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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Job, Chapter XIX].</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1710)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>J O B</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XIX.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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This chapter is Job's answer to Bildad's discourse in the foregoing
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chapter. Though his spirit was grieved and much heated, and Bildad was
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very peevish, yet he gave him leave to say all he designed to say, and
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did not break in upon him in the midst of his argument; but, when he
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had done, he gave him a fair answer, in which,
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I. He complains of unkind usage. And very unkindly he takes it.
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1. That his comforters added to his affliction,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:2-7">ver. 2-7</A>.
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2. That his God was the author of his affliction,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:8-12">ver. 8-12</A>.
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3. That his relations and friends were strange to him, and shy of him,
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in his affliction,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:20-22">ver. 20-22</A>.
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II. He comforts himself with the believing hopes of happiness in the
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other world, though he had so little comfort in this, making a very
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solemn confession of his faith, with a desire that it might be recorded
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as an evidence of his sincerity,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:23-27">ver. 23-27</A>.
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III. He concludes with a caution to his friends not to persist in their
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hard censures of him,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:28,29">ver. 28, 29</A>.
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If the remonstrance Job here makes of his grievances may serve
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sometimes to justify our complaints, yet his cheerful views of the
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future state, at the same time, may shame us Christians, and may serve
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to silence our complaints, or at least to balance them.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Job19_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Reply of Job to Bildad.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1520.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Then Job answered and said,
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2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with
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words?
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3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed
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<I>that</I> ye make yourselves strange to me.
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4 And be it indeed <I>that</I> I have erred, mine error remaineth
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with myself.
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5 If indeed ye will magnify <I>yourselves</I> against me, and plead
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against me my reproach:
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6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me
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with his net.
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7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud,
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but <I>there is</I> no judgment.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Job's friends had passed a very severe censure upon him as a wicked man
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because he was so grievously afflicted; now here he tells them how ill
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he took it to be so censured. Bildad had twice begun with a <I>How
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long</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+8:2,18:2"><I>ch.</I> viii. 2, xviii. 2</A>),
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and therefore Job, being now to answer him particularly, begins with a
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<I>How long</I> too,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>.
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What is not liked is commonly thought long; but Job had more reason to
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think those long who assaulted him than they had to think him long who
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only vindicated himself. Better cause may be shown for defending
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ourselves, if we have right on our side, than for offending our
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brethren, though we have right on our side. Now observe here,</P>
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<P>
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I. How he describes their unkindness to him and what account he gives
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of it.
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1. They <I>vexed his soul,</I> and that is more grievous than the
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vexation of the bones,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+6:2,3">Ps. vi. 2, 3</A>.
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They were his friends; they came to comfort him, pretended to counsel
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him for the best; but with a great deal of gravity, and affectation of
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wisdom and piety, they set themselves to rob him of the only comfort he
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had now left him in a good God, a good conscience, and a good name; and
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this vexed him to his heart.
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2. They <I>broke him in pieces with words,</I> and those were surely
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hard and very cruel words that would break a man to pieces: they
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grieved him, and so broke him; and therefore there will be a reckoning
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hereafter for all the hard speeches spoken against Christ and his
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people,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jude+1:15">Jude 15</A>.
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3. They <I>reproached him,</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>),
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gave him a bad character and laid to his charge things that he knew
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not. To an ingenuous mind reproach is a cutting thing.
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4. They <I>made themselves strange to him,</I> were shy of him now that
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he was in his troubles, and seemed as if they did not know him
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+2:12"><I>ch.</I> ii. 12</A>),
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were not free with him as they used to be when he was in his
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prosperity. Those are governed by the spirit of the world, and not by
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any principles of true honour or love, who make themselves strange to
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their friends, or God's friends, when they are in trouble. <I>A friend
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loves at all times.</I>
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5. They not only estranged themselves from him, but <I>magnified
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themselves against him</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>),
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not only looked shy of him, but looked big upon him, and insulted over
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him, magnifying themselves to depress him. It is a mean thing, it is a
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base thing, thus to trample upon those that are down.
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6. <I>They pleaded against him his reproach,</I> that is, they made use
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of his affliction as an argument against him to prove him a wicked man.
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They should have pleaded for him his integrity, and helped him to take
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the comfort of that under his affliction, and so have pleaded that
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against his reproach (as St. Paul,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+1:12">2 Cor. i. 12</A>);
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but, instead of that, they pleaded his reproach against his integrity,
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which was not only unkind, but very unjust; for where shall we find an
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honest man if reproach may be admitted for a plea against him?</P>
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<P>
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II. How he aggravates their unkindness.
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1. They had thus abused him often
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>):
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<I>These ten times you have reproached me,</I> that is, very often, as
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+31:7,Nu+14:22">Gen. xxxi. 7; Num. xiv. 22</A>.
