Chap. 5 An .Expoftìon urn the Book of JOB. Verf.. 5. 207 the thornes This refers to the manner how a worldling obtains his eftate ; he hath a great harveft,and how came he by it ? hego,t it through the thornes ; that is, he got it thorough vexing.,prick- i.ng cares, for fo (Mar. 13.) in the Parable of the lower, when Chrifl expounds the meaning of the thorny ground, he fhewes, that the thertes are cares, the cares wherewith men are vexed in getting riches,or compa(fìng the things of the world.Hence a man is faid w get niches thorough the thornes,when he gets them tho- rough overmuch care and vexation of fpirit. Secondly, As the word lignifies thornes fome conceive, that Eliphaz clofely defcribes the perlons who fhould take away his eflate, as he did in the former branch ; there he laid, the hungry eat up his harvefi.; now he defcribeth another fort of men that (hall eat it up, namely, Men of thornes, or Men coming out of the thornes; This rendring, is not eafily made out of the .Original, though, it hath learned abettors, and therefore I am not confi- dent of it; yet it may yield fome advantage to our meditation up- Homo cjp =etN on the words. The meaning is this: Mean or contemptible men etent, fc. ob- thall take it away : As in our language, when we would exprefs jet7cn ezn_ a vulgar perfon, a man of low birth, we fay, he was bornunder a temptus eum bufh, or under a hedge, that is, he is a manof a low pedigree, none "Piet, Homo of the Gentry; and fo it is, as if he fhould fay, this great, rich, =gttobih ride mighty rnan,who bath fo much honour and riches about him,and fßt "it taafrttur` thinks himfelffafe,thall fee a man comingout of the thornes, fome ßCcro. obfcure perfon, and take all that he hath from him. This expofi tion may Yield us a.profitable obfervation, That When God reckons with thegreateft of wicked men, he can bum- ble and pull them down by the meaneft-andpooreji of men. A very fhrub, a man that comes out of the thornes may pull down the tallefl Cedar;. It,encreales aflíiáion, to be overcome by a weak, defpifed, inconfiderableenemy. It troubledAbimelech more to be Plain by a woman, than to be Main ; and therefore (upon the matter ) he would have the pain to be twice kil'd, rather than the difgrace to be kil'd by a woman ; for having received his deaths-wound by her hand, yet, he calls haftily to the young man his Armour bearer, and faidunto him ; .draw out thy (frond now, andflay me, that menfay not of me, a woman flew him, Jud; a,o. 54. The Lord threatens it, both as a jull retaliation for the fin, and an aggravation of the punifhment of his people, I will move then_to.jealotsfie with thole: that are not a. people, I will provoke
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