goodliness thereof as the flower of the field that is all men are perishing and all that man hath meerly as a man is as fading and perishing as himself is Some take notice that man was not called flesh till after his fall It 's said before when God set him up in that primitive purity of his Creation Man became a living soul He was not spoken of at first as flesh but as a living soul Gen. 2.7 but as soon as man had sinned he was called flesh as if he had no soul There may two other reasons be given why man is called flesh both following from the former First Because man since his fall doth most for his flesh and neglects his soul altogether till being planted into the second Adam he is brought out of that wretched condition into which he fell by and with the first Adam Secondly He is called flesh because since the fall man is become weak and frail both as to Naturals and Morals Gen. 6.3 My spirit shall not alwaies strive with man for that he also is flesh As if the Lord had said Now man declareth himself to be flesh indeed he acts like an impotent sorry creature he acts as if he scarce had a soul in him as if he were no more then the beasts of the earth My spirit shall not alwaies strive with man for that he also is flesh and therefore v. 30. God told Noah The end of all flesh is come before me that is Man and all his worldly glory shall all be swept away with a deluge of water as here All flesh shall perish together There is a two-fold perishing First By way of annihilation Secondly By way of transmutation When Elihu saith all flesh shall perish we are not to understand it of annihilating all flesh God can do that he can turn man back into that nothing out of which he was made but the perishing in the Text importeth only a change Death is called a change a change to perishing as that good great woman said I will go in unto the King and if I perish I perish Hest 4.16 that is If I die I die The Prophet laments Isa 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart All flesh shall perish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Together That is without exception one as well as another rich and poor high and low strong and weak all are alike in the hand of God Psal 33.13.15 The Lord looketh from heaven he beholdeth all the sons of men c. he fashioneth their hearts alike or together that is he fashioneth the hearts of all men God doth not so fashion mens hearts alike as to make them all alike faces do not differ so much as hearts but as he fashions one mans heart so anothers he fashions the heart of a King as well as the heart of a begger All flesh shall perish together none either by power or policy can stand against a displeased God Again We may take the word together for all at once God can make a total devastation in the earth and sweep all away as filth with the besome of destruction He can destroy all the world of all men who are the chiefe part of the world together or at one blow so that as the Prophet Nahum speaks Chap 1.9 Affliction shall not rise up a second time All flesh shall perish together And man shall returne againe unto dust Or he shall goe backe unto dust that is he shall dye that 's the sentence which God gave upon man when he had sinned Gen 3.19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou returne unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou returne Man was dust before he sinned yet he had not returned to dust if he had not turned from God by sin Sin brought in death and death brings us to the dust All flesh shall perish together and man shall returne againe unto dust Hence observe There is no one man hath more priviledge then another against the sentence of death The Greatest Prince dyeth as soone as the meanest peasant Death can as soone and as easily breake into the strongest fort or tower of stone as into the meanest cottage of reeds High and low shall perish together Let none hope to secure themselves by any thing of this world from going out of this world Riches availe not in the day of death Pro 11.4 High Titles and honours availe not strength availeth not beauty availeth not none of these can be a protection if God send out a writ or summons to the grave Happy are they who get an assurance of life after death for none have an assurance of life against death Againe In that death is here expressed under this notion of perishing Observe Man is but in a perishing condition while he is in this world As all the things of the world are so is man while he abideth if I may say he abideth in this world Christ earnestly exhorts John 6.27 Labour not for the meat that perisheth Why should we labour that is set our selves with our whole strength and might to pursue perishing things seeing we our selves are perishing The more perishing we are the more reason we have to looke after and labour for those things which doe not which cannot perish When the Apostle saith 1 Pet 1.18 We are not redeemed with corruptible things from our vaine conversation c. He doth not instance in flowers or fruits of the earth which quickly rot but in gold and silver which are the most durable and lasting metalls even these are corruptible but we our selves as to this bodyly life are corruptible not only as gold and silver but as the most fading flowers and summer fruits of the earth Further From that other description of death as 't is called a returning againe unto dust We learne Man is of the dust Unlesse man as to his body were of the dust when he began to live he could not be sayd to returne unto dust when he dyeth or departs this life Many men pore upon their pedegree and heir minds swel with pride because they are of such or such a noble descent but let them remember man is of the dust The soule or spirit of man is indeed from above as was shewed before and the body of man is I grant a compound of all the foure Elements Our bodyly spirits say Naturalists are of the fire our breath of the ayre our blood of the water and our flesh and bones are most properly of the dust of the earth yet the whole body of man is denominated dust or earth or as the Apostle stileth it 2 Cor 5.1 'T is an earthly house If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved For though we may truely say there is water and ayre and fire in this house yet because earth is the predominant Element the whole body beares the denomination of
hands Histories have given many examples and dreadful instances of such calamities falling upon Princes by the rising of the people and then they are said to be taken away Without hand That is Without any foreseen appearance of such a mischief a hand which was not thought of being lifted up against them It is said of wicked Zimri who slew his master that when he saw the people conspire against him and the City taken he went into the Palace of the King's house and in the heat of his rage set it on fire and burnt the Kings house over him and died 1 Kin. 16.18 Justine reports the like conclusion upon a like occasion of Sardanapalus that effeminate and voluptuous Monarch of the Assyrian Empire They who prosecute this Translation conceive Elihu reflecting upon Job in all this who was very uncivilly treated by his own people from whom he had deserved highest respects as he complained at the 30th chapter they raised up against him the wayes of their destruction they used him very rudely even despightfully and he was in a pining consuming condition as a man taken away without hand But I shall not insist upon this reading but take the words according to the scope before given as a description of a mixt judgement from God a judgement partly upon the people and partly upon Princes a judgement upon the many and a judgement upon the mighty In a moment shall they die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Punctum momontum tempus exiguum Illipsis praeposition◠ב In a moment The Text is a moment they die Not that they shall die but a moment or be only for a moment dead but they shall die before a moment is over there is an Elipsis of the preposition Beth in the Hebrew which we supply in our Translation In a moment they shall die A moment is the least particle or parcel of time we cannot imagine any thing shorter then a moment 't is the very point of time Psal 30.5 His anger endureth for a moment saith David when he would shew how very short comparatively the anger of God towards his people is but in his favour is life Thus Solomon Prov. 2.19 He that speaketh truth his tongue shall be established but a lying tongue is for a moment A lye cannot last long he that speaks truth what he speaks to day is good to morrow and to morrow and will be good for ever but a lying tongue is for a moment that is his lies will be discovered and usually they are quickly discovered though he live long to tell lies or doth nothing but tell lies as long as he liveth yet his lyes are not long lived Job describing the joy of the hypocrite chap. 20.5 saith It is but for a moment like a fire of thorns a blaze and gone when the Apostle would strengthen and encourage the hearts of believers against all the troubles and sorrows of this present life he calls them 2 Cor. 4.17 First light Secondly short Our light afflictions that are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And that we might know how quick the devil was at his work with Christ the Scripture saith Luke 4.5 He shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world in a moment of time As to shew the instantaneousness of our change from death to life in the resurrection it is said 1 Cor. 15.52 In a moment in the twinckling of an eye at the last Trump we shall be changed So to shew the extream suddenness of these mens change from life to death it is said here In a moment They shall die They Who Both great and small one and another of them shall die or be swept away by death in a moment There is a twofold death First Natural When either sickness or old age dissolves the earthly house of this tabernacle The natural death of some is very lingring and slow others are suddenly snatcht away they die in a moment Secondly There is a violent death thus many are taken away by the sword Martial or Civil others casually The Text is true both of natural and violent death either of them may overtake us in a moment yet I conceive the latter is here chiefly intended In a moment shall they die that is some sudden destruction shall come upon them they shall be surprized by an unlooked for disaster and removed out of the world while they had not a thought of their removal Hence Note First Death of any sort may befal all sorts of men None can plead exemption or priviledge from the grave It is appointed to men once to die most die a natural death and any man may die a violent death who knows how he shall go out of this world Christ told Peter John 21.18 When thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not This spake he signifying by what death he should glorifie God And what kinde of death was that The Church History assureth us 't was a violent death He as his master Jesus Christ was nailed to a Cross and dyed We come but one way into the world but there are a thousand wayes of going out Note Secondly Death comes suddenly upon many men and may upon all men The whole life of the longest liver in this world is but a moment compared to eternity and there is not any moment of our life but with respect to second causes we are subject to death in it We alwayes in some sense though at some times more carry our lives in our hand and how soon or by what hand they may be snatcht out of ours we know not Now if our whole life be but a moment and we subject to death every moment how should we stand prepared for death every moment And how sad is it to think that they who may die the next moment should for dayes and weeks and moneths and years never prepare for death Most are loth to think of the end of their lives till they are nearer the end of them yet no man knoweth how near he is to the end of his life Many put off the thoughts of death till it cometh yet none can put off the coming of death they would remove the meditation of death to the fall of their leaf to the winter and worst of their old age yet they are not able to remove death one moment from the Spring and best of their youth Note Thirdly Violent death by the sore and severe judgement of God often sweeps multitudes away in a moment God can thrust whole throngs of men yea whole Nations into their graves together it is said Numb 16.21 of Corah and his companions The earth did cover or swallow them up in a moment And the Lord commanded Moses to say unto the children of Israel Exod. 33.5 ye are a stiff-necked people I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume
thee As if the Lord had said I will take no long time for it I can quickly dispatch you how many soever there are of you I will do it in a moment We have a like description of the sudden and quick dispatch of men at the Lord's word of Command Psal 73.19 How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors The final ruine of Babylon was thus prophesied Isa 47.9 These two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day the loss of children and widdowhood they shall come upon thee in their perfection Thou shalt utterly be destroyed and perish at once for ever The Prophet Jeremiah Lam. 4.6 bewayled the destruction of Jerusalem whose calamity was greater then that of Sodome and Gomorrah which God destroyed in a moment Sodome and Gomorrah were great Cities yet how soon consumed In some sense there is a greater evil in a lingring destruction then in a speedy one so the Prophet aggravates death by famine beyond death by fire because to die by famine is a lingring death Caesar being warned that some lay in wait to destroy him suddenly slighted it and said unexpected death is most desireable And that 's the lot of many great men to which some conceive the Psalmist had respect when he said Psal 82.7 Ye shall die liâ—e men and fall like one of the Princes that is suddenly But though in some sence a speedy death is more eligible then a lingring one yet in many respects to die suddenly or in a moment may be concluded a far greater judgement then to see death coming by degrees and destruction walking towards us step by step Solomon Prov. 1.27 speaks of swift destruction of destruction coming like a whirlwind swift destruction overtakes them who are slow paced to receive and obey instruction Thus the Lord can deal both with persons and with Nations he needs not make any delays nor take time to do it their destruction shall come if he will send it in a day in an hour yea in a moment shall they die And the people shall be troubled at midnight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Populus consociatio hominum That is the body or generality of the people the many shall be troubled they shall be as men amazed or as the Metaphor imports they shall be disjoynted Men associated under due Laws of Government are as so many members of a well compacted Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videtur significare laxationem compagum but when broken and scattered they are like a body whose members are dislocated or out of joynt unfit for any use or service And as there is a laxation of the members of the body a disjoynting of the bones so there is a disjoynting of the faculties of the minde In times of great trouble not only is the body Politick which consists of many men but the minde of every body or of every single man is much out of joynt The word is applyed to those great concussions of the world Psal 18.17 The earth shook and trembled the foundations also of the hills were moved and were shaken at the presence of the Lord because he was wroth which we may interpret of the Princes and Powers of the earth who are as hills and mountains if the Lord do but touch them in anger they move yea tremble The word is applyed also to the waves of the Sea Jer. 5.22 which roar and toss themselves we commonly say as in the Text the Sea is troubled or 't is a troubled Sea a tossing Sea That expression is also