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Five times they had spoken, and every speech was a double reproach. He
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spoke as if he had kept a particular account of their reproaches, and
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could tell just how many they were. It is but a peevish and unfriendly
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thing to do so, and looks like a design of retaliation and revenge. We
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better befriend our own peace by forgetting injuries and unkindnesses
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than by remembering them and scoring them up.
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2. They continued still to abuse him, and seemed resolved to persist in
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it: "How long will you do it?"
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:2,5"><I>v.</I> 2, 5</A>.
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"I see you will magnify yourselves against me, notwithstanding all I
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have said in my own justification." Those that speak too much seldom
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think they have said enough; and, when the mouth is opened in passion,
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the ear is shut to reason.
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3. They were not ashamed of what they did,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>.
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They had reason to be ashamed of their hard-heartedness, so ill
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becoming men, of their uncharitableness, so ill becoming good men, and
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of their deceitfulness, so ill becoming friends: but were they ashamed?
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No, though they were told of it again and again, yet they could not
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blush.</P>
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<P>
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III. How he answers their harsh censures, by showing them that what
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they condemned was capable of excuse, which they ought to have
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considered.
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1. The errors of his judgment were excusable
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>):
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"<I>Be it indeed that I have erred,</I> that I am in the wrong through
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ignorance or mistake," which may well be supposed concerning men,
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concerning good men. <I>Humanum est errare</I>--<I>Error cleaves to
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humanity;</I> and we must be willing to suppose it concerning
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ourselves. It is folly to think ourselves infallible. "But be it so,"
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said Job, "<I>my error remaineth with myself,</I>" that is, "I speak
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according to the best of my judgment, with all sincerity, and not from
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a spirit of contradiction." Or, "If I be in an error, I keep it to
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myself, and do not impose it upon others as you do. I only prove myself
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and my own work by it. I meddle not with other people, either to teach
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them or to judge them." Men's errors are the more excusable if they
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keep them to themselves, and do not disturb others with them. <I>Hast
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thou faith? Have it to thyself.</I> Some give this sense of these
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words: "If I be in an error, it is I that must smart for it; and
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therefore you need not concern yourselves: nay, it is I that do smart,
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and smart severely, for it; and therefore you need not add to my misery
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by your reproaches."
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2. The breakings out of his passion, though not justifiable, yet were
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excusable, considering the vastness of his grief and the extremity of
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his misery. "If you will go on to cavil at every complaining word I
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speak, will make the worst of it and improve it against me, yet take
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the cause of the complaint along with you, and weigh that, before you
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pass a judgment upon the complaint, and turn it to my reproach: <I>Know
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then that God has overthrown me,</I>"
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>.
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Three things he would have them consider:--
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(1.) That his trouble was very great. He was overthrown, and could not
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help himself, enclosed as in a net, and could not get out.
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(2.) That God was the author of it, and that, in it, he fought against
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him: "It was his hand that overthrew me; it is in his net that I am
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enclosed; and therefore you need not appear against me thus. I have
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enough to do to grapple with God's displeasure; let me not have yours
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also. Let God's controversy with me be ended before you begin yours."
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It is barbarous to <I>persecute him whom God hath smitten and to talk
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to the grief of one whom he hath wounded,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+69:26">Ps. lxix. 26</A>.
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(3.) That he could not obtain any hope of the redress of his
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grievances,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>.
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He complained of his pain, but got no ease--begged to know the cause of
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his affliction, but could not discover it--appealed to God's tribunal
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for the clearing of his innocency, but could not obtain a hearing, much
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less a judgment, upon his appeal: <I>I cry out of wrong, but I am not
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heard.</I> God, for a time, may seem to turn away his ear from his
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people, to be angry at their prayers and overlook their appeals to him,
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and they must be excused if, in that case, they complain bitterly. Woe
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unto us if God be against us!</P>
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<A NAME="Job19_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_10"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_11"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_12"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_13"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_14"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_15"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_16"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_17"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_18"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_19"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_20"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_21"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job19_22"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Job Complains of God's Displeasure; Job Complains of His Friends.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1520.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set
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darkness in my paths.
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9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown <I>from</I>
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my head.
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10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine
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hope hath he removed like a tree.
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11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth
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me unto him as <I>one of</I> his enemies.
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12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me,
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and encamp round about my tabernacle.
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13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance
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are verily estranged from me.
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14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have
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forgotten me.
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15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a
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stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
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16 I called my servant, and he gave <I>me</I> no answer; I intreated
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him with my mouth.
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17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the
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children's <I>sake</I> of mine own body.
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18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake
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against me.
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19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are
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turned against me.
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20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am
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escaped with the skin of my teeth.
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21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for
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the hand of God hath touched me.
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22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my
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flesh?
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Bildad had very disingenuously perverted Job's complaints by making
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them the description of the miserable condition of a wicked man; and
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yet he repeats them here, to move their pity, and to work upon their
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good nature, if they had any left in them.</P>
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<P>
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I. He complains of the tokens of God's displeasure which he was under,
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and which infused the wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery.
