consider not, that whites they thus • umultuate, they do but imagine a vain thing Psal. 2.1. and that the child's name is Vanity, as here.

And their belly prepareth deceit] Not their head, but their belly prepareth ( accurately and strongly prepareth, so the word signifieth) deceit, self-deceit (so some sense it) or rather to deceive and undo others whom they cannot over-come by might to overcome by • eight And in these guileful projects they delight and take a contemplative kind of pleasure, as the voluptuous person doth in his lust, Psal. 52.1, 2.

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

ALthough he had little or nothing to answer unto but what he had answered before, yet that he might not say nothing, he replieth to Eliphaz his painted speech, and giveth him to know, That Prudentibus viris non placent phalerata sed fortia (as B. Jewel was wont to say) that is, that wise men look for matter, and not for words only, from those that accoast them.

Verse 2. I have heard many such things] Heard them over and over, till I am even sated and nauseated, Vexatus toties rauci; q.d. Your sayings are superfluous, your proofs insufficient; you produce nothing new, nothing but what is trivial, and of very common observation; Hac sex centies audivi; Mine ears are grated and grieved with these unnecessary repetitions, only re-enforced with greater bitterness; which as it addeth nothing at all to the weight of your words, so it causeth me to add this,

Miserable Comforters are ye all.] Heb. Comforters of misery, or of molestation, onerous and burdensome (so the Vulgar rendereth it) and in that sense, weighty if you will, laying more load upon me who was before in a sinking condition. You charge me for slighting the consolations of God, and pretend to come purposely to comfort me; but such cold comforters I have seldom met with; for instead of abating and allaying my sorrows, you do all you can to increase and heighten them. Is this your kindness to your friend? Calvin noteth upon this Text, That some Comforters have but one Song to sing, and they have no regard to whom they sing it. But Saint Jude 's rule is, Of some have compassion, making a difference, others save with fear, ver. 22, 23. which whiles Jobs friends observed not, they were justly styled, Miserable Comforters.

Verse 3. Shall vain words have an end?] Heb. Shall there be an end to words of wind? Bubbles of words, big swoln speeches, full of pride, void of reason: when shall we once have an end of them? They that would comfort another indeed, must not multiply vain repetition (for these are very burdensome to a serious ear, much more to a sad heart) much less bitter speeches, least of all taunts and buffooneries, as verse. 4. For, like as if the eye be inflamed, the mildest Medicine troubleth it, so is it here: how much more when harsh and uncouth?

Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?] That thou rejoynest, having been so fully answered before? Some men will never be said or set down; such is their pertinency, they will not lay down the bucklers, though beaten to their heads. Sed prastas berbam dare, quam turpiter pugnare: Better yield, then stand out with dishonor.

Verse 4. I also could speak as you do. &c.] Every whit as curiously and furiously. I could scold and scoff as freely as you do, but I know no warrant so to retort and retaliate; Being reviled we bless, being defamed, we entreat, 1 Corinth. 4.12, 13. To render railing for railing, is to think to wash off dirt with dirt.

If your soul were in my souls stead ] Some read it optatively, as Isai. 64.1. Would to God your soul were in my souls stead; for then I would heap up words against you, and act your part upon you: but Job was not so malicious or vindictive, as to think that tallying of injuries, is but justice. Hypocritis nihil est crudelius, impatientius, & vindictae cupidius, saith Luther. Hypocrites are cruel, spiteful, and revengeful: but Job was none such. He therefore telleth his friends, that if they were in his condition, he would deal much more mildly with them.

I could heap up words against you] I could, but would not. Posse & nolle, noble est. Or thus, Would I heap up, &c. and handle you thus discourteously by speeches and gestures, as you do me? It were easy to wag a wicked tongue, and to shake my head at you in despite and mockery: but were this Religion? Doth not moral Philosophy say, If a wise man speak evil of thee, endure him: if a fool, pardon him? Vin • it qui patitur, as David did Saul, overcoming evil with good, though when he marched against Nabal, how rough and rash was he in a resolution of revenge? 1 Sam. 25.32.

