HERE ends the book of Job, whose short sufferings (for the space of twelve months, as the Hebrews reckon in Seder Olam) were recompensed with a very long life, in great prosperity. If we could rely upon all their traditions, this might have been added to the paraphrase upon the last words, that the whole time of his life was two hundred and ten years. For, in the Hierusalem Targum upon Exod. xii. 40. and in Bereschit Rhabba upon Gen. xlii. 2. they make account that the Israelites staid just so long in Egypt: and, in the chronicle forenamed, and in Bava Bathra, and other books, they tell us, that Job was born that very year when Jacob went with his family down thither to sojourn; and died that same year when they were delivered from thence by the hand of Moses. But this agrees neither with what other of their authors say, whom I mentioned in my preface; nor with the LXX. who, in the last verse but one of this book, insert this clause, "all the days of his life were two hundred and forty years." This indeed might be easily reconciled with the account before mentioned, if we did but rectify their numbers in the beginning of that verse by the Hebrew truth, and cut off the thirty years which they have added to the true time that he lived after his recovery from his sickness; for then this passage also must be corrected, and, instead of two hundred and forty, we must set down two hundred and ten. Which we might also prove in this manner (out of Seder Olam, chap. 3.) to be the right account of his age; because it is said, ver. 10. of the last chapter, that "the Lord added to Job the double of what he had before ;" and therefore, if an hundred and forty years were added, he had seventy before, which in all make two hun-. dred and ten. But it is not worth our while to trouble ourselves with such uncertainties; much less is it safe to rely upon any thing that is supported by no stronger authority than the Hebrew tradition. The vanity of which appears most notoriously in this, that Manasseh Ben Israel saith *, it is evidently certain by tradition, that the Mahometans at this day pay a great reverence to this holy man's sepulchre, and honour it at Constantinople with much religion and devotion; when all men that have any considerable acquaintance with other authors besides those of their own nation, (upon which the Hebrews dote), may easily know, that the Job whom the Turks honour was a captain of the Saracens, who was slain when, they besieged that city, in the year of Christ 675. It will be to better purpose, if I take notice of an observation of theirs, which hath more certainty in it, because clearly founded upon the holy scriptures; which is, that Job was a prophet among the Gentiles, and a prophet of very eminent quality and degree; who deserved to have been at least mentioned by Josephus in his book of Antiquities, where he hath not vouchsafed to name him; nay, to have been praised by the son of Syrach, in his catalogue of famous men, Ecclus. xliv. &c. who were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their times. But, according to the humour of the Jews, he magnifies only those of their own country, or such from whom they were directly descended: not considering how much it was for their honour, that by the care of their noble ancestors, the history of Job, and his excellent virtues, had been preserved. Which he ought not, * Lib. 1. de Resurrec. cap. ult. therefore, to have omitted, but to have celebrated him among the chief of those worthy persons, by whom God wrought great glory; such as did bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for their power, giv. ing counsel by their understanding, and declaring prophecies, &c. Ecclus. xliv. 2. 3. Nay, his friends deserved a short remembrance, who seem nothing inferior to the wise men among the Jews, (though they mistook in the application of many excellent truths), but are acknowledged by themselves to have been prophets among the Gentiles. And not without reason; for Eliphaz, we read, iv. 13. &c. had night-visions, an apparition of an angel, and secret whispers, like the still small voice which Elijah heard, 1 Kings, xix. 12. which made R. Sol. Jarci not fear to say, that the Shechinah was upon him. And Elihu, it is easy to discern, felt a divine power working in him mightily, xxxii. 8. 18. 19. which was not altogether a stranger, he shews, (xxxiii. 15. 16.), to other men, whom God in those days instructed by dreams, amongst other ways that he had of communicating his mind to them. But there was none equal to that wherein he made himself known to Job, who in three things seems to have had the pre-eminence among all the Gentile prophets. First, In that God was pleased to speak to him aloud by a voice from heaven, xxxviii. 1. (which the Jews call the Bath Col), and not merely in silent whispers as he did to Eliphaz. Secondly, That this voice was attended with a notable token of a divine presence, from whence it came, viz. a whirlwind, which I take to have been something like the sound as of a rushing mighty wind, wherein the Holy Ghost came upon the day of Pentecost. And, Lastly, he saw likewise, in all probabitity, the appearance of some visible majesty, (xlii. 5.), suppose in a glorious cloud, (as the LXX. seem to understand it, xxxviii. 