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How doleful are the accents of his complaints! "<I>He hath kindled his
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wrath against me,</I> which flames and terrifies me, which burns and
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pains me,"
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>.
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What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God? Seared consciences will
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feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now. Enlightened consciences fear
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it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. Job's present apprehension was
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that <I>God counted him as one of his enemies;</I> and yet, at the same
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time, God loved him, and gloried in him, as his faithful friend. It is
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a gross mistake, but a very common one, to think that whom God afflicts
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he treats as his enemies; whereas, on the contrary, <I>as many as he
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loves he rebukes and chastens;</I> it is the discipline of his sons.
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Which way soever Job looked he thought he saw the tokens of God's
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displeasure against him.
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1. Did he look back upon his former prosperity? He saw God's hand
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putting an end to that
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>):
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"<I>He has stripped me of my glory,</I> my wealth, honour, power, and
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|
all the opportunity I had of doing good. My children were my glory, but
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I have lost them; and whatever was a crown to my head he has taken it
|
|
from me, and has laid all my honour in the dust." See the vanity of
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worldly glory: it is what we may be soon stripped of; and, whatever
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strips us, we must see and own God's hand in it and comply with his
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design.
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2. Did he look down upon his present troubles? He saw God giving them
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their commission, and their orders to attack him. They are <I>his
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troops,</I> that act by his direction, which <I>encamp against me,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>.
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It did not so much trouble him that his miseries came upon him in
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troops as that they were <I>God's</I> troops, in whom it seemed as if
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God fought against him and intended his destruction. God's troops
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|
<I>encamped around his tabernacle,</I> as soldiers lay siege to a
|
|
strong city, cutting off all provisions from being brought into it and
|
|
battering it continually; thus was Job's tabernacle besieged. Time was
|
|
when God's hosts encamped round him for safety: <I>Hast thou not made a
|
|
hedge about him?</I> Now, on the contrary, they surrounded him, to his
|
|
terror, and <I>destroyed him on every side,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
3. Did he look forward for deliverance? He saw the hand of God cutting
|
|
off all hopes of that
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>He hath fenced up my way, that I cannot pass.</I> I have now no way
|
|
left to help myself, either to extricate myself out of my troubles or
|
|
to ease myself under them. Would I make any motion, take any steps
|
|
towards deliverance? I find <I>my way hedged up;</I> I cannot do what I
|
|
would; nay, if I would please myself with the prospect of a deliverance
|
|
hereafter, I cannot do it; it is not only out of my reach, but out of
|
|
my sight: God <I>hath set darkness in my paths,</I> and there is none
|
|
to tell me how long,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+74:9">Ps. lxxiv. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
He concludes
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>),
|
|
|
|
"I am gone, quite lost and undone for this world; <I>my hope hath he
|
|
removed like a tree</I> cut down, or plucked up by the roots, which
|
|
will never grow again." Hope in this life is a perishing thing, but the
|
|
hope of good men, when it is cut off from this world, is but removed
|
|
like a tree, transplanted from this nursery to the garden of the Lord.
|
|
We shall have no reason to complain if God thus remove our hopes from
|
|
the sand to the rock, from things temporal to things eternal.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. He complains of the unkindness of his relations and of all his old
|
|
acquaintance. In this also he owns the hand of God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He has put my brethren far from me,</I> that is, "He has laid those
|
|
afflictions upon me which frighten them from me, and make them stand
|
|
aloof from my sores." As it was their sin God was not the author of it;
|
|
it is Satan that alienates men's minds from their brethren in
|
|
affliction. But, as it was Job's trouble, God ordered it for the
|
|
completing of his trial. As we must eye the hand of God in all the
|
|
injuries we receive from our enemies ("the Lord has bidden Shimei curse
|
|
David"), so also in all the slights and unkindnesses we receive from
|
|
our friends, which will help us to bear them the more patiently. Every
|
|
creature is that to us (kind or unkind, comfortable or uncomfortable)
|
|
which God makes it to be. Yet this does not excuse Job's relations and
|
|
friends from the guilt of horrid ingratitude and injustice to him,
|
|
which he had reason to complain of; few could have borne it so well as
|
|
he did. He takes notice of the unkindness,
|
|
|
|
1. Of his kindred and acquaintance, his neighbours, and such as he had
|
|
formerly been familiar with, who were bound by all the laws of
|
|
friendship and civility to concern themselves for him, to visit him, to
|
|
enquire after him, and to be ready to do him all the good offices that
|
|
lay in their power; yet these were <I>estranged from him,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
They took no more care about him than if he had been a stranger whom
|
|
they never knew. His kinsfolk, who claimed relation to him when he was
|
|
in prosperity, now failed him; they came short of their former
|
|
professions of friendship to him and his present expectations of
|
|
kindness from them. Even his familiar friends, whom he was mindful of,
|
|
had now forgotten him, had forgotten both his former friendliness to
|
|
them and his present miseries: they had heard of his troubles, and
|
|
designed him a visit; but truly they forgot it, so little affected were
|
|
they with it. Nay, his inward friends, the men of his secret, whom he
|
|
was most intimate with and laid in his bosom, not only forgot him, but
|
|
abhorred him, kept as far off from him as they could, because he was
|
|
poor and could not entertain them as he used to do, and because he was
|
|
sore and a loathsome spectacle. Those whom he loved, and who therefore
|
|
were worse than publicans if they did not love him now that he was in
|
|
distress, not only turned from him, but were turned against him, and
|
|
did all they could to make him odious, so to justify themselves in
|
|
being so strange to him,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
So uncertain is the friendship of men; but, if God be our friend, he
|
|
will not fail us in a time of need. But let none that pretend either to
|
|
humanity or Christianity ever use their friends as Job's friends used
|
|
him: adversity is the proof of friendship.
