bounds of the people and have robbed their treasures and I have put downe the inhabitants like a valiant man he did not thinke that the Lord did it by his hand but saith he by the strength of my hand I have done it Dextera mihi deus Virg 1.10 Sanct my right hand is my God my wisdome is my God These these have removed the bounds of the people and robbed their treasures See how the Lord checks this insolency v. 15. Shall the axe boast it selfe against him that heweth therewith or shall the saw magnifie it selfe against him that shaketh it Men I grant are living instruments yet they can doe no more then instruments without life the axe and the saw unlesse God act them or act by them An axe or a saw can doe as much without man as man can doe without God yet vaine proud man is as full of boasting as if he could doe or had done all alone Fifthly Observe That the portion of wicked men lyeth all on this side heaven and heavenly things God filleth their houses with good things but they are the good things of this life they have nothing that reacheth to eternal life They have nothing that concernes pardon of sin or grace much lesse have they glory for their portion Acts 14.16 17. God did not leave himselfe without witnesse among the Heathen Nations in that he did good and gave raine from heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with food and gladnesse so much they received from God as filled them with food for their bodyes and made their lives comfortable but no more that was all they had As Abraham in the parable tells the rich man in hel Luk. 16.25 Son remember that thou in thy life time hast had thy good things And what were the good things which he formerly had We have an answer at the 19th verse He was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared deliciously every day As the Psalmist is expresse Psal 17.14 that the men of this world have their portion in this life so his purpose is to shew that they have their portion in the things of this life for he adds Whose bellyes thou fillest with thy hid treasures that is with those treasures of corne wine and oyle which are virtually hidden in the earth and brought forth by the earth God fills the bellyes of the wicked but he fills the Spirits of the Godly he fills the former with the hidden treasures of the earth he fills none but the latter with the hidden treasures of heaven Lastly Note That the gifts of God even in temporall things are free and undeserved Not onely are spirituall gifts and graces together with eternall life undeserved but even temporalls and the things of this life The Lord gives them unto his enemies to those that say to him depart from us and what doe these deserve at his hands but stripes and death He gave Christ to us while we were most unworthy of him when we were yet enemies Christ dyed for us sinners doe no more deserve bread then they deserve Christ wee no more deserve the comforts of this life then eternall life The one is of free Grace to the Elect and the other is of bounty and goodnesse to the wicked Quoniam moris erat in Egypto ut mensura ascendentis Niâ—i fluminis ad templum Serapidis deferretur velat ad incrementi aquarum inundationis auctorem subverso ejus simulachro ulna ipsa id est aquae mensura ad aquarum dominum coepta est in Ecclesias deferri Cassiod lib. 2. ad Euseb Histor The old Egyptians as some writers report them were carefull to confesse the undeservednesse of those outward favours the plenty and abundance of corne and cattel with which Egypt was stored in testification whereof they every yeare brought into the Temple of their Idol Serapis a measure shewing how high the river Nilus rose and overflowed its bankes for Egypt being a flatt Country is watered by the overflowings of Nilus and by the rising of those waters they could very probably prognosticate the plenty or scarsity of the yeare ensuing And they therefore tooke an exact account how many cubits high the river swell'd leaving it in the Temple of Serapis thereby acknowledging as some conceive that their Idol God was the bestower of all that plenty or as Eliphaz here speakes that he had filled their houses with Good things But the counsell of the wicked is farre from mee Wee had these words before Chap 21.16 Job made use of them there and here Eliphaz therefore I shall adde but little for explication in this place In generall know they are a proverbiall speech Puto Vulgarem esse dicendi modum quo homines aliquid execrantur a se arceri longissime Jubent Qualiasunt a page avertat Deus Pined by which the abhorrence of our spirits concerning either things or persons is set forth to the utmost as when we say to any man be gone depart from me or as Christ to Satan Get thee behinde me wee shew our vehement detestation of his person So when a man sayth such or such a thing is farre from me his meaning is he utterly detests it or that the thing is the very abomination of his soule Therefore while Eliphaz sayth The counsell of the wicked is farre from me it is as if he had sayd I cannot indure to have any thing to doe eyther with the wicked or with their counsel O my soule come not thou into their secret unto their assembly O mine honour be not thou united as dying Jacob bespake his sons Simeon and Levi Gen. 49.6 But what is the counsell of the wicked their counsell may be taken first for that dishonorable opinion which they held of God that he could doe nothing eyther for them or against them I saith Eliphaz am of another minde of another faith and perswasion Their Counsel is farre from me who eyther deny the providence of God or thinke they can hide themselves from the eye of his providence I beleeve that his eye beholdeth all and that his hand worketh whatsoever pleaseth him Secondly Others by Counsell understand the scope of wicked men so Calvin reades the intent of the wicked is farre from me I have other purposes and designes then they have The ploughing of the wicked saith Solomon Pro. 21.4 is sin that is the stirring and plotting of his minde to get his desires satisfied is sinfull I desire not saith Eliphaz to put my hand to their plough The counsell of the wicked is farre from me Thirdly As the designe and plot so the course and way of the wicked is farre from me The counsel of a man is put for the meanes by which he acteth his designes as wel as for the method in which he layeth them Wee shall not wrong the drift of the Text in which soever of these three sences we understand this protestation The counsel of the wicked is farre
is no sinning in Gods account and comparatively to the sinning of others So they who are borne of the Devill as Christ saith those contradicting Jewes were Joh. 8.44 doe nothing but commit sin and sin so as if they and their like alone did sin For as no godly man sins as a wicked man doth so somâ— wicked men sin at such a rate that it may be said they only sin eveÌ„ in respect of the generality of wicked men Thus also some Godly men doe so farre exceed and out-strip other Godly men in holynes and the acting of their Graces as if they onely were Godly as if they onely had the acting of those graces Abraham beleived as if he onely had been a beleever and Job was patient as if none had patience but he David was a man so upright as if onely he had been upright or a man after Gods owne heart There are Saints like Abraham and David none like them and there are sinners like Jeroboam and Ahab none like them So doth the grave those that have sinned Observe They who are extreamely sinfull make themselves sevenfold more subject to death then other men They who sin as if none did sin but they are so subject to death as if none were subject to death but they For if every sin the least sin doth put us into the hand or under the power of death then great sins multiplyed and continued in put us into the hand and under the power of death much more The Psalmist saith of wicked worldly men Psal 49.14 Like sheepe they are layd in the grave death shall feed on them and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling or as we put in the Margin the grave being an habitation to every one of them shall consume their beauty But some may object Is not this true of Godly men too are not they thus handled by death and the grave doth not death feed on them and doth not the grave consume their beauty I answer though it doth yet it doth not so feed upon nor consume them as it feedes upon and consumes wicked men For the Psalmist speakes here of death as it were triumphing over the wicked whereas the Godly triumph over death For first he saith The wicked are layd in the grave like sheepe They lived like Wolves or Lyons but they are layd in the grave like sheepe If it be asked why like sheepe I answer not for the innocency of their lives but for their impotency in death as if it had been sayd when once death took them in hand to lay them in the grave they could make no more resistance then a sheepe can against a Lyon or a Wolfe And when death hath thus layd them in the grave then secondly saith the Psalmist death shall feed on them as a Lyon doth upon a sheepe or any wild beast upon his prey which is a further degree of deaths triumph over the wicked And thirdly their beauty shall consume in the grave that is all their bodily and natural beauty and that is all the beauty which they have shall consume in the Grave whereas the Godly have a beauty and they count it their onely beauty which the grave cannot consume and that is the beauty of their graces the beauty of holynes the spirituall beauty of the inner man yea and the spirituall beauty of their outward holy actings shall not consume in the Grave For blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for from henceforth saith the Spirit they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Rev. 14.13 that is their good workes follow them not to death but into life and will be both beauty and blessednes to them from the Lord for ever Whereas cursed are the dead that dye in their sins for from henceforth they shall be denyed rest for ever and none of their workes wherein they tooke pleasure in this world shall follow them into the next to give them any pleasure All their beauty and outward blessednes ends in the grave If in this life onely we have hope in Christ sayth the Apostle of beleevers 1 Cor. 15.19 we are of all men most miserable then how miserable are they who have no hope beyond this life or if they have both that and their present beauty consume together in the grave Thus it is plaine that though godly men dye yet death hath not such a hand over them as over the wicked And as wicked men are more under the hand of death then the Godly when they dye so they are continually more lyable unto death Sin which unfits men to dye comfortably fits them as it were to dye naturally The more sinfull any man is the sooner may death surprise him Holynes hath not onely a promise of eternall life hereafter but of a long life here Psal 34.12 13. And sin is not onely under a threat of eternal death hereafter but of a speedy death here Psal 55.23 But thou O Lord shalt bring them that is wicked men downe into the pit of destruction But when it may be long first the next words make answer Bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their dayes That is not halfe the dayes which as others doe so they naturally might live eyther the Justice of God or of man shall cut such men off in the midst of their dayes The grave gapes for those who have thus sinned So then though there are many spirituall reasons referring to eternal life which may move the sons of men to take heed of sin Pro sepalchruÌ„ est cur malim infernus aut inferi Nam sepulchâ—um rapit etiam bonos iâ—feri solos eos rapiunt qui peccaverunt i e. improbos Drus yet there is a strong motive from the concernments of this present temporal life and that not onely as to the comforts of it but also as to the very continuance of it They hasten themselves to the grave who make hast to sin and so at once endanger the hopes of the next life and the enjoyment of this Lastly Some because the Grave in a general sence consumes the Godly as wel as the sinner in the sence last expressed doe therefore restraine the word Sheol in this place to hell as it signifyes the place or state of the damned which is proper onely to those who have sinned and dye in their sinnes So the whole verse is thus rendred Vt terra torri da calor absumunt aquas invales ita infernus eos qui peccaverunt Tygur As dry earth and heate consume the snow waters so hell consumeth those that have sinned All that sin and turne not shall be turned to hell But shall hell consume them they shall ever be consuming but never consumed Hell shall consume them as to a comfortable being but it shall not consume them as to a being they shall be allwayes dying but never dead Hell is the portion and all the portion of all wicked men