1.), or something like that which Moses beheld in the bush, when God first called to him out of the midst of it, Exod. iii. 4. Which need not at all puzzle our belief, when we consider that the church in those days was catholic, and not as yet confined to any one family or nation. God was pleased indeed to shew an extraordinary grace to Abraham, in calling him out of his own country and father's house, where idolatry had taken a deep root, or had been long growing without any hope of amendment. For if we give any credit to Kessæus, a Mahometan writer, or to Elmacinus, a Christian, they were infected with it in the days of Heber, who stoutly opposed it, but with so little effect, that though God sent a whirlwind, which threw down all their idols, and broke them in pieces, that false worship still prevailed. But this doth not warrant us to imagine that God utterly rejected and neglected all other people; to whom he revealed himself in a very familiar manner, and gave many demonstrations of his divine presence among them, till they corrupted themselves by such abominable idolatries, that they * Quæst. 39. in Num. Το became altogether unprofitable, and unfit for the society of that Holy Spirit which oft-times moved them. Even among the Canaanites (into whose country God led Abraham) we find Melchisedec was then a priest of the most high God; a greater person than that prophet, and the minister of that oracle (some fancy) which Rebekah went to consult when she felt the twins struggling in her womb, Gen. xxv. 22. whom I might add several others, if I had a mind to prolong this discourse. And though the book before mentioned (Seder Olam Rhabba, chap. 21.) is pleased to say, that the Holy Ghost ceased to inspire men of any other nation after the giving of the law; yet it is easy to shew, that therein it contradicts even their own affirmation elsewhere, which is grounded on good reason, that Balaam was a prophet divinely moved among the Syrians in Mesopotamia. He was a man indeed of naughty affections, and inclined to superstition, but still had many illuminations and motions from the Most High; as appears not only by his predictions, but by the express words of Moses, who says, "the Spirit of God came upon him," Numb. xxiv. 2. To which, if I should add his own testimony concerning himself, that he "heard the words of God," and "saw the vision of the Almighty," and that in an extraordinary manner, "having his eyes open" in his ecstacy, I see no reason why it should be rejected; especially since he declared at the first, when the princes of Midian importuned him to go with them, that he would be wholly guided by the Lord in the business; and when he was come to Balak, constantly went to meet the Lord, to ask him what he should say, and professed his care to speak what the Lord had put in his mouth, xxii. 8. xxiii. 3. 12. 15. &c. These considerations, to which many more might be added, are sufficient to shew, that there is little if any ground for the opinion of Theodoret, who resolves *, that Balaam did not inquire of the true God, though the answer was given by him of whom he was ignorant, not by him whom he invoked and that the conclusion of St Basil †, or Greg. Nyssen ‡, (it is uncertain whose work it is wherein we find it), is more remote from truth, who determine, that when the scripture saith, he went to consult with God, we are thereby to understand the devil. For should we allow the word Elohim, or God, to be so equivocal, that it may be applied not only to other excellent beings besides the Divinity, but to the devil himself, which is the foundation there laid for that conclusion; yet the word Jehovah, or Lord, is never so used; and Balaam always says, that he would go and meet with him. And accordingly the Lord is said to put a word in his mouth, even then when just before we read, that God met him, xxiii. 4. 5. where it is most reasonable by God to understand the angel mentioned xxii. 35. whom the Lord employed to deliver his mind unto him. All which I have said, to shew that God did not quite desert the Gentile world, as long as there were any considerable relics of the ancient religion remaining among them; and they did not wholly di vert to fables, and deliver up themselves to the guid. ance of evil spirits, against the apparent testimony of the Holy Spirit of God; who spake to them by such good men as Job, in whose days those sinners were not only reproved, but punished also by the judges, who worshipped the sun, moon, and stars; which seems to have been the oldest idolatry of all other, as not only Maimonides, but Diodorus Siculus, observes. And if they had listened to such instructions, and not suffered themselves to be led merely by sense, to which those heavenly bodies appeared in such an amazing brightness, that struck with admiration, (as the last-named author speaks), they fancied them to be Jus didies to gs, both eternal and the first Gods; we cannot conceive that they would have sunk so low; as to fall into image-worship, which in Job's country doth not seem to have obtained in his days. But the chiefest part of the wisdom of this prophet consisted in his piety; of which he proved a rare example, as I have said already; especially in adversity: wherein he behaved himself with such admirable virtue, that though the apostle to the Hebrews does not mention him among those who were famous for their faith, (he not being of their race to whom the promises were made), yet St James, in the next epistle, highly magnifics and applauds his patience: And not only propounds him, together with the prophets and holy men "who had spoken to them in the name of the Lord," ver. 10. as a pattern of welldoing, and contented suffering, to the Christian