Job 19:28

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

Ver. 28. But ye should say, Why persecute we him?] Nam olim dicitis cur eum persequebamur? (Tigur.) This ye shall one day surely say, "Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked," &c., Malachi 3:18. Then shall it repent you (it should do so now) that ye have rated and reviled me for a hypocrite; viz. when God hath cleared mine integrity (as he did, Job 42:10), or at the last day howsoever, what time there shall be a resurrection of names as well as of bodies. Would ye but say so now it would be some satisfaction. Quem poenitet peccasse poene est innocens. You have heard, by the confession I have made, I am no miscreant, no misbeliever; but that I do hold fast the faithful word.

The root of the matter is in me] Or, tbe root of the word, the engrafted word of God, that is able to save my soul, hath taken deep root in me, James 1:21. I hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, 1 Timothy 3:9, this is the cabinet, that the jewel kept therein. And with what face can ye censure such a one for a castaway, who am sorely afflicted indeed, so that my very reins are consumed within me; nay graces also haply are somewhat deflourished, and it is little better with me than with a tree in winter; and as a tall tree, whose sap is in the root, Isaiah 6:13. But so long as "the root of the matter is in me," that radical grace of faith; and since I do utter, as ye have heard, the words of truth and soberness (as some fruits of a sound faith), sure you should handle me with more tenderness, as one that hath some sap and substance in him.