common among us when we see a man much disquieted he is we say in a great toss even as a ship at Sea upon the proud waves Thus saith Elihu the people shall be in a toss they shall feel a storm in their mindes sudden gusts of fear and sorrow shall carry them they know not whither or they shall be lifted up to heaven in vain confidences and then fall down to hell in despairing thoughts as the tempest at Sea is described in the 107th Psalm There is yet another rendring of the Text in allusion to Drunkards who are overcome with wine Jer. 25.16 And they shall drink and be moved and be mad the word which we translate move is that in the Text now we know drunkenness moves men and puts all into disorder and disquietment Thus the people through the fierce anger of God and the wine of astonishment which he gives them to drink shall be moved they shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man Great troubles and afflictions are called in Scripture the wine of astonishment because they make many say and do they scarce know what great troubles bereave men not only of their comforts but of their reason they do not only straiten them but astonish them They who have drowned their wits in cups of worldly pleasure may soon have them drowned in full and overflowing cups of worldly sorrow Besides this Exposition of the peoples being troubled with perplexity fear and doubt with anxiety and uncertainty of spirit what to do I say besides this there is another way of being troubled upon which some Expositors specially insist The people shall be troubled that is shall be in a tumult they shall rise up seditiously and as we say make a commotion they shall gather together as many waters with a roaring noise Many people are compared to many Waters and there is somtimes a confluence a great confluence or flood of them tumbling together The Poet tells us elegantly what rude work a people make when they rise up like a flood of troubled waters Ac veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Jamque faces saxa volant furor arma ministrat Virg. Aeneid 1. Their rage saith he findes out weapons one throws stones another throws firebrands till all 's in a sad combustion These waters if let alone may quickly put all into a flame The Psalmist ascribes the quieting of the Sea and the quieting of the people to God in one verse yea I conceive the one is but the explication of the other Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the Seas the noise of their waves and the tumult of their people Thus saith Elihu the people shall be in a tumult this suits with that exposition first given ready to destroy whomsoever they meet next or those especially who never did nor meant them any other hurt but to keep the peace or bridle their headstrong fury Yet I rather adhere to the former Interpretation The people shall be troubled that is they shall be in a great consternation of spirit neither being able which they seldome are to advise themselves what to do nor fit to receive which they seldome will advice from others And as Elihu adds they shall be thus troubled At midnight Or In the half
in any kinde justifie our selves few having done it without incurring censure if not condemnation from others But what was Jobs selfe-justification or of what kinde that it raised such a dust yea kindled such a flame of Anger in the breast of Elihu I answer Job did not justifie himselfe by lyes or falshoods that was not the matter for which Elihu was angry with Job but because he supposed he was more tender of his owne name then of Gods Thus the Text speakes expressely Against Job was his wrath kindled because he justified himselfe rather then God Hence note To justifie our selves rather then God is not only sinfull but flagitious not only sinfull but blasphemous Let God be true and every man a lyar Rom. 3.4 woe to those who goe about to save their owne honour by speaking that which reflects dishonour upon God or who keepe their owne credit untoucht by exposing his to any hazzard let God be just and every man unrighteous As whosoever exalts himselfe humbles God when we exalt our selves vainely we humble God as much as we can and so it will be interpreted so he that justifies himselfe in any degree unduely accuseth God how much more he that justifieth himselfe rather then God To commend or praise our selves in the hearing of men is unsavory to commend or praise our selves rather then men who are our fellowes yea though our inferiors is odious how much more to justifie our selves rather then God who is infinitely above us It becomes the best of men to accuse judge and condemne themselves to draw up their owne enditement and say we have deserved worse then we suffer from the hand of God and have done lesse then duty requires at our hand But because to justifie our selves rather then God is a thing so horrid few will be brought under this conviction that they are guilty of it or chargeable with it And therefore I shall endeavour to make it appeare that there are many who though they doe not justifie themselves rather then God directly and bare-faced yet they doe it secretly or constructively I shall make out this in generall as it may concern any man while I more distinctly shew how Job incurred this suspition and gave Elihu more then a probable ground to say that he justified himselfe rather then God Job never said he was more just then God but he said many things which gave Elihu occasion to say That surely he justified himselfe rather then God First When he spake so largely of his own innocency spending five whole Chapters in the vindication of it and spake so little comparatively of the righteousnesse and justice of God this might bring him under a suspition of justifying himselfe rather then God For what could this intimate to his hearers but that he had better performed the part of a gracious and righteous man then God had of a gracious Father or righteous Judge Though all that be true how much soever it is which we speak of our selves yet it is not good to speak much much lesse all of our selves especially when upon that account we may seeme to dispute either the justice or goodnesse of God in dealing out the troubles and afflictions under which we suffer Secondly While Job did so often and so boldly offer to plead his cause before Gods tribunall and was so importunate for a Hearing this carried a secret implication that God had not dealt well with him or at least had not considered his cause throughly for if he had surely he should have found more favorable dealing from God then he dayly experienced Thirdly While Job complained so often and greatly of the greatnesse of his afflictions of the weight and heavinesse of the hand of God upon him and that he being but a poore worme the great and mighty God should stretch out his strong hand against him This also might be construed as if he thought God did not take a due measure of his infirmities but let temptations take hold of him which were not common to man and burdened him beyond what he was able to beare Now what was this but to justifie himselfe rather then God Fourthly While he complained that the hand of God had not only touched him but even abode and dwelt upon him that he was consumed from morning to morning that he had not only wearisome nights but moneths of vanity appointed to him that his afflictions were not only exceeding sharpe but exceeding long yea that though they were extreamly violent yet perpetuall this bare hard upon the goodness and wisdome of God For to say that God over-acts in the measure and exceeds in the continuance of our afflictions reflect alike upon the honour of God and are rather a justification of our selves in bearing the crosse then of God in laying it onn Fifthly Job in severall passages of this booke desired God to make an end of him and take him out of this world he was troubled that God did not kill him out of hand or out-right this was a justification of himselfe rather then God as if he knew better whether it were more fit for him to live in a sickly weakly painfull condition or to be delivered out of it by death As we should be willing to die when God calls so to live till God calls and not to hasten death He that beleeves as he ought will not make hast out of the troubles of this world much lesse out of the world because he finds it troublesome Sixthly He seemed to justifie himselfe rather then God while he was so much troubled because God did not presently reveale to him the reason of his troubles Why is light given to a man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged in was his complaint Chap. 3.23 that is wherefore is the light of this naturall life given to me whose way is in the darke and who know not the reason why I am thus afflicted We ought to sit downe in this assurance be our condition never so restlesse that the most wise God hath a reason for every stroake of trouble 〈◊〉 layeth upon our loynes though we see it not They who cannot fully resigne themselves and their wayes to God yea resolve their wills into the will of God are much disquieted and restlesse in their minds when they see not the reason of Gods dealing with them or why it is so with them Let all such know this also is to make our selves wiser then God and to justifie our selves rather then him And therefore from all these considerations take these two Inferences which may keepe us ever at a distance from this high presumption yea which we should carefully avoyd from the shaddow and appearance of it The justifying of our selves rather then God First It is enough to condemne us under the guilt of this sin if we allow not all that God doth to be good yea and best for us how much or how long or in what kinde soever be is pleased
either immediate from himselfe in those dreames and visions to the Prophets or mediate by the Prophets And though now God doth not speake to us immediately as he did to the Prophets before Christ came in the flesh and to the Apostles after he was come in the flesh yet All the Propheticall and Apostolicall writings are the speakings of God to us besides what he dayly speaketh to us answerable to what is written both inwardly by the workings of his Spirit and outwardly by the workes of his providence For he speaketh once c. Hence note In what way soever God reveales his minde unto man he speakes unto him Every manifestation of the will of God to us is a Sermon what man speaketh to us according to the word of God is to be received as the word of God For as God speaketh to us though not formally yet expressely in the holy Scriptures which are his word so he speaketh to us vertually though not expressely by his works And that First by his workes of creation by them God is continually opening and manifesting himselfe to man in his wisdome power and goodnesse He speaketh to us Secondly by his works of providence whether first they be works of mercy every mercy hath a voyce in it every blessing a speech or secondly whether they be works of judgement Micah 6.9 The Lords voyce cryeth unto the Citie and the man of wisdome shall see thy name heare ye the rod and who hath appointed it Sicknesses and losses the crosses and troubles that we meet with in the world cry aloud to us especially when they make us as they often doe cry aloud As the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Psal 19.1 2. so those things that are done and acted night and day utter the mind and speak out the heart of God unto man For God speaketh once yea twice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in una pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in una vice The Hebrew is in once that is for one Turne or Time or by one meanes or way The word once hath a threefold signification in Scripture all which are applyable to the text in hand First Once is as much as surely certainly verily irrevocably Thus Psal 89.35 Once have I sworne by my holinesse that I will not lie unto David That is I have surely sworne certainly sworne irrevocably sworne my word yea my oath is out and it is immutable That which God in this sence once saith it is alwayes sayd or 't is sayd for ever how much more that which he swareth Thus the Apostle argueth Heb 6.17 18. God willing more abundantly or more then needed as to him and the truth of the thing in it self to shew unto the heires of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lye namely his promise and his oath we might have strong consolation c. In like notion we may expound that once which we finde Heb 9.27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die or to dye once and after that cometh the judgement Some referre once to dye as if the meaning were it is appointed unto men to dye once that is men must expect to dye a naturall death which happens but once and once at least equivalently will and must happen to all men Others referre the once to appointed in the sence of this present exposition It is appointed once that is God hath certainly and firmly appointed established and decreed this thing he hath ratified it in heaven that men must dye This statute is irrevocable The thing is appointed and there is no reversing or revoking of that appointment This is a good sence and sutable enough to the scope of Elihu God speaketh once that is what he speaketh is a sure and certain word an infallible word the word setled for ever in heaven Psal 119.89 his promise is not only sure but most sure As the Apostle speakes 2 Pet. 1.18 19. And this voyce which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount We have also a more sure the Comparative imports the Superlative a most sure word of prophecy whereunto ye doe well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in your hearts As the whole propheticall so the whole historicall and doctrinall word of God is most sure being once spoken it is spoken for ever And written as with a pen of iron and the point of a Diamond and that upon a rocke which cannot be removed That which was vaine-gloriously and beyond the line of man sayd of the Law of the Medes and Persians Dan 6.8 is only true of the word of God it altereth not Secondly This once speaking Semel loquitur deus et secundo id ipsum non repetet Vulg Quia quod sufficienter factum est iterare superfluum est Aq notes the speaking of a thing so sufficiently or fully that there is enough sayd at once and so no more needs be sayd The vulgar translation takes up this sence God hath spoken once that is he hath spoken fully or sufficiently for mans instruction and admonition at once and therefore he translates the latter part of the verse thus And he doth not repeate it the second time That which is done at once sufficiently needs not be done a second time This is a truth There is a sufficiency and a fullnesse in the word of God once spoken there needs nothing to be added or as others expound this translation When once God speakes that is resolves and determines a thing he doth not as man who often repents of what he hath purposed bring it into a second consideration for he cannot erre and therefore he needs decree but once But though this be a truth yet I doe not conceive it to be the meaning of this place because it doth not well agree with what goes before and lesse with that which followeth at the 29th verse Loe all these things worketh God oftentimes or as our Margin hath it twice and thrice with man And therefore here Elihu rather intimates the variety of those wayes by which God reveales himselfe to man then the sufficiency of any one of them For though we grant any one of them sufficient yet God out of his abundant goodnesse is pleased to reveale himselfe more wayes then one and more times then once Thirdly This once may be taken exclusively so iâ— Scripture once is once and no more once and not againe or as we say once for all and so it is opposed to the repeating and acting over of the same thing Thus Abisha sayd to David 1 Sam 26.8 God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore lâ—â— me smite him I pray thee