Hebrews, but numbers him among those blessed souls, whose worthy deeds we praise, and whose happiness we admire, ver. 11. Or rather, he names him alone, as an example of a happy man, who endured more than that we read of in ancient times, and in the end found the Lord so mercifully gracious and bountiful to him, that it may encourage all pious men to endure with such a wonderful submission as he did. Who, when he lost his goods, his house, his children, his health, nay, was all over ulcerous, and in great pain; and moreover, was solicited by his wife to speak irreverently, if not irreligiously, of God, and to deny his providence; and by his friends was upbraided as an hypocrite, nay, accused in their passion as a tyrannical oppressor, whereby they endeavoured to bereave him (as St Ambrose observes *) of that great comfort in afflictions, culpa vacare, to be conscious of no enormous crime, and to make him appear to himself as the author of his calamity; at which his inferiors mocked and scoffed, who had formerly had him in great veneration; nay, it exposed him to the scorn of those who were not worthy to be set with the dogs of his flock; so that he looked as if he had been deserted by God, and made an example of his heaviest displeasure ;-yet he bare all at the very first, (when men are wont to be shaken, nay, overthrown by the VOL. III. I sudden news of such dreadful disasters), not only with. much resolution and resignation, but with hear ty thanksgiving; and through the whole course of his calamity, committed no error that I can discern, but what the indiscreet and uncharitable censures of his friends provoked him unto: Which put him upon too frequent and long justifications of himself, and perplexed him extremely, (which seems his greatest trouble), that he could not find out the reason why God afflicted him so severely. But in the issue, God revealed to him what it was fit for him to think in this matter also: and thereby hath given us such satisfaction in that great controversy and difficult question about God's providence, as is no where to be met withal, but in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even prudent men, as St Ambrose + atserves in a book he hath written about Job, are apt to be extremely moved when they see the wicked abound with good things, and the just very much afflicted and truly, says he, it is lubricus locus, a slippery place, in which the saints have scarce been able to tread in the path of true opinion; as we see in David, and Job, who maintained a long conflict with his three ancient friends that came to comfort him, upon this subject. And God himself brought the dispute at last to such a conclusion, as may fully settle the minds of all those who meet with this book, and preserve them from being scandalized, or in the least offended, on such occasions. The Mahometans themselves seem to be fully satisfied, as we read in the Lives of the Fathers, written in the Arabian language by Kessæus; who brings in the Most High, speaking to Job's friends after this manner ‡, "Do you not know, that Job is a prophet of God, whom he hath chosen to his apostleship; and to whom he hath committed his inspiration? God would not have you think that he is angry with him, as you seem to gather from this afflicted state wherein he lies. For you know, that God is wont to prove the prophets, the just, the martyrs, and other good men ; wherein, notwithstanding, there is no indignation or contempt of them, but honour rather, with God most high." Thus St Chrysostom, I find, most elegantly represents him as a far more glorious spectacle, when he sat on the dunghill, than the greatest prince, without his virtue, is when he sits upon a throne. "His ulcers," says he, "were far more valuable in my account, than all their precious stones. For what profit do we receive by them? what necessity, what want, do they supply? But these ulcers of his are the comfort of all manner of heaviness that can seize upon us. You may know this to be true, if, when a man hath lost his ge nuine and only son, you shew him a thousand jewels: and precious stones; which give no comfort at all to his grief, nor in the least assuage his trouble and pain. But in this case, if you remember him of the wounds of Job, he presently finds some ease; when you ask him, saying, Why dost thou weep and lament, O man, on this fashion? Thou hast lost one * Lib. 1. de Interpel. c. 4. + L. 11. de Interpellatione, c. 1. Hotting. Hist. Orientalis, l. 1. c. 3. son, but that blessed man lost all the children he had! And, together with that blow, received a stroke in his flesh, and sat naked in the dung, besmeared all over with the filth that ran out of his wounds; in a deep consumption, which by little and little wasted that just, that true, that devout man, who abstained from all manner of evil, and had God himself for the witness of his virtue. If thou but speak these words, instantly thou extinguishest the heaviness of the mourner, and riddest him out of all his grief; and so the ulcers of that righteous man become more profitable to him than jewels. "Do you therefore conceive now, that you have that champion before your eyes; and that you see the dung, and him sitting in it; a statue of gold, of diamonds, I am not able to say of what: for there is nothing so precious as to be worthy to be compared with that ulcerated body, whose sores shine more brightly than the beams of the sun; which enlighten only the eyes of the body, but these illuminate the eyes of