in Heaven it is a Condescention in him to take notice of any creature yet he doth not onely humble himselfe to behold things in Heaven but things in the Earth and in this who is like unto the Lord our God this is his glory and for this he is to be glorified yea to be cryed up with this admiring Elogium Who is like unto the Lord our God None among the sons of men are like him in this yea there is no God like unto the Lord our God in this Wee have cause to say considering our vilenes What is man that thou shouldst take notice of him 'T is too Great an honour for man but it is no dishonour to God to take notice of the meanest man The greatnes of God appeares as in the making so in the governing and disposing of the smallest things The power of God is seene in making a fly or a worme as well as in making an Elephant or the vast Leviathan So also is his wisdome and providence seene in the observing and ordering of those businesses and motions of the creature which compared to others are but as a fly to an Elephant or but as a worme to Leviathan There is nothing doth more detract from the greatnes of God then the denyall or dis-beleefe of his cognisance of and care about little things And as it shewes the exactest perfection of holynes attaynable by man in this life when he taketh an account of and reproves himselfe for the least sins whether they be omissions of that good which he is commanded to doe or commissions of that evill which he is forbidden to doe So it is an undenyable argument of the exactly and absolutely perfect holynes justice goodnes and faithfulnes of God that he taketh an account of and will certainly reward or punish every man for the least good or evill which he hath done This is the glory of him who walketh in the circuit of heaven that he sees all to the center of the earth Eliphaz having thus detected and reproved as he thought those thoughts and assertions of Job which detracted so much from God as if he did not marke the wayes of men proceeds to put the question to him whether himselfe had well marked the wayes of wicked men JOB CHAP. 22. Vers 15 16. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have troden Which were cut downe out of time whose foundation was overflowne with a flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THe word translated to marke notes a diligent observation So it is used Chap. 10.14 If I sin then thou markest me that is thou takest exact or strict notice of mee and thou wilt not acquitt mee from mine Iniquity Psal 37.37 marke the perfect man Observare dei actiones imprimis ipsius judicia magna pars scinentiae est and behold the upright that is take speciall knowledge of him for the end of that man is peace Psal 107.43 who so is wise will observe or marke these things hee shall understand the loving kindnes of the Lord. So here Hast thou marked hast thou with diligence and seriousnes of spirit observed the old way which wicked men have troden Senitam saeculorum vel seculi aeternam aut aeternitatis nam ea omnia denotat vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rab Kimchi The Hebrew is The way of age the way of ages or as some read the Eternall way the way of Eternity David prayeth Psal 139.23 24. Lead me in the way everlasting that is Lead me in the way of holines and righteousnes which leads to eternity Which yet one of the Rabbins expounds as a periphrasis of death for death is called the way of all the earth 1 King 2.2 the way of all flesh Josh 23.14 As if David had sayd Lord if upon search thou findest that I walke in any way of wickednes that is of willfull sinning then destroy me lead me to my grave yea cast mee with the wicked to hell or to everlasting condemnation Master Broughton thus Hast thou marked the way of the old world But what was this way of the old world about which Eliphaz questions Job whether he had taken notice of it yea or no The way of the old world may be taken two wayes First For the way of their sinnes Secondly For the way of their punishment First Hast thou marked the old way of their sinne and the old way of their sinne may be Considered under a twofold notion First As it was the way of their opinion Secondly as it was the way of their practice Some restraine it here to the way of their opinion and Interpret Eliphaz as chiefly intendding that Hast thou observed the old way that is the old Erroneous opinions which were in the first ages of the world In those times there were not a few like thy selfe who eyther flatly denyed or belyed the providence of God who sayd as thou doest How doth God know Surely he hath forsaken the earth and intermeddles not with what is done here below Thus a learned Interpreter expounds the Text Ad eos opiniâ— haec referenda est qui vixeruÌ„t tempore diluvij censebantqueâ—ollendam providentiam Vatabl Gigantes religionis contemptores Berosus with reference to their ungodly opinion They saith he who lived in the time of the floud denyed Providence Hast thou O Job marked their opinion and Consider'd it And that this wicked Error did prevaile in those times may be Collected from what is reported by Berosus of the Giants of whom wee read in the 6th of Genesis ver 4th There were Giants in the earth in those dayes Among other of their abominations this saith he was one or this was a Chiefe one the roote or source of them all they blasphemed God and contemned Religion they thought there was no Supream Power none to whom man was accountable for any of his actions Hast thou marked this old way of Error In pursuance of which Interpretation Custodiendi verbum pro sequi exponitur Merc the words which we render Hast thou marked may be Expounded thus Hast thou taken up the old way art thou a follower of that Sect of that Tribe who have gone in that wicked way doest thou also maintaine their blasphemy that God takes no notice of man This notion holds faire with what he had said before Secondly As it may be referred to those abominable Atheisticall opinions which raigned in those times so to the wicked Practices to the old Customes and sinfull Courses which were followed in those times for where a wicked opinion is lodged in the heart what kinde of wickednes is there that they may not breake forth in the life And so here the old way is the way of sinne the corrupt Course and practices of that debauched generation especially the way of pride and ambition which appeared much in the titles given them Mighty men men of name or as we render Men of renowne They were men of honour and name
Nineveh should be over-throwne yet when they turned from what they had done God turned from what he sayd he would doe And did he not change his mind in reference to his promise to Zion as there in reference to his threatning against Nineveh The promise to Zion runs in this tenour This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Psal 132 14. Yet the Lord removed out of Zion he departed from Jerusalem and gave it into the enemies hands How many miseries and captivities did that people undergoe long agoe and how are they scattered from Jerusalem into all Lands unto this very day How then shall we reconcile the Text and poynt in hand with these quoted Scriptures and many others of a like interpretation How is God unchangable or in one minde when we read of his repenting what he had done of his saying what he would doe and yet not doing what he had said both in his promises in his threatnings How can these changes and the Lords unchangeablenes stand together or how is he but in one minde the tenour of whose doings doth so often vary both from what he hath formerly done and from what he hath professed he would doe In a word How is the Lord constant to what he sayth he will doe when eyther he doth it not or doth the quite contrary to it He that repenteth is not in one minde seing repentance is a change of the minde First I answer Repentance properly taken notes a change of the minde But in an improper or allusive sence there may be repentance without any the least change of the minde When God is sayd to repent as in those texts alledged we are to understand it improperly or onely in allusion unto man The Scripture in many other things speakes of God eyther as condescending to mans understanding or as alluding to the common actions of man God doth not act as man doth yet by such expressions as hold out what and how man acts we may come the more easily to understand what God doth As in the present instance when man repents he doth these two things First He ceaseth to doe what he began to doe he breakes the thread of his former motions Secondly When man repents that he hath done or made such a thing he is ready to deface and destroy that which he hath made or done When man repents that he hath set up such or such a thing he removes and takes it downe Thus God is sayd to repent not because his minde is changed but because as a man that repenteth he ceaseth to doe what he did or he destroyeth that which he had made Thus the Lord is said to repent his making of Saul king because he meant to remove him from being king And to repent that he had made the world because his purpose was for the sin of man to deface and destroy the present beautie and excellency of the world which he had made God often puts forth the effects of repentance toward man but the repentance of a man never put forth any effect upon God Secondly We may answer thus God often minds a change Aliud est mutare voluntatem aliud velle mutationem Aquin par 1. q. 19. art 7. But he never changes his minde And so all those Scriptures before mentioned note onely that God did minde a change or make a change But not that he did change his minde There is a vast difference between these two to minde or determine a change and to change the minde or determination As for instance a man that is resolved to weare garments sutable to the season of the yeare and temperature of the weather in the heate of summer it is his minde to weare light and thinne garments that he may be coole and in the cold of winter his minde is to weare heavier and thicker garments that he may be warme Now if this man when winter comes leaves off his light thinne garments puts on those that are heavier and thicker he cannot be sayd to change his mind for his minde was alwayes to weare change of garments according to the season of the yeare and temper of the weather And thus the Lord according to the changes which he finds among men for the better or for the worse doth both minde and make eminent changes among them as to his providentiall administrations whether in wayes of Judgement or of mercy but in these he never changes his own minde forasmuch as his mind was everlastingly fixed in case of such emergencies to make those changes in his administrations and dealings with the sons of men Thirdly For further answer We are to distinguish between the outward sentence and declaration of God and his secret purpose or decree God doth often change his sentence or the declaration But he never changeth his purpose decree or counfell Quaest But is not that externall declaration the minde of God also Answ I answer These denounced sentences or declarations are the minde of God yet they are not the same with the counsels and purposes of God but serve for the fullfilling and bringing of them about for by the change which the sentence revealed worketh in man the counsel of God not revealed is effected The frustrating of the one fulfills the other And the Lords designe in such declarations of his minde is to bring about or accomplish his purposes and counsells God did purposely declare or pronounce a sentence of death against Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah to the intent that his counsell concerning the continuance of Hezekiahs life might be fulfilled And he sent the Prophet Jonah to publish a sentence of utter destruction against Nineveh purposely that his counsel concerning the preservation of Nineveh might be accomplished The Lords counsel and purpose was that Hezekiah should live and recover out of that disease But how did he fulfill this even by sending him a message of death which caused him to weepe sore and pray and cry earnestly to the Lord for life Thus saith the Lord set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord saying c. But then it may be questioned was that word of the Lord true which he sent to Hezekiah by the Prophet saying thou shalt dye The sentence published was true and would certainly have come to passe according to the order and working of second causes for looking to them Hezekiah must die his sicknes was unto death In those dayes was Hezekiah sicke unto death Doubtlesse his Physitians and all that were about him gave him over for a dead man Onely God could restore him and the way wherein he would restore him was by prayer So for Nineveh if we consider the desert of their sin the sentence was true Nineveh shall be destroyed But the Lord sent his Prophet to tell them of their approaching destruction that they might fast and turne