with us they would even stand sâ—â—ll and have nothing to doe if God did not bring us into straights or keep us for a season in them In a sick-bed the Lord shews us and we may find work enough for all our graces especially for faith and patience and submission of spirit to his worke and will We may doe better worke and doe it better in sickness then in health Seventhly God brings many upon their fick-beds to teach them the worth of health and make them thankfull for it They who are seldome sicke are as seldome thankfull for their health and scarce reckon that for a mercy the want whereof they have never felt 'T is rare that we prize what we have till we have it not Eightly God exerciseth many with sickness with a purpose to put men upon a holy purpose of improving their health better and of doing more for God while 't is well with them Lastly not a few are afflicted that God may have an opportunity to doe his worke and declare his power God himself would be hindred of much glorious work in restoring and recovering them to health did he not chasten them upon sick beds The question was put about the blind man Joh. 9.3 4. Who did sin this man or his Parents that he was born blind Jesus answered neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him If there had not been a blind man in the world how could the power of God have been made manifest in giving sight to the blind if some were not extreamly torturingly sick how would the power of God be seene in healing the sicke and rebuking their paine For all these purposes Man is chastened with paine upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong paine We never profit by chastenings till we answer the purposes of God in sending them and unless we know what and which they are we can never answer them If we answer these nine toucht upon we shall either answer all or to be sure we shall baulke or refuse none Elihu having thus shewed us the sicke man in paine proceeds to shew us what further effect his paine and sickness wrought upon him Vers 20. So that his life abhorreth bread and his soule dainty meat This verse sheweth the second effect of sickness The former was paine This is loss of appetite or nauseousnesse His life That is his living body We may call the sick mans body a living body though it be hard to say whether we should number him among the living or the dead We read life put for the body which liveth or whereby it liveth Psal 88.3 My soule saith Heman is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave that is I am ready to dye and my body to be buryed He doth not say he hath no great stomack to but his life abhorreth bread The word here used is of a Syriack derivation Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syra est notat nauseare facere nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sordes scoriam excrementum quicquid sordicum et immundum est vel in humano corpore vel ex eo excretuÌ„ Drus Merc nor is it found any where in Scripture but here The nowne signifieth any thing that is filthy excrementicious or uncleane whence the verbe is rendred to abhorre loath or nauceate because we abhorre those things which are filthy or uncleane His life abhorreth bread That is common food Sometimes bread is put for all kind of dyet as David sayd to Mephibosheth 2 Sam 9.10 Thou shalt eat bread at my table But because of that opposition in the text to dainties by bread we may here understand only ordinary food His life abhorreth bread and his soule dainty meat The Hebrew is Meat of desire Not only such meat as men usually desire for the wholesomnesse of it but such as curious palates desire for the pleasantness of it such meat is here meant Yea thirdly such meat as the man had a desire to before his sicknesse for the sutableness of it to his owne taste and appetite he then abhorreth His soule abhorreth dainty meat The turning of the stomack and losse of appetite are usuall symptomes of sickness Almost all sicknesses weaken the appetite and some take it quite away so that the patient not only hath no desire to but loathes dainty meate or meate of desire This phrase or forme of speaking is used Dan 10.3 I saith he ate no pleasant bread or no bread of desires as we put in the margin neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth 'T is used againe 2 Chro 32.27 Hezekiah made himselfe treasuries for silver and gold c. and all manner of pleasant jewells we put in the Margin for all jewells of desire So Amos 5.11 Pleasant vineyards or vineyards of desire It was the manner of the Hebrews to expresse pleasant by desirable because pleasant things are much desired His soule abhorreth meate of desire or dainty meate Hence note First 'T is a mercy to tast our meat or to take the comfort of what we eate Many have meat but cannot taste it That which giveth the best taste to our meat is a taste of the goodnesse of God in it 1 Pet 2.1 If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious It is sweet to taste meat and the goodnesse of the Lord together Secondly Note God can quickly make those things that are most desirable to us dainty meat meat of desire loathsome to us Some abhor meat because they have eaten of it long The Jewes did eate Manna and Quailes till they loathed them Num 11.20 Others loath meat because they have eaten over-much A third sort loath some meat by a naturall antipathy against it Fourthly Others loath wholsome meat out of a curiosity because it is not dainty enough Lastly Sickness causeth a loathing of all meate even of the most dainty and desirable meate And the Lord at any time can make that which was our desire our loathing We have a like description of a sick man Ps 107.18 His soule abhorreth all manner of meat and draweth neere unto the gates of death Thirdly Note The best of Creature-comforts are but vaine comforts What can dainty meat doe a man good when he is sicke and ready to dye Then gold and silver lands and houses which are the dainty meat of a covetous man are loathsome to him When a man is sicke to death his very riches are sapless and tastless to him wife and children friends and acquaintance can yeild little comfort in that dark houre yea they often prove miserable comforters When we have most need of comfort these things administer least or no comfort at all to us Is it not our wisdome then to get a stock of such comforts as will hold and abide fresh with us when all worldly comforts either leave us or become tastless to us Is it not good to get a store of
or corruptions How often is the flesh in a morall sence that is the outward profession of a hypocrite consumed in sickness and no more seen will the hypocrite alwayes call upon God Job 27.10 He will not He that doth all to be seen that 's the character of a hypocrite Math. 6.5 will in a little time doe such a little or rather such a nothing in Religion that it cannot be seen at all His profession is sick when he is fick and then also that which was not seen sticks out the hypocrite covereth many of his corruptions his impatiency murmuring and unbelief in a day of prosperity with the skin at left or fair shew of faith but in a day of trouble those dead bones appear and stick out A day of sorrow sicknesse and trouble is a great discoverer it occasions the appearance and sticking out of many base lusts that were not seen before 'T is so also in the better way with godly men their corruptions that appeared upon them before are abated wasted and consumed by affliction and many of their graces which lay hid and unseen stick out and appear gloriously in a day of trouble or upon a sick bed Their patience submission of spirit under the hand of God their long-sufferance and sweet self-resignation to the will of God which lay hid shew themselves Sicknesse and affliction make wonderfull changes and discoveries both as to the outward and inward man 't is seldome seen or known either how good or how bad any man is till he is in paine or reduced to some extreamity till his very bones are vexed or till as Elihu further describes the sick man in the next verse Vers 22. His soul draweth nigh to the grave and his life to the destroyer When the disease is at the height as Physitians speak then the sick mans soul draweth nigh unto and is ready to goe downe into the grave But doth the soul goe to the grave I answer the soul here as frequently in Scripture is put for the person as if he had said the man draweth nigh to his grave The soul being the noblest and most princely part of man is honoured with the denomination of the whole man or because all the world is nothing to us as Christ told his Disciples Math. 16.26 if we lose our souls therefore man is spoken of as if he were nothing but a soul Gen. 14.21 The King of Sodom said unto Abram give me the souls and take the goods to thy self we translate give me the persons and put in the Margin give me the souls Thus 't is said Gen. 46.27 All the souls of the house of Jacob that came into Egypt were threescore and ten The Apostles rule of obedience to Magistrates runs in this straine Let every soul that is let every man be subject to the higher Powers Rom. 13. And I conceive the Apostle expresseth it so because there ought to be an inward subjection to that as to any other Ordinance of God the soul must be subject as well as the body to the powers of this world that is there must be though no subjection of conscience yet a conscientious subjection unto Magistrates Thus here his soul that is himself the man draweth neer Vnto the grave to corruption say some to the pit say others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corruptioni sepulchrum a graecis vocatur Sarcophagus Both are joyned or meete in the grave for that is the pit of corruption The Greeks call the grave Flesh-eater to draw nigh to the grave imports such a prevalency of diseases as bring a man to the graves mouth to the very poynt of death and then as we say he is drawing on Whither is a sick man drawing on surely to his grave David Psal 107.18 having described the condition of sick men adds they draw nigh unto the gates of death Here which is the same Elihu saith his soul draweth near to the grave Hence note Diseases and death are near one another A sick bed and a grave are not far distant David speaking of himself and others in extreame danger of death by the cruell plots and cunning snares of the enemy hath a like expression Psal 141.7 Our bones are scattered at the graves mouth as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth as if he had said we are so near death that 't is a miracle if we escape it Though we are yet alive yet we have the sentence of death in our selves and are within sight of our graves What David spake there of himself in consort with others Heman spake personally of himself Psal 88.3 My life draweth nigh unto the grave We are alwayes in our health drawing towards the grave but in sickness we are drawing near unto it There is but a little distance between any man and the grave there is scarcely any distance at all between a man that is very sick and the grave Now if the sick man be drawing near unto the grave then First Let them that are sick remember the grave 't is our duty to be alwayes remembring and meditating upon the grave in our health much more should that be our remembrance meditation when we are sick most of all when we are sick unto death or ready to dye and drop into the grave Secondly If the sick are drawing neare unto the grave then let sick men draw near unto God if ever you will draw near unto God the living God be sure to doe it upon the borders of death 't is good yea best to draw nigh unto God when we are well and all is well with us even at best in the world Psal 73.25 But when we are in danger or drawing nigh unto death O how earnestly should we draw nigh unto God in the actings of faith and love To whom should we goe as Peter said to Christ Joh. 6.68 in the appearances and approaches of temporall death but unto him who hath the words of eternall life It is high time for us to draw nigh unto God when any of the comforts of this life are withdrawing from us is it not more then high time therefore to draw nigh to him when life it selfe is withdrawing from us and we drawing nigh to the grave How miserable is their condition who have death near them and God far from them Though we walke through the valley of the shadow of death yet as David professed he would not Psal 23.4 we need not feare any evill while God is with us but how will the very shadowes of death put us in feare if God be not with us and what confidence can we have of his being with us if we are not acquainted with him if we use not to draw neare to him Thirdly If they that are sick draw near unto the grave then it is good for such as come to visit their sick friends wisely to mind them of the grave when will a discourse with our friends of death and the grave
be seasonable if not when we see them dying and going to the grave yet some when they visit sick friends will not speak a word of either they fear it may hasten death to hear of it that speaking of the grave may put them into it then which I know no fear more foolish or more to be feared Yea some will forbid visiters to mention death when their Relations lye sick O doe not speak of death to my Husband saith the Wife c. But remember it if the sick are drawing near to the grave they that visit them should remember them of the grave both in prayer and in conference to speak of death cannot hurt the body but the not speaking of it may hurt the soul and hinder it from getting out of the snares both of spirituall and eternall death Yet godly prudence and great caution is to be used about it none should doe it bluntly nor suddenly but having by discreet insinuations first hinted to the sick man his danger of death we should then by faithfull counsells prepare him for it and by comfortable Scripture cordialls strengthen and arme his spirits against it Such savoury and well mannaged discourses of death may through the blessing of God be a savour of eternall life to the sick man and will not in the least prejudice his recovery from sickness when his soul draweth near to the grave Aâ—d his life to the destroyers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mortificantibus Mont The Hebrew is to those that kill or to lâ—fe destroyers There is a difference among Interpreters who are here intended by these Destroyers to whom the sick mans life draweth near or who are these life destroyers First some thus his life to the destroyers that is to his enemies that are ready to destroy him But that 's improper to the text which speaking of sickness cannot intend any destroying enemy but the last enemy which is to be destroyed death or the antecedents and usuall attendants of it sicknesses Ad Angelos morti praefectos non incommodè resertur sequentis versiculi ratione habita ubi Angeli vitam annunciantis unius de mille mentionem facit ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligas mortis â—umcios Merc Secondly by the destroyers others understand Angells who are commission'd and sent of God to cut the thread of life and to take mortalls out of this world by mortall diseases and so the destroying Angell in this verse stands in opposition to that comforting Angell spoken of in the next verse if there be a messenger or an Angell c. That Angells have such a Ministry is clear 2 Sam. 24.16 Where David having chosen to fall into the hands of God an Angell is presently dispatcht to doe execution upon his people And when the Angell stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evill and said to the Angell that destroyed the people it is enough stay now thine hand c. That destroyer so he is called Exod. 12.23 who slew all the first borne of the Egyptians Gods last and greatest plague upon them his tenth plague is by most interpreted to be an Angell yea by some a good Angell because appointed and directed by God to spare his people the Jewes and to poure out his vengeance upon the Egyptians his and their enemies For most usually the wicked are plagued by good Angells and the good as Job in this book was are afflicted by evill Angells Howbeit that