the mind. They make us see, and they made the devil quite blind; for after he had given those wounds in his body, he fled, and appeared no more. See here, beloved, how great the gain of affliction is! For when that righteous man was rich, and enjoyed his ease, the devil had something to say against him; though falsely indeed, yet this he had to say, "Doth Job serve God for nought?" But after he had stript him naked, and made him a beggar, he had not a word to say; he durst not so much as open his mouth against him. When he was rich, then he adventured to wrestle with him, and threatened to -supplant him; but after he had made him poor, deprived him of all he had, and reduced him to the extremest grief and sorrow, he ran away, and durst not renew the assault. When his body was sound, then he laid violent hands on him; but when he had filled it with wounds, he was routed, and fled away vanquished. By this, thou seest how much poverty may prove better than riches, weakness than health, temptation than case and quiet, to those that are vigilant and watchful; who make a profit of all these; and by fighting grow more illustrious and courageous. Who ever saw, who ever heard, such noble combats*?" But there is none, that I have met withal, who represents him in such lively colours, as the great St Basil; who, in a sermon of hist, (the latter part of which was occasioned by a lamentable fire, that happened near their church, and put it in danger), exhorts all the rich, who were untouched by the flames, to relieve their poor neighbours, whose goods were consumed in them; and then addressing himself to those, who had saved themselves, but nothing else, beseeches them, "Not to take their loss too heavily, nor to let their minds be disturbed; but to shake off the misty cloud of sorrow with such generous and manly thoughts, as might turn this accident into an occasion of crowns. For which end, he advises them to put themselves in mind of the constancy of Job; Hom. V. ad Populum Antiochenum. and to say to themselves, as he did, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so it is come to pass.' And by no means, says he, let any of you be moved with what hath happened, either to say, or think, there is no Providence which rules our affairs; or presume to accuse the dispensation and judgement of the Lord; but let him fix his eyes on that champion, and make him his counsellor, who will advise him to better. thoughts. "Let him recount in order all the agonies he endured, and then observe how bravely he came off; and how the devil threw all his darts at him in vain, not one of them giving him a deadly wound. First he set upon his goods, and endeavoured to overwhelm him with the doleful news of various calamities, which came tumbling, like the waves of the sea, one upon the neck of another; but all to no purpose, for the just man received them as a rock doth the fury of a tempest, turning the rage of the waves into froth, and standing itself immoveable. He said not a word that we read of; he made no complaints of these disasters; or, if he said any thing, we may well presume it was those decent and becoming words. which we read in the conclusion, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so is it come to pass." But he did not think any of those calamities that befel him to be worth his lamenting with his tears. "Well, but there comes one afterward that tells him a most dismal story, of the death of all his children by the fall of the house wherein they were making merry. At this, it is true, he rent his garments; and it is the first expression of his grief that we meet withal, in compliance with the passions of nature, and to declare himself a most tender father. But he set some bounds to his grief, and adorned what had happened with those pious words, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away," &c. As if he should have said, I was called their father, as long as he that made me so pleased; but now he hath taken off this crown of children from my head, and it is not fit for me to contend or dispute with him about his own. Let that be which seemeth best to the Lord. He it was that formed them, I was but the instrument. Why should I, who am but a servant, foolishly complain of my master, and repine at. that decree which I cannot alter? "With such words as these that righteous man wounded the devil, and, as one would say, shot a dart quite through his heart, which so enraged him, that seeing him still a conqueror, he made an assault. upon his body, which he turned into corruption, and made it become such a bag of worms, that from a throne it was cast upon a dunghill. And yet good man remained immoveable; and when his body was torn, preserved still the hidden treasure of piety in his soul, of which the devil could not rob him. And therefore, not knowing what to do more, he betook himself to his old stratagem; and instigating his + Tom. 1, Homil. XXIII. p. 565. &c,. wife to entertain irreligious and blasphemous thoughts, attempted that way to overthrow this champion. For she, tired with the long continuance of his calamities, came to him, and clapping her hands at what she beheld, upbraided him with these lamentable fruits of his piety, and rehearsing his former prosperity, and then pointing at this present misery, asked him, If this was the reward which he received from the Lord for all his sacrifices? with abundance of such like words, which were enough to disturb the most composed, and subvert the most steady and