|
|
|
|
2. Of his domestics and family relations. Sometimes indeed we find
|
|
that, beyond our expectation, there is a friend that sticks closer than
|
|
a brother; but the master of a family ordinarily expects to be attended
|
|
on and taken care of by those of his family, even when, through
|
|
weakness of body or mind, he has become despicable to others. But poor
|
|
Job was misused by his own family, and some of his worst foes were
|
|
those of his own house. He mentions not his children; they were all
|
|
dead, and we may suppose that the unkindness of his surviving relations
|
|
made him lament the death of his children so much the more: "If they
|
|
had been alive," would he think, "I should have had comfort in them."
|
|
As for those that were now about him,
|
|
|
|
(1.) His own servants slighted him. His maids did not attend him in his
|
|
illness, but <I>counted him for a stranger and an alien,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
His other servants never heeded him; if he called to them they would
|
|
not come at his call, but pretended that they did not hear him. If he
|
|
asked them a question, they would not vouchsafe to <I>give him an
|
|
answer,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
Job had been a good master to them, and did not <I>despise their cause
|
|
when they pleaded with him</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+31:13"><I>ch.</I> xxxi. 13</A>),
|
|
|
|
and yet they were rude to him now, and despised his cause when he
|
|
pleaded with them. We must not think it strange if we receive evil at
|
|
the hand of those from whom we have deserved well. Though he was now
|
|
sickly, yet he was not cross with his servants, and imperious, as is
|
|
too common, but he entreated his servants with his mouth, when he had
|
|
authority to command; and yet they would not be civil to him, neither
|
|
kind nor just. Note, Those that are sick and in sorrow are apt to take
|
|
things ill, and be jealous of a slight, and to lay to heart the least
|
|
unkindness done to them: when Job was in affliction even his servants'
|
|
neglect of him troubled him.
|
|
|
|
(2.) But, one would think, when all forsook him, the wife of his bosom
|
|
should have been tender of him: no, because he would not curse God and
|
|
die, as she persuaded him, his breath was strange to her too; she did
|
|
not care for coming near him, nor took any notice of what he said,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though he spoke to her, not with the authority, but with the tenderness
|
|
of a husband, did not command, but entreated her by that conjugal love
|
|
which their children were the pledges of, yet she regarded him not.
|
|
Some read it, "Though I lamented, or bemoaned myself, for the
|
|
children," that is, "for the death of the children of my own body," an
|
|
affliction in which she was equally concerned with him. Now, it
|
|
appeared, the devil spared her to him, not only to be his tempter, but
|
|
to be his tormentor. By what she said to him at first, <I>Curse God and
|
|
die,</I> it appeared that she had little religion in her; and what can
|
|
one expect that is kind and good from those that have not the fear of
|
|
God before their eyes and are not governed by conscience?
|
|
|
|
(3.) Even the little children who were born in his house, the children
|
|
of his own servants, who were his servants by birth, despised him, and
|
|
spoke against him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>);
|
|
|
|
though he arose in civility to speak friendly to them, or with
|
|
authority to check them, they let him know that they neither feared him
|
|
nor loved him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. He complains of the decay of his body; all the beauty and strength
|
|
of that were gone. When those about him slighted him, if he had been in
|
|
health, and at ease, he might have enjoyed himself. But he could take
|
|
as little pleasure in himself as others took in him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>My bone cleaves now to my skin,</I> as formerly it did to my flesh;
|
|
it was this that filled <I>him with wrinkles</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:8"><I>ch.</I> xvi. 8</A>);
|
|
|
|
he was a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones. Nay, his skin
|
|
too was almost gone, little remained unbroken but the <I>skin of his
|
|
teeth,</I> his gums and perhaps his lips; all the rest was fetched off
|
|
by his sore boils. See what little reason we have to indulge the body,
|
|
which, after all our care, may be thus consumed by the diseases which
|
|
it has in itself the seeds of.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. Upon all these accounts he recommends himself to the compassion of
|
|
his friends, and justly blames their harshness with him. From this
|
|
representation of his deplorable case, it was easy to infer,
|
|
|
|
1. That they ought to pity him,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
This he begs in the most moving melting language that could be, enough
|
|
(one would think) to break a heart of stone: "<I>Have pity upon me,
|
|
have pity upon me, O you my friends!</I> if you will do nothing else
|
|
for me, be sorry for me, and show some concern for me; <I>have pity
|
|
upon me, for the hand of God hath touched me.</I> My case is sad
|
|
indeed, for I have fallen into the hands of the living God, my spirit
|
|
is touched with the sense of his wrath, a calamity of all other the
|
|
most piteous." Note, It becomes friends to pity one another when they
|
|
are in trouble, and not to shut up the bowels of compassion.