Verse 5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth] I would speak to your hearts, and raise up your drooping spirits. True it is, that consolatiuncula creat • rulae (as Luther calleth them) creature comforts are poor businesses: nevertheless God conveyeth comfort many times by one man to another, as the air conveyeth light, or water heat. His comforts are either rational, fetched from grounds which faith ministereth; or real, from the presence of anything that comforteth. as the sight and discourse of a friend. And herein, how forcible are right words? chap. 6. 25. They are of force. we see here, both to strengthen the feeble minded, and to abate the strength of their sorrows, to asswage the most swelling floods thereof. And thus one man may be an Angel, nay, a God to another. Now whereas some might say, You that are so good at comforting others, and promise so fair, Why are you not comfortable? Job answereth, in the next verse, that this was their fault, who had unkindly kept him off from receiving any comfort.

Verse 6. though I speak, my grief is not ass • agest] Heb. If I speak; scil. to bewail my misery or to maintain mine innocence; ye say ' • is good enough for me, and how can I be but wicked, who am so punished? As,

If I forbear, what am I eased?] Heb. What goeth from me? q.d. Ye conclude me guilty, because silent; as if I had nothing to say for myself. Some make the words to refer to God; as if Job had said, Whether I speak, or whether I forbear, God doth not come in to my help, I find no comfort from him, &c. and by the next verse it should seem that this is the right sense.

Verse 7. But now be hath made me weary ] i.e. God, whom he acknowledgeth the Author of his afflictions; but he should better have born up under them, then to faint and fret even unto madness, as the Septuagint here translates. Job was now not only wet to the skin, but his soul came into iron, as Josephs once, Psal. 105.18. Like Ezekiel's book, chap. 2. he was written quite through with woes and lamentations. And he might say with heman, Psal. 88.15. While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. The grief which he here describeth, Major erat, quàm ut verbis comprehendi, gravior quàm ut ferri, molestior quam ut credi passes, saith Brenz; i.e. Was greater then could be uttered, heavier then could be born, more troublesome then can be believed. He therefore sets it out as well as he can, and amplifies it by figures and Hyperbolies, to move God and his friends to pity him: and to show that he complained not without cause.

Thou hast made desolate all my company] Heb. Thou hast wonderfully desolated or wasted all my company; that is, all my joints and members (so the Vulgar translateth it;) but they do better that understand it of Jobs family and familiar friends, who were either destroyed, or stood amazed at his so great affliction, and yielded him little comfort. Ne te autem turbet enallage persona, faith Mercer here; the change of person need not trouble us: only the troubledness and unevenness of Jobs speech showeth, that his spirit was troubled and unsettled. We meet with the like oft in the Psalms.

Verse 8. Thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witness against me] viz. that I am an afflicted man, but yet not a wicked man, such as Eliphaz had described by his pingis aqualiculus, those collops in his flank, chap. 15.27. Thou bast made me all wrinkled (so Broughton rendereth it) or, Thou hast wrinkled me. The Hebrew word is found in Job only: but in the Rabbins more frequently. Grief had made surrowes in Jobs face and his tears had often filled them.

And my leanness rising up in me] scil. By the continuance of my sores and sorrows, which have made my body a very bag of bones, and cause me to cry out, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me, Isai. 24.16. My flesh, through my grievous anguish, being fallen from my bones, which rise up in a ghastly manner.

Beareth witness to my face] scil. That I am one of God's Plagipatidae, poor Afflicted: But what of that? Scourgeth he not every Son whom he receiveth? Heb. 12.7. Others render it, Ium • face; where my leanness sitteth, and is most conspicuous: like as it is said of our Savior, That with fasting and pains taking he had so wanzed and macerated himself, that at little past thirty, he was looked upon as one toward fifty, John 8.57. And as Mr. John Fox the Martyrologue, by his excessive pains in compiling the Acts and Monuments of the Church in the space of eleven years, grew thereby so lean and withered, that his friends hardly knew him to be the same man.

Verse 9. he reareth me in his wrath, &c.] Who did all this to Job? The devil say some; his Disease, say others: (that was a most uncharitable censure passed by Luther upon Occolampadius, that he died suddenly ignitis Satanae telis confessus, slain by Satan's fiery darts, because he died of a Carbuncle.) But Job surely meaneth it of God, upon whom his heart was still, though he speak here somewhat unhappily of him, out of the sense of the flesh, and greatness of his grief.