dread God as a Judge and revenger This feare is the issue of the Covenant of workes and the beginning of sorrow Thirdly There is a mixt feare not a pure filial nor a pure slavish feare but with a mixture or ingrediency of both Such I conceive the feare of Job was his was a mixt feare it had some tang of slavery in it and it had some touch of Son-ship in it there was much of the spirit of Bondage in it and something of the Spirit of Adoption in it With the former feare many good men have been much exercised in all ages especially before Christ came in the flesh and the clearer breaking and beaming out of Gospel light Rom. 8.15 Yee have not received the spirit of bondage to feare againe And Job 14.27 Let not your hearts be troubled nor be yee afraid that is be not burdened and opprest with that servile and slavish feare which you are subject to Christ spake it to his owne Disciples for even at that time deep impressions of that feare were upon them doubting much what would become of them when he should of which he had told them leave the world and be gone from them And besides that speciall reason which the Disciples then had to feare at that time This feare usually ariseth from two reasons in others at all times First From the Consideration of their owne weaknesse and faylings Secondly From the Consideration of the Majesty and greatnes of God when they Consider these things they are afraid And though Beleevers are freed from the praedominancy of slavish feare and are endued with infusions of true filial feare yet they are often taken with this mixt feare as in reference to their owne weaknes so respecting the Majesty of God with whom they have to doe When I Consider I am afraid of him Observe That the Majesty and power of God duely Considered are terrible even to his owne people Many men have slight thoughts of the great God they tremble not they feare not what 's the reason they Consider not they are careles and therefore they are fearelesse they are ignorant and therefore they are confident There are none so bold as they who are thus blind Who is the Lord sayd Hard-hearted Pharaoh that I should obey his voyce to let Israel goe I know not the Lord neyther will I let Israel goe That 's a sad Confidence that proceeds from ignorance and a sad fearelesnes that hath no ground but carelesnesse I remember what the answer was of a very Godly man upon his death-bed who having much trembling upon his spirit at the apprehension of the greatnes Majesty and glory of God it was said to him by a Godly friend that came to visit him Sir you have knowne God and been long acquainted with him why are you thus full of feare and trembling O saith he if I knew God more I should tremble more If we were but more acquainted with and did more Consider of the Infinite greatnes of God and of our owne distance from him as creatures much more as sinners how should we be swallowed up with divine amazements so that we must charge it upon the want of Consideration that so many have such undue and unbecoming thoughts of God as also that their thoughts fall so much below both their duty and their sins if wee did but Consider how sinfull we are and how holy God is we should alwayes serve him with feare and rejoyce with trembling When I consider I am afraid of him Job was afraid of him when he considered him and so was Asaph Psal 77.3 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soule refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Such a remembering of God is not a bare act of the minde in opposition to forgetfulnes as if Asaph had sayd I remembered God that is I did not forget him but I remembered God that is I fixed my heart upon him I minded him fully or set him fully before my minde though the rememberance of God is the spring of Comfort to us and that many wayes yet an Asaph a holy man The holyest among many men may be troubled when he remembers God when he Considers his glory greatnes power and Majesty and himselfe a poore worme When the holy Prophet Isaiah saw the Lord in vision sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and saw the Seraphims covering their faces and their feete and heard them crying one unto another and saying Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Then he sayd Woe is mee for I am undone because I am a man of uncleane lips c. What a concussion was there upon his spirit upon the meeting of these two visions first that of the holines of God secondly that of his own uncleanenes Isa 6.1 2 3 4 5. Moses who had such intimacy with and accesse unto God is yet described trembling at his giving the Law Heb. 12.21 And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I am exceedingly afraid and tremble Moses knew that God was his friend a God in Covenant with him yet Moses said I exceedingly feare and quake the sight and voyce oâ— God is our Blessednes yet there may be a troublesome and a terrible both sight and voyce of God even Moses was afraid and so was Habakkuk Chap. 3.16 When I heard that is thy speech v. 2. my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voyce rottennes entred into my bones and I trembled in my selfe c. And at last wicked men though now so unconsidering who God is shall have such Considerations of him as shall for ever drowne and swallow them up in a deluge of feare the thoughts of the presence of God will be Eternall terror to them who now are unmoved with the thoughts of his presence or who have not God in all their thoughts There is a presence of God which shall be death to them who have not lived in a due and awfull consideration of his presence Thus the Apostle describes the punishment of wicked men 2 Thes 1.9 They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Wee may understand it two wayes First They shall be punished by being put from the presence of the Lord That 's the punishment of losse they shall be for ever excluded and banished from his presence That which was their desire here shall be their misery hereafter They who care not for the presence of God in this world shall be everlastingly cursed with the want of it in the world which is to come Secondly I rather conceive the meaning of that Text to be this there shall be a manifestation of the wrathfull presence of God to them and that shall be their punishment the presence of the Lord is everlasting life and light and joy to his owne people but
should thinke that this is meant of the resurrection of the body Christ speakes of that distinctly ver 28. Marvel not at this for the houre is coming he doth not say as before and now is in the which all that are in the Graves dead bodyes shall heare his voyce and come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation As if Christ had sayd That powerfull voyce and a voyce lesse powerfull then that will not doe it which is able to rayse dead bodyes bodyes mouldered into dust from the earth and cause them to live againe that voyce I say is able to rayse a dead soule from a state of sin to newnes of life The Apostle saith as much while he calleth the preaching of the Word a savour of life unto life in them that are saved 2 Cor 2.16 They smel and tast life even eternal life at the receaving of the Word And as it is the meanes of conveighing life to those who are dead in sinne so of recovering and renewing life to those who are dead in sorrow Worldly sorrow or the sorrow of the world worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 and extreame spirituall sorrow or the extreame sorrow of the soule about spiritualls puts us into a kinde of death Thus Heman spake of himselfe in that case Ps 88.4 5. I am counted with them that goe downe into the pit I am as a man that hath no strength free among the dead like the slaine that lie in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and they are cut off from thy hand As Heman was counted among the dead by others so he was like a dead man in his owne account too as he speakes at the 15th verse I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted He was not ready to dye of bodyly diseases but of soule terrours nor could any thing revive him or fetch him backe from that death but the favour of God shining to him in the word of promise how glorious is the word by the workings of the Spirit which causeth the spirit to come forth and maketh them who were free among the dead become free among the living This effect and fruit of the word Job expected from his friends before and now from Bildad but all in vaine As their so his discourse with Job was fruitlesse and ineffectuall Much hath been spoken but I have got nothing I have got no spirit no refreshing my heart is no whit cheared nor my soule comforted both you and the rest of your brethren have proved miserable comforters to me To whom hast thou uttered words I am no better then if you had sayd nothing And whose spirit came from thee not mine for as yet notwithstanding all your reasonings my spirit is not returned to me I am as deepe in sorrow as ever I was There is yet another reading of this last clause of the verse given by Mr Broughton And whose soule admired thee The same word may signifie to admire and to come forth because the soule or spirit of a man comes forth as it were to gaze upon those things and persons which he admireth As if Job had sayd Possibly O Bildad thou presumest that thou hast spoken like an Oracle of Wisdome even much beyond the rate and proportion of ordinary men or of what is common to man and therefore doest expect to be applauded yea to be admired But whose soule is come forth by reason of thee who hath admired thee not I nor doe I know that any man hath reason so to doe unlesse it be because thou hast so much mistaken my meaning and intention in what I sayd and hast sayd things so improper to my condition Some have the persons of men in admiration because of advantage Jude v. 16. and others desire no other advantage but to be cryed up and had in admiration I dare not say that Bildad was a man of such a spirit though this translation whose soule admired thee seemes to charge him with such a folly JOB CHAP. 26. Vers 5 6 7. Dead things are formed from under the waters and the inhabitants thereof Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing IN the former part of this Chapter Job reproved the last discourse of Bildad as unprofitable not that it was so in it selfe for that was true and a great truth which he spake of the greatnesse of God but the method which he used and the application of it to his case made it so How hast thou helped him that is without power c. In this Context and the subsequent part of the Chapter Job enters upon or reassumes the same argument or subject which Bildad had handled before The power soveraigntie and dreadfullnes of God in his workes both of Creation and providence all the world over Job would let Bildad understand that he was not unacquainted with the doctrine that he had prest upon him in the former Chapter As if he had sayd Doest thou thinke that I know not these things surely I can tell thee as much yea more of the power of God then thou hast spoken and thereby thou shalt see that I am not to learne nor to seeke in this matter yea I will point and paint out the power of God not onely in the visible heavens but in those things which lye unseene I will goe downe to the deepes to the bottome of the mighty waters I can tell thee that he is not onely admirable above but beneath in so much as nothing is bred or brought forth whether animate or inanimate in the vast Ocean but it is by his power and at his disposing Yea I will goe as low as hell and search the power of God there I will also ascend up to heaven and speake of the great things that God doth in the ayre and in the clouds and among the starrs whereby you may see that I am no stranger to such divine Philosophy and therefore this was not the poynt you should have insisted upon or that I needed to be informed in That 's the general scope and aime of Job in these words I shall now touch upon the particulars Dead things are formed from under the waters Jobs first instance concerning the power of God is about things under the waters Dead livelesse inanimate things are formed there Properly that onely is a dead thing which hath sometime lived wee cannot say a stone is a dead thing because it never had any life neither can wee say that water or earth are dead things for they never had any life but those things that have had life whether vegetative or sensitive or rationall as man or beasts or plants when once that life is withdrawne from any of them that is properly called a dead thing Yet in a generall
with men but we read not of any honour they did to or received from God It is the highest disgrace to be memorable for actings against grace or for ungracious actings Num observas perpetuum ordinem quem in puniendis talibus impijs teâ—uit deus post natos homines Merc Putat hunc esse perpetuum ordinem domini ut impios hic puniat sed fallitur Merc Againe The old way may be taken for the way of punishment or for that course of divine Justice which was Executed upon wicked men in those elder times There is away of Judgement which God takes as there is a way of Sinne which man takes Sinfull ways lead into troublesome ways end in death Hast thou considered the way of justice which the Lord went in towards those old Sinners powring out his wrath and emptying the vialls of his Indignation upon them till hee had consumed and swept them off as rubbish from the face of the earth Hast thou marked the old way which eyther the lusts of wicked men have led them into or which the justice of the Lord hath brought them into Hast thou observed the old way Which wicked men have troden The Hebrew is Men of Iniquity Which phrase plainly imports that he doth not speake of the ordinary race or ranke of sinners but of the Extreamest sinners men so full of iniquity that they deserved this blacke Title men of Iniquity Antichrist is called not onely a man of sin or the man of sin but which implyeth a sinner of a higher forme then both the former That man of sin 2 Thes 2.3 He being indeed not onely among the chiefest sinners but the chiefe of sinners The phrase in the Text is a degree lower then that yet it notes a very great degreee And therefore when the Prophet would assure the greatest sinners repenting and returning to God of the readines of God to pardon he expresseth them in this stile Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man or as the Original Text hath it the man of iniquity his thoughts and c. As a man of Bloods notes a very bloody man a man given up to that particular sin of cruelty So a man of iniquity is one given up to sin in Generall Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men men of iniquity have Trodden This word trodden referred both to a sinfull and a suffering way notes the frequency of their going or being in those wayes And as it is referred to their sinfull way alone it notes first their boldnesse in sinning