|
|
|
|
2. That, however, they ought not to persecute him; if they would not
|
|
ease his affliction by their pity, yet they must not be so barbarous as
|
|
to add to it by their censures and reproaches
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Why do you persecute me as God?</I> Surely his rebukes are enough
|
|
for one man to bear; you need not add your wormwood and gall to the cup
|
|
of affliction he puts into my hand, it is bitter enough without that:
|
|
God has a sovereign power over me, and may do what he pleases with me;
|
|
but do you think that you may do so too?" No, we must aim to be like
|
|
the Most Holy and the Most Merciful, but not like the Most High and
|
|
Most Mighty. God gives not account of any of his matters, but we must
|
|
give account of ours. If they did delight in his calamity, let them be
|
|
satisfied with his flesh, which was wasted and gone, but let them not,
|
|
as if that were too little, wound his spirit, and ruin his good name.
|
|
Great tenderness is due to those that are in affliction, especially to
|
|
those that are troubled in mind.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Job19_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job19_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job19_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job19_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job19_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job19_28"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job19_29"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Job's Confession of Faith; Happiness of the Redeemed.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1520.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed
|
|
in a book!
|
|
24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock
|
|
for ever!
|
|
25 For I know <I>that</I> my redeemer liveth, and <I>that</I> he shall
|
|
stand at the latter <I>day</I> upon the earth:
|
|
26 And <I>though</I> after my skin <I>worms</I> destroy this <I>body,</I> yet
|
|
in my flesh shall I see God:
|
|
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
|
|
not another; <I>though</I> my reins be consumed within me.
|
|
28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of
|
|
the matter is found in me?
|
|
29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath <I>bringeth</I> the
|
|
punishments of the sword, that ye may know <I>there is</I> a judgment.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
In all the conferences between Job and his friends we do not find any
|
|
more weighty and considerable lines than these; would one have expected
|
|
it? Here is much both of Christ and heaven in these verses: and he that
|
|
said such things as these <I>declared plainly that he sought the better
|
|
country, that is, the heavenly;</I> as the patriarchs of that age did,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+11:14">Heb. xi. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
We have here Job's creed, or confession of faith. His belief in God the
|
|
Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the principles of
|
|
natural religion, he had often professed: but here we find him no
|
|
stranger to revealed religion; though the revelation of the promised
|
|
Seed, and the promised inheritance, was then discerned only like the
|
|
dawning of the day, yet Job was taught of God to believe in a living
|
|
Redeemer, and to <I>look for the resurrection of the dead and the life
|
|
of the world to come,</I> for of these, doubtless, he must be
|
|
understood to speak. These were the things he comforted himself with
|
|
the expectation of, and not a deliverance from his trouble or a revival
|
|
of his happiness in this world, as some would understand him; for
|
|
besides that the expressions he here uses, of the Redeemer's
|
|
<I>standing at the latter day upon the earth,</I> of his seeing God,
|
|
and <I>seeing him for himself,</I> are wretchedly forced if they be
|
|
understood of any temporal deliverance, it is very plain that he had no
|
|
expectation at all of his return to a prosperous condition in this
|
|
world. He had just now said that <I>his way was fenced up,</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>)
|
|
|
|
and his <I>hope removed like a tree,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
Nay, and after this he expressed his despair of any comfort in this
|
|
life,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+23:8,9,30:23"><I>ch.</I> xxiii. 8, 9; xxx. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
So that we must necessarily understand him of the redemption of his
|
|
soul from the power of the grave, and his reception to glory, which is
|
|
spoken of,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+49:15">Ps. xlix. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
We have reason to think that Job was just now under an extraordinary
|
|
impulse of the blessed Spirit, which raised him above himself, gave him
|
|
light, and gave him utterance, even to his own surprise. And some
|
|
observe that, after this, we do not find Job's discourses such
|
|
passionate, peevish, unbecoming, complaints of God and his providence
|
|
as we have before met with: this hope quieted his spirit, stilled the
|
|
storm and, having here cast anchor within the veil, his mind was kept
|
|
steady from this time forward. Let us observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. To what intent Job makes this confession of his faith here. Never
|
|
did any thing come in more pertinently, or to better purpose.