resolved mind. I am a vagabond, said she, and am forced to crouch to others like a slave: I, who was a queen, am constrained to depend upon my servants for relief: I, who maintained many liberally, am now nourished myself out of other folks charity: Adding, that it would be far better for him to provoke his angry Creator, by impious words, to cut him off, than by an unprofitable patience, thus to prolong both his and her misery. "But he, more offended with these words than any of his former sufferings, with eyes full of indignation, looked upon her as an enemy, and asked what ailed her to talk thus like one of the foolish women? Lay aside, said he, these thoughts, and let me hear no more of this advice, which makes me appear to myself as if one half of me were wicked and irreligious. "What! shall we receive good at the hands of the Lord, and shall we not suffer evil?" Remember all the past happiness thou hast enjoyed, and oppose better unto worse. No man's life is entirely and thoroughly happy. Tò die warlòs sử węátlen, póve Ose. To be always as well as we can wish, belongs to God alone. If thou art grieved at what is present, fetch thy comfort from what thou hast received before. Now thou weepest, but formerly thou didst laugh; now thou art poor, but there was a time when thou wantedst nothing. Then thou drankest of the pure fountain of life; be content, and drink now the more patiently of the troubled waters. Behold the rivers, their streams are not clear in all places; and our life, thou knowest, is like to one of them, which slides away continually, and is oft-times full of waves, which come rolling one upon another; one part of this river is passed by, and another is running on its course. This part of it is gushing out from the fountain, and the next is ready to follow it as soon as it is gone. And thus we are all making great haste to the common sea; death, I mean, which swallows up all at last. "If we receive good from the hands of the Lord, shall we not bear evil? Think of that again. Shall we go about to compel the Judge to afford us just the very same things for ever? Shall we presume to instruct our Lord and Master how he ought to conduct our life? He hath the power of his own decrees, and orders as he pleases; so he appoints our portion for us. And we know that he is wise, and that he dispenses to his servants what is most profitable for Do not, then, curiously pry into the counsels More Nevochim, Part III. Cap. 23. and resolutions of thy Lord and Governor; only take in good part, and affectionately embrace, whatsoever is ordered by his wisdom. Love his administration ; and whatsoever he is pleased to give, receive it with pleasure. Demonstrate now, in a sorrowful condition, that thou wast worthy of all the joy which thou hadst formerly in a better. "Thus Job discoursing, he baffled the devil once more, and gave him such a repulse, that he made him perfectly ashamed to see himself thus vanquished. And what ensued after this? Why, when the devil was beaten, his disease fled away too, having assaulted him in vain, and got no ground of him. His flesh began to recover into a second youth; he flourished also in his estate, which was restored to him with increase. For riches flowed so plentifully into his house, that they were double to what he had before; first, That he might be no loser by his atfiction; and, secondly, That he might have a merciful reward of his patience under it. Therefore it was that his horses, and mules, and camels, and sheep, and all the rest of his revenue, were doubled, only his children were no more than equal to the number he had before, seven sons and three daughters. The reason was, because his beasts indeed perished entirely, but the better part of his children still survived, when they were taken from him. And therefore, being again adorned with as many sons and daughters as formerly he enjoyed, he had a double portion of them also; those who are present with him here, and those who expected him in the other world. Behold, then, what good things this just man, Job, heaped up to himself by his patient submission to God. And do thou, therefore, if thou hast suffered grievously in this fire, which the malice of the devil kindled, bear it constantly, and lenify the affliction with these better thoughts; according to that which is written, "Cast all thy care upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee.” To this purpose that great person St Basil discourses, when he represents how Job received the first assaults of his affliction, and how happily it ended. And there is great reason to think that he did not, in the progress of it, swerve from those good begianings which had so blessed a conclusion; but whatsoever expressions fell from him when he was engaged in the heat of disputation, he still preserved such a religious temper of mind, as made him not cease to submit himself reverently to God's will, and to thank him for all the benefits he had formerly received from his bounty. Nor do I find any cause for the cens ires which Maimonides (and out of him Manasseh BenIsrael +) hath passed upon the disputation between him and his four friends, about Divine Providence, which he hath thus stated. * "Job (saith he) maintains that mankind is so vile a sort of being, that God doth not regard the best of them any more than he doth the worst; but it is all one to him, when a calamity comes, whether it light upon the offenders, or upon the innocent. Nay, Lib. i. De Resurrectione, c. 16. |