text say some Psal 78.49 leadeth us rather to beleeve that it was an evill Angell He cast upon them meaning the Egyptians the fiercenesse of his anger wrath indignation and trouble by sending evill Angells among them Yet possibly those Angells which destroyed the Egyptians are called evill Angells not because they were so in their nature but because they were Ministers of evill to that hard-hearted people Which way soever we take it there is a truth in it applicable to the Scripture here in hand And so some expound that of Solomon Prov. 17.11 An evill man seeketh only rebellion therefore a cruell Messenger shall be sent against him The text may be rendred a cruell Angell that is an Angell with a Message of wrath and destruction shall be sent unto him The Apostle 1 Cor. 10.10 speaking of those dreadfull judgments which God sent upon his people the Jewes in the Wildernesse such as we are like to find in these Gospell times if we provoke him for all those things are said to have happened unto them for Types or examples vers 11. And there he gives us warning neither murmure ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer That is by the Pestilence or Plague as 't is expressed Numb 14.12 37. which the Apostle Paul calleth a destroyer because doubtless it was executed by some invisible destroyer or Angell The Devill whom John in the Revelation Chap. 9.11 calleth the Angell of the bottomlesse pit is there also set forth by this Title whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon The Devill is the Apollyon the Abaddon both which signifie a destroyer yea the Devill Heb. 2.14 is said to have the power of death as if he were set over that sad work and Lorded it over dying men yet let us know to our comfort the Devill hath not the power of death as a Lord or Judge but only as an Executioner thus the sick mans life may be said to draw nigh to the destroyer that is to the destroying Angell or to the messenger of death Thirdly we may take the destroyers not for persons sent to destroy but for diseases and sicknesses these are destroyers And thus it may be said of a sick man his life draweth nigh to the destroyers that is he is in the hand or under the power of such diseases as probably will destroy him That seems to be Mr. Broughtons understanding of the words Praestat generale est et ad omnia mortis signa et mortifera quicquid illud sit referre Merc who renders his soul draweth nigh to the grave and his life to killing maladies Whatsoever is a death-bringer whatever is deadly or mortall to man may be comprehended under this expression The Destroyers And so these words His life draweth nigh to the destroyer may signifie only thus much he is deadly or as we commonly expresse it mortally sick There 's no hopes of him he is past recovery the Physitians have given him over Heman Psal 88.3 4 5. speaks to this sence and near in this language of himself My soul is full of troubles my life draweth nigh unto the grave I am counted with them that goe down into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength Free among the dead like the slaine that lye in the grave whom thou remembrest no more Heman was alive yet with respect either to the anguish of his soul
their hearts are soft and tender but I will take away the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh Yet Secondly as to the poynt in hand there are conditionall acts of grace I may call them second acts of grace or renewed acts of grace For when after conversion we fall into sin and by that evill heart of unbeliefe remaining in a great measure unmortified we depart from the living God Heb 3.12 God doth not give out fresh acts of grace but upon repentance and the renewings of our communion with him Having once received grace we being again helped and assisted by grace act graciously before God declares himselfe gracious to us When a man is cast upon a sick bed for sin that 's the case of many the Lord will see repentance before he will raise him up againe James 5.15 The prayer of faith shall save the sick and if he hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him that is if he being cast upon a sick bed to correct or chasten him for the sin that he hath committed shall humble himselfe and seek the Lord by prayer praying and calling for prayer Then the sin committed shall be forgiven him and the Lord will raise him up againe 'T is not the prayer of another that can obtaine deliverance for the sick much lesse the forgiveness of his sins if himselfe be prayer-lesse and repentance-lesse But while others pray for the sick mans bodyly health they praying also for his soules health the Lord gives him repentance for his sin and then a comfortable sight of pardon So then before the Lord puts out these second acts of grace he looks for and finds something in the creature yet still that also is an effect of his grace both to them and in them They who have already received grace must stir up their grace and renew acts of grace thorough grace towards him before he dispenses acts of grace towards them And as consolation in this life so that highest and last act of grace salvation in the life to come is not bestow'd upon any till they are fitted God calls and converts the worst of men those that are in their filth and mud and mire but he will not save a filthy person he will have him first purged and prepared Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not enter into the kingdome of God 1 Cor 6.9 and that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb 12.14 There is no eternall salvation without preparation nor is there any promise of temporall salvation without it When a man is sick to death as in the text salvation comes not the Lord is not gracious till the sick mans spirit is humbled and set right till the messenger hath shewed him how he may stand upright before the Lord and he hath imbraced his message then and not till then he is gracious And as in these words we have the occasion of this grace so in the following words we have the publication of this grace Then he is gracious And saith Deliver him from going downe into the pit And saith that is the Lord gives out an order presently he gives out a warrant for the release of the sick man When earthly Princes have once granted pardon to an offender they say deliver him they signe a warrant for his deliverance out of prison or they signe a pardon and say deliver him from death when he is at the place of execution Thus concerning this sick man God saith deliver him from going downe to the pit The word rendred deliver signifies also to redeem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideÌ„ quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redemit liberavit verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non alias reperitur et pro ratione loci intelligitto et exponitur pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Merc 't is used in this forme no where else in all the Scripture To free deliver or redeeme a man intimates his person in hold then will he say deliver him From what there are as many sorts of deliverances as there are of troubles each particular strait and trouble hath a proportionable deliverance There is deliverance First from captivity or bondage Secondly from want or poverty Thirdly from imminent sudden danger or perill by land or Sea Fourthly from sicknesses and diseases Fifthly from death and that two-fold First from temporall Secondly from eternall death Here when he saith deliver him we may determine this deliverance by the latter words of the text to be a deliverance from deadly sickness deliver him from going downe to the pit that is deliver him from death To goe downe to the pit is often in Scripture put to signifie dying Further The pit implyes corruption because in the pit or grave the body corrupts It is sayd indeed Numb 16.30 of that rebellious triumvirate Corah Dathan and Abiram they went downe alive into the pit but they went downe to death and ordinarily the dead only goe downe to the pit The same phrase is used Psal 28.1 Psal 88.4 Ezek 31.14 Ezek 32.18 24 29 30. That text is very remarkeable Prov 28.17 He that offereth violence to the blood of another he shall flee to the pit let no man stay him That is The murderer who in wrath and hatred or upon private revenge destâ—oyeth the life of any man shall hasten to destruction either as chased and hurried by his owne feares like Cain and Judas or as prosecuted by the justice of the Magistrate And as he thus hasteth to the pit so let no man stay him that is First let no man conceale him Secondly let no man move for his impunity or sollicite his pardon or if any doe then Thirdly let not the Magistrate grant his pardon For the old universall Law tells him his duty Gen 9.6 He that sheddeth mans blood by man that is by the Magistrate commanding and by his officers executing shall his blood be shed And as another Law hath it Deut 19.13 Thine eye shall not spare him c. The Magistrate who is in Gods stead may not say of him as here God doth of the sick man Deliver him from going downe to the pit His blood is ill spared who would not spare the blood of another But it may be questioned for as much as the text saith only in general deliver him Into whose hands this warrant for his deliverance is delivered or who is directed to deliver him Master Broughton represents God speaking this to the sick mans disease for thus he renders the text Then he will have mercy upon him and say Spare him O killing malady from descending into the pit God will speak thus to the disease and there is a great elegancy in it spare him O killing malady Diseases come and goe at Gods command they hurt and they spare at his direction As the Lords breath or word bloweth away the winds Math 8.27 The men marvelled saying Who is this that even the winde and the seas obey him So the Lords
breath bloweth away sickness if he doe but speak to a disease to a feaver to an ague to a dropsie to a consumption O killing malady spare him thou hast done enough any disease might prevaile to death did not God say spare him hold thy hand not a blow more not a fit more O killing malady Death it selfe much more sickness heareth the voyce of God And it may be said to heare him because it doth that which they who have the power of hearing ought to doe that is it obeyeth or yeildeth to the voyce and command of God will no longer afflict the sick man Diseases may be said to deliver a man from death the pit when they depart from him Yet Secondly I conceive this warrant for the deliverance of the sick man is given out to the messenger or interpreter to the one among a thousand that visiteth him in his sickness He having been with him and dealt with his conscience he having brought him into a good frame the Lord is gracious Sequestrem illum Jubebit ei renunciare impetratum esse sibi liberationem Bez and in answer to his prayer sets it upon his heart that he shall recover and warrants him to tell him so which is declaratively to deliver him from going downe to the pit This act of mans delivering the sicke is like that act of man pardoning the sinner John 20.23 that is 't is ministeriall or declarative not originall nor Authoritative The interpreter doth not deliver him but tells him God will We have the Psalmist speaking thus after his supplication and prayer made to the Lord for a sick State or Nation or for a sick Church that 's his scope Psal 85. Wilt thou not revive us againe that thy people may rejoycâ— in thee v. 6. Surely thou wilt and he expresseth his confidence that God would v. 8. I will heare what God the Lord will speake for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints When he had prayed he would harken for news or for a message from heaven whether or no the Lord would order him to speak peace to those for whom he had been praying and say deliver them from going downe to the pit Thus did the Prophet Habakkuk I will stand upon my watch and set me upon my tower and see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved Chap 2.1 In the next verse The Lord answered and sayd write the vision and make it plaine upon tables that he may run that readeth it And what was the answer surely deliverance for having sayd in the end it shall speake and not lye v. 3. he concludes v. 4. The just shall live by his faith Believing deliverance he shall at last be delivered from the pit of captivity and live Here in the text we must suppose this messenger had prayed and having prayed he did not neglect his prayer but was hearkning what the Lord would say Elihu was confident the Lord would give a gracious answer though not by an immediate voyce or revelation to his eare yet by an assurance of the mercy given into his spirit When that good king Hezekiah was not only sick unto death but had received an expresse message from the Lord Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live 2 Kings 20.1 'T is sayd at the 2d verse He turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord saying c. And at the 4th verse The word of the Lord came to Isaiah the Prophet saying turne againe and tell Hezekiah the Captain of my people Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father I have heard thy prayer I have seene thy teares behold I will heale thee c. Here God gave a word formally and put it into the Prophets mouth Goe deliver him from going downe to the pit And though the Lord doth not thus now in such an explicite and open way nor may we expect it yet there is a virtuall saying of this word from the Lord and that sometimes mightily imprest upon the hearts of those who have prayed and sought unto him for the sick man whereby not by an ungrounded vaine confidence but by a scripturall holy confidence comparing the promise with the mans condition they are enabled to tell him The Lord hath delivered thee from going downe to the pit And he shall as certainly be delivered as if the Lord had sent an expresse from heaven to tell him so Then he is gracious to him and saith deliver him from going downe to the pit Hence observe First Death is a going to the pit a going to destruction Thus it is ordinarily with all who dye to the pit they goe Many dye and goe downe to the bottomless pit all who dye may be sayd to goe to the pit To goe to the bottomless pit is the circumlocution of eternall death as to goe to the pit is the circumlocution of temporall death Secondly Forasmuch as the man being sick the Lord gives out this word deliver him from going downe to the pit Note Sickness hath in it a tendency unto death The sick stand as it were upon the borders of the grave Some not only put death farr from them in health but in their sickness untill they are even dead they scarce thinke themselves dying It is good for us in our health and best strength to be looking into the pit and considering upon what grounds of comfort we can descend into the grave How much more should we be thinking of and looking into the pit when we are in a languishing and dying condition Thirdly Observe The word and work of deliverance is from God alone Then he will be gracious and say deliver him from going downe to the pit God can and God only can deliver from death no creature in heaven or earth can speak this but by commission from God none can open this secret till God interpret it Deliverance is the Lords salvation and the word of salvation from sickness as well as of salvation from hell comes out from the Lord. But is it not sayd Pro 11.4 Righteousness delivereth from death I answer when it is sayd Righteousness delivereth from death The meaning is God delivereth the righteous from death He delivereth them from the sting and terror from all that which is properly called the evill of corporall death and he delivereth them wholly from the least touch or shadow of eternall death And this righteousness which delivers from death is not our own but the righteousness of Christ made ours by the appoyntment of God and received as ours by faith 'T is neither any righteousness wrought in us nor any righteousness wrought by us but that righteousness which is wrought for us which delivereth from death and that delivereth us from death because God saith of such a righteous person deliver him as often from temporall death or going downe to the pit of the grave so alwayes from