|
|
|
|
1. Job was now accused, and this was his appeal. His friends reproached
|
|
him as a hypocrite and contemned him as a wicked man; but he appeals to
|
|
his creed, to his faith, to his hope, and to his own conscience, which
|
|
not only acquitted him from reigning sin, but comforted him with the
|
|
expectation of a blessed resurrection. <I>These are not the words of
|
|
him that has a devil.</I> He appeals to the coming of the Redeemer,
|
|
from this wrangle at the bar to the judgment of the bench, even to him
|
|
to whom all judgment is committed, who he knew would right him. The
|
|
consideration of God's day coming will make it a <I>very small thing
|
|
with us to be judged of man's judgment,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+4:3,4">1 Cor. iv. 3, 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
How easily may we bear the unjust calumnies and reproaches of men while
|
|
we expect the glorious appearance of our Redeemer, and his redeemed, at
|
|
the last day, and that there will then be a resurrection of names, as
|
|
well as bodies!
|
|
|
|
2. Job was now afflicted, and this was his cordial; when he was pressed
|
|
above measure this kept him from fainting--he believed that he should
|
|
<I>see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living;</I> not in
|
|
this world, for that is the land of the dying.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. With what a solemn preface he introduces it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:23,24"><I>v.</I> 23, 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
He breaks off his complaints abruptly, to triumph his comforts, which
|
|
he does, not only for his own satisfaction, but for the edification of
|
|
others. Those now about him, he feared, would little regard what he
|
|
said, and so it proved, He therefore wished it might be recorded for
|
|
the generations to come. <I>O that my words were now written,</I> the
|
|
words I am now about to say! As if he had said, "I own I have spoken
|
|
many unadvised words, which I could wish might be forgotten, for they
|
|
will neither do me credit nor do others good. But I am now going to
|
|
speak deliberately, and that which I desire may be published to all the
|
|
world and preserved for the generations to come, <I>in perpetuam rei
|
|
memoriam</I>--<I>for an abiding memorial,</I> and therefore that it may
|
|
be written plainly and <I>printed,</I> or drawn out in large and
|
|
legible characters, so that he that runs may read it; and that it may
|
|
not be left in loose papers, but put into <I>a book;</I> or, if that
|
|
should perish, that it may be <I>engraven</I> like an inscription upon
|
|
a monument, <I>with an iron pen in lead, or in the stone;</I> let the
|
|
engraver use all his art to make it a durable appeal to posterity."
|
|
That which Job here somewhat passionately wished for God graciously
|
|
granted him. His words are written; they are printed in God's book; so
|
|
that, wherever that book is read, there shall this be told for a
|
|
memorial concerning Job. He believed, therefore he spoke.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. What his confession itself is; what are the words which he would
|
|
have to be written; we here have them written,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:25-27"><I>v.</I> 25-27</A>.
|
|
|
|
Let us observe them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He believes the glory of the Redeemer and his own interest in him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I know that my Redeemer liveth,</I> that he is in being and is my
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life, <I>and that he shall stand at last,</I> or stand the last, or at
|
|
the latter day, <I>upon</I> (or above) <I>the earth.</I> He shall be
|
|
raised up, or, He shall be, at the latter day, (that is, in the fulness
|
|
of time: the gospel day is called <I>the last time</I> because that is
|
|
the last dispensation) upon the earth: so it points at his incarnation;
|
|
or, He shall be lifted up from the earth (so it points at his
|
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crucifixion), or raised up out of the earth (so it is applicable to his
|
|
resurrection), or, as we commonly understand it, At the end of time he
|
|
shall appear over the earth, for <I>he shall come in the clouds, and
|
|
every eye shall see him,</I> so close shall he come to this earth. He
|
|
shall stand <I>upon the dust</I> (so the word is), upon all his
|
|
enemies, which shall be put a dust under his feet; and he shall tread
|
|
upon them and triumph over them. Observe here,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That there is a Redeemer provided for fallen man, and Jesus Christ
|
|
is that Redeemer. The word is <I>Goël</I> which is used for the
|
|
next of kin, to whom, by the law of Moses, the right of redeeming a
|
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mortgaged estate did belong,
|
|
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+25:25">Lev. xxv. 25</A>.
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Our heavenly inheritance was mortgaged by sin; we are ourselves utterly
|
|
unable to redeem it; Christ is near of kin to us, the next kinsman that
|
|
is able to redeem; he has paid our debt, satisfied God's justice for
|
|
sin, and so has taken off the mortgage and made a new settlement of the
|
|
inheritance. Our persons also want a Redeemer; we are sold for sin, and
|
|
sold under sin; our Lord Jesus has wrought out a redemption for us, and
|
|
proclaims redemption for us, and proclaims redemption to us, and so he
|
|
is truly the Redeemer.
|
|
|
|
(2.) He is a living Redeemer. As we are made by a living God, so we are
|
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saved by a living Redeemer, who is both almighty and eternal, and is
|
|
therefore able to save to the uttermost. <I>Of him it is witnessed that
|
|
he liveth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+7:8,Re+1:18">Heb. vii. 8; Rev. i. 18</A>.