secondly their resolvednesse to sin A trodden way is such a way as a man hath often gone and in which he is not afraid to goe Hast thou marked the old way Hence note First The way of Sin and Error is an old way The Devill sinned from the beginning and men have sinned from their beginning not onely have there been sinnings but great sinnings from the begining the old way is the way of sin though the oldest way be not There was holines before there was sinne and truth before there was Error So that the way of sinne is the old way but not the oldest way God all whose wayes are holy was from everlasting The Angels who have been holy as long as they have been were from the beginning And the first beginning of man in his conversation was no doubt like his constitution holy He quickly went out of the way but surely his first step was not out of the way he went right before he went wrong and stood before he fell Againe if you take the way for the way of punishment Note That God in all ages hath punished sinners in their sinfull wayes God hath every where and every when left the tract and print of his anger and displeasure upon sinners though some particular sinners have gone unpunished in some age yet there was never any age wherein sinne was not punished in some The Lord gives a morall stopp to sinne perpetually that is by his Lawes he declares against it his word is expresse against all ungodlynes both the word of his Command and the word of his threatning Now as the Lord doth alwayes put this morall stopp in the way of sinne so he often puts a Judiciary stopp or a stop by way of Judgement And as in the 3d of Genesis he set a flaming sword in the way of the tree of life so he continually sets a flaming word that is a threatning to keepe the way of the tree of death that is of sinne Thus he alwayes meetes sinfull men in the way of their lusts as the Angel met Balaam when he went to curse the Israel of God with a drawne sword to stopp them in their way the Lord hath set many drawne swords in the way of every sinne and he hath left the prints of his wrath upon the backs of many sinners that wee should take heed of sinning The Lord hath left many sad examples upon record against sinne nor hath he at any time favoured it or done any thing which might indeed encourage sinners for though sometimes wicked men have prosper'd yet should wee looke into all times wee cannot finde that wicked men were ever blessed Judgement hath overtaken them sooner or later And if it hath at any time come too late to overtake them in this world yet it will come soone enough to overtake theirs in this or themselves in the world which is to come No man is blessed at any time who comes at last to be miserable Thirdly In that he saith Hast thou marked the old way Note It is our duty to observe and marke as the way of sinfull men so the way in which God punisheth their sinne All the wayes of God are to be marked as wee are to observe what the Lord speakes so what he doth his works as well as his word are remarkeable Who so is wise saith the Psalmist Psal 107.43 and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindnes of the Lord. I may say also that they shall understand the judgements of the Lord. And againe the Prophet confirmes it Hos 14.9 Who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them for the wayes of the Lord are right and the Just shall walke in them but the transgressors shall fall therein The wicked fall in the way of his commandements and therefore surely they shall fall in the way of his judgements And as the Lord hath given us Examples of this so he hath given this as the use of those Examples that wee should marke and observe them The Apostle 1 Cor. 10. shewes that all the dealings of God with that his ancient People the Jewes are written and recorded as our Examples ver 5 6 7. With many of them God was not well pleased but they were overthrowne in the wilderness Now these things were our Examples to the Intent that wee should not lust
beleeving and fearing the report or prophecy of a deluge laught them to scorne and in derision doubtlesse ask't them what voyage they intended and whether they meant to sayle their Ship over the dry Land as for them they never dreamt of a Sea hanging in the clouds and ready to drop downe upon their heads Now as the ungodly world derided Noah and his Sons for their credulity before the flood came so 't is probable enough that when the flood came upon that world of the ungodly Noah and his Sons laught at and derided their incredulity They who laugh at divine threatnings deserve to be laughed at under divine sufferings Others apply this particularly to the Tragedy of Pharaoh and his Egyptians overwhelmed and drowned in the red sea of which it is said Exod. 14.30 31. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the shoare and Israel saw that Great worke which the Lord did upon the Egyptians The effect of this sight is two wayes described in that holy Historie First by the acting of feare and faith And the people feared the Lord and beleeved the Lord and his servant Moses Secondly by the acting of their joy in the Lord and their holy insultation over the drowned Egyptians Chap. 15. v. 1. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord and spake saying I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse his rider hath he throwne into the Sea Thus also that innocent people saw the ruine of their wicked enemies and laughed them to scorne Yet I conceive Eliphaz speaking here rather upon a generally experienced and positive truth then strictly and particularly ayming at those ancient Examples The innocent that is any innocent person whether innocent in reference to the doing of evill or having escaped the sufferance of evill laugh them to scorne Before he sayd the righteous see it and are glad now he sayth the innocent laugh them to scorne it is one thing for a man to be glad in himselfe and another thing to laugh other men to scorne for though to be innocent carries in it somewhat lesse or at the most but so much as to be righteous yet to laugh the unrighteous and wicked to scorne when they fall carries in it much more then to be glad when they fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotat gestum qui fit ore labijs ficta balbutie five quod balbutientes irrideri soleaÌ„t sive quod irrisores balbutiant per contemptum et malignam imitationem And besides the word in the Hebrew signifies the most scornefull laughter such a laughter as is expressed by a distortion of the mouth and lips or by a kinde of fained lisping with the tongue and artificiall faultring in speech For as they that lispe and faulter in speech are usually derided and laught at so they that deride and laugh at others will purposely lispe or faulter in speech Stammerers are contemptible and many stammer at others in contempt This imitation of a defect in nature shewes the excesse of malice Such is the force of this expression The innocent laugh them to scorne Here it may be questioned how a good man an innocent person can doe such a thing can he thus laugh the wicked to scorne it is difficult enough to salve it as consistent with Grace for a righteous man to rejoyce at the fall of the wicked but it is farre more difficult to salve it how a righteous man may laugh them to scorne scorning and deriding are the practices of lewd persons of sons of Beliall such indeed are usually scorners and jeerers The enemies of Jesus Christ are so described Psal 22.7 All they that see me that is all the wicked that see me for many Disciples saw Christ in his sufferings and did not onely pity him but honour and beleeve on him but saith he all they who are mine enemies that see me laugh me to scorne they shoot out the lip and shake the head And David tells us Psal 1.1 that to fit in the seate of the scornefull is the conclusion of those who have first walked in the way of the ungodly and secondly stood in the way of sinners The common Latine translater renders that in the Psalme not the seate of scorners but the seate of the pestilence And indeed they have spirituall plague-spots upon them and the surest tokens of eternall death who are given up to be scorners Therefore question it againe how are the Innocent scorners I answer That as when humane affections which are below the divine nature are attributed to God such are to repent to be grieved at the wickednes and to laugh at the calamity of the wicked we say these note onely an effect upon the creature not a change of affection in God for in him there is no variablenes nor shadow of change so when those actions Irrisio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similia quae affectum humanum significant uti a deo longe absunt ita quae mali moris sunt ab ecclesia Coc Vt haec de deé 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iâ—a de sanctis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt intell genda which are below or unsuteable to a renewed regenerate nature in man are attributed to the Saints such as these to wash their feete in the bloud of the ungodly to laugh them to scorne in their saddest miseries we must say that these note rather what the wicked deserve then what the godly doe The godly are no scorners but there is that in wicked men which is worthy to be laughed to scorne or wicked men doe that for which they deserve to be laughed at whatsoever is evill in such like actions is farre from the heart and spirit of the godly And therefore as Scriptures of such a tenour are to be interpreted and understood in such a manner as becomes and is consistent with the holines of God so also in their proportion to the holines of the Saints The laughter of the Saints in these dispensations is serious and their scorning the acting of their graces not of their corruptions And thus it is said of God himselfe Psal 2.4 He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision And Prov. 1.26 I will mocke at your calamity and laugh when your feare commeth when your feare commeth as desolation and your destruction commeth as a whirlewind c. that is I will carry my selfe so towards you I will pity you who have been scorners of my word and have set at nought my counsel no more then men pity those whom they laugh to scorne such is the laughter of the Saints at the calamity of the wicked And thus Eliah derided Baals Priests while they wearied themselves in their foolish superstition 1 Kings 18.27 And it came to passe at noone that Eliah mockt them and said cry aloud for
of his hands lifted up in prayer Yet wee must take this with a Caution For wee cannot affirme it universally that the righteous have alwayes this priviledge in the event to deliver the Island or Nation wherein they are But wee may say that this is a priviledge which Saints have often been honoured with and which none but Saints have been honoured with at any time to be the Saviours and Deliverers of a people among whom they dwell For wee know the Lord himselfe hath given expresse Exceptions to this rule Jer. 15.1 where hee tells the stubborne Jewes by his Prophet Though Moses and Samuel stood before mee yet my minde could not be toward this people Cast them out of my sight and let them goe forth and it shall come to passe if they say unto thee whither shall wee goe forth thou shalt tell them thus saith the Lord such as are for death to death such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for famine to famine When he saith Though Moses and Samuel stood before wee Some may aske what to doe I answer wee are not to take it for a mute standing before the Lord but a standing before the Lord with earnest Prayers Intercessions and Supplications for the sparing of that people Now saith the Lord though Moses and Samuel who in their generations were eminent godly men and eminent favourites of God though these should stand before mee earnestly praying for this people yet my minde could not be toward them that is I would not spare them nor save them from death sword famine or captivity no not at their entreaty And wee have a like Instance Ezek. 14.14 Though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it there were but two named in Jeremy but here three though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it they should but deliver their owne soules by their righteousnes saith the Lord God They might have the priviledge mentioned by Eliphaz in the former verse When men were cast downe they might say there is a lifting up or there is preservation for us God will take care of us but God would not be perswaded no not by Noah Daniel and Job to save the rest So that there are cases wherein the Lord will not heare the Intercessions of the best of men for a sinfull people The Island of the wicked or of the not Innocent shall not be delivered no not by the purenes of their hands yet 't is an experienced truth that God hath spared a people for the sake of some Godly found among them yea the reason why the Lord doth not destroy the world which lies in wickednes is much in respect of them who walk in holines For were it not as Elisha told Jehoram to his face in reference to good king Jehosaphat 2 Kings 3.14 that God hath regard to their presence in the world God would not so much as looke towards the ungodly nor see them for good This honour have all the Saints and how great an honour is it to be a publique good to be a Saviour to an Island to a Nation Some indeed are of such narrow spirits that if they may save themselves and keepe their owne stakes they care not what becomes of the publique But as it is a great honour to be active for the saving and delivering