to him spoken of in the former verse and the declaration of it in that word or warrant which went out from God to the messenger about his deliverance from going downe to the pit This mercy or recovery in the full extent of it hath a two-fold respect First to his body Secondly to his soule The mercy as it respects his body is layd downe in the 25th verse His flesh shall be fresher then a childes he shall returne as in the dayes of his youth The mercy which respects his soule or the state of his inward man is layd downe in the 26th verse He shall pray unto God and be will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy for he will render unto him his righteousness In this recovery of his soule-state we may further consider First the causes of it First The Instrumentall cause prayer He shall pray unto God Secondly The principall or efficient cause of it together with the first moving cause The kindness of God He will be favourable unto him Secondly The consequence of this his renewed soule-state He shall see his face with joy Thirdly The matter wherein this joyfull state doth consist in the close of the 26th verse For he will render to man his righteousness So much for the scope and parts of these two verses which shew the blessed issue which God gives this distressed and sick man from his afflictions and sorrowes Vers 25. His flesh shall be fresher then a childes By flesh he meanes the naturall flesh of the body this flesh shall be fresh yea fresher and not only fresher then it was before he fell sick in his man-hood but then it was in his child-hood fresher then a childes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mollitur recreatus fuit alibi quam hic non legitur Ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod virentem significat ac vegetuÌ„ ut cap 8. 16. et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod syriacè significat crescere q. d. revirescet plantarum more et germinum Merc The word which we render comparatively fresher signifies to wax soft or tender 'T is no where read in the whole Bible but here Grammarians say it is compounded of an Hebrew word which signifies to be greene or flourishing Chap 8.16 and of a Syriack word which signifies to increase and grow as a plant we render it as noting the man mending apace as some sick men upon recovery doe in his strength and health He shall be fresh-coloured who before was pale and wan he shall be full-fleshed who before was fallen and leane so that when he saith His flesh shall be fresher then a childes 'T is an Elegant hyperbolical expression to shew his perfect recovery from that mortal sickness to health As if he had sayd God will restore him so that there shall be no scarr nor print no dregs nor appearance of his former disease seene upon him We know how tender and soft how delicate and faire the flesh of a little child is how sweete his countenance is how full of good blood his veines are how healthy and strong as to his time his whole body is Thus it shall be with this sick man His flesh shall be freshâ—r then a childes he shall be as if he were new-borne or entred a second time upon the stage of this world Our spirituall estate of renovation by Christ is set forth as a youthfull or child-like state as to the purity and perfection of it Eph 5.27 Christ shall present us to himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing The Church hath her sin-spots and wrinckles now in her militancy but when Christ shall present the Church at last triumphantly to himselfe then as himselfe was ever without spot or wrinckle so shall the Church be Her flesh shall indeed be fresher then a childes being perfectly recovered out of her spirituall sickness Notat perfectissimum sanitatis modum qui nullum transacti morbi vestigium relinquit Mert And thus in proportion Elihu assures the penitent sick man that when his peace is renewed with God and his spirit set right for God his very flesh shall be without spot or wrinckle fresher then a childes The latter part of the verse beares the same sence He shall returne as in the dayes of his youth That is he shall not barely recover his health and get upon his leggs againe as we say he shall not meerely escape death and the grave but he shall have an addition of bodily ability he shall as it were be young againe As sickness makes a young man look old so recovery from sickness makes the old man look young That 's to returne to the dayes of his youth Hence Note First Bodily beauty health and strength are the Gift of God He gives them and takes them away at pleasure or having taken them away he can give them backe when he pleaseth He kills and he makes alive he bringeth downe to the Grave and bringeth up as Hannah sayd in her Song 1 Sam 2.6 How low soever a man is brought by sickness either proper or metaphoricall the Lord is able to rayse him up againe We read v. 21. in how pitifull a plight the sick man was how rather like a carkasse then a living man he lookt His flesh was consumed that it could not be seene and his bones which were not seene stood out as much as to say He was nothing but skin and bones yet when in that case all hopes were gone and all natural helps fayled it was no hard matter with God to cure him When the skill of the Physician and the vertue of medicines fayle the power of God fayleth not As it is in reference to those outward dangers and desperate exigents which we meete with in this world by enemies and persecutors when we look upon our selves as dead men when all hope of deliverance seems past gone then the Lord alwayes can and often doth deliver The Apostle gives us his experience of it 2 Cor 1.9 10. We had the sentence of death in our selves he spake not thus in regard of sickness but of trouble and persecution As if he had sayd The malice and wrath of our enemies was such that we thought we should never escape We had the sentence of death in our selves but providence suffered it to be so that we should not trust in our selves but in God who rayseth the dead As it is I say in such dangers so in dangerous deadly sicknesses when a poore creature hath the sentence of death in himselfe when he makes no other reckoning but to dye as good King Hezekiah sayd of himselfe in his sickness Isa 38.13 I reckoned till morning that as a Lyon so will he breake all my bones from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me yet then as in his case so in many cases the Lord stretcheth forth a healing hand and takes the sick man up againe to continue in
all flesh perisheth and turneth again unto what it once was dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew word which we render to gather signifieth to add one thing or person to another When Rachel had conceived and bare a son Gen. 30.22 23. she called from this word his name Joseph and said the Lord shall add to me another son Thus here If God add or gather to himself his spirit and his breath that is the spirit and breath of man c. We may distinguish between these two Spiritus animam flatus vitam quae ab anima provenit conservatur significat ego opinâ—r idem esse hoc loco Sanct. spirit and breath Some insist much and curiously upon this distinction The spirit denoting the soul or the internal rational power of man and the breath that effect of life which followeth or floweth from the union of soul and body The life of man is often expressed by breath Cease ye from man whose breath or life is in his nostrils Isa 2.22 If once man's breath goeth out his life cannot stay behinde the spirit of a man is in this sence distinct from his breath for when the breath is vanished and is no more the soul or spirit liveth The Apostle in his prayer for the Thessalonians 1 Thess 5.23 puts soul and spirit together The very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved harmless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ There 't is most probable by the soul he intends the inferiour powers in man or his affections and by the spirit his higher powers of reason and understanding yet the spirit is often put for that whole part of man which is contradistinct to his body Into thy hands I commend my spirit that is my soul not forgetting my body And I conceive we may safely expound it here in that latitude as comprehending the whole inner man Yet it is all one as to the sence of this place whether we take spirit and breath distinctly or for the same the spirit being so called from spiration or breathing If he gather unto him his spirit and his breath The gathering of the spirit and breath of man unto God is but a periphrasis or circumlocution of death or of man's departure out of this life when man was formed or created Gen. 2.7 it is said God breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul And when man dyeth his breath or spirit may be said to be gathered or returned back unto God so then the meaning of Elihu in this double supposition If he set his heart upon man if he he gather to himself his spirit and his breath is clearly this if God were once resolved or should but say the word that man must presently die die he must and that presently Hence Note First God can easily do whatsoever he hath a minde to do If he do put his heart upon the doing of any thing it is done Men often set their hearts yea and their hands unto that which they cannot do if men could do that which they set their hearts to do or have a minde to do and thereupon set their hands to do we should have strange work in the world 'T is a mercy to many men that man is often frustrated in his thoughts and purposes in his attempts and undertakings and 't is a glorious mercy to all that have an interest in God that God never lost a thought nor can be hindred in any work he setteth his heart upon He that can lett or stop all men in their works can work and none shall lett or stop him What God will do is not defecible or undoeable if I may so express it by any power in heaven or earth And as God can do what he will and ask no man leave so he can do what he will without trouble to himself 't is but the resolve of his will the turning of his hand or the cast of his eye all which are soon dispatcht and 't is done Thus God breathed out his wishes for the welfare of Israel Psal 81.13 O that my people had hearkned unto me c. I should soon have subdued theâ—r enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries As if he had said I could and would have eased them of all their enemies even of all that rose up against them easily even with the turning of my hand What is more easily done or moâ—e speedily done then the turning of a hand Many things are hard to man and indeed very few things are easie to him except it be to sin or to do evil he can do evil easily some things are not only hard but too hard impossible for man but there is nothing hard much less too hard for God he can easily do the hardest things yea the hardest things are as easie to him as the easiest for as Psal 139.12 Darkness hideth not from the sight of God the darkness and the light are both alike to him so hardness hinders not the work of God hardness and easiness are both alike to him if he set his heart upon it From this general truth take two inferences First How should we fear before this God How should we tremble at the remembrance of and walk humbly in our highest assurance with this God We are much afraid to displease those men who can easily hurt us and in whose hand it is to ruine us every hour But O how little are we in this thought to fear the Lord to take heed of displeasing the Lord who can with ease either help or hurt either bring salvation or destruction who in a moment can thrust the soul out of the body and cast both into hell Secondly We may hence make a strong inference for the comfort of the people of God when their straits are most pinching and their difficulties look like impossibilities and are so indeed while they look to man when their enemies are strongest and the mountains which stand in the way of their expected comforts greatest if then God will be entreated to set his heart and cast his eye upon them their straits are presently turned into enlargements difficulties become easie and mountains plains If we can but engage the Lord his own promise is the surest engagement and indeed all that we can put upon him or minde him of if I say we can thus engage the Lord to be with us who can be to our hurt many will be to their own against us Secondly Note Our life is at the beck dispose and pleasure of God He can gather the spirit and the breath to himself whensoever he pleaseth Psal 104.29 Thou hidest thy face and they are troubled and thou takest away their breath they die and return to their dust If God hideth his face from us 't is death while we live but if he take away our breath we cannot live but die Psal 90.3 Thou
turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men Here 's man turning and returning upon the saying of God man turneth to death he returneth to dust and shall at last return from the dust and all this when God saith he must Our life is a very frail thing and it is in the hand of God to continue or take it away to let us hold it or gather it home to himself Thirdly From the manner of speaking If he gather to himself his spirit and his breath Note When man dieth he is gathered to God When as Solomon allegorizeth the death of man Eccl. 12.6 7. The silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken c. Then shall the dust that is the body return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it that is each part of man when he departeth this world shall go its proper way and return to that which is most congenial to it his body to the earth from whence it is his soul to God of whom it is God is a Spirit the creating Spirit and our created spirits are gathered to God when they are separated from the body yet remember there is a two-fold gathering or returning of the spirit to God First To abide and be blessed with him for ever thus the spirits of believers or saints only are gathered to God when they depart out of this world Secondly There is a gathering of the spirit to God to be judged and disposed of by him to receive a sentence of life or death from him And thus the spirit of every man or woman that dieth is gathered to God be they good or bad believers or unbelievers Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for men once to die but after this the judgement 'T is the Statute Law of God man must die and the sound of Judgement is at the heels of death That Text saith but after this the Judgement The general day of judgement shall not be till the resurrection of man from the dead But there is a personal judgement or a determining of every mans state when he dieth and for that end every mans spirit is gathered to God to receive his sentence The spirits of wicked men are gathered to him and condemned the spirits of the righteous are gathered to him and acquitted We are come saith the Apostle Heb. 12.23 to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect David knew he must be gathered to God but he earnestly deprecated such a gathering as most shall have Psal 26.9 Gather not my soul with sinners nor my life with bloody men It is this word when sinners die they are gathered but David would not be gathered as they are gathered They are gathered to God but it is that they may be for ever separated from him they are gathered to a day of vengeance and wrath Therefore David prayed Gather not my soul with sinners Death is called a gathering in a threefold reference First A gathering to our people Thus it is said of Aaron Num. 20.24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the land c. Death separates the people of God from their people that is from those that are like them on earth but it will be a means of bringing them into the society of their people or fellow believers who are gone before them into heaven Secondly Death is called a gathering to our Fathers 2 Chron. 