Who hateth me] Heb. He Satanically hateth me. What strange language is this from him who elsewhere calleth God his Salvation, his Redeemer, chap. 13.15, 16, 18. and 19.25. and will by and by call him his witness in heaven, to whom his eye poureth out tears, verse. 19, 20? How shall we reconcile these so contrary passions and passages, otherwise then by saying, that every good man is two men, &c? neither can it possibly be expressed how deeply sensible the Saints are of God's displeasure, when they are more then ordinarily afflicted by him, and especially when he seemeth to fight against them with his own hand Hereby (saith Ferus ) we may easily see in what a perplexed estate wicked Reprobates shall be at the last day, when God shall declare himself to be such an enemy to them indeed; for so much as one of his Elect, and a most rare man, but conceiving him to be against him, because he had no present sense of his favor, was thus extremely troubled.

He gnasheth upon me with his teeth.] as extremely angry, Act. 7.54. and by sharpening his teeth threatening destruction, Psal. 37.12.

Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me] which cast forth as it were sparkles of fire. An elegant Hypotyposis, or description of his sad condition to the life, Ut non tam gestares quam nunc geri videatur, saith Brenz, as if we saw it even acted before our faces.

Verse 19. they have gaped upon me with their mouth.] They? who? Non solum Dens, nec solum amici mei, sed tota rerum machinae mihi adversa • ur. Not God only, nor these friends of mine; but all the creatures are up in arms against me, and threaten to devour me at one morsel.

They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully] i.e. They have done me all the disgrace that may be. See Lam 9.30. 2 Cor. 11.20, 21. Mic. 5.1. Act. 23.1, 2 John 18.22. Our Savior was so served according to the Letter; they gaped upon him, mowed at him, buffeted him on the face, gathered themselves together against him, as here. Hence some of the Ancients call Job a figure and Type of Christ, who was thus dealt with both literally and also figuratively.

they have gathered themselves together against me] Or, They have filled themselves upon me; as Exod. 15.7. They have taken their fill of pleasure at my miseries, as one rendereth it: Or, They come upon me by full troops; so Broughton. Men are apt to agree for mischief, Psa. 35.15. & 83.5, 6, 7.

Verse 11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly] i.e. To the Devil, and his instruments, those Chaldean and Sabean Robbers, Chap. 1.15, 17. together with his hard-hearted friends, who for want of the true fear of God, added to his afflictions, chap. 6.14. See the Note there.

And turned me over, &c.] As a Magistrate doth a Malefactor to the Executioner. It is a sore affliction to be under the rule of wicked men: much more to be under the rage, which yet was the case of that noble army of Martyrs, ancient and modern. The comfort is, that although the Lord turn his servants over into the hands of the wicked, whose tender mercies are meet cruelties, yet he never ••• es them out of his Own hand, neither will he suffer the rod of the wicked to rest upon the lot of the righteous. Psa. 125.3. His constant care is, that the choice spirits of his afflicted people fail not before him, and therefore he numbereth out their strokes, and if their enemies over do and go beyond their commission, so as to help forward the foreappointed affliction, he is sort displeased and jealous with a great jealousy against them; Zach. 1.15.

Verse 12. I was at ease, but be hath broken me asunder] It is no small misery to have been happy Fuimus Troes & fortis Milesis Euripides bringeth in Hecuba as ashamed to look Polymnestor in the face, because of a Queen she was now a Captive; her former felicity was no small aggravation of her present misery: So was Jobs. Prosper eram, sed disrupit me, saith he; I was wealthy, but he hath undone me; so Broughton rendereth it. The same Hebrew word signifieth both to be rich, and to be at ease; for such commonly sing Requiems to their souls, as he did Luke 12.19. and say, I shall never be moved, Psal. 30.6. I shall see no sorrow, Rev. 18.7. But God can quickly confute them. Jobs worldly prosperity was quickly dashed and lost He once hoped to have died in his nest, but God not only unnested him, but broke him to shivers, yea beat him to dust and atoms, as the word here signifies. Nay more,

He hath also taken me by the neck.] As a strong man doth his enemy, dashing him to the ground, and giving him his Passport, as we say.

