"In regard of outward troubles, death is the rest of man.

"We are not only indebted to God for our lives at first, but also for the continuance of them, and for all the comforts we enjoy as we pass along. We need divine mercy in every step of our journey.

"An infant is a very helpless creature. The seed of death is sown as soon as life is communicated.*

"Verse 13. For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest.'

"Job here, in four distinct words, expresses the same thing; and in death there is rest from labour, from trouble and oppression, from sorrow and grief; and what is far better than these to believers, from sin, Satan's temptations, and the law of the members warring against the law of the mind.

· Perhaps Job, reflecting upon his folly in wishing he had never been born, tries to mend it with another little better, that he had died as soon as he was born.

When Satan said, "All that a man hath will he give for his life," in reference to Job, he was greatly mistaken; for no man ever valued life at a lower rate than he did.

The vanity and vexation of spirit that attends human life should reconcile us unto death when it comes; but we must not make it a pretence to quarrel with life while it is continued. To desire to die that we may be with Christ, and get free of sin, is the effect and evidence of grace: but to wish to die only to get rid of the troubles of this life, savours of corruption.— Henry.

"Death brings the body to rest, and so is called sleep; and as we awake after sleep, so there shall be a resurrection from the dead; and this will be effected with infinitely more ease, by the power of God, than we can awake from a sound sleep.

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"To wish things otherwise than they are, because we suffer, is certainly sinful; but to wish that those things which have dishonoured and offended God had never been done is surely lawful.

"It is lawful to complain under afflictions ; but we should complain of or to creatures very little. While we pass over second causes, let us pour our complaints into the bosom of God, adoring his wisdom and justice in these things that we cannot understand. And in bewailing our own or the public calamities, we should endeavour to bear the cross cheerfully. To bear is the patience of necessity; to love to bear is the patience of virtue, aid hath in it the highest affection, and the lowest subjection to Christ. To glory in any thing is more than to joy in or take pleasure in it. Col. i. 24. 2 Cor. xii. 10. Rom. v. 3. Gal. vi. 14.

"If we mix faith with our tears, and while we bemoan our condition, believe that God is good and good to us, and that he is able to deliver us, we may wish that the things that are were, not, and pray that God would make a change in our estate.

"Job is angry with his very being. He complains not only of his troubles, but of his

life. This must be numbered among his failings and faults.

"Verse 14. With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves.'

"Job now shows that he would have had rest, as well as the great and rich or wise. Kings here are such as rule by law, with whom counsellors are joined; and it is well when they are both good, for evil counsellors often make a good man a bad king.

"The word for desolate places is clearly applied to the grave. Ezek. xxvi. 20. Tombs may be called desolate places; for when the bodies are laid there, all the company and friends leave them. Even kings and counsellors, who have stately funerals, are left there by their friends, favourites, and flatterers, and great sums were expended in building and beautifying them, yet it was customary to erect them in desolate places.

"We see how God disappoints the vain con ceit of endeavouring to perpetuate our name and greatness in the story of Absalom. 2 Sam. xviii. 18. That ambitious prince was cast into a pit, with a rude heap of stones cast upon him. By which we are taught the folly of preparing a place for a dead body, while the concerns of an immortal soul is neglected.*

* Men have used strange methods to preserve their dignity, if possible, on the other side of death, but it will not do. Death is and will be an irresistible leveller.-Henry.

"Verse 15. Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver.'

"These houses filled with treasure may be their tombs. In these times they not only be stowed great cost upon their tombs, but they put great store of treasure in them. Josephus says Hircanus opened David's sepulchre, and took out three thousand talents; and it is supposed that the Chaldeans raked up the graves of the Jews, not so much from cruelty as from covetousness.

Observe, That neither power, nor wisdom, nor riches are any privilege against death. How then is it said that righteousness delivereth from death? It may be either from troubles or dangers in a day of public calamity, or from the sting of death, the evil of which is passed to a righteous man ; but riches can neither mitigate the pain, nor pull out the sting of death.

"Great men are called the men of the world, Ps. 17, as if they were for nothing but this world, and so they have their portion in this life; and their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever. Ps. xlix. The heart is the place where Christ and the thoughts of heaven should lodge. All things below should be outward thoughts. As the inward thoughts of a godly man are upon the things of God, so the inward thoughts of worldly men are after the world, and they may say to their departing souls, (as that trembling emperor,) whether are you going; where is the place of your rest? "Verse 16. Or as an hidden untimely

birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.'

"As if he had said, if I have gone too high in referring to kings, &c. yet surely I should have been as those that never knew themselves to be in this world. It is worthy of notice that the same word signifies both an infant and a giant; and in the grave there is no difference between them.

"Verse 17. There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.'

"The Hebrew usually expresses many things in one word, but here it has diverse words to signify one thing, only differing in degree. The lowest expression for a sinner, notes one that misses a mark. The next signifies a willingness to sin, and an unwillingness to obey; and the one used here signifies wickedness in the height. So Job means here that they had been restless in sin; who could not sleep till they had done mischief, nor scarce sleep for doing mischief; who weary and tire out themselves with vexing and troubling others. The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days. In the grave they cease from troubling; there they are at rest. In Ps. xciv. How long shall the wicked triumph?' is answered, verse 23, The Lord shall cut them off in their own wickedness.' As if it had been said, Until the Lord cut them off they will never leave off doing wickedly.

"Verse 18. There the prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressor.'