34 28. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace There 's a gathering to a more special company and that with other like Scriptures are an argument that we shall know our relations in heaven For to be gathered to our Fathers spoken of in the first part of the verse is more then to be gathered to the grave spoken of in the latter and by our fathers we are to understand more of our fathers then the grave hath in its keeping which is but their bodies even their souls which are kept in heaven Thirdly According to the phrase of this Text death is called a gathering to God If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath Whence Note Fourthly The spirit or soul of man hath its original from God It is of him to whom it returneth The soul or spirit of man is of God in a more special way then his body is for though God giveth both yet the Scripture in the place before named speaks of the soul as the gift of God but passeth by the body Eccles 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it 'T is God not man alone who hath given us these bodies but 't is not man but God alone who hath given us these spirits therefore men are called the fathers of our flesh that is of the body in way of distinction from God who is the father of spirits Heb. 12.9 We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live that is shall we not rather be subject to God then to man Father of spirits is an Attribute or Title too high and honourable for any but God One of the Ancients in his gracious breathing after God brake out into this holy Passion My soul O God came from thee and my heart is unquiet or restless until it return to thee again God is our center and our rest He gathereth to himself mans spirit and when he doth so what then what 's the issue of it Elihu tells us what in the next verse Vers 15. All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again to his dust As if he had said As soon as ever the spirit is gathered the flesh is consumed or as we render perisheth All flesh may be taken in the largest sence not only for all men that live but for all living creatures Thus largely Moses extendeth it Gen. 6.17 Behold saith the Lord I will bring a flood of water to destroy all flesh that is all the Beasts of the earth and Fowls of the ayre together with Mankinde except a few of each in the Ark so Psal 136.25 Who giveth food to all flesh that is to man and beast for his mercy endureth for ever Yet some understand this first part more narrowly for all flesh except man because he addeth in the latter part of the verse and man shall return again to his dust But I conceive we are to take all flesh here for all men and only for men it being usual in Scripture to put the same thing twice under different expressions So then All flesh that is every man be he who he will shall perish Thus as all flesh is restrained to man so it extendeth over all men yea over all things of man Isa 40.6 All flesh is grass and all the
that God is not sayd to forme man of the water or ayre or fire but of the dust of the ground Gen 2.7 though all those as well as earth were ingredients in the composition and formation of mans body As man with respect to his spiritualls and moralls is denominated from that which is chief in him so with respect to his naturalls Every man hath the seeds and principles of all sin in him yet many men are knowne and expressed by some speciall sin Thus one is called a covetous man another a malicious man c. because covetousnesse and malice are their predominant sins in practice though the principles of all other sins are in them So for grace one is sayd to be a patient man and another an humble man and a third a self-denying man Though where any grace is all graces are yet a godly man is knowne by that grace which acts most eminently and vigorously in him In this notion man is sayd to be of the dust and to returne to dust as if he were nothing but dust because dust is the predominant Element in the naturall constitution of man And if so then this is an humbling consideration Some walke as if they thought the ground or earth not good enough for them to goe upon Moses setting forth the dreadfullness of famine as a punishment threatned the Jewish nation in case of disobedience tells us it shall fall on all sorts both of men and women Deut 28.56 The tender and delicate woman among you which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness c. Some are loth to put their feet to the ground whereas the best foote that ever trod upon the ground is dust as wel as the ground trodden on and 't is but dust to dust when they are in the dust and dirt to dirt if they fall into the dirt The Apostle among other reasons for this also calleth the body of man a vile body Phil 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Our bodies are vile chiefly from the contagion of sin that hath made them most vile But they are comparatively vile with respect to the very matter out of which they were all representatively made when the first man was made without the least taint or touch of sin Man at best as to the body is but a little breathing dust or moving clay And did we spiritually look upon the matter of our bodyes it would exceedingly humble our spirits and keep them low even when like Jordan they are ready to over-flow all the banks of modesty and moderation We heare of a bird who priding himselfe in spreading and perusing his fine feathers is presently as it were ashamed by looking down upon his owne black feete Surely did man often consider that his whole body is of the earth it would be an excellent meanes to keepe his heart in a lowly frame how highly soever himselfe is exalted in the earth And as man while he lives is from the dust so when he dyeth that 's another humbling consideration his body not only returneth unto dust but turneth into dust David as the figure of Christ cryed out Psal 22.15 Thou hast brought me into the dust of death Dust and death are neere acquaintance and all that dy grow quickly into neerer acquaintance with the dust It is sayd Psal 103.14 The Lord knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust But what advantage is that to us that the Lord knoweth the one and remembreth the other I may answer as the Apostle doth to another question Rom 3.2 much every way chiefly because he will pitty us and spare us and deale tenderly with us as considering how frayle we are Now as it may be our comfort that God remembreth we are but dust so 't is our duty to remember that we are but dust and that we must to the dust Shall God remember that we are dust and shall not we remember it our selves Did we more remember that we are dust we should more prepare for our return to the dust Yea I may say we should be more in heaven if we were more in our dust that is the gracious and serious meditation of our naturall vilenes and infirmities would provoke us to looke heaven-wards and prepare for heaven where these our naturall bodyes shall become spirituall 1 Cor 15.44 that is they shall be like spirits though not turned into spirits living without food or sleep living free from weariness and sickness from paines and languishments yea free from the remotest feare of ever dying or returning againe into dust Such as these and many more would be our soules advantages did we often as becomes us remember that our bodyes are of the earth and must shortly be earth againe Thus to be earthly minded is the way to be heavenly minded Many are earthly minded that is they mind earthly things but few mind that themselves are earth In what holy heights and elevations of spirit should we be if we could spiritually remember how low we once were and how low as to our bodyes we within a few dayes shall be Lastly This truth should take us off from all creature-confidence from trusting in man Cursed is the man saith the Lord Jer 17.5 that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme 'T is a cursed thing for man to trust in man becausâ— trust is an honour proper to God he alone is to be trusted And as it is a cursed so it is also a foolish thing to trust in man David a Great Prince giveth us this counsel from God Psal 146.3 4. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help his breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth or to his dust in that day all his thoughts perish happy is the man that hath the God of Jacob for his help What can dust do for dust what can dust get by dust that which is weake may become strong by trusting to or leaning upon that which is strong the weakest man is strong enough while he trusteth upon the strong God but if weake trust upon weake how shall it be made strong Therefore let all flesh hearken to the words of the holy Prophet Isa 2.21 Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrills for wherein is he to be accounted of Man himselfe is a soone-ceasing creature David useth the noune of this verbe to expresse himselfe so Psal 39.4 and therefore we have reason to cease from man to cease from any high estimation of the highest men much more from any confidence in them What can we assure our selves of from any man living seeing he hath no assurance of his owne life The Prophet would have us understand that while he saith his breath is in his nostrills Mans life is gone as soone as his breath is gone and how soone may that be
out to use ill words to Magistrates though as Paul's case was we are ill used by them Shimei taking the advantage of David's affliction rose up to this height of impudence against him mentioned with indignation by Elihu in the Text he openly and to his face called him Belial 2 Sam. 16.5.7 Come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial But we know what the issue was he paid dear for it at last though David forgave him at present and did not suffer Abishai to take a sudden revenge yet upon his death-bed he delivered him over to his son Solomon to deal with him as he should see good And so great is the offensiveness and unfitness of speaking thus unto a King that the Jewes joyned it with blasphemy against God himself We read 1 Kings 21.13 how two false Witnesses came against Naboth saying Naboth blaspemed God and the King as much as to say we heard Naboth say of the King Belial And as soon as these two had brought in their evidence against him that he had blasphemed God and the King they drew him out and stoned him Blasphemy against God was death by the express letter of the Law Lev. 24.15 16. It was also death by the same Law for any man to curse his Father or his Mother Exod. 21.17 And because the King is Pater Patriae the father of his Country it seems the cursing or blaspheming of him was also punishable by death The Apostle Jude useth an equivalent word in the Greek Ep. of Jude v. 8. reproving a wicked Sect in those times They fear not to blaspheme or speak evil of Dignities There is blasphemy against Princes who are titular Gods as well as against the only true God Kings are to be feared to be submitted to they are to be prayed for therefore not to be reviled Is it fit to say unto a King Belial Yet this doth not stop the mouths of all men from telling Kings and Princes their faults nor doth it justifie a silent dissembling of them much less doth it open the mouthes of any to dawb Kings and Princes with the untempered morter of flatteries Kings are no more to be flattered then they are to be reproached Dignities must not be spoken evil of yet they may be prudently and humbly told of their evils and informed of their failings plainly When Eliah met Ahab who said Art thou he that troubleth Israel Eliah answered 1 Kings 18.18 I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that ye have forsaken the Commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Baal And we read how boldly Elisha carried it to the King of Israel 2 Kings 3.13 14. What have I to do with thee Get thee to the Prophets of thy father and to the Prophets of thy mother And Elisha said as the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand Surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the King of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee Thus the Prophets dealt with much gracious severity towards mighty Princes The Prophet Isaiah feared not to say Isa 1.10 Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodome Give ear unto the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah implying that the Rulers of Jerusalem were then but such as the Rulers of Sodome once were and that the people were no better then the people of Gomorrah and it is conceived that for this plainness and liberty of speech which the Prophet Isaiah used toward the Princes and Rulers of Judah he was put to death being cut or mangled asunder with a wooden Sawe One might think that Ezekiel did much forget himself when he gave those opprobrious terms to Zedekiah King of Judah Ezek. 21.25 And thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end yet he sinned not in this harsh reproof of his sin because commanded of God to do it and specially directed by the holy Spirit The Prophets might not diminish a word but must give out what God gave in John the Baptist reproved Herod for Herodias his brother Philips wife and for all the evils which he had done Luke 3.19 And Jesus Christ himself called Herod Fox Luke 13.32 The Prophets were often Instructed and Commissioned to prophesie against the mountains that is against the Princes and Powers of the world and therefore take the state of the point and of our duty about it in these few conclusions that we may not run upon the rocks either way neither upon the rock of blasphemy against Kings and Princes on the one side nor upon the rock of flattery on the other First The Power or State of Princes must never be reviled nor evill spoken of kingly Power and Authority is alwayes to be reverenced and honoured though the Prince be wicked yet his Power is to be reverenced and that 's the purest reverence Regia per se dignitas nunquam non est colenda etiam cum princeps iniquus est For to reverence the power of Princes only because or when they are good and do us good and rule every way according to our mind this is but a piece of selfishness but when Princes are evill and bring evills upon us yet to bear respect to the Power and Authority which they Exercise this is to honour God and to give true submission to his ordinance Whatsoever the person is the power must be reverentially submitted to Secondly It is high wickednesse to speak evill of the persons of just and righteous Princes that every man will acknowledge Thirdly Kings and Princes must not be reproved for personall or private faults publickly To doe so is against the rule in any mans case much more in the case of Kings and Princes Fourthly Kings are not to be reproved for any of their faults but by those who have a Call to it that was the reason of the liberty which the old Prophets used towards Kings they were specially commanded and Commissioned by God for it and the peril was upon their own heads if they did it not it is not for every one to reprove Princes but for those that are called to it Lastly Even those that are called to it must doe it with much submission though they must not doe it to halves and deceitfully yet they are to doe it respectfully It is not fit to say to a King Belial such rough and unhewne language is not for Princes their faults must only be insinuated if that may serve as Nathan dealt with David who though he knew what his sin was yet he did not say to him Thou murtherer thou Adulterer but intimated the matter by a parable and made him covertly or in a third person charge himselfe before he charged him or applyed the parable personally to him with Thou art the man When Miriam the Sister and Aaron the Brother of Moses spake against him because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married