And hath shaken me to pieces.] Heb. He hath scattered and scattered me. as a stone crumbled to crattle, or a pitcher beaten to powder. Sunt illustres figurae & elegantes hyperbolae, saith Mercer. here's brave Rhetoric.

And set me up for his mark.] Heb. For a mark to him; that I may feel all the arrows of his judgments. See chap, 7.20. with the Note there. God shot showers of shafts at him, and seemed to take pleasure in so doing; as a man doth in his shooting at a mark.

Verse 13. His Archers compass me round about.] i.e. His Instruments of my woe, whether persons or things, but especially my grievous sores putting me to intolerable pain: these are God's Arrows or Archers, and do make my poor body not unlike that shield of Sceva at the siege of Dyrrachium, which had two hundred and twenty darts sticking in it, when Caesar came to his rescue.

He cleaveth my reins asunder] As a skillful Archer, he hits the white, he cleaves the pin, as they call it, he shooteth exactly (to the very chining and dissecting of my back-bone) and so putteth me to most exquisite pain and torment, Lam. 3.13.

He poureth out my gall upon the ground.] My bowels, saith the Vulgar. The gall is affixed to the liver, and when that is poured out; the man cannot live, because his wound is mortal and incurable. Job held himself so, but it proved better: the Lord chastened him sore, but he gave him not over to death, Psal. 118.18.

Verse 14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach] So that I have hardly any breathing-while, Quis tot & tantis ferendis simul par sit? Let no man henceforth say. Never did any one suffer such hard and heavy things as I do. What I did not Job? This story of his is a Book case to answer such an Objection, since never any before, nor since his time was so handled; witness the lamentable moan he maketh here. And yet to show his equanimity under the hand of God, Buxtorf and Amama have observed, that the Hebrew word, Perets, in this Text rendered, breath, hath a letter lesser then ordinary in the best Copies. to signify, that Jobs great calamities seemed to him to be but little, because he hoped that God would turn them all to the best unto his soul.

He runneth upon me like a Giant] With speed, strength and courage, fiercely and fearlessly, But now what doth Job? doth he stand stouting and sturdying it out with God? No, but in the next words he telleth us how he was affected with these afflictions; scil. that as God's hand was heavy upon him so he held out all the demonstrations and emblems of an heavy heart; and as God had laid him low, so he carried his soul accordingly. God reined him with a rough bit, and he repented.

Verse 15. I have sowed sackcloth upon my skin] Not Silks. but sackcloth is now mine immediate clothing, next my very skin, which must needs be troublesome to a man so full of sores and other sorrows. So far was poor ulcerous Job from that height and haughtiness of spirit, wherewith Eliphaz had charged him. chap. 15.12, 23, 25. as if Job had been 〈◊〉 indeed, but not lowly; hambled, but not humble. Here was a real Apology, I have sowed sackcloth, &c. here was an ocular demonstration, and should have moved his friends to more moderation: for why should any deal harshly with him, who dealt so coarsely with himself?

And defiled my horn in the dust.] My horn, that is, my head, say some. My splendor, saith the Chaldee; Omnia quondam magnifica, All that I formerly made any reckoning of, saith Brenz; who also hath this good Note upon the Text. The sense of God's wrath and judgments due for sin, changeth all our gayety, maketh all our costly garments be laid aside, putteth us into the habit of penitent Suppliants, causeth us to abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes, which were anciently the signs and symbols of true contrition. And now since Christians ought to repent all their life long, and to grieve for their sins, let them be always clothed with sackcloth, not without, but within; and let them put dust on their heads, by remembering that they are but dust, and that they cannot be raised out of the dust, and instead of sackcloth, be clothed with the robes of glory, but by the mercy of God, through the merits of Christ, &c.

