An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…

There is no contradiction between these two, we may easily reconcile them, and make up the seeming difference, thus. When Job saith (Chap. 3.) I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; his meaning is, that his spirit did not trust upon his outward prosperity: He had abundance in the World, but he had no carnal confidence in worldly things. Job never said to his soul (when his Barnes were full, and his substance multiplied) Soul take thy ease, eat and be merry, thou hast enough laid up for many years. Job had much of the creature in his hand, but he kept it all out of his heart, and when he was furthest from misery, he was far enough from security; he did not think his life safe, because he had sufficient to live upon, nor was he at rest, because he was rich. A Believers rest is not in any outward comfort which he receives from God, but in God, from whom he receives all his comforts. So then, Job speaks there of the spiritual frame of his heart, but here he speaks of the temporal frame of his worldly estate, in which he had ease, and the affluence of all good things, no man molesting him: As if he had said, Time was when I was not at all pinched with poverty in my estate, nor blasted with reproach in my credit, nor tortured with pains in my body; I can remember the time when I was at full ease in all these: That's his sense in this Text, and between these two there is no opposition: A man may be at ease in the World, and yet not make the World his ease, nor rest upon the World.

There is no contradiction between these two, we may easily reconcile them, and make up the seeming difference, thus. When Job saith (Chap. 3.) I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; his meaning is, that his spirit did not trust upon his outward prosperity: He had abundance in the World, but he had no carnall confidence in worldly things. Job never sayd to his soule (when his Barnes were full, and his substance multiplyed) Soule take thy ease, eate and be merry, thou hast enough layd up for many years. Job had much of the creature in his hand, but he kept it all out of his heart, and when he was furthest from misery, he was farr enough from security; he did not thinke his life safe, because he had sufficient to live upon, nor was he at rest, because he was rich. A Beleevers rest is not in any outward comfort which he receives from God, but in God, from whom he receives all his comforts. So then, Job speakes there of the spirituall frame of his heart, but here he speakes of the temporall frame of his worldly estate, in which he had ease, and the affluence of all good things, no man molesting him: As if he had sayd, Time was when I was not at all pinched with poverty in my estate, nor blasted with reproach in my credit, nor tortured with paines in my body; I can remember the time when I was at full ease in all these: That's his sense in this Text, and between these two there is no opposition: A man may be at ease in the World, and yet not make the World his ease, nor rest upon the World.