poor that 's the case of some it is the Lords with-holding of his blessing which makes all his labours fruitless and successless such a man is indeed one of God's poor or a poor man of God's making and God will surely make the poverty of such a man if he continue in a believing dependence upon him and in an humble submission to him if he know how to want as well as to abound how to be hungry as well as to be full and in every estate hath learned therewith to be content as the holy Apostle had then I say God will surely make the poverty of such a man better to him then riches or the largest portion of this worlds enjoyment The poor of God's special making are under his special keeping and blessing As they have but little so they want nothing God himself will always be not only enough but all to them Take two further inferences from the whole verse First Princes great and rich men must not expect to fare better with God because of their greatness or riches For He doth not regard the rich more then the poor Secondly The meanest man needs not fear that he shall fare the worse before God for his meanness The most high God will not overlook those in a low estate he regardeth the poor as well as the rich and that 's matter of great comfort to the poor when disregarded by the rich Though the Lord doth not make all men of an equal respect in the world 't is his will that some men should be more regarded by men then others are yet himself in the sence opened beareth an equal respect to them all He regardeth not the rich more then the poor for they are all the work of his hands JOB Chap. 34. Vers 20 21 22. In a moment shall they die and the people shall be troubled at midnight and pass away and the mighty shall be taken away without hands For his eyes are upon the wayes of man and he seeth all his doings There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves IN these three verses Elihu doth two things principally First He sets forth the judgements of God Secondly He gives an account of the equity of them He sets forth the judgements of God First More generally Upon People and Nations Secondly Upon Princes and Governours All this in the 20th verse And in this judgement of God upon Nations we may take notice First Of the nature of it and how it is described and that is laid down three wayes First They shall die Secondly They shall be troubled Thirdly They shall pass away Under these Notions the judgement of God upon People and Nations is exprest Secondly We may here consider the suddenness of all this In a moment they shall die Thirdly We may consider the season or rather as to man the unseasonableness of it it shall be though in a dreaming time when they little dream of it The people shall be troubled at midnight Thus we have the judgement or sad dispensation of God described in this 20th verse both as to the acts of it and likewise as to the manner of it upon the people Elihu having shewed the judgement of God upon the people in the former part of this 20th verse declares also his judgement upon the Princes in the latter end of it The mighty shall be taken away without hand Where we see First How Princes are expressed or called They are the mighty Secondly What kinde of judgement befalleth them They are taken away Thirdly The manner how this is brought about They are taken away without hand From the matter of the judgement of God both upon people and Princes Elihu proceeds to give the reason why the Lord deals thus with both This he doth in the two verses following First Because of their sin They are workers of iniquity in the close of the 22th verse Secondly Because as they are workers of iniquity so God is fully acquainted with all their iniquity c. He seeth all their works and the iniquity of their works nothing can cover it or them from his fight and therefore as Elihu asserts the omniscience of God positively in the 21th verse so negatively in the 22th verse There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Now seeing the works of those Nations and Princes were naught and the naughtiness of them was evident to God how could he but punish them And how just and righteous is he in punishing of them By all this Elihu clears his general Assertion or the point he drives at all this chapter over namely to prove that God is righteous against which position he tells us before Job having spoken dangerously he was engaged to maintain it vigorously which he doth here especially in that eminent branch of it mentioned at the 19th verse That he accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more then the poor For Princes as well as common people fall under his hand So much for the parts and resolution of these three verses as also for the general scope of them Yet before I go on to the particular explication of them I would only minde the Reader of another Translation of the whole 20th verse which varieth somwhat from ours rendring it as a description of the judgement of God upon Princes by the violence of the people whereas according to our Translation it is a description of the judgement of God both upon people and Princes The Translation I mean is that of the Vulgar Latine which runs in this form Vers 20. Suddenly shall they die Subito morientur in media nocte turbabuntur populi per transibunt auferent violentum absique manu Vulg. at midnight the people shall be in a tumult and shall pass over and take away the violent man without hand This Reading and the expositions given upon it prove That God is so far from accepting the persons of Princes that he does not only tell them their own and reprove them to their face for their wickedness and Apostacy as was shewed from the former reading of the 18th verse but deprives them also of their dignity and pulls them from their power And he doth it in such a manner that every man may understand and see the hand of God in it because they see no hands in it The less of man appears in any work of providence whether it be in a way of mercy or of judgement the more of God is to be acknowledged in it and where nothing of man appeareth all or the whole must be attributed unto God The judgement which Elihu speaks of here seems according to this Interpretation to have much of man in it yet because the men supposed to be in it are looked upon as such as can do little in it or ought to do nothing in it therefore 't is said to be done without
sense for death is a passing away a passing out of this world Psal 37.36 Transire intelligo non pro migrare aliò sed pro abire in sepulchrum Merc Loe he passed away and was gone that is he died And that which is as death to the heavens and the earth their great change when ever it shall be is called a passing away Math 5.18 Till heaven and earth passe away one jot or one tittle shall in no wise passe away from the Law till all be fullfilled that is the Law shall stand in force as long as the world stands Thus to passe away is to die But I conceive we are to expound this third branch of the Judgement distinctly from the former two and therefore for as much as we have death in the first words it will not be proper to take in death here againe or to expound passing away by dying The third notion of they shall passe away is they shall run or flee for it they know not whether they shall flee for their lives from the danger impending over them As some shall die and all be troubled so not a few shall endeavour to save their lives by flight Christ in the Gospel foretold the great troubles and afflictions which should come upon Jerusalem and in them there was a sad concurrence or meeting of these three Judgments in the text For when after forty yeares the Romans invaded and ruin'd their City many dyed were destroyed by sword and famine all the people were troubled Oh in what a hurry were they to see the Romane Eagle displayed before their Gates and then they passed away that is as many as could withdrew and got out of the danger It is reported in history that before the Seidge of that City a voyce was heard in Jerusalem saying Migremus hinc let us passe from hence they who believed that warning departed soone after And as some passed away before the Judgement came so when it was come many were striving to be gone or to passe away Therefore Christ admonished them Math 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabath day I conceive we are to understand this text distinctly of such a passing away In a moment shall they die and the people shall be troubled at midnight and passe away they shall doe what they can to secure themselves by out-running the danger Note from it First God hath variety of meanes to humble a sinfull people Into how many wayes doe the Judgements of God divide themselves severall persons beare severall parts here is death to many trouble to all flight to some That in the Prophet answers it fully Jer 15.1 where the Lord protesting that nothing no not the intercession of Moses and Samuel should take him off from his resolve against that people saith Such as are for death to death and such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine and such as are for the captivity to the captivity There 's pestilence and sword and famine and captivity ready at the call of God to take away a provoking people Secondly Note To passe away or to be put to our flight is a grievous Judgement To flee from the face of the pursuer to run for our lives who knows the trouble and terror of it but they that have been in it what a mercy is it that our dwellings are continued to us that we abide in our places that we neither die in a moment are not surpriz'd by midnight-feares but rest quietly in our beds though feares at midnight have been ready to surprize us What a mercy is it that we are not passing away running fleeing into the wildernesse as the poore Churches of God have done in severall ages So much of Judgement upon the people in that three-fold notion of it We have here also Judgement upon Princes And the mighty shall be taken away without hand Not only the many but the mighty shall feele the Judgements of God For as 't is sayd in the former verse He accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more then the poore The mighty and the meanest of men are alike to God when they are alike in sinning against God If they doe evill alike they shall suffer evill alike God accepteth no mans person The mighty shall be taken away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fortis robustus excellens fortitudine pluraliter Abirim in genere forte significat The word rendred mighty taken plurally is used in Scripture to denote not only mighty men but any creature that excells in might And therefore according to the exigence of the place it signifies sometimes Angells who being spirits exceed all flesh in might The people of Israel in the wilderness did eat Angells food Psal 78.5 the food of the Abirims of the mighty or strong ones And as it is applyed to Angells who exceed the strongest men in strength so it is applyed to any sort of strong beasts to the horse Jer 47.3 to Bulls Isa 34.7 Jer 50.11 Psal 22.13 Psal 68.31 Thus the word riseth above man to Angells and falls below man to the beasts of the earth here 't is applyable only to strong and mighty men of whom yet there are three sorts First Some are men of a mighty arme Secondly Others are mighty in Armes Thirdly There are men mighty in Authority The first of these is a natural mighty man he hath a mighty arme a strong body or he excells in bodily strength The second is a marshall mighty man a souldier a man of warre The third is the Magistratical mighty man he is cloathed with power both to punish and reward Possibly he may have no bodily might yea possibly he is no souldier yet a man of such power he is that he commands whole Nations Now take the word Mighty in any of these three senses and it is a truth the mighty shall be taken away the mighty in strength of the Arme the mighty in strength of Armyes the mighty in power and dignity are by the hand of the Almighty God taken away They shall take them away saith the Hebrew text that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et amovent potentem impersonaliter Pisc say some according to the first translation mentioned the people shall violently take away the mighty But by an usuall Hebraisme we may read it Impersonally the mighty shall be taken away concealing or leaving it to be understood by whom Like that speech to the rich man Luke 12.25 This night doe they require thy soule of thee so we put in the Margin that is as the text hath it this night thy soule shall be required of thee they shall take thy soule that is it shall be taken away so here they shall take away the mighty that is the mighty shall be taken away or removed We may take notice of a two-fold remove or taking away First There is a
they that are really wicked shall be dealt with as wicked men though they make a high profession of godliness in the Church even them will God strike also as wicked men Christ speakes of some Math 7.22 who made a lâ—â—d profession of religion with whom yet he dealt as with wicked men Depart from me saith he I know ye not ye workers of iniquity Though God doth not deal alike with all wicked men yet he deales with them all like wicked men There is not one wicked man in the world but he shall be dealt with according to his kind that is as a wicked man and shall have that for his portion which is the portion of their Cup who are wicked As the Godly so the wicked whether prophane or false and hypocriticall shall be esteemed and handled by God like themselves or as they are Secondly From the first word as it is taken causally upon which many insist Note The reason why wicked men â—ne stricken is because they are wicked Were not men wicked they should never feele such stroakes from the hand or rather iron rod of God If any smart and are ruin'd they may thank themselves for it that is their sins for it their sufferings are the fruits of their sin The Prophet told the sinfull Jewes so Jer 4.18 they had an affliction upon them which did reach even to the heart God made their hearts ake he struck them to the heart but why did he so the answer is Thy sin and thy doings have procured those things to thee c. He striketh them as wicked men In the open sight of others Locus videntium locus patens frequens celebris omnium oculis expositus Par Importat visionem paradigmaticam et exemplarem Merc These words are a further description of the manner how God strikes the wicked he doth it openly or as we put in the margin In the place of beholders that is in such a place and in such a manner that all may behold it we say He strikes them in the open sight of others that is he punisheth them in an exemplary way or that they may be an example of warning unto others For The place of seers or of beholders is some open and eminent place oppos'd to a Corner as Paul sayd pleading his cause before king Agrippa Acts 26.26 This thing was not done in a Corner no it was done as upon the house-top even in the place of beholders The Lord will not have to doe with wicked men only in a Corner He will have witnesses of his doings with them There shall be enow to take notice how he handles them therefore he often takes open vengeance on them in the frequent assembly and concourse of many beholders both approving and reverencing yea adoring the impartiall equity of the supreame Judge and his care of humane affaires So then the words are an allusion to the execution of Common malefactors who dye by the Judgement of the Magistrate such being condemned and sentenced by the Judge are not put to death in the prison or in a hole but are taken out and carried to some noted place of execution or a Scaffold is purposely erected where a multitude of spectators are admitted to come and behold the Tragedy When our Lord Jesus Christ who to deliver us from our transgressions was numbred with transgressors when he I say was crucified The Evangelist saith Luke 23.35 The people stood beholding and the Rulers also with them derided him Christ himselfe was strucken as a wicked man in the place of Beholders And so have many thousands of his faithfull witnesses The wicked deale with them often as