Verse 16. My face is foul with weeping.] Is swelled, saith the Vulgar. Is shriveled up, say the Jew-Doctors: is double dirtied, so one rendereth it. So far was Job from stretching out his hand against God, and strengthing himself against the Almighty, as Eliphaz h • d charged him, chap. 15.25. That he lay at God's feet as a Suppliant with blubbered and beslubbered cheeks; having furrows in his face, and Isickles from his lips with continual weeping, yea, he had wept himself blind almost, for so it followeth;

And on mine eye lids is the shadow of death;] i.e. Mine eyes do fail with tears, as Lum. 2.11. Largâ lachry marum copiâ aci ••• oculorum obstruente; they are even wasted away and sunk into my head, as in a dying man. Much weeping spendeth the spirits, weakeneth the visive power, and sometimes blindeth, as it did Fanstus (the son of Vortiger King of this Island by his own daughter.) who is said to have wept himself blind for the abominations of his parents. See David's tears and the effects thereof, Psa 6.7. and 38.10.

Verse 17. Not for any injustice (Heb. violence or wrong doing) in my hands] Job could wash his hands of that rapine and bribery wherewith they had injuriously charged him, chap. 15.34. and safely say of it, as afterwards Father Latimer did of Sedition; As for that sin, for ought that I know, me thinks I should not need Christ, if I might so say. Some failings there might be in him in doing justice, but no intendments of doing injustice.

Also my prayer is pure] As proceeding from an heart washed from wickedness, Jer. 4.14. and presented with holy hands, lifted up without wrath or doubting, 1 Tim. 2.8. That he regarded not iniquity in his heart, he was well assured, Psal, 66.17. Prayer is the pouring out of the heart; if iniquity be harboured there, prayer will have the sent and savor, and that incense will strike off the hand which offereth it. God requireth, that in every place Incense be offered unto his name and a pure Offering, Mal. 1.11. It standeth a man in hand to see that though his work be but mean, yet it be clean; though not fine, yet not foul, soiled and shibbered with the flur of a rotten heart. An upright man in afflictions is not without his cordial, as is to be seen in Job here, and 8 Paul, 2 Cor. 1.12.

Verse 18. O earth cover not thou my blood.] Job had made an high profession of his innocenty and integrity. This he 〈◊〉 confirmeth, 1. By an imprecation against himself. 2. By an appeal to God, ver. 19 in this imprecation or wish of his (which Mr. Broughton taketh to be meant by the foregoing words. Also my prayer is pure, rendered by him thus, Bar my wish is clean, saying. Oh earth cover •• t, &c. ) he hath an eye, no doubt to the History of Abelo blood, shed by Cain. Gen 4. and it is as if he should say, If I have committed murder or • hy the like wickedness, cover it not, O earth, but do thy office by crying out against me; yea, cry so loud to God for vengeance, as to drown the voice of my supplication.

And let my cry have no place.] A most pathetical speech, able to 〈◊〉 the heart of his friends to relent to hear it, and straightway to 〈◊〉 their opinion of him, whiles he thus bespeaketh the earth, and maketh res 〈…〉 , the 〈◊〉 and lifeless creatures, his hearers.

Verse 19. Also now behold my witness is on heaven.] Here's his appeal to God so great is the confidence of a good conscience. We also may do the like, if there be no other way left of clearing our innocence; provided that we do it with a clear conscience, and in a matter of consequence; not in jest but in judgment. Some of the Martyrs appealed thus, and cited their Persecutors to answer at God's Tribunal. Yea, to help the truth in necessity, a private Oath betwixt two or more, may be lawfully taken, so it be done sparingly and warily: for in serious affairs and matters of great importance, if it be lawful in private to admit God as a Judge, why should he not as well be called to withesse? Again, the examples of holy men show the practice of private Oaths as not unlawful, Jacob and Laban confirmed their covenant by a private Oath, so did Jonathan and David, &c.

Verse 20. My friends scorn me] Or, Play the Rhetoricians against me. David likewise complaineth of his Rhetorical mockers at feasts, that made as it were set speeches against him. One rendereth it, My friends are Interpreters, or rather mis-interpreters of my speeches. For my love they are my adversaries, but I give my solf unto prayer, Psal. 109.4.

But mine eye pours h • ut tears unto God.] Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor. The Hebrew hath it. Mine eye droppeth, or distilleth to God. Prayers and tears are the weapons of the Saints, whose eyes, glazed with tears, are fitly compared to the