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We are dying, but he liveth, and hath assured us that <I>because he
|
|
lives we shall live also,</I>
|
|
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+14:19">John xiv. 19</A>.
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|
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(3.) There are those that through grace have an interest in this
|
|
Redeemer, and can, upon good grounds, call him theirs. When Job had
|
|
lost all his wealth and all his friends, yet he was not separated from
|
|
Christ, nor cut off from his relation to him: "Still he is my
|
|
Redeemer." That next kinsman adhered to him when all his other kindred
|
|
forsook him, and he had the comfort of it.
|
|
|
|
(4.) Our interest in the Redeemer is a thing that may be known; and,
|
|
where it is known, it may be triumphed in, as sufficient to balance all
|
|
our griefs: <I>I know</I> (observe with what an air of assurance he
|
|
speaks it, as one confident of this very thing), <I>I know that my
|
|
Redeemer lives.</I> His friends have often charged him with ignorance
|
|
or vain knowledge; but he knows enough, and knows to good purpose, who
|
|
knows Christ to be his Redeemer.
|
|
|
|
(5.) There will be a latter day, a last day, a day when <I>time shall
|
|
be no more,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+10:6">Rev. x. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
That is a day we are concerned to think of every day.
|
|
|
|
(6.) Our Redeemer will at that day stand upon the earth, or over the
|
|
earth, to summon the dead out of their graves, and determine them to an
|
|
unchangeable state; for to him all judgment is committed. He shall
|
|
stand, at the last, on the dust to which this earth will be reduced by
|
|
the conflagration.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He believes the happiness of the redeemed, and his own title to that
|
|
happiness, that, at Christ's second coming, believers shall be raised
|
|
up in glory and so made perfectly blessed in the vision and fruition of
|
|
God; and this he believes with application to himself.
|
|
|
|
(1.) He counts upon the corrupting of his body in the grave, and speaks
|
|
of it with a holy carelessness and unconcernedness: <I>Though, after my
|
|
skin</I> (which is already wasted and gone, none of it remaining but
|
|
<I>the skin of my teeth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>)
|
|
|
|
<I>they destroy</I> (those that are appointed to destroy it, the grave
|
|
and the worms in it of which he had spoken,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+17:14"><I>ch.</I> xvii. 14</A>)
|
|
|
|
<I>this body.</I> The word <I>body</I> is added: "Though they destroy
|
|
this, this skeleton, this shadow
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+17:7"><I>ch.</I> xvii. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
this that I lay my hand upon," or (pointing perhaps to his weak and
|
|
withered limbs) "this that you see, call it what you will; I expect
|
|
that shortly it will be a feast for the worms." Christ's body saw not
|
|
corruption, but ours must. And Job mentions this, that the glory of the
|
|
resurrection he believed and hoped for might shine the more brightly.
|
|
Note, It is good for us often to think, not only of the approaching
|
|
death of our bodies, but of their destruction and dissolution in the
|
|
grave; yet let not that discourage our hope of their resurrection, for
|
|
the same power that made man's body at first, out of common dust, can
|
|
raise it out of its own dust. This body which we now take such care
|
|
about, and make such provision for, will in a little time be destroyed.
|
|
Even <I>my reins</I> (says Job) <I>shall be consumed within me</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>);
|
|
|
|
the innermost part of the body, which perhaps putrefies first.
|
|
|
|
(2.) He comforts himself with the hopes of happiness on the other side
|
|
death and the grave: <I>After I shall awake</I> (so the margin reads
|
|
it), <I>though this body be destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I see
|
|
God.</I>
|
|
|
|
[1.] Soul and body shall come together again. That body which must be
|
|
destroyed in the grave shall be raised again, a glorious body: <I>Yet
|
|
in my flesh I shall see God.</I> The separate soul has eyes wherewith
|
|
to see God, eyes of the mind; but Job speaks of seeing him with eyes of
|
|
flesh, <I>in my flesh, with my eyes;</I> the same body that died shall
|
|
rise again, a true body, but a glorified body, fit for the employments
|
|
and entertainments of that world, and therefore a <I>spiritual
|
|
body,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+15:44">1 Cor. xv. 44</A>.
|
|
|
|
Let us <I>therefore</I> glorify God with our bodies because there is
|
|
such a glory designed for them.