of a Nation so it is a greater honour to have the safety and deliverance of a Nation attributed or given in to us by God himselfe though not at all by way of desert yet in a way of favour Paul was at Sea with no good company yet when all looked to be swallowed up An Angel of God appeared to him saying Feare not Paul Thou must be brought before Caesar and lo God hath given thee all them that sayle with thee Acts 27.23 24. That is for thy sake or because they are now in thy company they also shall escape the rage of this tempest They all owe their lives to thee henceforth as well as to mee for to thee have I given them The men of this world might hence take notice of their own folly who can hardly afford them a good word or roome to live in the world for whose sake it is that they live How often doe they wish and seeke their destruction for whose sake it is that themselves are not destroyed How often doe they accuse the Godly as the troublers of a Nation as the hinderers of publique good whereas they are indeed a common good The Chariots and horsemen The Protection and Defence the Salvation and Deliverance of those States and Nations where they are The breaches which wicked men make by sinning they make up by praying to turne away the Lords wrath that they be not consumed We read how the Lord Complaines that there was none found to make up the hedge to stand in the gapp when he was coming to destroy them Ezek. 22.30 And it is sayd of Moses Psal 106.23 that he stood before the Lord in the breach that he should not destroy the Israelites Which phrase of standing in the breach seemes to beare an alusion to an Army besieging a Citie who first plant their Canon and make a breach and then come to the storme Thus the Lord deales many times with a people he encampes against them and batters them he makes some breach upon them by troubles and divisions and then expects that some should stand in the breach and beseech him not to storme them with the whole Army of his Judgements And the Lord takes it well when any of the Valiant Ones when any of the Worthies of his Israel present themselves in the breach praying with utmost importunity that the Lord would withdraw those evills which threaten to come in at the breach like armed men and lay wast a Nation And forasmuch as men of pure hands or Godly men have this priviledge to be a common Good by being the deliverers of Nations from common evills and calamities I shall hint some few things from it more distinctly First We see wherein under God the strength and safety of Kingdomes and Common-wealths doth consist It is not so much in the wisdome of the Counseller or in the courage of the Souldier It is not so much in Armyes at Land or Navyes at Sea It is not so much in walled Cities and fortified Castles It is not so much in union at home or in leagues and confederacies abroad as it is in the purity of mens hands or in the holines of their lives Godlines is the Sampsons locke wherein the strength of a Nation lyes A Heathen could say that A people were never safe by the standing of their walles while themselves were falling in their virtues It is therefore if there were nothing better in it good policy to encourage piety and to â—ndeavour the encrease of a Holy Seed in any Nation For as the Prophet speakes Is 6.13 As a teile tree and as an oake
highest in grace are censured as acting and speaking below nature And as these whose graces are â—oving aloft are often suspected of madnesse So secondly they who lye below complaining under the pressures of nature by affliction are as often suspected of and charged with impatience A troubled spirit can hardly judge aright of it selfe and is seldome rightly judged by others I will end this poynt with two Cautions The first to all concerning those that are afflicted The second to all that are afflicted To the former I say judge charitably of those who complaine bitterly for as a man in a low condition knoweth not what himselfe would eyther be or doe were he advanced to the heights of honour and power so he that is at ease and wel knoweth not what himselfe would eyther be or doe were he in paine or overwhelmed with sorrows Extreames in any â—â—ate are rarely borne with a wel or duely tempered moderation Secondly To the latter I say let them expect to heare themselves hardly censured and learne to beare it let not such thinke strange of their sufferings eyther under the hand of God or by the tongues of men Great sufferers speake often unbecommingly and are as often so spoken of Thirdly Forasmuch as the matter of this suggestion against Job tumultuous and rebellious speeches at least speeches savouring strongly of rebellion are incident to any Godly man in Jobs condition Observe There may be rebellion against God in a good mans complainings under the afflicting hand of God An unquiet spirit is not onely a great burden to man but a dishonour to God Our dissatisfaction with the dealings of God carrieth in it at least an implicit accusation of him or that God hath not done well because it is ill to sence with us There is a rebellion against the rod as wel as against the word of God For as our strugling and striving with the word of God and the unquietnesse of our hearts under any truth when it takes hold of us is rebellion against God so to strive and struggle with the rod of God or with the crosse that he layes upon us is rebellion against him also God speakes to us by his rod as wel as by his word and we spurne at God in wrangling with his rod as wel as in wrangling with his word Yea to have hard thoughts of God as that he is severe and rigourous that he hath put off his bowells of compassion towards us and forgotten to be gratious such thoughts as these of God under affliction are rebellious thoughts And as there is a rebellion in the thoughts against God in case of affliction so also in the Tongue Thus to murmur is to rebell I doe not say that all complaining is rebelling but all murmuring is we may complaine and tell the Lord how sad it is with us how much our soules our bodies our estates our relations bleed and smart We may complaine and make great complaints without sin but the least murmuring is sinfull yea in the very nature of it so full of sin that it usually and deservedly passeth under the name of Rebellion The children of Israel were as often charged with rebellion as with murmuring And therefore when they murmured for want of Water Moses sayd unto them Heare now ye rebels must we fetch you water out of this Rocke Numb 20.10 And againe Moses chargeth this upon them with his last breath as it were Deut. 31.27 I know thy rebellion and thy stiffe necke behold while I am yet alive with you this day ye have been rebellious against the Lord and how much more after my death yea the Lord himselfe chargeth rebellion upon that unparalleld payre of Brethren Moses and Aaron themselves because they had not so fully as they ought at all times and in all things submitted unto his divine dispensations among that people Numb 24. The Lord spake to Moses saying Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the Land which I have given unto the children of Israel because yee the Lord puts them both together in the sin rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah Fourthly whereas Job sayth Even to day my complaint is bitter Observe The Afflictions and sorrows of some eminently Godly sticke by them or continue long upon them It is with afflictions as with diseases there are some acute diseases sharpe and feirce for a while but they last not they are over in a few dayes for eyther the disease departs from the man or the man departs out of the world by the feircenes of his disease There are also Chronicall diseases lasting lingring diseases that hang about a man many dayes yea moneths and yeares and will not be gone while he lives but lye downe in the grave with him Such a difference we finde among thosâ— other afflictions and troubles which are not seated as diseases in the body but reach the whole estate of man Some are acute and sharpe like the fierce fitts of a feavor but they last not or like Summers sudden stormes which are soone followed with a succession of faire weather But there are also chronicall afflictions tuffe and unmoveable troubles which abide by us which dwell with us day after day yeare after yeare and never leave us while we live or till we leave the world Many a good man hath carryed his affliction with him to the grave If any shall object how then is that of David true Psal 30.5 Weeping may endure for a night â—â—t joy commeth in the morning I answer First That Scripture speakes of that which is often experienced but not alwayes secondly It is most true also that all our weeping is but for a night yea but for a Moment as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor. 4.17 compared with that morning of joy when the day of our blessed eternity shall begin Thirdly the Psalme hath this scope cheifely to shew that the troubles of the Saints are not everlasting not that they are never lasting or to shew that the night of weeping shall at last conclude in a morning of joy to the Godly not that their night of weeping shall presently conclude For as some have onely a Summers night or a short night of sorrow so others have a winters night or a long night of sorrow And this night of sorrow may be as long not onely as many natural dayes or as somes yeares but as long as all the naturall dayes and yeares of this present life The morning of joy is not to be understood of the next morrow after the sorrow began for how long soever our weeping continues it is night with us and whensoever joy comes though at midnight 't is morning with us For sure enough as those sonnes of pleasure are described Isa 56.12 promising themselves the continuance of their joyes To morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant therefore come fetch wine and let us drinke to day there will be wine enough
yea these are not yet dead but alive and in force against you If we doe not take hold of the preceptive part of the Law by obedience the poenal part of the Law will take hold of us for our disobedience Thus the Lord professeth Mal. 3.5 And I will come neare to you to Judgement and I will be a swift witnes against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppresse the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherlesse and that turne aside the stranger from his right and feare not me saith the Lord of hosts for I am the Lord I change not I will certainly be not onely a Judge but a witnesse and that a swift one against such wicked ones There is no evading my Judgement seing I am both witnes and Judge as a witnes I know all that ye have done and as a Judge I have power not onely to condemne you but also to give you up into the hand of the executioner for I am the Lord of hosts I have all the Armyes of heaven and earth at my command and bidding Thus I will doe and be ye assured of it that I will doe so for I am the Lord I change not Sixthly God is unchangeable or of one minde in his gifts Rom. 11.29 The gifts and calling of God are without repentance That is The gifts of his effectuall calling shall never be repented of As they who receive them will have no cause to repent yea they will have cause to reioyce in them for ever so God who gives them will not repent He is in one minde he will not alter his gifts As Pilate when he was moved to alter his writing upon the Crosse of Christ answered What I have written I have written that is what I have written shall stand so what motion soever should be made to God to recall the gifts of effectuall calling he would surely answer What I have given I have given my gift shall stand There are gifts of a meere outward calling which God takes away againe His gifts doe not stand with such because they stand still with his gifts That was the doome of the idle servant who had one talent given him Take the talent from him and give it to him that hath ten Talents Math. 25.15.28 But the gifts of effectuall calling shall not be taken away Jam. 1.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift such is the gift of effectuall calling is from above and cometh downe from the father of lights with whom is no variablenes nor shadow of turning And as there is no variablenes in God as to the matter or generall nature of the gifts which he bestoweth they are all good and perfect gifts in their kinde though they are not all in the same degree of goodnes and perfection God doth not give his people sometimes bread and sometime a stone now an egge and anon a scorpon now I say as there is no variablenes in God as to the nature of the gifts which he bestoweth so there is no variablenes in him as to the act of giving or bestowing As the Lord giveth liberally and upbraydeth not Jam. 1.5 so he giveth liberally and repenteth not Thus we see he is not onely one but in one minde He is unchangeable And that not onely in his essence and glorious attributes or perfections but in his counsels and decrees in his promises and threatnings in his gifts and bounties to all his people He giveth and repenteth not Before I passe from this poynt it will be needfull to answer some Objections which are raised against it from those Scriptures which seeme to say that God is not of one minde or that his minde doth alter and change First That report which Moses makes of God seemes to say so Gen. 6.6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart What is repentance but the change of the mind therefore he that repents is not in one mind Seing then God repents how is he unchangeably in one minde A like appearance of contradiction we find 1 Sam. 15. not onely with this text in Job but between the 11th verse compared with the 29th of the same Chapter The 11 â—h verse speakes thus Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel saying it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be King c. ver 29. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent The strength or victory of Israel is God for it was by his strength that Israel had all his victories and of him Samuel saith He will not repent when as himselfe had sayd a little before It repenteth me c. To these Scriptures we may adde 2 Kings 20th which in words holds out a great change in the minde of God concerning Hezekiah if we compare the first and the fift verses of that Chapter together ver 1. In those dayes Hezekiah was sicke unto death and the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him and said unto him thus saith the Lord set thine house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Here is a strong affirmation that Hezekiah should dye And to the affirmative the negative is also added Thou shalt dye and not live 'T is the strongest manner of asserting any thing when the contrary is denyed As it is sayd of John the Baptist John 1.20 And he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ c. So here Thou shalt die and not live Yet we read vers 5. And it came to passe before Isaiah was gone out of the middle Court that the word of the Lord came to him 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 prayers I have seene thy teares behold I will heale thee on the third day thou shalt goe up unto the house of the Lord and I will adde unto thy dayes fifeene yeares Doth not this import an evident change in the minde of God Having dispatcht the Prophet to tell Hezekiah that he shall die and not live He presently after even before he was got out of the Court sends the same Prophet backe to tell him that he shall live and not die We have the same difficulty in that knowne place in the Prophesie of Jonah Chap. 3.4 Jonah is sent to Nineveh with a direct message Yet fourtie dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrowne Notwithstanding as soone as the fast was proclaimed and kept and the Ninevites had repented and turned from their evil wayes The Lord also repented of the evil denounced against them ver 10. And God saw their workes that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would doe unto them and he did it not Here God repented of his threatning He had said
protection is set up so the sword and all other instruments of destruction are sent out by appoyntment Jer. 15.3 I will appoynt over them foure kindes saith the Lord the sword to slay and the doggs to teare and the fowles of heaven and the Beasts of the Earth to devoure and destroy And as the destroying sword so the place whether the sword shall goe to destroy is under an appoyntment When the question is put Jer. 47.6 O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy selfe into thy scabbard rest and be still The answer is made ver 7. How can it be quiet seing the Lord hath given it a Charge against Askelon and against the Sea-shore there hee hath appoynted it He hath appoynted this place this ground this Country this Citie this shoare for the sword and the sword being under an appoyntment must doe as it is appoynted If wee look all the Scripture over wee shall finde all things under an appoyntment As first our children are appoynted when Adam had another Son his wife Eve sayd Gen. 4.25 God hath appoynted mee another seed in stead of Abel whom Cain slew Secondly our wives are appoynted When Abrahams servant was sent by him to Mesopotamia for a wife for Isaac he saith If the woman come whom thou hast appoynted to be wife to my Master Son c. That this woman rather then any other should be his Masters sons wife was he knew by the appoyntment of God Gen. 24.14.44 Thirdly All our Times are appoynted by God Exod. 9.5 My times are in thy hand saith David Psal 31.15 Fourthly not onely things that are or exist but things that as yet are not come under an appoyntment What shall be is as certaine to God as what already is Isa 44.7 And who as I shall call and shall declare it and set it in order for me since I appoynted the antient people And the things that are coming and shall come The antient who have been long and still are were appoynted by me and the things which are not but shall be in a continued succession like Linkes of a Chaine holding one in another are appoynted by me The things that are coming or that are neere the birth and shall come things afarre off all that is to be done as well as all that hath been done is under an appoyntment Fifthly as all the passages of our lives so death it selfe is under an appoyntment Heb. 13.27 It is appoynted for all men once to dye And as death is appoynted so the season or the when of it is appoynted Job 7.1 Is there not an appoynted time to man Againe Job 14.5 Thou hast appoynted his bounds that he cannot pass Sixthly as the dayes of man so The day of the Lord the day of Judgement is under an appoyntment Act. 17.31 Because he hath appoynted a day wherein he will Judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained the time is fixt he hath appoynted a day a day of Judgement When the appoynted day shall be is a secret but that he hath appoynted a day is revealed and that he hath appoynted all the motions and changes that are coming upon the world till that day come So then First Wee are not governed by blinde fortune Nor Secondly By a Stoicall Fate Thirdly But by a divine appoyntment Further The appoyntment of God determineth first the end secondly the meanes leading to and promoting the attainement of the end Lastly as God appoynteth Great things so the least A sparrow falls not to the ground without him that is without his appoyntment or without an order from heaven yea the haires of our head are all numbred Math. 10.29 30. This truth well digested is enough not onely to supercede and stop all the undue feares but to establish the comforts of all the people of God What can be better for us then that all things are in so good a hand that they are appoynted and measured out by God that he cuts out our condition for us that he formes and frames our state for us It hath been said Every man is the fashioner of his owne Condition there is some truth in that mens conditions are much according to their actings but God is the supreame fashioner and orderer of every mans state and portion The portion of the wicked is set out by God Job 20.29 This is the heritage of the wicked and the portion appoynted to him of God Theirs is indeed a sad portion but it is a just and a deserved one He also fashions and cuts out a portion for his owne people And though theirs is often for the present a bitter one and so deserved by them yet he alwayes makes it a good one to them and hath prepared a better for them which they have not at all deserved Hee performeth the thing that is appoynted for me And many such things are with him Some expound this of the paralel dealings of God with other persons Hee performeth the thing that is appoynted for mee Haec multitudo refertur ad similia exempla hominum quos deus similiter exercet sive exeâ—cere possit si velit Non unicum inquit ego sum exemplum hujus liberae dei potestaâ—is and many such things are with him That is I am not the onely Instance or example of this God doth the like also to others my case is not singular I am not alone in the thing God hath not appoynted a portion for mee onely and performed it accordingly to mee no he doth many such like things yea whatsoever hee doth with or concerning any else it is by appoyntment and according to the determinate purpose of his owne will Many such things are with him But secondly I conceive that wee may rather expound these words many such things of such things as Job had already suffered As if he had sayd The Lord bath performed the thing that hee hath appoynted for mee hetherto I have had my portion of trouble and sorrow unto this day and I am like to have more Cum jam me quibus voluerit tormentis affligerit alia ad huc quanta voluerit mihi infligere poterit Hieron I doe not yet perceive that God hath done with mee for as our comforts and the provisions of this so our afflictions and the sorrows of this life are or may be renewed or returned upon us every day Our bread is called in that prayer which Christ taught his Disciples dayly bread that is the bread that is brought out to us every day And when we have received our bread for one day wee may say Mulia jam passuis sum taâ—en si aliud voluerit anima ejus fiet Phil Videtur se patientissimè comparaâ—e ad nova flagella many such things are with him that is hee hath bread enough for us for to morrow and for next day for this yeare and for the next for all the
cutting off of my dayes that is when I thought I lay a dying Job was troubled because he was not cut off Before the darknes or from the face of darknes Death it selfe is darknes Quòd me non interemerit auferens a conspectu non tantam hanc caliginem tot mala Merc and yet Job would faine have dyed before the darknes There is a darknes of affliction and trouble spoken of often in this booke and elsewhere which is more bitter to man then death it selfe Some had rather be taken out of the world then endure the troubles of it This is the first part of the reason I am troubled why because I was not cut off before the darknes or before this trouble came As if he had sayd I should have been glad or it had been good for me if death had prevented these troubles this troubles mee that I dyed not that I went not to the grave before these troubles came upon mee Thus Job gives way againe to his passion hee broke out much in this straine or language at the third Chapter where at large he openeth his wish for death either that he had dyed before or presently after hee was borne into this world that hee might have been at rest and so out of the reach of those evills and calamities that did encamp against or beset him round about The reader may consult what hath been done upon that Chapter of which this verse is an Epitome and there finde the nature of this wish for death explained as also what lively desires Job had of death or as this text speakes that he had been cut off before the darknes I shall here onely take notice That to some the sorrowes of this life are much more bitter then death it selfe yea that God himselfe hath sometimes in a way of mercy and favour called some out of the world before he would let great troubles in There was a promise made to Josiah King of Judah that God being resolved to bring trouble upon that people yet he should be cut off before the darknes 2 Kings 22.20 Because thy heart was tender c. Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evill which I will bring upon this place And when Ahab had humbled himselfe before the Lord even he went not without a reward for it and his reward was this 1 Kings 21.29 I will not bring the evill in his dayes Hee shall be cut off before the darknes Jerom speaking of the troubles that came upon the Church Foelix Nepotianus qui haec non vidit Hier doth as it were applaud the death of Nepotian upon that Consideration Happy he that dyed before these troubles lived It hath somewhat of mercy in it to goe out of the world before extraordinary affliction comes in yet in these things wee must take heed of being our owne Carvers it is one thing to have a promise from God that the Cloud shall not breake in our time and another thing for us to wish and desire to be out of the world before the Cloud breakes The former argueth the tendernes and care of God towards us but the latter must needs argue eyther our unwillingnes to suffer eyther from or for God Or our distrust of his assistance and presence with us to support us in our sufferings If God will not cut us off by death before the darknes wee should be willing to live in the darkest darknes of outward calamity that ever fell upon this world Job adds a second reason of his troubled spirit in the last words of this verse and Chapter Neither hath he Covered the darknes from my face I am troubled because I have lived in troublesome dayes but though I have yet God could have hidden me from those troubles or those troubles from me but as hee hath let me live in the darknes of trouble so he hath not at all covered the darknes of ttouble from me I doe not onely live in troubles but I am alwayes looking troubles in the face Mr Broughton renders thus Nor he yet hideth gloomines from my face which he also paraphraseth in these words Because I finde neyther death nor ease of sicknes that I should not feele these afflictions So that as he complaines because he dyed not before the darknes came so because God did not hide the darknes from him when it came but let him have such sad visions of it This still imports that Job had not that fullnes of submission to the dispensations of God as duty called him to and for this Elihu reproves him yea God himselfe chid and rebuked him because he tooke upon him so often to give the rule and did not sit downe more quietly under his appoyntment and portion for him Though Jobs patience was great yet he had not all patience or all of patience And though I doubt not but his patience had a perfect worke yet he did not attaine to the perfection of patience This according to our translation is the sence and summe of these words concerning which many things have been spoken in the former part of the Booke whether I referre the reader yet before I passe them quite out of my hands I shall gather up some other Renderings of this verse and leave them to the readers Judgement and consideration First Thus when I was onely not Cut off by darknes Nam ubi tantum non excisus sum propter tenebras a facie mea se operit caligine Coc hee hath hid himselfe in darknes from my face This translation the Originall may beare with some little supplement which is usuall in like Cases when there is no straine upon the generall scope of the place and the meaning is clearely this Whereas I am onely not cut off by darknes that is whereas my troubles are such as have onely not extinguished my life when I am in this pitiful miserable plight Hee that is God hath hid himselfe from mee in darknes So that here he speakes of a twofold darknes or evill that was upon him first affliction upon his body secondly desertion upon his spirit and so the negative particle not is rendered by some onely not it is onely not death with mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tantum non q. d. hoc effecit in me absconsio ejus ut non quidam exscinderer sed excisiom proximus essem Coc yet the Lord is pleased to hide his face from mee whereas wee say Hee hath not Covered the darknes from my face this translation saith Hee hath Covered his owne face with darknes or Covered himselfe with darknes from my face First thereby intimating that God doth often joyne spirituall troubles with corporall the hidings of his face with the troubles of our flesh Secondly that outward troubles are then most grievous to us when God hides or
