An exposition with practical observations upon the three first chapters of the book of…

As infants that never saw the light.] This clause may be an exposition of the former clause, showing what Job means by an untimely birth, even an infant, that never saw the light. Yet all infants that never see the light are not untimely births. Infants are often still-borne, when their mothers have gone out their time to the last hour, before the pains of travail come upon them. And therefore I rather understand this as distinct from the former. In the one Job intending such as are borne before time, which births, are commonly called abortions or miscarriages. And in the other, those who die in the birth,¹ who are commonly called still-borne. The word which is here used for an infant, signifies properly a weaned infant, but it is likewise transferred to signify an infant dying in the birth, which is therefore said never to see the light; So Solomon expresseth it too, in that place, Eccles. 6.5. Moreover, he hath not seen the Sun; And in allusion to this, David when he curseth the plots of wicked men, that though they ⟨p. 424⟩have conceived mischief, and though they have gone with it a long time, and are ready to bring it forth, yet in Psal. 58.8. saith he, let them be (that is, let their counsels and designs be) like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the Sun, that is, let them be dashed and blasted, let them never bring forth their poisonous brood to the hurt and trouble of the world. To these saith Job, I am sure I should have bin like, if not to Kings and Counsellors, and had been as well, and all one to me. In death, untimely births and those that go down to the grave as a sheaf of corn that cometh in ripe, are all one; there is no difference in the grave between the infant that never saw the Sun, and him that hath lived to see an hundred recourses of the Sun.

As infants that never saw the light.] This clause may be an exposition of the former clause, shewing what Job meanes by an untimely birth, even an infant, that never saw the light. Yet all infants that never see the light are not untimely births. Infants are often still-borne, when their mothers have gone out their time to the last houre, before the paines of travaile come upon them. And therefore I rather understand this as distinct from the former. In the one Job intending such as are borne before time, which births, are commonly called abortions or miscarriages. And in the other, those who die in the birth,