John Trapp on Job 3:11

Verſe 11. Why dyed I not from the womb? why did not I give up the Ghoſt &c.] Why was I not forthwith carried ab utero ad urnam? from the womb to the tomb, from the birth to the buriall? True it is, that infants have the ſeed of death in them, and the principle of corruption, Rom. 5.14. Every one (ſay ſome Chymicks) hath his owne balſame within him; his own bane it is ſure that he hath. But why ſhould Job be ſo weary of life, and ſo wiſh to be rid of it? Is not life a great mercy? Doth not the Philoſopher affirme, that a piſmire excelleth the heavens in dignity,Eccl. 9.4. becauſe it is a living creature? Saith not the Scripture, that a living dog is better then a dead Lion? and why is living man ſorrowful, a man for the puniſhment of his ſinne? Lam. 3.39. q. d. Let him be never ſo much puniſhed, it is for his ſinne; and if a midſt all, he be yet a living man, and have his life ſpared, hee need not be ſo over-ſorrowful, and to make ſuch an out-cry, and a wiſhing himſelf out of the world, as Job here doth. Life, alaſs, in its utmoſt extent, is but a little ſpot of time between two eternities before and after; but it is a great conſequence, and given us for this end,2 Pet. 2.11. that glory may be begun in grace, and we have a further and further entrance here into the Kingdome of heaven, as Peter ſaith. This, if Job had ſeriouſly and ſedately conſidered (but now alaſs, as in a hot ſever, all the humors were on an hurry) he would rather have done, as they ſay, Themistocles did; who though he lived till he was about 107 years of age; yet when he came to dye, he was grieved upon this ground, Now I am to dye, ſaid hee, when I begin to bee wiſe.