Est velut epiphonema ad superiora Merc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clamare non quoquo modo significat sed cum singultu ut solent moribundi Merc and here we have as it were the conclusion or a kinde of acclamation upon the whole matter Would you know what worke these men make they are so high in their cruelty that men groane under it The word which we translate to groane doth not signifie any kinde of groane for some cry before they are hurt but that which is caused by the greatest hurt and comes from the very bottom of the heart even such a groane as they give forth who are about to dye Men groane from Out of the Cittie This shews the impudence of those men in sinne as well as their impunity We might reasonably suppose they would not dare to doe thus in the open Citie though they had done it in a corner of the Country where there were but few to take notice of them To doe thus in the Citie in the eyes of all men is an argument that they had lost their modesty as well as their honesty and were resolved not onely to doe evill but to stand to it or make it good And the soule of the wounded cryeth out That is the wounded cry out the soule is put for the person or the man or the soule of the wounded is sayd to cry out to shew the greatnesse and dolefullnesse of the cry As when Mary sayd My soule doth magnifie the Lord it argues that shee magnified the Lord with strong affections as if shee had been all soule Suâ—h also is the force of that passage in Deborahs Song Judg. 5.21 O my soule thou hast troden downe strength shee trod downe the strength of the enemy with all her strength And her soule which was her strength in God was in it more then her body So here the soule of the wounded cryeth out that is the wounded cry out most lamentably they powre out their owne soules while others were powring out their bloud But what are these wounded or how were they wounded Wee may take it eyther of an outward or inward wounding There is a wounded spirit as well as a wounded body many are wounded whose flesh is whole who have not so much as a scarre made in their skin yet here the wounded were such whose flesh or outward state was wounded first and then their hearts or spirits were wounded because of that with griefe and sorrow The soule of the wounded The word which we translate wounded signifies two things First that which is prophane and polluted and in the verb to pollute and prophane a thing Idol-worshippers are so called because they are polluted as wounded men with blood And hence also it is used as a word of abomination The Lord forbid sayd David 1 Sam. 24.6 And againe 2 Sam. 20.20 Farre be it from me farre be it from me sayd Joab in both which places the actions abominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 polluti prophani 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absit vox prohibitionis abominationis res prophana s t mihi had the defilement or pollution of blood in them And the Jewes speaking this word usually rent their garments shewing the abhorrence and indignation of their minds at blasphemie or such like abominations Now because wounded men are defiled in their blood therefore this word signifieth the wounded The soule of the wounded cryeth out not onely cryeth but cryeth out Which implyeth the greatnesse of their wound and the extreame painefullnes of it Hence Note Oppression is a crying sinne and makes the oppressed cry The blood of Abel who was the first man that ever was outwardly wounded cryed when he was dead how much more doe they cry whose blood is powring out and themselves under present feare of death The soules under the Altar cryed how long Lord how long Rev. 6.9 Those soules had suffered and were past suffering yet they cryed out for vengeance upon their adversaryes how much more will their soules cry who are under sufferings The wounds of the wounded are as so many wide mouthes crying out to God though their owne soules should be silent and say nothing I have upon other passages in this booke met with the sinne of oppression and the cry of the poore upon it therefore I shall not further stay here but a while insist upon the last clause of this context which holds out the chiefe and most considerable matter of it The oppressour doth all these wickednesses but what doth God Surely we might expect to heare of God in the next words healing and helping the wounded who make this cry and wounding the hairy scalpe of those who made them cry had not God a fit occasion put in his hand to shew himselfe first for the releife of the oppressed and secondly for the punishment of the oppressour He that beholds such actings as these the fatherles plucked from the breasts the poore made slaves the labourer denied his wages the wounded crying groaning he I say that beholds all this might say in his heart surely now God will presently appeare and indeed God hath often appeared when the wicked have been in the heate of such actings and the poore in the heate of such sufferings Psal 12.5 For the oppression of the poore for the sighing of the needy now I will arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Yet here we finde no such thing nothing like the Lords arising for the saving of the poore from oppression or for the breaking of oppressors Job saw or had seene the poore oppressed and the needy sighing but did not see God comming eyther with deliverance or revenge for he adds though all this be done Yet God layeth not folly to them Master Broughton reads And the puissant marketh not the unsavory dealing His meaning is not that God did not know that their dealings were unsavory or that he did not observe and take notice of their dealings but he did not observe them so as to appeare presently against them God layeth not or God putteth not the meaning is God imputeth not or God chargeth not folly or strictly to the letter of the Hebrew that which is unsavory to them or upon them That word which signifies a thing unsavory or without salt in a natural and proper sence may elegantly be rendred folly in a moral or metaphoricall sence for foolishnes or folly is that which hath no salt of reason righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod fit praeter omnem rationem aequitatem Bez justice or equity in it Hence the word is often used to signifie that which is done besides without or against all these So it is sayd Chap. 1.22 In all this Job sinned not neither did he charge God foolishly or neither did he charge folly upon God it is this word Job did not thinke that God dealt unjustly or unreasonably with him though he had
hereafter what ever portion of worldly profit or pleasure they have had here hell shall consume them and they shall be consuming for ever The 20th verse may carry the sence of this interpretation but it complyeth more clearely with the former describing the calamitous condition of a wicked man at his departure out of this world Vers 20. The womb shall forget him the worme shall feed sweetly on him he shall be no more remembred and wickednesse shall be broken as a tree The number varyes here againe Job spake in the plural number immediately before yet here keeping to the same subject he speakes in the singular The womb shall forget him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a verbo quod intensissiâ—rè tenerrimè amare signisicat That is They who loved him most tenderly and dearely shall forget him The word which we render the womb is of a verbe which signifyes to love with greatest intensenesse and tendernes it is applyed to the love of man to God Psal 18.1 I love the Lord I love the Lord dearely with bowells of affection and it is often applyed to the love of God unto man Some translate it here by the Abstract Vim majorem haber per abstractum Obliviscetur ejus miseratio sive amor sive dilectio i. e. illi qui eum suaviter amabunt Bold Love mercie or pittie shall forget him Which may be taken two wayes First that those friends who before were pittifull to him should forget him his lovers and acquaintance who were deare to him even as his bowels they shall forget him or secondly mercy shall forget him that is the mercy of God or the God of mercy shall forget him God who is alltogether mercy shall forget him hell shall consume him and mercy or the mercifull God shall forget him for ever The vulgar reads it by way of imprecation let mercy forget him others as a direct denunciation mercy shall forget him But I rather apprehend that this phrase or manner of speaking The wombe shall forget him doth onely import thus much That when the wicked man dyeth he shall be as much forgotten among men as if such a man had never come out of his mothers wombe nor been born into the world But are not wicked men remembred to have been in the world when once they goe out of the world usually they doe such things in the world as cannot easily be forgotten And are not many wicked men who dyed some thousands of yeares agoe remembred unto this day as if they had dyed but yesterday I answer As to forget alwayes implyeth former knowledge and acquaintance so sometimes it implyeth onely present neglect When we passe by or slight a man then we are sayd to forget him though we not onely remember who he is but see him before our eyes Much more then may we be sayd to forget those men being dead whom we slighted while they lived and never speake of but with contempt and abhorrence both of their persons and actions since they dyed The wombe shall forget him Yet as the former verse is expounded by some as was there touched to shew how quiet and easie a passage wicked men usually have out of this world by death so this clause also of the verse in hand yea the whole verse is expounded to the same sence I will onely hint it and passe onne The wombe shall forget him That is his mother shall not be troubled or grieved at his death because he dyed without griefe or trouble The wormes shall feede sweetly on him That is The grave shall be no seveerer to him then to others Ita suavitèr obdormit ut in sepulchro ei vermis duscescere videatur Drus There the wormes feed upon all men and they shall feed sweetly on him or it shall be a kinde of sweetnes and pleasure to him to have the wormes feeding on him which is no more then what Job sayd upon the same argument Chap. 21.33 The clods of the valley shall be sweete to him He shall be no more remembred That is there shall no hard fate or evill accident befall him when he dyes to administer matter of discourse concerning him for when a man is cut off by some remarkeable stroake of Judgement eyther from the hand of God or man his death becomes the discourse and Table-talke of all sorts of men for that generation at least if not for many more What hath caused Korah Dathan and Abiram to be remembred to this day was it not the strangenes of their death Numb 14.29 30. And Moses sayd If these men dye the common death of all men or if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me but if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up c. This dreadfull hand of God upon them in swallowing them up alive hath made them to be remembred more then many thousands of honest and good men in Israel who dyed in their beds Upon this account Ananias Saphira are remembred and so is That Herod Act. 12.23 Who was eaten of wormes gave up the Ghost because he gave not glory unto God But saith Job according to this exposition the wicked mans death is commonly so fayre and so much after the common death of all men that no man reremembers him any more And wickednesse shall be broken as a tree That is the wicked man shall dye like an old rotten tree he shall moulder away and decay by peice-meale or gradually as a tree doth which is never hewen downe but is suffered to wast and dye alone Thus the interpretation is carried through the whole verse as a proofe that bad men may in this kinde have a good death But though this be a truth and suites well with Jobs scope in some passages of this Chapter as also in other passages of this booke that wicked men dye as to outward appearance as fairely and sweetly as the godly so that as no man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before him but all things in this life come alike to all There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked Eccl 9.1 2. So all things come alike to all in death so farre as it meerely concernes the separation of soule and body yet I rather conceive that this verse declares wrath and judgement to wicked men dying or their misery and wretchednes in death And therefore first the wombe that is his neerest relations and friends even his mother and wife shall forget him They expected no good from him while he lived and so it was little sorrow to them when he dyed Some men live till their friends are weary of them Mater quia a vivo nihil expectabat solain neq pro mortuo amplius angitur every one thinks the world is well rid of them when they dye Secondly The worme shall feed sweetly on him that is as he fed sweetly
