Chap. 5. An Expofition, upón the Book of J O B. Vert 27. 397 ing lived to be old, hath yet young freth defires,to live, when he finds his mind empty, though -his body be fo full of dayes that it can hold no longer,nor no more. He that is in this fenfe an infant of dayes, and an old man not having fill'd hic dayes,though he be an hundred years old when he dies, yet he dies (as the Prophet con- cludes in that place) accurfed ; he comes not to his grave under the bleffingof this promife in the text, in a full age. Lathy ob- ferve. Every thing is beautiful in itsfeafon. Hefhall come to hid grave likeafhockof corn that is brought in hid feafon. Even pale death hath beauty in it, when it comes in feafon. Ecclef 7, r7. Be not wicked over much, whyfhouldff thou die before thy time ? No man can dye before Gods time, but a man may dye before his time, that is, before he is prepared by grace, and before he isripened in the courfe of nature. Thofe two wayes a man dyes before his time ; hir1 , when he dyes without any firength of grace ; Secondly,when he dyes in the ftrength of nature. In this fenfe the Prophet defcribes the hand of God up- on him, Pfal. toe. 23. He weakned myItrength in the ray ; He fhortnedmy dayes : and therefore prayers in the 24th. verfe, I faid, 0 my God take me not away in the midit of my dayes That is, in the f}rength or bell Of my times according to the line and meafure ofnature. A godly man prayes that he may not dyeout offeafon but a wickedman never dyes in feafon That threatning is ever fulfilled upon him, in one fenfe, if not in both (Pfal. 55.23) The bloodthirlly anddeceitful man fhali n9t live out half his dayes. A wicked man never lives out halfhis dayes ; for, either he is cut off before he hath lived halfthe courfe of nature, or he is cut off be- fore he hath lived a quarter of the courfe of his defires ; either he lives not halffo long as hemight, or not a tenth; not a bun- dreth part fo long as he would ; and therefore let him dye when he will, his death is full of terrour,trouble and confufìon, becaufe he dies out of feafon. He never kept time or feafonwithGod, and furely God will not keep or regardhistime or.feafon. Vert. 27. Loe this, we havefearched it ;. fo it is, hear it, andknow thole it for thy good. As Eliphaa began his difpute with anrelegant preface, fo he . ends it with a Rhetorical conclufion ; as if he had faid, Job,I have âpoken many things unto thee, hear now the fum and upshot o£ s-ll:
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