the Lord dealeth sometimes with wicked men they are brought forth from prison to death and executed in the open sight of others All things in this world come alike to all no man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before them Eccl 9.1 2. The Apostle Paul speaking of himselfe and his fellow-Apostles to shew the publick disgrace which they were put to saith We are made a spectacle to the world to Angels and to men 1 Cor 4 9. The Greeke is we are a Theater to the world c. As if he had sayd all see how we are used And as bloody persecuters make the faithfull servants of Christ a spectacle so Christ will at last make wicked men a spectacle to the world to Angels and to men Thus it is prophecied Isa 66.24 that all flesh who come to worship before the Lord shall goe forth and looke upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against him c. They shall be stricken in the place of Beholders or Seers Some expound that word Seers Videre saepe significat cum voluptate aliquid spectare Scult as implying more then ordinary seers or more then barely such as see what is done namely such as are delighted and pleased with what is done yet not as it is a suffering of paine by man but as it is an act of Justice from God Hence note God oftentimes doth Justice upon sinners openly The Judgements of God are of two sorts Some are secret others are manifest he can doe execution upon men when none see it nay he doth the severest executions upon some men when they themselves doe not see it that 's the sting and severity of the Judgement that they have not so much as any sence of the wrath of God when the full vialls of his wrath are powring out upon them But many of the Judgements of God are open As he striketh some so secretly that none can see it so others so visibly that all may see it Thus the Lord commanded Moses Numb 25.4 when Israel had joyned themselves unto Baal-peor Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun By the heads of the people we may understand either the capitall offenders those who were most active and ready in that wickednesse or their principall Rulers who in stead of stopping them from or punishing them for those offences gave way to them or at least wincked at them These must be hanged against the Sun that is as Elihu speakes here in the open sight of others or in the place of seers Thus they were made an example of caution that all might see and feare and doe no more presumptuously Read the like executions of divine Judgement threatned 2 Sam 12.11 12. Isa 26.11 John in the Revelation Chap 15.4 prophecyeth of the Saints triumphing at the fall of Babylon and singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lambe saying Great and marvellous are thy workes c. for thy Judgements are made manifest God hath now stricken Babylon his great enemy in the open sight of others his Judgements were right before they are alwayes right but till then not manifest David saith Psal 9.16 The Lord is knowne by the Judgement which he executeth now if the Lord be knowne by the Judgement which
sent to destroy 362. How the Angels come to know the mystery of the Gospel 408 Anger full of heate 10 11. Anger in the cause of God is good 15. Anger prevailes most in those who have least reason 27. They who give counsel must bridle anger 28. We should see good reason to be angry before we are 40 Answer unlesse we answer home we give no answer 82. A fourefold way of answering 232 233. Apostates who are so 620. Apostacy or turning back from God 700. Apostates grow worse and worse every day 705 Archimedes much transported with joy and why 85 Arrow put for a wound 525. Two sorts of arrows 525 Attention the best men may need to have their attentions quickned 551. B Barachel what that name signifieth 11. Behold a fourefold use of it in the Scripture 460 461. Behold to behold taken two wayes in Scripture 658 Belial what it signifieth and who may be called Belial 622 623 Bernard his description of an Opinionist in his time 115 Best not barely good but the best things to be looked after and chosen 508 510 Binding the great use of it for healing 608 Bladders wicked men how like them 691 Blindness spirituall or of the understanding to be smitten with it how sore a judgement 699 Boasting man is very apt to boast of himselfe 83 84 Man is apt to boast in the evill he doth much more of the good he doth 84. His boasting of wisdome 85 Bones what they are to the body 337. Paine in the bones grievous 337 338 Breath and spirit their difference 590 C Call of God it is dangerous to refuse or not hearken to his first call 268 Cato his answer to a voluptuous person 505 Change or turning of a man into another man twofold 55 Changes God can quickly make the greatest changes both in naturall and civill things 418 Charities done rightly produce a great encrease 566 Chastisements are documents 340. What properly a chastisement is 789. Chastisement is for amendment 797. When God chastneth us we should promise amendment 797. In what sence we may promise being chastned to offend no more 798 Chirurgion three things required in him answerably those three in those who would cure the soule 101 Christ remembrance of his humbling himselfe a great meanes to humble us 325. Christ the Angel of the Covenant 371. We must have union with Christ else we can have no benefit by him 429. Christ the only hiding place for sinners 672. Sinners under a fourefold consideration may hide themselves in Christ 672 Churches of the Gentiles to be warned by the severe dealings of God with the Church of the Jewes 697 Chusing or chusing of Instruments how it differs from Gods 61. Chusing or election what it is 506. The chusing of judgement what 506. It is not enough to know or doe good unlesse we chuse it 509 Clay that all men are clay how it should worke 187 Comforts the best in the creature vaine 347 Company to chuse ill company the signe of an evill man 538 543. To be much in the company of good men a signe of goodness 540. In what sense a good man may be sayd to goe in company with evill men 541 542 Condemnation supposeth a man to be wicked 29. To condemne and make wicked the same in Scripture 29 30 31. Condemnation out of our owne mouth must needs stop the mouth 196 Condemne to condemne those whom we cannot answer how sinfull 29 30 31. To condemn God the great wickedness of it and in what sense many doe it 618 619 Conditional acts of grace 398 Confession threefold 445. Sin must be confessed 449. Whether a generall confession be enough 449 Confidence or trust in man a strong argument against it from mans weakness 600 Conviction what or when a person may be sayd to be convinced 78 79. Three great convincers shewed 80 81 Conversion the worke of God not of man 89 Consideration what it is 707 711. Not to consider the wayes and word of God very sinfull 713 714. The duty of consideration prest 717 Corruption doth not prevaile upon the dead body of man till the fourth day 328. Corruption why sin is so called 797 800 Courtesies They watch for a discourtesie who aske courtesies of us beyond our power 210 Croesus the answer which the Oracle gave him ambiguous 160 Cry of the oppressed will goe up to God 718. Their affliction hath a cry though they cry not 719. They are the worst of wicked men who cause the poore to cry 720. God graciously heareth the cry of humble oppressed ones 722. Vide oppressed D. Darkness twofold 666 Death is a going downe to the pit 402. Sickness hath a tendency to death 402. When man dyeth he is gathered to God 593. Death is called a gathering in a threefold sense 594. No man hath priviledge against death 597. Death of two sorts 639. Death of any sort may befall all sorts of men 640. Death comes suddenly upon many men and may upon all men 640. Violent death sweepes away many in a moment 641 Declining how a good man may decline and grow worse 860 Deferre God sometimes deferrs to doe his servants right 520. Deferrings are very afflictive 520 Deficiencies of the best men two wayes to be considered for their humbling 323 Delaying dangerous though God be patient 467. Delayes in business may be no stop of it 483 Delighting in God what 545 546 Deliverances of five sorts 399. Deliverance is from God only 403. God conveighs deliverance by man or meanes usually 403. Our deliverance from sin is costly 410. Deliverances are obtained three wayes 410 411. Temporall deliverance by Christ also 412. Great deliverances give us a new life 470 Despayre of the end puts an end to endeavour 6. Despayre in creatures yet hope in God 528 Destruction in whose destruction God hath pleasure 811 Devills sin and condemnation what 86 Diadumenus his resolution 12 Differences what hinders the healing of them 483 484 486 487 488 Diligence how it makes rich 635 Discontent the Devills sin 59 Diseases and death not farre asunder 360. Diseases are destroyers 365. Diseases at the command of God 400 Displeasure of God renders all outward comforts nothing to us 348 Disputing tough and hard worke 3 Disputation the true law of it 193 Drawing and withdrawing two gracious acts of God towards man 299 Dreame what it is 280. Naturall dreams caused foure wayes 281 Diabolicall dreames 282. Divine dreames five messages upon which they are sent 282 283. It hath been the use of God to reveale himselfe by dreames 285. Five reasons why God revealed himselfe in dreames 286. Dreames the way of Gods revealing himselfe to the Church of old 287. Luthers prayer about dreames 288. A profitable use may be made of dreames at this day 289 Drinking what it signifieth in Scripture 533. A threefold measure of drinking 534. To drinke scorning like water what it imports 535 Dust in what sence all men are but dust 598. Humbling
of the night as the words may be rendred that 's a great aggravation of the judgement The night is a time of rest and midnight is the time of deepest rest so that for the people to be in a tumult or troubled at midnight is to be overtaken with matter of fear when fear seemed furthest off or when they suspected nothing to make them afraid David saith of some Psal 3.5 There were they in great fear where no fear was To fear at midnight is to fear when usually no fear is that is when people are at rest in their beds And so to say the people shall be troubled at midnight signifieth either First the coming of trouble upon a secure people Cum maximè securi upon a people who thought themselves and while they thought themselves not only out of the noise but reach of danger Or secondly It may signifie the coming of trouble upon a people altogether unfit to help themselves when a man is asleep he cannot give counsel how to prevent danger and while he is in his bed he is in no posture to oppose it All this may well be included in what Elihu saith The people shall be troubled at midnight Hence Note First There are National troubles as well as personal God can scare not only a family or this and that particular man but a whole people at once he cannot only make a childe or a woman but a multitude yea an Army of mighty men tremble like a childe and faint as the weakest woman A people are many yet every man shall be as if he were alone or but one in the midst of innumerable dangers and of a thousand deaths Moses in his Song foresaw the dread of Nations upon the report of the Lord 's miraculous conduct of Israel through the red Sea Exod. 15.14 15 16. The people shall hear and be afraid sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina all the inhabitants of Canaan shal melt away And when Christ speaks of those dreadful Prognosticks of his coming he not only saith There shall be signes in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars but upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Luke 21.25 Secondly Observe Both personal and publick troubles are at the command of God as both publick and personal peace are A people as well as a person may and shall be troubled even at the midnight of their greatest security if God give the word I make peace saith the Lord Isa 45.7 and create evill that is the evill of trouble There will be occasion afterward to speak further of this poynt from those words v. 29. When he giveth quietness who can give trouble and when he hideth his face who can behold him Whether it be done against a nation or against a man only trouble of all sorts is at the command of God if he saith to such or such a mischiefe goe to a nation it will goe if he bid the sword trouble them if he bid pestilence trouble them if he bid famine trouble them if he bid their owne divisions trouble them the people shall be troubled yea they shall be troubled at midnight Whence note Thirdly Trouble takes or seazeth upon many when they least expect it God can send trouble when no man thinkes of it At midnight every one is in bed all are for rest and quiet The Lord usually executes his judgements upon the unwary world upon a secure people Exod 12.29 At midnight the Lord smote all the sirstborne in the land of Egypt c. And Pharoah rose up in the night he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt We read also 2 Kings 19.35 In that night the Angel of the Lord went out and smote in the campe of the Assyrians an hundred four-score and sive thousand It was not a day-battel but a night-battel When they were all gone into their tents and were at rest when the Army was secure In that night did the Lord fight them by an Angel and made a mighty slaughter among them Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slaine in the night Dan 5.30 even in that night wherein he made a feast to a thousand of his Lords and dranke wine before the thousand v. 1. In that night not only of his security but of his jollity and sensuality when he had even drowned himselfe and his great Lords with wine and belly-cheare in that very night the City was broken up and Belshazzar slaine History tells us what dreadfull work was made upon the Babylonians that night The great Judgement day is so described Jesus Christ will at last trouble the world at midnight The Day of the Lord so cometh saith the Apostle 1 Thes 5.2 as a thiefe in the night when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them c Christ himselfe shadowing his coming under the parable of the ten Virgins who all slumbred and slept tells us Math 25.6 At midnight there was a cry made Behold the Bridegroome conteth goe ye out to meete him Though some were in a better condition then others some wise some foolish yet all slept and it was a kind of midnight to them all Christ will come and the people shall be troubled at midnight and then there will be a dreadfull Cry among the secure drowsie world Therefore the Counsell of Christ is most proper Math 13.35 Watch because ye know not at what houre your Master may come whether at even or at midnight or at Cock-trowing or in the morning It is hard to be put to it at midnight 't is sad to be in a sleepy or slumbring condition when evill comes The Gospel sheweth us how much that man was troubled when his neighbour came to borrow bread of him at midnight Luke 11.5.7 Trouble me not my children are with me in bed I cannot rise and give thee If it be matter of trouble to be called out of our bed to doe a courtesie for a friend at midnight O what will it be to be called up to Judgement or to be surprized with any Judgement at midnight Therefore prepare and be ready for all changes At midnight the people shall be troubled And passe away These words are a third part of the description of the Judgement of God upon a people they shall die they shall be troubled they shall passe away that is some of them shall die all shall be troubled others shall passe away There is a three-fold notion of passing away First Some expound it thus They shall be carried captive out of their own Country This with the former two make up a perfect Judgement upon any people Some shall die or be slaine all shall be troubled and vext they shall be at their wits end and the rest shall be carried away captive Secondly They shall pass away that is they shall pass into their graves the forme of speech here used may well beare that