covering then our actions heere have no covering Hypocrites put many coverings upon their actions they have many policies to vaile and screene them from the eye of man but the actions of men have no covering before God yea the hearts of men have no covering before God As Solomon in the Proverbs which place was lately toucht upon argues from this reason because hell and destruction are before him Prov. 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more then the hearts of the children of men As if he had sayd God who looketh into hell which is not onely darkenes but outer darkenes that is darkenes without any thing that hath the least ray or similitude of light in it God I say who looketh into this hel can looke into the hearts of men much more There are some men I grant whose hearts are a very hell a very deepe and they hope to hide themselves in the depth of their owne hearts from the sight of God as the Prophet telleth us Isai 29.15 Woe unto them that seeke deepe to hide their councell from the Lord and their workes are in the darke and they say who seeth us and who knoweth us And what doth he meane by the deeps which they seeke doe they seeke caves and dens of the earth to take counsel or consult together in no they may be in the open ayre and yet seeke deepe to hide their counsells from God so that the meaning is they seeke to keepe their counsels close lockt up in their hearts but woe unto them that digge thus deepe to hide their counsells from God for they cannot be hid for even hel is before him and destruction hath no covering how then shall these destroyers cover themselves or any of their counsels from him As the reason of all things is naked and manifest before God so are the motions and actions of all persons Thirdly When 't is sayd Hell and destruction are before him that word before doth not onely imply that God hath a view or sight of what is in hel but also that hee hath power in and over hel and can doe what he will there hell is naked before him that is hee hath hell at his dispose Hence note The power and providence of God reaches to those things that are most remote He orders all things in hell as well as upon the earth his power rules there where there seemes to be least order yea where there is no order at all They who are cast into hel kept no order while they were upon the earth nor are they in any willing order there when we see confusions in the world wee say what a hell is there or we say Hel is broken loose hell is a place of confusion yet hell is before God he keepes hell in order And when by reason of troubles and confusion among men wee are ready to say there is a hell in the world yet this hell is naked before God he disposeth and orders those places persons and things which are most confused hell and destruction are before him Before I passe from these words I shall onely take notice that there are many words in Scripture by which hell is exprest The Rabbins number seven or eight heere are two First Sheol or the grave because we lye as it were buried there in a second death Secondly Abaddon or destruction because all are there in a perishing state or as given up into the hand of destruction Thirdly Hel is called Tsalmaveth or the shadow of death and by the shadow of death is not meant a smal appearance of death as the word shadow is used Jam 1.17 where the Apostle exalts the glory of the Lord in his unchangeablenes that he is the Father of lights from whom every good gift and every perfect gift cometh downe with whom is no variablenesse neither shadow of turning that is he is not subject to any turning at all but hel is called the shadow of death as shadow is put for strength and power and so to be under the shadow of God or man is to be under their protection Thus hell is the shadow of death that is the strength and power of it Death never triumphs so much in its strength as it doth in hell Fourthly Hel is called Erets tachith which signifyes first the earth under or the lowest and most inferiour earth whence in Scripture hell is called the bottomlesse pit and the way to it is described by descending and going downe as heaven is described by ascending and hight heaven is high and the highest ascending is our ascending to heaven so hell is low and the lowest descending is descending into hel Secondly it imports feare vexation and trembling hell is a land of trembling it is a land of feare it is sayd of Caine that when he went out of the presence of God after he had murthered his brother he went into the land of Nod that is into a land of trembling which some expound not of any speciall place that he went to but that every place where he went was to him a land of trembling hee having much feare and dread upon his conscience after he had embrewed his hands in his brothers blood Hel is indeed the land of Nod a Trembling land They who have not rejoyced with trembling in this world shall sorrow with trembling for ever in the world to come Fifthly Hel is called Bershiachathith that is the piâ—â—â— corruption not that the bodyes of the damned shall corrupt in hell as they doe in the grave for though we cannot say that the bodyes of the wicked shall be raysed incorruptible as the bodyes of the Saints shall yet they shall be raysed immortall and in that sence incorruptible that is they shall never dye but they shall be corruptible that is filthines and corruption shall be upon them The bodyes of Saints onely shall be raysed so incorruptible that nothing of corruption shall be seene upon them or felt by them but the bodyes of the wicked shall ever feele corruption and beare the markes of it without total corrupting or perishing as corrupting and perishing are taken for not-being The wicked would be glad that they might perish so but they shall not hel will be a pit of corruption to them for whatsoever is painefull and grievous to the flesh shall dwell in their bodyes and therefore it is called the pit of corruption and it may also be called a pit of corruption in a morall sence because all their sins and lusts shall remaine upon them for ever hel-fire cannot purge the soule from sin nor free any man from the power of that old man who as the Apostle speakes Eph 4.22 Is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts Nothing but the blood of Christ can purge the soule from corruption Hell is for the punishment of corruption but not at all for the purging of it and therefore it is well called the pit of corruption Sixthly It is called Erets
in man to desire God to strike through his pride and it is a great act of mercy to man when God doth so The more God smiteth our sins the more he declares his love to and his care of our soules The remainders of pride in the Saints shall be smitten through but sinners who remaine in their pride shall be smitten through themselves God whose power and understanding are made known by smiting through the proud waves of the Sea will at last make his Justice and his holynes knowne by smiting through the proud hearts of men or rather men of proud hearts Proud men strike at God yea kicke against him no wonder then if he strike and kicke them All the sufferings of Christ are wrapt up under that one word His humiliation implying that as he was smitten for all our sins so most of all for our pride That man whose pride is not smitten to death or mortifyed by the death of Christ shall surely be smitten to death even to eternall death for his pride As God understandeth thoroughly who are proud so by his understanding he will smite through the proud JOB CHAP. 26. Vers 13 14. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens his hand hath formed the crooked Serpent Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his power who can understand JOB hath given us a particular of many illustrious works of God what he doth in the depths below Et ut in opere ipsius pulcherrimo desinam hic ille est qui coelos illa enarrabili pulchritudine exornavit spherae illae suis giris undique coelos serpeÌ„tium instar percurreÌ„tes sunt opus manibus ipsius tornatum Bez and what in the hights above in this verse he gives another instance and that a very choyce one upon the same subject As if he had sayd After all this large discourse which I have made of the workes of God I will conclude with that which is the most remarkeable peice of them all This is he who hath adorn'd the heavens with that unutterable beauty wherewith they shine and the spheares which wind and turne round about the heavens like Serpents are smoothed and polished by his hand Vers 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens The Spirit of God is taken two wayes in Scripture First q. d. visua voluntate ut nomen spiritus saepius in scriptura usurpatur sed malo ipsum dei spiritum almum accipere quo omnia deus fecit Merc for the power of God Secondly and so here for God the power as distinct from the Father and the Son By whom God wrought all things in the creation of the world Gen 1.2 The Earth was without forme and voyd and darkenes was upon the face of the deepe and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters It is a rule in Divinity That the external workes of the Trinity are undevided and so the Three Persons concurred in the making of the world God the Father created and is called Father in Scripture not onely in relation to the Eternall ineffable Generation of God the Son but also in reference to the production of the creature God the Son or the Eternal Word created Joh. 1.1 2 3. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made God the Spirit or Holy-Ghost he likewise created and He onely is mentioned by Moses distinctly or by name as the Agent in the original constitution of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non simplicem motionem denotat sed qualem columba perficit cum evis ad excludendum pullos incubat Rab Selom Verbum â—ranslatum ab avibus pullitiei suae incubantibus Jun. And the Hebrew word rendred in our translatioÌ„ moved the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters by which the Agency of the Spirit in that Great worke is expressed caryeth in it a very accurate significancy of that formative vertue or power which the Spirit put forth about it For it is a metaphor taken from birds who sit upon their eggs to hatch and bring forth their young ones and so importeth the effectual working of the Spirit whereby that confused masse or heape was drawne out and formed up into those severall creatures specifyed by Moses in the Historie of the Creation Among which we find the Garnishing of the heavens spoken of here by Job is reported by Moses for the worke of the fourth day Further we may consider the heavens first in their matter and being secondly in their beauty and ornaments Job speakes of the latter By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adornavit decoravit pulchrè fecit God hath not onely created but pollished and as it were painted or embroydered the heavens The originall word implyeth the making of them beautifull contentfull and pleasant unto the eye this is the Lords worke And therefore as the whole world because of the excellent order and beauty of it is exprest in the Greeke by a word that signifies beautifull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so some parts of the world have a speciall beauty and lustre put upon them beyond the rest The heavens are not like a plaine garment as we say without welt or guard but they are laced and trimmed they are enamel'd and spangled they glister and sparkle in our eyes with rayes and beames of light By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens If it be asked what is this garnishing of the heavens I answer the setting or placing in of those excellent lights Sunne Moone and Starres in the heavens are the garnishing of them Light is beautifull and the more light any thing hath the more beauty it hath Precious stones have much light in them those lights the Starres are as so many stones of beauty and glory set or moving in the heavens Light as diffused and shed abroad in the ayre is exceeding delightfull and beautifull but light as it is contracted and drawne together into the Sunne Moone and Starres is farre more beautifull light in the ayre pleaseth the eye but light in the Sunne conquers and dazzel's the eye by the excessive beauty and brightnesse of it In the first day of the Creation God sayd Let there be light and there was light but in the fourth day he sayd let there be lights that is let there be severall vessells to receave hold and containe light and then to issue it out among the inhabitants of the earth Gen. 1.14 And God sayd let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And