|
|
|
|
[2.] Job and God shall come together again: <I>In my flesh shall I see
|
|
God,</I> that is, the glorified Redeemer, who is God. <I>I shall see
|
|
God in my flesh</I> (so some read it), the Son of God clothed with a
|
|
body which will be visible even to eyes of flesh. Though the body, in
|
|
the grave, seem despicable and miserable, yet it shall be dignified and
|
|
made happy in the vision of God. Job now complained that he could not
|
|
get a sight of God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+23:8,9"><I>ch.</I> xxiii. 8, 9</A>),
|
|
|
|
but hoped to see him shortly, never more to lose the sight of him, and
|
|
that sight of him will be the more welcome after the present darkness
|
|
and distance. Note, It is the blessedness of the blessed that they
|
|
shall see God, shall see him as he is, see him face to face, and no
|
|
longer through a glass darkly. See with what pleasure holy Job enlarges
|
|
upon this
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Whom I shall see for myself,</I>" that is, "see and enjoy, see to
|
|
my own unspeakable comfort and satisfaction. I shall see him as mine,
|
|
as mine with an appropriating sight,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+21:3">Rev. xxi. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>God himself shall be with them and be their God;</I> they shall be
|
|
<I>like him, for they shall see him as he is,</I> that is seeing for
|
|
themselves,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+3:2">1 John iii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>My eyes shall behold him, and not another. First,</I> "He, and not
|
|
another for him, shall be seen, not a type or figure of him, but he
|
|
himself." Glorified saints are perfectly sure that they are not imposed
|
|
upon; it is no <I>deceptio visus--illusion of the senses. Secondly,</I>
|
|
"I, and not another for me, shall see him. Though my flesh and body be
|
|
consumed, yet I shall not need a proxy; I shall see him with my own
|
|
eyes." This was what Job hoped for, and what he earnestly desired,
|
|
which, some think, is the meaning of the last clause: <I>My reins are
|
|
spent in my bosom,</I> that is, "all my desires are summed up and
|
|
concluded in this; this will crown and complete them all; let me have
|
|
this, and I shall have nothing more to desire; it is enough; it is
|
|
all." With this the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. The application of this to his friends. His creed spoke comfort to
|
|
himself, but warning and terror to those that set themselves against
|
|
him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. It was a word of caution to them not to proceed and persist in their
|
|
unkind usage of him,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>.
|
|
|
|
He had reproved them for what they had said, and now tells them what
|
|
they should say for the reducing of themselves and one another to a
|
|
better temper. "<I>Why persecute we him</I> thus? Why do we grieve him
|
|
and vex him, by censuring and condemning him, <I>seeing the root of the
|
|
matter,</I> or the root of the word, <I>is found in him?</I>" Let this
|
|
direct us,
|
|
|
|
(1.) In our care concerning ourselves. We are all concerned to see to
|
|
it that the root of the matter be found in us. A living, quickening,
|
|
commanding, principle of grace in the heart, is the root of the matter,
|
|
as necessary to our religion as the root to the tree, to which it owes
|
|
both its fixedness and its fruitfulness. Love to God and our brethren,
|
|
faith in Christ, hatred of sin--these are the root of the matter; other
|
|
things are but leaves in comparison with these. Serious godliness is
|
|
the one thing needful.
|
|
|
|
(2.) In our conduct towards our brethren. We are to believe that many
|
|
have the root of the matter in them who are not in every thing of our
|
|
mind--who have their follies, and weaknesses, and mistakes--and to
|
|
conclude that it is at our peril if we persecute any such. Woe be to
|
|
him that offends one of those little ones! God will resent and revenge
|
|
it. Job and his friends differed in some notions concerning the methods
|
|
of Providence, but they agreed in the root of the matter, the belief of
|
|
another world, and therefore should not persecute one another for these
|
|
differences.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. It was a word of terror to them. Christ's second coming will be very
|
|
dreadful to those that are found <I>smiting their fellow servants</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+24:49">Matt. xxiv. 49</A>),
|
|
|
|
and therefore
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+19:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>),
|
|
|
|
"<I>Be you afraid of the sword,</I> the flaming sword of God's justice,
|
|
which turns every way; fear, lest you make yourselves obnoxious to it."
|
|
Good men need to be frightened from sin by the terrors of the Almighty,
|
|
particularly from the sin of rashly judging their brethren,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+7:1,Jam+3:1">Matt. vii. 1; Jam. iii. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
Those that are peevish and passionate with their brethren, censorious
|
|
of them and malicious towards them, should know, not only that their
|
|
wrath, whatever it pretends, works not the righteousness of God, but
|
|
that,
|
|
|
|
(1.) They may expect to smart for it in this world: <I>It brings the
|
|
punishments of the sword.</I> Wrath leads to such crimes as expose men
|
|
to the sword of the magistrate. God himself often takes vengeance for
|
|
it, and those that showed no mercy shall find no mercy.
|
|
|
|
(2.) If they repent not, that will be an earnest of worse. By these you
|
|
may know there is a judgment, not only a present government, but a
|
|
future judgment, in which hard speeches must be accounted for.</P>
|
|
|
|
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