pecially, as we never deserved the least part of the good that we enjoy; but we have deserved more than all the evil that we suffer, present evils should not make us insensible of or unthankful for past mercies. Whatever a believer loses he hath no reason to be dissatisfied; he has a portion that cannot be lost.

"In all this did not Job sin with his lips.' There is more understood than exprest. It is not a bare acquittal, but a high approbation. To govern the tongue under great and sore afflictions is a rare attainment. Job did not murmur, repine, or blaspheme.

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Anger can hardly be silent, and that anger is admirable which speaks and sins not. He that knows not how to be angry knows not how to love. And he that knows not how to reprove in love knows not how to be angry. Job, în a prudent and gracious manner, sharply reproved his wife, yet lovingly convincing her of folly; at once endeavouring to discover and cure her error.

"Verse 11. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him, and to comfort him.'

"The pedigree of these men is very uncertain, and it is of small importance from whom they descended. They were Job's friends,

which is taken from a word which signifies to eat together as sheep, from which the word

pastor is derived. And having heard of his troubles, they agreed to come and visit him, to mourn with and comfort him.

"No doubt Job's troubles were noised abroad. The afflictions as well as the sins of the godly are carried about upon the wings of fame, and every one descants upon and censures them freely.

"It is a proof of true friendship to mourn with and comfort the afflicted. If we really love God it will abide whatever befal us. And it manifests our love to our brethren to be ge nuine, when we continue to love and own them when they are despised and reproached by men, or are afflicted by the immediate hand of God. Some friends are like the swallow, they come in summer but flee away in winter. It is very becoming to prevent the invitations of our friends; it is good manners to be an unbidden guest at a house of mourning. It is very improper to judge or censure, upon hearsay, but a report is warrant enough to pity and pray for our afflicted friends; some look upon it as a compliment to visit those in affliction. But it is spoken of, James i. 27, as a prominent part pure religion, and when we visit with an intention to comfort those in distress. Let us beware of acting the part of Job's friends, who added affliction to him whom they meant to comfort. What a sad condition is represented, Ps. lxix. 20, when it is said, 'I looked for some to take pity, but there was none,' &c. and when it was fulfilled on the innocent Lamb of God when he suffered. None of his follow

of

ers should think it strange when it is with them as it was with their Lord.*

"Verse 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven.'

"Verse 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him; for they saw that his grief was very great.'

"Great afflictions blast the beauty, change and disfigure the face, so that friends cannot know them. Job was now so changed that his friends lift up their voice and wept, thus giving vent to their sorrow, which, as is usual, would revive Job's grief. To show compassion to him, as well as to show their own sorrow, they rent their clothes and sprinkled dust,

Many a good lesson is to be learned from the trou ble of others-we may look on them and receive instruction, and we may say what may comfort and profit them. Job's friends came, not to satisfy their curiosity, much less, as David's false friends, to make invidious remarks upon him, but to mingle their tears with his, and so to comfort him. It is much more pleasant to visit those to whom comfort belongs, than those to whom we must first speak conviction on account of their ignorance.

From their making an appointment to come.-Note, That good people should make appointments among themselves for doing good, thereby exciting one another to it, and assisting and encouraging one another in it. For carrying on any pious design let hand join in hand. Henry.

as a memento of mortality.

However low we

are, God can lay us still lower; and, therefore, it is best to lay ourselves as low as we can, as he does who sits upon the ground when his heart sits down with him too. His friends saw that the pain of his body was great, and that his mind was troubled, for which reason, they sat down with him and kept silence. When a man is resolved to mourn let him mourn, your advice may anger him but it will not help him. Let sorrow have its way a while and that will make way for comfort.'

CHAPTER III.

"Verse 1. After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day.'

"At last Job, who had formerly opened his mouth to justify and bless God, with a loud or clear voice cursed his day. Sorrow sometimes stops the mouth. Ps. lxxvii. 4, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. A wise man hath his tongue at his command, he speaks upon mature deliberation; but a fool's tongue commands him. The word here used, to curse, is derived from a root, which signifies light or

* Seven days Job and his friends sat in silence; they might be afraid of speaking lest they should grieve him. When they saw him in such an extraordinary affliction they likely thought comfort did not belong to him, and, suspecting him a hypocrite, they said nothing.-Henry.

unsettled, and so it means any thing or person which we contemn or despise, so it is frequently translated, as well as to curse or blaspheme. The Hebrew word for honour or glory, signifies heavy; and 2 Cor. iv. 17, speaks of a weight of glory. Now, observe, that cursing a father is opposite to the 5th Commandment, Thou shalt honour thy father,' &c. —thou shalt look on thy parents as upon persons of weight-so to curse them is to look on them as vile and contemptible.

"Can a man curse persons or things? No. Blessings and cursings are in the hand of God. A day is a part of time, and is incapable of a curse. Job curses either the day of his birth or the day on which he suffered such a world of evils. Jeremiah also cursed his day with a vehement curse. But the apostle says, Bless, and curse not.'

"Verses 2, 3. And Job spake and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a manchild conceived,' or brought forth.

"To perish, signifies not to be, or it is to lose former dignity or respect to have a mournful being. Let it not be remembered→ let it be as if it had never been.

"It must be granted that Job discovered much frailty and some passion in this complaint. But if we consider the acuteness of his pain, the multiplicity of his troubles, with their long continuance, we need not wonder that he did complain; and if we look to his end we shall see patience have a perfect work,

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